Temescal Canyon

Over the weekend one of my BFFs Allie came to visit, and we set out on a gorgeous Saturday to Temescal Canyon. During the climb up and up and up, I was wondering how I had ever happily made it through a 12 day backpacking trip back in high school...

I actually haven't done any hiking since moving to LA, and I think Temescal was a great place to start.

Views of Malibu...



Views of the Santa Monica...



And of course, the hike always goes a little easier when you know you have something sweet in the future.



*Princess Cake from Sweet Lady Jane on Melrose...YUM*

What are your favorite trails?

Citron for Mom

Hi friends!

I finally have some knitting to share. It has felt like awhile, huh? I started making the Citron shawl back in early April, with plans to give it to my mom for Mother's day. I was pretty pleased with myself, thinking I would get things done far in advance.



Boy was I wrong. This thing seemed to go on f-o-r-e-v-e-r. I ended up getting done just in the nick of time, but all these teeny tiny stitches took a lot of time.



It's a gorgeous color (of malabrigo lace), and lovely pattern. Nothing says I love you, Mom, like knitting rows and rows of 540 stitches!

Darth Vadar's Day Job

On a Saturday walk to brunch in a galaxy far far away...



we encountered a few familiar characters...



washing cars!



It's not every day you see Princess Leia and the gang washing cars.



All for the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Fun.

Punks Not Dead

I picked up this plaque at the Melrose Trading Post on Sunday. I couldn't resist.

Tomato Tracking

Always living in apartments mean there's not a ton of room for a veggie garden, which I would love to have. This spring, I'm starting out with a single tomato plant.



I'm not yet convinced my deck will get enough sunlight to keep this growing, but I figured I'd snap some pics of it so I can compare later on. Maybe it will be huge and this will be a sweet baby pic we can oo and ah over later, or perhaps it will fail and we can all sigh woefully over what it once was.



When I lived in Madison, my work had a farm on site, and had 10x10 garden plots for the employees. I had a fairly successful garden that summer, thanks to my dad's help, and had more cucumbers and tomatoes I could use.



If my tomato plant does succeed, I may take a note from Sunset magazine, and work on a one pot garden, which would be totally workable in my small space.



How does your garden grow?

Meow

This week I whipped up this knitty kitty to accompany the stroller blanket I made.



She had to have a great accessory to bring in the colors of the blanket of course, so I made a collar with a crocheted flower.



Just in time to mail it off to Darchelle's baby shower!

Stroller Blanket

I crocheted like crazy over the Easter weekend, and finished this stroller blanket in time to mail to Wisconsin for my friend Darchelle’s baby shower. Crocheting does not come as easily to me as knitting (I just need more practice!), and I ended up having to start this blanket over SIX TIMES. I was near ready to give up and choose a different pattern, when I realized that when the pattern says “Single crochet in next 3 chains,” it really means to do it THREE TIMES, not just once! Whoops. :) Once I figured out I was reading the pattern wrong, I was on my way. It took a lot of concentration for me, but I really love how it turned out.


(it needs a little blocking still)

This pattern was from Crochet Today, and I used the recommended RedHeart Eco-Ways yarn, in Oyster, Mushroom and Dusty Rose (it’s a girl!).

(I was also having fun playing with different camera apps on my iPhone)



I have some leftover yarn, and a little bit of time left before this has to get into the mail, so I think I’ll whip up something extra…stay tuned!