Boots gets a toy

Boots gets a toy
Originally uploaded by Holly S.

I made a toy for Boots. I think he likes it.

Stitches South 2010

Stitches South was this past week in Atlanta. On Saturday Lacey and I went up for The Market. Lacey drove.

You can't take pictures inside the market, so this is all you get:


Outside there was this big wall of yarn where you could get samples.

Here's mine:

Once we were inside the Market, we saw new Julie from our knitting group and met her friends from Pensacola who came up to go to Stitches with her. We found original Julie from our knitting group. She and Lacey had formulated some bulk purchase plan at one of the booths. I ran into Yvonne who used to come knit with us, but hasn't in a while. It was so good to see her. I also knit on "The World's Largest Sock". They're going for the Guiness Book of World Records.
At the Lion Brand Yarn booth inside the market, I met Zontee from the YarnCraft podcast. The cool thing was that when I said, "I'm Hotpink on ravelry," she recognized my name! I had to hug her. I'm southern, it's what we do. I met Jess and Casey
who founded ravlery. (I restrained myself and only shook their hands.) They are so awesome. I love ravelry. There was a lot of hero worship being bestowed on them by many, many conference attendees. I also met Mary Heather and Sarah who help them run ravelry.
I spoke to the famous Lily Chin, who was dressed in pink from her shoulders to her toes. I said, "I love your pink!" She smiled and thanked me. I saw Dianne who used to own a yarn store in Greer, South Carolina where I shopped on occasion with my friend Dawn. I also saw Margaret who used to own a yarn store in Anderson, South Carolina - my home town. She has a rabbit who stayed at the store with her. Daddy would play with the bunny while I yarn shopped. That bunny bought me a lot more browsing time. I took this photo of Lacey when we were leaving.
I should have snapped it a few minutes earlier when she had all her purchases spread out around her.
We left the convention center and drove down the street looking for something to eat. We saw this:
We kept driving, but ended up turning around, going back, and trying the "Crazy Chicken".

It was crazy good! This is what I had:
There's rice, beans, grilled chicken, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, sour cream, pico de gallo, ranch dressing, and salsa in there. Man, it was so good! Lacey got quesadillas

in steak and chicken. She liked them a lot, too. It was a cool place with cool art.

Here are my take aways from the market:
Lacey and I really liked this pattern and had to buy it.

I love buttons and got these:

I bought this beautiful bamboo yarn:

Lacey and Julie were off buying some yarn and came back with this for me.

Wasn't that really sweet of them? I also got this.

Who knows what it is?
I had a great time. I was so worn out when I got home, I took a three hour nap. It was SO worth it. What a great day!

Referrals

My knitting friend Katy has a new blog. You need to check it out if you want to know about some stuff going on in Columbus, music, scenic photos, etc. All delivered with humor and a gift for stringing words together in a very nice way. I like Katy and I like Katy's blog. If you don't know Katy, you can at least know Katy's blog. Check it out.

Catching Up

Here are some things you missed during my blogging break:

I made these cool wristers. I made these and two other pair that I gifted for Christmas without getting photos.


I made this coaster for my friend, Karen, for helping me out a lot while I was sick with pneumonia.


Boots came and took care of me while I was sick. One night Seth and I took him to Sonic.



This little girl took my car key. Really! Look in her right hand.


It snowed one day while I was at work.


Extreme Makeover Home Edition came to town. Here's the bus and the crowd.


I went to Atlanta.


We had the Egg Grab with all the kids from church the day before Easter.


I promise more updates to come.

Beef Stew

Since you keep asking for a new post - Laurie, Kristine - I decided to share with you a recipe for Beef Stew I came up with a few weeks ago.

2 lbs. Beef for Stew
2 TBS. flour
1 TBS grill seasoning
1 large yellow onion
2 TBS Worcestershire Sauce
2 TBS red wine vinegar
2 medium zucchini
2 c. low sodium beef stock
2 c. low sodium V-8 juice
2 cloves minced garlic
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 15 oz. can carrots, drained
1 15 oz. can diced potatoes, drained
1 15 oz. can green beans, drained
1 15 oz. can sweet peas, drained
1 15 oz. can corn drained

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Chop the onion into bite size pieces. Place the flour and grill seasoning into a 1 gallon zip top bag and add beef. Shake to coat. Place beef and flour mixture into a 13" by 9" baking dish. Top with diced onion and garlic. Drizzle with Worcestershire and red wine vinegar. Cover tightly with aluminum foil. Cook at 350 degrees 45 minutes to one hour until onions are transparent. Place the contents of the baking dish into cock pot. Add the beef stock and the V-9 juice, then the canned vegetables. Cut the zucchinis into half moon shapes and add to crock pot. Let stew cook overnight. Enjoy.

Really, I'm going to try to be a better blogger. I've joined a gym and that takes time. I'm loosing weight, though, and my blood pressure's down. Yay!

The Answer is ....

My friend Laurie asked me last week if I was ever going to blog again. The answer is "yes".

New Year

Happy New Year, Blog! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. May 2010 bring blessing you never even dreamed of.

I promised you the story of my pneumonia battle. Here's the story as I sent it in an email to an online friend:

I wasn't really feeling bad before I got sick. I have allergies and I often get a little sinusy. I had a very small cough in September and got some stuff at the health food store that usually heads off bronchitis type problems. I was taking it regularly. That's worked for me for about ten years. On October 6th, I woke up and didn't want coffee, I wanted hot tea - that's the first sign. My sinuses were draining like crazy. When I got home the night of the 7th, I had a low fever. The morning of the 8th, it was 101.8. I went to the doctor then and got on antibiotics. They didn't touch the fever. Monday, the 12th, it was still high and I was back at the doctor and that's when she heard the pneumonia in my lungs. An x-ray confirmed her diagnosis. The meds I got that day broke the fever at the end of that week. I went back to the doctor on the 19th for a recheck. She said my lungs were still noisy and I was still coughing too much to work (not that felt like working). The next night, the 20th, I got short of breath. I felt like I'd run up a flight of stairs and I'd just been sitting on the couch. My heart was racing, too. I called the doctor at home. She told me to go to the ER. I was going to drive myself, but Seth insisted that he would come and get me. (He lives forty minutes away. I didn't want him to have to come.) We got to the ER at 10:38. They took me back to a room at 11:53. My O2 sat was 87 (not good) and my heart rate was 137 (really bad!) I had my first breathing treatment at midnight. Then a chest x-ray. Lots of blood work. Around 3am the ER doc said he'd talked to my primary care doc and they were going to admit me for "a day or two" and try to get me lungs to clear. It turned into six days. Four breathing treatments a day. My lungs have had a lot of trouble clearing. When they let me out of the hospital Tuesday, there was still blood work they were waiting to get back. They are testing me for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis and some other "connective tissue diseases". There was something in my liver function or liver enzymes - I forget which - along with a chronic skin problem I have that makes the pulmonologist suspect there's an underlying issue. I'm just ready to get well. I go back to both of the doctors on Tuesday.

So, I didn't have lupus or rheumatoid arthritis. I do have asthma and high blood pressure now. (I've spoken to several people since who have acquired asthma from having pneumonia. Apparently it's not uncommon.) I'm dealing with the asthma and taking my meds. The blood pressure I check each week at Publix on the machine in the pharmacy. It's still a little high. I ended up staying out of work for five weeks. When I went back to work, it was half days for a week. My last full day before I got sick was October 7th. My first full day back was November 20th. I still don't always feel "normal". I saw the doctor November 19th and she told me then (six weeks into the battle) that it would be another three months before I felt like myself again, but I would feel like myself again. It's been a long road.

You may remember my 365 project where I took and posted a photo each day in 2009. Well, they wouldn't let me have my digital camera at the hospital, and I felt pretty crappy anyway. I didn't make it. I was disappointed in myself and I'm giving it another go this year.

I finished several knitting projects and I'm angry at myself for not getting pictures of all of them before gifting them. ARGH! Last minute Christmas knitting! It's for better organized people.