Thunk

That is the sound of hand slapping forehead.
I grew up in the Twin Cities, and when I was 12 a fantastic Sculpture Garden was dedicated in Minneapolis.This spoon used to hold a giant cherry.
I don't know where the cherry went, does anyone out there?

Anyway, I have been to the sculpture garden under 5 times in my life.
This is dumb.
I took the Hug-a-Bugs there today and we had a barrel of fun.
Even with the chilly weather, they had a super time.

I like this one, it looks like a ball of yarn.
The garden is divided up into 'rooms' surrounded by 8-10 foot hedges.
The kids loved discovering what was in each new hedge room.
I had a lot of fun with the structure in this hedge room, it was a collection of walls some of which were made up of screen-like material and others of reflective glass.


All in all, a totally fun experience.
And there is on-the-street, 1 hour parking for free!

To continue our art theme, last Friday we made jigsaw puzzles.
I drew a picture of a castle surrounded by a moat and then I cut into about 16 pieces, and the Elder Hug-a-Bug thought the subject matter could be further explored.

I have to say, her puzzle is particularly challenging.
She cut it out herself, and there are a lot of pieces.
She did a fantastic job, no?

Hope you are having a good Monday,
please send dry thoughts to our friends in northwestern Minnesota and northeaster North Dakota.
Jess

Caritas

We, Caritas Vocal Ensemble, are singing a concert this Sunday, March 29th, at Community United Methodist Church in Columbia Heights.
The concert starts at 4:00 PM.
Please come and join us as we make some good music and support a worthy cause.
And, since I dislike photo-free posts, here is a preview of my garden later this summer.
O.K. I took this at the Conservatory, but I will have lots of Foxglove this summer in my garden too.

Some yarn-related silliness

The Yarnery had an author event yesterday, Sally Melville and Caddy Melville Ledbetter came to Saint Paul to talk about their new book Mother Daughter Knits. I had a sick husband at home, so I had to cut out on the talk early, but they brought the samples from the book and the designs are really lovely.

As some of you know, I am a member of the "youtube sensation" the Yarnery Family Singers.
Once again the lovely and talented Meema wrote some great new lyrics to some old favorites, this time it was Gypsy, due to the mother/daughter theme.

So, here are the videos. I'm the one who can't seem to keep from adjusting her gray sweater.

It's always fun to be a part of these events.
As a little aside, we have done three of these events and each time, without planning our wardrobes, we have come wearing the same color. Last two times it was blue, but yesterday we all wore red. Whoa. Kooky.

Have a great Monday,
Jess

Superhero Photo Challenge: Clouds

I love clouds.
I suppose that everyone can say that.
On Shutter Sisters today they issued a photo challenge - show us the clouds.
Here are some of my favorites.






As I was going through my photo archives, I see that beyond crafty stuff, and trees I appear to have a third photographic obsession.

Have a great Saturday!
Jess

Sewing and Knitting wrap-up

I have been getting a lot done on the two main projects in my pile over the last couple of weeks.
I am working pretty steadily on my Tangled Yoke sweater, and I have also been cooking along on a quilt made from the squares received from the Charm Square Swap.
I am on the cables on my sweater and I am so excited to get finished!

For the quilt, first, I just sewed them together randomly.
I really tried, but I couldn't see it coming together.
So I started thinking about setting them up in color wheel order, maybe with white sashing between, and then I saw this and it clinched the idea for me.


I have a little more than half of the solid strips to sew in and then I will have a completed queen-sized top.
I don't think that my little Spartan sewing machine will be able to handle the quilting on something this big, so I think I will save up and send it out to be quilted.
Do any of you out there have any recommendations for quilters in the Twin Cities? I don't really have any idea about what it would cost either.

Well, despite waking up to SNOW! I am going to wish you all a happy Spring, and hope that you all have a great day!
Jess.

Hooray for Tiger Direct!!

Our new video card came today and the fantastic Husband installed it, and here we are, back together again.
I did a lot of sewing and knitting during my brief break, (pictures to follow tomorrow) and a lot more of this-





Hooray for Spring!
See you soon,
Jess

Technical Difficulties

The video card on our computer died last night.
So, I may be absent from this world wide web for a while.
That works out ok for me, though, as it is pretty close to being spring around here, and I should be outside and not on the computer anyway.

Have a great week,
Jess

This one's for Abby

Let me tell you the story of a girl and her mittens.
Once a young girl took a class in knitting Norwegian mittens.
She made some pretty kick-butt mittens in the class, learning two-color knitting at the same time.
She wore those mittens for a couple of years, until she wore through the thumbs and the palms, and they weren't functional anymore.
(here comes the tear-jerky part)
Those poor mittens languished in a basket, and then in a basement for 6 years.
Finally the girl remembered them, and brought them into the light of day, above ground.
She ripped down the tops of the mittens and reknit them.
Then she cut off the thumbs and knit new ones.
Then she said, "hmm. that only took a couple of hours. I could have had matching mittens all this time! Why? Why did I wait so long? What evil had overtaken me?"
Now, the girl and her mittens have been reunited.
Just in time for the unpleasant weather.
Fin.


ps
thanks for the supportive comments re my non-dairy stuff.
I really appreciate my friends, online and off.

A New Era

Well, it's official, my body no longer wants me to have dairy.
I went through a couple of days of moping, but I think I can handle it.
Today I tried baking with soy yogurt, and the results are not so different that I have to give up baking.
That was my big fear, that I would have to give up all of the things that I like to eat like cookies, bread, cake, biscuits, all the things that are super good for you, just kidding.
I have decided to cut back on those things anyway, since I would probably feel better without all of the added padding afforded by that kind of diet.
I made banana bread today, the kids like it and I don't mind it so I think we're back on track.

Have a pleasant Monday,
Jess

Favorite Room Friday

Today has been dubbed Favorite Room Friday by the lovely and talented Funny Magic.
I had a long think about which room is really my favorite in our house.
I would have to say it is the room I am currently in.
The office.
This room used to be my crafting space, and it has gone through a few incarnations since we moved in.It is the first room that we really tackled as far as repair and painting are concerned.
I am really pleased with how much time the kids like to spend in here, we build with legos, play restaurant, set up the train tracks. It's really fun for me too. The bulk of the time spent by either of the adults in our family in this room, however, is spent in front of the computer.
I just love how much light there is, and the sound of toy tinkering, and when I look around I see beloved things that I have collected over time,
or that my kids have been able to use again.
This rocking chair was mine when I was I was little, and my mom helped me paint and recover it when I was pregnant with the Elder Hug-a-Bug, or as we called her at the time, Cletus the Fetus.
Anyway, this is my favorite room.

On a greener note, look what I saw yesterday -
Happy Green Week and Happy Favorite Room Friday!
Jess

green thursday

Dissapointing

Yesterday I had kind of a disappointing knitting day.
I finished Loppem only to find that I hate it on.
Completely hate it.
The bottom is too wide and the sleeves are too big.
Urgh.
Here it is about a week ago, it's the one on the right,
and here it is yesterday.
I was so excited that it knit so fast, and I had it blocked to wear to work, but I just couldn't go forward with those sleeves.

So, I'm unraveling it on the ball winder now, and I will try again, for the third time, to make this sweater.
It's one of those that I just loved when I saw the book, and I have had such trouble with it.

I had taken the topmost picture to post about knitting about a week ago, but I got distracted. The big red one is the Tangled Yoke, and the little red one is a mitten.
I have no matching mittens, only right-hand singles, so next on the list is to finish a pair.

Now I'm torn between just leaving the Loppem, since it clearly doesn't want to be knit, or fighting through and making it work.
I am leaning towards the latter, let's see what happens.

More to come,
Jess

Fun idea.

I was just reading Funny Magic and she has a cool giveaway:

"The first three people to comment on this post will get something fibery or handmade from me! The catch is that you must repost this idea and offer a giveaway of your own to the first three people who comment and participate on your blog.

So, the first three fine folks who stop by and leave a comment telling me they've participated on their own blog win a gift - it could be yarn, roving, or, if you don't knit or spin, something handmade. If you're one of the first three to partake just let me know what you prefer. Everyone knows I aim to please!"

I am here to give something away too. I don't know what yet, but something.

From here, I will just remind myself that not every moment of the day is spent hearing the screams of "she looked at me!" or "he is in my spot!"

We began our spring planting, I know, there's still a lot of snow outside, but the garden center folks said that it would be fine to start now.

Here's to optimism,

Jess

Grün

I was going through my pictures looking for green and I noticed how many pictures from my trip to Germany had lovely green grass or fresh green veggies in them, so I give you some Grüne Bilder.

green

I really should take in this swing in the winter, but I always forget.
But I found out yesterday that it's just as fun to swing in the winter when you're wearing snow pants...

Green Week

I know, we just got done with Yellow Week, but I couldn't resist joining in with Green Week too.I made this in college and it is probably the best thing I have ever painted.
It hangs in our office.
It used to hang in the living room, but I would get occasionally worried that people would be offended by the nakedness, and yet here I am putting it out into the internets for anyone to see.
Have a happy green week!
Jess