Thanks for...

my parents who put up with and love me, no matter what

the rest of my family

my friends who listen to me and put up with all my shenanigans

my wonderful, funny, smart, supportive boyfriend

Google and Twitter and the whole of the internets

Crossroads

lipgloss

knitting, apples, a trip to the middle of nowhere, and lots of links

I finished knitting my first scarf. Yay! It only took a few years, but whatevs, I finished it and that is all that matters.

I have moved onto two more projects. Project # 2 is a pair of fingerless gloves I saw in One More Skein. I'm using a very pretty light grey wool. Project # 3 is a baby blanket for a friend that I'm kind of making up as I go along. It all started with a pretty pale pink wool that I found on the clearance shelf. I don't have enough of the pink to make the whole blanket so I am going to do a wide border in a dark grey. Both projects made possible because of gift cards my friends Caitlin and EB got me to The Yarn Lounge. I have discovered a few things about myself while knitting; let's make a list: 1) I love bamboo needles and hate metal needles; 2) I cannot knit and talk at the same time if there is more than one kind of stitch involved, apparently I cannot divide my attention; 3) I get no reading done when I am knitting because my hands can only do one thing at a time; 4) I knit longer when I am watching tv; and 5) I can think about absolutely nothing, my mind actually quiets down and it's quite lovely.

Now the part about apples! I went to Graves Mountain for their Apple Harvest Festival with my Buddy (my Buddy is my paternal grandmother whom I have never called "grandma" in my life), Aunt Paula, Aunt Linda, Cousin Emily and my cousin's daughter (is there a title for that? does that make her my second cousin? I don't know), Ashley. I had a great time and discovered that I had actually been there before. I've always had this memory of a creek and a bluegrass band playing by it and when we were walking around, I saw the creek and put it all together. I said to my Buddy, "Hey! I've been here before!" to which she replied, "Yeah, I brought you here when you were little." *That* would have been nice to know before.

I drank cups and cups of yummy hot cider, we looked at crafts and pumpkins, got some apples, listened to bluegrass, and hoped it didn't snow. Then we went up to the lodge on the mountain and had a very yummy lunch and the best dessert ever. It was some sort of apple cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Yum-o!

After finishing up with the fam, I headed over to Buckingham County where my grandfather has a little lego house. There is no cell phone reception at the house. There is one spot on the front porch, if you stand just so, you can pick up a signal. So there were some fun moments standing just so to make a couple of phone calls and send some text messages. I had two days alone and I made the most of them – I finished reading my October book club book, started knitting projects 2 and 3, ate a lot of apples, napped, did some very therapeutic writing, watched The Whole Nine Yards, and generally just stood still for a minute. It was so lovely and I am so glad I took the time to do it.

On the way back to Richmond, I stopped by my dad’s family’s homestead (the house is still standing, for the most part), stopped by the family church and saw the old folks that are buried there, from there I drove over to Scottsville for lunch/dinner at Lumpkin's.

And now, I give you pictures from my weekend in the sticks...

{Here is my Buddy rocking my first scarf}

{Emily and I in front of the creek I recognized}

{my hot cider and Buddy’s black coffee}

{pumpkins}

{apples}

{random}

{crafts}

{pretty}

{my bounty}

{the Buckingham house}

{the old house}

{Old Bryant Lane}

Buck is 60

I'm a little late in getting these things posted so bear with me. My dad turned 60... back in November. I know, I know, but at least I'm getting this up before his next birthday.

Anyhow, we (mom and I) had a small party to celebrate. Below are photos from the event.

You can't go wrong with cupcakes from Ukrop's. The cakes say "Oh no! The Big 6-0!"

From Party for Dad's 60th Birthday

Aw, someone even wrote a birthday message on the dry-erase board. (Ok so I was the person that wrote it, but still "aw.")

From Party for Dad's 60th Birthday

Balloons, cupcakes, ice cream... is he turning 6 or 60?

From Party for Dad's 60th Birthday

Look closely at what he's doing. Pretty MacGyver of him.

From Party for Dad's 60th Birthday

The Birthday Boy, himself.

From Party for Dad's 60th Birthday

The Birthday Boy's mother (and uncle).

From Party for Dad's 60th Birthday

The Birthday Boy's sister and daughter.

From Party for Dad's 60th Birthday

It was a good party. Good times with family. Oh and the food. The food was sooo good. Mom got chicken from Pollard's, I made the best macaroni and cheese ever and five pans of Sister Schubert's yeast rolls (there were no leftovers) and the cupcakes came from Ukrop's. Food doesn't get much better than that.