Vintage Photo Friday

Again these are all family photos.

This is the oldest, I am guessing. To the right my grandfather at a very young age with a friend/brother/unknown:

Here my grandparents, so young, possibly in the 1930s:

And here zoomed in:

I love the content smirky smile on my Opa's face and it is only now that I realize that a lot of my mother's features come from him.

Again my grandmother with her two daughters (my mother being the little one), about 15 years later:

I am still wondering, who in our family or in their circle of friends could afford a camera back then.

big impact

Fiona has a tendency to attach artwork to her door, when it comes to events of public interest. During election time last November she put up a sign that read "You may only come in if you vote for Obama". Neat, huh?!

Seems that I am not always watching too closely what my kids are doing/drawing, it took me more than a week to spot this on her door:

In case you wonder, it reads "Michael Jackson is dead". Little stinker spelled it perfectly fine, too.

And this is what has been on my mind or better in my hands these days. The yarn is a blend of organic cotton, soy and bamboo (Linea Pura, Lana Grossa), great feel for a summer project, when it's up to 97 F outside.
Even though the orange bolero has been calling with unfinished sleeves, this is the preferred choice of knitting, I still have not given up hope to be done with it on time for our Hawaii vacation next week.

Pattern from the German magazine 'Stricktrends' switched to an all solid version:

Pretty neat, too.

thank you, Firestorm and Scout

The dream of learning how to ride a horse has been there for quite a while now. And having passed the 40 barrier and going lightingfast towards the next big zero makes dreams weigh even heavier.

Age, zeros and time have no such impact on a 7, almost 8 year old. She just wants to get on a horse. Period. Now. Period.

I guess getting a whiff of the whole horse thing at the Taos Rodeo gave us a little push in the right direction.

The whole event was amazing, we loved every second.

Mother and daughter, unified in a quest, we got us our western riding lesson yesterday morning.

I guess it is easy to tell how much we loved it. Scout took good care of Fiona and my guy's name is Firestorm, obviously NOT abbreviated from his behavior.

Another lesson learned? You are never too old to try something new.

And apparently you cannot be too young either. He is living proof.

He is four years old. I wish I knew his name.

Vintage Photo Friday

I adore this picture of my mother and her older sister. It is about 66 or 67 years old, assuming that my mom was about one year old, when it was taken.

Just for the fun of it I had to dig up a baby picture of Fiona, when she was about the same age, and woah, look at the little nose and especially the mouth!

No way can they deny, that they are related!

joy

There is always joy in creating things, no matter how big the effort and how much time you put in. Here is the latest finished kid's bolero, that was created with little time investment, knitted top down from cheap yarn (gotta make exceptions from the rules sometimes...).

And here the other two colorways for the woman's bolero, that I showed in the last post. It's the orange one that was abandonned for the quick fix above, it still needs two sleeves and one front.

Joy of another kind was found a few days ago at Target and I'm hooked again.

I have to admit that I have no self control. The first disc (five episodes) went on the first evening of watching...

yarn and boots

The annual Germany visit also included a lot of knitting (okay, okay, you know me, yarn shopping as well).. While the kids snuggled with grandma at night, I listened to audiobooks and I knitted. Usually for hours in a row, sometimes until midnight or even past. So there are finally finished projects to show.

The first one is knitted from the top down with a cotton-rayon blend yarn, that I had gotten just recently at the Abq Fiberarts Fiesta. Great yarn, the cardigan is a bit heavy though. I still love how it turned out, longer than a lot of what I've previously made since I just kept knitting until I ran out of yarn.

Then there are these, so far made in four out of the five colorways that I purchased at my favorite yarn store in Germany:

(No, you counted right, no pictures yet of either the fourth finished or the fifth wip bolero.)

And since Fiona then wished for a short bolero with ties as well I came up with this girlie version:


Why the cowboy hat, you may have wondered. I had to have a southwestern photoshoot, because I finally found them. THE boots. No, I was not in any way hunting, the plan was to shop for cowboyboots with Suzanne. Seriously. And then we went to Taos over the weekend and while strolling through town we came upon this cool place called "Horse & Feathers - pre-loved hats and boots".

They jumped on my feet. It was love at first sight. This is it. Finally I found the perfect match.

Aren't they beautiful?

I. Love. Them.
And yes, Uwe, I promise I will grease them up good, I can tell they need it. After all these babies were handmade in the 40s.

And sorry again Suzanne, it was not my fault. We will shop together for yours. I promise!

Home on Vintage Photo Friday

I always enjoy going places, and I am always thrilled to visit Germany, where my roots are, but equally much I enjoy coming home.

The joy lies in finally being with Wyatt again, who could not come for work reasons, in spending most of the day outside and doing some work in the garden, blooming now after 4 weeks, in having a cup of tea out of one of my favorite mugs (to be found here on Etsy), in running the trails near our house and indulging in the beauty of the mountains and the landscape of New Mexico.

Not to forget about our two cats, New Mexico critters in general, the light and the sunsets. Breakfast outside. Every day.

And friends, wonderful friends, who make all the difference by embracing me with their warm friendship - thank you all for your welcome!

Coming home from Germany also means lots of goodies to share on vintage photo friday since I have been digging in family pictures at my mother's house. The plan is to take good care of and to archive them.

Todays photos show family members, possibly siblings of either one of my grandparent. I love these for their uncommon scene, no smiling faces, posing people, but people at work, which strikes me as odd, since people in small towns back then could not easily afford photos, certainly not cameras and were certainly more likely to take "pretty" pictures. The proud owner of the camera/artist in this case is unknown.

Now here is a picture, that really cracks me up, I mean, just look at their faces.

How can anyone be that serious? What the heck were they thinking? Look at the tablecloth, the background with the oven, the flowers on the table, flowers! Hmm. And by the way, the woman (a distant relative) is wearing a large apron over her dress, very typical back then.

Now you all have a great weekend, and especially a great 4th of July. If my kids were still awake, they would probably wish you lots of fireworks!