mother's day

love watching those teeth come in!

don't smile your face WILL crack

you have a chocolate beard. rock it!

does this face say fun or what?

breakfast with my momma and man.

yuuuumy food at Hash.

mom picked an italian greyhound to start the festivities.

It had a sugared rim and looked fabulous! 

food, as always, delicious!

vintage furniture shopping with my man.

then a movie in bed and a nap.

Presents!

hand made gift from Liv Lu

a watercolor painted fan (so stunk'n cute!)

wrapped in orange tissue paper with love. (swoon)

then the topper... brownies and ice cream 

made with excitement, goofiness and big amounts of love.

Happy momma's day. 

I hope all you mommas made 

special memories too.

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.

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!*

Pink Brimmed Hat.

I finished the last test knit (of 3) today in the largest size. Livi modeled it for me today and i'm happy to report that she actually likes wearing it! yay!

Wasn't a fan of this color at first... but she picked it out so I went for it. So glad I did because she was right... it looks so cute on her in pink.

Pattern ready by the end of the week!

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!?

Beautiful Boston

Back from my vacation in Boston. (miss you Nee and Ty!)

I had a fabulous time...
more on that later this week.

Been getting Olivia ready for school... gearing up for September. I can't believe how fast the summer slipped away.

Mom?

Can i paint?
yes!


on that wood person?
Um.... sure!



Next thing i know it's photo shoot time.






This is the bowl of fruit on our dining table.

yummmm.



What a way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

I ADORE this girl!

Joy.

Well folks, it happened. I finally got to meet my dear new friend Joy. We have been chatting via facebook, our blogs and emails for what seamed like years.

But Friday we made it happen for real and had a blast.




We have tons in common and not just things to talk about or liking the same things. We talk about all these things the same way... it's crazy and cool and weird. But mostly just really cool.

Oh and guess what??

...her awesome husband Brett... was my boyfriend in high school! OK.
That does sound more weird than cool... but i promise it's great.

Olivia met her 3 kids and kicked it off with her two girls brilliantly. Joy and I caught up on the last 25 years of or lives in a matter of a few hours while they played. Really... we talk fast. it totally worked fine to talk over each other at shocking speeds!

I arrived just about 30 minutes before Brett left for work. So we got the chance to talk as well and I gotta tell ya, having these beautiful people in my life is a Joy!

budum bum.

Check out Joy's blog here. She is so funny and adorable. I know you will snort your coffee out your nose in delightful fits of laughter as you read her family and life stories. No? Well that's how I rate a good blog read.

China Doll Update.

Livi has a very specific idea about what sweater i should be making. It's pretty cute.



red, check.

mandarin collar, check.

wrap like a kimono, check.



So far so good. phew!


I just slipped what's done so far on Olivia last night and the sleeves and chest fit great.

Not too big, but roomy enough that she could use it as a jacket this fall.

I'm loving this stitch. I've used it before in two tone on a sweater that I was designing but never ended up writing. It has a woven look on one side and seed stitch on the reverse.



Being that she wants it to be "a red Chinese sweater mom!" I'm thinking I want to add little Chinese Frogs for the closure. Like this...

...in a bright color or just a simple black. Haven't decided yet.


Slowly but surely this little number is coming along. I have some fun ideas in my head to embellish and make it more cozy. Stay tuned... it's going to finish up looking completely different!

Picnics and fangs.

So here are the pictures I promised of our picnic a few weeks ago.

Did you know vampires like peanut butter sandwiches?

They do.

Olivia and I are going camping this weekend. We are VERY excited!

Happy weekend to you all and hope you had a fabulous week.

Good night nurse....

... it's been a long time!

I know.

It's been a weird

packed

unusually lonely

but all the same

very busy few weeks.

I miss you blog people.




Going camping with Olivia and my aunt, uncle and cousin this weekend.




Can't wait!!



Will be back to update this sucker Monday. Hope you all have a fabulous Weekend.


**pictures of Cascadia State Park where we are camping. Found at Flickr... pics link to source.

m.I.a

Ok, so things have been a bit crazy over here... Been working, knitting, designing, cleaning (no really! The mopping dusting real kind too!) and on top of all this responsible stuff...

Livi is gone for TWO weeks. Boooo. It sucks and I miss her.

So I've been trying to stay busy and have let this blog take last place. But I'll be back soon and while I'm on this deep cleaning kick I hope I can find my camera charger. It's gone missing and life with no camera is... well... very sad. Not as sad as "no Olivia here with me" sad.... But none less, sad.

I promise a much more uplifting post soon... Like the pictures from the picnic Olivia and I went on last week and progress shots of the red number that livi and I designed.

Cheers!

China Doll.

Olivia requested a VERY specific sweater. No prob girl... I'm on it!

Oh happy day!

Olivia gets back today so I'm planning a picnic for her...


with berries and sandwiches,

ice cream and book reading.


It's going to be another scorcher today so we'll pick a good shaded spot for the quilt.

I can't wait to see and HUG my Lu...
She has been gone since last Friday and for some reason this week has moved very slow... probably due to the fact that the week started off with a

Bang...

literally...

so everything after that just kinda slugged by.
(speaking of... Happy Independence day to you all. Hope you had a special 4th!


These pictures were taken the other day when we went to visit my brother. He has a few swings outside his house and this girl can't get enough of them.




I don't blame her... pretending to

fly

is fabulous!

i love me a blocking sweater.

I woke up this morning to my Gnome getting an early start on blocking my sweater.
What a hard worker!

He is a casual blocker but darn cute...

don't you think?



ps. the top pic shows the true yarn color. The other two were from last night... shadowed evening light.

special moments.

There are special moments in time.


Moments that remind you that you have everything you need.


Moments that make the shadowed times feel brighter.





Lulu and I went to the park Monday.

And she was one of those moments.





She is almost

Always

those moments.





I love you my sweet daughter. More than anything in the whole world.

Heck YES you can eat'm!

Olivia and I wish you an Easter Hunt full of...

sassy beautiful smiling children...

hidden jeweled toned treasures...

loads and loads of kisses and hugs...

and child like wonder

over all the small things...

yes, my dear Lu...

after all the totally awesome,
i can't believe how fun eggs could be,
why didn't anyone tell me,
this freaking rocks...
dying fun...

you can even EAT them!!

bubblicious.

If it wasn't for my dear mother
Easter would have hopped right by us.

And I wouldn't have realized it until my next run to Fred Meyer...
when I trip over the clearance table...

of 50% off candy and neon plastic grass.

A package arrived yesterday from my mom
filled to the brim with holiday goodness.

Thank you mom... we loved everything, especially the bubbles!

I'm so glad I have you to remind me

of the little things that make holidays so special.