Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Spring Break 2011

While I did do some stitching over spring break, I thought I'd post a few photos of other things first, since it was an exciting time all around.

First we went to Cocoa Beach - we love beaches. It is a nice beach and generally not too crowded and has the advantage of being near Kennedy Space Center, which my DH loves. We had hoped to see a shuttle launch, but the launch was rescheduled and you can't change spring break at school. So here is the lovely beach.

And here is a sea turtle we rescued! It was floundering in the surf and I realized it wasn't well. We were able to contact the local sea turtle rescue group and they came to pick her up. I hope she is doing well now with expert care.
Then it was on to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Islands of Adventure in Orlando. We stopped doing theme parks back when the girls were in elementary school, but we knew we had to see Hogwarts and Hogsmead. It was worth the crowds and heat to go on the rides and see how well the village and school have been set up.

Inside the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom there are lots of cool things. In fact all the rooms you walk through to get to the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride are wonderful. Dawn French does a bit as the Fat Lady portrait as well.
Night time is a great time to see the village.
And meals at the Three Broomsticks are okay but fun for the atmosphere.
All in all a great trip and we have plans to go in a few years when they expand the Harry Potter area of the park.

Saturday, April 02, 2011

Not your grandmother's crochet

I have been working on the coif recently, and when the next flower is done, I'll post the progress. I've also been doing a bit of crochet. I've had to adjust the pattern because I used a different weight of yarn - the pattern called for mohair and I didn't think that would be a serviceable material for this:
It is a fly bonnet for my DD the younger's new horse, Jasmine. It isn't just for decoration, as my DH originally thought, it keeps bugs out of her ears and the tassels keep bugs out of her eyes. It is used mainly in the summer when the bugs are bad. I may have to try another in a thinner cotton to see if I can get the pattern to work properly.