Giveaway Winners!

Just to be sure that bias didn't effect the outcome of the giveaway, I used a random number generator to decide the two winners.

Congratulations to Mizzle and Acornbud! Please send your mailing address to dutchorchidhouse@hotmail.com so I can get your packages sent to you! Along with the hand knit dishcloths I'll include some beautiful smelling handmade soap that I purchased at a local Fiber Arts Fair. I hope you enjoy your gifts, and thanks to everyone who leaves a comment. They really make my day!

Giveaway!

~~ UPDATE!!! ~~

Because a lot of people view my blog through Facebook, and since Facebook has been slow in posting my blogs (as of Sunday this still hasn't posted), I'm extending the giveaway until next Sunday. If you've already left a comment, you don't need to leave one again to be entered. Thanks everyone!)

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My stash of hand knitted dishcloths was getting a bit ragged and depleted, so I got out the straight needles and whipped up a few to replenish what was being rapidly torn to bits. (Because I clean a lot. Yup . Ignore what I said earlier.)
Anyway, I knitted a few extras to give away to both of you lovely readers. In the off chance that there actually is more than one person reading this lonely ol' literary island in the middle of blogosphere, leave a comment and I'll put you in the pool of names. Leave another comment that you put this giveaway on your blog, and I'll put your name in again. Those kind and polite people who regularly leave comments without the incentive (*cough cough* bribery) of goodies get their names in twice.

Obviously, if you're reading this through Facebook, you'll need to click here to leave a comment on the blog. Comments left on Facebook won't be automatically added to the tally pool. (Although if you regularly leave comments for me through Facebook I consider you a "regular" commenter and sweet person with double points :)

Don't forget to leave me your contact information in the comments!

Giveaway ends Sunday night at 10:00 P.M.

I haven't changed my playlist in awhile, so in honor of the delicious 50 degree weather we've been having lately, I've decided to play lots of songs that give an homage to spring.

(Don't worry, I won't inflict any more opera on you. For now.)

Facebook readers should click here to see the actual blog.

Can You See Me Now?

Sorry to everyone (assuming there is a "more than one") out there who couldn't read my blog for the past few days! When I had re-arranged my blog I accidentally mis-typed something in my blog's html code which kept Explorer browser viewers from reading the posts.

So, if you've been missing out on all the "happenin's" from 'round these here parts, pour yourself a nice cup of tea, grab a crumpet or two, and sit down for a nice long read.

(I'm not sure what just happened there. I was channeling Southern and British vibes at the same time. My ethnicity is very confused.)

Well That Took Long Enough!

I'm too ashamed to admit how long it took me to get my blog's winter attire put together. Thankfully, I've finally gotten it spiffied up and looking nice.

Meanwhile, my house has been thoroughly trashed by my children.

(Excuse me while I kill them.)

Expedition in St. Louis

This past Monday I drove several hours south to visit my dearly departed friend, FFM (a.k.a Flipflopping Mama).

She lives in a beautiful old house with lots of character and very high ceilings. (No that's not her house. It's just a good illustration of the landscape.)
Since I had my usual order of priorities in place, I remembered to take a picture of the chocolate on my pillow, but completely forgot to get a picture of her lovely home.
After a restful night's sleep, we leisurely drove to St. Charles, a historic town on the banks of the Missouri river, and a stopping off point for the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
The buildings fascinated me, with their antique colors and beautiful brickwork.
It was rainy most of the time we were there, but it wasn't bad because F.F.M remembered to pack two umbrellas. The old streets were so pretty in the rain. (Only a blogger thinks to take pictures of streets in the rain.)
I resisted the urge to do a "Singing in the Rain" impersonation for several reasons; I am not as flexible as Gene Kelly, and I was afraid F.F.M. would leave me stranded in St. Charles.

We had a lovely time going into the quaint shops and exclaiming over the quaint items and equally quaint prices ("Oh yes, I believe that wallet is definitely worth the $300"). We were heartily amused by the number of "No Strollers, No Children Touching Anything" signs. I must admit it felt rather liberating to not have to threaten, "Keep your hands in your pockets and if you break anything I'll kill you!" every few minutes.
Our friend Nikki got sick last minute and wasn't able to join our Expedition, so her arch-nemesis the squirrel decided to come in her place. (Nikki has a phobia of squirrels. And spiders. And turkeys. And bats. And flying.)
When we found a yarn shop called Knit and Caboodle, I knew I was in heaven.
They had lots of pretty yarn to fondle and caress, but their selection of sock yarns was especially nice.
I had lots of fun trying to decide how much money to blow on socks.
Squirrel Nutkin joined us shortly before the yarn store, and helped me decide what colors I liked best.

When we left the yarn store to soggily slosh our way back to the car, I noticed this little soap opera going on in someone's front yard.
I am easily amused, apparently.

From St. Charles we drove to the Chesterfield Mall, where F.F.M. taught me the art of Mall Shopping. I think in my next post I'll have more pictures of some of the stuff I bought, because this post is already getting rather picture heavy.
I had to snap a picture of the playland.

See those kids playing?
None of them are mine. (Smug grin).

After we finished Malling, we went to Macaroni Grill to get a bite to eat.
We had a fabulous Italian waiter, and equally fabulous food. (Please tell Handyman that I want to eat here again. Soon.)
F.F.M and I changed into our Hot Mama boots, and then we drove downtown to see The Pioneer Woman.
Naturally, we couldn't see P.W. in frumpy shoes! Gasp, Horror!

The book signing venue had been changed from the bookstore to a beautiful old church (I think it was called Christ Church of St. Louis, but I'm not sure.)
The architecture was magnificent.
We were shocked at the number of people there to see Pioneer Woman. I don't think it's an exaggerated estimation to say there were at least 800 highly charged estrogen enriched bodies in that one room.

Needless to say, we had to wait a looooooong time to see P.W. Thankfully, I came prepared for a wait.
(Squirrel Nutkin is showing off my socks.)

F.F.M. evilly snapped a photo of me praying (*cough cough* napping). We were in church, after all!
F.F.M. took courage and managed to ask P.W. a question about blogging times and when she does it.
Two great women in such close approximation - the world is not ready for this yet.

While we waited in line to have P.W. sign our copies of her amazing cookbook (go get it, it's amazing), her husband Marlboro Man also let us snap pictures with him and autographed our books.

He was very, very charming, and nicely did what I told him and held my knitting for the photo. I just love his expression, don't you?
Woo-hoo, now I have TWO celebrities Kinneared! (See here for Celebrity #1, and here for an explanation of Kinnearing.)

F.F.M. was even more bold and had Marlboro Man sign a picture of his, um, chaps. (You have to read Pioneer Woman's blog to understand this one. Or maybe not. Marlboro Man is really hot.)

The Pioneer Woman was equally charming and gracious, and seemed to appreciate the handknit gifts we brought her. (I knit a scarf, and F.F.M. knit a matching pair of fingerless mitts.)(That's F.F.M's charming but evil sister on the right. She and her sister breathe in a similarly sadistic fashion, and tried to get me to believe that cars need blinker fluid as well as oil. Thankfully I discovered that they have a nervous twitch when they're lying, which saved me much more humiliation.)

When we finally got back to F.F.M.'s house that night, it was in the wee hours of the morning, but what fun we had! Definitely worth the bloodshot eyes and manic expressions of the next day. That's what coffee's for, after all!

New Duds

Every season I like to revamp my blog look to match Mother Nature's wardrobe change. (I'll be working on something nice and depressing for winter.)

What do you think?

(Facebook readers click here to see the real blog).

A Death in the Family

We are gathered here today to mourn the death of our beloved and faithful friend, Sony Cybershot DSC-S650.Sony was an integral part of our family, and a major component of so many sweet memories.
Sony also had a knack for retaining the humorous side of things.
Despite efforts to the contrary, Sony always remained faithful to his ideals of showing the absolute, unvarnished truth. That's right, Sony never flattered falsely.
Our dearest Sony Cybershot, you will be missed, but never forgotten.

The Odd Job

It's funny the way jobs work. In my time, I've had the prerequisite babysitting jobs, but I've also had some odd lines of work as well. In high school, I had a brief stint as a florist for a nearby college and also helped put in sewer lines for a trailer park.

Yes, I know, it boggles the mind.

I've had this blogsite, Yarn Over, for almost three years now, and I have to say that I find blogging to be so much fun. I love the creative aspect of it; the similarity to scrapbooking minus the huge pile of paper scraps on the floor is definitely a plus.

So, I was pretty excited to design a small website for our church, Grace Fellowship. We're a fairly new addition to this town, so an online presence seemed vital to outreach. The first site is meant to show who we are, and the additional site (click here) is meant to show what we're doing in the community.

Someone from the church who works for the local government saw what I had done, and asked me to set up a site for her department.

Now, I'm not a tech-savvy person, but I can wrangle html code a bit and "stretch" the limits of what I'm given by Blogger. I like using blogger for this sort of thing because it's so user-friendly. The goverment site needed to be set up and then updated by the employees every so often, and they didn't want to have to call in an IT person every time.

Want to see the site I set up for my local town? (Click here).

So you see, I've come full circle -

I'm back to working on sewer lines.

Thanks!

I want to thank everyone who's left a little comment after the "pweese notice mwe" post. I realize that everyone is busy over the holidays, but I was starting to get discouraged by the decrease in comments. Comments are really the only way I can judge if anyone's actually reading and enjoying my random (and often weird) musings.

(Okay, okay, I'll admit, I'm really just insecure and need the occasional "you go, girl!").

So, for those of you who took the time to leave a comment, thank you for an early Christmas present for me!

(Hah, and it was most likely the cheapest one you'll give this year, too!)

My Type of Humor

If you haven't noticed, my sort of humor tends to run a bit on the sarcastic side. In fact, when we were kids, my siblings and I liked to pretend we had superpowers. For instance, my brother-who-shall-here-remain-nameless had super farts, and another brother (also nameless) had super annoying powers (i.e. the power to annoy you to death). My super power was sarcasm. I could shred anyone with my tongue.

Hmmm, I suppose that's not something to be proud of, is it? Oh well. Onward. Self-reflection is only suitable for late at night and during boring movies.

(I do think that sarcasm is part of the family gene, though. We like to take Chinese fortune cookies, and make them "unfortunate cookies". For instance, if your fortune cookie says something like, "You will make many friends today", we'd translate that into, "You are a jerk and everyone hates you.")

I happened upon this website that sells "demotivators", which are a sarcastic nod to the famous motivational slogans that dot offices everywhere. They gave me a good chuckle, so here they are for you to laugh at too!

I Really Need Better Friends

Yes, it's true. My friends are awful.

They're skinnier than I am, and much better looking.

They're better cooks (just look at this blog post by Flip Floppin' Mama. Disgusting. I'm green with jealousy).

And, now I'm convinced they're all smarter than me, too.

Remember this post? About my endless question as to why I can respond to some people's comments and can't to others? Well, my misery has ended, thanks to one of my many skinny-chef-smart-beautifuler friends.

If you wish to receive replies to your comments, you have to: go to your blogger dashboard, click "edit profile" on the left, and then check the box that says "show email address".

Now I can rest in peace.

(Heh heh, and bug the rest of ya if you follow through with this and then leave comments! Yes!)