Valentine's Day in New Hampshire

Burkett and I splurged for Valentine's Day this year with a trip to New Hampshire.  We found a killer deal for the Mountain View Grand a few months ago on Groupon, and Valentine's Day weekend just happened to be one of the few weekends available during ski season that didn't have a blackout date, so off to New Hampshire we went! 

The hotel was absolutely amazing.  It's a historic hotel nestled right in the middle of New Hampshire's White Mountains.

Loved this little nook at the end of our hallway...

We also stopped at the outlets and EMS in North Conway, skied 2 days at Cannon, and visited the New England Ski Museum, which was a pleasant surprise.  We didn't even know New England had a Ski Museum, but stumbled upon it on our way over to the tram at Cannon.

And now for the knitting section of this post...it turns out the Mountain View Grand has a knitting history.  Apparently a group of women from Whitefield, NH lead by one of the owners of the MVG used to knit mittens and other winter accessories that were sold in the gift shop and through R.H. Stearns Co., a former Boston department store.  What's even better is the skier pattern featured on some of their mittens.  Really wish I could get my hands on this pattern.  But for now, here are a few pictures from the display case in the MVG lobby.

My First Sewing Machine

This has been a week of firsts...my first week rounding at St. Francis, my first week back in lab at CAIRD since my fellowship, first time getting my car stuck in the snow this season, and the list goes on. So it seems fitting to finally jump back into blogging again with my first post of the year being about my FIRST SEWING MACHINE!  Needless to say I'm thrilled.  Enough of the firsts and onto the good stuff, pictures!

My lovely new machine, it's been very easy to learn.

And now for a few of my first projects...of course I would need a dust cover for the machine.  Plus I found this really great remnant at JoAnn's that goes very well with the craft room decor.  The pattern was a Simplicity Project Runway pattern that just so happened to be on sale for a $1.

New throw pillow for the coach, with a removable cover so I can wash it! No pattern, just made this one up as I went.  It was also a remnant found at JoAnn's, I thought the print was very fitting for our cozy little lakeside condo. 

Handmade swaddling blankets for my dearest friend Krista who is expecting their first in May!  One side is white flannel and the printed side is cotton.  I borrowed this idea from Martha Stewart and embellished it a bit.

And now for my current project, I am making my first quilt!  I am making the Easy Four Patch quilt from a book I bought at JoAnn's back when I was in college and using some fat quarters bought for another project that never got completed.  Already have the top pieced together and need to get quilting.  I'm think I will likely end up tieing it, as I've already got my eye on another pattern and Denyse Schmidt's new Aunt Edna fabric!  Maybe I'll actually try to learn machine quilting for the next one.