a "little" knitting

just a few things i'm working on-(l-r) cherry (just completed, need to sew on buttons), gilligan (maybe getting frogged, so on hold right now), summer splendor shawlette (peeking out of the cowboy bag, am re-doing the edge), one leaves of whimsy sock (completed), and paulie is in my lap-have separated the sleeves and body so this should start going real fast. waiting to be photographed espresso runched yoke tee  and flower basket shawlette. waiting to be swatched is lavaliere. couldn't resist lunch outside a cool breeze and 87 with very low humidity for a july!  happy friday ya'll-looking forward to seeing PJ tonight along with snacks and margaritas for dinner, and then hanging out with family tomorrow.

what i like right now-adult snacks

enjoying a small snack of cashews, dried cranberries and a very small broken square of 85% cacoa-mmmm very grown up. so different from the candy bars of my "youth". the only thing missing is a glass of wine, then again I AM at work! how about you?

monday moment: rewind to saturday.

thinking back on saturday-so enjoyed not having anywhere i had to be. time to take in some morning sunshine, and listen to the bugs (not sure what they were but they were noisy!)

being able to enjoy devotion time, coffee and knitting after my morning exercise completed, and a load of wash going-also accomplished some knitting, sleeve setting-in, weaving in of a gazillion ends, sewing a project bag, and a couple new recipes. love these moments

Traveler's Tips for the Business Traveler Going to Maryland

a few travel trips if you happen to go to themiddleofnowhere, maryland. i was in either adelphi and hyattsville-take your pick. be able to speak spanish, in case you need directions-LOTS of latin bakeries, if that's your thing.  if you go to franklin's DO have the roasted mediterranean flatbread-DON'T have the bread pudding (great flavors, but a huge portion and the bread was not substantial enough). DO stop at a tangled skein-love that they had claudia's hand painted sock yarn and some pretty stitch markers. i do like to help the LYS when i can.  however, it made me really appreciate cast on cottage's selection and ambiance. this was a nice store with very nice people ( a lively bunch for the weekly knit night), but it was also very small and not well lite. if you rent a car DO utilize the map they give you and check your google directions against the map, or rent a GPS to prevent your from going to a different state to get to the airport. i'm glad i had plenty of time to get lost, more than once.DO remember maryland does not tolerate aggressive drivers or speeders-road signs clearly indicate this. DO plan to make multiple u-turns as you get no notice of upcoming junctions, and the right hand lane will cease to exist without warning.  renting a car on this trip reaffirmed why i like to go to a big city with a transit system, or is very pedestrian friendly. if you want an adult beverage to enjoy in your room, but don't want to go to the bar-find a liquor store as the grocery stores do not sell beer or wine OR you can enjoy a peach cosmo in the hotel bar-a very frothy treat! DO find a place that does crabcakes the right way, i had the MD crabcake sliders at the garden restaurant that was attached to our hotel-delish and the perfect size-all crabmeat! also, the homemade ships were awesome-DO refrain from eating the entire bowl of onion dip too! DO get out for a walk to see the area-the campus really was lovely, and DO look in the closet for the coffee pot-i know i thought the same thing (it was supposed to be in the cabinet under the tv that was clearly marked-ice bucket and coffee maker). all in all a great trip, good food to be had, i completed the leg of a sock, loved the citrus water they had in the lobby-will be stealing this idea myself- worked on my gilligan sweater, and enjoyed some quiet time.
clarification for some photos- the gold & white spires "thing" is the Latter Day Saints Temple in DC, spotted this on I-495, oh and the license plate says "taxation without representation" which i find hilarious.

fabric, firearms, flambee and cake

The Dixie stars crossed 3 states to visit maryjo’s in Gastonia nc, this place is massive, but we used a divide and conquer approach with great success. No photos on the quilting front or at lunch, but we had a great time. Kathy has this really cool app on her phone that uses a gps to give you a list of quilt shops in the area. We went to the quilted thimble cottage which is a lovely place that until recently had only provided quilting service, but has begun to carry fabrics. The people there were super nice, so if you are in Belmont, NC, look them up. Here’s what I got at maryjo’s and the quilt shop-I have plans for project bags for a lot of what I got, and was thrilled to get a piece of backing for a queen size quilt top I made, and I won’t have to piece it together (yea!).

The quilt shop in Belmont was located on a 2nd floor of an old building in the downtown area, and this sign was posted on the door next to the entrance. totally random i know, but I couldn’t resist, and since we had no idea what this “place”

The awesome thing about having someone else who likes to cook in the house is that Andrew had dinner well in hand and I didn’t have to do anything but sit down and eat when we got back at 6:45 pm (we departed Acworth at 6 am!) he did a great job grilling chicken-AND since I like to get a jump on Sunday lunch, we seared pork loin chops and decided to throw in some fresh peaches and garlic-Andrew has this “thing” with fire and he wanted to flambee the dish, so we added bourbon and fire-I should have captured the photo earlier cause it burned a little longer than I thought. The chops were very good BTW.

Since we had some raspberries that needed to be used, I had Andrew make a cake from the recent bon appétit blackberry buttermilk cake-very tasty-and I’d say a pretty good Saturday-how was yours?

monday moment-they said it was a 10K

kathy and i are road race ready-weather was great, there was a breeze every now and then. kathy wore a piedometer, and it registered that we really walked 12.98 miles! wow REALLY? it was great fun and we're definitely both in for another one next year.

food adventure

last week andrew and i went on an excursion to buford highway which is known in atlanta as THE place for ethnic food. we had tacos at taco veloz-yum very simple (andrew had a beef tongue taco-i couldn't watch) we also shared a bowl of noodles at chef liu and dumplings very tasty. prior to that we wandered the isles of the buford highway farmers market-what a place-well worth the drive

andrew checks out the hot sauce section-LOTS to chose from

an aloe leaf

chayote thorn-no idea what this is, was in the fruit section

dorian fruit-was an ingredient on chopped once

jack fruit-probably should have used a hand to give an idea of scale-these are larger than a cantaloupe, but smaller than a watermelon

the mushroom selection was amazing-too bad andrew doesn't like the fun-gi (guy)

a very pretty parrot fish-the seafood section was pretty impressive-lots of fish i'd never heard of

what we bought-loved finding a very small can of coconut milk-not sure what i'll do with it yet- there were some very good prices on a lot of things here. if you are looking for asian ingredients this is definitely the place.  our day wrapped up with a quick stop at cast on cottage to get some yarn for 2 sweaters (thank to mary for her help!) it was fun seeing the other ladies too. i took andrew on a quick tour of the area of roswell where i grew up-then home for shrimp enchiladas- look forward to more of these this summer.

what i like right now-a summer breeze

enjoyed lunch outside yesterday with my knitting, and a fresh peach!-love that there is a slight breeze on a very warm summer afternoon.

hopefully the photo relays this. i really tried to get a photo with me smiling-i'll keep working on this.