Unblogged Fall.

So!  It's full on fall.  I love fall.  Knitting!  And leaves!  And adventure! I love blogging about fall.  And this fall I have so much to blog about and have done none of it.  Things like the first day of school:

LOOK HOW CUTE AND GROWN UP THEY ARE!

Went by without a notice.  Same with the awesome adventures we've taken... like apple picking:

ADORABLE.  So many great pictures of the kids in the apples.  Because it was the first time in... ever?  That I was there without a kid strapped to me in a carrier.  Totally insane.

No one wants us to carry them.  WHAT IS THIS LIFE???

Or the Athens Area Fiber Fair - I went with my daughter and my mom for a Girls Trip:

YAAAAAARRRRNNNN!

It was fun having helpers:

Or the possibly insane road trip Matt and I took for our friend's baby shower:

18 hours in the car for 48 hours with these people?  WORTH. IT.

I'm surprised that one didn't motivate me to blog considering that my knitting matched the trip:

I love it when my knitting matches the trip.

There have been unblogged firsts - like the dude's very first soccer league:

He LOVES it.  And running round outside as a member of a team is SO what this kid needs.  He's the type of kid who will always have to be in lots of activities b/c he cannot handle boredom.

My mom took him to a practice while Matt and I were on the road and she summed it up perfectly "They seem to just be running as fast as they can in circles"

YUP.

And so much unblogged adorable it's hard to handle.  Tiny has grown up.  He's in that fun stage between a toddler and a preschooler.  And while nothing throws a fit like a 2 year old, nothing giggles like one either.

He's into the Toddler Logic phase.  Which is hilarity and insanity and adorable.  I want to remember things like him seeing a Halloween decoration spider on the steps and saying "OH NO MONSTER ACROSS MINE TRACKS!"

But it's all gone unblogged.

SIGH.

Catchup.

So!  Just as this blog was getting interesting with giveaways and content and whatnot our computer decided it was done with this world.  GAAAAAH.  But!  After much angst and over thinking we have a shiny new one now.  That's super portable and actually works and stuff.  Which means I can sit outside and write while my kids do this:

YAY SUMMER!

Seriously all of a sudden it's summer!  Full on.  We even took the kids to the beach the other night because we were sick of parenting:

PERFECTION.

How long will a sandy beach and some buckets amuse 3 kids?  INFINITY.

The dude had his last day of school:

He looks so grown up!

And the girl finishes up tomorrow.  She already had her end-of-the-year music concert and it was insane with adorable:

She's the fish in front in the sparkly dress.

And we've had a few beginning of the summer adventures:

Family Hike at Whipps Ledges.

Ice cream in Pennsylvania with cousins.

Alpaca!!!!

WOOL FEST!  My mom subbed in for Matt because despite being married to me for the last 10 years he was oddly uninterested in spending an entire day shopping for yarn.  Also he had to work.

With many more big things in the works (more on that coming).

Watching the Cavs game together.  I'm hoping the Big Things this summer involve a CHAMPIONSHIP IN CLEVELAND!

Park playdate/meeting with another mom.  Working playdates are the best.

So yeah.  I"m back.  And I'm ready.  Because it's going to be such a fun summer!!!

Family Concerts at Severance Hall.

So! I am thrilled to be giving away family sets of FOUR tickets to the Cleveland Orchestra!

Wait.  Let me rewind.  The Cleveland Orchestra is one of our city's best assets.  It is literally one of the best orchestras in the country if not the world.  And Severance Hall is in a word STUNNING:

Image from flickr here.

But!  With little kids I thought it was out of reach.  For us to go would mean babysitting which is few and far between.  And toddlers aren't exactly appropriate at the symphony.  So we'd take the kids to Blossom Music Center for a concert every summer and figured that was all we could do.

Blossom way back in 2012.  We've gone every year since!

Turns out?  I was completely wrong.  The Cleveland Orchestra has an entire series of concerts specifically for children!  And they are awesome.  There are two types of concerts (from the Cleveland Orchestra Website):

PNC Musical Rainbows - ideal for children 3 to 6

Which instrument is bigger – violin or viola?  How many strings are on a harp?  What’s a bassoon?  Children will discover the answers to these musical questions and more during our 30-minute Musical Rainbow concerts.  These presentations are a fun, interactive way for our youngest listeners to learn about the instruments of the orchestra, one at a time.  PNC Musical Rainbow concerts are performed by Cleveland Orchestra musicians and guests, are hosted by local actress and singer Maryann Nagel. Children have the chance to sing, clap, and move to the music as they have fun learning all about orchestral instruments.  Musical Rainbows are performed in the 400-seat Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance Hall.

Family Concerts - ideal for children 7 and up

Family Concerts are a great way to get kids excited about classical music!  These narrated, 60-minute concerts performed by The Cleveland Orchestra in historic Severance Hall, are structured around a theme and feature guest artists such as young musicians, mimes, dancers, actors, and more.  Family Concerts offer a unique and fun-filled opportunity for families to spend quality time with their children, enrich their lives through exposure to the musical arts, and share the excitement of live music performed by one of the world’s top orchestras.
All Family Concerts are preceded by free activities, including hands-on Instrument Discovery, throughout the hall that enhance your child’s enjoyment of the performance.

 We took our kids to a Musical Rainbows concert on Saturday and they had a great time:

It was super fun.  The concert was exactly the right length to hold even Tiny's attention and was interactive and fun!  They loved it:

The concert was held in the Reinberger Chamber Hall - a smaller more intimate venue than the main concert hall - but equally beautiful:

Image from here.

Really everywhere in Severance is beautiful.  Such an amazing building and space.  I was proud to share it with my kids for the first time:

ART DECO MAKES ME SWOON.

So I am very happy to be sharing the opportunity to go to one of these great concerts with my readers!  I am giving away 2 sets of 4 tickets for each of their upcoming children's concerts - Vivaldi’s Ring of Mystery on Saturday, May 3 and The Vivacious Viola on Saturday, May 9.   Feel free to enter both contests!!!!  


Cleveland Orchestra

PNC Musical Rainbows Concert - The Vivacious Viola – May 9


Disclosure:  My family and I received tickets to this event in exchange for this review.  As always all opinions are my own.

Bonus family portrait in MOCA.  We walked there for lunch after the concert.  It was a lovely way to spend a Saturday in Cleveland!

Fox 8 Cleveland and Sassy Chicken Salad.

So.  I was on Fox 8 Cleveland this morning!  I made Sassy Chicken Salad and tried not to make  a fool out of myself.  Here's the clip:



The whole experience was super fun.  And pretty surreal.  Everyone there was very, very nice:

Me and Kristi Capel from her instagram page.  I love that our outfits coordinated.  Yay set design!

From the producer to the hosts to the nice lady who set up my mic they made me feel right at home an totally at ease.  Which was good because I was NERVOUS.

Backstage where I set up my cooking segment and also TRIED NOT TO FREAK OUT.

The set is really cool.  Both bigger and smaller than I imagined.  The cooking area was wheeled in to that empty space on the left:

And this is the news desk:

The response via facebook so far from family and friends who have watched has been pretty positive.  But when after preschool pickup I asked the Dude - my 4 year old middle child - how I did he said this.  And I quote:

"You looked weird.  I missed you.  ..... How do turtles go to the potty?"

THANKS, BUDDY.  Then he wanted to know why I didn't cook something he likes.  I asked him what I should have made and he said without hesitation "Apple Raspberry Sauce and Peanut Butter Jelly"  So there you have it.  Forget Sassy Chicken Salad.  I should have just shown off my mad pbj skilz.

But!  They seemed to be happy with my performance.  And I don't think that I looked... weird.  Honestly once I got rolling with it it wasn't so much nerve-wrecking as just full on FUN.  I would do it again in a heartbeat. 

And since someone asked here's a better picture of the shawl I wore in the segment:

Fragile Hearts knit out of Destination Yarn Silk Road in "Daiquiri"  Many, many more details about it here.

If you are new to this blog and want to play along you can like Life in Cleveland on Facebook and follow @LifeinCle on twitter and instagram.

If you're a knitter or into the whole yarn thing there's lots more pretty at Destination Yarn and @DestinationYarn on instagram.

Yay for new experiences!

Channelling Chef Lorenzo

So.  You guys.  I'M GOING TO BE ON TV.  Yes.  For real.  I was contacted to see if I wanted to be on the recipe segment of Fox 8 Cleveland's morning show. UM HOW ABOUT YES.  So I will be cooking a delicious and Sassy Chicken Salad and chatting with them about ... well... Life in Cleveland.

Conversation topics I'm sure I will cover - my kids, Cleveland, and Destination Yarn.  Because there's only so long I can go without talking about yarn and the segment's 5 minutes so....

And!  As exciting as this is let me just take it up a notch with some backstory.  This is Chef Lorenzo, my great-grandfather:

He was a celebrity chef in the 50's.  Before celebrity chefs were a thing.  He hosted a cooking show that had quite a following in the greater Cleveland area.

His recipes have tv show air dates on them.  AWESOME.

 A poster from one of his events hangs in my kitchen:

I hope I do him proud tomorrow! 

(and also that i don't make a fool out of myself because SERIOUSLY)

The live (gulp) segment will be on Fox 8 tomorrow morning at around 8:30.  Set your dvr's!  And if you're not local I will post the clip after it airs.

Shalom for a Little Girl.

So!  I knit my girl a Shalom Sweater:

But... wait.  I have to start at the beginning.  See for the March installment of Kate and Jeanne's Road Trip Yarn Club we wanted a bulky yarn with pops of colors.  The inspiration was Wildflowers on the Great Plains.  I love how the finished colorway/pattern turned out.

 There's a couple of extra kits for this pattern up on the Destination Yarn Etsy Shop along with some other colorways on the new bulky base.

But!  It was a new base for me.  And a completely new dye technique that I had never tried before called stipple dying.  It was SO FUN to experiment with.  But it took some serious getting used to.  And after I screwed up one skein... and then another... and then another I threw my mistakes in the dyepot with a bunch of leftover dye and was all FINE.  YOU WILL JUST BE PURPLE.  STUPID YARN.

However my fit of rage lead to some really gorgeous yarn.

I figured it would end up as a cowl or something.  But my daughter claimed it.  And I had just enough to make her this:

It's the Shalom Cardigan pattern that everyone, myself included, knit a few years ago.

It knit up crazy quickly.  Then on one of the MANY snow days we had she asked me to make a skirt to match.  So we dug out some fabric and cranked out a Lazy Days Skirt.  Easy.

Literally that morning by 9:30 we had made a skirt and the boys had watched a movie and IT WAS ONLY 9:30 WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DOOOOOO.  There were a belligerent amount of snow days in a row this year.

The finished outfit is just darling.  A photoshoot after her art class at the CMA was necessary.

I love LOVE the yellow buttons.  She picked them out herself from the button box I inherited from my great-grandmother.  I'd guess the buttons are older than I am. 

90cents for buttons?!

The yellow against the purple is just so kicky and perfect.

As far as modifications go it was pretty easy to take this down to a kid's size.  I started with 51 stitches on a size 10.5 needle.  I only did 3 knit stitches on either end because the 5 the pattern called for was a bit much on a little kid.  Other than that I knit as written until the divide for the arms.  After the 2nd increase I had 101 stitches and after the third I had 129.  When dividing for the arms I K23, BO21, K43, BO 21, K23.  Then cast on 9 under each arm.  I omitted all of the waist shaping and just knit straight down from there.

I actually had to do the divide for the arms twice.  The first time she didn't like how tight it was across her back.  So I ripped it out and adjusted my stitch counts.  That's one of the best things about knitting.  Make a mistake?  Don't like how it fits/looks?  Rip it out and use the yarn again.  No problem.

Overall I'm just thrilled with this.  The whole thing started as a mistake and turned into something really beautiful.  She's worn it to school often since it was finished.  I think that's about the best compliment I can ever receive.

Also she turned 6 this week.  Which.  DUDE.  It goes so fast.  I'm actually writing this because I'm procrastinating getting the house ready for her Frozen Birthday party tomorrow.  It's amazing how much festivity you can create with a few streamers and some balloons.  Anyways in honor of her birthday here's a side by side of Shaloms from when I was hideously pregnant with her:

Yay for Shalom Sweaters!