BIRTHDAY GIRL

Yesterday was my DM birthday - I think she looks great for her age - she would kill me if I published her age in print.
Here she is surrounded by the gifts from her girl group and her family. Standing up next to her is a new OTT Light that we got for her so she can see really well when she is stitching at my house. 



 She and my dad invited Jody and I to join them for dinner at Morton's last night - it is our favorite "special occasion" restaurant and the meal certainly did not disappoint.  So that was a treat for all of us.

Here is a great photo of Mom sporting her beautiful "Just Enough Ruffles" scarf handknit by DF Henrietta.  It is a beautiful subtle shade of green and actually looked great with what she had on.  Look at the beautiful card Henri created for Mom's birthday greeting.  Henri is so creative with her paper crafting and she also is holding an awesome BBD chart "Gathering Basket" - she is already looking forward to stitching it and finding some cool pins to stick in the pin pillow.  It's so great to have thoughtful friends like Henrietta.

DF Kerrie gave my mom a neat sweetgrass basket.  I am sick I did not get a photo of it at rug guild on Sunday.  it was a very unusual shape and I think mom intends to use it for a snippet basket to put wool clippings in.  Kerrie picked up this neat basket while in Charleston recently.  The art of basketmaking is still alive in Charleston but the prices have gone up dramatically in the past few years and the basket maker told Kerrie they are having to go farther and farther away from Charleston to obtain their grasses for making the baskets - why they even come to NE FL to harvest the grasses.  Coastal building is really inhibiting the growth of sea grasses - how sad this tradition is slowly dying out .

I showed a beautiful Noro jacket in the last post I was knitting for my mom.  Since I had not gotten very far along - I decided not to give her a WIP but keep plugging along and maybe give her a finished jacket for Christmas. That gives me a few more months to get it done.

I have no great progress photos to show on my stitching.  I did get some good hooking time on my scarecrow at rug guild on Sunday.  I'm having lots of fun with him and dreaming of my first Pumpkin Spice Latte and cooler weather in September. 

Hope you are all having fall feelings of your own and enjoying time with your needles and hooks!

IT'S A BEACHY THING

Oh my goodness - what a week this has been at work - I have been trying all week long to make this post.  I did not want my friends and followers to think I had succumbed to the heat.  I know we are all oppressed this summer and I for one am ready to bid the summer of 2011 bye bye but here in NE FL - I know we have at least 1 more month of really hot weather and it can be in the 90's even into October.  I just hope and pray we don't have any bad hurricanes come our way.  With all the extreme heat - it always fires up the Atlantic and starts creating storms this time of the year. 

On to the fun stuff - the meat of the post - what everyone wants to see - the photos. 

Every year for the past umpteen years - we have spent at least one long weekend at St Augustine Beach.  I have spent a lot of time in St Aug in my life - I adore St Aug - my grandmothers sister raised her 4 boys in St Aug and their families were reared there so I had lots of cousins and many visits to that area in my life.  It is very familiar and I know my way around very well.  We have favorite restaurants we always eat at while in town and occasionally we try something different.  So come join me and enjoy a few shots of last weekend.

Here is the view of the pool area and beach from our condo balcony.  I must say this is as close to the beach as I got - it was so dang HOT - I just wasn't interested in going down there during the day.  It was much more fun to stay inside and look out the glass and stitch and knit LOL !

Here's my best friend ( my DH) JD - we did manage to sit out on the balcony for a couple of hours and had a breeze so we didn't expire.  While we were sitting out there someone down by the pool was grilling hamburgers and the power of suggestion and sense of smell was so great we decided that we simply must have a hamburger.  So we went a few blocks down the street to the Oasis. 

Oasis is a true beachy dive - however the food is very good.  They have 3 stories of seating including a roof top - this area is interesting - it has 4 walls and even has windows in the walls but no roof - it was amazing that a breeze picked up and just at dusk - it was nice enough to sit in this area that was open to the stars.  It was a really neat experience - it's not often that one can sit outside in our area especially in the summertime - what with the ravenous bugs and oppressive heat - it just doesn't happen often.

Very early Sunday morning - like 5am - I could not sleep - so finally at 6am - I got up - walked out on the balcony and snapped this shot of the sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean - A rare sight for Ms Mel indeed.  Anyone who knows me well knows that if I had my  choice I would stay up late and get up late but with work - I am obliged to get up at 7am - getting up before dark is reserved for early flights or vacation departures only !

 Sunday morning after we checked out - we had already decided that we wanted to try a restaurant down in the historic area called the Bunnery - We had to park and walk about 1.5 blocks thru the historic district.  It wasn't so bad going to the restaurant but coming back at almost 11am - YIKES it was just SOOO hot - I stopped for a quick shot of this beautiful courtyard - it is near the Columbia Restaurant and St George St for anyone who knows St Aug.

Here's my buddy again reluctantly standing for a photo opp next to some old well type thing.  He's sporting new sun glasses and we decided they look a lot like those Gargoyle glasses that Arnie wore in the Terminator movies.  I guess that was a popular expensive brand in the 80's - his are cheapy knock offs but they looked good on him.  Plus who doesn't love a sovenir from a get away.

Just so you know that I do still stitch - this is a shot of the new BBD Loose Feathers bonus piece - those beautiful silks that Alma used in this piece just got me - Plus I love LL Vintage Pear - This is the first time I've used Dinky Dyes silks and I was very impressed with them.  The only thing I hate is using 2 strands - AACCKK - but it really does make the colors pop and show up beautifully on the linen.

Closer view of the stitching I have accomplished - A lot of it was done at the beach - I always associate fond memories of stitching certain pieces in certain places.  Do you do that too?

For the last shot - here is a jacket that I started for my DM - for any knitting fans it is Noro Furisode - a silk/cotton/wool blend.  I hoped to finish it for her birthday but since that is just a couple weeks away - I am doubting i can but it is a short jacket and has elbow length sleeves so there is hope.

I have not been hooking at all - so no progress to report on any rugs.  However my next post will focus on the Olde Green Cupboard retreat which is coming up next weekend.  I will hopefully get tons of hooking done next weekend and hope to take a lot of photos.  this will primarily be a quilt retreat and I hear there will be about 150 people in attendance.  Better take my earplugs I guess !  No offense to the quilters out there but hooking is basically quiet compared to the machine noise and can you imagine the chatter from 150 excited crafters.  Should be a blast. 

I see that I have gained a few followers - welcome !  for some reason - I can't very easily see the followers any more - wonder if Blogger has messed that up too.  I love hearing from you so please do leave me a comment and please come back and visit again real soon.