Sock Summit 2011 - stitch marker swap

These are the stitch markers I made for the SS11 stitch marker swap :)  Two different styles, because I ran out of the larger green beads.  Hope they look turtley enough :)

Lavender Festival 2011

A few moments from the 2011 lavender festival in Yamhill.

We visited 4 farms - Wild Rain Farm, Willakenzie Lavender, Red Ridge Farms and Mountainside Lavender Farm. And we also spent most of the morning at the Yamhill Festival shopping at the Plein Air Artisan market.

 

 

My goodies:

Olive oil and Passion fruit vinegar from Red Ridge Farms

Late Harvest Riesling from Sokol Blosser winery

Lavender Honey (can be found at all the farms)

Lavender bunches and a dram of lavender essential oil from Mountainside Lavender Farm

I bought the Blue collage art and turtle print from Magda Moor

I bought another sea turtle print and a mini sunflower oil painting by Megan Turner-Baxter (Art By MTB on Etsy).  Not pictured because she had to send them to me.

Day 30: Self Portrait

Day 29: Black and White

Day 28: Flowers

Day 27: From A Distance

Day 26: Close Up

Day 25: Something Pink

Day 24: Animal

Day 23: Sun Flare

Day 22: Hands

Happy 2nd Birthday!

To my sweet lady bug, Hazel!  I love you so much!!

Day 21: Faceless Self Portrait

Day 20: Bokeh

Day 19: Something Orange

Day 18: Shoes

Day 17: Technology

Day 16: Long Exposure

I used my Canon DSLR to take this picture (4 second exposure).  I cheated a little and reversed the image so that my "r" was not backwards.

 

Day 15: Silhouette

Day 14: Eyes

Day 13: Me with 13 Things

Day 12: Sunset

How can there be a sunset when it rained and the skies are grey?  With fiber of course.  Lovely wensleydale and mohair locks to the rescue!

 

Day 11: Something Blue

Day 10: A Childhood Memory

Day 9: Someone I Love

Day 8: Bad Habit

 

Day 7: Fruit

Day 6: From a Low Angle

Day 5: From a High Angle

Day 4: Something Green

Found this at La Hacienda Real in Beaverton.

 

Day 3: Clouds

Ironically we had no clouds in Oregon today!  go figure!  After the endless rain and cloudy days we actually had blue skies and sun today.

 

Day 2: What I wore today

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 1: Self Portrait

To get back into the blogging groove, I'm going to work on doing this 30 day photo challenge
For the pictures I'm going to be using the Hipstamatic app on my phone just to do something different.

Day 1: Self Portrait

Tea Time

Hazel is having fun playing with the teapot that she got for Christmas.  I taught her how to pour a cup of tea and how to "eat" the little treats that came with the set.  She doesn't quite have the "pinkie out" while drinking down yet, but we're working on it!

I also got a tea set!  Except mine doesn't talk, or come with a teapot.  It was at Starbucks and discounted (yay), and I've been eyeing it since November.  I bought some Jasmine tea pearls, because that is my favorite.  And every afternoon I've enjoyed some tea while I knit or crochet, it's perfect!  I'm loving the little red one the most.

Christmas Re-Cap

Well, we survived another year!  I can't believe it's almost 2011, but I'm really happy that 2010 is out the door.  We've had our fair share of colds and other illnesses (nothing life threatening) in our family and I want to start this new year with my smell and taste intact! I'm working on that last part.  Haven't been able to taste since Thanksgiving, with a brief intermission around the 2nd week of December, but now that the tree is out of the house, I hope my allergies go away.

Here is our lovely tree on Christmas Eve, with all the presents neatly displayed around it.

Hazel setting out carrots for the reindeer and milk  & cookies for Santa.

Opening up a ball from Santa.

I stayed up late on Christmas Eve to finish my sweater.  Yes, that sweater, the one I started in August!  I'm thrilled with how it turned out.  I still need to block it though, but I keep wanting to wear it.

Hazel's new passion is coloring!  She loves the new table her Oma got her for Christmas, and we've been using it every day to draw "circles".  She is a little OCD about her crayons where she has to have them all within reach and if one sneaks it's way across the table she has to either reach for it or go around to get it so that inspiration strikes, she has it.  A fun game she started playing is she likes to try out a color then hand it to me to use, or she wants me to try a color and she will take it from me if she wants it.  It's interesting.

Christmas Lights

Last NaBloPoMo Post!

1. WooHoo, last post in NaBloPoMo.  Not sure I want to do this to myself again.
2. Pink sleigh pulled by unicorns, must look into this
3. Allergic to my own Xmas tree, it is now living in the garage
4. Might have outdoor Xmas tree this year
5. TV digital connection on the fritz due to munchkin rapidly turning it on and off, can it hold out until next year's Black Friday?
6. Addicted to buckwheat chocolate chip pancakes that Owen is able to cook without setting the kitchen on fire.!
7. I wonder if Bob's Red Mill makes "french toast mix/kits".
8. Only 25 more shopping days til Xmas, ahhhhh!
9. I like that Hazel is young enough still that I can put her prezzies on the kitchen table and she doesn't even notice them.
10. Xmas cards picked up from Costco, but I still need to stuff them in the envelopes and address them.

Hagg's Tree Farm

Yay, we have our tree!

 We followed the signs up to Hagg's Tree Farm, it was kind of hard to miss as the little elves were at every intersection pointing out the way. First we stopped at the petting zoo area with goats and then had to go out back to see the donkeys.  There were also 2 friendly doggies that Hazel was a little unsure of.  She liked seeing them better when we were holding them, than when she was on the ground with them.  We picked out a pre-cut tree this time.  I do like cutting down our own tree, but this year it was easier to just pick one from their lot.  It was a little cold and muddy to have Hazel wandering around the tree farm.  Owen expertly tied it to the roof with his boyscout knots and we headed home.

Hazel is now addicted to watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer ever since she saw the lighted reindeer in our neighbor's yard!

Outtakes

Today we did our annual Christmas card photo. I take pride in the fact that I have taken every photo for our Christmas cards, but this year I almost wanted a professional to do it for me.



While Hazy was napping we set up the shoot in our side yard. We got the tripod out, we marked where the legs needed to be with chalk, we marked the edges on the grass so we would know where the edge of the frame was, we even bought a remote control so we wouldn't have to do the dash back and forth from the camera like I have done in previous years.



To get Hazy to smile we hung her glowworm doll under the camera and that worked, for maybe 2 shots.



But who would have guessed that what really made her happy was the remote control???? She was fascinated with it. We let her hang onto it to take some photos, but none of them turned out that great because she would stare down at the remote, and not look at the camera. We did get it back, eventually.



We took about 75 photos total, but at least we got a few that were acceptable. Some were absolutely horrible. Some are too embarassing to ever be seen by anyone. I do think it's interesting to see what kind of faces you can come up with when you're trying to wrangle a toddler for a photograph.



I don't want to spoil the people who might be getting the photo in the mail, so none of these are the final picture we chose.