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This is a funny blog... check it out.  I wish I was that clever!

Catalog Living

NCIS

There are a lot of similarities between me and the cast of NCIS.

Me:  I vacationed at a house on Balboa.
NCIS:  The actor who plays Ducky rented that very same house from my Grandparents.

Me:  My last name is the same as one of the actors on the show.
NCIS:  Their is an actor with the same last name as me.

Me:  My Aunt has the same last name as one of the characters on the show
NCIS:  There is a character with the same last name as my Aunt

A note on the last names, one has one too many letters and one is short a letter.

Me:  I have a brother named David
NCIS:  There is an actor named David on the show

Really this whole comparison focuses on 2 actors on the show, perhaps I should go into forensics.

August Goals

Wow, it is August already.  The kids are gearing up to go back to school and I am getting ready to have a little more structure to my days.  I am hoping in the chill of the fall I will crank out more knitting.

Sock Goals:

• Belle Socks in Lorna's Hot Pink.  This is the month for these to finally be done!!
• March Club socks

Other goals:

• Start stocking #3 for Martha, I hope to get this done by the end of September.  So, I would like to be at least half way if not more of the way through the colorwork by the end of the month.
• 25 squares on my blanket
• Do something with my triangle scarf, even if it is knit on it at least once this month.  I think the issue with this is that I don't like the needles.  Maybe I will put it on different needles.

Chosing Your Religion

A while back I said some exciting things have happened in my life, and one of them is that I am a published author!  Yes, that is right, someone actually paid me cash money to write an article for them.  I am pretty excited about it.  If you have a minute check it out.

Choosing Your Religion

July Re-Cap

Socks:

• Bella Socks, with Lorna's Laces Hot Pink -- I did start these, and am doing then 2 at a time.  As of right now, I am not totally sold on the idea, but was inspired by a knitting pal to try it.  She was doing it and I decided since my yarn was already in 2 balls anyway, might as well give it a go.  It seems a bit fiddly to me.

• Finish Cookie A March Mystery Sock in Dream in Color -- The never ending socks, finally have ended!  I am very happy to report that these socks are done.  I think they will be very cozy this winter.

Other Sock-y things:

• Finish the Christmas Stocking for Martha 

• 25 squares on my Sock yarn blanket -- done!!
• Work on Sock yarn scarf... really need to finish this thing, I did work on it a bit.  I think the needles are the issue with this, it should be an easy knit, but it is so slippery I hate to work on it.   Sigh, another knitting supply purchase.

Other items:

I did make a pair of monkey socks out of Lorna's Laces (colorway:  Loopy), these are also Cookie A socks, but they flew off the needles!  Love them! But, a little tired of all the purple.

Must be love

It must be love.  It has to be love.  Seriously, would you spend 6 days in a car, with three little kids, to see someone you didn't love?

I miss my friends in Connecticut so much.  I wish that they lived closer to me.  Sure, I have made some great friends here.  But, well, they still aren't the same as the gals in CT.

My van is so full, it looks like I am moving to CT.  I have old clothes, books and toys to pass on to my friends.  I have scooters, swim suits and towels, for all the activities we will attend.  Yes, they mostly involve water. I have food, dvd's, ds cartridges, chargers, headphones, books on tape and juice boxes for the ride.  I have enough clothes for us for 7 days, till we can do laundry.  3 kids... yes 3 kids.  We are low riding.

So keep an eye out for us, we will be the mini van ridin' low because it is so full.  Today, tomorrow and the next day we roll.

Maybe Not

First off I would like to apologize for my little rant yesterday.  I feel better having gotten it off my chest.  It leaves with the question of how am I going to handle it when I see the offending party.  I have no intention of actually saying anything directly to them about the situation.  Experience has taught me that doesn't work.

I would love to say I am over it and I really can just tell them to put a stick where the sun don't shine.  But, unfortunately or maybe fortunately my mother raised me to believe several things, and one of them is to always try to be polite.  So, when I see this offender, I will be nice, in spite of the fact that I said Ms. Nice Gal left the building.  Most likely I will be a little bit more hurt by the whole situation and sulk in the corner.

When I worked at FP, one of my co-workers told me to just let things roll off me like water on a ducks back.  Good advice, and I will try to remember that when I am dealing with this person.

But, at the end of the day, it really comes down to when are they going to start treating me like a person and not a doormat.  Probably when I stop letting them.  Perhaps this time will be the time?  I will let you know

Nice Gal left the building

I am tired of being the bad guy all the time.  I am tired of people excluding me.  I realize that everyone has their thing.  Everyone has stuff on their plates.  A lot of people around me have a lot of stuff on their plates right now, and I am supportive of that.  I would like to point out that a lot of those same people were not supportive of me when I had a lot of stuff on my plate.

When the question to include me is posed, then why is it so hard to include me????  I know, because you must hate me.  How rude is it when it is pointed out to you that some of a class of people are included and others are not and the reaction is to exclude all people of that class rather than include everyone.  To clarify, you are sending, let's say an email to a group of friends and you include some of the spouses of the friends and when one of the friends, Mark, says hey can you include my wife too, because I see you have Fred's wife on the list and your reaction is to exclude Fred's wife rather than include Mark's wife.  Well, let me see, how do I say this, it sends a message loud and clear that you would rather exclude Fred's wife than include Mark's wife, because including Mark's wife is the most unpalatable thing in the whole world.

You know what I have to say to YOU about that:

F to the U to the C to the K to the Y to the O to the U... Yup that is right, and the horse you rode in on.

Not even lunchtime yet

It is not even 9:00 in the morning and the kids are already fighting.  They spent the entire day yesterday fighting.  I realize that this is from spending too much time cooped up together.  But, since they refuse to go and play with their friends, I am left with no choice by to force them to play together.

By this point in the day, they have lost every single electronic item in our house.  That means, no computer, no video games, no television, etc.  It is all gone.  Yet, they continue to fight.  Finally I send them outside to play.  I realize it is hot out there, but I really need them to stop running around the house when they can do that outside.

We have plans for the afternoon.  We will be going out for lunch and then to the arboretum with friends.  I realize that this week has been a little unstructured as I try and get us ready to go on our trip.  I know that not having at least one very physical activity everyday is a bad thing.  But, I need to work on getting us ready to go.  I refer you back to the fact that they refuse to go to their friends houses. 

At 10:30, they decide that tickling each other and wrestling is a good idea.  By 10:45, everyone is in their rooms.  Despite repeated warnings that this type of game is going to end up with someone crying because they got hurt, they refuse to listen.  Guess what, someone got hurt and ended up crying.  Seriously, it ends this way EVERY SINGLE time, when do they learn?

I hope that they all calm down, because I am in no mood to deal with them.  We have a long journey ahead of us, and it is not a good thing if we all hate each other before we head out.  Sadly for them, as of right now, they won't be utilizing any electronic goodies until Friday, if they are lucky.

No Classy

Dizzy has Dream in Color Classy up today.  For those of you not in the know, Dizzy runs a yarn website that sells 1 type of yarn at a really good price.  The deal changes everyday.  I have been saying I would like to buy some Classy.  That the next purchase I make from Dizzy will be 6 hanks of Classy.  I have a 10% discount code.

That said, I have enough yarn to make 3 sweaters.  It takes me a year to make a sweater.  So, using my mad math skills I have enough yarn to last me 3 years.  I think that yarn has stopped being a supply for a hobby, but rather a collection.  I buy yarn because I like it and I want it near me, not so much because I have any plans to knit it. 

We will not discuss how much sock yarn I have.  But, it is no longer a supply and most definitely a collection.  I think that this is why I have this sudden interest buy sweater yarn.  My collection of sock yarn is pretty complete, so now is time to round out the sweater collection.  The problem is that sweaters are more expensive than socks, so we are talking about some serious coin now.

So, don't really need to make this purchase.  But I really want to.  I want to buy this amazing black color that looks black in some lights and green in others.  How cool is that?  Green is my favorite color, and to have it be tonal with the black, that just speaks to me.

BUT, I don't need it, and it is a lot of money that I don't have and shouldn't spend.  It is interesting how after almost a year of being super frugal I have been shopping like it is going out of style.  It is time to reign in the spending and not buy anything for awhile.  That said, should I start now or after I purchase 6 hanks of this yarn?

Sometimes when you are an adult you have to pass on things that are really just wants.  This purchase can in no way be perceived as a need.  There will not be a massive moth that will eat all the yarn in the world, and when I want to buy a sweaters worth in a year, there will still be pretty yarn available.  Possibly, quite likely, in the coloway I want today.

I think the first step to over coming an addiction is admitting you have a problem.  I will admit, I have a yarn problem.  Today, I admit the problem and I am stepping away from the computer.  I will not by the Classy.  Even though I really, really want it.

Basement Desert

The great basement flood caused me a lot of angst.  I really thought it was going to be a big deal to get it fixed.  I talked to one contractor and he said he could cut my basement apart and fix the crack.  But then I would have to hire someone to put all the pieces back together.

This sounded so awful to me.  I was just not interested in getting more quotes to get the work done.  Then I found Crawlspace Professionals.  Kevin, the owner said that he would be able to do the finish work too.  I was so happy.  He came 2 days after I got the quote.  There are some upsides to this recession.

This is what he did...

The crack got fixed, the basement got restored to its' former glory.  I know it looks like nothing happened.  All we have left to do is paint.  I was even able to have the folks at Home Depot color match the paint perfectly!  I am very happy that the basement may actually be back in working order.  Now I want to clear some of the junk out of it so it looks a little better!

I just can not believe how much better the basement smells.  I never really noticed that it smelled bad to begin with.

Missing Ducks

Well, our mother duck is done with her nest. Her babies hatched and she rounded them up and walked away. Did she stop to say thanks for letting me sit in your yard for over a month, here are the kids? No! She packed up and left without so much as a quack.

All she left behind was the cracked eggs and one that hadn't hatched.  By the time I got around to snapping the pic, something had eaten or at least taken the unhatched egg. 

Job opportunity?

No sooner do I wax poetic about the joys of working does the PERFECT job opportunity present itself. There is a new job opening at the Museum of Science and Industry here in Chicago. They are looking for someone to spend 30 nights in a cubicle. Essentially, they want someone to be a display. You have to blog and tweet about your experience. You get to live here:

There is no television, but I would imagine you would have a computer, so that would really solve that problem. Can you say Hulu? Besides, all I would really need is the complete NCIS DVD collection.

This really sounds like heaven on earth. 30 days, no responsibilities, oh and not to mention the $10k. I could catch up on my sleep. Just think of the knitting I could get done. Sadly, you can only bring 2 suitcases, would that be enough for all my yarn?

There is some pesky mention of tasks I would have to do during the day. How annoying is that, I mean really, if you are going to interrupt my quiet time with tasks, how will I knit 30 pairs of socks in 30 days?

Now, if I could only find someone to take care of the kids... this sure would solve a lot of our financial problems.

Home or Work

It is 9:00 in the morning, and I still am not dressed and I have not brushed my hair.  I have eaten breakfast and fed the kids and come up with a rough plan about what we are going to do today.  I have tended to my mafia on mafia wars and read the paper.  Sounds pretty good doesn't it?  Even as I type it, I think, why isn't it adequately communicating the angst I feel about staying home, or perhaps envy of my friends who have jobs.

8 years ago, I decided to stay home with the kids.  For various reasons, it seemed like a good idea to swap my high profile, high pressure, high income job as a marketing exec for the playground and dirty diapers.  But when things get really bad, I transport myself back to work.  Where no body yelled, everyone took turns and there was never the sound of Strawberry Shortcake in the background.  I got to hang out with adults ALL day and they used their big boy and big girl voices. 

I never had long in depth conversations with them about the benefits of crust, or had to state that the charter in our house includes eating toast and sandwiches with crust.  Never did I have to pour the juice into the Red Robin cup with the scratch on it, because that one is better than the Red Robin cup without the scratch.  Silly me, of course the scratched one is better.

No one ever climbed on me.  They never rifled around my desk to see if anything I had was good and that they might want to have it to use for their batman project.  My computer was mine.  My desk chair was mine.  My paper clips where mine.  My phone was mine.  No one messed with my stuff.  Be it a cubicle, an office or just a desk, that space was mine.

As I sit here in my Peanuts jammies, and ponder how much different my life would be if I had not decided to stay home.  I think I could wrap it up with something sappy about how no one gives you sticky hugs and kisses at work; at least not without a corresponding trip to HR, but I won't.  I will share with you that if I was at work today, Mac would not be watching Dollars and Sense and learning about how people want to defraud you through mail and the internet. 

First the basement now this...

Today, kids, we are going to play a little game.  Can you tell me what is wrong with this picture?

Still can't figure it out? Here is a close up of the issue.

That is right, the needle on my Harmony circs broke.  It has been a tragic week.  First the basement, now this, I never should have said thing seem to be working out alright for us.  I knew, universe would be angry about that.

Basement Flood '10

Yesterday, I went to the grocery store and I bought some frozen pizzas. I decided since we did not have immediate plans to eat the pizzas I would put them in the freezer in the basement. I went down to the basement and put the pizzas in the freezer. Upon turning to head back upstairs, I noticed that there was a lot of moisture on the bead board on the basement wall.

With a bit more inspection, I noticed that the floor around this moist area was wet. That the moisture ran almost the length of the basement wall, and concentrated in the closet area. It had finally happened, our basement leaked.

Having been through this with the great basement flood of '03, I freaked out. Oh, goodness, we will never be able to fix this, it won't work, we will forever have a flooded basement. Of course we were able to fix the basement in our old house and it was dry when I sold it. That is right all you lawyer people, the basement never flooded again after we had it fixed properly.

Finding a basement guy who is good, will actually fix the problem and is reputable, well, that is another story.  We had one guy come out and he did this to my basement:

So, we wait on another opinion on what do about this situation.  But, I know for a fact that I had better ways to spend that money.  Now to rescue my yarn from this mess...

Church?

Will I melt?  Will I be struck down?  I am a little nervous about going to church today.  I have not been in a church since a Christmas Eve service when Sam was a baby.  So, it has been a REALLY long time.  I remember one of my kids was cranky and needed Tylenol and going to the Walgreens after the service, it was the only place open on Christmas Eve.  Funny, there were people buying last minute gifts.

It is not that I don't attend religious services pretty frequently, but I do not attend them in the Christian faith.  I am a lapsed Christian, I suppose.  There are only so many hours in the day and I feel that by going to Shul, I am fulfilling my duty to religion. I suppose it has more to do with the fact that I believe that my relationship with G-d does not have to take place with in the confines of a tradition or a building.

So, today, I will say the Lords Prayer, sing a couple of songs and watch my good friend's baby be baptized.  I am very happy to do that, rather than attend the service for a different baby that happened yesterday.  We will most likely laugh at how the little meatloaf cries when the priest drips water on her head and discuss her plans for the future.  It will be a happy event.

My little time-share baby is going to be saved in the traditions of her religion.  I think she might need it to survive over here....

Roses in Heaven

It has been an interesting couple of days.  There has been a lot of activity going on around me, but as what seems to be the norm, not to me.  Sure I have had my bit of swirl, but nothing major and nothing long lasting.  It is somewhat freaky how something starts to go south and resolves itself right away.

Some of the things happening to others are life changing.  A good friend of our family lost their 6 month old baby girl.  It is a horrible thing, and I can not imagine the extent of their grief.  It gives me chills to think about putting m baby down for a nap and having her never wake up.  Every little thing seems ok, the baby is resting peacefully and then, just for what ever reason, does not wake up.

What further saddens me about this situation is that someone actually told the business partner/good friend of this family that they deserved what happened to them.  I can not imagine how that compounded their sadness.

There are people in this world that rank high on my most hated list.  Some of them, I jokingly wish were dead.  Take Bob's old bosses for example.  I think they are monsters. While I certainly wish no good upon their houses, I do not really wish them dead.  That is between them and G-d.  The interesting thing is that one of them actually has passed.  He had cancer, so it is not really a surprise.  I was sorry to hear it, in the same way you are sorry to hear that anyone has died, but didn't really care.  I am sad for him, because he created so much hate in his life.

So, we all know how little I think of Bob's old bosses, and yet, I still would never say to that family, well you deserve what happened to you.  They might, but it is not my place to make that judgment, because just as equally they might not.  Regardless of how much I hated someone, I would never say that they deserve to have a family member die.  What kind of person does that? 

I just hope that the family of the little girl find a place where they can move on from this, and this one tragic event does not color the events of the rest of their lives negatively, forever.  They are certainly in my thoughts and prayers.  I hope that they realize that they did not deserve this.

What should you do?

The question was posed in a blog I follow, what should I do?  The Internal Make Over, here is the link, but remember it won't bring you back... so if you want to get the back story, just come back here for the advice.

Her question, in a nutshell, is should she give up on the part-time freelance work she does (and loves) in favor of a more secure full time gig with benes.

It seems to be the age old question, should I do what I love or should I do what pays the bills.  Having been on the side of the fence where the husband was working to pay the bills, I can tell you, it sucks.  If you can find something that you love to do and you can afford to live on what they are paying you, then that is the way to go.  That miserable, I hate my job, hell we lived in for 9 months was not worth the money.  The fact that Bob is happy doing what he is doing right now is worth the massive pay cut he took to be there.

That said, I think the question goes a little bit deeper, because the author is a single parent who probably needs some sort of steady income.  There is a lot of stress associated with relying on freelance work to pay the bills.  I am not unsympathetic to her situation.  I would not want to have to be in a place where my income is insecure.

So, should you do what you love and worry about paying the bills or should you do something you can tolerate and have security.  I would like to assert that there is another choice, do what you love and find a way to make it more secure.

There is a really annoying saying, Do what you love and you will never work a day in your life.  I know, made me puke a little in my mouth too... but it is sort of true.  Life is short kids, and I think if you can figure out how to be happy most of the time, then that is probably the path to be on.

Good luck stranger out there in cyberspace, I hope you can figure out how to do what you love and get the security that you need.

Die Monkey, Die

There is a monkey in Hannah's room.  She would not go to sleep, go to her room to get dressed or generally do anything that involved her room because of the monkey.

The monkey looks something like this:

I am very tired of having to be Hannah's body guard, when she is in her room. All the anti-monkey spray in the world did not seem to solve the problem. Her room reeked like a cheap bordello, but the monkey remained.

Today, pumped up from weight lifting at the gym...

... I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I went up to Hannah's room, and captured that monkey. I grabbed his tail as he ran by, and put a bag over his head. Once he was captured in the bag, I hit him with a stick until he stopped snickering. Then I jumped on the bag, ran over it with the car, jumped on it a bit more. I tossed the bag in the trash and watched the trash men crush it in the truck.

Hannah is no longer afraid to go into her room. She laughs hysterically when I recount how I killed the monkey.

I am glad it worked, because my only other option was to have Fish and Wildlife come by and take the monkey away. That's right monkey I have friends in law enforcement, so don't get any ideas.

No actual monkeys where harmed in today's wild beating...

Fireworks recap

We took the kids to see fireworks for the very first time. I realize that this is an oversight in my parenting. First the kids were babies and too young to stay up that late. Then we moved and I just didn't have the energy to do it.

This year, we decided to give it a try. We got there early enough, next year we can go earlier. The kids had a good time playing and hanging out. The weather was perfect. Not too hot, not too cold. We got a prime parking space.

When the fireworks started, Mac and Sam sat on the blanket with their arms around each other so that neither would be too scared of the loud booms. Once the realized that it wasn't too loud or scary, they laid back, holding hands, and talked about what they saw. They were still a little nervous that the sparks might hit them.

After it was all said and done, they were all excitement and enthusiasm. The wait was worth it, can we do it again next year. Did you see that? Did you see this? What was your favorite, wasn't the end awesome? They chatted back and forth and we got to the van. The traffic was managed very efficiently and the biggest hassle on our drive home was crossing the tracks, because a slow moving freight train was passing.

See you next year at the fair grounds!

Holiday knitting

I have a system to my knitted gift giving.  If you are someone who I think it worthy, I will make you something, but it will NOT be of good yarn and intricate pattern until you prove that you will adequately appreciate said gift.  I have to know that you use it, that you love it and that you really want more.

Why am I bringing this up during the heat of summer?  Because the holiday knitting season is upon us.  Knitters all over the world are wringing their hands, contemplating what and for who they will knit.  I have a few items on the holiday knitting list, but in all honesty as it stand right now, only 3 people in my life deserve merino.

A hand knit gift takes not hours, but days.  Even a simple dishrag takes an evening to make.  Before I am willing to commit hours of my life and a significant amount of money on making something for someone, they have to appreciate it.  Because, don't kid yourself, yarn isn't cheap and hand knit gifts are not a frugal choice.  I will not talk about how much I spend, but lets just say you could purchase a stuffed animal cheaper than I can make one.  But a purchased stuffed animal does not have love in every stitch.  It was not custom designed and created with you in mind.  It was not something that another person fretted over, worried about and created specially for you.

I read a blog by Wendy over at Knit and Tonic, and well, she says it much better than I do.  knit and tonic blog (Just click the underlined blue part and it will take you there, but won't bring you back, but that is ok, I am done here.)

Big or Small?

The decisions we make today will impact our future.  The magnitude of the impact often has little to do with the size of the decision.  Point, I teased my boss about the size of his house.  Not because it was small, really, but because I knew it was a sensitive issue.  Guess what, it was one of the reasons he gave when we had our little chat, and he inappropriately let me go.  There is more to this story, but the fact that I made a small inconsequential decision in my mind, ended up have a big impact on my future.

Rarely do we have the opportunity to know what small decision impacted our future.  Sometimes we do. I learned a valuable lesson that day.  While in the end that situation ended up being in my favor, because their "reasons" were bogus, it was all about other things.  One of which was the size of someone's house.

Take from my lesson what you will.  Think, what small decisions have you made today that will come back to haunt you tomorrow?

Swimming Lessons

Monday, was Hannah's first swimming lesson ever.  I know, I have been a bit remiss in getting her into swimming lessons, but I figured I am a very good swimmer I can show how to do it.  For the most part, she has progressed fine and is at about the same level as the other kids her age.  So, she was not irrevocably damaged by this over-sight.  Well, it really wasn't an over-sight, more of a life getting in our way and not having either time or money to participate in swimming lessons.

This summer both the time and money collided and I signed the kids up!  Hannah took to it like, well a duck to water.  She leaped into the pool and did what they asked her to do.  Then when we got home, she practiced in the bath tub.  She can't wait to show her teacher that she can float.

While it was not a purposeful decision to have Hannah wait until she was 4 to have swimming lessons, it was a good outcome.  I watch mothers try and force their kids into swimming lessons.  Watched the kids cry.  The mothers cajole and plead.  Some threatened and bribed.  Some got in the water with their little tikes.  I remember going through that with Mac.  It was a massive Mexican stand-off.  It was horrible.

I didn't have to go through that with Hannah, because I waited until she was old enough to participate.  Don't get me wrong, I think it is a critical life skill to know how to swim.  It is not like soccer, dance or karate, it is something that my kids need to know how to do.  They do not need to be able to gracefully glide across the pool, but the do need to be able to safely remove themselves from a pool should they find themselves in one.  I agree with these parents, their kids should learn to swim.  But do they need to do it before they are potty trained?  Maybe not.

Birthday interview

Today is Sam's birthday.  I thought it might be interesting to interview the birthday boy and get his take on his 6th year and learn about his plans for the upcoming 7th year.

So, Mr. Lang, it is Sam Lang, not Mr. Lang, Mac is Mr. Lang.  Actually you are Mr. Lang too.  I don't want to be Mr. Lang.

So, Sam, what was the highlight of your 6th year?  I haven't been alive for 6 years, I have been alive for 7.

I realize you have been alive for 7, but our readers would like to know what you liked best about your 6th year, or what was the best thing that happened last year?  Umm... we went swimming.  We got pizza.  Umm... you bought us animal braclets, or sillybandz.  (We took the kid to Disneyland, Quassy, the movies, to see grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, multiple museums and other outings and swimming, pizza and sillybandz are the best things of the year?)

Really, did you go on any exciting trips?  California!!  We went swimming at a hotel. 


Anything else you want to say about California?  We went to Disneyland.


Was Disneyland fun?  Yeah

What did you like best?  Space Mountain, it was like you were in space.  Wasn't it so much like we were going up to outer space? 

So, what are you looking forward to next year?  Turning 8 next year.

Do you have any specific plans or goals for next year?  I want to go out and get Jakes Pizza.

Anything else you want to share with our readers?  No, just get off the computer so I can use it.

This concludes our interview with a newly minted 7 year old.  He would like me to post and get off the computer so he can play pokemon lake.  Until the next birthday, this reporter is signing off.

PS.  Did you know, that Sammy shares the day of his birth with one of the coolest knitting designers in the universe?  If you have gotten a knit elephant from me you have seen her work... yup, Ysolda's birthday is also today.  How cool is that... except Sam likes giraffes NOT elephants.  psst.  her patterns are 25% off today!  Be sure and check it out.