You say goodbye, I say hullo...

Tomorrow is the big move. We'll be officially out of rental land and into our new home.

We'll be saying goodbye to our condo and our lovely view of Lake Union. We've enjoyed the years watching the 4th of July fireworks from our living room, the weekly Duck Dodge (the Tuesday night sailboat regatta) and just the general day to day sail boat watching, sea planes coming and going and kayakers.

But, in my opinion, I think our new view is going to be even better.

(Sadly, I'll be going off line for a while. We haven't been very happy with our Internet so we're taking this opportunity to find a new provider. I just hope it doesn't take too long!)

Seattle's newest Farmers Market

The Pike Place Market Express is now set up for the summer every Tuesday from 10 am - 2 pm at the City Hall plaza. It's right outside my office door! And it was a hit today! It's starting out small but organizers say they are going to get bigger as the summer progresses. And with the lines today, I can only hope they start getting bigger next week!

I wasn't able to get out to the plaza until ll:45 am and already things were sold out! I did manage to snag two things of raspberries, a bunch of romaine lettuce and some broccoli - all locally grown.

I think I'm going to enjoy having a farmers market outside of my office. I just need to get out there earlier. Hopefully work won't get in the way of my local produce shopping!

Go Local Challenge 2009: My garden

How does your garden grow?

Hopefully, pretty damn good.

We got into the house this weekend. And while the big move isn't scheduled until next Saturday (I originally had to work this Saturday), we were able to get in clean, move a few things in, and most importantly, work in the garden.

This is what I showed up to on Saturday morning:

Yep, it was a mess. A woefully neglected garden. Those really tall weeds that were basically my height turned out be carrots. Really old, neglected carrots. I pulled up about 1/2 a dozen of them along with some really old radishes. After a while in there, I finally had it garden ready.

So we headed out to Home Depot to get some goodies. One of the best things about moving to a new neighborhood is exploring and finding new haunts. On our way to HD, we found the West Seattle Nursery & Garden Center. We pulled in and I quickly met Kathy, my new garden BFF. She was very impressed that by 2 pm on the day I moved into my house I was out shopping for stuff for our garden. She gave me some advice, a fabulous selection of greenery and sent us out the door with the confidence not to kill everything.

Back at the ranch we started planting. Here's what it looks like now:

We've got tomatoes, corn, 2 types of squash, carrots, onions, radishes (the last three are all seeds) plus basil, chives, rosemary for my herb pot. I also transplanted the kale and lettuce starts from my bucket, but I've got to be honest, I don't think the lettuce is going to make it. I'm also a little worried about the transplanted tomato. Fingers crossed!

We also bought a raspberry plant and I've got my eye on two blueberry plants back at the nursery center. I'm also hoping to get some zucchini, spinach, more lettuce and a few other things, but I'm not sure what yet. Any suggestions? (You can't say strawberries. the hubby thinks I may have pulled up a strawberry plant in my zest to weed out the garden. But in my garden, strawberries are weeds!)

A little help from Linnea

I finished the baby cardigan but I'm a little concerned that's it's a bit small. I opted to make the 0-3 month size instead of the usual 6 month size I generally give as gift.

At knitting the other night, we had a special guest who offered to try on the sweater for me.

Linnea is 2 months old and the sweater was a little small on her. Her mother assures me that Linnea is big for her age and that yes, babies are that small. I'm thinking of skipping the buttons and opting instead for a pretty purple ribbon to tie it off.

I'll have a different picture of the sweater once it's blocked and finished with the tie.

Two Years

Two years ago we said I do. Now we're getting ready to move into our first house. The adventure continues...and so far....it's one great journey.

A weekend recharged

Place: Lincoln City, Oregon.

Objective: Hang out with the family. Walk along the beach. Explore the wildlife. Reconnect with the world.

Mission Accomplished.

The next baby project

Two baby projects have recently been finished. Now it's time to start another (really, there must be something in the water around here.)

I've cast on for the Eiji Sweater from Shibui Knits. I'm using a pretty purple shade of Manos Del Uruguay Wool. I'm making the 0-3 month old size and it's for an Idaho baby due this fall. She'll need a nice wool sweater for the Idaho winter!

Look, I was able to wind the yarn myself with my new swift! I'll admit, I did wind a good chunk of my yarn stash the day this baby arrived on my door step!

Go Local Challenge:Week One - Nada

Well, what can I say but the truth. I sucked at week one of the Go Local Challenge. Time got away from me to get to a market. There was a "heat wave" for a few days this week that knocked power out to our place on Wednesday for about 7 hours (no cooking, no shopping, just sweating, a game of scrabble on the deck and knitting with a head lamp.) It was just one of those weeks.

However, I feel slightly redeemed with this act of local eating: for my job, I wrote a story about Seattle's newest farmers market coming to folks of downtown Seattle. And the best part about this story (aside from exposing more folks to local farmers), is that this new market is literally outside my office! Starting in the end of June, there will be NO excuse for me not to be shopping locally. I'll simply grab my cash (the ATM is also in my building), grab my bag, then walk out the door to go shopping!

For Dia

Pattern: Amelie Dress from Natural Knits for Moms & Babies

Yarn: Rowan RYC Cashcotton DK

This dress is for a dear friend's second baby girl. I made the 6 month size. Although, I think she'll need to wear it with a turtle neck and stockings with it by the time she's 6 months old since it'll be cold where she lives at that time.

I thought the pattern was a pretty easy knit, although the directions around the neck line were a little confusing. I also only put on 3 little flowers instead of the 16 the pattern called for. I'm a less is more kind of girl. I would make this pattern again. It's a super cute one and I can't wait to see Dia in it!

You know you scored the best deal at a garage sale when...

When you're walking down the street and people are coming up to you and offering your twice the amount you paid for your new treasure.

And here it is:

I've been on the hunt for a silver tinsel 3-ft tall Christmas tree for years. Literally years. I've looked at pre-Christmas sales, Christmas sales and post Christmas sales. I've looked online. I've looked in year round Christmas stores. And nothing. They were either too tall. Or entirely too expensive.

But not this one. I found it at the third house of the annual Bigelow St. neighborhood yard sale in the Queen Anne neighborhood. It was in the back. And the teenage son wasn't quite awake yet. The original $50 price tag was still on it, but nothing else. I asked him how much. He looked at it like he didn't know what it was. He uttered:

"I dunno, $7, $8?" as several other women looked on.

"How about $7?" I said as I handed him the cash and hoped his mother didn't see what he was selling this gem for. Then I high-tailed it out of there before she came outside.

All day, everyone kept asking about the tree. Several other people I passed offered to pay more for the tree, including others holding their own yard sales.

It's like Christmas came early this year for me.

"Um, excuse me, the shopping cart is for your groceries, not your dog."

That is what I should have said to the lady at the Issaquah Trader Joe's who thought putting her dog in the grocery cart was the cutest thing.

Let me tell you, it wasn't. She drug this dog into the store. And we're not talking a tiny little purse-type dog. It was about 20 lbs. It looked a little bewildered as she giggled at it in the cart and went about her merry-little-totally-oblivious-way. The rest of us in the produce section just stood there and stared.

Now, I'll admit, I'm not a dog person. But, I've got nothing against the responsible dog owner who loves their dog with all their heart. I know people like that. They are good, responsible, loving pet owners. They also feel the same about dogs in shopping shopping carts, grocery stores and Nordstrom as I do. Yes, Nordstrom. I once saw a woman with her greyhound dog (on a leash) strolling through Nordstrom. The dog had a rhinestone collar. I guess she felt that gave her the right to take her beloved pooch to Nordstrom.

Incidentally, in case you're wondering, it's not OK according to the King County Health Department to put a dog in a shopping cart. And they'll be letting the folks at Trader Joe's know that.

Go Local Challenge 2009

Summertime is here and with that the fresh green bounty from the farms are trucked into the city! That means farmers markets are bursting at the seams with all sorts of fresh, yummy goodness that I can't seem to find at the grocery stores!

Lucky for me, SewHappy Jane over at LivingSenses is here to encourage all of us to take advantage of this delectable delightful season by setting up the Go Local Challenge! It's easy to participate. Just hit your local farmers market, buy whatever your heart desires, and make at least one meal a week using local ingredients! It's a great way to try new fruits and veggies, meet the folks who help put the food on your table, and help the environment by reducing your carbon footprint by making sure your dinner isn't shipped from some where very far away.

It's a fun and tasty way to spend the summer!