My First Showing...

My premier photo exhibit went well.
There was a nice turnout, I managed to sell a couple of pieces, and I may have a 2nd or possibly even a 3rd show lined up as a result. Possibly even a Second Saturday show at an actual venue.
For those of you who weren't able to come out to the showing, you can see the photos I had in the exhibit HERE.

I've Done It...

I've booked my next trip!
I am going to........






LONDON!!!!!!


I am SO excited! I found some killer airfare ($450 round trip - total! with taxes and everything!) and booked the tickets this morning.

I've bought my Rick Steves London book and will spend the next month and a half reading it to prepare.

Overload

Maybe if I posted more frequently, my posts would each have a theme and be a bit more concise. Instead, get ready for an assault of information!

Last month, my friend Caren announced that she is pregnant. I am so excited for her, she and Damien (her husband) have been trying since they got married last August. This past Thursday was her birthday, and that afternoon she had an ultrasound to determine what she's having, its a boy!
So, I have a lot of knitting and crocheting to do. Caren and I have been friends since the 7th grade and I intend on showering that little boy with almost as many knit and crochet goods as I do my little Kylee.
Caren and I have been friends for 20 years now, long enough that we know each others siblings well and are pretty much extended parts of each others families. When Caren got married last year, my grandmother, sister and her boyfriend were all invited to the reception. When my sister had her baby shower last spring, Caren and Damien were invited. It was at my sisters shower that Caren & Damien informed me that they would start trying to make a little one of their own as soon as they were married. I had done all of the cooking for my sisters shower and Caren told me that she liked everything I had made so much that she wanted me to do the same for her. Since announcing her pregnancy she has confirmed that she does still want me to take care of the food and cake for her baby shower.
The problem? No one can remember exactly what I made for my sisters shower. I even checked the history on my blog here and I didn't detail everything that I'd made. I only listed one of the items, and that is one of the few that we can all remember. So, I'm still looking throhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifugh some of the old recipes that I'd forwarded to myself at that time, and heres what I've got:
Turkey Pesto Sandwiches - the recipe calls for prosciutto, but I used turkey to keep the costs down since there were a lot of people there.
Parmesan Puff Pastry - these were EASY and quite tasty. Caren does remember these as well, and it is one item that she specifically requested.
Black Bean Salsa - this is the only item that my mom remembers, and I think the only reason she remembers it is because she was HAMMERED on margaritas and there was a bunch of this left over that she put on salads and what not for a couple of days after the shower. It washttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif quick and easy to do, and I imagine it would probably be better made a day or two ahead of time to allow the flavors to all marinate together.
Finger Sandwiches - I'd made these but substituted kalamata olives. Because I LOVE them. Kalamata olives are seriously one of my favorite foods.

Caren did have a specific request for the cake - lemon and coconut. I'm keeping an eye out for recipes that can fit this. I'm thinking butter cake, lemon curd filling, coconut cream cheese frosting, and then cover the cake with coconut flakes that have been colored blue.
Since a lot of people don't care for coconut too much, I'm thinking that I'll also make some cake lollipops. Its a recipe that was mentioned on Not Martha a week or so ago, check out the photos here, I'm thinking that they would be really cute in blue and white and I could do a couple of different flavors - one with blue frosting, and one with white.

In other news, I'm considering a trip to London. I've found some cheap airfare, $455 (total!) round trip, for the end of April. I'm just going to double check that its within my budget. As soon as I do that, I'll be booking the tickets.

I've been bad...

At posting. Horrendously bad.
Works been kicking my butt. December and January have always been bad, but this year felt worse than it has in years.
Family has been... complex. The good news is that this past holiday season was my nieces first Christmas and she was ADORABLE. Also, she is now 9 months old! How crazy is that??? Her 1st birthday is just around the corner!?!?!?

This was taken about a week before Christmas. I got to take the little booger for her mall Santa photo. My sister was going to skip the mall Santa photo for economic reasons, but I couldn't let that happen. EVERY child needs to have their photo taken while sitting on some strange old mans lap, right?
And here she is on Christmas morning.

I know that I'm biased, but I just want to eat her up because she is so G.D. adorable.
Anyways, this was Christmas morning on the couch and my moms with a few of the toys that Santa brought her.

And heres the little pooh-bear with her favorite auntie, me, in the midst of the chaos that is the dinner with the entire crazy bunch, I mean extended family.


Aside from fawning over my little niece, theres been other family issues. My moms health isn't so great. She's had 2 heart attacks in the past, the first at the age of 42 and the second at the age of 45. Last month ago there was reason to think she was having another. Thankfully, she wasn't. However, today we learned that her heart is functioning at only 40-45% of its capacity. I haven't spoken with her personally to find out exactly what this means, what the options are, and where to go next.


On a happier note, I went to Italy last November. I know that I mentioned this before, but I never posted any photos. These are a few of my favorites





Italy was beautiful, spectacular, and breathtaking. All at the same time. I definitely will make a point of visiting that country again in the future.

I've been doing better at keeping my travel blog up to date. I'd initially had the blog hosted on Wordpress, and while I liked Wordpress and its format and everything, I didn't like how they don't allow ads. Granted, Google AdSense doesn't pay out a whole heck of a lot, but every little bit ads up, right? Sooo, once it looked as though I was getting a fair amount of traffic I moved the blog over to Typepad. If you care to, you can now visit my travel blog here.
Bookmark it, talk about it, spread the word, whatever.

If you like the photos of Italy up there, and would like to see prints in person I will be having a show of some of my photography next month. Most of the photos will be of my travels - some of Italy, Paris, Ireland, and more exotic locales such as Forest Grove Oregon, Salt Lake City Utah, and our very own Sacramento California. Here are the details

Saturday, March 1 7pm-11pm
It's A Grind Coffee House
2731 Del Paso Road
Sacramento CA 95835

Need directions? Heres a map.

OH! And the best part? It's your chance to meet me in person. I'll be there all night. I may or may not be sneaking outside intermittently for a smoke and to top off my mochas with a wee nip of butterscotch schnapps or something of that genre, but I'll still be there. So, come! Bring a friend!

As I mentioned in my last posting, I've been working on my weight. I started at the beginning of the year and have managed to drop 15 lbs. Granted, I still haven't been to the gym, but it's a start, right?

I've been crocheting lately as well.
A few days after Christmas a close friend of mine lost her brother. I decided to give her an afghan in his honor and presented her with it about a month ago.
In addition to leaving behind his sisters, he also was the father to a 14 year old girl. My friend told me that when his daughter saw the afghan and found out what it was for, she was touched to the point of tears. What choice did I have but to make one for her as well? I finished it a couple of nights ago and should be presenting it to her tomorrow. I didn't get any photos of the afghan I made for my friend, but am hoping to grab a pic or two before I give this one to the daughter tomorrow.

I Know...

I know that I said I would try to keep this blog up as well as my new travel blog, but, well, I'm slacking. Between work, my social life, family life, and everything else, both blogs are slacking a bit.
Also, I've been off seeing the world again. I spent the week of November 11-17 in Italy and had an absolutely fantastic time. It was a very short trip, and there was a lot more that I wanted to see and do but just didn't have time for. Venice was ideal, I've written about it over on the travel blog, and Florence was amazing. I think what impressed me the most about Florence was the art. The galleries are impressive, the sculptures that are out in the piazzas, just the way the city seems to glow in the sunlight... its definitely a city I want to go back to.
The travel blog is something I need to put a little more work into. I'm looking at turning it into a full blown website, throw a few ads up on there and see if I can generate some additional income from it. Perhaps it can serve to fund my future trips. I am ready to take off for Europe, or anywhere else, again already.
In addition, I've joined a gym. A friend of mine is the owner and publisher of Sacramento's Health and Fitness magazine, and he hooked me up with a free one year membership to 24 Hour Fitness.
I activated the membership last month, but have yet to use it. Part of the reason was that I was in the midst of preparing for my trip to Italy, another was that I lacked any shoes appropriate for working out. You can't do the eliptical trainer in a pair of strappy Born sandals. But, last night I got the shoes and sports bras, and a couple weeks ago I got myself some cute yoga pants, so now there are NO excuses.
I've even found a new online goal tracker so that I can keep some traces of accountability for myself. The first two goals I put on there were to exercise and to update my travel blog. Next I added some of the boring day to day chores that I need to keep up on, such as taking out the trash and doing laundry, but I've also added updating this personal blog a couple days each week. I NEED to write more.
I have a renewed outlook on writing since my return from Italy. While sitting on my hotel patios in both Venice and Florence, scribbling away in my journal, I realized that writing keeps me more in touch with my true self and that its when I put the pen, or the keyboard, away, I lose track of my wishes and dreams, and through losing track of those basic things, I just find myself lost in the BS of day to day life.
Another realization I had on this last trip was exactly how much I dislike my current job. I've been with the same company for over 7 years now, and no longer feel satisfied there. As much as I hate the whole process of interviewing for jobs, I have to move on and find something new. I have found one job to apply for and am in the process of revamping my resume. Please, keep your fingers crossed. I need out. As much as I like some of the people I work with, the job itself has worn me down and I need to find something new, something with a little more security, a new scene, and different challenges.

The Big News

Heres the big announcement I mentioned last week...

All of you know of my love for travel - my passion for immersing myself in other cultures and seeing the world. You also may know that I seem to have a knack for doing this for a rather cheap budget.
Taking the advice of some friends, I've decided to share my tips and resources on how to travel on a budget while not sacrificing any of the experience.
You can read my travel blog at:

www.tightwadtourist.wordpress.com

I'll be updating the blog with any of those killer deals I find, general travel tips, stories from my own adventures, and my travel photos.

Please feel free to give my any feedback and don't hesitate to ask any questions.

Bon Voyage!
Vanessa

Stay Tuned

Big news is on its way.....

Before I Begin

First of all, let me apologize by saying that the "o" on my keyboard is a little wonky right now, so please forgive any typos.

Before I begin telling you about the goings on in my life for the past two months, I want to share some background.

Tonight I was able to catch the tail end of Oprah, where she had Dr. Oz as her guest. I saw a little bit of a family who had some children who were beginning to develop weight problems.

OH, how I could relate.

This family was taught healthy eating habits, the children were enrolled in tae kwon do classes and taught healthy eating habits as well as being shown positive self images.

This was where I was no longer able to relate.

When I was 10 years old, I'd started to put on some weight. Yes, I was overweight even back then. I was 4'10" and weighed 130 lbs. I was approximately 45 lbs overweight.
My family did not make any moves to help me develop positive eating habits at that young of age, they didn't help me to develop a positive self image or anything along those lines. My familiy essentially told me I was getting to fat and put me on Weight Watchers. At the age of 10.
Prior to this I was given the green light to drink bottle after bottle of orange soda all day long, then I was thrown to the opposite extreme of green salads with red wine vinegar and lowfat cottage cheese. Meanwhile, the rest of my family was still downing the sodas.
There was no effort made to make the household dinners healthier for everyone, I was just singled out with separate meals from everyone else, singled out at holiday gatherings out with public displays of how I was not allowed to eat what everyone else was eating regardless of how small the portion size. I was not taught healthy eating habits by my family, and I don't feel that Weight Watchers did either. Perhaps if my family had been more supportive the WW principles would have more educational, but the combination of my home life and WW did not create an environment in which healthy eating habits, healthy lifestyle and positive self image were encouraged.

As a result, my weight is something I have always struggled with. I've gone through periods where I didn't give a crap what I ate and basically binged for long periods of time. I've also gone to the opposite extreme where I've wondered if I would have been diagnosed as anorexic if a therapist were to have watched my actions. Granted, I never got down to a weight that was scary or that would cause any health concerns, but I was practicing some extremely unhealthy dietary habits.
I've never really learned the ultimate lesson here though. Its over 20 years later and I still alternate between extremes, never finding that happy medium.

I applaud the parents that were on Oprah today for taking the time to learn how to be healthier, AS A FAMILY, for not making any of their kids appear to feel singled out and ashamed of who they are but for making them want to be healthier. That was not an option that was presented to me at that age. Still I deal with self image issues, and struggle with trying to learn how to adjust my lifestyle and my eating habits so that they compliment one another.

Dr Oz's book may be one of my next purchases, but in the meantime I'm reading up on The French Diet by Dr Montegnac.

Absence Only Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Im sorry that I've neglected you for so long my sweets. I promise, it will never happen again. I have A LOT of updates for you. A LOT.
I'll be working on them this weekend.
I've had some travel, some adventures, some hum drum. All will be very interesting, I promise you this.

Where o where have I been?

Nearly three weeks without a posting and you would think that I'd been out of the country again. You would be wrong.
i have had a lot going on though.
First there was a friends birthday, which I once again baked the cake for:


Spice cake with seafoam frosting and caramel. It turned out nicely and was liked by all.
The following Saturday I headed east on I-80, stopping at the Donner Lake vista point for a photo op:

a while later I reached my destination:

Reno, where I met up with 6 friends for a bachelorette party

We had drinks that came in fishbowls

It was great fun, and one of the worst hangovers I've had in years.

Then, there was last night.
I THOUGHT that I was going to the suprise birthday party for a friends boyfriend and it turned out to be a suprise wedding. It was quite the shock, and an absolutely beautiful evening.

Auntie Nessie

I got to babysit on Monday night.

Cooking and Talking.

I made dinner tonight. I was going through some of my Grandmas magazines this afternoon - she buys all of the magazines at the supermarket checkout for their recipes, yet she doesn't cook. Anyways, I found a recipe for a lasagna that I just jad to make this evening. Instead of using lasagna noodles, you use chees raviolis. It was fantastic - I forgot to take any photos though so you'll just have to trust me as to how good it was. I did modify the recipe a little though and added some spinach to the layers.
While cleaning up after dinner I realized that I must talk to my grandmother about my coworkers A LOT. She asked me if I wanted to take some of the leftovers to work tomorrow, and I said yes. Then, she said "I suppose you'll need some for your two boys as well, won't you?"
Also, I'm in a wedding next month. My oldest friend Caren is getting married. I'd like for my nails to grow out some before the wedding so I think I'm going to have to resort to my old stand by for getting my hair and nails to grow for a special occaision - prenatal vitamins.
I leave you with a photo of my niece Kylee and I, this was taken about 3 weeks ago. She is so cute! I can't wait for her personality to really come out.

Happy Birthday Erin

Today is my dear cousin Erins birthday.
I have to point out that Erin is more than "just" my cousin. We grew up together, taking summer trips to Disneyland with our grandparents, building forts in our grandparents backyard, being given baths together in grandmas kitchen sink.
Erin is more than just a cousin to me, shes like my siter, and shes my best friend.
For the past few months, Erins been going through some rough times - nothing I'm going to elaborate on here in respect to her privacy - but it has not been the best months of her life. Today is her birthday, and with her birthday coming up I felt that she deserved an extra special celebration.
A little over a month ago, she and I were commiserating over dinner and it got brought up that she'd like to attend horse races sometime. With her birthday approaching, I decided that we would celebrate with her friends at the Sacramento Harness Races. To make it a more festive occaision, "Derby Dress" would be encouraged.
Erin and I in our Derby attire:

Saturday afternoon we met up with friends at the pub, then took a couple of taxis over to Cal Expo for the races.
We had a fabulous time. With a group of close to 25, all in various attire, and a handful in some outrageous hate, we drew a little bit of attention to ourselves. For the 4th race, Erins birthday was announced and we rode in the pace car:

You can't tell, but we are in the car there on the left and are being watched by some of our friends lined up at the gate.
Riding in the pace cars was great, and it was reassuring when the driver and another guy who sat in the back watching advised us that the jockeys are not allowed to whip the horses at any time and the SPCA has a box from which they watch every single race to ensure that the horses are treated humanely.
At the end of the 7th race, our entire group was taken out to the finish line for a photo with the winning horse:

Then 5 of use were taken up on the roof to the announcers box:

Afterwards, we headed back to the pub for further festivities and cake that I'd made the night before:


Happy Birthday Erin, I LOVE YOU!

The Department of Health Is SERIOUS

I had the following conversation with my coworker "Bob" Friday afternoon:

B - So, did you hear about that restaurant in Natomas where one of the cooks had Hepatitas A and all of the employees had to be euthanized?
V - (laughing) Wait a minute. All of the employees were EUTHANIZED??
B - not euthanized, I mean embalmed
V - (laughing even more) thats not any better, "Bob". Are you sure you don't mean vaccinated?

Motivating

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
~Mark Twain

I love this quote and the message of free-spiritedness (is too a word) which it conveys.

I try to apply this thought process to so much that I do.

Introspective

The past couple of months I've gotten a little introspective, looking at the things I like and don't like about myself and how I'd like to redirect my life and the things I'd like to change.
Theres nothing major, just a lot of little things and many of them are very superficial.
Perhaps it has something to do with having turned 30 last year but I just feel so incredibly frumpy and I'm tired of it.
I think my complexion is always dull, my hair is always pulled back in a ponytail or one of those half assed buns on top of my head, and I'm always wearing jeans and some tired t-shirt.
So, this past week I've done some shopping. I've bought some shoes, a couple of cute skirts, even a sundress. Wearing them to work the past week has drawn some attention, especially considering my typical wardrobe of jeans and a tired, frumpy t-shirt.
I've also been wearing my hair down, curly, and have been wearing a little bit of makeup - which I don't normally do either.
The complexion -- I've been using Immortelle Brightening Polish by L'Occitane. I think it works great, I don't know what it is or how it works, but after using it a couple of times there is a considerable improvement in my skin - more of a glow. I've also ordered this trio of products in Olive Forte from Laventine. Its gotten great reviews all over the web, and I tried some of the facial wash before ordering it.
Even after using the Brightening Polish I felt there was still room for improvement for my skins texture and clarity, and it still looked a little dull at times, so I was at the store tonight and picked up this skin polishing kit and used it as soon as I got home this evening. So far it seems like its made a difference, my skin feels smoother and seems even clearer and brighter. I'm thinking that by the time the Laventine products arrive I will have my skin regimen down pat - just in time for summer, and my 31st birthday.
Thats just some of the superficial stuff though.
I'm tired of being so passive, I allow people to.... disregard what I have to say a lot of the times, to talk over me in conversations, cut me off, stuff like that. Its one of my biggest pet peeves as well.

You Can't Even Afford An Airplane!

Why are the weekends always so damn short?
Friday night was great, I started it off by leaving work 2 hours early and hanging out at the pub until the very last minute when I had to leave to go to my brothers high school graduation. considering he was graduating from a very small private school with a graduating class of only 38, you would think the ceremony would be fairly short. You would be dead wrong.
First, there were 3 girls tied for valedictorian. All 3 spoke. All 3 thanked each individual member of their family and each individual member of the school staff. The third girl to speak had learned how to use Power Point the month prior and put together a slide show consisting of 3 pages of pictures of every single graduating senior. Then the principal spoke. The principal is also the pastor of the church (its a christian school). He spoke to every single senior. THEN, he gave his testimony. I actually thought there was going to be an altar call.

At that point I started to itch, because I'm a heathen.

The timing was great though because I was going to pick a friend up from the Oakland Airport. Shauna, thank you for flying into Oakland on Friday night. You saved me from what had to be the longest high school graduation ceremony in recorded history.
Picking up Shauna was definitely worth the drive to Oakland and back. We were able to catch up on a lot, and its great to see an old friend whenever I have the chance.

Saturday, I slept in then that night I went to Kelly and Megans for a girls night. Several beers were consumed, snickers cake was snacked upon, and I discovered that Megan and I make a formidable team for Pictionary.
Sunday I went over to my cousin Erins and hung out with her and her parents while they figured out her wireless internet/phone/cable/tivo set up. I also napped with her cat Turtle. He has got to be one of the best nap buddies ever - the epitome of cuddlyness.
Before going to Erins I had to take my grandma up to Placerville to pick her car up from the mechanics. About a month or two ago I decided that what I'm going to do as my birthday present to myself is take an introductory flying lesson. On the way up there from Sunrise and Highway 50 we could see some of the airshow that was going on over at Mather Air Field - at that time they had the small planes doing the aerial acrobatics, which I figured was a good time to tell grandma that I'm going to take flying lessons.
Appropriate timing, don't you think?
I'm anticipating her response to be something along the lines of "dangerous, blah blah blah, assinine, blah blah blah, JFK Jr, blah blah blah, what do you need to be up THERE for, blah blah blah, assinine" so, I brace myself.
"Grandma, I've figured out what I"m going to do for my birthday"
"What?"
"Take flying lessons"
"Great. Just what we need, a PILOT in the family" - now, I cannot express in words the tone in which that was said. The closest equivalent statement would be if you substituted "PILOT" with "DOMINATRIX" or "CAR THIEF" because, as you know, my family - with its addicts, petty criminals, and numerous unwed mothers - is the epitome of white middle class decorum. But, the minute someone becomes a pilot, its all down the crapper.
"Grandma, you know it does take more than 1 lesson to become a pilot. I'm not saying I definitely want to get my license, but if I like it after the one lesson I may end up doing that but it would take a while to actually get my license."
"You can't even afford an airplane!!"
I love her thought pattern here - you want to learn to fly? you're going to have to buy an airplane - too bad you can't afford it. Essentially she's saying "keep your ass on the ground where it belongs"
Erins mom thinks I should make a fake sales contract for a Cessna, take the one lesson and tell granny that I LOVED IT then ask her to cosign on a Cessna. We torment her because we love her.

Seeing Stars

Its been a full week.
I've been spending a lot of time at the pub, my time there is not completely spent drinking - I socialize with friends and also use it as some valuable knitting time. I also run into other bloggers, like Tanya (on the right) and her friend, Janet.


This week I decided that I wanted to make Beth's Little Star Afghan. Its a pattern that I've wanted to make for a while, just was awaiting the occaision, and that occaision would be my cute little niece.
I showed the pattern to my cousin Erin, and she had a BRILLIANT idea... make it look like a starfish. So, I doubled up the yarn and did the center with orange and white and the outside with blue and green.
Here is the finished product:

Thats Erin on the right. She doesn't consider herself to be a crafty person, but she had a great idea, don't you think?
Since I doubled up the yarn, this workerd up INCREDIBLY quickly. I started the starfish section (the orange and white) at the pub Thursday evening, and finished the orange section the same evening while still at the pub. The blue and green I started when I got home that evening - I worked on it a little bit that night, a little more Friday night, and finished it Sunday morning. In total, I would say that the whole project took somewhere between 8 and 10 hours.
This is definitely a pattern I will be using again and seeing how many different ways it can be adapted.
Melissa did a beautiful version of it here with some adorable matching pillows that I know I will tackle one day, once I get my "to do" list whittled down some.
The weekend was a blast,
Saturday afternoon/early evening I attended the birthday party of my friend Megan. her birthdays always have themes and this year it was the letter "M". People were dressed as Mary Katherine Gallagher, Memoir of a Geisha, Marlboro Man, a madam, I was Martha Stewart - I wore regular clothes and brought my craft projects with me - but, I think the best was my friend Phil. He threw on a mariachi hat with his regular clothes and claimed to be a mariachi man. We all thought that did not display any tremendous effort in costume until THE MARIACHI BAND HE'D HIRED SHOWED UP! Do you think I'm kidding? I'm not.



Phil is not one who could ever be accused of doing something half assed.
In fact, he went way further above and beyond that evening and got on stage at a concert to propose to his girlfriend of 3 years, Celeste.
She said yes.
My love and congratulations to the happy couple.

Plaid Baby Afghan & Knit Newborn Caps

When starting this project, I knew that the final steps of weaving the various color yarns through the body of the afghan would be a fairly tedious job - I just didnt realize HOW tedious it would be. It was tedious. As tedious as organizing an entire library according to the dewey decimal system from scratch. I started weaving the pieces through, and half an hour later I only had a few rows completed. I honestly thought that this part would go much much quicker than this - it is just weaving yarn through a mesh blanket after all. YAWN, this project got really boring very quickly. I made it more interesting by taking it down to the pub with me. A couple pints of ale + conversation with some friends made it much more pleasant.
However, I do like the overall effect and the end results:





I'm sure that if I were to actually make the afghan again I'd think of a couple ways to modify it to make it simpler. I'm half tempted to write out my pattern, but I know that its inspired by a pattern that I saw in a book somewhere almost 10 years ago and not knowing how much like the original pattern it is, I dont want to risk infringing upon anyones copyright.

Also, I made a knit cap for my little niece.


It looks SO SMALL. I didnt follow a written pattern, just swatched the yarn, then Googled the average head circumference of a newborn (14" by the way) and went from there. I'm hoping it fits. In the past, I've been notorious for making hats that were too "short" for most adults - mainly myself, I have a HUGE head - but fit on kids. I'm worried about this one because I wasn't following a written pattern, I was just eyeballing it. I had a gnawing feeling that the hat was not going to fit the kids head. So, I've started to make a back up just a little bit bigger.


The Sideways Shell Afghan turned out well. I just love love love this pattern.



The Winnie the Pooh quilt is still in progress, and will be for a while. Really, with everything else that I'm working on, my goal is to have it done by the kids first birthday. If its done anytime before then, then I'm ahead of the game.

I have a feeling that baby/child patterns are going to be my focus for a while.

Happy Saturday!

Earlier this week I was looking forward to the weekend, thinking that I would have both days to myself. I was so happy at the thought of sleeping in and just lounging around the house doing NOTHING. Yesterday I realized that I would actually have a pretty full Saturday.
I did get out last night, went down to the pub and hung out with some friends. Perused the newest issue of Interweave Knits with a fellow knitter and had a few beers.
This morning I got up, went to visit my perfect little niece - she and my sister came home yesterday - and got to hold her and examine her mop of hair, perfect little lips, adorable little finger nails, and most of all.... the cheeks! I just love those round chubby pudgy little cheeks!
Afterwards I took my car in for an oil change and tire rotation. I suppose I could have sat in the waiting room for the hour and a half and worked on the crochet plaid afghan during that time - I had the feeling that the cashier was a knitter or crocheter (just got that vibe) so she would have appreciated it. Instead, I saw the Big Lots across the street and thought I'd just browse for that hour and half. Can you ever "just browse" in a Big Lots?? I think not. $50 later I walk out with 3 bags of stuff I really don't need. Sure, I got a couple of cute stuffed animals and onesies for Kylee, something for an upcoming birthday gift, a steering wheel cover, and some shampoo and conditioner.
Then, it was a fmaily dinner at Outback to celebrate my baby brothers 18th birthday. My sister and niece joined us, and Kylee was perfect the entire time - slept most of the time and only woke up twice, took a look around, then went back to sleep. She could sense when it was time to eat though. As soon as her mothers food was served, Kylee wanted her dinner as well. I offered to feed her so that my sister could eat her dinner while it was still hot, but she had it covered.

Other than that one feeding, Kylee slept through all of the noise of an Outback restaurant on a Saturday night.


By the way - that cute lavendar afghan? Thats the Sideways Shell afghan I crocheted for her. I gave it to her before I photographed it, so this photo will have to suffice.

Tomorrow, I am knitting. Thats it. Well, and most likely having a pint or two down at the pub.