Monday, November 24, 2008

happy little chair

Despite the emotional roller coaster of a week we had last week (some friends got married, a friend unexpectedly passed away, my james made the decision to go back to school, and other issues to process through), this gift from my mom gave me a happy little moment.



I've been wanting to find a chair for our chair-less and (table-less for that matter) kitchen because sometimes when I'm baking or looking at recipes I want to sit down but there is no where to sit and our counters are too high and crowded to do the ol' hoist-ye-backside-upon-the-counter bit. So when my mom said she had a chair for me it was a happy little moment.

It was my grandparents so it's kinda special. Mom painted it a lovely green that goes great in our thrown together kitchen. Even though I've been in the purging-unnecessary-items mood, I could not resist this little seat of joy. Moms are the best!

Monday, November 17, 2008

charity knitting

I've been wanting to do some charity knitting for a long time now so, thanks to Halen's prompting, I've knit up my first infant hat for Save the Children's Knit One, Save One campaign. In short, they are trying to reduce the infant mortality rate in developing countries. 4 million babies die each year in the first month of life in these countries! By educating the mothers and providing them with a newborn care kit, which includes a knitted hat, they hope to give these babies a better chance at life.

All knitters should do this! It's easy. Just go to their website. Download the action kit that includes way easy patterns, knit up a hat, write a little note to the new mom to go with it, write a letter to our president elect asking him to consider helping prevent the death of millions of newborn in developing countries, package it up, then send it by December 31st to the address listed. They do ask for a $10 donation for the kit they make up to give to new mothers, but hey, $10 is nothing for the sake of starting out a new little one in this big world.

I've been checking into some other charities, including local ones, and this seems to be a good place to start. I'll post any others I find.

Here's the hat being sent off today-- made with much love, prayers and many blessings for both babe and mother.


Friday, November 14, 2008

i'm pleased

The tutorial I mentioned one post back for sewing a lining into a crocheted (or knitted) bag paid off! Here's the finished product! Isn't it fabulous how you can't see a stitch of thread where I sew it to the bag?? I'm pretty sure the creator of the bag will approve!
Note: I did not, however, like the tutorial on how to make the lining. Probably because math and I don't play well together. Or the fact that I don't have a computer in my craft room and our printer is pretty crappy so the directions were terribly hard to read. Anyway, I just made up my own way to do a lining and proceeded from there. I'm pleased.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

you think it, they say it

So I was perusing through the channels on the Mindless Machine (aka the t.v.) and found a downright hilarious show on the Fine Living Channel called "Whatever, Martha!" As I understand it, the marketing genius that Martha is, gave her daughter, Alexis, old episodes of The Martha Stewart Show. Alexis and her friend Jennifer watch the show and sometime try the crafts, all while commenting on how rediculous and rediculously perfect Martha sometime is. I do love Martha and her appreciation for all fine things, but for the love of perfectly folded sheets and gold leaf place cards, who really can't watch the show and occasionally think, Whatever, Martha! Here's the promo. I've set the DVR to record every episode... religiously...

Sunday, November 9, 2008

best tutorial ever!

This is for my knitting and crocheting friends. Recently the superwoman who taught me to knit and to whom I am forever indebted to for teaching me this wonderful skill, asked if I would sew a lining into a knitted bag she had made. I was like, "Sure! No problem!" --not remembering that I've never done this before. Gulp. (insert nervous laugh here)

When I'm at a lose for how to do something, which is frequent, I turn to the handy dandy internet for help. What a wonderful tool the information highway is! I found an amazing tutorial on not only how to make a lining, but also how to sew it in! (insert sigh of relief here) Futuregirl, the author of said tutorial, is brilliant and sure has a talent to teach and share her wisdom. Here's the link to the lining tutorial. (Check out her blog if you are into crafty things. It's quite inspiring!)

I'll be working on the lining sometime later today so hopefully I can post pictures of it early this week.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

do owls eat fish?

We have a mysterious owl in our backyard. He is perched out there as I type! We've actually seen him around our little neighborhood for the past few weeks. DH first saw him about two weeks ago sitting on the power line in our backyard. I tried to get a picture of him then but of course it's dark at night and our camera is no professional. The poor bird probably suffered retinal damage from all the flashes.
The next time we saw our great friend was on an early morning walk last week. It was barely light and I saw him fly silently in front of us down a side street. For some reason I brought my camera with me, hoping to see some deer I guess, but yet again the lighting was no good.

Finally tonight when I came home from work he was back and this time sitting where I could stand under him and hopefully my flash would be bright enough...here's the eerie pictures I caught of him...



So now my question is do owls eat innocent fish? I know we've seen mice around, but he seriously looks like he's licking his chops as he sits over our pond full of innocent fish...

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

more knitting and some shrinking...oh, and GO VOTE!

I've started a new knitting project! Yes, because I can't have just one or even three projects going on at the same time. I'm working on a chevron scarf from the Last Minute Knitted Gifts book. The author also wrote Last Minuted Quilted and Patchwork Gifts as well. I really like both of these books and have done a few projects from each. I've been seeing the chevron scarf all over Ravelry and have been dying to make one myself.

I also started on a basic knit scarf with some yarn a friend brought back from Argentina for me. (OK that's two knitting projects, give me a break.) Though incredibly beautiful, it's sort of a hard yarn to work with and I can't really think of anything else to make with it. I'm pretty sure it's cotton.



Remember shrinky dinks? Those plastic figures that you color and then put in the oven and they shrink and get super hard? Well, I've been seeing all over Etsy and other crafting sights the use of shrinky dink material for jewelry and other fun stuff. So I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and actually found blank sheets of shrinky dink plastic! I whipped up a few necklace pendants and a zipper pull last night. I think I was more excited as an adult to see my creations wrinkle and shrink in the oven, than I was when I was a kid! It was quite fun. I think these shall be Christmas gifts for my gal friends.


I am so glad daylight saving is over! It will be wonderful to have the sun coming up an hour earlier. Maybe I won't despise my early bird-ness if the sun is up with me now.

Don't forget to vote today! How could you forget really though? If you live under a rock I suppose. I early voted and hopefully by tomorrow, no matter who wins, the bickering and candidate bashing will be over...hopefully...I'm just so sick of it. I'll leave it at that...

(Picts of scarves and shrinky dinks coming soon! I'm waiting for some good morning lighting, but it looks like it's going to be a rainy or even snowy day.)