The National Aquarium

I recently posted that we whisked the boys away to Baltimore's Inner Harbor recently for an overnight getaway.  For me, the highlight of our getaway was spending a few hours in the National Aquarium.  Because it was the Saturday before Memorial Day, it was crowded, but we did get to see everything and didn't have to fight the crowds too much.  I had to laugh as all the adults were crowded around one tropical fish tank saying, "Where's Dorie?  Where's Nemo?"  Yes, it was the adults calling for the Disney characters. Another highlight of the tanks at the beginning of the tour were three little girls who couldn't have been more than five-years-old.  They would move to a talk and squeal and scream with delight.  It was so much fun to just listen to them.

 

The shark tank ran several floors high.  You started at the top and worked your way down a spiral ramp viewing the sharks as they swam past large windows.  I was watching the sharks travel but I couldn't get up close to any of the windows because of the people.  In one corner there was an open window with no one standing in front of it.  There were also no sharks travelling in front of the window.  I knew that if I waited, my patience would pay off.  So I stood patiently for just a minute or two, and, BOY, was my patience rewarded.  A shark swam past the window, did a u-turn and brought his face right up to the window!  It took my breath away.  The pictures below are from the walls around the shark tank.  There were silhouettes of sharks illuminated from behind.  They were really striking.

 

 

After the sharks we went to the dolphin tank.  It was so much fun to watch them jumping out of the water just for fun.  We were able to go below the pool and watch them swimming under the water.  There were a couple families there while we were watching the dolphins.  T-Bone and I were sitting on a carpet-covered bench just watching the dolphins swim past our eyes when I felt a little person snuggling up to me.  It has been 11 years since I've had a little person that small so I knew it wasn't one of my boys.  I looked down to see a little girl in a purple sparkly t-shirt and tutu hugging me.  She looked up and whispered "I'm Cassie."  I whispered, "Hi Cassie."  Then she stayed there touching my necklace and hugging me.  After 30 seconds or so she walked over to T-Bone and hugged him and said, "I'm Cassie."  It was a precious moment in time.  It was one of those times that I can treasure every time I think about it.  Her mom said something like "She's not shy."  Or "She's so outgoing."  I just smiled and said, "She's fine."

And then we went to the jelly fish exhibit.  It.  Was.  Amazing.  I took a video at every display and could have spent an hour in the little room with all the jellies.  They were so soothing to watch and super-beautiful! I put a picture of jellies as my wallpaper on my iPhone because I loved them so much.!

 

Sneaking Away to Baltimore!

A few weeks ago we took the boys to Baltimore.  We only stayed for one night, but we made the most of that time!

 We had A-MAZ-ING weather and a beautiful room right on the harbor.  After checking into the room we crossed the street for lunch at The Cheesecake Factory.  We had never eaten at a Cheesecake Factory restaurant before that day.  All four of us are fans of the TV show Big Bang Theory, where one of the characters, Penny, is a waitress at Cheesecake Factory.  So we were excited to eat there.  Well, our waitress was named Bernadette!  Bernadette is also a character who waitresses at Cheesecake Factory in the TV show.  So we were over the moon about that little coincidence.  We had an amazing lunch and topped it off with, you betcha, cheesecake!

After lunch we bought tickets to tour the submarine and the sailing ship that are harbored full-time at Inner Harbor.  I wasn't sure if Big Mac was going to be able to tour the submarine.  He gets uncomfortable in enclosed spaces.  But he managed just fine!  I thought this compass near the center of the sub was beautiful.

  We had 3 PM tickets to the National Aquarium and a little time to kill so we went to the large Barnes & Noble bookstore near the aquarium.  We all found books that we just couldn't live without!

And then it was Aquarium time.  We close to three hours seeing everything at the aquarium and I took a LOT of pictures.  As a matter of fact, I think I'll do a separate post about the aquarium.  I have some great stories to tell.  But for now, I think this is one of my favorite pics.  Is this guy a cutey or what?

By evening, we were getting pretty tired.  We got up really early so that we could have a full day on the harbor and we were feeling it.  We grabbed a bite at Hard Rock Cafe.  The food was "eh" but now we can say we've eaten at a Hard Rock.  Then headed to our room for some relaxation.

The next morning we had brunch at the hotel and headed across the street to tour the beautiful sailing ship.  I may have to create a separate entry for that too...again, I took a lot of pictures.  Then we hit a couple shops before heading home.  It was all over too soon.  We have all been longing to go back ever since we had a brief taste of Inner Harbor.  Who knows?  Maybe a day-trip is in order sometime soon!  I'll leave you with a picture of my three favorite men on the deck of the U.S.S. Constellation.

Old Movies at The Elks

Members of our family have gone to The Elks Theater in Middletown, PA for years.  But recently this 102 year old theater has had it's life threatened.  There is a campaign now to save the Elks Theater.  They are selling memberships where you get special movie perks.  They are featuring older movies being shown once again on the big screen.  A few weeks ago we saw Back to the Future in 35mm.  It was nostalgic and wonderful.

This weekend they are showing Indiana Jones on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  We are planning on taking in that movie.  It is part of their Spielberg month.  You can see classic Spielberg movies all month. 

The price for tickets to the movies are still less than anywhere else and your ticket helps to save a piece of Central PA history.  If you're in the area, check out The Elks.  If you are not in the area, find a vintage theater in your neck of the woods that you can support!

 

Wordless Wednesday-books

Finishing Mode

When I found out that Red Heart was hosting a Wednesday Night Stitching Challenge again this year, I went to the calendar and marked every Wednesday night with "stitching project."  I put it on the digital calendar that our entire family shares so that they would know that I am going to be stitching on Wednesday nights.

This has been just the boost I needed.  So far I've finished two WIPs or works in progress.  And these works have been in progress for a WHILE now!  On the first Wednesday I finished my beachy striped throw:

This is a self-fringing single crochet throw from some yarn that was given to me.  If you looked at each skein individually you wouldn't think they went well together, but put into stripes as I did here, it's really a fun pattern.  It reminded me of a beach house.  The yarn itself has some acryllic and some cotton, so it feels like summer.

And last night, for my Wednesday Night Stitching Project, I finished a pouf.  I found the original pattern on the Flax and Twine blog.  I have a group of blogs that I browse over the weekend when I am able to take a break.  Either on Saturday or Sunday afternoon I sit at my laptop and go through each blog and look for new entries and inspiration.  The inspiration came from this blog post.  I did change things slightly.  I did this provisional cast-on, and then when I was finished knitting I used a kitchener stitch to join the cast on edge to the last row.  I stuffed the pouf with three old sleeping bags that had broken zippers.  Our T-Bone claimed it for his own and it is upstairs in his bedroom right now.  He props his feet up while working on his laptop.  And when he gets to it, the dog likes to climb up and rest on the pouf too!

So, who knows what I'll work on next Wednesday?  I've got an afghan that needs to be finished.  But that's going to take much more than one Wednesday night!

I'm learning that I have to take time for my hobbies and interests.  I am passionate about crochet and knitting.  I feel great when I complete a project.  I love reading new patterns, books, and blogs.  So, I must take the time to pursue my interest.  All work and no play makes Lori Lynn just a girl with a lot of yarn!

Argyle Crochet Book Free on 3/29/13

I've been literally dreaming about this new technique developed by Crochet Dynamite.  Seriously, I dreamed about trying this crochet equivalent to pooling.  I may be a little obsessed with crochet...knitting...all things yarn really...just a little obsesses mind you.

Anyway, that's why I'm writing to tell you about Crochet Dynamite's new Argyle Crochet book.  It's available on Amazon for free for one day only Friday, March 29, 2013.  You can bet I'll be getting my copy!  I've got my kindle charged and I'm planning to practice with the beautiful variegated Red Heart I got at the thrift store almost two weeks ago.

So, I'm ready.  Are you?  What are you waiting for?  Download your book and get crocheting?  You don't need a kindle, Amazon has free kindle software for the PC.  No excuses.  Let's learn something new and hone our craft!

Thrift Store Yarn

This weekend while The Big Dog and the boys shot a regional archery tournament, I spent a few hours on my own.  I decided to visit the local Good Will and see what I could found.  Well, I found.  I got all this yarn for under $30!

This isn't the greatest picture, BUT, it is a fun bunch of yarn.  There were six bulky weight Lion Brand "Velvet Spun" chenille.  I put that to work right away:

 I got a small baby blanket and two adorable hats from that yarn.  The baby blanket is a simple square granny square.  The hat pattern is knit and was on the wrapper for the yarn but you can find it here if you're interested.  I adjusted the pattern by using 10.5 double points and working the entire thing in the round.  If you need help with that adjustment, let me know.

The other yarn I got is also very lovely, but I haven't started working on it yet.  there are 4.5 skeins of wool ease worsted weight.  I think I'm going to double the strands and make this bag.  AND there's enough of Paton's Divine to make this cardigan sweater.You can't tell from the picture, but it's a deep rich purple color with black undertones.  It's going to be gorgeous.

Finally, I picked up two big 12-once skeins of Red Heart in a lovely colorway.  It reminds me of Easter.  I have no idea what it's going to be yet, but I couldn't pass up the color.  It will probably become a blanket.  But I'm also super intrigued with a process that Jaime over at Crochet Dynamite is working on.  It's a process similar to pooling in knitting, but done with crochet.  So maybe I'll save that variegated Red Heart for Jaime's e-book.

I also got a cute top and a pair of khaki cropped pants.  But the headline was the yarn!

Here's my sitting by my chair project right now.  It's a simple single crochet stripe, which bores me to tears, but the way the colors work up is really cool.  If only I can stay with it until it's finished!  I'm doing a self-fringing thing with it as I go.  But it's still not very interesting work.  What are you working on?