More Photography

I usually keep my camera with me at all times, and sense my realization of how much I really love taking pictures, and my long time love for the environment, I have decided to try and capture as much of the environmental bliss that I can find.

This weeks blissful imagery comes with a beautiful blanket of snow :)
[We won't be using our patio furniture anytime soon!]

[Our shrubbery has been dwarfed by the snow.]



[The snowy series of trees that lines our driveway.]

[My favorite tree in our yard in the spring time, but I'm really loving it in the winter too]

Enjoy your snow from a nice warm seat in your house :)

Stir Fryday

Get it? Stir Fryday, like Friday... tee hee! Okay you get it.


So I have been trying to be better about trying to find meals that the kids will actually eat, that are healthy, and that I can eat too, that way I'm not preparing several meals every night.

In the past week I have made Pork Chops with mashed potatoes and peas (Little Ann like the whole meal! Little Dan liked the peas, and I ended up making him Chicken Nuggets instead). Then I tried to do Roasted Chicken with pasta and apples (They both liked it all)!! Next up was Stir Fry with steak instead of chicken (Little Ann liked the steak, but didn't want too much of it, and she also loved the rice. Little Dan liked the rice and not so much the steak, I gave him so of the left over chicken from the previous day. They both liked the shredded carrots in the stir fry veggies).

So what I'm wondering is if everyone can remember what their favorite meal was when they were kids, and let me know. I have got to get these guys to eat more of a healthful variety of food, or I'm going to go crazy!! Let me know if any of you have any ideas for me. Thanks!

Snow Dogs!

I've been in quite the wintery weather mood lately, trying to really enjoy the snow, so I thought I'd try to post some pictures of the pups out running around in it!




There you have it... Dogs enjoying the snow!

Happy Dogs on Thursday :)

Work In Progress

Again!

My mom, from all the way across the country, helped me work through the part of my pattern that I wasn't understanding. Now I am finished with all of the short row shaping, and am working my way down continuing the yoke. I think it actually is looking really good. This picture here is of how the top of the cardigan would wrap around my shoulders, and the collar would fold down.

Here is a picture of the collar folded down, from the back of the neck looking at it. I'm actually really proud of myself for not getting tired of this project yet! I am so determined to keep at it, and work through all of the steps to see how the finished product comes out. I really love how it is coming out! Below is a picture of my fabulous raglan lines that are showing up really well, and so far they are my favorite part!
(Not the best picture but you get the point.)

Ok Ok, and in all reality, I am not the best knitter, but practice makes perfect! I'm off to keep knitting :)

Awarded!

My mama has given me the award for being a Kreativ Blogger! How Sweet :)
Here are the official rules: 1. Copy the award to your site - 2. Link to the person from whom you received the award - 3. Nominate 7 other bloggers - 4. Link to those on your blog - 5. Leave a message on the blogs you nominated.

Seven People! I don't know if I read that many blogs! Yikes! I may have to overlap with my Mom on some of these...

Alright, first up is Nichole. Her blog is called Lapdog Creations, and she posts about her dogs, as well as her crafty-ness, she even has her own little shop on Etsy!

Second is the Not So Cynical Knitter. She also has a blog that talks not only about knitting, but about her precious pup. Her and I originally met through I blog swap (which one in particular I can't remember). But she is great!

Next up is, Laura! Miss Bora Bora is one of my best friends, and she has recently started a blog where she mostly discusses the stress of her homework, and the love of her chinchilla. I am nominating her for her creative bantering, which you may or may not be able to read in the way she writes, but if you'd ever talked to her you'd understand :)

Okay, that was three of my own nominees... Now I have to copy from the Queen: Jess, good family friend, dog lover, knitter, tv watcher, and one involved in other random adventures; Chan, who has recently been providing me with a great amount of blog support, and encouragement on my knitting, also is very creative when it comes to knitting, and also has dogs.

Okay that brings me to 5, So I guess I will toss my mom in there too!! She is extremely creative and posts about all of her creative endevers as well as all of her hounds! And that is just all I've got! If you have a blog, and you read my blog, and are reading this post, and you think you are creative in any way, shape or form, please consider yourself nominated! :D

Slithering Snake!

S has a pet snake! *ACK!*

It stays in his office and rarely see's the world outside his cage, but when he does, the Littles are quite amused.

Recently, Niko (the snake) was out of his cage so that when he returned he would have a fresh new home--but in the process he was exploring a Girl Scout Cookie box. Little Dan was pleased to keep an eye on him to make sure that he didn't escape the box, but then that didn't end up working so well when Niko eventually slithered out and tried to hide under the couch... My idea of helping was squealing like the girl that I am, until S came and put the snake back in his place.

Well, I suppose it wasn't that bad because Little Dan was thoroughly amused for about an hour, and then for the next hour proceeded to talk about the snake. Even though I'm not the biggest fan of snakes, they aren't all bad when they can occupy that much time with the littles :)

Happy Munchkin Monday!!

Work Temporarily Stopped

Okay so if you were reading earlier this week, I posted my newest WIP... something very ambitions for me-A cardigan.

Well, I'm stuck, I have a feeling that I'm just thinking too much about what I'm doing, instead of just working my way through it, but I'm stuck none-the-less. I have scanned a copy of my pattern into the computer, and sent it onto the Queen. I figured that sense she is the one that encouraged me to do this project (well I really wanted to, but she did insist that I can) she can help me.

This is a "top down" pattern, so I started with the collar, which is now complete, but now I am working on the increase short rows, and I feel funny leaving all of those stitches just sitting on the end....I know they are supposed to be there, but am I leaving the right amount? I'm just following the instructions, so I'm sure I am, but I just want to make sure I'm properly knitting my most expensive knit project ever!

Oh well, I'll just let it sit for today, and hopefully Mom will come to the rescue and re-assure me, or help me fix it. Moms are great like that, aren't they?! :)

Happy Wednesday

Artsy Fartsy

Something that I have been noticing about myself, is that I really love being able to capture images of all kinds of things. Whether it's something beautiful found in nature, or just the vibrant colors of food. I really love photography. Although I'm not sure the simple point and shoot of the camera that I use is considered photography... I do enjoy capturing whatever it is that is flirting with my imagination, and asking me to frame it.

At any rate! (little joke for Mr. Jay & Mom) here are some images that mother nature provided me with:

These little spiky seed ball things (above) fell off of this naked winterized tree (below) I find them simply lovely and intriguing.


And this is the thick sheet of ice on the surface of the Charles River in Boston, MA. You can see the order in which the ice froze, and how the water was flowing by the swirls, and curves in the ice. Very cool! (Freezing cold, cool...lol)



There ya go... a few of natures gifts :)

For some reason I'm becoming very ambitious...

with my knitting that is.

So much for working on a project that I already have on the needles! I decided that I can knit myself a wonderful cardigan. Shouldn't be too difficult right?

Almost $200 on yarn, a book, and the appropriate needles, as well as some knit wash... this is what I came up with:


The wonderful ladies at my LYS helped me find a book, called "Button Up Your Top Down" by Deb Gemmell full of patterns that are appropriate for my skill level. Then to top it off, once I decided on a pattern, one of the women sat down with me and read through the pattern to make sure I understood all of the terms in the pattern. There was only one thing that I didn't know how to do and that was M1, or make one....needless to I learned how to do it right there. After purchasing everything.. I got home and got started.

This is what I have accomplished so far:

How does it look?



Happy Knitting :D

Finished Objects....?

What are those??

I did have some finished objects... they had to be finished for Christmas pressies :) Here they are:
The first 3 are a cell phone cover I knit for my friend Casey :)




This next one is S's scarf, pre finishing... I need to take a picture of the completed thing.


The final picture is of G's scarf. This is also pre-finishing... well the main body of the scarf was done... but you can see the little tail sticking out there, and I also added a fringe.




Wonder what I will start up next!! :) [maybe I should work on finishing some of the many projects that I still have on the needles!]

Happy Knitting :)

Dogs love presents too!

For Christmas I made sure to include Kati and Zahra in the festivities, and give them each a gift too.
They had a little bit of trouble unwrapping them at first, but once they had the gifts out, they were as happy as could be, and playing away!







Happy DOT Everyone!

A brief Winter recap

To go with my sister's long account for our time together with the holidays, if you didn't make it through her novel, here is a brief recount with pictures. Just the highlights, I promise ;)

She arrived just after a blizzard which covered everything with beautiful Snow :D


The first fun thing that we did together, was enjoy facials and pedicures at the spa! Such a great bonding activity, and very relaxing :)


Skip forward to Christmas Eve> we woke up at a pre sunny hour of 4AM!! To take the train down to the city and visit the Today show.


Unfortunately for us, the sun never showed up that day, so after the today show we wandered around NYC for a few hours, had lunch in Times square and hopped the train back to CT, and proceeded to get ready for a fancy Christmas Eve dinner at a fancy little restaurant. Here we each are, all dolled up at dinner. A delicious a fancy evening... so fun!

Christmas morning finally arrived! Jess and I get just as excited as we used to when we were young! We had decorated my little plant in my room, and stacked up a few gifts from each other and the rents to open Christmas morning. But first we had to open our stockings and gifts from G, S, and the Littles..it was so nice of them to include us in the Christmas morning festivities!

The Saturday following Christmas, We went to a Holiday Cocktail party at my friend Jodie's house. There was a nice sized group of us there, all dolled up and enjoying the fun. There were plenty of little appetizers, and good music to keep things lively and fun. To the left is Jodie and I at the begging of the night, and below is a group shot of everyone just before everyone started to go home.


The following day we decided to make our way up to Yale. We wondered there beautiful campus, and bought sweatshirts at their bookstore. We sat with the lion that I named Gryffindor :) And we touched the toe of some guy which is supposed to bring you luck--though I can't seem to remember his name! Someone later even commented that they like my Yale sweatshirt, they asked where I bought it, when I said Yale, they asked if I went there... I said no, but next time I'm saying yes!! lol


The next big thing we did was go to Boston on New Years day. We stayed at the double tree across the river from downtown Boston. It was absolutely freezing the night we were there! After dinner we tried to make it to Boston Common for a walk and some site seeing, but it was too cold, we only lasted for 15 minutes! Later we met up with G&S's nephews Ian and John to do a little pub crawl through a few bars downtown. The next day was just for driving back, and returning the rental car. Below (l to r) me, Ian, John, and Jessica at one of the Irish pubs we wandered into.


After Boston, the next big thing was Jessica flying back to Seattle. Though we did venture back into NY to visit a 4 story mall for a day.. who wouldn't love that?!

Anyhow, that is officially the holiday update! I guess I was lying when I said it would be brief...but at least it had fun pics to keep ya reading! :) I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season!

So long Jessica, and thanks for visiting me! :D

Jello is dangerous!

My actual birthday was more of a recovery day, and my Friday night was the celebration! It was quite a lot of fun! And I didn't drink too much..I ate too much Jello!! Jello shots that is...so delicious, but sooo dangerous! Don't worry, I didn't eat all of them!



My friends were so great to all come out and celebrate! We had a delicious dinner at my favorite Mexican Restaurant, and then moved into the bar.. I got to wear the hat 3 times! I'm not exactly sure why they kept singing to me, but it was fun anyway, and everyone was buying my drinks and shots, and my dinner, so I got out without paying a dime! It was fun to go out for the night to celebrate with my friends, we all had a blast, and I really let loose! I never drink in excessive amounts, because I really don't enjoy the aftermath... but for my birthday, it was ok :)



Thank you for all of your birthday wishes! :D