First Lace Shawl

My dear friend Robbie talked me into to trying lace work, actually making a shawl. I knew she would be there to help me if I needed it or to just hold my hand long distance if need be. I am so glad that she

persuaded me to try this lovely skill on a larger scale than a dishcloth.

I have made lace dishcloths and bookmarks. Heck I even mad a that lovely bamboo shawl int he ripple pattern. This is different though, i used Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine color Boysenberry Mix. I picked this up at The Wool Company in Bandon while on our anniversary trip. I am not usually a purple person, i have nothing against purple, it just isn't my favorite color. So I was surprised when I kept returning to that hank of yarn. I figure I was drawn to it for a reason, now I know why.

Anyways I used that lovely yarn to knit up The Traveling Woman shawl. The pattern can be found here http://feministy.com/traveling-woman/ It is also available through Ravelry. It is a great pattern, easy enough to follow. She wrote it out and charted so everyone can make this beautiful shawl.

Robbie, thank you so much for encouraging me to try something new and fabulous. I owe you one!!!!

WAVES AT SHORE ACRES

One of the highlights of our our coastal anniversary trip was the ocean was in her full glory. The video above shows just a little bit of the great waves that were happening. Shore Acres Park sits high on a cliff over looking the ocean below. The swells were 20 to 30 feet but once they hit the rocks the waves reached up to 200 ft in the air. It truly was magnificent to see. God is amazing with all the beauty he shares with us. I will post pics of the trip later but had to share is video now, enjoy.

FALL TRIP

We have been on a Fall Road Trip. Ok big deal, I know, but I thought you might like to see the beautiful landscape we got to see.

Scott and I have lived in Oregon for most of our lives and either one of us had been to this area of the state, so this was a journey for us. I hope you enjoy the pictures, please understand that most of them were taken while driving down the freeway or back roads.
First couple pictures are of the Columbia River outside of Portland. It is such a pretty area, so peaceful.

This is looking across the river at the Washington side. The hills are the same on both sides of the river. Don't they look nice and soft almost like velvet.

We have Windmills in Central/Northeastern Oregon. These are huge. If you have never seen one in person trust me you feel like an ant when you are close to one.

Ok so this is a picture of part of a windmill. This is the part at the top that the propellers connects to....see I told you they are big.

I love old barns and abandoned houses, something special there. I look at them on the side of the road and often wonder about its past. Who lived here, why did they just leave, is there cool stuff left behind?

This is what it looks like out in the middle of no where. As far as your eye can see, there are rolling hills of cut wheat and sage.




We finally made it to Kimberly, Oregon. Well um....to be truthful I was a bit disappointed. But now that I think about it, I really wouldn't mind living in a itty bitty teeny weeny town like this. This picture and the next one show what the town is. Not exactly what I had pictures or even been told. We were told that during the summer this is a great place to get fresh produce....hmmm....where?

Here we are outside of the fossil center. The picture doesn't show it real well but that is a painted hill. The painted part is from the different minerals in the dirt.

This was just amazing to me. We were on top of a summit looking out. I can only imagine how beautiful it is in the spring when everything is nice and green.



We stopped in Pendleton at the Woolen Mills.
Nice stuff there.





Mt. Hood popping out for a picture. She was playing hide and seek with me all afternoon and evening.

We had a great trip, drove almost 1,000 miles round trip. We left Eugene on Friday morning hit Baker City in the evening. Then left towards home on Saturday morning and hit Eugene around 10 pm. We had 10 hour days on the road, but that is including our stops. I really encourage everyone to take out your state map find a spot you have never been and go, explore, enjoy and share. It was fun and boy did we learn a lot.

IT"S THAT TIME AGAIN

It is August so Dish Rag Tag is about to begin.
I am on "U Can't Knit Just 1" if you watch the side bar you can see all the teams progress.
I really enjoyed taking part in the game last year and am looking forward to playing this year. I have my tag partners goodies all ready and my needles are empty and ready to go. Is the box here yet....why do I have to wait to have so much fun?

TEXTURED CIRCLE SHRUG COMPLETED!!!

I just finished the Textured Circle Shrug that was a KAL over at Lion Brand Yarns. I enjoyed making this wonderful shrug. I used Knit Picks Comfy in Flamingo. I love this yarn, it is the same yarn I used last summer to make a tank top. I feel in love with the yarn then and plan to use it for many more projects.

I still need to block this little gem but couldn't help myself and had to wear it for a bit. I have to say that it has a sexiness about it. It hugs you and makes me feel kind of sexy in it. Gotta love a item that makes you feel good about yourself.

SIPALU BAG DONE

I completed the Sipalu Bag. Well sort of, I have finished the knitting and am blocking it now, then I will line it.

I have really enjoyed working on this project. Oh so many colors, 17 to be exact.

I fell in love with it when I saw in the KnitPicks catalog, I wasn't going to order it but then they went and did something underhanded...they put it on clearance right after Christmas. What is a girl to do, but buy it. I mean hey great bag, new pattern using a newly learned technique and then to be on sale for 1/2 price...well I had to buy it, it would have been wrong to just let the kit sit there. I am so glad I did.

The kit comes with enough yarn to make at least 2 of the bags. I am considering making up another one. I know it won't be right away, I have to many other projects either started or in line to be started right away.

I do encourage anyone interested in learning fair isle to give this bag a try.

Bathroom update

We have been working pretty steady in the bathroom and and accomplished most of the work over the weekend. Last you saw we had paint, lights and a tub/shower. We now have flooring, wainscoting and a toilet. I am really happy with how everything is turning out.

To us it looks coastal, it has a nice relaxing feel to Scott an I. Which is what we wanted. I know it is hard to see in the pics, but the flooring reminds me of wet sand. More like Northern California sand. It has a nice shine to it, so it always looks wet....gotta love that.

We will be working on the 1/2 bath this weekend and hope to get most if not all of it done....fingers crossed. We are planning on taking Sunday, Easter, off and enjoying the day.

Bathroom Update And Flying Visitors

Here are the latest pictures of the bathroom remodel.

This is the new light fixture that is above the main bath vanity. I love this fixture, we actually put a second one in the half bath as well. We are doing all the hardware in brushed nickle. all the lights in our house now have this alabaster cover, I really like the look of it.

Here is the front of the new shower. We have a new rain head shower faucet. It is the best shower I have ever had. It is nice and soft but strong at the same time. As DD told her friend, it is the ultimate showering experience. And here is the far end of the shower. The color you see on the wall is the closest i could get to show you the actual color we picked. It is a really nice dark/medium blue. Very cheery and yet soothing at the same time.

While taking a break from all the work yesterday I snapped some pictures of our hummingbirds. These were taken from in the house looking out the front window. I would say that this is a sign that Spring is here, but at our house we have hummers year round. We are one of the only houses in our neighborhood that keeps a feeder up all year. This is most likely why we get so many of the little beauties. The feeder is just about 2 or 3 feet from our front window.

Bathroom Project

We are having the bathtub and shower combo replaced in our house. This is a much needed project, we are all excited about having a "new" bathroom when all the work is done.

Of course i forgot to take my before pics....i really need to start doing that. Anyways the first pic here is of the vanity area, if you look at the walls you can see the texture i put up.

The next picture is where the tub is usually at....lol. We were so worried that the sub floor would have to be replaced. We had some serious leak issues and are so grateful that the bones of the house are fine, for the most part. We do have to replace one 2x6 in the floor, which just amazes me.

The last picture here is what you see when you first walk into the bathroom and look straight ahead. The toilet is usually there...lol. As you can see we tore up the floor and will be replacing it with new vinyl. I can't wait for tomorrow, the crew will be back to install the tub unit and then we can finish our work. I will keep you posted on the progress.

Right now the color is a nice light sage green. We are ready for a change wait until you see the color we are painting.

Daffodil Drive

On Sunday we went on our annual trip out to Daffie Drive. Scott and i had a great time of course. The road out to the Long Tom Grange is 7 miles long and is lined with "wild" daffies. Once there, they have a bunch of booths set up and the artist sell their wares. There is always the Llamas and Alpacas. This year one of the vendors was having a clearance sell.....$5.00 a skein for hand dyed and hand spun alpaca yarn! Can you believe the price...oh my goodness, i bought 4 skeins...lol.

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE

VALENTINE'S DAY

Our Valentine's Day was pretty special this year. My darling husband read about a little church on the coast that host a renewal ceremony on Valentine's Day. So the wonderful man made all the arrangements for us to be part of it.

He didn't fill me in on his plans until the last minute so to speak. We spent the day at the coast playing and taking our time getting to Yachats, Oregon where the Log Church Museum is, which is where the ceremony took place.

On the way we had to stop just north of Sea lion caves to get a picture of Hecta Head Lighthouse. And look for sea lions below, but there weren't any out playing.

Then we stopped at Devil's Churn and hiked part of the trail and watched the waves.

This is the mouth of the inlet, once the tide comes in most of the black rocks are covered.

The tide is coming in can you tell. The waves crash up through an inlet and blow sea water up in the air giving everyone a shower.

We ended up getting to Yachats about an hour before the ceremony so we went and got ourselves some coffee to help warm us. We found a nice quiet bench on the side of the road and sat watching the waves come in. It was such a peaceful place to just sit and be together watching the waves. We both enjoy the coast and watching the waves.

Before we knew it, it was time to get to the church.

This little gem of church is an actual log church. It was used as a church and a schoolhouse for many years.




There was a Celtic harpist. She played wonderful music before the ceremony. Then the Ministry spoke a bit about the group gathered. There was about 29 couples renewing their marriage vows. She estimated there was 627 yrs of marriage in the room. How could you not feel special there.

The two couples sitting in the pew a head of us had 98 yrs between them...wow.

After Minister Mary spoke a bit she then had the harpist play again. She asked us to do a sing along. I had to try really hard not to giggle, because she had 29 couples singing "Love Me Tender" by Elvis. I just found it so darn funny.

Once the sing along was done Minister Mary had us all stand and face our spouse and repeat a vow of renewal. We basically just pledge to continue to honor our vows and to spend the rest of our lives loving each other. It was really very sweet.

One of the couples in front of us had most of their family there with them. All the kids and grown grandkids renewed their vows with them. What a wonderful thing to do as a family, to honor the golden anniversary for them.

Once we were done we slowly wondered back down the coast making our way home safe and sound. We did stop to watch the sun set over the ocean. How could we not!?!?!

This was the best Valentine's Day we have had. Not because of the things we did but because my husband loves me enough to think that I would be touched by us renewing our commitment to one another. I feel so very loved and appreciated.