{ kb } knits

Waimea Valley Botanical Gardens

2011-01-11T20:38:00.001-10:00

Here is a little flora and fauna ... Mom and I headed up the Northshore to visit the botanical gardens at Waimea Valley today and made a few stops at Chinaman's Hat and Sunset Beach. We stopped to see if there were turtles basking but they were not :( Maybe next trip ! We almost didn't get to hike up to the waterfall because the were filming, and we were kind of excited to see someone famous and then we found out that they were filming Alvin and the Chipmunks.. mmmhmmm

Happy New Year !

2011-01-03T06:31:00.000-10:00

My how time flies.... we only have about 6 -7 months left here in paradise, yikes ! I think I need to work less and beach more ! I am looking forward to next week when Mom comes out, we are going to visit some places that I haven't even been to yet. We are going to the Polynesian Cultural Center and Wameia Botanical Gardens and I hope to seem some whales this time when we hike the to the lighthouse again!

Well I was just doing a little blog cleanup this morning, and thought I would share a little dessert that I made for a friend at work, for her birthday ..... I wanted to make a french dessert and discovered the Charlotte cake ! So pretty, I kind of mixed a few different recipes together but for the most part I used this one. I followed the recipe except for the dream whip, I used heavy whipping cream instead. I also covered the top with raspberries, oh so pretty ;)

A Very Merry Christmas !

2010-12-25T18:32:00.000-10:00

Hellloooo... well it is almost over, dinner is done and cleaned up . I spent the day kind of cleaning up and organizing getting ready for mom's visit ! You can actually see the guest bed !. So Trevor and I had to work on Christmas Eve/David's birthday yesterday but we got off around 5 and 6:30 so we came home and ate, then opened one gift. I opened my "secret" Keurig coffee pot :) That way I could have it set up for Christmas morning. How nice to not have to deal with filters and loose coffee grounds ! Then we woke up sort of early this morning if you call 8 early ;) Trevor had to work today , on Christmas, oh well he will get paid extra extra so it's good for him. We waiting to have Christmas dinner until 5 when he got home. Now it is time to relax and catch up on some knitting. I'm trying to finish the babies hats which did not make it into the box :O oops... Oh I forgot to mention that we tried to get a family picture in front of the tree last night, with all the animals ! after many tries and with me trying to figure out my timer and then barret started bleeding from Spright, we decided that cats weren't obligated to be in the photo ;) So here are a couple of our pictures ;)

Where to begin?

2010-12-21T23:57:00.000-10:00

Wow, it has been months, actually probably only two because we were talking about ball gowns and that was only last month. I have tomorrow off so I suppose I can stay up late to post some pictures and give a little update. Let's see... Oh yah, the Marine Corps Ball... First of all David had this idea that he would be on the ball committee. In his words, it turned into an Epic event ;) , which it was. It was the best ball that I have ever attended, and many other people felt the same. It was on the Battleship USS Missouri, and here are some of the pictures. The only thing I am bummed about was not getting a "great " picture of the two of us. :(

What's next? Oh yah, I turned 40 25 ! hehe Since the ball was the day before, we decided to stay in Waikiki for the whole weekend. We basically just hung out, ate, and shopped... David doesn't like walking ;) We met up with friends at Senor Frogs and stayed out til 0 dark thirty ;)

oh check out the fat lip I gave David ;)

Cheryl bought me a Christmas tree ;)

Cheryl & Jess ;)

Ok, well that brings us to Thanksgiving. I don't have any pictures of that day, I kind of sat on the couch and knit all day. Trevor worked so we had a late Thanksgiving dinner. I actually had Black Friday off ;) We I decided to get a real tree this year so David and I went out and got the tree for my work and picked one up for ourselves as well. David isn't a fan of Black Friday shopping so I went out on my own, had a little road rage but it's definitely not as bad as shopping in San Diego on Black Friday.
I have pictures of the tree but I will save all of my photos for a Christmas post later. There isn't much else going on , except that I am still working two jobs and completely exhausted. But I will be taking a whole ten days off when mom comes in January !! Can't wait !

It might be my last .....

2010-09-20T10:59:00.000-10:00

Marine Corps Ball 2009 Ala Moana Hotel ~ Waikiki

This year might be my last Marine Corps Ball :( I don't even know how many I have attended. I would have to count my dresses in my closet since I have saved every one ! I did borrow one once so I guess that might not be an accurate count. Last year I bought my dress in Chinatown down in Waikiki and I loved it !

I always look online to find out what new styles are in and wow, I found some pretty ones.... The one I marked as my favorite will not be in my decision because it is 800 bucks ! yikes ! This year our ball is going to be on the USS Missouri ~ not the traditional hotel setting , what a way to celebrate our last ball ! I'm sure it is going to be fabulous!

Which one is your favorite??

HellooOooOOOOO....

2010-07-29T09:42:00.000-10:00

Summer started off with Trevor's Graduation !

Just a quick little note before I head out for work.... My summer of guests is over and I am back to my knittng again. It's going to be a busy busy Fall & Winter for me. I have my first show coming up in October ! Yikes ! More info to come & photos as I am more prepared. I will also post pictures of all my houseguests and things that we did over the summer. ! Until later this week....

ta ta for now....

2010-05-15T15:10:00.000-10:00

Well it is summer and I'm taking a break from Etsy.. except maybe to "buy" .. Trevor is graduating and family is coming so I plan on relaxing for the summer. I will still be knitting of course , babies are still being born so you will see me post my creations when I'm not laying on the beach or on my boat ;)

Trevor Anthony Brenden
Graduation Photo taken at Kailua Beach Hawaii

Happy Easter to all my peeps !

2010-04-03T20:59:00.000-10:00

Peeps ! bunting

I came across this really cool idea over at Made ...
I am taking a break from knitting for a little bit, I realized that I need to make about 20 leis for Trevor's graduation next month. Not to mention getting the house all foofy for company ;) Hope everyone has a nice Easter !

Little boy Blue !

2010-02-24T08:09:00.002-10:00

{little sprout} in Sea Turtle

A new color going up in the shop! I'm trying to get more boy colors, also have a few new ones on order. I've been working on new items for the shop also. But between knitting for the Navy Marine Corps Relief Society and knitting things that are just for me or friends, I am on overload. Well my mind is . There is just not enough time in a day anymore. Look for the {little sprout} hat in sea turtle in the shop today !
Thank you to Astrello Photography for the adorable picture for my shop !

ROWAN in PINK ! so sweet . . .

2010-02-05T21:56:00.004-10:00

This is one of my new photo props that will be listed in my {ETSY} shop... This blanket is made of all pom poms and is soooo soft and bright and cheery. I'm thinking of making a REALLY big one for my own bed. Thank you so much Andria for letting me photograph Rowan, she's such a doll...

Jessica & ZOOOOOEEEEEEEE

2010-02-04T15:25:00.003-10:00

Another knitting project I worked on over the holidays.... This is my bff Jessica ;) She went home to Pennsylvania for the holidays and so I knit her this slouchy hat and scarf to keep her warm in the snow. {even though there is no snow in this picture, it snowed} And her dog Zoe.. should have knit Zoe a sweater to match huh?

{my little buddies....}

2010-02-01T20:22:00.003-10:00

I really miss these little guys.. Here they are with there little inca snowflake earflap hats done in Noro Kureyon. The pattern is from Susan B. Anderson's itty-bitty hats. Have to keep their little ears warm in cold Minnesota. Don't you just want to squeeze them ;)

I have been MIA since David came home from deployment. I have been knitting but not really keeping up with my Etsy shop or this little blog. Things are in the works , I hope to have a new {adorable} photo prop blanket up in the shop. It is so soft that I'm thinking of making one regular size for my own bed. Til later this week...

{ Two Peas in a Pod }

2009-09-29T17:19:00.002-10:00

These adorable twins are my nephews ! They are modeling the Little Sprout Baby Hats in Pea. I hear that it wasn't an easy task to get them to sit still or look or do anything at the same time . But they still turned out cute !

{ S A L E }

2009-09-03T07:27:00.002-10:00

I am having a sale on my flower and tag embellishments in my Etsy shop! Buy one get one half off. I am making room for the holidays! Yay!

a new blog

2009-09-02T09:07:00.002-10:00

I have started a new blog called katie & olive. Named after our german shepherd dog and kitten. This will be my new personal site where I hope to post adventures in Hawaii. I am very excited and looking forward to David coming home so we can go out and explore. We are excited to go out in our boat and go fishing. I am crazy about snorkeling and am considering taking SCUBA ! We also want to Kayak and I'm hoping to get my own close up picture of a Sea Turtle ;) I have already hiked Diamond Head so David you are on your own on that one ! So come visit my new blog , there's not much on it yet but look for homecoming photos {hopefully the last homecoming } :0)

Aloha Everyone !

2009-09-02T07:22:00.003-10:00

Oh I miss my blog! I have been so busy lately with my new part time job. I have also been busy knitting! There is just not enough time in a day. I can say that David is coming home next month, well unofficially. On top of that we are moving into a different house on base RIGHT before he comes home. How nice that he will come home to boxes. Hopefully we will have most everything put away.

Here are some of the hats that I have in the Etsy Shop now. I opened an Artfire shop but haven't listed anything yet.
This one has been knit in organic yarn, there is also a pink one in the shop in Organic, it's so pretty and has a vintage look to it.
Just for little punkin heads ;)
This one is so bright and fun! Reminds me of baby einstein .

A New Car...

2009-08-05T16:13:00.004-10:00

Trevor finally got a car! He says he was the only senior who rode the bus :) So its the second day of school and he finally found a car that he's been looking for and here it is. Here he is in his uniform on his way to work .

My friends from San Diego just left this afternoon and we had been going and going from morning til night for 5 days ! I have been so exhausted but we had sooo much fun! We went snorkeling, laid out on the beach, visited the Arizona Memorial, went to a luau and hiked Diamond Head, not to mention all the eating we did. I think we might have worked it off hiking Diamond Head. :) That was a workout!

These are just a couple of the pictures. I will post more in a few days.

{ w o w }

2009-07-17T18:44:00.003-10:00

I know I havent' been on in awhile! I have been sort of busy and preoccupied. I started volunteering at The Navy Marine Corps Relief Society before I went on my trip to California and that has been keeping me busy. I absolutely love it! I have a feeling it is going to be very rewarding. I have already met wonderful people and made new friends! Which some of you know I desperately have been looking for :) Speaking of friends, I went sailing with one of the girls who also volunteers last night at Pearl Harbor. We had a blast. I am considering taking lessons. David has no interest in sailing. He loves to kayak and things like that but I say why not? You don't have to fill up the gas tank when you sail ! It was really fun and I only learned a couple of things but we were mostly along for the ride. So here are a few pictures. I will try to keep this poor little blog up to date. I have an interview on Monday so keep your fingers crossed :) I hate interviews. Oh I forgot to mention my snorkeling adventure on the Big Island of Hawaii ! I have never been and my friend's husband talked me into it and I was soooo amazed at what I saw ! I cant' wait to go here on Oahu! Here are some pictures from my sailing adventure last night .....

{ a l o h a }

2009-06-28T16:05:00.002-10:00

We are back from our trip to Southern California. It was nice to see David in the middle of his deployment but he just had to go back. Only 4 more months left now. It was very cool that we were able to be together for Father's Day too ! I do have other pictures to post but I have been sleep deprived for a while now and it is catching up to me. Having a broken air conditioner when I got home doesn't help either, it's all hot and muggy in here which makes me even more tired.

But I had quite a busy 2 weeks! I had lunch with friends most every day, spent the day at Cindy's salon and got a great new do, went shopping and to the spa with Cindy & Kim in Palm Springs. Then up to Sacramento and spent a few days with my sister and of course we shopped and ate, swam in the pool. I even got to hold my brand new nephew of only 3 weeks old :) Got to visit a friend whom I haven't seen in 16 years ! And got to see Lisa and her family. I don't think I have seen so many people on any vacation before. It was great to see so many family and friends. It was kind of wierd to dread coming back to Hawaii.

{ a new do ! }

2009-06-18T07:01:00.010-10:00

So why not get a new do while I'm in town ! I went to visit my friend Cindy at her new salon and I just went in to trim my bangs

( OK I have to vent for a moment ! we are in lodging on base and housekeeping does not knock ! They just barge in ! grrrrrr can you feel my anger? )

ok, trim my bangs... so I have all this grey hair ! So she colored it and I love the color. Then she crimped it with the 3 barrel crimping iron... my favorite way to wear my hair ;) Don't I kind of look like Theresa from Housewives of New Jersey???

I know I have not been blogging as much. All the stress from am I going or not going to California and the Space A hassle and Katie and the kennel hassle. So stressful... But we are now here in California visiting with David (well I am.. the boys are off socializing ) while he is on his break from Afghanistan. He should only have 4 months left by the time we get back to Hawaii. That will go by in no time right? Well time to move into a new room here at the lodge , hopefully we have a new housekeeper !

{ the twins are 1 ! }

2009-06-03T11:17:00.002-10:00

{ H A P P Y . . . B I R T H D A Y }

Oh my twin nephews are 1 today ! I miss them so much ! Aren't they the cutest little buggers :) Nathan is on the left and Jacob on the right.

{ PALI LOOKOUT }

2009-05-31T12:18:00.005-10:00

So Barret, Katie and I went on a hike this morning to the Pali Lookout. We hiked down the old highway trail. It was pretty warm but Katie enjoyed it and she got to meet a couple of new friends. We are trying to socialize her and so we met up with some friends who have 2 Rhodesian Ridgebacks and we went on a hike. She did OK for her first doggie date :)

Do you see that penninsula at the top of the picture? That is Marine Corps Base Hawaii and that is where we live. You can see the air field pretty well from the lookout.

{ P I N K .. R O S E S }

2009-05-26T11:03:00.002-10:00

Look what David sent me ! Aren't they beautiful ! 18 years ago today we were married at the Chapel Of Love in Beautiful Lake Tahoe..I just can't believe how many holidays and celebrations we have to spend apart from each other.

Sorry for the blurry pictures. I hate using the flash and it was kind of dark in the dining room..

{ H A P P Y .. M E M O R I A L .. D A Y }

2009-05-24T14:59:00.006-10:00

I crosstitched for years before I learned to knit. I started when I was pregnant with Trevor 17 years ago. I just love how it seems like you are painting your own artwork with thread, just like making your own clothes/accessories with yarn in knitting. I have a lot of my crosstitch framed but I have ALOT that is not. My favorite subjects are Americana and Pumpkins and Fall. This is a little free pattern from Erica Michaels Designs that I stitched in 2003 when all this started. I just now whipped it into a heart today. I would love to get all my finished pieces either framed or made into a pillow .

This Marine Corps Ball picture is my favorite :) I think I look skinny in this one :) David says they are waiting until they come back to hold the Marine Corps Ball this year. I am on the lookout for a white ball gown . I have not worn white yet, and since I will be so tan I think it will be perfect. And I hope the ball is in Waikiki! That is even better than San Diego !

Well off to create... I've got Christmas on the brain, I know I'm weird, it's just that it is my favorite time of the year and that means David will be home :)

{ a bolero for brooke }

2009-05-22T13:23:00.004-10:00

So I have been knitting for about 5 years now and I have yet to make a piece of clothing. I figured if I can cable then I could knit a sweater ! So I just went for it, I have been wanting to for so long but I get bored and want to start a new project. But this little bolero hardly took any time to knit. And I think it turned out well for my first wearable :) This pattern is from Knitting Pure & Simple and I used Muench Yarns in My Family, it's an acrylic microfibre and nylon but very soft and squishy. I wanted it to be washable and also not too warm. I knit it for my neice and hope it still fits her for school.

I am now working on a cowl, which is pretty much useless to me in Hawaii. But it is much more fun to knit warm fuzzy things for winter and snow season. I guess I'm just stockpiling for when I go back to Minnesota during the winter. Anyways, I found an awesome blog where I bought the pattern. I'm actually almost done with it. It is called the Thermis neck warmer. She makes the cutest dishclothes sets. I came across her blog through ravelry where I find alot of inspiration and patterns.

And I can't resist.... here is Olive all curled up, upside down, and kinked sideways in her Kitty City taking a nap...

Everyone have a great Memorial Weekend! It is our 18th Wedding Anniversary on Tuesday!

{ I S L A N D } girl

2009-05-14T08:43:00.002-10:00

There is a tree behind our house that bears these flowers and every morning when we go out for our "poty" walk, we get a flower . Doesn't she look like a girlie girl ;) This flower is called the Singapore Plumeria. It grows on a tree, well at least it does on the one behind my house.

15 of { H e a r t s }

2009-05-08T16:45:00.011-10:00

Barret turned 15 today.. 15 years ago at 3:14 a.m. very early Mother's Day morning, Barret was born. awwww ;)

I didn't get to take a picture of Barret's card collection. He is obsessed with doing magic with cards. He spends all of his allowance money on the next new deck or cards or a new trick. So I thought it was perfect to make him a cake that looked like a playing card.

We went and played a round of mini golf at Tiki Island here on base. I told Barret to pose in front of the sign for a picture.. nice ...

Their friend Ely came with us, he was videotaping the golf balls in action. I didn't tally up the score to see who won yet, I think it might have been Trevor since he got a hole in one on the first hole.

I played but I was also busy taking pictures of all the hibiscus and other flora that was all around. I actually brought my camera AND memory stick AND a fully charged battery ;)

Then we went to McDonald's and ate, came home and had cake and ice cream...

Dress Form or Me ?

2009-04-26T09:14:00.004-10:00

I've been debating on purchasing a dress form to display my scarves on Etsy. I can't seem to find one that I want either. So I thought I would try modeling them myself. Barret was my photographer :) I don't like myself in pictures though so I think I'm going for the dress form. What do you all think?

I feel SO organized !

2009-04-24T08:55:00.003-10:00

I have been wanting to buy or make my own dpn {double pointed needles}roll up for a while now. There were out of control! They were all shoved into one little needle sleeve that I have. Which is normally meant for one pair of needles. I hated starting new projects because that meant I would have to lay every single dpn out and line them up and get all 5 of the right size together to start. UGH. So last night I had time before Hells Kitchen started and I whipped up this cute needle roll up. Of course it is in my favorite pink & brown colors. And I love the natural cotton, gives it an organic feel to it. If you see blue lines in the picture, sorry , I haven't brushed off the disappearing ink from my stitching lines.

Relay For Life

2009-04-19T13:32:00.004-10:00

Hello Everyone... I just listed a new fun Summer Scarf on Etsy today. All of the proceeds will benefit my friend Wendy's team. Visit Wendy's blog for a giveaway

All of my scarves in my Etsy shop now come in duster bags. A nice way to keep them clean, dust and tangle free when they are not being worn.

new label ;)

2009-04-18T17:15:00.004-10:00

So a while ago last year , I had ordered some labels from an online company. Well it took FOREVER for them to come in the mail. I get them, and they are not what I ordered. So I called and they told me that they don't do what I had requested and that it would have to be a special order. Well, regardless , they didn't even call and tell me. They just went ahead and made them how they thought they should be made and sent them.

Ok, so I was doing a little research and I found out that I can just make my own labels with twill tape and iron on transfer paper. Very cool huh?

2009-04-13T16:56:00.005-10:00

Ok, I numbered everyone according to the posting and I used Random.org to pick a number. I would post it but can't figure out how to do it. And the winner is #9 Noah's Mommy! Just send me an email at kb.knits@yahoo.com with your address and i will send it off ... Mahalo ! (Thank You ) I should do a post with the Hawaiian language. I know a little bit but not enough.. THANKS to everyone who entered.. I will definately do another one next month..

1. Wendylicious
2. Jeanna
3. Stellar Trends
4. Free Range Chick
5. Cindy Corrick
6. Becky
7. Robin@CreationsAnew
8. JazzyJemz
9. Noah's Mommy
10. Amber
11. ggmajudi
12. Anonymous - salla
13. dbush1

{ Beach Girl }

2009-04-13T09:35:00.005-10:00

First of all I just realized that my Give Away post was my 100th Post ! I will pick a winner this evening. Which is a while from now considering time time difference for most of you.

Katie and I went to the beach this morning. It was such a nice beautiful day out when we went out to go poty that I decided we would go for a beach walk. We had the beach to ourselves minus the platoon of marines doing whatever it was they were doing. I found some great beach glass and Katie had a blast rolling around in the sand. I tried to take pictures with my cell phone and she was on bird watch the whole time so it was hard to get her to look.

{ GIVE AWAY } !

2009-04-08T09:18:00.004-10:00

Happy Good Friday !

I thought it was time to celebrate my move to the Island. It's a little late but better than never. So I want to give away this cool Kukui Nut necklace and bracelet set. They are perfect to wear this summer with all your summer dresses ! The nuts are a dark brown color and I think they are shaped like hearts. I have never done a giveaway before so I hope it all turns out well. I will pick a winner on Monday the 13th. So leave a comment, say aloha or whatever.

Saturday...

2009-04-04T12:11:00.002-10:00

I was going to list some new items my my shop today but I can't seem to get any good lighting, just not my day I guess. I am making two loaves of French Bread so that I can make Olive Cheese Bread from The Pioneer Woman.com
I just love her website. This bread is the best, she refers to it as "Chick Food" . David loves it though. It is the weekend to catch up on laundry as the boys will be going back to school after 2 weeks of spring break. So now it's my turn for a break from them ;)

Time is going by faster than I thought. Isn't November just around the corner? I'm really trying to take advantage of my laziness and lounging and "no cooking" while he is gone.

Everyone have a good weekend, even though it's almost half way over for everyone except us. We are at the beginning of the time zone over here and I forget how late it is for you all.

One Baby Blanket down... one more to go.. so far

2009-04-01T17:50:00.004-10:00

I am rereading my post and I'm wondering if "knitted" is a word ? Is it knit? That is so funny. How embarrassing if I misspell words :) I apologize.

I knitted this for my cousin Jennifer. She informed me that pink was the color of death :O... So I picked these colors, hope you like them Jennifer. They remind me of a pansy flower.

Olive & I chatting

2009-03-31T07:46:00.002-10:00

This is what Olive and I do at 7 a.m. every morning.. Chatting with David ;)

The Honolulu Zoo

2009-03-30T14:58:00.005-10:00

Well, I debated on posting anything at all. I thought I was so prepared because I remembered my memory stick for my camera. Well after a couple of pictures.. my battery died. sigh.. I have this expensive camera but do I get good use out of it??I don't know why it is so hard for me to remember these things.

Anyways, here are some pink flamingos for my mom :) She told me that they remind her of me for some reason :) I am sure we will be going back to the zoo , it was actually pretty fun.. I have never been to a zoo where you are so close to some of the animals. We saw baby sumatran tigers. very cute. Then we watched the spider monkeys forever, they were so funny picking at each other.

We were standing by this bridge watching the turtles on a log in the water and a little girl comes and stands between Trevor and Barret:

Little Girl " What are those?"

Trevor "turtles"

Little Girl "WHY?"

Little GIrl "WHY?"

Heheee.. That was funny...

Well next time I say I'm going somewhere, maybe you all could text me or call me the night before to see if i have a charged batter AND a memory stick !

Preview { a l o h a } photobook

2009-03-29T08:28:00.004-10:00

I made this book with recycled chipboard which I collect from the backs of notebooks, and when you buy sheets or curtains they come with chipboard to make them stiff in the package. I save it all :) The covers of the book are made from a box I received in the mail and I ripped off the top layer to reveal the corragated part.

There are lots of flowers from my E T S Y shop in here.. I am waiting on more photos to add along with all the journaling which will be done separately and added in between the pages. This is just a fun book that lets me play with my scraps and flowers. I have a more elegant looking photo album from Martha Stewart that will hold all of our Hawaii photos and look a little more sophisticated :) Not to mention less pink ;) The albums are the huge ones that are 18 inches I believe. I have one page almost done in that album and will post another time.

{ Featured }

2009-03-28T18:33:00.002-10:00

Samantha from The Everyday Scrapper has featured my Etsy store on her blog...

http://www.theeverydayscrapper.com/ ... scroll down.....Cool huh???

Olive..not much bigger

2009-03-28T13:16:00.004-10:00

Well I thought David would like to see some updated pictures of Olive to see how big she's getting.. She's bigger but I don't notice it that much. Last month when I brought her to the vet to get weighed she had only gained .1 lb in a month. So next week we will see how much she's gained. I have to take her in to weigh her so that she gets the right amount of Revolution. Right now she's still on kitten dose. Maybe next week she will have Big Girl dose :)

randomly attacks and bites my legs, feet ..whatever

She is still hard to photograph, doesn't sit still and she blinks with the flash and looks evil in pictures.

Katie & Olive

2009-03-13T20:30:00.004-10:00

Hello everyone ! I haven't posted in a while.. I've been working on building my Etsy Store back up. I even attempted making a new banner myself, I don't think I really really like it. I am probably going to have someone make one for me.. I can't do everything myself right? On top of making a banner, I'm thinking of changing the name of my shop to "Katie & Olive" ... no particular reason, I just think the name is quaint. You all know who Katie & Olive are :) I just thought since I like to craft in different venues that a generic name like that would be better. Well, please let me know what you all think ! :) Katie & Olive or kb knits & bits.. I vote for Katie & Olive. :) Here is a picture of one of the newest flowers in the shop and is one of my favorites. :)

Yes Karen, There is a Target .....

2009-03-06T18:19:00.004-10:00

AHHHH, I am sooo happy, Target has come to the island !!! Yay! And it's supposed to be the biggest Target ever ! SO now if they just brought Michaels and Joanns to the island, I might consider staying here :) With the boat and all :) Anyways, my trip to Target did not start off so nice, I went the second day after it opened and there wasn't a parking space IN or within BLOCKS of the new store.. So I just kept driving and came home :( So I really wasn't going to be content until I got in that store, it kind of made me feel like I was back in California or something.. I had to go... So I went back today and the SAME thing.. They really need to open a couple more... But, I decided to drive once more around the block and WHOO HOO the police guided me into a parking spot !!! I was smiling :) The cops were probably thinking, wow.. she needs to get a life !!! I don't care, it made my day.. I finally got to decorate the downstairs bathroom... and bought a new book to read.. I could have spent tons but I did not, gives me reason to go back :)

Ok, well I'm in such a good mood today, First, I got to chat with David on Yahoo!! How exciting is that ! Then I went on a really good walk with some friends.. Katie was very tired when we got back...Then I had my fabulous shopping trip to Target. Then guess who is online again?? David ! Yay, got to chat with him for a couple minutes before he was off to work..

I am trying to volunteer at a nearby medical center, I have an interview on Tuesday, so hopefully they like me :) I hate interviews :(

I have pictures of hats and scarves that I've knitted but I think I will just post the picture of the scarves that I'm sending to Cindy for her Relay for Life charity sidewalk sale... She graduated from Cosmetology school yesterday and I'm so excited for her ! Wish I could have been there :( Oh well, we will celebrate when she comes to see me on the Big Island this summer !

Ok, this is a little hat that I knitted for a friend I met in Yucca Valley at work.. Amber is having a baby girl! I'm so jealous.. I'm jealous of everyone having babies..I really don't want one, but I'm still jealous.. :)

Week { ONE }.......

2009-02-25T10:16:00.010-10:00

Well it has been ONE WHOLE WEEK since David has left... some ridiculous amount of weeks left to go..I haven't counted how many, I should. Here is a scarf I finished, it is an Entrelac pattern. I got the pattern from KNITTY. I love that site, they have great free patterns. One of these days I'm actually going to knit a sweater for me to wear or for the babies maybe. I have been working on opening my Etsy store again, my table is just covered in crafts. I have made some tags for knitting projects along with some flower embellishments again. Maybe by next week it will be up.

These are slippers from the Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts 2008 magazine I bought it just for this slipper pattern :)

And finally I had to bling Olives collar. This isn't a very good picture because the stones are way more sparkly in person. and she doesn't sit still long enough to get good pictures either.

day 1

2009-02-18T18:24:00.000-10:00

OK, I managed to get through day # 1.... Although I did not get dressed until 2:30 right before Trevor got home... I watched 3 movies, had 2 cups of coffee, 1 cup of tea, snacked, knitted , watched Martha... then took Katie for a walk on the beach. She did not behave very well whatsoever! I made rice for dinner, it was just Barret and I because Trevor was at work... I did get to talk to David 3 times today while he had layovers at the airport. And of course I cried all 3 times, can't say goodbye.. I chatted with Aunt Judi for a long while on Yahoo and that made me feel better. And I added some more stuff to my blog to the right. David's time and date is over there and we are expecting sometime around November for his homecoming. I will try to be productive tomorrow. There is certainly plenty to do around here! Well, until something exciting happens...

Happy Belated Valentines Day

2009-02-15T09:41:00.000-10:00

This Brownie Chocolate Swirl cheesecake is from Juniors cheesecake recipe book..
I am not happy with the crust, not sure what went wrong, maybe my water bath was the problem. It is very rich though. I will have to freeze the rest of it since David is leaving. I don't want this sitting around. It is diet day the day that David leaves!

I put the lace socks down, I wasn't happy with the weight of the yarn I was using and so I started this alpaca cabled beret. Like I will have any use for this in Hawaii :) It's pretty though.

It's from Debbie Bliss's new magazine ( LOVE ) and I knew one of the lines was off and now that I found the link to the magazine, I see there is an errata in the pattern :( bummer. I knew something was wrong. Oh well , I guess it will be mine and I'll save it for my next winter in Minnesota :)

Olive has a new hang out spot !

She likes David more than me :( Whatever ! I ordered her name tag online and should be here this week, she has to wear 3 tags, name, rabies and base registration #. We will have to take her in to the kitty chiropractor for back problems from lugging all the bling around her neck.

I'm still here

2009-02-09T09:06:00.000-10:00

Ok, I know I haven't been on here in a while. We have been busy with putting stuff away and unpacking. Not everything is completely put away yet but I will need something to do while David is gone so maybe that is why I'm saving some of it. Here are just some pictures of Katies first trip to the beach. She didn't like it at all, the water at least. She didn't mind being in the sand. We take her there most every evening. She is getting used to it, she jumps all over the coral reef or lava rock, whatever it is. She chases the birds and doesn't mind getting wet now. She won't look at the waves coming in, she just looks to the side :) Do you see those cards Barret is holding??? I will give you the scoop on that in another post :)

Then there's Olive, she has gotten comfortable with Katie. She finds her tail quite fun to play with. She loves to attack her feet too. Katie acts like a big baby though and cowers up to us to save her from the 3 pound kitten.

Do you see that shell ???? That is the BIGGEST shell I have ever found in all of my beach combings :) It is probably 4 inches long ! These are the kinds you buy at the gift shop by the beach ! :) I was SOOOO excited, David thought I was crazy but I was very happy :)

Oh and this is my second batch of frosted Valentine cookies ! Somehow I don't think there will be any left for Valentines Day. I have some other ideas to make for Valentines Day. I think we are having crab legs at home to celebrate Valentines Day and Davids departure :( Oh and David said that was the best macaroni salad I have made Tina ! YAY !

The Shrimp Shack & The Dole Plantation

2009-01-24T22:15:00.000-10:00

The Shrimp Shack- The shrimp was awesome ! I had the garlic butter shrimp and Trevor and David had the spicy shrimp. Barret didn't know if he liked it or not so he got corn on the cob and tasted all of ours. The rice was so good too.. mmmm
The water behind David is where the get the shrimp, so it is really really fresh. It's kind of gross but my shrimp had feet ! They were deveined but had the shell and feet attached :) EWE! Tasted good, but had to peel them first.
So , I have too many pictures on here to put them in order. We decided to have desert at the Dole Plantation. This is David's Pineapple Upside Down cake.. I had a pineapple scone and Trevor had a waffle bowl with pineapple ice cream (not pictured). Heheee...

They are having the time of their life :)
Look, Barret just can't get away from Guitar Hero :)

Who knew, Pineapple grew like this?? There is a huge long process on how its grown, you'll all just have to come out here and see for yourself...
We did go through the garden maze, it is the largest in the world according to Guiness Book of World Records. I think it is over 3 miles. We had to find 8 secrets spots to get through the maze. It was fun, David navigated and we followed, until the end when Barret decided to go out on his own. He ended up done before us and was waiting outside the maze..
I didn't realize it said DOLE on the lawn in front..
Here is Barret's dessert, a pineapple slushy in a souvenir cup.
Oh, and this is what I have been working on in our empty house waiting and waiting four our stuff ! Lace socks :) Til our next adventure... well it might be awhile since one of our party is leaving us for the rest of the year.. But I will post boring beach photos I'm sure :)

North Shore

2009-01-18T16:24:00.001-10:00

Just a few pictures from our drive around the island up to North Shore. We'll be making a few more trips. Next time we would like to try out a Shrimp Shack, we saw a macadamia nut farm, The Dole Plantation, and a ton of beaches to stop at. We did stop at Sunset Beach and it was filled with people with camera's perched on the beach watching the surfers. There is no swimming allowed, but people just sit and watch. The waves were crazy big ! Next time I will use my zoom zoom lense :) Trevor found some awsome shells at North Shore beach too.

Our newest family member

2009-01-14T12:47:00.000-10:00

We got her at the Hawaiian Humane Society. Please help us name her! I put a poll up on facebook. My pick is Maggie :)

Sunday in Waikiki

2009-01-13T16:44:00.001-10:00

We went kayaking at Waikiki Beach on Sunday.. David and Barret saw a big sea turtle come up for air and I missed it ! We went around in circles trying to find it again.. I can't wait to go snorkeling sometime!

Waikiki day 2

2009-01-10T17:45:00.000-10:00

We took a very long walk down the beach today and back up through town. Can you believe Trevor is wearing flip flops and board shorts ? The first picture of me is not in Waikiki, its at the beach on base before we left for here.

Weekend in Waikiki

2009-01-09T22:37:00.001-10:00

Aloha from Waikiki !

Actually, this is just from Friday night .... We will be hanging out here until Monday morning when we pick up our keys to the house. Housing told us to go spend a weekend here in Waikiki so we took them up on their offer ! They don't have adjoining rooms available on base so we are allowed to go wherever out in town. So we are here at the Embassy Suites at Waikiki.

Ok, I can't take credit for this shot, this is the view from our patio at the hotel, and after many shots of blurry lights, I gave up... David messed with the ISO and here is a very pretty shot from our room at the hotel..

Mahalo for stopping by !

Day 3

2009-01-06T15:32:00.000-10:00

Back to Pyramid Rock, Trevor wore flip flops this time :)

Day Two in Hawaii

2009-01-04T18:02:00.000-10:00

Today we went to visit Katie at animal quarantine. We brought her a chewy bone, yesterday was a better day but hopefully we can bring her home in the next couple of days. OH , yes we went to the Humane Society :)... we found a frisky little black kitty that we liked. They are supposed to have some baby kittens on Tuesday morning though. If we have our house by then, we just might go get one. Then we drove back to this side of the island. I love driving through the tunnels, very movie like :) I've been so exhausted and have had to take naps during the day. Woke up, Barret and I did a load of laundry, we had two loads but we wanted to go check out Pyramid Rock (cool beach/lighthouse on base). So we ditched the second load of laundry and drove out to the water. It was like bathwater, Trevor of course has to be broken in to wearing flip flops and shorts, he refuses. So here are a couple of pictures from Pyramid Rock.

Our First Day in Hawaii

2009-01-03T17:28:00.001-10:00

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T19:48:00.000-10:00

Well, as most of you all know, we are alllllmost in Hawaii... We are currently staying at the Sheraton at LAX and tommorrow morning we will be on our flight. This month has last forever. I just hope that we get a house on Monday or Tuesday. Katie is getting some good socializing in, learned to go poty while on a leash. Those are both reliefs. I've seen flight crew around the airport and it stirred up my excitement to be a flight attendant again. I wish I had some pictures to post, I know you can blog from your cell phone, so I might figure out how that works so I can try it out at the airport tommorrow. I did take a picture of Amazon.com while we were in Fernley Nevada visiting Davids parents. I just thought it was cool, it's right next the a new Super WalMart. Maybe there is more than one "Amazon.com" ?

So we have stayed at Motel 6 in Twentynine Palms .. .I would not recommend this, there was no toilet seat lid, only 3 towels even though the room was reserved for 4. No coffee pot in the room, the fan in the bathroom sounded like a jet engine. Oh, and the drunk marines next door, not enjoyable. Next motel was AWSOME, we had to stay the night in Long Beach because well, long story but we stayed at the Marriott Residence Inn , highly recommended... Every room was like your own condo. We were on the bottom floor, had a patio, inside there was a FULL kitchen including pots, pans, you name it. Free internet, we had breakfast in front of a roaring fireplace, it was just fabulous ! Then to David's parents for a week. Back in Twentynine Palms... We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express, nice, except when the saw that we had a kennel in the back of the truck and went out to tell David that someone complained of a barking dog. So they assumed we snuck our LARGE German Shepherd through the main lobby and up the elevator without anyone seeing when the have a "no pet" policy. So, nice and accomodating, but not so nice with the customer service. ok, I think we are now at the Sheraton... nice, only because they allow LARGE dogs. It's kind of wierd to be walking around Katie around this hotel, LA is more of a "small" yippee dog place, know what I mean? Everyone here is very friendly though..I do love Valet parking . SO, our next lodging experience will be at The Lodge at Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii so I will sign off for now unless I'm able to blog from my phone at the airport.

I wanted to finish off this year and start fresh with posts from Hawaii, I'm going to try and change up the colors and who knows what else. So til then....

Happy New Year !

Karen

It's Snowing in the Desert

2008-12-17T09:03:00.000-10:00

heeeheeee

2008-12-15T18:13:00.000-10:00

I'm sorry, I cannot resist.... Normally I wouldn't post twice in one day, but.... this is just tooo funny... As most of you all know, we had our movers here today packing our stuff. This normally wouldn't be as funny, but a fellow co worker and I were talking about "the contracted movers" that come out to our house to pack our stuff. She was telling me about her friend moving and when she was helping unpack, they came across the Christmas decorations and found a box labeled " WREEF " .... HAHA funny right?? ok, so I'm walking around the house while the movers are here and what do I come across??????????????????

^^^ Cheers ^^^

2008-12-15T15:50:00.000-10:00

David received good news today :) He was selected for MASTER SERGEANT ! Just some good news to offset all the stress of our move.

The Stockings Were Hung Two x Two

2008-12-05T14:24:00.000-10:00

Yay ! I started a second stocking around midnight last Friday night and spent all Thanksgiving weekend on it. Then on Tuesday took them to have their names embroidered on them. I'm so happy with how they turned out! I hope you like them Jody! I had to make a different one for Nathan, I wasn't happy with the first set. This set matches but still different colors :) I will be sending these off on Monday!

HA HA HA

2008-11-29T20:34:00.001-10:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

HAPPY THANKSGIVING !!

2008-11-27T17:13:00.000-10:00

Well I woke up with a really bad sore throat today, I thought that I had slept with my mouth open but no, my ears hurt and I had a headache to. So I drank a lot of Orange Juice and that made my throat better. But the day must go on, the cooking, the baking, the cleaning of many dishes. sigh..... It was not bad though, I made pumpkin pie yesterday, although I had wanted to make the pumpkin trifle, I had no energy. I have all the ingredients though, so I will , when the boys eat up all the pumpkin pie. OH I also made the Hershy Kiss peanut butter cookies...mmmmm. I might make some fudge soon, since we won't be having Christmas, we have to enjoy and celebrate everything we can before December 15th. { MOVING DAY } .

We pretty much hung out on the couches all day watching and catching up on Supernatural. David and I are going to go out and about shopping tomorrow. Although its not too bad around here, Palm Desert that is. It never seems to be that crazy pshyco black friday down there. Oh and David is off from now until January 15th. We officially have 15 days to be packed or ready for the movers to come pack for us I should say. Ok, well here are some photos I took , nobody was feeling photogenic except for the food so enjoy.....

I got a new camera for my birthday and this is what I get............
Well you will have to take Davi'ds word that this tasted good because I didn't eat any... I got the idea from Martha Stewart. { of course }

Just a little snack :)

oooh awww, pretty... I will miss this in Hawaii, but maybe the beach in the backyard will make up for it?

Doesn't this look yummy?? It's in the November issue of Rachel Ray.. I never really liked her but I have used a few of her recipes lately , she's a dog lover too :)

I got a little knitting done...

I just have to make the I cord and pom poms and of course the other legwarmer. This pattern is from Knitty . Do you think I can wear legwarmers in Hawaii???

Barret squeezing in a little Guitar Hero while I'm on the phone wishing Happy Thanksgivings :)

Can't forget the Pumpkin Pie ! Barret served this up for everyone :}

Ball Pictures

2008-11-16T17:34:00.000-10:00

Ok, these aren't the best pictures because they are from David's cell phone. I didn't have a purse and so I didn't have a camera either. Oh well, there will be more balls right? But I just wanted to post a couple of pictures just to show the setting of the ball.

Birthday Ball Cake

Self Portrait :)

My Seat ...

The Table...

Flower arrangements... that we got to bring home

Of course the glasses to add to our collection ?

2008-11-11T18:59:00.000-10:00

Well here is one of the pictures that we took after my friends did my hair and makeup. Cindy did my hair and Tait did my makeup. I will post more later.

Photography @ Joshua Tree

2008-11-08T16:44:00.000-10:00

Ok, today was Christmas Photo day and I wanted to have one of those photos made that everyone sends at Christmas time now. So we pack up and went to Joshua Tree National Park. I wanted the picture to be taken in the Cholla Gardens but of course they were not in bloom, but still beautiful and also, Kate Dog was not allowed. :( So off to the Ocotillo Patch.. YAH, not so patchy.... there were like 10 Ocotillo's. Where did they all go? Not to mention they were not in bloom. SO, next stop, Jumbo Rocks. This was perfect. We set up the tripod and got some good pictures. Even Katie was looking ! Normally she is so afraid of the camera, don't know why, I blame Barret :).... So I wish I could post the pictures, but then when you all got my card in the mail it wouldn't be a surprise. So how about just a couple pictures of a Joshua Tree and some Cholla? Oh , we could have had a tarantula , but.... David ran it over :( It was an accident....

Well Monday is the 233rd Marine Corps Ball and we will be at Morongo Casino. So I will be posting pictures in a few days. Til then....

2008-11-02T17:27:00.000-10:00

Here's a little earflap hat i'm working on for the babies :) haven't finished the tassels or the pom pon on top.

Happy Birthday too me :)

2008-11-01T14:05:00.000-10:00

OHHHH Guess what I got for my birthday ! A Cannon Rebel Xti! I have no idea what I'm doing but here are some pictures that I took outside and David took the one of me :) I'm only on the second chapter of the user's manual and not even half way through the dvd. So here are a couple of pictures :) Can't wait to try this in Hawaii, and we plan on taking our own picture for Christmas Cards in the Cholla Gardens of Joshua Tree.

The Stockings were hung.....

2008-10-26T09:11:00.000-10:00

Ok, So I wanted to knit stockings for the twins. I wanted them to be long and skinny and look old and rustic. The first one I did was the fat one, I couldn't find a pattern so I used an easy sock pattern and just used bigger needles. I didn't want it to be fat but I guess it could fit alot of stuff huh? So everyone I showed it too thought it was cute. So I went ahead and started the second one for Nathan, well about 10 rows into the green, I forgot to switch to knit and I was still ribbing. Ok, so I decided not to rip it out, and it turned out the way I had wanted it originally! So now what? Do I knit another skinny one for Jacob??? You pick Jody :) I am going to have their names embroidered on them after we decide.

Our Weekend. . . .

2008-10-20T15:06:00.000-10:00

We had a pretty busy weekend... First we had Pioneer Days this weekend in Twentynine Palms. The only thing that I went to was the Parade. We've lived here since December of 2003 and this is the first time we went to the Parade. Wow.... Trevor and Barret went to the Carnival a couple of times. Trevor also went to the skate competition at the skate park. This was all on Saturday.

On Sunday, we decided to take the boat out for the first time. We've just been so busy and David was working on the engine, tuning it up, finally it just decided to start up really nice and we took off to the Colorado River for the afternoon. It was fun, I think being on the lake will be so much better, we couldn't just stop and float and hang out, but we cruised up and down the river for awhile then came home. So, busy weekend. :)

Im a blonde

2008-10-12T05:42:00.001-10:00

So what do you think??? My friend Cindy is in Cosmetology school and I went to see her yesterday and she colored and cut my hair. I was originally going to go blonde underneath, but then when I got there, we did the opposite.. HUGE change for me :) I love it though . This is a picture from my cell phone, I will take a better one later.

H e l l o

2008-09-25T09:36:00.000-10:00

Just saying hi and posting a few pictures of some flowers I added to my etsy store this morning. Been busy busy working lately.

Don't you just want to jump into a huge pile of leaves now???

See I'm Knitting :)

2008-09-13T17:34:00.000-10:00

I am actually posting pictures of something that i've knitted. I did finish a stocking for Jacob but it doesn't have his name on it so I wanted to wait until I had that done. And I wanted to take a vote on whether or not to make the same identical stocking for Nathan or do it out of different yarn. But I will ask that after I post the picture. I just finished making these adorable little nookie holders. They don't look exactly like the pattern but I did not have the exact yarn and I used what I had. I didn't even have the exact needle size for that matter.

I used the pattern from Itty Bitty Nursery. In case you are wondering, the blue one is an elephant and the green one is a frog. I'm going to make the "Grumpy Old Teddy Bear" next.

Purina PetCharts

2008-09-10T06:11:00.001-10:00

OHHHH My Pugalicious video is #1 on the Purina PetCharts. !!!! YAY

FERGALICIOUS =)

2008-09-08T15:23:00.000-10:00

Awwww... Look what Cindy got! I'm so jealous, if we weren't moving to Hawaii I would get me one :) Wonder if they have these in Hawaii :) Isn't this the cutest little puppy? Yes, that's her name .......FERGALICIOUS....=)

Purple Walmart

2008-09-08T03:53:00.000-10:00

Wow.... I haven't blogged in a month! I guess the whole school, work thing got in the way. The boys are back to school, yay! I'm back to work :( Normally its not that bad, its just the whole moving to an island in the middle of the Pacific that has me preoccupied. Anyways.... Over Labor Day weekend we went to visit my Dad & Tina at their place in Yuma. It wasn't as hot as I expected so that was really nice. And my Dad had the biggest mister system I've ever seen going the whole time. We grilled, the boys took the quad and bike out into the foothills and Tina and I "4 wheeled " with the Jeep ... heheeee.... David needed to "save" us. On Saturday Tina and I went to Mexico :) It was wayyyyy nicer than going across the border in San Diego , that is for sure. We bought purses, it was purse heaven down there! So anyway, as your walking down the sidewalk, the locals tell you to look at there wares and blah blah blah, but this one guy made me laugh, he wanted us to go inside the "Purple Walmart" . We didn't go in but I got a picture.

meet Holly Berry .......

the girls wanted to go home with us ....

I love bouganvillia...

the foothills...

meet Mitzee....

having lunch in Mexico ....

Hi Makayla

2008-08-09T06:09:00.000-10:00

I finished my chalkboard! Only I can't find an eraser????? How come everywhere I go, they sell chalk but no eraser??? So I conditioned the chalkboard after I painted and waited 3 days but I just used a cloth to wipe it down. So that's why its pretty whitish . I am going to hang this next to my kitchen just for fun , maybe I will put the day's dinner menu on it sometime :)

Home again.....

2008-08-04T19:22:00.000-10:00

I was going to say that this is my last trip for the summer, but we are going to Yuma for Labor Day weekend to visit my dad. Trying to get everyone in before leaving for Hawaii. Anyways....... Minnesota was soooo much fun! The best part was holding my sweet little twin nephews... I miss them so much already :( Besides holding the babies and falling asleep while they ate, we did manage to do other things. We shopped, shopped again, and did some more shopping :) Just kidding, sort of.... We got to go to the St.Louis Co. Fair, we didn't ride on any rides but looked at the animals, ate yummy junk food ...mmmmm teeny weeny donuts :)... We went on bikerides, there are awsome trails to bike on now that were not there when I was growing up. We went to my Aunt and Uncles Farm and of course, I took pictures of the cows, there were babies! We played croquet a couple of times, learned many new "rules" along the way. Kaleb and Barret got to play mini golf, poor Barret lost. We had a couple of bonfires and made Smores, one of our childhood traditions :) I think that is about it, I'm sure there was more... OH... How can I forget picking peas in my moms garden and eating all of them as soon as they were fat enough to eat :) Mom even made fried zucchini from my aunt's garden. Yes, today was Diet Day #1..... :) Here are a few of my favorite pictures, i took over 200! babies are sooo cute :)

♥♥♥ Minnesota Twins ♥♥♥

2008-07-24T03:56:00.001-10:00

* toe bling *

2008-07-16T11:21:00.000-10:00

Barret and I are leaving on Friday to fly to Minnesota ... yay! So I had to have new nail polish... Couldn't find the orange shade I was looking for so I saw black in my collection and thought why not...Then I remembered I had little "toe crystals" and voila, they match my bebe flip flops!

*edited* ok, this picture is bothering me....the reason my skin looks bumpy is because I've been sitting on my feet on the couch for hours and hours trying to finish a baby blanket. So those are couch marks on my feet :)

We R home ......

2008-07-06T18:19:00.000-10:00

Just got home from our trip to the "Reno" area ... Actually Silver Springs Nevada.... You know they actually mention "Silver Springs" in the movie "A View From the Top". Anyways, we took Katie, very interesting. Not as bad as we thought. She was a very good girl. I have more pictures that I will put up later. Time to do some unpacking and laundry :) David stopped the truck so I could get out and take this picture. It was the last one before we turned on our road too. Cool Huh???

s U s H i

2008-07-01T12:17:00.000-10:00

I remember when I lived in Minnesota and every time I visited my dad in California and we would go out to a Mexican restaurant and I would order a burger. I hated Mexican food ! Since living in California my taste buds have seriously developed! I absolutely love Mexican food. So now I have a new taste..... sushi....LOVE it ! So why not make my own sushi ! Of course I have to make it myself. Ever since I was a child I have tried to make anything you could buy in a store by myself. Such as, Oreos, I've even made marshmallows ! Thanks to Martha Stewart.

I've been collecting ingredients, you know how living in the desert makes everything easily available :) I finally ended up buying a bamboo place mat at World Market because I couldn't find a sushi rolling mat. It worked quite well, not sure what the difference is. I'm not ready to try using the raw fish yet, even though I have eaten it. We just don't have anything like that available here in Twentynine Palms :) So this is my version of the California Roll. I'm really excited because these are really low in fat and calories.. One Nori sheet has 10 Calories :)

Now, I haven't tasted it yet, I will tonite and let you know how it is. I made mine with avocado, cucumber and imitation crab. Of course David doesn't like any of that so his just has crab.

Spell with flickr

2008-06-23T03:27:00.000-10:00

how cool is this? I found this link on Pear Street Studios while I was blog surfing. Spell your name with flickr
Well , I wish I knew how to make this space wider so that it would all fit. If you scroll all the way to the bottom, I inserted my name and it fits all on one line..
Have a good day !

awwww... little buddies

2008-06-14T19:06:00.000-10:00

8th gRaDe GrAdUaTiOn

2008-06-13T17:47:00.000-10:00

June 12th 2008. Barret graduated from 8th grade. He almost didn't make it to graduation, he has been sick for close to a week now and woke up with a headache. I was just really hoping he wouldn't throw up in the middle of the Promotion Ceremony. He was fine through the ceremony, but came home and slept the rest of the day.

Well, no school, no work.... I'm so excited. I'm going to be taking an Algebra class at the college this summer to brush up before I head back to the school to "help" high school students in Algebra and Geometry. It's a good thing to know more than the students. I am going to attempt to organize and shed a lot of stuff in the house to get ready to move. We plan on taking a trip to Nevada over the 4th. My sweetest friend Terry tells me she has won a ticket to a scrapbooking crop in Carlsbad ! And she's giving it to me ! So I plan on going to Oceanside to spend a day with her. We also have plans to go see the show "Wicked" in LA. Let's see, I'm researching ways to get to Minnesota to see my new sweet nephews. Not sure how but I will be going there before December to visit. Speaking of, I hear that our school district will have one week off for Thanksgiving this year! Holy Cow! Well that can't be our Minnesota trip because Mom won't be there... .Maybe that will be the Oregon trip. hmmm... I think that about sums up the plans that I have for the summer. Besides the knitting and scrapping and baking. I found a graham cracker recipe I must try.

Well, Happy Father's Day... We plan on doing nothing.... I will be making a big breakfast, then grilling in the evening. Thats about it... Closing ceremonies for Baseball tomorrow, All Stars will be in town this year, so I'm sure we will be at the park watching our team play.

Have a good weekend ! :)

Goodbye

2008-06-10T03:00:00.000-10:00

We have been in Twentynine Palms for so long now and hve made really good friends. I know that we are leaving in December but it seems like everyone is moving before us. Barret's friend Joey who he's played baseball with for the last 4 years left last Sunday for Chicago. I sat with his mom at every game and we always had a good time commenting on "Twentyine Palms" life. This is a picture of her little boy who is almost a year old. They lived just down the street from us. She says they will be coming back after his time in Chicago so I'm sure we will see them again.

Last Game .... YES !!!!!

2008-06-09T03:00:00.000-10:00

Just a few pictures from Barret's last game, he's had a hitting streak the last few games. Go Barret !

Hat #1 down

2008-06-08T05:48:00.000-10:00

So, I thought I was behind schedule on the knitting that I wanted to get done for the babies, but as one of my coworkers said.... They weren't due until the 24th, so therefore I have until the 24 to be done...Right? I have one blanket and one hat down. I'm almost done making albums for them also. Here is a picture of the one hat.

I'm a new Auntie !

2008-06-03T18:24:00.000-10:00

I don't know who is who, I think this is Nathan

and this is Jacob...

I think :) Aren't they precious ???

Happy Memorial Day

2008-05-26T01:00:00.000-10:00

I love making these banners ! I made one for Valentines Day and I was going to post it but I took pictures of it with my camera minus the memory stick! And I don't feel like getting the usb cable out to get them off. That one was made of felt and rickrack. This one is made of chipboard and tons of flowers, paper and silk, crystals (my fav), gingham ribbon, and buttons oh my.. all of my favorite goodies. This can stay up all year, since I have the americana theme in my fireplace room. I will have to take pictures of all my crosstitched americana sometime. I wish I had the time to do that again. There is not enough time for every hobby that I love anymore. I am still on baby hat & blanket # 1 and there are two babies ! Better get to knitting... Did I mention that Memorial Day is David and mine's 17th anniversary?

Had to break it in on the first day!

2008-05-22T03:00:00.000-10:00

This is what you make with a Kitchen Aid Wendy :) Chocolate Cookies ! :)

oooooo mamma mia :)

2008-05-21T11:33:00.000-10:00

My Mother's Day present came in the mail today !! :)

It's got hydraulics :)

6 - Quarts Capacity ! & it matches the kitchen :)

575 Watts !

Bouganvillia

2008-05-17T06:04:00.000-10:00

This is one of my favorite things about our house.. The huge Bouganvillia bushes in the front of the house. It is pretty early in their summer life right now, they will be well over the top of the brick wall and just gorgeous !

A NEW CAR !

2008-05-17T05:43:00.000-10:00

Had to put my Tiffany plate frame on it already :)

Isn't it pretty :) and 30 + miles per gallon ! Who Hoo !

Grilled Pizza for You Jody !

2008-05-17T05:14:00.000-10:00

We grilled again last night and I remembered to take pictures for Jody. Oh it was just as good as the first and second time we did it.. This is a FaBOUlouS way to make pizza !

Barret's pizza.. I make the dough and we all build the rest.

Davids is on the right, pepperoni, black olive ..

This is my pizza, see the green pesto sauce? Homemade of course with black olives, kalamata olives, grape tomatoes, red onions and three different cheeses. Oh and fresh basil of course.

Katie Learns to Swim :)

2008-05-11T15:53:00.000-10:00

Happy Birthday Barret!

2008-05-11T15:38:00.000-10:00

I tried to make a Rubik's Cube cake for Barrets Birthday. We had cupcakes on his actual birthday on Thursday after the game. I made this cake for Saturday when he had friends over for swimming and some x.box. Then that night we went to a concert on base for a couple of hours. I think they had fun...

Why I Love Cats

2008-05-07T18:26:00.000-10:00

Okay, when I need a good laugh I go to YouTube and watch cat videos :)

It's May !

2008-05-04T18:02:00.000-10:00

Wow, doesn't time fly? David and I went for a bike ride up to Pioneertown on Friday after I got off work. I was going to take my camera and I forgot ! I really need to start remembering. Saturday was a Home Depot day, got stuff for projects around the house. We are going to make new screens for the whole house... heheeee :) Oh, then we set up the pool, its ready to swim in, so where's the sun???

Sunday, did homework, baked banana chocolate chip muffins, Trevor made Chocolate chip cookies. And we started tackling the shed, or should I say, David started on the shed. I was supposed to take pictures of the pizza we grilled Saturday night for Jody, but again I forgot ! I really need to hang my camera around my neck. I will try to take more pictures. Here's Freddy and Barret in the tree out back. Oh, I made the cutest invitations for Barret's bday thing on Saturday. He wants to go to the concert on base with some friends after swimming here and maybe playing some x . box..... I cut out little guitar shapes and made them into a card and they turned out really cute ! I suppose I will take a picture in the morning and post them...

Cindy's Birthday

2008-04-28T04:09:00.000-10:00

Here it is.... .I didn't take a picture at home so I didn't get a good one of it... This one is kind of blurry....

Carmela, Me & Cindy.....