Pumpkin Sunrise

This past Saturday I went to the Phipps Conservatory  in Pittsburgh with my family.  Both my sister and I carried around our "big" cameras and had lots of fun taking photos.  I'm thoroughly enjoying my new lens.   I was thrilled to see many other photographers toting their cameras and yes, I did peek at what camera they owned and their lenses.  I might have lens envy and some ideas for future Christmas presents. We had a fantastic time and went through the Orchid room twice!  My favorite though was the bonsai displays.  I would guess that working in a conservatory would be quite relaxing.  The atmosphere is gentle and soothing.  I love the water features and the sound of trickling, oh - they also played the cricket chirping through the speaker system.  My sister bought two little orchids in the gift store because she is fantastic at keeping them alive and blooming!  Not me...my talents are in wool.  I'm okay with that. Since Januar

Weekends are for memory making,  relaxing and enjoying quiet moments of our days.   If you would like, please share your weekend moments  in the comment section with a link to your blog. Hello! How was your weekend? I had a fabulous weekend celebrating my sister's 50th birthday. I'm still at her house and I have lots of photos to share on the good camera from the party and from a wonderful tour of the conservatory.   Here are a few photos from my cell phone.  Today I'm heading back home.  I'm a little tired and completely frazzled trying to blog from an iPad (not going so well).  How was your weekend?

can you see them?  Oh these January days are blissful.  I'm noticing the bits of daylight added each and every day, knowing soon that the after dinner walks are beckoning - can't wait. Yesterday, I was sidetracked by my aging computer.  I decided that the photos on my computer that are backed up to an external hard drive were not safe enough.  So I burned some photos onto CDs and then saved them onto a huge flash drive.  I feel good I've got three safe places.  Of course, there are some on the cloud but that doesn't feel secure enough for me.. Anyways, I love my new camera lens (50mm) and I see the world differently.  The creativity spark is most welcome when I walk around the yard.  Good old Frodo, he loves the walk as well.  We walk, we stop, I snap a photo and he looks at me wondering when we can keep on walking. I'm nearing an entire week of no company. Instead of focusing on my projects I've been cleaning and tidying my house.  I haven'

Both of my projects are growing and I'm pretty thrilled about that.  I love how my citron shawl  is showing off the gradient changes.  Now I have a crazy idea to add another yarn to make this a bit larger when I run out of the gradient.  Any ideas what color you would add? My anisos shawl that I talked about in a guest blog post yesterday is also a delight to knit.  I am past two charts which were the meaty parts of the pattern and now I'm blissfully knitting away on the body which is a mix of garter stitch and stockinette stitch.  I have to pay attention and not watch TV but I feel a bit more relaxed while working on it. My book!  Hey, did you see I started a new book?  I am reading, Norwegian Wood based on high recommendations from both my nephew and my son.  As you well may know, I'm still reading Alexander Hamilton .  One day I will be done.. What are you knitting and reading this week? Joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams

Weekends are for memory making,  relaxing and enjoying quiet moments of our days.   If you would like, please share your weekend moments  in the comment section with a link to your blog. Frodo says "hi"  How was your weekend? Our son left on Saturday morning and I promptly cleaned the house.  Ah, it feels so good to be neat and tidy.  January is all about freshness for the brand new year. clean coffee table! I became quite creative in meal planning since I need to go to the grocery store (but didn't).  So I've been diving into the freezer for some forgotten meals to heat up quickly.  Of course there was curry! Yesterday I stayed home, read some, knitted some, listened to podcasts that I am three weeks behind! I've planned out this week what I'd love to accomplish.  In the afternoon, I met up with my friends for some much needed knitting time together. my aunt painted this bottle found on my dad's property :)  Today is th

my sister made the pants and shirt :) I know I'm one of the few who love winter.  Today, we have a dusting of snow that will not turn into rain.  Outside temperatures are chilly and wonderful.  This is what I daydream about during those hot humid days in late August and September.  My RA loves the cold weather and dislikes hot humid weather.  I'm lucky I live in four seasons and can appreciate each season! little tea light my aunt gave me for Christmas!! (I purchased the knit pottery at a festival)  My house is mostly put back together, Christmas decorations are packed away and all that remains is my son's "stuff" in the family room.  I think he is heading back to Penn State tomorrow.  My daughter is back on the west coast and I'm not sure when we will see each other again.  I know it will not be seven months worth or waiting. One of my Christmas gifts is the Fox kit from Posy gets Cozy .  I'm planning to start near the end of January and t

Good morning! My photo today is a bit deceiving... I threw in the Hamilton book but barely read two pages this week.  I'll blame the company that was in my house.  Having both my family here visiting and then my sister and her family visiting gobbled up all of my free time. The citron shawl has made great progress due to its ease in knitting.  This project can be executed while talking and multitasking on most of the rows.  I like that.  My sister and I sat in the front room knitting away (and talking). I'm participating in a yarn along with Girls in Sheep Clothing blog .  They chose Anisos shawl and while this photo above is pristine and beautiful and shows great progress, I stupidly dropped a stitch in a yarn over area and was unable to fix it last night. (I'll blame watching Doctor Who, Series Five with Amy Pond...)  So I ripped all of it out and started over. This knit is NOT for multitasking...Ha! Joining Ginny and Frontier Dreams What are you knitti