Currently Reading The Historian By Elizabeth Kostova see related

MamaMoo13 Meme

I was reading Mauvely's blog and she gave fantastic directions on how to make your own meme with specific questions to answer.  First, I answered the following questions:

1. What is your first name? Simone

2. What is your favorite food? Meatloaf
3. What high school did you go to? Maine West HS
4. What is your favorite color? Purple 
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Matthew McConaughy
6. Favorite drink? Sweet Tea
7. Dream vacation? Ireland
8. Favorite dessert? Cannoli
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? Alpaca Farmer
10. What do you love most in life? My Family
11. One word to describe you. Passionate
12. Your Flickr name. I put my Xanga name in.

I searched on Flickr for photos from each of my answers and made the following meme:

  If you go to Mauvely's site, she explains perfectly how to make one for yourself.

Have a good day!

Currently Watching Aquamarine By Emma Roberts (II), Joanna 'JoJo' Levesque, Sara Paxton, Jake McDorman, Arielle Kebbel see related

Pics of Some FOs

Just wanted to keep up-to-date and post some pics of previously finished objects:

Before we left on vacation, I made Little Emma -->   and Baby Sister -->

For some reason, I am fascinated by how the booty end of the elephants turned out:

  Too cute!  This pattern was much easier than the Ava-Fante! elephant.  Here are the two sisters together:

Then, I tried out a knitted cat pattern.  I named this one Alberto because I was using up some left-overs a friend had given me after I finished knitting her husband a pair of slipper socks.  His name is Albert, hence Alberto!

I can't remember if I had posted this, but I had made a scarf for my girlfriend to wear to her son's baseball games.  He goes to a high school in the area whose mascot is a Dragon.  If you look closely in the second picture (modeled by dd), you will see his uniform number embroidered on the eyes:

During late January/early February of this year, we had a bit of a cool snap (can't say cold - it's FLORIDA) and my son and husband requested beanies to wear to baseball practice.  Hence, Knights Beanie #1 and Knights Beanie #2:

Last, but not least, a picture of the Fluke Socks I am currently working on.  They probably would have been finished while we were on vacation, but someone (ME) left the pattern in my knitting spot at home.  (Duh!)  They are being modeled on my new leg/foot I received from Thailand via eBay:

   This was the first time I had ever tried the Eye of the Partridge heel. 

What Your These Fireworks Say About You

You are focused, single minded, and intense. You don't let others see your intensity often, and when they do, they are quite surprised. You burn brightly, but you also burn steadily. You have the endurance to get the one thing you desire most.

Next time, Dollywood and FSU pictures.

Currently Listening The Ultimate Hits ( Garth Brooks ) By Garth Brooks see related

We're Baaaaack!

Well, we are back from our 2 weeks of driving the Southeastern states of the USA.  As with the end of all trips, we were glad to be able to sleep in our own beds last night.  HOWEVER, what I am not glad about today is the massive loads of laundry I will need to do, the return of the rental car (I will post how many miles we logged later) and the paying of bills that continued to arrive while we were away (the NERVE!). 

Yesterday, we paid a brief visit to Florida State University before we were washed out of Tallahassee by massive thunderstorms.  I will post a few pics later on that we were able to take before the skies opened up.  Our "Visitation of Colleges" trip was successful.  We weeded out some (Appalachian State, University of Tennessee), added one (Catawba College), had a maybe (Clemson University) and a couple of definites (Florida State, Univ of Tampa).  So, for right now, I guess my DS will end up being either an Indian, a Seminole, a Spartan or a Tiger.  We will be busy this fall filling out paperwork to meet the deadlines for scholarships. I have one pic of FSU I can post today.  It was taken in front of the "Unconquered" statue in front of Bobby Bowden Stadium at Doak Campbell Field at FSU:

  Very awesome and impressive when you stand in front of this statue!

Not much knitting was done on my trip as I left my Fluke sock pattern at home next to my knitting spot (not too smart on my part).  I did buy some new bulky weight yarn at Hobby Lobby in TN in the hopes of making a short poncho, but I didn't like how the pattern for the poncho was disguised by the variegated yarn.  That is one of my pitfalls, I love variegated yarns AND patterned stitches and unfortunately, half the time, that combo doesn't do well with each other.  Now that I am home, I am going to use the yarn to make a round ripple throw.  You can view at my Ravelry site:  ID = MamaMoo13.

 And, just in case you were wondering how charming I am (ROFLOL):

You Are Pretty Charming

While you're not a natural charmer, you can be charming when you want to be. And lucky for those around you, you usually feel like turning on the charm. You project a happy, calm image - even when you're feeling the exact opposite. You make people feel great about being around you... though you're not always up for putting in the effort.

One Free Day in Boone, NC

The ds, dd and I stayed an extra day in Boone, NC since we needed a "play day".  Even though we weren't too excited by Appalachian State University, we did a little bit of sight-seeing in and around Roan County.

 We first headed out of town to view Grandfather Mountain:

We then proceeded to find a gem mining establishment.  We had seen a segment on the Travel Channel about gem mining in North Carolina and decided to try it.

We stopped at Grandfather's Trout Farm and selected and paid for the Large size bucket of sand/gems/rocks.  We spent 2 hours mining the gems and came away with some beauties: amethyst, rose quartz, fool's gold, topaz, rubies, crystal quartz, emeralds, orange and green calcite, moonstone and a couple of arrowheads.

 Filling up their trays.

  Mining the trays.

  Rose quartz (L) and a ruby (R).

  Giant Amethysts.

 Some of Dd's favorites.  Check out that arrowhead!

After mining, we drove over to Blowing Rock, NC.  The town was charming and after a bit of shopping, we drove up to the park and spent some time walking around and taking pictures before the rain started. 

All in all, a wonderfully relaxing day.

Catawba College or Bust!

Can you guess whose logo this is? 

We started off our Friday by driving to the town of Salisbury, NC and visiting Catawba College.  The College is on the outskirts of Salisbury and if you want to send your student to a place that makes them feel just like home.... this is the place.  The original school was a boys military academy and we started off in the "main barracks" now known as the administration building.  For the first time ever in my life, I met the Dean of Admissions and his staff.  We were interviewed by an admissions counselor, Beth, and asked the usual AP, housing, application deadline questions.  My ds is interested in playing baseball for whatever college/university he attends and he was provided with a baseball stats book, a college catalog, a Catawba shirt.  We met a wonderful student who will be a Junior this year by the name of Kali who took us on a tour of the campus.  Kali wasn't sure where the baseball field was at first, but we found it together. They are highly competitive in their math and science departments and have a fabulous environmental science program.  We were disappointed that the Head Coach wasn't on campus, but we will definitely be getting in touch with him in the future.  Now for some pictures:

 Main Administration building (main barracks)

 Chapel

 Dd and Ds sitting under the trees in the central courtyard outside of the Student Center.

 Ds on the Catawba Indians baseball field

And... I saved the best for last --> Kali, our campus guide extraordinaire, standing on the baseball field we all found together:

  GO, KALI!!

After leaving Salisbury, we traveled to Boone, NC to visit Appalachian State University.  Both my son and I were very disappointed.  The area is described by locals as "hippies meeting yuppies".  It is definitely NOT for us.

Today, we had a fun day sightseeing, but since we don't have our camera cord with us.  It will have to be a surprise on my next posting.  Tomorrow we will be leaving for Johnson City, TN to take a look at East Tennessee State University.