Alex's First Northeast Corridor Tour!

Two weeks ago, Alex handled his first early morning international conference call like a champ {of course, it was so early that I took the call from bed and kept it on mute 90% of the time so that colleagues wouldn't hear his uber-cute chatter}::

... But before we could let the little guy think life is all work and no play, we decided to take off for a two-week tour of the northeast!

Stop #1 :: Shamokin, PA {the heart of the Northeast Corridor, obv}!

Alex donned his grey Pebble Vest for a day out manning Sarah and Jeff's stand at the town's heritage festival.

This vest and his grey Little Heaume hat were some of the smallest pieces I made, so while the weather was horrible, I was so excited for the chance to dress him in these hand knits at least once before he outgrew them! And of course, having little A around was the perfect distraction that keep everyone smiling as we suffered through the wind and cold.



Stop #2 : Saxis, VA! Saxis was four days of pure relaxation for the whole fam. We gave Alex his first beach day, granted he didn't touch the water and barely saw the sun {he made a valiant effort to kick the blanket off his feet and get some sun on those toes, and there was that trip to the water under C's shirt}.

Cash was treated to his own day of fun in the bay ::

Stop #3 : Philadelphia! We stopped in to visit Chia Krissy and to pick up some Sage {summer cocktail season is here!}.

From there, we did a drive-by of the NYC skyline ::

Stop #4 : Boston, MA!

We had a great time playing tourists in Boston. With beautifully sunny weather on Sunday, we drove through Salem for a day at the beach in Bar Harbor.

On Day 2, Calder and Alex indulged me in a bit of shopping, stopping in those cute shops that can only be found in the city.

And Day 3 was spent picnicking in Boston Common and riding the swan boats!

After close to 24 hours spent in the van for this trip, I have to say that I'm loving the road trip view {Calder and Cash handle driving and navigation while Alex and I hold down the back seat}::

And, those hours spent in the back seat are not wasted! I picked up some yarn during Stop #2 in VA and had plenty of time to start a new project {Little Arrowhead Shawl} while keeping little Alex company.

Living off my phone

This fall has definitely been a season of travel. I'm enjoying it, but finally reached the point where it was easier to reach for my phone than a camera when taking pictures... Last week started with a trip to NY in preparations for our even more exciting trip to Brazil!

What an ordeal to prep and submit visa applications for a whole family. The assembly line approach was required. My office computers, which are typically running economic models, were hijacked for the work, and, of course, our trusty side-kick Ca$h tried to get in there and "help" whenever he could.

We were in New York for just a day ~ enough time to drop off the paper work and do some shopping. The city was much drier than it is today {and we are lucky that the storm passed by our town with just 48 hours of light to medium rain and no other damage to report}. I made a concerted effort on this trip to finally stop in Purl SoHo. If you haven't found it yet, their blog is a treasure trove of ideas for knitting, sewing and crochet projects. On this visit I picked up yarn for the infant mittens {it's great to be able to pick up just enough of an accent color rather than a typical skein} and for a baby bonnet.

After that it was off to Boston for a thrilling two+ days of work. Unfortunately this trip didn't leave as much time for exploring my old favorite shops and squares, but I did sneak off one evening for dinner at Wagamama.

And now, a week at home. We're prepping for the halloween fun tonight, I've cast on for a new hat since a winter chill is officially in the air, and the pooch is so happy to have his pack back together that he'll sleep in the most uncomfortable positions just to be between us.

This is it!

I just have to make it through one more day of work {which is hard when there's this much excitement in the air!}. After work I'm packing a few more things in the car and taking off for PA and more adventures before things finally {finally!} settle down... ...I know that's a joke, things aren't going to settle down for a long while!

My to-do lists are growing by the day. There's the moving, beginning work at a new school, wedding planning, holiday shopping, holiday crafting, etc. so you'll have to excuse the sporadic posting on this blog. Click over to Tumblr to see a few pics from my last days in Boston, including the one above. It was taken last night after I met up with my roommates where we bought enough yarn for a couple of sweaters {you'll see these results soon, I promise!}, then I took a quiet walk through Boston Common by myself before eating one last meal at Wagamama. A perfect last evening to end this crazy, hectic, and sometimes less-than-perfect adventure in Boston.

ps. Did I mention the cabin? There's going to be a cabin and I'm so excited for a few evenings knitting by the cabin's wood stove. That's perfection.

one, two... Three Decades!

Well, sorry for the slow down in posting. There's been nothing but fun sprinkled with a touch of work behind the scenes here.

The past week was filled up by a visit by C and the celebration of my birthday!

This was a big birthday, so we spent the weekend indulging and celebrating it to the fullest. A day at the beach, followed by dinner at Oleana. This is the type of place where you want to try everything on the menu. Luckily we went with some close friends, which meant more mouths for sharing and dishes for sampling. We started with their octopus salad {the secret to good octopus is taking the time to make it tender, and theirs definitely was}, worked our way through their menu and ended with their Baked Alaska {a first for me!}. If you'd like to see some of the secrets behind Oleana's food, check out Ana Sortun's cookbook, Spice.

Saturday was celebrated with a very classy gigantic chocolate banana cupcake.

And Sunday we treated ourselves to dinner at Ten Tables in JP. Realizing that our time is almost up in Boston, it was fun to finally visit some of the restaurants that we hadn't made time for before.

Both restaurants rely upon local farms/farmers for their fresh veggies, and they adjust their menus accordingly. From our experience they both had fantastic and really knowledgeable sommeliers/bartenders. At Oleana we took the sommelier's suggestion and had a great bottle of white wine {if only I could remember the name}, and at Ten Tables we both ordered the "Flight of 3" cocktails ~ three cocktails decided upon by the bartender. We considered this "research" for our wedding cocktails!

I'm about halfway through Julia Child's My Life in France, so after all of that reading about her exploration of food, it was really a lot of fun to go out for one delicious and exciting meal after another!

And the grey yarn above? The hexagon afghan is growing::

Unfortunately, I'll run out of grey before it gets to the size I want, so I'm mulling over my options. I think I'll either look for some more grey to match or keep the inner rectangle of hexagons grey and switch to another color for the bordering rows.

{spring nights}

Aren't spring evenings the best? We've had a string of excellent ones lately ~ warm and humid with clear skies. The trees were just beginning to leaf out.The moon was waning {or waxing}.
The streets were alive with fast cars.
And, of course, the Sox were playing.

Now a dose of music::

Fast Cars by Tracy Chapman. This song is a bit heavy for the light spring evenings, but there's something about the idea of hopping in a fast car and driving off into the night that made me want to post it. enjoy*

What do you do....

when life steals your tires {AND WHEELS}?

no, not your wheels, your parents' wheels.




well, first thing's first, you think you're going crazy because you can't find the car. you knew where you parked it


but




that was after yoga, and sometimes yoga can make a person's brain go to mush.

so

maybe you parked it somewhere else...








but no, and after an hour you're still biding your time, waiting for the right parent to call... because,




you don't know the license plate number. who memorizes a license plate if they're just borrowing the car? oops.





finally, with license scrawled on paper, you call the tow lot. yes,

it's there...





but




you have to go to the police station to pick up the "release form". it's 11:00 on a Friday night, why not pay your pals, the cops, a visit?

last time i was in a police state? um, kindergarten field trip?





me, with release form in hand, "may i ask why the car was towed?"

cop, reading the police report {and chuckling} "your tires and wheels were stolen, AND your car's so light they had it up on milk crates!"




me : awesome.




so, what do you do at 12:30 AM on a Friday night? order some possum yarn.

black {grey} white

Knitting! Knee socks!
I started these at the very end of August, so I guess it's only appropriate that they stayed on the needles all winter and are finished just in time for spring. C'est la vie. I'll be sure to slip them on the moment there's a chill in the air.

I couldn't be happier with how they turned out. They're knit from the toe up, making it easy to increase up the calf without much guesswork. The pattern is Firestarter. I picked it because I loved the gusset increases and heel. This might be my new go-to method for toe up heels ~ it provides for a heel with much more wiggle room than the basic short-row heel, which can sometimes be a bear to get on.

Other than following the pattern for the heel section, I took liberties with most of the pattern:: I lengthened the cable repeats, spreading them over more rows than the original pattern because I wanted a longer cable repeat rather than a short and squat one. I also didn't do any of the ribbing where suggested on the heal and up the leg. And finally, I lengthened the leg ~ the pattern is not for knee socks. Once at the top of the leg, I knit and extra-long 1x1 rib {knitting the knit stitches through the back of the loop to keep the ribbing stretchy ~ a little tip I learned from the EZ videos!}
I was worried about them staying up, and I don't know how it happened, but these puppies are perfect ~ they are snug without being tight, and there's no chance that they're going to end up around my ankles like Olive Oil {yes, even though I love the olive oil style, mom}.

Continuing with the black and white motif, my schedule continues to keep me in front of the computer most days, so I'm back to night foliage, but I really can't complain::The magnolia's in Boston are in full bloom!

And finally, a bit of grey, for the aficionado in our house:: pants {jcrew}, shoes {aldo}, location {my favorite bathroom}

Have a great day*

Week of Winter Foliage { winter greens }

Eek, someone dropped the ball over here!

Finally, the last winter foliage installment, and just in time for a week of milder temps. So if you haven't ventured out in a while, this might be the time to take a walk and enjoy the foliage!

{Winter Greens}
The circles of lichen were so brilliant the day I was out. More brilliant than the photos can capture, but still worth a shot.

Then there was all of this happy moss:: So so lush. And it wasn't until I was snapping away that I noticed the awesome tree in the background of these photos. It might be my favorite image from the whole series.

And, finally, complimenting the green is a touch of red::

Tomorrow, some new music, following by a weekend of wool-y goodness. stay tuned*

Week of Winter Foliage { cattails }

~ A haiku ~

The field of cattails
is overflowing with seeds
this one got away.

Tomorrow's foliage { winter greens }

Week of Winter Foliage { roses }

I finished a sweater last night, just in time for the big storm. I also found another use for my fingerless gloves this morning... but I'll save all the knitting for the weekend. On with the winter foliage!

{ roses }




Tomorrow's winter foliage { cattails }

Week of Winter Foliage { flowers }

I found it, the perfect cure for anyone suffering from the mid-winter blues!

Last Saturday, as the East Coast was pummeled by snow, I spent some time taking in the winter foliage. It was a good little reminder to slow down and enjoy the season... and always a nice reminder of the Vermont hike & company many years ago that put the Winter Foliage spark in my head.

Here's the fist installation from my Saturday adventure. enjoy*

Sunflower::


Flower? seed pods? you be the judge::


And even the evergreens have some flowers to share::


If that didn't work, head over to Seraphina Firenze for some orange flavored vodka that will warm you up in no time.

Tomorrow's foliage:: { roses }

p.s. Boston didn't get a lick of snow, but we're enjoying every arctic cold front that old man winter blows our way. not awesome.