Entertainement palace

Since the last time I wrote, our house has become a cool place to hang out.
It started with a barbecue with my colleagues, spouses and kids (about 25 people) on a Wednesday evening.

party backyard

The day after, my man, now confident that we could have people over, invited friends for dinner. Over the weekend, 2 other friends came from Montreal with a baby (the cutest one in the world, I must add).

I must say that it is easier to have people over now that our living room went from this:

the original living room, before we bought the house (picture NOT taken by me!)

to this:

May 1st, after my man spent several hours taking the old carpet off

to this (arrgggh!):

June

and now this:

July 2012

It's not finished, but I love the bright, almost empty space. I hope I can keep it this way when we are done, but knowing myself, it will be difficult...

Then this weekend, my parents came over. It was the first time they saw the house, and I think they liked it. We got to enjoy the backyard a lot, my mother and I knitting, my dad reading, and all of us drinking  watermelon-blueberry juice (my new favourite summer drink: put some watermelon in a container. Add whatever berries you have. Add herbs (I tried with chocolate mint and basil). Add some lime juice. Maybe a little bit of something sweet (I have agave nectar). Then I use my hand blender, bjjjuuut, bjjuuutt. Add some bubbly water. If you are not with your 80-something parents, add some rum as well, pour on ice, enjoy.

Having guests over means that we get a nice break from the renos (thanks guests! Please come more often!) and that we get to go to our favourite places to show them off to them.

Heaven

On the craft side, nothing much, I get to knit when I take the bus to work, and since I'm trying more and more to bike, my poor peasy is not happening very quickly. However, it has now made it to the stage of "thing I can see myself wearing in the future". Hopefully in October, when I need warm clothes.

I quite proud of it, mostly because so far, I've only needed minimal external intervention when I made mistakes. I'm now an expert at dropping stitches intentionally so I can go fix something. I'm going to knock on wood, but hopefully, it will go this way until the end.

Tomorrow, we are going to Montreal with my man's nephews to see a Star Wars exhibition and eat in Chinatown. That's a minimum of 2 hours of knitting on the way there, and maybe 2 more on the way back, if we come back before dark. How exciting!

Have a great weekend!

More of the same

I don't want to say much about the house, because I think that about 3 rows were added the the office's floor since the last time I wrote. We had a heat wave, and a tool broke.

 The good news is that we were able to clean up a bit, and we now have a fully functional kitchen, with a real table instead of a desk.

But no news from our new windows. They'll probably call to install them while we are away in (separate) vacations. I'm going to a wonderful Hungarian folk dance and music camp in Michigan for a week, while my man is going to volunteer at the folk festival where we first met 8 years ago.

Gypsy dance

I can't wait for the dance camp. It's going to be my 3rd time going. It's like a week-long family reunion for all those who love Hungarian folklore in North America, with the bonus of the best musicians and dance instructors come from Hungary to party with us teach us.  I've been part of the Hungarian community for almost 20 years now, not because I have any Hungarian blood in me, but because my interest in the Hungarian folklore led me to be interested in the more general culture, and get involved in the local community. The wonderful thing about being part of such a community is that it is linked to all the other Hungarian communities of North America, which means that I have wonderful friends all over Canada and the U.S. that I get to meet whenever there is a big Hungarian folk event.

On a the crafty side: a little bit of knitting, and that's it.

Hopefully, I'll get a lot of time to know on my way to Michigan, and during the camp. I'll take pictures!