I know I've been absent this year...

Hi all...I hope you have had a good year in 2009 and are getting ready for a wonderful year in 2010! I apoligize for being absent all year...it's not that I haven't had several things to blog about, it's just making myself sit down long enough to put down my words and load my pictures. But that's my New Year's resolution...to start updating you more on what is going on.

I have pictures of several projects that I have made this year and want to show them all to you, so the next few weeks I will start adding those in. I also have been trying to figure out ways to store my looms and my scrapbooking supplies and I will show you some of that as well.

I will be giving my second "talk" or "demonstration" on Loom Knitting in January at the local "Girlfriends meeting. So I may practice some of it on you ahead of time and see what you think...you can send comments or suggestions to me.

It's very cold here and snow is on the ground everywhere. Luckily they do have the highways clear and most of the local streets in the town nearby...so I have been able to get out and around where I needed to.

Happy Looming everyone...I'll start some pictures tomorrow.

Sorry...been way to busy with family & holidays

Hi all...
I really need to catch everyone up on what we've been doing the last month. But even now I really don't have the time. Although I will try and make time soon and put several of our pictures on my page as well. I was able to finish up a few of my looming projects for Christmas, so I will tell you more with my pictures, hopefully sometime this week.

Right now I've been trying to get caught up on the many emails that I have missed on several of the email loops that I'm on. One of them had a very interesting link to helping with frogging a project. They called it their "Lifeline" or rather insurance for knitter's. While I haven't used it yet, it sounds like it would work out pretty good on the loom as well. Here is the link for the site: Lifeline on Heartstrings FiberArts. I'm printing it out for future reference and also bookmarking it...maybe you should too. Anyway it sounds like it would be better then ripping everything out.

Have a great day and don't give up on me...I'll update everyone soon.

Having Spa Fun...

I have been busy since last month, trying to get my looming projects done. I had planned on giving several things for Christmas that I have loomed, but it seems some projects take me longer then I had planned. And of course just life in general...trying to just keep the stuff done I need to do.

We did enjoy Thanksgiving Dinner with my mom, my mother-in-law and my husband's aunt at Lakeview Restaurant. They had several of the traditional food that you expect like: turkey, dressing, noodles, sweet potatoes, ham, mashed potatoes, rolls. But they also had LOTS of salads, other vegetables, and several desserts too. And Allie had made her wonderful Creme Brulee and Chocolate Brulee...delicious! ;o) But I'm afraid I spent the rest of the afternoon...just vegging (and of course doing laundry) and did a little looming.

I thought I'd let you know that right now I'm a Beauti Control Consultant. So far I haven't had any parties yet...don't know if I will later on down the line or not...we'll see. I first got into this to take advantage of their low cost for their kit and since I was wanting to buy several of the products in the kit I decided to go ahead. Plus I'm also having fun ordering some presents for Christmas time too! ;o) But I want to share with you their great products...if you live close to me, just email me and we can arrange getting your order from me. But if you live far away, you can order online from my beauti webpage...which also helps me out too. The link for my Beauti Control webpage all you need to do is just click here. But I hope my friends know they can give me a call/or email and they can come over and we can have our own mini spa together anytime...you just have to give me a call to make sure I'm home! ha! ha!

I think my favorite product that they have is the Brown Sugar Spa Holiday Set...it just smells wonderful! But I also like the skin care products they have, I am using the Skinlogist Sensitive Skin products and my face looks & feels so soft! The longer I've had the products, the more I use and the more I like. So come over & play! ha! ha!

I want to wish you all Happy Holidays. I hope you all have a good time. I'll try and get some more pictures taken of my projects soon. Until then...
May you remember the true meaning of Christmas....Christ our Lord. May He watch over and take care of you. Share your love of crafts & hobbies with others too...

Fun day in Amish country...

Today one of my good friends took me out for a belated birthday or rather a girl's day out! We made the rounds and went to the discount grocery store and found a few bargains. Then we went to the Amish store and got a few "snacks" and I even picked up some Hickory Smoked Swiss Cheese for dh. Then we had lunch at our favorite spot and had Hot Beef Sandwiches and split a Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie...YUMMY! ;O)

Then Babette also gave me my present...it's a beautiful shawl/scarf made my Natalia. Babette's mom had got one for her and she knew I'd like one too. You can check out her website called Natalia's Knitting she lives in Brookfield now with her husband. And I lucked out, I wore black today...so the shawl went well with my top and jacket. I can't wait to see what else I can wear it with. It is mostly black and silver, but has some gold/copper and turquoise accents of color in it as well

After lunch we went to a few other shops in the area, primitives, candles & antiques. I seen alot of cute stuff...but need to change our decor before adding anything new (or rather I need to clean out and get rid of stuff).

Anyway...just wanted to tell Babette...thanks again...I just love it. Dear hubby wanted to know why I was so dress up tonight when he came home...he didn't think I needed to dress up just to stay home. ha! ha!

Interesting Anniversary...

Hi all! We just celebrated our 28th Anniversary this weekend! Dear hubby called home on Saturday and decided that the moisture was just too high to combine corn after all, so he said "Get on the internet and make a reservation in the city." And so he didn't have to tell me twice...the funny thing is that Hotwire called 15 minutes later and said our motel was overbooked! And wouldn't you know it, they only had one other choice for that area and it was two star...which could be questionable. So instead we called the Hampton Inn we knew about and it was close to an Outback. But Hotwire was real nice and gave us some credit $$ to use the next time we book something with them, we've always had good luck with them so this was a surprise, but it turned out fine.

I guess I'm getting good at packing in a hurry because by the time dear hubby got home, I had showered and changed and had almost everything packed to go. Of course I had to pack my looms...just to work on awhile in the car. I did a little bit on my dishcloth "Born to Dance" that I'm test knitting for Karen...for some reason I am getting so slow on the smaller gauge looms. Then I started doing a prayer shawl the morning we left, while I waited around and of course did a little on it in the car too.

We had such a wonderful dinner Saturday night...we walked over from the hotel. Weather was nice too! We started the evening off with one of their famous "Blooming Onions" (you can't go there and not have one). And then we enjoyed a yummy seafood dinner...with Lobster tails, steak, shrimp and scallops...I wish we could eat seafood every day...and afford it! ha! ha! Oh well...anniversaries are just once a year so we need to celebrate a little special.

Then Sunday morning we just had a little coffee & tea at the hotel...thinking we might go out for breakfast. But we decided to have a early lunch instead and tried out the new restaurant at the Bass Pro. It was called "Islamorada Fish Company Restaurant" so we got to try out some more seafood for lunch. I had the Islamorada Portofino and dh had Fried Jumbo Shrimp with hand-cut chips....it was ALL so good! And the atmosphere and reggae music playing in the background was nice too.

But all too soon we needed to come back home and start combining corn again. But it went pretty good that night and since it didn't rain on Monday we got finished with that field of corn...which was the last field of corn to do. Hubby ended up moving to his next field of beans and finished the small patches around that area of the farm today. So it looks like I'll be learning how to combine beans next.

I hope you enjoyed my pictures and my "farming wife" experience...ha! ha!

New loom at DecorAccents, check it out!

Wonder Sock Loom

DALooms has something wonderful to share with you! Wonderful news my loomy friends, the Wonder Sock Loom is back and better than before! Lighter weight, beautiful as ever and smooth, just the quality that you expect from a DA loom.

Isela has been a little quite lately and for good reason, she has been testing some new products...lots of new products. Why? Well, it's October and it's their Anniversary Month at http://www.decoraccentsinc.com/and usually they have something spectacular every year and like most of their customers know, we want to keep bringing us the best loomy stuff.

Anyways, a year or so ago Sam introduced the Wonder Sock Loom but he had a heck of a time producing it, at one point due to a mistake, he almost lost his thumb, but he is stubborn, it is one of the Phelps traits, and he persevered and kept searching for new tools and ways to make it possible to make this loom. He succeeded, he found new tooling and materials and the Wonder Sock Loom is back!

Meet the new and improved Wonder Sock Loom: lighter weight, same tight gauge as our sock looms, ei: 18sts and 20 rows=2 inches. Come check it out at DA go to the New products box (right hand bottom corner) or go directly to the Wonder Sock Loom.

So please go check it out and help me out at the same time, because I think it would be neat to win one of these looms. The first way I get an entry is by having their information here on my blog, but you can help me out with the second way...if you will leave a comment on her blog that you heard about their new product from my blog I will receive another entry (so I'd really appreciate you telling Isela & Sam that "JackieA sent you from "). Also if you are a lover of the loom, and you are looking for a sock pattern, Isela has just introduced a new sock pattern called "Pom Pom Socks", just look under the Oct. 10th entry and click on the words to download your copy.

Have fun reading through my blog...if you haven't before and Have A Great Day! Plus...thanks ahead of time for helping me out...don't forget to leave a comment so I can get another entry in the contest!
ja

I'm a farmer's wife...

Here are some pictures of yesterday...and he's already threatening to put me back in the combine the next time he is able to go to the field. Of course it's going to have to quit raining so much of the time!

Well...believe it or not, I guess I've finally crossed over. Dear hubby got me in the combine this weekend to help him with harvesting corn. Now you need to understand that I'm a "town" girl and really have never "helped" much on the farm and we've almost been married 30 yrs. But since I'm the new hired hand...I've been learning several new things this year. It's kind of stressful driving that big thing...even though I have plenty of room to turn around! (ha! ha!) I guess I didn't do too bad for my first day by myself...at least I was keeping the truck filled enough to keep dear hubby running back & forth to unload. Of course he still managed to get in and ride along with me some...saying he was just getting the end rows for me...but I think he was just trying to keep the rows straight.

I did drive the tractor with the harrow on it earlier, when we were planting beans...I'll have to see if I can find the pictures of me driving the tractor this year too! (another small feat for me!) Unfortunately the rains came and pretty much flooded most of the field that I helped with. Oh well...that's life on a farm, you never can rely on perfect weather...God always ends up wanting to make it a little interesting...instead of easy!

Hopefully this week I can take a little time and catch everyone up on the different projects that I've been working on. Happy Looming everyone!
ja