8.26.08 A big day for Heather Knitz

Today was all about the big "3"...

1) I was featured today on etsy in a treasury!

2) Today I hit 3000 sales on my etsy site, heatherknitz!

3)All on one of the most important days...my son's birthday:)
Happy Birthday, Taylor!

A Vacation Slideshow....

Holden Beach, North Carolina
2008
More vacation pics...

Taylor's art...from the Cincinnati Zoo

My son went to zoo camp In July as he had the past two years. This year a new exhibit opened at the zoo, Giraffe Ridge. Everyday, the campers would walk by the new exhibit and everyday my son would come home and would draw these wonderful representations of the giraffe's at the zoo!

Five young giraffe were brought in. The exhibit is designed to get you up close to the action! You can even feed them during designated feeding times. While at a distance, the five giraffe seem very different, they are actually quite unique and true individuals. They each have a birthmark on their chest, which is the way spectators can tell them apart!


Here the giraffe's are getting fed!

My little cherubs....

Slowly, but surely, I continue to download the photos from my recent vacation!
Here is another one...I just love it!

Holden Beach, North Carolina
August, 2008

Change of Heart ~ a must read!

As is typically the case with vacations, I read a lot. This year I began with my typical southern favorite authors. I quickly caught up on all of those and then my mom asked me if I had ever read anything by Jodi Picoult...She dropped Change of Heart in my lap.

While it may be her 15th book, it was the first one I have ever read by her and I was BLOWN AWAY! The book was simply amazing--you definately will not put it down:) Just when you think you know where it is going-BAM, you are headed in a completely different direction! I LOVE the writing style she uses--each chapter is a different character's voice!
Here is a synopsis from Jodi Picoult's site....

Synopsis:

Shay Bourne - New Hampshire’s first death row prisoner in 69 years – has only one last request: to donate his heart post-execution to the sister of his victim, who is looking for a transplant. Bourne says it’s the only way he can redeem himself…but with lethal injection as his form of execution, this is medically impossible. Enter Father Michael Wright, a young local priest. Called in as Shay’s spiritual advisor, he knows redemption has nothing to do with organ donation – and plans to convince Bourne. But then Bourne begins to perform miracles at the prison that are witnessed by officers, fellow inmates, and even Father Michael – and the media begins to call him a messiah. Could an unkempt, bipolar, convicted murderer be a savior? It seems highly unlikely, to the priest. Until he realizes that the things Shay says may not come from the Bible…but are, verbatim, from a gospel that the early Christian church rejected two thousand years ago…and that is still considered heresy.

Change Of Heart looks at the nature of organized religion and belief, and takes the reader behind the closely drawn curtains of America’s death penalty. Featuring the return of Ian Fletcher from Keeping Faith, it also asks whether religion and politics truly are separate in this country, or inextricably tangled. Does religion make us more tolerant, or less? Do we believe what we do because it’s right? Or because it’s too frightening to admit that we may not have the answers?

Now that I am addicted to her books...I'm going to have a really difficult time deciding which one to read next!
Heather

Vacation Follies: The Sacrifices of Motherhood and Wifehood, part 1

Ok, so about a week or so before we left on vacation I received an email alert that a Nascar driver, Kasey Kahne, was going to be having an autograph session at the Nascar Speedpark in Myrtle Beach while we were on vacation. We stay on the Brunswick Islands--Holden Beach, NC which is about 1 hour and 15 minutes from Myrtle Beach. So, usually one day out of our vacation we venture down there for a day trip to visit Barefood Landing, Broadway at the Beach and the Nascar Speedpark. Fine.


Fast forward to the day before the autograph session, Wednesday, August 30th. My husband finally looks up the details about the autograph session only to find out that you have to have a "wristband" in order to get an autograph. There are a few ways to get a wristband--win a contest through the local radio station, get in line when they open ont he 30th or spend $50.00 per wristband in the gift shop. He chooses option #2--get there when they open. Do we get there "early"? No. Do we plan ahead? No. When we pull in the entrance, the line was already half way up toward the Nascar Cafe. They jump in line and I go to park and sit and watch them. Sure enough within minutes it is 10:00 and the line starts moving inside. Just minutes later, I see a whole bunch of people leaving all of whom have wristbands and then I see even more--far more, leaving without wristbands! What a shock, eh? So, I start walking up toward the entrance and by then they look like they have been trampled over by a herd of elephants and low and behold--NO WRISTBAND! So, of course, they get in a line of about 150 people crammed into a 15x15 foot space to go spend a ton of money to "buy" a wristband! About an hour later, my husband has bought his stuff and they have a wristband.


Now, of course, what I am noticing (as an enthusiastic spectator) is that by the time my husband gets up to pay, there are TWO people in line behind him--in other words, if he would have just waited an hour or so until 11:00, he could have just marched up to the counter with what he wanted to buy, received his wristband and then moved on with the day! No lost time, no frustration...hmmmmm


So, the day of "Nascar fun" finally began around 11:oo and here are the pics to prove it! Before lunch Andy and Taylor rode the go karts that Taylor can ride all by himself!

Here they are anxiously awaiting their turn!

Taylor gets all buckled up with some help!

And...they're off!

I'm noticing how Taylor and Andy drive looking backwards...hmmm

Rut, ro......Looks like somone couldn't "handle" the little kiddie go karts!

Andy couldn't get out of that little situation without some help from the Nascar crew on site! How embarassing for him! He must have been over there for about 5 minutes!

Meanwhile, Taylor was tearing up the track...

As if that wasn't enough fun...we headed up to the Nascar Cafe to eat...what else do you do while you wait for food but play video games?

During the afternoon, Taylor rode a variety of other rides and even played miniature golf there!

Yes, I do believe Taylor won:)

Stay tuned for part 2, coming soon! You won't believe what happened next!

I'm finally back from vacation....

I just got back from vacation earlier this week and thanks to the success of my "on vacation sale", I have been packing orders up ever since! Phew...they are finally all done and out the door!

I will be posting pics on here just as soon as I edit them!!!!

And the winning project is......clean out the grosgrain ribbon drawers!

It seems like just about every Sunday nowadays gets devoted to cleaning out/up something around the house or office! Today....it is the grosgrain ribbon drawers!

My daughter, Katie has been counting down the days to vacation and has been in a state of eternal boredom, so she has been very eager over the past two weeks to help me out with packing orders and cutting grosgrain ribbon. Katie had the wonderful idea of cleaning out my ribbon drawers today! So, I took her up on it.

First, she emptied out the drawers. She pilled up all of the ribbon and cleared out the ribbon that only had a few yards on each roll. Then, she measured it all out and put it in the cello bags to get it ready to sell. And, last but certainly not least, she reorganized all of the ribbon into two drawers--1 drawer for 1.5" ribbon, 1 drawer for 7/8" ribbon and one drawer for all of my ribbon roll end odd ball pieces!

She was a great help to me today!

Thank you, ♥Katie♥!

Ahhhh, the children have arrived....

And they haven't even jumped the falls yet!

A staycation to Niagara Falls....

Nope, not me! Just my two children and my parents...they are off today to Niagara Falls for a few days of unwinding and fun! My children have been watching a dvd of the falls and all of the areas surrounding leading up to this mini vacation. I was razzing my 8 year old son about making sure he picked out a safe barrel for his jump--he didn't understand at first until I started showing him some of the pictures online of daredevil jumpers of the falls! So, on your next trip to Niagara Falls be sure to work on that barrel, will you? And be sure to visit the daredevil museum on your next trip to the falls!