John

My husband John passed away on April 18th after battling cancer for almost 3 years. He was surrounded by friends and family and went very peacefully and without any pain. Thanks to everyone for all the love and support!







You will be missed!

John wanted donations to be made to Stand up to Cancer.

Christmas Musings

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! We had several Christmas celebrations with family and friends this year.




Christmas Eve was spent at our house with both sets of our parents. A few years ago we started a tradition of opening Christmas crackers with our meal - it's always a fun time! Inside each is a paper crown and a small prize. I got a skull and crossbones tattoo - score!




We opened gifts that evening and Santa's helpers were there to make sure it went smoothly :)



On Christmas morning - we headed over to John's sister's place to open gifts and have breakfast with Simon. He was decked out in his finest Christmas PJ's and had fun tearing the paper off the presents. John gave Simon the sock monkey he made a few weeks ago.



I knit Simon an R2D2 hat - I love how it came out!! The pattern is here and more details are on my Ravelry page here. His dad and uncle are huge Star Wars fans - so I thought this was only fitting!



I also knit Simon these cute mittens. I made up the pattern as I went along and will probably write up the directions if anyone wants to make a pair for the little one in their life.



After breakfast - we headed to our friends Tara and Tien's annual Christmas open house. We had fun catching up and eating more good food!



After the open house - it was off to our third stop that day - Christmas dinner at my sister in law's husband's parents house. We had yet another wonderful meal, opened more presents and were entertained by Simon playing the piano!



I gave William the hat I made for him while we were there too. I told him I made this three different ways. I couldn't find any roving to match the colors I wanted so I used Jolene's drum carder and made a batt, then spun it up with little coils and bumps and then knit it. I think it suits him!



How was your holiday? I hope you had fun with family and friends.

Our nation's capitol

My parents were down for a visit this weekend and I took them on a mini tour of Washington DC. We took the metro into town and got off at Union Station to begin our day.



We walked down 1st street passing the Supreme Court building on our way to the Library of Congress.



I've worked with the Library of Congress for a few years now as a consultant - doing their HR software - and I've been to the main building several times, even though I usually worked in the James Madison building across the street. It was nice to be able to show my parents some of the places I've worked.





The interior of the library is just gorgeous. There is color everywhere!

From the stained glass ceilings:



To the murals on the walls and ceilings...





We were able to peek into the "reading room" but alas no pictures were allowed. Here's a picture from the LOC website:



The next stop was the US Capitol building.



We walked through a tunnel to get to the Capitol building directly under 1st street from the Library of Congress. I hadn't been to the Capitol since I was in the Girls Scouts many many moons ago. Since that time - a new underground visitors center has been built. When you start your tour - you are shown a movie about the history of the building and the people who created this masterpiece. After the movie - a tour guide takes you to the famous Capitol Rotunda.



The painting in the dome is The Apotheosis of Washington by Brumidi.



Those of you who are Dan Brown fans may remember this as the location of the opening scene of The Lost Symbol where Langdon finds the severed hand on the floor pointing up at the painting. It was actually kind of funny how many people were pointing out that spot rather than looking at the art around them!

As we were leaving the capitol the sun was just starting to set behind the dome.



The Capitol building was backlit with a beautiful warm light.



I took advantage of a recent HDR class and snapped some shots using "bracketing" and then processed the pics using Photomatix software.

As we turned to leave we saw that the lovely warm light looked amazing on the Library of Congress too!




After a lovely dinner at McCormick and Schmicks we headed home exhausted after a busy day!

I'll miss you Grammy!

My grandmother passed away today. She lived to be 93 years old and was healthy her whole life. She had a stroke last weekend and died this morning in her sleep.



I love you Grammy! Say hi to Grandpop for me :)

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!

Today is my parents' 40th anniversary! I'm so lucky to have such great parents who have been happily married for 40 solid years.



Mom and Dad - you are the best!

I'm in Cape Cod and Rhode Island this week for Jeanine's wedding. It has been a great time! I'll post pictures soon!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!



We took out my mother in law for lunch today to King's Contrivance restaurant.



We had a lovely meal - I had an eggplant and pine nut fritter for my appetizer and veal parmigiana for my meal. John and I shared the most decadent chocolate torte for desert.

It was also the perfect opportunity to wear the new skirt Sarah made for me!



It fits perfectly!!


Thanks Sarah!!

Simon update!

I just got some new pictures of Simon! John's mom went out to visit last week and took some great shots. He's such a cutie!!








I'm knitting him a sweater right now - I was hoping to get it done for today since John's parents are going out to Boise today, but alas - I'm still not done. Just the button bands to go! I'll be mailing it soon and I'll take pictures before I do. They promised to take pics of Simon modeling the sweater for me too :)

6 years!

I survived 6 years of being married today :)

I came home from work to the scent of flowers...









Happy Anniversary to me!

I'm an Auntie!

My sister in law (John's sister) had a baby boy today!

He arrived this morning at 2:02am. He is 6 lbs. 14oz, and 16 inches long. Here he is on the scale.



He doesn't have a name yet - but he sure is cute!
Both he and Mom are doing great!



Stay tuned for more pictures and a name!

***Updated! His name is Simon :)

Post holiday wrap up

I hope everyone had a great holiday! Now that Christmas is over I can finally post some pictures of the things I made for Christmas gifts.
It was a cowl and hat heavy Christmas this year! You can pass up a present that can be knit in one night!!

I made some more of my Cha Cha Cowls and Neck Cuffs:



My favorite (and the only one I kept) is this neck cuff I made from handspun. It's a Loop batt made mostly of agnora and oh so soft!




I made both of my dads Turn a Square hats:




Here's my dad in his hat...



And my Father in law in his hat with my mother in law in her scarf.


I also sent my sister in law an outfit for her baby to be but I just realized I forgot to take picture of it!! Joanie if you are reading this - please take a picture!


It was nice to finally be able to get back to knitting for me this week! I started a pair of Fiddlehead mittens with some Shelridge Farm yarns.... I am loving it so far!

Happy Holidays!

May your holiday be full of love and family.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hannakah!!

Double Happy day for Dad!

Today is a special day for my dad - it's Father's day of course - but it's also his birthay!!


My family is big on cards. My dad is notorius for winning too. Hurley is giving my dad some tips here...maybe this is the secret of his success?



My dad's a Wisconsin boy - born and raised. Here he is at U of Wisconsin last summer.



I think my brother is a mirror image of my dad - what do you think?



And here Dad is a clock! We are at the Domes in Milwaukee WI and you can be a human sun dial and it actually tells you the correct time!



Don't forget to give your dad a call today!!

Happy Father's Day and Happy Birthday Dad!! I love you!!