Happy New Year!!!

I'm not one for keeping resolutions. In fact, I'm terrible at it. That is the reason why I don't make them. But this year is different. 2012. This year has a lot of pressure with it. I don't exactly think that this is the last year of civilization, but I'm not ruling it out either! Maybe it's not such a bad thing to go through this year thinking it could be the last. Maybe this is the weird push I need to get me through some goals.

Goals. I think I like that better than resolutions. Goals make it seem more reachable and doesn't carry that guilt if I don't accomplish every single one. So here it is in no particular order, yarn related and some unrelated:

Goals I Wish To Accomplish In 2012

• Learn to drive. At 28 years old I think I've put this on the back burner for way to long. Every year that passes makes driving seem more scary. This goal however will have to wait for warmer weather. I'm thinking spring time.
• Organize my crafty corner. Since we are rearranging our apartment for he hundredth time, my corner is a mess. While I'm working on this one I need to also work on the next goal.
• Assign projects and patterns for at least 5 different yarns. I have so much yarn that is desperate to be knit and so many books with patterns begging to be used!
• Finally knit a sweater! I've come close in the past. I had a great cardigan all knit up a year ago but when I got to the sewing part I suddenly didn't feel so pleased with it. Maybe it's because my sewing skills are poor. I think to avoid this I have to go the top down route.
• Knit a baby blanket.  More on that in a later post.  
• Cross stitch or embroider the family tree for my Dad.  I have a few different ideas in mind.  I just have pick one and start!
• Knit at least 2 pairs of socks.  I have a small stash of sock yarn and it's time to make use of it.
• Knit up a new pair of glove/mittens.  This might have to be my next project considering it's 17 degrees outside!  The mitten tops on my last pair doesn't fold over my hand right.  It leaves the top of my palms chilly.  I think I'll make a chunky pair.

So far that's it on my list.  Looks doable right?  We'll see.  I'll be updating and adding more as I go.  Check it out at the top of my page.  Maybe I can cross off a few this month.  2011 went by insanely fast so I will not be sleeping on 2012!  It'll be December again in a flash!

Any crafty goals for you this year?  Please share!  Maybe it'll give me some ideas to add to my own.

Check and Check.

I've done it!  I've finally done it!  I've finally blocked my Triangle Lace Shawl. I know I posted pictures of the shawl before but, little did you know, it was an unblocked abomination!  So I used my make shift blocking wires that I totally McGyvered and BLAMO!  I got me a perty blocked shawl!

I really need to start taking proper photos.  Like of me wearing the darn thing.  Next time.  I just want to add that plastic T-Pins are totally a waste of space in this universe.  Why are they made?  They're too thick and dull to actually penetrate through a blocking mat or even a towel!  Good thing I bought those metal ones on my last trip to Michaels.  Sharp and pointy.  Oh, and those blocking wires I crafted?  Yeah, they turned out ok.  It's surprisingly hard to get them completely straight.  And my yoga mat was a great idea except it wasn't big enough.  I pinned the bottom half into the rug through a towel.  Next comes my Jared Flood Rock Island Shawl.  I better start clearing out the room for that one.  It is BIG!

My socks are almost done!  Well, they're actually sock liners for my rain boots.  My tootsies were a little cold last winter so I decided to knit up some woolly ones this year.  I'm using Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool.  They're kind of chunky but my boots are roomy so it should work out.  Since I'm so painfully close to being done with them, I thought I'd spare you the in-progress pictures.  In fact, I think I'll go finish them right now.  Good day to you.  .................I said GOOD DAY!



No really.  Enjoy the day.  Eat some homemade cookies.  Tis the season for yummy baked goods!

Broken Bones and McGyver Ideas

Oh lordy am I behind!  I don't know where November went but it's gone!  I love this time of year and I hate this time of year.  Obviously the best part is the holiday celebrations and great food with people that you hopefully get along with.  The sucky part is all the holiday pressure weighing on your back and days going by in a blink.  Not to mention your accident-prone mother falling off a ladder while trying to trim the apple tree with your father despite the fact that they have 3 daughters and 2 son-in-laws in the house who would jump at the opportunity to use a long branch cutter thingy.  She broke here wrist.  In three places.  And bruised her lower back.  Poor momma.  At least it was after Thanksgiving.  2 days after.  People, I am all for being independent and doing things yourself, but please be honest with yourself.  63 is not the new 20.  Now, i know 63 is not old.  It's not.  But if you have younger people close to you that you can boss around to do the job, please do so.  Sit back, sip your lemonade, and enjoy watching us do all the work.  You deserve it.  Hopefully she won't need surgery.  They popped that sucker in place and so far it's looking good, but she still has to go to a specialist to get the real deal.

Now, the exciting news!  I have an idea!  I never blocked that perty green shawl with the beadwork.  Seriously, it's been sitting on my table since the summer unblocked and yarn ends hanging all over the place.  I don't have blocking wires or a blocking mat.  I'd rather not spend the money right not either.  Then it hit!  My yoga mat that has been sitting in a corner for years!  Yes!!!  The perfect blocking mat replacement!  It's thick, water-resistant, and pretty big.  Shawl big?  We'll see.  Now for the blocking wires.  I was told a wire hanger would be too thick but it just so happens I have a ton of thin gauged wire from a jewelry tree I made my sister for Christmas a few years ago.  It might do the trick.  Wish me luck.  This might end up being a total waste of my time, or I might be the next McGyver!  Fingers crossed for McGyver!

I'm also painfully close to completing my Jared Flood Rock Island Shawl.  It looks so pretty!!!!!!  I have no pictures to share of the progress but really, I'm almost done with it.  Wouldn't you rather just see it finished?  I know I do.  Maybe that yoga mat will be big enough to block this baby too.  I'm really enjoying lace knitting.  I love how delicate it is and even non-knitters can appreciate the beauty and detail of it.  Have you ever knit something that you were really proud of and a non-knitter will just be like, "Oh, that's nice."  Nice??!?!?!!  THAT TOOK ME 3 WEEKS TO KNIT AND 2 FROGGINGS TO GET IT RIGHT!!!!  CAN'T YOU SEE THE BLOOD SWEAT AND TEARS IN EVERY STITCH???!?!?!  Ugh.

My next knitting project will definitely have to be socks.  I have never knit socks.  Shocker!  Actually it's not that shocking if you know me.  I've been knitting for years and I have never knit socks or finish a sweater.  i was close with the sweater.  I was all done except for the sewing.  Apparently sewing in sleeves is the bane of my existence.  Hello top down sweaters!!  I'm coming for you soon!

On a side note, is anyone watching Big Bang Theory?  I just started watching since its in syndication on TBS.  I LOVE IT!  And I'm trying to get into Dr. Who since I can stream it on Netflix.  It's growing on me.  Knitting and Netflix are like 2 peas in my pod.  I just wish their streaming library would be bigger.  I guess they do that so you are forced to spend more money on getting mailed DVDs.  I refuse.  Sadly that means no Big Bang Theory marathons since it's DVD only.  BOOOOOOO!!  But TBS runs them like 3 hours at a time so I get to have mini marathons.  Hurray!

Enough typing, more knitting!  Hope your Thanksgiving was accident free!  And thank you for all the sweet words for my doggy.  She's still hanging in there.

Hallo-weenie!

You would think since I dressed up in my costume twice last week I would have a couple of great photos of it.  Nope.  Think again.  I'm such a weenie.  The formal photo shoot is coming Monday.  I did steal this one of me off Facebook though.

Can you believe 2 people thought I was a squirrel?!?!  Hahahaha!  I really thought that was funny.  Since I'm wearing a crown I must be King of The Squirrels!  That's right.  I am royalty.  I guess it was the big fluffy tail.  Anyway, I was extremely comfortable all day and I intend on wearing this around the house during the winter (without the tail and crown, of course).  I'll gladly tell you all the details and dilemmas about the crown when I get those photos up!

Halloween was pretty good this year.  I had the day off so I really got to enjoy it.  As soon as 2 o'clock rolled around I jumped into my costume and scoured my Halloween bin for a costume to share with my Dad so we can festively hand out the candy.  My Mom wasn't feeling the spirit but she sat out for a little while too.  Here he is, in all his clown glory!

I'm sure he's thrilled that I'm sharing this photo with you!  

It was a lot of fun seeing all the kids (and adults!) dressed up.  Sadly we didn't have any candy leftover for me to enjoy but that's ok.  

On a sad note, our family dog, Samantha, is not doing so good these days.  She's a Chow/Sheppard mix and is 15 years old and has terrible arthritis and nerve damage in her spine and back legs.  She's in pain and lost all balance and depth perception.  To top that off, she fell down a flight of stairs about an hour ago.  She's ok, nothing broken.  She's on quite a bit of pain meds already so I doubt she's in much more pain than normal.  She just looked shaken up.  So here is a couple of photos of the Chewie Dog in her glory days:

Feeling lazy after a day at the groomers.  She's so saucy with her kerchief on!

Begging in the ruble that is my apartment when we first started moving in.  (It's all fixed up now, I assure you!)

Checking me out from the deck.

Sammy is a very special dog and I hope she makes it to Christmas.  She's our first puppy.  The house won't feel the same without her.  There's already a void since our first cat, Snowball, died last year.  At least we were lucky to have him for 19 years.  It's so amazing to have the love of a pet.  They add such joy to your life.  It's so heartbreaking to see them suffer.

I hope I didn't depress anyone!  It's a good thing I have my little Forest to get me through.  If you have a pet, give those fur babies a big squeeze!

I have not abandoned you!

I know.  I really should've been updating on the halloween progress.  I just slapped myself on the hand if it makes you feel better.  So here's the deal.  I got a lot done.  A hell of a lot done.  But then my sewing space was taken over with boxes and laundry and other things because the electrician needed to get into the corner of the apartment that has become my clutter kingdom to put in a new line so my parents can have an outlet near the front door so they can plug in all there twinkly lights for Christmas and other holidays.  I know.  TMI.  But I just wanted you to know that my absence was legit and not me being lazy.  Well, I am lazy, but not about halloween!!  And so, with that said, I give you MAX!!!!

Ain't it cute?  No makeup on.  Aren't I a sort for sore eyes?  So let me tell you about all the lovely snags I hit in the process of little Max here.  I read all the pattern instructions.  Very carefully.  I ironed out the pattern, cut it out, and placed it on the fleece.  At this point I was very happy and excited.  Then I had to start cutting.  Who knew that cutting through two layers of fleece would hurt so much?  My thumb was numb by the time I was done.  I ran out to Michael's and bought a rotary cutter the next day.  That trip was a nightmare, by the way.  Where is the customer service!  Nobody knows how to work anymore!  20 people on line and 0 people at the register!  Does that make sense to you?  Anyway.  Rotary Cutter.  What a God send!  Who ever invented that sharp dangerous round blade is a genius!  I cut the hood out with it and my thumb had feeling!  Hurray!

Now, on to the pinning and sewing.  Everything was looking dandy until I got to the right thigh.  The material bunched up underneath, unbeknownst to me, and it looked like caca.  Let me tell you a little something I learned about fleece.  Don't mess up!  YOU try finding the thread with the ripper without putting a big hole in it!  I dare you! So I tried the whole costume on to see if it was really that noticeable and it wasn't.   It looked great...... except it was GINORMOUS!! Maybe a size M wasn't a good choice.  The crotch was down to my knees.  I got back to the sewing machine and slimmed that puppy down!  A lot.  Great!  It's looking good now.  I sewed on the hood and collar and squealed with joy.  Then came the snaps.  It was tough getting through all that fleece so I cut a tiny hole to push the pointy little snap thingy through.  Bad idea.  I tried to unsnap them and one of the snaps went right through the fleece!  NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Now I have a great big hole.  And then 2 more snaps came through!  More holes!!  I'm thinking I might switch the snaps out for buttons.  No major decisions have been made.  I guess I can reinforce where the snaps will be and try again.  My biggest fear is that the snaps will come through during one of the many pee breaks I take at work.  I have to take off the costume to tinkle!  There's no way around it!  I better do some test runs before the big day.

So I'm almost done.  The finishing touches shouldn't take very long.  I have the ears and tail left and hemming the legs and sleeves.  In the movie it looks like Max has fingerless glove mitts attached to the sleeve but I need to have my hands free for work.  Maybe I'll try making ones separate so I can use them outside of work.

All in all, this was a fun learning experience.  No emotional or physical scars were made so you may see more sewing out of me in the future.  How are your costumes going?  Did you start yet?  Well, what are you waiting for?  Start sewing!!

The Learning Process...

Oh, boy.  What have I gotten myself  into?  Did I mention I am a total novice at sewing?  I am taking on a rather large project for Halloween.  Max from Where The Wild Things Are. 

Well, the pattern and fabric has been delivered.  I'm using Kwik Sew pattern #3712, 5 yards of oatmeal colored fleece, and  1 yard of long brown faux fur.  I still have to get color coordinated snaps but that can wait a little bit.  Looking at this giant pile of fleece makes me nervous.  What if I mess up?  Make a bad cut? I'm dreading setting in the sleeve.  It's very intimidating.  I want to run to my mommy and make her walk me through every snip of the fabric but I am determined to do this on my own.  Now, that's not to say I won't ask for advice.  That's totally acceptable.  I got to pick my sister's brain today and skim through a sewing book I had.  Good thing too, because I was going to take a nose dive into the pile and start cutting away.  Apparently, it is a good idea to wash the fabric before breaking out the shears and iron the pattern paper to get out the creases.  Really?  Why didn't I think of that?  Duh!  See?  I am totally going to mess this up, just like those shrunken curtains hanging in my windows!  I am not the smart person who reads instructions before jumping in to something.  I am the person who has no patience and just wants to get her hands dirty and hope for the best.  Bad, bad, bad.  Well, it's time to change that.  Fleece has been washed and is currently in the dryer.  I'm going to make little check lists of all the supplies I still need and things I need to adjust in the pattern to make it my own.  Who knows?  This could be the start of a beautifully sewed wardrobe.

Wish me luck!  I'm going to need it!

Let The Wild Rumpus Start!

Halloween is around the corner, people!  Have you got your costume planned?  I do!  It took me a while to come up with something.  I toyed with the idea of Rainbow Brite, but that would would require a wig.  I've done the wig thing.  No good.  It's hot, uncomfortable, and it hurts.  I had the biggest bumps on my head after wearing my Slash wig and hat.  My hair is currently short.  I had this predicament last year as well.  My short hair, last year, was the perfect excuse to bleach it platinum and dress up as Link from The Legend of Zelda.  Done.  Now what?  This year my hair is still short.  It's also dark brown and bright red (or hot pink depending on the day of the week, thank you Manic Panic!).  What's a girl to do?  hmmm........  Be a boy!  Not just any boy!  MAX!  From Where The Wild Things Are!!  Good thinking there, Ace.  Yes, that's right.  I am officially in planning of Max.

I just purchased a footie pajama pattern along with 5 yards of fleece and 1 yard of faux fur.  So now all I can do is go to the front door, peak out the mail slot, and wait patiently for the mailman to arrive.  I'm very excited.  I must admit, however, I am not a spectacular sewer.  (Why is sewer spelt the same as the place where my poo goes?  Ew.)  Sew-er.  My mom walked me through my Link costume last year.  Every time she would walk away from me while I was cutting or sewing I would have a mini panic attack and whine like a 3 year old for her mommy.  Well, this year it's all me.  Wish me luck.  I'm gonna need it.  Big time.
Here is a list of costumes from the last 8 years (all hand-made or styled by me with help from mom):

• Cheshire Cat  from Alice in Wonderland 2003
• Slash from Guns n' Roses 2004
• Fairy 2005
• Alice from Alice in Wonderland 2006
• Zombie 2007
• Clown 2008
• Medusa 2009
• Link from The Legend of Zelda 2010

What are you dressing up as?  Share with the class!

Panic And The Clean.

I haven't finished anything just yet.  You would think with all that free time during hurricane Irene I would've gotten more things done.  Truth be told, I almost crapped my pants out of nervousness.  I couldn't sit down and knit!  I had to clean!  Clean, you ask?  Yes, clean!  Apparently, when I'm terrified I need to scrub pots and pans and a dirty toilet!  It must be clean for Irene's arrival!  New York shuts down and I get the urge to dust and organize.  I made my Go Bags and folded laundry all while watching the Weather Channel for hours and hours.  Thankfully, we had zero damage.  The lights stayed on and there was no flooding in my basement apartment.  We did lose a bunch of apples off our apple tree in the yard, but they're rotten anyhow.  Considering how devastating Irene was for others like in New Jersey and Vermont, I am a very lucky little lady.  And I got a clean apartment out of it!
So here are some things that are in the works:

This is the Jared Flood Rock Island Shawl that I restarted.  The first attempt was an epic fail.  Weird mistakes that I some how made.  So I ripped out that sucker and started fresh!

In all its newborn glory!

Uh oh!  Forest found it!

Oooohhhh.........  This yarn is so soft......

Next up, embroidery!  I drew out this little tree flailing in the winds (of hurricane Irene maybe?).  I chose this blue material with little stars adorning it from my mom's stash.  I'm only using black DMC floss so it's more of a silhouette.

Starry Night.

I hope everyone else is ok on the East Coast!  Does anyone else clean out of nervousness or am I the lone weirdo?  Happy Stitching!!

I Declare This Day CUPCAKE DAY!!!

This Labor Day weekend turned out to be a lot of fun.  With back to school inching closer, my husband and I thought it would be nice to have his 7 year old (soon to be 8!) niece, Joli, over for the day.  We declared it CUPCAKE DAY!!  Devil's food cake and a whole bag of dark chocolate chips!  Yummers!  Joli requested that we draw out the designs for the cupcake decorating on paper first, so I broke out the crayons.  The icing colors of choice were red, orange, yellow, blue, pink, and purple.

Icing colors selected.

Joli's designs.

My Designs

Decisions made!  Now the real fun begins!  With so many cupcakes, we must have been sitting there for at least an hour icing away!  Of course, most of those cupcakes went home with Joli or I would've surely been in a sugar-induced coma and wouldn't have been able to share these treats with you.

Joli piping away.

Cupcakes complete!

Mini cupcakes.

That yellow one with the brown squiggle is a mustache.

A red bow tie for Pee Wee fans and a HP for Potter fans!

Joli's special mini cake.

More goodies.

So many cupcakes!!!

My hubby's sports-related designs.

Don't you just love cupcakes?  The chips give them bursts of dark chocolate in every bite.  The icing was fun but I actually prefer whip cream.  Our niece has already put in requests for the next fun-filled day.  We are to make chocolate covered strawberries and bananas.  Yum!

Hope everyone's Labor Day weekend was fun!  And for those of you who don't celebrate that holiday, I hope you had a fun weekend anyway!

New Look!

New bloggy header!!  Hurray!  I stitched up this cutie with a yarn appetite just for this very blog you read.  I'm not 100% on it as the header but I like it enough to keep it for awhile.  By the way, this is the surprise project I finished.  SURPRISE!  

The Work in Progress currently is Jared Flood's Rock Island Shawl.  It's so beautiful and perty and special.  I'm using the recommended Lorna's Lace in Grand Street Ink.  Perfection.   I started the border and finished 14 repeats, but I feel a rip coming on.  Mistakes were made.  Mistakes that I didn't even notice until a friend pointed them out and now it's all I can see!  Every time I close my eyes all I see is mistakes!  (I've just written mistakes so many times that that doesn't look correct to me either!  Mistakes!!!!)  Yes, I think I will rip it out and start again.  Plus I lost my place in the pattern because I was too distracted at work in the lunch room.  Booooo.  I'm very easily distracted.  This project will definitely be a home-only piece.  So now what do I bring to work?  I haven't thought that far yet, but I'll keep you posted.

I just want to share this new little obsession of mine now.  It's a mac app called ExpoBoard.  Basically it's a bulletin board where you can pin post-it notes and pictures on it.  This is perfect for a visually motivated person like myself.  I've made multiple inspiration boards for knitting, embroidery, halloween costumes, etc.  Awesomeness!  I'm guessing it's just for macs but I could be wrong.  I didn't exactly look into that since I am a mac addict.  They have a lite version for free if you want to try it out.  Find it in the App Store.  Go.   Go now.  No, wait!!!!  You have to finish my bloggy first.  Go after.

No, actually, go now.  We're done here.  See you on the flip side!  (What ever that means.)

P.S.  What are you're favorite apps and programs for crafting?  Do tell!

D'OH moment.

No, this is not an Oprah A-HA moment.  This is a straight up Homer Simpson D'OH moment.  Awhile back I wrote about my new adventures in cross stitching with a creepy zombie hand.

This guy, right here.

Well, I thought everything was going fine until I was having trouble bringing my needle through occupied holes.  I thought to myself, "Could it be maybe I'm so incredibly weak that I can't push a needle through a tiny hole?"  No, this could not be.  So I skimmed the first few pages in the little instruction book that came in the kit and low and behold, my answer.  Apparently I must not have been paying attention to the basic cross stitching instructions before starting this project because I was unaware that you do not use all 6 strands of the floss, but use only 2 or 3 strands!!  Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!  That's why my stitches are chunky monkeys!  Great.  Project spoiled.  I was so upset with myself for being such an impatient little bugger that skips important instructions, that I threw the whole damn thing out.  Arg.  Not to worry, my cross stitching friends!  I have not given up on stitching all together.  Just on this one.  Lesson learned, I hope.

So the moral of the story is ALWAYS READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!!!

In my next post I promise to show you what I'm working on now.  I'll also show a secret project that I just finished and can't wait to show it off!  I better go charge that camera battery!

Good night fellow crafters!

Done and Done!

Hurray!  I finished my first embroidery project!  Not to toot my own horn, but it came out pretty good.

Hey baby!

Yummy.

Puffy eye balls.

After finishing filling in the needles and eyes and nose, I felt it still looked a bit empty though.  So I filled in the skull.  And what was I going to do with this bad guy anyway?  I stitched it on the corner of the white material so I felt like my only option was to turn it into a patch.  So I cut him out.  Then what?  I made a draw string project bag out of green material my sister didn't want anymore.

So here is his debut!

I have a cool pocket inside too!

Handsome, ain't he?

Crooked needles.

Not too shabby!

I was very surprised at how quickly filling in the skull went.  I really thought it was going to be a big ordeal.
Through out this piece something was bothering me about this skull boy.  And then I saw it.  One cheekbone is higher than the other, the nose is too far to the left, and one eye is bigger than the other!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I redrew him and he's ready to be stitched again.  Crooked guy was given to my friend (who I knew would appreciate it).  And now I have time to finish that navy grocery bag!  Hurrah!

Projects up the wazoo!!

So the bad news is it's been slow at work.  Summers are always like that.  The good news is MORE TIME FOR EMBROIDERY AND KNITTING!!!!!!!!!!  That's right!  Why waste the day away reading the same magazines over and over again when I can stitch the day away?  Yes, I do get funny looks at work sometimes when I whip out my latest project in the lunch room, but I think they're getting used to the idea that some people out there in this big wide world actually like to fill there time with creating awesome stuff by hand.  


One of the WIPs I have going is the Ilene Bag by Hannah Ingalls of  I Knit You Not  blog.  I believe it is a free pdf pattern so check it out!  

Just the handle is left!

It's a great bag for grocery shopping or anything else you need to tote around.  It's super stretchy and can fill a lot of items in it.  The instructions are easy to follow and it's a fast knit.  I used Lily Sugar n Cream cotton yarn in Bright Navy.  3 balls is more than enough.  

Super Stretchy Mesh.

I made one for myself in pink egyptian cotton and another for Sister S (middle sister) in lime green.  This navy beauty is for Sister W (oldest sister).  The great thing about this bag also is that there is no blocking required!  Hurray!  I hate blocking.  That's part of the reason why my finished shawl is still scrunched up on my desk.

The second WIP is this friendly little skull, displayed below, I drew and stitched up.  I'm in the process of filling in the yarn and still have the needles, eyes and nose to do.

He prefers eating yarn rather than human souls

I have a few drawings that I specifically drew up to embroider.  If I get my act together I would love to sell some of these babies as pdf embroidery designs.  I have to figure out all the things involved with that first.  I have an Etsy page but sadly no shop.  One day it will be filled with goodies, but I just don't know when.  Stay tuned!


Remember I mentioned I wanted to embroider a family tree for my dad as a belated present?  Well, I took the first step!  Finally!  I asked him to print up the names that he wanted represented and the genealogy program that he uses put it in a tree-like format for me!  

This saves my brain from trying to think of the proper layout.  It will definitely be a big and lengthy project to accomplish, but it will be much loved when it is finished.

The next post the bag will be done and hopefully the skull will too.  Now I must leave you so that I can make dinner and fill my belly with delicious salad filled with grilled chicken and eggplant and yummy ripe tomatoes from the garden.  Good day to you!

My brain itches.....

There is not enough time in the day.

*Correction:  I waste the day away until there is a few hours left before bed and then I get bombarded with all these creative ideas but can't do any of them because my eye lids are weighing heavier and heavier with each passing minute.

Why does this always happen?  I blame it on the heat of a New York summer.  Icky.  Autumn!  Where are you, my friend?  I need the cool crisp air of the Fall to wake me up.  Coffee isn't doing it for me lately.  I should've taken pictures of my newly finished (but not blocked) shawl and the start of the mesh cotton grocery bag I'm knitting for my sister.  The dishes are forever piling up in the sink and the mountain of laundry is waiting to be ironed.

So let me share with you some of these ideas that are itching my wrinkly little brain.  Father's Day and my dad's birthday came and went and I, the wonderful daughter that I am, got him nothing!  Not purposely though.  I had this idea a while ago to make a family tree embroidery for him.  He is a genealogy nut.  He spends his free time searching old census reports and such, hoping to find another leaf on the tree.  I haven't designed it yet but the idea is there.  I ran it by him already and he seemed enthused.

Today's brain fart of an idea is holiday banners.  I want to make banners for each holiday to hang in my apartment and incorporate my new love of embroidery and cross stitch in to it.  That sounds fun, right?  I would love to make most of my holiday gifts this year too.  Now, I know that a lot of people don't appreciate thoughtful homemade things and thinks they are getting screwed out of a real gift because I didn't shell out major bucks for them.  So, with that said, I need to pick and choose my projects wisely for just those select few who thinks that handmade is the cat's pajamas.  I know, it's only July!  But handmade takes a lot of time and it's never too early to start planning.  I did embroider a tank top for my sister's birthday two weeks ago.  She's obsessed with all things bunny so I embroidered a little purple rabbit in satin stitch on the upper left corner of the tank.  It was my first time stitching on jersey material and I think I did pretty well.  I'll be sure to post pictures soon (as soon as she digs it out of her laundry).

So now it's bedtime.  At least I was able to dish out this little post before I get some shut eye.  Sweet dreams bloggy world!  May you dream of knitting scarves and mittens on a cool October day with a hot chocolate resting on a table next to you.  Well, that's what I'll be dreaming of.

At The Zoo

I took a crafty vacation this week and spent it at The Bronx Zoo!  Here's some fun pictures of the friends I made there: