Addison Gallery of American Art

On Saturday I went out to Andover to visit the Addison Gallery of American Art for the first time. The reason for the visit was to see ‘the kids are all right’ because my sister-in-law, Julie, has two photographs in the show. I am really glad that I both got to see the show (it was the last day – hello, procrastinator!) and visit the museum.

The Addison is a small museum on the Phillips Academy campus. It, as the name suggests, features American art. When I visited, there were four exhibitions – Flash Back—November 22, 1963, James Prosek: The Spaces in Between, Natural Selections, and the kids are all right. I enjoyed all four, but was especially impressed with James Proseck and the kids are all right.

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All I ever wanted…

I recently returned from my annual trip to Wellfleet, MA with my friends Katy and Yovani. I really look forward to this trip every year because it is always so lovely to relax in one of the loveliest places in the world with some of my favorite people, but this year, I really, like really, needed a vacation. Between buying a house, moving, a couple of big things happening at work, hosting houseguests, and Gist’s job being pretty intense, I was pretty fried and ready to stare at the sea for a good amount of time to relax and recharge. And relax and recharge is pretty much what we did.

There was a lot of staring at the Atlantic…

And watching the sun set, and moon rise (we were there for the supermoon) over Wellfleet Harbour…

We had a couple of wonderful special guests: Katy’s four-week-old son, who was a delight, and Abby, Katy’s mom (also a delight!)

Katy and I jumped off of Provincetown Pier to, as Yovani said “reclaim our lost youth.” LOL 😉

We ate and drank very well…

There was beachcombing and swimming, storms and seals…

We looked at that amazing light…

And we did a lot of reading….

It was basically just the very thing I needed in my life.

Now that I’m home, Gist and I have been working on the yard, especially the corner that Gist calls “Crazy Country” and that I call “Paradise.”

My yard ornament/solar-powered light collection is growing by leaps and bounds! And the birds (and squirrels) have figured out that we are the suckers who will feed them any and all of the types of food.

We’ve both loved having a yard this summer – it’s great for the dogs, I get to indulge my love of tacky yard ornaments, Gist loves doing yard work (who knew?) and I really love cooking outside!

In fact, our big plans for Independence Day include cooking outside (and relaxing in the hammock, of course!)

Seeing Lowell through new eyes…

For the past few days (most of) my brothers and my sister-in-law have been staying with us right here in Lowell. As is the Gries tradition, I took them on a tourist death-march (aka see all the sights you possibly can in your limited time in any location) around Lowell. Not only was it super-fun to see and spend time with everyone, it was also great to experience the loveliness of Lowell through their eyes (and through the magic of instagram, of course 😉 ) Living here everyday, I often forget what an interesting place Lowell is.

Bob really wanted to drink some Moxie on his trip to New England and he was really excited to learn that Moxie was invented in Lowell!

My brothers’ instagrams of Lowell (and everything else) can be found here and here.

The most wonderful time of the year (for knitters!)

Yes, friends, it’s that time of year – time for RHINEBECK!!!!! I am really looking forward to spending next weekend with some of my favorite people in one of my favorite places.

It’s pretty much the best weekend ever. We stay at a cheese farm…

Drink lots of beer…

Pat (and buy!) lots of lovely yarn…

Enjoy the beauty of autumn…

Squee over sheep dogs…

And just have an all-around wonderful time!

If you are at Rhinebeck and see me, please say “Hello!”

Adventures in dyeing (aka what I did on my summer vacation.)

Towards the end of July, I headed off to lovely Cape Cod for my annual vacation with Katy and Yovani. As always we had tons of fun drinking beer*…

And visiting the beach…

Sometimes with beer 😉

My kind of town…

Our view

Gist and I just spent a very busy and very fun week in Chicago, IL and Lake Delavan, WI. My family is from Chicago, my father grew up on the South Side, and I was born there and lived there until I was four years old. My father is one of ten children and all but two of them call the Chicago area home for at least part of the year. All five of my Gries siblings plus my nephews and niece were in the area for at least part of the week, and we were all at the annual family Independence Day Party in Lake Delavan. Needless to say, it was a great time!

More of our view

Thanks to my brother, Bob, who runs a pretty tight ship, we were able to see most of Chicago’s fabulous museums and attractions.

The Field Museum

Yarn, Beer, Maple Cotton Candy & Cheese Fest 2010

AKA Rhinebeck Weekend was amazing, a perfect couple of days away!

There was beer,

Sheep,

Cashmere,

Sweater Weather

Guess where I’ll be in just three short days?

The most wonderful place in the world! Yup, it’s that time of the year again: NY Sheep & Wool Festival aka Rhinebeck Weekend!

I am looking forward to so many things: spending time with some of my favorite people, maple cotton candy, the lovely yarn, the Ravelry party, the many, many opportunities to drink local beer, the sheepdog agility displays, the Taconic State Parkway, being surrounded by so many fiber folks *sigh*

Oh, hi there…

Wow, it’s been a long time! Summer has been trucking along nicely, the Lowell Folk Festival was, as always, amazing. My favorite act was the Beat Ya Feet Kings with Black Alley. The Beat Ya Feat Kings were finalists on America’s Best Dance Crew and they did not disappoint!

Henrietta and I are still in love.

I decided to dip my feet into the analog/film pool, with mixed results (more on that later.)

SPA 2010

The end of February means one thing to me – Nance and I head up to Maine for SPA!  SPA is a lovely, relaxing, fiberiffic weekend hosted every February by NETA (New England Textila Arts).

It’s a mellow weekend; there’s no schedule, instead it’s all about filling three hotels with folks who love to knit and spin, some spa vendors, a wonderful mercantile, and a fun fashion show.  It’s just the thing to calm those winter blues (if you are the type to get winter blues…)

SPA is cocktails and knitting…