Thursday, January 31, 2008

Cat Knits BINGO


I WON Cat Knits Bingo!

The Cat Knits group on Ravelry had a bingo contest. The moderator of the group gave everyone a list of cat breeds to choose from, and we all picked out 25 numbers. Then each day, she picked out 5 winning numbers and posted them. When you had all 25 on your list you had to post , "BINGO" and the 1st person doing so won. I was waiting for just 1 more since yesterday and today it hit. It was the Marbled Cat that did it! There were several other "bingos" also, but I won because I posted 1st. Hey, ya gotta get up early and keep track of these things.

I have no idea what the prize is, but whatever it is I'll show ya'll when it arrives. This really was so much fun!

The Amber Room



I saw this video on Yahoo News today. Eileen, Jen and Winnie and I saw this when we toured St Catherine's Palace last summer when we were in Russia. It was absolutely amazing.

Monday, January 28, 2008

And The Winners Are............

When I started The Central Park Footie Contest I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. SO many adorable pictures of pet feet were entered that I literally took hours in the decision process. I did not use a random number generator which I thought would help with equally deserving entries. Instead, I enlisted the help of family members to help choose the winners in each category.

AND NOW, without further ado, are the winners:

THE CUTEST AWARD goes to both RICKY & PHOEBE, owned by Dotty!
Ricky's Mom writes, "Ricky is an 8 year old flame point ginger/siamese mix. He's a stray that we rescued from a local shelter. He's loud and loves to sniff the inside of people's shoes. He steals food whenever he can. I call him the "cat alarm" because he sits at the bottom of the stairs and meows loud enough to wake me up in the morning.

"Phoebe is 11 years old and she's a tortie complete with tortie-tude. She was also rescued from a local shelter. She's a med/long hair and has the tiniest mew. Her favourite way of waking me up in the morning is to sit on my pillow and purr really loudly. If that doesn't work, she leans over, sniffs my face, and licks my eyebrow."
CONGRATULATIONS, on the double win, Dotty!

THE NOT-SO CUTEST AWARD goes to MIA, owned by Megann!Mia is adorable and she won in this category because of her poor shaved paw. Megann writes, "Here's a picture of my cat's foot. Her name is Mia and she's 11 years old. She is currently going through a lot of medical issues right now and her leg is shaved where they keep having to put the IV in. She HATES the shaved part and shakes her leg around all the time and licks it. Sometimes she even stop walking and just stare at it like it's some weird growth...lol We call it her chicken leg for some reason. Please keep your fingers crossed that she will be ok. Tomorrow is x-ray, ultrasound and needle aspiration of her liver day.

Best wishes for a good prognosis and a speedy recovery, Mia!

THE AWARD FOR THE LARGEST FOOT goes to CHIEF, an 80 lb. Dalmatian, whose owner is Marj.

THE AWARD FOR THE SMALLEST FOOT goes to GUS!


His Mom, Kate, writes,"Gus is a 5 year old leopard gecko. He is about 6-7 inches from nose to tail. As with most reptiles, Gus is fairly easy to care for. He gets fed live crickets 3 to 4 times a week, has his water changed every other day, and just lounges around in the "sun" the rest of the day since he is mostly a nocturnal animal. His "sun" is a special 75 watt spotlight and his "moon" is a 25 watt blacklight made especially for reptiles. Leopard geckos are different from other geckos in that they have movable eyelids instead of nictitating membranes over their eyes. They also do not have the ability to climb walls since they do not have the little suction cups on their toes. Every now and again, Gus gets to walk around outside his cage and people are always a little surprised when they feel his feet on their skin. He has tiny claws that pinch a little. He is quite fast too, and we have had a few escape attempts when he's out and about for a walk."

THE MOST UNUSUAL goes to FIZZGIG!
Fizzgig is a bearded dragon owned by Carry.

THE FURRIEST goes to TRIBBLE!

Tribble's Mom, Tanya, writes, "Tribble is a Jersey Wooly bunny who came to us from a confiscation of over 80 rabbits and in spite of such a poor start to life she has an amazing personality and just loves people. She is bonded to Tuxedo (13 y.o. male) and Sophie (~5 y.o. female) and spends most of her day snuggling with them or grooming them. Tribble earned her name because she is small and furry and she "talks". She coos and chatters while she grooms herself; she snores (very delicately, mind you); she sounds the alarm when she gets groomed.
Tribble came to us via the Minnesota Companion Rabbit Society which can be viewed at MN.CompanionRabbit.org."

THE PUDGIEST goes to KEL!
Kel's Mom writes, "I took this when Kel was lying on my bed, keeping me company (I'm recovering from bronchitis) and luxuriously stretching his paws. He has such lovely furry paws with soft black underfur between each pad. He has such control over each toe they're almost like little thumbless hands.

THE MOST COLORFUL FOOT Award goes to TWINKLE TOES!
Her Mom writes," Twinkle Toes is a big beautiful old gal of 16 who is called “Aunt Tink” around the house because she is the surrogate Mom to all the other kitties. She nursed and never left the side of each kitty as they went through their final days of illness including both siblings before crossing over the rainbow bridge. She grooms her kitty friends and never leaves our side, keeping us during illness as well. She is a sweet, gentle and undemanding. Twinkle is the most special of cats and has stolen our hearts, always."

AN HONORABLE MENTION goes to PRINCESS, my Grandcat, owned by Jenna!
Jenna writes, "One day when I was 3 years old there was a park by my house. My mom pushed me in a stroller as she walked around the park. We saw a kitty, very cute, about my age. When we got back to my house we noticed the cat had followed us home. At the time we already had one cat so we had cat food. So my mom put a bowl of water and cat food outside for the kitty. We had two doors, a regular door and a screen door in the front. The regular door was already open so I opened the screen door and she flew rite in my house. Ever since that day we kept her and I named her Princess (I was only 3). Now I’m 11 and we still have her. All she does is sleep, eat, and hisses at our new 11 month old teacup/toy Pomeranian but that is what makes her her. I love her so much and if I could pick any cat in the world besides my other cat I would pick her. Remember when I said I named her Princess and I was only 3, well if I could pick a new name now I wouldn't change it."

It will be difficult to think up a prize for Jenna & Princess, but I’m sure I'll come up with something. : )

CONGRATULATIONS to all the winners and THANK YOU to everyone who entered their pets. I received pictures of over 60 pets and I wish I could give prizes to each of them.

I will be contacting the winners to make arrangements regarding sending your prize.

It's time for Sunny & Beauty Baby's evening brushing session, so I will now say Goodnight!

No, I Didn't Forget

The winners of the Central Park Footie Contest have been selected and will be announced tonight!

This project took much more time than I anticipated, between the choosing of winners to blogging all their pictures. Thank you to all who participated and also for your help to the ones who I had asked to send in some additional photos of your pet.

I would have finished yesterday but I spent the whole afternoon at Knitch with the most hilarious bunch of knitters you've ever shaken a needle at. Time well spent, believe me. I laughed my ass off for 5 hours + got a lot of knitting done. Cures what ails ya.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

I Won, I Won, I Won!

I am SO excited! I WON the contest given by The Knit Witch in celebration of her birthday. Everyone entering had to submit to her your funniest, stupidist or most embarrasing moment. Well, I WON! You can read all about it on her blog, but here was my entry:

My funniest story is about a knitted toy class I took at a LYS several years ago. We all made felted mouse puppets and mine was all knitted up. All I had to do was attach the tail and felt it. I was working away, in class, and proudly held up my mouse when I finished attaching the tail. It was aligned perfectly except for one thing: I attached the tail to the FRONT of the puppet instead of the back! You can imagine what it looked like! Everyone started to laugh and that's when I realized the mistake. My face turned SO red and we all had a good laughing session because of this!

The Knit Witch offered a choice of some lovely yarn OR one of her GORGEOUS ceramic Yarn Bowls. Of course I chose the Yarn Bowl. Yarn I have.....a handmade Yarn Bowl I did not.

Thank you, Knit Witch for having such a great contest to celebrate YOUR birthday!
Here is my prize. These beautiful bowls are available for purchase on her site, so go look!

Friday, January 25, 2008

Prizes!

I figured I'd post a picture of the sock yarn that will become prizes and soon to be given out in my Central Park Footie Contest. Thanks to everyone who entered and I must say I have my job cut out for me. Lots of adorable pictures. In fairness to all who entered and to their beautiful pets, I'm selecting the ones who I feel are the best in each category and then using a random number generator to choose the winner. There are so many that I consider 'The Best" I felt I needed some help on deciding the winners when several could easily have won in each category.

Stay tuned for the winners, TBA shortly.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Such a Splurge

I just got the most gorgeous new knitting bag from Green Mountain Knitting Bags. These are all designed & sewn by Martha, an avid knitter and seamstress living in Vermont. I've been wanting one of her bags for quite awhile and they sell out almost as quickly as she puts them up for sale on her site. The trick is logging in EXACTLY when the new ones go up for sale, which is on Thursdays at 8:30 PM EST. I pretty much knew which one I wanted and then pounced on it as soon as it appeared on her site. Got it!

Friday, January 18, 2008

CONTEST! CONTEST! JOIN UP NOW!

I've decided to have a contest in order to make my destashing efforts become a little more fun. The CENTRAL PARK FOOTIE contest is now underway. Send all entries to phyl1234@bellsouth.net. All you have to do is leave a comment to this post and then submit a picture of your pet's paw, claw, or foot, email the picture to me, and prizes, yes, PRIZES will be awarded in several categories.

CONTEST RULES:
Submit up to THREE pictures of your pet's foot. If you have more than 1 pet you would like to enter, that's fine but no more than 3 pictures per pet, please. Tell the name of your pet as well as a little about them.

ANY type of pet with feet is eligible, as long as it's YOUR pet. If you don't have a pet and would like to enter, you may "borrow" a pet from a friend but you have to reference their name, acknowledging the pet isn't yours.

Prizes will be awarded in the following categories: the largest, the smallest, the furriest, the pudgiest, the most unusual, the cutest, the not so cutest, the scariest, and the most colorful.

In keeping with the theme of feet, prizes will be beautiful, carefully selected sock yarn, all brand new, some handpainted, with yardage enough to make 1 gorgeous pair of socks. (Being that I have a few non-knitting friends, substitutions will be made for their prize, should they win.)

The contest runs from 1/18/08 thru 1/24/08 at 6:00 PM EST.
Winners will be announced by 1/28/08.

So what are you waiting for? Get out those cameras!

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!


Just sittin' here, watching the SNOW falling in big, fluffy flakes. Yes, folks, it's snowing in beautiful North Georgia, something that happens probably once every 2 years or so. I'm sure it won't last and I'm very glad I don't have to drive anywhere, but it does look beautiful. I'm curled up with my knitting with Sunny on my lap, Beauty Baby on my left hip, all hunkered down. Now why didn't I knit myself those fingerless gloves?

Friday, January 11, 2008

Orpah & Priscilla


The yarn spun from the fleece of my "adopted sheep" Orpah & Priscilla is on it's way and I'm SO excited. I already have projects slated out for each of them. Orpah will become a beautiful vest for me and I'm looking for a pattern for a cabled hoodie for Jen with Priscilla. When they arrive I'll update with pictures.

Wait....UPS is here. It may be Orpah!

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Lindsey and Sax in matching sweaters


Lindsey and Sax in matching sweaters
Originally uploaded by crazyauntpurl.

I just had to share this picture with ya'll. This was an entry in a "Knit A Sweater For Your Cat" contest. I don't know if this gal won, but I think she should have!

A VERY Cold Cat



It was in the 30's today in South  Florida and Rocky was a little chilled.