Crocheting

This is what my baby blanket looks like now. I measured it last night, and it's 26.5 inches long. It's supposed to be 42 inches long when it's finished, and then I can add the trim. I'm so excited to be more than halfway done. :D It's not really a super photograph, but I only took it to show my mom my progress so far.

I found out my friend Sarah is having a baby boy. She and Rus want "outdoor" colors for the baby, so even before I knew what they were having, I bought this cool variegated yarn called "Mellow Yellow Smart Print." It's got yellow, tan, brown, blue, and green in it. I did a trial of two rows of the pattern I'm using now, and I think it's going to come out really nice. It's a slightly different texture, so I think it's going to look a little different from the one I'm currently doing. Plus, the yarn is a little softer, so it's going to feel really nice, too.

We took my in-laws out to dinner for their 40th wedding anniversary, and on the way out to the restaurant, I was looking at all the beautiful fall foliage. I wished that we could be going somewhere that I could take some pictures of the leaves. All the colors looked so beautiful. Hopefully the weather will be good enough next weekend for me to venture out and use my camera. Otherwise, I'll have to wait until we go to the Poconos the week after.

Other hobbies

The weather has been so crummy lately that it's been impossible to go outside and take pictures, which is something I've really wanted to do. I've been using this opportunity to refresh myself with one of my inside hobbies: crocheting.

After a false start, I've finally gotten the hang of this pattern to the right. I brought it wiith me to work all this week, and I found that I'm able to get 3 or 4 rows done on my breaks. I'm getting faster as I go along, which is so great. I'm nearly done with a skein of yarn already.

This pattern is baby blanket. Two good friends of mine are currently pregnant, and their due dates are within days of each other. Even though they're not due until March, I thought it might be a good idea if I got an early start of it. I'd also like to work on a cross stitch blanket that I started awhile back. I'm not sure who's getting what blanket yet, but I'll figure it out eventually.

I took the picture with my cell phone (an LG Voyager). I tried to take a picture last night with my compact digital camera, but I guess because it's a mostly white blanket, the light kept reflecting back, and I don't have much room for adjustment with the Samsung. I didn't feel like getting the Sony out, so I thought I'd use the camera in my cell phone, which doesn't have a flash, so it's a little darker than I'd wanted. I'll take a better picture as I get further along.

Dahlia

This was a lazy weekend. I've had an ear infection all week, and I've been feeling so drained. I'm not sure that it's better yet, either.

This is another picture I took from my trip to the LI Fair last week. It's a strange shot, since you really have to look to see the stem of the dahlia, but it's such a pretty flower. In fact, the dahlias were some of the nicer flowers there. Judging takes place on Thursday, so by the time we got there on Saturday morning, some of the roses, etc. were looking a little wilted. Maybe next year I'll be able to take the day off and see the judging firsthand.

2009 LI Fair

So today was our trip to the Long Island Fair. We got there around a quarter after 10 and stayed until about 1. There's so much to do, but we didn't really see too much of the entertainment. We only saw part of the Punch and Judy puppet show and the end of a lumberjack show. We did go into the Grand Exhibition Hall first, where they have various things on display, such as the flower to the right.

Since the weather was predicting rain, I took my little Samsung camera, so I could hide it in my purse if I needed to. It turned out to be not so bad. It was cloudy but bright. It did rain for a minute or two, but we were in the tent with the petting zoo, so it's not like we were out the in the rain at all.

There were plenty of farm animals. This horse was in his stall and turned toward me when he heard us talking. He posed for me until I took his picture. There were also these absolutely gorgeous black and white horses. I think they were Clydesdales, but I couldn't get a shot of them. I believe the stallion won first prize, but we missed that part of the judging while we were watching the lumberjack show.

It's been a few years since I've gone to one of these fairs, so I don't know how long they've had rides. No one seemed to be on them, but I'm guessing that they were more popular later on in the afternoon. It was starting to get crowded when we left, and the weather was getting even better.

I took this last shot as we were leaving. I had another shot of them walking on the bridge, but you could see regular people in the background, and I wanted to make it seem more "period," so to speak. With no one else around, it's easier to imagine yourself in a different time.

I would have liked to stick around for the Old Time Baseball Match, but it was getting late...and pretty humid. We decided to call it a day and go out for lunch. I might post some more pictures in the next few days, since I was able to take so many. Hopefully next year the weather would be better and I can bring my DSLR.

Mets Game

So my husband got the company tickets for the Mets game tonight. I should have brought my camera, but I was concerned it might rain, so I left it home. I took the picture to the left with my cellphone. That was the view from the seats. Pretty awesome, huh?

It was a great game, but I didn't really get to see Francoeur's homerun, since the aisle was crowded with the food delivery people. That was another cool thing, we got to order something from the Shake Shack without having to go stand on the line. *g* I got a black and white shake, and it was delicious. After we finished our shakes, we went down to the Team Shop in the lobby. After that, we left. We got home in half the time it took us to get there, of course.

I have to get my camera ready for the Long Island Fair tomorrow. It's supposed to rain, so I don't know how long we'll be there. I'm a little disappointed, but maybe it won't be so bad in the morning.