mmmm....blueberries

Well, I certainly get behind on this whole posting thing, huh?

On Monday we went blueberry picking. It was a good day for it, although I missed my shoulders when I put on the sunscreen, so I ended up with a burn on each shoulder. It was uncomfortable to say the least.
After blueberry picking, we went to the Sun Festival in Tsawassen. (must check spelling). There wasn't really much, although the curly fries were good.

No new knitting of note, just plugging away at the same projects. I did, however, get a lot done - on Tuesday I decided to try to watch all 6 seasons of Gilmore Girls in order. This resulted in a lot of very bad knitting. Yesterday I watched so much Gilmore Girls, I started getting confused and talking very fast.
(And on one of my side notes - I only own Season 3 &4 of Gilmore Girls. My sisters, who are roommates, own 1,2,5, &6. Since I live a 45 minute drive from them, this seems a bit odd, to me at least.)

I should be called: The Last Minute Crafter

Here are some of the first few blackberries we've picked. They're not that great, but hey, early blackberries. I'd intended to post a picture of what the blackberries turned into, but, um, we ate it. We'll be doing more berry picking though.For my MIL's surprise birthday party, I made a bunch of tissue holders as favours, based on this tutorial. She asked me to make her a yellow one to put in a gift basket for a friend of hers, and we're going to see her tomorrow. So here is a picture of my table at about 9:30pm.


And here it is at about 11:00pm.

whew. Now off to bed. Sewing is not my strong suit, but these tissue holders are pretty straightforward. Of course, I made a few mistakes in the first one and had to do some ripping, but that's the way life is.

In which we discover I am seriously out of shape...

Today Stu and I went for a hike. We have gone on quite a few hikes in previous years, but this is the first one of this year. We chose Black Mountain. It was a bit funny - because of the Olympic construction in Cypress Bowl, they've rerouted a lot of the hiking trails. There are now huge giant signs that say things like: Hikers - start here. And Hikers - this way. I should have taken a picture.

We saw a bird bathing in a little puddle, and tried to take a picture of it, but by the time we had figured out how to use the camera, it had hopped on. It's in this photo, though:
If you have a whole basket of knitting WIPs, and several sewing projects ready to go in the other room, what is there to do but cast on for another project? Here it is posing for the new camera. Apparently we have a macro function, which will make taking pictures of close up things easier, on both cameras, and I just didn't know. I had solved this problem by taking lots of pictures and choosing the best one, but while I was choosing from this plethora of pictures, my husband leaned over and said 'you know the camera has a macro function?' I replied "What's a macro function?"and he followed with an explanation. I will summarize the explanation: when taking a picture of something close up, press the flower button. I still like this picture.

It's going to be a baby bootie. For my friend Jolene. Well, actually, her baby. I'm very excited. About the baby, not the bootie.

Still not very much crafting

going on, although I've spent a lot of time thinking about various crafts. I'm going to start crocheting some gloves, as they need to be done for September. Cryssie, Celine, and I are going to a 1920's/1930's style picnic in California, so we've divided up costume duties. Celine is taking the more onerous task of sewing the dresses. Cryssie is going to deal with hair and makeup. I got lucky - I got the easy task.
Last night we went to the fireworks. I didn't cook in time, so we went to Safeway and got a chicken dinner. The fireworks were very nice, although Stu had trouble getting a good picture. We were across the water from English Bay, so we had the backside view, but it was still great. (Except that there were people in chairs in front of me, so I had a bit of trouble seeing some of the fireworks, but it was okay).

And there is a mirrored building (all the windows are reflective) on English Bay, so we could see the reflection of the lower fireworks in the building. It was very impressive - all flow-y colours.

The music was good. It was all music from movie soundtracks, and they started and ended with music from Star Wars, which was appealing - I like symmetry.

Last minute gifts

I wonder why I always procrastinate? I knitted these fingerless gloves (Fetching) for Sarah's birthday a while ago, and just never got around to weaving in the ends. And her birthday BBQ is tomorrow, so guess what I did today?

I've knitted a few pairs of these. I really like the pattern - something about the cables is really appealing to me.

I hope I get better at picture taking. It's a mystery to me how other people's pictures come out so clearly.

Reminiscing

It's been warm, and I haven't felt like doing anything. Here is a picture to distract from my lack of activity:

2 years ago at this time we were on a train to Spain. We didn't take any pictures that day - these are pictures from July 13th, 2005. We went to a Spanish cathedral, the name escapes me but I'll look it up, and we climbed a tower on one side of it. This is the view part way up on one side.

And this is the view from another side, slightly higher up.

Beads and Shopping

Work in Progress! I am trying to make a little argyle dog sweater. This one will probably be for my friend's Siamese cat, if we can get him into it. Gloves may be necessary. More likely, we will lay it on top of him and fake a picture.

If not, hey, it's fun to knit. Right now, all of the stitches look loose, but they will look better after I finish the entire thing - all the ends in the back are just dangling right now and make the sweater look lumpy. I made one of these for Sarah's dog, and she looked very cute in it. (She was a puppy last winter, and so she found it cold outside as she had not yet grown her full adult coat).



Today Cryssie and Celine came over. We went out for lunch, then to the mall and looked at clothes. It was fun, although I did not buy this dress that Celine spotted. It was perfect, but I'm wary of spending the money. I'll see if I still want it next week.


After dinner, we sat and beaded for a while. Cryssie made a bead penguin. I made this bead angel. (Sorry for the fuzzy picture). I've been making these for awhile - I tried selling them on etsy, and did manage to sell one set of five, but now I am just making them to put on top of Christmas presents in December.