Spring Chickens

I've been terrible at blogging lately and you'll see why. This spring has been filled with lots of time with family and friends and attending many events. You have to expect that this entry is going to be very long with lots of photos.

First of all I had my 27th birthday at the end of March. It was low key with a few celebrations sprinkled here and there. The highlights were having Easter with my Mom and sister, my engagement (I count that as a birthday celebration, too, because it was kind of a birthday present), my big fat candy bar cake, having pizza at Candlelite with some of my buddies, and I received these AMAZING bamboo bowls from Vietnam - a gift from Lacey M. Thank you so much - I LOVE THEM!!!! I'll take a photo of them soon.

Other birth news - one of my bestest high school friends in the whole world, Devin, had her 27th birthday around the same time as me, AND is expecting her first baby any minute now!!! I'm literally waiting for the news, it could come at any time. She would probably kill me if she knew this photo was up on my blog so let's hope she doesn't read this :)

At the beginning of April I drove to Michigan to attend her baby shower and to document it for her and especially for Eberly (her sis) who could not be there. It was so wonderful. I love taking pics of grandmas and little kids, and there were plenty of them there! After the baby shower I met my cousins for Cousins Dinner at Garfield's in the mall. It was pretty funny to be back there again.... such a strange place, that mall. We let the girls ride all the little rides there outside of the restaurant. They are growing fast...

The next day I did some driving around. I went to Ann Arbor and had brunch at Cafe Zola - my favorite brunch place!.... mmmmm..... crepes..... here's a pic of the place I met my friends Liz and Ryan there. After that, I headed off down good ol' I-94 to Albion dear Albion, where I was just in time for the senior art show. It was short and sweet and I got to sneak a peek in the printmaking studio where the visiting artist was working on her book edition - beautiful stuff. I picked up a couple packs of Oberon on the way out of town.


There was another kind of Albion reunion in Chicago the following weekend, when Crystal and Marybeth came to visit me and we dragged ourselves to the Aquarium through the rain and sleet. But it was definitely worth it, and we only had to wait in line for 20 mins. Here is some lizard guy that we saw..... can't remember which kind he is but he's pretty cute!

On a sunny, warm Sunday morning, I drove out to Lake Zurich to visit my friend Jennifer and her baby, Myles James. She made me brunch and we ate out in the back yard basking in the peaceful, pure suburbia of the day. Wonderful. Myles is completely adorable and I can't wait to see him in the Baby Surprise Jacket that I made for him.

Steve's mom drove to visit us for a weekend. I didn't take any photos but I will tell you what we did.... We kicked off the weekend with a nice dinner at a brand new restaurant in Andersonville called Big Jones. Yummy! Manhattans, Oysters, and Red Velvet Cake - what more can I say? We also visited the Thorne Rooms at the Art Institute - a must see!

My most recent visitor this spring was an old roommate of mine - Camille! She was passing through Chicago and stopped to spend the night here. It was just like it used to be. Neither of us could stop talking we had so much to tell eachother because it had been almost 2 years. We cooked dinner together, went shopping, had some drinks, went for a walk... it was soooo nice. We visited Toguri Mercantile where we found so many interesting things. I bought Steve some saki cups, sushi dishes, and some cute chopsticks I found. I might have to go back there for some wedding decorations........

I have been knitting a lot even though I have not posted anything about it. A lot of my knitting has been gifts for people so I've been reluctant to talk about them here. But I'll do it anyway. I made this BSJ (my 5th) for Devin's baby, who will be named Grayson, and she absolutely loved it. The colors were perfect for her - bright and stripey. I am working on a matching hat.

There are so many baby things going on right now! We are expecting another nephew to arrive some time this month. I have finished a BSJ for him, and only have to seam the sleeves and find some buttons that will work.

AND THE TRIPLETS WERE BORN!!!! Which I have yet to mention :) Early on the morning on April 30th we became Aunt and Uncle again to three new beautiful babies in Columbus OH - Lydia, Eric, and Drew. They are all doing great considering they were over 2 months early. I know I have a while to make their sweaters. All three of them are about 3 to 4 lbs, and the sweater (in the gauge I am using) is meant to fit a 6-12 month old. So I'm thinking around christmastime.....

Someone else I know is having a little girl this summer and I need to start that BSJ ASAP! I've fallen in love with Bali by GGH. I think it is the perfect yarn for a baby sweater. It's cotton, so not too hot, but with enough acrylic in there to give it a nice stretch. Also it's pretty soft. I don't think I will be making any more cashmere baby sweaters.... Tavis, you should be happy that you got the only one.

Now for the adult sweaters..... no i'm not talking X-rated sweaters (though I'm sure there are plenty of those out there somewhere) - I'm talking about sweaters for Steve and I. Steve's sweater - the Avast cardigan - is sitting there on the shelf as I type this, looking at me, longing to be seamed. It has been in that spot for several months.... the only problem is, when I was finishing the last section of the sweater.... the band at the bottom... I picked up too many stitches. UGH. And I know how picky Steve is about his garments. I know he will not wear a sweater that has this little flared out part at the bottom. I think I knew when I was knitting it that I had picked up too many stitches but I kept going anyway. I was exhausted and lazy. But as we all know - Haste makes waste. I should have fixed it then because now I have even more to do. I have take out that entire portion (about 3 inches around the bottom of the whole cardigan) RE-pick up the stitches, and RE-knit it. Then RE-block it. So that's why I've put it on the shelf and moved on to many other projects.

Like MY SWEATER!!! I am so excited about this one. I'm knitting the puff sleeved feminine cardigan from Stephanie Japel's Fitted Knits. It is an exquisite pattern (that Steve actually picked out) and I am using the most beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful yarn. It is 100% alpaca, given to me by my friend Becky from her trip to Peru, and it is such a great color - a light turquois-y green. Since the sweater is short sleeved I think it will be great for those chilly Spring and Fall days and of course for winter with some layers underneath. Alpaca is supposedly a really really warm fiber so I don't think I would like a long sleeved sweater made out of it. And it is super duper soft! So, I'm over half way done with the sweater and I can't wait to wear it. I may even wish for a June cold snap if you can believe it.

So that is my spring in a very large nutshell. Possibly a coconut shell... or maybe even a shea nut shell....