randomness

1. Tt's 40 something degrees outside and the snow is melting

2. The snow melting means that my beautiful city has turned in to a drippy, slushy, dirty mess.

3. There are three (count them three!) tv shows out right now that take place in portland

- Portlandia being the most obvious (and best) stays the truest to the sites and feel of Portland

- Perfect Couples quietly takes place in Portland although you can tell their Portland is WAY too sunny to actually be filmed there

-Life Unexpected takes place in Portland but it's a bit too 90210/Dawson's Creek for me

4. Bonus! Leverage was also filmed in Portland! But I'm not sure if it still is or not

5. I love seeing Portland getting a little tv action. It's such a beautiful city that is under appreciated

6. I got my first skein of bugga! I have been wanting to get my hands on some of this yumminess for ages and boy was it worth the wait! SO SOFT! and the colors are so rich and have so much depth to them. Just beautiful

7. I have some more patterns a brewin in my head and on my needles so stay tuned!

Snowpocalypse

Well I got my wish.

I wanted to be away from the sand storms. I wanted to be away from the heat. I wanted to be away from the relentless sunny skies (for an Oregonian it's just not natural for it to only rain 2 weeks a year!).

So what did a get? My very first blizzard.

I don't know what is in my blood that I seem to end up living the extreme of possible weathers. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest where people get all fidgety if it's dry for too long (like three days in a row). Spent three years in Dubai where 90 degrees is often a relief from the heat and now living in Chicago where apparently it's normal to get 50'' of snow a year.

I happened to be in Detroit when The Great Blizzard of 2011 (imagine a movie announcer saying that) hit. Detroit didn't get hit nearly as badly (only 10" instead of the 20" Chicago go) but boy it's was kinda freaky. Wind so strong the snow was flying from left to right and it was howling. It's really hard to sleep when the wind is howling... it's just too creepy.

This is the courtyard in the Hotel before the storm hit

And here is after. And this is after a day of me not leaving the room! If there's a blizzard and food can be delivered I see no reason to leave

You can see the snow coming up past the windows

This is our windshield. The wind blew so strongly that the car didn't get buried just frozen.

When we finally did make it back to Chicago this is what we found (These pics aren't very pretty because let's face it snow isn't very pretty after the first day...)

Glad that wasn't my car!

This is the INSIDE of our parking garage. Snow is like sand and it gets EVERYWHERE!

There are still piles of snow like this all over the place. And dump trucks filled with snow driving down the roads. I think they just keep moving it from one place to another.

The path through the park by our house still had snow up to the knees

Fortunately Chicago does a great job of clearing the roads and for the most part it wasn't a problem just 2 days after the blizzard.

And it still wasn't a problem when it started snowing again

Pendleton Blanket

Right after Thanksgiving I decided to finally check the mail... I wasn't expecting anything and who wants to get bills over a holiday weekend. Right?

But I was surprised when I went to my box and there was a note saying I had a package! OOOh the excitement! A surprise!!!

I ran to grab the package and found a HUGE box from my dad and step mom!

Once I got upstairs I ripped off the paper (Let's pretend that I waited patiently for the hubbs to get home... I tried. I really did. For like five whole minutes) I got all excited when I saw the logo on the box. Pendleton. It's a PENDLETON box!!! (I guess for anyone from the Pacific Northwest this is like a 6 year old girl getting a princess barbie) wrapped in sparkles. Pendleton Woolen Mills makes gorgeous woolen goods that will keep you warm through just about anything and are passed down through generations.

I had to catch my breath and regroup as remembered that sometimes my parents like to reuse boxes, and sometimes they put yarn in those boxes. So a list of possibilities ran through my head before I lifted the lid on the box. I found, to my excitement, a perfectly folded Pendleton blanket. Our very own (and very first) Pendleton blanket!

I unfolded it from the box and laid it out so I could see the beautiful images that the blankets are so well known for. As you can see the blanket my parents picked out has a compass with four moons. It's perfect.

It immediately found the perfect home on our couch where it's always just a reach away

And I love that it's reversible! (I'm thinking it's double knit then felted? hmm something to ponder)

But let's be honest, this is how it usually looks... Especially as the temperature out side creeps closer and closer to the single digits.

It's perfect for snuggling under while knitting and watching the snow fall outside.

I love it!