Tag I'm it!

Thanks to Alyssa for tagging anyone with a blog who comes to visit hers..... kinda ;-p

So here goes:
4 Jobs I've had
Nanny for 4 beautiful French children
Library Data entry intern at the Indiana U. School of Music Library (zzz....)
Project Manager for infrastructure www.Sears.com
Therapist - Niles Family Services

4 Movies I Love
Legally Blonde (power to the blonde girl!)
The Incredibles (power to the intact family in a Disney movie!... that's rare)
Downfall (recent German docu-drama about the last 10 days of the Third Reich as written and experienced by Hitler's secretary Traudle Junge)
The Bone Collector (Denzel.... nuf' said. And I love that Angelina Jolie plays smart women even tho she's a little nutz herself)

4 TV shows I watch (this does not include the innumerable Discovery /History/ War Channel shows that are watched by DH, and listened to by me, while I knit. These are the shows for which I put down my knitting.)
Dancing with the Stars (love that show!!)
Most Haunted (Travel Channel on Friday night)
Supernatural (yes, I'm a sucker for monster shows... especially whenthey recycle monster costumes from my favorite show of all times which is....)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I own seasons 1-6 on DVD. It's true: I have no shame)

Places Lived
Chicago, IL (birth 'til 21 years, then 23-31. What can I say I'm a Chicago girl? I just pretend I still live in the city... )
Bloomington, IN (for two painfully long semesters. I said I was a city girl, right??)
Paris, France (Age 21-22)
Wheeling, IL (I love my little suburban garden :) and you'll notice that the biggest news on their website is the new Metra schedule... [sigh])

Places vacationed
Door County, WI (so pretty)
Barcelona, Spain (1993, right after the Olympics, they hated tourists)
Rome, Florence, & Venice, Italy (of the three, Venice was the most icky, while Florence I thought was more beautiful and less touristy, but Rome's got a corner on the Antiquities)
Napa Valley, CA (Sonoma is way more picturesque and right around the bend. Napa is actually pretty industrial, surprised the heck outta me!)

Daily Websites
Crazy Aunt Purl hilarious
See Eunny Knit great tech knitting talk
Body Wisdom by Lani helped me get away from too much dangerous dieting
Yarn Harlot makes me feel organized

there are so many more but that will do for now...

smooches and happy day!

I'm Walking in the Y-Me Race!!

Alright, so this is a shameless request for support.... (I'm sorry) and if I was selling something for my personal gain I would never put this here as I'm against all things junk-mail and soliciting for personal gain. Please forgive me, I really believe in this cause...

This Mother's Day, Sunday, May 14th, I will be walking with several friends in the Y-Me race against Breast Cancer and I'd love it if you'd join me or support me in the walk! Even if you, personally, haven't been touched by breast cancer, I bet you know someone who has been touched or even passed on due to this terrible disease.

For the last several years I've had a group of friends who have walked the Y-Me race and I've always been "too busy" to walk with them (wedding, graduate school, whatever). This year I've changed my tune. I have the time and the inclination to walk for a cure and while my little bit of money may not make a big difference, all of us together can effect massive change. So, here I am and I hope you'll support me in this walk.

This is my personal Y-Me race page : Hermanas & Amigas (Sisters & Friends)

Thank you! - jen

It's Group Night!!

I'm sorry ladies, that I won't be there tonight as I have an exciting Fair Isle class at 3 Bags Full, but just in case, GROUP meets at the Borders' at the corner of Lake and Skokie Blvd. in Wilmette, IL from 6:30 to 8:00.

Hope to see you there!!

BTW: The next GROUP meeting is on Valentine's Day.
Here's the Question: Should we meet on February 7th instead?
Talk amongst yourselves.

It snowed last night!!!!

So we had to get up and test out my 1 new mitten that I've made and take some pics.... sorry I haven't been around much. I'm going to try to be more consistent this year. :)

Here's my new mitten which many of you have seen over at irisheyesknitters.blogspot.com

The littler green one is a practice mitten prior to starting the big one. I lined the big one with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in teal. Basically you pick up purl stitches around the inside of the cuff and knit another mitten but in a bigger gauge. They were so fabulous!! The cuffs are long (almost to my elbow in a regular jacket) and just fit over the puff of the cuff of my down coat. The designer says they're made like that to keep snow out of your cuffs! Brilliant!

Neither has been washed or blocked yet.

So, since I only had one bigg-y mitten and I didn't want to wear one leather glove and one mitten, I grabbed the green practice mitten and wore it too! Now for you my Dear Discerning Readers who might have noticed that I have TWO left mittens, I'll have you know, I just twiseted the practice mitten on my right hand to make it fit.

I couldn't just flip it over because these are what the designer calls "invisible thumb" mittens. You'll notice that the pattern on the thumb to the right exactly matches the pattern on the palm of the glove (How cool is that??!!) so, the thumbs are woven in via the three needle bind off two stitches in from the side of the hand. Hence no stick-y out-y thumb to just flip over.

In case you're wondering, the idea for these mittens came from this book by Anna Zilboorg.

So, I shoved on my beeeeautiful mittens and out we went into the snow...

It was a magnificent winter wonderland.... the DH said we had to shake some of the trees whose branches were almost to the ground with the wieght of the snow so that they didn't break off and hurt or kill the tree. Perfect opportunity to test the snow-in-the-cuff-blocking-ability of my new mitten. Immediately the sad little practice mitten had snow down my sleeve but the big one? Never! And soooo warm and soft inside with the cashmerino!! Yum!

This is right outside our house.... so beautiful!!

DH wanted to take some more pictures of the amazing world we live in today so we hopped into his big truck and off we went... to the Botanic Gardens.

It was breath taking. I'm a big sucker for crabapples covered in snow, so I turned into the Quickshot Queen.

Then I decided I wanted to go see the Japanese Garden which HAD to be stunning in the snow. On the way over there there was yet another magical snow scape which was fronted by a big hill covered in pristine snow. I'm sorry Botantic Garden people. I couldn't help myself. See the pretty snow scape behind me??

I hope they can forgive me. By the way, my tush got immediately soaked through and my derriere is still frozen 2 hours hours later. I guess I should have thought aobut that before I let myself fall unhindered into the magnificent snow!

HAPPY SNOW DAY!!!

Welcome back! It's Knit Night!

Well friends, I've had a lovely time off from work and blogging. I know I've abandoned you for several weeks. I'll be posting more fun stuff in the next couple of days. For now, know that it's Knit Night and that we'll be meeting at the Borders at Lake and Skokie in Wilmette from 6:30 to 8:00.

Just to tempt your palate, I learned how to knit Fair Isle over the holiday and I've already finished a mitten from this amazing book.
Magnificent Mittens by Anna Zilborg
I finished a mitten using the cuff from the picture on the cover but I chose a different hand pattern. I guess you'll have to join us tonight or wait to see the pics a little later!

See you all tonight!!

Jen