By way of introduction . . .

Hi Ladies (and gents if any join us)

I'm Shelly, a wife, mother, and grandmother living in the San Joaquin Valley of Northern California. I'm also the founder of "Scarves From The Heart", our parent organization. I won't go into that here because you can read about why I began SFTH on the home website.

In addition to knitting and crocheting I love to read, Debbie Macomber books at the moment. I'm fairly new to knitting as I began in March 2005, but as my friend who taught me says I'm an adventurous knitter and seldom knit a pattern exactly as written. She also says she unleashed a monster, because after about 50 years of crocheting I had always kept only a few skeins of yarn on hand, but once I learned to knit, well, I just kind of went crazy buying yarn and tote bags and needles and . . . get the picture? Fortunately it all resides in my computer room and visits the area around my easy chair so it stays fairly well corralled.

We have seven children, 3 sons and 4 daughters, in our blended family of his and hers, and we just welcomed our eighth grandchild, an adorable healthy little girl, into the world. We have 3 grandsons and 5 granddaughters. Our family is scattered throughout 4 of the western states, save for one daughter who just moved to North-Central PA for her work. We have two cats, Max (a little girl that we thought was a boy when we picked the name) and SweetPea, that I love to spoil.

As my hubby says, I've never met a stranger and I love to talk, so before I talk your ear off I'll close by starting a game of "5 things about me".

1) I have a stong faith in God, but don't consider myself religious.

2) I'm often more of an idea person than one who carries things through.

3) If I could change one thing about myself in an instant it would be to lose weight.

4) The one thing in life I'm most thankful for today is my extended family (hubby's family).

5) One thing in life I'd find hardest to give up would be sweets (the one thing I should definitely give up).

If you've read this far, I hope you'll follow suit and introduce yourself so that we can get to know one another a bit. Please share only what you feel comfortable sharing.

Currently there are no guidelines here, nothing we can't talk about . . . so we'll build the guidelines as they become necessary. The one thing I ask is that you not post anything here that would hurt or embarrass another member or be a copyright infringement.

Who's next?