Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Argyle Quilt

For a golfer baby.











Pattern adapted. Machine quilted by me!
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Sunday, July 22, 2012

Drapey Goodness

Congratulations are in order for Cami! She is one of my "knitting children" (I taught her how to knit.) 
A couple weeks ago or so, she finished her first project for her! 
It's a delicious drapey cowl! I'm telling you peeps, just feel the yarn. Its yummy. 
That is, in fact, how Cami became converted to knitting. (Converted from not knitting.)
 She likes yarn. A lot. She'd probably much rather touch the yarn than knit it.

 We came up with this project so that all she has to do is knit knit knit it up and then she can wear it, and feel it and love the yarn! Heres the pattern: Cast on approximately 130 sts. Knit in the round until you run out of yarn. Bind off.
Fabulous eh? I almost swiped it.

That day we spent together we also had a green meal. Green in color not so much in health.
Pasta with pesto, cucumber with lemon and red pepper, zucchini cooked in flavor infused olive oil with basil and garlic, and green apples pan cooked with butter, cinnamon and sugar. Yum.

In the morning when walking to the Farmers Market we saw this fabulous house. I was ready to move in. I loved the blue and white. The gingerbreading. The gradient blue at the peak of the roof. The window boxes and the chairs on the porch. Was ready to open the gate, go into the kitchen and get some iced tea and start knitting with Cami right there on the porch.
Then the owner walked out and I thought he might mind. We did tell him we loved his house.



Egg Me On

So, a friend in my knitting group calls herself an Urban Farmer. She has chickens. She called them darling little chickens but let me tell you folks. They're not really little. 
 They DO however, lay blue and peach colored eggs. Way cool eh? Anyway at knitting they always talked about how super farm fresh eggs are soooooo much better. I'm intrigued. My friend gave me two eggs to try and when my brother in law was visiting we egg-sperimented.
 Urban farm fresh eggs on the left. Costco eggs on the right
.Luke and Mark both voted for the urban farm fresh eggs. When I told them which were which they said it was a poor test because the farm fresh eggs were cooked second and had more salt. Ill agree they were probably right, but the farm fresh eggs did have a much better texture.

While the jury is still out on the eggs, I'll admit, chickens just might be in our future. I wonder how they'll get along with the alpaca?

Pinteresting

Pinterest. Known for being time consuming wasting. Yet, it has actually made a nice little impact on my domestic life as of late. Luke seems to have reaped the benefits as well.
See pizza braid:
 Half pineapple and ham, half pepperoni and olive.
 And dessert. Since I had a bit of extra dough and one VERY ripe peach with some cinnamon and sugar on the bottom.


 I also saw this idea on Pinterest. Oval shaped tension rod under the sink to hang spray bottles. Brilliant.
 Oh, and these FANTASTIC brownies are the result of taking what I like from a few different recipes on pinterest and one from Pioneer Woman. Sooooo gooooood!
We had the brownies at Nerd Night on Friday. These brownies will make you friends in ANY new crowd!

Unfriendly Germs

Unless they're my own. Then they're friendly.
So I've got this thing about germs. Not all of them. Just the unfriendly ones. Unfriendly germs live places bleach and antibacterial chemicals cant go. Some hotels, furnished rentals, college boy apartments. Shady couches, the Starbucks plushy chairs. Any plushy chair says Luke. The one in our apartment laundry room gives me the heeby jeebies. Our plushy chairs are okay. I know where they came from. I saw them arrive in the plastic from the store before coming to live with us. Interestingly, the mountains...all friendly germs. Sitting on the floor, doesn't bother me, I know what kind of germs are there. Swimming in a lake doesn't even bother me. Those germs are friendly. They make themselves known.
So anyway, there's this episode of Big Bang Theory. Penny gets a chair. Sheldon thinks he likes it.
 Then penny tells him someone threw it out and she got it from the trash.
Sheldon display's my sentiments exactly. And later in the full episode you find out that there truly is, something in the chair. (Though we never found out what.)
You can watch it here.
Hard cleanable paintable furniture can be revived and restored. Plushie furniture can NOT. Just sayin'.

So remember my NerdWars knitting competition? We had a team challenge to make what was in the chair. Meet my Unfriendly Germs.
Friendly only if you know them!





The other part of the challenge was for the Giving Geeks category. That part of the challenge was to give them to someone you see who needs a pick me up. I gave them to a friend who works with kiddos who have had a rough lot in life. They can now be used to get conversation flowing, play therapy, counting, colors and stress release as they are squishy! These guys were super fun to make and I have them all linked on Ravelry.
I did do the bottom a bit differently. I crocheted the bottom on instead of sewing it so that the bottom cupped in. This helped them sit a bit more solidly.
Anyway, these guys make me laugh. I hope you enjoy them too!

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Doing Denver

Last Thursday I was so lucky to be able to hop up to Denver to visit Aunt Audrie (technically my moms Aunt) Chris and Nancy.(Chris is my mom's cousin.)
Their house is straight out of a magazine and pinterest! So many fabulous reading nooks and classic craftsman style woodwork! There was attention to little details everywhere I looked! It didn't help that I've been re-listening to the Anne of Green Gables books and have re adopted many of her exclamations. Chris, who had never heard of her or at least not saved her to his memory seemed befuddled or amused. This led to our conversation about Anne. Chris, who is a culinary expert, connected her to Prince Edward Island muscles. Which I will now be obligated to serve at my next Anne party. Random tidbit but key to understanding the rest of the day.
Here Aunt Audrie and I are enjoying their lovely, and recently re-done back yard.



Look at these amazing garden beds! At the perfectly convenient height for not bending over.



And they're pretty too!



Even the lowered window boxes are done on such a pretty way. When you look out the windows you feel as if you are in a calm oasis not the middle of a city!



Then we walked over to the yarn store called LambShoppe. If you don't just love the name please love the fact that they have a library ladder to get to all the yarn.







Then across the street to a garden boutique. Their wall had a fabulous incomplete (to add to the effect) paint by numbers.



And in connection to knitting, isn't this the greatest way to give dishcloths?



A little quilt inspiration?



Then it was onward to Fancy Tiger. I have been itching to go there since a man told me about it when I bought a shirt last summer in Denver while on a field trip with Luke.



Such yarn! Such fabric! So much trendiness and youth!



Then we tried for the art museum which was in its last week of a famous clothing designer exhibit. There was a wait. We had shorter term parking. So we went to the newly relocated history museum. Boy am I glad things worked out that way! It was so cool!! Alas I get ahead of myself. Here is the library peeking out from behind the art museum. The building itself looks like a city skyline. Now that's a library that can take you places.



I also had to check and see if this statue was metal or plastic as I mused at how often they might have to paint it to keep it such a vibrant blue.



The history museum was so interactive! The lobby floor was a giant map with a "time machine" you could move around and it would play different videos from different time periods about the different areas.



There were many different interactive exhibits to help grown ups and younguns better understand "the way things were."



Kids could "drive" this old car simulation. They had to crank the engine to start the car and the video took them along the dusty road.



This bison had doors all over it and you could look inside to see what different parts of the animal were use for.



Thanks for modeling for my Nancy!
On the second floor the had a room called Lego-rado.



Here's a Lego model of the State Capitol Building.



See the building with the curvy roof?



Here it is in Legos.



A Lego Dino dig.



The had the minifig series guys hidden all over! I kept pointing them out to Nancy. See the lizard man in the horse stable?



I kept telling Nancy how fun a scavenger hunt would be for students. How funny. They had scavenger hunts all ready to go!




Back in a more official museum area they even reconstructed part of a Japanese internment camp from Colorado with laminated news articles on the table and everything. They didn't shy away from tough issues at all.



In the recreation area they had a ski jump simulator. The wind blew in your hair and everything. I thought everyone crashed at the end, but I landed!!!!











Check out that form.
Skirt and all!
Then Aunt Audrie treated us to a delicious late lunch!
The restaurant was fabulously decorated on the outside in bright colors!











Great timing for this piece as Luke has been watching the Tour de France every day.



Guess what we ordered to eat?! Prince Edward Island muscles!



Chris and Nancy showed me how to eat them and they were sooooo good!



Aunt Audrie even tried two!
It was a most wonderful day! As I drove back to Colorado Springs I put my yarn on the dash so I could enjoy it all the way home.



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