Stormy morning

The Tall Guy and I got ready for work this morning as the sky went black and thunder rumbled. By the time my teeth were brushed hail was coming down with full force! It was quite an exciting way to start the morning! Of course, without coffee, I didn't even think to try to take a photo. Right now, we're both working from home as we wait for the Red Line delays to go away and we can make our way into the office.
I don't know about you, but early morning thunder storms are always a funny way to start the day. You would think with the crazy summer we were having, we would be ready for anything! Earthquakes, tornadoes, snowstorms...we've had it all this year!
I was going through my photos this morning and ran into the below video... Yes. Our dog is insane. Especially when you've just put her "Frontline" flea and tick repellent on her. Never a dull moment around here, folks!
Happy Thursday!

Babies, sewing and a special guest hello...

All my friends are pregnant.
Okay, that's not quite true. I should say, it would seem that a majority of my female friends that live in my neighborhood are expecting. As in, four in five months! The first one in a few weeks and downhill from there!

As a result, I'm doing a lot of baby knitting. At this point, it's sort of scattered, a pair of booties here, a hat there, but it's coming together so that all of my friends will be getting nice little bundles of handknits in bright, cheery, gender neutral colors. So much fun!


In my spare time (ha!), I've started playing with sewing again and have even joined a "New Bee" Quilting group. I sewed this bag a few weeks ago to test out my skills.
The verdict? I need to practice more, but that's okay!

And... Annie says hello.
This is her "New Hampshire" bandanna. My sister wears a lot of tie dye and I make fun of her for this alllll the time. She retaliated by putting some of her style on my poor dog. Annie seems to like it a bit more than the Harley Davidson one my dad bought for her. Bright orange isn't really her color.

A few more Midwest comments

Have you ever had frozen custard? It's amazing. I mean, I've never met a frozen dairy treat I didn't like, but this stuff? Tasty!


The Tall Guy's uncle, upon hearing my lack of frozen custard knowledge brought us straight to Kopp's.
It comes out of machines like this: I love it.
And, finally, my last comment about my Midwest adventure:

After passing through security at the Milwaukee Airport, you see this sign where there are a number of benches etc. At that moment, I fell deep in love with Wisconsin. Not only do they have an area for you to put your belt and shoes back on, but they made up a name for it. LOVE.

Playing tourist

It seems that most people that actually live/work in the DC area never actually go to the hot spots in the Nation's Capital (unless we're talking about a new bar or restaurant!) The Tall Guy's sister and her husband were in town earlier this summer from Seattle so, we took advantage of their time in town to do a bit of exploring. We have a friend that works on the Hill and he hooked us up with a tour and gallery passes. Very cool indeed even for those of us desensitized to the "Big P politics" in DC.

Midwest adventures

The Tall Guy and I took a trip out to the burbs of Chicago and Milwaukee recently.


Mostly, the trip was about visiting family, but I must say I have the best husband and Mother-in-Law around because guess where this girl got to go? You got it....
I must say, if you're ever in the neighborhood, you need to stop in to The Fold...what a great yarn shop! Though, truth be told, I'm not sure how anyone would be in the neighborhood, the shop is in the middle of a corn field and is miles from the nearest town. But, it's still worth the drive out of your way. I came way with a variety of good stuff and a canvas tote bag to boot!

After The Fold, we drove up to Lake Geneva and stopped in Williams Bay for lunch at this place.


After growing up on the Maine border my entire life, I have never seen such a contraption. I had to go to Wisconsin. Bizarre, no? Yes, it's a claw game where you catch a lobster that they'll cook for you. In Wisconsin. I'm still perplexed.

Howdy! How's your summer going? I can't believe it's August already. Pretty sure last I checked it was May!
Things have been moving right along around here, so don't mind the lack of chatter!



These are a few pics from the garden... we've had the most luck with hot peppers and tomatoes this year.

I don't have a whole lot to say today, so in case you haven't seen them elsewhere...here's a few quick photos from our trip to see family on Memorial Day.
Our niece...she never.stops.moving. Except while sleeping. I adore her.

The Tall Guy (yes, he's wearing a Rav T, isn't he awesome?) and I at the Reynolda Gardens . They were so pretty!

Baby H. is awesome. I really didn't want to put him down all weekend.

Happy Friday ya'll! Stay cool!!!!

The world's fastest sock and a recipe

I've been working on a variety of projects that I've either a) been too lazy to take a picture of or b) are gifts that will remain un-blogged until the intended receiver has the goods. So, in the meantime, I've been working on a sock that seems to be knitting itself!

Strange angle, I know, but that's what you get when I take a picture at work with my phone... I'll try harder in the future... if you're looking closely you'll notice that I'm using a Knitpicks harmony needle (birthday gift). My first time using one and so far, so good! I like how sharp the needle is and the join is smooth! Thanks Kim!
I'll share all the details when the socks are complete, but I must say, my friend Woolarina hit this color/base combo out of the park! I love it!

Other things that are making me happy at the moment are the fruits of our "farm". The Tall Guy is most assuredly in charge, but I've been having fun cooking with the veggies that come out of our garden. The broccoli came from our neighbor's garden and the radishes and snap peas from ours.

I improvise recipes a lot... probably why I'm a better cook then baker, but here's the gist of what I did.

Summer Salad
Ingredients
Broccoli
Sugar snap peas
radishes
sliced almonds
I used about a full head of broccoli, 1/2 cup of snap peas, a reallllly big radish and about 1/2 cup of almonds... It was what I had on hand and I went with it!
Dressing
I'm guessing on the amounts here...so, like with any homemade dressing, taste as you go!
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I normally use olive oil, but sometimes the flavor is too overpowering and I wanted the focus to be on the veggies)
1/8 cup rice wine vinegar (I like how "bright" this vinegar tastes, you could also use apple cider vinegar)
1 teaspoon honey (Also locally sourced! This old guy down the street has bee hives! And yes, we do live in a city environment!)
Lawry's seasoning salt and garlic powder. I added these until I liked the taste.. a few shakes of the salt and about the same for the garlic. You can use fresh minced garlic too, but I was being lazy.

What to do...
*Boil some water, throw in the broccoli and peas until they turn bright green.. truly, no more then 30 seconds.
*Drain and rinse w/cold water or plunge into an ice bath to chill very quickly.
*Slice the radish thinly
*Toast the almonds until brown (I use our toaster oven for everything!)
*Toss all the veggies/almonds together and then whisk the dressing together, pour over and serve or chill until time to eat!

This is a pretty forgiving recipe which I think I'll be using a lot this summer as various veggies come up in the garden. Are you gardening this summer? Do you prefer flowers to veggies? I'm always curious what others are up to!

Nom nom nom

So, for a moment we'll depart from our normal crafty talk and focus on one of my other loves. Food. Or food and beer...or food and beer and coffee. And by talk, really I mean show with a few needed captions. It's that sort of day.



Redhook went and stopped making my favorite beer this year (Sun Rye). It's been replaced by Rope Swing. I'm not happy, but it's not stopping me from drinking it. (Pretty tasty)

The Tall Guy and I walked into a coffee shop last week and this was on the front entrance. I was mesmerized by the idea of a bacon latte. While you may or may not be aware that bacon is the one thing that will always keep me from being vegetarian, I couldn't bring myself to order it. Plain ol' iced skim latte for this girl.

This is the said caffe, if you're interested in getting one yourself.

A few weeks ago I made dinner and I thought it was pretty, so I took a picture.

Potato leek soup and a green salad with toasted almonds and sauteed lemon soy tempeh. Pretty tasty!

Which then leads me to my final thought for the day... I'm in love with this cookbook, called Clean Food. The website is here. I don't normally push products, but this one is a winner. My HLP sent it to me for my birthday and I've spent quite a bit of time reading it the past few months. The maple mustard tempeh was a hit and there are plenty of other "normal" but, still vegetarian dishes in there for those that are not quite down with tofu/tempeh etc.

The Tall Guy and I are off on an adventure this weekend to see a bunch of family. I'm happy to report this includes the two cutest little ones on the planet! (As proven here).

And the summer begins...

Summer is always a crazy time around here for us. The bed and breakfast (our guest room) opens and it's non stop from May til November with traveling and visitors. This year, things started a little early with a trip to Aruba for Jessie and K's wedding. Mentally, I'm still there!

Here's a photo of the Tall Guy and I from the rehearsal dinner. The light was amazing that evening and our new friend Brian was an amazing photographer!

En route to Aruba I started the Traveling Woman shawl-ette. It seemed fitting for the travel that will be happening this spring and I thought it would be a good take-along project. Frankly, it's going faster then expected, so it may not be making it on to any other planes!

I've knit another 5 or 6 rows since this photo.

The yarn is The Sanguine Gryphon Bugga! in Cowkiller (I really don't like the name...) and let me tell you something. This is the first time I've knit with Bugga! and I can say that I understand the hype. Holy amazing yarn. I can't say I've ever understood what people meant when they said a yarn felt amazing to knit with until this shawl.

In the meantime, we have the Tall Guys's sister and her husband in town for a few days. I'm looking forward to good food, some tourist visiting and then this weekend? Nothing. A nice quiet weekend ahead and one of the few of this sort for a very, very long time. Hurray Summer!