Tour de Sock

I can't believe that I am about to say this, but I am currently knitting in a sock race. Yes, a knitting race. That is probably the only type of race this woman is ever going to run. Anyway, the event is a fundraiser for Doctors without Borders, and you can see details here .  If you look to the right there are links to go read about and or donate to Doctors without Borders.  I am  most definitely not a leader, as I am finished only one sock so far, and some people have finished the whole pair.  But I will keep plugging along.

My family seems to think I am insane.  They got a chuckle last night when I mentioned my team.  "There are teams, too?"

Hats for Sailors

This morning I read a blog entry over at Adventures in Paradise
about a project to get knitters to donate enough hats to give one to each sailor on a ship. I read along last year but never got my act together to make any hats. This year I am determined to knit at least a couple of hats to send in to the effort. I feel like that is the least I can do...

Flashback Friday Labor Day Edition

Here is the little girl Maggie chillin' poolside, to wish you a relaxing Labor Day weekend!

Flashback Friday July 29, 2011

I have been thinking a lot about my mom this week. Last Tuesday would have been her birthday and yesterday was the closing on her condo (fingers still crossed here that it went ok!). I love this photo of my parents on their wedding day. It was August 25, 1951 and their reception was in my grandparents back yard.

Check out all of the Flashback Friday posts at Heya, Sparky!

It's Like it was Another Lifetime Ago

pinwheel quilt 072611, a photo by magscrafts on Flickr.

Recently, we have been working on a huge home cleanout. Some of this was sparked by the fact that our family was cleaning out my mom's condo to sell, so to bring some of her stuff home, some other things had to go. Then of course there are some redecorating plans.

So my husband calls to say let's go eat out, and get some paint samples for the bedroom. I had a vision of the bedroom that involves a blue that matches a quilt I had started long ago. I was not even sure I wanted the quilt anymore, but still wanted the color palette. I went digging in the sewing bins in the basement to find the fabrics. Once I found them, I was amazed! I had finished 25 blocks! How had I gotten so far, yet never finished??? I think the reason I did not finish it was because I had used all my main fabric, but did not have enough blocks to make it the size for a queen sized bedspread like I had originally planned.

I recently bought a new white textured bedspread, so this quilt would just be more folded on the end of the bed and pulled up in the winter for extra warmth. I am sure to the quilter's among you the fabric and the pattern are quite dated, but I still love them, so I am going for it!!

This whole cleanup process is a bit like an out of body experience. We look through shelves of books or long hidden boxes and wonder who was this person that bought this or put it in this box? I know that these quilt blocks were started in a class, but I have absolutely no recollection of being in this class, how long ago it was, or even where I took the class. It's like it was all another lifetime ago...

Flashback Friday - The Day Trip Edition

In a recent attempt to organize our house, I found a big bag of film that we had never had developed. I have lately been sending them off 2 or 3 at a time to Snapfish to get developed. It has been nice remembering the nearly forgotten events recorded on these rolls. It also shows the great advantage of digital photography, that you can see the photos right away and retake as needed. We have a lot of really bad photos. Anyway, one day many moons ago, our family took a day trip into DC. To let you know how long ago it is now, here is a photo:

The blonde on the left is now a bearded 21 year old and the red head on the right is now 6'5" tall and a 16 year old football player.

We went to the FDR memorial, which I think had been only recently opened at the time. It is an interesting memorial, with a series of realistic statues. Here is a bread line:

The thing about the realism, though, is that people were posing with the statues for photos, and to me that somehow diminishes the reverence that a memorial should possess. It seemed ok when people joined the bread line, but not so much when people sat on FDR's lap like he was Santa or something.

After that we went to the Korean War Memorial, another design with a bit of realism:



Somehow the way the pathways were set up for traffic flow, and I think because there were stone pillars in the grass, people got the message not to join the soldiers in the field. (Actually, as a side note, I just looked up the memorial online, and the field is filled with juniper shrubs, not grass, so that is probably more why there were no photo ops with the soldiers.) It was a moving experience. The memorial also includes a shiny stone wall, which reflects the soldiers from the field. Also, etched into the wall are a variety of images of people involved in the war.

We also went to the Vietnam Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial that day. Looking at these photos made me miss the days when our kids were little and we could just declare "hey, let's go for a ride" and everyone's schedules were clear.

Welcome to My Office!

07-19-11_1047.jpg, a photo by magscrafts on Flickr.

This is the third summer my boy Matt has been doing football conditioning camp at his school. Camp is just long enough that it makes no sense for me to trek all the way home. Summer #1 I would go to Starbucks or a park until the local library opened and I could go use their internet. Summer #2, I discovered the joy of hanging out at Panera and using their internet. Well, this summer, evidently the rest of the people in PG county also discovered that Panera, as it is full to the gills most days. So, armed with my trusty notebook computer outfitted with a mobile broadband, I have been hanging out in the shade at Allen Pond Park. This is a great park, with a large pond, shaded picnic tables, clean restrooms. What more could a person need?

Yesterday, as I was knitting away happily on a lovely purple sock, I got some wildlife visitors. First, there was the friendly squirrel that I was convinced was going to forage through my purse. There were also a bunch of little birds, bathing in the sandy area around the picnic tables. I love watching the birdies roll around in the sand. Next, a couple of fuzzy visitors dropped down from the trees:

Two of these white fluffy caterpillars with brown faces and big brown spikes joined me. The smaller of them even sat on my knitting pattern for about 40 minutes before he went on his way.

I wanted to also take a photo of the giant army of ants marching up the bathroom wall, but there was someone else in the bathroom and I figured she would not be thrilled to hear me snapping pictures in there.