All I can say about surprises is my father's green surprise Father's Day shirt. You see, when I was much younger (probably about 12), on a trip to Virginia over Father's day my mother, thinking she was slick, slid my father's surprise gift into a shoe bag. His gift was a green polo shirt. It sort of stuck out from the shoes and my father, whose job it was to load and unload the car of course saw it when he loaded the bag in the car, but chose not to say anything. Over the course of the 10 hour trip my mother was dropping hints and trying to tease my father who refused to play the game, making my mother more smug as we drove. Finally when we arrived in Virginia and were unloading the car, my mother dropped one last remark for which my father proudly announced, "Are you by chance referring to this green polo shirt in the shoe bag?" Oh it was not pretty watching her face turn red, as she sputtered, and just finally without anything to say in response let out a few choice words and got mad at him for discovering her surprise. When she finally realized he knew from the beginning and was playing with her the entire trip, it just fanned the flames even more. From that point on she stopped trying to surprise because she realized he was pretty quick and could figure it out with little effort if he wanted to. It was also one of those stories that came up time and time again and the surprise green father's day shirt will go down in family history.
I tell you this story, because one it is now my job to repeat that story and allow it to go down in history, and two because it shows how surprises work in my family. My mother, still trying to keep tabs on me realized that I was spending an awful lot of time at the pottery painting place in Fayetteville and might be working on more than one thing.
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| Grapes Tile |
To throw her off I made a tile that I will work into a tray, I think (or should I say that is the plan right now). However she had a pretty good idea that something else was up. So I regret to say that I have post dated this post because she would snoop the post and try to find her surprise, and I am not willing to make it that easy for her. The first trivet I started working on was the one for her, however they ran out of a couple of the paints I needed. I painted a cream background, with dark brown edges and added her initials in an Asian inspired font. Then robin egg blue dots, to match the writing were added to the edge and chocolate brown dots were added to the middle. Firing such a piece with a lighter color on a darker one could offer a complex situation and may not work. However because of using the wooden end of the paint brush to add my dots, it worked out really well and I am excited to say I was able to offer her a partial surprise. She knew I made her something but did not know what I had made. Thus when she opened it she still had to make the surprise face and determine if she liked it, which I think she did. I think the key to surprises in my family is just let it happen, don't give hints or clues, because someone will search for it.
Yes, it is true. I love all things crafty. As a matter of fact there are few crafty things that I will not attempt. Thus with the opportunity to teach an arts and crafts day camp as part of my day job I was able to introduce our youth to something I have not done before, pottery. Let me back up. The youth did not throw clay, nor do I. We decorate the preformed product. For them it was plates, bowls, or mugs (part of the group rate). When I went back a week later to pick up their finished products I was able to pick out my own to do. 
a ball of plastic yarn. Basically by cutting the bags into loops and using slip knots to string them together there were no tied knots to get into the way of knitting. It took about four bags to create the small square I needed. Two things to keep in mind; it is probably best to use the same type of bag throughout the project you are doing because color schemes and bag densities are different based on the store bags you are using. The other thing to remember is that if you are not careful when you loop the loops together bubbles will be created when you knit so you have to pay attention when making your plastic yarn. This project was knitted with size eight needles and I would not recommend using anything small, as a matter of fact you might want to use larger needles. Overall it was a lot of fun and a great way to recycle. My next plan is to download some shopping bag patterns and make enough yarn to knit a new kind of recylced grocery bag. Thanks Christy for introducing me to this fun! 
I love to knit. What is even better is when you can see the face of the person you are giving it to or just donating it to someone who does not expect it. So you can imagine this morning was a great morning. Today we gave the rest of our items from the United Way Day of Caring Knit-In event to Southeastern Regional Hospital's Maternity ward. We had quite a crowd at the event. Two of the organizers Margaret Crites and myself were there and joined by: Sandra Oliver, the United Way Director; Rod Jenkins, Robeson County Assistant County Manager; Jane and Megan Hurst with 4-H; Tanya Underwood with the Robeson County Partnership for Children; and Jessica Drake with the Rape Crises Center. Beth Ivey with Southeastern Regional Hospital arraigned the meeting with the charge nurse for the maternity ward. They were very appreciative of the items we made for the newborns and said they would give them to those who need them and would love the items as much as the love they were made with. They took especially good care of one of my favorite items, a Winnie-the-Pooh pillow made by Amonica Graham and said they would find a very special home for it. 
The first donation happened and I can't help but share the incredible news. The photo is from our first donation from the knit in. The adult blankets and caps were donated to Gibson Cancer Center, which is part of Southeastern regional Medical Center. Sherita Jenkins accepted our donation from Margaret Crites. Crites is the Director of the Rape Crisis Center and one of the three organizers of the first knit-in. Jenkins is a social worker at the center and you may remember her husband, Rod Jenkins took part in the knit in. He learned how to knit and knitted a pink baby cap as part of the knit in. Sherita promised that all of the items knitted with love would go to people who needed them and she said they were greatly appreciated.
I recently had the opportunity to sit and wait. For those who know me I am not good at just patiently sitting and waiting. Even if I watch TV I have to do something else. On this occasion I started working on one of my other blogs (http://www.customcake4you.blogspot.com/ and http://www.robeson4-H.blogspot.com/ if you are interested). When the computer battery started dying and a plug was not nearby it was time to switch to something else. Needless to say all I had to do was reach into my purse and pull out yarn and knitting needles to keep me busy for a few more hours. I was able to knit two dishcloths with Peaches and Cream brand cotton yarn. This specific color is lemon and lime which was a variegated white, yellow and green. I must say the final product was bright and as one person said to me it looked like something from Jamaica. I knitted two of these with the skein of yarn, and promptly gave them to those around me. So I guess you could say I was productively waiting, even if I wasn't patient.
