Saturday

I am super excited . . . no not because it is Saturday (although, I do love Saturdays).  I finished my tea cosy!!!

I am very pleased with how it turned out!

A big huge thanks to Lollipop Knits for posting the free pattern!

I want to see if I can scale the pattern down for my mini teapot and then scale it up for my huge teapot!

So I promptly made a pot of tea (it is a little chilly here in SoCal today) and instead of using my favorite teacup I decided something a little bigger was needed. My British friends will appreciate the shout out to Cadbury’s Flake Bar!!  Love the Flake Bar (not available here in the states). (The mug actually belongs to my folks! Shout out to Mom and Dad, visiting my sister in Michigan, I am sure you are colder where you are, want some tea?)

Ok, so now that I completed that project I am free to start another.  I always have a bittersweet moment when I finish a project (big or small).  Bitter ~ little sad that it is done! Sweet ~ I get to start something new.  Not quite sure what is next.  It should be Christmas presents, but I have a feeling it won’t be. I will leave those until the last minute (like always!)

Happy Saturday!

Crafty, Crafty

So I made it through the first week of my new job! Yeah!  I really like it there and I hope to be there for a long time.  The only draw back is that it is not close to my house.  50 miles!!!!  But that is all part of living in SoCal.  Another great thing about living here is that we have access to all kinds of fabric and craft stores.  We have the usuals like Joann’s and Michael’s, but we also have wonderful little quilt stores around.  Although their fabric is pricey, they have always have super fabric.  Then you can always go downtown and get all kinds of deals. But over and above all of that is that in the OC (Orange County, where I am working) they have a great store called Tall Mouse!

This store puts all the others to shame!  This store is only 2 miles from my new job. I am in trouble!

That is all for today, my tea cosy is almost done, hopefully pics tomorrow!

Good night!!

Happy Thursday! Or Not….

I am a little down today (for to many reasons to mention), but I know that it will pass! Not in the “Commercial” Christmas Spirit.  Instead trying to focus more on the Spiritual side! I am very thankful for so many things, Christmas is a great time to remember all that we have to be thankful for and to remember those less fortunate. So rather than getting completly wrapped up (pun intended) in the Commercial side, take time out to remember the Real Reason for the Season!!

Ok, enough of my ramblings!  Here is the progress I have made on my tea cosy:

So I have both of the sides for the tea cosy done, I just need to stitch them together and make the cover for the lid.  This daily posting is motivating me!

Here is something I would really like to try:

I found it here.  I love her site, patterns and the yarns look nice.  Can’t wait to give it a whirl!

Happy Thursday!

A Fly By…

Just a super quick post tonight as I have had a rather long day. That super cute wounded kitty cat that my family and I have been babying since its “accident” must be almost fully recovered because it woke me up at 4am running up and down the stairs. I was not able to go back to sleep. Good thing it is so cute. I guess it now lives inside *sigh*

Here is what I am working on:

Here is one side of the tea cosy I am making.  I am using this pattern. Love the pattern, super easy and going fast! I am using some cheap yarn I had.  I seem to have a lot of cheap yarn laying around and I am trying to use it up.  I really want to buy some luxurious yarn and make some super cute sweater, but I need to make up a ton of what I have first or the guilt will eat me alive.

What are you working on? Would love a peek!!

Happy Wednesday!

Daily….

I started my new job today!  It went great, I love the people and the company!  I am so happy to be employed again!  Thank you God.

So I am a daily sort of person, what does that mean? It means that there are certain things that I do daily, or try really hard to do.  It explains that I love a routine. I have certain things that in my mind need to be completed daily.  I will give you some examples.

~ My dishes are always done, I really do not like to go to bed or to leave the house unless my dishes are done!

~ My bed is always made.  I love to walk into my room and see my bed all pretty and perfect.

Get the picture?  Anyway, as I was driving to work today I decided that blogging is something that I should do daily! I am even going to take it one step further and challenge myself to be creative everyday.  Now, because I am back at work I am not going to commit to a completed project every single day, but maybe at least some progress on a project.  Hmmmm…… I wonder if I can keep this up.  Well I am going to try, so here goes.

Today I actually completed a couple of things!  I made another scrubbie and 2 more dish cloths.

I realize that cream and white are probably not the best colors for dish cloths, but I am using what I have. I will just have to wash them more often.

Ok, so there is my start at DAILY!!

Good night!

Furry Friends!

Ask anyone who really knows me and they will tell you that I am not a big pet person.  That is not to say that I don’t have pets, I live with pet people.  I don’t mind the dog so much, but I have never really loved cats, no good reason why not, other than they scratch my furniture, they shed and they can be dirty.  With all that being said my husband and mother are big time cat people.  There are two cats that live in and out of my house that I tolerate.  We live on a rather large piece of property (by Southern California standards) and my husband is always rescuing the neighborhood cats.  I told him that he could have as many as he liked so long as they stayed outside or in the garage (which is not attached to the house).  Anyway, he has quite a collection of cats that he feeds and pets and generally looks out for and I have to admit some of them are quite cute.  Well there was tragedy on the ranch last night as a couple of neighborhood dogs attacked the cutest and smallest of the bunch.  We brought her inside and have been nursing her ever since.  The outside cats don’t normally get named, we call them “the grey one” or “the one with black spots”, this one now has a name.  My daughter named her Angel, and I announced that if Angel lives she could be a house cat!  Wow, I hope I don’t regret that.  I have decided after what went down last night (including my daughter’s sobbing) I would need to be nicer to these furry friends.  (Not that I am mean, just that I avoid them, they avoid me).  So in an effort to be nicer I decided to make Angel a soft bed to recuperate in.  And therefore the tutorial. I wanted it to be inexpensive and easy to throw in the wash.

I hope you enjoy and have a great day!

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow….

YESTERDAY ~  these were my best friends:

So I was feeling under the weather yesterday, like I was coming down with something, so I put into play my secret remedy! This works for me every single time!

The most important part of my secret is Zinc, whenever I feel like I am coming down with something I always take Zinc, it boosts the immune system and helps your body fight whatever is going on.  The key is that you must take it on a full stomach.

The second step is always a cup of tea. Tea cures everything, and even if it doesn’t it makes me feel good!

The third step is to relax.  For me that is a good movie and some sort of needle and yarn.

TODAY ~

So yesterday my secret remedy worked because I feel 100% better.  I did accomplish something yesterday:

I made the above scrubbie (aka Tawashi) and a dishcloth.  I made the scrubbie with acrylic yarn using this pattern, and the dishcloth was made using cotton and single crocheting in the back loops.  I used a small hook so that it came out very tight.

I gave them each a loop so that I could hang them to dry.

I have used green, non-toxic cleaners for a long time and I like the idea that I can use a dishcloth for a couple of days and then throw it in the washer and reuse it.  I have never liked sponges, they just scream germs to me. So even though I am going to move onto something more complicated in my knitting and crocheting for today I am super excited that I am going to make one for each day of the week!

 

Here they are after the morning dishes.  I am one of those people that never has dirty dishes in the sink.  I do the dishes as I cook and then just stack the plates after the meal.  I like to walk into a clean kitchen.  I think it is so much easier to cook or get a snack when you start with a clean slate sink!

TOMORRROW ~

So tomorrow is my last day off before starting my new job, so I will make sure the house is in order and the laundry is all done. I will have less time for my crafts but I will have more money for lovely yarns!  Oh, the trade off!

Finished!

Another Saturday has pretty much come and gone! ( I actually took the pictures above at the end of last Saturday but have not had time to post them)

Good news, I got a job, I start on Tuesday!  It will be good to be employed again, until I figure out how to be independently wealthy.

So I finished up a couple of things I was working on:

So I make baby hats because I really enjoy knitting in the round, and I don’t (yet) have a passion for making socks.  But I don’t really have anything I can do with all these hats.  So, I decided that I would donate them to the local county hospital, maybe some of the babies there that don’t have much would enjoy them.  I am going to look into that in the next week or two.

Here is the progress on my second purse from the Happy Hooker book:

I need to sew the lining for the inside and figure out some embellishments for the outside.

I have only recently picked up my crochet hook and knitting needles once again and had forgotten how much I love them.  I seem to go back and forth with them and my sewing machines (yes, I own more than one!).  Anyway, lately I feel the urge to push my knitting and crocheting abilities beyond the afghans and hats. I would like to try some more complicated patterns.  So I am on the hunt.  But in the meantime my husband’s family and I decided that if any adult gifts were to be exchanged they must be handmade.  I got some work to do!!

Saturday!!

Being unemployed (which stinks!) my Saturday looks very similar to all the other days! Not today!  Today I am surrounded by some of my favorite things~

1 ~  my daughter(not pictured, her choice)

2 ~ Tea (in one of my favorite tea cups, I own enough different tea cups to serve 30, that is a story for another time!)

3 ~ Popcorn(in one of my old favorite bowls, thirft store find)

4 ~ a knitting and crocheting project (yes, I often work on more than one project at a time!)

5 ~ and a stack of movies

Happy Saturday!

Hats, Hats and More Hats!

I have been a little busy, just me and my crochet hook!!  Well, occassionally just me and my knitting needles. I am enjoying the feeling of completed projects.  Here is a look at the berets that I have been working on.

I made 6 of these and dropped them off on consignment at my girlfriend’s store.  Along with 2 pairs of wristwarmers!

Then I decided to pull out my knitting needles and here is a sneak peak of a WIP!

So much yarn, so little time.

Well off to bed for me!  More to show tomorrow!