Knitting in Transit

I woke up this morning to discover that the cupcakes had taken a turn for the worse during the night. The frosting had either slid off the cakes or been absorbed into them. Since they were red cupcakes they looked rather ghoulish. I decided to spare my co-workers and leave the poor things at home. It's just as well. Afterall, all but the eggs and water in them were expired. Yes, even my cooking oil has a sell by date of last July. It got me thinking about the powdered sugar in the cabinet. Should I be desperately making all sorts of sweets to use it up? Does powdered sugar go bad? Do people really want to read about the contents of my cabinets? The bread on the other hand...fantastic! I'm using the recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day . As I explained, perhaps a bit too vociferously (I really wanted to use that word) to David, this doesn't mean that you pop in the dough and five minutes later you'll have a loaf of bread. Five minutes refers to your hands on t...

Well hello blog readers! So nice to see you here. David and I got a very nice Christmas letter from his Aunt Pauline and Uncle Jim in which she mentioned reading my blog. And how do I say "thanks"? By not posting in over a month! So, hello Pauline! I have to say, I absolutely love holiday letters. I get a little bummed out when there is no letter with the Christmas card. The newsier the letter is, the better. Every year when I am out at my dad's house around Christmas, I dig through their rather large pile of Christmas letters (seriously - those two know A LOT of people) and pull out all the letters. I know Christmas letters get kind of a bad rap, and occasionally you do come across one that has a bit too much of bragging, or even worse, the "woe is me" letter, but I just love to be able to hear about what people have been up to. I hope people enjoy hearing what I have been up to. And now it is a new year! Our first full year as married people! What are we looki...

I finished up the Marshmallow Bonnet yesterday! As with most of my knitting projects, I didn't check my gauge, so the sides seem a bit too long to me, but I still think it is pretty cute. I might do another one one in pink with white puffs. The specs: Pattern: Marshmallow Bonnet from Itty Bitty Hats by Susan Anderson Yarn: Cashsoft Baby DK and Kidsilk Aura Needles: Some good old aluminum size 7 (would use size 6 next time) I LOVE the way the Kidsilk Aura gives the hat a little loftiness. It's so soft and fluffy. I'm not sold on the bobble as a fastener...I think a button might be easier. I may try that with the next one. It was a fun knit and I think a pink one with white accents would be cute. I'd also like to try some changes other people on Ravelry have suggested. It was really hard to get that container of salt to sit still for the photo!

Yesterday was Snowmageddon! The snowpocalypze! The Snownami! A Snowicane! A Snownado! The roof of the Metrodome collapsed under the weight of all the snow ! Crazy! Well, we got a lot of snow. And a lot of wind. And a lot of cold. It was great. Why? It meant we were stuck at home and I was able to get my knit on! Finally! I almost finished the Marshmallow Bonnet from Itty Bitty Hats. I just need to get the right sized crochet hook to make the little loopy things. So, pics to come. D and I did venture a block up to Cupcake, just to check out how bad it really was. It was bad. It sealed the deal that we would not venture to Lea and Amit's house to meet with the On Tap group to start planning our fall trip to Spain and Portugal. Instead, we stayed in, ate cheese and crackers, watched movies and SNL, and I got some organizing done. One of my projects was to organize my yarn stash. Wow. It's pretty bad when you have yarn you forgot buying. Like this blue stuff I got...

We wrapped up our honeymoon in Vieques , Puerto Rico. This is a small island off the coast of the main island...about a 20 minute flight. We took one of those little 10-seater planes, where seat #1 is the pilot. I didn't really like that. ONE pilot? What if something had happened to him? Yikes! Anyway, we got to Vieques and it was beautiful. Wild horses everywhere. Beautiful beaches. Laid back bars and restaurants. This crazy tree . I almost wish we had had more time to spend there. It was while we were there that I realized that I really am one of those people who just wants to lay on the beach on vacation. We stayed at a place called Hector's by the Sea, which I loved. They have three casitas, are right on the water, and were just the friendliest people ever. They provided a cooler and beach chairs for us so each morning we headed to the store, filled the cooler with beer, and then just laid around the beach. PERFECT! We headed back to San Juan for one more night be...

So, we left Dominica and headed back to Puerto Rico. After a long wait going through customs, A LOT of traffic in Old San Juan, and a bit of drizzly rain, we made it to the Hotel El Convento where we stayed the two nights we were in Old San Juan. Beautiful hotel, lovely service. We made it just in time for the nightly wine and cheese reception. There was a pretty obnoxious group there, but we still enjoyed the wine and snacks after the traveling. We had dinner at the tapas restaurant at the hotel, more wine, yum! The next day we went to the two forts (or castles as they call them), San Cristobal and El Morro. It is about a 20 minute walk between the two of them. It was a great day. It was really hot, but there was enough shade here and there to cool off and we had plenty of water. The castles were so fascinating. Old San Juan was just really cool. I'd love to go back and explore some more, try some different restaurants. We also found a geocache while we were there! It was ...

But before we get there....Baby Goat! As we left Dominica, we saw the baby goat again. Isn't it cute? We had to check out of the hotel at 11 a.m., but our flight wasn't until about 4:00, so we had some time to kill. We stopped at this beach by the airport to catch a photo of David recreating a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean. Several scenes from the second and third movies were filmed on Dominica. Then we headed over to the Pagua Bay Bar and Grill where we had ceviche, fish tacos, and rum drinks. It was a nice place to relax for an hour or so before we headed to the airport. Great view, too. Pagua Bay from Michelle on Vimeo .