In My Easter Bonnet...

We had a lovely Easter.

We started out with an Easter Breakfast with Handsome Son and his new girlfriend, who was delightful.

I wore a truly exuberant Easter Bonnet, with all the frills upon it.  It was truly impressive.

Later in the afternoon we went to my cousins' house for lots of chatting, a bit of stuffing our faces with delicious goodies, a few games of Bocce Ball in the spring sunshine for those who could do such things (there was lots of laughing, which was wonderful), and the obligatory group photos.**

In front of the Easter Bonnet there is Lovable Sister and Charming Parent; in the middle - next to the Easter Bonnet - there is Handsome Son (who has enough hair for both of us) and Beloved Husband; and in the back - peering out from behind the Easter Bonnet, which apparently likes to chew up the scenery - is the other Charming Parent.

The Easter Bonnet had a grand time.  I did, too.

**And I mean 'obligatory' quite literally.  Cousin Mary was very forceful in rounding us up and making us stand still, in all our squinting glory.  It wasn't an easy job, but she was determined.  She'd make a fantastic General.  Thanks, Mary - we grumped about it at the time, but we're awfully grateful for the photos now!!
And many, many thanks to Mark and Polly for hosting the event.  You pulled it all together brilliantly, as always - we never take that for granted.  I am very, very lucky to be part of your family!

Happy Easter/Spring!!

It's Spring, it's Minnesota... and the sun is evidently a Minnesotan, too, because it's obviously decided to skedaddle to someplace a little less unpredictable in the weather department.

You DON'T want to come here for Spring Break.

We've had our April showers - but mostly that's been snow showers, rather than the rain that supposedly brings May flowers.  If I take my parents' lawn as evidence, April snow showers bring May moles.  Which are rather antithetical to flowers, actually**.

So I'm thinking that in our case, April showers bring June/July/August mosquitos.  Every state needs some sort of specialty crop, right?

Better enjoy May, folks.  Moles and all...


**Although Moley rather enjoyed flowers, if my memories of "The Wind in the Willows" serves.  That said, my parents' moles seem to be more interested in excavation than they seem to be inclined towards messing about in boats, regardless of the fact that they are located only a block or two from the river.  So their taste in landscaping is probably similarly suspect.

Summer Hats

I've been wearing some really lovely hats this past five or so weeks, ever since the hair all fell out (see my cancer blog for explanation of that, unless you've already been reading it).  My friend Timary crocheted some lovely tams for me (see post below for photo of the one she made from my handspun), and I have a velvet hat that is just cute as a button (or at least, it is cute as a velvet hat with a big old flower on it).

Okay, you can't see that very well, but it's a hat with a band, to which the slightly poufy top is sewn above and to which the brim is sewn below, with the velvet rose attached (to hide the band's seam, as well as to look decorative).  The brim can be left down all around, per this photo (taken with computer camera, which is why it's not very good) or the front can be folded upwards, which is jaunty and fun.

But these are all Cool Weather Hats, and suddenly after months and months of snow and ice and frigid temps, spring is coming in a huge rush.  Now all my beloved hats are making my head sweat!!

Mom and I went to the local wig/hat store, and to Target.  We searched for hats, we peered at hats, we patted and pinched and fondled hats, we even tried hats on. 

Unfortunately, we learned a couple things.

1.  I don't look particularly good in caps, and all the hats that are out currently seem to be either big froufrou Easter Bonnet/Go To Church hats (lovely, but not for general wear) or billed caps.  I need a frame for my face, and to add some balance, since my head is relatively small in comparison to my body.  Not a HUGE frame - those big 'garden hat' brims are hard to manage, and tend to want to fly away in even a slight breeze.  I don't want to constantly hold onto my head, or worry about my poor bald scalp being exposed.  The above hat serves the purpose well, while still sitting snugly on the head and not threatening to turn me into a remake of The Flying Nun (my goodness, I imagine that reference ages me!)

2.  The colors this season seem to be brown, tan, brownish-gray, white, or red.  I do not look good in brown or red, and even a nice silvery gray gets a bit dull and anonymous after a while.  If I'm going to wear a hat, I want to look festive and I want to have fun with it.  I like white well enough, but it gets dirty quickly when you are sweaty... and women with hot flashes sweat a LOT in Minnesota summers.  Frankly, so do most of the rest of us Minnesnowtans.  But let's face it, I am a woman with many, many hot flashes, and I am a woman who does not 'glow'.  So even though white theoretically goes with just about everything, it's not going to work as a 'running errands and visiting friends' hat.  And a whole wardrobe of white hats would be a bit monotonous.

So I'm wondering if anyone has some patterns for hats similar to the above (or knows where they might be obtained), so that mom and I could sew up a few in fabrics and decorations of my choice?  Wide-brimmed cloches or moderately floppy-brimmed hats that can be folded up in front, that would look cute with flowers or pins or random balls of yarn stuck on them?**


** Well, okay, that last one was a joke.  Probably.  Except at a fiber arts gathering - then all bets are off.

The Cat Issues A Warning

My dear friend Anne sent this to me, but The Cat says that really I should take it more seriously than Anne intended.

I probably should heed the warning.  The Cat has disappeared into my knitting stash, and I'm hearing some rather suspicious clicking going on back there...

What Do You Think?

** Warning: this post is in part a copy of a post over on my other blog.  I reward you for your patience with a homely picture of myself in cute charming hat.  The photo does not do justice to the beauty of Timary's needlework or to the lovely colors and gloss of the yarn used (if I do say so, myself).  It just sort of hints at it.  You pays your money (or in this case, your attention) and you takes your chances, people...

Here is the darling beret that my brilliant friend Timary made for me.  It's a new design of hers, so I hadn't seen it before.  You can find her patterns (including this slouchy beanie beret) at her Etsy store right here.  Go ahead and check it out, especially if you are a crocheter - you'll be glad you did.

Thing is, when I got the hat she sent, I thought, "Ooo, FUN!!"  And then I thought, "Ooo, the colors are so ME!!"  And then I thought, "Ooo, this yarn is so soft and pretty!!"  And then I thought, "Hey, this yarn looks sort of familiar, actually..."  And then I realized... Timary bought my yarn a while back, and put a lot of work into making something out of it, AND THEN SENT IT BACK TO ME.  It was my own handspun yarn!!

So now I am going to send her more.  Some of it will be for her... and some of it will be for the really cute 20's Flapper Hat.  Because I don't crochet, and am not up to learning how at the moment, but she has designed one darling hat, I must say!!

So, what do you think?  Should I add a big fancy pin to one side?  Or just leave it as it is?

I also bought a couple really cute, silly, fun hats yesterday - just in time, since I lost about half my head overnight last night.  I'll model those soon, but I know you shouldn't be expected to handle so much feminine pulchritude at once.  (koff, koff...)

Now I have these really cute hats, and no place to store them properly (the only hat I've got stored/displayed currently is my floppy old straw hat, which is sitting on the head of my son's wooden rocking horse.  It's very fetching, but not very protected).  So if anybody just happens to have a nice big hatbox sitting around, and wants to donate it to a needy cause, I'm it.

Been There (Both Sides)

With thanks to dear friend Debi, I give you this.  Is it a tad manipulative and simplistic?  Well, heck, yeah.  Does that make it less true, or less important to remember?  Well, heck, no...

Why I Am Not Here

The last few weeks have been trying and difficult ones.  I haven't had either the heart or the energy to post here, I'm afraid.  I have, however, been reporting in on occasion over at my other blog, so if you haven't visited there already, please do link on over and give me a little visit.  Hopefully I will Get My Groove Back at some point in the future... so please stay tuned, my friends.

Las Vegas Is Awesome, Part the Last

You thought I forgot, didn't you?  But no, I do intend to finish our tale...

Last we saw our intrepid explorers, their message light was mysteriously flashing.  It turns out that the reason my cousin - my only gal cousin, who lives in Reno and whom I hadn't seen in twenty years - hadn't answered my messages previous to our trip was that she was in Europe at the time.  But now she had returned, and was wondering if it would be okay if she flew out to see us for a day?

Okay?  It would be fabulous!!

So although the lovely Elizabeth had to leave before dawn, our sorrow was leavened by the knowledge that we were going to breakfast with my fabulous cousin, Christiane.

We met in Paris, and nearly immediately found ourselves in Venice.  Well, in the Venetian, at any rate... as you can see from the photo, the wind blew us everywhere that day!

Inside, we watched 'street performers' and listened to the singing of the gondoliers, and visited a few of the more spectacular shops.  I have a thing for masks, and there was a shop entirely devoted to that art form.  I could have stayed there all day...

But we did eventually tear ourselves (me) away, and headed back out into the wider world.  We visited quite a few hotels, and visited Tussaud's, where Scott was able to flirt with one of his favorite Pushy Broads.

My cousin, who hosts a political talk radio show, was able to offer her skills where they were most needed...

And we generally just enjoyed ourselves as much as it seems possible to do.  We ended the day by taking my cousin to 'our buffet', and rolled back to the hotel sated and entirely ready to soak in our wonderful tub.

After breakfast with my cousin the next morning, we dropped her off at the airport and headed out into the countryside.  This time we went to the Valley of Fire, which we absolutely adored.

I was extremely proud of myself, since I managed to climb all the way up the several flights of stairs going up to the petroglyphs.  Totally worth the pain, I must say!

Scott, on the other hand, took things a bit easier...

Generally, we had a fabulous time.  We hit Hoover Dam briefly, just as the sun went down, and then back we went for dinner (guess where) and spent the rest of the evening taking in the breathtaking show Le Reve.

Home again, home again, the next morning.

Have to say, love doing the tourist thing - at least, love it the way we do it.  I can't imagine better companions, and there isn't a single thing that I wish I had skipped or traded for something else.  We had a fabulous time, as we always do.  The only thing that could improve the experience is to have it again!!

Oh, All Right...

Since Nancy is bored and expecting me to entertain her, I give her this:

Handsome Son With New Hat

The New Year Begins Nicely

Look at what I found in the mail last night!!!

This is the prize for the recent contest on the Knitty.com blog (click the blog link to see some really cool 'guerilla knitting' and other wonderful fiber-related stuff) - two lovely, soft, huggable skeins from the Loopy Ewe with which to make Cuckoo Mittens (click on the link to get the pattern for yourself - Knitty.com is a wonderful online magazine full of great patterns and informative articles.  Not only that, but they pay their designers decently and then provide the patterns to us for free.  Please support this community-minded effort by also supporting their advertisers and sponsors - we definitely want Knitty.com to stay around for a long, long time!)

I want to put in a special plug for the incredibly efficient and kindly folks at the Loopy Ewe.  They must have mailed off the package about one second after they got my address... and I almost suspect they asked Scotty to Beam It Up, it got to me so quickly.  Not only that, but the prize itself was only supposed to be the yarn - but as you can see, they thoughtfully added an extra special treat to the mix.  How cool is that?