A Medley of Favorites

I've been in a little blogging slump.

I meant to post about the great knitting fun I had two weekends ago at the Bohus exhibit at the American Swedish institute, but it just never seemed to happen.

Shelly, Nuttnbunny and I attended a few of the Saturday events together.
There was knitting to do, see and talk about, and lunch out on the town.

Shelly posted a bunch about our day on her blog.

During the knitting fun we were discussing chowls (cowls for children). I mentioned that I needed to make a new one for the Bud, since his huge noggin is getting in the way of using his current one. Nuttnbunny had the brilliant idea of using his cowl as a way to practice steeking.

So I went for it and cut my first steek.



I decided on machine stitching on either side since I used slippery superwash for the cowl. I may have been able to get away with a crocheted steek, but that will give me something to try next time.



I added a little garter stitch button band and a few random buttons from the stash.



The Bud's response: "I want to wear it every day all day."
Good response, kid! :)


Last night the Bud was singing at the table after dinner. Mr. 5 asked him if we could make a movie of him singing. Here is the result:



It's a little dark in our dining room, but you get a clear idea of the "kid's music" we listen to around here.

Movie Night Update

For those of you who may be watching the weather wondering if we are going to have movie night this year...
The word on the street is that the rain headed our way should clear up by 1:00 or so. If it hasn't cleared up by 4:00, I am sorry to announce that the 7th annual movie night will be canceled. Because of Davin's recent job change, we won't be having a rain date, and the garage is full of c-r-a-p (I am spelling in front of the Bud) so last year's rain space is not an option this time.


If it clears up we have movie food ready for the double feature of Disney's Cartoon Robin Hood and Goonies.


Click here for local radar.

Like Sands Through the Hour Glass...

I am in major avoidance/denial mode. I am down to only hours of summer left. If I seem like I have dropped off the face of the electronic earth, that's why.

There has been quite a bit happening despite my attempts to stop time.

We hosted a rainy day BB-Q that Shelly mentioned on her blog.

The Bud and I went on a Sippers trip to K's cabin in Wisconsin.
It was a drizzly and gray, but we had a good time anyhow.

The Bud took his first boat ride on a paddle boat.

He seemed paralyzed during the ride (perhaps because we told him he had to be still on the boat). But after he was back on dry land he kept talking about the "boat" and "water", so I think he had a good time.
We didn't take the speed boat out (the water was too low), but the Bud did enjoy pretending to drive it.

(There are more "Sippers at the Cabin" photos on my flickr page.)


I also dyed another skein of yarn. I have had a tough time getting the colors right on my photos - they all turned out a little electric looking.

I played with this photo a bit, and it's closer to actual now. I layered reds with copper colors for a semi-solid look. I am thinking Marigold, but I am still trying to finish the Road Trip socks first. They are at about 70% right now.


Movie Night Update:
We the chose the date for "Movie Night" a while ago, but never officially announced it...
The 7th annual Back Yard, Big Screen Movie Night is on Saturday, September 29th.
If you have not been to one of the previous shindigs, we set up a 10X15 foot screen in our back yard for a double feature. Last year was rainy and ended up in the garage... we have booked better weather this year. Movie Night is constantly evolving, and this year the first feature will be a family friendly movie, so bring the kids.
Movies start at dusk, but arrive early for good conversation and a chance to stake out some seats. I'm sure Davin will be giving tours of the new deck progress as well.
The invite is open to anyone you would like to bring along, please let me know if you need directions.

Natural Smile?

Netflix now has a "watch now" feature. You can stream all kinds of things up to a certain number of hours each month. It doesn't work for Macs (my computer), but Davin has a PC, so he was watching The Human Face with John Cleese. It's an informational series about, you guessed it, the human face. I only saw bits, but what I did see was very interesting.
Part of it was about a study involving yearbook photos. Apparently if you have a natural smile in your yearbook photo, it is an indicator of happiness later in life.
So of course I grabbed the nearest yearbook I could find...

...first I said "whew" and then "wow, was I cool!"


I think I have CADD (crafty attention deficit disorder) lately because I have started yet another project. I won't reveal it now, I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, but here is a close up teaser. (If you are super curious, you can click on the photo and see another shot in flickr)



Lastly I will introduce you to my son, Sir Elton John.

This is his second pair of sunglasses. His first pair was used in an experiment to see how far the bows would bend open.
Sadly, they did not survive.