Missoni

What a crazy scene when I arrived at Target this morning to shop the launch of the Missoni line!  There were teams of shoppers cleaning out the shelves and racks of all of the products as fast as they could before another shopper came along.  They were communicating by cell phone with other shoppers in a coordinated attempt to score exactly what they were looking for.  I just happened to be there at the right time to get exactly what I had wanted.  If I had left the house a bit later there would have been nothing left.  Target's website crashed from all of the shoppers.  Clerks said they had never seen anything like it before. When I shopped the launch of the Liberty of London collection I found some great stuff that I could fit into in the girls department, so I headed there today and the leggings in the photo were from the girls department.  They're so soft and cozy.  I love them. 

september's garden

 this year's dahlias

hi mr. froggie!

jelly!

it took all day to pick this year's white currant crop.

here's the white currant juice.

nothing but fruit and organic sugar....no pectin needed with currants.
they are naturally loaded with pectin.
once the warmed sugar is added to the simmering pot of juice the juice turns to a honey color. all of that fruit produced ten half pints of jelly. jelly is so much more work to make than jam. but it sure is pretty!

bracelet

crochet bracelet

yarn: Habu Textiles A-174 1/8.5 Cotton Gima
it feels like paper
pattern from: 風工房の小さなクロッシェレース

Happy Birthday Dear Husband!

Marionberry of course.

sunshine

splayed out on the sofa, watching wimbledon semi-finals
on a spectacularly sunny florabundant day,
when ordinarily I would be at work,
reflecting on a life fully lived.
my sister's torture is finally over
and she can at long last rest in peace.

wool flowers

I started this in April,
took a long break for puppy house training,
and finished today.

pattern from
ぽかぽかニットこもの > Motif Book モチーフBOOK

Shore Run

I ran my first 5K yesterday in support of immunotherapy research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Along the shore of Lake Washington, by beautiful homes and gardens, I ran the whole way without stopping, even up the hills, fulfilling my goal. I wasn't concerned about my time. I just wanted to see if I could actually run a 5K, and I did. I came in 12th out of 26 runners in my age group, and beat the average race time. Yeay, above average! During the whole race I was thinking about my sister's struggle with cancer, and if she has fought so hard in her battle then surely I could complete a 5K. I did it for her.
Thank you sponsors for supporting such a great cause.

Shore Run

If you don't have a smart phone then you can go here

Shades of Grey

From Mitch Albala's Understanding Simplification and Massing for Landscape Painters workshop.

Reflection Pool

Bloedel Reserve Reflection Pool inspired by a drawing by Robin Siegl
Perfect Sunday morning walk.

Asleep in Comfort

I sewed two pillows together, featured in the previous post's video, to make a puppy bed this morning. Nellie loves it.

Puppy!

I will write about this later.
View videos of our new puppy:
Puppy First Weekend
Puppy After One Week

Watch This

Amazing event in Spain!

Messing Around in Photoshop

That's Corelopsis pauciflora in the background from our garden.

Finished

Here is the latest sweater that has been cast off my needles.

Pattern: Wrenna
Yarn: Lambs Pride Bulky
I lengthened the sleeves and body from the instructions.
Wow, it is a warm sweater!

Tsunami

Has anyone else had a tsunami dream lately? While growing up in a coastal town and now living in a coastal town one is keenly aware of the power of the sea. It seeps into your being, your unconscious, and never lets go of its grip. You wade in waters known to be inhabited by sharks. You hear stories through the years of people, including your own father, sucked out to sea through the undertow (fortunately for him that was not his ultimate demise). While the videos of horrific events from Japan unfold on t.v. one can't help but internalize all the emotions that they generate.

When my son was around eleven years old we were walking on Baker Beach, just west of the Golden Gate Bridge, when a rogue wave picked him up and started to drag him into the Pacific Ocean. That moment will be etched in me forever. The sheer terror of watching a helpless child, with panic on his face, drawn into the clutches of a force beyond anyone's control was beyond comprehension. We were able to save him, but he would not go anywhere near bodies of water for years afterward.

I think of that Baker Beach moment, and how lucky we all were with the outcome, when viewing the events in Japan. The worst was seeing a photograph of parents finding the drown body of their teenage daughter in her drivers ed car amongst the tsunami's detritus. How do you go on after that?

The blackness of the tsunami's water was echoed in my dream. What could be more counterintuitive than water that is black?

Ceramic artists are holding an auction called Handmade for Japan to benefit the ceramic artist communities that were damaged by the temblor between Sendai and Tokyo.

My heart goes out to the people of Japan.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

This is on the needles, with only the sleeves to go.

scarf

Jaeger Siena cotton yarn
crochet pattern from
Natural Style Clothing & Accessories (ナチュラルスタイルの服と小物）
by Yumiko Kawaji (川路 ゆみこ)

Painting in the Kitchen Sink

Sometimes extraordinary pleasure
can come from the least expected sources,
such as the kitchen sink.
After cooking up some beets
and Italian sausages
the resulting color scheme was delightful.