Yarn Crawl

Charity Gala Pic

I think I mentioned that a few weekends ago, Jim and I attended a charity gala for Easter Seals. We've gone to this event once before a few years ago as well. I never took any pictures before we left, but one of my friends who was there sent me a pic just now of the four of us. I cropped them out so they aren't on the internet for everyone to see, as they have a different comfort level with that than we do, but I thought I'd share our picture. Jim actually found a vest that matched my dress pretty much exactly, and he looks great in the picture so I thought I'd share.

I've had this dress forever (like nine years!) and I think it's time to donate it to The Cinderella Project or one of those causes that help girls that don't have prom dresses. It doesn't really fit me that great, and never really did. Kinda loose in weird spots and tight in others. Funny how picky I am about fit now that I make alot of my own clothes. I think it could be a good prom dress for someone. I'll have to get (or make!) another champagne-ish/gold dress to match the vest Jim bought though!

Exciting News!!

Guess where we're going in March???

Yep, we're going to see the northern part of the South American coastline and sail through the Panama Canal!!! I'm really excited. This one will be all warm (often hot) weather, all the time, sunny and beautiful - so only one kind of clothes to pack (at least it will be just one season - we'll still have formal and casual so I guess two types.)

In other new news, check this out:

Yep, it's a chocolatey-red now!! LOVING IT. I was supposed to just be getting a haircut, but I've been thinking about changing my color for awhile and I started talking about it with my colorist. It turned out she had time to do it today, so I was like, let's go for it!! It is so much shinier than it was, which is a big thing I was looking for. It's a little more red and a little less copper than I was thinking, but actually I really like it. YAY! This fits my feisty (fiery?) personality a little better, I think and I don't feel so "beige", which is how I was feeling.

Cake Pic and New Projects!

We had a great time on Friday night - so good that we ended up sitting around and not doing much of anything when we got home yesterday at around 2. I've been spending a lot of time outside yesterday and today so I haven't been near my computer, but thanks to everyone for all your great comments on my 4th of July outfit!

Here's a picture of the sandcastle cake from Friday night, prior to it being devoured (it turned out very tasty if I do say so myself:)

In keeping with the "what happens at the lake, stays at the lake" policy instituted by my friend/hostess, no other pics are posted on the blog - however, if you click into the cake pic, there are some other pics as part of that set!!

Ok, scratch that - it kills me not to share pictures on the blog; these are just of us so I can share - us having fun dancing and goofing around on the deck:

and a sweet one:

And here's my new project - I restarted the Cable-Down Raglan with the gray Tess Superwash Merino that Sandy gave me. I'm loving this! I'm already set to separate the sleeves:

Jim and I have a wedding to go to on Saturday, so I am going to make my dress for it. I'm thinking of making this pattern in one of the knee-length views on left or center

with either this matte jersey

or this one:

If I use the first one, I have enough to make any of them - if I use the second, I can only make the view on the left as it uses less than 2 yards of fabric. I'm leaning toward the first fabric and the middle view, but am not 100% sure. Thoughts?

I took tomorrow off work, so I'm hoping to make some progress on the new dress then! Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday weekend!

Happy Birthday, Jim!!

Today is Jim's birthday! I thought I'd share some fun pictures over the past almost-decade...we've been together since 1995, but I only have digital photos back to 1999.

Here we are on our engagement cruise in August 1999, although only Jim knew it was going to be at that point. I thought it was to celebrate my Master's in Tax, which I got in June:

The next year, on our Mexican Riviera cruise in 2000:

(I didn't photoshop my left arm (Jenny - private joke) but I don't know what I was doing to it!)

And a different formal night on the same cruise - "Bond, James Bond" is all I can say on the white tux:

A fun picture I love from our wedding in 2002 (on another cruise!)

Jim with Gildie (Christmas 2003) - I think is around the time she became "our" cat instead of just mine:

In a circa-1600s bar in Hamburg in 2004 (on another cruise - seeing the pattern?)

After leaving banking in 2005 to begin his home improvement adventure:

March 2006 Hawaii cruise, describing the specials in his "Eastern European maitre-d voice" :

Our company outing in July 2006 in Galena - I love this picture of us:

Our spur of the moment Caribbean cruise at the end of 2006, on Grand Cayman's Seven Mile Beach:

And on our latest Michigan winery tour in November at Round Barn Winery:

Happy Birthday, Jim!! It's been an adventurous and fun 13 years, and I love you more and more each year as I get to know you better and better! Can't wait to see what adventures are ahead (starting with the South America cruise in March!)

Michigan Trip Pics!

Jim and I just got back from our weekend trip to Michigan and we had a fabulous time!

First of all, we absolutely loved our room - here was the view from our deck:

I attempted to take video of the room as it was so gorgeous, but I ended up not saving it somehow - on the positive side, now I know how the video features on my camera work! The room was beautiful; very large, with a fireplace and a huge bathroom with a nice big jacuzzi tub!

Friday night we explored neighboring New Buffalo and had dinner at Casey's, which was excellent, and I had my introduction to one of the local wines from Tabor Hill (the dry Riesling.) This was really tasty and much better (in my opinion) than their sweet demi-sec wine that I had tried previously as a gift from someone who came back from there.
We spent some time by the fireplace in our room that night - you can see I was having a great time after a few glasses of wine...

On Saturday, we decided to do the full winery circuit and visited Tabor Hill

and bought a number of their white wines to come home with us for our "stash."

Next up, we followed the winding winery roads

to Round Barn winery, which is one of the only wineries that make vodka from grapes (called "DeVine", and it apparently beat out Ketel One and Grey Goose in taste tests in Chicago - it was very smooth). We ended up making quite a few acquisitions at Round Barn:

The lady at Round Barn told us that we could take our glasses to their sister winery, Free Run, for a tasting there, so we went there and walked into the open door, but the lady working there told us she wasn't opening for another 20 minutes as she didn't have bottles open yet (?) and to come back. We ended up not going back, though. Here's me in front of that winery when we thought we were going to get into it!

Next we went to Hickory Creek on the way back, a smaller no-frills winery where we bought one bottle:

There were two more wineries we didn't visit, but may next time. It's a good thing Jim doesn't really drink wine, so he could be our designated driver!

Next we went back into town in New Buffalo and went to Sit & Knit, the LYS owned by the lovely Kim Olesker, who I had previously met at Stitches Midwest at her booth. I bought her husband Jack's new book, Cast On, Bet's Off and actually got a signed copy. I started the book yesterday afternoon and really like it so far - it is fun to read and is sprinkled with lots of knitting and local Michigan area references. I also bought a crochet book and the very hard to find "Wonderful Wallaby" pattern booklet. It was so funny that Kim asked me if I had it, out of nowhere, when I had spent the good part of an afternoon trying to find an LYS that carried it!

We had a fabulous light lunch at the Pumpernickel Deli at the corner of Red Arrow Highway near our hotel (corn chowder soup was FABULOUS as was the cherry tea!) then went back to the Sandpiper to hang out on the beach for awhile.

I was really impressed with the pretty shade of blue of Lake Michigan's water (it is prettier up there than in Chicago) and the whiteness of the sand. It was COLD, however, with a strong wind. But gorgeous!!

Later that evening, we went to Frankie's around the corner and had a great dinner. This restaurant came highly recommended by a friend of ours who visits the area often (and just bought a house there, closing this weekend!) and she was right on target (as always!) It was great.

I can't say enough about what a great time we had, and I really look forward to coming back - probably in the summer next time, or maybe in earlier fall, like September or so. It was lots of fun and we really enjoyed exploring the wineries in the area - it was like going to Sonoma or Tuscany, on a nearby, smaller scale. For a 1 1/2 to 2 hour car trip, it was unbeatable!

Weekend Getaway!

Here's where I'll be early next month!

We booked the Vienna room at the Sandpiper Inn in Union Pier, Michigan for the first weekend in November! I had mentioned before that I really wanted to stay here, as one of my friends at work knows the owners and raves about it. It looks really great. I look forward to winery tours, walks on the beach with nice sweaters on, and exploration for yarn and other specialty shops. Can't wait!

I also finished this little baby yesterday...I ended up having to hand sew the lining inside all around the bottom. Whew!! I truly dislike hand sewing, but I got through it and it looks pretty good. I love that it stands up by itself!!

We didn't have any samples to do for next week, so no demonstrations, but we did take each other's measurements. I already had mine, as I take them pretty frequently, but I played along. Luckily I had worn my Airy Wrap sweater from Fitted Knits, with a cami under it and a long slim skirt - the cami and skirt worked great for the measurements. Next week they are doing a field trip to JoAnn's for the very basics of "here's how to find patterns from the pattern catalog", "here's how to have fabric cut", "here's where you find thread and notions" and our teacher said that if we were already familiar with these basics, as many of us are, that we shouldn't waste time going. Works for me!

I have a seminar downtown today (international tax - yay) and then my MBA class, so it will be a hectic day. Have a good one!

Testing...

picture of me and Jim on our Caribbean cruise last month