Looming Looney

Welcome to the home of the Looming Looney. Come and knit a spell.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Horses, Birthday, Anniversaries, OH MY

This has been a very tiresome week. Believe or not most nights I have been too tired to knit. Can that be possible? I've only manage to get 5 rows done on the poncho for Mom. She saw mine and want one of her own. Here is the run down on my life these past few days.

Saturday, Sept. 23 we attended the Bill Picket Rodeo and it was so good (see previous post).

Sunday, Sept. 24 was my Mommy's birthday; and also Mom and Dad's wedding anniversary. Her wish was to go to Charles Town Races and Slots and I felt obligated to accommodate her. After all, you only have one birthday a year right? So off we go, me and mom, to West Virginia. The scenery was absolutely magnificent. The picturesque mountains off in the background were great. I only wish I had my camera with me, DARN. We played some slots, had a nice lunch and then betted on the ponies. It was so much fun, standing on the side lines cheering your horse on to the finish line. And yes we were big winners! We won a total of about $7. Hey we don't know anything about betting on horse so we only bet the min. of $2 to show (your horse must come in either 1st, 2nd, or 3rd) and we won 2 out of 3 bets. NOT BAD!

Monday, Sept. 25 was my Daddy's birthday. My Daddy passed away in April of this year and it's been really hard on my Mom. This was the first of many birthdays and anniversary's that she'd be without him. With all these joyful occasions rolled up together I was determined to do what ever I could to keep her from being lonely and sad. After I got home from work I picked her up and we head to the cemetery to spend time with Dad. We brought him some really nice roses (red & white) and sang happy B-day to him. I told him about our adventure the day before. I'm sure he got a kick out of the thought of us acting like we knew what we were doing betting on the horses. He always said we (Mom and I) were like two peas in a pod. And he was right, she's my best friend.

Wednesday, Sept. 27 marked my 11 year anniversary. WOW! I can't believe I have been married that long. I'm just a baby :-) We didn't do anything special. With two small kids, homework, and all the other nightly routines it's hard to get out in the middle of the week. Oh Well, here's to another 11 plus years.

P.S. My birthday is coming up in 2 weeks. On Sunday, Oct. 1st I will start the official B-Day count down to Oct. 13 (yeah, I know my b-day is going to be "Friday the 13th" this year).

More on the knitting front in my next post. Maybe!

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Trip to the Black Rodeo

Saturday night we went to the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo (the black rodeo). http://www.billpickettrodeo.com/web/pages/main.htm

This is the second year I've been and it is better than the last time. I took a couple of pictures, but not sure how they will turn out being so high in the bleachers. I purposely planned that because the Princess seems to have a bladder the size of a pea. Between the hours of 7:30pm to 10:45pm she had to go to bathroom more than 3 times (and only had one drink). I really liked the fact that there were a lot of African American Women participating in the rodeo and some little kids too. The youngest one who competed was a little girl, only 8 years old, and she rode that horse like her life depended on it. YOU GO GIRL! I think she took home a winners belt buckle for the barrel race. I guess the horses can move faster with such little weight. It was totally awesome. We even got great cowboy hats. Now I need to get some matching boots to go along with it.


Pics of cows checking out the crowd (hehe) before show started


Pic of the American flag beging presented before the singing of the National Anthem


Pic of the Afro-American flag beging presented before the singing of the Black Anthem (Lift Every Voice). Both anthems were sang by a new up & coming Afro-American country singer, Miko Marks, and she was great.

Pics of all the horse and riders that participated in the rodeo. They all entered the arena at the beginning of the show. This was only a portion of them. After I snaped the pic more filled the areana. This was great, and they were all Afro-American.


Pic of Peanut, Me, and the Princess
wearing out loving cowboy hats



Just in Time for Fall

This week was a rough one for me. I spent last weekend in the ER being treating for an awful stomach thing. After hours of MAJOR pain and mulitple doses of several different medications I was finally released.

I spent most of Monday and Tuesday in bed and needless to say not much knitting took place. As the week progressed so did the knitting.

I did manage to finished the poncho for the Princess on Tuesday night. It is made with Lion Brand Jiffy, Quick & Easy Mohair Look Yarn, color #330 Salem. It took 2 skeins, but since it is a little big in the neck area 1 & 1/2 skeins would have probably worked.





a poncho for the Princess



I also finally finished my poncho Friday night. I used Lion Brand,Wool-Ease, Thick & Quick yarn, color #135 Spice. It took 4 skeins to make. I got the free pattern from ProvoCraft website. I slightly altered my version by not having the rolled collar and by flipping it inside out using the purl stitch side as the outside.






a poncho for mom





I have knocked a lot of the list of WIP but not to worry I have a few more ideas to add. Happy Fall!

Sunday, September 17, 2006

TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF - The Survey
Name:tonya
Birthday:oct. 13
Birthplace:washington,dc
Current Location:oxon hill md
Eye Color:brown
Hair Color:black (or at least it use to be)
Height:short
Right Handed or Left Handed:right
Your Heritage:black
The Shoes You Wore Today:flip flops
Your Weakness:chocolate
Your Fears:snakes
Your Perfect Pizza:cheese, sauage, pepporoni
Thoughts First Waking Up:do i have to go to work today
Your Best Physical Feature:my hands
Your Bedtime:between 9 and 11 pm
Your Most Missed Memory:my daddy (DOD 4/30/06)
Pepsi or Coke:pepsi
MacDonalds or Burger King:mickey d's
Single or Group Dates:group dates
Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea:lipton
Chocolate or Vanilla:choclate
Do you Smoke:no
Do you Swear:yes

Have you Been in Love:yes
Do you want to go to College:i've been,need to go back and finish
Do you want to get Married:already am
Do you belive in yourself:sometimes
Do you get Motion Sickness:no
Do you think you are Attractive:yes
Are you a Health Freak:no
Do you get along with your Parents:yes
Do you like Thunderstorms:no
Do you play an Instrument:no - played the flute in elementary school if called that actually playing
In the past month have you Drank Alcohol:no
In the past month have you Smoked:no
In the past month have you been on Drugs:no
In the past month have you gone on a Date:nope. i'm married remember
In the past month have you gone to a Mall:yes
In the past month have you eaten a box of Oreos:no
In the past month have you eaten Sushi:no
In the past month have you been on Stage:no
In the past month have you been Dumped:no
In the past month have you gone Skinny Dipping:are you kidding me
In the past month have you Stolen Anything:yes, kisses from my husband
Ever been Drunk:no
Ever been called a Tease:no
Ever been Beaten up:no
Ever Shoplifted:no
How do you want to Die:peacefully
What do you want to be when you Grow Up:Happy
What country would you most like to Visit:paris

CREATE YOUR OWN! - or - GET PAID TO TAKE SURVEYS!

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Pic from last weekends adventures at the fair

There were lots of great exhibits at the fair last weekend. It seems I've paid more attention to them since I became one of the crafters. There were some huge fruits and veggies entered and some nice knitted and crochted items, and some yummie looking baked goods and so much more. Take a look.....

This is a lovely 3 piece crochted hat, scarf, and mitten set.

Nice little knitted baby sweater


Yummie looking homemade cakes cookies and breads. The Princess tried to grab it and eat it. I had to hold onto her hands to keep her off.

Super huge squash and watermelons

Mommy what is that thing. That's what The Princess kept asking me. She's never seen them that big before.

I even met a lady who wquestion whethas spinning some yarn. I Stopped and asked her about her wheel. My hubby asked me if I was interested in buying one and I cheerfully responded "YES" until he ask the nice lady about the price and she said hers cost about $400. Ouch! To step for my pockets. Maybe I'll add that to my list of things to aspire to.


After we left the fair we headed down to the fishing pond near the county court house to take an evening stroll and spotted these big beautiful white geese. Sorry about blurry pic, camera was on the wrong setting.



I also manage to get these wonderful pics of the sun starting to set over the pond. It was a pretty scence. Before we were married and had kids Hubby and I would go down to this pound and walk hand in hand on the woodend dock. How romantic.



Here are some pics of the family on our evening stroll.

Pic of Hubby, The Princess, and Peanut

Pic of the Princess modeling my shades, watching the pigs and duck races


Pic of Mom and Peanut watching the pig and duck races.


Pic of me, The Princess and Peanut.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Do we really have senior moments at young ages?

This first couple of days this week I spent most of my evening time getting through home work with Peanut. Everyday when he gets home from school I ask him if he has home work and every day he says yes and we immediately get to work (and I do mean everyday --even on Fridays). The home work has mainly been on the topic of the book by Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." Basically his teacher gives them a question and they have to read the corresponding chapter and write a paragraph(at least 5 sentences) with an outline and blah blah blah..... Well one day Monday Sept. 11, I get a call at work from the school and my mind assumes the worst, either the Princess or Peanut have been injured. But oh no, it was a call from Peanut informing me that he forgot to do his home work on Friday night. Wait a minute, instant mind replay, we spent a better half of an hour Friday night reading "Alice" and preparing the outline and writing the paragraph. I was then snapped by to reality when the little voice said I had math home work and I forgot. OK, he's a good kid and we all forget things. So being the wonderful, understanding person that I am I said, OK just bring the book home and we'll do it tonight. The big whammy---- his teacher got on the phone and said that he has forgotten his math home work 3 NIGHTS IN A ROW!!! Yes, the previous Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights he's had math homework. I was not happy with that news. She was nice enough to let him bring it home and finish all 3 nights worth and bring back on Wednesday (On Tuesday schools in my county were closed for elections). Math home work for a fourth grader consisted of one chapter that with approx. 21 questions; another chapter with 13 and the final chapter with 25. All of which had to be completed in two nights. Sounds like a lot of time right? Well it's not when you factor in the fight with rush hour traffic during the drive home from work time, pick the kids up, fix dinner, and bath time. For a job of this magnitude I had to call in for back up. The big Hubby came in and prepared dinner and entertained The Princess while Peanut and I got cracking on homework. He did do the chapter with 13 problems at Grannies house so I just had to check over it. We finished the final chapter and was able to get everything turned in on time. So my question goes out to all of you....Do we really have senior moments at young ages, or do we simply NOT WANT TO REMEBER certain things?

On a good note, I did manage to get some knitting in. I created this wonderfully cute purse for The Princess. Now I'm off to find the perfect bottom to keep it closed.

Saturday, September 09, 2006

The fair is here! The fair is here!

Thursday marked the start of the Prince George's County Fair. I've gone to the fair every year for as long as I can remember. I always enjoy going into the equestrian center to visit the vender stands and see the great exhibits, as well as the rides, games, food and entertainment. This year I decided to enter a project into the fair. Since I procrastinated over the idea for so long I didn't have time to start and complete a new project so I looked over my finished creations to see which one rank tops about the rest. The lucky entrance.... the hat I made a few weeks ago for the Princess.

The deadline for all entries was Tuesday, Sept. 5. After work I took my hat, all neatly placed in a zip lock freezer bag for protection, down to officially enter it. I was amazed at how many people were standing around putting the final touches on their entries, adding that last dab of glue to the woodworking pieces, making sure the homemade baked goodies were plated just right for judging. Gosh, I love the behind the scene's stuff! Finally it was my turn. With completed entry form in hand, I reluctantly turned my precious hat over to the nice lady and off I went.

Today the Princess, Peanut (whom you've never had the pleasure of meeting yet-- pics below) and I loaded into the van and headed down to the county fair. Dear sweet hubby was home busy make repairs to my car but was with us in spirite. I was eager to get to the pavilion to see if I had won a ribbon, received a honorable mentions, or something. But oh no, no no no the Princess and Peanut wouldn't put me out of my misery. T
hey made me suffer for 2 whole hours before we headed inside to check out the entries. Thank goodness the Princess has a blatter the size of a pea and in all her royal-ness was feeling to high and mighty to use the outdoors port-a-potty. Finally inside we went to use the restroom and once I was inside there was NO turning me back. I head straight for the needle work section. Searching table after table looking for my precious hat. Oh why thus thou fair officials teaseth me so. Then out of the corner of my eye I spotted her. There she was all nestled among the others. Low and behold there it was, YES, YES...... the mother of all ribbons.

THE BLUE RIBBON!!!!!!! My Princess hat had won 1st place.

Here is my baby boy.

Meet Peanut! He is 10 years old and loves to aggravate the Princess. Just look at that devilish grin. One day she will banish him to the forest to live with the wolves.

The Princess riding the bumble bee at the county fair.

Then taking a ride on her Harley. You can't see it in the pics but she's gotten herself a tattoo. The Princess has a bit of a wild side. hehehe . I can't pick up my entry until Sunday night when it closes so I'll post more pics of other wonderful projects later. I'm so proud of me!

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

It's All in the Bag


Tried my hand a making a flat bottom bag. I recall finding a pattern for working the flat bottom but it got lost in the mounds of junk that is covering what once was my desk. Having said that I had to wing it. This is how my bag turned out. Since I am feeling all brave and creative I am going to try felting the bag. I am still searching for the perfect strap.

WIPs on the looms......

The poncho: I just started the 2nd panel of my poncho so I have many many more rows to go before I can start putting It together.



I also have another hat. I had to buy the Princess a new winter coat so that called for a new hat. Can you guess what color the coat is?
I am just glad she didn't pick another pink coat.

There is also the shawl/poncho for the Princess. Unsure of what is will be exactly. I guess it all depends on whether or not I can stand the yarn and look of it long enough to make it into a complete poncho. Right now I think its really pretty but that could grow old real fast. You can't tell it from the picture but this is a multi colored mohair yarn, color#330 Salem, made by Lion Brand. It is not a tight knit as it looks here. Just used a crappy camera and have a house full of bad lighting.