Wednesday, July 27, 2011

WIP Wednesday

I mentioned to DH that I was going to do my Work In Wednesday post and he response was - "Well, you certainly have work in progess."

As always I have several projects going at once.

I made great process during our trip to the beach and these are pictures that I took that week.

These socks are very elegant and the cable pattern look difficult but isn't really - isn't that the case with all cabling.


 The Market Bag is knitting up very nicely and I will probably write it up and post it on Ravelry for free.


This is the front side (and 2nd half) of a dress for a friend's baby girl. She was born last week and I'm make the 12 month size so it will be perfect for next summer.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Dream Car

This is my dream car.


Always has been.


What kind of car is it you ask?


It is a Volkswagen Cabriolet! This is the 1988 model. I have loved this car since I was in 7th or 8th grade. My father-in-law bought this car a few years ago when gas prices were over $4.00 a gallon and he needed a fuel efficient car - well, more fuel efficient than his full size Ford pickup. He had no idea that it was my dream car. So every time I'm at their house, I drive it. It is wonderful.

So why are these picture at the beach you ask?


My in-laws hooked it to a trailer behind a truck and used the VW as trunk space. Once at the beach, it was the perfect car to have for trips to the store, evening drives, and outlet mall shopping.

What a wonderful car!!!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

I want to knit an afghan!!

Specifically I want to knit this afghan!

It isn't incredible! It is knitted with Noro Kureyon and uses 21 skeins of yarn. It is uses a lot of short rows - which is not my favorite knitting technique. But for this afghan I think I can stomach short rows in large quantities.

Monday, July 18, 2011

I'd learn to crochet for this!

Loken by Shelby Allaho
This is one of the most beautiful cowls I have ever seen. I may have to get my friend, Betsy, to teach me how to crochet just so I can make this cowl. Stunning!!!!!

Tom Hanks plays pracitical knitting joke on Julia Roberts



How wonderful is this?!?!?!?

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Pictures from our Beach Vacation


The Beach House

The Beach


This Clam Dish was at the house and I couldn't resist the temptation to use it.

The full Shrimp Boil spread.

View to the west.

My DH's brother with the Kid. The Kid calls him Crane Bob.

My Mother, My Father, and My Mother In Law.

The Kid and his Cousin with some big bubbles.
Busy day as evident by footprints.

BUBBLES!

My Father-In-Law.

Herron.

Mine, mine, mine...

2nd and 4th Generation Train Geeks at the Train Museum.

We celebrated the Kid's 3rd Birthday.

The Kid and DH digging in the sand. Like father, like son.

The Herron again.

I got a little knitting done.

Fort Morgan - literally!

The Kid and Father-in-Law at Fort Morgan.
The Cousin and the Kid.

The whole crew.

My Family

Sea Turtles Nest Warning Sign

Sea Turtle Nest

The Cousin

Crane Bob

Very rare picture of my Sister-in-Law

Me and Sister-In-Law hanging out.

What a wonderful week!

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Blogging from the beach!!!

Well, it has been a wonderful week at the Redneck Riviera! We are staying at the Fort Morgan end of the Gulf Shores peninsula and it is quiet most all day long. We have a private beach and as far as I'm considered, renting a house is the only way to go. The whole family is here and we have enjoyed the time together.

The weather has been beautiful with sunny, waves, and breezes. It is hot but not nearly as hot as at home and the steady ocean breezes make sitting on the deck, in the sand or under the screened in porch a complete delight.

I have spent my days reading, knitting, and napping. We spent two days shopping in Foley at the outlet mall and got some great deals. You know outlets are not always the best deals around but as long as you know what the things you are considering buy are selling at retail you should do okay. The shopping was a nice break and a great bit of exercise.

Of course no road trip is complete without a yarn crawl. On the way down we stopped in Fairhope, Alabama. This is the coolest Gulf Coast town I have ever been to - not touristy or junky souvenir shops but classy and elegant shops and restaurants. The reason we stopped was because I wanted to check out The Yarn Cottage. What a gem of a yarn shop! The selection was not the best I have seen, just the standard stock like Cascade, Blue Sky Alpaca, and Berroco. But the atmosphere was so warm and inviting. There was a shop cat and dog that welcomed us in to the shop and the shop owner was friendly and knowledgeable. While I was in there, she helped one customer select yarn and then loaned her the right size needles to do the project because the customer didn't know if she had that size. I picked up some more Blue Sky Alpaca Worsted Cotton (love this yarn!) to make this sweater.

Fairhope also had a fabulous toy store and my mother bought my son a really cool front loader for the beach. Then we had lunch at the R Bistro. Lunch was elegant but casual and the cinnamon rolls that we bought were great over the next few mornings at the beach. My mom and dad had a salmon burger which they are still talking about. I want to go back and stay in Fairhope. We drove through the rest of downtown as we were leaving and it is like a little French Quarter without the smell and the drunks. If you are on your way to Mobile and what a little side trip, try Fairhope, Alabama. You will not be disappointed.

I brought three knitting projects with me so I could rotate. I am working on a dress for my friend, Julienne's baby girl. I'm knitting it in size 12 months for next summer because my friend is due this month. Actually she was due a week ago. The pattern is A-Line Dress by Sandi Prosser and it is knitting up beautifully. I love the bamboo yarn. I also brought my Ballet socks from Toe-Up  2-at-a-Time Socks. I started these last year and they just didn't look right. So I frogged them and started them again last month. But this time they are looking beautiful. Finally I wanted to knit a market bag with my Brown Sheep Company Cotton Fleece. I picked the Rutabaga pattern but it just wasn't look right. So I'm working a pattern all my own. It is coming along very nicely. I might just write it up and put it on Ravelry.

Tomorrow is our last day of vacation and I'm going to miss the beach and the sound of the waves but I'm ready to get home and sleep in my own bed again. Until next year...

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

This is the life!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Guilty Pleasure

One of my most vivid childhood memories was the night I tasted by first meringue! I had had meringue on top of a pie before but I had never tasted a hard, baked meringue. I was about 8 or 9 years old and my parents took me with them to a Christmas party for the Arkansas Chapter of the Herb Society of America. It was at the Remmel's house in Edgehill. White columns, two-story house. A circular drive. The highest form of elegance for a Southern girl growing in 1980s America. The house could have been Tara from Gone with the Wind or Southfork without the ranch for all I knew.

Oh back to the meringues... Mr. Remmel made this legendary duck soup (my mother still talks about that soup). I have a dream like reconciliation of a massive dining table full of food but I only remember the duck soup and the hard meringues. And these weren't any meringues. They were made by a French women and she carried them around in a little basket with a linen cloth. Like you might envision Little Red Riding Hood or Gretel from Hansel and Gretel carrying through the forest. The meringues were shaped like mushrooms. The tops and stems had been made separately in molds and were assembled with chocolate as glue. They were sweet and crunchy and light. They were like little clouds of heaven. If I could have, I would have eaten every last one of them but I knew my manners and only ate one or two.

So if you ask me what my favorite dessert is, I'll probably tell you Trio's Raspberry Cream Cake or Izzy's Strawberry Shortcake but if you ask me my food guilty pleasure, it has to be the meringue.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Cleaning Out Closets

One of the things that I love to do more anything is to clean out closet. I know -- it is odd but I find that we have so much clutter in our lives and in our house the clutter gets shoved in a closet most of the time. And we have lots of closets to shove stuff into in this house.

So I've been slowing cleaning out closet one at a time over the past few weeks. I stress the slowing part but if I try and clean them all out at once, my DH and the Kid start to tick. They don't like the change that comes with moving stuff around the house, not to mention getting rid of stuff. It seriously bother them. So I clean at a part of a closet at a time or wait until they are both out of the house and then I can attack with full force.

The point of this post is that instead of scooping everything up and putting it in the car and giving it away to Goodwill, I'm taking a different approach this time. EBAY!!!!! If I can, I'll try and sell it. Why not??? For minimal effort, I can list the item and it might sell - it might not. With even less effort I can relist items that don't sell. And people will buy anything. This time last year I bought a bunch of Eddie Bauer jeans on sale in my size. Well it wasn't my size by the end of the summer so I only wore them once or twice by the time they didn't fit. I listed them on eBay and every single pair sold. I didn't recoup all my money but at least I got something back.

Two weekends ago I tackled the VHS tapes and DVDs. We moved into this house over 3 years ago and I clearly organized the VHS tapes, CDs, and DVDs in a closet so they would be out of sight but easily accessible. Then came Netflix. Don't need the videos anymore. We haven't watched a single one since we moved in. The only videos we have watched are new DVDs we bought for the Kid. So to eBay they went. DH questioned if anybody would buy a VHS tape anymore. I've sold more VHS than DVDs. Amazing!!!