Annual trip of FUN

Ruth, Martha and I are home from our annual trip to Rhinebeck. We had a
glorious time.  Friday was awful. The rain was so hard, made the drive there
horrendous.  Ruth planned a stop for us in Kinderhook, NY to visit the
Van Buren Mansion.  Martin Van Buren was our 8th president.
http://www.nps.gov/mava/planyourvisit/hours.htm
He led a very sad life - many of his immediate family  members died from
TB.  I think he must have been lonely.

Once we got to our hotel in Kingston, NY, the weather cleared up.
We had a very nice visit, and exchanged girly gifts and shawls.

Here is Martha and me with our shawls.

 Here is the 3 of us.  Bathroom pics really suck.

 This is a pic of Ruth's loot, and below is her Briar Rose all balled up.

She is going to make a vest....

Ruth made me the Harmony Shawl out of some very pretty slightly varigated
green yarn. It is so wonderful.

 It is more of a light forest green, these pics make it look teal, and that is
not the color at all. I will work on better pics for next week.

 Martha made Ruth the Age of Steam and Brass Kerchief shawl.  

The yarn is a pretty varigated yarn of greens and blues. and other colors!

 I made Martha the Kyra shawl, and have most pics of that since, well
I made it. Had a photo op before I gave it to her....

Yarn is Madelinetosh Light
A fun pattern.  Mesh patterning can be a little tricky.

Pics of our stash:

Here is mine. I will send more descriptions and better pics next week.

 Another pic of Ruth's....so pretty - all of it.

and Martha's

We all got some very different things, and some similar. 

We all made each other "different' shawls, which was so nice. Not the ordinary
patterns. They are all starting too look the same on Ravelry.

Saturday night we had a fab Italian dinner in Kingston landing. That place
is sooo cool. Martha said it used to be a dump and they have really made
headway into modernizing.Next year we are going to poke around there
on  Friday.

More next week dear blog readers.  I'm happy to be home, away from
the tempting desserts.....

Thanks girls, for another wonderful weekend. Love you both!