Pick Up Sticks

Avery

Our oldest son and DIL were expecting their first child - our first grandchild.  They had decided to wait and be surprised at birth instead of finding out ahead of time if it was a girl or boy.  For most of the pregnancy I was fine with this.  But closer to the due date I was getting anxious to buy some clothes for the baby - and gender neutral clothes are a thing of the past.  Everything is pink or blue - probably because nearly everyone finds out a head of time whether it is a boy or girl.

They had a sweet baby girl late Tuesday evening.  Despite being 7 lbs 2 oz which is an average sized baby she seems so tiny.  And of course she is just beautiful!  We were very surprised they had a girl.  My husband's family is very boy heavy - hubby has 3 brothers and of 10 grandchildren 9 are boys.  Everyone is healthy and happy.  I spent 2 hours yesterday afternoon just holding her while she slept - watching the ever changing faces a baby makes while she sleeps.  They named her Avery Lynn - which I LOVE.  Lynn is my late sister's name so it is sweet they honored her this way.

Here is her sweet little face when she is just a few hours old - so dear!

And despite not knowing the sex of the baby I knit two tiny sweaters - one boyish one and one pink - just in case!  Also knit two tiny hats - again one blue and one pink - for the baby to wear home from the hospital.

The pink sweater is called the 5 Hour Baby Sweater.

It took me much longer than 5 hours to knit because I am a slow knitter and because I upsized it a little bit for longer wear.  But I ADORE the color of the yarn.  The yarn was heavenly to knit with.  It is Miss Babs Yowza and the colorway is called Sugar - just perfect for a sweet little baby!  I highly recommend this yarn.

 

Looking Forward to the Weekend

Despite just getting back from a week off, I am looking forward to a long weekend.  It is always hard being back in the office after time off because there is always so much to get caught up.  I wish I had a job where someone picked up the slack when I was out of the office...sigh....

I am going to get up early each of the three days off and go for a nice long walk.  Even if it is just a leisurely walk it will be nice to get some fresh air...I was going to say fresh air and sunshine but I am not so sure it will be sunny this weekend.  While our winter has been mild it has also been very grey and dreary.

Sunday I have plans with my knit group to go to our LYS for an invitation only sale.  I am looking forward to that - although I really do not need any yarn....well maybe just a skein in green to make some St Pat's socks...or something for a baby knit....we'll see.

Monday I have plans to go shopping and buy some new clothes.  I wear the same thing all the time and could use some new pants and shoes! 

Then back home to try to clean my craft room...it really needs a good reorganization.  The room is too small for my needs...but I guess I just need to pare down my supplies and get creative with my organization.  One of the problems besides being small is that the room has a sloped ceiling so wall space is limited.  I am contemplating moving out the large armoire that is in there.  While I love this piece and it stores all my yarn, it is just too big for the room.  I don't want to get rid of this piece and I am not sure where else in my house it will fit.  Plus my hubby would need help moving it.  But moving out this large piece would free up the largest wall in the room.  I would love to put a long workspace along this wall with storage underneath and shelves above.  I believe this would be more practical for organizational purposes.

Oh the joy of a small home!

 

Carribean Cruise

Most people who know me know I am a homebody.  I've never been much of a traveler...hate plane trips.  But last week we took a Caribbean Cruise to celebrate my parents 50th wedding anniversary.  We went to Key West, Grand Cayman and Jamaica.  We had a wonderful time.  The weather was perfect and a great escape from the dreary winter weather in PA.

My favorite picture of the week is one I took on the balcony of our stateroom with the sun rise in the background.

We loved having a balcony.  We tended to be on the side of the ship to see the sunrise.  My hubby would go upstairs and get us a cup of coffee and tea and we would watch the sunrise each morning in our PJ's.  It was heavenly!

I had never been on a cruise before.  And while it is not a vacation I would want to take on a regular basis it was a wonderful escape from our stressful jobs.  The food was fabulous and so pretty at dinner each night.  Each plate displayed so beautifully and the food was very fresh and at times unique.  They had a changing menu each night and included a "Didja" on the menu - as in didja ever want to try...  Our son had told us to try new things this week because if you didn't like it they would bring you something else.  I had sushi as an appetizer several nights - way out of my comfort zone - it was tiny bites of sushi - not the typical sushi rolls I am used to seeing.  some I liked...some not so much.  We also tried Alligator bites - which were very good.  I did not try escargot or frog legs...couldn't do it.  I had some new to me fish - Basa - which I looked up at home and found it to be a type of Vietnamese catfish - although it was different from the catfish I have eaten at home.  This was probably my favorite dinner - Martini Braised Basa Fillet with tomato, chili and fennel.  Oh my goodness!  I could eat this every night!

We did the typical cruise excursions and enjoyed the Dunn's River Falls in Jamaica the best.  It was a climb up through a waterfall.  It was fun and a little challenging as I couldn't see out of my glasses once they got wet and I needed to take them off.  People were losing their glasses left and right - I tucked mine into my bathing suit (don't ask) but then couldn't see very well.  So I struggled a little as my depth perception was off.  But it was fun and I was able to keep up despite being woefully out of shape.  A picture is below.  At times you were working against rushing water and other times in waist deep water...climbing up about 900 feet to the top of the falls.

It was a wonderful week with my parents who were celebrating their 50th anniversary.  We had a wonderful time.  It was hard to leave 80+ degree weather and fly home into a snowstorm with high winds.  It was 20 degrees when we got off the plane with a wind chill of about 5 - welcome back to reality!

10 on Tuesday

I have never been a big fan of Valentine's Day.  It always seemed a little cheesy of a holiday.  why wait for one day a year to celebrate love...  but 28 years ago today our oldest son was born and Valentine's Day took on a whole new meaning!  Love you lots Jeremy!

Today I am joining up with Carole Knits for her 10 on Tuesday.  Topic this week is 10 Favorite Chocolate Treats.  I love chocolate- although I don't eat it much.  When I do I want it to be good dark chocolate.  With that said there are some chocolate treats I do like.

1. Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter icing - my favorite dessert.
2. Plain Vanilla Ice Cream with rich chocolate sauce...yummm!
3. Any kind of good dark chocolate.  You only need a tiny square to get your chocolate craving satisfied.
4. Chocolate Chip Cookies
5. Fudgy Brownies
6. Chocolate Truffles
7. Chocolate Melting Cake - just had this last week on our cruise - it was heavenly!  Tiny custard cup of rich chocolate cake which was served warm and had a gooey center.  Served with a tiny scoop of good vanilla ice cream on the side...so wonderful.
8. Chocolate Martini - heavenly!
9. Hot Chocolate with whipped cream.
10. Reese's Peanut Butter Cup - so basic yet sometimes it just hits the spot.
11. And I am going to break the rules and add an extra one.  This one is really my boys favorite.  A rich mini chocolate chip bundt cake which for years was their choice for their birthday cakes.  The recipe was on the back of the Hershey's Mini chocolate chips bag for years.  It was dense and delicious and so easy to make.