Blog Give Away

In honor of my upcoming 300th post I will be giving away a green market bag.

This picture is the bag that I made for Britt a few weeks back. I started the one for my give away on Friday night and am about two thirds done.

If I did my figuring right my 300th post will be Friday. From today until Friday night I will put your name in a drawing. You will have one chance for each day that you post. On Friday night I will pick a winner and announce it on Saturday. I wish I had time to knit about 25 of these because I'll love to give that many away.

It's just my way of saying thank you to all of you wonderful ladies who read my blog and leave such nice comments. It means a lot to me to have made such great "blogging" friends!!

take care
Dawn

Pink Saturday #13

In just about three weeks my granddaughter, Mackenzie, will celebrate her third birthday. It's hard to believe that she is already three!!! Besides the pirate hippo that I knit for her I also made this sweater. It's called Little Miss Strawberry and I got the pattern out of Creative Knitting magazine. I like pinks and browns together and thought this sweater was pretty.

Mackenzie is not your typical girl~ She loves pirates. As a matter of fact she is having a pirate birthday party. I couldn't find pirate fabric but I did find this lovely pink skull fleece. This is the kind of blanket that you cut and tie. Last Christmas a student of mine made a blanket like this for me and it is so warm and comfy. Britt (Mackenzie's mom) is moving in three weeks to their new home and I hope Mackenzie will like the new addition to her decor!

For more Pink Saturday blogs visit Beverly, our hostess, at How Sweet the Sound

Friday's Favorite Family Fotos

Deborah of Pictures Pots and Pens is hosting Friday's Favorite Family Fotos. Hop on over and see who else is participating and take a look at every one's family photos.

click on photo to enlarge

back to school brag book found at Ahhh Scrap!

In honor of the start of school on Tuesday and the fact that I am a kindergarten teacher, I am sharing a picture of myself when I was in kindergarten. I went to kindergarten in 1966 at West Yarmouth Elementary School. It's now called Margaret E. Small Elementary School. I remember that Mrs. Kennedy was my teacher. I remember having Oreo cookies and milk for snack. I remember we had a sandbox in our classroom. I also remember learning my colors from construction paper circles that were cut out and placed on Popsicle sticks made to look like lollipops.

Notice the short hair cut? My mother always gave my sister and I pixie hair cuts? (Are you old enough to remember those?) My mother used to tell us that if our hair was long enough to pull, it was too long. I guess maybe my sister and I had aggression issues LOL!

One of my most vivid memories of kindergarten was the day I wore the maroon sweater set. It was a knit skirt and jacket and was very pretty. I guess I had chosen part of my own wardrobe that day. All day long I was having trouble keeping my "undergarments" up. Come to find out I had put my mother's underwear on and it kept falling off of me!!! Oh, the things that we remember LOL!

take care,
Dawn

Tag, you are it....and some blog awards

Nola of Alamo North shared this with me today. Blogging is such a wonderful experience. I have truly met the nicest people. I enjoy getting to know a little bit about you ladies and hope that our conversing is pleasure for you too! Thank you all for being such good blogging buddies. I am sharing this with all of my blogging friends!!!

Rhonda at Scooterblu's Whimsy passed this on. When I read it I just want to sing that song. Rhonda is sharing this with the people who bring sunshine into her life and asked us to do the same. Those of you who read my blog are welcome to take this and pass it on to those that make you smile!

Sally from Smiling Sally tagged me!

Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you
2. Mention the rules on your blog.
3. List 6 unspectacular quirks.
4. Tag 6 bloggers by linking to them on your post and then commenting them to let them know that they are "it!"

Let me think just how unspectacular am I.....

1. When I read a book I have to read it in bed! I can't sit in a chair to read.

2. I sing all the time and drive my friends and family crazy. Actually my daughter is good about it. She sings right along with me!

3. I love to talk on the phone...almost to a fault.

4. I live on Cape Cod and don't like any kind of seafood!

5. I don't like eggs! (I'll cook with them, but I don't like to eat eggs that are just eggs!

6. I like to collect office supplies :) (must be a teacher thing!)

I have to tag 6 more people. I pick....

Brittainy at the Litany of Brittainy..... just because I can LOL!

Jeanne at Back Yard Neighbor

Diane at A Picture is Worth a 1,000 Words

Rechelle at Walnuthaven Cottage

Kim at Kim's Treasures

Darlene at Darlene's Days

Ladies if you are up to playing please feel free to join in the fun. If you haven't visited any of these girls before hop on over to their blogs and have a visit. :)

I wish you all a wonderful day!

take care,
Dawn

Happy Birthday to dear hubby!!

Today is dear hubby's birthday. He is a young 52 today. Don't tell him I said young because I always tease him about being older than me!!!! He is five years older than I am but I remember once when I was 34 and he was 39 I told him he was ten years older because 34 was closer to 30 and 39 was closer to 40 and that made the difference 10 years. I thought that was completely logical? What do you think?? I think he's pretty cute even if he has more wrinkles and gray hair! You know he even does dishes!!! He's a keeper.

Tonight after work Tim and I are taking him out to our favorite restaurant. We always order the same thing. Tim will get a burger. Rich and I will get steak tips. Rich will have a stuffed quahog and I'll get french onion soup! Talk about falling into a routine!

This is a busy time of year for birthdays in my family. In four and a half week's time my daughter, son, husband, niece, son in law and granddaughter all have a birthday! It's almost worse than Christmas on the pocket book!!

I'm headed in to school again today. I have the hardest part of my room done. I still have a few things to put away and then set up for the first day of school. I took a mentor training class this summer. We have a new teacher in Kindergarten and I will be her mentor this year. Tomorrow morning we have a meeting and then I think lunch. :) I'm looking forward to doing this. Even if it hadn't been me I would still be offering any help or assistance that I could.

I hope you are all have a good day. If I don't get to visit you this morning I'll check in later today.

take care,
Dawn

A mish mash of thoughts today!

I put in a full day in my classroom yesterday and let me tell you I was BEAT when I got home. I'd already spent a couple of hours here and there but yesterday was a long day. I cleaned out closets, tossed things that were no good and left with a messier room than when I got there! Today I plan on going in as well. The two girls I wrote about on Saturday will be with me so I will get help from them as well as Tim!!





Speaking of Tim. His birthday is next week and he has been making and revising his birthday list for a couple of weeks now. He is in to Star Wars. Last week he and Rich went to see the new Star Wars Clone Wars movie. He wrote about it on his blog last week :)



Tim gets Legos catalogs in the mail and has thumbed through it dozens of times. There is a Death Star in there with about 3,000 pieces. He really likes it but I've told him that it is too much money. ($400!!!) So when he made out his list he wrote it down anyway with a comment next to it that says "only if you want to"! Even if I did have the money to buy it I think I wouldn't. I can already hear the frustration in his voice when he couldn't find the right piece to put it together!

Brittainy posted on her blog yesterday about her new house. Last weekend I had a chance to go inside and take a look around. It's so nice and I am so happy for her. I can't wait for her to move in. I am taking this right from her blog to show you. They don't seem to be loading right so hop over to her blog and have a look.

Today is also my nieces birthday. She is the oldest of my five nieces and she is 20 years old today. Happy Birthday Tonja!!!!

take care,
Dawn

Mirror, Mirror on the wall.

Mirror, Mirror on the wall. Who's the silliest one of all. Well that would have to be Shelia. A while back she posted about her desire to take pictures of herself in bathroom mirrors. She likes to take the pictures when she goes out. I'm not that brave yet!!!! I decided to be a good sport and play along. After all it is not often that you are given the opportunity to take your own picture in a bathroom. Well, here I am in all of my glory. (I hate pictures of myself!!!)

I noticed that Tim's Spiderman towel is in the background. I guess I didn't do too well moving things out of the way. The angle is off too! Oh well I get points for the effort, right?





take care,
Dawn

It's time to catch up and thank you all!

Sometimes I am not very good at sharing awards that have been given to me. Today I hope to make this my catch up post.

Yesterday Darlene shared this award with me:

I am now to tell you five things that make me happy! Here I go

1. my family
2. my friends
3. my job
4. summer vacation
5. music

Beverly shared these with me a while back.

This came from Jeanne
And this came from Diane and Jeanne


Blogging has provided me with a perfect blend of friendships and that is why I would like to pass these on to all of you. I hate having to single out. I'm not good at it. It's like picking your favorite child!!! If you visit me each of your comments and friendship mean a lot to me. Don't be shy! Take the award. I'll be checking up on you LOL!

take care,
Dawn

My yo-yo projects

Donna of Donna's In the Attic is hosting a yo-yo challenge. It's taken me a while to get what little I have done completed. While ideally I would have liked to make a yo yo quilt I knew that wasn't in the cards. I found directions for making these angels while searching for something to do with my yo you maker. I decided to use buttons and not ribbon. I thought they would make cute package decorations. The website that offers the instructions has an abundance of ways to package these little angels.

Before I made the angels I made some flowers. I love these flowers. Wouldn't they make a beautiful quilt? (I don't know why the colors look so washed out here!) I decided four flowers wouldn't exactly make a quilt so for now I am calling them coasters!!

I do love making the flowers. So much so that I bought this little purse at A.C. Moore for $1 and made a flower to put on it. I'll be giving this to my granddaughter. Maybe I'll put something in it for her. It's not quite finished but you get the idea!

take care,
Dawn

Pink Saturday # 12

These are the last of the flowers to bloom in my garden. It is a sure sign that summer is coming to an end. I am sharing these flowers with you today and the story that goes along with them. Two years ago I had two girls in my class. They are twins. I fell in love with them. They are so full of life and energy and are about the happiest girls I know. They have an infectious giggle that make me laugh!!! On their last day of kindergarten with me they each gave me a hibiscus plant. I planted them right away and was thrilled to wake up one morning last summer to see the flowers had bloomed. This year I was a bit nervous because the plant looked like it wasn't going to come back to life. Again, I awoke to a surprise to see nice new green stalks growing and just two weeks ago the first flower bloomed.

I have such a fondness for these girls that both last summer and this summer I offered to watch them a couple of days while their mother was working. They keep me young at heart!!!

The next picture is one I took when one of the girls was writing in her journal in school. One thing I do is give the children pictures and they can pick one that they want to write about. On this particular day one of the girls chose to write about this picture of a Barbie doll. (Notice the pink!) In case you can't read "kindergarten" , it says, "she is pretty like Mrs. King" Is it any wonder why I love these girls LOL!!!!

For more Pink Saturday blogs visit Beverly, our hostess, at How Sweet the Sound

Friday's Favorite Family Fotos

Deborah of Pictures Pots and Pens is hosting Friday's Favorite Family Fotos. Hop on over and see who else is participating and take a look at every one's family photos.

This picture was taken on January 25, 2005. It would have been my father's birthday. Tim never met my father because he died three years before Tim was born. I want him to know about his grandfather so on this day we were making a cake to celebrate grandpa's birthday. This is Tim standing on a chair mixing the cake.

What struck me most about this birthday that year was ALL THE SNOW we got. I think we had almost 30 inches. That doesn't happen often here on Cape Cod! My dad worked for the highway department and would be out plowing the roads during snow storms. Boy would he have loved that one!! Look at Tim in all this snow that day.

When we made the cake for my dad we thought it would be appropriate on this particular birthday to have white "snow" frosting and a plow on the cake for him.


I am sad that my father never got to meet or know Tim. I know they would have gotten along so well.

take care,
Dawn

Being Neighborly

We bought our house 12 years ago. We have wonderful neighbors. There has never been a problem with any of our neighbors. The only issue I can recall is one neighbor had a dog that would chase our cars down the road. I was always afraid of hitting it.

We have neighbors on one side that are retired and just the loveliest people. The gentleman is a retired minister and years ago when my grandmother died I asked him to do the service for us. They are so friendly and the kind of neighbors everyone hopes for. Across the street we had two other wonderful neighbors, Jack and Kay. They both were retired. Sadly both Jack, then Kay, passed away this past year.

I'm bringing it up because every year at this time Jack would get so much pleasure out of teasing me. He would remind me that summer was over and it was time to go back to school. One year he said he wanted to put signs up in the neighborhood that said, "Ha, Ha! Dawn has to go back to school!". He told me Kay wouldn't let him. :) I loved his sense of humor. He always made me smile. Their house has since sold and I've meet the new neighbors (though this isn't their primary home) and they are very nice as well.

I have a sense of sadness as I get myself ready to head back to school these next couple of weeks. I miss Jack's bantering back and forth with me. Remembering him, though, makes me smile!

take care,
Dawn

The Purple Dragon

This week I made this dragon scarf for my granddaughter for Christmas. She loves all the things you would typically think of as something a boy would like. That's my girl!! This dragon was easy to knit. If you are interested you can find the pattern here. While it was easy the time consuming part was making and sewing all of the pieces together!!!

At some point I am going to make a green one for Jack, but not now. I want a break from the dragon. I think I will make a hat and scarf (one piece) for Jack first. Maybe he'll get his dragon when he is a little older.

There you have it. One Christmas present completed.

I am off to school early this morning for an all day workshop. I know I'm going to be tired when I get home. I'm too used to being lazy this summer.

take care,
Dawn

The honeymoon is over!

Well not technically the honeymoon, more like summer vacation. Yesterday was the first day that I headed into my classroom to get ready for a new school year. This is the view from the door! All the furniture has been corralled into the middle of the room so they could wax the floors. The custodians usually put the furniture back in place according to the floor plan we leave. I guess I was in too soon. Though with school starting in two weeks I don't think that's too soon to expect a kindergarten room to get set up!!

This is Tim sitting at my desk. He's playing with some of his toys while I survey the room.

This is the center of our room. I tried to move some things today but I couldn't move some of the things and if I scratched that newly waxed floor there would be you know what to pay!!!!

I have 15 big totes of "stuff" to unpack. I packed it all up in June. The shelves behind the sheets are filled with even more stuff to put away. The children's cubbies are behind those sheets. I wanted to start yesterday, but it wasn't going to happen without the furniture being where it belongs.
We also have boxes of new supplies and materials to be unpacked too! I don't know how they think it can all be done in the two hours that they contractually give us! I'll be spending quite a few days of the next two weeks here. They haven't finished waxing the halls so it might be even longer before I can actually get into the "dirty work" of setting up.

take care,
Dawn

The Mustang Game

If you are about my age you might recall the punch buggy game. If you saw a VW bug you would yell out punch buggy and then as the name would suggest, you punch the person next to you. It's probably not a good thing to do come to think of it, but what a great excuse to punch play with your younger sister LOL!

Tim had made up his own automobile game. It started because he starting noticing Mustangs. He began keeping count of all of the Mustangs he saw. As he was noticing the number of cars his count grow he started "altering" the game a bit. If I were to come home and say that I saw a Mustang today, he would add it to his count! Then it progressed from there. He went to a local department store and saw a toy Mustang. Yup, those count now too! He saw a picture with a Mustang. Those count too. He saw a Mustang on a TV show. It counts. I suggested he take into consideration any actual Mustang horses. He didn't think I was funny!!!

Yesterday he and Rich went to see an antique car parade and he said he counted 13 in the parade alone. He is up to 319.

I wonder how long he will keep this game going.

take care,
Dawn

Shopping made easy!

photo from Cape Cod Times

Earlier this year our local supermarket began putting out these scanners in the grocery store for shoppers to use. I was so excited to give it a try. I liked it so much that I started telling people about it. I commented to people in the store using them. I did in store advertising for the scanners (all on my own...just to spread the love!). Some people I talked to one day at lunch insisted that it was taking jobs away from people and they were an awful thing to have. The next time I went shopping I asked the store manager. Now call me naive, but I believed her. She said that they weren't taking jobs away.

You can't imagine how excited I get scanning and bagging my groceries as I shop. I don't have to take everything back out of the cart, help bag them again, and spend all that extra time. I just hand them the scanner and in minutes I'm done! I can even stand in the 12 item or less line with that scanner and a HUGE cart of groceries. For many months when I was doing my mother's shopping as well, I was a two fisted scanner. Ahhh, life was good. I'm back to doing just my own and I can't imagine every going back to the other way of shopping. I have my bags arranged in my cart just so. I know how to pack it as I shop and I've got it down to a science.

The other great part of shopping is that when you use your reusable bags like this green bag here:

they take 5 cents off your order for each bag you reuse. I keep mine in the trunk of the car so they are always ready when I need to shop.

Shopping is indeed fun again. I do have Rich and Tim unload the groceries and put them away. After all I am just so "tired" (Shhhhh don't let them know) from all of that hard work.

take care,
Dawn

Pink Saturday #11

It's Pink Saturday again and I was trying to decide what to do this week when I remembered a project I did with my kindergarten class this past school year. Every year at the end of May we make volcanoes. We paper mache's little water bottles and then paint them. I always ask the kids what they think we could put in them to have the volcanoes erupt. I give them a hint that one ingredient is dry and the other is wet. Their guesses are too funny! Finally I let them know that we add white vinegar and baking soda. I put red food coloring in the vinegar to help make it look like lava when the eruption begins. Without fail the volcanoes erupt a lovely pink! This picture is what we did with the left over vinegar in the bottle. They kids get so excited seeing this huge eruption. Below is a very short video of them watching it. I love the excitement in their voices as it is being recorded.

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books
For more Pink Saturday blogs visit Beverly, our hostess, at How Sweet the Sound

Friday's Favorite Family Fotos~ Happy Birthday to Britt!

Deborah of Pictures Pots and Pens is hosting Friday's Favorite Family Fotos. Hop on over and see who else is participating and take a look at every one's family photos.

Today my baby is 28 years old (just a couple of years younger than me....how did that happen?) It just baffles my mind sometimes thinking how many years have passed since she was born. She's a mom of two herself. One day she will be saying the same thing about her daughter!

I am very proud of Brittainy. She is a wonderful mother, has a great sense of humor and is more like me than I think she would like to admit to LOL!

This picture is my all time favorite picture of her from school. I think she was in second (?) grade at the time. I look at this picture and she still looks just the same to me.

Happy Birthday Britt~! I love you!

take care,
Dawn

My knitting

I finally broke down and made something for myself. This sweater is something I have wanted to make for quite a while. When I started it I was afraid it was going to take forever. It took me 11 days from start to finish. I was also very worried that the size would be too small, but it is actually rather roomy, almost too much so. I think if I make another one I will make a smaller size. I am looking forward to wearing this in the winter!! It's 90% wool so it should keep me nice and warm.

I made my daughter a market bag a few months back and she loves it. She asked me to make her another one. I've now made 7 of these and I think I could do it in my sleep. It's a fun knit though and when I'm looking for something to make it's a quick project.

Right now I have a second red sock on the needles and a scarf I will probably give to a friend for Christmas.


Just thought I'd share what I've been working on. I think my next project will be a dragon scarf for my granddaughter.

take care,
Dawn

My art's desire

With all of my blogging this summer I have noticed how beautifully decorated so many of you have your house. I have confessed to a few that I have little skill or inclination to decorate. I like things very simple. Compared to what I have seen, I have very little art work in my house.

The only piece of "real" art that I have every bought was this watercolor at an auction years and years ago. I used to date someone who loved going to auctions and I would go with him almost every weekend. I really did like this and am glad that I bought it.


When Rich and I got married we went to Nova Scotia on our honeymoon and both of us were taken by all the lupins we saw there. They were growing everywhere!!! I found this little framed print in one of the gift shops we went into and bought it.


My favorite time of the year is Christmas. I just love the "Christmas" spirit. One of my favorite holiday movies is "A Christmas Carol". I found this at an auction once and bought it. I have it hanging up year round. :)

When my great grandmother died I asked for this picture of hers. It always hung in the living room. It's very old and quite darkened from time. I have this picture of Jesus and my other art work I have shared hanging in my bedroom.

We bought our house 12 years ago and when we first moved in I found this print and really liked it. It hangs in my kitchen (we have a small house, no dining room!).

I have two big bare walls in my living room and this is what I have had hanging up for the 12 years that we have lived here.....NOTHING! Yup, this is my bare wall. The other wall looks just the same LOL! I did see something a few weeks ago that I almost bought but the frame was not made well. I asked the store if they would give it to me at a discount and they said that they couldn't. It was similar to the one above. It was a wicker basket on a doily on a shelf filled with purple flowers. I think it was lilacs but I don't recall. That was the first print I had seen in years that I really liked. But I didn't want to pay for it with an inferior frame (the mitering job was awful and bare wood was showing).

I often think that I would like a nice Cape Cod cottage kind of print but I haven't seen what I envision.

So for now, I will continue to look at my bare walls and wait for my art's desire.

take care,
Dawn

They're coming to take me away!

My son is a typical 9 year old boy! The things that interest him are so different than the "girly" things I liked as a child. He loves to watch the History Channel. His favorite shows are about dinosaurs and aliens. Bless the poor boy's heart. The other day he came to tell me that he was watching a show about UFO's and learned that they liked to abduct small children about 1 year old. He told me that he was worried for his niece and nephew. Not only is he worried about them, but also their future offspring since now they are only 3 years and 6 months old respectively. He also confided in me that he was worried for his future children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and so on. I told him he didn't need to worry because aliens certainly wouldn't be interested in our family! If they were smart they would run LOL!

Sunday night at bed time he came out to tell me that he couldn't stop thinking about aliens and asked if he could sleep in our room. I gave in (I'm easy that way). He slept on a little fold out bed on the side of our bed. I don't know if I was supposed to stay away all night and fend off any aliens that would make their way into our room. I guess just the comfort of having us by his side was enough for him.

I tried to explain to him that aliens wouldn't be coming to our home. He is a firm believer in extraterrestrial life and didn't believe me. I suggested he start finding different things to watch on TV.

take care,
Dawn

Thank you Rechelle!

I was visiting Rechelle's blog Walnut Haven Cottage last week (or was it the week before?) and saw she was doing a pay it forward. She would send gifts to the first three people that responded and in return they would send to the first three people who responded to them. On Saturday my package arrived and I was so excited to open it up! What a delight to see the wonderful surprises!!! She sent this lovely teacup and teas, a book and a pretty pink journal. (There were two bookmarks as well, but I forgot to get them in the picture!)

I called my daughter Brittainy to tell her about my goodies and she is so happy about the tea and teacup. She is moving into a new house next month and wants to have a tea party. I guess that means I am invited. I hope that means I am invited!!

Isn't this so pretty?

Rechelle, thank you very much. Your kindness is truly appreciated! It is wonderful how a pay it forward can touch a "strangers" life.

If you are interested in doing a pay it forward exchange check out this post.

P.S. to yesterday's post. I forgot to mention one other book that I read: The Borden Tragedy.

My friend Debi reviewed this on her blog a while back. I'd never read a graphic novel before. Actually I never knew what a graphic novel was. At first I was a little taken aback by the fact that is was a "comic book". Once I started reading it, it began to read to like a story. I've always been intrigued by the story of Lizzie Borden and her family's tragedy. I can't quite make up my mind whether or not I think she did it.

take care,
Dawn