Stoneview

And there was shopping

Julie — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:26:40 +0000

I did mention shopping didn’t I? On Cannery Row at Om Rhythyms I was really excited to find singing bowls. Jason and I struck each and every one to find the nicest tone. At the aquarium I picked up a nice little sea dragon print. I was also thrilled to finally have a chance to test out a Pilot Vanishing Point fountain pen which Jason urged me to get being more than a little tired of hearing about it. The lady at Bittner was great. She pulled out all the fine points until we found the one with the smoothest writing action. She also threw in some lovely royal blue Namiki ink when I said I preferred bottled ink over cartridges. A full set of photos is on Flickr here. I wasn’t brave enough to take photos at dinner last night but we had a really exceptional meal at the Plumed Horse.

The wheels on the car go round and round

Julie — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:07:54 +0000

Yesterday we had day two of whirlwind touring. We started off at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, wandered around Cannery row and had a fabulous dungeness crab salad. After that we drove along the coast for a lovely drive ending with Pebble Beach golf course. Uncle Jim knows all the places to stop to find seals, birds, ground squirrels and more. We came out in Carmel and had fun poking into a few of the shops there. We ended with a lovely dinner at Passionfish.

San Fran speed tour

Julie — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:51:02 +0000

On Friday we flew out to San Francisco. Jason had to be in Sunnyvale for Monday and Tuesday so we made a long weekend of it and have been visiting with his Aunt Nancy and Uncle Jim. Yesterday they gave us a whirlwind tour of San Francisco complete with a cable car ride, the “crookedest” street, Coit tower, dim sum, countless views of the Golden Gate bridge, Muir Woods, the Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate park, and a fantastic dinner at Zarzuela’s. It was great fun!

Testing, 1, 2, 3!

Julie — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:41:23 +0000

I’m testing out a new plugin that will make it easier for me to post on the road using Flickr. That’ll save me buying another copy of photoshop elements for editing. I checked out GIMP but haven’t figured out how to resize and save as jpgs yet so I think this new plugin will do nicely.

Primed and ready to go

Julie — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:02:38 +0000

Yesterday I did manage to get a quick coat of primer done in Daniel’s room. I think I need to go back for paint though because the light blue just looks too close to the white so it won’t work well for stripes.

Prep work

Julie — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:26:28 +0000

I spent much of yesterday getting ready to paint. I visited Home Depot for supplies. I took off all the hardware and taped up the outlets (with Gwen’s close supervision) and I sanded and washed the walls.

The eyes have it

Julie — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:42:38 +0000

Friends with kids joined us for the Superbowl this year and at some point one of them discovered my eye mask. They had such a ball playing with it that I promised to make them some (knowing I had fabric for several already cut out). Yesterday I cut out the batting and stitched them up for delivery later in the morning. I think they were a hit, at least with the two fellows who were home at the time.

Couch Blankie

Julie — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:34:31 +0000

The quilt is all finished. I’ve tied the center blocks and I did a bit of “stitch in the ditch” around the border just to give that a try. It’s really better to do that with a quilt that has binding but I’m just a renegade like that. I found a tip that stitch in the ditch is easier for beginners if you sew next to the seam rather than right on it. Since the colors in Daniel’s room will change I think this is going to be more of a couch blankie for winter.

SPA part II

Julie — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:04:45 +0000

We usually bring plenty of knitting and spinning to do over SPA weekend. This year I worked on some BFL roving from Spunky Eclectic in the Aquarius colorway. I’m halfway through that roving now and hope to get enough yardage for a pair of socks. These ladies also really know how to shop and although I got off to a slow start on Friday I did manage to find some great bargains and lovely fiber by the end of our trip. There’s a full set of pictures on Flickr here.

NETA SPA Knit and Spin

Julie — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:50:27 +0000

I spent the weekend in Freeport, Maine with some of my local knitting buds. We started our trip with visits to Purl Diva and Halcyon as is our tradition. We always at the Harraseeket and we always do a potluck dinner Saturday night. This is our third year making the trip and I have been saving for this one for months. You couldn’t have a more hilarious wonderful group of ladies to spend the weekend with. We laughed and we shopped and we ate and had a generally lovely weekend.