May? Already?

The first day of every month hits me like a brick in the face. Time seems to fly to quickly.
Since my last post, we celebrated Ben's 23rd birthday and took Grace to the Memphis zoo.

                                         I just love meerkats!

                  The Memphis Zoo has a delightful birdhouse.

Ben are Grace look great in front of the China exhibit at the zoo.

I finished a shawl for a friend. This one is made in a cactus fiber that she bought when she visited Morocco. She shared some with me. I Navajo plied it to make it knitable, dyed it a lovely turquoise and knitted it for her. This was one of my "Pray and Knit with Love" projects. I seem to be doing a lot of those this year. This friend was having a mastectomy.

 Last weekend, Michael and I, took a lovely two day adventure in the Miata. We left Friday morning, encountering little pockets of rain all the way to Silver Dollar City. We had not been to World Fest in 2-3 years. This was the only weekend that we were going to be able to go. Friday night, we hit Danna's for barbeque, then the outlet malls. Four pairs of capris, two t-shirts and one ball of yarn later our trunk was  full to capacity! For real!
Sat morning the weather was perfect for a complete day of top-down, wind in my hair drive.
We took Hwy 76 out of Branson West. At our turn onto Hwy 86, we encountered The Quilted Cow in Cape Fair, MO. It was a delightful quilting shop. This is Ginny the owner. It is such a joy to happen upon stops like this one and to get to know hometown America. I could see myself spending a lot of time at this shop, if I lived near here. Thanks for the lovely welcome Ginny!

We took Hwy 86 to Hwy 23 and visited "Sew in Heaven" in Holiday Island, AR. I came away with 6 balls of Jojoland Ballad yarn.

 From Holiday Island, we took Hwy 187 to the little town of Beaver, AR. Here is the spring house on the other side of the Little Golden Gate Bridge.

                       Here is the Little Golden Gate Bridge.

                  Here is the mercantile at Beaver, AR.

For road trip knitting, I took two lace weight projects. They were perfect, small, compact, brainless knit projects. One was a shawl for someone special and the other is a new design that I am working on in a lace weight version. More on that later.

2012 Is a big year for my family. In two weeks, our Ben will graduate from college. He will graduate debt free. We only paid for this last semester. His first 4 years were on scholarship. He will graduate with a degree in Computer Science. He will be leaving our little nest soon to live on his own. It is very bittersweet.
In July, Michael and I, will celebrate 30 years of marriage. We are planning a special trip to celebrate this occasion. This a year of big happenings that give us an opportunity to look back over the provisions that God has supplied. We are grateful to God for the blessing that He has given our family and we are humbled.
Now, you are caught up until next time.