FAIR WEATHER FLOWERS

I just had to go outside and take some more pictures of beautiful flowers in my yard.   We have a nice sunny day here in western Washington (a rarity of late), and the clematis are gorgeous.    ENJOY!

Rain, Rain, Go Away, Come Again Another Day

Don't know about you other Pacific Northwesterners, but I've had about enough of this grey and wet stuff!  We had a guy come today and wash our windows, inside and out, including the skylight.   They looked wonderful for a little bit, but now it's raining on them.   At least it's wet rain on clean windows instead of dirty ones.

However, it does give time for indoor things, such as knitting.   I'm still working on this scarf and have found a recipient - my daughter.  I was knitting on it Mothers Day weekend while on a 5-hour each way car trip to Spokane to a babyshower for our granddaughter who is expecting in mid-June.   The daughter loves the color, etc., so I said great - you get it!  

 In my "more quiet times", I'm knitting a scarf/shawlette from the BeMine series called "Roses are Red"

 I'm expecting this to turn out beautiful, so am happy working on it.   Had a little bit of a slow start due to the fact I sometimes can't count correctly, but am now on a roll, and lovin' it.

Baby shower "happy" picture (mama-to-be holding the Moving Mountains blanket I knitted for Brady)

 

Of late...........

Way past time to bring you up-to-date on the happenings around the "Place". We've been very busy prepping our house for sale.   Nearly done except for some weeding to finish up in the backyard.  It's pretty amazing how fast those weeds grow - especially since our weather has been "sun" followed by "rain" followed by "sun".    Several prospective buyers have come through the house, but no offers so far, but guess I'm impatient as it's only been on the market a couple of weeks.    


Meanwhile the new house in Arizona was started yesterday:

If you look closely you can see the trenches dug out for a foundation - so hopefully in 100 days we will have a house complete.


I've been having trouble with my camera this past few weeks.  First I thought it just needed a new battery so bought a new one.    Well then I started getting a "card error" message, so bought several different type SD cards and although the camera seemed to work, it was not connecting to my computer and software program Photoshop Elements.   Finally gave up and went to Costco today and bought a Nikon S4300 point and shoot.  (bought my own Mothers Day gift!!!)  So much fun with a new camera.  My old one was 6 megapixels and this one is 16!!  What a difference.


Following are a couple of pictures I took when I got it home. 

This first one is Moving Mountains Baby Blanket 
This will be going to our first great-grandson due next month.   I'm going to Spokane for a baby shower for the soon-to-be mom and baby tomorrow.  Hopefully she'll like it as much as I enjoyed knitting it.

This is a pretty creamy-yellow scarf I have been working on in my spare time.   It was advertised as a creme-yellow, but it's a little too yellow for my coloring, so will be gifting this one.  The yarn is bamboo, merino wool and silk - very yummy.

 Then I went out in the yard and took some pictures of flowers in the backyard with the close-up lens and really happy with the pictures.   

Arizona and Knitting

Just got home from two wonderful, but very busy weeks in Arizona. The pass over the Siskiyou Mountains in southern Oregon-northern California looked like this:


We followed the snowplows up to the top and down the other side, and they were spreading red sand on the road. Just imagine what our car looked like after that!!!!

While in Arizona, we purchased a lot and will be having a house built in a 55+ community. It will be at least 4 months before they are finished, and hopefully we can sell our present home by then. We're just getting tired of the rainy, gray days here in Washington state and look forward to being in the warm climate year around. Of course, this all means I'll be terribly busy prepping this house for sale and my knitting projects will probably suffer.

I did finish this hat for my husband - Lost Banner Hat by Susan B. Anderson
I knit this with Malabrigo Worsted in a beautiful lime/navy color, which made hubby happy, as these are the colors of the Seattle Seahawks and the Sounders teams.

GETAWAY TRIP TO OREGON

Hubby and I got away for three days in Grand Ronde, Oregon. We had a beautiful hotel room with lots of amenities to spoil me rotten. We had lots of good food, casino playing, resting/knitting time and travel time. One day we drove 25 miles to Lincoln City on the Coast. Talk about weather - wind like we haven't seen in awhile - it was predicted at 65mph - but don't know if that is what it actually was. I know it was too windy to get out and walk on the beach. It was blowing so hard, people were having trouble walking in it. Below is a picture of the turbulent ocean waves. The waves were breaking way out and were very high. You can tell by the color of the sky and water what a stormy day it was - but oh so fun to sit in the car, eating our Subway sandwich. I was able to lean my arms on a fence to steady the camera long enough for a picture. We left from the water view and went to an Outlet Mall in Lincoln City, leaving quite a few bucks there. Most of the damage was done at the Coach store, Eddie Bauer and VanHeusen. Hubby "made" me buy this beautiful graphite color Coach bag. I've not had a satisfactory purse to carry since my last Coach finally gave out, so I'm one happy lady! He bought some things he has been wanting also, so we did well for each other. His birthday is coming up, so he was able to purchase his own birthday gift.While on this trip we experienced crazy, violent weather at times: snow on the roads, high winds, heavy rains, and sunshine - sometimes all at the same time!!! Nice to get home and settle back into the routine. I got quite a lot knit on the baby blanket (in prior posts) - so I'm confident it will be done long before this new great-grandbaby appears.

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!!!!