1. A clump of Iris I bought on clearance at the grocery store a few years back. This year there were at least five dozen blossoms. 2. My favourite Gingher embroidery scissors in the Leah colourway. 3. My current purse knitting project, a Fibertrends Landscape scarf in Koigu KPPM P527. 4. No photo, but enroute…

After much anguish and paper signing (I don’t do debt very easily), I now own a Kia Rondo, affectionately dubbed "the Runto" by Chuck. The good news is that it’s not technically a minivan but still holds seven if necessary, just right for all our visitors. It’s fun living in a tourist attraction; when we…

Even if you've never had a migraine, please read this post, but read it to its end. You might have them in the future or know of someone who can benefit from this. I'll try to summarize so it isn't migraine inducing post due to its length. It's basically a series of clues that led…

Research demonstrates that given names can cause lifelong personal issues. Some kids get by with easy names and others, such as myself, have spent our entire lives spelling our names. I grew up with the name Lilice (sounds like Denise) Lesinski (doesn’t rhyme with anything, but my dad with his Polish sense of humour, in…

Sometimes a meme is just what you need for an easy post. Did I say easy? When Blogland was busy with 100 Things a About Me lists, I could only manage 59. Now I need to come up with 7 or 8 things, depending on where the tag originated, that aren’t on that list? OK,…

We’ve all survived, hopefully all a little wiser. Three things I’ve learned this week: 1. You can’t beat the support you get in blogland. Thank you to all for your reassurance and good advice. My favourite explanation for teen boys’ behaviour is that testosterone is a neurotoxin and that their brains are swimming in it.…

My Mother’s Day started at 1:30 a.m. Take two boys, ages 16 and 17, uncharacteristically exceeding their curfew; add a twelve pack of beer. While you’re at it throw in some poor judgment, a little mischief, and a romp through the woods in rugged terrain after dark, and what do you get? An ambulance ride…

Just like a deep tissue massage, sometimes frogging just hurts so good. It seems I’m not alone. Donna has some lovely yarn that is destined to stay a center pull skein, Beth is turning pools of colours into a frog pond, and Blogless Marsha pulled out her hair swing sweater because some unreliable nasty knitter…

While at the Seattle Knitting Expo Blogless Marsha and I took a class on Tunisian Crochet. It’s done on what looks like a crochet hook on steroids – the length of a long knitting needle and the thickness of a size 10 needle (6mm) for sport weight yarn. For worsted weight, the hook must be…

Here’s our lion! This is the boy, who at age six, accompanied us to our high school’s production of Oliver. That night he confidently told us that he was going to be on that stage someday, and here he is. I am so thankful for this school-related positive experience for him, as academics haven’t been…