Adjusting to the New Normal

Hello everyone,

After quite a journey to get here I find I am awestruck by the many cultural and visual differences between Spain and the US. Buildings are different, food is different, language is different and the fashion is different. I am loving looking at these differences because it is wonderful to be able to see and experience something other than what I am used to.

Mike, Erini and I took a plane from LAX to Zurich. 11 hours long it was the flight that felt like it would never end. Not much can be said about a plane ride that long other than it was memorable! The 3 of us sat in the very last row of the plane flanked by 2 bathrooms. It certainly made for some comedy.

Here we are at the airport and on the plane ride.

We stopped in Zurich where we took an awesome underground tram to our gate, I slept on Mike's lap while we waited for our plane to Valencia. I was pretty exhausted and I slept pretty much the entire way from Zurich to Valencia.

We encountered our first language barrier at the airport when we tried to get a cab big enough to fit all 3 of us and our luggage. We ended up taking 2 cabs because there were none big enough to hold us all. The hostel we stayed at in Valencia, Colegio Mayor Galileo Galilei was very nice. We were able to get some pizza downstairs where we encountered another language barrier. Reading the menu I was pretty sure I knew what everything was. I ordered a pizza with Mozarella, York and Hongos. I thought I liked all those things. Turns out I ordered a pizza with mozzarella, ham and mushrooms! It was not what I would usually order but hey there is was.

After pizza, pur exhaustion took over and demanded that I sleep. For a whopping total of 3 hours. Then I was wide awake and ready to start the day! At 1 AM... so we talked and listened to music and watched TV. Finally sleep came and I woke up at 7 AM. Wah. Only 3 hours of sleep. We took the train to Alicante in the morning and met our host families. 

My host family is really nice. I like them and my host mom is a good cook! It will be great to get to know them better. 

Some pictures from our first day in Alicante! There is a beautiful hand laid tile plaza in downtown Alicante, and a view of the Castilla Santa Barbara from the Playa de San Juan and of course my adorable man having a gelato and sharing a gofre con azucar with me. 

More adventures to come,

Laura

Jet Setting

Hello all!

As you may or may not know, I am going to Alicante, Spain tomorrow to study abroad for about 5 months! This is a very exciting journey for Mike and I. I will be continuing to keep up with my blog as well as my knitting. For all of our adventures I will be posting lots of pictures and updates!

This is a new page in my life and I am so excited to be headed off to Spain with the love of my life for the first big adventure of our life!

¡Viva a España!
Laura

Happy Holidays from Us to You

Hello there everyone,

I hope you all had great Christmases and other holiday celebrations! I am back in gloriously sunny and warm California weather for my winter break until I leave on January 8th for Alicante Spain!

A little recap of the last few weeks.

I took finals. They sucked, but I did really well! 4 A's and 1 B keeping my 3.9 GPA! We drove the long drive back to California, missing a big rainstorm in California and getting out right before a big snowstorm hit Flagstaff. I was sad to have missed the snow in Flagstaff but our drive back was blessedly uneventful when it could have been dreadful. My mom had a big birthday and we had lots of her friends over for party. It was so much fun to see people we had not seen in a long time.

The Knitting Section

I was knitting up a storm in the days leading up to Christmas.

I made dishcloths for his mom, a headband for his sister and coasters for his Uncle. Add shortbread, pecan bars and chocolate sauce, I had the whole family covered. For my mom I have yarn for some knit pillow covers to be completed at a later date for her office.

Mike's sweater is finished!! I am so happy with the product. I am so excited to have it finished, all it needs is a good blocking. This was the perfect mix of yarn and pattern and dimensions. So happy to have this finished and to have created something that will be loved and cherished for years to come!

The Holidays!

Christmas Eve we went to our neighbor Kathy's for dinner. She made a delicious pot roast with yummy side dishes. She always sets the most beautiful table!

We got a little tree again this year. I love that it is so little and cute! This year we overloaded it with lots of ornaments. Also on the completed list was that I wrote down all of our ornaments and who they were from and the years, complete with an ornament box organizer from the Container Store. Yay for organization, now my ornaments will be all ready to decorate a little tree in Flagstaff next winter!

Christmas day was a memorable one this year, we spend Christmas morning at home and opened presents. I got a lot of things for Spain and a lot of great little things. I also got 2 All Clad skillets, a 10" and a 12", the nicest skillets and the nicest quality and I am SO excited. I also got a beautiful Eagle Creek suitcase from my aunt and uncle. 

Later in the day mom and I went to Mike's house for Christmas dinner with his family. We had an amazing time. Here are some pictures from the special day!

Love spending time with my future family! Mike's sweater was a big hit and he is so happy to have it and he loves it. Doesn't it look great on him?!

All in all Christmas was amazing. It was a fun time and a perfect way to spend Christmas.

We are now beginning the frenzy of getting ready for Spain. I am excited for this next chapter in my life, but I am also nervous because there is so much unknown. I am going to miss home so much, but this experience is going to be the thing I remember and talk about for the rest of my life.

What an amazing adventure I am going to be going on and I feel blessed to be able to share it with the person who means the world to me. This adventure is going to be something amazing that we will always be able to look back on. 2015 is going to be a really big year in our lives and it is on its way in a few short days.

From us to you; happy holidays and we hope that wherever you are, you are happy and healthy and surrounded by the people you love.

Drowning in Finals

"I'm dreaming drowning of in a white grey Christmas finals week!"

Well now that is just depressing.

It has been raining in Flagstaff. Well actually it is pouring sheets of water and the whole world is grey. What happened to last year when it was pretty and light fluffy snow was getting me in a christmasy mood? Let us throw it back shall we?

This was from December 4th, 2013. Today it is December 6th 2014 and we haven't even had our first snow. 

From the last week of November 2013. Look at my cute snow bunny. 

Awh the fun of last year. Currently I am stuck inside writing a 6 page paper on SIDS in Native American infants. Very very sad topic and the constant gloom outside is not improving my mood very much.

All in all this paper is the biggest part of my finals so once it is done the bulk of my finals work will be done. Just a big paper, a few tests, packing up my apartment of all my stuff and I am home free to home before my departure to Alicante on January 8th.

It blows my mind. I am going to be abroad a little over a month from now. In another country. Study abroad has always been a part of the plan. You know, go to college, study abroad, get a teaching degree, meet a nice man to settle down with and live happily ever after. The crazy thing is that now I have a visa, a plane ticket, a class schedule and a Kaleidoscope of butterflies taking over my stomach. (According to google, Kaleidoscope is the name of a group of butterflies). I am very excited but it is also a new and completely different experience. I take comfort in the fact that Mike will be with me the whole time, it just makes it easier to go off on a journey with the person you love most. I would say in the whole life plan goals I am doing pretty well. College? Check. NAU is a wonderful place. Study abroad? Check. My dream is becoming a reality very quickly. Teaching degree? Not yet but I am working toward it! Meet a nice man to settle down with? Check! Mike is everything I could ever ask for and I love our present and look forward to our future and count my blessings every day I can call him mine.

I may have mentioned going home for a few days to spend time with my family and eat food. Well that is exactly what happened. I went home for 5 glorious days of California sunshine and warm climates, ate 3 stomachs worth of thanksgiving dinner, lost terribly at Liverpool rummy (which does not happen that often, I must have left my luck in Flagstaff) and all in all had a relaxing and wonderful time at home. It was a bittersweet tease because although I was free as a bird for those brief days it also meant that I had to face the reality that final exam preparation was waiting for me when I got back. Now here I am swimming in the ice water bath that is reality and in all honesty it is not nearly as fun as being curled up on my couch at home in my wonderful little town watching chick flicks with my mom. The plus side to this break is that I have been able to make great progress on Mike's sweater! I am hoping to finish it very soon so that I can work on Christmas presents for others as well as work on my pet project of the beautiful intricate blanket so I can use it this winter.

Yay! Now back to the endless paper writing and finals.

Knitting with a Side of Eggnog

The temperatures are falling and the knitting is heating up!

Mike's sweater is shaping up well for Christmas and the more it looks like a real sweater the more excited I get!

One part of the first sleeve is coming along! It is strange to me to be doing a bottom-up sweater when I am so used to top-down but it is fun to see it coming together. 

Now that it is freezing and windy outside working on the blanket is even more fun. I am 2 rows away from finishing the first pattern repeat. I need to repeat 1-28 rows of the lace and cable pattern 6 times and I am almost done with the first repeat!

So pretty. Amazing what can come from one designers imagination and turns into something so beautiful! 

Socks. 

Oh my relationship with socks has been a struggle. The sock yarn I got on vacation is still sitting on the needles with only a cast on and that is it. I have been told that some people do not like using mini mochi for socks and I keep thinking that maybe I should make something else out of it. Plus socks just take so so long and the pattern I found was just so boring. I have not decided exactly what the mini mochi is to be but it is not to be socks... unless I change my mind again. 

What will be socks is the alpaca sox yarn that I have been lusting over. It is all of my favorite colors, in one skein!

Green, grey, blue and purple oh my! This yarn has been calling to me to make it socks. The last pair of socks I made out of this yarn in a different color way turned out great with a warm and wonderful finished product. In preparation for Spain I am scheming different projects I can bring with me. This pair of socks will certainly be on the list. Which sadly means I have to save it until I go, but I can wait. This yarn and color way screams for a leaf pattern. I was inspired to do leaves because a woman at our knitting group was making a baby blanket with a leaf pattern and it was beautiful, so I was inspired for leaf socks. 

tiennie's Embossed Leaves Socks

Leaves oh so pretty leaves! Lacy and interesting and will be perfect with this yarn. And I will do it using the two at a time method. Nice plane project for the trip to Spain that will be coming before I know it this January!

Cold is here along with knitting, cuddling and eggnog. Who doesn't love the holidays?

8 days until I leave for California for Thanksgiving. Can't wait!

I'll Be Home for Christmas (Well First for Thanksgiving)

Ah the weather is turning cold and there was even a little bit of snow on the mountain last week!

All is going well here. My classes are in a bit of a slump because I just had a big round of midterms so that has given me a little more time for knitting. More on that later. I promised pictures from Halloween so here we go! 

Last year Mike and I dressed up as a cowboy and cowgirl. 

This year for our couple costume we chose Bonnie and Clyde!

My roommates and I

What a fun Halloween! I had a great time with Mike and my friends and it was fun to be outlaws for a night! So much fun. 

Back to knitting because who am I kidding? My whole blog is about knitting no matter what I tell myself. 

Mike's sweater is coming along very well! I am 1 inch away from finishing the body of the sweater! Here are a few progress pictures. Now imagine that bit of sweater reaching to under his armpit! 

Next up is to do the yoke and then the sleeves. Then it will be done and wrapped up under the tree hopefully right in time for Christmas! 

In my last post I mentioned the blanket that I was considering making. Well I pulled the trigger! I went to Michaels and got 11 skeins of Wool-Ease Thick & Quick in the color Fisherman which is a nice cream color. I got the skeins for $4.99 each on sale and I joined Michael's email list and got a 20% off including sale items! So I got all of my yarn for about 50 dollars! Yay sales! So I bought the yarn from Michaels and my size 15 40" needles from Purl in the Pines! I am about 18 rows into the pattern and I have already gone through one skein!

I love this blanket. It is going to be very warm and pretty. Reading off of a chart is confusing but I am starting to get the hang of it.

Things have not been too terrible exciting. I am excited to be going home for thanksgiving in 2 weeks  and then we will only have about a week and a half until I move back to California for winter break and then off to Spain!

Christmas music is already being played loudly in our (Mike's and mine) apartments and embarrassing dancing around the kitchen while we cook dinner, singing Christmas carols at the top of our lungs is becoming normal. We are ready for the holiday's.

Until next post,
Laura

Happy Fall Days

The leaves are falling and Flagstaff is a burst of oranges, yellows and reds! Beautiful!

I finished my Shaelyn Shawl! I am very pleased with it. It needs to be blocked of course (what else is new?) but I really liked how it turned out. It was fun to watch it grow to its full size as I bound off. I used the sewn bind off which takes absolutely forever but is very very pretty and allowed the shawl to  stretch and keep the waves that were designed into it. Now all I need is blocking. Ugh I have so so many things to block but no place to block them and not the right kind of ventilation to do it. So everything is remaining unblocked. So lets add Shaelyn to the TBB list (To Be Blocked).

The yarn for Mike's sweater came!!! Yay! I had to buy a whole bag since it was a special order, which was a hit to my wallet and my heart but I am excited that I will be able to make this great sweater for my wonderful man. I keep dreaming about our semester abroad next semester and in particular I want to visit Ireland and have Mike wear this sweater in Ireland. Why? I don't really know. The tweed and the garter accents on the sweater (see my last post for what it looks like) remind me of what I have seen of pictures of Ireland. So I casted on and am working on the body now!

Yesterday was the two color knitting class, I really enjoyed it and the technique was very interesting to learn. I finished the project which reinforced the technique, a snowflake hat! I have always wanted to make a snowflake hat so now I finally have one! Now I am going to make mittens to match. Never made mittens before but I have heard they are easy to do. Great snowflake hat and best of all, no floaties on the inside from excess yarn!

So I currently have one project actually on the needles and one project to be cast on imminently. The next project I have in mind is a blanket! Something to work on since it is starting to get cold here. After spending only about a minute looking I found the perfect pattern!

This blanket pattern is called Umaro by Jared Flood.

This is a very pretty pattern. Simple and classy but interesting enough to keep me busy and not bored. It is worked up in Super Bulky yarn and big needles so it will go semi quickly. In order to save money because blankets require a lot of yarn I am going to use Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick in the color Fisherman, which is a light cream color. I am planning on buying the yarn soon and starting!

Fall is continuing here in Flagstaff and I am getting excited for snow and cuddle weather with the love of my life. Recently we just hit a year and 4 months. I feel like I have been with him forever but at the same time the time we have been together has flown by. We had a great weekend at NAU homecoming game and we are getting excited for Halloween this weekend! There is nothing like a college Halloween and Mike and I have great costumes ready to go! I will tell all about it with pictures next post!

Thanks for reading,
Laura