Garden Plan 2010: Ambitious/Crazy

The veggies and some fruits are now in the raised garden beds and several containers around the yard. I've decided the theme to this year's garden is Ambitious/Crazy. Here's what we've got growing and I'm sure you'll agree with me:

blueberries

artichoke

3 tomato plants

lettuce

pumpkins

snap peas

green beans

zucchini (for the record, if I can't get these zucchini plants to produce then I'm officially done with zucchini. There I've said it.)

radishes

green onions

carrots

cucumbers

basil

rosemary

a banana tree

Yes, you read that correctly, a banana tree. The hubby was doing a little research and discovered, if it's protected from the colder nights, a banana tree will grow in our neck of the woods. It's not a big one. It's in a pot and he moves it in and out each night and on the weekends he moves it around the yard to follow the sun. It's kind of cute. I'm quite skeptical. But if it actually produces fruit, I'll be sure to post about it and admit I'm wrong. We also planted a dwarf apple tree in our yard. I'm quite excited about that. Now comes the waiting game.

The lilac tree has bloomed. I find it highly ironic that I've been waiting to get some color in our back yard and now that the lilac tree has finally bloom, I discovered the flowers are white. Oh well, they still look pretty and smell quiet lovely.

Self Portrait Series: Girls weekend in Vegas

Sara & I are pretty famous for our self portraits.

But we couldn't leave April out of the fun (or Ms. Green M & M)!

Poolside fun at the Wynn (in the shade with SPF 70 of course)!

We had a little help with this one.

 Sara and April figured out they've been friends for about 20 years. Good thing they've also known me for 17 of those years! 

It was a great weekend filled with lots of laughter, lots of memories and a lot of fun! I miss not seeing them everyday like back in college, or even about once a week when we were living in Boise, but I'll take a weekend like this anytime!

A few things both knitting & non-knitting

To say that it’s been a bit busy around here is a bit of an understatement. I’ve been wanting to blog for quite a while now, but haven’t had the time/energy/motivation/etc. So in true type-A personality form, I’m doing a list to sum up a few things. Here we go:

• My sister came for a visit. We had a blast getting pedicures, shopping for furniture (nothing bought but lots of ideas) and drinking margaritas on the patio in some rare Seattle spring sun.
• My parents came the following weekend; more family fun, day trips, fixing things up around the house.
  
• I scored some sweet deals and even sweeter yarn at the Fiber Gallery annual sale. Details on projects to come soon.
  
• I cast on for my first big sweater for myself. I’m making the Minimalist cardigan out of some beautiful pink wool. However, between the pattern and the yarn, it hurts my hands. Like really seriously hurts my hands. Like, it’s the reason I’m not knitting these days. I think I’ve averaged about 4 rows in about a month.
  
• I’m trying to decide to proceed slowly with the project or rip it out and find another project.
  
• In an effort to get knitting again, I’ve cast on for the Simple Shawl pattern. It’s quite pretty and painless. So far I’m on row 8 and all is well. Fingers crossed.
  
• And in an effort to truly relax and get some much needed R & R, I’m off to Vegas for a weekend of fun at the Wynn with my dear friends Sara and April.
  
• I hope to be back up and blogging and knitting much more often when I return, until then, here’s to some R & R for you, and of course, happy knitting.

Sunny Sunday

A sunny Sunday. A hike on Cougar Mountain in Issauquah.

 The view from the top. That's Mount Baker in Bellingham in the background.

My hiking partners, Soren and his mom Mara.

 A great day.

A trip to Fabric Crush

I've been wanting to get back into the sewing mode and just as luck would have it, I stumbled across a lovely new quilting blog Tallgrass Prairie Studio. Well, it's not new, but new to me. And the luck continued because as it turned out Jacquie was in town to visit a friend and do a little talk at Fabric Crush. The store had recently moved from Magnolia to the Wallingford Center and I had been wanting to check it out. It was as if the Sewing Gods were putting this out there in the universe for me. 

So of course, I had to appease them. And I went. And I loved it. Both the store and Jacquie and her fabulously beautiful, yet simple modern style quilts. Take a look.

Jacquie and her quilts. If I was a better blogger, I'd have the names of these patterns she designed, but alas, I am not. They sure are pretty though!

I especially loved this salavage quilt. These are the salvage edges of fabrics she's used over the years. Isn't this a great creative way to use all of the fabric?

Ohhh...ahh...it was like a fireworks show for the quilting fans in the room as we got to look up close and touch all the pretty fabrics. So fun and inspirational!

Rebecca + Scott

It's official....they're now married!

The wedding party...in all seriousness...

See...totally official and some seriousness....

And a lot of fun!

Oz Vest*

Project: Oz Vest

From: Natural Knit for Babies & Moms

Yarn: Plymouth Select Worsted Merino Superwash in someshade of blue that I can't seem to remember.

*I'm not sure what it was about this project, but to say it was hell is truly an understatement. It looks so easy and quick, and maybe it is, but for me, it was freakin' miserable. I had to restart the damn thing about 4 times because I kept messing it up and getting off the pattern repetition. I managed to sew the vest together all crooked and twisted. It took quite a bit of time to figure out how to get it undone due to my super skills of weaving ends in. There was a lot of hard work that went into this sweater. And even some blood, sweat and tears. And quite a bit of profanity. But this fu$#^&*% sweater is done. Thank God.

Easter Treats

I love Easter. I always have. I'm not sure why, I've never been able to pin point why its do dear to me. Maybe it's the all the spring flowers that are beginning to come up in my favorite shades of yellow, pink and purple. Maybe its the promise that spring is really just around the corner. Or maybe its just another excuse to eat chocolate and other good food with family and friends. Whatever the reason, I hope your Easter was a lovely one!

Some Easter Flowers

Our friends Jon, Sara and their dog Tug look for the beers the Easter Bunny left in our yard.

The Hubby was the big winner finding most of the beers.

For dessert I tried something new, a raspberry blackberry custard. The thing I loved about this dessert was the fact that is was made in the blender!

Isn't sweet how Martha watches me?!

No, I’m not going crazy, it’s for the tourists

In my last post I mentioned our road trip through the Olympic Peninsula. Well, if you’ve read any of the Twilight books you no doubt know, that’s the stomping ground of vampires and werewolves, at least according to Stephanie Meyer.


You have to give credit to the small town of Forks for trying to make a few bucks off of these books. Everywhere in the town is some sort of Twilight sign; hotels welcoming Twilighters, specials for Bella Burgers, etc. You can also visit not one, but two Dazzled by Twilight stores in town (if you’ve been to Forks you know how small it is so to have two of these stores is pretty amazing.)


Even Jacob’s stomping ground of La Push is in on the frenzy. La Push is even smaller than Forks mind you. As you enter the town, the little restaurant has a Pepsi banner that reads “No Vampires Beyond This Point.” You can also grab a coffee a Jacob’s Java. The town store is decorated in Team Jacob mania. Edward need not apply.


But the thing that had me doing a double take is the fact that as you drive into a town there is a house and separate garage that was painted red, complete with an old trailer in front. At first I thought, no….that couldn’t be. That place looks just like the scene of Jacob’s house in New Moon. As we drove out of town I looked again. This time I realized I wasn’t crazy, it was painted and designed to look like Jacob’s house. I knew this for sure because the Twilight Tour bus full of people was pulling in the driveway.


*For you Twilighters out there, I apologize for the lack of pictures of all of this stuff. I wanted to stop and take some but the hubby just shook his head and kept on driving. He claims to be on Team Mike Newton.

Weekend Get-A-Way

This past weekend the hubby and I took a little road trip to the Olympic Peninsula. We had lovely weather on Saturday and drove along the coast. We are so lucky that within a few hours of our house we can drive to the beach through and old growth rainforest.

The beach at La Push with a big storm blowing in.

The Hubby sitting at the base of the worlds largest Cedar tree. It was really freakin' big.

We stayed at the Lake Quinault Lodge. It’s charming, beautiful and pretty much perfect. With no t.v.’s, cell service or internet access it was just what we needed to unwind. This is the place where folks hang out with other guests in a big lobby complete with a fireplace, over stuffed leather couches, games and a bar. Once again, it was perfect.

Getting a little reading time in and enjoying the rare spring sunshine.

My gin & tonic and my view.....ahhhhhh.....

 

Sunday greeted us with the typical spring rainforest weather (wind, clouds and rain). Not being the uber serious hikers, we opted for drives instead of hikes. We continued to drive along the coast up to the Sul Duc Hot Springs Resort. We were in our own cabin which was a nice treat after enjoying the hot springs.


Monday we woke to snow in the mountains, fog and possible some of the worst sleet/hail I’ve seen in awhile, once again scraping our hiking plans. It did make for some pretty scenery however.


While we weren’t able to do a lot of the hikes that we wanted to try, we’ll be heading back for sure since it was such a lovely vacation!

 

A sunny spring afternoon

The first signs of life are beginning to creep up in the garden. Two rows of lettuce that we planted from seed are popping up. I'm quite excited as I've never planted lettuce from seed before. I truly believe lettuce is the gateway drug to gardening.

Today also had some unseasonable warm spring temps and sunshine. I was able to duck out of work early and hit Alki Beach for a run. When people find out I live in West Seattle, sometimes they smirk and ask why I'd want to live over there? Gee...I wonder why?

Fourteen, or 10

My knitting mojo has been a little out of whack lately. Ok, that's not true. It's been totally out of whack. I've either just not felt like knitting or when I do pick up a project I manage to screw something up, swear a bit, rip it out then sadly, repeat the process. I hasn't been pretty around here.

So imagine my delight when Erin walked into PurlyGirls the other night sporting a lovely new scarf. It was so pretty, soft and just plain perfect. I knew I had to have one of my own. She said it was an easy project that took her only an hour to make. Translation: it would take me about 3-4 hours as Erin is an uber fast knitter.

I bought some lovely new pink/purple yarn because one needs a dash of a little color around Seattle in March. I decided I'd cast on for this mindless, short, easy knit on a Friday night after a hectic day of work. Two hours later, after endless trying and retrying to start, I texted Rebecca to see if she knew anything about this damn pattern (mind you, it was after 10 but this was a knitting emergency so I knew she wouldn't care). About an hour later we both gave up. While the pattern seemed simple enough, his (the pattern designer) directions for a brioche rib were totally different from what the internet explained to do. Thus our frustration. I ended up going to a LYS for a little in person helped. Once it all became clear what the hell he was explaining, the scarf pretty much took no time at all.

Now it's done and I love it.

And I'm sure now that I have this warm and cozy new scarf, spring will arrive and the cold and gray will go away. But honestly, that will be o.k. with me as well.

Pattern: Fourteen (But I only cast on 10 stitches)

Yarn: Chunky Malibrego

More details can be found on my Raverly site.

A little happy dance in my cubicle

The other day at work I was doing a little research for a story when I stumbled upon this:

HOW TO USE A TOMATO TO TELL YOUR LIFE STORY
with Matthew Amster-Burton and Molly Wizenberg

It's a writing class at 826 Seattle. I've taken several of their classes before and I've loved them all. But this one is by Molly Wizenberg, of My Homemade Life and one of my favorite authors and bloggers.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I did a little happy dance in my cubicle when I signed up for the class! It's tomorrow night so stay tuned for details.

Auntie Meg's Brag Blog Entry

The babies I've been knitting for have finally started growing into some of their gifts from Auntie Meg. They are too cute not to share (and I'm referring to the babies and the knitted goodies of course!)

Here's Diya on her six month b-day sporting the dress from Natural Knits for Mom's and Babies.

See...she really does like it!

Here's Macie with her hat from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. At the time we didn't know if Macie was a boy or girl so I went with the sporty option and added a stripe instead of the bow. Her dad thought it'd be a boy for sure, but big sis Cameron wanted a little sister. I should have listened to Cameron and went with the bow, but I think the stripe is pretty sporty and hip.

Macie thinks so too. Gesh, what does dad know?

P.S. Due to an error on Clearwire's part, the internet at our house has been down for a few days. Fingers crossed it gets fixed before the weekend. I'm very behind on my blogging and keeping up with my favorite blogs! I'm trying not to sweat the small stuff these days, but it's pretty freakin' annoying!

I'm leavin' on a jet plane

My bags are packed.
My boarding pass is printed and ready to go.
And most importanly, a quicky, easy weekend knitting project is ready to be cast on once I get through security and make my way to the over priced airport bar. But it's a Friday and it's been a long week so there is a gin and tonic with my name on it.

I'm off to Boise this weekend for a quick visit with family and friends. Hopefully some good knitting will be done in the process!

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend as well!

Ice Cream for breakfast

Yes, you read that correctly, ice cream for breakfast. And I’m not talking the eat-it-straight-out-a-carton-because-there’s-nothing-else-to-eat kind of ice cream for breakfast.


I’m talking the Molly Moon’s way of ice cream for breakfast. Molly Moon’s is this fabulous homemade ice cream shop in Wallingford and Capitol Hill. Every winter they offer their sweet treat on top of steaming bowl of steel-cut oatmeal. You can have any scoop of ice cream they offer: balsamic vinegar & strawberry, maple bacon, or my personal favorite salted caramel.

(note the chocolate chunks in my dish)

Once you get your bowl of oatmeal and ice cream, you can help yourself to their toppings bar: chunks of chocolate (not sprinkles or shavings, I mean chunks of chocolate), cinnamon, brown sugar, raisins and all sorts of nuts.


The best thing about this treat (well, one of the best because really there are so many ways this is delightful) is that there are often time no lines for their breakfast special. As anyone has driven, walked or bussed by a Molly Moon’s location on the weekends or evenings, there’s always a line down the block. This isn’t your normal ice cream people.


Their winter breakfast special runs through March. Now you don’t need to wait for summertime to have some ice cream. And plus, with the oatmeal, it’s really a health breakfast. Ok, that may be a stretch, but breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Some of my favorite things

The wind and rain has returned to Seattle. Gone are the recent unseasonably warm sunny days we’ve had recently. It was just what I needed to help snap me out of my February funk.

 (I snapped this pic on my camera phone while out for a walk along Alki on Sunday morning. The snow capped mountains in the background are the Olympics.)

So as I reach once again for the rain coat (really, this is Seattle so it’s never that far away), I’m going to try and think about some of the things that have made me happy these past few, warm sunny days. I thought I’d share them with you:


500 Days of Summer – I recently saw this movie. And I loved it! Seriously loved it. It was such a good story of love, friendship, heartbreak and the hope that there is love out there. I’ll admit it left me crushin’ a bit on Joseph Gordon-Levit.


The Guernsey Literary and Sweet Potato Pie Society – I’m about halfway through this book and I feel like I’m right there on Guernsey with the crew. I don’t think I want this book to end.


Seeing a movie by myself – I don’t get to do this often but I recently had the opportunity when the hubby was out of town. I love going to the movies by myself because I can watch whatever I want. And I don’t have to share my movie popcorn with anyone. In case you’re wondering, I saw New Moon (and loved it!)


Roasted Vegetables – I haven’t been doing a lot cooking lately (the hubby is doing it for a while these days) but I recently tried a new recipe for roasted butternut squash, onion and garlic. When they were done roasting the recipe called for squeezing half of an orange over the veggies. I can’t even begin to describe how good it tasted. I ate the hunks of butternut squash and onion with my hand as I stood over the stove, it was that good.


So there you go. A few things that are making me happy as we slip back into the gloomy dark days of late spring. What makes you happy these days?

Shot through the heart - since the 4th grade

It all started simple enough. A good song on the radio. Sung by a cute guy with great hair (it was the 80's afterall). And that was pretty much all it took to get me hooked. I was a Bon Jovi fan for life.

Friday night was the opening night for their U.S. tour. And the hubby, my friend Darcy and I went. It was fabulous. I cheered, I sang, I danced, it was great!

It was like Bon Jovi was singing right to me. Me, and several hundred other women who've loved him over the years as well.

Livin' on a Prayer

That's right baby, it's here. Opening night of Bon Jovi's U.S. World Tour here in Seattle. And I will be there.

What's that? Wish you could be there too? Well, thanks to the generosity of Bon Jovi, and modern technology, you can. The first three songs of Friday's concert will be streamed live.

Enjoy. Because I will.

Oh, and expect a follow report on the concert this weekend.

Moral of the story: There is safety in numbers

This past weekend a few friends and I headed to Tacoma for the Madrona Fiber Arts Festival. It was a gray, rainy February day but we were all looking forward to a little knitting, a little yarn shopping and hanging out with friends.

After a quick trip around the market place, I was pretty proud of myself for showing some serious restraint. I had a shopping plan. I wanted to pick up some Socks that Rock to make another clapotis. I have one, but I don't love and I don't wear it. I want to love it. And I want to wear it. I've learned a lot from my last one so I'm going to make another one.
After we all purchased a few things, it was time for lunch. We hopped on the light rail and headed into town for some beer, burgers and knitting. It was fun. Our waitress was just learning to knit so she was thrilled we were all sitting at her table.

Back at the retreat, we visited with more friends, chatted about books, podcast, movies and just generally enjoyed a rainy Saturday without thinking about things that needed to be cleaned, cooked or whatever back home. But then it was time to load up and head back to Seattle. Before that, however, Katie decided she needed one more trip to market place to check on some yarn. Not wanting to abandon our friend, we all decided to accompany her.

And that's when it happened. In less than 5 minutes into the marketplace, we all split up, ran around and fell down. A lot. We all fell onto lots of piles of soft, lovely yarn with our credit cards slipping through the card machines as we went down. And then we got up, laughed and ran to another booth where the same thing happened.

(So pretty. I was drawn to lots of pinks and reds for some reason. They were all very Meg like colors.)

When it was all said and done, we decided there was safety in numbers. But it sure was fun to split up. Now, to go play with my new yarn.

Nothing says I love you like handknit socks

The first sock for the Hubby took me nearly a year to knit. I was bored with it. There were lots of other knitting projects that kept pushing these socks to the bottom of the knitting bag. But then, I decided, enough was enough. I was tired of always looking at them. I wanted them done. So I set a deadline and then knit like a mad woman on a mission. A mission for handknit socks for Valentine's Day. And it worked.

Pattern: Simple Socks by Cat Bordi
Yarn: I started these things so freakin' long ago I don't remember.

I've been working on these socks for so long that the first one actually went to France with me last March. Here it is at the beach in Nice. I'm happy to report I wasn't the only woman knitting at the beach that day. Just more proof that I could easily live in France.

February Blahs....

I was hoping to avoid these this year. But I'm pretty sure the February Blahs have set it. I seem to be doing a lot of hibernating lately. No blogging, no surfing my favorite blogs, just a lot of taking it easy. Which is nice and all, but I'd like to be a little more productive and creative.

So I'm hoping Saturday's trip to Tacoma for the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat will help! I'm not signed up for any classes but I'm ready to buy some yarn and be inspired by all the creative knitters who will be there!

I can't wait for a little show and tell!

P.S. Another reason I've been anti-the blog lately is because I'm frantically trying to knit up the hubby's socks for his Valentine's Day gift. Yes, those socks. The socks that I started nearly a year ago! Oh, and I'm still sucked into the Twilight series.

Oh Boy!

I decided that 2009 was the year of the girl. Last year I whipped up projects for Emery, Sloane, Macie and Diya. Soren was the token male of the group.

And so far, 2010 is shaping up to be year of the boy. Taylor arrived not long ago. My coworker will have her baby boy in mid-April. A dear friend is having her second baby. And while it's too early to find out if she's having a boy or a girl, she does already have an adorable little boy! And my stalker, er, I mean friend from Purly Girls, Abby just announced she too is having a boy!

Now it's time to start looking for some adorable boy projects. I've got some ideas, but if you have any sugesstions, I'd love to hear them!

Sucked in

I have a confession. I’ve recently started reading the Twilight series. And while they aren’t works of literary genius, they are quite addicting. I don’t remember the last time I blew through 500 plus pages in a weekend.

(This picture is completly and totally ripped off from Sara's site & her Twlight entry)

I will say this: my inner 15 year-old-girl is so loving it! While she can’t decide if she’s on Team Jacob or Team Edward (it flips pretty much with each chapter), one thing is for sure, neither of them are quite like Gilbert*. And my inner 15 year-old-girl will always be on Team Gilbert.

(*You get bonus points if you know what I’m referring too. That is anyone, except Sara!)