How cute!!!

I have the BEST story for you!

I met-up with my spinning "Meet-up" group a few weeks ago and met the nicest young couple. And what a spinning story they had!

Rob and Lauren live together... They both like to make things... Lauren likes spinning fiber into yarn... So, Rob decided to make her a spinning wheel for Christmas! He started in October, using scrap wood they had in their basement woodworking shop.

He had never seen a working wheel, he just understood the concepts. (He's an engineer, if memory serves me right). So he went to work at night. He said he was doing the laundry! Every night. And, each night, so Lauren would not see the work in progress, he dis-assembled the wheel and hid all the pieces.

He did this for two and a half months. Lauren couldn't figure out what he was doing, and was getting very annoyed at his lack of involvement with anything except the laundry!

Lauren's parents were helping Rob: her mom hand painted a beautiful scene on the actual wheel, her dad helped with tools.

So when Lauren complained about Rob to her parents, her mom would say "yes, but maybe Rob is busy... He's such a nice guy...". And Lauren just got more annoyed at the lack of sympathy.

Rob finally decided he better give her the Christmas present in the first week of December before she became REALLY aggravated!

And won her heart again... mine too with this great gift!

Employed!!

Hi everyone,

It's been a busy month!

I found a job at the beginning of March with Aflac! (Yes, the duck!).

In order to sell insurance in New York you have to get a license. This required attending a class, taking and passing a pre-test, then taking the state exam and passing. You all know me, I had to do it the first time, too! So, I did!

It took two weeks of intensive studying but I did it!!! I am now a licensed insurance agent (I will be official when I get my license number.)
YAY!!

I'm going to ask you all for help now though.

Who do you know?

I am so pleased to be working for Aflac, and you all know how much having great insurance helped David and me with his cancer. Aflac offers a really great cancer policy. (It covers so much and is so very reasonable!). I want to help make it easy for others when faced with this dread disease. (The insurance company actually calls the policy a "dread disease" policy.).

So, if you know anyone up here who might be interested in policies, please let me know.

There are many other supplemental policies available as well: short and long term disability; supplemental health, vision and dental; hospital supplemental and accident (on and off the job) supplemental.

GBOY in NYC!

Last weekend was Vogue Knitting Live, and (OF COURSE) I was there! So were the crew from Great Balls of Yarn! Here they are in action!

Look closely - it's Becky and Danny digging in a box. Sorry guys, didn't mean to show you SO hard at work! Wow, the booth was packed! It was great to see everyone and get a touch of Florida.

Robin had two great photos on the GBOY blog:

http://www.greatballsyblog.blogspot.com/

HI back to you!!

And here is the absolute BEST photo:

ME with the Yarn Harlot (Stephanie Pearl-McPhee)!

AND - I'm holding a very famous sock!

Look who else was holding the sock:

http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2011/01/25/sock_in_the_city.html

For those that don't know what holding a sock means, read this post:

http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2008/10/04/hey_hugo_hold_a_sock.html

Here is a beautiful sweater!

This charming woman let me photograph her beautiful knitting!

and remember:

The Holidays (continued...)

There was a giant snow storm the day after Christmas, my first snow in 30 years! Of course I took quite a few photos, it was two feet deep! I won't show you all the photos, just a couple entitled: "This is why you DON'T own a car in the city!"

We went away to New Hope, PA for New Years, it was really beautiful in a wintery kind of way.

This is the most beautiful road in Pennsylvania:

AND there were SHEEP!!

FYI - Rob's favorite photo of me...

Catching Up (Again...)

OK, Christmas has come and gone, but I just had to share the highlights before it's February!

Here we are at Rockefeller Center

Midnight Mass at St. Pat's Cathedral!

After Mass... it was COLD!

Then we went to the Carnegie Deli! At 2:00 am on Christmas Morning!

And here's Rob on the job in Southampton!

On the roof:

The job:

Thanksgiving - or - "I'm Bringing a Ladder!"

The Macy's Thanksgiving Parade - a New York Tradition!

And I was there in person this year!

...with a twist:

Rob said he was bringing a ladder. Being the good sport I am, I said, "hmmm.... oookkk..." and didn't think much more about it.

He brought a ladder:

There were breakfast omelets and coffee in a bag.

We sat up high:

Above the crowds:

Really above the crowds:

It was incredible!

And FUN!!

Then we went to the Friars Club for Dinner with Neil, Laura and Brian:

The next day we brought Thanksgiving to Rob's Mom upstate:

I have soo much to be thankful for!

Thank you all, my dear friends and family, for making my life so rich and joyful!

Look at the crowds!

(And we were the only ones with a ladder!)

Actual photo from a NY Mitten Testing Session in December on the beach...

Here's a snap of one of our NY Mitten testers battling below freezing temperature conditions on the beach in December...

Note the mitten's bright color used for signaling " Get me out of here!!!" at the conclusion of testing.

Note, no mittens were injured in the testing, and the testers had a great dinner in nearby South Hampton, NY.

In a related story:

Unbeknown to Floridians, snow actually exists AT THE BEACH!

A third breaking story involves the "Santa Cruise" where Santa descends on Greenwich Village and takes over!

Yes, the police were there for crowd control!

Stray Christmas trees were also photographed.