a little culture

took a drive through some beautiful but desolate landscapes today to visit the San Xavier mission on the Tohono O'odham reservation. its difficult to capture how pretty the mission is, because its hard to get it all into the frame, and there are lots of people wandering around getting in the way. but it really is pretty sweet, and the history behind it is really interesting as well.

the blurriness is part of the lensbaby charm

other than the fact that its beautiful, my only other observation is that putting a bright white building in the blinding desert sun is a surefire way to blind yourself. i'm just saying.



equally mesmerizing, but in a somewhat different way, is the indian cemetery just down the road. at first i didn't think they had headstones, but they do. they are just disguised by the jungle of white crosses. its kind of like a silk flower factory exploded in arlington cemetery... without the grass. these people take their cemeteries seriously.


this little guy was hanging around outside the mission. i just thought he was a cutie.

a croqueted baby orphan

also known as a crocheted baby afghan... or a knit one in this case.

apparently at some point in the far distant past of the z family, my parents were driving somewhere and had my older sister in the car. at the time, she must have been quite young and her reading skills were somewhat less developed than they are now. they passed a sign in someone's front yard that said "crocheted baby afghans" which must have baffled my sister because she asked my mom why anyone would want to croquet baby orphans.

its become a bit of a joke in the z family that pops up every so often when someone mentions baby blankets. just in case you wanted some insight into the randomness that makes up the z life. if not, don't worry, the pictures are up next.

pattern: Baby's First Blankie from Lionbrand.com
yarn: Queensland Collection Softwave in Cream (cotton)
modifications: yarn was much thinner gauge so knit on size 5 needles and doubled all stitch counts

i actually finished this blanket back in November over the Thanksgiving weekend but since it was made as a gift, i couldn't post it until after a baby shower for its intended recipient. The baby shower was last weekend and it was a really good time. and i heard today that the baby Lahman might be on his way a little early...


i thought the yarn made for a very nice blanket. It soft, but not too heavy; and its washable... which is probably a good thing for new babies. the white might not have been the best choice for an infant, but i didn't know if it was a boy or a girl at the time. and the white seemed so clean and fresh. hopefully baby lahman likes it!

pet photographer extraordinaire

(is that word or did i just make that up??) so it seems like forever ago, even if it was only two posts back, that i posted some pictures of what was (at the time) the cutest hound puppy ever. but a few weeks after dozier's arrival, i was proven wrong. THIS is the cutest hound puppy ever.


apparently you can't hunt with just one hound dog.... you need two. i don't know about all that, but who am i to judge. if i wasn't heading off to live with my parents, i probably would have ended up with a hound puppy of my own. i mean, how can you say no to this face??


they named her gypsy. she was so sleepy the first few days. and she would eat too much and then get this huge distended belly. we were afraid her little tummy was going to pop!



but after a few days she was just as rambunctious as dozier, and a whole lot louder. and she loved the big floppy duck as much as he did.


too bad there's not much of a market for natural light pet photography. i'm much better with dogs than i am with people! (edited later to add: according to google, there are actually photographers who do this for a living!! might be worth some thought...)

another instant gratification project

that was anything but instant.

a few months ago, I posted a baby knitting project that I whipped up in a couple hours worth of knitting over a day or two. it was a project i knit for a friend who needed two of them for a gift. for whatever reason, the second one took FOREVER. i think i was just in a non-knitting phase and so was more or less completely unmotivated. plus, i thought i had tons of time to finish it but the babies came uber early, so no such luck. as it was I finished the second blanket several months after the babies were born. and then it took me almost as long to get around to blogging about it.


another hooded baby wrap from the lionbrand.com website. knit in Vanna's Choice acrylic. like i said before, its an alright yarn and nice because its washable but i don't think i'd use it again. i'd rather use a nice cotton, me thinks.


i modified the pattern a bit because i didn't want to knit the hood part separate so instead i decreased down to three then back up for the hood part. then i just folded it over and seamed the sides. i did a row of yarn overs at the end to give the hood some interest.

and then i made some attempts at artistic shots. whatever.
i bought yarn for three more projects that arrived a few days ago. i'm itching to get started on something, so it looks like the knitting bug is back. maybe its the lovely weather here in arizona :)