What a Weekend

It is officially crazy time around here. 5 days until Derby and the city of Louisville is hopping. It's really a full two week festival starting with the amazing air and fireworks show called Thunder Over  Louisville and ending with the famous Derby race. Alan and I got up early Saturday morning to watch the start of the Great Hot Air Balloon Race. The weather could have been a little more accommodating. It was quite chilly, gloomy and grey but at least it wasn't raining. 

 

 Watching these balloons take off is so much fun. It's over and done with in just a few minutes, but worth getting up early for. The balloons all float off one after the other to a designated spot where they each drop a bag of blue grass seed trying to be the closest to the mark. Sounds like fun.

Here's a little video that Alan took so that you can feel like you were there too.
The very last balloon that you see looks like a black blob. It was the Wicked balloon and it had a green witch on it with the words "Deify Gravity"

We packed our breakfast and ate it while we watched the balloons and then headed over to the zoo for our regular Saturday morning walk

 We got home in just enough time for Alan to mow the grass before the rain started.

  Sunday we drove up to Lexington to meet Grace and to go to the University of Kentucky's theater production of Spring Awakening. The musical was very well done. Very R rated, but very entertaining.

We ate an early dinner with Grace and then headed for home. She had two papers to write and a final exam to study for. I can't believe that she is finishing her third year of college. It just doesn't seem right.

Well that was pretty much our weekend. Hope you had a great one too.

Sally

A Little Bathroom DIY

A while back I was browsing Pinterest and came across an idea. Imagine that... 

 This is the Pin that caught my eye, because as I looked at it I realized that I had one of those 3 tier stands just hanging out doing nothing in my basement. I "ran" downstairs to look for it and low and behold I actually found it. I love when that happens. The only problem was that my stand was a yucky gold color. A can of black spray paint and a day without any rain and now I have pretty "new" bathroom storage.

I forgot to take a before picture of the stand, but here is what the bathroom counter looked like.

Before

I think I have a need to fill all empty spots.  I don't like clutter, but I also don't like too much space.

After

 I'm very happy with the results of this project. I'm still playing around with what to put on the plates, but for now I think I'll live with this look.

Hope you have some fun projects planned for the weekend.

Sally

Happy Happy Birthday!!!

My sweet baby turns 25 today. How can that possibly be?

Here he is at about 18 months. The happiest child ever with a deep contagious laugh.

He still has that same laugh now, only it's even deeper and much louder.

Hopefully he is going to take a short break from studying today to celebrate.

I'm guessing his celebration will include beer, maybe even a piece of cake.

We love you David

Happy 25th

Lost & Found

So, if you are one of the many people that I "questioned" about "borrowing" my amazing canning pot last fall, I probably owe you an apology.

I'm still quite mystified by the whole process of events, but to make a long story short here's the scoop. Last fall when it was apple butter making time I hunted everywhere imaginable for my canning pot. I was sure that it was in our backyard shed, but when I couldn't find it there I basically tore the basement apart. No luck. Alan even "helped" me look but to no avail.

I then decided that someone must have  borrowed it. I pretty much asked everyone I knew and they all looked at me like I was a crazy person. In the mean time I went ahead and canned my apple butter in my pasta pot. I was not happy. 

Last week I got it in my head that I wanted to make some strawberry jam. I was all set to just go out and buy a new canning pot. I got my old one at a yard sale in Wisconsin for just about nothing over 25 years ago. I loved that pot. 

Anyway, I decided to take one more look around the shed and a very wonderful thing happened. I found my pot! I know you probably think I'm nuts and of course that's possible, but boy was I doing the happy dance. 

 Aren't you glad I told you the short version of the story? Today I made strawberry jam and it is delicious. I actually started it last night according to the recipe that I followed and that really made things go more quickly. I couldn't wait for it to cool down so that I could give it a try. So good.

With all of the awful things going on in our crazy world today sometimes it helps me to just keep busy doing the things that make me happy. Doing these things like cooking and knitting and sewing also gives me a lot of time to think about the people that I love and how very blessed I am. I hope that I can express to each and everyone of you how much I appreciate you. You are all precious gifts.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Sally

Over the River

Louisville has a new walking bridge. It will eventually connect our side of the river with the Indiana side of the river. All I can say is that it's very cool and because it's NEW it's very crowded. Alan and I have been waiting for a nice day to try it out and last Sunday we got our chance. Here are some pictures that I took of the bridge which is called the Big Four or Five or something like that. It has to do with the railroad and the cities that were connected by it. There are also a couple of pictures of the view from the top.

This is as far as you can go. That's Indiana down there.

Hopefully the Indiana side will be finished in August sometime. There are a couple of fun restaurants over there and we think it would be nice to be able to walk across the river for dinner. The bridge is open all the time, and while I'd love to see the city from it at night, that's just a little bit scary for me. Maybe with a crowd of people I could be brave.
Sally

I'm a Survivor

Spring has finally sprung here in Louisville and part of me really wishes that it would hurry up and get over with. I forget how bad the pollen is while all of these beautiful trees are budding and blooming. My poor car is covered in yellow dust at the moment. Good thing Alan refilled my windshield wiper fluid last weekend. Really, I don't mean to complain. I love the warmer weather.  I just hate all of the sneezing and itchy eyes that go along with it. Before everything stated to POP last weekend I took a few pictures of some of my plants that managed to survive the winter. I don't know how they do it. A week ago everything just looked dead, and then the magic happens.

Two pretty Pansy blossoms

Rosemary

Mint

Curly Parsley

Flat Leaf Parsley

Thyme

 Hopefully spring is doing it's thing where you live too. With the Kentucky Derby just a little over two weeks away Louisville is getting it's self ready.
Sally

Project Update

Here's what's just completed, just begun and brand new.

Remember the socks I was knitting two at a time? I think I started them in February and they are finally finished. The big problem is that they don't really fit me very well. I made the top leg too short and the after thought heel thing just isn't working for me. Grace likes them, so I guess I'll pass them on to here.

 I'm going back to my regular old way of knitting socks. I like my bamboo double pointed needles and don't you think this yarn is just perfect for spring? That was me being a bit facetious It's a little on the bright side, but it's what I had in my stash and since I'm on a yarn diet of sorts I thought I should use it up.

 I also started working on this new shawl/scarf with yarn that I got about a year ago when I was in the Socks that Rock yarn club. The pattern is called Breaking Waves and it's a bit challenging for me. I have to keep the pattern close so I'd say it requires the majority of my attention. Not TV knitting.

 So I mentioned the yarn diet that I put myself on back in January. The goal was to use up most of my stash including fiber and yarn that I have spun. I've been doing a great job. I have not purchased any new yarn or fiber until last week. I just couldn't help myself. I saw these sweet little kits mentioned on the Knitting Den podcast and was lucky enough to snag one. The kit came with the gnome project bag, a lavender sachet, stitch markers and beautiful yarn from Never Enough Thyme.

Now, these colors are what I call springy. I just couldn't resist. I don't know what I'm going to knit out of it just yet, but once I figure that out I will probably start on it right away.
Hope you have a little spring in your life too.
Sally