Homesick

In a blog that I follow fairly regularly, Shona of Lala Dex Press recently mentioned that she is homesick for LA, and I too haven't been home to Texas for quite some time, so her feelings resonated with me. Shona wrote that watching the Lakers in the playoffs has been helping stave off some of her emotions.

What helps me is the combined mention of small towns, truck driving, heart break, among others. Hearing about them warms my heart so much that my neck turns red. That's what happened during tonight's CBS special honoring George Strait as the country music artist of the decade. All of these topics were mentioned as well as a few others like Ocean Front Property, a song, admittedly, I didn't understand until I was 18 and left the heartland and saw the ocean for the first time.



I'm fortunate that I can keep the feeling going when I watch Walk the Line on CBS this Friday evening. It just happens to be my favorite movie, and I think my husband must think it's called Again! because that's what he says every time I watch it.

I've Got Stripes

I made a fun, striped elephant for my nephew who turns 1-year old today. It was another of Susan B. Anderson's adorable patterns that I couldn't resist. I changed the ears because her pattern called for them to be crocheted. The front of the ears are a little goofy, and if I make another one, I'll actually pre-write a pattern for them, rather than winging it again.
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I also got him a frog. When my brother was little, he was constantly sick, and him having a fever of 104+ was not unusual. Now, my nephew is suffering the same fate. When my brother had his tonsils removed, he stopped getting so sick. But, I have to wonder whether it was something else that healed him. When he was at the hospital recovering from the tonsillectomy, he received a get-well frog that became a frequent companion, and who he gave the name "Tonsils". Creative, huh? My brother also named our childhood dog "K-9", after the movie, or so he said. I renamed the dog "Butt", after the person who initially named him "K-9".

Anyway, I'm hoping that the healing agent was the frog, rather than the tonsillectomy. And, from what I understand, my nephew will be needing even more healing powers now that his 1-year birthday party that was scheduled for Saturday was postponed because he came into contact with Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease during the past week.
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And, how is an aunt to wrap this 1-year old's birthday gift? Well, in camo, of course. Happy Birthday, Kiddo! Try to find the camouflaged elephant and frog!.
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And, I needed some stripes of my own, so I made what I've named "My Happy Hat", or what my brother would name "Hat". Now, I'm happily wearing my hat and singing the tune of The Legend.

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Pictures to Make Me Smile

I have great friends who send me countless pictures of precious pets everywhere. I was fishing through my email today and spotted this one. So stinkin' cute that I just want to knit him a sweater.

It was a needed reminder of how cute the little critters can be as I was watching Wayne bat at and eat my spider plant while screeching in enjoyment.

Happy weekend, everyone, and if you have some precious animal pix, I'd love to see them.
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A Must-See Motion Picture

I have the world's shortest attention span when it comes to watching anything on YouTube, but I watched intently as this story progressed one photo at a time. Amazing! I can't imagine the breadth of his patience and attention span. I truly want to meet him and tell him my life story just to find out. He might be the one person in the world who I wouldn't have to pay to listen to it.

Back to Babies

My recent lack of motivation to blog stems primarily from the fact that I no longer have the fantastic camera that I borrowed from my friend because she needed it back. I'm finally coming to terms with it, and broke out my point/shoot camera.

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I haven't had much more motivation to knit than to take pictures. But, my chiropractor is awaiting the arrival of her baby girl, and after she gushed over the color of my hat that I knit in Manos del Uraguay's wool, I thought it was a great opportunity to use up some of my "matchy-matchy" (thanks, Wendy) yarn.
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I loved the color so much when I first started to knit that I bought several skeins of it in wool, and when the same colorway was available in silk, I bought more. Alas, as Wendy knew before I did, the color got old quickly..

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No one knows the power of a baby like a knitter. Just the mention of one of those tiny little boogers makes our fingers itch. After several attempts to find a bootie or slipper pattern that I could properly gauge with the silk, I arrived at Susan B. Anderson's Cozy Slippers from her book Itty Bitty Nusery.

The baby slippers and hat are in the silk yarn, and the gift bag is wool.

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Spring has sprung here in Hoboken, but the street that I've been using for my Seasons of Hoboken photography is going to be the last street to bloom. I'll take down the cold winter picture soon, I hope.

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Where You Can Stand on the Ground and See for 50 Miles

Last night, my husband and I went into the city to watch Robert Earl Keen and Cross Canadian Ragweed play in concert for Texas Independence Day.

You may need to download this to see these videos.

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Cross Canadian Ragweed

(If you can bear the first minute of ads, this video is pretty great.)

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It was a fantastic concert, and in the final encore, Robert Earl Keen brought out Cross Canadian Ragweed for one of his best-known songs followed by 20-minutes of finger-flying guitar solos from every guitar picker in each band. It was definitely one of the best I've seen, from the steel to the two leads, and then the two bass guitar pickers. While the former were outstanding, it's just amazing to watch and hear blurring bass guitar solos. That devil in Georgia didn't even bother to show.

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At one point, Robert Earl Keen asked the audience whether any of them had ever been to Lubbock, which isn't far from where I grew up in Booker, Texas. He said it's a place where you can stand squarely on the ground with your own two feet, look in any direction, and see for 50 miles. If you stand on a tuna fish can, you can see for 100 miles. Funny, but true. I remember a story about a man who lived in NYC and moved 15 miles from Booker. The vastly empty horizon literally drove him crazy, and he moved back to NYC two months later.

Puppy Love at Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day, Puppet Heap is selling adorable hand-made dog puppets like the one featured in their Old Mother Hubbard show. The puppets are for sale at Etsy. They also put together this cute little show to advertise how adorable the doggy is.

Another Puppet Show

When Work & Play Collide

If your work and play collide, you likely work for a company like Puppet Heap. For those of you who don't know, I'm working again. While, my job as a Controller isn't exactly creative, everyone else I work with at Puppet Heap is gifted beyond belief. Frankly, my knitting is a bit of an embarrassment to me, compared to the things they design, build, and produce.

Here is a peak at their talent.

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We have some exciting things coming up for Valentine's Day, so stay tuned! We'll be making a little puppet show for YouTube and selling some of our items on Etsy! I'll let you know when we post our items for sale.

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An Empty Plane Floated by Hoboken Today

All of the US Airways passengers were safely on land as their emergency-landed plane floated past Hoboken this afternoon. This was the view from the pier at 4:30p this afternoon, and the pictures show how the next hour progressed.

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