...color my world...

I wanted to share with you some new colors in my life~

These are both truly works of art and I think you already know that they are from the creative genius and my friend, depraved dyer.

The first lovely is SOCKGATE~
(quotes from BMFA website)

"Sock Gate has in it all the colors from the Sock Summit logo. I put the dye on in a way so that when you knit socks from this colorway you will get a similar representation of color as on the logo. Not exact by any stretch of the imagination just similar. "

The next beauty is ST-1~

"Stephanie and I agree on many things and color is certainly one of them. We both tend to gravitate to the same earthy end of the spectrum. However there is one very small deviation, Steph likes oranges more than I do. So what I did here was take the colors we love and put the ones that she loves best on one end of the skein and put the ones I like best on the other side and where they meet is a color we both are pretty on about. Then I dumped just a little bit of pond scum over it to give it the scummy blessing. I really love this colorway because of the colors but also because it is our friendship manifest in color, on yarn. How can you get better than that? oh....yep socks. "

Yes, these do make my heart go skippity skip. But my true love is this...ST-2~

"Debbi, Rachel, JoAnn and Debra, our trusted and cherished team. They are hardworking, loyal and smart, competent women. All of them are also really, really funny. Steph and I love them a whole lot. All four of them love some shade of red. So I took all of those red hues, saturated their little red hearts out and there you have ST2. These women have our hearts and are the heart and soul and blood, sweat and yes, tears of Sock Summit."

Anyone that knows me know that i love anything red. And boy do I love this one! I had no idea that Tina was doing this, although I am not surprised. (When does she sleep?) I was at Tina's the other day working on vendor stuff for the Summit , and when I got ready to leave she said casually, "Oh, I've got some color for you." This statement always makes me excited because I never know what she going to show me and I am always blown away. It never fails. But this time......wow. And then I saw the label.....ST-2! There are no words.....

I just keep reminding myself that I am one lucky girl. Having a friend like Tina is amazing......

...celebrations...

This past weekend was a really fun and full one. We headed south to Corvallis on Friday to start the celebration for my son-in-law, Kris. He graduated with his masters in Education on Saturday from Western Oregon University. The celebration started at a local hang out that is a favorite of Kris and Erin (our oldest daughter and his wife). Murphy's is a great place, with fabulous food and a fun atmosphere. It's been a mainstay in Corvallis since before we were in college there.....that's a long time!

This is Kris and his dad, Alan, enjoying what they like to call a Mt. Doodle......

And this is the t-shirt we gave Kris for his birthday this year. We knew as a teacher he would be hearing all kinds of excuses, so we decided maybe he should have one of his own.

This was our view, Saturday morning, of the graduates.

Here is Kris just after receiving his diploma...I was cheering to much to get a shot of him actually getting it. :}

This is what I worked on during the ceremony. After all, it was WWKIP day.

It's my jazz jubilation and I love it.

Here are Erin and Kris after the ceremony. Both are masters now and are we ever proud!

This is Kris, his brother Joe and Joe's son Holden at the "after" party.

And the cake really says it all!

What an accomplishment and what a great weekend. And again, we are so proud!

...birthday fun...

So, there is much to cram into this post. This past weekend I celebrated my birthday and there is much to tell. It really started on Thursday with a bike ride. This is what I found along the road...

These are wildflowers that our county planted when they finished some recent road construction. Not bad, huh?

My next agenda item was dinner with my high school girlfriends. We have been friend for over 30 years! We have been through marriages, divorces, births, deaths, laughter and tears. This is a very special group of women to me. We get together about every 3-4 weeks for dinner. Our last BIG event together was the wedding of Molly's (1st on right) daughter in VEGAS, baby. It was a blast. That's when we saw Beatles Love. Needless to say....we knew ALL of the words...

This was the view on my drive home from dinner that night.....

It was spectacular.
On Saturday, which was actually my birthday, I went to the Beaverton Farmer's Market again. I love this market, duh! But I especially love the food. And I found my new favorite thing.....Zest Crepes!

Can you see how much I love them?

That evening, we had a wonderful dinner at Mingo, which is one of my favorite restaurants. Again, with the eating thing..... anyway, two of the best things of the evening (besides great family and friends) a beautiful wine and rhubarb crisp for dessert.

On Sunday I spent some time in the yard. There are some pretty great things happening there.

Oh! And remember my birthday gift from last year?

Now it looks like this...

Pretty neat, huh!

It was a very full and really wonderful birthday. I am very lucky!

Saturday was a great day! It started here......

and went here...

via this....

...that's Carol and I riding our bikes back from the Beaverton Farmer's Market. See my basket on my bike? It's new and do I love it! It has a quick release so I can ride with it and then take it off at the market to fill it up! SWEET!

The basket isn't the only thing to get filled on Saturday. Check out the goodies!

This is my new buddy, Tripp, making me some fresh squeezed Raspberry Lemonade. It's the best lemonade I have ever had.

The rule of the day was "if it doesn't fit in the tummy or the basket, you can't buy it". Carol almost broke the rule when the first thing she bought was a beautiful fused glass plate. Luckily, she had a backpack that the plate "just" fit into. The only thing she had to worry about then was not falling down on the way home.

This is Bryan and Nolan of Heifer International Portland. If you don't know about Heifer International go here and read all about it. I'll wait........

It's a fantastic organization and if you can, please donate to them. They do some great things!

By the time I left the market I had purchased a loaf of Dave's Killer Bread (I can't leave the market without it), a beautiful beefsteak tomato, some lovely basil, a hunk of local fontina cheese, and something new, garlic tops.

I made myself a promise this year to try something new from the market each week. Boy am I glad I tried this. They have the texture of asparagus with a hint of garlic flavor. I sauteed them in olive oil and salt and pepper and WOW. Love them. Try them if you haven't.

The ride was wonderful as the weather was perfect. 80 degrees with a slight breeze. I'm lovin' this bike thing.....

...busy...

Last weekend was really full. Here is a recap of all the great things that happened! The weekend started with an early birthday celebration for Tina out at the barn with the rest of the BMFA folks. Good food and lots of laughter!

There was a fair amount of yard work and bird watching. This is one of the doves, that has taken up residence in our back yard, cooling down in the fountain.

I had a wonderful Sunday Brunch with my youngest daughter, Kate. We ate outside and it was beautiful!

We had friends over to make pizza on the grill. It's the first time we have done this (make the pizza, I mean) and it definitely will not be the last!

All in all, it was a full, fun weekend. Everyone was dog tired by the end....but what great memories!

...soap box at the ready...

I had a completely different post planned for today. I have some great photos and stories to tell about my Memorial Day Weekend. That was the plan...until this morning.

This morning the Sock Summit Class registration opened up at 10:00 am. And the madness began. Imagine thousands of people trying to register for classes all at the same time. Yep, you guessed it. Server crash. Many people not able to get what they wanted. But this is not the bad part of the story.

I have pretty much my whole life looked on the bright side of things. My mom always told me that things happen for a reason. What goes around, comes around. Well, I am really counting on this.

The sad part of this story is not the server crashing, not the people not getting what they wanted, not the disappointment. It's the reaction that these people had that was immediate. It was the straight away anger, rage, and venom directed at the organizers of this amazing event. It was the "I am not getting what i WANT, and it's clear that you pretty much don't care". It's the "I am so upset that I didn't get the classes I wanted that I am not going to come". And this was all in the span of about 10 minutes. That's right, within 10 minutes of the registration going live.

The part that upsets me the most is that many people haven't witnessed all that has gone into this Sock Summit. They don't have any concept how hard Tina and Stephanie have worked, are working and will continue to work to make this event happen. And mind you, this is happening alongside their day jobs. They have no notion of what goes on behind the scenes, nor do they seem to care. It really reinforced for me, just how greedy and selfish our society has become. I am sorry to see this.

I was glad to see that after the server overload was remedied, classes opened up and people were able to get into classes they thought were previously full. This just seemed to take a little patience. Something, it seems, some people don't possess. Oh, well.

I am very proud of what Tina and Steph have accomplished. They are two of the most hardworking, honest and fair women I have ever known. I am honored to call these people my friends. Keep up the good work ladies. People really do appreciate it.

And for the complaining, angry, petty people out there....what goes around comes around....just sayin'.....

..the long and winding road...

For Christmas this year my husband got me a new bike. I had been hinting at a bike for about 9 months, but who know he was actually listening? Anyway, I have been out for a couple of short rides since Christmas, (the weather here hasn't been very cooperative) but last Sunday the weather was perfect.

I live in a rural area, known as Scholls, that has beautiful fields, rolling hills and pretty amazing birds and animals. So I hopped on my bike and headed out to see some of this beauty from the seat of my 24 speed. And what beauty.....

crimson clover in bloom

that's my bike, isn't is great?

this is what we do out here....

that, my friends, is a wild turkey...pretty cool, huh?

...faces from the road...

the flowers are pretty amazing, too.

All in all, I rode for a little over 1 1/2 hours and if I hadn't run out of water I might still be on my bike. It was really the best thing I have done for myself in a very long time. So bear with me. The road out there is truly long and winding and I aim to see much more of it from the seat of my bike......