We've had lots of snow, but I love it!

You'll see from the photos this time that most of them revolve around snow....even the dogs.  I do enjoy snow and like driving in it too.  After shovelling last year and hurting my back, we purchased a snowblower (Mark secretly has been wanting one for years now)....after all, we aren't getting any younger.  All I've had to do is use a broom a few times.  Mark is really enjoying his new job outside!

 Ivy is enjoying her job....patiently waiting for a squirrel to come down from the tree....

it doesn't happen.

 Lily enjoys eating the snow....

she would rather do that than drink from her water bowl in the house.



On Martin Luther King Day, we went to the zoo and met Anana, the new polar bear who was very entertaining.  Of course, there is glass between her and the kid.  She's chewing on a huge bone.....taking a break from swimming and jumping on a plastic barrel.

Mark with his 'manly' scarf I made him to keep his neck warm.

 

 Me in my purple 'Poppy' sweater from the Yarnplay book.  I never choose purple which was my mother's favorite color...so this is an homage to my mom.  This sweater is made from Noro Silk Garden and Cash Iroha.  It does have wool in it...so another warm sweater to wear in the snow.

 On the hangar....

The back!

The weekend of the 21st and 22nd was a girl's weekend for me.  My old buddies from my quilt guild up north and I, who took the Sue Spargo class, Magnolia.... like to get together every few months to work on our blocks.  It's lots of laughter, food and wine and of course, you can see we do get hand sewing accomplished.  The night before I drove back north for this fun weekend we had 6" of snow. 
Ohio does a great job of keeping the expressways cleared.

 Beth's block

 One flower from my block

 Linda Henderson's house block (the center of her quilt)

 ...another of Henderson's blocks.

 Paula worked on a different Spargo quilt class we took.  She calls it her 'dark' quilt.  It's actually a basket block quilt and very nice.

 Linda Robb's handwork on a netbook messenger bag she's making.

Sue Elze's flower on one of her blocks.

It's so great to share ideas and you can see how creative everyone is!  We use wool fabric, velvet, cotton and beads to make our blocks. 
The weather won't stop me from having fun with my friends...it was so worth driving in all that snow. 
That's it for January. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Back to life as we know it......

The holidays are over.....so sad.  I love our family get togethers and the build up before the big days.  We had a really nice Thanksgiving here at our house as we gathered around the table.  The main theme this year seemed to be that we were all thankful for our health, having jobs and the fact that we have family to share our love with.  The events that had just occurred in Mount Vernon where the Tilmant's live was fresh in all of our minds.  The gruesome death of a mother, her son and her friend was almost too much to bear and was too close to home to believe.  I just heard on the news yesterday that the man who committed this crime will spend the rest of his life in prison.  Sometimes these things happen to remind us how we should appreciate what we have....and I sure do.  I love my family and appreciate them every day.

So....on to the next holiday.....Christmas!

Patrick came to spend the three days of the weekend with us.  I really enjoyed his help with last minute gifts to purchase on Christmas Eve and the making of our traditional lasagna.  The Tilmant's came on Christmas Day with Luke.  He always brings a smile to our faces.  They all stayed overnight too....the house was beginning to fill.  The 26th was the day of our big meal and gift exchange.  The Hicks family rolled in first, then Matt arrived and rounding up the tail end was the Swaggard Family with Taryn and Morgan in tow all the way from Texas.  All of the little girls got dressed up in pretty Christmas dresses....so cute.  The last three of our adult kids that rolled in on the 26th also stayed overnight with their families while Patrick and the Tilmant's did not.  It was so fun to have our Christmas holiday last for three full days this year!

Luke and Stef

Ivy and Lily with their Christmas outfits on.

Matt, Jenny and Mark having some fun.

On to some of the gifts I made and received.....

Joel was happy with the quilt I made him.  He's such a patriotic soul and loves to read about war history, so I chose these fabrics (the center block is the Declaration of Independence written out on fabric) some of which are Civil War reproductions, which is his favorite time in history to read about. 

This was the gift I made for Matt's girlfriend, Kathleen.  It's basically a moebius scarf that gets wrapped around the neck twice with a cable pattern knitted in.  Here's the link for the pattern if any of you knitters would like it:

http://ilikecake.org/?p=141

Look at this lovely gift I received from Mark!  He picked it out from Knitters' Mercantile.  It has 1,450 yds., is hand-painted with beautiful colors and is enough to do a sweater which I will chose from this book he picked out for me.  Please notice that just because someone has white hair doesn't mean they are old.

You can see how huge the skein is after having it wound, compared to the skein of Ritratto he also bought me.  Mark did a great job choosing my gifts this year.  I did not give him a list or ideas like I usually do.  Nothing makes a knitter happier than receiving yarn and books.

He bought me these 2 skeins of Ritratto, which are mohair and rayon, to make a pretty ruffle scarf with....

.....and Matt trucked all the way to a yarn shop in Chicago to buy me this luxurious skein of cashmere and silk yarn!  It's color is lavendar, but my camera thinks it's blue.  This one skein will be enough to make myself a wonderfully soft cowl to keep my neck warm.  This was a special treat because I wouldn't buy myself cashmere.  I was thinking about that book.... "I Feel Bad About My Neck" by Nora Ephron....I may wear this cowl as much to hide my neck as I will to keep it warm! 

I wish you all good health this year of the rabbit....enjoy your family and be thankful.

We are going to be grandparents again!

Our youngest daughter is having her first baby next June!  We are so excited!  She's been married a year now and was ready to add to their relationship.

I've been preparing for our big Thanksgiving meal.  All 5 of our kids will be coming plus 3 son-in-laws and 3 grandchildren.  It really is one of the best family events we are lucky enough to celebrate. 

I'll be sure to post photos after they all leave.

Look at this adorable little snowman marker I received when I ordered this sock yarn from KnitPurlGurl on Etsy.com.  It's her hand dyed watermelon sock yarn....very cool.

This photo of Luke is only funny to those of you with a sense of humor when taking photos of children.  This little guy hardly stands still and I'm always chasing him with the camera.  Many of my shots look like this where he'll be looking at me and then all of a sudden he's turning and going the other way and my camera is too slow to get him when he's looking at me.  He just makes me laugh.

My newest little hat for someone.  Luke won't leave it on, so I think it needs to go to my next grandchild.

I don't think this photo really needs an explanation.  Ivy is just in love with her chew toys.

Mariah Midgley, 9 yrs. old, drew this of my horse Marshall who she became attached to at the Willow Ridge Therapeutic Riding Facility.  I thought it was very clever of her to draw his knee up like that because he has an injured knee and she wanted to show that.  Don't you love the detail kids put in their drawings?

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving with your loved ones!

Fall makes me happy.....

This is my favorite time of year and I'm enjoying the cooler temperatures so much.  I sat on our patio lastnight until after dark enjoying the 60 something degrees which felt very warm.  It was nice to sit around because I went with Mark in the afternoon to shop for a used car, which is more exhausting than you would think.  He's been driving his car for 5 yrs. now which has to be a new record for him.  He would rather change cars every 2 yrs. so he's long overdue.  Thankfully, he doesn't want to change his wife like that. 

Last month Mark and I drove to Jumonville, PA where his parents met as church camp counselors.  We had been there before and found it to be quaint and full of places where we could imagine that they sat and talked or possibly stole kisses.  It was Mark's father's dream to have his and Mary Esther's ashes spread together after their deaths so they could be together again at the place where they met.  Bruce was such a romantic and Mark was so pleased to be able to fulfill his father's last wish.  If you look closely at this photo of the 100' tall cross on the hill at the church camp you can see the ashes blowing up in the wind with the cloud in the background.  Some people don't really like the word, closure, but fulfilling his dad's wishes brought closure for Mark and he felt this was the best way to honor their lives together.

Did you know there is an awesome Military Museum here in Groveport, Ohio?  I was not very thrilled to go to it, but thought Mark (who reads every WWII book he can find) would enjoy it..... so off we went.  It was really fantastic and informative with artifacts dating back to the Spanish/American War, Civil War, WWI and WWII.  They will be opening a new wing that will have information about the Korean War, Vietnam War, Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan.  There is a replica of the Eddie Rickenbacker house (full scale) plus military vehicles in the fenced in grass area in the back of the museum which includes one of the six still existing "Higgins Boats" that pulled up to Normandy Beach and dropped it's front to let all the soldiers off.  We found it very interesting to talk to Warren Motts, the owner, about stories he shares with people.  My favorite story was about General Paul Tibbets, Jr. who was the pilot of the Enola Gay which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.  Gen. Tibbets was on the advisory board of the Motts Military Museum and lived here in Columbus until his death in 1992.

http://www.mottsmilitarymuseum.org/

For my birthday in October we flew to Missouri to visit with some friends.  They took us to Eureka Springs, AK which is such a great artistic town.  We love going there when we visit Scott and Arlene.  This is just one of the cute buildings that houses specialty shops and galleries.

They took us to Branson, MO one evening for dinner and we enjoyed the fountain show there.

We drove to Oklahoma City, OK after our visit in Missouri.  Our friends over there showed us a great time too.  We went with Karen to the Murrah Building Memorial which brought tears to my eyes.  It is so beautiful and is such a wonderful tribute to the lives lost there.  Here are a few photos from there.

 These brass and glass chairs are engraved with each individual's name who lost their lives that day in the bombing.  They are located on the land where the Murrah Building stood.

 This reflecting pond is where the street used to be where Timothy McVeigh pulled the Ryder truck up in front of the building.  The wall at the end there has the time 9:01 which is the time right before the bomb went off.  There is a wall at the other end that has the time 9:03 which is the time that lives were changed forever in just 2 minutes.

This is the outside of the new Murrah Building that was erected a block away.  The protrusions on the windows are to represent crosses for the lives lost.

Off we went to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.....

www.nationalcowboymuseum.org

which I like to call the Cowboy Hall of Fame.  Did you know that there are 8,000 different types of barbed wire???  Who knew?

See the vertical slide out drawers under the photo?  They had about 1-15 different kinds of barbed wire in each of them and those surrounded the room.

 Clothes worn by John Wayne in the movie True Grit.

The End of the Trail statue

Then dinner at Larry's, who is Karen's boyfriend, and a great cook.  He made lamb which was scrumptious.

We drove back to Kansas City, MO for the flight home, but had time to visit that city for a night and day.  We liked it and would recommend if you ever travel to there you must eat at Garozzo's for the best meal in the city!

 The canal offers gondola rides.

Pretty tile design.

When we got home I finished the dragon outfit I made Luke for Halloween.

I think I have taken a significant vacation from my blog. What do you think?

I'm sure you weren't holding your breath for the last 5 months...if you were, lets take a deep one now and get caught up.

Ahhhh....May.  The month of Mother's Day, planting all of my flowers, walking in the Susan G. Komen Race for a Cure and the celebration of our wedding anniversary.  21 yrs. of bliss and laughter which isn't only from drinking wine, but also from my fun husband.  We always take a trip the week of our anniversary and this year we went to Englewood, Florida to visit our dear friends, the Hemenways (no relation to Ernest Hemingway, which they get asked).  It was a very hot time to visit Florida, but what made it all so special, besides being with great friends, was this dolphin who swam up to our boat as sweet as could be just after I announced to all on board that I wanted to see a dolphin.

June brought the completion of our patio renovation, our grandson, Luke's first birthday, friends coming to stay for the annual National Quilt Show http://nqaquilts.org/2010show/ and Knitters' Connection and a new roof.

Friends Linda Henderson and Paula Meiler

 My personal favorite at the NQA Show....thistles aren't normally this cute!

Incredible use of color and quilting in this dragon quilt!

 This butterfly quilt won Viewer's Choice and was made by a man...sorry I can't remember his name.

 The quilt above is mostly colored by thread.  All of the gold, blue, green and red you see is thread!

 Luke sitting on his dolphin quilt I made him....he loves it, not that it shows in this photo!

This is my friend, Linda Hendersons, quilt that won her some 1st place ribbons and it is incredible.  All of the gold you see in the background is thread.  She's an awesome quilter, all done on her little Janome machine, not a long-arm.

July brought our Biennial Family Vacation....this year we went to Lake Cumberland, KY. 

 The beautiful Cumberland Falls...the 2nd largest falls in North America (right after Niagara Falls).

 Our six youngest grandchildren.

Luke's first time swimming.

August brought very hot weather, a family reunion, friends staying at our house, and Austin and Maya came while their mom and dad went to NYC to celebrate their anniversary.

Here we are with our friends, Brian and Theresa Linder at Hayden Falls near Dublin, Ohio....unfortunately, we didn't have enough rain this summer to see the falls, but were assured that we should come back in the fall and winter to check them out again.

 Maya and I spent all day in my sewing room as she requested.  She made a stuffed cat for her brother, Austin, and then designed this fleece stuffed creature after I had bought her an Ugly Doll at Learning Express.  She chose all the fabrics from my stash, but I did the sewing since I machine appliqued all the face parts down....she did the stuffing and was very happy with her creation....and Austin got to play Wii all day, so both kids were in heaven.

I don't know why, but she named it Octopoctie and here it is unstuffed.

Now, here we are in September, so we're all caught up.  We are into football season, which means 'Knitting Season' to me.  Nothing like knitting away while hubby watches the game & I pretend to be following it.  I finished this Leaf Yoke Top and have to say I really like how it turned out.  Sometimes you knit something and end up with a project you aren't happy with, not the case here.



I also made this little dress for my great niece, Grace, called Sommerlin on Ravelry.  http://www.ravelry.com/

It has a knitted top and fabric bottom.

...and this quilted purse for my daughter's birthday gift.

Mark and I went to the Renaissance Festival in Harveysburg, Ohio  Really kind of fun to go back in time or at least think of what it was like in the 16th century complete with jousting.

http://www.renfestival.com/

That was quite a bit of info and I hope not to wait that long again.  Let's enjoy this fall season coming upon us and hope the leaves are beautiful again this year.  Happy crafting!