HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOLARA

Yes it is my feline furchild Solara's birthday. Today she is two years old. She should have had her party this weekend but with Hilltop and all I had to change it to later this month when I have finished my visits at Hilltop. Does she looks like she even cares I had to delay it? HMMMMM........when did I order these two books??? I obviously ordered this from the Crafters Book Club as it seems to be buy one and get one free and NOT the special of the brochure. I just can't remember ordering them or mailing the form in to get them as you need to mail a special form to get this special when it is offered. LOL Even with the cost of the postage they still came out cheaper than if I purchased them from the bookstore. I usually only order from the catalogs when there is a really good deal as buy one get one FREE or it is something I MUST have. I still think Knit Picks books are cheaper especially now with the dollar the way it is. I am hoping that this year again they will put their books on sale discounted further than they already are. How wonderful it was last year when they were further reduced beyond their regular reduced price.

AND even though it is Solara's birthday the postman delivered "me" a large box today which contained this. Now you are asking what is it? It is my mystery skein. The idea is to wrap goodies inside the yarn for a one skein project. Of course, you send the patten to go with the yarn. Here is the pattern for the yarn I received. I received a lot of goodies inside that skein of yarn including all kinds of knitting accessories: tapestry needle threaders, point protectors shaped like socks, double ended stitch holders, a boyle stitch per inch guide along with needle sizer, a yarn cutter, yarn needles, editible treats including tea, instant energizer tangerine drink mix, delicious dark chocolate the elixir of life (no honest that is what the label says), and beauty treats which included a nail file, essence of purity white tea lavender soap and yummy anit-bacterial moisturizing coconut lime verbena hand cream from Bath and Body Works. All this was wrapped in the pink yarn. We were also required to send a mystery book in our swap package as this is a whoduknit group. I received Carl Hiaasen's Skinny Dip. AND since my partner lives in Oregon she also sent me two very thick local magazines.

On the pattern she wrote me a note which said, Dear Penny, Hope you have fun with this! You probably already know who I am , so i am giving NO Hints......... Picked the pink to go with your hair. (cute eh?). The name on the package is only whoduknit but since she had to list the address I want to thank-you Stephanie for the lovely package. You never wrote about it on your blog. BUT then I usually don't either so know one can figure out who I am. BTW I love everything and the chocolate is yummy. Tomorrow morning I am going to try one of the tangerine drinks. I hope if I am your secret pal in a swap, you like what I send you as much as I love the goodies you have treated me to in the two swaps you were my secret partner. Stephanie was also my whoduknit Trick and Treat secret swap partner.

Again it has been cold in my apt. I don't want to even mention the lack of an overhead light in the LR having me live in darkness this past Saturday and Sunday since I don't have working lamps. So Solara had the right idea. She says can you find me?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

This entry was started earlier in the evening but I couldn't seem to spell check and upload any more photos after my cake so I deleted it and am starting again. I can upload photos now but still not use the spell check.

Yup many years ago on FEBRUARY 4 I was born. I celebrated with this. My absolute favorite, ice cream cake. A gift from Janice along with some delicious Chinese food. HMMM YUMMY AND Janice there is leftover if you want to come over and help finish itI got a few presents also. I received two gifts from two gals in the addictedtoknit dishcloth group I belong to as part of the birthday club I am in. I think I should be receiving a couple more but I haven't even heard if they have been mailed yet.

Knitting Goodness
From Nancy I received these lovely items

which include an Americana umbrella, Russel Stover Candy, coffee, Life Savers, a couple of bookmarks, sticky notes, sewing needles, yarn and a lovely knitted bag.

Here is a photo of the bag and it is much nicer than the photo shows it.

Here is a photo of the three skeins of PnC cotton yarn. Since I have some of this in my stash I should be able to make something bigger than a couple of wash cloths. It is such soft cotton yarn. These look the $1.00 balls. What a great bargain they are. I have purchased some of them myself but had to have another person order as the factory doesn't ship to Canada but I still got a great deal on it.

I also received my birthday package from Charlotte. It arrived early this morning. AND it was a hugh box. Charlotte was very very generous. What are all the wonderful birthday pressies in this box? A cone of white Peaches N Cream cotton yarn. A cone is a pound of yarn. I have heard about but never have seen a cone of this yarn before and what better color than white which is so useful. HMMM I wonder if I can dye it? I also found inside the box two skeins of Patons Pooch in black. AND two skeins of Patons Lacette in creamy white. In the box was also some bamboo circular knitting needles, a set of four storage containers, a scarf with some heart shaped beads, three knitted dishcloths, a canvas tote bag, the cutest mug which I will save for next Christmas. There were four packages of cappuccino in the cutest containers. A t-shirt in the neatest box. I haven't photograped the actual t-shirt yet just it's packaging. Yes the t-shirt has the bears on it. I didn't upload the photos of the dishcloths as they didn't come out that great but you can see them in the box with all my presents. The tote bag is a plain white canvas. An all purpose one.

I did receive a package from my friend Rori in Florida. I think she is slowly getting the hint. She sent me some yarn. I found four skeins of Joanne's Thick n Thin. Rori also sent me a clip charm with a tiny lip gloss from Hello Kitty, magnetic bracelet with matching magnetic earrings, a wind chime, the funniest package of tissues from Sniff with a photo of a lady in a 40's outfit and each tissue says, honey you couldn't pay me to be twenty. There was second pair of earrings, an Americana headband, a decoration (a cat in a tub of bubbles with a duck or goose, a red hat lady pin and a very lovely and fragrant candle. So far so good with the birthday goodies. AND there may be more to come.

I need to also mention I received the patterns that were missing from Pam's sockamaic pedicure sock swap box.

She sent me the following patterns .

Fiber Trend Lupine Lace Socks Pattern
Fiber Trends Walking Away Socks Pattern
Feather and Fan Socks Pattern
Alhambra Socks Pattern
Fern Leaf Lace Socks Pattern
Hay-Stack Socks Pattern
Autumn Leaves Socks Pattern
Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend Socks Pattern
Oh how I love my sock yarn and sock patterns which are increasing.

Last night meaning Sunday evening I really messed up my Avon order. It has to be submitted by 11PM or they charge you a late fee. I try to always start at about 9PM in case I run into problems. Last night when I went to check on my order after I put in my refunds and exchanges I noticed that several refunds were in duplicate and triplicate. So I did what all good Avon reps do I made an attempt to remove them knowing that if I screwed up I may not be able to find them again to put in as refunds or exchanges as the system would think I had already done it and they were no longer available to do that with. Only when I pressed update it deleted my entire Avon order. AND there is no way to get it back. It is listed as consolidated and that it needs to be sent over to Avon (again??) but you can't as it also says there is no order. So I then have to redo all those refunds and exchanges hopefully without problems. I also put in my demos, order brochures, list my customer count, and order a few other items. This all goes well and then is submitted fine but my main order of over $1000 is not there. I call and leave a message on my manager's answering machine as there is no one to help at Avon unless it is daytime Mon - Fri. My order will be packed and processed by 7:30AM Monday morning. I get a call back very quickly from my manager's helper but there is nothing she can do. She agrees I need to set my alarm and call Avon first thing in the morning as soon as they are at work. Well I didn't get any sleep worrying over this. When I called I am told that order is essentially lost and they can't do anything with it and I will have to print a copy of it where it is stored and sitting useless and then manually put my entire order in and quickly if I want it to make it to be delivered with my small order they have. It took me over a half hour to imput the numbers and quantities, double checking I am not making any miskes while worrying all this time b/c if it isn't done in time I will still get the order only it delivered to me by Canada Post. AND if I am not home when Canad Post delivers it, my order will go to the local post outlet for me to pick it up. I don't have a car to pick up. OH DEAR OH DEAR OH DEAR!!!!! BUT I did manage to get it done in time. I was told my the specialist who deals with the computer orders it isn't worth it for me to phone to find out if it made it as they wouldn't know until Tuesday evening or Wed. I phoned anyway and they received it. It appeared in my Avon site and has been processed and will be delivered to me with my other small order. PHEW!!!!!!!!!! Now I just need to phone and see if they can correct one item they over billed due to the the way my order went in as a regular order and an add on order. I need to cancel one item that was ordered for a customer/friend way back in Novemeber which is still on back order. I think the other three or four items that have been on back order since November and are still on back order according to my invoice which I have been able to read may be still wanted by their respective customers but by the time they arrive if they do at the end of February they may not be wanted. So for all those who are curious I don't walk into a room in my apt and get the Avon to pack. I do have some and acutally way more than I need but in general all the products which are made in the US are shipped to me in boxes to pack for the individual customer. Needless to say I didn't sleep very well or for very long and I am now very over tired and can't fall alseep once I get into bed and try to fall asleep. AND it is wickedly cold in the apt.

On more positive notes. I have finished one side of my pink FRU FRU bag and am working on the second side. It is about eight inches in length. Here is the wrong or inside. Here is the outside or front of it. Here is an idea of what it will look like when the handles are attached. I have even found the perfect lining. It is a pink lace.

What else am I knitting? I have finished my dishcloth for the vareigated cloth swap in the addictedtoknit dishcloth group. I hadn't planned on joining as I am TRYING to go on a swap diet. Only I read that one of the members was looking forward to joining but somehow didn't actually sign up in the database and she had her package all ready to mail to her partner. She seemed disappointed so I thought I would step in and help out. Well you will never guess where she lives????? In South Africa. I have never had a partner from South Africa yet. I am so excited. She wrote in an email to me she was sending me SA yarn and it took me quite a while to figure out just what SA yarn was. Sometimes I am thick. What can I say. I can't show you the cloth now or it will give it away but I can later. I even made a second of the same design but in a different variegated color. Now I am going to work on my coffee cloth as that is the dishcloth swap I did join. I have it down to two patterns to choose from. I am still also working on my special present for a special person and can't say much more about it except that I had hoped to have it completed by then end of Jan. I guess since it is only about half completed it won't be finished until the end of February. I am quite pleased with it and so are those who have already seen it.

The other day Solara had a visitor. I didn't know what to expect when I opened the door for them to see each other. My previous furchild Sushi would hiss and spit and hair would go flying. She didn't mind dogs or birds. BUT no other cat or kittens (no matter how tiny) or whether it was male or female. Silly Solara just doesn't listen. She really likes to sit on the hamper which is okay when it is full and can hold her weight. BUT when it is empty as it is now since I have done the laundry, the lid won't hold her weight. Does she listen when I tell her she can't sit or lie on it? NO!! See what happened when she decided she was going to jump up on it anyway. I don't think she worried too much as she just curled up and went to sleep.