Boston weekend 2.5.10

The first weekend in February we went with Kim on an impromptu road trip to Boston to see Lindsay.  Friday morning Kim called and said she was renting a car to drive out to Boston (and to dodge the blizzard that was *supposed* to hit the city over the weekend) & wanted to see if Nick and I wanted to tag along.  We thought it was the perfect opportunity for a Jensen sibling weekend & to get out to Boston without having to ride the lovely Fung Wah.  And we were excited to see Lindsay since we didn't get to see her over the Christmas holiday.  

We got out of the city early in the afternoon to avoid the rush hour mess and were to Boston for dinner.  We ordered Chinese take out from a nearby joint and Lindsay and I walked to the store to pick up some wine.  We had good intentions to go out that night, but out lack of motivation got the best of us (and we laid on the couch and watched the Hangover (and by WE I mean Nick & I, Lindsay and Kim were zonked out before 9p)).

We had planned on coming back to the city on Saturday morning, but after a late breakfast and going to see Lindsay at work, we reconsidered.  After discussing some ideas of what to do with our afternoon, Lindsay suggested that we go to Plymouth Rock.  It took some coaxing on Nicks behalf (he is really into American History), but he convinced Kim to drive us out there.  By the time we got out to the rock, it was snowing and was so cold that we couldn't stand to be out of the car.  We ended up walking around for 10 minutes and then getting back into the heated car and driving around to find a place to get chowder!

 

After lunch we headed back to Boston and did some shopping in the Back Bay neighborhood, an upscale residential area that has a row of retail shops.  We went to the mall and Nick got a book on The Mayflower (so thankful he has some reading material - for days he was complaining that he had nothing to read after he left his book in AZ over Christmas break).

We grabbed dinner at a brewery and headed back to Lindsays to have some wine & watch tv.  Once again we planned on going out, but the cold kept us bundled up in blankets on the couch all evening!  Not that any of us were complaining.  We left to come back to the city early on Sunday morning and we (I) were pleasantly surprised that it looked like that we didn't miss the big snow storm!  It hit on Wednesday!!

playing catch up

It's been a while since I last posted, but it's not all my fault...  My laptop is short on space, so everything has been taking more time than anticipated & I had an entire entry written last Wednesday with pictures of the snow day and I keep getting a strange message when I try to post it.  So I am going back to the old way, and trying to enter my blogs in the blogger program provided.  So bear with me, I hope this works. :)  Here it goes!

baby it’s cold outside

We got a light dusting of snow overnight and woke up with a few inches covering our street. 

view from the elevator lobby on our floor looking out at Mercer St.

view from the Courtyard

 

so we are having this for dinner… 

hearts

Found the pattern to make cute little hearts on Martha Stewarts web-site for Knitted Catnip Delight.  I think I might knit some up and make  magnets.  Our sad little fridge feels naked after I took down the Christmas Advent calendar…

Christmas cards

Here are a few of the Christmas cards that we sent out this year.  I didn’t take pictures of them all because I was getting irritated at the quality of the pictures that my camera took…  Arg!

 

 

 

crochet

Years ago my Grandma Merriman taught me how to crochet one summer when we went back to Illinois to visit.  I made a snow white scarf using the double crochet stitch (I think) & to this day I still have & wear this scarf on a regular basis.  I have such great memories of sitting on my grandparents couch under the huge picture window with my grandma sitting next to me saying “I can hear the yarn squeak, you’re holding it too tight!”  I have tried multiple times since then to pick it back up and failed…  Every time becoming more & more frustrated.  And again this year, I had been seeing these cute floral necklaces being sold by the street vendors in the city, so I thought I would try to make them as Christmas gifts for friends, but the flowers proved to be trickier than I thought, and I got discouraged with them. 

Since both my mom and I knit, she thought it would be fun for us to learn to crochet too, I kept trying to tell her of my past disappointments, but finally she broke me down.  :)  As a Christmas present, my in-laws sent me some new yarn, hooks, and a couple how-to books, so armed with all of my utensils, one night I set off.  I started just crocheting some squares with a thick black yarn that I had laying around that would be easy to see what I was stitching.  Success!!  I think my favorite stitch right now is the half double crochet, that’s how I made this scarf.

LOVE the yarn (Thanks Gaynelle!!)

 

Then while at home, I decided to try the flowers again!

 

I bought some Ruffles yarn while at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio here in the city and had been waiting to experiment with it.  In the store they had a display of a rose necklace using this product & I was dying to try to make it!  Here is one of the flowers I made.  I made 4 big ones and 2 little ones.  I just LOVE them!  I have so many ideas for what to do with them. 

1.  String them together and make a necklace.

2.  Put them on a pin or clip to embellish a shirt, purse, headband, scarf, hat, etc…

3.  Use a bow on a present.

OH, the possibilities are endless…

They only make this yarn in black, white, and black / white mixture, so you don’t have too many color options, but you can brighten the flowers up by adding a pop of color to the center (maybe a rhinestone, button, or a crocheted sphere) in an accent color.  Can’t wait to play around with these!

NYE 2009

Last night we had the pleasure of attending our good friends Scott & Brittney's wedding in Tempe.  Seven years ago last night Nick and I met each other thanks to a mutual friend of ours, Lauren.  We could not think of a better way to celebrate our love and new marriage than with our closest friends watching them pledge their lives to one another!!  Love you guys!!! 

Nick, me, Alice, and Jim

Alice & I

Right before midnight

Happy New Year

The newleweds enjoying the fireworks!

The boys enjoying champagne & cigars to celebrate.

                                     

Me & the bride (Britt)