BEST ICE CREAM EVER MADE. PERIOD.

This ice cream (technically) Gelato is going to be the end of me. 

They sold out of it at New Season's and I thought I was going to Die 

right there in the middle of the frozen isle. 

But on my 4th of July grocery shopping adventure 

at Fred Meyer I found it! 

OH HAPPY DAY! 

See those little chocolate pieces inside...? 

well they are full of caramel. 

Yep. 

And there are not very many. So if you choose to share with someone 

(i understand if you cant) 

you need to keep one eye on the tub while you scoop your bites. 

Otherwise.... those little chunks of heaven are gone before you know it.

What's your favorite ice cream or cold ice cream like treat? 

Not that i'm planning on trying anything else ever again... : )

But I am curious what people gravitate to for this icy treat.

I knit this 1 lonely mitt for my Dad the Christmas of 2008. 

Larus + Ardea by Spinnity

Yep... that's right. 2008. 

And I never the knit the second one. 

What a horrible daughter I am! 

So last night I pulled out the 2nd one that I had already started and 
I'm on a mission to get him a finished set in the next couple of weeks. 

I really do love this pattern. It taught me the technique of 
(which i'll have to re teach myself considering it's been 2 years) 
twined knitting which goes 
by the Swedish term "Tvåändsstickning." 

Lovely, right? And so fun too!

I'm falling back in love my yarn choice!
This pattern looks even more intricate in Noro yarn 
because of all the subtle color changes. 
I'm really excited to get going on these again! 

I'm back... I think...

Goodness gracious it's been awhile, eh? 

If you're still following along.... bless your heart

The last few months in a very small nut shell...

Holidays full of fabulous family visits.
My sweet Nana, who taught me to knit, passed away to be with her love.

Website goes down for awhile.

Re-kindle old friendship. (in "paris")

New full time job, yay!

Which means new wake up and after school schedule for Lu and me.

Old roommate moved out.

New Roommate moved in. (yay)

Some knitting.

Some cleaning.

Some cooking.

Some card playing.

Some cuddling with my almost 7year old. 

Order a birthday cake.

(Liv's bday is feb. 2nd!)

Website goes back up.

2011 is definitely at a new pace. 

But I'm so fabulously happy!

More to come: current knits, pictures, and as always - my random rants as they choose to spew out. 

SOUP!!!!



Remember my rant last March? Well let's refresh your memory.
(and bring to attention that i've been very lazy about taking good pictures the last few days! 
That old picture of taco soup puts my new one to shame. sheesh.)

Yesterday was a taco soup kinda day. 

Yum Yum. 

And the day before was a veggie soup kinda day. 

And the day before that was a chicken noodle soup kinda day. 

I think if I feed my daughter home made soup tonight 

she will kick me in the junk.

hair envy.

 

 

Fashion magazines and websites are loaded with

this hair style... the grown out color or sun kissed fade...

I'm not sure what the lingo for it is...

but i'm liking it.

Casual, real, relaxed.

Now if my hair would just grow already

i'd be able to get a move on the color. 

 

"Hurry hair! You're taking forever!"

Guess what?!

Dia de los Muertos.

This does have to do with knitting, believe it or not. 

I'm in the middle of working up a new pattern and I'll have it available in the next week or so... 

just in time to knit up for Day of the Dead. 

I sketched up a few skull ideas/illustrations...

this will make sense as far as how it links to the pattern later...

and then scanned them in to my computer.
I'm tweaking and playing with color stories... and having a blast. 

More to come on this soon!

tree couch.

Livi's been playing with the fairies in our tree.

 What little wonders did you find today?

It's a beautiful outside... prefect really. Sunny, happy, cool fall day. Ahhhhh. Content. I hope you feel the same way today.

Thank you,

to all you knitters who purchased my latest patterns. I can't wait to see pictures of your versions. This time of year always inspires me to knit more... you too?

I hear the chickens in my neighbors yard laying eggs... that reminds me... i need to go make myself some breakfast. ta ta

*i went outside to take pictures of the fall leaves and found this couch in the tree. so flipp'n cute!*

Brookly Tweed.

 Oh Holy Excitement! Guess what Mr. Flood has been up to for a year... 

 

Yep... his own yarn. Grown and made right here in the USA. Beyond that he has some amazing patterns he's releasing to highlight this fabulous yarn.

Like it needs highlighting... 

I'd hang it on the walls or in a bowl on the table if I didn't know how to knit...

because it's that beautiful!

If you're an Oregonian... and don't want to wait for it to be shipped because you LOVE it and want to cuddle with it in bed... well don't fret... because you can get it right here in good old PDX!

 Great Job Jared! Really!

Pulled Pork Sanwiches.

Yesterday morning I pulled out the handy dandy crock pot... or slow cooker if you prefer. By 6:30pm we were well in to a nice juicy pulled pork sandwich. Olivia and I were "in heaven" as she put it.

Tradition says... no pulled pork sandwich goes with out a yummy tangy slaw... so I whipped up my own version and folks... it was awesome.

Does anyone else befriend the crock pot when fall hits? What are your favorite slow cook recipes?

London.

picture via the sartorialist

I'm fashion dreaming this morning.

1) I want to go to London.

2) I want to wear this dress & boots even if I don't go to London.

3) If I can't have the dress can I have the boots?

4) for free?

5) How about the hair? Can i have a cute "i so didn't try to look this good" bun up do?

6) Ok. fine. Can I go to the grocery store in the same jeans i've been wearing for the last two days with dirty pinned up hair and a smile on my face even though inside i'm fighting the fact that I hate grocery shopping even if it's Trader Joe's and Olivia loves it and can find the hidden monkey and pick out a piece of candy while I bag my groceries and try to figure out how long I have to sit on my butt between unloading them and starting dinner.

Back to the real world.

Tiny Owl knits.

I've been following both of Stephanie Dosen's blogs for over a year now and LOVE her style. Not only is a an amazing knit designer she is an amazing musician.



I wanted to share her with you because if you haven't had the pleasure of seeing her beautiful creations... you should!

Go now!

The picture above is her latest design. You can find the pattern on her blog or on Ravelry. Isn't that hat so great!?

Go check out her other patterns... they are all fantastic, inspiring, fairy goodness!

I got kicked out of first grade.

First day of school pictures. They have to be done. I want the memory and the ability and pleasure of looking back at every year and seeing how much she has grown! See her last year... she was so tiny... a sweet excited new kindergartner.



Now look at her.... This face says, "I so don't have time for this picture thing mom. Ummm... don't you know it's my first day of school and this is the LAST thing I want to be doing!"

I don't blame her... i kinda go bonkers with my camera. There are two pictures here but if you saw how many I actually took you'd be frowning at the camera too! hee hee



In the end we made a deal... she smiled her real "I'm happy today" smile as long as I didn't take the camera to the class room. .... oh, all right! Deal.

But that's not all... as soon as her name tag was on and school supplies in place... she kicked me out. Yep... already... first grade and now mom's gotta go. I was sure I'd be able to hang out on the first day of school for a bit at least to 4th grade. That's a big fat N. O.!




I love you Olivia and am so proud of you. You are such a great friend, creative and energetic student and an absolute light to be around. Go get 'em big girl!!

Ps. in All it's Oregonian charm... it rained for the first day of school. Why am I surprised!?

hide away.

picture from: unknown

Isn't this peaceful? I would so drop this in the middle of the woods or on a beach and hide away for awhile.

I like kombutcha.

Sitting and swatching for a new project. This is one of my favorite stitches! When I knit it up two tone I love it even more.




No big plans for the day. Working, knitting and drinking some yummy Townshends Kombutcha from my friend Lindsey.




What does your Tuesday look like?

peace.

I took a couple pictures while I took a walk this morning.

(side note)
at 10am it was already 75 outside... as I type this at noon its 80 and It's
going to be over 100 today. We don't get that kind of heat often in
Portland!!

It was beautiful. And I didn't listen to music like i normally do. I just walked and looked and listened to the neighborhood and the thoughts in my head.



I've been learning a lot over the past year.

It feels good to...

"let go" and just "be."



My brother visited a couple nights ago and we sat talking on the back deck. We talked about what we are learning now... what we are embracing and maybe what we are having a hard time embracing.


Here is one of the things I have learned
(and still learning.)
The thing I am so happy to embrace.



Slowing Down




"...we carry our home with us wherever we go. Even as we move into the depths of emotional waters, we can remain self-contained and free from attachments....
There is no need to do anything but rest in the fullness of who you are right now. If desires and hopes and dreams are fading away, so much the better. Their disappearance is making space for a new quality of stillness and acceptance of what is, and you are able to welcome this development in a way you have never been able to before. Savor this quality of slowing down, of coming to rest and recognizing you are already home."

summer + peaches = happiness.

Can't get enough of the fresh peaches from tj's.

I'd eat'm all day long if I had room in my kitchen for that many.

actually...

I could just stack them on my back porch.... hmmm...

weed and yarn.

Over the last few years I have heard a lot of feedback on the series by showtime called Weeds.

I started on season one a couple of weeks ago and can't get enough.

Been netflix-ing it while knitting at night and I'm already up to the 5th season. Has anyone else been sucked in to this show?

Well I have.
And so far it's a good thing...

because it's creating the perfect time for me to knit and finish the other sleeve on this project...


a never ending project that I predicted would be done sooner than later.

But here we are living in
later
and it's still not done.

BTW, Miss Lu has only two more days of school. TWO! I can't believe it... she is already calling herself a first grader. Slow down already you fabulous kid you. Momma can't take it!

oops.

I got stir crazy yesterday.


and hair color was on sale for 5.99.




pro: my hair is one color.... aka, the same color as my roots.

con: not sure i like it and with summer around the corner it's going to fade like a bitch.


oh well.

scarcth, scratch, scratch.

yes this is a long post... humor me. It was one of those mornings.

Did you all know that I live in a house with my aunt? Well I do. She is downstairs in her cute 2 bedroom suit and I am upstairs. It has been a great experience so far and this month marks our one year roommate anniversary.

I bet you won't guess what our anniversary present was.

You never will...

(unless you scrolled down. And if you did you should feel ashamed of yourself. Are you one of those freaks that reads the last page of your book before you start it too? sad.)

Ok... i digress...

Here we go.

Michele woke to scratching at her window in the front window well. So she did what most tired people on there day off would do.



She put in her ear plugs.



But that little thing did not oblige.

Thing: "hello Michele. I know you want to sleep. But NO. I want you to save me! NOW!"

scratch. scratch. scratch. scratch.

Michele: "no"

Thing: scratch.

Michele: "no"

Thing: scratch.

Thing: SCRAAAAAAATTTTCH!

Michele: OK! OK! FINE!


So she came upstairs to find me where I always am at 9:30 am. On my computer. She told me that there was a creature scratching at her window and that it must be stuck in the window well.

(shivers to my spine and screeching noises came from me like never before... think final episode of Modern Family.)





Well she was right. It was a terrified little baby possum.



So to make a short story long...


we called our neighbor. (He has been trying to catch a mole that has been digging up his garden and I figured he would know what to do. or at least not be terrified by a poor scared baby possum.)

I was right. He brought his moral support, his adorable wife, and they quickly swooped it up using gloves and an old towel. Next thing I know it was scurrying off into the bushes.



And this was all before 10:30am this morning.



And did it require 3 mugs of coffee?
maybe not.



But did I drink them anyway?



Yes. Yes I did.


THE END