Fur Girl Portraits

I met Julie a year and half ago on the Kings fan cruise so we immediately bonded over hockey and the LA Kings. She has 2 cute dogs which she refers to as her "fur girls" which are her babies.

I wanted to surprise Julie with some pet portraits which takes some planning while she is away on a trip and Kat dogsits. Timing, weather and life always kept getting in the way but today was the day where we both had the time and the weather was cooperative.

Now for the subject of getting the dogs to behave. Ideally, I would try to try and portraits of the dogs together but normally they don't seem to hang out well next to each other so we had to do each one separately.

Lady is more patient and mellow while Raina is spastic and often clueless but both dogs are super cute. I originally was going to take them to a nearby park but the sun started getting hot and I thought the outside area of her place worked with the greenery. Plus we could pose one dog at a time while the other was inside the house and they switch them out. It worked great.

Raina

This is Raina a miniature Australian sheepdog.  She has gorgeous light brown/amber eyes with the cute ears. She is a snuggler/burrower that is so endearing then when you least expect it, she will launch herself onto you if you're sitting on the couch. Raina took a while to settle down and sit so I don't have many different poses with her. Yes, if I could describe Raina in one word, it's spaz. :)

Raina in B/W

Next up, we have Lady (spaniel breed). Lady is the perfect lady as her name implies. For her photography session, she happily sat and posed in and out of the house. Raina was all over the place.
That's why I have more photos of Lady. She has more patience which helps me have the time to set up the shot and she has nice expressive, knowing eyes.

Lady is ready for her close-up.

Cooperative & working the angles.

"I know I'm adorable."

Classic Lady.

Lady thinking, "hurry up!"

Okay, only one more photo.

This is the photo that paparazzi takes and publishes unflattering pic of me biting my lip.
Sigh.

So that's the portrait session, then the fur girls took a nap after their exhausting shoot. It's tough to be adorable....woof!

Punk Rock Girl

Hector and I heard this song on the satellite radio the other night and began singing along. Too funny.

Wedding Annis

In an earlier post, I mentioned that my cousin Hannah got married and here is her knitted wedding gift. An Annis that so versatile as a shawlette or scarf.

So pretty and feminine.

I originally began this project with a really pretty soft green lace yarn but somewhere along the line, I messed up and couldn't fix it. I had to scrap it and choose another yarn that wasn't so fine.

I got this oatmeal colored  mohair yarn with a metallic gold thread on sale and think it will be a nice complement to Hannah. There are only a few patterns that I will knit more than once and this one of them. I think this is my 4th Annis and it is really great.

So I'm sure you will eventually see more of these from me...

Close up of edge.

Annis.

Appreciation

Apple core blanket. The hole is right by the purple core.

Knitting is a relaxing, therapeutic activity that I really enjoy. I've slowed down a bit mostly because of life and wrist issues but I'm getting back into it.

I knit this cute Apple Core blanket (baby sized) for a really good friend about 1.5 years ago when she was expecting twin girls. The other day when I was over for a visit, I saw it on the family room sofa and picked it up. I could see that it was machine washed because some of the wool has felted but it still holding up well except for a hole where I sewed the cores together. My friend said she uses the blanket all the time and that's why it's on the sofa. I took the blanket home so I could mend it and brought it back.

It makes me really happy to see a handknit gift being used and loved. Sure, it's worn down a bit but I'd rather see it being used & getting holes rather than being stuffed in a drawer somewhere never to see the light of day. Knits are meant to be enjoyed and worn. If it gets destroyed, it gives me a good reason to knit something for you. :)

Meanwhile, I'm slowly making more apple cores from my leftovers so I can have my very own blanket too. :)

Wedding

General Store

The happy couple!

Pretty setting

On Sunday, my closest cousin Hannah married her love Chad in a beautiful, outdoor setting called Paramount Ranch. It has an old West setting and I think it was a nod to Chad's Western/cowboy childhood. The ceremony took place under a huge oak tree which provided shade and a stunning framework.

I didn't take a lot of pictures since I wanted to enjoy their moment but I did take this blurry photo of them making their first entrance as Mr. & Mrs. and she looks soooo happy.

The invite said to dress comfortably and boots preferably Western. We were happy with the comfy part.



Kids.

 

Adorable place card.

The food was awesome. BBQ brisket, ribs & chicken with coleslaw & mac n cheese. The boys loved the ribs and Josh devoured 4 ribs with a boatload of BBQ sauce. My aunt made her famous peanut brittle so we got a lot more to take home along with some Dole pineapples (thanks Matt).

There was lots of activities to enjoy in between events like croquet, bocce ball and horseshoes. There was even a line dance instructor to teach several dances to the guests. Both kids and Hector participated but Tyler is the one who really excelled at the steps. The 2 boys really get their love of dancing from their dad. :)

Add caption

We had such a fantastic time and even the kids said they had lots of fun. That's saying a lot! :)

So congrats to Chad and Hannah on their marriage!! Looking forward to family Chinese dumpling night.

If You're Wondering

Stranded Socks: test knit

This is my absolute very first test knit that I have done. :) I'm pretty pleased with myself and the results. Square [j] jane on Ravelry posted  her pattern on the Monstersocks group called Stranded Socks so I jumped on board as soon I saw them.  Monstersocks is a nickname given to socks made of various leftovers but the name is misleading since a huge majority of the socks are beautiful and not ugly like monsters.

Well, I have a huge container (former cheeseball container) full of leftover yarn. The pattern only calls for 4-5 colors (I believe) but I selected colors for contrast so each socks has a slightly different look but that was mostly because I had one color that I was too lazy to divide into two. ;)



This was such a great pattern to knit and I wanted to keep knitting to see everything emerge. I think I could have finished these a lot sooner if other stuff didn't get in the way.