Yarn Along - June 27

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs.  I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading?~ from small things

Just before I left for the weekend, I finished knitting Gemini, but did not weave in the ends. They are all tucked away now and I hope to get it photographed soon! For my travel knitting I took Wingspan (aka My Wings of Hope) and I love it so much, even with the more muted colors. I would make this again and again and have 2 or 3 yarns in mind already that I think would be awesome in that pattern. 

I finished reading Room - it was very very good.  I came home from my trip to a birthday present from my favorite brother-in-law - knitting books! Teeny-Tiny Mochiland, Knitter's Book of Yarn, and The Fleece and Fiber Source Book. I have had my eye on each for a long while now, good resources and patterns (Mochiland & KBY).  I am not sure what I will read next. As much as I love reading the knitting books, I find that I am more likely to pick them up here and there and not really settle in to read them, you know?

So, I went to TNNA...

What a weekend! I think I mentioned on the blog somewhere that I have started working part-time. The job involves marketing in the social media realm for yarn companies, shops, designers and products. A perk was that I was able to attend the TNNA Summer show in Columbus, OH. I got to meet the people I work with, my clients, and even make some new contacts for future sample knitting or test knitting work. The experience was completely exhausting and exciting! This was also my first time away from both kids - I had no worries that Dan would be anything less than the super Dad that he is. Everyone managed and we are all happy together again.



I got such a thrill out of spotting my work on display - especially the green shawl for Romney Ridge Farm.  I loved all the people watching - there were many lovely knits to admire and people to meet outside of a computer screen twitter feed or Ravelry forum.  Then there are the goodies - there were many yarns to see and squish and think about knitting up, or new products I want to get my hands on to use.  I also attended the Designer Dinner hosted by Marly Bird - that was a grand time! She is totally the Oprah of the yarn world!  There was an amazing goodie bag given away there and I was lucky enough by the chance of where I say to win an additional goodie bag! The sponsors are beyond generous - yarn, needles, a book, buttons and more! This is possibly my favorite of all the lovely things that were given as goodies - new to me yarn: Bijou Basin Lhasa Wilderness, an interchangeable needle set from HiyaHiya, and a gift certificate for a subscription for Knitters magazine.




I also ate the famous Jeni's ice cream twice - the "Juniper & Lemon Curd" was amazing and the "Cherry Cheesecake sundae" was a perfect lunch! I am quite happy to be back home again, but I really hope that I can attend a future TNNA!

Yarn Along - June 20

Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs.  I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading?

This is a quick & dirty post as things are a bit crazy in the nutshell - I'm trying to take it easy for my birthday today, but also trying to keep up with the kids and get ready for TNNA. I can't believe that I am going - I'm a small fish in a big pond and there is much to do!

I am thisclose to being done with Gemini - I'm on the bottom ribbing (~10 rows?) and have the sleeves to do (~13 rows each?). I have started a Wingspan as well. It is looking very muted to me, almost like looking into the ocean with the shades of blue and green. I like it and I do believe I will get a lot of use out of it. I'm just about done with the set up triangle and I am hoping this will be a good travel project this weekend. Of course I am eying my queue and stash for a back up project, just in case!

I started reading Room by Emma Donoghue.  I like it, though I am creeped out by it. The story is told by a 5 year old who has spent his whole life in Room with his mom. Room is a 12x12 space.  They never leave (so far). They have tv and limited supplies and my word, I think of how my daughter can drive me crazy in our house I don't know how I would do in a 12x12 space all the time! 

I spotted this on pinterest the other day and of course was drawn in. I am a huge Rory Gilmore fan and always loved that she had a book with her at all times.  In an attempt to better myself (it is my birthday after all), I am going to take a clue from Rory as to what else I should read.  Of this list, I have read the ones in bold. 

1984 by George Orwell
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll 
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Archidamian War by Donald Kagan
The Art of Fiction by Henry James
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Babe by Dick King-Smith
Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath 
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney
The Bhagava Gita
The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews by Peter Duffy
Bitch in Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel
A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Brick Lane by Monica Ali
Bridgadoon by Alan Jay Lerner
Candide by Voltaire
The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Charlotte's Web by E. B. White
The Children's Hour by Lillian Hellman
Christine by Stephen King
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
The Collected Short Stories by Eudora Welty
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty
A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
Complete Novels by Dawn Powell
The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton
Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas 
Cousin Bette by Honor'e de Balzac
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky 
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber 
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Cujo by Stephen King
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
David and Lisa by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin M.D
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Da Vinci -Code by Dan Brown
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Deenie by Judy Blume
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx
The Divine Comedy by Dante
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
Don Quijote by Cervantes
Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
Eloise by Kay Thompson
Emily the Strange by Roger Reger
Emma by Jane Austen
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Ethics by Spinoza
Europe through the Back Door, 2003 by Rick Steves
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Extravagance by Gary Krist
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore
The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan
Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
The Fellowship of the Ring: Book 1 of The Lord of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien 
Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce
Fletch by Gregory McDonald
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger
Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
George W. Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President by Jacob Weisberg
Gidget by Fredrick Kohner
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
The Godfather: Book 1 by Mario Puzo
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell 
The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford
The Gospel According to Judy Bloom
The Graduate by Charles Webb
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Group by Mary McCarthy
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad 
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry 
Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare
Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare
Henry V by William Shakespeare
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris
The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III 
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende 
How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
How the Light Gets in by M. J. Hyland
Howl by Allen Gingsburg
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo 
The Iliad by Homer
I'm with the Band by Pamela des Barres 
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Inferno by Dante
Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
Iron Weed by William J. Kennedy
It Takes a Village by Hillary Clinton
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bront
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Lady Chatterleys' Lover by D. H. Lawrence
The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway
The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
The Love Story by Erich Segal
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Manticore by Robertson Davies
Marathon Man by William Goldman
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (TBR)
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir
Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer
Mencken's Chrestomathy by H. R. Mencken
The Merry Wives of Windsro by William Shakespeare
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion by Jim Irvin
Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor
A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman
Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret
A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (TBR)
Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and It's Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh
My Life as Author and Editor by H. R. Mencken
My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest
Myra Waldo's Travel and Motoring Guide to Europe, 1978 by Myra Waldo
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin
Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen
New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson
The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Night by Elie Wiesel
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E. Cain, Laurie A. Finke, Barbara E. Johnson, John P. McGowan
Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell
Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Old School by Tobias Wolff
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan
Oracle Night by Paul Auster
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Othello by Shakespeare
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan
Out of Africa by Isac Dineson
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
The Portable Nietzche by Fredrich Nietzche
The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill by Ron Suskind
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Property by Valerie Martin
Pushkin: A Biography by T. J. Binyon
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
Quattrocento by James Mckean
A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall
Rapunzel by Grimm Brothers
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman
The Return of the King: The Lord of the Rings Book 3 by J. R. R. Tolkien (TBR)
R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton
Rita Hayworth by Stephen King
Robert's Rules of Order by Henry Robert
Roman Holiday by Edith Wharton
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin
The Rough Guide to Europe, 2003 Edition
Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
Sanctuary by William Faulkner
Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
Say Goodbye to Daisy Miller by Henry James
The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L. Baum
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
  Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
Selected Hotels of Europe
Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Several Biographies of Winston Churchill
Sexus by Henry Miller
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Shane by Jack Shaefer
The Shining by Stephen King
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton
Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Small Island by Andrea Levy
Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
Snow White and Rose Red by Grimm Brothers
Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World by Barrington Moore
The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de Burgos
The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
Songbook by Nick Hornby
The Sonnets by William Shakespeare
Sonnets from the Portuegese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Sophie's Choice by William Styron
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
A Streetcar Named Desiree by Tennessee Williams
Stuart Little by E. B. White
Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne Collett
Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Term of Endearment by Larry McMurtry
Time and Again by Jack Finney
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
The Trial by Franz Kafka
The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson
Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
Ulysses by James Joyce
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 by Sylvia Plath
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
 Unless by Carol Shields
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyers
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Velvet Underground's The Velvet Underground and Nico (Thirty Three and a Third series) by Joe Harvard
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Walt Disney's Bambi by Felix Salten
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
We Owe You Nothing – Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews edited by Daniel Sinker
What Colour is Your Parachute? 2005 by Richard Nelson Bolles
What Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell
When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
Who Moved My Cheese? Spencer Johnson
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bron
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Instagram Fridays

A quick and simple sum-up of my week. I've got a lot on my mind right now, especially with a trip next week. I am going to TNNA (eep!! I am all together excited and anxious.) and it will be my first time away, having to travel by plane, by myself, solo in a very long time. Anyway, it will all be good, I am sure of it.

Twirly bubbles - this was before a virus wiped her out for the week.

I found an app to add frames and group my photos, yay! This kid loves being tossed but has a wicked grip on my hands. Lorelai took these photos for me!

Lanesplitter knit skirt in progress! I need to pick up the stitches for the waistband.

I took both kids to the supermarket.  By myself.  First time.  We survived and did get everything on our list. I don't really want to do it again, but probably will.

Someone has moved on from just standing up to thinking that the stairs are the place to be.

I am so happy it is summer. My dog can stop barking at the school bus every single morning.

We totally fed the baby a spoonful or two of bacon bits.  He loved them.  He's also turning into a ham for the camera.

I had to renew my drivers license today.  They actually gave me back my old one which I found odd.  And they let me see the photo before printing it.  It's actually not a bad photo as far as licenses go, considering that I also brought the two little ones with my to get this done.  Residual confidence from the shopping trip I guess. 

And there it is. I am very excited I found mini canvases at Michaels - I am planning to put some of the Instagram photos printed and ModPodge them on = Instant Art! Enjoy your weekend!

InstaFriday

Sweet, simple, fun, filtered.
Everyday moments from your week captured with nothing but a cell phone.

Baby bum! I am very lucky that even with the baby on the move and getting into the older one's stuff, she is still really sweet on her brother.

 There was a great rainbow (double even!) after a storm over the weekend.  This was the best picture I could get - by the time I grabbed the good camera it was already fading.  I was really impressed by how vibrant this one was - unusual for CT.  I feel like even when I was in Hawaii, I never saw a rainbow that bright.

 The Lorax is a big Max & Ruby fan and seems especially taken with Bunny Scouts. So when I saw the Pretend Play Sash with Badges I knew it was perfect.  When I asked what she did that she could make a badge for, I was expecting her to talk about swimming lessons. Instead she said "I helped take care of Nate" - so this is the "Taking Care of My Brother" badge - she drew the two of them on there and per her request I added the heart.  She also made a star badge and a "cinderella" badge with a pumpkin and her name. 

 This is a better view of the Stitched by JessaLu bag that I received this week.  The yarn is Socktopus yarn in the "Lorelai" colorway. I'm planning to start a Wingspan shawl soon. 

 

Our first week of summer vacation is just about done.  I am pleased that I am not completely stressed out with Lorelai home full time again.  I have been trying to do "school" with her each day - she's working on writing letters or doing a few worksheets - it's short, maybe 5 minutes? But it is something and she likes it, so we keep at it.  I've got a bunch of stuff lined up (thank you Pinterest) to try and cover other activities. Today for school we cooked - we have a rainbow cake in the oven right now.   I hope it turns out ok, but even if it doesn't cake is cake!

Yarn Along - June 6

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs.  I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~ small things

There is a lot going on this week! I have finished the main portion of my Lanesplitter skirt and I love how it is turning out. Seaming is the next step, then picking up for the waistband. I think I will have to sit and focus on that, hopefully within the week that will be done. I have also been working on the toe of a sock for Dan. I have a swatch for Gemini in Silky Wool. You can just see a peak at my new project bag in the corner. It is a "Stitched by JessaLu" bag that was a fundraiser for Ovarian Cancer event that other knitters (Sairy & Holyknitballs) were participating in as the "Teal Deer" team (AWESOME.) I have only heard about these bags and I have to say I was completely floored when I opened it up yesterday. I love love love this bag and can see purchasing more in the future. The quality is fantastic, and she's from Massachusetts, so she's local! I am pretty sure that I will blog about it again on its own - I have a ball of yarn in there ready to become a new shawl project, but I haven't actually started on it yet. Soon.

What am I reading? I treated myself to Principles of Knitting. I was so giddy over its arrival - I haven't bought a textbook in over ten years, and it is a serious textbook on par with any of my chemistry textbooks! I finished the second "Fifty Shades" book - meh. It was better than the first, in my opinion. I will read the third just to see how it all finishes, but after this I am going to need a serious dose of brain bleach in the form of classy, serious literature. "Pride and Prejudice" or "The Great Gatsby" or something! From the library I picked up Mom & Me Knits - it is cute and sweet, and the Lorax actually liked the sweater set that I liked, the Surfer Tee, which looks quite comfy (and not too matchy-matchy).

I also wanted to share two favorite kid books we are reading this week. We are HUGE Mo Willems fans in this house. The newest of the Pigeon books, The Duckling Gets a Cookie? does not disappoint! You know a children's book is good when your child reads it before you read it together and can tell from the pictures this is a funny book. I love how much emotion that the Pigeon conveys in such a simple drawing. 


Wiever Wolf is another good one. Some of the illustrations are a little intense (spoiler alert, the dachshund runs off with the wolves), but the story is cute and the dachshund depictions are spot on!

This looks just like Jackson, in a sweater, under my knitting. I hope he doesn't think life is too tame!!

InstaFriday

I've recently rediscovered this app and am really enjoying it.  I'm still new at it but am getting the hang of things!

I love love love this swing picture.  It took a lot of photos to get there, but it was worth it!

These Moments

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see. (From SouleMama)