the first day

fun things i did on my long, summer weekend:

• sun bathing at Oak Street Beach
• many meals including corn on the cob
• a few good DVD rentals
• some yard work
• reading
• decorated the flowerboxes with American flags
• Swedish shopping in Chicago's Andersonville
• going out to breakfast, twice
• lots of time outside
• a nice rainstorm, the flowers really needed it!
• hands-down best summer movie yet, Devil Wears Prada
• naps
• some knitting
• a parade

ode to summertime!!!  oh.. and for you knitters out there. speaking of summer, this just in from London.  you may want to whip this up for the beach. visit Anna at http://autoscopia.com/amelia to view her FREE pattern of the too cute, beachy, foldable, floppy hat.

back when i was a little girl.....

we celebrated May Day!

we always saved our strawberry produce containers, you know those plastic green ones, or better yet the manila wood ones. the night before May Day we made our baskets. we filled them with left over straw from the Easter baskets, put either fresh flowers in them or made flowers out of construction paper or tissue paper.  made handles with pipe-cleaners. (remember pipe-cleaners!) my grandpa had lots of pipe-cleaners cuz he really smoked a pipe. but Woolworth's and Ben Franklin had really pretty ones, extra long, and lots of colors!

then, after school on May 1st we would hurry home to our finished baskets, all lined up on the dinning room table and sneak around to our friends front doors, place the basket on the door knob, ring the bell the run.

i remember the first May 1st we lived in the Chicago area having moved from South Dakota. i was in the 4th grade........

......all the recipients of our May Day baskets thought we were NUTS! 

i don't run around the neighborhood anymore. today i will celebrate by cutting an extra large bouquet of Lilac.  and my daughter always remembers the importance of this day for me....she emailed me bright and early this morning!!!

BTW: thanks for all the well wishes yesterday, i'm off to the post office today!

*found later today http://turkeyfeathers.typepad.com a girl after my own heart!!!

it was a year ago this week....

i took ink to scroll, no

pen to paper, no

finger-tips to keyboard.

happy blog-anniversary to me!  with just under 100 posts it's been fun , creative, mind-stretching and a new disipline for me.

help me celebrate. send me a little comment and i'll send you a little treat via snail mail. i still love getting snail mail, you will too!!!

looking forward to another blog year!

a shamrock shake------yummmmm

wore green underwear------does that count?

a kiwi at lunch-----using my lime green kiwi knife/spoon

hubby and i will go for corned beef and cabbage-----love it

a margarita!!!

i think i pull out some green yarn when i get home---can't help myself.

Luck-o-the-Irish-to-ya!!!!

the year in review.  don't ya sometimes wish you could remember everything from the past year?  it's really difficult.  and sometimes what we do remember doesn't really "do justice".

but i do remember this one event that happened about a year ago.  we took a little "weekend away" with our friends downtown to stay at the Palmer House in Chicago.  record cold temps that weekend (of course) i think is was 16 below with the windchill.  we were "shopping" on Michigan Ave.  really we were moving quickly in and out of stores to stay warm.  we were on the 9th floor in this cute little Thai place having Jasmine tea and a snack with a beautiful window view of the lake and Michigan Ave and i looked down to the street for a moment .....and no kidding......there was this guy walking on the sidewalk, with all the shoppers, wearing a Speedo, flippers, mask and snorkel, and his arms "swimming" thru the crowd.  what kind of a dare is that?                anyways..............

i had some great family moments: celebrated birthdays, traveled back and forth from michigan, housed family as guests here, watch the grandson become moble from hands and knees to running feet, shared great meals, took some memorable photos, played with new toys, went to the beach a few times.....

took some vacations: great weekends away to lake geneva, wisconsin. a week in NYC. seista key for a week at easter, beach time at lake michigan, weekend at The Drake in Chicago, a camping trip....

read some great books:  limony snicket, memoirs of a geisha, bee season, french women don't get fat, hidden places, eve's daughter's, chasing matisse, a thousand days in tuscany, cottage for sale must be moved...to name a few.

tried new things: this blog, got a digital camera (someday will put the two together), tried to somewhat child-proof my house after many years, tried new recipes (some great/some not)...

bought too much yarn: end of discussion.

and knitted a few things, some favorites are: one year old gift  blanket for grandson, turtleneck shrug and gold shrug, the two christmas stockings that are hanging on the mantel, the olive and teal felted purse, and the "marilyn" sweater and "eleanor" throw for my living room that are still on the needles.

resolutions?  i'm not much for making them......life seems to have a flow all it's own.

this is the day that we traditionally get together with friends for a "toast of cheer" and remember the past and look to the future.

"If all the year were playing holidays, to sport would be as tedious as to work". William Shakespeare

CHEERS!!!!!

on the 11th day of christmas. 

not to grandmother's house.  although i remember many a trip like this in my youth.  but this year i'm the Grandma and i'm doing the traveling.  so the gifts are wrapped, the car is packed, and we're ready to go.  a sleigh ride would be fun throught the white and drifted snow......but not all the way from chicago to michigan thank you.

so.....i did it....all twelve days.

on the 12th day of christmas i will be sharing the day with my family.  busy cooking, eating, relaxing, opening gifts, playing with new toys, celebrating His birth.

merry christmas to all and to all a good night!     back on weds.

day of christmas!!!

on the 10th day of christmas my true love and i exchanged our gifts to one another.  with the traveling and the celebrations with family being on all different days this year we decided to open our gifts just the two of us this year.

we enjoyed a cozy little fire by our new gas fireplace that hubby put into our fireplace this year!!!  and we made hot fudge sundaes.  i know.....but that's what i had a taste for.  Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia and Fudge Brownie Raspberry Ribbon.  (i thought those were red and christmasy flavors, work with me on this one).  yummy.

then we did some final packing to head off to see the "kids" for five days!!!

day of christmas........

we had our annual christmas luncheon at work so i made a yummy cream cheese, pesto spread, in the shape of a christmas tree!!  just a little something special, and set a festive table for myself a few co-workers......

gave my students (and myself) a bit of a break today by showing a movie in part, of each of my classes....

figured out how to finish off that final  "lack of enough yarn problem" on my last project......

rewarded my knitting-self by casting on a quick little project for myself, now that i have a clean knitting slate.  it's a cute, new version of a neck warmer.  the pattern is found at www.knitty.com one of my favorite knitting website.  it's the Flora pattern, it think from the Fall 2005 issue.  and best of all i'm using stash yarn!!!!

one and a half days left of school and only three days left until christmas!!!

i got another gift "off the needles"!!!!!!  well....almost.  i'm just about 10" shy of binding off a final project and i have run out of yarn.  can you believe that.  so i'm brainstorming what to do.  i'll think of something.

in the meantime, hubby is working out of town tonight so i had a dinner of left overs.  a hot bath and i think i'm to bed early with a good book.

oh, BTW, aren't you glad i took you on the arm chair tour of the NY windows yesterday, what with no subways or buses these days!!!

and 5th ave for the 7th day of christmas!!!! 

well not really.  only from my arm chair, as they say.  check this out.  http://fredflare.com/diary/windowshopping_2005.php  click on each of the boxes to watch a video of the NYC 5th ave windows decorated for christmas.  how cool is that?!?!?!  (be sure to give your computer a moment to start the show after you click on each shop to start the show!)

and no scarf, muffler, gloves or crowds.

i also made a batch of martha's molasses christmas cookies.  the house smells yummy.  just a few days left. 

how are you spending your count down to christmas?