How was your weekend?

How was your weekend?  I hope it was a good one!

Mine was good.  It was filled with a little of this and a little of that.

It started off on Friday when I got back from the market.  I found a cute, little, spray bottle at Sprouts that I couldn't resist.  And, besides, I really wanted to try making some homemade air freshener/linen spray.  So, when I got home, that's just what I did.

I found a recipe online.  I cut it in half so it would fit in my bottle.  Here's what I used...3 tablespoons of distilled water, 1/2 tablespoon of vodka (all I had was pepper vodka but it has an earthy good smell and worked fine (vodka/alcohol is used to make the oil and water mix), and 20 drops of lavender oil.  It turned out great and smells sooooo good!

My husband got called into work early Saturday morning to take care of a problem.  I decided to go with him to keep him company on the drive and later do a little shopping and be-bopping around by the beach....he works in Carlsbad...just minutes from the ocean!  :-)

When he was finished, we headed to Encinitas for breakfast at the "Potato Shack".  Yum!  Then, we walked over to see the ocean.  It seemed extra blue and gorgeous that day and the water was so clear.  I wish I'd brought my camera.  Oh well, thank goodness for cell phone cameras.

After that, we hopped over to REI to do a little shopping.  I got a new backpack!  It's the green one on the right.  I had gotten one a couple of years ago (the blue one next to it) but it turned out to be too small for actual backpacking.  So, this time I got one that's probably the biggest I'd get for my small frame...a 60+10 litre.  It should work just fine.  I think I officially have a backpack collection now.  lol  The other two are a small pack for day hikes (the turquoise one), and the smaller one I use when I go biking.

Our garden seems to be noticeably growing each day.  We have a few more seeds that have sprouted over the weekend too.  And, we got our first two tomatoes of the season.  Woot!

I measured off a new warp a couple weeks ago....with the "help" of my sweet Penelope.  I've since been slowly putting it on my loom.  You know....a little time here, a little time there.

I finished warping my loom last night and it's ready to weave!

Hooray!  I'm so excited to see how this project will turn out.  I'm going to weave some kitchen towels with some thread/yarn I have in my stash.  Yay...more de-stashing!

Here's to a great week!

A Very Special Visit and a Day by the Sea

Last month, My daughter was in Southern California for a college event.  She had one day free and we were thrilled to spend it with her.  We picked her up and headed to San Diego.  It was a gorgeous day!  It was sunny, the temps were in the 70's, and we were all together.  Perfect!

We had a delicious lunch and went to Seaport Village to walk around the shops and along the water.  This is a view looking back toward downtown San Diego and the Gaslamp Quarter...

This restaurant looks so rustic and cute sitting out over the water.

This Seagull looked so peaceful and happy paddling around the marina.  The water was so clear that we could see his feet moving.

We sat by the water and watched the boats go by.  We even saw a seal or sea lion (I'm not sure which because he was far away) playing in the water. 

There are a lot of interesting boats to see down there.  There are military ships, small sailboats, tour boats, kayaks, and much more.  A couple of years ago, we saw a fancy boat/yacht that was so big it even had a helicopter on the top deck!

We later drove north to Encinitas for a walk along the beach.  It was wonderful...the parking lot had plenty of spaces and the beaches were wide open.  In fact, there were times that it seemed we were the only ones there.

Gorgeous!

There's always so much to see with the gorgeous scenery and the surprises along the sand.  This plant that washed ashore is pretty with it's delicate leaves and pretty pink color. 

 We had to be careful where we walked because there were thousands of tiny, blue, jelly fish that had washed ashore.  Some were about the size of a dime.  The larger ones were a couple of inches wide.

These jellyfish have a little sail on the top to propel them across the water.  I just looked them up and it turns out that's their only means of locomotion.  Because of that, they're subject to mass beach stranding.  We've seen them in years past where there were so many of them that the beach looked like it was covered in paper trash.  Their technical name is "Vellella".  If you look closely, the inside, center part has rings (click on the photo to see it larger).  So interesting.  The blue color is pretty too.

Sadly, there are lots of dead bees along the beach.  We've been seeing more and more of them over the years.  I'm not sure if it has to do with whatever is causing so many of them to die or if it's just a natural occurrence.  Either way, I watch where I step so I won't be stung!

We saw quite a few ladybugs that day.  Here's my daughter with one on her hand.

Looks like he posed for a photo!  

This outing was perfect for trying out my new camera.  I'm amazed how I was able to get a photo close up of a seagull flying high above me.  I'm anxious to see what else my big, zoom lens can do!

After our walk on the beach, we headed a little further north for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Las Olas.  And, then, another walk along the beach in Carlsbad to see the sunset.

I spotted a tree on our walk to the beach that had fuzzy, yellow, blossoms.  Aren't they cute?! 

These surfers were pretty far down the beach and I was surprised how well my camera lens did.  I'd like to go back down there with a tripod on a good surf day and see if I can get some good pictures of surfers riding the waves.

I always love seeing sandpipers.  They're so cute!

What a wonderful day we had together!  It couldn't have been more perfect!

Daddy and daughter!

We watched until the sun slipped away. 

We dropped her off that night with lots of hugs, a little sadness to say goodbye, and anticipation of seeing her again very soon.  It's been tough with her living in another state but we cherish every moment we have together even more than we did before.

O is for Ocean

Looks like I ended up behind on the Alphabet Photo Challenge again.

But, I have a very good excuse...sort of.  I've been gone.

But, this might make up for it...the letter this week is O and...

I went somewhere that starts with "O"!   The Ocean! 

Hubby is lucky to work near the ocean.  And, one week every ten months or so, he has to work at night.  So, to avoid him having to make the hour drive home in the middle of the night, we took

our RV down to Carlsbad (northern San Diego county) and stayed by the ocean.

It was only about 10-15 minutes from his job.  That was much nicer for his drive "home".

And, we were able to escape the heat at home and enjoy perfect weather...about 75!

We made very good use of the day time hours.  One morning, we rode our bikes to Cardiff, turned around and had a delicious breakfast at the Encinitas Cafe.  Then, we made another stop at Pannikin for coffee.  It's right on highway 101, in an 1888 Santa Fe train station.  Isn't it cute?!...

The inside is fun too.  This is what you see when you walk in one of the doors...

They have a cute, old fashioned looking store that sells coffee, tea, teapots and other fun things.

Then, you turn to the left and follow the line (they're always busy) to place an order...

Their bakery case was overflowing onto the counters with yummy looking treats.

Some were even gluten free!  I had to resist because I was still full from breakfast.

More fun things to look at above the coffee making area...

What a great use of an old stove...they use it to hold cream, sugar, honey, etc...

Their coffee is delicious.  But, I think it's a little weird that they serve a hot vanilla latte

in a large glass....there's no handle and it's TOO hot to hold!  I had to use several napkins

to pick it up.  I was hoping for one of those big cups with coffee art on top.  I love those!

We went outside to sit down and enjoy our coffee.  Parked at the curb was a 

TV news van with their tower up.  They were getting all set up to cover a story...

There was a group of people that had started early in the morning for a run from Camp Pendleton to San Diego for a children's charity of some kind.  It was fun to get a behind-the-scenes look

at what it takes to get a news story.  We heard them making arrangements to meet

 the runners at the finish line later that day.  They were going to run about 46 miles that day.

This adorable little dog was waiting outside for it's owner.  It was so cute!

Our RV that was just a little cabin in the woods a few weeks ago

became our little cottage by the sea this week.  

Yes...that's the ocean right behind it!

Salsa seemed to love the cooler weather.

She took naps on her little pink hammock every day.

We could tell that she was thoroughly enjoying the shade and the cool ocean breeze.

Hey...this starts with O...sort of...it's an Old tree!

I had hoped to bike more but I'm not used to my road bike and the long ride earlier in the week

made my neck too sore to ride again.  But, the week was filled with lots of other fun stuff.

Hubby did more riding in the mornings and boogie boarding in the afternoons.

I went for walks and beach combing for more rocks to crochet lace around.

Of course, I did some knitting, a little shopping, and relaxing.

We finished our stay with a walk along the beach this morning.

The water temperature is really nice right now.  Ahhhh!

We really enjoyed watching birds...especially the different sand piper types.

There were teenie tiny ones, larger gray and white ones, and big brownish ones.

The bluff to the left is where our RV was parked.  We heard the sound of the ocean

all the time.  And, we enjoyed sunsets and and watching the moon set every night.

There are stairways like this one that lead down to the sand.

The lack of crowds during the week (and, since school has started) was wonderful!

The size and shape of the waves improved a lot today and there were lots of surfers.

You might be able to see some of them if you click on the photo to enlarge it.

Well, there's my O post.  It's not a lot of things that start with O.

It's one very large thing that starts with O...Ocean!

And, it was much more fun than some of the things I had planned on like olive oil and onions.

I didn't even take my camera out of the case....I used my cell phone for pictures.

Would you like a glass with your whine?!

Actually...a glass of wine would be better.  But, hey...a girl is entitled to a little whine once in a while...right?  So...here it goes...


Tomorrow is my dreaded surgery that I blogged about months ago.  I know, it's minor, but it's nerve wracking nonetheless.  I can't wait til it's over, everything is ok from the tests, and I'm back to normal.  And...that everything else gets better than this past week.


We went to the beach on Saturday to escape the heat and came back to our car to find a ticket on our windshield.  What?!  Whatever could that be for?!  We were parked completely legal and our registration is current.  Maybe they put it on the wrong car.  No such luck!  It had our license plate number on it.  But, it is a mistake!  It said we were illegally parked in a red zone.  What?!  There was no red on the curb and we we were in a parking lot that people park in all the time!  The only sign was that you can't park in that lot at night from 10pm to 6am....we parked during the day from 9:30 am to 3pm.  We chatted with some locals and a couple of lifeguards and they said the cops do that sometimes, even though it's perfectly legal to park there, and to take lots of pictures to fight it...which we had already done...but we took a few more for good measure.  I could sure do without adding a ticket to fight to my to-do list!


As we drove away, our car started making a "bong bong bong" sound and a light came on that said the rear doors were open, even though they were closed tight.  We opened and closed them....bong bong bong.  Tried it again...bong bong bong.  It eventually stopped....for a while.  That would have been annoying to hear every couple of minutes on our hour drive home!  The next day, it did it every time I stepped on the brakes.  Luckily, hubby figured it out and fixed it.  Whew!  


Then...the check engine light came on in our Toyota.  Hubby hooked up the computer and everything was fine.  He did a little research and found that the Matrix tends to glitch sometimes and that resetting it should work.  He reset it, the light went off and it's still running great. It needs a smog test to renew the registration.  It failed!....because the check engine light had come on recently...not that anything is wrong...but the light HAD been on.  EVERYTHING else PASSED!  They told me at the shop that there are other readers/sensors that will have to clear and that it would be done by driving it 50-100 miles.  So, I went driving today...over 100 miles (a nice trip to the beach).  Afterwards, I stopped at the shop, they hooked it up before doing another test, and three sensors are still not clear.  Grrrr!  I have surgery tomorrow and I really wanted to get this done!  Darn car!  And, I have to mention that I think it's pretty ironic that I have to drive the car hundreds of miles to clear a sensor for something that was never wrong to get it to pass a smog test.  Doesn't that go against the whole smog thing?!  I mean...that's gallons of gas being used and emissions going into the air just to pass a test to keep the air clean.  Duh!


Ok...enough whining!


My drive to the beach to put miles on my car (so weird!) was also an attempt to relax, breathe deeply, and let this and other stuff go so I can go into surgery tomorrow unstressed (well...as much as I possibly can).  The ocean looked especially pretty today.  the water was clear and the blue, turquoise, and dark blue colors seemed extra brilliant.  I even saw sprays of water and mist being blow up from the surface by whales.  It was pretty exciting!  They were a bit far off shore but I saw the spray many times and I think I even saw one pop up and splash down.  Wow!  That was pretty cool!  The temp was wonderful too...74 and mostly sunny.  Ahhhh!  It would have been nice to have stayed down there and just ditched the smog test AND the surgery!  Hee hee


I'm sure I'll still be working on this whole relaxing and trying not to stress thing for the rest of today, tonight, and all the way to the hospital in the morning.  It's an outpatient surgery and not supposed to be a big deal but I always get nervous.  The whole anesthesia thing is  what gets me the most.  I shudder with how creepy/scary it is!  I can't wait for this time tomorrow.  I hope I'll be feeling good...or, at least, not too bad!  And, soon, instead of whine, I'll have some wine to celebrate!   ...Ahhh...the thought of a warm summer evening at our favorite local winery, a delicious bottle of wine, some live blues music....that sounds realllly great right now!


Prayers and positive thoughts would be greatly appreciated for tomorrow morning.  Thanks!  :-)  I'll post an update as soon as I'm feeling up to it...hopefully, tomorrow!

Color!

I finished my shawl! My doggy, Salsa, approves.


My husband and I escaped to the beach in Carlsbad (San Diego) for the weekend. I finished it while we were there and spread it out on our RV sofa to get a good look at it and take a couple of pictures. Salsa has her new jacket on because it was pretty chilly that day.


I found the pattern on Ravelry. It's called "Country Cotton Shawl". It's free from Lion Brand. I used a size "H" crochet hook and five skeins of "Serenity Garden" yarn to make it. It turned out really big, just as I had hoped.


The yarn is synthetic but it feels really soft...kind of like bamboo and/or cotton. The shawl drapes really well and it has a nice weight to it. I really like it.


It's one more shawl for my growing collection. This one will go with so many things because of all the colors in it.


I like to wear my shawls in different ways, depending on how I feel, the weather, and what I'm wearing it with. Sometimes I even use a shawl pin.


The shell edges in the pattern were a little flat. So, I made some adjustments to give mine a little more shape. Instead of five double crochets, I did three double crochets, a treble, and three double crochets, for a total of seven stitches in each one. This made them fuller and taller/more round. This is the first time I've crocheted an edge all the way around a shawl. Usually, I just do the bottom two sides. It wasn't fun figuring out the spacing on the top edge, but I do love having that cute little scallop all the way around.




I enjoyed every inch of color that slipped through my fingers as I stitched this shawl. Color makes me happy!


The beach makes me happy too. Although, it was a bit chilly and stormy when we got there.


But, Saturday was beautiful! The sun was shining most of the day and we even had a beautiful sunset. More color!


P.S. Thank you to everyone who left such nice comments on my last post about being happy. I truly appreciate every one of them. It means a lot to me and helps to cheer me up. If I didn't write back to you with an email, it was because there was a "no reply" on your comment and no email address to write back. But, please know that I really appreciate you taking time to leave me a message and for your kind words and thoughts. :-)