Knitting Sandwich

for your shopping pleasures

first up, the amazingly talented and generous claire has donated five of her fabulous photos as prints in the cancer-hating etsy shop.

she is offering two of each five photos as 10x10 prints.  they are all up in the cacner-hating esty shop.  go check them out quick before her flickr contacts snatch them all up!

and secondly, i have taken the etsy plunge.  introducing my handspun yarn shop, girl+sheep.

i'm really excited about this new adventure, and i'll invite you to come on over to girl+sheep and check it out!

a big thank you to everyone for even considering coming on over and checking either - or both shops out.

-melissa

moving days

Hi all!

Sorry I haven't posted in ages, I'm crazy busy over here!  I had to clone myself and enlist the help of my incredible mother

To get everything packed and ready to go (3 weeks earlier than I had expected!)

None of this is easy in the July heat when you live on the 4th floor!

Thankfully it is all gone now, on a boat bound for Munich.

Lama has said his Brooklyn goodbyes to his best friend Peter

 (who this year often brought along a friend to visit too)

After driving lama cross country to his happy Wisconsin retreat, I am back in NYC for my final days (sniff!) and am trying to take as many pictures and hit as many of my favorite spots as humanly possible...

but the problem is, the city is SWELTERINGly hot with triple digit temps. 

 and heat fog is trying to swallow us all up!

At least heat fog can be pretty.  It lends a certain kind of nostalgic feel to the city.

I know much of the country is boiling hot right now so I hope that wherever you are, you're staying cool and finding ways to enjoy the summer!

-cmv

 

a snowy day and a new friend

miracle of miracles, we actually had a snow day this week!  nyc has actually had the snowiest january on record, with 19 inches of it having arrived this past thursday. 

i went to bed completely convinced i'd have to go to work in the morning (it is ridiculously rare to get a snow day in nyc), so imagine my glee upon waking up to this!

 

i haven't been feeling that well, so unfortunately i had to limit my outdoor time/activity to a 15 minute walk of a 4 block radius.  but what a radius it was!

 

the kids were out in full force, enjoying every inch.

and, having to stay inside was actually perfectly delightful because look who i spent the day with

isn't she the cutest?  the patten is called poppy and it was the most charming and fun and easy pattern i think i've ever made.  perfect for a snow day! 

the only thing missing from the pattern was the fact that i thought she'd feel more comfortable in some underwear.  so i whipped her up some.

 

hope you are having some beautifully snowy days and meeting fun little friends of your own too!

 

-cmv

old snow, new snow- a tale of two cities

A miracle happened on Friday here in NYC-- another snow day! The snow had already started lightly Thursday night as I walked home from work,

but we could have never expected the mayor to actually cancel school twice in one year!  Of course this meant that I'd be out all day with the camera to catch the newly falling snow.  And it just so happened that Melissa also had plans to go out with her camera to capture the piles of already fallen snow! 

So we decided to go out on matching snow walks and then put up a post together to show our old snow/new snow!

Melissa went to the gorgeous park near her house, covered in piles of snow

that has an incredible waterfall.

And I hit the streets in my neighborhood

before heading to the marvelous park near my house.

Melissa's views might be more elegantly serene,

whereas in the big city you can't avoid lots of color.

And while Melissa's snow might show evidence of lovely woodland creatures,

the tracks around here are mostly from much larger urban creatures.

In the end, we were both thrilled to be walking amidst our own versions of the beautiful winter white!

We hope you are enjoying winter in your very own way too!

-cmv& melissa

sandwich meetup - olympic mittens edition

it is well known (by people who know me well) that i am more than somewhat obsessed with both the olympics and my beloved neighbors to the north, so when it came time for the vancouver 2010 winter games you can only guess at my excitement.

i became somewhat obsessed with finding a pair of the red olympic mittens that *every* olympic-loving canadian seemed to be wearing.  only problem was that down here in the states they were more than a little hard to come by.

up steps the amazing kim (aka treblemaker on ravelry) to save the day!!  she graciously offered to send me a pair of the mittens thereby making me the happiest wanna-be-canadian in the whole entire united states!!

in exchange i got her a mini helmet of her favorite nfl team - and superbowl XLIV champions - the new orleans saints.  also, since i didn't feel that one small helmet was equal to the amazingness of the olympic mittens, i knit her up a saints themed dishcloth as well.

the mittens, of course, came with me to nyc for the sandwich meetup.  i promised kim that i would take a picture of me and the mittens in new york, but once we started it was impossible to stop.

so here now, i present to you, "the olympic mittens go to nyc" a pictorial thank you to kim.

and i'll tell you right now kim - if the mittens had even a fraction of the fun that i had on this trip then they had the time of their lives!!  thank you again for such a fun exchange!

-melissa

sandwich meetup, the winter olympics edition

What a wonderfully fabulous time we had together!

Such a marvelous weekend of : knitting, watching Olympics, catching up, watching Olympics, rubbing Lindsey's beautiful belly

...knitting, watching the Olympics, eating the most incredible pumpkin risotto EVER (thanks to Lindsey who actually brought a pumpkin all the way from Houston!)...

Did I mention watching the Olympics?  Needless to say, we didn't get out much.  Thus there aren't really many pictures to show for our wonderful weekend (who needs 'em?!  we were too busy having fun!).  

We did manage to tear ourselves away from the Olympics on Monday for a little while.  We went to the Guggenheim, walked over to the reservoir in Central Park

and then took a little break on the steps of the Met

before heading inside for a little look.

Melissa and Lindsey, I had such an unbelievable weekend with you-- a million thank yous for coming! It is such a joy and a privilege to have such wonderful friends as the two of you.

I love you both more than I can possibly say.

It was so hard to see you go!

lama and I are missing you already- come back soon!

-cmv

museum quest

hi all!

just a quick update on my museum quest.  the wondrous 'cool culture' card is still being put to good use! the other saturday we had some really grey and rainy weather- perfect excuse to go inside and relish in a good museum (or two!). 

so i went to the guggenheim

unfortunately it was mostly closed because they were in the middle of changing exhibits.  but a little part of the permanent collection was open so i snuck in for a little while to gather some warmth.

since i only got a little glimpse inside the guggenheim, and since i have the insane luxury with this card of being able to just pop in somewhere for a moment, i thought i'd take advantage of the met across the street.

it was only a few minutes before closing time so i didn't get to stay long, but it certainly was a wonderful way to spend a rainy afternoon!  i think i'm only at 5/50 museum visits... so come on over and help me on my quest!!

warm wishes to you all from nyc!

-cmv

museum extravaganza

there's finally a huge perk to being a kindergarten teacher in nyc!

they've come up with this absolutely brilliant cool culture program to encourage cultural exposure in the early years.  all of the prek/kindergarten kids in our school got these 'cool culture cards' which allow them and 5 members of their families to enter almost any nyc cultural center you can imagine for FREE!

and because i'm a teacher, i got one too! 

i've already been to moma

where i found this lady, all ready for a party with a new hat and red balloon

i've been to the natural history museum

and to the met twice- i had to go back again before the FABULOUS Robert Frank exhibit  The Americans  left town (it left today, sniff!)

though i have to say, my favorite place to photograph at the met is on the stairs outside

what a phenomenally once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be able to go to all these incredible places for absolutely FREE!  i feel like the luckiest new yorker on earth! 

i have every intention to take full advantage of this incredible opportunity-- my goal is to do at least 30 museum visits before the card expires- on halloween.  i also intend to go to at least five museums that i've never been to before.

i can get up to five people in for free with me- so now's the perfect time to book a trip to nyc!  just think of all the fun we'd have!

-cmv

winter wonderland

the incredible thing about snow in nyc

is that despite the fact that it is one of the most magical things imaginable, 

h

hardly anyone is out enjoying it!

to find yourself alone in the middle of the brooklyn bridge- with life and snow swirling all around you...

it simply does not get any more incredible than that!  

-cmv

late november light

so this morning, melissa and i were chatting via ravelry email and talking about our plans for the day. both mankato and new york were enjoying beautiful and warm-ish late november days. perfect for a photo walk. so we cyber high-fived and made a plan to go on respective photo walks and report back at the end of the day.

it's fun to contrast the solitude and rugged beauty of mankato

with the motley cast of characters and streamlines of nyc

one thing is for sure, though.  no matter what part of the country you are in,

the late november light is simply breathtaking!

thanks for playing along, melissa!  this was fun!  

lindsey can you join us?  and what about all of our lovely readers?  can you show us what late november looks like in your part of the world?

-cmv