2nd leg of the trip...

While we were in Austin, we went to dinner at Bess Bistro. If you ever get the chance to get there, do it! The food, fabulous, the decor...so cute! (maybe that's not the right word, but I loved it.) See the etching on the front door? That's just the beginning of the 'little' touches the bring the charm inside while you dine. (notice that I shrunk down the pictures today, there's a lot of them. But you can click on them to make them bigger, if you so choose.)

Now, for all you artichoke and spinach dip fans, here's the twist they put on it. Rather than adding a lot of 'sauce' to it, they flash fry it and it comes out crispy! Oh and oh so yummy! We then had some bass and a rib eye, (sans a picture, sorry, you'll just have to go get your own!) and then ....

...Banana Cake that I swear is the same recipe my kids' family uses for 4 generations now for Birthday cakes and the creamiest Creme Brule I've EVER had! It was the kind of dinner where you don't want it to end, and wish to move into the place and be adopted.

One of the things that I enjoy about traveling, other than great yarn finds, is the architectural differences each region and city build. Like this building in Austin, just beautiful!

Heading north, we went through Arkansas mostly through the night..

Slept a bit along the way, not while driving of course. Have you noticed that some states have rest stops that really are there so they can say they are..but others have rest stops that are nicer than several apartments and houses I've lived in? And clean enough to pass my mother's inspection! (Just a traveling comment there...)

Day break found us on the Mississippi River heading into Memphis, with a Red sun in the morning...

Some more knitting at the cast-on stage for my 'Olympic Knitting' project...and so many GREEN trees! (California , can you pay attention to what trees should be like with rain fall? Green..not brown!)

Now, I ask you, when you're driving through Tennessee, how can you NOT stop and see something in Music City? It was bad enough we couldn't hop over to Beale Street in Memphis since we were trying to reach Michigan by the end of the day. But, Come-on...you HAVE to pay homage to the country music in you with a little trip through the Grand Ole' Opry. Right? How can any self-respecting Mother not stop and take her country lovin', Kenny Chesney-hat 'She thinks my tractor's sexy' wearing, daughter through the backstage tour? Check out the daughter trying to see the names on the mail in the mail boxes!

Outside of the Opry House, they share the parking lot with a huge mall. Now, in Hollywood, we have the Avenue of the stars. Here they have these :

Too cool-huh?

But, here's where the knitter in me found the best'est' travel souvenir EVER...

Quite some time ago, there was discussion of these on the knitting boards. I've been trying to find a Bass Pro shop ever since. I'll show more about this in another posting, since this one is already picture intensified. Let's just say for now that I'm a happy camper!

Next up, was Kentucky. More beautiful green rolling hills - are you paying attention Southern California? mmm...but also a state with some of the nicest rest areas! And air conditioned to boot!

What can I say about Indiana? Oh, seems like 2 weeks ago? HA! But, what a strange feeling to be driving up the 65 and pass right by the Bloomington signs and not detour over to see my son. I felt a few pangs I tell you. Another chapter in his life has finished as he's no longer living there. Onward! as a famous knitter likes to say.

Can anyone tell me the name of this plant/flower? They were at another rest area in Indiana that's very lovely to 'visit'. But my grandmother used to have these planted down her driveway when I was a very little girl. I've wanted to find that out ever since I moved away from home. They're so pretty, aren't they?

Towards the end of the night, Dad requested we stop and get a hotel for the night. Apparently he didn't think staying up until 2am was the 'thing to do'. So, we 'toughed it out' with soft beds, Taco Bell and wi-fi! Ah...

Boy did I wish I had a salt shaker and some butter the next morning. Field after field of corn with brown tops as we left Indiana. Yummy. But then I got to thinking, this was probably for grain feed. Umm....

Michigan! we arrived over the border with the end of leg #2 in site. I was knitting away on another chemo hat for mom. This time using the www.headhuggers.org pattern with the rolled brim and the Yarn Bee 'I Love this Cotton!' yarn that Hobby Lobby is now selling. I started the project in the hotel room and finished it just outside of the Saginaw area. We did stop in the Ann Arbor area to hug my auntie who is recovering quite well from her first hip surgery. You may remember the giraffe that I knit the prayer shawl and hat and scarf set a couple of weeks ago. That's the Auntie we visited, and forgot to take a picture. Shortly around dinnertime, we broke the border limits of Bay City. Parked the car, hugged the parents, handed over some little gifts, watched some Olympics (did you see Michael Phelps?) and then hit the sack for some much needed sleep without sitting in the car. Today, we're in a 'slow-motioned' kind of haze. Must go knit, and then we get to have dinner at Grandpa Tony's(no better place I tell you!) with my brother and niece tonight!

Oh, and there's a Hobby Lobby..just over 'yonder'!

Miss you Cuz!

Miss you with all our hearts....I understand why you loved it so much here! It's got you written all over the place! xoxoxooxox

my daughter now loves Austin!

Windmills outside of Palm Springs, CA

Arizona state sign in the nighttime...before the lightening storms hit...that started a fire...

New Mexico state sign, still in the darkness of night..before the big rain hit...

See? I got some knitting done...

Her car went to 90,000 on the road...

Texas state 'sign'...and then the Ice Cream Festival...

Things ARE bigger in Texas...check out the sausage on a stick! Oh, yummy....

My kids still think I went cow-tipping in Michigan as a kid. They don't understand that I was a 'city kid' back then..but then we found this today! (remind me to show you the T-shirt she'd brought back from my son's Graduation trip!)

Popsicle stick races!, too cute. I wanted the job at the end of the 'tubes'..it was only 102* at 6pm! That would make 45 days in Austin of 100*F this year so far (according to the news).

She had applied here, and even though they didn't accept her, she's fallen in deep love with this campus!

Marble art! Way too cute.

Now, who wouldn't want 'sparkly' toes on the campus! Aren't they cute? Or what!

GOT to love a campus that comes with 'cooling stations'. It's a clue, I tell you...a definite clue! And she's going to snow country! (she's now thinking of a PHD so she can stay in school and come down here.)

Motto. True statement. Should have seen the guy with the plastic bone hanging from his shorts last night getting his picture taken with some of the tourists!

Very pretty place to take your picture on your own camera with short arms with your daughter.

We hit the road again tomorrow....we'll update you later on the stuff from tonight.

I think I should have had some sunblock on today.

Mother-Daughter Adventure begins..

Last year in May, it was the Mother-Son Adventure driving from Indy to California. This year, it's the Mother-Daughter Adventure driving from California to New York. Last year I didn't need tissues, son was coming home for the summer, this year...we may need to replant a forest.

The 'proper' new school colors have been knit and packed...

Breakfast was spent with a friend, dinner was spent with a friend the other night, the bon fire has been last Saturday, family on Sunday....all that's left, is to get into the car and drive away.

Think she'll notice if I keep my foot out the door and dig in my heel as she drives?





Next stop....Austin, TX.

Who gave them permission?

Many of you might relate to what we're living with over here this week. You may have been on my end of the emotions already, or you may have been on my children's emotions in your set of life experiences. Either way, I wish to send you hugs. Lots of them. Hugs that will last forever.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm proud of them all. It's fun to see them grown into adults and learn to pay their bills, take their exams, figure out car insurance..etc...learn why Mom and Dad didn't buy them all the fancy labels they wanted in high school, learn the 'budget' word. But....well,...

It's been awhile since my oldest daughter moved to college. That would have been back in the fall of 1999. She and I both struggled with our good-byes. To take the stress off of the emotional toll, I pulled the car over along the roadside, and had her get out next to the UCLA road sign and snapped the picture. To say that she was not 'amused' the first time, would be a gross understatement. However, by the time graduation arrived, she'd learned to embrace Mom's camera-obsession with the idea that the faster she cooperated, the faster it was over with. And I was able to finally get a shot of her like this:

Well, this Thursday, we're loading up the car yet again. Only this time, she's not going up the road a short 41 miles. The packing cube will have already been picked up, and we're taking a major road trip across the country. From Southern California via Austin, TX, then Michigan...finally to Syracuse, NY as she's decided to return to academia and earn her master's degree.

Now, I KNOW that I have 4 kids. I KNOW the other three have moved out, two of them now to Boston. I KNOW she'd moved out already, but then she'd moved home. And while I was helping the others to pack and move and went to visit and cook and leave them with the dishes (oh bad mommy...bad mommy...) she was still the one left at home these past 10 months to spend time with over Bridezillas, The Bachelor, and food Network TV.

So, here we begin on our adventure. To send her off, or is it really to get my head wrapped around the idea that they've all been sent off into adulthood, which I think is a much more accurate description here, we held a few family rituals over the weekend. First was our weekend bagel/doughnut breakfast. Yummy, she's been bringing me a toasted blueberry bagels with blueberry cream cheese as we sit and visit, sometimes accompanied by a charming young man who prefers doughnuts. Well, doughnut holes in particular.

Then it was off to her Dad's house for a family BBQ where we got to meet the middle daughter's new Prince Charming and she cooked for us. Yes, the formerly 'refuse to ever be domesticated' daughter has learned her way around the kitchen quite well. I must say.

By the time we ate, everyone had cooked something (and that's a good thing about adult children, right? I don't have to do it all myself anymore?)

We caught up on family news, we 'chewed the fat' so to say, we teased, we hugged and then we had the younger Prince make some Rice Krispy Treats for his oldest sister. Where we've all discovered, apparently it's much more fun to cook with your hands, than it is to eat most of the things he makes. At least that's his theory. But then, he's 6. And he's allowed to have such thoughts.

By the end of the day, oldest brother had made his trek across the country safe and sound and was now at his new address in the northeast. Baby daughter was with her co-workers at an event for work...and the rest of us were all together at least in spirit.

So what did I do when I came home? Well, it did dawn on me, that she is moving to snow country, and maybe it might be a good time to get her 2 scarves and a hat finished that she's going to need and asked me to make a couple of years ago. (told you my to-do list was really long) So, I dug out the first scarf yarn, and got to work.

Here's where I left it when I went to bed late last night. I'll show you the oh - so - simple pattern when it's all finished.

This morning it dawned on me, that since they're now all officially moving out into the adult world, I guess it was time to clear out the 'baby bikes' that had been outgrown for quite some time. They lasted at the curb about 7 minutes before someone came by asking if they could have them. WHOOSH! just like that, and they were snapped up and gone!

And I thought the kids had grown up oh so fast! But just tell me, who gave them permission to grow up this fast? In the blink of an eye..... I'm off to help her pack some more boxes. I hope she's got tissues available. We're going to need them all over again, like it's 1999.

Yarn Bee's "I Love this Cotton!" "I Love this Yarn!"

To answer a couple of questions and to correct some information, I want to talk a little bit about the newest yarn in my life. (and a wee bit of a rant..you've been warned) and then I'll show the new things.

I feel it's respectful to give the manufacturers the courtesy of posting correct information if you are adding their information into a data base. I know I like to have my information correctly given. (Just like children like to have their names pronounced and spelled correctly.) Reason? I've spent the past few days trying to get this yarn (and the "I Love this Yarn! Sport weight") posted into Ravelry. The first posting I made, I realized quickly had incorrect information. So I went back to correct the information. Now, today, I find that they changed it back to even more incorrect information.

Now, to most people, it might not seem like such a big deal. However, knowing how yarns come and go, and maybe some day it won't be around, I have been trying to post as accurate information as I can so you as the knitter can make your own decisions when you knit up one of my patterns. To the point, that I've been weighting out my finished projects to help figure out how much yarn in grams and possible lengths that I've used. I want to be as helpful as possible so you can decide if what you have on hand will be enough for the project. For example, the Americana yarn I had a couple of weeks ago was a multi and only 4oz skein. I wanted to make my Simply Striped Dishcloth to go with the towel. I KNEW I didn't have enough for the original pattern(5oz for towel, dishcloth and Tribble), but was hoping I'd have enough to get close to the amounts I'd need. By weighing out what I had left over after the towel, I could modify the dishcloth pattern and get it almost the same size and be happy with it. Make sense?

I think affordable yarn is great. Not every project/need should use really expensive yarns. I like all kinds of yarns in all kinds of price ranges. I also believe there is a place for lots of flavors/prices/fibers to fit in with each other. As much as I loved the silk/merino wool that I used to knit scarves for Mom and her sisters, I wouldn't use that for washing dishes, or baby blankets. I remember the days with four little ones and 22 loads of laundry a week. There's no way I would have wanted to hand wash blankets every time my son needed a diaper change. That kid had the skinniest legs in town which meant it wasn't just his diapers that got changed. Whatever I was wearing got a lot of washing as well. oy!


So, the correct information, and to answer the questions I've received since posting the other day is this:

Name of yarn: I Love this Cotton!
Brand of yarn: Yarn Bee
Retail Store that sells it: Hobby Lobby (http://www.hobbylobby.com/)
online store for Hobby Lobby: Crafts, Etc! ( http://www.craftsetc.com/ ) and no it's not available at this point there, but I'm hoping it will be soon.

Label Information of the solid colors: 3.5 oz/100 g, 100% cotton, 180yards/165 meters, (US)8/5mm/ (UK) 6 knitting needles, 18 sts/23 rows=10cm/4".
(US)I-9/5.5 mm/(UK)size 5 crochet hook/13 sc/14 row=10cm/4" in crochet.
Labeled a '4' medium weight yarn. Machine washable.
copyright 2008 Hobby Lobby Stores, www.hobbylobby.com
Made in Turkey.

I paid $2.99 for each skein.

Name of yarn: I Love this Yarn! Sport weight
Name of Brand: Yarn Bee
Retail store that sells it: Hobby Lobby ( http://www.hobbylobby.com/)
online store for Hobby Lobby: Crafts, Etc! (http://www.craftsetc.com/) and no, the sport weight isn't available online, yet. But I'm hoping it will be soon!

They also sell this in multi colored skeins, but since I didn't pick any up I can't give you that information, other than to say it comes in 54 g skeins, I think.

Label information of the solid colors: 100% acrylic, 2.5 oz/70 grams, 230 yards/210 meters, 22s/24 rows = 4"/10cm in knitting, (US) 6/4mm/(UK) 8 needles.

(US) H-8/5mm/(UK)6 crochet hook, 15 sc/19 r = 4"/10 cm in crochet.

Labeled a "3" sport weight yarn. Machine washable.

copyright 2008 Hobby Lobby Stores, http://www.hobbylobby.com/

Made in Turkey.

I paid $1.99 for each skein.

OK, now onto the good stuff.

I really like this yarn! I mean..I Love this Cotton! (ha ha)

I used the Buttercup color which shows accurately in the second picture, for 'Hail to the ... Dishcloth' and added an extra ridge to the top and bottom borders. I made this for my Auntie who just had her hip replaced. She's the one that I made the giraffe with the prayer shawl and U of M scarf and hat for a couple of weeks back. She's healing quite well. Now, in the second picture is another view of Mom's Butterfly cloth. The colors there are much better than when I take the pictures on their own. Go. figure. Again, the Butterfly pattern is in the washcloth for baby's book by Leisure Arts.

Cousin #2 bsj is coming along nicely. Just remember that I've got a good dose of SOS (shinny object syndrome) going on here. Plus, at the end of the week, I'm hitting the road (ROAD TRIP!) with the oldest as we drive her car off into the wild blue yonder towards Grad School. And I'm really trying not to think about the whole 'empty nest' deal.

Thank goodness I have yarn, and a to-do list that will keep me occupied until the next millennium.

And we'll be stopping off at Mom and Dad's to cook up a bunch and stock their freezer. At least that's the plan. With a stop off in Austin. We have some sights to see, and need to pause for a bit to remember my cousin who lived there and we miss her terribly. We'll be throwing her a kiss from a whole lot of us.