Airy Crocheted Sweater - Done

This weekend I finished up my airy crocheted sweater. It was supposed to be a shrug, but turned out a lot bigger, so I'm just calling it a sweater now, LOL. I used a different yarn than the pattern called for, so I think that had something to do with it. If I ever make this one again, I will need to use smaller hooks or different yarn. I did a gauge swatch at the beginning and it seemed like the sizing was right on, so I'm not sure what went wrong. At least I can still wear it. It makes for a nice cover-up over a summer dress or a tank top.

Here it is.


Here is more detail on the ruffles in the front.


And here's the close-up on the end of the sleeve.


Overall this airy sweater took me about 9 days working on it on two weekends and an hour or two a night? It didn't take me long at all to crochet the main parts actually. It was the sewing it together with yarn, crocheting the front ruffles and bottom, and weaving in the yarn ends that took so long.

My next project will be a skirt. Or maybe a felted bag. Not sure which yet. :)

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Lara's Birthday Party

A few weeks ago, my friend Lara's husband Rupert sent us a message on Facebook. He was planning a surprise 40th birthday party for Lara and wanted to give us details. What a sweet thing to do! We put the date on our calendars and kept our mouths shut, although it was hard not to say, "See you Saturday!" last week. :p

Finally the party was yesterday at 11:00AM. San Diego has FINALLY gotten warm this past week. Warm enough that we got up early at 6:20AM yesterday to go run at the coast. I ran 5.5 miles in an hour and felt pretty good, considering the heat. I sweated a lot, but was not dying. I stopped bringing my camera on my Saturday runs. Now that we're not running with a running club, I feel it's more important to bring my cell phone with me. My running waist pouch only fits either a camera or a cell phone, but not both. After the run, we went home to shower. Then we immediately left to go pick up Todd' car from the car repair shop. As you know, Todd's car had been in the car shop for 2.5 weeks, getting a transmission rebuild. There were snafus with the wrong transmission being delivered and such. We finally got to pick it up yesterday. Todd feels at home again! Funny how much your activities and identity is associated with your car.

After picking up Mystery Machine (yes, that's our green Explorer's name), we drove down to Mission Bay to Lara's party. It was a GORGEOUS day in San Diego. Some parts of the city was very warm, to be sure. But there were big breezes at Mission Bay and it was only around 80, so it was perfect!

Rupert had several tents set up for the party.


It was a Star Wars themed party! Lara told me that it's like the party she wanted when she was 7 years old, ha ha!  Here's one of the pinatas that was filled with candy.


Coolest cake ever!


Lara's badge said "Birthday Jedi Knight".


Our very own taco stand!  (Photo pilfered from Lara's Facebook.)


Guess who ran 8 miles and was hungry and first in line???

Sally was 2nd and I was 3rd in line. To defend myself, I got a plate of food for the birthday girl too, who was too modest to cut in line!

Nom nom, lots of good Mexican condiments!


We brought some chairs and lounged under the tents while chatting and eating. There were cool breezes blowing our way. It was really perfect!


We gathered around Lara to sing happy birthday! The cake was not only cool, but delicious as well, with whipped cream frosting and peaches inside!


Me, Lara, and Sally - friends since 7th grade.


We loved being there to celebrate with Lara. Whenever I get together with these two, I feel super-duper blessed with their friendship. It's amazing to me that we met when we were 12 years old, in a different city, and we're still friends at 40 years old, all living here in San Diego. I kind of think it's a miracle and feel so blessed by our long-standing friendship.

So, to celebrate that, a blast from the past!

Lara, me, and Sally in 1997, when I visited San Diego from Ohio.

Check out my "wall of bangs"! ha ha

Sally, me, and Lara at Sally's house, Christmas 1988. Wow, seriously, we were 18!

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Kool and the Gang

Todd found out that Kool and the Gang was coming to the Embarcadero to play with the San Diego Symphony Pops on Saturday, July 10th, so he got tickets for us.  Who doesn't like to "Celebrate" and "Get Down On It"?? Todd emailed some of our friends to ask if anyone wanted to come with us. Sally ended up being the only one who could go, so the three of us made a date last Saturday.

First we had dinner together at World Curry in Pacific Beach. Sally and I had gone last year with Lara for our girls get-together last year, but Todd had never been.

I had chicken tikka masala.

and it was yummy.

The naan was sort of weird and buttery, I've never had naan like that before!


After dinner we piled into Sally's car and drove downtown. We hit a few dead ends (literally), but finally made it to the parking lot next to the convention center. Then we walked down to the Embarcadero Marina to enjoy the concert. What we love about this venue is that you are allowed to bring in food and drinks, as long as there are no glass bottles. We got general seating and brought a blanket to sit on. Todd made homemade caramel popcorn and it was SO delicious, Sally and I couldn't stop eating it. We also brought some salt and vinegar potato chips.

Sun starting to set when we got there.


The stage after dark.


Sally and I on our blanket, enjoying the music.

We actually did stand up and dance most of the time!

The stage and the San Diego skyline at night.


Guess who?


At the end of the concert, Kool and the Gang played their famous "Celebration" song, and there was a fireworks show over the bay.


It was really beautiful!


We try to go to one San Diego Symphony Pops summer concert per year, because the tickets are very reasonable, it's great fun, and there's always fireworks afterwards. :)

If you're not familiar with Kool and the Gang, here are some of their songs. They were still great at this concert, after being together for 35 years!

Celebration

Get Down On It

Too Hot

Jungle Boogie

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Beachy Keen Doodles

The freebies that I created for the Little Dreamer Designs Apprentice program aren't accessible anymore at the LDD galleries, so I thought I would move them over here one by one and give them away again. If you didn't get a chance to download from the LDD galleries before, here are the Beachy Keen Doodles.


:: Download Here ::

I used 4shared for this one, because box.net wouldn't let me upload files that are bigger than 25MB, and this one is 30MB. Hope you enjoy using these, especially now that it's summer and it's beach time!

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Work In Progress

I've been playing with my knitting needles and crochet hooks again. And yarn. I'm not sure why it's so comforting, perhaps because the weather this summer in San Diego has been so unseasonably chilly. This whole week we've had temperature in the low 60's and hardly any sun at all. Makes me want to go get a white chocolate mocha latte right now, LOL.

I used to knit a lot, but I haven't in 4-5 years. I knitted these arm warmers as practice, to make sure I still remembered how to cast-on, knit, and cast-off.


They're still too warm and thick for summer, obviously.
I made it with bulky yarn and big size 13 needles. The pattern is free here, but you'll need to create an account to see it.

My work in progress is an airy shrug for the summer that I can wear over tank tops and cute dresses. I'm almost halfway done and I only started yesterday. This is a crochet project. It's from the book "The Happy Hooker". :p


Hopefully I can finish it this weekend! :)

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