Knitting Sandwich

a few more meetup pictures

i had to follow up lindsey's post with a few pictures of my own, i hope you don't mind indulging me.

the first night after we got the girls in bed we sat down to knit and something just didn't feel right... until we pulled up a picture of claire.  it wasn't the same as having her with us, but it was nice to get to see her beautiful face.

and the rest are just gratuitous photos of our girls... because they're so darned cute and so sweet and fun.

lindsey - thank you so much for coming up to visit.  it was a wonderful weekend - my only complaint (well except for the fact that clairey wasn't with us) is that it went too quickly.  come back again soon!!

-melissa

Sandwich Meetup -Mankato/Skype

What a wonderful weekend!  

Not only did I get to take Sabrina to Minnesota but we also got a virtual sandwich meet up with Claire and Georg!

It was such a delight to hang out with Melissa and her adorable family.  And a double delight to watch Lily and Sabrina reading together

Playing together

Contemplating the big issue of life (while eating lollipops) together

Thank you Melissa!

-Lindsey

 

european sandwich - last day in lisbon

for these posts about our amazing european sandwich meetup lindsey and melissa will be making tag-team posts.  lindsey will post in orange and melissa will post in green.

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we spent our last day in portugal soaking up all that makes lisbon such an amazing and glorious city.

more tiles:

More hills:

more stunning cathedrals:

 

And a very cool museum.

we visited the port institute and sampled the different types of port.  my assessment: port is good, but it tastes a bit like drinking raisins.  Apparently I like drinking rasins because I loved every sip.  

then we watched the moonrise, and said a sad farewell to beautiful lisbon.

it was such a marvelous adventure, it was hard to leave.  but it is just the first of many european sandwich meetups

-lindsey & melissa

european sandwich - back to lisbon

for these posts about our amazing european sandwich meetup lindsey and melissa will be making tag-team posts.  lindsey will post in orange and melissa will post in green.

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After Claire and Georg's wonderful wedding we returned to lisbon for a little more exploring.

We hiked up many hills (seriously - there were lots of hills.  i believe lisbon is built on seven hills and i feel like we hiked each one at least twice!) to see beautiful panoramas.  (but the city was so gorgeous - it was completely worth it!)

and you know, we couldn't come all the way to portugal and not squeeze in a little time for knitting!  

That evening we met up with some friends we met at the wedding and attempted to go to Claire's cousin's restaurant for dinner.  Unfortunately it was closed so the taxi driver said he would drop us at the docks. After the initial shock and some convincing that he wasn't going to leave us in a scary part of town to be murdered (luckily "i'll just drop you off at the docks" means something completely different in portugal!), we had an amazing meal at a swanky restaurant right on the water.  

It was a beautiful night for a walk so we strolled along the river to see the statue celebrating the explorers setting sail.

and then we journeyed just a tad further to see the gorgeous torre de belém, an amazing building built in the late 15 century.

then we caught a cab (because at this point we had walked quite a distance and it was almost midnight) and headed back to our hotel for a good night's sleep so we'd be ready for one more glorious day in lisbon!

-lindsey & melissa

european sandwich - the big day

for these posts about our amazing european sandwich meetup lindsey and melissa will be making tag-team posts.  lindsey will post in orange and melissa will post in green.

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the next morning was the big day!  we went over to the pink house to help claire decorate the reception tent.

 

We got to hang the lovely hearts that friends and family knit.

We scampered home to get ready for the wedding and got back just in time to watch claire's cousin putting on her makeup.

Claire's dad did an amazing job with the ceremony.  By telling his sweet stories in both English and German, I don't think there was a dry eye in the garden he dubbed the 'cathedral of nature'.

On to the reception!  the food was amazing

the cake was topped with a traditional portuguese rooster.

Entertainment was charming.  Claire's cousin's son sang traditional Portugese Fado

claire and georg didn't sing, but they did give heartfelt thank you speeches in both english and german.

We crashed Claire and Georg's photo shoot

But really, who could resist this beauty?

seriously, have you ever seen a more beautiful bride?

we even taught their portuguese photographer the word, "smootch!"

The shawl turned out perfectly and looked amazing with Claire's dress and feathers.

It was a beautiful day and we all enjoyed it long into the night.

-lindsey & melissa

what a day!

I am so so grateful that the sandwich has taken such fabulous pictures of the first international sandwich meetup and are putting up such wonderful posts of the whole thing.  What a fabulous, fairytale, dreams-come-true kind of time it was!

As a fervert photographer myself, it was beyond bizarre to not be taking pictures of each and every moment but in the swirl of it all I just wasn't able to take any.

 

It's exactly because of this anticipated flurry that I made a vow that on my wedding day we'd insist on stealing away for a few minutes to shoot one roll of film ourselves. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Actually, since the very first moments I met Georg in person, somehow I already had exactly this photograph in mind to take on our wedding day:

 

And then we had fun finishing the roll of course

Many many thanks to the sandwich for being there through it all, for coming all the way to Portugal for our first international meetup (I hope one of many more to come), for every joyous moment and for just being the two best friends a girl could dream of! 

More will come soon(ish) after I start developing the MOUNTAIN of film we aquired on our honeymoon throughout glorious Portugal!

Looking forward to catching up with you all!

-cmvs

european sandwich - a dos francos & òbidos

for these posts about our amazing european sandwich meetup lindsey and melissa will be making tag-team posts.  lindsey will post in orange and melissa will post in green.

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the next day (which was, i believe, friday) claire and georg had graciously arranged a bus to take all the out of town guests up to the village where the wedding would be held.  We met at the bullfighting ring of all fabulous places.

after an hour-long ride through the gorgeous portuguese countryside we arrived in the charming village of a dos francos.  linds and i were staying in the guest house of the white house with claire's lovely british cousins.

the property was absolutely amazing. The tiles were stunning inside and out.

after some time spent exploring we strolled down the lane to the pink house for the rehearsal.

This house is truely amazing, there are hidden gems everywhere you turn.

we then went to the neighboring village of òbidos to explore a bit and partake of a delicious pre-wedding dinner with claire and georg's family and friends.

The town has gorgeous tiles 

And cute locals.

Next up, the big day!

 -lindsey & melissa

European sandwich - Lisbon

for these posts about our amazing european sandwich meetup lindsey and melissa will be making tag-team posts.  lindsey will post in orange and melissa will post in green.

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After an exciting but exhausting day in Amsterdam, the fabulous Clarie and her amazing aunt, Tia Christina, picked us up in Lisbon and whisked us off to Christina's house for a much needed sleep. 

Our first day in Lisbon we started off at the river

Walked up many hills

I love Portuguese graffiti, so creative

and also amazingly beautiful...

Walked past beautiful tiled buildings.  The tiles were stunning and every place you looked.

although there were also lots of untiled building that were beautiful as well.

we were quite the relaxed tourists, but we did have one rule: if we passed a church and we could get inside, we would go in.

after much wandering and wandering and coffee and more beautiful wanderings we finally ended up at the castle (the Castelo de São Jorge).

we then scampered down the hill in time to meet up with claire and georg and some wisconsin friends.

we had coffee (of course) and the most delicious pastries to be found in portugal, the beloved pasteis de nata.  (this was the first portuguese words lindsey and i learned. and we put them to good work - ordering them everywhere we went!)

we wandered over to claire's cousin's home to watch the sunset...

then strolled our way back to claire's aunt's apartment, enjoying every single sight.

- lindsey & melissa

european sandwich - the amsterdam layover

for these posts about our amazing european sandwich meetup lindsey and melissa will be making tag-team posts.  lindsey will post in orange and melissa will post in green.

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on our way to portugal we planned ahead so that both linds and i were on klm flights that convienently had a 12hr layover in amsterdam.  after meeting up at the airport and taking the train to the city center our first order of business was to find caffiene:

that accopmlished we discussed our plan for the day: the fact that beyond a visit to the anne frank house we had no plan.  we would just wander and soak in the beauty of amsterdam, stopping for coffees when the jet lag would start to kick in.

Coffee and fabulous food kept us going.  Bacon and mushroom pancake or nutella bananna pancake? Both please!

this was my first ever trip to europe and i was swept away by the beauty and charm of amsterdam - the architecture alone was enough to convince me that i loved this city!

And the canals, I love the canals.  me too!!

a sundial on a cathedral!?!?!  how amazing is that?!?!  love it!

i think this last picture sums up our opinion of amsterdam: love!!!!

- lindsey & melissa

springtreelove and happy accidents

i am sure you can remember the very exciting announcement that melissa made about the brilliant maya of springtree road extending her hand-dying talent into the sock world!  wee!  well naturally after hearing this news and seeing melissa's gorgeous socks, i couldn't help but immediately get some of my own!

once you've entered her shop you will instantly understand how very VERY hard it was to choose amongst such glorious colors.  though completely tempted by the sumptuous color of that delectable olivine, i was ultimately swayed by the richness of color and blatant ikea reference of the irresistible lingonberry jam. 

and what better way to kick off the start of the sandwich meetup weekend than to unite the lovely lingonberry jam with melissa's wonderful shiraz thousands of miles in the air on a plane bound from altanta to houston!  would you believe that we totally accidentally booked the exact same flight to houston even though we were coming from opposite ends of the country?  what a brilliant accident!

i knit away all weekend on this cute little fiona's top and somehow managed to finish it (sans buttons) before getting on the plane home!

but no worries, i was not left without knitting for the flight back because the very wonderful melissa had brought me a christmas gift of the gorgeous olivine that i had been so lusting over!  actually there's more of a story to it (and even more evidence of how clever she is).  before i even knew about the new springtree road sock wonderland, melissa had already bought me the very same lingonberry jam that i ended up bying for myself. upon discovering i had bought the same thing, she quick asked maya to switch it for the olivine without even knowing that was the other color i was torn between.  how wonderful to have such amazing friends who know you so well!

well olivine came home and quickly knit itself up into some wonderful ribbed handwarmers (rav link) that are just perfect to use as photographer's gloves. 

 

there's no way better to start the new year than with some bundles of springtreelove!

thanks maya!

and thanks melissa!

-cmv

p.s. and what is a girl to do next after being so happily immersed in the springtree yarns?  well no worries, i've already ordered the foxtail pine!