This is what I've been spending my time doing, of late - knitting on this baby blanket for our first great-grandchild. It's a pretty easy knit once you learn the pattern. I'm already visualizing my new great-grandson all snuggly-wrapped in this. Due in June.
Going to Oregon for 3 days this week and I know I'll have lots of knitting time and can hardly wait. It'll be cold outside, but all the better to stay in by the fire and knit!!! This is a new knitting "toy" for me this week - a hand-thrown pottery bowl. It's so pretty and very practical. It's got two holes for yarn and the bowl is large enough to hold two balls when doing colorwork (which I hope to be doing more of).
Promise to come back with some beach pictures.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy V-Day everyone! Hope you're having a good one!
This is what my wonderful hubby brought home to me yesterday:
Plus I went to Shipwreck Beads and picked out my beads and sterling bracelet and had fun putting it all together. I know, I showed this bracelet in an earlier post below, but it was too tight after adding all the beads, so had to go back and purchase a larger size sterling bracelet and now it fits perfectly. This was a combo Valentines/Birthday present:
Knitting-wise, I have a lot of things On The Needle, but not enough progress to show you - maybe next time I'll have something finished!!!!

Spring Coming????

I can't believe our weather! Two weeks ago I posted how cold it had been, how much snow we'd had, how long our power had been out, and now all I can see outside is beautiful, warm sunshine. It has been sunny and dry for several days now and supposed to stay this way for 4 or 5 more days. High temps are running in the 50's and low in the high 20's - no wonder I feel good. Hubby is out playing some golf and I'm trying to catch up/clean up all the stuff on my desk. I have the top layer done, but still have things to put away so I can get to figuring our income taxes this next week.
Knit-wise, I have 3 current projects "on the needles"
This is a February KAL and I've selected a pair of Mitts that will look all cable-ly some day soon (I hope).

My second project is a colorwork KAL (knit-a-long for your non-knitters). I've never done colorwork before, and finding it quite fiddly getting started. We get a new "clue" each week, so don't know yet what this will be (maybe a hat - maybe a drawstring bag??)
The final knit project I'm still working on is the Moving Mountains Baby blanket for our first great-grandchild to be born in June. I've done about 18" in length so far, only another 18" to go. Really enjoying working on this project!

SNOW!

These pictures say it all. Good day to stay in and knit!!!
ETA: Then the power was off from 5:30pm to 9:30pm. Could have been worse, I guess.
ETA1: Power off Thursday from 6am to 2:00pm - getting cold and very tired of this weather!!!!

It's Still Winter!

Residents in our part of the world have been going along thinking we were never going to have Winter-type weather. Well, IT CAME!!! It snowed several times over the weekend, melted a little, then snowed again last night and is forecast for more snow through tomorrow. It is beautiful, but cold and treacherous to get around in.

Knitting wise, I've been working on the g-grandchild's baby blanket. What a joy to be knitting for a g-grandson, and then another joy when he is born this summer!

The New Year is Here!

Our 49th wedding anniversary was Friday, December 30th. Hard to believe it's been this many years, through thick and thin, we've made it. We celebrated by going out to dinner - doesn't take much these days to make us happy! We did stop on the way at Shipwreck Beads in Lacey, WA and I purchased all the "fixin's" for a Pandora style bracelet. I've seen many of these on TV and checking them out at a jewelry store was a major price shock (ea bead runs from $20-$40). The beads on these were murano glass. I purchased the bracelet and some beautiful glass beads and with hubby's military discount, I got the whole thing for right around $20. However, after putting all the beads on it, the bracelet ended up being too small, so I need to order the next larger size, but I'm lovin' it.

In preparation for Christmas, we had a little panic when I was plugging one set of light cords into another (an artificial tree), and the plug-in touched a piece of pipe cleaner that had metal in it, sparks flew, I jumped and hubby and I looked at each other like....what just happened. All the lights blew out so we had not choice but to go get another tree. This time just got a small one and put it on an end-table. It's 4 ft high and a lot easier to decorate. So some good came out of it.

We had a nice family Christmas. On Christmas Eve our daughter, hubby and our 2 grand kids came over from Richland, WA. The other daughter, hubby and 2 more grand kids came south from Covington, WA. We did the Papa Murphy's pizza thing for dinner, after snacking a lot, then most of us played Uno until 10pm or so when Covington family left for home.

The next morning, after opening gifts and having breakfast, we all went up to Covington for a wonderful Christmas dinner which included deep-fried turkey, ham and all the trimmings. We played Tripoli after dinner. All in all a wonderful day. My gifts included a Kindle Fire, Pioneer Woman cookbook, kids/family photo albums and some nice smelling things from Bath & Body Works.

The day after Christmas, Monday morning, our Richland family left for home and we kinda vegged out the rest of the day. Come to think of it, I've not done a whole lot this entire week. I'm going to my knitting meet-up tomorrow, so have to see what I can take along to work on that's not too complicated for knitting in a crowd of very fun talkers!

I've told myself I have some goals for 2012 - no resolutions.

1. Learn to de-stress more to keep my sanity!
2. For knitting I want to learn to add beads, and do colorwork.
3. Finish as many WIP's as possible!!!! (Like these below!)
I'm sure more will come up, but that's it for now.

IT'S ALMOST HERE!

Today is "scurry around day" as well as Christmas Eve. Our daughters and families are coming this afternoon and I need to get done with last minute things. Still don't have my Christmas cards out - but guess this year they'll be Happy New Year cards instead.

Merry Christmas to each and everyone. Enjoy my favorite Christmas video with Kermit the Frog and John Denver.