Memorial Day Weekend 2011

Yesterday we went to a Thanksgiving-style bbq at our friends' house. They cooked a turkey by burying it in the ground over a bed of hot coals. Delicious!

The past few weeks have been filled with felting.

I felt beverage can cozies in my sink using an old-fashioned washboard.

I just finished another handcrafted batch of felted beverage can cozies yesterday. Now it's time to take their pictures for Etsy and enjoy the rest of this long weekend!

Saturday Dog Walk

Today we took the dogs for a walk this morning. We walk them on a dirt road in the desert behind our house.

Yuccas are starting to bloom.

Last weekend D planted our garden.

Last week I made my grandma's Italian knot cookies. I added pecans and made a butterscotch icing using buttershots.

It made them taste like pralines :)

Knitting Guild and Trip to Albuquerque

Today was the last meeting of the Unravelers Knitting Guild until September. For the final meeting we had a fashion show where members modeled and displayed their knitted and felted items.

This past week I took a trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico for a work conference. My hotel was right downtown.

On Wednesday we were on our own for lunch. Some colleagues joined me for lunch at Lindy's Diner on Central Avenue - a place that caught my eye on a previous trip.

Lindy's lived up to my expectations.

I ate a delicious guacamole burger.

And I love that Lindy's first opened their doors in 1929.

Downtown Albuquerque is beautiful and full of tiled building facades and mosaics. I stopped a few times on the walk back to the hotel to snap these pictures:

I took the bus to Nob Hill when Wednesday's conference sessions ended. My first stop was the comic book store.

After going in every store that was open past 6, I ate at Shogun Sushi. I have to say this is my favorite sushi restaurant and recommend it on any trip to Albuquerque.

I spent hours knitting at the Flying Star Cafe before taking the bus back downtown.

I didn't work on my owl sweater while I was away. I hope to have some new pictures of it to post in the next few days.

Rubbish Rainbows

Rubbish Rainbows, a set by Betty Jo Designs on Flickr.

I just love these colorful found object collages. They make me want to pick up colorful discarded plastic pieces too!

Check out this blog post from Craft.

Weekend Projects

Yesterday D and I had a garage sale to sell our extra stuff. Three other neighbors had garage sales too.

We sold most of what we had to an early bird who bought a bed, grill cooker, and other housewares. The tree in the front yard is big enough this year to provide shade if you don't mind moving your chair around every so often.

I spent most of the time knitting the second sleeve of my owl sweater. I should tell you that I started knitting this sweater in January of 2010 (that's right, 2010). Unfortunately since I have put this sweater down so many times I am now knitting in a different guage so my second sleeve was too small :(

I ripped it out and started again. This will be my project for today.

Seoul Restaurant

Today I ate lunch at Seoul Restaurant in El Paso, Texas. This is one of my favorite restaurants. I had a work meeting near the edge of El Paso so it was a nice treat for me to stop by.

They have the best lunch specials. I got the hot bbq chicken lunch special for $5.50. It reminds me of college when I would eat spicy chicken at the Korean restaurants in Ann Arbor, Michigan all the time.

There are no Korean restaurants in Las Cruces, New Mexico so I'm always happy when I can stop for Korean food in El Paso. There are a lot of Korean restaurants there but Seoul Restaurant is the only one I've tried so far.

A new Vietnamese restaurant called Pho Saigon just opened in Las Cruces and I will post pictures of their amazing food as soon as I have the chance to go back.

Annual Alpaca Shearing at La Buena Vida Alpacas

Yesterday I went to the annual alpaca shearing at La Buena Vida Alpacas in Anthony, New Mexico with Kym of Kashed.

I know that shearing cools the alpacas off for the hot New Mexico summers, makes it possible for us to have great yarn, and that the alpacas get a health check at the same time, but they looked sad.

After watching the shearing for a while, I fed some much happier newly-sheared alpacas.

After our visit to La Buena Vida Alpacas, we headed down to El Paso, Texas to visit Mayaluna Yarns. Barbara has a great selection of Noro and I left with some Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn.

Then we grabbed some lunch at Avila's Mexican Restaurant before heading home.

D and I made a chicken florentine casserole and pina coladas for dinner. It was a great Saturday.