Finished another baby gift

All of a sudden there are all these babies! Here's a hat I made with Debbie Bliss Rialto in Pink and Brown. SO CUTE!

I also started a Turn a Square hat (brooklyntweed.blogspot.com) hat in Cascade Paint in what I hope will turn out to resemble camo. Perhaps one of the hunters in my life will wear it?

Dallas Texas Conference

I made it to the conference in Dallas with no problems - yeah! My room is on the 5th floor with a great view of the top of the connecting building but there's blue sky and sunshine when I look up. :-)

The hotel has 2 Atrium's that rooms are around, my room is a huge corner room with a gigantic king bed with 5 pillows and it's all for little old me! I'm loving it!

The down side? The atrium ouside my door is all brick and glass which makes things echo nicely which wouldn't be so bad since people clear out for the most part at night, that is other than the mariachi band in the Mexican restaurant in one corner and the Piano bar in the other corner. Makes for strange medley's.... good thing they both close at 11 pm.

Another ear cozy :-)

I'm not sure how many I've made of these for gifts, but they make me grin each time I finish one. They are just so darn adorable!

Some finished items

A gorgeous baby "punkin" hat using Debbie Bliss Rialto and an original Tangled Skein pattern.... Warmest Mittens with Cascade 220 yarn in Mankato East colors for Allie's 16th birthday.

20 years already?!?

Would you believe my 20th reunion from college was recently celebrated?

Julee came over from her new home in Wisconsin. We started our evening at Whiskey River with supper and finished it with an adult beverage by the fire in the back yard.

There MAY have been a few visits to the local drinking establishments in between.... maybe..... ;-)

House for sale!

We are nearing the finishing line on getting the house ready for sale. These are pictures I took of the pool area so we can show those to people who view the house now that the pool is closed. We can also look back and remember all the good times after we sell!

It is hard to believe that everything but the peonies and the concrete around the pool has been replaced since we originally moved in back in April of 1993. Darn tornado and wind storms. New fence (twice!), new pool liner (twice!), new slide, new diving board, new trees, new landscaping (twice!), new deck, etc. Such hours of love and labour in our yard.

The 2 maple trees we planted to shade our young children in the pool are finally providing shade, now that our teenagers are too busy for the pool. They sure are gorgeous to look at though!

Allie's Warmest Mittens

Another "East" colors Warmest Mittens pair. This is for a 16th birthday - happy birthday!

Cascade 2220 yarn in gold and black - I've made about 5 pairs with this one skein of gold and there's still more left. Yeah!

Ceiling Paint and Ankles

The painters came today and got things taped off and the ceiling sprayed... tomorrow they will start the walls and should be done on Thursday. So isn't this a great time to trip on the steps and badly sprain your ankle so you are on crutches for at least 7 days? ARGH!

Ear Cozy and Turn a Square - finished!

Turn a Square hats in Blue/White and Red/White in Lamb's Pride Worsted and Cascade (white) 220. Fiber Trends Ear Cozies hat in Spring Colorway of Sheep Shop Yarn in 3-6 months size.

It's a girl!

Another niece arrived at 3:31 today!
7 pounds 13 ounces
20 inches

Mommy, Daddy and her 3 big sisters are thrilled!

This makes me the auntie of 8 nieces - and thankfully the eldest niece was married this past June so I now have a nephew!

In memory of Annie

Annie joined our family the winter of 1994... youngest son was 6 months and oldest was 3. She was a tiny little thing that prefered to sleep in whatever soft spot the human baby had just vacated. She put up with a lot from those 2 human brothers.

Last Saturday Annie joined our other loved pets up in heaven, waiting for us to come and play again. Annie would have been 14 in January. We miss you!

Mankato West mittens and hat

A gift for one of my nieces... Warmest Mittens pattern I've used many times before... Cascade 220 for the black and white - lamb's pride worsted for the red.

Brooklyn Tweed's Turn a Square Hat to match, just because I want to try the pattern!

School begins and painting fun

School begins again! Would you believe 11th and 8th grade. The "short" one was measured at the doctors office in June at 5 feet 10.25 inches - yikes! I'm definitely the shortest human in the immediate family.


Pink primer! I'm painting a few accent walls a deep cranberry that eldest son picked out. Will look great done but for now with the pink - yikes!

Knitting update - BYOB bag

I finished the BYOB I made from the Rowan All Seasons Cotton a week or so ago and really like it compared to the one I made from Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton. It is 22 inches tall and 19 inches wide. I skipped the handle thing the pattern has you do but other than that, it is exactly to the pattern. I will definitely make this bag again.


I am abolutely in LOVE with the seed stitch texture and changing colors by alternating the 2 colors for one row - YUMMY!

Hunting season?

It's almost hunting season and the "boys" have upgraded their boat. It will be MUCH more comfortable for hubby than their previous version.

Teenagers grow like weeds!

I wasn't the shortest in the family until this summer!



I'm 5 feet 9 inches... DS#1 (who will be 17 in October) was measured this summer at 5 feet 10.25 inches... and then we have DS#2 who just turned 14 last month. He's overtaken Mom and big brother, his goal is now to make Dad the "short one".

Knitting and wine

What could be better than taking a bus with other knitters to a local vineyard for wine tasting with 35 friends? I can't think of a thing!

Hummingbirds

We have honeysuckle vines on a trellis by our deck at home... this is what we watched tonight while grilling hamburgers.

Grandpa???

Did I mention the wind was really strong at the cabin? Grandpa is up in the tree, way above the extension ladder cutting down a REALLY big branch that is over the water.

Darn storms!

The wind has blown out windows on the west side of our screen porch at the cabin again. About 3 weeks ago just the center 2 windows were blown out and now today, there are 4 blown out. Two of them were absolutely shattered, one was perfectly fine and another was just out and the frame all messed up. Thankfully Dad was able to come and help me clean up the mess since Jim had to get to class up in the cities.

This spring we also had to clean up glass due to the frost heave doing some damage. I think it's time to figure out what else we can do for this side of the porch. We need it to be removable for the winter (or flexible) for the frost heave.... and able to let in light and ventilation during the summer. Sigh.......

Meet the new High School Principal

Hubby's office is all done getting the wallpaper stripped and a new paint color applied. We are really pleased with the color we picked. The new fake and real plants look nice as well. We need one more big picture for over his desk and a couple pictures of our family and heis all set for the new school year and his next great adventure.