July

We are edging towards the end of July and like most of you we are in full summer swing.  I have small whispers going around my head because school will be starting in less than a month and I know that all this relaxed busyness we have been experiencing will go the way of the dodo and in will slide the routine of school.  I have been doing what I can to keep my kids busy and therefore exhausted come evening.  Filling our days with beach time, swimming, park days, library time, baseball games, and camping. 

My washing machine died this week.  I got a quickie 'degree' from the University of Google :) and took my machine apart bit by bit and discovered that the broken bits are deep inside and the parts will cost almost as much as a new machine.   $%#&*^  I was kind of hoping my machine would last longer than 5 1/2 years.  So the laundry is coming down the hall and threatening to take over my family room, our days and nights have been filled and therefore we haven't gotten a new washer and company will be here Saturday.....ahhh.

I don't feel like cooking and so many of our meals have looked like this...

What do you think?  Finger food is always a fave around here and it sure makes cleanup easy. 
This month also marks eight years of marriage for me.....eight years??? How did that happen.  I still feel like I am only 25 or at the very least just a couple of years past.....27 tops.  2 kids, 8 years of marriage, a mortgage, a couple of career changes and a partridge in a peartree :)

Here is where I was for my first wedding anniversary

Not to shabby eh?  This year?  Well we had two stolen hours while the kids were at grandma and grandpa's so we had dinner at a  local brew pub.  Maybe it isn't as glamorous as the eiffel tower but we still had a fun date.  I hope to have finished knitting content soon but until I do I'll be at the pool :)

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What to do

It's Friday afternoon and your cardigan is slowly progressing.  You want to do something fun at the bottom in lieu of the 2x2 rib the pattern calls for.  Some pattern perusing online.  Back-issues of Vogue and Interweave Knitting magazines are brought out.  Nothing inspires.  The weekend is coming and all the while you just want to finish something.  Cast on for a project, watch your fingers quickly turn string into garments, and cast off again. A look through the stash and 2 small skeins of yarn are found.  Ravelry, a seriously invaluable resource, is logged into and the advanced search is activated.  Here is my yarn and since I only have 110 yards I need a small project so how about looking up a hat.  Oh and I don't want to have to buy anything either because this is after all just a quick hit of knitting no need to fire up paypal or anything :)

Enter this hat.

A very easy knit.  The pattern can be found here.  I used Rowan Cashsoft Chunky yarn, just under 2 skeins.

So hard to photograph myself....

Have a great weekend.

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Fourth of July

Happy fourth of July to everyone in the U.S.A.

My family escaped to our property up in the mountains for the weekend.  Someday I hope to say we escaped to our 'cabin' up in the mountains but until that day comes it is just a piece of land an hour out of town with a lake close by.

Some friends came up to join us in a few nights of camping.  We did small hikes through the forest and around the lake, played games, ate, laughed, roasted marshmallows, told stories and just enjoyed getting away.

Each time we arrive and set up the kids look to make sure our face in the tree hasn't disappeared.

Now it's always fun for the kids if they get to 'help' make goodies to bring along.  I use the word help loosely because anyone who has done anything with a three year old and a five year old knows that they are anything but helpful :)  But in order to put on the good mommy hat I included them.  First sprinkles,

Then chocolate and pretzels....

a little dipping and voila.  Treats for all to share up in the woods.

 I do realize that red, white, and blue sprinkles would have been more appropriate but all I had were rainbow ones, what's a girl to do?  Now I am off to make snacks for a baseball game tonight and some fireworks to follow.   

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