Baby Time and Baking Time...Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

These are just some random shots from the weekend...I went to my sister and brother-in-law's house to see their new grandbaby. We were overtaken by an urge to bake Christmas cookies. These are Chocolate Crinkle Cookies...so yummy.

Holly and Nicole baking.

Holly wondered aloud if she had the cookies rolled out to l2 inches and her engineer hubby stepped in to check it out.

Little Avery was not put down once during the weekend.

Aunt Nicole is pretty smitten with her I think.

 

We noticed that Hawkeye and Dad are starting to look alike...they may be spending too much time together!

Four generations of Harbin girls.

And finally I leave you with two beautiful photos my brother-in-law took:

One Fish, Two Fish, Knit Fish Scarf

I'm spending a little time working on a scarf...it's cold out and I need one. I have lots of sock yarn, so I figure that's the way to go. This pattern is the School at Play Scarf from Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders: 101 Patterns That Go Way Beyond Socks!. If you are a sock yarn addict/collector this is good book to have around. There are so many beautiful hand dyed sock yarns out there, and it's easy, easy, easy to find yourself with more sock yarn than you will ever knit socks from. This beautiful yarn is from Suzan at Barking Dog Yarns.  And here's why I'm happy to be sitting inside watching a movie and knitting:

Nook Book

I got an early birthday present today...Joe and the kids got me a Nook! I've been thinking about getting a Nook or a Kindle, and finally decided on a Nook. I always find this kind of stuff confusing at first....well, who am I kidding, I still don't really have the whole ipod thing figured out. Anyway, so far I've managed to get this thing registered, charged up, bought a book, and started reading. It's very easy on the eyes, and you can change the font size from tiny to huge and anything inbetween. That could be very handy if I ever get caught without my reading glasses.

I do love real books...I like the pages, the smell of the ink, and this will not replace an art book or any actual book where the illustrations are important. I think it will be great on trips though...load up books and take off with them all in this one little pad. Should make my tote bag a lot lighter! And if I manage to get caught up and need to buy more, I can do it through wifi connection or 3G. I'll be sure to let you know what I think as I try it out further.

I'm not a cat person.

Last night I took the scenic route home, through the countryside, and as I'm driving along I realize I'm hearing "meow" every so often. And had been for several miles. I know, I know, but cut me some slack, I have a lot on my mind these days, and well, it just didn't register right away. So I when I got home we found this under my car:

See the little kitty leg? It took us a while to coax him down, but he finally came out. I can't believe he rode up there for 12 miles!

He still won't come to us. But he comes near, and is very verbal...meowing all the time. We fed him and he was a hungry little dude.

I think I may have a cat.

Like Father, Like Daughter

So I stop in at the shop today, and I see Dad with his feet up, and here's what he's wearing:

Good grief.
I had to laugh, because what was I wearing?

Hey, Chucks are a classic, right?

Crafty Goodness at the Lake

We went to the lake for the 4th of July. It was beautiful...the fireworks were loud and bright and lasted pretty much all night...perfect! But what I was really excited about was this:
Apparently the young ones are discovering knitting. This is my niece, Nicole. She is just learning to knit and is making a baby blanket for a friend.
The scarf on the left is Angelica's...she's loom knitting it. The one in the orange bikini is my daughter, Colleen. She's making a hat for a friend's baby. In the background is my sis, drawing in her sketchbook. Usually I'm the only one who brings up knitting, so I was so excited to come in and find all these young ones knitting away and chatting!
Here's the first sock of Jen's birthday pair. It's a pattern called Milo out of the wonderful new book by Cookie A. Complicated patterns...but really beautiful! If you buy the book, be sure to print out the errata...it's got a lot of corrections.

Pontiac is going to the dogs...The Walldogs, that is!

I'm very excited about the events going on in Pontiac this summer. Pontiac is hosting the Walldogs this summer! The Walldogs are a group of sign painters and muralists from around the world. Each summer they converge in one town to create wonderful murals. 160 artists will visit Pontiac to create 17 murals around the downtown area. This design will be painted on the side of Old City Hall Shoppes! Come to Pontiac June 25, 26, 27 and 28. In addition to watching the murals being painted, you can attend Heritage days on the square and the Hang Loose Car Show in Riverside Park. You can view more of the mural designs here.

Since I run Old City Hall Shoppes downtown, I get to see all the preparation going on...the buildings have been tuck pointed and the mural sites are being primed. Some new artwork has been added to downtown for the summer.... there are dogs of all kinds, decorated by artists, to be found around the square. Here they are in a nice little group shot... right under a "no animals allowed" sign. Now they are scattered around the square, near the shops. If you haven't been downtown lately, now's the time to take a walk and see the action.

The White House

Last weekend we wanted to get away...Joe asked me to line up some help at the shop and we took off. I didn't know where we were going until we stopped in the little town of Rensselaer, IN. This is one of the towns we are going to bike through this fall on our trip across Indiana. Did I mention that we are planning to bicycle from Pontiac to Fort Wayne? Well we are!


Joe thought we could check out The White House on Park Avenue. We are definitely going to stay there in the fall. It's a beautiful old home....well kept with very nice guest rooms.

We stayed in a room called the cottage retreat. I want this room for our trip too, because I think my muscles will be screaming for a whirlpool bath after biking all day.

This home has only had three families own it since it was built. The current owners, Fred and Sally, are innkeepers as well as professors at St. Joseph's College. They are wonderful hosts and great cooks too!

We went down the road to Lafayette for dinner. Joe thought I'd like that....kinda nostalgic since I lived there while I was going to Purdue. Lafayette has one of those great old Indiana limestone courthouses and a vibrant downtown. There's been a lot of restoration going on the last 25 years and it looks great.


I love these sculptures on a corner in Lafayette. They are by Linda Vanderkolk and Roy Patrick.

The backside makes me laugh....look at the derriere on her....it's perfect!

Nashville on Dwellable

Freeze a Cold

I've had a horrible cold for the last week, but Sunday, I couldn't stand to be inside even one more day. I loaded up on decongestants and Joe and I went hiking at Starved Rock.

Our pictures don't do it justice. We spotted several bald eagles soaring over the dam. In this pic you can see a couple in the trees.
The waterfalls are all iced over and you can hear the water running beneath the ice.


Here we are....me with a cold, and being very cold! After we were thoroughly frozen, we went back to the lodge and had a wonderful dinner by the fire. Today I'm feeling much better, but Joe seems to be coming down with the cold, poor guy!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Here's the temperature on my back patio this afternoon. And with the wind chill factor it was -30! We closed the shop and museums early and went home to get warm. They even called off classes at ISU, which is pretty unusual!


I spent the afternoon knitting. Joe got me some lovely new Signature Arts knitting needles for Christmas...they came in the mail yesterday. I have to say they are a huge splurge, but oh so nice to knit with! If you are a knitter you might want to put them on your wish list.


My father-in-law gave me a gift certificate for Christmas and I bought a great little bag for carrying my socks-in-progress around in....and it was on sale so I got a sock pattern book too. It was a very knitty Christmas for me!


Then I made these this afternoon. I really shouldn't have. Really. I think I'm going to have to pack them up and give them away.

Mission Trip-Building a home in Mexico

Colleen went to Mexico over Christmas break with the church she is attending while at college. They took a team of young adults and built a house through the group Casas por Cristo. This organization uses volunteer teams and donated materials to build houses for families in and around Juarez, Mexico. I was so nervous to have her going to Juarez, but I tried to hand my worries over to God while she did His work. I tend to be an overprotective mama, so this was a growing experience for me too.

Some neighborhood girls

Colleen was so excited to find that she spoke Spanish well enough to serve as one of the group's translators. She was minoring in Spanish, but now is thinking of changing to Spanish Education. She learned so much and was truly blessed by going on this trip.

Colleen and one of the littlest family members.

Here she is working on the inside of the home. They do not have running water inside the home, but they do have electricity. It's built on a concrete slab the team poured the first day. This home has 3 rooms and was built in 3 days. The homeowners were given instructions and supplies to mud the drywall inside after the team left.

Helping a little homeowner drive a nail.

Jill and Colleen stucko the outside. Jill also grew up in our church and is dating our son.

Done!

The family's children putting handprints on their new front stoop.

New homeowners!

This is what it's all about.

The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
~Galatians 5:14