handmade by stefanie

Today didn't start as expected. I woke up in Kansas City, after spending 7 hours on the Amtrak train from Chicago to KC yesterday. I was hoping to see my grandmother one last time, but very early this morning (around 3am), I'm told she passed peacefully while all of us were sleeping. I thought about postponing this entry until next week, but my grandmother actually read my blog regularly (with the help of my mom) and she would have loved to see this post, especially all of the sheep photos. So after debating all day, I am finally posting what I wrote on the train ride down here.  One of my favorite fall traditions is the annual trip to Jefferson, WI with my upstairs neighbor, Lauren, to attend the Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival. My husband had the weekend off and decided to join us this year, and all three of us hit the road on Saturday morning.  There were a lot of the usual suspects at the show, along with some new faces, too. Every year, I look at the Jennie t...

I was pretty psyched to hear about the Ply Away retreat in my hometown of Kansas City (brought to you by the editors of Ply Magazine), and knew that it was quite likely I'd end up going, since I had a free place to stay in town with my family. This year has been off to a busy start, so why not include a short little jaunt to Kansas City this month? I flew down on Thursday with the intention of spending part of Friday and Saturday at the marketplace, and then taking my first-ever official spinning class on Sunday morning - Fractal Spinning with Jillian Moreno. That's more or less how things played out, though there was the added element of some family stuff mixed in - my grandpa was released from rehab after emergency hip replacement surgery a few months back, only to fall down, sprain his wrist, and - eventually - be readmitted to the care facility he was released from 48 hours prior within the time span of my visit. Thankfully he is doing quite well now, and I was glad I wa...