Untraditional Spring Break

Last week was my final college Spring Break and I wanted to make it fun. My man rose to the occasion and we thought more traditional when we started thinking of where to go with Disney World. After we realized how much money it was to go to Disney, we decided to hold off. Then we were going through Living Social Deals, and I always get these emails but don't take the opportunities as often as I should, haha. We figured out that we could go to Portland Oregon for basically half the price of Disney! And we did! =)

Now my man and I are local lovers by nature. We both love small businesses and buying locally. Portland was the perfect place for us to go for this reason. We did some research, I looked at local yarn shops of course =). My man looked up a bunch of local micro brewery's, which there were plenty of.

As soon as we got there, we checked out a local yarn shop, Twisted.



This shop was the first one I went to and they had like over 10 local dyers I swear! I loved all the yarns in the shop and my man even helped me pick out some yarns =). He's the best. Picked out his own sock yarn and some yarn we found together for hats. All local dyers of the Portland, Oregon area. Some were from Washington or California, but all were yarns I could not get at home.



After finding our way through what I must say is a very organized public transportation, we ended up at Burnside Brewing Company for dinner. I was very adventurous during our trip and had mussels that night. But the beer might have been the best choice. It was a Belgium chocolate and strawberry stout, called Red Light District. After reflecting on our trip I asked Jared which beer was his favorite and he said this was his favorite he tried.

The next day we went to the only yarn shop I contacted to see if they had local dyers and they were completely underwhelming after visiting Twisted. Not even worth to mention the name. We of course found a place for lunch, BridgePort Brewing Company.



Now I warned my man that I'd be knitting in all the pubs we'd be in and he didn't mind at all =). He tried the Hop Czar and I tried the Summer Sizzler. Both our kind of beers. I did learn a lot about beer in general on this trip, which I know my man is very happy about. I figured out I like the citrus beers or the malty beers. My man is faithful to his hops though always ;-).

AFTER our lovely lunch at BridgePort, we stumbled upon a wonderful local yarn shop, Knit Purl.



Now my man found this shop on our way back from lunch, have I mentioned he's the best? Haha, but this shop was super cute and right in town, I loved the atmosphere. The awesome fun fact I learned about this shop was that the owner actually owns Shibui. Naturally I had to get some Shibui and I found a beautiful pattern to go with my purchase. They have all the colors and it was so much fun. I had no idea that Shibui had that many colors or different weights of yarn! We get a few where I work, but had no idea they had all the beautiful colors =). We should expand our Shibui collection here, haha.



Probably my favorite picture from the whole trip. Both of us wearing knit hats by me and both of our smiles just so big =).

Well after a little bit of resting we found another local brewery to check out, Cascade Brewing. We only tried a few beers, but made my man take a photo outside for his nerd beer portfolio ;-).



This brewery focused on sour beers and we tried these 4 that were all fruity, which is very common in sour beers. My favorite was the Apricot. The others were a Black Cap Raspberry, Cherry Blond, and I think the Blueberry one. I don't think a sour beer would be my first choice but I was glad I got to try them and test them out.



We ventured to an Irish Pub, Kells, for dinner. They had their own beer, but we tried some different local beers. I had a Widmer Hefeweizen, which is SO GOOD! We got some to take home at a whole foods the next night =).

The next morning we went out to breakfast, but went to Voodoo Doughnuts after. The most awesome doughnut place ever.



We actually went to Voodoo Doughnuts twice... Hehe, we had the Maple Bacon Bar, the Portland Cream, and Old Dirty Bastard the first time. Then we had the Memphis Mafia, Captain my Captain and McMinnville Cream. Look those up followers and readers, you need to see how good these look. Also these doughnuts are HUGE!

We may or may not have gained 5 lbs in Portland, haha.



My man did so much walking though for all my yarn shop travels. This was Wednesday and we ran into 2 yarn shops this day. One of my favorites for sure was Dublin Bay Knitting Company. Sadly I did not take a picture in front of this store because this store was adorable and probably the most organized yarn shop I have ever seen. So clean and they dye their yarn solstice, which I snagged 2 skeins of =). I also got to chat it up with one of the girls that worked there and she told me about a few other shops that I should check out while I was there.

***SIDE NOTE; I missed the Yarn Crawl by 1 day. We got there the day after the yarn crawl had ended but all the shops had lots of local dyers anyway so it was a win win.

So the girl told me about the other yarn shop that was on the same street. Naturally I had to go, and my man was very nice about following right along to the next yarn shop =). Pearl Fiber Arts was the yarn shop and they were another cute shop. I was drawn to their yarn that was locally dyed and the dyer used cake dyes. It was awesome beautiful colors and I picked up another 2 skeins. I will put a picture up of all my yarn as soon as possible. Just lots of other things going on as a senior in college to stress about.

Anyway, there was another brewery we checked out for happy hour that night. If you haven't caught on, we went to amazing breakfast places (which for some odd reason I'm leaving out), then checked out at least 2 local yarn shops and then went to happy hour at a local brewery, then another brewery for dinner. That night happened to be Hopworks Urban Brewery. My man found his brewery with a place that serves organic beers.



I had the Organic Velvet ESB. The English Session Beer I picked out all by myself and throughly loved it. The session beers means that you should be able to have a few in a "session". Which is why they made them. My man will confirm once he reads that if I said that properly, haha.

Anyway, after Hopworks, we went to try another local brewery but with dinner. Deschutes Brewery was a good brewery and we were told to go the by different people so it was a must go to. I got another Hefeweizen because I had liked the one from Kells so much. I probably should have tried a different beer because I sadly didn't love it. It wasn't awful, but definitely not as good as the Widmer. The food was pretty good though, I had a healthy salad (we had been eating very unhealthy food and a salad was necessary for my body, haha).

After Deschutes, we had to checkout this bookstore, Powell's Books. Now we went to Powell's again, because this picture is clearly from the day, haha.



If you can see, this book store is a block large AND has multiple floors! I got lost in the knitting section.



As you can see the bookshelves are very tall and I had to have my handsome help me from time to time but I could've stayed there for hours looking at all the patterns =) hehe.

The last day was spent at the parks and the brewvana tour. I'm going to have to save those for next time though because this post took me too long. I must go to bed. Goodnight!

<3 Carly

Ice Festival Touring

As promised, here are some photos from all the Ice Festivals I've been going too, following DiMartino Ice =).

First off we have State College PA. This is the New Years Eve festival they've been doing for 8 or so years.

This is the wishing well they do. Frozen dollar bills up top and people can make a wish as they slip some change down below.

Here is a before picture of a carving. Now they do this with all of the "multi-block" carvings. They must stack the ice blocks and literally build up the ice. The next day they put on the templets, which are drawings that are ironed onto the ice. Makes the craziest noise when you iron paper to ice, but it's truly just an outline for these guys. They are amazing what they do with chain saws and power tools.

This is Gary working on the Nittany Lion(we are in State College PA, Penn State staple is a Nittany Lion). He was shaping out this lion for a good bit. It turned out beautifully!

I sadly do not have a finished picture, that is in my man's possession, but you can see it coming along =)

This is my man =) working on his carriage. I'll show a bunch right in sequence so you can see how amazingly talented he is.

Now that last picture is of him torching the piece. They brush off all the snow once they're done carving and torch it so you can still see through it. They make clean ice and it looks so lovely once they get to torch it, not to mention a real crowd pleasure, haha.

Dick and Tom worked on the fishes. You could sit in the middle of the big fish if you wanted! So cool =)

Rob worked on a huge dinosaur! Looked great all finished =)

Joe & Ryan worked on the classic, snowflake*

While James worked on a very detailed pagoda. Took him a while, but it was beautiful once all finished.

Now I don't have finished pictures of everything because my camera died when I was in State College. It was my first time at the roadeo and I remembered for the others! Haha, I did however get one last shot of me and my man ;-)

Next festival was up in Ligonier PA. This is the closest ice festival they do because it's less than an hour away. That does NOT mean it was any less snowy or cold. There was a good while the first day where they were all carving and the snow just started really coming down. It was beautiful.

They did another wishing well here, Ryan and Chris worked on it mostly, but Uncle Ernie was showing them how. My friend Sarah and her man came up to check out the festival with me. We had a blast =)

My man worked on the Griffith in the middle of town, in the middle of the square/diamond (whatever they officially call it), in the gazebo. He was center stage. He also knows how to work a crowd. He's a ham, haha.

This is the other sculpture my man did the first day =).

Now the 2nd day is when things got exciting. All the men did a SPEED CARVING COMPETITION! SPOILER ALERT!!!!! Jared came in 2nd. Very upsetting, but he was still proud. Rob was the winner, he did a heart so that's what Jared think won over the ladies. He only won by 5 votes though, couldn't have been that many more ladies that voted for Rob, haha. I'll put them in order of who won. Rob's is directly below, then Jared's, then Joe(which I just realized I do NOT have a picture of his speed carving. I remember trying and there were too many people trying to get through everywhere I just didn't have the time), then James, then Ernie.

I thought Ligonier was a fun and not to mention, they had an awesome yarn shop in the circle/square (I truly forget what the official term was). It's Bo~Peep Fine Yarns, which on their business card now that I'm looking says, on the Diamond in Ligonier. I may or may not have gotten some yarn.... =D

Next is Chambersburg PA, which is pretty far for the fans to be traveling (when I say fans I mean the girlfriends and wives). Keeley and I rode up together with the baby ice carver snoozing the whole way. We both confirm that Chambersburg was colder. Still a wonderful little town, but definitely the coldest ice festival.

This is THE thrown. Rob and Joe worked on it and the lights were changing colors all night. My man thought it was stuck on blue but every time I looked over it was red! Haha

No wishing well for Chambersburg, they went for a piggy bank, which my man did beautiful. There he is torching it!

Ernie and James worked on a dinosaur and it looked lovely all finished. We have no idea how James gets so snow covered but it just happens, haha.

The next night, Rob worked on a very tall running man. He didn't get very far, the running man that is ;-) haha.

My man did a taller than him Abe Lincoln! No big deal though, he did it in just a few short hours.

Now these two loves that I spent a good majority of the time with in Chambersburg. That baby just had a THREE COURSE meal so his USUAL smiles are him just being a little bit full. He smiled right after this picture of course, haha.

Keeley's husband Joe worked on the Wing Chair and it was a soaring success ;-). Haha

Rob needed just a little kick! haha

James was learning :)

And I FINALLY FINISHED MY SWEATER! I'll get a picture of me in it as soon as possible.

Until next time, enjoy the ice tour! =)

<3 Carly

Senior Undergrad, 87 Days

Have I told you about my count down until graduation? My roommate hates it. It is a constant reminder that it will all be over and we must enter the real world.

I hate that phrase the real word. I just want to start living. I want my own apartment and 1 job, not 3 or 4. I'd also love to spend Sunday with my man sleeping in, making food, cuddling on the couch and reading the newspaper. Call me old fashioned, but I want that in a Sunday. Not to work a 9 hour shift.

I can't complain too much, I have a nice job for a college student. I cannot lie when I say I will not miss homework at all. I can't wait to set knitting deadlines for myself rather than the paper deadlines. I'm telling you, whoever wants to write 20 pages for one class is crazy. That's just one paper. I must read probably 700 pages for this one class I'm taking and it is overwhelming. Clearly why I am blogging more frequently. Also this app on my iPad makes it super accessible to blog literally anywhere.

I know I promised pictures of the ice festival, and they will go up, but I need to be on my computer to do that. I am proudly wearing my finished sweater though! I need a picture in it. Hehe, it is so warm! If I finished this over the summer I wouldn't have been able to wear it until now anyway. It needs to be in the 20s or lower to wear this heated sweater.

Now I'm trying to finish the stocking for my man but that may be done in June...

I'm working on a hat for myself now though. It's pink and just simple enough to look elegant. Very excited to have my hat be made by me finally.

Alright, I must get back to my reading. I'll try to post pictures later loves!

<3 Carly

Always a Blogger, Now Weekend Getaway

I hate not being able to blog all the time. Makes me sad. As you know I am always busy, but this time I'm doing all these fun things! I'm currently away so no awesome pictures yet but I've been following my man with his ice festivals and I love it. I know I'm not greatly conditioned for the cold yet, but I'm getting there.

We're in Chambersburg this weekend and it is a very cute little town. They have a diamond they call they're downtown and with me living in a downtown of a bigger city makes me giggle a little at theirs. Still, their community is very close and they make this a huge event and tradition for this town. It's Ice Fest's 11th year!!! That's a lot of festivals. My man has grown as a carver since they started here. Once I get these pictures uploaded, he did a huge sculpture if Abe Lincoln. Yeah, I know.

Well I'm trying to stay warm before dinner, I'm going to snack on some kettle corn and knit a little more. Here's my sweater swoncho, seriously almost done!!