I had some visitors in town recently – Ali, Max and Kelsi – and have therefore been unable to knit much. I promise some progress shots real soon. I thank you for your patience. addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fwww.heavydutydesign.com%2Falicethelma%2F2010%2F08%2Fvisitors%2F’; addthis_title = ‘Visitors’; addthis_pub = ”;

The Rebecca Shrug is officially dead. RIP. Frogged. Good God did I really start this thing over 18 months ago!?!?!? With high hopes too I might add. I’ll spare you the boring details but needless to say, it’s already been re-purposed. I LOVE when that happens! Read on… When Ali sent me a text requesting [...]

Yesterday I returned from Ashland where I spent a long weekend and had the extreme pleasure of seeing The Merchant of Venice outdoors, on the Elizabethan stage – a first for me. It was wonderful and the weather was perfect. While strictly verboten, I was able to quickly snap a photo of the stage just [...]

I spent an amazing 48 hours in Ashland and Southern Oregon last weekend and I’m only now getting around to blogging about it. I was felled by a stomach bug the day before last and I’m still not sure if it was the flu or food poisoning but that’s no excuse! Here, now, I’ll tell [...]

Today I would like to wish Alice, who is turning nineteen on the nineteenth, a very happy birthday. It’s hard to believe that 19 years have passed since your birth.  I recently unearthed the photo above which is dated February 14, 1994 but she more closely resembles the recent graduate below. Red seems to be [...]

My new year’s was spent collecting Alice and her belongings and delivering her to SOU where she started classes yesterday. Here’s the college freshman with her new short haircut. Amid all the packing and loading and visiting and driving we were able to spend a dry 24 hours in lovely Ashland. After moving her into [...]

I’ve got family in town this week for the holiday, namely Max and Nell (pictured above at the Caffe Trieste in North Beach), and we’ve been running around the SF Bay Area taking in the sites. Today we were at the California Academy of Sciences (along with Alice and Liz) which I haven’t seen since [...]

Alice recently requested a south-american-andes style ear flap hat – a style that is all the rage right now. You know…the ski hats with the long braids down the sides and colorful stitch patterns made with thick, bulky wool (and are usually lined with fleece). So with my usual zeal I immediately concentrated all my [...]

I know that sounds like a cliché but in many ways it feels like the past 18 years have gone by in a nano-second. Here are my two children, Alice and Max, in 1991, when we first moved to Oregon. Alice was only about six months old in this photo. Seems like yesterday. *sigh* If [...]

Here’s the scenario: bored and stranded at the airport, the kids steal my gold pen and proceed to doodle. I believe this was most likely a joint effort. I think Alice has the makings of a future designer or interior decorator. On a totally unrelated note, here’s what I was working on a year ago [...]