Vogue Knitting Live

It timed out that I was in Palm Desert the same weekend as Vogue Knitting Live in Pasedena. After some googling I discovered that I could do a day trip and attend the event. I signed up for one class Sunday afternoon so I had time to shop the market place, see some of the free lectures and just take in the event. I drove in Sunday morning, got parked and headed into the Pasadena Convention Centre.

That one blue dot in Alberta is me.

This is the knit teepee.

An interesting felted creature at VKlive

Getting my book signed by the author.

I attended the yoga for knitters lecture and got some great exercises.

Then it was off to my class with Susan B. Anderson on Sock Yarn Bunnies. Learned some great techniques on toy construction and face embroidery. 

And what would a knitting conference be without some new stash....

It was a great day and I am happy I could attend.

A weekend away to craft

A few weeks ago a dear friend and I escaped to Canmore for two nights away to craft, knit and enjoy each other's time.

I worked on Easter cards, swap package cards, a very special maternity card for a fellow stamper and swap package knitting tags and some knitting projects. 

The Easter bunny even came early to say hello.

I worked on a very Easter colour themed dish cloth for a Ravelry swap

And I got most of an Owl Puff knit

It was a great weekend, a time away I hope we can repeat soon!

Some of the plants in Palm Desert

Most of these I don't know the name for them but these are all found in and around our villa.....

I just love the strange flowers growing out of this aloe

The beautiful bougainvillea in bloom.

Our giant aloe

A bloom on a bush

Small succulent

Another one I am going to call an aloe.

A beautiful cactus, I think a Barel cactus, now onto some that I don't really know what they are....

Each time we visit different items are blooming, I love walking the grounds and seeing what's new.

A success of experimental cooking & on the road again

My experimental cooking luncheon with my ladies was this past weekend and it was a great success. I made a recipe from the Crockpot Gourmet for Buffalo Chicken Tater Tot Casserole. It was a bit more involved as you make the sauce from scratch but the taste was worth it. Between that and using my Victorian Epicure seasonings it was good enough that my DH has said it will be with making agajn, and he ate it as leftovers.

Here is the precooked crock. I hope that my friend enjoyed her month late birthday luncheon.....

Tonight we are making another escape from winter down south. The sunset from the plane was just beautiful.....

I hope this means some good weather for our few days in the desert. I will settle for light wind and sunshine and mid-teens, rather than the near freezing we had at Christmas for a few days.

Recipe link: http://crockpotgourmet.net/2014/06/30/crockpot-buffalo-chicken-tater-tot-casserole/

Experimental cooking......

I have (in recent years) become a pretty good cook. And I enjoy experimenting with new recipes, often my friends are the happy recipients (AKA victims) of these experiments. Some have worked out great and been made again, others needing a few more adjustments and have been made again and some are a one time experiment, never to be made again. 

The never to be made again recipes often end up there for three reasons:

1. They are too much work

2. The flavour is bland and I don't think there is a way to improve it 

3. All out failure

So I am making lunch for a dear friends birthday on February 14 and have decided to try something new. I have done extensive searching for a version of what I want to cook that doesn't have bacon, isn't too overly pre-processed and seems fairly simple to prep.......I have found the main dish but we will wait till after the birthday party to tell you about it and about what my victims-ummm-friends thought of this experiment......now to figure out my side dish, and appetizer and perhaps even desert.

Christmas in Palm Desert

For the first time ever we were some place warm for Christmas. It was strange for the first few days to see Christmas decorations and palm trees but now I think about returning to the snow and cold of home and just don't feel ready yet. I think this Christmas in PSP will be the start of a new tradition.

DH and I flew into Palm Springs on Christmas Day, my mom met us at the airport and had a turkey in the oven.  She even had set-up a little Christmas tree for us. It was very festive but nice and warm.  

A few days later our weather changed, down to zero over night one night even. DH and I had to buy some warmer clothing and more blankets for our bed as we were freezing. We had bought clothing for low teens not zero......if you look closely at those mountains in the picture below you will see a slight dusting of snow. This was a sunny day but our high was barley 10 degrees, Vancouver that same day was 6 degrees!

But today, my last full day, it's beautiful again.....warm, sunny and perfect. I return home tomorrow night late so today I am taking full advantage of the weather, I had lunch on a patio on El Paseo and then stopped for an iced tea before walking back up the hill to our villa.

Looking forward to our next visit to the desert.