Vacation Wrap Up (Including knitting content!)

So, as I was saying Chicago was fantastic! We had a blast. Spending time with friends and family is always good. We drove around Chicago on our first night and I was so mesmerized. I thought, I could move back here! Then, I remembered the winter. But, I talked about that already.

So, my mother gave a us an awesome backyard BBQ! Friends and Family were there in abundance and so was the food. Darn, I should have taken a picture of the food! Ya'll would have been salivatin'! Anyway, my mother THROUGH DOWN!!!!!!! We had: barbecued ribs, hot links, chicken and Italian sausage and some rib tips, spaghetti, greens, potato salad (courtesy of me!) and an incredible peach/pineapple cobbler!!!
All I can say is "mmmm mmmm GOOD. (Diet was out the window!). There was so much food that my husband thought that we would be eating leftovers for days! But, boy oh boy was he WRONG! There was none left! Not even a bone. I am telling you that the pots looked like someone had liked them clean. And as good as her sauce was, i would not be surprised if someone did. Really though, as the old folks used to say, My mother Put her FOOT in that food! (that means it was exceptionally good for those of you not familiar with the saying)My husband thinks she should come to Cali and open up a place and sell her BBQ. We have yet to find anything here that comes close to what we get at home. To top it all, she used an old grill, one those made out of the old fashioned garbage can barrels. It was so old,that the bottom was just about completely out of it. She just put some of those aluminum pans in it and kept right on cooking. WE had to throw it out afterwards though. It lived a good life. RIP Good Grill.......

Anyway, you know you are getting old when the kid's are teaching you how to do the latest dance. This is me, trying to the the Cupid Shuffle:



it was dark already in the yard. that's me in the white shorts. Notice the concentrated look on my face. I have always been slow to pick up the latest dances. But I go this one!

We really enjoyed spending one full day downtown. We saw Millennium Park for the first time. Check us out at the BEAN. This is a picture of me taking a picture of our reflection in the bean:



Here is the bean from a distance. I cannot recall the real name of this piece, but you can see why everyone in Chicago calls is THE BEAN.



And this is a great shot of the Water feature they have there. See the face. The image continuously changes. The faces are of Chicago Citizens. My sister's brother in law is one of the faces. apparently they just walk up to different people on the street and ask if they can take their picture for this art piece. In person, you can see that the image is behind clear glass bricks with water running down it continuously. Its really cool.



I will end my vacation talk for now. I will blog later about my weekend in Palm Springs. But for now I have one word: HOT! I was a bit miserable.

Knitting:

This is where I am at:

For my swap partner:



Mandy's Candy Bag pattern was written by

Amanda. She is running a contest and this is my entry!



Not to bad for my first one! Amanda has a great blog. Check her out when you get a chance.

Oh, and I got this yellow yarn at the yarn shop in Long Grove, Illinois.

I made this pretty quickly:



its from this pattern:


baby hat

This was so cute and quick to knit up that i started another one:



Oh, and I am making this sweater to match the lavender hat:




SWEATER

There is more but this is already way too long. Check back for more knitting content.

Thanks for stopping by!

Vacation Part 1

Well, we had a lot of fun in Chicago. The only slightly disappointing thing was that i did not make it to Stitches Midwest. Bummer. But there were so many friends and family to see and so many things to do that I just could not get there. But, lucky for me Stitches West will be here the beginning of next year. Can you believe that the year is already 3/4 of the way over?!!?

Any, since I did not get to go to Stitches Midwest, I made my way to two LYS.

I bought some yarn for an upcoming swap and a nice pattern I will show you later. I am planning to knit this one for my BFF in Chicago. This is the shop:





This shop is in Long Grove, Illinois. Its a great little town. Check it out:

The Village of Long Grove.

Its such a girly place with cute little shops and nice restaurants. My great friend and I spent the day there until it started pouring down rain! Oh well, at least I got my yarn!

This shop is in downtown Chicago and I bought a little yarn from there as well.



I did not catch the graffiti on the door until after I saw the pic. Well, its sort on on the low end of downtown Chicago. But the shop and the people were very nice. I would say a good time was had by all because I had my husband, sister, neice, neice's friend, another friend and her son with me. While I was at the yarn shop, they were all eating pizza next door, accept for my hubby and my sister, they hung out with me at the yarn shop.

Here is their site:

Loopy Yarn

This was a fun filled day spent downtown. There is so much to blog about this trip so I will stop here and post again soon with more news or the trip and some knitting progress reports as well.

have a great weekend! thanks for stopping by.

Legacy

legacy: anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor or predecessor


Well, I am back from my vacation. It was a great visit. My husband and I are originally from Chicago, so we spent the last week there seeing family and friends and just falling in love with the city again. We have never gone back in the summer since we moved to LA, only at Christmas. And if you know anything about Chicago, you know that the weather is CRAZY in the winter time. So, we never go anywhere when we are there. This is what its like:





So you can understand why we pretty much stay in the house when we go in December.

But summer is another story. We had a blast. My mother had a backyard bar-b-que and many friends and family came over to see us. Well, you know how it is when you get around family. You get to hear all the great stories and family lore. Sometimes you learn something surprising. As I was looking through an old photo album that belonged to my grandmother, I noticed a small clipping taped to the front. Mind you, I have looked at this same album a million times over the last 3 decades and have never noticed this clipping. The clipping revealed to me that my great aunt, Janie L. Lester had earned a Bachelor's Degree from Spelman College and a MA from the University of Wisconsin. It also stated that she was the head of the Language Arts Dept, but it did not say at what institution. When I asked my mother about it, she said that she was the Dean of Women at Georgia State College, now Savannah State University. I was floored. I have heard countless stories over my life time, lots of them funny, some of them sad, but all of them interesting. But I had never ever heard this one. If you have read my blog before, you know that I am an African American. To have a great aunt accomplish something like this in the time in which she did it is HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is a story that my family needs to tell. But to tell it, we must know it. So, I started researching and have not come up with a lot, but I did find this:



This is a photo of a dorm named in her honor on the campus of Savannah State University. Unfortunately, the dorm has since been torn down. All the same, this is my family's legacy, our heritage. I was proud to be a part of my family anyway. I come from a long line of strong women. It just warms my heart to know that I was not the first to go to college and get a degree, and I am confident that there will be many more to do so in the future. My great aunt has given us this legacy to inspire us to look toward an incredible future as a family.

There is lots more to tell and pictures to post but I wanted this story to have its own place. Check back for more vacation stories soon!

July Knitting Wrap Up

So, I did not get anything blocked or anything, but here is where I am at with my knitting projects:

Summer Tank: Finished but need to weave in the ends and block. It came out ok for my first try at an adult garment:



I made 6 out of my 8 square goal, only to realize that I am going to miss my monthly meeting with my group. we are planning to piece these together to make lap blankies. I am still trying to figure out how to get my squares turned in. Again, they have not been blocked nor are the ends woven in:



In order to make a 40x40 lap blanket, we need 16 10x10 squares. Since i did not complete enough of them to make an entire blanket I started crocheting a giant granny square. I will finish this in no time. This will be my contribution to my group's charity efforts. Hopefully, someone will get some good use out of it:



Other than knitting, my vacation in oklahoma went well. we had a great time with my mother in law. Its always hard to leave family so it was a little emotional at the end. I will be off next week to Chicago! I will definately be spending a little time at Stitches Midwest. I did not sign up for any classes but I hope to walk around and visit lots of vendors!

This weekend, my hubby and I went to The Getty Villa Art Musemn in Malibu. The place is gorgeous! Here are a few pix:





And me in one of the Gardens:




After the Getty we had dinner and saw the Bourne Ultimatim! It was great!

I am planning to visit some LYS in Chicago. I don't thing I will do much knitting while I am there but I do plan to bring back some goodies!

Adoption

My hubby and I are about to begin an incredible journey. We are pursuing adoption!!!! We have had a lot of fertility issues and its been very very hard. But we have drawn a line in the sand after much prayer and many tears and are moving forward. And guess what? I AM TOTALLY EXCITED ABOUT IT!!! I just want to ask for the prayers of anyone who reads my blog. Its a process and its expensive but I believe there is a child out there for us. Maybe even 2! WE are at the very beginning of this journey. I just printed out the application and will spend time during the second leg of my vacation completing it. It has taken me a long time to get to this point. I have always wanted to adopt, but dealing with infertility is super difficult and I up to now, i was not sure I was ready to pursue adoption. But something happened to me today as I was looking over a website my husband found. I saw all the descriptions of birth moms and babies and I just got this surge of excitement in my heart. I want to do this. I want to welcome one of these little ones into my heart and into my home. SO, pray for us. This is only the beginning!