Felted it...

Hello all!  What a week.  Things are beginning to hop and bop around here.  But, I don't want to talk too much more about what's been going on.  What I do want to talk about is my felting project.  Actually, I forgot to take a photo of the little purse before I started the felting process.  I got so excited that I actually got it knitted that I just threw the bag into the washer, per instructions, and went to town.  So here it is felting completed!  I thought I'd squeeze in a preview of my next project as well.  (which by the way has given me no end of grief so far.  I am about to rip out a few rows because I'm pretty sure I'm doing it wrong.)  Anyhow...  As you can see, the bag looks very much like the photo in the knitting book.  Which I am extremely happy about.  But, now that I am looking at it, I think I want to take it a step further and find some wool roving and do a little decorative design on the flap and the body of the purse.  I am not going to put a big ol' brown button on the front.   Anyhow, I am quite pleased with myself on this project.  So once I complete this little purse.  I will show ya'll what it ultimately looks like.   I am really happy with how this turned out.  I had a couple of rows that were knitted too tightly but you can't even tell now!  I LOVE this felting thing!  It's fantastic!  I may even try to do some bowls and maybe a larger bag and.........  Wow!  Love it!

So, I've been going for a few weeks now to a friends house who is an artist.  And she is working with me on developing my perspective and color theory and flat trying to help me become better painter and drawer.  Last week we worked with water colors and learning how to use the brush to create different design and texture.  I didn't like what I did and I loved what she did.  But no surprise there.  I'm not going to show you what I did because, I don't even think I kept it.  Anyhow, I am really looking forward to tomorrow when I'll get together with my "artist friend" not that I feel as if I'm becoming an "artist" by any means, but just because I have been enjoying getting to know her better.  You see, I'm still rather new in town.  Only been here for a little over 2 years and in a small town that's no time at all.  But my "artist friend" is also new and been here about the same amount of time.  So we have discovered that although we have some similarities, it's been more about our differences that has been more interesting.  And she is so different from me and I love it!  She's also been a great sounding board too.  I'm so used to picking  up and moving every few years that the whole idea of being around for years and years is kind of freaking me out.  I'm not exactly sure how this is all going to pan out.  AND I'm not exactly sure how to deal with it.  I thought I'd be fine but... well, poor "artist friend" has been kind and lets me go off on a crazy rant lately.  Maybe I'll be better once I move from this house to the other house.  Which by the way is only about a block away.  So I'll still be dealing with all the same people that I have been.  Which is not to say it's a bad thing.  Just that I won't be leaving and having to meet all new set of people.  Heck, my mind is all a jumble right now.  Certainly not a good blog today.  Sorry ya'll!  I'll do better next time.

Oh!  I wanted to share with you what my lovely "artist friend" gave me the other night when she and her hubby came over for dinner.  Aren't these just the cutest?  She found a pattern on the internet and then just whipped it out!  I adore these apple pin cushions!  And I just had to share it with ya'll!  My "artist friend" is just so talented.  I have been ever so fortunate to find clever, talented people as friends!  It's been like that all my life!  Lucky, lucky me!  ;)

With that...  I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed evening and I'll catch ya very soon!  I have a feeling I'll be posting some really good news (for me that is) the next time around.      =-)

Getting off my butt!

Well, yesterday was an eye opener.  Not sure if everyone knows that we are trying to sell our house.  (I know, I know, not the best market for selling) but, that is exactly what we are trying to do.  So, we were so fortunate (?) over the holidays that we did not show the house very often.  A few times, but, we were able to entertain and have family over and not get too hung up about keeping the house "perfect" for showing.  So, here it is, the middle of January and we've sort of let the place go a bit.  You know... the holidays are over and everyone gets to relax a bit and catch their breaths and chill.  And as mentioned in previous posts, to do some of the things "I" wanted to do, or at least try to.  SO,  yesterday after my honey and I went to the gym we came home and as we walked through the front door the phone rings.  It's our realtor saying there was someone that wanted to look at our house at 1:30 p.m.  (it was 11:30 when we got the call)!  As she was talking I looking at my living room and dinning room.  Seeing the little lap throws splayed out on the couch and chair.  All the books that we have been looking through and trying to read.  My knitting things on the side table and beside the couch and all the little instructional books that goes with my knitting stuff, and notebooks for the various committee meetings from church and all the newspapers we haven't read, laying around on the floor, tables, window seat etc., etc., etc. (We really should cancel the paper.  We just don't seem to have the time to read them anymore!)  And I was thinking perhaps we should just pass on this showing.  I was sweaty and tired (from exercising, and don't let anyone tell you about some "runners high" thing.  I've not experienced it AT ALL, EVER!) so I was tired and there was just TONS of things that needed to be done to make the house presentable and just looking at those two rooms was daunting enough with the new thought of  "OH MY GOSH!  THERE'S STILL THE WHOLE REST OF THE HOUSE THAT I HADN'T EVEN CONSIDERED!"  So I began to say to her, we're going to have to pass on this showing, when the image of the house I want to move into popped into my mind.  (I want that house sooooo bad!).   Well,  I choked back the words and I told her, "sure, no problem".  That's when my honey and I went into action and cleaned and put away and hid and tucked away and so on.  We managed to get everything done without ripping each other to shreds and packed the boys into the crate (cat) and into the car seat (dog) and drove away just in time.  Where did we go you ask?  Well, we went to the Saturn dealership because my honey had an appointment to get the car serviced at 2 p.m.  I had to sit there with my hair all matted down and looking like I tried to run a marathon and didn't make it because of near heart failure!  But, at least we had a warm place to hang out until the showing was done.   

We haven't heard anything regarding the showing.  But the house looks really good and now I'm going to be on top of my game.  I will maintain and the next showing we'll be ready for!  So, having said that, I should perhaps get some laundry done...

Ya'll, have a wonderful day!

By the way...This is how our house looks in the spring and summer.  Cute, don't ya think?  If only the potential buyers could see it like this...  =-)

cutie-patootie

Hi there everyone!  So, I showed you a little something of the hat that I was knitting a while back.  You know, the little hat that took a gabillion needles?!   Well, I finally finished it with the help of a knitter friend of mine.

 Unfortunately, the hat didn't look as nice as I had hoped. ( As you can see.....)  Lot's of little boo-boo's like seams not quite meeting up right and little missed stitches and so on.  And yet I gave it to her anyway.  And OH MY GOSH, she looked just like I pictured her in it.  Just too cute for words!  Even though the hat was a great big knitters nightmare of a hat, and it was very nearly too small for her,  she made it look fabulous.  (well, to me it looked fab on her!)  You be the judge...  I must admit, this child will look good in anything!  

I think the best part of the hat, besides the little girl in it... is the pom-pom!   The rest of the hat is...sad.  Hopefully the mommy of this little girl will understand that I did the best I could and that, truly it is the thought that counts.  And my thoughts were so much more than the hat is showing.  =-(  

My next attempt at making something for some else will, hopefully, turn out better.  

As a matter of fact, I am in the process of making something else already.  I am trying my hand at felting.  We'll see how that goes.  I figure it's GOT to be better because I'll be able to hide my mistakes by felting the wool!  You see, my mistakes aren't hugely noticeable, for the most part.  (don't look at the hat too closely!)  But when you felt something you've knitted, it's kind of like ~Voila~ the little boo-boo's disappears!  So I'm making a little felted bag/clutch for my baby girl and hopefully it will look like the picture in the book!  So, keep all fingers crossed and say a prayer (I'll be needing both of those things) and I'll show you how it turned out once I'm done.  And... thank you my knitter friend for helping me all the time and even giving it a go over the phone where you have no idea what I'm talking about!  You're the BEST!  =-)

So behind...

I am so behind in my blogging.  Remember my month off fiasco?  Well, I decided that there is "no rest for the weary", aka, "no month off for the housewife".  I decided to just bow out gracefully, or, as gracefully as a person who has already whined in print, can bow out.  Suddenly I found that I got all my stuff done AND I've managed to actually get some things that I wanted to do, done as well!  So then I was able to spend some guilt free time with great friends playing games and eating yummies and just having a great night all around!  One of the games we played was Mexican Train Dominos.  Who ever wins the game gets to push the button (center domino in the little stand) and that makes a train choo-choo sound.  Fun!  The only problem is that half the time, we're all so busy woo-hooing or otherwise making loud noises that we don't always get to hear the choo-choo sound.  But hey, we have fun and we also then get to get up and grab some goodies to munch on before the next game begins!  The absolute best part of nights like this is the group of people that are there.  We all get along so well and I've experienced that in the past and have missed it tremendously.  A group that can all get together, no drama, no negative vibes.  Just good times being together and having three or four different conversations going on at the same time, jumping from one conversation to another with the ease of a really good trapeze artist.  The laughter and the jokes and the camaraderie of other people who have similar interests as you.  That is what my honey and I have found once again!  And it is so great!  

So, anyhow... if anyone out there is thinking about taking a month off... let me suggest a cruise to the Bahamas or a beach vacation in Mexico or, any other location other than staying at home!  But if you decide to not go on vacation, please, take the time to develop good friendships and then make time for them.

I think I will swap out the laundry and then get back to my knitting....Life is good!

2009!

Hello everyone!  Well, here it is, 2009 and what have I accomplished thus far?  Nada.  Nothing.  Zip.

I decided that this is the year I am going to do some of the things I wanted to do last year.  So I told my honey.  "Honey, I'm going to take the month of January off".  Needless to say, he wasn't too thrilled with that statement because he didn't understand it.  I am a housewife, how does a housewife take a month off, you ask?  Well, this is how I was  going to do it.  I was going to let all the regular housework type stuff sort of slide by the wayside, only doing what absolutely had to be done.  And THEN I was going to do all the stuff that I had put off all last year.  Stuff like... painting (in oils, watercolors & acrylics), drawing, sewing, crocheting, knitting, woodworking, stained glass, soap making and crafting in general.  So, here it is the 8th of January and you'd think that I'd have done several things by now, right?  NOT!  All I've managed to do thus far is,  make one item for my baby girl and working, still, on a little girl hat that should have  been completed daaaaaaayyyyyssssss ago!  It's a knitted hat and, okay so it's only my second item that I've ever knitted, still....  I should have been done by now!  Oh, did I mention that it takes nearly a gabillion needles  in order to make this hat?  And I thought two needles were difficult to manage when I made my first knitted item.  Here I am using 5 and at one time actually had 6 needles going!  Is that crazy or what?!  But it is such a cute little hat and I have in mind just the cutest little girl to wear this hat.  BUT, she may never get it at this rate!

She may even outgrow it before she ever gets a chance to wear it!  I didn't get the size of her head so I have no idea if it's even the correct size for her.   So, I'm nearly at the half way point now and it's just a matter of getting the TIME to sit down and work on it.  But this whole "taking the month off" just doesn't seem to be working at all!  

You know, I did make the time to get together with a talented friend of mine earlier this week.  She is going to help me with my drawing/painting, I hope. (Poor friend, I don't think she realizes what she's gotten herself into!)  Anyhow, I got together with her and all I managed to get done was three whole drawings of a box and some really saaaaad partial drawings.  And ask me if I've done any more practice drawings of the box.  Go ahead, ask.  Well, the answer is a resounding NO! No box, no hat no nuthin! 

 So now I have to ask, where is all my time going?  It's not like I sit around all day.  For crying out loud, my cat and dog follow me around the house begging me to sit down long enough for them to snuggle down on me for a little bit, and THAT'S when I'm actually at home!   I'm hardly ever home and when I am I HAVE to get some laundry done, seriously, I can't let my honey walk around in icky underwear!  And I can't go around just not making our bed!  And dirty dishes in the sink?  NO WAY!  I have managed to go without breaking out the vacuum this week, but let me tell you THAT in itself has been work.  It's been in the back of my head all week that there are little furfies everywhere, just growing and multiplying every second!  So, here I am re-assessing the situation and coming to the conclusion that there is no "taking the month off" for a housewife.  Or maybe it's just me.  I thought it would be a piece of cake.  How difficult is it for a basically lazy person to just not do stuff?  Evidently, very.

  Oh my gosh!  I think this subject may be a whole nuther post!