Nerdery

I've always wanted the gift of being invisible. Harry Potter has his cloak, now I can have mine too.

Hot Fun in the summertime

Tuesday nights escape to the lakeside was well worth it. I didn't expect the fact that it would be so much cooler there - I mean everyone knows that there is a breeze from the lake, but I dare say I was a bit chilly!



We ate a yummy picnic with shrimp cocktail, turkey burgers, pierogi, and salad fresh from the garden. We walked the pier and then took a beach walk.





Unfortunately, the clouds did not allow for a visible sunset, so we took off about 8:30. Brian then pleaded to get some delicious Captain Sundae for dessert - but I refused since we have a freezer full of icecream treats. Boy was it hard to refuse, but I did! For those of you lucky enough to know Captain Sundae (including George W.), you'll understand how much willpower I must have.

And for my SYTYCD Talkback:

I was right there on that hot tamale train with Mary - ChooChoo! Go Sabra and Dominic! You were my favorite dance and rewind-the-Tivo-worthy. That rhumba was steaming up my t.v. screen.

Maybe Jessie's chest pain occurred from her circulation getting cut off by that ridiculous cat head band - what was that?! Pasha held his own and sure did an excellent job lusting over the Bette Midler look-alike. I hope he gets to stay and wiggle his hips for another week.

Jaime and Hok deserve an honorable mention for their bird-flower interpretation - or maybe the mention should really go to the choreographer, Wade Robson. Although they danced awesomely, Jaime kind of has a space cadet thing going for her that I can't quite look past.

My bottom three prediction: Shauna/Cedric, Neil/Lauren, Jesus/Sara. But I've been wrong before.

Well - I'll be gone for awhile. I'm off to the east side to stand in my friend Meredith's wedding. I'm looking forward to it - Meredith and Adam are such a likeable couple with a strong relationship. After that, I'll spend a little time at the 'rents relaxin' and introducing my dad to beanbag toss. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Knit Time

As most of you have noticed, I'm stuck in baby knitting mode right now. Here is my current WIP:



This is Kate Gilbert's pattern, the Pea Pod Baby Set. I'm using the clearance Debbie Bliss cotton angora I picked up from Webs online store. I love the pattern so far, the lace pattern really seems to make the pea pods magically appear.

At 2 pm I need to be right back in this seat today. You ask "why?" Well, a certain bride gave me a very special bridal party gift - a gift certificate for Helloyarn.com!



The packaging was so cute. It came with a postcard, sample skein of yarn and magnet. The shop owner was on vacation, but plans on updating her stock today. I found inspiration for my next project at Brooklyntweed's site.

I have several other things I hope to accomplish today, including putting together a picnic for Brian and I to enjoy at the state park. I'm hoping for a beautiful sunset! I better get off the computer now and get crackin'!

Weekend Festivities

Another summer weekend past, full of friends and fun.



Saturday I met up with Linda in South Haven for a knitting "rendezvous." We had a great lunch at my favorite local restaurant, Clementines. I was once again enamored with her recent knitting projects.

Check out these adorable Mary Jane booties. Find the Saartje's bootie pattern here.



She is donating this cute cupcake hat to the Dulaan project.



Later that night we headed to Mary's 2nd Annual Butternut Bash.



We had great food including some salmon fresh out of Lake Michigan - delicious. We played a little beanbag toss, Flip Cup, and I even managed to score not one, but several points for my volleyball team. Woo-hoo!

My former manager wanted to see herself on the blog - I had a hard time catching a decent candid picture of her - but here's a decent one.



She thinks she's never been on my blog before - but how quickly she's forgotten the beautiful pic from here bachelorette party post.

To end the weekend, it was our turn to the return the favor of a home-cooked dinner to our good friends Roger and Luann. We once again turned to the Junior League cookbook for inspiration. We served adobo dip for an appetizer (simple and delicious), shrimp and corn salad, coconut/lime chicken with rice and strawberry/blueberry shortcake for dessert. The meal should have been served with a side of antacids as it was quite spicey. I was disappointed that my original dessert flopped. I attempted to make the same strawberry pie that I served for mother's day, but the gel part never set. Either I did something wrong, or the heat and humidity interfered. Who knows. We had a great time catching up with them. It's great to enjoy a nice summer evening with friends.

SYTYCD Talkback

Okay, I wasn't clapping and jumping up and down like last week's episode - but maybe that was more from the effect of caffeine withdrawal than anything else.

The highlights of the night for me:
*Shauna and Jimmy's dual acrobatics
*Pasha's sexy smile
*Dominic's tearful response to Mia's commentary
*Jean Marc's sour puss face to Nigel after his comment about Dancing with the Stars

Was anyone shocked that Jesus was good at the Paso Doble?! I mean, not to be sterotypical, but it's in his blood.

I have to say, I want Shauna's SYTYCD shirt! I bet we can find one on cafepress.com soon!

It's hard to pick, but my favorite couple was Jessi and Pasha tonight.

My prediction for the bottom three:
Faina/Cedric
Sarah/Jesus (only because their personalities seem most bland at this point)
Lauren/Neil (they were just forgettable tonight)

Random Bloggings

Well, I did find the Zulugrass bracelets and managed to pick out a few of my favorite colors. They were a bit pricey, but it was a feel good buy because I knew the money was not only supporting a local business, but also the craftwork of Kenyans.



My garden is coming along fine...I think. The leaves were a bit trampled after the heavy rain last night, but they perked up with the day's sun. Our Mesclun salad mix seems ready for eating. Still only that one lone green pepper....no tomatoes. I'll keep my fingers crossed. The squirrels like to play in the garden, but they haven't been munching (yet).



Here's my latest work in progress.



This is the Retro Rib Socks pattern from Interweave's Favorite Socks book. The yarn is Louet Gems. This is actually the first time I've made socks in a solid color and I have to say I really like it. It definitely lends itself better to the more detailed stitch patterns. After this, I may have to go to a simpler pattern. This pattern is definitely higher maintenance than most.

BTW - have all of the knitters heard of Ravelry? This is an online knit/crochet community where you catalogue your projects, needles, and stash. There are many opportunities to "make friends" with other knitters. I have my name on the invite list. They're allowing people to slowly sign up while they work out all of the kinks.

Lastly - the hightlight of my day - I got the opportunity to meet baby Fiona tonight. She is precious. I did not get to see her eyes, but I've heard they're beautiful. She definitely has some nice dark curly hair. Mom and Dad are coping quite well and were kind enough to explain all of her machines to us. She had a procedure yesterday to drain blood from her chest. She is still on the lung bypass machine, which they will continue to work on weaning. Hopefully she'll have surgery in the next week. She still needs our prayers for her lungs to continue developing so the bypass (ECMO) can be turned down.

Tomorrow

I am off on a search mission to find these.



hattip to Scout's Swag

I need more jewelry like another hole in my head - but I can't avoid how beautiful these are. And like yarn, they are hand dyed.

Somebody's Gettin' Married...

This weekend was spent relaxing with my girls up in Higgins Lake. Meredith's wedding is rapidly approaching (June 29). She's grown out of the party girl phase and chose to live out her last days of bachelorette-hood with a weekend sunbathing and swimming. Fortunately her friend, Jen, had the perfect place in mind. This is her family's "cottage."



I think we all agree that it kind of oversteps the definition of a cottage. It was a gorgeous home with excellent lake frontage. It's the kind of place everyone dreams of owning for a weekend get-a-way.

Well, enough about the house. Here's a few of the weekend highlights:

No party is complete without some flippy cup. This time, instead of beer, they had Sprite/Raspberry pucker. Yummy, but messy to chug.



We had beautiful weather so we spent the majority of Saturday on the pontoon. Chelsea took a dip in the crystal clear spring fed lake.



Jen enlightened us with her wealth of relationship knowledge.



We laughed...



and remembered why we're such good friends.



I did a little sock knitting - but the sock didn't make any photos this time. He's so sad. We ended Saturday with a little ritualistic burning of the old boyfriend photos. Meredith definitely didn't seem sad to see them go, as she has an excellent partnership with Adam.



We packed it all up Sunday morning. I wished the bearskin rug a "farewell" and drove back home.



Grrr. So scary.

Purchases

Okay - first I just have to comment on So You Think You Can Dance, which I'm going to need to start calling SYTYCD with that long ass name. Anyway - how great was that?! And it was only the first week! The tango was pretty lame, but I think poor Ricky is in trouble with such a tall partner. I looooved the contemporary dance with Lacey - loved it!

Anyway - I received some yarn goodness in the mail today. (No, this isn't on my yarn diet. Yes, I fell off the wagon again.)



This is a clearance buyout from Webs. I learned of them from their podcast, Ready Set Knit. Although they have great closeout bargains on line, I was a bit dismayed after I was contacted twice by their customer service. The first time they had to give me the news that they, in fact, only had 10 of the 12 balls I ordered of a cotton-merino blend. I decided 10 would work, but then they e-mailed with the note that they were two different dye lots. Bummer. It just wasn't meant to be. Anyway, I got some great Debbie Bliss yarn for a baby project (<$3/ball) and Regia sock yarn.

Brian and I also made a Target sale purchase.



We purchase most of our furniture from Target and have never been disappointed. We saw this Hudson collection in the Sunday flyer and just knew it was perfect for our style. We picked up the desk/hutch and file cabinet for a song. Now I'm listening to Brian cuss like a sailor as he tries to assemble it.

It's sad that it will replace the little desk that Brian bought for me during PA school. He wanted me to have a place to study while I was on rotation in Chicago. So he picked up a little desk from Ikea and put it in the corner of his little bedroom for me. What a nice guy.

Summer Programs

You've all heard me talk about it before....So You Think You Can Dance is one of my ultimate favorite reality contests. This show is much more like American Idol than Dancing with the Stars because each of these dancers is truly talented and most have been dancing for their whole life. Unlike American Idol, the judges are more involved and far less insulting. The show has narrowed down to the top 20. The dancers will now get paired off and put with choreographers to learn various routines - including all sorts of genres, hip hop, lyrical, ballroom, African, you name it!

I especially love watching the results show because famous choreographers will put together a group dance that is always impressive. I still vividly remember a few of the dances from last season.

I can't say I've picked a favorite dancer yet. Ricky makes me laugh, so he's at the top of my list. I find it interesting that there are two sisters of previous contestants and an adopted brother. Seems like someone may be playing favorites. However, they are good dancers, so it might be their talent that took them through.

So, Watch! The next episode is Thursday at 8 pm on FOX, results Thursday at 9.

Princess Fiona

Some people have been asking for an update on our friends' baby, Fiona. She was born full term last week, taken by c-section. Her diaphragmatic hernia caused some expected complications with her breathing. Therefore, she is on a lung bypass machine to give her lungs and heart rest and time to grow in size and strength. Her parents hope that soon she will be healthy enough to be taken off of the bypass machine and then plan for surgery to correct the hernia. They ask us all to pray that her lungs continue to develop. Thank you for your concerns and prayers.

The Fruits of my Labor

I came home from work tonight and found this! Can you see the pepper?



Yeah for the miracle of plant growth. I can't wait until I see my first tomato.

I also wanted to share my "something different" Tuesday project. I spent some time with my scrappng supplies and restocked with miscellaneous cards. I always struggle with the manly cards, though. Father's Day just doesn't seem to call for daisy stamps.



The Waterfront Film Festival was fun, but the movie went a bit late for a "school" night (12:45). The weather was quite appropriate for Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It was very windy so empty beer cups skidded across the pavement and the blow-up movie screen was rocking. It was fitting when the items on screen were all moving and jumping due to the powerful alien force. I was too tired to worry that there may really be some alien force coming to get me. Perhaps I was pooped out from all of my knitting.



Or all of the rockin' out to the various bands - The Damnwells and Craic Wisely. There was a third band that was mighty cute, but I can't remember their name so well. Maybe Green Room??







And lastly - so you know I wasn't the nerdiest crafter there....this lady actually brought her spinning wheel. I was jealous of her ability to produce usable yarn from fluff.



Have a great weekend!

Waterfront Film Festival

Anyone in the area should head to Saugatuck for the film festival tonight! They're showing Close Encounters of the Third Kind on an outdoor screen at dusk. Brian and I will be their with our camp chairs and Subway (and my knitting). Be there or be talked about!

Comic things being common

First I just want to ask everyone to say a prayer for TOK and his wife. She is getting induced today and their baby, Fiona, will need some excellent medical care as soon as she enters this world. They are both very brave and strong and I pray Fiona takes after them that way. Thanks.

On a lighter note, today I wanted to post about a funny commonality that Brian and I have. Most married people go in to their commitment knowing they share common interests like camping, sports, travel, etc. Beyond that, Brian and I have something else that you don't often find...a mutual love for Calvin & Hobbes. Enough so that we both kept our childhood collection of comicbook with out boxed up memorabilia. I'm not sure I can explain why I was so intrigued by this comic, but it still intrigues me as an adult. It's very clever - and Hobbes is just so darn cute.

This weekend we decided to divide and conquer. I thought I had the entire collection, but apparently Brian had a few more. Our duplicates will get donated/sold. We'll save the best for our children. If they don't like Calvin & Hobbes, then something went wrong with genetics.


Does anyone else have something unusual in common with their spouse?

I wish they were all like this.

After a quiet weekend around home, I think about how pleasant it can be to enjoy simplicity.
My favorite moments of the weekend:

Beating Brian in checkers.
Eating homemade guacamole.
Chasing down squirrels with the hose.
Running through a thunderstorm huddled under an umbrella with Brian.
Falling asleep with the window's breeze on my face.
Sipping a mint mojito - with home grown mint....while knitting.

What were yours?