California Dreaming (photo heavy)

Hubby and I took a trip to California for part of last week to see our son and DIL. Hubby was on Spring break from his university position. They picked us up from the San Diego airport when we arrived on Saturday and we drove to La Jolla for some lunch and a little sight-seeing. Lunch was at Catania Coastal Italian restaurant. Hubby and I shared a pasta dish - Aglio e Olio Peperocini - to which we added chicken. Our son and DIL shared the Diavola pizza. I wish I had taken photos, but we were enjoying the company and the food.

Once we were finished with lunch we walked down to the ocean. That I have photos of!

There were several of these squirrels in this plant. I'm not sure what the plant is though.

I believe these are comorants, but I am not sure.

The following day we visited the San Diego Botanical Gardens in Encinitas, CA. There was an orchid show in the Conservatory. The flowers were beautiful. There was quite a variety and so many pretty colors.

I thought this one below might be color inspiration for a quilt.

Of course we also had to explore the rest of the gardens though there weren't many flowers in bloom quite yet. The desert and Australian gardens were the most interesting at this time of year. The bright orange flowers below are California Poppies.

I loved the pattern of the plant below.

Aren't these "leaves" just gorgeous?

These floral figures were in the Mexican garden.

This pretty fountain was in the Walled Garden. 

Hubby and our son played golf on Monday and unfortunately Tuesday was quite rainy all day. We did have a delicious dinner at Bluewater Grill. Scallops for me, Butterfish for my son and DIL and Cioppino for Hubby. It poured rain throughout the meal, but thankfully stopped long enough for us to go back to their apartment for tea and dessert. 

We flew home on Wednesday and spent Thursday getting ready for our daughter, SIL and granddaughter's visit. Oh Ruby was with them also.

Thanks for stopping by!

Second March Stitch Along Update - More Baby Items

I haven't added many stitches this past week as I have been away, but I made a whole lot of progress again in the two prior weeks. Here is where the birth announcment was 3 weeks ago. I hadn't yet finished all of the cross-stitching of the clouds. 

The cross-stitching is all done now and I have added quite a lot of the back-stitching also. I am in the midst of working on the curlicues on the left side, then it is on to the alphabet.

I did manage to add stitches to another baby item. This is one of the vintage bibs that I inherited from my aunt years ago. I brought this along to California and started stitching it for my grandson who is due in June. I will bring it to CA when we go to meet him.

This is super easy to stitch. The fabric is like butter to stitch through. It is a soft flannel backed cotton.

Thank you to Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea for hosting this Stitch Along every three weeks and sending us the needed posting reminders. 

Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and take some time to visit the other bloggers below who are part of this stitch-along. There is a wide variety of stitching projects. These talented stitchers are from all over the world, so please allow for the time differences and check back for each post. 

Avis,  Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, 

Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, 

Daisy, AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen, Connie, MaryMargaret, Cindy

Thanks for stopping by! 

Baby items

Hubby and I visited our son and DIL this past week. I brought along the finished Sweet Heart baby blanket. I had finished and blocked it the week before we traveled. I wanted to be sure the blanket was ready and waiting when their son is born. Isn't this an adorable blanket?!

Here is a photo of our son and DIL with the blanket.

I also dug into my boxes of saved baby items and found the hand made items that were given to me for my son when he was born. I am brought them with me also so that his son can use them.

This first sweater set was actually mine when I was a baby. It is neutral so my grandson will hopefully be able to use it. I don't worry about which side the buttons are on.

My mother also made a sleep sack for my son. He usually wore it when in the pram. I thought I took a photo of it before giving it to my son and DIL, but I can't find it. 

This second sweater and bonnet set was knit by my mother for my son. The yarn is light weight and speckled with blue. It is hard to see in the photo. It is a small size that should be good for cool June days.

This set was crocheted by one of my neighbors and given to us when our son was born. It is a heavy weight and somewhat larger. It may fit our grandson in the Fall.

I also brought some baby clothes that I had saved that my future grandson might be able to wear. My son was born in January and my grandson is due in June so the seasons might be off size wise. 

I gifted the green baby blanket yesterday at the baby shower of my daughter's childhood friend. I finished it just before we took our trip to California.

So I have two new finishes for this year. Yay! 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are up to. I will continue working on the birth announcement, the stocking for my DIL and the quilt for my daughter and SIL. I have also started to embroider the first of two bibs.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Backstitching

 The cross-stitching is done on the birth announcement and now I am working on the multitude of backstitching. I have finished going around all of the individual items. You can see how the bird, clouds and flowers were enhanced by the backstitching.

Currently I am working on the curlicues on the left side. I already finished them on the right. Then I have to add the Hawaiian proverb, the alphabet and some other words.

I have finished both of the baby blankets. I will be sharing them in a future post as they are currently being blocked. Next I will start working on the embroidered bibs and the Christmas stocking for my granddaughter. Of course, I also have to finish the stocking for my DIL

I will be joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Slow Sunday Stitching

I am so close to finishing both of the baby blankets. I have about 4 inches more to knit in pattern until the garter stitch border for the green blanket.

The secret baby blanket has only 6 more white rows to crochet. Then all I have to do is weave in the ends and add the label. Here is the last peak. The next time you see this blanket it will have been gifted and I can reveal the whole thing.

I am well into backstitching on the birth announcement. The bear, jars and butterfly are completed. Now I am working on the flowers on the right.

I am trying to get back to walking about a mile around my neighborhood each day. This was the beautiful sky one day this week.

Monday saw my first batch of Irish Soda bread this week. The recipe is from an old church recipe book. You can find the recipe under the Baking tab. 

I made two. I gave one to my MIL. I cut the other into quarters. One quarter went to my mom, 2 went in the freezer. I ate the other over several days. I will probably make a couple more this week. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!

The First March Stitch Along Update

I have been very busy with knitting and crocheting, but that doesn't mean that I have neglected the birth announcement. That baby will be here in a few months and the cross-stitch needs to be as close to finished as possible so that all I have to add is the name, birthdate and birth statistics. This is where I was at the last update 3 weeks ago.

Oh my, I have completed a whole lot more in three weeks than I realized. This is where I am now. The border is completed, the leaves are added to the flowers, there is a bird and a butterfly and the rainbow is done. 

I am currently working on the clouds. Once the clouds are stitched, all that is left is back stitch outlining, the alphabet and some words. I have no worries that this will be completed before the baby is due in June.

Thank you to Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea for hosting this Stitch Along every three weeks and sending us the needed posting reminders. 

Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and take some time to visit the other bloggers below who are part of this stitch-along. There is a wide variety of stitching projects. These talented stitchers are from all over the world, so please allow for the time differences and check back for each post. 

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, 

Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, 

Daisy, AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen, Connie, MaryMargaret, Cindy

Thanks for stopping by! 

 

Snow, Yarn, Books

 Last weekend we visited my daughter and her family. The trip to Boston took 5 hours due to an early morning accident on Interstate 95 that the navigation apps both said would only be an 11 minute delay. Well it was over an hour delay as 3 lanes of the 4 lane road were closed. On the subsequent highway we were traveling in snow! It didn't look like much on the side of the road.

Visibility was limited though so driving was much slower on these roads than usual. 

We did eventually make it to Boston and I got to celebrate my birthday with family. I even got some Grammy snuggles.

The long car ride was beneficial to getting a good amount of knitting completed. This baby blanket is well on its way to being completed over the next week. 

The secret baby blanket has 140 of 198 rows completed. I can't wait until I can share it with you. It is quite adorable if I do say so myself. I need to keep it under wraps just a little while longer.

I've been doing a bunch of reading lately. It gives my hands a rest. I recently finished "A Single Thread" by Marie Bostwick.

 This is first book of the Cobbled Court Quilt series, but unfortunately I can't borrow any of the subsequent books from my library system. I would like to read more of this series. 

I also finished "The Splendour Falls" by Susanna Kearsley. 

I really like this author's books. I have read several of them. I highly recommend this book. 

I am currently reading "The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle" by Jennifer Ryan. 

This is historical fiction that is very well written. I am enjoying it immensely. 

With the arrival of Lent, I have been looking for new fish recipes. I made Spicy Island Shrimp last night. I halved the recipe and also only cooked the shrimp initially for one minute and then took them out of the pan and set them aside. I added them back in during the last 5 minutes. I am not a savvy cook, but cooking the shrimp in the sauce for 15-20 minutes would have been way too long.  I served it over rice with a side salad.

It was very tasty. This from someone who only likes most seafood breaded and fried. I will be making this again.

I will be joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are up to. I will be spending a bunch of time with yarn in my hands.