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I owe you all an apology.  We left on a vacation — of sorts — on
Wednesday.  I meant to post while I was away and then got carried away
by the sun and the water and well, just the sheer relaxation of it all,
and never did sit down at the computer for more than a stray minute
here and there. (and, for those of you who missed yarn talk, I promise
there is a little bit in the last paragraph).

It was actually a business trip.  The Judge and I both had to be at the
same conference, so we took the littles along and made a vacation out
of it.  We were in Point Clear, Alabama, one of my favorite places on
earth.  It’s a wonderful place where you can enjoy the Pelicans and the
boardwalk and the Royal Red Shrimp, steamed just hours after it has
been caught.  It truly is heaven on earth.

Bad me — it never occurred to me to take the battery charger for my
camera along, so I have very few photos.  And this is the real reason I
need to apologize to you.  We came across the most amazing sight in
tiny little Daphne, Alabama.  A farmer had planted one of his fields in
Sunflowers.  Rows and rows of huge beautiful Sunflowers in full bloom.
It was an incredible sight, but unfortunately, I’m going to have to ask
you to imagine it, because I wasn’t able to take a picture.  I’m still
kicking myself.

Here are a few photos I was able to get before the battery suddenly, and with no warning, quit on me.

This picture is of the newly rebuilt boat houses on the Bay.  It was
Ivan, not Katrina, that whipped through here, but there was a lot of
damage.  You can see one dock that hasn’t been rebuilt yet if you look
closely, but most of them have been redone.

Woo found a little Hermit Crab at the edge of the water and brought it
up for closer inspection by his brother and sister.  He also managed to
wipe out on the slippery rocks in the process, but I’ll spare him the
embarrassing photo.  The Crab was very cool.

This is one of the squadrons of Pelicans that endlessly fascinated us.
How they fly those intricate patterns is a total mystery.  I’m
convinced they are far more intelligent than we are.  They have to be,
to be able to do that.

Finally, this last picture is sweet Miss Ellie, who loves the water as
much as I do.  This picture pretty much sums it up.  Being on the water
is perfection!

Strangely, this was a no-knitting, no-art trip for me, something that
hasn’t happened in years.  I did have plans to knit on the Giotto Tank,
but it needed ripping, due to an evil stitch that came off the needles
and ran in transport, and I never managed to sit down and work on it.
Instead, I reread the sixth Harry Potter book and have big plans to
spend tomorrow (my birthday!) reading the new book.

Finally, for those of you who need crack yarn news: I did manage to stock a bit of new yarn at both Elliebelly and at Elliebelly at Hyena Cart
before we left.  A few of you found it, even though I forgot to tell
y’all.  There is still a bit there and I have some really exciting
dyeing plans for this week, involving this very cool
Merino/Bamboo/Nylon blend that is going to be the making of some
fabulous socks and shawls.  Go check out the yarn if you have time.  I
promise to have lots of knitting and dyeing to show you this week.  I’m
also getting pretty close to getting my Ravelry
invite I think, maybe six days away.  I’ve already got lots of my
photos organized in anticipation, and am really looking forward to it!
One last picture, here’s one of my favorite yarns from last week, a
Blue Faced Leicester aran weight yarn in my "Treasure" colorway.

It was a pretty amazing mail day here.  I thought I would share.

First up, a package from DJ Pettit.  DJ, I love you!

DJ took a picture of my daughter, played with it in Photoshop, and used it as the main image in the most amazing purse I’ve ever seen.  It’s actually a piece of art I’m going to carry on my shoulder. 

The picture doesn’t even begin to do justice to all the amazing detail work in this piece.  It’s so pretty!  You just have to run your fingers over it to appreciate the quilting and the little piece that give the design so much depth and subtlety in person.

Here’s the back.

I feel so lucky to have it!  And if that wasn’t enough, I got a package from Shanna in Japan.

Shanna sent…..FABRIC!

It’s fabulous!  I was so excited to pull it all out and look at it!  And the twill tape with hedgehogs she sent along with it is  too much fun.

Here it is all spread out.

I’m hoarding Echino fabric so that I can do a Japan-inspired fabric collage book.  But I think the sunflowers and ladybugs are going to have to be a cute jumper for Ellie.  Ewwww!  I may actually have to sew some clothes instead of doing fabric collage.  I’m not sure I can dust off those unused skills from my childhood, but this is the kind of fabric that makes you think about calling in sick to work for the week and getting on with it!

Thanks Shanna and DJ!  It was a truly wonderful mail day!

This is my entry for this week’s Wednesday Stamper theme, Polka Dots.

Sometimes, you forget the little things.  I hope I won’t ever forget Ollie’s first t-ball game Tuesday night.  I hope I won’t forget the way it looked more like a football scrimmage than baseball  As soon as anyone hit a ball, every kid on the field ran after it and they ended up in a tangle on the ground.  They took it all very seriously, like only four year olds can.

Here is my favorite thing

It is true in every picture I took.  Ollie didn’t walk like a lot of the other kids did.  And he didn’t always run fast.  But he is in the air in every picture I have of him running bases.  I’m not sure if he was jumping, or if he was flying.  I have no idea how my baby got to be so big.

I took a class with my friends, the sadly blogless Jennifer P., who is a photography goddess, and the sadly blogless Camilla, who should have a blog devoted to the incredible things she bakes.  We learned to make wire wrapped jewelry and it was a blast.

Here are the earrings I made last night.

I’m in love with them!  After practicing with copper wire, we used 20 gauge sterling wire, so it was very easy to work with.  At our next class, we start working on bracelets in the same style.  Almost as much fun as the class was the fact that the Judge was home doing schoolwork with four children.  Simple pleasures.

I know I have been abnormally silent this week, so I t hought I would let you all know that I’m still here, knitting and making art, but we’ve had a very full few days.  While the storms were moving through Alabama last week, our youngest son was having some bad problems with his asthma and ended up in the hospital over the weekend.  He is home and doing great, although I think he left some very bemused nurses behind.  He is the only four year old I know who takes great delight in responding to questions like, "do you take your asthma medication regularly" with "I decline to answer on the basis of my fifth amendment privilege" — his new favorite phrase.  He’s fun, this child.

So, we sat in the emergency room the morning after the storms, for what I thought was just a quick trip in for a breathing treatment.  Only we were there for HOURS.  Time stops in that emergency room, I just know it.  And it was freezing cold.  Ollie and I, however, were nice and toasty thank you very much, because I had stuck the almost finished Clapotis into my bag so I could weave in the ends and run the stitches in the rest of the rows.  I have renewed appreciation for the Clapotis — it is big enough to wrap a baby up in, while continuing to work on it.  Ollie refers to it as his "blue cape" and wore it the entire time we were there.

We are getting back to normal here and my thoughts are turning to socks.  First off, I’m getting ready to score some sock yarn to dye up for some of my girlfriends from the Parents Place board I frequented when I was pregnant with my daughter.  I’m going to paint up some luxurious, lofty blue-face Leicester yarn for the group of us (some very talented knitters in this group) and we’re going to sock-a-long.  Last night, I sat down and casted on for a pair of socks out of my lovely new Colinette Jitterbug sock yarn. 

This picture does not begin to do justice to this wonderful yarn!  Just wait and see!

Go figure.  They haven’t had a decent snow storm in New England all winter.  But somehow, we managed to land ourselves right in the middle of a real Nor’easter.

The snow didn’t start until late on Tuesday.  So we had an entire morning in Vermont, one of the most stunningly beautiful places in the world.

A little squirrel greeted us outside the entrance to the school we were going to look at.

Early in the morning, Bob and Teddy were still smiling before the novelty of walking around in the snow wore off.

It was C-O-L-D.  Not yet snowing, but bitterly cold in the way that only New England can be.  And incredibly beautiful.  I had forgotten how much I love the mountains and the sound of snow crunching beneath my feet.

The school had an amazing rope course and this beautiful stairway.

And the trees looked like a fairyland.

We left Vermont and drove down past Stowe, on towards Brattleboro, and into Massachusetts.  We stopped to see a second school there.  It was dark by the time we left, but by then, we knew there was some serious snow coming, so we decided to get as far as we could towards our destination for Wednesday morning.  We drove and drove.  Sometime around 10:00 p.m., it started snowing.  And around the same time, we realized that our assumption that there would be hotels scattered all along the highway was incorrect and we were in a deserted corner of Connecticut.  Who knew there was such a thing?  Fortunately, our oldest son was still up and his help on google led us to the most wonderful bed and breakfast, just down the road from our next school.  The innkeeper installed us in a beautiful room with a high beamed ceiling and a sauna.  There was a fabulous little alcove for Teddy, who promptly went to sleep.

There wasn’t much snow on the ground by morning — definitely not the two feet we had been hoping for.  Our little balcony had just a light dusting of snow.

We drove up the street to our next school, and had a wonderful visit with them.  The school was fantastic and we actually enjoyed sliding around and playing in the freezing rain.

Things got a little bit more interesting after we left the school.  There weren’t very many people out on the roads and even though they had been plowed at some point, there was a good bit of snow and ice on them.  Our next school was about an hour and a half away, still in Connecticut, so we slogged through it and are now happily ensconsced in a very comfortable Hampton Inn — the kind with the new comfy beds.  It doesn’t sound like we’re going to have an easy time making it to our school in the morning, but it’s been a really wonderful adventure despite a bit of inconvenience.  Teddy is enjoying himself and cracked us up by telling us he was "really enjoying the drive" while his Dad was white knuckling it through snow and trucks.  I think we’ll go out and have a walk while the snow is coming down.