I’m so late doing this update but I wanted to write it anyway because last weekend was packed and I don’t want to forget any of it.
Last week was busy, too!
I started brainstorming a shawl idea to prep for the September launch of the special collaboration I am doing with my sister to come up with a unique shawl design based on one of her poems. I have a skein of Unique Sheep yarn that isn’t really a color that looks good on me so I thought it would be fun to experiment with. So far, I’ve figured out how to make a flat, even line by doing successive increases and yarn overs. This is the yarn I’m using (and you can see Caspian in the background!) –
I was also working on the bolero jackets that will be stocked in the shop starting in July. I know I know – July is not normally a month when you think you would want to wear a jacket. But these aren’t cold weather jackets. They’re more like fashion accessories and they are knit up in a very lacy pattern, using a cotton yarn, so they’re lightweight and comfortable.
This is kind of random and has nothing to do with what I was up to last week, but I’ve been using vitamin E oil on my nails and can’t believe how much they’ve been growing. Obviously, if you’re reading this and don’t know me in non-blog life, this doesn’t mean much to you because you have never seen my nails before. But, normally they were always breaking or I could never grow them very long without clipping them short again.
I’ve also been taking a hair, skin and nails supplement because I want my hair to grow fast so I can get out of this awkward hair length phase I’m in. You know the phase. When your hair is too short to really do anything with it still (like – no ponytails, no headbands without looking like you have alfalfa sprouts all over your head), but not really short enough to style in a cute short-haircut kind of way. I’m getting my hair done next Monday and am so looking forward to getting it shaped up.
So during the week it was a lot of knitting. Thursday we sort of started the weekend early with a fun little event our neighboring city put on called Touch-A-Truck. City vehicles were out and parked in a local high school’s parking lot and kids could come check out and sit in the different vehicles. They had two fire engines, an ambulance, a special ops unit, a command center unit (which was like a huge bus and actually was financed by the Department of Homeland Security! It was pretty cool.), a couple police cars, two different tractors, a loader, a bob cat, a garbage truck, a tow truck and a street cleaning truck.
Ezra’s least favorite was the tow truck because it was very loud and really large. You don’t realize how huge a tow truck is until you’re right beside it. His favorite was the fire truck that had the ladder fully extended – he kept calling the truck Cranky (the loading crane from Thomas the Train). And he also loved the tractors.
Friday I meant to go grocery shopping but never made it (I actually ended up not making it out until Sunday!!!) and instead we ate out at BW3s and grabbed some frozen yogurt.
The rest of the weekend was full of family activities. The three counties that make up this area have farm tours at different parts of the year, which means that a handful of farms participate and open their proverbial doors to the public for a day of visiting and learning about the farms in our area. Saturday was one of those days. Fourteen farms were participating and we couldn’t make it to all of them, but we did make it to two – Eagle Bend Alpaca Farm and Kinman Farms.
We learned that the Alpacas with the puffy heads came from a farm in Idaho that liked to shear their Alpacas that particular way. I think it makes them look hilarious. Ezra couldn’t quite figure out what an Alpaca was – he kept going back and forth between calling them cats (and then subsequently meowing at them) and calling them giraffes.
At Kinman farms, Ezra got to feed some farm animals and we went on a tractor ride. Cows are a real favorite of Ezra’s right now so getting to feed the cow some “treats” was a real hit. In fact, he is still asking if we can go back and “feed cow more treats?”
Saturday evening we had the pleasure of having our first overnight guests! My mother-in-law and father-in-law came up for a visit and spent the night. Sunday morning my sister- and brother-in-law came over and we all celebrated (belatedly) Father’s Day and my MIL’s birthday. We had a cookies & cream ice cream cake from Cold Stone Creamery and I wish I would have snapped a photo of it because it was amazing. And I don’t even like ice cream cake (I know, I’m crazy).
We were going to try to hit up a splash park on Sunday afternoon but it ended up not working out. I think Ezra must have been tired from all of his farm and family adventures because he ended up taking a huge nap that afternoon. So we played it easy the rest of the day and that brings us up to this week.
This week has already been pretty exciting but I’ll save all the details for Sunday’s post.
Now, the links!
Here are a few links that caught my eye –
So you’re feeling too fat to be photographed… – Teresa Porter via Huff Post Women
Can we agree to put the value of family over the value of fat? Can we just accept that the weight you’ve been trying to lose for 5 years might actually just be a part of what you look like… and that if this magical day does come when you’re acceptably thin you’ll STILL regret not having any pictures of you with your kids from ages 5-10? Can we acknowledge that the insecurities we have in our heads will never be a part of how our children, husbands, and friends see us? Can we just please let our loved ones remember the YOU they love?
I’m always sharing something from Buzzfeed (it’s like the blackhole of the internet…seriously how do I lose so much time on that site). So here’s another list – 21 Charts for your Middle Class Life
This is your brain on knitting – Jacque Wilson via CNN
This is an older article, but I still love it!
Crafting can help those who suffer from anxiety, depression or chronic pain, experts say. It may also ease stress, increase happiness and protect the brain from damage caused by aging.
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