Opportunistic Photo Friday

Have you ever tried True Lemon? There's also True Lime. Both are really good. It's crystallized lemon or lime juice. There's a True Orange, too; but I've never seen it in person. If you're a person who likes lemon or lime in their water, it's really good. I'll dump four packs of the lime into a quart of water from my Brita pitcher and have it with a quesadilla at home. Yum-oh! (As Racheal Ray would say.) Why am I doing a commercial on my blog for True Lemon/Lime? (Don't my commercials usually just appear on television?) Well, I went to their website and requested free samples. They send me an occasional newsletter and today's newsletter included an annoucement that if you recommend True Lemon/Lime/Orange on a message board, chat room, or blog, they'll send you ten packets. If you include the link to the free sample page, (as I - ahem - did above) they send five more. There's also a radio commercial. That link take you to the page to play it. (Maybe they'll include five more packs for that link!) When I had a sore throat, I mixed a couple of packs of Lemon with honey and hot water to make a soothing hot lemonade. Perfect. If you're trying to cut back on sugar, but like drinks with flavor, try it. Just order a free sample. It's risk free and if you don't like it, you can give it to me. I don't like artificial sweetener, so it's perfect for me. I figure God made sugar. It's food. That stuff in the pink, blue, and yellow packets are chemicals created in a lab. Not food. The only yellow packs I want around are True Lemon packets. For my Southern friends, it's available at Publix. At my Publix it's on the juice aisle near the Kool-Aid. I'm going to request samples of the True Orange. I want to see what it's like.

Knitting Photo Friday

I made this dishcloth this week for a girl at work who is leaving for bigger and better things. Carly loves pink and green (she even had a pink & green wedding). She's so sweet and kind and fun. It's been a joy to work with her for the last four years. When she told us last week that she was leaving, I knew I wanted to make something for her. So I gathered up some pink and green yarn and a variegated that had both colors and found a great pattern on ravelry, and a couple of days later, voila. This is called Vortex 5. If you look at the center, you'll see a variegated square. Around it and rotated counter-clockwise is a pink square, followed by a variegated square, then a green square, then a variegated square. I single crocheted a pink border around it which I think really sets it of. (You have now seen the full extent of my crocheting skills. That's all I can do.) I love the geometry of this pattern. There's also a Vortex 6 and Vortex 7 pattern on ravelry. I'm thinking rainbow for the V6.

Al Walsh

One of our former ministers is facing a health crisis. Please keep him and his family in your prayers. Visit his blog to read more. Thanks.

RIP Downtown Saturdays

Today was Seth's last Saturday working. He's a Monday through Friday guy now. The gazebo to the right is outside his office on the Broadway median. We've been having lunch downtown (or uptown, as the marketers would have us describe it) most Saturdays since October. Usually it's fast food. Today we went to Country's Barbecue, because it's our last downtown lunch. It's a great local place with lots of atmosphere in an old bus depot. Best sweet tea anywhere. Afterward I went to a Warm Up America meeting at Hobby Lobby. I was the only one knitting among a plethora of crocheters. Interesting. While I was there, Kim - the WUA local coordinator - and I talked to the Hobby Lobby manager about World Wide Knit in Public Day. Kim introduced me by saying, "This is Holly. She's sort of in charge of knitting in Columbus." Yeah, right. Anyway, they're going to let us have a knit-in there on WWKIP Day, June 14th. That's a load off of my mind. Afterward I went to a Fred's store next to the Hobby Lobby that's closing and got some great deals. A very nice Saturday, indeed.

Photo Friday

Sunday at church they handed out these roses in honor of Mother's Day. Victoria Mitchell, who is one of the most lovely and Godly women I know, handed me one and said, "This is because you take care of everybody's children in the nursery." It survived sitting in my car while I ate lunch at Fuddrucker's (best hamburgers - ever!) and while I went to the mall to get Seth's birthday present. I put it in water with a little sugar when I got home (I think I learned the sugar thing from Martha Stewart, to be honest), and look - five days later it's opened to a full bloom. My mom died ten years ago on May 9th, so Mother's Day always is a tough time for me. Watching this rose open to reveal its beauty and smelling its beautiful scent have been a comfort this week.

Yarns of Late

This pretty flower was outside the window of Burger King Saturday when Seth and I were eating lunch. Gotta love spring, except for the pollen.



Sunday was Seth's birthday. I got some mini cupcakes and took them to Sunday School. Two of the kids wouldn't eat them. The rest did. Lucas proclaimed, "These are tasty!" In fact, they were. Graham got crumbs all over herself.


Seth's sister's birthday is tomorrow. We celebrated both of their birthdays Sunday night at their folks' house. Here's Seth's cousin Tom and Seth's dad, Mr. Ray, grilling steaks.
Here's the birthday cake. Chocolate cheesecake. Yummy!
Tom and Seth.
Ange, Tom's wife, Mr. Ray, and Seth's sister, Leigh.
Seth's mom, Gail, and Ange.
Happy Birthday, Seth and Leigh!


Our videographer at work is out of town. I had to go do a shoot yesterday. This morning I could barely turn my head. I'm getting old.


Hats off to Judy, a new knitter from the knitting group. Judy learned last night how to bind off. She's got a great little swatch she knitted. Yea, Judy!!! We all clapped when she held it up. All of Panera turned to see what was happening.


Sunday, Thad preached from Hebrews 13:5 & 6. It was about Finding Contentment. He had three steps towards finding contentment.

1. Give more.
2. Expect less.
3. Seek Jesus.
   

Words to live by.

Photo Friday and More!

Do you remember this box?

Look what's inside!
If you remember this post, you'll remember these earrings that I ordered from qvc.com on Big Bonanza Silver Day, way back on March 1. They were on waitlist and finally arrived this week. Look how cute the guardian angels are. I wore them yesterday and they wore great, too.
This past Sunday my friend Cindy and I left after church to head up to Gay, Georgia, for the Cotton Pickin' Fair. It's a huge arts and crafts extravaganza that multiplies by a factor of ten the population of the small town with only one red light. There are all sorts of amazing things that people have created as well as antiques and food and entertainment and more. Cindy spotted a vintage 50's style dinette set with sunny yellow chairs. She fell in love and fell hard. We walked away for a minute and she said, "That sure is pretty." I asked her what she'd do with her old table and she said it was a secondhand piece without a lot of value and she'd willingly get rid of it. Her concern was that we'd driven to the fair in my Honda Civic. How would we get it home? I said, "If the legs come off the table, we can do it." We went back to the booth. The legs came off. Here it is in my car.

If you fold down the backseat of a Civic, it's like an SUV in there. I should have gotten a picture of it after she and I put the legs back on it at her house. Getting those legs on it was a challenge. Cindy broke her wrist Easter Sunday. It was also her birthday and she was at her brother's house in the yard playing with her niece and nephew and fell on it. Two days later she had surgery. So, I screwed the legs in and she held a flashlight. It's was easier than either of us thought it would be. It's really cute and she got a great deal. She loves it. She says she's eaten breakfast sitting there every day this week.

I need to get up in the morning and knit on Daddy's vest. I forgot to take my pattern with me to knitting group on Monday night! I ended up working on my car project. I want to finish the car project before I blog about it. I will tell you that it's a theme dishcloth. What's the theme? You'll have to wait and see. I will be publishing the pattern here in my blog. I've got a feeling it will have a niche market, though.

Sunday is Seth's birthday. I've been invited to a cookout at his folks' house. I've really got to come up with a gift!