home at last

We have been all over the place lately, and I am glad to be home!

Our most recent trip was to Virginia for a family wedding. The fashion highlight (for us, at least) was Matea's dress, hand-smocked by Imo Kim!

And here are the requisite shots of the two kids, and the whole fam.



More on this and other recent trips next time....

~jkg

At long last, birthday season is over! We celebrated Matea's first birthday Korean style, complete with "toljabee" ceremony. She chose a wooden knife, which means that she is destined to be a good cook!

Take a look here for more information on the "tol" event.

After the oh-so-serious ceremony, we had a regular ol' birthday party at our place. We feasted on Korean food (courtesy of my mom, of course--some day I'll learn to make everyone's favorite dishes!), the kids played with every single toy in the apartment (including the ones hidden away in the closet), and generally had a good time.

Here is a photo of the cake I made for Matea's big day. I think she even got to try some! (I made enough little bugs so that all the kids could have one, and we still had a few to spare). I'm a sucker for those novelty cake pans!


Next up was Meris's birthday. Here he is, showing us that he is now four years old.

We had a BBQ in the park to celebrate both his and Ariel's birthdays. I think we had more kids than adults at this one. The weather was perfect--warm and windy. I had planned some super simple games for the kids, but they just decorated butterfly/fairy wings with markers and glitter (great idea on a windy day!) and ran around like crazy.

Here is Meris, getting ready for cake. And then I've got a close-up of the butterfly swarm I created, inspired/instructed by Hello, Cupcake! (yes, I have the book).


~jkg

hello, spring!

Just a quick post this month....

Here is a full family photo, taken during our Passover trip to Portland, OR. By some miracle, all of us are facing the camera!


And then I've got a long, long overdue photo of a sweater I finished April 2008. It is the Norah Gaughan ballet wrap pattern from a somewhat recent issue of Interweave Knits. Turns out that the pattern is available at the Interweave Store. It is the first sweater I made for myself. I used the yarn listed in the pattern, but in a different color.


I may as well post one more photo that shows the nursing sweater I just finished this April. It's a nursing sweater from Louisa Harding's Natural Knits for Babies and Moms: Beautiful Designs Using Organic Yarns. I did not use an organic yarn, and the buttons I chose make it look kind of like a marching band uniform. But it works wonderfully as a nursing sweater!



~jkg

family fun at (gulp) disney world!

Guess where we went to escape the cold weather at home? And as a bonus, our kids got lots of practice identifying the Disney brand and characters!

Fortunately, Meris is old enough (and game enough) to get on any and every ride. Here we are on the Kali River Rapids ride at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Meris got soaked both times he rode.

We spent the week with our cousins, so Meris had an especially great trip. Nothing like a good sword fight to keep you occupied while waiting for dinner.

And last but not least, here's one of the whole family, posing in front of the big hat at Disney's Hollywood Studios (I think).

More to come soon.

~jkg

A short, sweet post, just to (finally) show off (sort-of) a sweater I made for Matea. I finished it a good month or two ago, so it's even smaller for her now than in the photos. Oh well. Perhaps the next baby will get a little more use out of it....

A little about the project: it's from one of the Debbie Bliss books (too lazy to find and give the details now). I used Stork Knit yarn (also too lazy for the details), suggested by my knit guru and sister, best known as Imo Kim. This was supposed to have a little tie instead of a button closure, but I forgot to leave a whole in the side seam for the tie to go through, so my guru schooled me in the way of the button.

Next post should be the blanket I made for Matea... got to take some decent photos of it first, though.

~jkg