boots

Wednesday, September 30, 2009



i have a love affair with boots, all kinds of boots, but my favorite type of boot is the cowboy boot. (yes, those boots are mine). there is nothing better than your favorite pair of jeans, a hand knit sweater and a broken in pair of cowboy boots. people, there isn't a more comfortable shoe out there.

but cowboy boots are a little hard to wear when your pregnant and have swollen feet. so whats a girl to do, you ask? wear uggs. i never i thought i would be a ugg wearing kind of girl, but once i bought my first pair i was totally convinced they were the next best thing to my beloved cowboy boots. i lived in them last winter and suspect that i will this winter since i will be preggo most of the winter months. i don't like house shoes, and prefer to wear shoes all day even if i never leave the house, so my uggies are perfect! i guess that's why i have six, yes six pairs of uggs. although i will be down a pair because my precious husband is threatening to toss, no burn a pair because they smell from over use, or so he says.

this is my newest pair that the ups man brought to me today. it makes me look forward to the cold weather.

whats your favorite shoe to wear?

booties for the bean

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

i cant even begin to tell you how many times i have made these booties for baby gifts for other people. i think they are so wonderful. they are little, soft, fuzzy and look delightful on newborn feet. and the angora yarn comes in delicious colors. for some strange reason, i did not make a pair for cooper. so i decided that i was going to make several pair for the bean. i have not knit much for him yet, but am very aware that i need to make different things for him, than i did for cooper. its all part of the journey.

so here are a perfect little grey pair of angora booties made with lots of love for the bean. i think they will look adorable with a jig onesie.

oh, and the pattern is from this book.



finally

Monday, September 28, 2009



finally, the etsy shop is open! i will be working on adding the knitting patterns in the upcoming days ( i need to make sense of my random notes in my design notebook), so knitters stay tuned.

i hope you will stop by, browse a bit, say hello, tell me what you think, feel free to buy and by all means tell everyone you know about lucends!

please enjoy.....

dear cooper

Sunday, September 27, 2009



my dear sweet precious cooper,

i loved how you slept with your arms in the air like you are in this picture. i wonder today, if you would still be sleeping this way at 10 months old. yes, today you would have turned 10 months old, so hard for me to wrap my mind around.

fall is upon us. the air is crisper, the leaves turning and the wind is blustery. fall is one of my favorite seasons and it is a welcome sight, an assuring sign that life continues.

as you and i have discussed many times, you are going to have a little brother to watch over. it has been an interesting 18 weeks so far, a constant see-saw of emotions, but i think i am learning how to handle them and am taking them as they come. we see dr m in a few weeks and she will do a fetal echo cardiogram of the bean's heart.

i want you to know, even though i know you do, that this baby will never replace you, nor will it change my love for you. you will always be my first child. it is because of what you taught me in your short life that i am able to put my fears aside, have hope, and want to be parent. cooper, you taught me how much i can love, and that is one of the greatest gifts you could have given me. the bean is very lucky to have his very own guardian watching over him.

your dad had his first tattoo appointment on friday, the one that he is getting for you. it is a work in progress, but i think that it will be a reminder to those who see it just how much he loves you. as for me, well i have to wait until your brother is born, but i too will have one in your honor. and i think your uncle luke will as well. you made such an impact on us all.

i miss you terribly, cooper, but i know that you are with me all the time.

loving you always
mom

isnt it lovely?

Friday, September 25, 2009

i have been admiring this japanese washi paper masking tape for some time. i just love the colors and possibilities it presents, the juxtaposition of delicate and strong. as i type this, all ten delightful colors are sitting next to me on my desk. i am not sure what i am going to do with it or how i am going to use it, but for now i am content to admire it for all the creative possibilities it represents.

still blooming

Thursday, September 24, 2009





our dahlias are still blooming like crazy. i do love them so! there is nothing like fresh cut flowers to brighten your house.

enjoy the last bit of summer.

forthcoming

Tuesday, September 22, 2009



about two years ago i was asked to submit designs for a book that a fellow knitter was putting together ( i had a design in her first book sensual knits). i had two designs that were accepted and i worked furiously over two months to get the garments knit, the patterns written, edited and in the mail.

and then i waited.

and waited.

and forgot about the projects all together.

and then over the weekend i saw this on yahaira's flickr page.

and got very excited that the book was finally going to be published and available on nov. 3, 2009.

and then i looked a little closer at the promotional card and realized that one of my designs was chosen for the card. its the dimple v-neck. very very exciting.

and the book is available for pre-order here.

and that's the end of my shameless self promotion.

thank you for indulging me.

finished

Monday, September 21, 2009

i picked up the whimsy quilt from the quilter today and i am just smitten! i love it so. i think it turned out just perfect. and i cant wait to snuggle under it tonight! you may remember this post, well this quilt was what resulted from my little mind trick on myself. what i could not tell you months ago, but many of you suspected was that my mind game worked. i was finishing the quilt when i finally got the two lines on the pee stick, making this creative endeavor very meaningful. now, i need to pick out fabric for a baby quilt for the bean!


greece

Friday, September 18, 2009

in her newest cookbook, falling cloudberries, tessa kiros says this about greece.


"greece is magnetic, they say. once you have stepped on greek ground it's hard to shake yourself free. myth has it that it's because your feet become stuck in the rich honey coating of this country."


i couldnt agree more. there is something about this country that gets into your soul, the very core of your being, and leaves you yearning to return. i dont know if its the people, the immense history, the sheer beauty of the place, the food or the way they enjoy life. whatever it is, it has become a part of who i am and always look forward to my return.

















i am in the process of uploading all of my photos to my flickr account, if you are interested in seeing more.

two facts

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

fact one: i am clumsy. seriously clumsy. cant walk and chew gum at the same time clumsy. trip over air clumsy.

fact two: greeks are nosey and dramatic. they have a tendency to turn ordinary occurrences into oscar worthy dramatic performances. even when those occurrences have nothing to do with them.

add these two facts together and you have a recipe for disaster on your hands.

it was our second night in kea and we went to the hora (the main square in the village) for a dinner at rolando's. rolando's is one of our favorite places to eat, not just because of the food but because of the owner and his wife, rolando and sula. we had finished dinner and were walking back down the hill to our car. when all of a sudden i collide, no i walked right into a metal car guard. what is a car guard you might ask? it is a metal gate that comes up at night to prevent cars from driving into the square. i must add that this gate was not up when we walked up the hill to dinner. thankfully, my dad was right in front of me, he saw the guard and stepped over it, but he broke my fall when i lunged forward. the bad news was that there were a ton of people around who witnessed the incident, and were kind enough to lend music to the crashing sound of bone and metal with their collective gasp. better yet, the 5 women who were attending algaia's cooking class were also there to see my latest graceful move.

true to greek form, within minutes of my incident the entire village was alerted that the american doctor's daughter walked into the car gate and hurt her leg.

my mom kept asking me if i was okay, aside from the huge bruise and goose egg i was fine ( they are still there by the way). i did tell her that my ego hurt much worse than my leg did.

and just for the record, that gate remained down the remainder of the time we were there. i like to think that my clumsiness had something to do with it.

throwdown with airport security

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

yesterday morning i gave my precious husband quite the scare, i decided it would be a good idea to have a thrown down with airport security in athens. i could tell by the look in his eye that he was worried if i kept it up, they would either take me away and not let me get on the plane or never let me in the country again.

what was the source of my anger, you ask? knitting needles, of course.

we travel alot and even in the days after 9/11 i have never had an issue with carrying my knitting projects with me. and for the past 5 years i have made the trip to greece at least once, sometimes twice a year and they have NEVER even blinked at the long pointed things in my carry on. but yesterday was the day that they decided that knitting needles were no longer allowed through airport security.

it went down something like this.

security lady: can i look in your bag?

me: yes

security lady rummages through my bag (which drives me crazy i don't like strangers touching my stuff). she cant find anything, so she asks the screening guy what the issue was, he pulls up the image of my bag and she locates the offending items.

me to my precious husband : is they take my needles i am going to come unglued.

precious husband: stay calm. its not going to do any good to get mad.

security lady: you cant have these.

me (with disdain and irritation in my voice): why? i fly in and out of athens twice a year and its NEVER a problem. and they are approved in the states and that IS where i am flying in to.

security lady tells her supervisor in greek what i said. supervisor says NO needles.

at this point i am livid, steam is coming out of my ears and i am so mad i want to cry.

security lady: you cant have these, please take them out of your bag.

me: you have to be fucking kidding me.

security lady. no

supervisor comes over and attempts to touch my knitting, a baby sweater for the bean, this sends me over the edge. don't touch the knitting. my precious husband is trying to tell me to calm down. i take the needles i wasn't using out of the bag and pull the baby sweater off the needles. and i watch as the security guard throws all 3 pairs of needles in the trash can with great force.

i stewed about this all the way home. i guess today in the midst on laundry and grocery shopping, i need to go to the knitting store to get a new pair of addi needles.

in flight

Wednesday, September 2, 2009


we are on our way..... to greece. i wont be posting much while we are away, much to busy soaking up the sun, swimming in the sea, eating fabulous food and seeing friends. i will be back on september 14th with lots to share.

i thought i would leave you with some images of where we are headed.....










see you on the flip side....

i will tell you

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

a number of people have asked me how i feel about the fact that we are having another boy....so figured i would oblige and tell you......

to be honest i am somewhat relieved it is a boy. i mean, i have all boy stuff and the thought that a girl would have to ride around in a blue and brown polka dot stroller made me feel a little bad for her. and believe me i would have been totally against a pink stroller. i had decided to get rid of most of cooper's clothes and crib bedding, knowing that buying clothes for this baby would give me something to look forward to, but all the other gear we decided to keep. alot of it is still in boxes, it just didn't make sense to get rid of it. so on some level, knowing this baby is a boy, makes things easier and much more economical.

but honestly, gender didn't really matter. everyone always says they just want a "healthy baby", which i am sure is true, but that phrase doesn't have merit until you have a baby that is not healthy. since the majority of babies born are healthy, its easy to say "i want a healthy baby, but i hope its a boy." when you have experienced what we have, those two little words take on a whole new meaning. all i care about is that this baby gets a clean bill of health.

i think people ask me that question because they wonder if it will be hard for us to have another boy? will this baby look like cooper? and will that be difficult? what emotions will that bring up? until this baby lives longer than cooper, its going to be hard. gender plays no role in that fact. this is a different baby, with a different personality and temperament. i am sure that he will look like cooper in some ways, but in the end he will be his own person.

and really, i am not sure if i could have handled having a girl who wanted to play princess and wear pink all the time.