One Month, One Week, One Day Contest Winners

We're still in the week after the Olympics, right?

The Champlain Valley Fair is in town so I've been busy mullet watching. A good mullet is getting harder and harder to find. And eating fried fair foods. And visiting the fluffy chickens and llamas and sheep and bunnies and horses and cows.... But not to worry, online random number generators were hard at work picking medalists.

And I even found stitch markers that I had actually bought for the purpose of contest prizes, so bonus. (Lets pretend that you can't see any dust...)
The Bronze winner: Kristen, has won these gorgeous stitch markers not made by me :)

The Silver winner, of the "knitting bag" is Turtle

And, drum roll please...the Gold winner of the soft Purewool is:

Debbie

Congratulations medalists!

Thanks for competing!

The race is on

And I appear to be losing. At this rate, I will not be finishing this shawl in time for the October wedding.

Last weekend, we were in western MA for a wedding Friday, then attempted to go to IKEA to buy something for the wedding my husband is standing up in this weekend. Apparently, that was a grave mistake. Last weekend was tax free weekend, unbeknownst to us, and not only was IKEA bearing a strong resemblance to LAX, but apparently the thing to do on a Saturday afternoon is to take the Mass Pike to 495 to go...to the Cape? to the Tweeter Center? (or whatever corporation it is named after now...)...I might never know. So instead of spending the majority of the afternoon shopping in "LAX" for the trendy/cheap/modern/prefab items that ended being out of stock, we counted our minutes passing per mile. (48 minutes to go 11 miles...) My appreciation of the lack of traffic in Burlington is renewed.

This weekend Matt has a bachelor party Friday night. In western MA, of course. Then there is a shower on Saturday in eastern MA for a piece of the October wedding madness. (I mustn't neglect any corners of MA when I come down) and then the actual wedding Matt will be standing up in on Sunday night.

I have high hopes to get in some knitting though, on Labor Day weekend. We'll be spending the weekend on a small island in Lake Champlain. With nothing to do but hike, camp, kayak, swim...and knit around a camp fire.


And look, my Dahlia is finally blooming :)
I promise to be less sarcastic once I get a vacation...in September...

One Year, One Month, One Day Blogiversary Contest

I can't believe it's been a year already. Time's fun like that. Since my one year, one month, one day anniversary falls so conveniently during the Olympics, I've decided to do this, not unlike the post title, in sets of three.

Prizes:
Gold is the 2 skeins of lovely Purewool pictured below.
Silver wins you the bag pictured. Since this is a knitting blog, lets pretend like it's a knitting bag, shall we?
Bronze will be stitch markers made by me, at some date in the future, 'cause I'm a slacker like that and haven't made 'em yet.
How you win:
You get one entry for commenting on this post with your favorite summer game. If you don't have one, make one up, I'll never know if you're fibbing.

You'll get a second (or silver, haha) entry for sending people here. As usual, you only get the entry if they mention you in their comment.

And the gold entry goes to those more patriotic and Olympic loving than even I. You have to show me an in-progress or finished knitting project with the USA or Olympic rings involved. Picture proof can be through Flickr or Ravelry, just let me know where you have pictures posted.


I will run this contest until the end of the summer games: August 24th, 2008.
Winners will be chosen the last week of August.

Happy Summer Games!

By the way, my favorite summer game has always revolved around the Equestrian events, being as obsessed with ponies as I am. However, in 2004, I found my new favorite: the trampoline. Has anyone else ever seen happier athletes during an athletic event? They bounce and smile and smile and bounce. It's excellent. I'd recommend trying to catch it if you can.

Lets Not Talk About My Shawl

, Instead, look at the pretty rocks I get to kayak near. And the pretty boys bouldering on them. That's my friend Meagan in the red kayak. She took the great sparkle picture.
On the rare day of sun this summer, I love going on or near the lake to watch the sparkles. It's definitely magic.

It's also occurred to me that I missed my one year blogiversary. I'll definitely be having a contest, but rules and prizes will be discussed at a later date. I have to go enjoy the sunshine while it's here.

My plants are making progress...

First strawberries of the season. This is a strawberry herb, not a strawberry grown for fruit, but believe when I say that if they berries seem small, they make up for it in flavor. Plus you get leaves for strawberry tea and fruits. I heart multipurpose plants :)
My shawl is to the "boring" phase, as most Ravelers call it, where I'm knitting 42 inches of the same rows. Being that I have the attention span of a gnat lately, I'm enjoying these same two rows because I don't have to check the chart every 7 stitches. Plus, I can both get some knitting done and watch TV. Before, I was only pretending to be able to watch TV while I knot, I really am not that talented. If I knit and don't look, I drop stitches all over the place.
I'm really going to have to put more time in on this if I want to get it done for the October wedding though. I do love the slight variegation in the Purewool.
I'm still giddy over my plumeria. My second plant is budding. It still amazes me that those little nubs turn into this:
I only wish there was a way to share fragrances via blog :)

It's Been Awhile

And I've been busy, as per usual.

Above is the first bloom I've had on any of my plumerias since I purchased them 2 years ago. Plumeria, or frangipanis, as they're called in Oz, are a tropical plant I fell in love with while I was living in Australia. Not only are they gorgeous, but the blooms give off the most heavenly aroma. I used to pick up fallen blooms on my walk home from Uni and put them in a glass bowl of water, where they would fill my bedroom with fragrance. I was afraid Vermont just wasn't warm enough for long enough for them to bloom, but I guess I just had to fertilize. Isn't it just gorgeous?

Since my last post I've done many picture worthy things: kayaking on Lake Champlain, watching a glassblower work and finding an excellent waterfall in Stowe, and having drinks at a waterside restaurant at sunset over the lake. But my camera was not present. Someday it will be, and I'll have some great pictures to share.

I've been living in Vermont for 3 years now, and at some point, I often experience a daily rush of pure gratitude for the constant beauty that surrounds me. My condo abutts a bike path, in which you can take a short walk to a park that overlooks the lake. At least once a week, I drive 15 minutes to another bikepath to go running along the lake. My employer, the University, sits on the highest ground in Burlington, and from many meeting rooms, you get a great view of the lake. And on Tuesdays, I get to run 5Ks on beautiful wooded trails with hundreds of other people of all ages and paces and sizes in the rain and the heat and the mud. I do feel spoiled every once in awhile, when I forget to complain.
And look! My shawl is growing up into a larger almost triangle. (Pretend like you can't see the mysterious whole on the left, that's what I do...) And just in case you though I spent all my time taking care of plants and running instead of knitting; I bake too, when the opportunity presents itself. I made this tiramisu for my sisters birthday, and it was even more delicious then it looks :)
I realize that this post has been a bit ramble-y, but I have little time to accomplish a big to-do list to get ready for the8-10 visitors I will be hosting this weekend for Burlington's Beerfest.
Laundry calls...

So many excuses to not knit and a contest

Ponyknit is having a contest in honor of her blogiversary. Go visit and have a chance to win some yummy yarn. The contest runs until the 11th. Don't forget to say I sent you.

This week I've been in recovery a bit from my NYC weekend. We used our time well. We saw ground zero, and walked along the waterfront near Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, walked through Chinatown, had lunch in Little Italy, and saw Legally Blond on Broadway. Legally Blond was an excellent show: the script, sets, and acting were all spectacular. And the dogs were pretty excellent too. I found out that they were all strays that were rescued and trained, so that's kind of cool.

And then we walked outside after the show and I've become so accustomed to the relative darkness of Burlington, that the billboard lights of Times Square confused me into thinking it was still daylight for a moment....after 10 pm...it was a blond moment after seeing Legally Blond. Appropriate, right?

I haven't done any knitting this week. Instead, I've: ran my 5K trail race, joined the new local kayaking club (because I don't have enough activities, you know?) and went kayaking on Lake Champlain. I haven't been paddling since I was in Australia, and I forgot how great it is to be silently gliding through the water. On a small boat like a kayak, you're so much more connected to the water and your surroundings.