berkshiresbliss

Introducing Ali!

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 20:04:55 -0800

A big, exciting change occurred in our lives this past weekend. A few days ago, I filled out an application after finding an adorable pup via petfinder.com. Lo and behold (we’ve done this several times before to no avail), we were called back by the lady who runs the shelter, who referred us to the foster mom for the dog we’d seen. Fast forward two nights, many questions about our family, lifestyle, home setup etc. and a drive down to Westfield, MA later and we were allowed to bring our new puppy Ali home.

Ali is a joyous addition to our family and we are all completely smitten. Well, the cats are still surveying the scene from a distance, but all humans who’ve come into contact with Ali in our little town are hooked.

Ali has been a great puppy so far. They think she’s some kind of newfoundland dog mix, and that she’ll grow up to be quite a big dog. She was rescued from a house raid in Mississippi, brought to a shelter and taken in by a foster family, all in the last 3 weeks. She’s only about 10 weeks old, so she’s had a rough start to her life. With each hour, though, she’s gaining confidence and her personality definitely sparkles through when she romps in the snow, sees other dogs or meets toddlers. She’s a sweetheart, easy as can be to take care of right now, and already firmly planted in the center of our family.

Here she is at her foster family’s home when we went to pick her up.

About to head for her new home

In the car on the way home…

Loving the snow piled up on our property

Slowly getting acquainted with the cats

Stealing Joe’s heart completely

Hanging out at the office

We’re so excited for our future with you, Ali!

Hipster Sisters

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 13:24:00 -0800

I’ll be the first to admit that I probably talk as though I am older than I actually am, particularly around my younger sisters. They’re 8 and 10 years younger than I am. A veritable generation younger. Sometimes I feel like Dr. Evil: “I’m hip, I’m cool. I’m with it,” - though I try to use reverse psychology: “I’m not hip, I’m not cool, I’m definitely not with it.” Then I wait, expectantly, for them to reassure me: “no, no! You ARE cool and with it!” Which we all know is a lie.

However, every now and then, my grandmotherly habits (e.g. knitting) are actually in line with the revived interest in handmade, “indie” arts. So I was especially pleased when my sister liked these fingerless gloves I made for her. The other little sister even requested her own pair.

The pattern was a simple ribbed spiral, quick and easy to knit. From Joelle Hoversen’s Last Minute Knitted Gifts, again. You know it’s a great book when you enjoy making multiple patterns from it! I used Rowan’s Cashsoft DK yarn, which makes these wrist warmers super soft and comfy to wear. My only problem with wrist warmers is the relative heat conundrum: my wrists and palms feel so nice and cozy that my fingers begin to feel cold in comparison.

A 3rd Birthday Present

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 19:15:00 -0800

M. turns three on Monday. How time flies! Of course, she’s quite the little girl these days, instead of a toddler.

When I was in California a few weeks ago, I was sitting on the couch knitting fingerless gloves for my sisters. M asked me: “Yiyi [“auntie” in Chinese] what are you sewing?”

Me: “I’m not sewing, I’m knitting. In sewing you use just one tiny needle, in knitting you use these bigger needles, see?”

Her: “Yiyi, what are you knee-ting?”

Me: “I’m knitting gloves for Xiao Ayi [“little aunt,” what M calls my youngest sister]. Remember I knit you a dress last year?”

Her: “Ya.”

Me: “Would you like me to knit you something this year?”

Her: “Yiyi, can you kneet me a teddy bear?”

Me: “Okay, M, I’ll think about it!”

M suffers from the misfortune of being born just two weeks after Christmas. This means that by the time her birthday rolls around, many of us have not recovered from present-shopping fatigue. Of course, when I’m getting her Christmas presents, I don’t choose which one of two or three presents might be best for Christmas, and which would be good for her birthday. I get them all for her for Christmas. One thing at which I’m absolutely, positively terrible is waiting to give people presents once I’ve acquired them. It almost killed me to hide a sweater I’d purchased for Joe for several months until Christmas one year.

So when it came time to figure out what to get her for her birthday, knowing that she’d just been inundated with toys for Christmas, I was rather at a loss. Then I remembered her sweet and random request. How did she know that teddy bears could even be knit? If you’d asked me a few years ago, I’d say they couldn’t. But obviously they were knit at some point back in the day, before machines and make-a-bear chain stores took over. I remembered a pattern I’d seen in Joelle Hoversen’s excellent book Last Minute Knitted Gifts.

It was Sunday evening, and I’d have to mail her present out by Tuesday for it to make it to California in time for this weekend, when she’s having her birthday party. I raided my small stash of yarn for some suitable materials. Last year, I’d started making cool gloves for Joe; they have a little flap for your thumb so that you can just have your thumbs out to text or use your touch screen phone. I’d started making them as a surprise for Joe. Making something that’s supposed to fit someone, well, like a glove, is difficult if you can’t measure them. Suffice it to say that I miscalculated and ended up with fingers that were too stubby and an arm that looked more like one the length of a dishwashing glove. It was comical. So I decided to steal the yarn from that failed project for this bear.

It worked out beautifully! The teddy bear is oh-so-soft and cuddly. If you look closely at its left cheek, you can see a little dimple I accidentally created when weaving in the yarn ends. I talk a bit more about making this project on my ravelry account.

All that remain of Joe’s gloves are the poor little dismembered fingers. So sad.

Tap tap tap... is this thing still on?

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 20:51:00 -0800

So we’ve been gone for a little while. A little 8 month while. I was surprised to come back to find that tumblr hasn’t deactivated this account, after my having let it… “lie fallow,” shall we say, for so long! A new year, a new resolution: post just a little more often in the next 8 months than I did in the last 8! Doable. Just the way I like my resolutions!

To be fair, I did warn anyone listening early on that I might be capable of this kind of start-off-strong-but-drop-off-badly behavior. Nonetheless, my guilty conscience wants to explain a bit about what we have been up to in the interim that has kept us somewhat otherwise occupied…

Ooh! Devious use of the jump (for those of you that can see it). Nope, the slumbering bundle of joy in my arms is not what we’ve been up to, though, gosh, enough time has elapsed that such an accomplishment could’ve been possible! No, that’s my nephew L who did arrive since I last posted, by dint of my sister (and James’) efforts, not mine. He and I were both exhausted the day after the wedding.

Without further ado, a glimpse into what’s been happening these past 8 months, i.e. a preview of what I might post about in the coming months….

Yardwork

Joe labored long and hard this summer to tame our wild yard…

From a tangled, cramped space…

To grounds befitting a wedding ceremony:

Home Renovations

Walls have been torn down, walls have been put up, a bathroom installed, flooring reworked, windows added… and we’re not even done with the half of it! Expect much on this topic in posts to come.

3 Weddings

A blissful year for my extended family… my cousin Kay got married in Brooklyn. I’ve never seen a wedding crowd and the happy couple dance so long and hard!

My cousin Ada got married in SF, and stunned us all with a touching ceremony and a HOT lil’ dance number. (Sorry to disappoint with no pics of said dance number.)

And Joe’s “brother” Chris and our favorite Jessy got married on a stupefyingly gorgeous Napa mountainside.

Well, make that 4 weddings

We got hitched.

(Photo by an amazing photographer Kevin Bubriski)

Actually, 5, kinda

And made it even more official with a small banquet in Taipei.

And we made some things

Some quilting

Some chili oil and apple butter

Some baking…

Imperfect experiments with fondant

Good old Christmas cookies

Some knitting

Stuff, basically.

We engaged in some travel, and craziness, in general.

berkshiresbliss

Introducing Ali!

Hipster Sisters

A 3rd Birthday Present

Tap tap tap... is this thing still on?

A Coupla Firsts

We've Moved!

Dress Shopping Tips

I Said "YES" to the Dress

Temmaland No More

First Dinner at Home in NYC

Cooking For Two

Pantry Warming

Temmaland

NYC Livin'

The Characters We Met

8 Lessons Learned

Home Is Where The Heart Is...

New Beginnings

囍 Stickers

Our Font, Dearest