A Little Something to Give You Hope

That someday, spring will come! Look! There's grass out there, and Love in a Mist in the middle ground. And peonies and sunshine. Someday, people, we will see more green than white, the ground will not try to so hard to make us fall on our butts, and sunshine will once again have an impact on temperature.

Bees will bumble.

Flowers will nod their pretty heads in the breeze.

And we can all - finally - give a big sigh of relief!

I don't know about you, but this winter is truly getting to me. I'm really hanging on for dear life here, and seriously thinking about moving to somewhere more equatorial. Looking at these old garden pictures actually helped some. I hope they brightened your day a little, too.

Roll 'Em Up!

I've finally finished this thing! I sewed the dang thing together right after Christmas, then just kept putting off figuring out the closure. Nestled inside is my complete set of double pointed knitting needles, from 1-13. An excellent gift. Look at them, all snuggled up in there, waiting to be called into action!

I tell ya, it's a pretty nice feeling knowing I'll always have the right size dpn's around when I need them. I think this will eliminate a lot of under the breath cursing involved in my knitting projects. Well, maybe some of the not-quite under the breath stuff as well.

The other great thing about this little roll up, was I figured it out on my very own! I'd sewn a big needle case several years ago - the one in the first Stitch 'n Bitch book. Well, over the years the cat has used it for a bed, and a place to leave hair balls, so it needs retiring. Because I'm, at times, pretty shiftless, it's still hanging around in the basement, so I was able to use it as a reference for my snazzy new roll up.

One of the changes I made was instead of one long ribbon for a tie-up, I made a band, with snap closure. The reason I always left the original laying around open for the cat to hork on, was I hate tying that stupid ribbon. With this closure, it only wraps around once, then snaps closed. Way less work involved (yes, I'm that lazy). Hooray for mechanical closures! ( I won't mention how many tries it took for me to sew the male and female ends of the snap the right sides up. Sigh.)

And I trotted out those needles for a project, this very weekend. A little gift for a new baby. I'll share pics just as soon as it's been bestowed!

10 Things...

I was tagged by Cheryl, earlier this week, for a "10 things that make you happy" list, and I'm finally following through! 

1.  My husband.  When I'm with him, I'm content in a way like no other.  When he's not around, I'm waiting for the moment he's back.

2.  My family.  Mom, Dad, sisters, nieces, cousins, aunt, in-laws.  A family feels like a solar system - everyone's orbiting around each other, tying eachother together, influencing and being influenced.  I'm so grateful they're there.

3.  Old things.  I just love old stuff.  I love that it's survived through a culture that is every more disposable.  I love that it ties us to people who are long gone, and makes them feel real.

4.  Oh, bread!  I don't know if it's a primitive survival thing, or just a carbohydrate thing, but warm, homemade bread with butter is the absolute answer to practically any hunger I have.

5.  Books.  Reading is like breathing to me.  It sustains me, and when I don't do it I feel a little blue and light headed. :)

6.  Being occupied.  Sometimes it's challenging to me to just sit still and not do anything.  It makes me happy to be knitting, sewing, spinning, embroidering - whatever.  My fingers don't like to just hang around, doing nothing.

7.  Flowers and other growing things.  I love my yard and garden.  I don't mind the work, but really it's the result that satisfies me.  It's not a perfect garden, but it's mine, and I love the wonderful things that grow from it.

8.  Being warm!  On a snow storm day like this, I'm fantasizing about saunas, or baking in the sun on a beach.  Hell, even cooking away during the summer, in the back yard, reading on the swing sounds fantastic!  My body was made to live somewhere warm, and it's going to pain me until I take it someplace that it approves of!

9.  Making things.  This sort of falls under being occupied, but really you could be playing solitaire and be occupied.  I like to bring something new into existence.  Hopefully something beautiful or useful or delicious.

10.  Clean sheets, warm out of the drier.  That is just such happiness. Smooth, clean sheets - heaven!

Now I feel like singing "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music!  I'm about to go punch down some bread dough, so some new lyrics might have to be added. 

So - what's your happiness?

Mama Deer

Ever since I stumbled across Scherenschnitte on One Pretty Thing, I've wanted to try my hand at paper cutting.  My stumbling block was getting my mind to understand all the spacial stuff.  I'm usually pretty good at that, but for some reason it did not computer.  I finally realized that if I just traced the pattern and cut around the line, I should end up with some sort of silhouette.  I'm a genius, right?  Well, I think it was a forest for the trees thing.  Anyway, I finally managed to complete a project.  Et voila!

When I saw this pattern on Scherenschnitte I let out the softest "oooohhhh."   It's so darn lovely.  I was looking for something sweet and mama-ish to create for my expecting friend Cheryl, for a Christmas present.  I think this fit the bill pretty well.

On a white background, with white mat and frame, I'm so in love with it I want to make one for myself.  And look, here's a video tutorial that would totally have helped me figure it out!

Toasty Toes

Considering how cold and snowy it's been, it's lucky that I just completed a project that has been keeping my feet warm.  As my husband will tell you, my feet are always cold - and when I say cold, I mean make-you-scream-out-in-the-night-cold, if they should happen to touch your defenseless leg in bed.  So, when I say that my feet are actually warm right now, you should imagine a choir of angels singing in the background.

The miracle fabric to make my cold toes happy?  Wool, of course! I mean, duh, right?  I'm not talking Smart Wool socks here, I'm talking felted.  wool.  slippers.  Oh yes. 

The gorgeous pattern is from French Press Knits, and you too can purchase, download and start creating your own.  The pattern works up very quickly on size 15 needles.  You work the souls, sides, then straps, sew your slipper together, then felt.  Here is the giant clown-slipper that results, pre-felting.

And, brought to you by the miracle of hot water - here is what they look like now! 

And here is what my feet look like:

They look happy, right?  It's cause they're so, so warm. 

This was a highly gratifying project.  It was quick, painless and now I have custom slippers!  I was thinking about sewing some black leather onto the bottoms, but then I realized I might not be able to slide around on the floor if I did, and what's the fun in that?  They were also relatively cheap to make.  I used Pattons Classic Wool, purchased on sale at Joann's.  The resulting fabric is shockingly soft, and really traps the warmth in the way a wool sock never can.  Add in a regular old sock, and you're cooking with Crisco people. 

I never thought I'd get into felting, but now that I've started, I'm not sure I can stop.  Hopefully there's a support group out there somewhere...

Holy Monkeys It's Cold!

I love having time off from work, don't you?  I got lucky, and hit a 4 day weekend this New Year's, so when I woke up today I actually had a little creative energy, instead of just the soul crushing have-to-clean-this-dirty-dirty-house depression.  You know that feeling, right? 

Well today, there was a new dusting of snow on the ground, so I grabbed my camera and wandered outside to snap a few shots of pretty winter things.  I wish it were easier to take pictures in blinding sunlight - all that light makes is really hard to actually see, well, anything.  Not to mention how it's pretty chilly out lately.  Anyway, here are a few I think are nice.

A sunflower, hanging on.  I love how stark and sharp this one turned out.  Very Wyeth-y

Our pea trellis.  I like the texture.

Cabbages, also holding on, as they do.  They actually look like tiny palm trees, which makes me sigh.

At least it looks warm!  I always chuck pumpkins out into the garden.  This one wasn't carved, so it's in pretty good shape.  The way the color is changing is pretty cool.

Brrr!  So, to combat all this chilliness, I'm off to go make bread!  Hope you all are staying nice and toasty.

What? I have a blog?!

Yeah, so I guess things have either been busy...or I've been lazy.  Clearly, posting has dropped to the wayside over the holiday season, but with the New Year I'm back, reenergized and ready to start working on this thing again!

I've actually been working away on a few things the past couple of months, Christmas presents and what not.  I've gotten into felting - it was only a matter of time, what with the knitting and spinning and all.  Also, I've finally gotten my mind around the paper cutting pattern thing, so hopefully I'll be sharing some projects soon.  My Christmas presents were pretty exciting this year: photoEZ screen printing set up (yeeee, I'm so excited!), and the most complete canning supply situation a person could ask for.  Seriously.  I know own 3 - count em, 3 - canners, one of which is pressure! 

So, stay tuned.  I'm sure there will be some trials, tribulations and hopefully some successes to share! 

And a Happy New Year to everyone!