I have been working hard to get caught up on the gift orders since I've been home. I think I said last year, " I should make up monkeys ahead of time so I have some available for adoption at the end of the year."
This time I wrote it down on my new calendar for July-November. Make Monkeys! :) We'll see if it works.
Here are a few of the little guys that made it out in time for gift-giving.

I am working on setting up a little place in the office to be a 'photo studio'. It is a pain to set up my back drops everytime. I really need some better lights too. I have no clue what kind of lights to use...
... must get back to craft table have many more monkeys waiting to be finished :)

Ceru the Traveling Sock Monkey!

Here are a few snaps of my favorite traveling Sock Monkey from our recent trip to Europe. :)


This is Burg Eltz. I was very pretty.
This is the longest fjord in Norway. Fjords are so beautiful!

Going to Europe on Wednesday!

I am so excited!
First stop Rome, then Florence, Munich, Dusseldorf - this is the reason we are going to visit friends in Dusseldorf who will take us to Holland- then Oslo (yes I know we are crazy to go to Norway in November) this is also to visit friends. :) then back to Germany for a couple of days.

This is one of the friends we are off to see!

Eeeeeee!!!! Can't wait. :D

Kick Your Defiance in Pains Teeth

I read the title phrase on the shirt of a fellow runner at about mile 12. It made no sense to me at all. I must have passed that runner, cause at mile 24 or so he passed me again... and then... I understood. See, by that time me and pain were well acquainted. And my defiance was waning....
Thank You fellow runner, your shirt helped me kick pain in the teeth! ;-)

Marathons are hard! This one was my hardest so far. That being said, I had a great time. As I have at every race I've ever run. The weather was fantastic for running - no rain - sunny but not super hot. I got a little warm by the end of the race, but really could not have asked for a nicer day.
I have done the Portland Marathon 3 times before. First time I walked, with one of my best friends. (I was not a runner before). I loved walking it, but.... wanted to get done faster and I liked the idea of running. So, next time I ran with a different friend. Both of these friends I was able to train with the whole summer, that makes it so much more enjoyable. The the third time I ran it with my cousin from California, so we were not able to train together at all, that made training hard. I had a great time running that marathon, but was not keen to train again without a partner. So, after that marathon I pretty much stopped exercising for a few years (read- MMORPG). I finally got back into running the beginning of this year, (I found a new running partner read- ipod nano) but I am about 20 pounds heavier than I was at my last marathon 5 years ago... so I was 45 minutes slower and it hurt alot more.

Solution? = Lose 25 pounds! :)
Goal for next year is sub 4 hours. This has always been a goal, really. This is like a sorta holy grail for alot of novice runners.

My brother says he'll run with me next year. Yay! We should be able to do some training together too as we live in the same area.

Thanks to Hubby, Mom & Dad, Frank, Tyler and Lindsey for coming down to watch me finish. A few of those peeps walked the 10k for the day too! :)

Portland Marathon Tomorrow!

AaaaAAaahhhhh!!! I am a little excited and .... a little ....um.. nervous too.

I didn't train as much as I have in the past, and I am really hoping I don't pay for it. I am not worried about trying to finish super fast, and by that I mean super fast - for me - cause I am never gonna be super fast as a runner. :) Once again I am signed up in a weight class. I don't really know why I do that... I guess it's because deep down I am a little competitive. And last time I got a plaque for second place in my division. My brother says, yeah - if you make the pond small enough...

So, today's task is to make my 4-5 hour play list for my run tomorrow... wow that's a long time. Thankfully I have everything by Crystal Method, so it won't be hard to fill the time.

My goal is to finish in less than 4 hours 30 minutes. I'll post finish time tommorow afternoon. :-D
Ciao!

Sock Monkey Dreams~ Available Now!

I just ordered a copy of this great book!
I ordered directly from the Authors site Sock Monkey Dreams
But it is available at Amazon also.

If you've ever been curious about the lives of Sock Monkeys, you need this book! :)

the Pom Pom ~ amigurumi style

I have finally made one of those little Japanese style dolls that are so popular now.
If you've never heard of Amigurimi, then you are most likely not a crafter. :)
Here is my version of Pom Pom from Homestar runner.

Tampon Pouch

I finally decided to make something I have needed for years.
I am embarrased when I go to pull my wallet or my phone out of my purse and a tampon comes out with it. *cringe*
Solution?... a tampon pouch! :)
I have seen some really cute fancy ones. I like those, but I opted for totally plain. It's big enough for 3 tampons and a couple of liners.

Fun new toy! Meez Avatars

One of my favorite things about most of the video games I have played is making my avatar! :D

Now I can just make the avatars without having to sink tons of time into actually playing a game. hee hee

Here is my first creation.





To make your own Avatar check out Meez!

Tying a Quilt With Grandma

We had a houseguest this weekend. Grandma Norma came and taught me how to put a quilt on a frame and then how to tie one. This is a very quick and easy way to make a quilt. It takes almost as much time to set up the frame and get the quilt on it, as it does to tie it up. :)

It came out beautiful! Now I just need to sew up the edges. :)

Princess Leia Sock Monkey

For those that don't frequent Craftster.org they are having a Rockin' Sock Monkey Contest this month.

The contest was to make a sock monkey resembling some one you admire.


Growing up in the late 70’s early 80’s, Princess Leia was my hero.
Whenever I played with my buddies at school or in the yard, I always wanted to be Princess Leia.
She was smart, strong, and courageous and held her own with Luke and Han Solo.
And who wouldn’t want to be the girl who ends up with Han Solo. *swoon*

I have made a few monkeys before but I have never worked harder than I did for this little monkey.





I tried several different options for ‘The Buns’ and finally ended up making my own wig from
Wool -mohair yarn. (I love Lamb’s Pride <3)

For the dress I made my own pattern. It has a single snap in the back and can be removed. And I think it’s even made from that same polyester that became popular just after the original Star Wars.

The eyes were the hardest for me and I think I tried about 8 different options before deciding to go with buttons and embroidery.

For the little blaster, I tried to make a good looking one, but decided I was better off altering a toy.
So, I found a little gun the right size and gave it a custom paint job.

Now, If I could just get my hair to do ‘The Buns’. :D

Sock Monkey and Bunny Pins

I have a little Sock Monkey keychain on my keys. One day, I put my keys in the front of a blazer pocket and the little Monkey was sticking out. Someone said, "Oh, how cute!"
That got me to thinking.... why don't I make a little pin out of one of these so I could have him on my jacket all the time! :)

Thus Sock Monkey Pins~

And Sock Bunny Pins
This is back side

What do you think? Am I the only one who would wear something like this? :-)

The pictures look a little better here .

Pinwheel Baby Blanket~ Finished!

I finished the Pinwheel! And not a moment to soon... well about an hour late really. :)

The baby shower started at 2 and I was still knitting at 2:30. Yikes!

I was an hour late to the shower, but the guest of honor had

just arrived, so I was ok. :)

Needless to say I didn't block it. I even forgot to measure it. DOH!

I am sure it was over 40' though. It stretched almost to both edges of my double bed.

Here is the whole thing.

Here is a slightly closer view.

And even closer. This shot is a better representation of the colors too.

I used Cottontots by Bernat in Baby Boy Blue(3 skiens) and Sunshine Yellow(1.2 skiens).

Size 6 double points and circular needles.

Border is seed stitch.

The pattern is free and is here.

There is a great Gallery of other beautiful Pinwheels here.

Nike + Apple

I really want this new toy!
Enjoy the short tour of Portland. ;)

I Love My Sock Monkey Scarf

I am finally done with the "Sock Monkey Scarf"!!!

Yay!!!

Here is the whole thing.

A little closer of the charts.

Up close of the stitches

I love how it feels the yarn is very soft.

I'll post the details and maybe even a pattern with the chart later. :)

Lake Run this Saturday!

I can't wait for Saturday! I am going to do the Lake Run!!

I have run this one, once before so I know I'm in for some major hills. But it's still fun to get out and run with a buncha other people. :-D

I have just gotten back into marathon training. I am slow, but I love running anyway.






Happy Running!

edit- I had a great time! I ran as hard as I could and was pretty slow, but it was still a fun race.
I remembered that it was hilly, but oh man... it is So hilly! I don't think there is a half-mile of flat on that whole course.

Next race~ The Flat Half Marathon on Sauvie Island. Yay! July 4th

Hair Donation~ Locks of Love gettting a package from me!

I finally decided to take it all (well, alot of it) off!

I went yesterday to get my hair cut~ really cut.

I found out about Locks of Love from a friend of mine about 3 years ago.
She had grown her hair out and donated it. I thought that was pretty neat. I hadn't thought of

actually doing it myself till very recently.

I had always wanted to have long hair. As a kid my hair would simply not grow.
So, growing up in the early eighties as I did, I had a Dorthy Hamil
style most of my childhood.

About 5 years ago I decided to see how long I could grow my hair.
It has been pretty long ever since.
Now, I was ready cut it off and send it away. (After taking a picture of it) *sheepish grin*



Here is the before shot. (sorry these are not great shots, I took them myself with the timer)





From the Back





And Now..... The after shot! 13 inches + gone!

Wow! I feel so much lighter! :-)





From what I felt on my head, I could have sworn they cut off a 1/2lb. of hair. But once I felt it in

my hand, I thought ...

hmm... probably only about 4 oz. I was wrong.

I weighed it and according to my postal scale it's not even 3 oz! More than 13 inches of hair and it

didn't even weigh 3 oz.





I will send it off today.

I love my new short hair, but I will kinda miss that bit *sniff*

I might grow it out again and donate another time. It's a fun thing to do.

Dining Room Chairs and Table

This has been one of those ongoing projects~ like for 6 years. ha ha
I have had some ideas lately on more images to add to these chairs. So I thought I should take some images of them how they are now.
Maybe that will inspire me to continue. :-)

The green chair has had the most attention and I don't think I'll add anything more to it.

I like how the legs on the green and yellow chairs turned out. I might do that same idea for all of them...

This is supposed to be the Taj.

The blue chair is my husbands to paint.
This is my favorite panel on any of the chairs. It's the pyramids in Giza. He had to do some field research for the painting.

The table and the chair pads are the same light green color to sorta tie them all together.

The poor red chair has no images at all on it. I am thinking of doing some Sock Monkeys on that one. :-D

My Favorite Slippers

These are my favorite slippers to make. I've made 4 pairs so far and have requests for about 8 more. Then, maybe, I'll make a pair for myself.

Here are a few of shots of them pre and post felted. Please excuse my foot. (I was using it for scale) ;-)

On this pair I used a contrast color on the band at the bottom. It is barely visible in this shot.

These are a couple of pair I made for a wedding. Her favorite color is green and his is orange. :)

His are actually too big, but he says he doesn't mind.

And finally my kitty cat. She can't stand not investigating anything I put on the floor to take pictures of. So, sometimes I take her picture. :) It's kinda funny. When I am trying to take her picture she never co-operates, but if I am trying to get a picture of something else she's all over it. hee hee.... cats