Merlin does not help my productivity

Merlin the Magnificent

After losing his four buddies, poor Spot needed a new friend. Welcome Merlin to the family. He is fitting in well and adapting to the new family and routine. I expect we will have many wonderful memories together!

Missing Oscar

Goodbye to my sweet Oscar. With me for the past 16 yrs and passed today at age 18. I will miss him dearly. 

Oscar 1996-2014

Sunbathing

What a beautiful fall afternoon. Spanky and Darla are taking full advantage. 

Bye Otis

Goodbye sweet Otis. I loved our time together. 

1998 - Nov 1, 2013

Swirling thru my Thoughts

I recently purchased the book Knit, Swirl! by Sandy McIver and after looking through it I decided I wanted to knit one of the sweaters for my mom. I think she'll be able to pull off this style and after showing her the book, she was game. I've been searching for just the right yarns and I decided to use this as an opportunity to try out some yarns from KnitPicks and Webs that I have been curious about but never seen in person. I think. I'm going to end up doing a Sheer Beauty style where every other welts a lace weight sheer yarn so I bought a couple of colors of pretty Alpaca blend lace weight and I'm trying it with a a few other options to see what appeals to me and to Mom.

The first swatch is in process and I will update as I make progress.

Caffeine Crawl - St. Louis

I spent the day yesterday traveling around the city of St. Louis and learning about coffee. The Caffeine Crawl was a well organized event and the different coffee shops were great to check out. We started at Kaldi's Roasting Facility and learned how the beans get their start. This was the only downside of the event in that there were too many people I the space and you could not hear the presentation but seeing the equipment was cool.

Next we broke into groups of 25 and headed to the different shops. Our Route started at Comet Coffee near Forest Park Community College and this was a cute little place. The people were friendly and the coffee was good. They also had some interesting ways of brewing a cup of coffee.

Next stop Kakao Chocolate and really all I can say is yum. Oh, and they had a fabulous window decoration going on!

Next we went to Sump where the coffee theory was just over my head. While I can appreciate it, I'm just not that into it.

Our next stop ended up being my favorite of the day, Northwest Coffee. Here we got to learn about the roasting process but since we were a smaller group we could all hear it and enjoy. The barista kept the coffee flowing and even offered lattes and espressos to our group. I felt more welcome and comfortable here than anywhere and their outdoor fire pit was just perfect for the chilly afternoon.

The last stop of the day was Kayak's Cafe and here we learned about a single cup brewing process that was interesting but more than I'm really willing to invest in time and process for a cup of coffee. The shop was nice and had some great looking food too.

The tour ended back at Kaldi's Roasting Facility and they had all the makings for a fun after party. Unfortunately I couldn't stay but I expect the good times continued. This was a fun way to spend the day and the planning of the event kept it on track so a win all the way around.

St. Louis Quilt Show

I went out to the St. Louis Quilt Show this afternoon and was again amazed by the beautiful work on display. I love all the different shapes and sizes and styles. Here are a few of my favorites for various reasons. Beautiful!!

Wacky Woolies

I love my me favorite coffee cup from Web's (www.yarn.com). So adorable!!!

Winter Wisteria

Yesterday I wore, and finally got decent pictures of, my Wisteria pullover. It's made out of a beautiful green color Malabrigo yarn that is really tough to photograph. The first picture of the front is the closest but the one of the back really shows the cables.

This was the second sweater I made and I learned a lot from the experience. While I love the yarn and the pattern I probably would not have put them together in hindsight. The fabric they make at this gauge is a bit tight so the sweater has a bit less drape than I would like. However, it is super soft and warm and I love the cables so I am happy to wear it!

It's a New Year

This year one of my goals is to use and wear more of my knits. I tend to knit these beautiful, in my humble opinion, items and then I put them away in a bag. Well, that's just silly and I'm working to change it. I'm going to make an effort to pull out my old projects and make sure they get some love from the world. Today I have already worn my Bramble Hat and my Noro Knockoff 2 Scarf and I am currently cuddled under my Hemlock Ring Blanket.

Revolving Around the Holidays

Every year I tend to cast on a project to keep me occupied while I spend hours in front of the TV relaxing on my days off. This year I decided to finally start the Revontuli shawl by AnneM. I've had my eye on this pattern for quite a while and this is the second yarn I've tried for this. The first yarn was what the pattern called for but I realized after I started that I only had one skein and the pattern needs more. I used about 1 1/2 skeins of this yarn called Fame Trend by Marks & Kattens and I love the results. The shawl is blocking now but here are a couple of shots of the finished knitting. So pretty!!

Manos Mania

I just finished using up the last of my first two skeins of Manos del Uruguay Maxima.  The three projects I completed are; a beanie version of the Spring Cap by Woolly Wormhead,

the Quaker Cowl by Lisa R Myers,

and lastly the One Day Beret by Kirsten Kapur.

I must say I am in love with this yarn.  The colors are fabulous and the feel of it moving through your fingers is top notch.  Yummy!   I used 2 skeins to knit all three of these projects; the beanie style Spring cap and cowl out of one skein and just a smidge of the next and the beret ate up most of the rest.

I have another skein in a different colorway with beautiful browns, pinks and oranges and I'm leaning towards some kind of cowl with it so I can cozy up into the softness.

I think knitting these projects is really helping me confirm that I want to knit with yarn that really speaks to me and then find a project to show it off the best.  I have some pretty skeins in my stash and I'm on the hunt.  There are certainly worse ways to spend my time.

Daybreak Dos

I finally got around to washing and blocking my second Daybreak Shawl. This is made with my CampKIP 2011 yarn from the gift bag and some Knitpicks Essentials I had in my stash. I love the way this turned out. I think the simple brown really highlights the colors of the yarn from Camp and takes it to another level. I also ended up finding the perfect beads that reflect all of the colors you see in the colored yarn. I really do love this one and I continue to thoroughly enjoy Stephen West's patterns. So elegant.

Shroomin 2

I continue to be enamored with all the mushrooms. They are huge and amazing.

Shroomin

We got a good amount of rain over the last weekend and it has really brought out the Mushrooms. As we walked through the park tonight we saw hundreds of mushrooms of various shapes and sizes. It's so neat to see these just pop up out of nowhere, hang out a while and then disappear. Nature is cool! Darla wasn't quite sure what to make of them all.

August Travels

On this last day of August I thought I should spend a few minutes and document some of the traveling I've been doing for work.  I have been taking more trips lately and I'm approaching them with a new attitude; as little "mini vacations" from my regular life.  My first trip in August was a team visit to Chicago to meet with a client and have a team building event.  While the drive in a van with 7 people for a quick visit to Chi-town wasn't exactly tops on my list of things to do, it ended up being a pretty fun trip.  The highlight was going to a Cubs game, sort of, on a rooftop overlooking Wrigley Field.  I had never seen the rooftop seating before, except quickly on TV and I have to say it is pretty darn cool.  These folks have figured it out.  You are on the roof of a three story building just across the street from the stadium but you feel like you are right there in the ballpark.  The event had free food and drinks (nice!) and we even agreed to be on the side of the Cubs since they were playing the Reds and we wanted them to lose.  The view was pretty darn fabulous:

I have to say that for me the most impressive thing was the rooftop seating itself.  The structures they have created to allow bleacher and chair seating on top of these roofs are awesome!  The roof next to us had a steel structure extending from the ground below on the outside of the building and supporting these amazing stadium style seating and dining areas on the roof.  So ingenious.

I love that Chicago has embraced it's historic stadium and not felt the need to tear it down and build some generic ballpark like the rest of the country and this extra seating and party area is really cool.

My next trip was to sunny California.  I flew into Burbank Airport for the first time and it was kinda fun getting off the airplane using the outside stairs on the tarmac. I haven't done that since Thailand.  I had to go to Thousand Oaks to start with and then drive down to San Diego to visit a couple of jobsites.  The LA portion of the trip was fine but nothing really special.  I was more worried about getting my work done and getting on the highway headed south before the traffic got too bad through LA proper.  I do have to say I stopped at the nicest Rest Area ever down near San Diego even with the special warning signs.

The rest of my trip was in San Diego and when I could get away from the work portion, it was all about the food and fun.  I stayed in Old Town, ate well, and just had a really nice time in general.  The weather was perfect and San Diego is really a beautiful location.  Oh, and the Sushi was great! Yeah!  If you don't like raw fish, you may want to skip the rest of this post because not only did it taste great, but I think it is beautiful and I am sharing some pics.

My first dinner was at Harney Sushi, which I would highly recommend, and after I spent some time walking around Old Town and just enjoying the atmosphere and beautiful cactus and succulents.  So pretty!

The next day was all about the water.  I went down to the area where the Maritime Museum is located and ate at The Fish Market Sushi Bar; again, yum!!

 And I ended the night back at Old Town again where I sat at Casa de Reyes and enjoyed a lovely margarita and some amazing Shrimp Ceviche.

 Overall, I have to say this was the best work trip I've taken and I think I have more in my future with my new approach.  Next stop, Seattle.