Win One of My Handmade Beanies!

The Giveaway is hosting a drawing for two of my crocheted beanies. I hope you will stop over there for a browse and enter the contest while you're at it. If you aren't into stocking caps yourself, consider one for a gift.

Picture Tag

Alyson from In Nuce tagged me for this while I was on vacation in Oregon. The idea is to post the 4th picture in the 4th file of your 'My Pictures' folder. Mine is of the Bloom Master building in Vernal, UT. They are the people who invented pots with hole in the sides. Their store is so beautiful. It's a shame that my camera doesn't show it as great as it looked in real life.

Here's another picture of the front. The flowers in front of the windows look like bushes, but they are really plants flowing out of the sides and over the tops of these Bloom Master planters.

In this folder of pictures I also have a couple of Vernal's Main Street that I'm going to share. It takes your breath away with its hanging baskets and arrangements of planters. It may be the prettiest main street in the U.S.

Big Chocolate Disappointment

I didn't think I would ever use the words chocolate and disappointment in the same sentence, but that describes my feelings after visiting the renown Moonstruck Chocolate Cafe in Portland. I skipped dessert at Papa Hayden's, which boast 22 scrumptious looking desserts, in favor of a mint chocolate truffle from Moonstruck. Guess what, they didn't have one mint chocolate truffle - not in milk chocolate, white chocolate, or my preference, dark chocolate. I couldn't believe it. That is just wrong! They said it's not the season and that they would have some around Christmas. I settled on 2 pieces of chocolate that cost $2.50 each. Neither was anything to get excited about.

In all fairness, I did not try their famous root beer flavored milkshake made from white chocolate ice cream or their hot cocoa which is supposed to be delicious, so I can't say it they would have lived up to their promise or not. All I can say is that I won't be going back. Instead I will look for a Macy's and buy a box of their impossible-to-beat Frango mints.

Picture Tag

Alyson tagged me for this fun activity, but this picture is actually NOT from my computer so I'm not really counting this. The idea is to select the 4th picture from the 4th folder in your My Pictures folder. Since I'm on vacation in Oregon this week I followed those requirements on Candleman's laptop - just to see if we pick the same picture or not. I wonder if it's like two people following the same recipe and coming up with something completely different.

So we'll see what picture Candleman posts when he does this tag . . .

I'm sorry to say that I did not crop the picture, but it's late and I'm in a hotel room and I'm not that familiar with Candleman's computer.

Some of my siblings may recognize the hotel as a place you stayed in 2002. It's the Best Western in Lakeview, OR. The little building on the right that looks like a gas station without pumps is the fabulous Mexican restaurant where Mom, Candleman and I ate dinner. Candleman said it was the best Mexican food he has ever eaten. He can't wait for a free weekend when he and my brother can zip up there and return home. I told him that would be one very expensive dinner! Seriously, the food was great.

The Last of My Kitchen Desktop

During our basement remodeling, Candleman and I have had to give up our desks, but not our computers. Our computers have been moved to the kitchen table, which means we've also had to give up inviting all the kids and grand kids over for dinners or games. In the summer it wasn't so bad because we could use the picnic tables outside.

My table/desk serves as a bookshelf (a flat space to stack my books) until I could get my new books, either mooched or from publishers entered into my LibraryThing. It serves as my study area as I read and plan for our upcoming trip to Oregon. That naturally requires travel books, brochures and atlases to be ready and at hand. And when I need a place to add fringe to my crocheted scarves, this substitute desk has served me well.

Saturday evening I gathered yarn and some of my crocheted scarves so I could add fringe to them during conference on Sunday. Later I checked my email and there was a note from the owner of The Giveaway. I am signed up to giveaway two of my crocheted hats later this month. In the email she asked me to answer some questions and to submit a picture of my work area as it looked at that very moment. No cheating. The above picture is the result. What a mess!

Our family room is now ready for us. The dining table will be cleared off and life will return to some semblance of normalcy. The TV will be moved out the the living room. My current crochet project, yarn and hooks will all be moved. Our living room may stay clean. Dare I hope?!

I should be excited, but I'm not really. Right now everything I need is within short distances of each other - the bathroom, bedroom, my books and yarn, computer, tv, kitchen, snacks - and all on the same floor. Who knows, maybe I'll loose weight running up and down the stairs getting another skein of yarn, running to the bathroom, getting a snack, etc., etc. All that stuff will be upstairs while the computer and tv will be downstairs.

I've decided I want a smaller house!