Christy

March 6, 2023

A year of Diptychs…so far

This year I decided to step out of my comfort zone and do a weekly challenge on Instagram. I figured it would be good for my creativity. For the most part, I’ve shot during the week specifically to make a diptych, but sometimes I’ve pulled from my archives to put the two photos together. I’ve only missed one week of the challenge, and that was due to being at the TSA State Conference. So why a diptych? What the heck is a diptych? A diptych is a set of two photographs used to tell a story. Below are my entries for the year…so far. I’ve posted the first nine weeks below. You’ll notice that I skipped week 8. If you’d like to follow along, follow #ourdiptychyear over on Instagram/

Week 3 Sunrise, Sunset Hutchinson Shores, Florida

Week 4 Paradeco Coffee, St. Petersburg, Florida

Week 5 Orange Blossom Cafe, Bradenton, Fl

Week 6 Emerson Point Preserve, Palmetto, Florida

Week 7 Backyard Views, Palmetto, Florida

January 23, 2023

Confession…..

I never watched the original Sex and the City. Several reasons, the main one being that when they were originally, on, I didn’t have HBO. Heck, we barely had cable. The second reason was that I was a twenty-six-year-old mom with a four-year-old, in the middle of Central Louisiana, far from the bright lights of New York City. Heck, I couldn’t relate to that life, or even really imagine what that life might be like. I had barely been out of Louisiana, and even at that point, had only been to San Diego. Don’t get me wrong, over the years I could have watched it as it was released on DVD, but just never got around to it. I mean, I was very aware of it, how could you not, it was a cultural phenomenon!

Anyway, somehow I came across the sequal? Reboot? And got sucked in. In one episode, Carrie had hip surgery and as she was recovering, she had this beautiful knit shawl/blanket thing on her lap. Naturally, someone wrote up a pattern and I’m currently knitting it. I did enjoy that season and am looking forward to the new season. I may need to actually watch the orginal while waiting for the next season of And Just Like That.

I’m about half way through. It knits pretty fast as it’s knit on size 17 needles, but it does get a bit cumbersome. I purchased a kit from Jimmy Beans Wool, but it doesn’t look like they have it available any more.

In completed knitting news,I did finish the Christmas socks from the last post. I just need to get them in the mail to my sister. I also decided to do the Souper Sock Club from Coast to Coast Yarns Company My first shipment arrived today. It’s Split Pea Soup in their sock base. I’ve never knit with their yarn before, so I am excited to wind this up and get started. However, with Valentine’s Day around the corner, I think I might go stash diving and see what Valentine’s Day colorway I have.

I’ve also been into some knitting podcasts lately, next post I’ll share some of my faves as well as some of my more recent photo projects. What are you knitting, photographing or up to in general?

January 3, 2023

Happy New Year I’ve been knitting!

Happy New Year! I know we say this every year, but I can’t believe that the last year flew by. I had lots of personal changes, all good in 2022, which is definitely an improvement from the previous three years. I’ve also picked up my knitting needles again, and knitted this lovely wrap for my mother-in-law. When she was here in May for my master’s graduation, I offered to knit her a wrap. Over the years, I have knit her several things, and the last wrap that I made her, became moth food. She was so upset! I had her pick out some yarn from my stash, and she chose this lovely Madeline Tosh Vintage yarn. I belive that the colorway is Esoteric. The color is more true in the top right photo, but let me tell you, that yarn is a dream to knit with. It’s wonderfully smooshy. The pattern is Anica and I knit 35 repeats instead of 38 as the pattern calls for. My mother-in-law is tiny and this blocked out to be the perfect size for her. I knit this on size 6 needles. I think if I knit this pattern again, I would go up a needle size or two for a looser knit. This is an easy knit, perfect for evening knitting, and great as a first shawl project.

The second thing I started, is a pair of Christmas-y-themed socks. I had wanted to have these knit before Christmas, but I was trying to finish Anica, so I didn’t start these until after I had finished the wrap. The yarn is from Must Stash Yarn in the Reindeer Corn, Michigan’s Favorite colorway.

I love this yarn. It’s self-striping and delightful. I have several other skeins by her waiting to be knitted up. I thought that I’d have time to knit three pairs of Christmas-themed socks…I think I was delusional! These socks are almost finished and are going to my sister when I’m finished with them. I’m hoping to finish them up before I go back to work on Friday. I’ll cast on another pair once these are finished. I have another skein from Must Stash Yarn and then one from Nomadic Yarns. (the sock bag in the photo is also from Nomadic Yarns) I’ve never knit with their yarn, but I’m excited to get those on the needles. I also have the Carrie blanket on the needles that I started in the spring, but as it has been too hot to knit with bulky yarn sitting on my lap, I put it away until now.

Also coming up are two hats. One for Amanda and one for me. We are headed to London and Paris in early March and based on my research, even though it’s early spring, it can be chilly, at least for these Florida girls. When I was in Alpharetta for Christmas, I stopped in a brand new yarn shop called Unwind Knit Studio and picked up two skeins of worsted-weight yarn. I’ll post those skeins when I can get a good photo in the daylight.

I’ve also been picking up my camera more and I will post those next. If you want to follow me on Instagram, you can follow me by clicking HERE.

October 3, 2022

Hurricane Ian, the aftermath

I don’t know where to begin. Relief that Ian didn’t hit directly as first thought and despair that it slammed into the coast about an hour and a half south of us as a Category 4 hurricane. I saw someone post that Sanibel Island and Ft. Myers Beach are decimated as is Ft. Myers and towns and communities all up and down southern Sarasota County, Lee, and Collier Counties. This storm has also caused catastrophic damage on the east coast as well, including flooding in Daytona Beach.

We rode out the storm at Southeastern Guide Dogs, my husband’s work. He is the VP of Information Management and Captial Projects, meaning he’s responsible for all the buildings and grounds as well as keeping the network up and running. Throughout the day and into the night we watched the wind and rain get stronger and stronger.

If you want to help South Florida recover, click HERE for an article with links to donation points. I would caution you against donating to anything coming from Gov. DeSantis’ office. His wife is in charge and there has not been any info on how that money is going to be distributed.

We are on day six at this point with no power. We are lucky that we have a generator and that the weather has been beautiful. I documented before, during, and after the hurricane.

This storm really bothered me. Knowing that it was headed right for us and at the last minute, shifted south is a weird feeling. Almost like survivor’s guilt.

About the photos: All shot on my Canon 6D with a Sigma 35mm Art lens. I’m really loving this lens and getting to know it. I’ve had it for about a year and haven’t done much with it but am loving the versatility.

September 27, 2022

Hurricane Ian

Not going to lie, this one is giving me lots of stress and anxiety.

September 5, 2022

Moooooooooo!

As part of my new job with the school district, I get to see all aspects of our Career and Technical education departments. One of the things that I am looking forward to is learning about all of the Career and Technical Student Organizations that our county offers. I got started in CTE through my work with TSA, the Technology Students Association. While I know TSA backward and forwards, I know very little about the others, HOSA, FFA, FCCLA, SkillsUSA, etc.

Imagine how excited I was to be able to get to see many of our FFA students raise animals for the competition and auction at the county fair. The first ‘official’ event of the fair season is the steer weigh-in at the beginning of August and I went out to get some photographs and video. I had a blast! To see these kiddos manhandle these huge steers is impressive. On this day, the steers got vaccinated, had a DNA sample taken, and weighed. I had never seen the beginning process, so this was all fascinating to me. These kids put in a lot of work to raise, feed, groom, show and sell their animals. It was really cool to be able to talk to some of these kids about their animals and see how excited and knowledgeable they were about the process. I can’t wait to follow them until the fair in January. If you have a local fair that showcases local students, please go and support them. They are the future of farming in America.

February 1, 2022

Project 365 Month 1

I managed to complete an entire month of my Project 365! Can I make it through month two?!

January 23, 2022

A Snowy Sunday Part II

I had meant to post this earlier in the week, but the time got away from me. Last weekend we were in Atlanta and on Sunday, it ended up snowing! It started around 10:00 and snowed the rest of the day. We started off the day by going to Warm Waves Coffee. They were only open until 11 in anticipation of the snowy weather, so we hurried up and drove over. They were on my list to visit and I’m so glad that we managed to squeeze in a visit. We had planned to hit up more coffee places but managed to get to Valor Coffee and this one. I can’t wait to visit again. We are hoping to get back this summer.

Just as we got there, it started sleeting and by the time we were on our way back, it started to snow! Amanda and I were tickled by this.

We had a lovely day watching the snowfall. I managed to pull out some knitting and get a photo of yarn in the snow!

I took Sága for a walk in the snow, but she wasn’t too sure of sitting on the cold rock. The final photo is taken as it was getting dark. I loved how peaceful and pretty everything looked. We had a wonderful time visiting and can’t wait to go back in the summer. I won’t have to worry about classes as I will graduate from USF in May with my Masters and will be able to just relax.

Not a terribly busy week coming up, so hopefully, I can post the last two weeks of my Project 365. If you want to keep up with that on a daily basis, you can follow me on Instagram. Until next time, have a wonderful week!

January 16, 2022

A snowy, long Weekending Part 1

As we were not able to make it to Atlanta to see my in-laws over Christmas, we drove up on Wednesday to take advantage of the long weekend. You might want to grab some tea, coffee, or beverage of your choice because this is going to be a long one. We packed a lot into a few days! I’m going to break this into two parts.

We drove up on Wednesday night so that it would give us a full day on Thursday.

On Thursday, we spent the day around my in-law’s house. We all had some work to do, and wanted to rest since we didn’t get in until nearly midnight on Wednesday. Amanda, Nana and I visited Valor Coffee since we wanted to return since our first visit in 2019. It was just as good as we remembered!

Friday dawned cold and breezy. Joel decided to take my car in for service while we were here so I didn’t have to worry about it next weekend. It was due for it’s first service so it was easy to take it in to the local Volvo dealership. While that was being worked on, we took MARTA to the Georgia Aquarium. Fun fact, in the 26 years that my in-laws have lived here, we have never taken the train into Atlanta.

It’s been years since we have been to the Aquarium and we picked a good day to go. It wasn’t too crowded so we could take our time with the exhibits. It was a nice way to spend a few hours and get some good photos.

The adventure continued on Saturday when we went to The High Museum of Art. I wanted to see Picturing the South: 25 Years, but we missed the Obama Portraits as the tickets for that exhibition was sold out for Saturday. Interestingly enough, the photography exhibit is one where I DIDN’T take any photos. Well, I took a couple, but not like the other areas of the museum. We saw a mixture of classical paintings, modern art, folk art and African art. I loved that exhibit and could have stayed there for hourse looking at it. We were with my in-laws and needed to get back to prep for Joel’s surprise 50th birthday party. His birthday isn’t until the 29th, but his parents wanted to take advantage of having us here for dinner and cake!

Joel’s 50th Birthday

Ok, that’s it for now. I have to pack for our trip home tomorrow, but I still have the Sunday Snow Day to show you!

January 9, 2022

Weekending

Well, I actually had more planned to talk about, but I was stuck on a TEAMS call for my last semester of grad school (thank goodness) then got involved in sorting through my clothes and closet. I’ve lost about 50 pounds since July and lots of stuff needed to go. I had planned to drive to Winter Haven today to Four Purls, but put that off for another day. Hubby decided that since we missed Christmas with his parents, we would go up on Wednesday which resulted in me having to scramble to get time off and get some assignments turned in that are due next Sunday.

I think I mentioned in the last post that I am attempting Project 365 and thought that I’d share my weekly photos on Sunday. Since today is the 9th, there are 9 photos here, but going forward, there should be seven. Click on the photos for the full version. For full description of the photos, hop on over to my Instagram page. I’m looking forward to our trip to Atlanta and can’t wait to share our visit.