The Frog Prince

A friend of mine in another state is going through a divorce. She is a vibrant, confident, smart businesswoman and the divorce has been a long time coming. She wasn't expecting the roller coaster of emotions she has felt the past few months. Knowing that she has a good sense of humor, some of her friends have been telling her that someday her real prince will come, and that she just has to kiss a few frogs to find him.

Enter the knitted toy book that I've been having so much fun with lately....

Here is her frog prince:

 

I included this card made from my Hallmark card software

He traveled to her inside a large shoebox, wrapped in paper with the first page of sheet music from Someday My Prince Will Come printed over and over on it. 

 

"Here's looking at you, kid"

Hopefully, if my friend ever does kiss a frog, he will be a handsome, intelligent, kind prince

And if he retains a nasty habit, he'd better use a good mouthwash!

About blogging...

I have a heartfelt sentiment to share with all of you, thanks to Carol at Charli and Me.  If you are new to blogging, you may not feel this yet. If you've been at it a while or if you are a reader who isn't blogging yet but has come to recognize names that recur in comments on certain blogs, I think you'll understand this:

When I began blogging, I was unsure of what to say and how often to say it. Like anything new that becomes part of our lives, it took a while to find the rhythm and balance of blogging. I wish I had the discipline to post daily but that seems to come and go in waves. Blogging certainly gave me a new respect for columnists who turn out articles daily or even 2-3 times per week. I fondly remember Erma Bombeck's columns and to think she wrote books too!

Bloggers love comments. Even though many if not most of us write for our own pleasure, there is a thrill in getting feedback. I haven't been good lately in leaving comments, often because of time constraints. The nosy part of me wants to read what everyone has to say while the part of me responsible for things offline is tapping her foot and pointing at the clock.

 

Hopefully I don't look like the rat OR the man in the leather jacket!

Speaking of comments, I've had a few comments that have been made by bloggers with restrictions on their profiles that don't allow me to discover their blog address. On days that I participate in a meme or blog party such as Smiling Sally's Blue Mondays, I can sometimes trace the writer to their blog on the host's link list.  If you find that you are leaving comments and not receiving them in reply, please check your settings and see if others can reach your blogsite.  I understand privacy issues, but it would seem to me that posters willing to leave a comment would like to be reached in return. If anyone knows "Z the Y", please let them know that I appreciated their comment on my March 1st post and would love to visit their site.

Before that impatient rat starts mentioning that it is time for lunch, I am wrapping this up and visiting some blogs this morning with the best of intentions on leaving comments.

Does anyone have a toothpick?

Mr Stan Munro of Syracuse, NY works with toothpicks. It took 38 year old Stan 6 years to build his toothpick city using 6 million toothpicks and 170 liters of glue.  He can spend up to 6 months creating a building and each of his creations is built to a 1:164 scale.  He works at the Museum of Science and Technology in Syracuse.

Look at the amazing works of one of the most patient men in the world:

 

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

Think of him and his creations the next time you test a cake with a toothpick or have an appetizer at a party.

Oh yeah? Well my wife can knit better than that!

No, that isn't something Bill said, but it sounded like he almost said it.

You would have to know how quiet Bill is to see the humor in this. Bill has done some amazing things in his life time, but when you try to compliment him, he thanks you and is ready to change the subject. He isn't the type to brag about the boys or me either, and Lord knows I give him plenty of things to brag about. I think the last list I gave him had more than a dozen of my sterling qualities and accomplishments!

Within days of meeting me all those years ago, Bill knew I was a crafter. I never made us late for anything, but he understand it if I said I needed to finish one more row, or if I nodded instead of answered him while counting stitches. Looking back on this old photo, I wonder if the shortness of my skirt had anything to do with his patience while I worked on needlepoint.

All through our marriage he has accepted and respected my various craft tools as I have done with his. There has been a big difference though. His tools made money for us. Mine just cost us more as I went from one project to another, but I digress...

I have sewn clothing for us, I've repaired a boat cover (and please don't ask me to sew that again!), I've painted, I've quilted, and I've done a lot of knitting. Rarely has he said anything about my finished projects. It isn't his style. A smile or a low key "that's nice" is what I usually get. To be fair, I don't think I ever jumped up and down and yelled "What a great brake job!" or "Look at those rotors!"  Once I made pillows for our sofa after finding the matching fabric in a clearance bin. Just three seams and a zipper but those pillows drew rave reviews. I think I hit him with one. All that praise and it was just because I found matching fabric! 

This past weekend he and a golf buddy boarded a plane to return to Michigan. Across the aisle was a woman knitting. The person next to her commented on her knitting. Then the second seat mate joined them and fussed over her work. Soon the flight attendant was hovering over her proclaiming her scarf was just beautiful. 

Bill paused in his story to look directly at me and went on to say "she wasn't doing anything fancy. She was just knitting one row and purling the next. She was using self striping yarn and that made it look fancy but I knew she wasn't doing anything special."

Oh my!  My dear husband has become a knitting snob! 

The hidden message in this is that the quiet man does pay attention to what I am do, and more importantly, absence does make the heart grow fonder.

                     

March 1st Rabbit! Rabbit!

On the first of the month, the first words you say should be Rabbit! Rabbit! (or some believe it should be White Rabbit! White Rabbit!) to bring you luck for the month.  I am wondering what these men said to get such huge bunnies. These photos are not photoshopped, they are from Snopes.com.

First we have Bodmin, a Flemish giant who weighs 18 pounds, the size of an average 10 month old baby.

Next up is Herman, a German giant weighing in at 22 pounds and a little over 3 feet tall on his hind legs. His breeder/owner says that while he does eat a little more than his other German giants (12 - 15 pounders), he isn't on any special feed and his favorite food is lettuce.

(See....I knew salad could make you fat!)

And now for the current record breaker according to Snopes, meet Humphrey, a French lop-earred bunny, 42" long and 25 pounds!

 

Owner Colin Dunigan, from Cumbernauld, Lanarkshire, said: "When I first got him I could hold him in the palms of both my hands. Every day he just kept getting bigger and bigger. I thought he would stop, but he hasn't so far."

In a single day he will eat three whole carrots, half a broccoli, a couple of asparagus tips, some wholemeal bread and a handful of biscuits.

Humphrey has the run of his owner's four-bedroom detached house after outgrowing his 6ft cage, and now enjoys lying next to the fire - and watching television. Mr Dunigan revealed he is a particular fan of the TV show Albert Square. He said: "It doesn't matter where he is in the house, when he hears the theme of EastEnders he runs to get to the television. If I try to leave the house without leaving the telly or the radio on he will stop me before I go."

I think Elmer Fudd was right...

 "Be vewy, vewy afwaid..."

 Happy March 1st everyone!

What is gray, white and cute (besides me!)?

Q: How do elephants communicate?

A: They talk on the elephone.

 

Q: Who weighs 6000 pounds and wears glass slippers?

A: Cinderelephant

 

Q: Wha't big and grey and can fly straight up?

A: An elecopter.

 

Q: What do elephants do for entertainment?

A: Watch elevision.

Q: Why did I knit the creature shown below? 

A: Ele if I know! 

This lovely pachyderm is named Eloise. She is make of Tahki Yarn's "New Tweed", color # 60. The yarn is part Merino wool, part silk and part viscose. The pattern is from the book Knitted Toy Tales previously mentioned here.

Eloise is an experienced and efficient traveler. She can go anywhere with only one trunk!

 

Like many females, she does have a concern about knits and wonders if this yarn makes her butt look big.

 

I think she is cute even though I am a bit biased. The white inside her ears and at the bottom of her legs is wool felt.  

We've had a snowy day here in my part of Michigan and I didn't venture out to the post office to mail a surprise package to a friend. Once she receives her surprise (sometime next week) I will show you another knitted creature and the story behind the project. Until then, I think I am done knitting animals for a bit. Maybe. Unless the yarn for the rabbit really really really wants to be knitted this weekend. 

A "Thank goodness" moment

Ever have a "Thank goodness!" moment?  You know, like Thank goodness I didn't ask her when the baby is due (because she isn't pregnant). We've all been close to embarrassing ourselves from time to time, either by jumping to a conclusion or simply from not understanding something that is new to us. My friend Kelli at Countin' My Blessings yesterday wrote an entry called How Embarrassing. Reading that entry made me smile and reminded me of a time when I was new in my neighborhood.

The house behind us sits perpendicular to ours. Our bedroom and a spare bedroom window were at the back of our home, facing a dining room and bathroom window in the home behind us. Bill and I hadn't met our backyard neighbor but had heard stories of his eccentricity and how two wives had divorced him because of his odd ways.

I was all of 23 when this happened. It was my custom then to take clothes from the dryer and sit on our bed to fold the laundry and put things away.

That summer day, with the windows open, every time I entered our bedroom, I heard a wolf whistle. Wolf Whistle Collection (sound effects).wav 
No! It couldn't be that the odd man was watching me! I experimented by going into the other bedroom. Sure enough...I got whistled at there too!

When Bill came home, I told him what had been happening. I wasn't vain and did not think I was so young and irresistible, but I was worried that we had a weirdo living behind us.

 We were so new to the neighborhood, we only felt close enough to one couple to ask them their opinion of the man and how to handle this situation. As I told the story, they began to lose their composure. I was a little annoyed that they weren't taking me seriously but continued until they were laughing so hard they had to hold their stomachs.

Yes, it was true that our neighbor was an odd man, but he wasn't my male admirer. It was his Mynah bird!

 Thank goodness we hadn't gone to confront our neighbor or made a police report! I never did meet our backyard neighbor. He moved a few months later. The neighbors who took such pleasure in my story moved away a few years later but we never see each other without one of the four either whistling or mentioning a bird.

Sadly,the years have not been kind to me. If Bill is late in filling the bird feeders in the backyard, an occasional bird might peck at the window to the room where I have my computer, but no bird has whistled at me in 34 years. I guess I am just not a cute little chick anymore.