Viking Tea Party

Vroooom!

I've actually been doing a bit of crocheting recently. It's simple and mindless but that's what I need since it gets picked up and put down several times a day.

It's a racetrack rug (Ravelry Link) for Emmett's first birthday. I'm pretty damned proud of myself because I had the feeling when I started it that there was no way I could stick with it. Five thousand plus single crochets later and I'm halfway through the road with only the one row of loopy grass and two green rows to go after that! 

I'm also going to crochet a couple of cars to go with it using the Steve the Car (Ravelry Link) pattern, minus the buttons for eyes and hubcaps. I think he'll be old enough to play with it at one year old. If not, it'll keep!

I started it at knit group during my very last minute trip to Ohio last month. Last minute as in "bought a ticket on Thursday, left on Friday". It was expensive and stupid but things were bad and I needed to go. Travelling alone with Emmett wasn't as hard as I expected it to be but I can say I will never, ever fly through O'Hare again. That was a nightmare. NIGHT. MARE.

Unfortunately, I managed to leave without downloading Dad's photos and I used his camera for the most part since I didn't travel with the laptop and couldn't download from my camera to his laptop without buying an SD card reader. I did end up with photos from our trip to the Columbus Zoo, though.

This kid loves to eat and he really enjoyed his first Dippin Dots experience!

This is my favorite part of going to the zoo - feeding the lorikeets.

He really enjoyed playing on a blanket in Granny and Paw Paw's backyard. He can't go five minutes without climbing into Mommy's lap when I'm around but since I was inside, he played on his own for over an hour!

I miss the sleeveless weather. Here it's the end of July and most days I'm in jeans and a jacket. I know it's in the nineties in Ohio and that's not ideal but I'd gladly trade temperatures for a least a day or two.

We took Emmett to the beach at the end of last month...in sweatershirts and long pants. He loved it, though.

The Ohio trip did help with the depression and homesickness...for a bit. England and I are having a hard time learning to love one another. I'm trying, though. Each day is a little battle - thank goodness for my blue-eyed men.

I'll end this ridiculously long, Emmett photo filled update with a bit of book. My friend Delly sent me a link to this article about the Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones books. I watched the first couple of episiodes of the series based on the first book but even though I really enjoyed it, I couldn't keep up. Babies do that. I wasn't sure I would really enjoy the books, though - I was afraid thay might be...too sci-fi fantasy to put it simply. When I read the words "historical fiction" in the article, though, I was sold and walked into town immediately to buy it. I'm a mere (the first book is over 700 pages, after all) two hundred pages in and already look forward to picking it up every time I have to put it down. I find the characters a little unweildy and have to consult the appendix every once in awhile but I'm really enjoying it and am thinking about taking advantage of Waterstones 3 for 2 sale to get the next three in the series....

A True Friend and Saint

While I was on a last minute trip to Ohio (more on that another day), my friend Kim did something really neat and rather ambitious on her blog - she matched her friends to saints. Over twenty of them. That's a lot of work!

I was lucky enough to have been given Raymond, Mothers of Infants which was especially apropos as Emmett and I travelled solo to the states and it was really a challenge to my motherhood. A good challenge and one that wasn't as tough as I thought it would be (it helps that I gave birth to an angel) but a challenge never the less.

Kim is really amazing and I wanted to return this favor in kind. And I tried. I looked at lists of saints by name and by subject and nothing really encompassed everything that she stands for.

So I made one up.

Kim's saint is Saint Hyer...

 

Saint of the Cowboy Boot

I chose this saint not just because Kim loves her boots (and was even married in a pair) but because there really is a bit of her in a good pair of boots. For one thing, she's as colorful and quirky as the really unique kind - like the ones above that she mentioned on her blog some time ago. The past year and more has been difficult (to say the very, very least) but she remains sturdy, standing as tall as she possibly could in these circumstances. And, to continue this little bit of cheesiness, she's reliable. Always there with a comment or a quick email that just brightens your day - seemingly when I need it the most. 

I'm very fortunate to have met her all those years ago when her love of handsome celebrities (another thing she's really good at: posting eye candy on her blog) led her to put together the Knitter's Hunk competition. We may not have met up before I left for the UK but I think a night in Nashville for some music and unending chatter will happen some day, I really do.

P.S. Kim, I did an extensive search for a photo of Hugh Laurie in cowboy boots - alas, I couldn't find one. :)