Dogs on Thursday and Start of the St. Pete Wednesday night Stitich n Bitch!!!

Dogs on Thursday!!

I'm the "guest" blogger over at Dogs on Thursday for a couple weeks so please go over and check out my Doggie Spotlight on Jackjack and Abigail Grace. :)

I will try to keep wedding planning info to a minimum on my blog but I guess I should warn you that you will get some of it. So far I just wanted to share that I already found the shawl I'd like to knit for my big day. It's called the Summer Shawlette and Carrieoke made one for her wedding and I loved it. Other than that the only decisions that have been made are church, pastor, whose in the bridal party and the date. I'm making a list of places to have the reception at and hopefully going to check them out with Special K soon.

On more Knitting News, Last night was the first ever St. Pete Stitch n Bitch at Panera Bread near Tyrone Square. We are planning to meet every Wednesday nights. By we, I mean I'll be there when people come that's great...hopefully we will get a group going. The only woman who showed up last night was Manda from mandalinn. We had been talking for a while and trying to meet up. It was great to finally meet her. You should check out her etsy shop(Mandalinn Knits & Spins) too. We sat and knit/talked for two hours and had a blast. If you live in the area...PLEASE stop by on wed. from 6:30 to 8:30pm.

Happy Knitting!!

Contest Winners!!!

Contest winners. First off I assigned every entry a number. I'm sure there are plenty of ways to do this but I'm a little drugged up because I had to play softball tonight and my wrist was killing me. So...I put them all in a hat....Had Special K picked not just one but 2 numbers out of the hat.

Drum roll please... The first winner of a set of knitting Christmas cards from Byvik Ink is Beth from A Quest for Relevance. She is thankful for "In a nutshell, I am trying to be thankful to my God for everything, because I believe it all comes from Him. Big things like my husband, children, good job, to little things,l ike a love of knitting and writing, and shiny faucets :-)."

The second winner of two skeins of Sugar n Cream yarn and a pair of bamboo knitting needles is Nicole from Nicole's Knits and Quirks. She is thankful for "I am thankful for my husband and my grandmother. My hubby and I got married this September and we are enjoying being newlyweds. I am thankful for my grandmother because she taught me to knit which lead to me seeking out my new (knitting friends)!"

Thank you everyone who participated in my first ever contest. I'm hoping to have more. I loved it. If the two winners can email me at gnatchat (at) gmail (dot) com with your snail mail addresses I'll send those out to you.

If you're wondering why two winners and not just one....well..I'm feeling so high from my recent engagement(or the meds) that I'm just feeling very generous. I'd love to send everyone something...but I am planning a wedding now. :) Thanks again for participating and I hope you keep stopping by.

Happy Knitting!!!

Too much to say!!

So...I have been wanting to post since Thursday but haven't had time or energy to. Thursday was the most amazing day. :) Right after Thanksgiving dinner, Special K asked me to marry him in front of his whole family and of course i said YES!!!!! So, I'M ENGAGED!!!!

I'll post up pictures later and maybe a little video of it. It was a wonderful moment. I can't seem to stop grinning every time I think of it. I'll write a post of details later. This is a picture of us having pizza with his brother in Ohio. :) He's so cute!!

To continue the story....
Friday was the not so fun day. Special K's mom, sister, and I were heading out to go shopping and we got into a pretty bad accident. The car is pretty bad. We are all ok but still really sore. We got transported to the hospital in an ambulance. My first time doing that. It was snowing all that day too. I loved the snow but I'm not such a fan of the ice. The truck in front of us swerved and hit us twice pushing us into the median. It was really scary. I had a coffee in my hand and it ended up all over everyone. I was in the back seat. The airbags hurt Special K's mom and sister pretty bad but they are ok.

Well...to add a bit of knitting into this post. Here's a picture of the gauntlet I finished on the way up. I didn't do much knitting on the way back because my body was sore and my head was stuffed up. Oh well. At least I was prepared if I could. Contest info. The contest is closed and I will announced the winner....maybe even winners tomorrow. I need to go lay down now.

Well...this is a jumbled post but I really want to get it out. I'm off from work today because my body hurts from sitting in the car all day yesterday and I've got a head cold. When I get the video of the engagement I'll post it. It's great. :)

Happy Knitting!!!

In Ohio!!

So, our road trip up went really well. I packed food, drinks, and snacks for the ride up. We stopped twice for gas and three times for a bathroom break. Let's just say we made really good time. :) Special K gave in and we listened to the first half or so of Stephen King's Hearts in Atlantis. It's pretty good so far. My travel knitting was a pair of gauntlets. I was able to knit one but got a belly ache and it got dark so I only finished on. I'll post up pics later. I already cast on for the second one. I'm hoping to finish this and a hat while I'm here. :) We'll see.

My sister finished her first knitting design for her etsy shop. This will be the design for the cards for my contest.

They are great!!! What do you guys think?? She did a good job. She said that she'll put them up on her etsy shop this weekend. So, go over and check it out. You can also comment on my contest too. It's still open. I'll announce the winner on Monday when we get back.

Well...back to visiting with Special K's family. I hope all is well.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Traveling for Thanksgiving!!

Thank you for those of you who have stopped by my blog and commented for my contest. It's still open by the way...Feel free to keep commenting. :) The responses have been wonderful. My sister put up some more designs on her etsy shop so please go over and check it out. She's designing one for me with knitting in it so I'll let you know when she gets that up.

Tomorrow Special K and I are off on our "Thanksgiving Road Trip 07." I'll make sure to take tons of pictures and come back with some to show. I already have my knitting bag full of projects packed. I picked up 4 books on CD in hopes that Special K will open his mind up to listening to them. I got the first three books in the Chronicles of Narnia series and Stephen King's Hearts in Atlantis. We may not end up listening to any of them but here's to hoping. We are heading out at 5am tomorrow. I'm super excited and can't wait to knit on the road and see Special K's mom and family. They are tons of fun and I'm glad we are heading up there.

I will miss my sisters and family very much though. It won't be the same without them but I'll be with them for Christmas. I will also miss Jackjack and Abigail a lot. Each is staying with a different sister. I hate to separate them but they are too much for my sisters who already have dogs. We thought about taking them or at least Jackjack but I think it's best if they both stay. I'm going to miss my puppies.

Well, we are all packed and ready to go. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and I'll post if I get a chance.

Dogs on Thursday on Wednesday!! Knitting Group...and Sea World.

First off, thanks to those who have left comments for my first contest. Reading everyone's thanks has put a smile on my face. Keep up the great sharing. :)

I'm doing Dogs on Thursday a day early since I will be at Sea World with the 6th graders tomorrow and Friday morning. I love field trips, especially when they involve fun places like Sea World. Surfer Girl will be going as well since she is one of my students. I have my travel knitting and told my knitting group student in 6th grade to bring theirs.

The pictures for this weeks Dogs on Thursday are actually a year old but I just wanted to share them anyway. Sorry no new ones. Abby LOVES stuffed animals. We don't keep them around much anymore because Jackjack likes to de-stuff them.

Such a stoic pup.

Hope you enjoy my puppy pictures.

Tuesday was the first day of my knitting group at school. I think it went very well. I had 8 girls and 1 boy. 8 kids who had never learned to knit and 1, surfer girl, who has. I was hoping I'd have some help but everyone was busy. It would have been nice to have another person there to keep people going but the kids were really patient and did great. Some girls brought their knitting with them to school and when they finished a project in class we worked on it for a couple minutes. The knitting group should be fun with the great students I have coming. I still need to get the picture up of all the yarn I got from all the wonderful bloggers who donated it to my group. Soon...bare with me.

Well...I better get packing for tomorrow and get some rest. I promise to get to all the comments for the contest as soon as I get back. Thank you for stopping by and participating in my contest if you do.

Happy Knitting.

100th Post and my first Contest

My first post was almost 4 months ago on 7/20/07 and I'm already on my 100th post. I guess I have a lot to say. I have learned so much great things through blogging and met some great people.

I am the youngest of a big family. With four sisters, a step-sister, a brother and a step brother keeping in touch can get tough even when some live in the same town. My family has always been such a huge part of my life. When I lost my mother at a very young age, my older sisters(we'll keep their ages out of this), my brother, and father became even more important to me. They are the ones I call when I need advice, comfort, truths or love. Through it all they have always loved me. I know we may not always agree with one another's decisions but we have always been there for each other. I am thankful for my father and mother for having so many children. I am thankful that they believe in me and are there when I need them. I am thankful that my mother lived and lived well. I am thankful that she gave me the tools early on in life to help me be the woman I am now. Thank you family and friends for all the love you have given and will give.

This leads me to "I am thankful" contest.

Since Thanksgiving is coming around the corner and it is a time for family and thanks, I figured a good name for my contest would be the "I am thankful" contest. To enter please leave a comment telling me who and what are you most thankful for? How do you show your thanks?

The ways you can enter are the following: your comment gets you 1 entry, posting about this contest gets you another entry, and you get 1 entry for each reader who mentions you here. I will be closing the contest midnight on November 25, 2007.

The prize you ask...well I'm excited about this one...the prize will be a pack of cards designed by my sister, Cristina, who just opened up an etsy shop. She's an illustrator and works for a newspaper. She has always designed great cards and stuff for the family and now she started her own company per say called Byvik ink. Please go over and check out her shop, too. She said that a bunch of cards will be going up this weekend...so keep checking back.

Thank you for reading and hope you enjoy my first contest.

Wedding Weekend update and some sharing of contests!

I was in Raleigh, NC this weekend for my friend Annemarie's wedding. She planned pretty much the whole wedding herself and she did a great job. Everything went smoothly and she looked absolutely wonderful in her wedding dress. This first picture is her with her two Panama friends, me on the left and Gisella on the right. :) These are from my friends camera not the photographer....that's why we aren't looking at camera. ;)


This is Christiaan, her husband with all the bridesmaids. :)

We were having a great time at the reception. I think I walked around with the same glass of wine all night. :)



After the wedding and reception, we went to a bar and hung out. The guy is Blake, Annemarie's old roommates boyfriend. He is convinced that he will never marry. I was trying to help her out by giving him a talking to. :) It didn't work. He still never wants to...but I tried. Blake also just got Guitar Hero 3 and so I just have to try it out. Think we might be getting it for a Christmas present.The weekend was great. I won't tell you all the info but we had a small bachelorete party on Thursday. We went to a nice Italian restaurant and then headed to a local bar. It was very low key but very Annemarie. Friday was more errands and the rehearsal and dinner. That was also at a very nice Italian restaurant. You would have thought they were Italian not Panamanian and Dutch. Saturday was up early for hair and then off to the church for the wedding and then reception all evening. I had a great time and am thoroughly exhausted.

I got to catch up with some friends from Panama and meet her friends up there. I even ran into a friend from Panama's boyfriend who learned to knit last December when it was slow at work. We talked about knitting and I told him when he finishes his scarf...he will just have to do a guest post on my blog...so keep an eye out for that. :)

On the flight back from NC, I met a guy sitting next to me who works for Petfinder.com. Thought that was so cool. I told him about the link I have on my blog and he says soon they will have video on their site too. That is cool!! If you have never heard of Petfinder...you just have to go check it out!!

Well...knitting. I didn't really get much travel knitting done. I finished a coaster and cast on for my sock on the way up. I worked on my nephews hat while I was there because it was a brainless knit. The plane back I knit a couple rounds on the sock but slept most the flight. ;)

Contests....Ok...I won Cass' contest...that's exciting. Not sure what I won yet but waiting for her email. :) She also moved her blog over to wordpress so make sure to check it out.

Two contest you need to check out are over here. :) Remember to let them both know I sent you. http://knittingunderway.blogspot.com/ and http://lotusknitter.blogspot.com/
Both are comment contests.. :) Fun ones at that.

This is my 99th post and guess what that means...the next one will be a contest. :) I just found a great idea for my prize...so as soon as I get an email back from my sister then I'll post about the contest. It's going to be a comment contest so watch out for it.

My knitting group starts today. I'll post up pictures and let you know how it goes after my contest post.

Happy Knitting

PS...I usually love to leave comments on others blogs but when I got back I had over 200 blog post to read so I really skimmed through them. Sorry if I didn't comment. I'll resume commenting soon.

Dogs on Thurday!!

First off we are doing a swap for Dogs on Thursdays!! Go over and check it out...Should be fun. I'm helping Paula with it. It's a Dog Ornament Swap.

Ok...these pictures were taken when I was trying to get them together for a picture for my header. They are funny and were not cooperating as well as I'd hoped. Too many squirrels around.

They are just too cute!!

Happy Dogs on Thursday!!

PS. I'm getting picked up in 5 minutes to head to the airport. I'll be in NC for my friends wedding until Monday. I probably won't post but you never know. I have my travel knitting packed and ready to cast on!!

Contest Sharing, Swatching and softball.

You know how I love to share contests with you. :) I'm all about winning free yarn especially free sock yarn!!! Go over to Lotus Knits and answer the question for this week and let her know I sent you!!!

I swatched for the More Fun than Cables sock this afternoon and got to the gusset on the "Fawkes" sock. :) I'm almost to the toe...which is exciting.

Oh, Special K and I had the time for the game wrong...it was at 7pm. We got there late and our team had already had to forfeit. We both felt pretty bad but had a great time scrimmaging the other team. We could have easily beat them....UGH!!

Happy Sleeping!! :)

Travel Knitting!!!

So, I decided that a sock it is. More specifically the More Fun than Cables Sock Pattern using my Dream in Color Smooshy yarn in Lipstick Lava!! I stopped by Needles and Knobs today to pick up some bamboo dpns in size US 1 and had her ball the hank for me.

Those flowers are just so pretty and go so well with my yarn!! ;)

I also dropped off some yarn for her to ball up as well. A fellow teacher's husband went to Peru this last week and brought me back a bunch of cheap Peruvian yarn. I think all of it is acrylic but it's nice for the kids. She also brought me back a ton of needles. I'll take some pictures and show you when I post the knitting group donation post coming soon.

Well..I'm off to swatch the Dream in Color to figure out if I really needed these dpns. :)

I'm still working on the first "Fawkes" sock and I got to the heel last night. I love this pattern and it's pretty easy to do which makes it even better. I also love Magic Loop.


I'm taking pictures with my cellphone since yes, again my camera died. I left it on...UGH!!I love these flowers. Have I mentioned I love hibiscuses.

Well...we've got a softball game at 8 tonight so I need to get on with my swatching, and laundry for the weekend. Happy Knitting!!

Knitting and Bucs game!!

This weekend was a good one. :)

I had a school charity auction to attend on Friday night and it was a fun time. There was a knit sweater there donated by a parent...I won't say much about it other than I'm not sure it sold. I think next year I'm going to have the knitting group make an afghan to donate.

Saturday I spent catching up on knitting and my shows. In the afternoon, I took the pups to the dog park...brought my camera but the battery was dead. I picked up my step-sister and she spent the rest of the day hanging out. We had a great dinner and spent time by the fire. It's nice and cool out so it's a great time to have a fire pit. :)

Sunday we got an early start tailgating for the Bucs game. Special K got tickets from his boss's wife. We left around 9am and were there and set up by 10...game start time was 1pm. I sat around and knit while we waited for his boss and friends. Check out the progress I had on my "Fawkes" sock. Lovely...just lovely.
The game was a pretty good one with the Bucs taking the lead early and keeping it through the game. The nice cool breeze was scarce but we survived the barring down sun.
Special K wore his funky Buccaneer hat. We had a good time. :) Well, the rest of Sunday was spent relaxing and recouping from the heat. Last night we were able to sleep with the windows open and I pretty much froze. I get cold easily...but the temperature is making me want to knit, knit, knit!!

Happy Knitting!!

PS. Hope you like the new banner. It may change but for now it works.

New look! Bloggy Fun.

Check out my new look. I'm still working on a new banner but I edited the html of my template. ;) I found out how to do this from Tips for New Bloggers. If you have any questions on how to edit your blogger I'd go straight over and just search for it. I have a couple other things I'm working on. Oh and I still haven't gone back and added my blog roll yet because I may use another way to do it. If you have a button then it's back up there already.

I'm trying to add some new feeds for my blog too. I'm starting with this one Technorati Profile. I'm still confused about this but I'll work on it.

Stay tuned for an update on my weekend. :) and knitting.

"Fall Into Autumn" Dishcloth Swap Package!!

I was so excited to get my swap package from Kelly D. She did a great job with it. :) I got chocolate which I must admit was eaten pretty quickly. Two skeins of cotton yarn, a Peaches and Cream and a Sugar 'n Cream. Both in great colorways. :) She made me a very nice dishcloth and sent Olivella soap. The card was one of those that you open and it starts singing...SO fun. :) She also sent me some post cards. Thank you so much for the package you sent Kelly. ;)

Happy Swapping!!

Cass' Contest

Ok, Cass over at Shut up, I'm Counting is having her contest for her 333rd post. :) If you don't already read her blog...well, you should. :) She's a great read and you just have to know that she is who she is and that is what's great about her. :)

So what to do....Go over to her blog and...
Post a comment (on her blog), telling (her) A Few of Your Favorite Things. Specifically, (she) want to know 3 of your favorite knitting related gifts, to give, receive, make or buy for yourself. These can be knitted or not, but it needs to be knitting related. If you have a link to the pattern or a pic, even better!

And, in keeping with the theme, you have 3 ways to win entries:
-Your comment (on her blog) wins you 1 entry.
-Posting this contest to your blog wins you another entry. (She'll be poking around all week, or if want to be sure (she) knows you've posted, come back here and tell me.)
-And you can earn 1 bonus entry for each of your readers who mentions you here.

Don't Forget to mention I sent you!! :) Thanks....I'd love to win her favorite 3 things.

Dogs on Thursday!!

Well, yesterday was Halloween and no one in my house dressed up. I usually take the pups over to my sisters house and hang out there with them and the whole family. This year my brother-in-law was bringing his massive golden retriever who is a bit rowdy so I decided to leave my two at home with Special K, who was sick all day with a bad sinus headache and was resting. Since they didn't get out I figured I'd show you what they were probably doing at home with Special K. These pictures are from sharimom while she was here....but the cuddle scene happens often. :)



They are just too cute. I headed over and sat out front of my sisters house and knit on my sock while light was out. It was a good time and decided that next year I'm going to have to knit my sisters candy corn hats to sit out there together. :) That would be cute!!

PS...I'm loving the Magic Loop method, the Fawkes pattern, and the Griffindor yarn!! It's awesome!! Just thought I'd share some knitting news on my knitting blog too. :)