Lovely Day!

This summer, Mom & I went on a little trip. It wasn’t what we had been planning, but circumstances as they were, we had to modify our plans for the larger good.

Our trip took us to Buffalo, New York for a quick dinner at “Chef’s” (famous local Italian restaurant that I have been hearing about for 14 years from my dear friend that has family in the area) followed by checking into the Hilton in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

We stayed there for 2 nights and had a lovely time walking around. The view from the hotel was phenomenal; we could see both the Canadian and American Falls through our full wall of windows. This was especially nice on Canada Day when there was a spectacular fireworks show. It went on too long though, we both ended up going to bed before the finale.

We also went to Niagara-on-the-Lake, and stopped at a few vineyards on the way. I also got sick that day. It was a nice little town, but it was quite touristy.

Where we really had a blast was in Sparta, Ontario. Who knew?! We decided to stay in London for the night and then check out what was around in the area. There was a little ad for a Lavender Farm in the little brochure. We thought we’d go check it out. SO GLAD we did! The name, Lavender Blue, the website: http://www.lavenderblue.ca/index.htm ~ but if you want to order anything, call them versus using the website, the international aspect makes it a bit tough for them via the web.

It was this little tucked away place that was amazing. It was relaxing and fragrant (duh…). The lavender was still blooming, but just past it’s prime (sorta like me :P). We could have relaxed there all day, except Mom’s allergic to bees and as you can imagine, there were copious amounts of bees. While we were there, a film crew was also there trying to film a “staycation” tourism video. Mom and I are in the video – it may be a 3 second blip, but hey, I am famous in Sparta, Canada now!

They had a little shop with the most amazing products: dressings, chocolates, honey, linen sprays, lotions, soaps…we could have bought the shop out of everything and between Mom and me, I think we did purchase about one of everything.

We asked the owners of the place where else we should check out. They said we couldn’t miss Winter Wheat. We had no clue what the place was…a shop? a farm? So, on we trekked: http://www.winter-wheat.com/

How quaint and relaxing!! it was so fun. One of those places that no matter how many times you walk around, you don’t see everything. Stating that this was a store is an understatement. It was a destination, an art gallery, a park, a concert venue.

As you drive in, there are sculptures everywhere, but these are all made from existing trees that have lived their lives. Every direction, something to see!

There was a quiet little cabin that use to be the art studio for one of the owners that is now a sitting room with coffee and cookies (there was a requested donation for the yummies that would be donated to a local animal rescue). I really liked the greenhouse (pictured left). It was cool but sunny and we could hear the harpist playing a few yards away.

I didn’t want to leave. The owners of this place sent us to a restaurant that also contained a pottery studio, Green Frog Tearoom, http://users.iglide.net/pinecroft/GiftShop.htm. Glad to say, there were no frogs on the menu. After lunch, we walked around the pond there and saw the namesake, a green stone frog that was used as a step for carriages. It seems to be in the middle of nowhere, but so did EVERYTHING that day…why should the frog be different.

We then ventured along to try and find the 2nd lavender place. It was a disappointment. We decided it was time to drive back over to the US. That was an adventure too, but I think I will leave that for another blog.

I Never Said I Was Smart!

uhm…uh…sigh…uh…excuse me Avis man that can’t speak English, but I don’t seem to understand the “push here to start,” maybe I will have better luck understanding you? One would think it’s fairly straight forward.  I mean, even Ren & Stimpy knew how to push the shiny red button (don’t push it!") ~ and their button worked.  I seem to be simplistically challenged.  Make it too simple and I can’t handle it.  THAT’S IT!  I am too intelligent for the car!

The fob was in there (cool, you mean i can have the fob in my POCKET and the car will (supposedly) still start?!  Nuts, you say!

I am pushing the button that states “push here to start”…the electronics come on…but what the heck, the engine wont engage?!  Do I have to stroke it’s ego? Buy it dinner?  What?  Is it like the horse I rode once that decided that I wasn’t worthy and would only walk straight into the thorn bush?  Bastard horse.  You ruined a good bra that day, Mister Ed.  Not all of us have thick hides…especially not Victoria and her secrets.

I have a college degree.  I like to think I have common sense.  Guess not, at least when it comes to automotive and electronics…case in point (and no one needs to bring up the Honda Paperweight and VW Fritzmobile).

So I sit. I sit defeated by a Nisson.  A NISSON!  Not even a manual transmission or a BMW… or a Porche, but an automatic NISSON?

I give u…wait, what’s this little illustration over here?  A brake pedal PLUS the start button?  Huh…OK…I’ll try the instructions.  Imagine that…it worked!  (Mental note, next time look for instructions and follow!  …Thank God, I am pretty…although I thought I was smart too…guess the Ugly Blog will be coming soon too…)

Now, on to the Long Island Expressway where I haven’t thought to check whether or not Avis has reprogrammed the navigational system to the defaults and I get to try to reset them on one of the busiest highways in the country because some ya-hoo has told it to avoid highways, u-turns, traffic (seriously…avoid traffic?!  it’s a NAVIGATIONAL SYSTEM…fairly certain there will be “traffic” everywhere…you’re on STREETS), tolls, trolls, blue cars, green rusty trucks, and people with white shirts.  Just a thought…if you need to avoid all of that stuff, you should take a taxi or hire a service in NYC.  Just saying.

The National Rental Agent: “Pick any car from the ‘Fullsize’ row..”

Uh…

…how about the white Chevy?

In the Water

Seriously, be careful. There seems to be something in the water in South Bend. I have held 2 newborns this summer. There were 2 others within the past year and now, there are 2 more close friend expecting. One of which is my dearest friend.

I am very excited for all of them and love the fact that these amazing couples are or are going to be the type of people that should have kids (oh, you know that there are plenty of people out there that shouldn't be in public, much less pro-create!). I did find it tough to be sitting there listening to the pregnancy tales. Not because I can't/don't want to hear about it, but simply because I know I have nothing to contribute to the conversation. I felt that way about the wedding plans too... and the woes of married life...the silly things their spouses do...the sweet things they do.

I can talk about my dog.

Pretty Sunset, Cedar Lake, IN

All Sortsa Wrong

Yeah, I have no excuse for why, but I completely read the pattern wrong and didn’t realize it until I was almost done.  Generally, I take a snapshot of the sample in the store, but I forgot that I had it until it was well too far gone.  The good news is, my screw up was consistent throughout.  I like the proper pattern too, so I may make a scarf or something else with it at a later date.  So…here is July’s pattern as translated by me (the funky green is the start of the August pattern):

 

 

 

 

 

 

…And here is what it was suppose to look like:

pretty much the center bit on the proper pattern is separated out on the ends of mine.  Also, I am not a huge fan of the bobbles.  They sort of oog me out…

Forty!

I hit 40! That’s a bag of rock salt!

Dang!

This one has been a bitch. Especially since it was my sister that asked me to do it! I kid, I kid… The key to this one is to knit really loosely on the wrong side, otherwise, it gets so tight that you can’t do the loops on the right side.

Mine:

This is the back (wrong side) so far.

Here is the front with a flash & without. I will let me sister decide if she wants to cut the loops to make it look like the pattern:

And, here is the pattern picture from Lion Brand:

Oogie. Literally.

Sniper? Nah, Just Hey Diddle Diddle.

There is a billboard just up the road from my house.  One side has a Marine recruitment ad. The other, a local “Arts Everywhere” ad.  For these adverts, they have characters that extend off the traditional billboard.  This particular one is entertaining because instead of looking like a cat playing the fiddle, it looks more like a sniper aiming at either the Toll Road or Meijer. “YOU WILL BE ARTFUL AND ENTERTAINED!”

Happily Ever After…a few months late!

My dear friends, Mike & Kristen were married, you guessed it, almost a year ago.  I couldn’t find a cross-stitch that I liked for them, but I really wanted to do one for them.  So, after finding one, I was able to present their wedding gift 11 months late (plus a gift certificate to get it framed).  You can see the detail better in the one to the right, but the colors are a bit more true in the one below.  The Bride at least can appreciate “fashionably late” & Emily Post states that I have 1 year before the gift is “late”!

Good Grief

Wow. What a summer. What a roller coaster of emotions and just plain exhaustion.

It’s been a mix of good and bad.  Even some of the good is bad and some of the bad has been good.  At times, I have had trouble understanding what direction is up.

I have always been dramatic and emotional, but I have typically been OK at managing them, for the most part.  My dramatic flair has been the manner in which I express things and get them out of my system.  There have been times this summer where I feel as though I am going to fall to pieces.  And a few times I have. I have been taking each day as it comes.  I know I will be fine, life has a way of doing that.