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Well, it's official.  We are snowed in!  On Monday my boss came and picked me up down at the highway, but yesterday hubby decided to brave the elements and take me to work.  Things went well until he tried to get back up our driveway.  This is a far as he got:

This photo was taken about 20 feet down the driveway from our garage.  So close, but so far away!  My sister got a little closer:

You can see the side of our garage in the background.  However, we are NOT complaining.  We're just so thrilled that she made it at all.  It just wouldn't be Christmas without her here. 

Today we decided we would sally forth and walk down to the grocery store to pick up a few items.  It's about 3/4 of a mile downhill to town and about 2 miles uphill back.  We were doing fine until we came around the corner at the bottom of the hill and the wind off the water hit us.  It got a little frigid at that point, so we decided discretion was the better part of valor and hopped on the bus for the trip home.  Here we are setting out:

And here's the end of our driveway:

The crazy thing is that once you get to the end of the driveway, the roads are bare and wet.  We just can't get that far.  The good news is that we should be thawed out by the weekend.

I decided I needed to revisit my UFO's and picked up the Garden Shawl.  The only thing left is the border, but it is pretty tedious! 

I'm about halfway done.  I haven't done any lace in a while and this took some adjusting after working with worsted weight yarn.  But, like riding a bicycle it came back and I'm in a rhythm.  I'd like to get this done before Nancy Bush's class in January, but we'll see.  I am off work until January 5th and can't go anywhere for the immediate future so . . . .

A Merry Christmas to all.  I hope you are surrounded by loved ones as we are.  God has been so incredibly good to us this year and we are very, very thankful.  We miss Ben, Abby and the granddaughters, but will be able to video chat with them as they open their presents from us.  Love to you all!

We've had some uncharacteristic cold and snowy weather here in the Pacific Northwest.  A snowstorm blew through last Wednesday and Thursday, dumping about 5 inches.  I can just hear Marguerite laughing.  Five inches?  That's springtime in Michigan!  But around here it brings things to a screeching halt.  We rarely get snow and when it does come it doesn't hang around more than a day or two.  This is not only hanging around, it's inviting company.   An even worse storm is predicted starting this afternoon, this one bringing high winds along with it.  So we are prepared and hunkered down.  I have plenty of yarn to keep me entertained, we have a gas stove to keep us warm, a generator to keep the fridge and the internet going and pleasant company aka Bill, Kirby and Maggie.

Maggie, by the way absolutely adores snow!  I should have gotten some video, but she runs and leaps and pounces through it with great abandon.  And she especially loves catching snowballs:

I have continued on my digital scrapbooking and am having so much fun it's ridiculous!  I'm not going to be posting a lot of my pages, but I do want to show you this one that I'm particularly proud of.  This will be one of the first pages of Ivy's scrapbook:

Is that not exceedingly sweet?  This was created using the Baby Robin kit from heritagescrap.com.

Another project that's grabbed my attention:

Potholders!  I needed to make one for a gift exchange and found they were like potato chips – I couldn't just make one.  I got a little carried away.

Never fear that knitting has totally taken a back seat.  Several of our LYS have gotten together with a goal of 100 blankets for Project Linus before the tulips bloom.  This will be my contribution:

It's interesting how the picture came out – it's not that stripey in real life.  This is Encore worsted in the Drifting colorway and the pattern is out of my favorite baby afghan book – Leisure Arts "Our Best Knit Baby Afghans".  I'm finding this so addicting that I may revisit my charity knitting direction.  Besides Project Linus, our local Pregnancy Care Center can always use afghans.   It's the perfect mindless knitting.  The patterns in the book are easily memorized and you just plug into cruise control and go.  No shaping, no fitting, no gauge issues.  The only problem is that after a while they're not so portable.  I guess that's what socks are for, right?

I'm not sure if I'll post again until after Christmas.  I hope the holidays find you surrounded by those you love.   It's hard to imagine peace in our world, but I hope this season reminds us of the gift of God's Son who is able to bring peace to our hearts. 

A rare mid-week post!  You lucky dogs, you.  One of the projects I've been excited about since getting my new computer is delving into the realm of digital scrapbooking.  I've loved the idea of scrapbooking, but accumulating all the paraphernalia associated with it has discouraged me.  I love the idea of digital scrapbooking.  With the encouragement of Theresa, I am making a slow beginning.  Here is my very first page:

This is not an original, but was done by following the excellent tutorial of Linda Sattgast from Scrapper's Guide.  I highly recommend her video.  It takes you by the hand and leads you through the basics of Photoshop Elements.  I did add a few little touches of my own.

My second page was made using the kit Warmest Wishes from heritagescrap.com:

It's extremely simple compared to some of the pages out there, but I am quite proud of it.  It only took me about 2 1/2 hours!  I'm hoping to get much more original and a little speedier as I go along.  And more accurate – after I finished this page I realized it is four generations!  The "real" copy has been edited to correct that.

I had a birthday this week!  I absolutely refuse to reveal my age, but hubby made me a darling little cake:

To celebrate my birthday, I had a meeting with my boss and told him that this would be my last year with the practice.  I plan to retire no later than my birthday next year.  I have to admit he took it well – there was a minimum of whining and moaning.  I now have 362 days, 8 hours, 49 minutes and 6 (no, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1) seconds until retirement.   But who's counting?  The one thing that could change retirement would be if a social worker position came open with Headstart.  The job is tailor made for my degree and I wouldn't mind having a chance to put it to use for a year or two.

In between the celebrations I've been finishing up Christmas gifts.  The little red sweater and hat are finished:

Keiara is going for her first picture with Santa this weekend, so I gave the set to her mother so she would have something special to wear.  Lisa was thrilled and promised me a picture.  With her permission I'll post it here so you can all see how cute she is.

I also finished a little present for Ivy – a Yo-Yo Bunny:

The yo-yo's were great fun to make.  The rest of it – not so much.   I tried to get all the bloodstains off the head.  I lost count of how many times I stuck myself.  Now I can get their box off in the mail early next week. 

This year we decided to do something different with our tree.  We've always had a big one – or at least as big as we could handle in our sunroom.  I did bow to the necessity for an artifical one several years ago at the urging of my fire inspector hubby.  This year he suggested a live tree.  We bought a beautiful little blue spruce that will hopefully serve as our Christmas tree for several years to come:

Rather than pull out the huge box of ornaments we've collected over the years, we used a box of miniature ornaments that I've collected, but that always seemed to get lost on the big tree.  I did pull out some especially sentimental favorites, such as the little plastic stained glass angels that my sister sent us on our very first Christmas.  They're been on our tree for 37 years now!  Over the years I bought a new ornament for each of the boys every year.  I decided to retire those this year and instead have started the new tradition for the granddaughters.  I had already bought them ornaments for the past years, and added a new one for each of them for this year.  When they establish their own household, they'll have a box of ornaments to put on their first tree.  I still think the tree needs something – a touch of red perhaps.  So I'll check in town today to see if I can find some miniature apples or bows.

A blogging friend of mine, Theresa, has started a digital scrapbooking blog.  If you get a chance, pop on over to Forget Me Nots Designs and give her a big ole cyber hug!  She is an incredibly talented and inspirational lady.

Edited:  For some reason Typepad is not playing nice with my pictures.  I've had a trouble ticket in for almost a week, with no resolution.  So I deleted the offending post and have reposted using .jpg's instead of .gif's.  Not sure what the problem is because I've been formatting my pictures the same way for at least a year or more!

Up until now Maggie's been pretty good with my yarn.  She hasn't bothered anything that wasn't at floor level.  Until now.  Hubby came home from shopping the other day to this pretty picture:

This was in a ziploc bag on the sofa!  Bad dog!!  Fortunately no serious damage was done.

I had a fun weekend.  Saturday, thanks to my sister, I got to go see "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" at the 5th Avenue theater.  It was the most fun I've ever had at a musical.  I think rollicking would be a good description.  Our seats were only four rows from the stage, so we had a great view.  Thanks sis!

Today I drove back from Seattle to join our knitting group at the annual Christmas dinner sponsored by our sister group.  As you might remember, we host a picnic for them in the summer and they host the Christmas party for us:

 

The food was great, the company even better and the show and tell inspiring.  And to top it all off, our group was gifted with delightful snow people and Christmas trees:

This little lady went home with me.  Isn't she precious?  What a generous group.

In preparation for the trip to my sisters I knew I wanted something mindless to work on.  I'm pretty much done with Christmas projects other than a few machine embroidered pieces, so I wanted something very simple and with no deadlines.  In the past I've knitted for Children in Common, but since they have been making fewer trips overseas, they are pretty much stocked up on sweaters.  So, I've decided to do some knitting for the Guideposts Knit for Kids.  I'm not overwhelmed with the pattern they provide, but they do say that you can use another pattern, so I 'm using Knitting Pure and Simple's top down pullover.  I like that it has a raised back neck and no sewing!  During the weekend I managed to get the body done on one little sweater:

I don't seem to have the necessary needles for the sleeves, so while I'm waiting for my Knit Picks order I started another one:

 

Both sweaters are Encore – my favorite machine washable yarn for kids.

Time to go relax and enjoy our local PBS presentation of "The Priests".  Talk about beautiful music!

Could someone from some other area of the country remind me what the sun looks like?  I think I've forgotten.  The weatherman keeps promising it will clear and we'll see the sun.  It may be my imagination, but I think his nose is growing.

The damp weather did not dampen our spirits and we had a lovely Thanksgiving.  In years past we've gone to the local Community Thanksgiving, but I decided to cook at home this year.  Hubby carved the turkey:

My sister put the "butt cracks" in our angel buns:

This started many years ago with a recipe for biscuits called "Angel buns".  We jokingly put butt cracks in them and it drove Ben nuts.  So now we have to do it just to annoy him – long distance.  This one's for you Ben!!

My mother-in-law came over and surfed the computer:

She was able to video chat with Isobel and Ivy and was absolutely thrilled.  Isobel did most of the chatting.  I think Ruth was too overwhelmed by the technology to do more that just watch and laugh.  How different from when her children were growing up!  More on that later.

Then we went over to my sister-in-law's house for dessert.  Here's Beth with her stunning creation!

I'm happy to report that it tasted as stunning as it looked.

There was knitting and sewing accomplished in between basting the turkey.  I finished the little red Christmas sweater – just need to block and weave in ends.  Yeah!!!  No sewing!

Sorry I can't get a more accurate color shot.  Maybe some day if the sun ever shines.  And I embroidered a veritable snowstorm of snowflakes as gifts for our ministry group:

I mentioned how different things were for us versus our parents.  I've begun dabbling in digital scrapbooking, wanting to document our family history.  The first daunting project has been scanning in all our photos.  My mother-in-law loaned us her family album and I was able to get everything scanned in over the weekend.  Thank you hubby for the new computer!  It made everything so quick and easy!!  From there I started scanning in our family photos.  I noticed that the photos from my mother-in-law's generation were few and far between and of very poor quality.  The photos of our children growing up were all film – we didn't go digital until about 8 years ago, long after our children had left home.  More of those and better quality, but many have faded over time.  The photos of my grandchildren are astounding!  I took more photos of the girls over one vacation than I have of our children's entire growing up period. 

I loved going over our photos and reminiscing about the past.  We have so many wonderful memories.  Over the next few months I hope to share some of that with you.  The first is a photo that was taken on the day we adopted our younger son.  We went straight to the photographer's from court.  Over the years this photo had faded horribly and I was thrilled to find that Photoshop Elements could restore it.  It is probably my favorite photo of my sons:

Two fine young boys who grew into fine young men.

At last!  I think I finally have my new computer all set up with my programs, files, etc.  Today I installed Windows XP using Bootcamp and it works like a champ!  Now I can run my Bernina embroidery software and my Electric Quilt on my laptop.  That makes me happy.  I don't expect to use Windows a lot, but I do love those two programs and unfortunately they do not have a Mac-based application.  I also got Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 installed, but no thanks to Adobe!  Oblige me with a little computer tech support rant.  I kept getting an error message when I was trying to install.  I checked out the troubleshooting section on Adobe's site, but nothing addressed the problem.  So I called tech support.  After almost an hour on the phone we were getting nowhere.  The tech had never heard of this problem and had no idea what to do.  Finally he said he had to hang up because it was time to go home.  Excuse me???  I still have the problem.  I pointed out to him that Adobe's website said they were open until 8:00 p.m. PST and it was only 5:30 p.m.  His attitude was "Too bad!"  He said I would have to call back at another time.  I spent another day trying on my own and then got the bright idea to just google the error message.  The very first hit was a tech note ON ADOBE'S OWN WEBSITE!  Within two minutes I had the problem solved.  Sheesh!

Ok, enough of that and on to more fun subjects.  I started a new project for Christmas, but I think everyone will understand.  I took Izzy's and Ivy's Christmas sweaters in to work and one of our newest assistants was oohing and aahhing over them.  This young lady lost her mother at a very young age and her father several years ago.  Her older brother took in all of the kids so they wouldn't go into foster care.  After a rocky start with an abusive relationship she is now the single mother of a little girl who will turn a year old two days before Christmas.  It hit me like a ton of bricks that she has no one to "do" for her little girl.  So sweet little Keara will be getting a Christmas sweater too:

The color is a little washed out – it's really a bright Christmas red.  If time permits, I'll make her a matching hat.  The yarn is Encore DK, the pattern is an old standby from Topdown for Toddlers.

I've also found two new projects that are really calling my name.  I blame Lynne for the first one:

This is Sylvi by Mari Muionen from the The Twist Collective.  Isn't it just the most gorgeous thing?  The downside (at least for me) is that it's 3 stitches to the inch on size 10 needles.  Hmmm – this is the knitter that thinks anything larger than a size 5 needle is a stretch.  However, I still downloaded the pattern and will let the idea simmer for a while.

And . . . . speaking of thick yarn on large needles, how about this:

From Interweave Knits new issue, Pfeiffer Falls Hooded Scarf by Anne Kuo Lukito.  Don't you think that's just the ticket for walking Maggie this winter?  A hood to keep my head warm, a scarf to wrap around my neck and little pockets for doggie treats.  I just think this may jump on my needles after Christmas.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I'll be cooking at my house and am looking forward to it!  The only thing that would make it better would be having Ben, Abby, Isobel and Ivy with us, but we can hope for next year.  As it is, we have so much to be thankful for!  A warm, comfy house – a strong supportive marriage – two sons who have become successful, each in their own way – a loving sister – parents who are still active and healthy – a fantastic daughter-in-law – and two of the cutest granddaughters on the face of the planet.  Thank you God!

I set several goals for myself this weekend – to finish the Shetland Garden Faroese Shawl, to finish two little Christmas sweaters and to finish quilting a quilt for our Community Quilt Project.  I'm happy to say I completed all of them!  It took some discipline – I really wanted to sit down and play with my new computer.  But I do feel such a sense of accomplishment and peace to have these projects finished.

First up – the shawl, before:

And after blocking:

Pattern:  Shetland Garden Faorese Shawl by Syvia Harding
Yarn:  Dream in Color Baby in the Gothic Rose colorway
Needles:  Size 4 Knitpicks Options

This was a fun knit.  Although it isn't a pattern I will do over again, like Peacock Feathers, it was a great pattern, easy to follow and error free.  The yarn really bled in the wash, but there was no transfer onto the white sheet during blocking, so I think it all came out.  The edge is technically supposed to be even, but I didn't have enough pins or patience, and blocked out little points.

Next up – little Christmas sweaters (Izzy and Ivy, hide your eyes):

Both sweaters are from Top Down for Toddlers – an absolute essential if you're going to be knitting for little ones.  The title is deceiving because the sizes go up to a 6.  Both sweaters are made of Encore DK with some Jelli Beenz for contrast in Ivy's sweater.  Size 5 needles for both.
There will be more sweaters from this book.  Quick and easy, wearable patterns.

Last up – the quilt:

I didn't piece this quilt, but volunteered to take it home for machine quilting.  This will be sent down to our local hospital's Cancer Unit.  Our goal is that every patient that comes in for treatment gets to choose a quilt to keep with them during treatment.  Unfortunately we have having a hard time keeping up.

Now that I've gotten my goals for the weekend accomplished, I can relax and play with my computer this afternoon.  I've gotten most of my photos transferred over, although I'm having some problems with some of them.  Some of my files are corrupted and I'm not sure I can recover them.  So Monday I'll need to check our safety deposit box for a backup, or worst case scenario I do have printouts of some of the best, so I could scan those in if necessary.  Soon I hope to have some digital scrapbook pages to show, but at this point I'm awfully slow!!

And, as you can see from the photo, Maggie seems to be feeling well.  It's still a problem keeping her "quiet" and I think as of today I'm giving up.  If the weather is nice I'll take her out for a short walk today.  We're both going a little buggy and need some exercise.  She'll be one happy little camper, and to tell the truth, so will I!

I've always known that hubby was a keeper, but yesterday he cemented his position as The Best Husband Ever.  I came home to find a beautifully wrapped package sitting on the table (in all the emotion that followed, I forgot to take a picture!).  He said it was my birthday/Christmas present.  My birthday is two weeks before Christmas and it's not uncommon for them to be combined.  He said it was my choice to open it now or wait until my birthday.  Talk about pressure!  But then he presented me with a little white box that he said would help me make up my mind:

 

I immediately began bawling because I knew what it was.  And of course, I opened it.  Meet Mac:

It's the brand new 13" Mac Book.  Hubby saved up the money for it from his aluminum can airplanes and penny stoves!  I am just blown away.  My poor little iBook G4 was limping along with a broken catch and constant error messages – "You are running out of disk space."  The operating system was so old it was no longer supported by Apple!  I am having such fun setting everything up and customizing it to my tastes.  I was a little disappointed that the Migration Assistant wouldn't work to transfer everything over – my iBook was just too old.  But maybe it's for the best.  Transferring everything piece by piece is giving me a chance to get organized.  It's amazing how much garbage can accumulate on a computer in 6-7 years.

I hope that I will get in a little knitting this week to show you.  My plans are to block the Shetland Garden shawl and do the finishing work on two little Christmas sweaters.  I do, however, have a sewing project to show.  I finished this beautiful little angel last weekend:

I'm off to do more computer organizing – but not before I give hubby another big ole smooch!

At knitting group this week I saw my first copy of Knitted Lace of Estonia  by Nancy Bush.  I had to apologize to the owner for all of the drool marks I left all over it.  I immediately wanted to cast on for every single project!  However, even better – my friend informed me that Nancy Bush was doing a two day workshop on the book in Mt. Vernon – only 45 minutes from my front door!!  I knew she was coming to the Madrona Fiber Festival in Tacoma (3 hours away) in February and I had signed up for the preregistration lottery to get a spot in the class.  Since I haven't heard, I'm assuming I did not get a spot.  However, I was on the phone the minute the shop in Mt. Vernon opened and I snagged a spot for the two day workshop – for only $30 more than the one day workshop at Madrona.  Happy, happy, joy, joy!

Until then, I'm trying to concentrate on getting Christmas presents done.  I guess I can post pictures and everyone who reads my blog will just have to wonder if their present is showing up.  Well, except for little size 2 and 4 sweaters – no wondering who those are for! 

I did finish (well, kinda) one project – the Shetland Garden Faroese Shawl is off the needles:

You'll have to take my word for it.  I tried spreading it out and it didn't look any better.  I'm hoping to have time next weekend to block it.  And isn't it fair to finish one project and start two?

Of course, since they're socks, they don't really count, right?  The brown pair was started because I needed a mindless project to take to knitting group.  Simple top down socks with a mini cable.  The blue pair, Mad Color Weave socks (free download on Ravelry) was started for the Sockknitters Anonymous group.  Actually, it's pretty mindless too, but I didn't realize it until I had done a repeat or two.

I'm happy to report that Maggie came through her surgery with flying colors, although she was pretty sad yesterday:

Her foot is bandaged because she had a weird little dewclaw removed.  That seems to bother her more than the tummy incision.  But she has perked up tremendously today and I think it is going to be very difficult to keep her "quiet" as we have been instructed.  She keeps bringing me her ball and dropping it at my feet to throw for her.  She's going to be pretty bored by the time this is all over.  It's a good thing we are not superstitious.  After Maggie went in for surgery, I realized it was just about a year to the day since we lost Hester.  Looking back at my post for that day still brings tears to my eyes, but Maggie has brought such joy to our lives.  Certainly not a replacement for Hester, but another chapter in life.

Thought you all might like to see some of the cutest Halloween kids:

Is that a precious family, or what???