pacific coast road trip plans

photo from The Walrus and The Carpenter

Erick and are going on vacation for 12 days as of Tuesday! What?! Yes. This was a sort of last minute planned vacay. We knew we were going to go somewhere in the world, but didn't decide where exactly until a few weeks ago. We considered Italy for a couple of weeks, then changed out mind. Engage Operation Pacific Coast Road Trip! We're flying to Seattle and then gradually road tripping down to San Francisco. This is our rough itinerary:



We're staying in air bnbs the whole way down, which is excellent. So yes, we have flights booked, accommodations booked (for the most part), but other than that we have not much else planned. I've mostly been figuring out where we should eat, because really, that's what's important. Foodie road trip? Sort of. Everything else will fall into place I hope. Today's my last mostly free day before we leave, so I'll be doing laundry, packing, and figuring out what we should be doing/seeing on our trip.

I'M EXCITED! I'm going to pick up a new book to read today. And bring either some socks to knit or some hand paper piecing. Flying and driving and adventures, oh my.

Hi! In theory it's officially spring, but in practice it is not. Below zero today, with a super cold wind and flurries. After an hour of braving the elements for the sake of Peg, I spent a large chunk of my day off watching episodes of The Hour and knitting another pair of socks. I'm really enjoying this show so far! I'm super into anything that's British, drama filled, with some crime/mystery. This one's set in the 50s, and that is most excellent. It's on Netflix, you should watch it.

Here are some more photos of my pysanka eggs that I made last week. Well, the ones that survived that is.

This one's actually Erick's. He went for a more abstract approach. He doesn't like it, but I do!

The back of Erick's egg.

On Wednesday I made another egg during Craft Night at NW. Unfortunately I dropped it on the table. Fortunately only the back cracked.

The hole in the back allows me to hang it on the wall! So all was not lost.

After my marathon of The Hour, I finally started some of my vegetable seeds. Just kale and some lettuce. Others I plan to direct seed once it's warm enough, and some plants I'll buy as starts later in the season (tomatoes from Tree and Twig for sure!). 

My mum got me this big 10-year gardener's journal for Christmas this year. It helps keep track of what plants you bought, when you planted them, how they faired, etc. Fun!

 Hopefully the weather will warm up soon!

We had pysanka night yesterday at Needlework with the lovely ladies of the the Kosa Kolektiv, and I decided at the last minute that I should bring some cookies. My go to in-a-pinch cookie recipe is Martha's Glazed Lemon Cookie. Fast, easy, and delicious. The winning trio of elements that make a good recipe.

...BUT I had no lemons! Oh what's a girl to do? Well, I had an abundance of delicious grapefruit. Lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruit...pretty much all the same, right?

And so I made grapefruit cookies.

Bonus step of making these cookies: eating half a grapefruit since they are huge and you don't need all that juice.

I wasn't sure how they'd turn out, but everyone really liked them! So that was great! Moral of the story: grapefruit is the best.

These are the eggs I decorated. Unfortunately Sookie knocked the vegetable one off my desk and splat onto the floor that very same evening. But I think I'll do some more pysanka-ing tomorrow at Craft Night. Thumbs up.

Today I made heart shaped oatcakes. Valentines day is tomorrow after all. Any excuse to break out the heart shaped cookie cutter.While I was making and baking these, this is what was going on behind me:

 

Peg and Sook have become pals, and they enjoy fighting each other. The only injury that's ever occurred was a teeny tiny scratch on Peggy's nose. 

winter knitting

Here are some things I've knit this winter: 

Two pairs of Dala mittens, out of Tanis Fibre Arts yarn. These are the first serious colourwork mittens I've made, and they were fun! It took me awhile to knit them as I would put them down and pick them up a week later, but they really don't take that long to knit. And are really not that tricky! These photos of are them in their unfinished form, but they're done now.

The Wiksten Snöflinga Hat, knit up in some Madeline Tosh. I've worn this hat almost every day this winter. Super comfy. I finished knitting myself a second one last week.

Burly Mitts!  I found this pattern through our knitting fiend of a friend Alex. We have a whole bunch of Lion Brand Thick and Quick yarn leftover from the Knit Night on The Brain project, so any pattern that can use some of it up is great! These mitts are a super quick knit (a couple of hours/mitt) and are really warm. The above mitts were actually not knit with the Lion Brand yarn, but some other inexpensive wool/acrylic blend. They're my official dog park mitts, so they're a bit rough for wear.I knit Erick a pair of Burly Mitts too.

Had some yarn leftover from my mitts, so I knit this quick Really Warm Hat.

This is my second Wiksten hat (when it was in progress). It's done now, but I haven't taken a photo.  

Oh hi Peg!

Erick knit this hat. Isn't that impressive? The only other thing he'd knit before this was a scarf for Knit Night on The Brain. Good job Erick! I have plans to knit some sweaters soon too.  This cable-y sweater, and a simple raglan. And I think I've convinced Erick that he should knit this sweater for himself.

dog walking.

I like having a dog. Yes, it's certainly more responsibility than owning a cat - I can't jet away on unplanned weekend adventures, and day trips to Toronto aren't as simple as before. But the day to day life of having un petit chien is tres bien.

One of my favourite daily activities with the Pegster is our daily walks. We live in a wonderful neighbourhood for dog walking. There are so many great laneways to explore, where I can be a voyeur and peek into people's backyards (and back windows!). And we make good use of her extendi-leash as we rarely run into cars, people, or other dogs. 

We're also really lucky to live just a 10 minute walk from the escarpment and the Bruce Trail. 

And the Chedoke rail trail is pretty great.

And so are the RBG grounds.