Red Sox and Pillow Cases

So how was that for a great end to tonight's Red Sox game?

While the game was on I sat down on the couch and set up my sewing machine for the first time in months. I have no idea what motivated me to do it. All I know is that using the still-new sewing machine sounded like a good idea. After fidgeting with it a little I made a pillow case for Tommy's little red Moshi pillow, using a sample of train fabric my mom had given me a year or two ago, as an idea for curtains. I wasn't so sure about the particular fabric for curtains, but the sample was sized just about right for tonight's mini-project. I'm also hoping Tommy will be surprised when he wakes up. (No, I didn't steal it out from under his head. Actually, the nylon material gets too hot when he sleeps on it, so we don't use it at bed time. Now maybe we can. :) )

Until next time!

Girl Talk

I realize I haven't been posting quite as often lately. I have instead put a little time into finding a few old friends on myspace. One of my best friends from high school has moved to California to pursue a career in acting and modeling. (If you were at my wedding you may remember that she was just about to make the trip out to CA then.) She's very serious about it, and I just think it's cool that she has really pursued it. She just uploaded 2 videos today and has a few pics on her site. It's pretty cool. You can find it here.

Speaking of modeling, err, writing about it, anyway... I told my mom (Hi Mom, if you're reading!) today that I had my hair cut yesterday and had it styled straight, which I have never done. She wanted me to take a picture, but I told her I will just do it again some time. I have to say though, that it was kind of fun to do something different for a day. It's supposed to last a few days, but my hair was already a little wavy this morning. I figure it might have had something to do with the humidity. We'll see though. I added a flat iron to my idea list. When I had my hair done the stylist was running late, so she enlisted some help to speed things along. I had three hair dressers straightening my hair at the same time, which was kind of funny but really quick (10 minutes... and I have a lot of hair)! They were having a little fun with the fact that it was my first time having my hair straightened, and they all suggested that the best and only flat iron worth using is the CHI. I'll try to remember.

In other news, the Cuddy's missed the Irish Festival this weekend. We were hoping to go with my sister Jessi and her family (Hi Jessi, if you're reading! ...Wow, calling lots of family today...), but it didn't work out. We went twice a few years back, and every year since then we have informally planned to go again, only to have something come up. This weekend it was as simple as having to work OT... and having taken trips both last weekend and the weekend before - which made this weekend sneak up. I only remembered the Irish Fest was actually this weekend after looking at my calendar Friday night. DOH! Maybe next year! (In addition to the obvious, there is live music, a kid section with face painting and other kid stuff, cultural tents, food, and a tent or two for all the vendors selling lots of interesting Irish things. It's a good time, especially since we get to visit with my Jessi and family.)

Lastly, I added a couple of interior design blogs to my "blogs I read (or at least view the photos)" list. I love interior design and just looking at photos of what others create. One of the blogs, Husmusen, is in Swedish, which I do not understand - just in case you thought I might, but I still love looking at the photos. Some of them are particularly beautiful. Here's one of my favorites. I will soon seek out some more design blogs, for sure.

In the meantime, I need to get some sleep. Oh, and I just heard on the news that there is an "excessive heat watch" for this week. Yowsers. I wonder how long it will take us to lose power. Maybe I need to save up some pennies for a couple of battery operated water bottle sprayer/fan thingies that someone had at the PawSox game two weeks ago. Does anyone know where I might find one? I'm guessing either a pharmacy or grocery store would have some...

Goodnight!

Sudoku

My time: 7 minutes, 0 seconds

Tonight I was motivivated to try Sudoku again, and I completed my first puzzle. Woohoo! It was just the easy level, but I didn't think it was too bad for my first one. Of course when I originally looked at it I gave up after just a few minutes (very unlike myself -I usually love puzzles). Tonight I was in the mood, and I was probably guessing lucky. Now I want to play again! =)

Back from the Mountains

I posted a bunch of photos below. There are lots more here.

Here's what we did:

Thursday morning we (Brian, myself, Tommy, Grandma, and Auntie Louie) started out for a scenic drive across Vermont and into the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It was a spitting rain when we left, but by the time we made it half way through the trip the skies had cleared. We stayed at a little hotel called the Mt. Madison in Gorham. It looked quite a bit different from the picture (smaller), but all that mattered to us was that the rooms were clean and there was a (heated outdoor) pool. We went swimming almost every day, which was a must after coming in from a day in scorching summer heat. -And in case you don't already know, Tommy loves swimming.

Friday was our Day Out With Thomas at Conway Scenic Railroad. It was as terrific as, if not better than, we expected. The ride on Thomas' coaches lasted about 25 minutes (one ride per ticket), and there was a new ride every hour or so. There were many coaches, and they were all packed. In addition there were just as many families outside taking pictures with Sir Topham Hatt, the lego Thomas, and playing with trains. We didn't do all of the activities because we could only take so much heat, but we were there for most of the day. My favorite part was seeing so many kids, all with their Thomas shirts and hats. You could see the excitement in their eyes. -It was a very happy place!

After seeing Thomas we had lunch and iced lemonade a little nearby cafe and then headed across the street to Zeb's General Store. They sell only 100% New England made products and have a 67 foot long candy counter. It was very cool! We bought Tommy some gummy worms (his first ever) and another little kitty before waving goodbye to Thomas the Tank Engine from outside the store.

On Saturday we went to Story Land. There was so much there to see and play with that I can't even begin to cover it all. From the little nursery rhyme houses and play areas to the castles and boat rides... to the more traditional theme park rides and shows, we loved it. Two of our favorites were the raft ride and Professor Bigglestep's Laboratory. We went on the raft ride twice just to get soaked on a hot day. Water squirted out unexpectedly throughout the ride, so it was fun and funny. -The Laboratory was a big round building full of little foam balls flying every which way. There were two levels complete with many different types of machines designed for shooting out the balls. Tommy found one that sucked up the balls like a vacuum, and I went to the second level to shoot balls down at Brian. We stayed there for a while. =)

The original plan was to take the Mt. Washington Auto Road on Sunday, but we ended up taking a gondola skyride up Wildcat Mountain instead, where we had a nice view of Mt. Washington and Tuckerman and Huntington Ravines. We took lots of pictures before heading down and to play mini golf at Pirate's Cove and then back to the motel for more pooltime before a long drive down to Great Grandma's in Rhode Island on Monday.

We don't get to see Brian's grandmother often, so we really appreciated the chance to visit. We all had dinner at a little Italian seafood restaurant, where Auntie Louie tried her first lobster - and liked it!

Grandma, Great Grandma, and Auntie Louie all offered to watch Tommy after dinner so that Brian and I could go to our first Pawtucked Red Sox game. We had great seats and were able to watch Wily Mo Pena play while on rehab and just before heading back out to Boston. We loved it and would be regulars if we lived in Pawtucket!

Of course we came home Tuesday and headed right back to work on Wednedsay, which was interesting enough as my car had been parked in the garage for a week and wouldn't start Wednesday morning. Thankfully it has been ok since, as Brian's car just ate up over $400 in brake maintenance. Ugh!

Now Tommy and I are off to New Hampshire again - this time for my Aunt Janet's wedding reception in southern New Hampshire. Then I think things will calm down a bit, but in the meantime, we have had some fun!

Saturday Sky

I took this photo on our vacation in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, from the bottom of the Mt. Washington Auto Road. It might have been Friday, but we passed it on both days...

Saturday was my sister Becky's birthday. Happy Birthday Buddy!

Babies & Yarn

Today Stephanie and I went to Denise's baby shower in Massachusetts. I love baby showers. What's not to like about baby clothes, shoes, and accessories?

We stopped on the way back in Lenox, MA, at Colorful Stitches. The yarn selection was heavenly ...and expensive. -See Forbidden on this page. Amazing! Of course $49.35 per skein was, well, completely out of my price range. If that interests you, see Qiviut on this page, at the bottom. $50 almost seems like a deal after seeing that. Of course, feeling those yarns was just sinful.

I was good and kept my entire purchase to $5.25. Evidence:

I think I did well...

Lenox was very picturesque. I hope to go back some time and sample a few more shops. (It doesn't hurt to have the Lee outlets nearby.) I'm hoping there will be some good walking/shopping close to our motel in New Hampshire this weekend too, when I'll have my camera with me. I love small towns with lots of little specialty shops. :)

About Photographing the Sky

So... Brian gave me a hard time about taking pictures of the sky today. Part of me saw his point. A bigger part of me, however, didn't care. I mean, there's no arguing that it's silly, but that doesn't mean there is anything wrong with it. Besides, he's sitting on the couch playing a video game right now and laughing like a mad man because he's beating the xbox. I mean, really.

That said, I wanted to take a picture of the sunset today (not super spectacular, but pretty), but I didn't have the camera with me. Then tonight I tried taking pics of the moon (also pretty) and quickly discovered that I don't know how to take photos in the dark. I tried several different settings on my camera - and several techniques. My assumption was that the problem lay both with the camera and the photographer.

This is about the best I could do:

Hopefully I can make up for this week's photos next Saturday on my vacation in the mountains! I can't wait!

Saturday Sky in Upstate New York

I'll be off to work in a few minutes, but I had to post my first Saturday Sky picture leaving. It looks pretty blue in the picture, but it's actually very white and hazy this morning. It should be a nice day though, so maybe I'll catch a better photo later.

Click on the button if you're interested in joining the ring, or click here to see who started it all.

Yet Another Hat

I'm done with hats for a little while now, really... For some reason I couldn't get the color to photograph well unless I put the purple hat next to the new pink one, so I had to either put them together or re-photograph. What you see is what you get! Next, I'm thinking red mittens for Tommy... I want to try working in some color (well, white)... We'll see how it goes! The hats were a fun break from bigger stuff. -Goodnight!

Keeping Busy

Happy Fourth!

Unfortunately I had to work today, though I will appreciate the money when it comes. Somehow I still managed to save enough time to make another hat tonight when I came home. It took just over two hours, and I am actually pleased! My only regret is not using softer yarn. The white hat, though not as well made, is extremely soft, and the difference is huge.

The new hat will be for Grace (friends' soon to be baby girl). I have enough yarn to make one in pink too, which I will hopefully do soon as well. -More pictures soon!

P.S. You can find the pattern here.

Look! A Monkey!

Click to make him swing on the branches.

adopt your own virtual pet!

Experimental Hat

Today I needed a break from my efforts to learn about more complicated knitting designs - and super long projects, so I decided to make a quick and easy infant hat. I used two different hat patterns for reference and fudged it with what I had. It isn't perfect or exciting (there are several things I would do differently were I to start over - this was mostly for practice), but it's a hat! And it's done! I decided part way through that I was going to add a little color in the form of a flower - or a few flowers, but then if you were to roll up the brim (it should work both ways), the design would either be hidden, or the top of it would just barely stick out. I suppose I could get creative and make it so that maybe you see one thing with the brim up and another with it down... The size isn't very accommodating however, so it will probably stay as it is. Sometimes simple is nice anyway. Plus Tommy had a little green hat like this when he was a baby, and he wore it all the time. Of course, I have no idea if this will actually fit a baby. It was fun, anyway!