Recap

Here's a quick recap of the fun things from this week...

On Tuesday night I got home from work, made dinner and then got the dog ready to go for a walk. We stepped out the front door and there was the Travelling Tea Box!!!! I was so excited that I shouted to my husband to come and see. My poor pup had to wait as I went through the entire box (wait until I got back from the walk? ya right!). Here are the goodies that I took out:

I replaced them with earings, dishcloth, 3 flower scrubbies, flower photo frame, and a ton of tea! This was so much fun!

Yesterday, I finished this hat for a slouchy hat swap. I LOVE how it turned out & can't wait to make one for myself!

I also finished another square for my block exchange:

At lunch today I am going to the post office to mail of a ton of things: slouch hat, 2 travelling scarves, 2 (maybe 3 if I get this one done in time) blocks, and the travelling tea box. The yarn for Ale's swap got mailed out to the UK on Monday - hopefully she gets it soon!

Have a great weekend everyone! Happy Hooking!

Seriously??

This morning I was driving to work, minding my own business and out of nowhere came this huge a-hole in a big ole' truck. He was so far behind me that I could barely see him, then all of a sudden he was right on my tail, flashing his brights at me, and then passing me on the right while sticking his head out the window & flipping me off!!! Then his buddy who was right behind him in a big white truck did the same thing! I wasn't even going slow. Probably about 72mph (speed limit is 65) in the left lane, slighly faster than the flow of traffic.

Karma...

Vampire's Blood Hat

Here is the hat I finished today. It's like the hat that Bella wears in the movie Twilight, except hers was grey. I modified the pattern a bit so that it would be flatter on top and sit taller intead of a snug skull cap.

Recent Fun

A few weeks back my dad went to Montreal to visit his family. While up there his mom gave him a huge blanket that she crocheted to give to me. She is so thrilled that I have taken up a hobby/craft that she enjoyed for many years. She can no longer crochet or knit so she also gave me all her old hooks and needles! Now I have no excuse for not trying to knit!

Isn't it beautiful? It could fit a king size bed! She obviously used a really small gauge hook so it must have taken her forever to make this blanket! I will certainly cherish it! Here are a few more detailed pictures:

This week I also received an awesome package from Brie. Look at how she spoils me with yummy yarn!!

I'm thinking that the multicolored wool wants to be a felted purse, and the green yarn will be used for my last travelling scarf seed. Not sure about the rest though. I am making her a red Twilight hat in return - almost done!

Today I received 2 travelling scarves in the mail. Its part of a freestyle knit and crochet group, but for some reason both are requesting specific knit patterns! (kinda bugs me since its supposed to be freestyle & crochet too!)

For one of them I had known in advance that she was doing a knit pattern and we had agreed that I would crochet a border on it once it was complete, so I was surprised when I received her starter seed. I took a look at the pattern and decided - I'm going to give it a shot! Thanks to my Nonna's needles and youtube I am now knitting the "scrunchable stitch!" Can you believe it? It doesn't look half bad!

Now the other one is requesting a chevron/ripple stitch, I don't know about that...

I also started this cute caplet sweater about a month ago but haven't gotten around to taking a picture of it yet:

So many projects, so little time...

Obsessed

Dear True Blood,

Why do you have to be such a great show? Why is it that when I sit down to watch you at 11pm I end up watching all the episodes on the netflix dvd? I stayed up until 2:30 am watching one episode after another. Why must you have such ridiculously good cliffhangers that keeps me watching even when I'm completely exhausted? I now have to wait until Saturday to watch the last 2 episodes of the first season... I can't handle it!

Yours truly,

Ashley - obsessed

Weekend in Cambria

Hi all! I'm finally getting around to posting about last weekend. As you know, it was our 2 year anniversary and we decided to spend a night up in Cambria to celebrate. We found this awesome dog friendly hotel/inn right on Moonstone beach and then planned our trip around that. Its approximately a 3 1/2 hour drive north of where we live, and since it was coastal, it was a heck of a lot cooler! It was nice to escape the 100+ heat.

So on our way up we took a small detour into the Santa Ynez valley to do some wine tasting! It was a really pretty drive through the hills and passed lake Cachuma. We found a couple wineries that were okay with us bringing Izzie inside with us, which was great because it was even hotter there than at home! We tasted some delicious wine (and bought some of course), then ate at a cute sandwich shop in Los Olivios called Panino. Izzie was definitely the center of attention everywhere we went =D

(as you can see, she really liked to cuddle with the trader Joe's snack bag)

After lunch Izzie and I both slept the rest of the way to the hotel. The heat and the wine hit me. Once we got there, we fell in love with the beautiful scenery and the cute little town. We took a walk along the beach boardwalk before going to dinner.

That night we had the most amazing dinner. It was at an Asian bistro called Wild Ginger, the owner is originally from Singapore. We got/ate so much food and everything was absolutely delicious! I wish I had taken pictures of the food, but we were too busy devouring it! We started of with salmon and cream cheese wontons with a sweet dipping sauce, then had a flaky chicken curry pastry (in filo dough), and then came the best soup we have ever had! This soup had a lemon grass & coconut milk broth but wasn't thick, it was spicy with a bit of curry and had mushrooms, chicken and cilantro in it. I cannot even begin to describe to you how amazing this soup was! We were basically licking the bowl =-) The soup was followed by our main courses. I had a Thai seafood bouillabaisse -yum! And Brandon had roasted duck with a pomegranate sauce. We were so stuffed, yet somehow found room for dessert! We had a fresh blood orange sorbet and a chocolate bread pudding (tasted like those rich chocolates in the gold wrappers). Needless to say, we really enjoyed our dinner!

The next day we had a breakfast basket of fruit, muffins and juice delivered to our door. After we ate we fell back asleep for 2 more hours - it was wonderful! (neither of us are morning people). We then left the hotel and walked around town for a bit. We stopped at a craft fair where I analysed all the crochet items, and then I purchased a super cute hair thingy :

We stopped at a local pizzeria for lunch and then hit the road.

On our way back we stopped at another small surfer town to walk on the beach and stretch our legs.

By the time we drove down to Santa Barbara, we were in bumper to bumper traffic. This set us back over an hour and a half! Gotta love driving in CA!

It was a great anniversary trip & the drive was definitely half the fun!

Hope you all are having a great week.

Our Garden Wedding

A year after our first beach wedding, almost to the date, we had our large wedding celebration in Somis, CA. It was a beautiful setting like something out of the Secret Garden. We had almost 225 guests, many of which were from out of town. Lots of my family came in from Montreal, but there were also some people who came in from British Columbia, Texas, Arizona and even one person who travelled from Japan to be there! It was a beautiful night. I'm going to let the pictures do the talking:

We we're so blessed to have all our Grandparents in attendance.

My Fam Dam ;-)

Party time!

Our sparkler exit!

Meow!

I've been paired up with a knitting partner for a silly hat swap! I really like the hat I made for her, its a kitty cat hat! I had fun taking pictures in it too:

I've also finished another lover's knot shawl, just haven't gotten around to taking good pictures of it.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am also in a block exchange. The color scheme that I got placed in is for neutrals; brown, tan, beige etc. This is my first of 12 blocks:

Crochet to do list:

1. black flower slouch hat for Sophie by Wednesday
2. mail out Cat Hat to swap partner
3. Make & mail Red Twilight hat for Brie
4. Make & mail travelling scarf seed by Friday (remind me again why I signed up for 3 of these??)
5. Make & mail slouch hat to other swap partner by end of the month
6. 3- 12x12 afphan squares made & mailed out by the end of the month (1 down 2 to go!)
7. Buy & mail yarn & chocolate for Ale's exchange by the end of the month

I think that's it... for now!

Our Beach Wedding

7/17/07 is when Brandon and I officially tied the knot. Yes... that is a whole whopping 16 days after we were engaged, and no I was not pregnant =-P At this point he and I had been dating for 3 and a half years and we were inseperable!

We had already set an appointment with a photographer to get our engagement shots on the beach that day. After some thought we decided just to turn the engagement photo shoot into an actual wedding! As I mentioned earlier it was definitely a whirlwind, spur of the moment event because we were moving to Tucson just a few days later. We crazy kids decided - "Let's just get married!!" then everything seemed to fall into place. My mom had a friend who made my bouquet, I already had the perfect sundress towear, the weather was perfect, and a family friend of Brandon's happened to be in town who is also a pastor!

It was so much fun and felt so spontaneous! We knew we would still have a big wedding the next summer - our parent's wouldn't let us skip that even if we wanted to. So, after work on a Tuesday evening we all gathered at the beach in Channel Islands Harbour for our vwedding ceremony. It was so laid back and casual, which is definitely our style. In attendance was each of our parents, a pastor and a photographer! It was so intimate and personal. After we said our vows we all gathered for champagne and toasts! The champagne was a surprise to us, planned by our parents. It was great to see the raw emotion in eachother and also our parents over this big decision we had made. We were so happy that they were all so supportive and happy for us! His mom even booked us a reservation in the Honeymoon suite at the Ventura Sheraton, right on the beach and loaned us her Lexus convertable so we could ride home in style! Heck ya!

The best part of this wedding is that it was only about us! At our big wedding the following summer it was easy to get caught up in everything going on (time schedules, our guests, the evenings events etc)that we couldn't get much time for just the two of us. It was really great to have this beach wedding so small and intimate. We also loved playing in the water and sand

afterwards! (As seen in these pictures). We were so happy and in love that we barely noticed how cold the water was =-D

Our first big leap into our future together!

I Made a Sale!!

I got an email this morning that brightened up my day... I made a sale on Artfire!! A woman in Canada bought 2 of my hats - I am very excited! My first online sale!!

The Proposal

6/30/2007

We had already planned on going to the beach that day so I packed us a cute little picnic lunch and off we went. Honestly, I was a little unhappy with him that morning. I wanted to get to the beach early, but I couldn't get a hold of him for a few hours, he wasn't answering his phone (come to find out he was picking out and buying the ring!). Eventually We got to the beach, relaxed in the sun and ate our lunch, then went down to the water. When we came back up to the blanket Brandon said to me, "Oh I got a surprise for you!" The way he said it made me think that he brought my favorite beach toy.

He told me to turn around and close my eyes, so I did (without peeking - for once!). When he told me to turn back around he was down on one knee with the most beautiful ring in a box. He nervously and quickly said "Ashley, will you marry me?" I stood there shocked for a good 45 seconds and proceeded to say, "Are you kidding meeee?? Ya I will!!" and just attacked him with hugs and kisses! He completely caught me off guard, I didn't expect that at all! It was an amazing surprise and excellent beach trip!

I just don't get it...

I bought a set of patterns a week or so ago and I really like the cowl I made from it. I would love to put the item up on my etsy store, but the designer has a note at the bottom of the pattern stating that nothing made from this pattern could be produced for sale. Why? I feel that since I purchased the pattern I should be able to sell what I make from it. Nowhere in the description did it say this until the pattern was already purchased. I may be way off in thinking this, but it kinda bugs me! What are your thoughts on this? Is this legit or am I off my rocker? =-P

Blue Jean Baby Shawl

I jumped on the bandwagon and made a lover's knot shawl too! (Thanks for the inspiration!) I really love the way it turned out! I had been holding this yarn in my stash for the perfect project, and this was definitely it!

Oh and I also made this flower for Izzie's collar:

Hope you all are having a great weekend.