Finished

Summer Cardigan (finished in December). I used a Rowan Tweed and found the perfect daisy button. This piece was fairly easy to complete as the whole thing was done in stockinette, so I could take it anywhere and work on it. It was the piece that got put on the back burner A LOT, but I've finally finished it. Now, to find another take anywhere piece . . .

Over ambitious?

Finished

Aryn Gauntlets

This fingerless mittens only took me about a week to complete. I tried cables for the first time and this was a super easy project to learn on. Now, I'm excited to try my hand at more cables.

Happy Halloween

This week, James and I got in the Halloween spirit by carving pumpkins.

James found the creepiest vampire he could and did an amazing job with his pumpkin.

This one was a combined effort and we had to keep making

 jokes about taking down the capital.

And finally, who doesn't look at a pumpkin and think "How can I make this more sonic?"

Fugitive

A little while ago, I was jogging on a warm summer morning and I spied two peacocks running down my street. In Moab, this is a usual sight as those darned things run wild down in the creek, but I live in Omaha and peacocks are NOT normal here. After some pondering, I decided they must have escaped from the zoo which is only about a mile and a half from my house. That got me thinking. . . . If the peacocks can become fugitives from the Henry Doorly Zoo

What else can escape?????

Lions and Tigers and Bears--Oh My. The thought of it is enough to stop me from going jogging. . .

Instruction diagram from Hell

Priceless

New workout pants $10.00


New shoes to get me motivated to exercise $85.00

New music to pass the time while exercising $7.99


Having James make me get up every morning to go jogging (and even halfheartedly offering to go with me) Priceless.

Finished

Lillehammer Hat



This was my first attempt at using two colors in a pattern and I had a ton of fun doing it. I used 100% Brown Sheep wool, so it was easy to handle and fun to work with. This project only took me about a week and has got me very excited to try my hand at a more intricate Fair Isle pattern.

Evil League of Evil

I never planned on becoming an evil genius, instead I kind of just stumbled across it. I always thought that I was on the side of good and that there wasn't a speck of evilness (let alone true evil genius) in me. But this weekend I discovered (to my bizarre liking) that I am indeed evil (Insert evil laugh here). And with my stunt this weekend, I'm a shoe in for the next member of the Evil League of Evil. I mean, it's so evil that my membership is practically cemented.

I know you're intrigued and can't possibly believe that I am now a certifiable evil genius. What could I have possibly done so villainous? Well take a gander at these little babies. . .





YES those are Nutella filled sweet rolls (Insert another evil laugh, slightly more evil than the last). I started out thinking that cinnamon rolls would be perfect for conference weekend when the evil inside of me took over and I came up with the idea for Nutella sweet rolls. And it was done. I became evil. No, not just evil, but evil enough to be rank and file with the Evil League of Evil. Oh and they are delectably malevolent. These little guys are criminally wicked. Mere mortals don't stand a chance against the iniquity that these (innocent looking) sweet rolls possess. And therein lies the genius. Nobody would think that simple sweet rolls of could wield such great power. And for every person that succumbs to this evil indulgence, my evil genius grows. So, come on over and try one----I dare you (Insert finale of all evil laughs).

Finished

Bulky Baby Pullover for my favorite nephew. Won't he just look so handsome?

This piece only took 20-25 hours to complete and was so much fun that I had a hard time putting it down. the patter was very simple and I only altered it to add the stripes instead of a solid sweater.

I used a 100% cotton yarn by Classic Elite Yarns. I think James liked the yarn more than me because it was so super soft.

Alaskan Cruise (Seattle)

We disembarked from the ship early Saturday morning. James and I didn't have a flight until Sunday, so we just bummed around Seattle for the day.

We had a ton of fun going to through the Science Fiction Museum. I thought it would be boring, but we ended up spending quite a lot of time there.


The one disappointment was that there was only one reference to Dr. Who. The longest running science fiction television show and only one small reference? I mean, they had a whole Ninja Turtle



and more Star Trek stuff then you can shake a stick at



But not one miniature TARDIS, Dalek, or Cyberman? Disgusting.

We also went to see the music museum. We didn't spend a whole lot of time there, but this art piece was interesting.




We also went to the Seattle Science Center, which we didn't know what a kid's museum, but we had fun there anyway.



We also took a trip up the Space Needle



We then made our way to Pike's Market

From Alaska ise

We did see the fish throwers, but didn't get a picture of it. And we were amazed at how many flower stands there were. Half of the market was full of fresh cut flowers.



And since we missed the Dr at the Science Fiction museum, we were both excited to find him at the market.


Have I mentioned my little crush on David Tennant?

And to make James's day, we had to find the legendary gum wall.


And of all randomness, this woman was just walking through the market in her wedding dress. No photographers or other wedding party members. It was just like she decided to run and add a couple of flowers to her bouquet before heading to the church.



Finally, we retired to our hotel room and enjoyed this great view of the sound.



We had to be up by 4:30 am to catch our flight home on Sunday. There was only one hiccup in the flight home. Somehow, I got bumped and didn't have a seat on the flight from Phoenix to Omaha. They even boarded the flight and I had to say goodbye to James (bawling my eyes out). At the last second, someone volunteered to stay behind and I got to go home with my hubby.

All in all, this was a great vacation. I loved Alaska and here it is a month later, and I'm still dreaming about it and wishing we could go back. Of course, I just lost the weight I gained on the ship, so going back by cruise ship may not be such a good idea. But we had a great time and the best part was that I was able to spend a full week with my hubby by my side. That was the best part, never being separated from such a handsome man.

Alaskan Cuise (Thursday and Friday)

We spent most of Thursday at sea and pulled into port about 4:30 pm. We stopped in Prince Rupert, Canada. Truth be told, it was almost a wasted port. One person on the ship commented that we stopped there just so the company could say that they had a foreign port. We didn't do any excursions because we had already done so many and there really weren't any interesting ones offered. The town of Prince Rupert was boring. It had a rinky dink museum (with a $12 admission), and a couple of stores. The map showed a mall, but that turned out to be a hardware store and two or three clothing stores. James and I busied ourselves by finding an Internet cafe and checking out facebook. We did find one interesting totem pole.



And as you can see from this picture of the one big street in downtown, there wasn't much else.



Friday was an "at sea" day. So we just relaxed and enjoyed some down time. James did want to document a few things about the ship such as


The Grand Atrium

And


The plethora of hand sanitizers on board

And


The elevators he never got to use because I insisted we take the stairs.

And


The super cheesy artwork in the stairways

And of course


The pug magnet we used to remind us which door was ours.

Alaskan Cruise (Wednesday)

Wednesday brought us to Skagway, Alaska. James and I had opted to take a hike with a local touring company.



The hike advertised a train ride and a hike, but it turned out the train ride was only about twenty minutes. We loved the hike. It was so nice to get off the beaten path and away from all the kitschy tourist traps and into a bit of the "wilderness." Most people don't know that Southern Alaska is a temperate rain forest (rain forest and Alaska usually don't bring up the same images), but they get so much moisture that plants grow really well and really dense. The dominate tree is the Sitka pine.



We had a really good time on the hike. The trail was fairly well groomed and pretty easy, so we made it about 2.5 miles in the couple of hours we had to hike. There were a few reasons we stopped, like to drink from a natural spring.



Or to look at the river we were hiking near.





We only saw one bird on the hike. The valley we were in is blocked at one end by a glacier, so animals can only get in the way we did or by coming over the mountains. As a result, there aren't too many in the area.



*See the guy holding his head? He wasn't paying attention to where he was walking and ran smack into the tree just behind us. It had recently fallen during a wind storm and had plenty of clearance for most people and was easy to see along the trail, but he somehow missed it and hit it so hard that it knocked him flat on his back. That was probably the most funny thing we saw on the trip.




 


While on our hike, the guides had us try various berries that were growing. We ate blueberries and another that was high in protein, but didn't taste so good. What we DIDN'T eat are these red bane berries. Evidently, eat two of these suckers and you're dead. I made sure to check James' pockets before we left to make sure he didn't grab a couple to slip in my salad later in the trip.

After the hike, the train came and picked us up and took us back to Skagway.


We had a few extra hours in Skagway, so we ate lunch (amazing fish and chips) and did the touristy thing.





Including finding the Sarah Palin store.



We got back on board the ship at 4:30 and just relaxed the rest of the evening. We took in the sunset.



And stayed up for the chocoholic bar. Arguably, that was the best food we had on the ship :)






Yes, that is a "life sized" chocolate Yoda.