Peanuts on Dating

I'm a HUGE Peanuts fan and becoming quite annoyed with dating (like you guys can't tell!). I came across this photo and just had to share! That Lucy is a tough one! =)

O' Christmas Tree

Ok, like I said, I was able to sit down and stitch last night and made decent progress on the tree in Sweet Dreams. What kills me is that I could have moved onto the ornaments and the gifts in the tree is I 1.) stayed off the computer and 2.) did not get sucked into the trash on tv such as "Moment of Truth" or "Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious. Both shows are, by the way, utter garbage!! I can't believe I actually watched them and admitted it here but hey, we all have faults. I was actually horrified watching Moment of Truth....and I think the host was horrified too. The lengths that people go to for money is amazing! This woman admitted to her parents and husband that she cheated in the marriage, that they had bad conversation skills and that she still had feelings for an ex-boyfriend. The $100,000 questions was asked by her ex-boyfriend and it was "would you leave your husband if I told you I wanted to get back together" and she said YES! Can you believe it? And then she promptly lost ALL the money when she was asked if she thought she was a good person. She answered "yes" and I guess deep down, it's a no. So to go through all that and wreck her marriage and then she promptly lost it all. Amazing. And the Pussycat Dolls show is a complete fiasco with all sorts of teenage catfights. It's nuts! So shame on me...definitely should have gotten farther in Sweet Dreams. This project is feeling like a chore though. I just wish I was farther along in it. That just means I will have to start Fairy Moon and hopefully that will become my "fun" project. Not too much stitching time in store for me this week as yoga and gym will eat up a lot of my evening time. I'll have to sneak it in here and there.

Melancholy Weekend

I was set for my weekend of stitching and watching loads of tv until my mom called me at work on Friday close to quitting time. She called to tell me that a close friend of the family had passed away and funeral services were this weekend. I would, of course, accompany my dad and aunt to services because that's just what I do. As the years pass, memorial services become more difficult to bear. At my ripe old age of 32, I've been to more rosaries, wakes and funerals than I can count and definitely more than anyone I know. I've probably been to as many as one would go to in a lifetime and I'm not really exaggerating all that much. I've been the young girl at the funeral parlor accompanying my parents as babysitters in the evening were out of the question when I was a girl. My parents dragged me everywhere. Through my late teens and 20's, I'd go by myself to represent the family (sounds so mob-like, huh) and pay my respects. I didn't really mind it then. I was able to hold it together and be stoic; offer calming words to those who needed comfort and let them know that their loved one had gone to a better place. But as I enter my 30's, I need time to prepare for these types of events. Eulogies and memories hit my heart and I'll start tearing up. It just isn't as easy for me to be the stoic calming person I guess I expect myself to be...that girl from the past who would get comments from ladies older than myself who would say that I was a calming effect amidst the sorrow. It's just not in me anymore.

So knowing I would have to attend this rosary, I spent most of Friday and Saturday zoning in front of the tv and sleeping. I managed to watch my Sopranos dvd, The Godfather 1 and The Jungle Book along with some miscellaneous tivo'd shows before completely passing out at the extremely late hour of 6pm! So I didn't get very much stitching done. I worked on Sweet Dreams and managed to finish the right side curtain, fill in the rest of the red in Santa's hat and jacket and moved in trying to fill in the tree. Not nearly as much as I would have liked so I am hoping to make some decent progress on that tree tonight. I doubt I'll be able to finish though.

Yesterday was the rosary and dear Chavela would have been happy with how lovely it was. She was a dear old lady and it was time. She made it to 102! But I spent a lot of the weekend thinking about all the times she came to visit with her daughter and just how cheerful and lively she was for someone so much older. She always had a smile on her face and was the type of person to put kisses all over your face if you would let her. She had such a warm spirit and a kind heart that it put a smile on my face just thinking of her.

Stitchy Withdrawals!

It's amazing how fast time flies sometimes! How does that happen? When I posted my Fairy Moon entry, I had grand illusions of starting and have a pretty decent start and picture by the middle of next week. It's been a week and a half and I haven't put one single stitch on her! Actually, I haven't had much time to stitch at all and I am going slightly berserk. Last weekend was very busy (but amazingly fun) and the weeknights can at times be pretty crammed between class and errands. I cannot wait until tonight!

This weekend, the original plan was for me to head up to Lake Tahoe with a friend and her mom for a couple of nights. But her mom invited some of her friends and the car and cabin would have ended up too crowded and cramped so those plans are off. I was hoping to have some quality time hanging out with her and stitching in front of the fire...far away from all the things that end up distracting me...dating, tv, phone, apartment cleaning and all those other pesky responsibilities. So I am going to pretend like I am still out of town. I'm going to go home, make a nice dinner for myself and pick up some stitching and stitch to my little heart's desire. It will be nice to tuck in for the night with Santa and have myself a mobster fix. I've got my netflix waiting for me on my coffee table...The Sopranos, Season 3, Disc 2 and Godfather 1. Not to mention The Jungle Book 40th Anniversary Edition my landlord loaned to me and Ratatouille. Oh and I've got enough Project Runway on my Tivo to have a mini-marathon! Lots of tv watching this weekend! Oh, and it's the Oscars on Sunday! I don't think I'll be able to watch everything I even mentioned! But with the exception of a social event in the city tomorrow and a pampering massage on Sunday, I've got the whole weekend to zone into the tv and stitch. Can't wait!

Home is Where the Heart Is!

And my heart belongs to San Francisco. I tend to talk a lot about work and dating and crafting that I don't really talk too much about the city that I love. I don't live in SF proper anymore and I've been missing it a lot lately but I live close enough to make multiple trips in a week if I'd like. Just this weekend, I made two trips to run errands and visit with friends. Today was a federal holiday so I had the day off from work. Woohoo! Gotta love 3-day weekends! So I decided to take advantage of the easy parking and head to North Beach with a friend. North Beach is the "Little Italy" of San Francisco and it's my favorite neighborhood. It's lively and fun; has great coffee shops, restaurants, bars and entertainment and makes for great people watching. But besides the gastro-delights of the neighborhood, there are amazing views. One of my favorite things to do here is to drag my lazy tush up to Coit Tower and go down the Filbert Steps. So today I decided to take my camera along so I could share this walk through my eyes!

Filbert Street...walking up the steep grade to get up to Coit Tower. The street gets so steep towards the top that there are little stairs etched into the cement so you aren't so angled trying to get up there.

Coit Tower (not the Leaning Tower of Pisa...I suck at pictures)

Whew...made it up to the top of Filbert Street. I turned around and wow...look at the view! Far in the distance you can see the Golden Gate Bridge.

Along the walkway near Coit Tower, you see an amazing Financial District shot that includes the Transamerica Building. This was a daytime shot but with the lighting, it looks like dusk.

Filbert Street and Telegraph Hill. This is the juncture to head down the infamous Filbert Steps.

As I go down the steps, I turn around to show how the steps are engulfed by gardens, trees and lots of greenery. It always seems so cut off from the rest of the city.

And along the stairway path, there are cottages and bungalows that look like this one. Isn't it cute?! How do people get their groceries up or down all the stairs? I still don't understand. I don't think you could pay movers enough to get furniture to one of these little homes. And my friends complain about my third floor walk-up! But it sure is a lovely setting.

And we get to the very bottom of the Filbert steps across from Levi Plaza. I turned around and here is a shot of the scary part of the Filbert Steps. The stairs are so steep here that I always fear I'll trip and slide all the way down. Yep, this is me living on the edge! We feel good but I'm not crazy enough to turn around and head back up as my friend suggests so we go out to the Embarcadero with the intention of walking to Broadway. As we walk, we come across this plaque imbedded into the cement.

Apparently, way back in the Gold Rush days, shops were on floating ships out in the Embarcadero. As that era passed, the ships were buried under landfill and built upon and that area is now the Embarcadero. I was born and raised in San Francisco and never knew that! So I learned something new today. We kept walking and my friend dragged me up another steep stairway and I saw this abandoned on the sidewalk. In the city, people will dump their junk on the sidewalk because one person's junk is almost always someone else's treasure. This hadn't found a home yet though but it was well worth a picture.

"Don't watch me watch tv" What?!?!

We finally made it to my favorite coffee shop in North Beach, Cafe Greco and just sat, talked and people watched. This is always a challenge because right across the street is Stella Pastry.

See! Stella Pastry and I always have to test my willpower. I have no willpower when it comes to pastry. OMG and their stuff is soooooo good. My favorite is their Sicilian Cannoli. If you live in SF and have never had a sicilian cannoli from Stella Pastry...what are you waiting for?! It is sinful and decadent and omg, so good. Obviously, I went to Stella and got my cannoli and it made me very happy but then I feel bad because I may as well just slather the filling onto my hips as that is where it will stay until I can workout enough for it to melt away. But you know what, I don't care because if there's anything worth extra time at the gym, it's anything at this little italian bakery. YUM!

And that was my fun-filled day in the city. I so love 3-day weekends. I wish they came around all the time!

Bookcase, Stash and Date #3

So far, it's been a busy weekend. Friday was a god-awful day and everyone was asking me if Iwas pms-ing. Geez, like a girl can't have a bad day without it being contributed to hormones. No, it wasn't that lovely time of the month. I ended up being the only one in the office on Friday as all kinds of stuff was hitting the fan. I had to deal with people who didn't follow procedures, people who didn't follow instructions, things falling on my desk with a deadline of "five minutes" and dealing with my own self-imposed deadlines that I was trying to accomplish. I was a stress case. But I was ecstatic once 5pm rolled around. My friend Claire came over to help me drag a new bookcase up to my walk up apartment and assemble it. Yay! I have a new bookcase IN my apartment. New project is to sort my books and make that bookcase look all nice in my apartment. After assembling the bookcase, we grabbed dinner at the corner thai place and went to see 27 Dresses. After such a crazy day, I just wanted to see something funny that didn't require too much thinking. I thought it was a cute film and James Marsden...OMG...such a hottie! I would watch that movie over and over just for him!

On Saturday, I decided to go across the bridge to my almost local needlework shop, Needle in a Haystack. There is actually a needlework shop three blocks from my apartment but they never have what I'm looking for and they are more geared towards needlepoint than anything else there. Plus, NiaH is huge and they have so much selection and so many options that I can spend an entire afternoon there getting lost in the possibilities. Really...I do this all the time and end up leaving the shop 4 hours later! So I will drive across the bay and pay my $4 bridge toll to go to Needle in a Haystack so I can fawn over everything. Plus, most important of all is that I get to see Mary. I love seeing Mary...she always helps me with a smile and she will always give me her opinion on things and anyone who knows me knows that I like a second opinion! I can spend hours paining over a decision and Mary knows how to pull just the right chart or fabric that will win me over! I had gone with the intention of picking up the Shores of Hawk Run Hollow chart that I had put on hold but once I saw it, I wasn't loving it as much. I was loving parts of it...but not the whole thing. And I definitely wasn't loving the Lakeside Linens Vintage Gold fabric that it called for. I was hemming and hawing and I decided to put it back. I still got stash though...no doubt! Here's a picture of all my stash. I got two pieces of fabric. I was going to get the called for cut of Wichelt French Cashmere but in 32 count for Quaker Christmas but they only had 28 count. I liked the French Cashmere until Mary started pulling out all sorts of fabric and I really LOVED the French Latte that she suggested. So I got a good half a yard of that for Quaker Christmas and smaller projects down the line. I also got a small cut of 25 count Jobelan for secret stitching. I got a handful of Week Dye Works floss for a birthday present in July and some stitchers lotion that NiaH has been promoting for months. With the weather, my skin is so dry and the lotion says it is non-oily and will not stain so I'll give it a shot. I can't even imagine what my skin would be like in the Northeast with the constant snow and wind!


And the charts:

The Workbasket: Quaker Pig and Rooster and Lavender Wings: Moonlight in Vermont

OMG...don't you just love the rooster! He's my favorite!

Saturday was also date #3 with the new guy. I still feel mixed. I get frustrated when guys constantly cannot plan a date. I'm pretty old-fashioned when it comes to dating. I like being asked and planned for initially. At least the first handful and I'll put in my ideas and options and plan dates after. It's just that I plan for everyone else on a constant basis that when it comes to a guy taking me out, I kind of like it when the guy is in charge of the plans. I wasn't particularly thrilled with the dinner pick especially as I told him I had been there the day before and he really came up with that at the last minute. I like guys to have plans and be assertive and to be secure within themselves and fun and exciting and culturally aware. I just don't understand why... in a huge city that is amazingly cultural and diverse...I can't seem to find the guy who fits all those attributes.

Fairy Moon - Challenge of '08

Lookie here...Mirabilia Fairy Moon by Nora Corbett!

This is my huge challenge of '08. I can do it...there's no question about me being able to do this piece. The challenge lies in whether or not I can actually finish it in 2008. Another challenge may be whether or not I will go berserk by the sheer size and monstrosity of the piece, by the amount of white I will have to stitch because of her dress or by the amount of beading I will have to do. What whole moon is stitched out of beads! But I love her...she is beautiful and I already know I will have to go get her professionally framed and she will have a prime spot in my bedroom over my dresser. I have been drooling over this piece for at least 5 years. Wow, I can't believe the chart has been in my stash that long. I finally became active about trying to work on this piece last year. Fairy Moon is a great example of how my stash grew. I bought the fabric and threads as indicated on the chart and then I realized that stitching a fairy that is looking at a moon on brown fabric is ridiculous! Since when has the sky ever been brown when the moon's been out?! Nora? What were you thinking suggesting that? So, I began a search for appropriate fabric and I chose Tumult by Sugar Maple Fabrics. Beautiful fabric...Mindy knows how to hand dye some fab fabric but Tumult wasn't quite right. It came out lighter than the picture on the website and the lighter blue-gray threads and beading would have gotten lost in the fabric which was a mottled blue and white like blue sky with white clouds. Very pretty...but not quite right.

Third try is always the charm. In the picture is my final color choice. Fairy Moon will be stitched on Dragon Moon by Sugar Maple Fabrics. Its a beautiful navy blue color with white and purply-gray splotches. It kind of looks like a stormy blue sky. Perfect! May the moon in the sky guide the fairy to her dreamy destination.

I'm hoping to have a start on Fairy Moon this holiday weekend but probably won't post a progress picture for a couple of weeks as I'm sure I won't have anything decent to share before then!

Fat Santa Hibernates!

It's February and I finally managed to put away all the Halloween and Christmas decorations that were scattered around the apartment. Yes, I know that those Holidays were ages ago! I was a major scrooge-ette over the holiday season and was lucky I even got decorations out. Once they were out, I liked looking at them and was too lazy to put them away. I had made an attempt a week ago to put the things away and did box up most of the decorations but there were some I forgot about. One was "Fat Santa". I love Fat Santa! He is the project I'm most proud of. Maybe because I actually made him for myself instead of someone else. My sister has a christmas sampler type pillow I made so she can decorate too but Fat Santa is mine! Isn't he cute?! Well, Fat Santa isn't really the name of the chart...I just call him that because he's kind of a fat santa...obviously. This is truly called Two Star Santa by The Design Connection. It's time for him to go into the storage closet until next holiday season.

Bye Fat Santa! I hope you have a good sleep and I'll see you in December!

Stash-Mania

I'm not really into football but one good thing came from the Superbowl...superbowl sales! I love sales and I love building up my stash. Now, instead of having plenty to work on until I'm 50, I have more than enough to keep me occupied until I'm at least 65! I don't know what I'm thinking about buying all this stuff when I barely have time to work on the things I already have. So here's some of what I've bought.

Quaker Christmas by ByGone Stitches - I've seen quite a few people working on this and it comes along beautifully. I love christmas stuff and this quaker stuff is kinda growing on me. So I've got the chart and also ordered the 24 skeins of Crescent Colors floss that's required. I love Crescent Colors and that's a pretty hefty haul right there.

Pumpkin by JBW Designs

Lots of Week Dye Works and Gentle Sampler threads for a couple of secret projects I'm currently working on.

Hmmm, after I list it out...it doesn't seem so much. BUT, I'll be heading to my almost local needlework shop this weekend to pick up Shores of Hawk Run Hollow and fabric for Quaker Christmas and one of the small secret projects I'm working on. Why does Shores of Hawk Run Hollow have to look so awesome and why does it have to be so bloody expensive?! It's just the chart for me right now. The threads are too expensive and if I'm going to invest the time and the linen, I may as well use pretty threads. I have too many other projects I want to do but better to buy the chart now since you never know if they'll sell out and then go out of print.

I also bought 5 skeins of yarn for my afghan and am having second thoughts about the color scheme. Maybe I should use the color I started on and make it monochromatic in that color and each square be a different pattern/stitch. Ugh, the dilemna. So indecisive...cursed libra trait! I am the worst at making decisions. This is how I end up with so much stash! I buy things and then change my mind and end up buying and using different things.

Must stop the stash buying...but all those charts and fibers look so pretty!

A Date, Imagiknit, Janeane Garafolo, New Starts and Cleaning

Wow, when I look at my title, it sounds like I had a busy weekend and I did in a way.

Friday was date night with the new guy and I had a really fun time. I'm still having feelings of "nice guy but not exciting" but that's just how I've been feeling about a lot of people lately. They're all nice but I'm not wow'd...yet...I can spend six hours in their company. Because that's just the sort of person I am provided the person I'm with isn't exuding stalker-like psycho tendancies. We had a nice dinner at Nob Hill Cafe and we had a sighting of the "doublemint twins" aka the Brown twins. I had read that Nob Hill Cafe was one of their favorite places and they have a standing reservation there on Friday nights. I was wondering how true that factoid was but low and behold, it was true. They walked in and waved as they made their way to their wndow table. They are such a San Francisco "institution" and I always get a kick when I see them cheesing it up for the tourists and the passer-bys. After dinner, we headed to Vesuvio for a cocktail and a mini-chatfest. Then I felt like walking to see how crazy North Beach was that evening before heading back to the car and the drive home. I should probably go ahead and set up date number three but I'm hesitant because I'm not feeling the crazy butterflies I so desire. I'm going to think about it for a day or so.

On Saturday, I headed to Imagiknit where I stood for an hour in a state of indecision! I think the staff was laughing at me and my hanks of yarn as I stood there trying out different color combinations and different sequences. I finally took the three colors I was trying to decide between to the counter to ask for a different opinion and they were no help! I just couldn't make up my mind. And I finally came to my decision which was the color I had discovered on my initial visit to Imaginknit a couple of weeks ago. The winner is:

Shocking Pink!

This means that my afghan will be more pink than red and I've never been a "pink" type of a girl but I think that the colors will be very nice together and will go well with the reds, roses and pinks of my throw pillows and living room area rug. I had really hoped for more red but a lot of the reds out there were orangy and just didn't look well with the yarn colors I had already purchased.

Later Saturday, I headed back to North Beach for a nice dinner at Ristorante Contadina and caught the Janeane Garafolo comedy peformance at Cobb's. I so love Janeane. She was really fun and I can't believe how tiny and tatooed she is. Plus, I love that she is a total advocate for eyewear. In a day and age where everyone asks why I don't wear contacts, it's nice to see a big name acress/comedian who is pro-glasses. Plus, they add so much character to her look. I had a great time at the show although the company I was with left a lot to be desired.

Today was a cleaning, stitching and laundry day. I didn't really clean so much as organize. My bedroom got another good dusting and I found another half a hefty bag worth of crap to donate to Goodwill. I can finally see the surface of my dining table and did a good three loads of laundry. I still need to organize my living room which presently looks like some tornado went through a craft shop and landed into my living room. There's fabric, floss, scissors and tape blended in with netflix, cds and magazines. This room will get some attention tomorrow and then I can start on the heavy duty dusting, mopping and vacuuming of all the rooms. I hate cleaning! I always ponder hiring a cleaning lady but then I feel guilty because I should be able to keep up after myself. It's only me...how do I make it all so messy?!

I did manage two new starts. I started Halloween House which is a very small Lilybet design but with my limited stitching time and needing small projects to work on before yoga, this was perfect. I've only stitched the windows so far and it's not worth a picture yet since the windows are yellow. My other start is secret stitching so no details but that start got more attention than Halloween House today. It's a quickie so I'm already a third of the way done.

A Pat on my Back...

I'm a little proud of myself. I think back to how my blog looked 2 short months ago and there weren't any pictures of my stitchy progress. There was no cute girl blog photo. There was no blogroll and hell if I could figure out how you could do a hyperlink. It was BORING! Well, it looked boring...

Now I have a cute blog photo, a blogroll, I can link to other people's blogs and I can post pictures of my crafy projects...albiet not the best pictures but people can tell what I'm talking about and referring to in my ramblings.

I was playing a bit more with it today and I've got the book I'm currently reading up in my sidebar and a stitchy rotation gridded out. Other stitchy bloggers have theirs up so I'm wondering if it will help me keep things organized and accomplish more. It's worth a shot...right? Instead of Sunday being my "day of rest", I set aside Friday for mine. I'm usually too burnt out on Fridays to do anything other than lie on the futon and catch up on Tivo. I guess tonight will be an exception as it's a "date night". I've decided that if I have Fairy Moon, which is a HUGE project, and Halloween House, which can be my small travel project, already kitted up and ready to go, I can at least work on them once a week and stick them into a rotation. So those will be new starts this coming week. I'll definitely start Halloween House this weekend so it can travel around with me on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Can't wait!

But the blog is looking better...didn't think I could master the coolness effect with it. Although I know others have blogstats and visitor mapping. That's kinda cool but a little beyond my techie ability. Now, if only I could figure out this iPod thing.

A Random Realization...

I don't think anyone would ever hear me say something like "when I was your age, a loaf of bread cost .35 cents and gasoline was .75 cents a gallon". Nope, because that's never ever been true...but I've heard stuff like that all the time...from my parents. Nowadays, bread costs $4 a loaf, milk is $5 a gallon and let's not even talk about the cost of gasoline or a movie ticket.

Last night I was talking to the new guy and trying to finalize plans for our second date. As usual, you do the normal chit chat and asking questions about each other's family and upbringing. He asked me what my parents did for a living and I told him that my parents are blue-collar immigrants. They are both retired and have been for years but they worked a hard life of being a steel metal factory worker and a seamstress. They are jobs that are taken for granted and fairly underappreciated. When my mom first came to the States, she worked for Levi's and helped sew together countless number of jeans. I wonder how many people out there ended up owning a pair she had handled, sewn the seam on, shaped the pockets. To think that those jeans may be surviving somewhere out there when the factory's been closed now for years. As I was telling this guy about their work history, it occured to me that my parents worked hard jobs that they were thankful for but that didn't really pay a lot of money yet they were able to buy a home in San Francisco and raise three children in private schooling. Everyone knows private schooling doesn't come cheap and neither does property in the San Francisco Bay Area. In fact, it's ridiculously expensive...now. It wasn't so bad way back when but still. They probably brought in the same salary (give or take a few thousand dollars) combined as I do by myself now. Now that same salary can barely support me in a one-bedroom rented apartment with my 10-year old car! Forget being able to buy and own a condo, let alone a house and let's not even get on the topic of kids.

I guess thoughts like these make me realize that even though I have my complaints about growing up and having overly strict parents, they really did a decent job bringing up three kids on a limited income, limited command of the english language and no extended family. It's a little inspiring...that and they've been married for 52 years and haven't killed each other.

But since date planning with the new guy brought this realization about, I'll probably post a post-date entry later. Date #2 is tonight!

Picture Share

I've got pictures to share! I've been meaning to share for a while but my pictures always come out so screwy looking when I take them at night. I decided to skip yoga tonight since I wasn't feeling all that well and didn't forsee me holding a downward dog position for 2+ minutes being a very good thing. I may fall on my head or something because my arms gave out! Did you laugh?! Yea, that would be a funny image! As I was driving home, I noticed it was still light out so I raced home and grabbed the camera but the light was pretty dim in my apartment. I'm still sharing anyways. I haven't worked on Sweet Dreams much since my Vancouver trip. That was almost a month ago! I had gotten a lot of Santa's jacket done and that had been my goal. I started knitting my afghan block after that trip and only pulled this out recently when I needed a mini break from knitting. I felt like I needed a break from red as my last few projects have had lots of red. Red is my favorite color but I needed to look at something else so I threaded the needle with a pale blue and am working on the curtain on the right side of the window there. It doesn't stand out so much as the color is pale. I was really hoping to be farther along in this as I want to start Fairy Moon but I will hold off a little more on that and probably start a couple of small projects to make into a pinkeep and a flatfold. Both firsts but I'm curious how it will come along. Plus I need something small to work on when I am waiting for my yoga class to start. Sweet Dreams is too big and uncomfortable to work on on the go so I've been carting Block #1 around everywhere lately. Just waiting for supplies to come in to get the two small projects started.

Since I mentioned Block #1, here is my progress so far. I've knit about 62 rows which measures about 8 inches. I only have 4 more inches to go before I start Block #2. I have to make a decision as to what my fourth color will be before I start Block #2 though. I forsee a trip to Imagiknit in the near future to help me make that decision. The lighter flecks you see in the picture is the variation in color...it's mainly a pinky red with some lighter pink variation in color. Very pretty!

That's it for pictures. I'm hoping to have progress on both this weekend but with a busy Friday and Saturday, I may be forced to clean (ick!) on Sunday instead of stitch and knit. We'll see.