With enough patience...

maybe all of my tomatoes will start to turn red!

Everything's still pretty green, except for this guy. I was beginning to think there was something wrong (and that I should start looking for recipes for fried green tomatoes) but then a few days ago, this one started looking slightly yellowish...and now I think it's definitely getting a red-ish tone ;)

We've already enjoyed a couple banana peppers...one just by itself and another with pepperoni on a pizza (which I recommend). You can see them (and Callie) right here...



The strawberries have also come back and we've gotten a handful of them...definitely need more plants than just two in the future.

On a non-gardening note, wedding planning is going well...getting down to the last few things...

I've got an appointment with the seamstress tomorrow (fingers crossed that alterations cost less than I've budgeted--it'd be like finding free money). I know where we're getting the flowers, just need to finalize that. John's going to work out the menu with his boss, and I think me and the moms (mine and John's) are going shopping for their dresses next weekend (because my mom is coming to visit! YAY!)

Nothing new in knitting-land though...I've been making the same washcloth for about a month. Next are the socks I'm making John for his birthday, I was thinking about the "Manly Socks" in either Baby Ull or Trekking Tweed (probably Baby Ull...I've seen the Trekking Tweed I like, but have yet to find any for sale)

Happy Birthday John!

For John's birthday, we went to Zoe for dinner with his parents and his brother, Jimmie. Zoe is an awesome restaurant that's located in an old company house in the Eclipse Mining Town (in The Plains, which is very close to Athens). It's actually right off of the bike path, but since we were dressing up, riding our bikes wasn't really an option (although I'd love to ride out there to eat...how awesome would that be?). The food was incredible and everyone had a great time.

Then we came back to the house, where we all played Wii, opened presents, and ate cake. In the picture above, you can see John sitting next to the cake, but what you can't see is that he's sitting in a rickety old chair that's mostly broken...a few moments after he blew out the candles, it broke for real and he landed on his butt on the ground. It was pretty funny (luckily he wasn't hurt).

Loving this...

A Guy's Opinion: Planning a Wedding Is No Big Deal

It would be even funnier if I weren't prone to getting totally stressed out about wedding stuff...

From now on, I'll just pretend I'm totally chill about wedding planning and never get stressed out (and I'll just count on the fact that you won't talk to my mom, John, my sisters, John's mom, my dad, several of my friends, random people on the street...) ;)

But things are good...my dress is here! and wonderful! and Brenna's boyfriend agreed to play guitar for pre-ceremony and aisle-walking time...so I'm really excited about that, too!

Yay!

Too hot for wool (blend) socks

Just finished these this morning...had to turn on the air conditioning and eat a bowl of ice cream just to get the pictures taken ;)



Pattern--7 stitches per inch pattern from Getting Started Knitting Socks

Yarn: Lion Brand Magic Stripes (thanks to Nancy for letting me buy it off her ;))

Started on May 16th, finished July 26th

Best part: I finally learned a better way to pick up stitches...I held off looking into it for so long, decided on the second sock that I was going to see if I couldn't find a tutorial on the internet, found one--and learned the mystery of picking up stitches in about 30 seconds...it makes sooo much more sense and looks better than what I've been doing for the past three years

And the weekend zooms by...

(Me and Callie on the way to Nancy's for a cookout)

I'm at the end of a wonderful and busy weekend. First, John's best friend Peter came to enjoy Brew Week. We hung out on Friday evening and then they headed off to the bars and I headed to the couch to watch August Rush (so cute!) and knit.

Saturday, we watched that silly basketball movie with Will Ferrell--the name is totally escaping me right now--and went to Boogie on the Bricks uptown. There was music from the Royales, hay bales to sit on, and beer to drink (although I think they ran out of all the good microbrews at 6...so by 10:30 we weren't drinking anything awesome). It was a really fun time and great atmosphere...we ran into Stephanie and then headed to Tony's to enjoy the very last of Brew Week...stayed out way past my bedtime (which, at the latest should be midnight) but it was definitely worth it!

When it was all said and done, I tried 15 different microbrews--my favorites being White Weasel Wheat from the Weasel Boy Brewing Company, Scholz (??-I don't think that's the spelling but I'm really not going to look it up right now) from the Marietta Brewing Company, and the Raspberry Wheat from Jackie O's. John tried somewhere around 40 beers, with his favorites being Dark Apparition from Jackie O's, Dark Horse from Elevator (or was it Magic Hat?) and the beers from Barley's (but we knew that one already) and is planning to start sampling on Monday next year ;)

Sunday was for sleeping in (I wish someone would tell Callie though!) and then working on the wedding invitations...they're almost ready to be printed but I'm not fooling with them anymore tonight. Then we went out to Nancy and Brian's for a cookout...we had a great time and Callie wore herself out running around and playing with their dog Brady. Came home and did a few of the chores we've been ignoring. Now, Callie's asleep in the middle of the floor (and believe me, I'm not far off from it) and John went to see The Dark Knight with a friend from work...

whew!

Baby tomatoes...

I also have one baby Roma tomato (something has eaten all the others) and tiny banana peppers. My squash plants are flowery but looking pretty pathetic...I'm thinking maybe I should've sprayed them for their mildew issue instead of just leaving it.

Other news...

My wedding dressed is being shipped to me right now! I can't wait to have it and see it!

It's Ohio Brew Week in Athens, so I've been having fun trying a few of the micro-brews that are in the local bars this week. John's been having significantly more fun than me (because he's decided that he needs to try them all ;) ).

Fireworks!

We went to Lancaster for the 4th of July--got to hear the Marine Corps Band play and watch all the fireworks. I also decided to take my camera and my itty-bitty tripod to see what kind of pictures I could get.




Before we left I goolged "taking pictures of fireworks" (I don't know what I ever did without the internet!) and got all the tips I needed to try it out...including the idea that, since I didn't have a remote, I should use the self-timer function so that I wouldn't shake the camera pushing down the shutter button...

So here's how our firework watching went down...I hear them shooting off a firework. I press the button...there's a ten second delay, then my camera takes the picture for about 6 seconds and then the picture shows up on the back screen. I press the button again, 10 second delay (cringe as I realize that I've missed all the fireworks this time), takes picture for 6 seconds, picture of nothing shows up on the screen, and...I push the button again, 10 second delay...



I did this for pretty much the whole show...took about 80 pictures, most of which were of a TOTALLY blank sky...but I did end up with a few that I liked. Probably would've worked a little bit better with a remote, but then, it wouldn't have been quite so exciting ;)



(also, thanks to John for picking a great spot to sit...you do know your fairgrounds ;) )

Garden (and everything else) Update

I have good news--my garden is doing well and I've only had one almost casualty (in a Monty Python-esque way that little tomato plant is "not dead yet" but I think it will be soon). Here's the overall picture of how everything's doing...



(You can see kind of the strawberry plants on the side, tomato plants in the middle, one yellow squash in the back side, banana peppers in the front right, and zucchini and acorn squash on the back right)

A few weeks ago, I moved them all to the center of our backyard so they'd get more sunshine. The plants all seem to be doing better out there, and we've only had one Callie/tomato plant collision right after I moved them. I was concerned that hauling water out there would be a big pain, but it's been raining on and off so much that I've only had to water them a couple times.

I did get some miracle grow (the kind you mix in the watering can) and it has been kind of impressive...



I'm crediting it with bringing the zucchini and acorn squash back from near death (or else squash has some crazy regenerative super powers that I wasn't aware of!). I'm excited that they've perked back up, and am looking forward to (hopefully...maybe) having some squash in the future.



Another exciting development--flowers on the tomato plants! More proof that plants the are in my care may actually produce vegetables. It's totally amazing to me!

Other pictures...



One of the banana pepper plants--they were originally in a too-small container so I wasn't sure if they'd ever do their growing thing...but it looks like they've perked up a bit (another Miracle Grow success story?).



My herbs seem to be doing okay, too...I don't think they're big enough to start cutting them yet though (in this picture--Basil, the second pot has rosemary, curled parsley, and thyme, and the third pot is lavender). I'd like to also have dill and mint but I haven't bought them yet, so we'll see...

The plants on my porch are doing well...and I went through and weeded the flower bed along the sidewalk. Last Sunday, I planted wave petunias there (heck yeah, $5 at Lowes for 30 plants...turns out it does pay to procrastinate sometimes) so I'm hoping they grow and fill in some more (either way it looks better than all the crazy weeds that were out there). One of my hanging baskets is looking a little yellow-ish...so I'm cutting back on watering it some (it's holding the water like crazy so I think it may have some draining issues) and I'm going to make sure it gets some magical miracle grow, too.

What I've learned so far:

1) Make sure to get ever-bearing strawberries. My two strawberry plants produced a grand total of 3 strawberries--2 that were eaten by the bird and one that I split (yes, I cut the little thing in half) with John. They're still growing but don't seem inclined to produce any more berries.

2) Tomato plants need taller stakes or cages. I had one plant break in the last storm and another that was all bent over because their stakes (umm...actually random sticks from our yard) were too short. So I found some bigger random sticks to use as additional stakes...but I think next year, I may just start with cages and let them do their thing.

3)Using bigger pots for the veggies could be a good idea...they seem to be doing okay, but I've seen pictures of HUGE tomato plants in containers...so maybe next year we'll do that.

And now...everything else...

Wedding planning is going (only 4 months to go!). We still need to get the cake lined up, but we've got a meeting next week for that (and I think it's going to be adorable!!). I got his wedding band, and we're still looking for mine. Having some trouble finding a band that looks good with my engagement ring, but we'll keep looking. I'm designing the invitations and having them printed here...so that'll be happening sometime soon. We also found readings that we both like a couple nights ago (!!) which is something I wasn't sure would happen.

We're going up to Lancaster for the holiday weekend, staying with John's parents. Hopefully, we'll get to see the fireworks tonight and the Marine Corp Band perform tonight(it's a little bit rainy), and then we'll be helping paint the living room on Saturday and Sunday.

Well, that's about it here...hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!!

Callie dog

She's being extra cute this morning (but isn't wanting to sit still for pictures)

Plants!!!!

This morning, I went with Nancy and Stephanie to the Farmer's Market to get plants for my container garden. It was a beautiful morning, and there were beautiful plants everywhere...finally I made some decisions (with Nancy and Stephanie's help...I was totally overwhelmed by all the options). Then it was off to Lowes to buy more than my weight in potting soil (thankfully they have helpful Lowes guys who will put stuff in your car for you). Turns out I didn't need quite that much potting soil (oops) but it does mean I'm all ready to buy some more plants!

Let's call this the before picture...



and another...



And here are the afters...



This is my front porch so far...I think I'll definitely get a few more plants for the front (and I also have two adorable hanging baskets that aren't up yet). The red/pink flowers are...(have to go check the little tag)...okay, Strawberry Super Parfait Dainthus, and I believe the other plants (soon to be flowers) are Gladiolas.



This is my herb garden (I've always thought about having one, and now I do!). The bigger pot has curled parsley, thyme, and rosemary. The little red pot has basil, and the yellow pot has lavendar. I have these out on the tiny balcony that's off our kitchen. I think this is the cutest set-up I have so far.



This one's the vegetable/fruit garden. The bigger pots are all tomatoes (grape, cherry, Roma, and Mr. Stripey) and the two smaller pots are strawberries. I've also planted banana peppers and dug some wild strawberries up from our yard and planted those. I think I'd like to get some more strawberries and maybe a few more vegetables...eggplant...zucchini...

I'm really excited about all the plants and I seriously can't wait for them to grow (I keep looking at them to see if they look any different ;) ). Keep your fingers crossed and send all your green thumbness my way, so they can all make it through the summer!

Kitchenaid!!

Our stand mixer arrived in the mail earlier this week, and (of course) I had to document the occasion.



Me, John, and our shiny new mixing bowl...



John using it for the first time (french bread!). The bread turned out great, and I'm really excited about all the things we can use it for (and for the ice cream maker attachment that'll be coming in the mail).

More Spring Shooting...

This morning, I decided to head out again to see what kind of pictures I could get of all these blossoming trees. It was MUCH warmer and less windy this time, so I took tons more pictures and got several that I like even better than the ones I took last week (although it did take a lot longer to sort through and decide which ones I actually liked and then working with those to crop them and make them smaller).

There is a particularly pretty group of trees over by the bike path, which is where most of these pictures are from (except the pink blossoms, those are in from the parking lot near work). Every time I've driven or walked by, there are people out there eating picnics under the trees, taking pictures, cuddling with their sweethearts, or bringing their kids to see them. It's really fun, and I'm definitely glad to be a part of the tree appreciation! =)

While I was out this morning, it started sprinkling rain while I was standing under one of the trees, and white petals were falling down all around me. Amazing!

On the range...

On Tuesday evening, I went to the shooting range with John. I shot his 22 handgun (until the darn thing jammed three times and then I was DONE with it) and his 22 rifle, while he went and shot his Russian something-or-other over on the rifle range.

I shot something like this (I'm not sure from what distance...but then, I'm not really keeping track ;) )...



I was pretty happy with the fact that almost every single shot hit the target, and that there were a few near the bullseye. John talks about wanting his shots to be in a group (like all together in a very small circle, quarter-sized, 3 inches, etc. etc.). Right now, I'm working on a pretty good grouping about the size of a medium pizza. ;)

Then, John came over and shot the 22 rifle (and here he is posing because I wasn't quick enough with the camera to get him actually shooting)




And here is the best picture I could get of both of us (ear protection and all, sexy huh? ;) )

Spring!

Pictures from this morning...

Rock Chalk..

Jayhawk, go KU!

So on Monday night, I watched the KU Men's Basketball team win the National Championship! It was an awesome game and at the end I was sure they were going to lose (lack of faith, I know) and then...several missed free throws by Memphis and BAM an amazing 3 pointer--with seconds left they tie it up, send it in to overtime, and win it ALL! John even watched the whole first half and the last 10 seconds when I thought they were going to lose (and then made that 3-pointer which resulted in me yelling in his ear...oops ;) )

I am so excited about the win...I remember when they won in 1988. My parents letting us honk the car horn after they won each tournament game, going to the parade, telling my parents I wanted to be as tall as Danny Manning (6'11! Glad genetics kept that dream from coming true ;)) and being jealous that Brenna got to go to the championship rally, and I had to go to school.

The best thing about tournament time is that when I'm sitting and watching the game, I know Heather, and my Grandma, and my Mom (and my aunts, my sister, her boyfriend, etc. etc.) are all watching the game, too. I remember every season watching and hoping and waiting for another win...my parents calling me out of school so I could watch the game with my friends (yes, they totally did this! How sweet are my parents??), going at all hours to meet the players at Allen Fieldhouse after they had lost, Late Night, scrapbooks of our favorite players (oh, how I loved CB McGrath!), and fighting with Brenna when we both wanted the same KU basketball picture out of the newspaper.

And the mushiest thing of all, is that...for a little while, my family, my friends, and my hometown don't seem so far away...

Good job 'Hawks...I couldn't make it to Mass Street, or the rally, or the parade this year...but I was there in spirit (and I didn't have to be jealous because Brenna didn't get to go either). Thanks for the great season!

The longest scarf yet...

So I also finally finished my Dad's Christmas present...

Guess how long it ended up being?



Yep, 104 inches or (as long as I'm doing the math correctly) 8 feet 8 inches of cabled, wooly wonderfulness ;) Before I sent it, I had my stuffed dog, Blue, model it...



It was the Irish Hiking Scarf, made on size 10 needles, with Galaway Highland Heather (3 skeins...610 yards...over 6 football fields worth of yarn) ;) After making the scarf from wool, I feel a little bad that John's scarf is acrylic...but not bad enough that I'm going to make another one anytime soon (and also John says I need to make a scarf for myself...which sounds good but I'm also not going to do anytime soon)

For now, I'm focusing on washcloths ;)

In which, I make something other than a scarf...

after months of scarf cabling, I took a break, and made something else...

Wristwarmers! (Voodoo Wristwarmers from Knitty...no clue what the yarn was though)

I started and finished them during our knitting retreat at Lake Hope (last weekend of Feb/first of March), and it was so satisfying to actually FINISH something and use the yarn that Erin bought from me at the Yarn Barn in Lawrence last May (Thank you, Erin! All the knitting girls loved the yarn, too!). So here they are...



It's kind of hard to take pictures of your own hands...but this is the best I could do.



I finally gave up and had John help me out, so here you can see both of them

I think they're cute...am having a bit of a hard time finding the right weather to wear them (usually if my wrists are cold, my fingers are even colder...) but I am now prepared for any situation that requires warm wrists!

I am a slow, slow blogger...

but I'll make up for it with all the stuff I post tonight! Really, really! =)

This picture is of a quilt I put together from blocks we made at my friend Amber's baby shower (remember that, all those 10 months ago). Well, last month I finally got it finished and sent. I was VERY intimidated to try and put it together so I put it off for a really long time...but here it is, in completed form! I'm happy with how it turned out, and glad that it's finally with my friends!

Socks!!

I finally finished my very first pair of Abbie-sized socks! =)

Pattern: Random internet pattern for ribbed socks

Yarn: Swizzle Self-Striping Sock Yarn

Check 'em out!



What I learned from my first pair of adult socks...

*Use a pattern from a source you know and trust. This pattern was okay...didn't like the heel or toe directions...and then halfway through the first sock, I couldn't find it online anymore, and I'd lost my print out (oops!)

*Use bigger needles next time/make a swatch--these fit because they're stretchy BUT I'd like to make my next pair a little bigger

*Extra toe room is better than not enough

*Self-striping yarn is way fun and awesome!


My next project is finishing my dad's scarf (soon!) and then I'm thinking about some wristwarmers from knitty.com.

Yay!

Bag Tag

Bag tag (from Christina)

Here are the rules:
1. you have to show your bag
2. you have to show all the contents in your bag-without cleaning out first
3. tag 5 other people

This is the bag I take to work everyday, my Mountainsmith Day...holds about everything and the kitchen sink ;)



And here's everything that's inside it...



Which includes:
lunchbox
water bottle
travel mug
umbrella
day planner
ibuprofen
two things of lip balm
two string cheeses
one raspberry green tea teabag (in a plastic container)
two spoons
checkbook
old paystub
old receipt
ball-point pen
four pennies
my keys
and a pill bottle top

(usually my wallet and phone would be in there, too, but I went to the grocery store after work and put those in my coat pocket)

I'd tag people, but...everyone I know with a blog has already been tagged...so if you happen to read this, and want to play along, go for it! =)