Today was a day OFF!

I actually got a day off today. Well not completely. My youngest has a cold so I stayed home with her so not to infect all the kiddies at church. Though I think that's where she got it b/c she really didn't go anywhere else this past week. OH well. We spent the day watching movies and just trying to rest so we can get better.
I (instead of watching Barbie the Princess and the Pauper for the millionth time) played this game Trace Memory, so that is why it's my Pix of the day. (I beat it too) It's a story game that you have to figure out riddles and other things so it was fun for me. I got it for real cheap used too so that was fun!
It was really nice not having to do much today, it's rare. I knit some too, but nothing finished. I'm still working on some Christmas presents so I may wait till I send out the packages to share pix.
well I'm off to catch up on things. (at least try to!)

Aprons, and Shawls OH MY!

There are going to be many photos in this post so i won't bore you with my project 365 photos for the days I missed. But you're welcome to go look at them here.
I've had a busy few days and I'm still not done. Christmas eve I was a sewing fiend. I made two aprons. the one I had to finish on Christmas Morning. The blue and black one I gave to my SIL she put it on immediately and wore it the rest of the day. (makes the crafter's heart happy!) The apple one I made for my MIL. Her kitchen has apples in it. I also finished my DD#2's apron. She got a kitchen for Christmas. I had started the apron long ago, but then my sewing machine broke.... Now that it's fixed I can finish things I've left go. I'm thinking of making a few more aprons for different people. A friend of ours is having a birthday at the end of Jan, so i may get started soon. (see I'm trying not to procrastinate too much that is...) Though I've still got tons of Christmas presents to finish. But for some reason I just can't seem to want to knit. GASP!! I know. I think it's b/c I had to pump out so much over the last few weeks I'm on holiday overload. So some of my original ideas for gifts are on hold till next year and now comes the simple solution. (not to mention quick seeing as Christmas is over...)
Last Sunday we went to visit my Grandma. we only got to stay for one night but I think she enjoyed it anyways. I made her a shawl b/c I wasn't sure how cold or warm it would be in the nursing home. I used 3 strands of the Homespun and did a simple v stitch. It turned out really soft and heavy so I know if she gets cold she can stay warm. (Sorry it's a bad pix the lights in her room aren't the best.) It's getting harder to visit with her b/c her memory is going and repeats a lot of things, not to mention it's hard to see her like that. We do want to visit her as much as we can while there is still time. I know that sounds so horrible but it's true. I'm so thankful that we live only 2 hours away so we can get away in a day if we need to. I told my DH when it snows we have to go for the weekend and have a sledding weekend away from it all. Her house has no phone or cable so it truly is away. Which usually is what life calls for every so often... Once a month would be wonderful. But i doubt that ever happens.
Tomorrow my DH and I are going to use one of our gift certificates and go on a date! it should be wonderful. I always enjoy the dates we go on. If we could get a "date" for a week that would be wonderful... hmm.. have to ponder that!
Well i've got to get going since it's way past my bed time.

Going Dark... for a few days.

I will be gone for a couple of days. But I will continue taking photos for my Project 365/52. I wanted to share with you yesterday's photo and today's.
I took a photo of my present from my DH. Most of you don't know but I love surprises, most of all at Christmas. Unfortunately being a naturally born sleuth... (LOL) I'm exceptionally good at guessing what I'm getting by looking at the present. My DH gets so angry when I do figure it out and so I try not to. But lets flash back 2 years ago when my DH got me a Camera. He wrapped the box all pretty and then proceeded to say "look here's your gift" showing the present. To which i promptly said "oh good I've been wanting a camera" (all this by just looking at the present). I can't help it I'm good. It was a small compact rectangle box..and my camera was dying a slow death. Not to mention I know my DH.
Last year when we were going to my parents to surprise them for Christmas, I was in charge of packing the car. Being a wonderful tetris player and a sort of pack rat (not too bad though) I'm excellent at packing car trunks. Anyways, my Dh brought out my gift and I was excited to see it b/c I knew it was a new coffee pot! My DH must have saw my face b/c he got all huffy. And I didn't even say a thing! But he did surprise me last year with a beautiful necklace. He also didn't show it to me wrapped.. LOL . This year he told me he wised up b/c he wrapped my gift with a pillow in a bigger box. But I'll tell you what, I think it's a Nintendo DS with animal crossings for the game. We'll see b/c I'm not telling my DH that I know.
Today was sewing day. I made a crayon roll. which this is the only photo I took before wrapping. I'm horrible at forgetting to get the final product picture. Even though my sewing machine was fixed (for a pretty penny) I think that there is something wrong with it. Well I have 2 more crayon rolls and a few other things to sew for people but I'm working on a shawl for my grandma since we're going to visit her.. she don't have any Internet! GASP... I'll talk with you when I get back. (christmas eve night)

Finally my First round of Gifts

I finished my first round of gifts. Before I wrapped them all up I had to get in some free labor.. er I mean the girls helped me to make our ornaments this year. I got the idea from my friend Kelly. She, I think, got the idea from another friend. Since the girls are OBSESSED with snow globes this year. (I blame Santa Clause3) I thought it would be a perfect ornament to give out this year. They turned out really cute. That is my day 9 photo and day 10 is this bright "fruit" colored cup cozy (as the bub calls it)
We gave it to her teacher b/c she likes fruit colors. You know red for apples, orange for oranges and yellow for lemons... need I explain more? I made 3 coffee cup cozies and put all kinds of goodies inside to give to my co-workers and the bub's teacher. I snapped a ton of photos and thought I would share with you what I put in each cup..
cup things, like packets of cup o soup, coffee, purell, and a gift card. when I wrapped it, I attached an ornament.
Our family members will also get an ornament and also some friends of ours. The girls really love making them and it makes a fun tradition.
I must get off and go finish the 100 million other gifts I've got waiting in the wings...

In time for Christmas?

Yummo here's my pix of the day. It seems to be fueling me these days as I'm in craft mode major. (sorry if you can't see the pix really well, it's a dark one)
I have finished the coffee cup cozy that I shared with you yesterday and I'm about halfway through another one. Then I have one more of those to make and those are done. After the cozies I will finish my Grandma's shawl and a few more necklaces. Actually I made 2 more necklaces last week. I've yet to photograph them though. One is actually wrapped and all ready to go out to a friend so I'll have to get her to take a pix for me. When I'm done with all the necklaces I've got some crayon and marker rolls to sew, and a few other sewn things I'm not going to talk about b/c it's a surprise. After that I've still got a few stockings and a baby blanket to finish. I think that's it... all supposed to be done in a week?? All my family should know by now that their gifts will be late just to stretch out the Christmas holiday. LOL
Well I'm watching the biggest loser finale and I've got things to make.

Today is for Knitting

Today is my day to try and finish up all those knitted gifts for teachers etc. I swear next year I'm starting in October. I'm seriously feeling the crunch! Which is why this photo is also my Photo for my Project 365/52. This is what my days, this week, will be filled with.
So I got the idea for these from 1. Ravelry (the cozy)and 2. My sister (filling it with cool stuff) who got it from a blog out there. If it's you're blog please LMK it was you! Anyways I'm going to finish these Coffee Cup Cozies and put them on a mug filled with goodies. I.E. Purell, tea, coffee, box o chalk, candy canes.. etc. Anyways, must got finish, and I've got Christmas Cards to mail yet... EEEK!!!

Experiment in color part two.

I was away from the computer all day yesterday. First I started at my WW meeting and I thought I'd take a pix of the scale for my own motivation and for my Project 365 pix of the day. Then we ran to the store to pick up my DH's last Christmas gift. Then we headed home to get lunch. As the girls watched some Christmas movies I dyed some yarn. But I'll have to talk about that in my Experiment in color part 3. So for my part 2 info I made another collage. The first pix is a pix of all of the yarn together that I dyed. In order The first green I dyed using about 12 or so Lemon-lime mix ade. The second I used some leaf green Wilton's cake dye. The 3rd was foliage green (if i remember the name correctly) Wilton's cake dye. The blue's I'm not so happy about. I used some Wilton's cake dye that I got in a Spiderman kit. so it was just called dark blue. But the blue didn't dye evenly it has some light and dark areas and some purpleish-pink shows through. the 2nd and 3rd blue photos are the same skein. you can see the light blue did the same as the dark blue. you can see the unevenness of the dye. I'm not sure why it did that. any comments? the last blue I used 15 berry-blue mix-ade, it dyed evenly so i was happy about that. after I was done dying this batch I went to the store to get more of the cornflower blue to get that dark blue color I got the last time I dyed. That's what I was doing when I dyed yesterday.
Oh that last photo is a stocking that I made for my BIL for Christmas. We're living in Steeler country people!
Speaking of the Steelers, today my photo of the day is of the fam in their Steelers garb watching the game. Go Steelers! too bad they lost.
The weather isn't nice lately. It was raining/snowing/slushing this horrible crap. So we stayed home all day today;. Which was nice b/c we totally needed a day off. I was able to get the girls to go through all their toys and pick out 20 each of them to keep the rest are boxed to give to goodwill. A friend of mine does this with her children (all 6 of them) only she does 10 each. Their room looks so much nicer now and the girls were so happy to "find" their most prized toys. After Christmas we'll give them a month with their new things and then have them decide which ones from the old ones need to go to make room for the new toys. Though they're not getting too many new toys a few book though. We don't have a limit on books. OK I'm rambling...

Day 3, 362 to go!

POPCORN! my favorite snack! I love it so much and so do my children. My sister however does not.... sigh I'm not sure what's wrong with her. LOL

I love it so much I got a Whirley Pop Popcorn Popper and I use it all the time. I love it b/c I can use little amounts of oil and still get that wonderful flavor!

Some 365 eye candy for you. These portraits are awesome! go and look through the previous year. It makes me wonder what they were thinking. I love them. Don't they inspire you to take wonderful photos this year?

Project 365/52

I joined a new group over at Ravelry. It's called Project 365 and we're supposed to take a pix a day for a year. Part of the reason I signed up is b/c I'd like to start posting more frequently. There's more info about the challenge here. You can check out the photos on flickr if you'd like. Yesterday 12-11 was day one. That's the Christmas bulb. I took it b/c I was trying to get a pix of the girls for our Christmas cards. (yeah I'm a little early this year) I must have been speaking a different language or something b/c every time I would say smile the girls would start to cry. well really it was only the bub and she's only 8 I tell you! too freakin early for hormones. UGH! I finally got a pix and made our cards. During one of the crying fits I thought hey a pix of this pretty red bulb may just be what I need today. (that and a stiff drink, if i actually drank, though I'm pondering taking that up as puberty approaches EEEK!)

Today I went to work, the same as I do everyday and my friend had me look out the window in the girls restroom. So i did and as I looked over the yard towards the garage, I was greeted with this and I thought Yeah I'm taking a pix of that! Now I appreciate graffiti art but I also think everything has it's place. On on the wall of the church is not the place. Of course it's a huge deal and the gossip of the church.. sigh.. I need a break. If you look over on my side bar you'll see the Project 365/52 blog ring if you'd like to join click away! LMK if you do so I can check out your blog.

I've been knitting like crazy. How about you? I have finished a few things that I've been wanting to update but being Christmas season and all... well you know! Anyways, I finished my DH's hat. I used this pattern and some awesome cascade baby alpaca chunky in a nice chocolate brown. I swear I must be speaking a different language b/c I asked him to smile too... Note to self: make up a name for your new language. The had decreases really nice and the top looks really nice and tidy. It's a really quick pattern and knits up really fast. I just shortened it a bit since my DH doesn't like to fold his hats up. He likes this hat, I don't blame him the yarn is glorious! I picked up a skein of the brown and a light pink for myself... just have to finish Christmas presents first....

I also forgot to tell you about the Christmas Stocking I made, the pattern is my own.
I made it for my LYS and also so I could get some students into my class, but being Christmas time no one signed up. How sad is that? January is a new year right? I think I'm going to submit the pattern to the pattern a day calendar.

Do you remember over a year ago when I made a sweater for my friend Kelly's newest addition to the family? Well she's finally fitting in it. (I made it for a 1 year old) Not only is she fitting in it but she's WEARING it, along with the slippers. It's not very often that I get photos of my little recipients wearing the stuff I've made them so this just tickled me pink! Isn't she just the cutest? Ok I'm going on and on... sorry I'm just so excited!

An experiment in Color part 1....

I've been meaning to up-date my blog now for some time! My brother, for Christmas, would like some striped socks, kinda like my stocking I made for the shop. I figured I'd dye some yarn the colors I wanted and have fun doing it. But before my yarn from knit picks got here I decided to try out some of the colors on some yarn I had at home. This yarn, my friend Danielle sent me after finding like 30 skeins of it at a garage sale. she knows I love yarn and it was 100% wool an that natural/off white color so she picked it up for me and sent it to me. It's actually been sitting around waiting for me to do something with it. It's worsted weight so it won't do for socks... I'd re-wound 3 skeins before hand (a long long time ago) using 2 chairs and walking from one end of the room to the other. I wanted to try for some self striping yarn. I couldn't say no b/c I'd caught the bug again. Thanks to my What a Kool way to dye ravelry group! So I got out my cheap kool-aid also know as mix-ade, and some of my Wilton's cake dyes. For the really dark blue and green and reddish skein which I named deep dark. I used Wilton's cornflower blue and willow green, and some strawberry mix-aid. The blue and green skein, named sea weed, I used just a tad of the Wilton's cornflower blue dye and a bunch of the lemon-lime mix-aid. The last skein which, cleverly, I named Patrick meets Squidward. I used some of the Wilton's rose petal pink and one cherry mix-ade packet, the berry-blue mix-aid and a tiny bit of the willow green (Wilton's). There's some photos of the dye baths of 2 of the skeins. When I started this experiment I also thought I'd try different ways of dying the sea weed skein I dyed in the microwave. the other 2 I did on the stove top. All in all it was a lot of fun. the white stick thingy picture is the CAB niddy-noddy my DH made for me. I printed out a tute and had him make it for me. it cost about $1.75! can't beat that! Plus it made the skeins look so nice. I think a few of them might actually be self-striping! we'll see when we make something out of them!
My next experiment in color I will talk about when I take the pix... until next time.

Knitter's Coffee Swap the 3rd

I've got a new BFF and she's from Canada! my newest friend is Penny. She was my swapee and I her's for this round of the KCS. I got my package today and boy did I ever get spoiled! she labeled everything with little tags (funny thing I did the same with post-its)
I took individual pix of the "groups" of things i got. First up.... I got the pampering things there's some foot soak, lotion and a scratchy pumice stick thing for your feet. How'd she know I love to get and try out new foot care stuff? There's also a mug to match with pin and brown circles on it. (I heart pink and brown together) She also sent me some really cool coffee napkins b/c we know how messy coffee drinking can get and a nice napkin just sets the scene! Now if only I can find some friends here who would like to come over for coffee.... sigh. And you'll see my fave in this pix it the book! it's a new series about murder and coffee. Can it get any better? I love reading!
what goes best with coffee but snacks right? Penny sent me some clodhoppers (a Canadian yummy), some mint chocolate cookies (to die for), and some maple cookies straight from Canada.
Of course the main reason for this swap the coffee. It was roasted locally in Penny's town. I personally love the name, it makes me want to watch all the Pirates movies!
and we can't be with out the fiber goodness. Penny sent me some beautiful yarn. the Regia had little nubbys all over it, I think it should make for an interesting sock. Then there's some sock yarn that i won't even try to pronounce or spell. but it's pretty and soft and I'm itching to start a pair of socks... but alas i can not! I must concentrate on the Knitting gifts I've put off until the last min. Yes I'm a little crazy. but the urge to make gifts for my family just takes over and I MUST KNIT! Today i spent a couple of hours dying yarn and also baking bread... actually it's baking now but all the grunt work was what I was doing before.
Penny, thank you so much! you're the best I can't wait to see when you get your package!

Do I really have time to post?

As promised I have a little story for you. Almost every time we go to visit my parents, either my sister's kids are sick or my kids are sick. This time it actually started with me. I thought it was just from the long trip that i wasn't feeling well but then when the beady got it.. well I think it was some sort of virus. Chloe, my niece, got it the day after the bead, then my brother's got it this week. Anyways the last time we went to WI, Jessica's friend Amy and I tried to meet then but it didn't work out.
So this time we tried to get together but with the bead being sick and me not wanting to get Amy's kiddos sick we just kinda met in the "hallway" or the entry way so not to get out sick germs on her. It was wonderful and exciting, though short. She's the first blogger I've gotten to meet. We took pix. I'm holding Chloe. Not only that, she showed up with a gift for me! how sweet is that? So inside the cute little red box was a bag with some stitch markers in there! they're so pretty! (i think she may have made them, you'd have to ask her
though) There are actually 4 stitch markers one, I started using that night. They work wonderfully! thank you so much Amy! you're the best maybe next time we won't be sick!
I'm sure most of us crafters are busy busy busy, makingChristmas presents. Maybe I should say those of us who are procrastinators. Anyways I made 2 more necklaces since my last post. this first one is for a gift. I'm not sure who it's for yet. I made it with different green and brownish-red beads. Kinda an earthly tone type of thing. the close up isn't that great , but i blame that on the almost non existent sunlight in the winter.
The next one I've made to wear tomorrow, we're all wearing green and then we're going to take our Christmas pix for our Christmas cards. Yeah we're really big procrastinators... LOL Thank goodness for Walmart! I usually upload the pix to the website and get the 1 hour photo cards and go pick them up. Though I think last year I just took my memory card and did it on the machine they have in the store. Anyways back to the necklace, I'm still up in the air about if I'm going to keep it or not. But I'm wearing it tomorrow regardless. My husbands kinda 'eh about most things so I'd like some input on these necklaces. What do you think? are they worth making and giving as presents? Do you think I could sell them on etsy? INPUT people!


PS I hope that wasn't too pushy