Feliz Navidad

Favorite Fall Delivery

It's the most wonderful time of the year--new planner time!  The pretty box from Erin Condren arrived on my doorstep earlier this week, and I was super-excited that it showed up a few days early.  She added a new feature to her planners this year--interchangeable covers--and when I ordered last month, there was a promo to get an extra cover for free.  Don't you just love the happiness quote?  I chose the charcoal/pool color combination because I thought it would be a nice contrast, and it turned out great!  My planner also came with a pull-out perpetual calendar for annual events like birthdays and anniversaries, which was a nice surprise.

Instead of my usual month-by-month planner, I decided it was finally time to upgrade to the Life Planner for 2015.  With the same monthly planner style I'm used to and the addition of a detailed weekly planner, I hope to be able to better keep track of me, my husband, my Tastefully Simple business, and substitute teacher jobs!

Skeeter Yarn

I call this particular color variation of Sugar 'n Cream "Kitty Cat."  I think it will make nice dishcloths...

Positivity Challenge: Day 5

It's the final day of the Positivity Challenge (well, technically it was yesterday, but I forgot to post), and today I'm grateful for:

1. Technology that allows me to stay connected to friends and family by just swiping the tip of my finger across a tiny screen...
2. A written budget--as hard as it was to get started, it brings such a sense of accomplishment when we stick to it and have money left to save at the end of the month
3. I am now on the substitute teacher list for a private school right around the corner!

Positivity Challenge: Day 4

Oops, I appear to have skipped a day!  I'll pick up where I left off with day 4, so here are my three positives for today:

1. Making new friends with the Jamberry Nails ladies at the consignment sale I'm working through next Thursday.  They kept me awake during a slow afternoon!
2. Mid-afternoon naps.  They are awesome.
3. A few hours relaxing on the dock at Lake Lanier with my husband, my sister, and my brother-in-law.  We saw lots of fish and a few ducks.

Positivity Challenge: Day 3

For the third day of the Positivity Challenge, and my 3 positives for the day are:

1. Love and support from friends and family
2. An upcoming beach vacation to look forward to!
3. Getting my crafty time in with both the library stitch group and the IHOP stitch group in the same day

My current cross stitch project and another knit dishcloth

Positivity Challenge: Day 2

It's day two of the Positivity Challenge, and today my 3 positive incidents are:

1. Free yoga classes through our medical insurance
2. A job interview (more to come on that later...)
3. Lunch date with my wonderful husband

Positivity Challenge: Day 1

I accept the Positivity Challenge from my mother! The challenge is to write 3 positive incidents a day for 5 days and to challenge 3 people to do the same.

1. My Tastefully Simple business with its awesome food and flexible schedule
2. Dave's job, which he enjoys (even if he doesn't like getting up in the morning)
3. Our home--while we don't own it, it's a lot more than some families have

I challenge Heather, Kristine, and Allison... how about some blog posts? ;-)

My furry office assistant

Small Project Progress

My Christmas cross stitch project is coming along nicely, albeit slowly compared to my stitching friends.  I'm also working on a knit baby set, which I'll photograph when it's done.  Speaking of done, I can't believe I forgot to post my little bunny boy cross stitch when I finished him in April!

The mouse now has a birdie friend

Finished the week after Easter... guess he's ready for next year!

New Project

I started a new cross stitch pattern at IHOP stitch night this past week. I haven't been doing much knitting or stitching lately, so it was good to pick up a small project again! 

More Girly Knits

A few days ago, I finished a pink scarf for the young lady I'm sponsoring for her Confirmation tomorrow night.  It's her favorite color, and I wanted her to have something pretty and useful that would also remind her of the past six months we've been meeting with the RCIA group to prepare for the Easter Vigil mass tomorrow night.  The scarf turned out so nicely and I had so much fun with the checkerboard pattern that I went out and bought a skein of the same yarn in a dark grey to make one for myself for next winter!

Checkerboard Scarf in Lion Brand: Heartland "Denali"

Today I donated some Tastefully Simple items and a knit baby set for an Easter auction to benefit families of children battling cancer.  I knit the set a while ago, but it hadn't found a home yet.  It made my day when the lady collecting the donations told me it was gorgeous and I could charge at least $25 if I sold it on Etsy!

Bib and Burp Cloth set in Sugar 'n Cream "Pretty Pastels Ombre"

Girly Knits

Another bib and burp cloth set made it through snail mail to baby Aaleayah, so I can finally post a picture.  Big sister Faith had a star button on her knit set, too!

Bib and burpcloth set in Sugar 'n Cream "Camo Pink"

It took me way too long to knit my second commissioned piece for the same daughter of a former co-worker who received a fuzzy purple scarf in January.  She chose a Quick & Easy Knitted Infinity Scarf pattern I found online, but in a different color yarn.  It was a fun pattern to knit, and I learned how to join my yarn with a double knot since it was too bulky to knit two strands together.  Skeeter was rather fond of this yarn, so I may have to make another one...

Infinity Scarf made with Yarn Bee's Debut yarn in "Rose Petal"

Lent

Source: On the Way Home Blog

Lent started over a week ago on Ash Wednesday.  Check out this great video that explains Ash Wednesday and Lent in two minutes if you're not sure what it's all about or would like a quick reminder.

I usually get out my small pile of Easter decorations some time during this period, but this year I remembered something I found on Pinterest (above) that was a better fit for this more somber season.  Inspired by this pin and decorations I've seen online and in church, I pulled out my large vase, dug out my purple candles from my Advent wreath, found a twig outside, and purchased a bag of river rocks at the dollar store.  Here's the final product, and I only spent a buck on it.

I hope you have a very blessed Lent!

Recent Knit Gifts

I missed my friend's baby shower at the beginning of February and didn't want to post the knit set for Baby Nathaniel until I had gifted it.  His parents are both teachers, so the school bus button is adorably appropriate.

Bib and burpcloth set in Sugar 'n Cream "Aquarius Ombre"

The dishcloths were my project during the Olympics.  My buddy Kristine had been not so subtly hinting that she wanted dishcloths, she wanted them bigger than the ones I normally make, and she wanted them to be white. So I cast on 50 stitches (instead of my normal 40) in the closest-to-white cotton yarn I owned, and I knit a pair of box stitch dishcloths for her. Maybe now she'll stop bothering me about the scarf and the hat she wants me to knit...

Large dishcloths in Sugar 'n Cream "Summer Prints"

Finished and gifted to Kristine at IHOP stitch night!

February's Finished Project

Thanks to Pinterest, I was dead-set on sewing some tiny teabags for my niece's 3rd birthday as soon as I saw the tea set on her wish list. Unfortunately, one of my two favorite Pinspirations was in French, and the other had no pattern. With the help of Crafty Mommy, I spent an afternoon making disgruntled noises at a sewing machine and bonding with a seam ripper. But finally, I had four cute little teabags to go with her cute little tea set and a new book, Bunnies for Tea!

Source #1

Source #2

Trial and error all the way through...

I think she likes it!

Between the rainbow tutu and the rainbow cake,
I think my sister-in-law gets the Pin-Win award this time!

Postage Increase

Due to postage going up again after this weekend, I motivated myself to get a few knit projects finished, washed, and mailed this week!

The scarf was a lot of fun since I've been in a scarf mood lately.  The co-worker in charge of the office's sponsored family for Christmas loved the scarves I made for the family and asked if I could make one for her daughter in dark purple.  It's my first "commissioned" piece, and her daughter has already asked for an infinity scarf in hot pink!  Maybe now is a good time to revisit the idea of starting my own Etsy shop since the temp job ended January 16th...

A friend and a cousin both had baby boys two weeks ago, and on the second knit set, I tried a new bib strap based on this bib I found on Pinterest.  I think I may like knitting the single-strap bib even more than the original pattern I've been knitting for 5+ years that came out of Mason-Dixon Knitting.

Yarn Bee: Haute Fur in "Vineyard" knit together with
Red Heart: Multicolor in "Plum Pudding"

Lily: Sugar 'n Cream in "Hippi Ombre"
for baby Cooper with a double-strap bib

Lily: Sugar 'n Cream in "Tie Dye Stripes"
for baby Simon with a single-strap bib

Tea Station

It's so nice to have my computer back!  The power supply died earlier in the week, and I've had five days to experience how a smartphone is not a good substitute for a good old-fashioned desktop.  Thank you to my BIL for helping Dave get it back up and running!  While the computer has been out of commission, I received a belated Christmas present from my best friend in California.  Pretty awesome for her first counted cross stitch project, don't you think?  I know exactly where I'm going to hang it, but the problem is, we don't have that space in our current living accommodations.

I found this image of a coffee station on Pinterest a while ago and decided we would make space for a tea station in our next house.  Instead of a Keurig, we'll have our electric kettle, and all of those baskets will be filled with tea.  Heather's cross stitch definitely fits in with this plan--picture it on the top shelf with several of our fancy bed & breakfast mugs!

Original Source: For the Love of Coffee

New Year, Old Projects

I finished weaving in ends on my stack of "to finish" knits at IHOP last Thursday.  I had one last bib, two burpcloths, and a dishrag made of these same pink and pastel remnants (not pictured because I then gave it to one of my fellow stitchers to take home and use).  Now I need to sew buttons onto all of the bibs, but that's something to procrastinate another day.  I actually worked on some cross stitch when I was done with the knits.  The bunny project I started four or five months ago would have been done already if I didn't put it down for several months between stitching sessions... but such is my habit.  Maybe he'll be done in time for Easter since it falls so late this year!

End of the Season

So I didn't blog for the last two weeks of the Bears 2013 season.  I'll blame it on two painful losses that ended their season without a ticket to the playoffs.

Between the holidays and two weeks not spent at Bobby's knitting during the Bears game, I didn't knit much.  However, I did weave in the ends of a nice stack of projects knit during football season.  As soon as the bibs are finished with buttons sewn on, and both bib and burpcloth are washed, I'll post final pictures.  In the meantime, here's the stack of completions from last Saturday's stitch group meeting!