Monday, January 29, 2007

Projects

For those of you who didn't know, I spent much of December on bed rest due to a muscle torn to bits in my leg. Although the first week was a loss because of the meds, I was rather productive for the most part. Doing what you ask? Projects! Using my Happy Hooker crochet book, I taught myself the basics of crochet. I have since made two scarves, three hats, and a poncho. The above hat/poncho set (modeled by my lovely assistants) are a gift for my friend's one year old daughter.
Have no fear knitting friends! I have not given up the yarn art with two sticks. Here is a scarf I made using my husband's idea of creating length by placing a hole at the neck. One side of the scarf gets pulled through the hole without being wrapped all the way around!

So there you have it. Between my Christmas gift of every episode of Friends ever made and my love for all things yarn, I have been quite a busy gal!
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Friday, January 19, 2007

Christmas 2006

Well, it was Christmas after all. And what is a Christmas without some baking. I wanted to build my first Gingerbread house this year, from scratch. So I invited my Mother-In-Law over to teach me how to bake one in exchange for cookies.
This first picture is one of the walls coming out of the oven with a Jolly Rancher window.


Next you can see the building coming into shape. I'm using chewing gum for roof shingles. I purchased just enough from the store, but my wife and her mother had four sticks of gum while waiting for me to finish. But I wouldn't finish without at least three more sticks of gum.

Here is the finished product. Complete with lights! Above is the back of the house and below is the front, with a pool just out of sight. Special thanks also go to Shana and Aunt Beth for the extensive decorating.

On Christmas Eve I got a jumpstart on a 3D puzzle of San Francisco that I got last year. I got it done in less than a day.

Erin dropped the hint about this book only a few times. Many people were confused why she would ask for such a book, until they knew the subject matter. (It's about crocheting, a form of knitting with a hook-ended needle)

On New Year's Eve I was a barrel of laughs. I started by dancing with Erin until I crashed onto the floor. The Sandman hit me hard.

But while I was down for the count Erin and her mom were partying like there was no tomorrow, apparently. At least they were color coordinated.








Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Internet Family Connections

I think the internet is great, don't you? It allows us to keep in touch with family and friends, and extended family that we may never have known about. Below is an email Erin received a few days ago in response to a previous blog posting (Grandma's Rant). Read it, it even contains a genealogy that we may have too soon forgotten:

Erin--I am married to your cousin Peter Selph, a son of Mary (Graham) Jones Selph Allen. She was a sister to your grandfather Graham. I found your blog this morning while I was trying to google Aunt Jean's Maytag ad. I did that a couple of years ago and found a copy of it for sale on an antique shop site.

I thought you might like to know, if you already don't, that the piano in the ad (and at your grandmother's house) was given to your great-grandmother Beulah (Galt) Graham Kinseyon her sixteenth birthday as a present from her father, Thomas R. Galt.

The first time I saw the ad was in 1972 when I was living in Brownwood, TX. Iwas about 13 years old and on a trip with my mother. During that time my grandmother was ill and my father was working a temporary job in Carlsbad. We were on the road a lot and mother always took along lots of magazines. After I flipped through one, she asked if there was anything interesting in it...I said only this ad with an antique piano in it. Then I complained about the people in the ad blocking the view of the piano! But I always liked those Maytag ads because of the letters the women sent in. Years rolled by. I married Peter in 1983. More years rolled by and I went with Mary to visit your grandparents on one of my trips to Albuquerque. Mary had told me about the piano being given to her mother as present, but she never mentioned the Maytag ad. We were sitting at your grandmother Jean's, looking at the piano, and Jean and Mary started talking about the Maytag ad. Then I remember that I had seen the ad. By then, Peter and I had been married for at least 15 years or more. Small world!!!!

Enjoyed your blog,
Kathy Duncan


Thank you, Kathy! We really enjoyed reading your email. I hope you don't mind if we share it.
Joshua Hardwick

Monday, January 15, 2007

(I know it's January, but...) Thanksgiving!

After our amazing vacation to the east coast, we came home for 21 hours of laundry for me, work for Joshua, repack, and catch another plane for San Jose. Joshua's work had needed him to do a job in the Bay Area the day before Thanksgiving so it became a free flight for the two of us. Check out that awesome turkey! My husband is quite the chef.
Joshua's parents came down from Seattle to celebrate with us. Debbie had a beautiful table set for the meal. We enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving feast complete with ....
Our famous pumkin ice cream pie! This has become Walter's (not pictured) favorite dessert ever. William helped Uncle Joshua crush the cookies for the crust and he helped Aunt Erin put the whipped cream on top -only a little went in our mouths!

Since none of the families present would be seeing each other for Christmas, we celebrated that holiday too. We even went to see the Christmas tree lighting in San Fransisco's Union Square. Avoid it if you can. But it was a great kickoff to the Christmas Season!