Mustard Seed Yarn Lab

I LOVE things that smell good. And I love the soap I get from Orange Fuzz.

Large chunks of their homemade soap that never fail to make me squeal with happiness. These are the 3 I received in the mail yesterday. They’re made with essential oils and beer! (Well, some of them have beer, some don’t.) I used the black one (Detox Activated Charcoal soap) in the shower this morning and now it’s lunchtime and I can STILL smell it on my skin. Pure Heaven. If you love good soap, I recommend visiting their shop on Etsy (my favorite place to buy things). They don’t disappoint.

P.S. I think I will finish the hat I’m working on tonight and I’ll take some pictures and post them probably tomorrow. And I’m on Chart 5 of the secret project.

So, we had a hurricane a few weeks ago. Remember that? I never did get around to posting the pictures from it. Thank God, we came out of it just fine, only losing power for about 4 hours, during which time I got some knitting done and Emmet watched a movie on his battery powered movie player.  It could have been much worse. Especially if this tree directly across the street from out house had decided to come down straight, instead of diagonally across the road.

It managed to miss all the power lines. Phew! We all spent a lot of time looking out the windows at the insane wind.

And then Emmet got decked out in his finest raingear and went outside to experience the storm (once the worst of it was over).

He’s not exactly a fashionista.

But when you’re that cool, you don’t need to be.

First, what I am knitting:

This is going to be a hat. A hat knitted on Size 1 needles. It is taking FOREVER. But when it is done, it will look quite fetching on my handsome, bald friend. 

I’m still working on the super secret project as well, just slowly. Veeerrry slowly. Still on chart 4. Trudging along.

This was me this weekend. Pay no mind to the pretty people I stand with. Just take a look at that GORGEOUS SHAWL!!

I finally had an excuse to wear my handmade Batik shawl. It was ready to get out of my dining room and out into the world. Sadly though, it was a beautiful hot day (sadly for my shawl, happily for the bride) so at this wedding, it didn’t get worn much.

My little cousin Sarah was the one getting married and we had a GREAT time. It was an emotional time for me. Sarah’s dad is my dad’s brother. I sat at the table with my dad’s sister and brother and other family, and Dad felt very absent. It was the first time I’d seen any of them since his memorial service, and I held back tears much of the time. Then Sarah did something very special, and had the DJ play a song in honor of her Uncle Jimmy, and she had him play Elvis’ Suspicious Minds…a favorite of his. I cried. A lot. Right there on the dance floor. He would have been so honored if he knew. Many people were missing my dad that night.

Here is the beautiful bride and her new husband. The kiss is always my favorite picture.

And here is Sarah with her dad, my Uncle Gary.

I just love that picture. And the shawl tried to make another appearance, squeeze into one more picture….

But alas, the camera seemed determined all night to anger me, and purposely was making potentially beautiful pictures blurry.

We drove back home that night…3 and 1/2 hours….so that we could get up and celebrate something else. I became a godmother.

That’s me, dunking the baby. Actually, they just poured water on his head. He slept through it all. His name is Blake Mathew, and he loves me already, I can tell. As soon as I pick him up, he falls asleep. I either really relax him or really bore him. His dad’s behind me in the above picture, making sure I don’t drop him in his slippery satin outfit.

And I wasn’t there solely for Blake. His older brother Liam was also baptized. Here they all are below.

I was super proud to be a part of this event.

Emmet learned how to use my cruddy camera and does a pretty good job, as you’ll see below.

Hee hee…he was trying out the zoom.

And no blog post would be complete without a picture of this little guy:

Well, I have more pictures of a hurricane, a zoo and an amusement park, but those will have to wait for the next post. It’s been a busy couple weeks!