Fall Update of Family Stuff

So September is the month that Lucas went viral with his YouTube channel taking silly pictures like this (of him, not me) and making an 8-second video at the Battleship. Want to remember this moment when he hits it big.


And Drew brought Camille home for a 3-day weekend, which made me feel special, because when your kids choose to spend time with you at this age, it means a lot.


I went to Chicago with my college roommates for our big 50th birthday weekend. Everybody arranged one outing or meal, so we did some diverse things like touring a famous recording studio where the Rolling Stones and I think Muddy Waters worked.


This was our view from the apartment we rented...


and we did Bobby's Bike Hike to the zoo and around a bunch of neighborhoods.


Let's pause for a beautiful dress my friend wore hosting the Greekfest Gala. I love it - it's like confetti on ice cream!


And Drew showed up on TV when Auburn played somebody - Jake even started barking at him when I yelled, "There's Drew!"


So in October my mom and I flew up to Fort Knox to see my sister Tracey and BIL Joe.


Apparently there are deer all over the base that come out at dusk.


Would you believe there are 4 deer in this picture?!


And Joe took us for a ride in his cool convertible.


One other thing we did was groove with Misty Tripoli's CD's I brought. Mother declined to participate, but did provide video evidence of the shimmying.

Then it was back to work, bleh, and we were Snow White and the Seven Dwarves for Halloween...well, just 5 dwarves, but we walked all over the building asking people if they'd seen the other 2 - such a hoot! ("I think Queasy's in the lab.")


Next up was that I knit a sweater using a book of edgings to make hearts around the sleeves and bottom.


Wore it one day and laid on the couch against something sharp, which cut an actual hole in my yarn - arghhhhh!!!!


So then Drew turned 21 and we went to Auburn to see the Georgia game and take him out for a birthday dinner.


It was an amazing game, if you watched it, and we had great seats in the end zone.


And this is what we found when we finished dinner and walked down to Toomer's Corner.


Finally up is Thanksgiving with everybody coming here. Tracey tried out some new hardware on my hair.


Yes, lovely!


And Camille provided beautiful flowers for a centerpiece, plus she and Drew polished all the silver - yay! Tracey made place cards with "fun facts" on the back about each person, most of which were outright lies, but were funny.


Dean made his signature shrimp remoulade.


Here's a little bit of the spread.


We played some game that I forgot the name of, plus had a fire in the backyard, and lots of good times practicing for a big Dr. Fun performance at the hospital. Thanks to all the teenagers drafted to dance with me...and Joe, who danced briefly!


So that was our Fall roundup, and next up will be the 6th annual GCGSW - stay tuned!

June Roundup

Yeah, maybe I'll just start doing seasonal posts, since I'm so bad at keeping up with everything. So I decided to go after that boyshort I tried a few years ago when I first attempted a swimsuit, and I forgot the puny little lining McCall's thinks will suffice. They literally tell you to lay it on either side of the inseam and sew it like this, and you're done!


This is looking down into it - they don't even have you secure the other end - I thought it would be caught in the leg hem, but nope!


So of course I opted to make a-whole-nother (that should be a word) bottom out of black lining then slide it inside and sew them together with the waistband and leg hems. Now I used my Jalie running short waistband to buy some tummy coverage, and that turned out great, but the legs...not so much. Here's my view of the left leg treated like a bikini bottom with elastic, and the right leg has the leg band from Jalie. The problem is that the boyshort is still too large at the bottom, so it looks like I'm wearing a diaper cover or something.


I don't think you can tell from here, but Lucas immediately started shaking his head and declared it looked like I was trying to wear boy's shorts....which is EXACTLY what I'm trying to do! He thought the whole look was ridiculous. Drew had already told me the elastic treatment was terrible, but he also agreed the banded leg was no better. So I guess I'll chop these back down to regular swimsuit legs and add elastic. So much for trying to hide the cellulite!


In other news, I tried my hand at gardening...


and don't you wonder what's buried under there? Lucas also said it looked like a gravesite. Amazingly, 4 of those 6 plants are still alive!


As are both of these lilies...


which actually sprouted even more blooms a week after I planted them.


And in homemade food, Lucas helped me make the "tableta" that we had in Belize, which is a bag of coconut flakes, a can of pet milk, and 2 cups of sugar, and was WAY too sweet, though tasty.


And my Mom got a homemade butter-maker that is a mason jar with a spinner that you turn for about 15 minutes till you've made butter from your cream. Don't forget to add a little salt.


And these would be the French sandwiches Lucas made for Dean on Father's Day.


Here's Robbie and me sporting our Alabama Chanin-wear into Ruby Tuesday's for lunch! Robbie's dress was beautiful - wish I caught a picture of the whole thing. And I stretched my shirt out enough to wear it with the blue AC skirt, but not one person said a thing about it at work, though I got plenty of weird looks. That always lets you know that they think it's odd and they don't know what to say. Oh well....


Let's pause for a couple of gorgeous sunsets from Fisher's in Orange Beach...





And in knitting news, here's a Little Kindness Monster I knitted for Mobile Yarn to donate to abused children.


What a cute little hat!


Lucas wanted me to leave the mouth off, because he said maybe the kid would have a bad secret to tell it, and now it's smirking when it should remain non-judgmental. Hmmm....


And FINALLY, Drew decided he needed new shirts, but clarified that he wanted to MAKE his new shirts. He figured if he's going in the military after college he needs to know how to sew, though I'm not sure who told him they'd have machines set up. Anyway, I got a Kwik Sew pattern and cut it out for him.


So this isn't too bad for his very first V-neck which we only basted, but why in the world did Kwik Sew make the band so wide? Obviously we'll go back and fix that, but he also discovered that he has to grade out at the waist since it's tight over the belly.


From the back, this looks like a folded-over collar, but it fits him well through the shoulders, so he's happy with it.


Oh, and it was my birthday yesterday, so here's a neat hair clip my sister sent me. Check out her website if you put your hair up!


We had a lovely dinner, then Dean surprised me with tickets to the Molly Ringwalds concert downtown (because this is my big 5-0 and that's an 80's band - I didn't stop dancing for 2 hours)! Can't you tell Lucas is excited to be there for the festivities?! Maybe he's sad because he didn't get to go to the concert.


Okay, what have you been up to, and what are you doing for the 4th? And yes, Robbie and I will be having another Alabama Chanin airbrush day when the weather cools off, so start collecting your fabric!

Valentine's Day and Mardi Gras

Homemade stuff first: this is my grandmother's costume jewelry bracelet that matched my Mardi Gras dress perfectly, so I had to get Lucas to snap a pic.


And I finished the Split-neck sweater I've been working on since December.


I've worn it to work twice - love it! It just tends to grow in length and become tunic-like, which is fine when being worn with tight pants.


I'm happy with the V-neck, too. Next time I'll make the sleeves a wee bit smaller, but that's a minor issue.


And yet another shout-out to Aprons at Publix, where you sample the meal then buy every ingredient right there at the booth. Dean had a meeting, so I opted to cook Valentine's Day dinner myself - GASP! Publix had a delicious lobster pasta dinner already packaged.


You just throw it on a sheet pan for 11 minutes and voila:


They also had a recommended side item that I fixed, roasted asparagus with tomatoes and pistachios.


And now we pause for our Taiwan cherry tree...which bloomed for approximately 3 days...


and somebody else's tree, which also only bloomed for a few days. I was running and shot this, and the next time I ran every flower was gone.


Now back to homemade stuff. I ordered a 9-skein sample of Willow Sudsy Spray yarn that seems to be targeted at spa items like washcloths, towels, and even spa slippers, and Lucas requested a striped one, so this was the easiest pattern I could find on Ravelry, which is crocheted.


This is a knitted one for myself, and it turned out super soft - love this stuff! Making one for my mom next....did I mention I have 9 more skeins coming that are more striped? It was a 2 for 1, and I can't resist pretty colors.


On to the main event. Drew and his girlfriend came down for his first ride in Endymion, New Orleans' biggest parade on Saturday before Mardi Gras. It's hard to take a good selfie when you're staring straight into the sun.


Here are the boys all costumed up before heading for the float.


Meanwhile, Lucas, Camille, and I headed off in search of the Krewe of Lofcadio, otherwise known as the chefs' parade...because they throw out wooden spoons!


Spoons in hand, we headed to Canal Street for Iris and Tucks, where we met some guys in town from New York for a bachelor party. They were taken with my Auburn beads that Dean had bought in Mobile, though it turns out they never heard of Auburn University, but were big fans of War Eagle bourbon from Kentucky, which I never heard of! I very kindly traded my beads for this one's cup, because that's what you do in New Orleans!


So here's Drew on the float...


and here's a shot of the crowd...


and here's their float coming into the Superdome...


where Camille and I were waiting with a sign so they'd see us. Which was funny, because Dean had no idea we made this. It worked like a charm, then I used it as a table centerpiece so he'd find the table easier - ha! I think it ended up out in the Quarter somewhere, so he'll be like Flat Stanley traveling around the city.


And here's Drew all tuckered out but still smiling. Needless to say, he didn't stay up long enough to see Kiss (none of us did), but he had a great time.


And now they're back at college, and we're mired in that post-fun depression, so I'm starting a new knitting project as therapy. Hope you had a great Mardi Gras...oh, and I realize I didn't mention all the accidents this year, but I'll summarize by saying there were 2 groups run over by vehicles in 2 different states (everybody's okay, amazingly), and 3 men fell off floats and a truck in 3 different states, one right in front of us on Sunday, one in Mississippi who landed on rebar and died, and one in Mobile who was in critical condition on Tuesday. Maybe Mardi Gras isn't so fun....