A Buck Goes A Long Way

...or at least in the middle east, it goes a long way and beyond.
The Pioneer Woman held her ever-popular "smartypants" quiz on her blog the other day.
She posted six aerial pictures of notable locations and the first person to identify all six correctly won a gift card from amazon.com.
After looking at the pictures I realized I only knew three out of the six. My brain is turning into mush. Of course, I did what any good sleuth would do...I googled!

The aerial view below was picture #1... I thought it was the Florida Keys...wrong!
When the answers were revealed I found out it was Palm Island in Dubai, UAE.
This is what happens when you have too much money...you MAKE your own island and build mansions on strips of sand.

If you would like a closer look you can google map it and zoom in or read about it on wikipedia - Palm Jumeirah. Many of the mini-mansions/villas have swimming pools in their yards, even though they are literally a few feet away from the water!
Don't get me wrong, I think it's amazing someone can actually build an island and develop the land with hotels and villas but, I wonder if these people ever had to worry about student loans?
I highly doubt it. (just a random thought)

The Smooth Sounds of James Taylor

Last week I happen to catch James Taylor on The Oprah show.
James Taylor is such a mellow guy but from what I caught on The Oprah Show, he had a somewhat colorful past. -- Interesting --
I can't imagine JT being any other color than beige. No matter, I love his songs...they take me way back....back to...um, junior high.
They remind me of OP shirts, surfer bangs and gymnastics.
Ah, memories.
JT appeared on the show to sing snippets of his well-known songs and promote a new album/CD. Everyone knows whatever Oprah touches turns to gold, but I highly doubt James Taylor needs heavy publicity to sell anything, period. -- I was already sold. -- The next day I promptly went out in search of one of his CD's and found his greatest hits for $9 at Walmart. Pretty good deal if I say so myself. Here is one out many of my favorite songs off the CD.

Puggy Contest

One of the many enjoyable blogs I stalk... ah I mean, visit is Leaving and Loving on a Jet Plane.
It belongs to a young career woman, Mrs Jetplane. She is married to a military dude, Mr. Jetplane. Mrs. Jetplane generously shares the latest happenings in her life with blogworld while maintaining her wit and sense of humor above all the good, the bad and the ugly (she cracks me up).
She is also the proud owner of two dogs, one being a darling pug. Recently she called on all pug lovers/owners and asked them to send in pictures of their lovable canine(s) for a contest she is holding this month, respectably called, Pugapalooza.
Today's post is brought to you by Pugapalooza 2009 and it's voting day.
I find all pugs cute as pie or better said, cutiepies...

...especially my blogfriend Jen's pug,Orion. Here he is pictured with Lourdes

and I am proud to say he received an

honorable mention, yay! Orion is

not one of the contestants this time around.

I have to say contestant #5 Buster is my favorite! Look at his face? #5 Buster It makes me melt.It makes me want to scoop him up and snuggle with him all day. Sooooooo, I bring you #5 Buster this post in hopes that you'll hop on over and vote for my #5 Buster, I mean, your favorite pug. You have until May 10th and winners will be announced shortly thereafter. ---Ready, set, vote!

"Vote for me, I'm cute...#5 Buster"

Thank you

A big thank you to Kara for answering the question I added at the end of my last post.
I sent you a little something in the mail today to show my appreciation...also to encourage and support your latest hobby...sewing. :-)

Barcos de Vela

The sailboat blanket is finished. My self-imposed deadline was set for last night but hey, I gave myself a break since my hands were starting to stiffen up, so I jumped on the computer instead.
Once again excuse the lighting in the photo. The spotlight I used was moderately helpful.

I added a crochet border...

to compliment the sail boats.

The Specs

Pattern: Come Sail Away Baby Blanket by Suzanne Veta
Yarn: Bernat Baby Sport in pale blue and Caron Simply Soft in white
Needles: US circular 8 and crochet hook size G6.
Notes: I followed the pattern carefully by casting on the suggested number of stitches, but I used US8 circular needles instead of the US7 recommended, although the yarn label suggest US6. According to the pattern, the finished blanket is supposed to measure 28"x32", but my blanket turned out much smaller, 26" x 27" even though I used the larger sized needles and the stitches aren't very tight.
Also, I added two rows of single crochet in white as a border to compliment the blue yarn. Right now, I'm thinking of adding a flannel backing to make the blanket warmer and to weigh it down a bit. If I were to make this blanket again, I would add an additional sailboat pattern to the width and use a thicker yarn.

Since I have a lot of yarn leftover, I'm thinking of making a matching hat and maybe booties.
Bon Voyage!

*Can you name the three different languages used in this post?

Pink Waves

MA's scarf is done. Yay!! The blanket the scarf is laying on is one of my first experimental striped crochet blankets I made years ago. I've moved on to knitting sailboats on baby blankets. ;-)

Please excuse the bad lighting in the picture.

I have yet to start the Twisted Vine Neckwarmer. As soon as I finish the sailboat baby blanket. I promise ( as I sneakily type this in the smallest font possible).