Travel Knitting

Beach for Labor Day . . . How much can I knit?

Mom's Birthday

The morning started off with my taking mom the birthday cards from dh and I and also the one from Teresa and family.  Teresa's card was filled with coupons. 

So off we went with the first stop at Banducci's.  For those of you who aren't fortunate enough to live here, Banducci's has the BEST coffee, terrific people and pretty good soup.  Jeanette greeted Mom with a BIG Happy Birthday because Teresa had already told them it was Mom's Birthday.  Mom got to use the first coupon for a cup of Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Mocha.  Yum.

These are the most fantastic cups ever.  You can have the hottest of coffee in them and the outside is room temperature and hours later the coffee is just as hot.  Or drink all the water, leave the ice in the cup in the car on a day when it is over 100 all day while shopping.  Return to the car to a cup of ice.  And it weighs next to nothing.  Awesome. 

We went directly to Wink so Trev could do Mom's nails.  I carried the coffees in and immediately dropped Mom's all over the floor.  Which was actually a good accident because Trev and Jaycee had a nice cup of coffee waiting for Mom.  Trev does the most amazing things to Mom's nails.  Currently each nail has a different Doctor Who item on it.  The Tardis, K-9, the scarf, a planet, a Cyberman, a Dalek, and I forget the rest.  Trev freehand draws each nail with a new and different theme each week.

So after getting Mom's nails done I was feeling guilty about accidentally dropping Mom's coffee so we went back to Banducci's for a refill.  Jeanette gave Mom a cup of coffee for her Birthday gift and told me not to touch it.  It really was an accident and not even sibling rivalry.

Another local yarn store, The Yarn Shop, is going out of business.  So very sad but everything is 40% off, so we went shopping.  None of the books or yarn on Teresa's wish list were available so we called her and found about a dozen books for her, half a dozen books for me and a few odds and ends for Mom.  Everyone wished her a Happy Birthday and she got an extra Birthday discount.

So off we go for lunch.  Teresa had arrange for Mom to have lunch at one of her favorite places not in Emmett, Souper Salad.  We walked in and they took Teresa's coupon for lunch.  They even had Mom's favorite soup out.  There were three other parties of people there celebrating birthdays so seemed like the place to go for a birthday luncheon.  And just as we were about to leave the staff comes over with a three tiered birthday cake, strawberries and whipped cream spelling out Happy Birthday on the plate, and sings Mom Happy Birthday.  No one else in the restaraunt got a birthday cake or a song.  Teresa is the most amazing person to get that for Mom when it isn't their usual policy and she is 2000 miles away.

So the three of us being totally stuffed, off we went to Barnes and Noble to let Mom spend her gift certificate that she got from Teresa.  She spent the gift certificate a dozen times over but she had fun.  Hours later we headed home.  I offered to stop at Baskin Robbins for an ice cream as my Birthday treat but she was still stuffed from lunch.

After sitting at home for a few hours taking birthday calls from loved ones we took her out to her favorite local restaurant.  She had dinner and then they gave her a dessert for her Birthday Treat.  And sang her a Happy Birthday song, a version that I had never heard before.  It went like this.
"This is your Birthday Song.  It isn't very long".  The whole place cracked up.  (here is some unknown family singing it on you tube). 

Then we went home and mom talked to more people on the phone you wanted to wish her Happiest Birthday.

 

Then we showed her what the alpaca had been doing to celebrate her birthday.

Since the little girl had been born on Mom's Birthday, we thought it only proper that Mom name her.  So her name is Augusta and she is the daughter of Angelique.  Angelique has the most beautiful blue eyes and so does Augusta.



And then dh and I gave Mom our gift.  For those of you not living here I will let you in on a secret - there are no fireflies in Idaho.  None.  Not a single one.  They don't live here.  So dh and I painted some mason jars in different colors and attached solar lights to them.  We put hangers on them and dh put hangers all around Mom's deck.  So now she has beautiful colored lights that remind me of fireflies. 

 

 

Oh, and while Mom was visiting Teresa in Georgia, we painted her deck for her.  It was reddish when she left.  Now it is not reddish. Not even close to reddish.

Dena

Spirit of Guernsey

This is the shawl I test knit.  It's knit in 100% silk fine laceweight yarn.  It's lovely.  I think I might reknit the pattern in a dark green laceweight that I have in the stash.

Teresa

No Home No More

Guess who also went to college last weekend?!?!

 That's right.  The No Home Gnomes are homeless no more.

They led Girl Far From Home right to her dorm.

They checked out one of the old pianos in the lobby.  They think it's beautiful but they don't have fingers to play it.

 They checked out the kitchenette but decided the microwave could be dangerous.

 They tried to get Girl to write about her summer, but she wasn't comfortable doing that just yet.  She was one of only a couple of folk in the dorm she was in when she got there.  She's in a dorm mostly filled with Juniors who arrived on campus later than the freshmen and transfer students.

 They convinced her to walk to the end of the hall and look out the window.  She checked out the seating area while she was at it - nice chairs.

 They took Girl Far From Home and her dad on a tour of the lovely second story porch on the front of the dorm building.  Looks like a few girls catch some rays up there.  Lovely up in the trees, don't you think? 

 Then they showed her where they wanted to live in the room - on the printer right by the window so they can see what's going on  during the day. 

And last, they packed themselves up in her backpack so they could help her explore the campus.

Maybe she'll document some of their adventures for us . . .

Teresa

Moving Out, Moving In, Moving On

 The time has come for Girl Far From Home to move out again.  This time, she's not so very far from home.  She wasn't terribly happy at the last college, so she's moved on and the new college is closer to home.  That does not make me sad.  

To begin with, we drove up the driveway in front of the school and dropped all her stuff on the sidewalk.

This lovely crew of women helped get all her stuff off the sidewalk and into the dorm.

 This is her empty room.  The building is old (don't know how old this building is, but it's not new) but beautifully maintained.

 Outside the Girl's dorm room is a common area - very comfortable couches, an ironing board, a table and a kitchenette.  

Her room is in the center (on the left of this pic before the hall starts).  There is a hall on either end with seating at the end of each hall.

 Her door.

 We got her moved in on one side of the room and put up some, but not all, of her Marilyn posters.

 The lobby has several seating areas and two pianos (very old and may or may not work).

And, off to the side of the lobby is a tv room.

 This is the front of her building.  Her room is the top window on the left.

The campus is gorgeous - green, lush and with lots of places to sit, think, study, etc. 

The chapel seems to be pretty new and it's very pretty.  It's also surrounded with lovely gardens on the back and sides - the front is up one level from the back/sides.

 The buildings on campus range from very old (1891) to really new (last year or the year before?).  The nice thing about them tho, is that they all seem to match.  Her last school had modern, old and mid century buildings - it was eclectic at best.

 This sign is to let parents know where there are men's restrooms - it's a women's college, so they aren't just everywhere.

 Another shot of the dorm building - one of them anyway.

Love this old smoke stack.

 This is what the gardens behind her dorm building look like.  She loves that there is a pond - fountain actually and heavily chlorinated.  A nice place to gather her thoughts.

And, sadly, we say goodbye.

We miss her already.

Teresa