A Capital Idea

We got a great chance to try out our handknits on a vacation to Washington DC a couple of weeks ago. It was cold without being frigid, so we had a great time walking around DC (and walking, and walking!)

We visited all the usual sights and had an absolutely fabulous stay at the Omni Shoreham. I couldn't recommend it more. The room was beautiful, quiet and spacious. We opted for the Bed & Breakfast package, and we enjoyed the best breakfast ever!

I found a lovely yarn shop in Alexandria and picked up a few goodies. I fell in love with the silk laceweight (the gold skein) and about had the vapors. It's by The Neighborhood Fiber Co in the Lincoln Park colorway. Yummy!

This was our second trip, so we had a good game plan. I love the fact that you can eat lunch at the Supreme Court (which was delicious). You can wander around the National Gallery of Art a few feet from paintings by Monet, Degas, Renoir and hundreds of others. We spent a lot of time there. And they have the best cafeteria in the land, as far as I'm concerned! The Cascade Cafe. Love it.

I took Icarus and my Wavy Socks with me, and I did get some knitting done. I finished the Together Beret and then promptly wore it! But didn't get any pictures of it...still to come.

I'm through the 2nd chart on Icarus, so the end is sort of in sight. I'm enjoying the knitting, but I feel like I've been working on it forever.

Happy Mother's Day

A happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. I'm not a mom (except to this sweet fella)...

but I had a great mom who was my best friend until the day she went to be with the Lord. And I am ever thankful to Him for giving me a mom like her. It's an extraordinarily marvelous blessing to have only sweet, sweet memories of her.

I love you, Mom! (...I think she heard me :)

February in the South

Yep, all over the front yard.

A New Look

Time for a new look for the old blog! I was tired of the white background...I wanted something warmer. Plus, I made a few other changes: I now have 2 sidebars instead of just 1, thanks to this great blog. I added a few more goodies to those sidebars as well. It's just fun! Let me know what you think!

November One

Happy November to everyone! I love November...it's almost a perfect month. Halloween is over. Yes, sorry, I'm not a fan of the halloween craze. Thanksgiving is this month, a joy of a holiday if you ask me. All the yummy food and no pressure! It's prep time for Christmas, which I enjoy. You need a little "in the air is the feeling of Christmas" busyness. Not too much, though. And now Daylight Savings Time ends in November. Which to me equals cozy time.

So a bowl of fake fruit (but nice fake fruit) to celebrate this grand month.

And, a beautiful quilt that was on my calendar when I changed it this morning. I "heart" this quilt. Love the big stitches, love the colors, love the fabrics. Love.

Road Trip Goodies

Here are a few of the treasures we found on vacation:

This is an embroidered placemat. I found a set of 4 with 4 napkins at a flea market. I think it is too cute! Very happy mushrooms.

Of course, the stack of fabric. I think I was pretty restrained this year. This is all I got. I'm loving the orange on top. I'm loving orange right now, as a matter of fact.

And some good Pyrex love. I have a few snack plates in this pattern and I found these 3 little bowls to match. I believe it's called "Primrose." I have a pretty good case of Pyrex love.

I found a great needlepoint mushroom pillow, but I haven't gotten a good picture of it yet. We've had a lot of rain and cloudiness around here, which is good...we need the rain. But it doesn't make for great picture taking!

Internet Love

This little darling is my desktop background right now. It's a free download from http://www.howaboutorange.blogspot.com/. I love the internet! It's amazing to me how much you can discover, and..., how generous people out there can be!

It brightens my day just to look at this little chirper! Thanks for sharing, Jessica!

A Furry Haze

This beautiful creature, here, has lost what I know must be 100 pounds of fur. And it's all over my house. Why does he wait until almost fall to do this? Good thing he's cute.

So, until the fur flies (as in, away) I've been enjoying some blog surfing. And I've discovered (or re-discovered) some wonderful blogs:

http://fabulousfifi.typepad.com/chez_fifi/

http://happylovesrosie.blogspot.com/

http://www.sewsally.blogspot.com/

http://www.mellyandme.typepad.com/

http://oneredrobin.com/

Ah, fall. The crafting desire blooms again!

Summer Sojourns

Well, I didn't mean to take a blogging break, but that's about what it amounted to. And it's all Summer's fault! We have been enjoying the warm weather in a bunch of ways around here. The garden is in full swing, we've gotten lots of zucchini and beans, cucumbers are now getting plentiful and tomatoes are popping out everywhere. The lettuce is about done for until cooler weather, and we're still waiting for the carrots to stop looking like miniature carrots.

Jimmy got a new lawnmower over Memorial Day weekend and he's in love. It's a Husqvarna...too bad a free sewing machine didn't come with it!

And we've been back in the water doing some kayaking. About 10 years ago I had a couple of kayaks and just loved them. I had to sell them after my mom died so I could pay bills, but I've always wanted to get some again. Right now, we have a nice inflatable kayak for two, but we're drooling over a couple of recreational kayaks to paddle in hopefully by next year.

Not to mention, I'm rearranging my sewing room! Yikes!

And also not to mention...I'm typing this post on our new laptop. It's a Dell Precision M60, and we got a great deal from my husband's employer. Lots of fun, but I haven't transferred any pictures or my photo editing program, so I need to get that done.

The summer is just flyin' by!

Happy Mothers' Day!

I am so thankful to the Lord for the mother He gave me. She has been gone 10 years now, and I have only sweet and wonderful memories of her. She truly was a woman who feared the Lord, and I praise her for the loving, kind, funny, sweet, silly mom and best friend she was to me!

Springtime in Arkansas

A few looks at the color in our yard. Spring in Arkansas means you can almost see it growing. That's especially true for the beans and cucumbers!

Victoria Magazine

Well, here's interesting news....Victoria magazine is planning a comeback. I'll be taking a wait-and-see attitude since there doesn't seem to be any mention of Nancy Lindemeyer or other longtime Victoria editors. Several magazines have tried to duplicate what Victoria had and they always seem to be just shy of the mark, you know what I mean?

But, if it works...woo hoo! Because I love my old Victoria's!

Spring green

Well, I couldn't stand it....we have balmy 60 degree temperatures here, and it feels like spring. So, I figured the ol' blog should have a touch of spring...

Seed time

It's actually flurrying here today...if I look out the window I see a tiny flake float by every once in a while. And it's cold, cold, cold. But, every gardner knows what February is for...starting seeds! (well, maybe it's later if you live up north-ways, but in these parts, we'll be putting plants out in about six weeks.)

I've grown vegetables from seed, but I haven't really done it with flowers, other than sewing zinnias and cosmos directly in the garden. So, we're excited to see how we can do with some flowers.

Jimmy is working on the expanded vegetable garden area already...lots of digging right now. Lots of hauling dirt and soil amendments soon. Spring shall be here before we know it!

Snow in Arkansas

Yes, it snowed here last night! Which is really funny because I had just been looking at Tracy's pictures of her snow (much deeper) and commented about how beautiful it was, and how unlikely it was here in Arkansas. And then...whammo...snow!

I used to live in Utah and that is the one thing I miss...good snow. We get maybe one snow every two or three years here, and that's just not enough. It makes everything look so beautiful and pristine. And of course, around here, usually everything shuts down or at least is delayed, so it's also very quiet.

Of course, when you live in Arkansas, you have daffodils that begin blooming in February. And this is what happens when it snows on them. Fortunately, we only have a few in bloom right now (bless their hearts, all droopy). Later on, we'll have hundreds in our yard.

And around here you better enjoy it while you can, because it'll probably be gone by lunch! So yah for snow days...we need more of 'em.

Book worm

January always has that "snuggle in with a good book" effect on me. So, in that spirit, that's what I've been doing. I've been re-reading this book

Jenny Walton's Packing for a Woman's Journey by Nancy Lindemeyer. I love this book. It's got a very definite optimistic outlook on life, which is similiar to mine. And of course, Nancy Lindemeyer was the editor of Victoria magazine, my all-time favorite magazine ever published. I could go on and on...and on... about it, and the impression it made on me. I have almost every issue. I think I'm lacking 3 or 4. And I still get them out quite often. They're like old friends. If you're a fan, you know exactly what I mean.

Along that line, I picked up a couple of things at our library's book store this weekend. One was this book (sorry for the blurry picture)

The Heritage Sampler, A Book of Colonial Arts & Crafts. It looks pretty interesting from this light perusal I've given it so far. I'm a big fan of Revolutionary-era history (why yes, I am a big geek, thanks for asking) and all things colonial.

And I also found this, for 50 cents:

Holly Hobbie's Home Times magazine. The first issue. This completely surprised me...I have never heard of this magazine, do not remember ever seeing it before, and I am loving it! It reminds me somewhat of Victoria magazine, especially the earliest issues. But a little different. I'd love to know if anyone has ever heard or seen this magazine before.

Neapolitan

I've been seeing lots of "neapolitan" around blog-land, and it's getting to me. Nevermind that it's delicious, as in neapolitan ice cream. I love that combination of colors: pink, cream, brown...wonderful! And lots of folks are making me neapolitan (groan!) with envy:

This lovely from Karen at Simply June.

Gorgeous yarn from several Etsy shops. FeltStudioUK, KristieHaynes, and WhorledPeace.

Super soft looking roving from Ruby's Daughter Handspun Yarn.

I saw a beautiful pair of socks done in a neapolitan colorway, but now, of course, I can't remember where I saw them. And in my overzealous housecleaning of my favorites folder I got rid of the link.

Brach's socks here

...this is all making me hungry.