Honeys, I'm Hooooooome!

Hi gang! I had SUCH a wonderful time in California hanging out with Brenda! We stayed at a gorgeous hotel, ate delicious meals, drank delightful spirits, drove up into the mountains, shopped, walked the beach, took in all the sites, enjoyed The Oscars, laughed, and laughed, and laughed, and laughed.....all without being arrested! Yay, US! Thank you so much, Bren, for being a superb hostess, and most spectacular friend! This was a much needed change of pace and TREAT for both of us!

We visited every available yarn shop in Ventura County, including Santa Barbara! In complete and total honesty, I love my little Yarn Haven more than any of them. I would describe a few of the shops more as yarn "boutiques" as they had these fancy shmancy shops, but their yarn selection was very limited and/or the yarn was so "exclusive" that it was completely unaffordable. Overall, this was a good thing in limiting my purchases. Here are a few of the ones I ended up welcoming to the stash. There are a few more that have yet to be photographed. The ones I'm showin' you now were taken on the railing of the balcony off our suite.

...a couple of lovely skeins of worsted superwash from Lorna's Laces purchased at
Anacapa Fine Yarns in Ventura. MMMmmmmmm.

Next up: more Lorna's Laces in a sport weight purchased at
The Loop and Leaf in Santa Barbara. Brenda picked out this one.

Here's a closey of it (pretend I wasn't so tacky as to get the price in the pic).

This one is called Jellyfish, and is from Dashing Dachs. How can
one be at a beach resort and NOT buy a yarn called jellyfish!?!

Close up:

Now, I must ask y'all to hang in there with me while I show you a few million other shots from my trip. There are ooooooodles of them, but I will attempt to post only a portion. If you'd like to see everything, they can be found HERE at my flickr account. I give you fair warning that I became completely obsessed with the little grove of palm trees at the end of our hallway - so feel free to skip all two thousand shots of those.

Here's our hotel:


Here's the back...we were right on the beach!


This is the view from the end of our hall. Every morning (as we walked down to the MOST scrumptious breakfast buffet), this is the scene that greeted us:


Me, texting pictures from the beach:


Our walk to the beach:


These (Bird of Paradise) were everywhere around the hotel:


The grounds were AMAZING!


Resting after yarn shopping...poor Bren:


The view from one of the higher elevations in Ventura:


...and lastly...for Ellie and Patti who LOVE to make fun of my fat little toes...


Speaking of Ellie...special thanks to you and hubster for staying with the girls while I was gone. I couldn't have enjoyed myself without knowing you had things under control!!!

Thanks for looking, everybody! As much as I enjoyed myself, I have missed many of you bunches! Keep warm and see you soon!

A few weeks ago, Kate sent me one of these charming gifts, and then Becky graced me with one yesterday. In the spirit of progressive blogging (and cuz I'm s'posed to), I will list my 5 to pass it to (yea, yea...it should be 10, but, as a wise knitter once said, sue me).

• Kiss My Frog
• Knitasha von Stashenskeins
• Knitty Banter
• Skeins and Beans
• T-Town Knitiot

Okay, now that business is out of the way, onto the knitting. I'm workin' hard to get all my socks done before I head off to CA. Somehow...no idea...I ended up going backwards on one of my socks after turning the heel. Duh. Gotta rip that little booger out and try again. Anyway, here's what's going on:

See that lovely yarn on the far left. That's Sarah Lou's sock club yarn for March! I really like it.

I had a wonderful time at the knitting retreat. See?!?! Apparently lots of folks enjoyed it! So glad.


Okay, lovlies, I need to get a move on cuz today is cleaning day. Joy of joys. Thanks for stopping by. Later, dahhhhhlings! (Couldn't resist, Kate.)

I have found MY president!

I am a proud new member of the Fibertarian Party!!!

What can Dolores do for you? Please read below and than ask what can't she do!?

This was a statement to the press:

"Now, my campaign promises. Unlike the other candidates, I readily admit that I'm in this for the bling. Free travel by private jet, a huge expense account, my own office, and a posse of humpy bodyguards in suits and dark glasses? Betcherass. So just tell me what you want, and I'll want that, too.Let's get the ball of yarn rolling with a few suggestions collected by my press secretary, Harry.

• Elizabeth Zimmermann's birthday will be declared a national holiday.
  
• All fiber-related purchases will be fully tax-deductible.
  
• Knitting will become a mandatory subject in American public schools.
  
• Government subsidies for the establishment of independent yarn shops in high-need areas.

*You don't even have to live in America or be American. After a stay in the White House, I'm thinking world domination might be a freakin' hoot.

All credit goes to this man! He's brilliant!

ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz...

Currently recovering from knitting retreat
...will update soon.