cherry tomato

winter is definitely here

i know the snow throws everyone into a tizzy around here, but i just can't get enough of it. i knew it was supposed to snow overnight, so i sprung out of bed this morning and raced to the window to see what was going on out there. there is nothing quite like that feeling of anticipation. the view was magical. there was a fuzzy, white blanket of snow covering everything, and it was still coming down. it was early enough that there were no footprints, no tire prints on the street, nothing. just the calm white snow silently falling to the ground.  The sky turned a stunning violet as the sun began to come up, and I wish I could have captured it to share with you.

I'm happy I was able to see all of that because the snow is already melting.

I am very sorry for all the people suffering through the ice storms in much of the U.S. right now and particularly those who are out of power. What a strange winter we are all experiencing...

I stitched up a few tubes of thrifted wool fabric and filled them with rice to make some window snakes. We have the original windows on our old house, and with the temperatures as low as they've been, it's been a great help to have these little snakes.

Thank you to Stephanie for this wonderful, simple solution to that draft.

I've been spending a lot of time in the house, and I've started a new project that I can work on in the evenings. Cassi put up this tutorial for a vintage striped blanket a little while ago, and I've had it in by brain since then. I  have accumulated many bits of yarn left over from other projects, and i love the simplicity of this project. I am more of a knitter than a crocheter, but this is definitely something I can handle. Here is a sneak peek of my progress:

Finally, I'd like to direct to you a couple of really great new projects I've come across. 3191 is a beautiful photo project involving Stephanie and Mav, and Lisa and Shari have just started a project. They will select a word each week and delve into the meaning of that word through different mediums. I'm really looking forward to following both of these projects for the rest of the year. They are great examples of finding the beauty in the mundane, and It will be fascinating to see a little of the world through their eyes.

have a great tuesday, everyone!

balance

Yesterday was a rough day. With the sad news about James Kim, it was difficult to transition to celebration-mode. Yesterday was not only Eric's birthday but also my dad's. An eventful day, indeed. I actually thing that the sad news helped to make their birthday's more poignant, and although I was never able to really make it to the "celebration" mindset, I was grateful and happy to be able to share the special day with my husband.

Above is the organic, gluten-free, vegan cardamom chai cake I got for Eric's birthday. I made a gluten-free, vegan pizza with caramelized shallots and peppers for dinner. It was my first successful gluten-free baking experience, and we were both pleasantly surprised to actually enjoy the pizza. I didn't dare attempt to bake a cake, so I got this from a local bakery. It's so nice to live somewhere where options like this are available.

I have had a bit of a setback with my health, and I realize I wasn't being quite as vigilant about what I was eating as I needed to be. We (I) have now placed a moratorium on all gluten in the house. I didn't realize I needed to be so concerned about cross-contamination, or that I can't really "cheat" and eat a piece of bread. This is still all so new to me, and there is so much to learn.

I won't bore you with any more details about my illness. Instead, I'll show you some of the things I've been working on this week. I've made a couple more stockings:

And we're nearly finished with decorating for the season. My great aunt gave me a beautiful Christmas village last weekend, and I was thrilled to get it set up in our living room:

I've also strung up the garland I made last year. I had to do a bit of adjusting and divide it into two garlands instead of one long one.

I STOL want to make a wreath for the front door with some of the greens I collected last weekend. I've been busy getting ready for the sale this weekend, so I haven't really had the time. It looks like the wreath will have to wait until this Sunday.

Be well everyone.

I'm a feltin' fool!

As usual, I'm scrambling to get things made for the holidays. Not only do I need to get busy making gifts for friends and relatives, I am participating in a sale on December 9th. I know what I want to make for the sale, but I've made very little progress thus far.

I've been working on these felted stockings:

Pre-felting

post-felting

Much thanks to my mom for giving me the pattern for these. She is also making these as gifts, and had nearly twenty of them completed last week when I saw her on Thanksgiving. I'm planning to make approximately one ton of these as gifts. They go together quite quickly, and the color combinations and designs are endless.

I'll keep you updated on what I'm doing and if I'm going to be putting anything in my shop. I'm thinking of adding a few stockings and some gift tags I'm working on. We'll just have to see how much time I have. I always seem to overestimate what I can get done in the amount of time I have.

Okay, back to knitting...

good time animal swap

i'm feeling much better than i was earlier this week, but i'm still completely wiped out. after getting a nice full night's sleep last night, i had to take a 3 hour nap this afternoon after engaging in one simple activity: going out to eat lunch. i'm not kidding when i tell you the dark circles under my eyes go all the way down to my cheeks.

i haven't done much in the way of producing anything this week, but i had a fairly productive weekend last week and thought i'd share with you some of what i worked on.

i had to finish preparing the goodies for anna's good time animal swap. it was so much fun to put this together for what looks to be a very sweet dog. the kitties were intrigued by the items and were kind enough to model a couple of them for me.

I knit a collor and leash using green twine on a child's knitting dolly. My mother tells me I used to knit using one of these when i was a child, but I have no recollection of it. It was perfect for making a nice sturdy collar and leash. I also thought it would be nice to add a little crocheted flower (my very first!). it took me several tries before i got it right. i used debbie bliss cashmerino aran so it would be nice and soft for my secret buddy. of course the bunny is just a little toy for her to play with. i'm sure it will only be a matter of seconds before the button eyes are ripped out, but lets hope those few moments are filled with joy.

the kitties received their swap package yesterday, and were so excited, they beat me to the box.

the present was from anna, and what a thoughtful gift it was. the kitties received a little catnip mouse, three patchwork catnip squares, a lovely crocheted mat for lounging, a pom pom and a little felted ball with a bell inside. As soon as I opened the box, madison helped himself to the little mouse.

Sophia got busy with one of the catnip squares then took a break on the mat.

Vedo's favorite thing by far is the felted ball. vedo is very odd in that he doesn't really like to play with toys. the only thing i've ever seen him play with longer than 5 seconds was a little candy rootbeer barrel in a wrapper. he played with that thing forever until i finally had to throw it away because the wrapper was disintigrating. however, he has been playing with the little felt ball all day. i think maybe he llikes the little bell inside.

thank you, anna!

slowly making progress

These are some baby cupcakes i made for a collegue who's last day was on friday. I used the magnolia bakery recipe for the cupcakes and frosting. I only had a recipe for the vanilla frosting, so I modified it a bit to add the chocolate. most importantly, i got a canister of four different types of sprinkles whick included dinosaur and star sprinkes as well as the standard sprinkles. i had great fun making them and a bit too much wine which resulted in a lovely evening.  my collegue was really touched, and i'm so happy to have put a smile on her face.

i had a lovely weekend visiting my mother who lives a couple of hours away. now that my mother has received her birthday present, i can show you a picture of her gift:

she'd had a smaller knitting needle roll for awhile, but she had mentioned too me she felt it was too small. this one is almost twice the size of her other one and even has room for her circular needles.

short post this evening. since i was gone all weekend, i have lots to do to prepare for the week. i'm still feeling incredibly overwhelmed right now by all the things i want to do. there just aren't enough hours.

anyway, i hope you had a lovely weekend and adjust to the time change as well as one can.

a new best friend

eric was quite pleased to see that i finally finished Optimus Square today. he wanted him to have floppy arms, so i attached them at the shoulder for good floppage. eric has been running around shaking his arms Kermit-style and giggling like a little kid. it appears he has a new best friend.

and i'm not feeling left out at all because i received a nice little package today.

a shout out to amy for introducing me to jen corace. these are both screenprinted and sold through if'n books and marks. the pink elephant journal is for eric, and the day planner/analog PDA is for me. i used this as my planner last year, and it has served me well. However, it's a new year and time for a new planner. I like the big full pages for each date. i usually have a lot to write down for each day, so this should prove to be quite helpful. plus, it doesn't hurt that it's simply gorgeous.

football and knitting, the perfect pair

I promised to post a picture yesterday, but i just didn't get around to it. it has been so dark here in seattle - we're on our 27th day in a row of rain. i  managed to get a decent shot today though, so here it is:

this is henry from jess hutch's unusual toys for you to knit and enjoy. You may notice that I made a few changes. I decided to just knit him all one color and put some bright socks on him. this was my first knitted softie, and i really enjoyed making him. because of all the projects i was working on during the holidays, i didn't have much time for knitting. this was perfect because it provides the instant gratification i so love. i'm already halfway through the robot. i let eric pick out the colors so it can be a gift for him. yesterday was our 3 year anniversary, and today is our one year engagement anniversary.

right now eric and i are planted on the sofa watching the seattle seahawks in their first playoff game since 1984. eric and i are not a football fans, and this is actually the first football game either of us has watched this year. however,  in case you don't already know,  seattle's professional teams are perennially disappointing. on the rare occasion any of them get into a playoff situation, they choke, so when they actually do well,  it seems like the entire city becomes invested in the team. yeah, i'm a fair-weathered fan, but what better time to watch football than during the playoffs? plus, i wonder how many other women out there are watching football while knitting a robot. i'd have to bet there aren't many.

Getting my knit(ting needles) together

One of the reasons I started this blog was to motivate myself to get some projects finished that have been lingering in my craft room for far too long. A prime example is a knitting needle case. I bought some Amy Butler fabric nearly two years ago that I have been saving for just such a thing, but I just haven't managed to get to it.

Well, I finally did it yesterday. Here are some pictures:

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out and to finally have a place to organize my knitting needles. Prior to this, I just had some of them crammed into a plastic bag and others in my knitting basket. It's nice to have one organized place to look.