Saturday, March 29, 2008

This Month of March was brought to you by…

Cafe Du Monde’ French Roast Coffee.

No, I didn’t go to Nawlins’, I mean New Orleans. It’s been over five years since I’ve been that far south. Every trip to New Orleans was oh so fascinating, so interesting. All that sightseeing, all that history and my favorite hang out is always Café Du Monde’. Never fails.




I admit to snubbing canned coffee for years. I use to brag about having never tried it. Then while shopping in Whole Foods back in Ann Arbor (MI), I came across canned Café Du Monde’ and purchased it. I was pleased and happy with it. I didn't remember it as tasting exactly the same but it was close enough.


Thank goodness for online shopping. It’s the same with my imported coffees too. What’s a girl to do if she can’t make it to Ethiopia or Tunisia or Cuba for the weekend? I purchase it online and by the can. There's no shame-in-my-game. I've found that imported canned coffees are better than the U.S. brands. This is my opinion. Whaddyu think ?

I have never tried a coffee with chicory in it. This scares me a little. If you have had a coffee with chicory in it, tell me if you liked it or not. Or if you would recommend it or not. I’m interested.

The Whole Foods in Atlanta does NOT carry Café Du Monde’ coffee. So if you’re in the ATL and think you’re going to trot over to the Ponce de’ Leon Whole Foods for Café Du Monde’; furgetaboutit, they never heard of the stuff.
Quickly !!! To purchase really good coffee, go here.

Also, let’s give a round of applause for those messy little Café Du Mondebeignets !



Bye, bye beignets...

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Finally, some knitting...


I've completed my Shadow Cable Vest by Bernat. Everything has been blocked, I'm stitching this together at this very moment. I've knitted this up in a lilac dk wool (brand unknown). I picked this pattern for it's A-line design and discreet cable.
(please forgive those yellow spots in the photo).




Monday, March 17, 2008

Eeeeeeeeeeeeek !!! I've Been TAGGED !!!

One of my favorite blogging pals, Beate of Cloudberry Knit very nicely tagged me the other day. How sweet of you Beate !!!

Here are the rules. After being tagged, you must tell/show six random or odd or quirky or unimportant things about yourself. Now here's the really fun part, you not only get to tag one, but SIX of your favorite blogs !!!

Okay, here are my quirky and unimportant facts about me.


Number 1. Really, I'm NOT obsessed with this novel.


I collect copies of The Color Purple. I usually get them at resale shops, flea markets, you know. I will never tell how many copies I have.





I have copies with these covers and different covers. I mean multiple copies of each and more. I even have The Color Purple Cookbook.

Number 2. I'm a WHISK freak !!!

Another collection of mine, I collect metal whisks. I have them in all shapes and sizes. Some are new, some antique. Some are all metal, some have wooden handles. My criteria; it has to be metal, it has to be a whisk. I even have miniatures and whisks magnets.





These are not my whisks, but I actually have every one of these plus more. Whisks are cute, don't ya think !!!



Number 3. Yes, it was well worth the trip !!!


Years ago when I was a full time Michigan resident, my son and I would fly or drive down to Georgia to visit relatives. I'd been seeing a woman named Mama Dip on all the morning shows and the Cooking Channel. She was suppose to have some of the best fried chicken in the U.S. Well....., I had to have some even if it meant going hours and hundreds of miles out of the way. Instead of taking I-75 south from Michigan down to Georgia. We hopped on the Ohio Turnpike (east), cut through just a tip of Pennsylvania then headed south down beautiful Highway 77. From there I don't remember the highway numbers/names but we made it to Chapel Hill, N.C. to Mama Dips restaurant.






Yup, it was worth it. The University of N.C. campus is one of the most beautiful I've seen. Chapel Hill is luscious and very green. Now regarding Mama Dip's restaurant. I'll have to say that the chicken and steaks and veggies and peach cobbler and mashed potatoes and sweet potato pie and everything else we had was all excellent. We stayed in Chapel Hill for two days and ate breakfast, lunch and dinner there.


Number 4. How Fez/Casablanca Changed Me.


Some years ago, many years ago, I took a trip to Marbella, Spain. There were about 100 of us traveling together. One of the side trips was to Morocco. We bussed from Marbella to Gibraltar and then flew from Gibraltar to Morocco. Okay I thought, just another side trip from another European vacation. After landing in Morocco, we were bussed to Fez first. There were nearly 100 children waiting for us to get off the bus. We walked and toured parts of Fez for a few hours with the children following us all the time. Many of us gave them money. To have the American dollar was so important to them. Perhaps it's changed now. This trip changed my thoughts on material things, how I viewed America and other countries.


Number 5. This will sound Utterly Ridiculous to You I'm sure but...

My daughter, son and I saw a ghost all at the same time on a drive from Michigan to Georgia. We saw the ghost on a motorcycle in the county of Rockcastle, Kentucky. On a dark and snowy night, we pulled up into a tiny town to rest, drove down a road to do a turn-around. The road lead us to a wooded area and here comes this motorcycle, seemingly floating on the snow. There were about six or seven inches of the stuff ! Well, I stopped my car to let him go past me and he never looked at us, had some kind of glow on his face as well as a smirk. There was no sound from the motorcycle and to top it off, he disappeared (literally) down the road. Okay, I'm done with that story. It always gives me chills when I talk about it.


Number 6. Don't Pretend like you don't ! You Know Someone Just Like ME !!!

I love collecting airline miles. There, I said it ! Many, many of my purchases surround my airline miles. Northwest Airlines of course. My goal; to be a World perks queen, to have enough miles to fly myself and my family across the globe, multiple times. I very rarely purchase a book out of the bookstores because I have to go online to the World perks Mall and order it. This goes for makeup, many of my clothes and other things. I wish Northwest would give miles for yarn purchases. Hmmm, I may need to write a letter.

Okay, there are my six things about me !!! It really wasn't so painful.


Now here are the SIX blogs I've tagged.

1. My Girl Del at Cozy's Place. Who hasn't laughed at her little funny stories. Hats off to this woman for contemplating giving her "dimpled one" the nickname of S-t-n. She's got good knitting on there also.

2. Deborah at Deborah's Daily Dilemma. I call Deborah a sensitive knitter. Every so often Deborah will do a savvy and passionate political post. I do enjoy that kind of thing. Oh yes, she knits up a storm.

3. Kat at Knitting Sutra. I don't know whether any of you have come across her blog but I must warn you. Her writing will grab a hold of you and may not let you go. She's got calm and beautiful words on there. My favorite is Kat's Valentine's Day post titled Love, love, love. Please read and then you'll understand.


4. La Guaria del Bosque for her interesting views, stories and insight on various subjects. I actually have enjoyed all her posts and one that I've gone back to is titled Small World. Did I mention that she knits too !


5. Karen at Yarn Is My Metier. I love her choice of patterns and scrumptious yarns. She crochets like no body's business. Just between you and I; I have big envy for the mannequin head she sports those gorgeous hats on. I am contemplating bribery. Make sure and scroll all the way down to see the mannequin's face.



6. Stacy at Crimson Purl because her blog simply wakes and inspires me. I love the set up, the colors, her knitting, her pix's. When you first bring up her blog, it looks like a pretty flyer on a nice brown table cloth or as if it's up against brown printed wall paper. Nice, nice, nice. This blog is pure positive energy. Love it !!! Oh yeah, Stacy knits too !!! Afterall, she has declared 2008 as Her Year of the Sock.


I was tagged by Beate who was tagged twice by Yarnstruck Kathy...

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Yeah !!! I Won !!! I Won !!!

Around February 17th, VY at So KnitPicky happened upon my blog and left the comment that not only do we share the same b-day, but that I should enter her Birthday Contest. Well, I did and I've won two skeins of Malabrigo yarn !!! VY originally asked that I pick a color but after going to the Malabrigo site and drooling for about 15 minutes or so, I asked her to please pick for me. This was way too hard for me because honestly, I wanted two of each color. I'd rather be surprised.

So, happy, happy, joy, joy for me. I'll post pictures soon !!!

Please visit her blog, she creates the most wonderfulest projects !!!

Monday, March 3, 2008

What to do...


Here are a pair of my favorite shoes. Yup, that's right, they are a blue/black/aqua reptile print. Anyways, I plan on making some type of shawl or scarf thingy to go with them. I just haven't figured out how to put (knit) this all together. The majority of the yarn is the dk wool in aqua (I've about 600+ yards of that one). I may do one of those long scarves with a few strips here and there of the fun yarns. You know, those scarves where you cast on about 1,000 stitches and knit until the end of the year.

I'm open to ALL suggestions !!!