Plum Stitches

Viola!

The dust is starting to settle from the new tree being planted.  I keep expecting to find treats in the mulch, although none have been discovered, yet.  We have a few minor things to finish up, but we're pretty much done.

The picture on the left is from when we first looked at the house.  Looking at it now, I'm wondering what we ever saw in it, although I suppose the correct answer to that is POTENTIAL!!
I'm very happy to be rid of the blue paint on the lentels and the staircase.  Also, our front door was a huge improvement.  Although oddly enough, we had gotten compliments on the door that was there from certain relatives.  I suppose the door really wasn't so bad, just not in character with the rest of the house.  AND, the old owner had attempted to paint it white, but it wasn't such a great job. 

Another quick before and after on the back of the house.  There were improvements all around here - both of our neighbors painted the back of their houses since we've purchased.

Now that the exterior improvements are complete, we need to save up for that new kitchen we've been dreaming of.  I have a feeling that's pretty far off though.  Maybe we'll win the lottery, of course we'd have to play for that to happen.  There's always some kind of snag, now isn't there?

My knitting group is meeting tonight and I'm hoping to finish up the Roll Edge Jacket and move onto something a bit more challenging.  The garter stitch is good for awhile, but I do find myself getting bored.  I have the yarn Rhinebeck, which I pull out every day and admire.  Just need to figure out what I'm going to make...

Almost forgot, our new tree in its new home:

Tree Shopping

Despite a crazy weekend of birthday parties and Halloween festivities, we managed to go to Green Village and buy the tree for the front of our house.   Not only did we buy the tree, but we planted it all by ourselves as well (which really wasn't that difficult).

Our adventure at the Farm at Green Village:

Here's the tree we found - looks a little off center in this picture, but it was the perfect size for us to load in our truck and plant ourselves.  We managed to plant it, along with the hydrangea (that's been living in a large pot all summer) all this afternoon. 

I also bought a good number of bulbs - tulips, crocus' and muscalli (I think that's what it's called).  I set my squirrel trap - chicken wire buried under the mulch to prevent those little buggers digging.  At the moment I seemed to be obsessed with the dogs and cats in the neighborhood that may use the new tree as a litter box (I keep running to the front window expecting to bust someone in the act).  Need to do some research on how to deter this.  I'm also thinking about investing in some of these to edge around the tree.

Urban Pumpkin Patch

Earlier this week, there was a pumpkin patch in Hamilton Park.  I find these urban pumpkin patches amusing - mostly from having grown up in Vermont, where all you had to do was open the back door to appreciate the great outdoors.  But, maybe at the end of the day, city kids enjoy the outdoors much more because it's not readily available.  (Can you tell I'm trying to justify living in the city???)

Anyway, back to the pumpkin patch....the kids loved it, the hay, the little pumpkins.  For some reason Chloe was fixated on lining them up in a straight line.

One more pumpkin thought.  Have you ever written on the pumpkins when they're young and still on the vine?  My aunt did this little one for Chloe last year.

Still working on the Roll Edge Jacket, I'm almost done with the right front and then I have one sleeve left to finish.  Then, it's onto other projects in my WIP.  I'm also thinking about the yarn purchased in Rhinebeck and am hoping to make some Christmas presents from it, but maybe I'm being ambitious.

The work is finally done on the front of our house, well almost.  The fence still needs to be installed and I'm hoping to go this weekend to buy the tree for the front.  Then, we'll pretty much be done.

work around the house...and some fun too

Although, not much knitting went on in my house over the weekend, we did make a dent on some projects around the house.  The backyard got some much needed attention - raking, planting bulbs, that whole drill.  I'm trying to trick the squirrels into not digging up all the bulbs I planted yesterday by creating a chicken wire cover over them.  Remember that creeping thyme I bought way back when and procrastinated planting?  Yup, finally, it got planted.

Here's my trap to keep the squirrels at bay, from the spring bulbs I've planted.  It's certainly not pretty, but do you think it will work?  And, my planted creeping thyme, hopefully by next spring it will have crept a bit.

Jim was busy too, installing a new door.  Just a simple Pine Door from Home Depot, but we decided to keep it more or less the natural color and to wax it.  I really like the way it looks, now I'm in search of the perfect door knob.   I'd love to find a vintage glass door knob, but they're so expensive and the hardware tends not to work on modern locks, or so I'm told. 

This was our test door, on the third floor bathroom.  Since we were so happy with how it turned out, now we plan to replace the other two doors on this floor as well.

We did managed to squeeze in some fun in the morning at Liberty State Park. Chloe showed us some of her yoga moves on a park bench and help walk Sadie.

Weekend Fun

Weekends seem to zip by way too fast these days.  Yesterday Chloe, our friend Karen and I made the journey to the Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck.  It took about two hours to travel north to Rhinebeck, but the trip was well worth it.  Even though it was a bit warm for late October, it was gorgeous, beautiful up there.

We checked out all of the animals, which Chloe found much more entertaining than looking at yarn (can't imagine why?).  I think her favorite were the angora bunnies, which seemed to be everywhere.  We also stumbled on a small box of itty bitty kittens.

Karen inspects yarn swatches at a booth and of course a trip to Rhinebeck wouldn't be complete without a few purchases.  Looking at the pictures, I seem to be clearly drawn to these variegated colors.  I have a few projects in mind, we'll see where that leads me...

This was such a fun day and well worth the long drive.  Oh, and the food was de-lish too.  We didn't wait in line for the chicken pot-pie, but we did wait for the sauteed artichoke hearts and the apple pie/apple crisp a la mode.

More Proof...

...that I can't stick to one project!  Last night my knitting group met and instead of bringing along my mindless garter stitch project (the Roll Edge Jacket, which would enable me to talk and knit at the same time) I decided to start on the little Matinee Coat.    Also from  Simply Baby, I've been wanting to make this for awhile.   Let's just say it wasn't the best project to bring along to a knitting group.  I think I needed some silence to actually get the pattern down.  I frogged about four times, but it's a small size, so it was less painful.

Chloe and I went to her baby yoga class today, Little Lotuses.  It's so cute, I'm not sure if it's the age group (walking up to two) or what, but seeing these little tots doing animal poses gets me every time!  They're just so darn cute.  Funniest thing is Chloe has taken to doing Downward Facing Dog, everywhere - crib, living room, beach, park, you name it she'll drop into the pose.  I'll have to nab a picture to share.

Return

We're back, finally (more on that later).  Anyway, had a great time, missed Chloe and Sadie tremendously and am happy to be home.  It was really great to get time to myself, although it flew by and I can't really remember what I did!  I saw lots of friends I haven't seen in awhile, which is always nice to catch up.  Did manage to run a few days along the water at Crissy Field (gorgeous!).  The Blue Angels were in town the first weekend I was in San Francisco.  Fighter Jets doing acrobatics really isn't my thing, but I've enjoyed it in the past and enjoyed watching this time around too. 

I did try and visit a few yarn stores, but sadly they were all closed. Probably for the best, as I certainly don't need any random acquisitions.  Of course, that said I'm headed to the Sheep & Wool Festival in Rhinebeck on Saturday with some folks from my SNB knitting group.  I'll have to control myself ;-)

Lake Tahoe, as always, was gorgeous.  Perfect setting for the wedding, considering both the bride and groom love the mountains.  Next best thing to getting married in Vermont!  The only bummer was the incredibly painful headache I got on the morning before the wedding, I think due to the altitude change.  I had thoughts of big hikes around the lake, but the headache pretty much kept me sedentary for the day.

We did spend one day hiking one of my favorite trails in Bay Area, at the Southern entrance to Point Reyes, just north of Bolinas.  If you've grown up spending summers swimming in fresh water lakes, summers in San Francisco can be quite a shock - the highlight of this trail (aside from the stunning views) is Lake  Bass, a fresh water lake with a rope swing!  Perfect for those from other parts looking for a taste of summer in San Francisco.  A little cold for us, so we opted not to jump in.

Eucalyptus Grove at the beginning of the trail...

the fog returns...

I did make a bit of progress on my Roll Edge Jacket.  And, I managed to finish The Emperor's Children, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

And...last but not least (did you really think I'd let this go without a mention??)...our new sidewalk in progress.  The dark gray color is part of the Historic Guidelines (to make it look like blue stone, I think).  Now I'm just paranoid that once school let's out down the street our new patch of sidewalk will be covered in signatures!

leaving on a jet plane

One more trip and then I'm grounded until Thanksgiving.  A good friend from High School is getting married next weekend in Tahoe and I'm heading out early, tomorrow.  No husband, no baby.  I'm not going to know what to do with myself!  I leave tomorrow and am spending until next Friday morning in San Francisco with friends.  I lived there for about 7 years right out of college, and still have many friends out there.  Although, they seem to gradually be moving to other cities or, at least to the outskirts of SF.  Jim is flying solo with Chloe until my Mother arrives mid-week, then he'll be joining me in CA.  So it will be nice for us to get away without Chloe, but I know I'm going to really miss her!!

Not really sure what I'm going to do with myself, but I'm hoping to see a few movies, check out a few yarn stores, do some exploring and catch up with old friends.  And make some progress on a few knitting projects.

Jim and Nick on their backpacking trip last week in Maine:

more construction, fo's and fabric...

If only, I could hop up and down and click my heels together!  Our contractor stopped by with the proposal for the remainder of the work on the front of our house (masonry work, slate airway, new side walk, etc.).  We quickly signed it and cut the checks and they're here working.   Finally!  I'm so happy that maybe, in the next six weeks all of the work we've wanted to do will be complete. 

Although, I suppose it's never really complete.  My next step will be figuring out what plants I want to put in the raised beds in the front of our house.  Also, we'll be planting a tree in front of our house.  I've been dreaming of a flowering plum, although a cherry tree is right up there on the list.  We do have a weeping cherry tree in our backyard, so I'm looking to diversify a bit.  I just love the purple leaves on the Flowering Plum, particularly when all the other trees on our block are various shades of green.

On to the crafting corner...

My progress on slicing & dicing up the old shirts, I'm about halfway through.

And a little knitting:

Pattern: Child's Placket-Neck Pullover, Joelle Hoverson, Last Minute Knitted Gifts
Size:  1-2 years
Needles:  Size 7, bamboo circular needles.  I used the 'magic loop' method for the sleeves
Yarn:  Bernat Cashmere Natural Blends
Notes:  This is fourth time I've made this little sweater.  It's and easy knit and the best part is that there are no seams!  Oh, also instead of using the kitchener stitch under the arms, I used a three needle bind off.

and the beginnings of another toddler sweater...

Pattern:  Daisy, from knitty.com
Size:  6-12 months
Yarn:  KnitPicks ShineWorsted in Snapdragon
Notes:  I made this sweater while I was pregnant with Chloe, and it took me FOREVER.  It was right when I first started knitting again and this was my first sweater.  I stared at the directions trying to figure it out.  It is kind of amazing how quickly your knitting skills can improve!

doing my part to reduce, reuse, recycle...

So this is my project for tonight....cutting up these shirts to salvage the fabric and the buttons for a future project!

Jim cleaned out his shirts, as well as our friend Craig and... viola!  I probably have close to 20 shirts.  The majority of them were Jim's (and have suffered from blown elbows).  Most are in the blue family and a little masculine, but the fabric is really nice and I would love to put it to good use.   

Last year, I made this little smocked top for for Chloe from one of Jim's old shirts.