Sneak Peak: Look What I Learned!


I picked up this cute kit (along with 4 others similar to it) at my local Salvation Army for $2!  I was driving my gentleman around for the day (a side-job I do weekly) and had nothing else in my bag-of-tricks-of-a-purse so I set to reading the instructions & organizing the yarn.  

Well, I accomplished all that so quickly, I ended up starting the pattern.


My french knots (the orange filling in the roof) aren't very good - these are my first attempts.


The pattern reads "A home should be clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy."  I don't know how much I agree with the "dirty" part unless it just means "slightly cluttered" haha.

My brain has started turning a mile a minute again (oh, how I missed such unencumbered inspiration) with all the mixing of embroidery and knitting it can think up. ....

Coffee Coffee Coffee!!

-- as excitedly chirped by Lorelei Gilmore and thus my inspiration for this Treasury! .... along with my nearly-equal enthusiasm for the drug delicacy.  :]

Starting with my *own* mug of Morning Happiness


And onward:


(More found in my etsy favorites!)


*Do you have a morning routine that you absolutely LOVE and look forward to?  I hope you'll comment about it or write a blog post & leave your link in the comments.  I'd love to read about it. :)

Rain, Rain


It's a dreary, grey day here.  And yet my muse is starting to whisper to me again.  :]  Which is helping to feel like this again


And make me miss these kind of days...


But I always hated that sticky-drying feeling afterwards.  I guess I was a weird child.

Here's hoping I get to play photographer to those 10 ear warmers & 17 magnets tonight!

It May Be Classified as an Addiction at this Point...


...my ear warmer knitting that is.

I think the discovery of Downton Abbey pushed it to an obsession.

I wonder if this show will bring some of this fashion back into style?

So elegant & graceful




Because the show is so intense and sucks you in, I have to have something in my hands to be working my excitement out but the pattern can't be anything too complex or I mess it up in all the excitement & anticipation.

Especially last night, watching the season finale!

And since the ear warmer pattern is just that well memorized for me, I am able to crank out at least one if not two ear warmers per episode! [Though it is more like one and half per episode].


Yeah.... this is some of the *damage* of that.

Now if only I enjoyed sewing buttons as much (and as quickly) as I do the knitting part..... [because that is all that holds them back from the shop].

Lazy Lately

Excuse me as I've been laying low the last half of last week and this weekend.  I think all our travels with different friends every weekend for the last 4 weeks has taken its toll on my energies.

I'm happy to report it hasn't stopped my knitting much, but it has slowed down my progress on projects.

I hope you will stick around; This weekend is the first since Jan. 28th that we will be in town and I'm so excited!  You'd think we were leaving on a vacation! haha.  As always, I have way to much on my Want-To-Do List for Saturday (Sunday is our Day of Laziness & my brother's 20th birthday) plus there is a Seed Swap that I will *absolutely* be attending so we'll see how much I can squeeze in.

I promise there is a LOT of Etsy & crafting on the TOP of that list.  :]

P.S. Check out PrettyWit's adorable Valentine Note to her winning Rose Pink Ear Warmer.  I'm infatuated with her graphic art. :]


Travel Notes

I decided to start keeping track of my travel experiences as my husband and I have started traveling more in a new blog I've named, simply:


I will only be updating it after each trip we take (so I can't guarantee any regularity) with what I learned, liked, disliked, and what I would do over.

I've posted about our most recent trip to Nassau in the Bahamas & hope to post about our trip to Croatia for our honeymoon.

Just wanted to put it out there in case anyone was interested in any of the places we've been to so far.

I hope to have more posts on knitting & crocheting ready for later this week. :]  (yes, I *may* have taken 6 cotton skeins with us to Nassau....hehe).

Crochet Flowers

Happy Monday!  [This post is for Diana.]

Some inspirations....




Little Extras
'cause after making all those flowers, you need to add some details like leaves...


... & buttons!  Look at that LARGE paperclip book mark...... or maybe for holding all those pattern print outs ;-)


How about photo frames?  This would make a cute, simple collage wall with a touch of Granny/rustic chic.


and my personal favorite, hair clips....


My versions [part 2 of this post] coming soon!

*What's inspiring you today?

Treasury Feature

Whoa!  Check out what I found last night!  It's so invigoratingly unique!  I feel so energized with so many adjectives when I look at this collection.


Isn't it just the *coolest* mix of colors & textures?

When I first made the purple & orange hot mits (do you see them up there??) I thought, "I can't imagine many people liking this color combo, but it only takes one person to love them & "take" them home, I guess."  :]

Who knew someone would love them enough to make a treasury?? I feel so honored!
Thanks, Micki!

First Hot Mits in the Shop


These have been a while in the making.


I love the final product of my hot mits but they are tedious (to me) to sew the insulating denim, so they take a while to make (or for me to work up the motivation, hehe).


Thus, I'm very excited to introduce the first set for sale.  I've given many as housewarming gifts to friends & I've even made up entire towel sets (matching finger towel, dish cloths & hot mits) for some of my friends when they have moved away.


Wouldn't these make great gifts?  I promise to have many more color options in the shop soon!