Home Away From Home

We made it to Pt Arena in Mendocino County just before noon Tuesday. We got our first glimpse of our vacation retreat from a distance - and it's even more impressive close up. This is our back yard - and this is the front yard - We spent the first night in the Lighthouse Keepers Room (blue arrow), moving to the Keepers Apartment (white arrow) for the remaining two nights. Both are newly remodeled and very nice.
We took advantage of our resident's access to explore the museum and lighthouse on our first day. Originally built in 1870, the lighthouse was destroyed by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and rebuilt 2 years later. The original solid steel staircase was reinstalled and that is what we climbed - all 145 steps - to get to the top. Was it worth the effort? Oh yeah. It was windy, cold and spectacular. Wouldn't have missed it for anything.

Long Day

9 hours to cover 450 miles across 12 counties - Ventura, Santa Barbara, Monterey, San Benito, Merced, Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Contra Costa, Solano, Marin and Sonoma. No wonder we're tired. Only one more county to go before traveling ends and vacation begins.

TdF and Fireworks

My day, in pictures - Leia came over for a visit and nap while her siblings went to the movies.

Day 2 of Tour de Fleece - Yarn Rocket romney top that I bought during last year's Tour. Another day of spinning and one more for plying should see this done.

Fireworks! My favorite part of the 4th. Watched them again this year right in front of the house. This was my first year using a tripod; out of 198 photos, 28 or so are usable.

Evil smiley face

Happy Independence Day!!

Tour de France - Tour de Fleece

Today was the prologue for the Tour de France and the first day of spinning for Tour de Fleece. This is the 4th year I've participated and the 3rd year that hubby has joined me in watching le Tour.
My goal this year is spin as much of my stash as possible. So for Day 1, I finished spinning the alpaca, silk and bunny batt that Susie-the-dyeing-genius gave me last Christmas. This stuff was sooooooo soft. Almost hate that I finished it off, but looking forward to seeing the final yarn tomorrow when I ply it up.

Day 1 done. Only 25 more to go.

Books and More Books

I've found several really good book sales lately - and I've never met a craft book I didn't need want. But I think I've gone a little overboard. I just added 38 new books to LibraryThing, all but 8 of which I've bought in the last 3 weeks, including this treasure I found in a bead store today. Do I do hardanger? Nope. Or at least I didn't before today.

Is there a 12-step program for booklovers? You can see all most of my craft books here. (Including the duplicate spinning book I bought because I didn't check LibraryThing before hitting 'buy'. I'm sure I can find a good home for it though. Oh Edieeeeeeeeeeeee . . . .)

Workin' It

Leia modeled the newly finished 'Big O' jacket today. It's a gift for Payton but I wanted pictures before it went home with Samantha. Leia really worked the runway - on the sidewalk, on the grass,front view, side view, flounce
and squat. We even got the obligatory walk-around-the-block view.If I make this again I'd make a few changes, like using half-double crochet rather than singles for the entire thing. By the halfway point, I was b.o.r.e.d. almost to death. I have the yarn to make one for Leia; think I'll do something else first and come back to this. But it really is cute on her, don't ya think?

Busy, Busy

Tomorrow is the Guild's 40th anniversary party (details are here - come have cake with us!) and I've been gearing up for both the vote at the morning meeting -

pretty ballot box

and making flower brooches for the 10 current and former presidents we expect to attend. The flower pattern was in an Annette Petavy newsletter (here) and I loved it on sight. These were fun to make - using DK-weight yarn - and hopefully, fun to wear. (More info on my Ravelry page here.)

Baby Faces

Pretty cute bunch, yes?

Naia, 9, modeling my latest crocheted flower

Miles, 4, loves posing for the camera

Leia, 22 months, giving me 'the look' for taking her picture

Addison, 3 1/2, at her first dance recital. More here.

Nothing to See Here

Move along. Move along. Nothing to see here. . . .

Shhhhh, it's a secret - Naia and I conspired tonight to make her daddy a Father's Day gift. He never reads the blog so I think it's safe to put the pix up now - that's Naia putting the finishing touches on her first chocolate chip cake, Matt's absolute favorite. Since this is almost everybody in the family's favorite cake, we're putting a BIG sign on it tonight in hopes of keeping it intact for Naia to present to her dad tomorrow.

And since we were up to our noses in batter, we also made a batch of chocolate chip cookies for PopPop - and my first ever batch of snickerdoodles will go in the oven later tonight. Dick had them for the first time this week and *loved* them. His request for Father's Day dinner? Snickerdoodles and choco chip cookies. So healthy.

Baby Jacket and Baby Story

First the baby jacket. I found this pattern on Ravelry - where else? - and fell hard in love, to the point where I dropped everything else so I could make it now.

You start with a circle, add armholes (and sleeves, eventually), then fold the top down and the sides in to form the cutest baby item since the hexagon baby sweater.

This one is a birthday present for Payton, who just turned 2. The next one (oh yeah, I'm making more of these!) will be for Leia. I'm making these slightly bigger than the original pattern so the little girls will have some growing room. (notes on my Ravelry page here.)

Little Miss Nosy heard the camera click and had to come investigate.

And speaking of Leia . . . I'm always careful when she comes to visit to put my computer keyboard and mouse out of her reach. Twice this week I found the keyboard lying on my chair and thought 'hmmm, that's strange; must have forgotten to put it up . . .'

Then I walked in to find this -

Caught in the act

Leia had carefully lifted the keyboard down, put it on her lap and was pounding the keyboard as fast as two little fingers could fly. Guess I better find a new - higher - place for my computer stuff.

Nesting

Leia is spending the week with us while dad is working and mom, Naia and Miles are in Sacramento, helping after the birth of a new cousin. It's been fun having her with us, but exhausting too. Her schedule has become our schedule; we get up when she does (8:00 isn't too bad for Dick, but it's the middle of the night for me!), nap when she does (hey, we're retired; we're expected to nap), and put off doing almost anything - reading, internetting, crafting - until after she goes to bed at night.In the last 20 or so years, I'd forgotten just how much energy a 22-month old has - and how cranky they can be when they don't feel good. With at least 4 teeth coming in and a nose that's constantly running, Leia feels pretty rotten. While she's still always in motion, she's taken to carrying around things that comfort her - her favorite blanket and her pink baby bunny.

Leia has always liked the bay window in our living room - using it as a dancing stage when Addy was here - but this week she's decided that the window seat is "her" place. Today she set up her little nest with a pillow, her blanket and baby bunny (of course), along with various books and toys. She'll read for awhile - dropping the books over the edge when she's done; rest for awhile - watch for airplanes - and check out the neighborhood. She's learned that if she says 'up' grandma will lift her onto the window. She knows 'down' but seldom uses it, preferring to climb over the arm of the couch to get down by herself (a trick she discovered just today). She could get onto the window the same way, but hasn't figured that out yet. Maybe that will be tomorrow's discovery.