We are in Rhinebeck and ready for a good show. It's been raining all day but hopefully tomorrow will clear up.

White Chili

So, I love to watch Giada De Laurentis on the cooking channel. The other night she made white chili and it looked and sounded delicious. So tonight I am making some. Instead of using chicken I am using ground turkey (cuz that's what I had in the fridge), and I also got some yummy crusty bread to eat with it. I can't wait until it's done, it smells sooooo good. The whole house smells like chili. Not sure if the kids are gonna eat it. I know Sami will at least try it, but Kyle is the picky one. Also, I can guarantee that Brian won't even taste it. He needs his tongue scraped!

It should be done in about 20 minutes, I'll keep you posted........

Ready for Rhinebeck!!

Wow!! It's hard to believe it's October already! My two oldest have already gone to their Homecoming dances and it's Farmer's Fair time in Dillsburg. It's also time to head to Rhinebeck for the New York Sheep & Wool Festival. This is one of my favorite times of the year. It's crisp and cool and everyone is wearing all their beautiful hand-made sweaters, shawls and anything else you can imagine. I love to go to the fleece sale and do lots of other shopping as well. We leave this coming Friday and it is sure to be a fun-filled girl's getaway!

A Terrible Sadness

Well I have been avoiding writing about this for long enough. A terrible sadness has struck my life and it's time for me to get it out. At the end of January one of my dearest friends and co-workers passed away unexpectedly. Her name is Angela Place and she was one of the sweetest, kindest, loving people I knew. She was our Marketing Director and creative genius at work and always fun to be around. I miss her terribly, sometimes so much that when I think about her it hurts. I still cry a little and get teary eyed when talking about her. She was just a wonderful person. A great knitter, spinner, blogger and dear, dear friend. I said my formal goodbyes at her services but I feel the need to say goodbye in this way too. I can only pray that she is up there looking down on me and smiling as we try to find a way to honor her at work in the way she would approve of. She left behind an loving husband and three wonderful sons.
This has been a hard time in my life. It's not often that you lose someone your own age, and she was young in life. If I could have the chance to talk to her one last time there are many things I would say to her. My letter might go something like this:

Dear Angela,
I miss you. I wish that the last time I had come to your house I had just walked in instead of texting you later. I will never get that chance back. I want to thank you for helping me to love knitting and spinning even more and for re-igniting my love of crochet which ultimately led to my first original design. I have you to thank for that. You were so positive about everything. You were so creative and always coming up with new ideas and designs. I hope that you are no longer in pain where you are and that you are surrounded by yarn and with your Grams again.
You are terribly missed and I wanted you to know that I love you.

Bye,
Tasha

So, that would be my letter if I had to chance to write one for her.
Thanks for listening to me get this off my chest.

Bye for now.

A New Year!!

Well it's 2011! Did you make any New Year Resolutions?? I usually don't and didn't again this year. Other than to try to finish more knitting projects than I start and to spin and weave more. The problem is finding the time to do all these things. Raising three kids, two of which are active busy teenagers, doesn't leave me with alot of free time to get these things done. I moved one of my spinning wheels into the living room hoping that will entice me to spin more since I can do it while sitting with the family instead of in my studio. The problem is our bulldog Bella loves to eat my fiber. So I have to make sure that the basket of fiber is always up out of reach. I have a skirt and sweater that I started that I really want to finish while it's still cold enough out to enjoy wearing them. And I want to weave some shawls and scarves. That's alot of lofty goals but I am up for the challenge, I think :)

Maybe it will get a little less crazy when my oldest can drive but that's still a year off. Shortly after her my middle son will start driving. See?? Busy, busy, busy!!! Oh well, that's life I guess :)

So, what are you hoping to accomplish in this new year? Leave me a comment and let me know. Maybe we can get together and work on them :)

Bye for now!!

Random life happenings.

Let's see.....where to start. So much has been going on most days I don't know if I'm coming or going. First, today is my youngest son's birthday so, Happy Birthday Kyle!! He is eleven years old today, wow did they go fast!

My oldest, the daughter, has been dealing with a ton of high school crap lately. Just stupid girls picking and bickering but it really gets to her. It seems that no matter what kind of support I try to give it's not right for her. Go figure, teenage girls!! I guess I forgot that when you're 15 you know everything and your parents know nothing :) Oh well, we'll get through it somehow.

My middle child, the other son, is goofing off in school. Just had parent/teacher conferences and they did not go well :( Apparently he LOVES Algebra and Science and even Spanish since he has A's in those classes. However he has a C in Social Studies and a D in English. His teachers know he's super smart and able to do the work with no problems, he just doesn't feel like it. UUUgghhh!!!! Teenage boys are sometimes worse than teenage girls.

So, we have the youngest's party this weekend, my daughter's party next weekend and the following weekend is Thanksgiving. So basically, I'm gonna be super busy for the next three weeks or maybe more.

I guess that's life :)

So long for now!!

A new design!

I have also been busy do some designing. I recently designed this crochet shawlette for work and it seems to be a little popular on Ravelry :) YAY!!! The question I have for myself is this, "Self, why can you design a shawl in crochet but not in knit?". My self has no answer to this other than the math involved in knitting lace scares me. I am trying though and have lots of designs in my head. I need to get them out cuz my head is getting full.

Here's a pic of my design :)

Now, go make one for yourself!! I'm not gonna do it for you :)