Sunday - mother's day

On Sunday we went to Cafe Pasqual's for a mother's day brunch. I haven't spent mother's day with my mom in years and it was great to be able to spend the day with her. After brunch we brought Matthew home so he could rest (for some reason he did not feel very well), and my mom and I spent the rest of the day window shopping, walking through a museum and browsing a really cool gallery. That night we all played the 80s edition of Trivial Pursuit and laughed so hard we nearly peed our pants. I'd say it was well worth the 50 cents we paid for it at a garage sale. All and all it was a perfect day.

saturday (i.e. party day)

On Saturday we woke up early and started preparing for the big party. My mom had agreed to help me plant some pots of flowers for out on our patio and so we headed off to purchase flats of plants. We came back and my mom planted all of these beautiful pots for us (see photo above), while I looked on in amazement and tried to learn. In the afternoon we all took a quick nap before getting ready for the party. By 5pm guests were arriving and the festivities were underway. We had hotdogs on the grill, potato salad. deviled eggs, and baked beans. For dessert - birthday cake from the chocolate maven - it was amazing. Later we had a fire in the outdoor fireplace and somehow, we managed to finish the keg just before the police arrived to tell us to keep it down. All and all, I think it was a huge success.
Above: everyone chatting. Bellow: the cake

Above: Jason, moi, Kristin, and Zack, Bellow: A very bad dog with Coriander, Zack and Amalia

Above: a really cute couple. Bellow: Jen and Matthew
Bellow: Birthday girl and her mommy (who had her when she was 5 years old)

friday

On Friday, Matthew took the day off to prepare for my big party. From Thursday at 5pm until late Friday we cleaned house, ran to stores, made home improvements, and generally worked our tooshies off. At 5:45pm on Friday we headed down to Albuquerque to pick up my mom from the airport and hit REI's annual sale. After loading up at REI (I got hiking boots, we both got new Chaco sandals, two pairs of convertible pants, a pair of smartwoole socks for me, freeze dried food, and a backpack for the pooch), we headed over to the sunport (seriously what the airport is called) and picked up my mom. And this was just the start of our crazy (crazy awesome) weekend.


Above: the Sadias on the drive to Abq. Bellow: greeting mom at the sunport

Francis Pattern

The pattern for Francis is now available here. I'm still figuring out all of this pdf hosting stuff, but for now this will do. Hopefully it will be up on ravelry soon, when it is I'll link things up. Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or corrections.

UPDATE: The ravelry link is . The link above has been updated to reflect the change.

happy campers

This weekend Matthew took Scarlett and I on our first backpacking trip. We decided to take things easy for our first time, so we headed to a part of the Santa Fe National Forest only about 20 minutes from home. We hiked in about two miles and set up camp for the night. We pitched our tent in a small canyon along Deer Creek in the Pecos Mountains, explored the creek, scrambled up a steep cliff with loose rock and dead decaying tree bits, read in the late afternoon sun, ate tuna and mac n' cheese prepared on the camp stove, slept with the sound of the creek next to us, had a pancake breakfast cooked over an open fire, and made a new dog friend named Luke (pictured bellow), who thought our dog and pancakes were more awesome than hiking to the end of the trail with his owner. The trip was only about twenty four hours long, but it was great to get away and spend some quality family time in such a beautiful place. Enjoy a few pics:

For more details and pictures check out Matthew's post.

pride

I am very proud of my husband. Matthew's first publication has just come out. You can check out his article and name on the Journal's front page here.

Interweave Fug

Interweave Knits is known for stylish, classic, beautiful knitting patterns, but the spring issue contains a couple of really questionable submissions, including the fuggerific item shown above. Can you believe someone did that to Manos? A crime. The issue is filled with color work and lace, and while much of it is really lovely, I am not sure I would actually knit most of it. So, all and all, I'm sort of disappointed. My faves are the gossamer stars scarf, the tapestry skirt, and the roped shell. Of the three the only one I am likely to make anytime soon is the scarf. The wallis cardigan is also cute, but looks alot like everything from the spring issue.