Moonrise

Last night was a mild night - so after the Maundy Thursday service we sat out on the deck and watched a spectacular Moonrise...

...can you see the power line at the bottom of this first one...



...and here it is for you to enjoy...

Circular Shrug Update

The shrug is finished...

sorry for the bad light...

I just have to find the perfect button...



Pattern here:

Lutheran World Relief Quilt #1

This is the first of the Lutheran World Relief Quilts for this year...

This one is from the last of the red material that was donated last year - you should see the tiny little pile of scraps that I had leftover - that pleases me immensely...

Camp

Sorry to be so late posting pictures of the retreat - we had a great time! There was still plenty of snow - the sessions and games and food were all great!

First up - I've stayed in several different themed rooms at the retreat center see...
The Serenity Room, The Garden Room and The Americana Room
the room for this weekend - the Scandia Room...

The room was painted a very dark navy (a little to dark for my taste - but a very cozy little room) with a little knitting corner...

Plain blond Scandinavian furniture...

There were two twin beds - each with a very fluffy duvet...

A gorgeous view of the lake as always...

The Campfire on Friday night...

I think 'Carpet Ball' is the hit of every retreat - it's just a long carpet covered box and five pool balls for each player - the white cue ball is used to try to knock the other players balls off the playing field - a really simple game and the kids can spend hours playing it - they really like to challenge their counselors and leaders...

Saturday was gorgeous and there was still enough snow for sledding on the big hill...

It was a great weekend...

The Sound of Music

Of course y'all know that I absolutely love love love the Sound of Music - Mom had the soundtrack on LP when I was little and we listened to it all...the...time - I also love it when these groups orchestrate an 'impromptu' dance in large public places - I've seen several of them - but this one is my absolute favorite...
...so I had to share it with you...

More Water

After spending a whole day at the waterpark - Scout came home to a Birthday pool party for one of his school friends - I told you it's been a crazy week for him...

That's a bunch of rowdy boys in a pool - Of course he had a lot of fun here too - except for his now raw and bleeding little feet (I remember getting scuffed toes from concrete pools and decks when I was little too)

His friend is an only child - so Scout got him Battleship - a game he can play with just one other person (and still one of his own favorites) - and of course wrapped it up in some of his own creative (recycled) paper...

Of course I didn't make the cake - but it was super cute with all the little pinwheels...

Water Park

It has been a whirlwind of activities for Scout - the 4th-5th-6th grade retreat and the Boy Scout trip to a nearby water park...

...first things first - there was some gaming before the swim...

...which for Scout meant a lot of tickets (he's so lucky (skillful???) at some of those games...

...he very sweetly gave me a little woven pink pinky ring from all his junky loot (I have several such 'treasures' in my jewelry box already)...

He said the purple slide (it goes outside into the sub-freezing temperatures for 3 turns before coming back inside) looked dark and scary from three stories up...
...that didn't stop him from going down it multiple times...

Circle Update

Man - that's a lot of ribbing - 192 stitches on size 9's...

...the yarn is nice and soft and I'm afraid that I'll be a little bit short - I only brought 2 skeins...
...oh well - I can't wait to see how this rectangle becomes a circle...

Circular Shrug

I fibbed in the Easter Dress post - I have now cast on for a
Circular Shrug. I thought I might need a little something to keep me warm on Easter morning - but without sleeves (I don't like to play with long sleeves of any kind)...

and, as I'll be at another retreat (see - I wouldn't have been able to practice anyway) this weekend - I should be able to finish this shrug - it looks like a weekend project to me...

The yarn is Caron Eco (it's a new yarn to me - with recycled plastic content) - colourway - Wheat - I think it will match the little tannish flowers on the tunic...

Potato Chip Fireworks

This commercial makes me smile...

The song is Thinking Drinking Sinking Feeling by Slow Club - and of course I found a link to that too...

...incidentally - they have another song as the track for another snack item...

...that one's called 'When I go' - so cute...

The Easter Dress

Apparently I can't spend more than 25¢ on my Easter Dress...

....I got another humongous skirt off the clearance rack at the local K-Mart for a quarter again. This one didn't have a size tag and it seriously goes around my waist twice...

...so I got out my trusty seam ripper and took the elastic out - which is annoyingly sewn into the seam...

Then I resized the elastic ...

...and pinned it at each seam...

...then I stretched the opening the other way and pinned again at the front and back center. Since this had already been stitched once it was quite easy to turn under the waistband and stretch the elastic in between the pins...

...then I found another Jaclyn Smith dress on clearance (not for a quarter - this one was $5.99) and I'm sure it's supposed to be a short dress...

...but it was already my size and I'm going to wear it as a tunic over the skirt...

...and I'm playing Easter Sunday again - so I'm sure to be a nervous wreck and I need to spend all my spare time practicing so there will be no Easter sweater this year - I have a couple of cardigans in the queue 'tho...

Baby Pink

A friend of ours just had a new baby girl (they already had 2 - and they didn't even pick out a girl's name for the new baby - so sad). To welcome the new little one - I had knit my customary white baby blanket - but I waited to do the border until I knew the gender...

...it's just 100 stitches of stockinette stitch until you get to receiving blanket length on size 9's...

...the border is 1 round of single crochet followed by 1 round of shell stitch...

...then I made a pretty pink card - I just sketched a bassinette and penciled in some accent lines - hot glued on a ribbon and a little banner...

...and found a pink gift bag at Stuff-Mart...

Early birds...

I think these geese may think that they returned a bit too early...

...or maybe Spring is just a bit too late...

...well - I hope they get the best nesting site for all their trouble...

Rear Window

Although I love the old Hitchcock movies - I can't see anything out of my rear window...

...I just had to snap a photo of it because it looks exactly like the 'frosted' privacy windows - I suppose that's where they got the idea...

Earth Hour

Did y'all participate in 'Earth Hour' last night? We did and we had so much fun...

Scout finished reading C.S. Lewis' 'A Horse and His Boy'...

RED-SR

Scout is now one belt away from his Poom Belt (Jr. Black Belt) - he'll test for that one in June...

It was a super test - he was more prepared and at ease than he has ever been at a test - I was so glad that he wasn't nervous and was actually looking forward to the test - He did two breaks - and one was a knife hand (I'll try and find a picture of it in the 10,000 that I took)...

I am one proud Mama...

Winner

Sweet Raesha from My Love sent me a little packet of goodies...

I won these separately in giveaways on her site the pretty card from Valentines Day
and the lovely vintage ribbon from an earlier giveaway...

I love the card and am saving it for someone special...

...and the ribbon - it's so pretty - I can't decide what to do with it - but I think I might use it as a border on a plain white pillowcase - what do you think?...

Thank you so much, Raesha!

Blizzard - Again

Lest this really does become a 'Weather Blog' - I'll be posting about my Lutheran World Relief Quilts soon...

But after the rain and sleet everything froze up again - and we had another blizzard with 50 mph winds and about 4 inches of new snow...

This is the same picture of the 'lake' in our back yard from yesterday...

The Weather Blog

We have really 'interesting' weather in North Dakota...
...and it's Springtime so you never know what you'll get next...

I love how the wind is playing with the swingset...
...the entire field is flooded and it extends over the road to the right...

I know these photos are sort of dark - but that's how the weather is - dark-windy-rainy-sleety...

...this is the "LAKE" in our back yard - complete with whitecaps...
...this picture was taken later in the day and is a little bit lighter - look how much ground you can see - YIPEE!!!