Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Almost done!

Well the holidays are almost done and over. Tim, Ronan, Seamus and I spent the Christmas holiday visting my side of the family in Las Vegas. My brother, Dwight Jr. and his family, drove up from Barstow, CA. There was quite a household of people and animals - Nancy (my dad's wife - aka - step mom) had some of her family up at the house. So...there were TEN of us staying at my dad's with their 2 yellow labs, my brother's 3 long haired weiner dogs, and Nancy's sister's 2 mini Dobermans! Ugh! Though it was crowded and overwhelming for Ronan and Seamus, it was fun to be around the chaos - and now - nice to be home. So, Tim and I did Christmas with the boys the second we walked in the door from Vegas - because Santa had come while we were in Vegas (wink, wink) and we will be doing (another) Christmas with Tim's family tomorrow night! It really is so much harder when you have children and have to spread it out. So while in Vegas, we had breakfast at a lodge at Mount Charleston. I was quite surprised at the amount of snow that was up there and the elevation. The lodge we were eating at was at a little over 7k feet but Mount Charleston reaches almost 12k feet. Who knew? After Mount Charleston we drove to Red Rocks Canyon. I wanted to visit the site where Tim and I had gotten married back in May 2001. We couldn't actually get to the site because the meadow we were married in is now a preserve but it meant a lot to me to be able to be there with the boys. Tim and I argued about the actual location of the ceremony. We took pictures of the area and then compared the pics to our wedding photos last night...sure enough - he was right! :-)
Mount Charleston

Red Rocks Canyon, Las Vegas, Nevada

...and look at this one...I couldn't resist posting this...Seamus Patrick


And at the end of it all - I was able to finally get pictures of some of the gifts I made with their recipients. Both hats were very well recieved. Success!

Stella Cloche


Cowboy Hat

Monday, December 1, 2008

Kelly, Kelly...Stella

I've been on a felting kick lately - four out of the last ten projects I've finished have been felted. I'm especially excited about the Kelly bags I knit! I initially chose this project for my book club gift exchange. After finishing, I agonized over the decision to keep it or stick with the plan and gift it. Well - the end decision, I knit another one for myself! So I have two to show off today. :-) I knit the the first Kelly bag as written in the pattern. I knit Kelly Bag II with some modifications. I made the bag shorter in width, the flap longer, and tried to add a ruffle (but that didn't turn out so great). I just love the lining I found for both the bags - so cute!




The Kelly Bag II



Ok - now for Stella. I knitted a cloche hat - all the rage now :-) - for my Dad's wife as her Christmas gift. It turned out cute. I have not yet added the embellishments and haven't decided what I'm going to do either. But here's a picture for now. I still need to shave it. The old sweater shaver I bought from Fingerhut fifteen years ago isn't quite cutting it on this yarn.

Stella Cloche

more pics here

Ummm -what other things do I have to share? I'm going to try and make a felted cowboy hat for my neice to go with the cowboy boots that I got her for Christmas. Oh - I'm also going to give my dad's wife two dish towels that I knit towel toppers on - you know the kind - the kind you see at grandma's house - yes, those are the ones. I think that's it for my Christmas list knitting.