Knitting Sandwich

her two loves combined

my little first grader has become quite the avid reader.  she constantly has her nose buried in a book (which i loooove, even if it means she's not listening to what i'm trying to tell her).  

knowing her love of drawing i've been trying to fill her shelves with books that not only have quality stories but also have top notch illustrations.  this morning lily suggested that we spend some time trying to sketch the drawings in a couple of her books.  

the first was from a nest for celeste by henry cole:

then we moved on to the absolutely stunning the invention of hugo cabret by brian selznick (thank you again lora for giving her this for christmas - she loves it!).

then after all this "highbrow book drawing" she deemed it time to draw toothless from the movie how to train your dragon.

now that we've gotten our culture out of the way for the day we can go get ready for zoning out in front of the superbowl.  heh heh.  this year i'm not really invested in either team, so i'm just looking forward to all that time for knitting!

-melissa

yarn along 02.02.12

found via knitter sue - the weekly yarn along, hosted by ginny at small things.

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs.  I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Leave a link below to share your photo with the rest of us! ~

i guess right now i'm technically reading love in the time of cholera by gabriel garcia marquez but while i'm knitting i've been listening to the inheritance cycle by christopher paolini.  i've been re-listening to the first three in preparation for the 4th and final book which came out last fall.  

i'm in the middle of the third book brisingr right now.  they are so much fun, and even more so as audiobooks.  the narrator, gerard doyle, does a completely fantastic job with all the voices - especially saphira the dragon.   

i don't know if i'll do this every week, since we do have the sidebar listing what we're reading just to the right over there on the blog... but i thought it sounded like fun - especially if it entices y'all to play along.  what are you reading/knitting right now?

-melissa

catching up

i've had a low online profile as of late, so i thought i'd catch you up as to my goings on (or lack there of, as it were).

after a good month of ignoring my garden i finally started weeding it last night, be forewarned though that i still have a fair way to go.

you'll notice the big pile of dead zucchini there in the front... can't tell you what happened to it because i was ignoring it.  oops.

even the squirrels have been better gardeners than me this year - they've been taking the corn i leave out for them and burying it all over my front yard.  

things have slowed down on the knitting front as well.  i did manage to make a baby bonnet for some friends who just had their first baby.

it's the modern baby bonnet (rav link) by hadley fierlinger, modeled here by my adorable nephew henry.

but other than that i've just been putzing along on lily's jumper (pattern: the teacup pinafore by carol feller - rav link).

i'm getting closer, but still the end seems oh so very far away... of course i'd actually have to spend time knitting on it to reach that end goal.

we had a try-on session today, which did serve to inspire me.  she sure looks cute, doesn't she?  of course it would be even cuter if i could finish it up...

so i'm ignoring my knitting, ignoring my garden, you may wonder what exactly i've been up to with all my spare time.

blame george rr martin.  i am well over 2,000 pages into the song of ice and fire series and am so obsessed i can barley function.  be thankful i've been able to get through this post without blithering on and on about the plot...

so now tell me what you've all been up to this summer!  gardening?  knitting?  reading?  fill me in!

-melissa

"my house is where i like to be and it looks like all my dreams."

are you familiar with the book the big orange splot by daniel manus pinkwater? 

it is a wonderful story.  

some friends of ours gave it to lily when she was a baby and it has been a staple in our reading repertoire ever since.

it is the story of mr. plumbean who lives on a street where all the houses look the same.

until one day when a seagull flies over and accidently drops a can of orange paint right on mr. plumbean's house!

mr. plumbean decides to keep the orange splot and to make a few other adjustments to his decor as well.

at first his neighbors are outraged.  but eventually, after each one visits with plumbean, they too want their houses to reflect their dreams.

after reading this story yesterday lily and i were talking about what our dream houses would look like, and we decided to draw them up.

when brian came home from work he joined us in the fun.

so, without any further ado, i present to you the martensen's houses that look like all their dreams.

lily's house has, among other things, princess leia buns, poochy pink lips, a bat on the roof and a swimming pool.

brian's is a hobbit style home complete with tower, climbing wall and solar panel.  i believe that is also a llama and a yak in the yard.

and mine is a log cabin on a lake with huge windows and a giant tree growing right through the middle that squirrels would live in (you can't tell from here but it's also full of yarn).

lily then took them and taped them together so we could all live in the same neighborhood.

such a lovely way to spend the evening.  

think about it - what would your house of dreams look like?

-melissa

top five

Something you might not know about the sandwich is that we are list-making enthusiasts.  While we were together this summer in Mankato, we had the idea to bring our love of lists to the blog as a way to branch out, share some favorites and hopefully reach out to you, our dear readers, and hear your favorites as well.  

So, on the fifth of every month, we will share a 'top five' with you and hopefully some of you will be inspired to share your 'top fives' back!

This month's list:

TOP FIVE FAVORITE BOOKS (in no particular order)

cmv's list:

The Alchemist- Paulo Coehlo

The Red Tent- Anita Diamant

Possessing the Secret of Joy- Alice Walker

The Poisonwood Bible- Barbara Kingsolver

The World According to Garp- John Irving

melissa's list:

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick

Ramona Quimby, Age 8- Beverly Cleary

The Lord of the Rings- J.R.R. Tolkien

The Scarlet Letter- Nathaniel Hawthorne

Johnny Got his Gun- Dalton Trumbo

Lindsey's list:

Son of the Circus- John Irving

To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee

I Robot- Isaac Asimov

War and Peace- Leo Tolstoy

Memoir of a Geisha- Arthur Golden

I think I can speak for all three of us when I say that it was NOT easy to narrow down favorites to only five (can't it be top six?).  And I keep wanting to go back and make readjustments...

But it was fun to make the list- will you try it?

What are your top five favorite books?

-cmv & the sandwich