Smoothies or ?

Dee was right when she guessed bike blender. Just what a person needs to wear off the calories before indulging in a frosty drink, right?

Well, here it is as promised, the bicycle blender in action.

Are they discussing the proper recipe? Notice the "girly" bike.

It only takes a few minutes to whip up a most delectable drink with negative calories no less! Crazy, huh?

In case you're not that thirsty, take a minute and try this Color Test that I found on Nancy's blog. It doesn't take too long and is interesting. I got a 4 which surprised me, knowing that I carry the color-blindness gene. And you?

Catching Up............

The sun's been out here until today when we had thunder, lightning and hail, all most unusual, so it was back to blogging and catching up.

During the rest of our stay in Minnesota, we enjoyed a couple of days at Jane and Ted's cabin, watching bird and bird wanna-bes.

How come our state bird is so far from home?

Despite Ted's best efforts to discourage him, this cheekly little fellow and his friends think this restaurant is theirs to enjoy.

No trip anywhere is complete without visiting a few yarn shops and quilt shops. Darn. Knit. Anyway. is in Stillwater and was decked out in honor of the owner's 40th birthday. Clever way to celebrate, eh?

Our friend Linda who was visiting from NM thinks the same way, so we met her and her friend Mary for brunch and shopping. Mary is a wonderful quilter and embroiderer as you can see.

Our clematis welcomed us home with this surprise. And has continued to spoil us with 4 more blooms. It seems to have wintered rather well!

On sunny days, precious little stitching gets accomplished. However, I did learn and use both the bonnet stitch and the up and down buttonhole stitch on this month's Sunbonnet Sue block. There are a few things on the needles, too, but nothing's been finished yet.

Have you seen one of these? I hope to get some photos of this contraption in action tomorrow. Till next time, enjoy summer!

June Finishes

June zipped by very quickly, didn't it? The month disappears even quicker when you leave town. I did, however, finish two ancient WIPs. Hurray!

These are the Honey Badger socks. You can find the details on Ravelry if you're interested. The second sock is always hard for me, the Procrastinator, to finish, but I am determined to whittle down my WIPs.

This is the first shawl I've made with lace weight yarn. Those hanks last FOREVER! It's quite amazing what a difference blocking makes; it must have doubled in size. Again, the details are on Ravelry.

For the past six months I've been learning new embroidery stitches through TAST. Rather than doing crazy quilting like most of the members, I went into my stash of stuff and decided to work on these Sunbonnet Sue blocks, trying to incorporate the new stitches on that month's block. Here they are, six down and six to go. Happy Fourth of July! And onto block #7 and lots more knitting.

Family Fun in MN (Image Heavy)

We just got back from a wonderful 10 days in Minnesota that included a weekend of family reunion festivities on the St. Croix River. All 24 of us gathered at a house we rented through VBRO. My sister's family stayed with their son who lives about 10 minutes from our place. It was a perfect spot although the river was swollen from the recent rains and had a current way too strong for swimming.

Thanks to Keith we were still able to go for boat rides, and the kids enjoyed playing in a blow-up pool and some formidable water guns.

This screened in porch  came in very handy during a few rain squalls that passed through the area.

With 9 kids eight and under, our place was hopping!

Everyone had a hand in decorating the Taylor Reunion tablecloth.

Max was a big hit and got lots of loving from his cousins, both first and second.

We cooked hamburgers and bratwurst on the grill and then had watermelon and s'mores for dessert.

We even celebrated two birthdays!

And watched a different type of family gathering.

Our weekend concluded with a Father's Day Brunch at the home of Brian and Kate. The kids had great fun tie-dyeing t-shirts.

And fingers!

What a fun weekend! Stay tuned for our adventures during the rest of our stay.

June's Sunbonnet Sue (TAST)

At the moment, Sue is languishing in the bottom of my embroidery sack, but here's what I've done on her so far this month. It was fun making a bullion rabbit; I wonder whether this one likes to eat flowers as much as its cousins that live in our yard do?

 

The buttonhole wheel was the June 11th stitch. Mine are half-wheels which seem to create a lacy effect on Sue's hatband. Catch-up will be the name of the game very soon!  And yes, her dress is supposed to be pink, too ~ more frogging!



The next time you see this tablecloth, I hope it looks very different! Till then, Happy Summer!

On the Needles and Off

The Honeybadger Socks are still on my needles, but I am working my way back toward the second heel and glad to have frogged them both, even though it was painful. A poncho for Sophia just came off my needles! (It appears as if I'm on a blue-green kick lately!) This was a kit from Mary Maxim that included the yarn. (Details on Ravelry) Another time I'd try smaller needles to obtain a firmer fabric. Sewing on the lace was a bit challenging, and it'll be interesting to see how well it fits.

 

The second Blathnat sock is in my knitting bag, waiting patiently. Don't know how much knitting will happen in Minnesota, but I am prepared.



Looks like fun, doesn't it? See ya!

Junuary? BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

So far this month we've had a bit of company and a bit of rain. In fact today's paper said we've had our usual amount of June rain already along with cooler than usual temperatures. The rain held off when our friends, Brian and Marci, were here from DC. Because she'd read The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, we went to the Panama Hotel for tea. Don't they look cold?



After lunch, we went to the Japanese Gardens in the Arboretum where the wisteria was in full bloom and the turtles were out.



How many hours do you think it takes to make a garden look like this?

 

On Memorial Day we had another fun visit with friends from Germany: Udo, Sabine and their twins, who just turned four. We'd hoped to have a backyard picnic but it was too chilly to sit outside. Udo stayed with us for several weeks in 1997 when he was studying at the Fre Hutchinson Cancer Center.



Despite all the gadding around, I've still had time to knit and sew since the gardening has been at a standstill. (The weeds haven't!) Judy L is encouraging people to post their knitting projects each Friday, so since there are lots of UFOs floating around here, I took a pair of socks out of "time out". This was one of my first attempts at working on 2 socks at the same time and was down to the foot on both when I realized the stitch pattern was wrong and put them away. Sock #1 is now back to where it was, and I frogged #2 down to the cuff this afternoon. It hurt, but now they're back on track.



And yes, we've been visiting Max regularly. He's growing way too fast and is such a happy guy!

Who needs the sun?