First Video Entry!

Oh my! I have taken the plunge!  I am trying video. Part of my goals was moving toward a podcast but in order to do that I decided I should take a baby step and try video blogging first. So here I am trying it out.  This is a win because it helps me get comfortable in front of the camera and my blog will no longer sit here neglected.

Sorry about the lighting and video quality. I'm a newbie.  I will try to do better.  Hey, this is a learning and growing experiment right?! Sadly, I uploaded to Podcast Garden, but it looks like that load didn't fully take or something.  (Still a newbie!) However, the RSS Feed does appear to work.  The RSS Feed for the Podcast is here: ThatTessGirl on Podcast Garden . It did work for me when I tried that.  I will continue to try the Podcast upload feature. Until then, I was able to get this uploaded using Blogger's features. I will move toward better production and storage features. Promise.

Whew, with that big long disclaimer, here we go.

Show Notes:

What I'm Knitting:

OMG Heel Socks by Megan Williams. Knitting these in Regia Sock Design Line OMBRE Stripe in the Iceburg colorway.

Kaika by Michelle Hunter Mystery Sock KAL. Knitting these in Regia 4-fadig Mosaik Color.

Metalouse by Stephen West. Knitting in Noro Silk Garden Sock and Cascade 220 Fingering.

Random Knit Chat:

I talk about joining in the In A Sknit Podcast KAL (knit-a-long) for a Baby Cocktails Sweater.  I am considering knitting the Irish Coffee sweater designed by Thea Coleman in some stash yarn.

I very randomly toss in a knit chat about washing my hand knit socks.

If you hung around for the full episode, I thank you! You can find me on Instagram and Raverly as ThatTessGirl.

Thanks again.  I will see how this video blogging goes and post again soon.

RSS Feed for the Podcast is here: ThatTessGirl on Podcast Garden

Be Better

Here we are again at the very beginning of a brand new year.  2014 was a great year.  We did a lot of cool things and shared so much love and laughter.  It was also a time of adjustment and mourning. Without my Dad here I felt that missing piece of myself all the time.  I know I always well.  The pain isn't as sharp but I am always aware. I know he is in Heaven and watching over me and with me all the time and that is what makes me OK.

But like I said, 2014 was still a great year. And I know 2015 will be also.

I have a theme for the new year... Be Better.  A better person, a better knitter, a better crafter, a better friend, in better health.  All those things and more.

So with that theme in mind, here are a few things I am planning for myself for the new year.

Eat healthier. Exercise more. Feel better. No real plan in place for this other than just do it! I'll keep you posted on my progress. I want to lose weight and I think keeping up with these things will be a great start.

In addition to that, I want to be a better knitter.  For Christmas I got some great books that I can't wait to read and dig into.  I know learning more about technique will help be be a better knitter.

This year I was also gifted by my wonderful husband a spinning wheel.  I can't wait to spin more and over the course of the year be a better spinner.  Which I am already well on my way here since before I had the wheel I couldn't spin at all.

Better crafter for me means trying new things.  I want to sew more and there are a few other crafts I want to try.  My daughter loves doing crafts so I want to encourage her in the arts and crafts as well this year.

Doing all these things will make feel better, and if I feel better, I know I'll be a better friend.  Which all this boils down to me being a better person.

Tomorrow I will discuss more details on goals for the year. Until then, have a wonderful New Year's Day!

Dying with Kool-Aid

Last year, I decided I wanted to give my hand a try at dying yarn.  I'd been seeing a lot of craft projects worked up with hand-dyed yarn and thought it looked so amazing.  The trouble with this plan is 1) I'd never dyed yarn and had no clue what to do and 2) Little fingers getting into the dye and getting hurt.  But then I saw where people had dyed yarn using Kool-Aid.  You know that drink from your childhood.  So I thought, Awesome!  This is something I can try and it's non-toxic.

So I did.

Here's the process I used to Kool-Aid dye two skeins of Debbie Stoller's Full 'O Sheep 100% Natural Wool (colorway Little Lamb).

Tools Needed: 100% Natural Wool, Packages of Kool-Aid in color choice(s), Pan, Pot, Water, & Space for drying

First: Unravel you're yarn and tie loosely.  This will allow the dye to reach all the yarn.

Second: Pull out your Kool-Aid packages.  I used two packs of Black Cherry and two packs of Lemonaide. (I had kind of tie-dyed effect with the yarn, where the color is lighter in areas.  Next time I will use more Kool-Aid for a stronger, and hopefully more even, dying.)

Third: Soak your yarn in a very luke warm water bath.  If the water is too hot it could start to felt and you don't want that.

Fourth: While you're yarn is soaking, you want all the yarn to get good and saturated, fill a pot with water and let that water start to warm on the stove.

Fifth: Just before the water starts to boil, remove from heat and drop in your Kool-Aid packs and give it a stir.

Sixth: Gently place your presoaked yarn in the Kool-Aid water.  Stir gently around to help the dye reach all the nooks and cranies of the yarn or just swirl around to help create a kind of tie-dyed effect.  Becareful not to cause too much agitation however, because you do not want to felt the yarn.

Seventh: Let your yarn sit in the water.  The yarn will start to absorb the dye from the water, and you will see you're yarn become colorful.

Eighth: Once the yarn has cooled and absorbed all the dye, remove from the pans and place in a fresh pan of water, roughly the same temperature as the yarn. Rinse the yarn (You can use a mild soap to wash the yarn.).

Ninth: Once your yarn is rinsed, gently wring it out to get as much excess water out of the yarn as you can.  Then hang you're yarn and allow it to dry.

Tenth: Roll, wind or ball your Kool-Aid dyed yarn and use!

There are a lot of great tutorials online for dying with Kool-Aid. Just Google How to Dye Yarn with Kool-Aid and you'll get about 1,250,000 results.  I read many of these tutorials and watched some YouTube videos and thought, this is something I can do.

And it really was that easy.

A February Lady

Here she is!  Isn't she won-der-ful?!

I might have mentioned, in my last post I think, that I was doing a few KALs. (Knit A-Longs) This was the KAL for the February Ladies Sweater that the Knit Wits Podcast was hosting for the month of February.

Since I'd been eying this pattern for awhile and loving the FOs I saw on Raverly, I grabbed my nose and dove in.  A LOT of firsts for me.  Well, the overall project was a first.  My very first sweater.

But I took a big gulp and did my first buttonholes, My first sleeves, Not my first lace but it was a lot of lace! First time casting on stitches mid-row.  All those firsts!  And I loved it!

Loved it so much I can't wait to make more. This is a wonderful pattern, and is very easy to follow and memorize.  At first glance, read through, it might seem a bit confusing for a first time sweater knitter.  But it all comes together if you take your time.

Here are the notes, I made for the sweater while working it up.  I don't have Pre and Post Block measurements yet, mainly because I haven't blocked it yet.  But I'll update the post once I have them.  Soon.  Very soon!

FO Notes:

• Cast on for size smaller because I wanted that upsidedown V look to the sweater.
• I made my buttonholes all in the garter stitch yoke, because I wasn’t crazy about the look of the other sweaters where the last buttonhole was down into the lace. But I think next time I will space them out a little farther apart.
• I chose not to do the full length sleeves or even to the elbow. When I cast on for the sleeves I realized I wanted my instant gratification to last longer. Blame it on the rising temps here in the south. So I cropped the sleeves and by doing this I only needed two skeins of yarn.
• I did 18 repeats of Gull Lace for body and the 1.5 inch border.
• For the sleeves, I did 4 repeats of the Gull Lace and then 4 rows of garter stitch for the border. I didn’t want my border to overwhelm the lace. Especially with my cutting the sleeves so much shorter.
• Also for the sleeves I used a 16 inch cir. I couldn’t imagine using a 12 in cir like the pattern called for. At times working the lace was tight even on the 16 in.

 

Knitting-A-Long

On my way to work this morning, I was thinking that I needed to blog.  It's been awhile.  Only I wasn't sure what to knit about.  But as I was driving along and listening to a new-to-me podcast the idea struck me.  I would talk about the Knit-A-Longs.

First time I attempted a Knit-A-long (KAL) was last year around this same time.  It was a bunch of folks on Twitter. I am sad to say that project is still on my needles, buried in the bottom of my knitting bag. I'm not sure if it's the yarn or what, but I just dread the thought of working on that project. So if I can find any other project to work on, I do.  Hence the still on the needles part after a year.

However, I did not let this travesty prevent me from jumping on board to do more KALs this year.

My LYS (local yarn store) mentioned back in December that they were going to host a sock-along KAL for 2011.  The KAL would feature a different sock pattern and different yarn for each month of the year.  Since I've wanted to learn to knit socks and my hubby had been after me to knit him some socks, I thought why the heck not!  Let's do this!  So I did. I actualled started and finished knitting my first pair of socks in January.  And boy did I learn a lot! Whew!  But the cool part was knitting along side all the other ladies working the sock-along.  It was fun to see everyone's progress and finished object (FO).

For January, we did the Ann Norling Basic Adult Sock pattern. (This is a Raverly Link. If you're not a member of Raverly you can click here.)  It's not a free pattern, but because I joined the sock-along, and bought the featured yarn at my LYS, they tossed in the pattern for free.  So score! 

The sock yarn featured in the January sock was S.R. Kertzer On Your Toes. Everyone else loved this yarn.  As for me, the juries still out.  It was a little stiff to work with for me. But that could have been because it was my first time knitting a sock and using the double pointed needles (dpns).  It was very different let me tell you.  But after working on the new sock last night, I can tell I'm learning.  Things went so much easier.  My cast on and joining worked the first try!  GO ME!

I enjoyed myself so much that I climbed on board for the February sock.  I cast on and got a good start on it last night. It's an independant designer pattern and I haven't seen it on Raverly yet.  But once it is I'll link it.  But the yarn is awesome.  It's Karabella Aurora 4 in hot pink.  Well, it's not really a hot hot pink, or atleast not what I would call a hot hot pink. But I do love it.  It's a fun color.  Can't wait to see (and wear) the final product because this yarn is so squishy.  I love it.

So, you may be thinking wow, cool KAL.  And it is.  But it's not the only one.  Oh no.  You know me, I'm a glutton.  GLUTTON I tell you!

When I heard about the KAL for the February Ladies Sweater on the Knit Wits podcast I knew I had to join in.  I've had this pattern in my que for awhile, but it's a sweater and... Yikes!

But with the help of so many other knitters doing the KAL and my desire to finally knit a sweater, I decided to go for it.  I'll keep you updated on the progress of that as it moves it along.  I'm still working the yoke now and can I just say... Buttonholes. Ugh!

And....  What, you thought I was finished?  No way.

I heard about a new KAL project on the CogKNITive podcast, and I really hope I can join this one too before time runs out.  It sounds like such a good, charitable thing and the end product is so flipping cute and would make a child so happy.  It's the Mother Bear Project. The idea, which is explained in greater detail on the website and in Dr. Gemma's podcast, is you knit or crochet a bear and donate them to the Mother Bear Project and they find homes for these bears with kids who have been diagnosed with HIV or who have been orphaned because of  HIV.  It's so sweet to see the photos on the website of the kids who have received their own bear.  I need to find some fun yarn and cast my bear on.  So if you have a mind to do so yourself, please jump in.

So wow.  That's three KALs I'm knitting-along with.  So what about you?  Care to join me?

Off and Running

Well the new year is officially off and running.  Seems like the year started out with a bang and might just continue the trend.  We had some snow and ice down here in the south that completely shut down the city for a week.  It was insane but very pretty.  And to be honest, I did enjoy playing and sledding in it.  My daughter had a blast as well.

So what has been going on so far, well, a few things other than the snow.  I joined a sock-along for 2011.  The January sock is the Adult Sock pattern by Deirdre Wallace in the Ann Norling #12 pamplet (Raverly Link).  The way my local yarn store (LYS) are running the sock-along is you buy the yarn and they give you the pattern.  So, I thought why not?!  There are 1,087 finished objects (FOs) on Raverly for this sock.  I'm knitting this one for my hubby so it's a bit larger than I would like for my foot.  But for his foot it appears to be right on the money.

But I think I will have to pass on next month's sock since I've joined on to do a KAL with the Knit Wits.  I can't wait to dive in.  It's a sweater and will be my first. YIKES! I'll post more about this in the coming days/weeks.

With that in mind, I'm also still working on in progress projects.  One has been on the needles for almost a year.  I feel guilty about not finishing this one, but not really enough to just finish it. Sigh! Oh well.

In other news, I've been toying with the idea of starting my own podcast.  I'm not there yet, but it could happen sometime this year. But I also plan to blog more. Honest to goodness.  I will do it.

And with that in mind, I'm going to sign off this post because I have to get busy working. TA!

10 in 2010 ~ Crochet

Well all righty!  In my last blog post I discussed my knitted projects over the last year.  Therefore, this post will be dedicated to crochet.

I had a desire to learn to crochet and simply could not master anything but chaining and that just would never do.  So I hit up the wonders of the You Tube and watched video after video and practiced.  So I'm happy to say that I figured out the chaining, the single crochet and the slip stitch.  I figured out the increase and the decrease and made some pretty neat things.

So with that in mind here goes (Again, pattern links are to Raverly).

10 in 2010 ~ Crochet

My very first crocheted project that saw the light of day was a scarf.  I figured it was the most straight forward design. Simple back and forth, but I wanted to use variety of color and thought the hot pink complemented the yellow nicely.  So score! I mastered two things at once, well actually three things - turning, single crochet (only I didn't realize until I was finished that I crocheted through the front loop only), and changing colors. 

I found this pattern on Raverly. The pattern is called Dot's Little Ditty Bag.  It is so flipping cute. It also helped me realize that knitting through one loop create the cute spiral, I learned to increase and how to crochet loops. This was also a quick project.

This is a variation on the Dot's Little Ditty Bag. I increased stitches and modified the pattern to create the handles.  In addition to learning that changing colors while working this pattern created an obvious running seam.  Hince the flowers.  A new things to learn and hey, they helped disguise the running seam nicely.

 This little angry bird is so ugly! The real pattern, Birds of a Feather, is super cute. But mine... Not so much.  Maybe one day I'll try my hand at this again.  My major learning experience with this one is to attached eyes and nose and mouth, etc, before stuffing and seaming.

This adorable hat is just that. Adorable! The pattern is simply called Pumpkin Hat and I'm surprised more people have not crocheted one. I learned decreases and joining and how to create a brim. A very fun to learn.  Plus, my daughter looked so cute in this hat this fall.  She wore it all the time.

This is just a non-hat rendition of the Pumpkin Hat.  I originally thought I wanted to make me and my daughter matching hats.  Then decided I did not.  So I stuffed this baby and seemed up the bottom, and viola, I have a fall decoration.



Dishclothes! What a great learning experience.  Adding the trim and borders and the texture. Just by alternating between the front and back loop creates a very cool texture.  These were super easy and fast.  I made three of these.

Last but not least, a personal design. I needed one more crocheted project to complete to reach my 10 in 2010 goal.  This started out as another dishcloth. But after pulling the project from my daughters clutches I noticed that it created a cool design and have a nice curve and a perfect wrist size. So I chained a loop and attached a button and have a cool bracelet.

So that's it.  That's my 10 in 2010 ~ Crocheted projects. Yay!

10 in 2010 ~ Knitted

I know I haven't posted in like a super duper long time.  I can't believe how crazy busy I have been.  Seems like I have been on the go nonstop since September. But the holiday season is almost over.  Just waiting on that New Year to pop on in and then things might settle down for a few.  One can hope right?!

Anyways, I thought I would write up a few year end posts.  Since I signed up for the 10 in 2010 challange on Raverly I figured I'd start there.  First thing I wanted to do with this challenge is take my knitting to the next level, maybe even do some personal designing and just hone some skills.  Secondly, I wanted to learn to crochet.  I've tried to crochet in the past but never could get past the chaining stage. So with those two goals in mind, here goes my first 10 in 2010 post. (The pattern links are to Raverly.  If you're not a member sign on up.  It's a great community and membership is free.)

10 in 2010 ~ Knitted

First, I tried my hand at jewerly.  A very simple necklace worked up using the I-cord pattern and Needle Loft canvas yarn. I was inspired to try this after doing some Etsy searches and seeing some of the handmade jewerly.

Second, I worked myself up some very comfy and warm slipper socks using my Knifty Knitter Loom.  This was my first loom project. And, so far, my last.  I haven't used the loom again since making these.  Guess I should pull the loom back out and work something up on it.

One of my next projects is a bit of tricky project.  It started out as something completely different than what it ended up being.  Sadly, this is the only photo I currently have this project.  I need to take a new photo and when I finally get one taken I'll update the post.  But what this ended up being is a poncho.  I've worn it a few times and folks seem to like it.  Well, at least they tell me they do. This is one of those personal designs I mentioned earlier.  Since I completely changed direction with this project halfway into it, I made the second half up as I went along and VIOLA! a new design is born.  But it's not perfected by any means.  Needs a lot of tweeking.  But I have thought about working on that by making a second. Maybe in 2011.

Another personal design.  I call it Gray Day Shawlette.  It's very warm and I want to work out some of the kinks in this one as well.

The Wham Bam Thank You Lamb cowl. Sadly, I wasn't crazy about how this turned out.  Could have been the yarn or the fact that I used a larger size needle.  Regardless, I still think I like the pattern and will work this up again.  My goal with this one was bust some stash, and in that regard, I did acheive my objective.

Next up, another personal design.  This is a small satchel I knitted for my mom for Mother's Day.

I was asked by a super, sweet little boy to knit him a 'water blue' scarf.  So that's what I did.  This was knitted up just using the basic garter stitch and holding two strands of Knit Picks Shine Sport yarn together.  If I've never mentioned this before, I love Knit Picks!  They are awesomesauce.  Their yarn is very reasonably priced and goodness gracious but I've fallen in love with their Harmony Needles.

The Black Widow Headband.  This was totally not the right yarn choice for this headband.  Way to small.  But I like the design and hopefully will bust some stash up next year and try it again.

Another stash busting project - The Log Cabin Washcloth.  I plan to make many more of these.  Not only did it bust some stash, but helped me learn the skill of picking up stitches.  I highly recommend this pattern.

This was a fabulously fun and funky project.  It's called the Fabulous Funky Fringe Scarf.  I actually purchased this pattern (and yarn Karabella Vintage Cotton) through my LYS (Local Yarn Store). I spied one they'd knitted up and had on display and after seeing it a few times while attending knit night, I decided I needed one.  I wore this to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert and loved it. Well, loved the scarf and the show.  I actually love this pattern and yarn so much I purchased some in black and plan to do a black and pearl scarf next year.  While working this pattern was also the first time I usesd Hiya-Hiya Bamboo Needles.  These were a pleasure to work with. I do recommend this needle as well.

So that is a total of 10 knitted projects.  However, that is not all of my 2010 pojects.  So here a few more completed projects for the last year.

My first in-the-round project- The Honey Cowl.  This one took me awhile to figure out.  I kept twisting my stitches and basically ended up knitting this cowl twice. It was a big lesson learned. On to a mini-rant concerning this project, the yarn I used was an acrylic yarn, James C. Brett Marble Chunky.  I saw it at my LYS and loved the colors.  I thought it would make a very nice, cozy cowl for the autumn months.  And for the amount of yardage in one skein the price is actually very decent. Only, halfway through my skein of yarn the ply changed (It was a two-ply chunky yarn).  Instead of being plyed with the same color, it was now plyed to two different colors.  Now, had the entire skein been plyed this way and my cowl been knitted in this fashion it wouldn't have been an issue.  But since I was halfway through my project this change really stands out.  I wasn't happy with this.  However, I do LOVE this cowl and this pattern.  I used the mid-size cast on.  I will knit this again and use the large size and a solid color yarn.

Another personal design.  This one turned out so much lovelier than I thought it was going to.  I found some Cascade Pearls Yarn on sale at my LYS, and I loved the colors and the uniqueness of the yarn.  It is a blend of cotton and rayon. I knitted the body of the caplet with two strands of the Cascade yarn held together and it has such a lovely drape and springiness to it. The collar is Bergere de France Teddy yarn.  It really made the finished object what it is.  I just love it.  Too bad, my daughter didn't love it as much.  She gets mad at it when she wears it.

And yet another personal design.  I call this the Half-Way Wrong-Way Cowl.  Simply because I messed up half way through the cowl and started knitting backward.  but it worked out great because it gave the front of the cowl some extra bulk and makes the buttons stand out.

Can you guess?  Yep!  Another personal design.  Not only did I work this up in my little brain, but I also dyed the yarn.  I plan another blog post to detail that funness.  The purse is really cute, but I think it is a more spring time purse so it's waiting patiently for spring to arrive.

One final project that I knitted in 2010 is the Pandora Scarf from the One-Skein Wonders book.  I have not taken a photo of the finished project yet.  But I knitted this one up using Ella Rae Bamboo Silk yarn.  It is much smaller than the pattern calls for.  I wear it as decoration more than anything else.

Yikes!  I almost forgot the South Park hat I knitted up for a friend of mine's little 9 month old baby.  I didn't have a pattern so I had to wing it with the hat.  And as luck would have it... No time to take photos of it.  It got wrapped up and placed under the tree before I could even think photo.  So maybe one day I'll get a photo of him wearing it.

Wow.  I think that does it for finished knitting projects in 2010.  Maybe I'll start a post of unfinished projects one day soon.  But for now, I think this will wrap up this post.  It's already ubber long.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds ~ Oh So Nice

I have a new Oh So Nice for this week....  Roasted Pumpkin Seeds!  I think these little devils are addictive.  I can't stop eating them.  Here's how to make them if you didn't already know.

First: buy a pumpkin.
Second: gut your pumpkin taking out all the innards. Sounds gross huh?
Third: remove all the stringies and things.
Fourth: melt 2 TBS butter and poor over your seeds.
Fifth: lightly salt.
Sixth: bake 45 mins in a preheated 300 degree oven. Or until they are nice and toasted and crunchy.
Seventh: eat them!

That's it.  They are delish.

It's The Great Pumpkin!

One thing that I set out to learn this year was crochet.  I think I've done a fair job of learning the basics.  For example: I can chain, I can do the slip stitch, I can join my work in the round, I can do the single crochet and I under the concept of working my stitches using the front loop vs. the back loop vs. both loops.  Not bad right?

As part of that journey into the world of crochet, I joined the Raverly group 10 in 2010.  My goal was/is to crochet 10 projects in 2010.  I have not done to bad with this.  With the completion of the project detailed in this post I've completed 8 projects.  At the end of the year, maybe, I'll post a full listing of my 10 in 2010 projects.

As for today's post,  it took me a while to finish this project because I was working on other projects in between, and I only worked on this here and there.

I at first thought I wanted to make another Pumpkin Hat because I thought the one I crocheted for my daughter was so gosh darn cute! Then one day me and my dh were talking about how we don't have any halloween or fall decorations and my mission changed.

 

I finished crocheting the side pieces as detailed in the pumpkin hat pattern (Only I made them slightly bigger). Once I had the pieces complete, I assembled them all with the exception of the last seam. I crocheted the stem, and then finished the final seam. Afterward, I turned my material so that I was now crocheting with the right side facing out and crocheted one round making a clean edge. After this I started a 4 to 1 decrease round, followed by a 3 to 1 decrease round and so on until my bottom was almost closed. I stuffed the pumpkin with fiberfil and the finished decreasing stitches until WALAH!

"IT's THE GREAT PUMPKIN!!"

Pumpkin Spice Oh So Nice

So, I'm thinking of starting a regular feature here on the blog.  I'm not sure how it will go or if it will be a weekly feature or a whenever I have something new feature.  We'll just have to play that one by ear.  But the feature itself is going to be called something brilliant.  Well, maybe not that brilliant. Maybe something as simply as Weekly Favorite, or perhaps Oh So Nice.

Anyway, enough of that chatter, I'm getting on it.

As you might can guess from the Weekly Favorite, the topic will be something that has enraptured me for the given time frame (or during the given time frame).  I alway enough hearing about new things that I might fall in love with, or perhaps just fall into a big lust with. So that's where this new idea has steamed from.

And now to get on with it.

This week's Oh So Nice is Dunkin Donuts Pumpkin Spice Coffee.

Oh my goodness!  It is wonderful.  I've been having some trouble with my morning coffee for about a month or longer.  First I my coffee pot went kaput, then my replace maker was just awful.  It did heat the water so my cup of coffee was like drinking mud. Not nice.  Finally I splurged and bought much nicer coffee maker and made some fair coffee.  Not the maker's fault this time.  This time it was the coffee.

Then I stumbled on the Dunkin Donuts Pumpkin Spice in Target the other day and thought, Why not?!

I'm glad I did!  It is wonderful.  A very nice blend of pumpkin and spices blended with a smooth coffee flavor.  If you like pumpkin, I highly recommend you give this a try.

Disclaimer: I tried to find a link to the actual coffee but could not.  If I can I will update the link.  But for now it's pointed to Dunkin Donuts.

Wow, Been A While!

My oh my, but it has been a while since I posted anything on the old blog.  All I can say for myself is life has been keeping me busy.  I've been raising a baby, who is a full fledged toddler now, knitting like crazy, learning to crochet, cooking up a storm and well... just being.

But I do promise to do better.

I'm still working on finalizing that pattern I mentioned in a previous post.  Once I have it tweaked to my liking, I'll post it.  I also have a few recipes to share.  And hopefully, one day soon, I'll have some other good news to share as well.

Only for now, I'm going to go ahead and end this post.  I know it's a small one, but I'll be back soon with a better one.

A Love Affair

My last few posts have all been about food.  So today I'm going to veer the conversation onto another topic.

Shoes!

Seriously, I've never really been the type of person to go gah-gah over shoes.  For me, comfort is king.  I don't buy shoes based on their look.  In fact, I am in desperate need of new shoes.  Mine are so worn that they are no longer comfortable, but I can't find any that are as comfortable as the shoes I have once were.  If that makes any sense at all.

So I continue my search.

But what I never expected to happen, yet did, was for me to develope a love affair with a shoe.  Or rather a brand of shoes.  And that brand my friends is Crocs.

Crocs have come a long way since the release of the clog.

While I was on vacation back in June, Hubby and I stumbled into a tourist shop and I saw the rack of shoes in the back.  I thought "Why not?!" So I started trying them on and bought a pair.

I purchased the Patricia (pictured left).  They were so comfortable and cute! I loved them instantly.  And proceeded to wear them for pretty much the rest of our vacation.  Don't you just love the colors?

But this wasn't the end of my adventures.  We went back to that same shop looking for a stuffed animal for my daughter. (We did find her both a dolphin and sea turtle in this one shop.)  While we were there, I tried on yet more Crocs.  And ended up purcasing another pair of shoes!

This time I bought a pair of Madeira.  I get more comments about these shoes than any other shoes I've ever owned.  Seriously.  Everyone wants to know where I got them and what brand they are.  They are that stinkin' cute!

And the best part... They are as comfortable as they are cute!

Faults or No, I Like It!

Before I dive right into what I was going to blog about today, I wanted to mention that the other night we grilled steaks for dinner. They were so good. But we had two huge steaks left over. I told C$ that we should make steak fajitas. So that's what we did. And oh my... what a great way to jazz up them there leftovers. They were soo yummy!

Anywho, that's not really what I was going to post about today, but I had to just go ahead and toss it out there.

What I'd planned to talk about today was one of my latest projects. See, I bought a sewing machine awhile back, when I found out I was pregnant. I had this crazy notion that I would make my own maternity clothes. Maternity clothes wasn't the only thing I was going to make, naturally. I was going to sew baby clothes andlearn to quilt and just do all kinds of super cool things.

And believe it or not, over the last year I have made a few things that have been kind of cool. But there is always a learning curve. And I am pretty much teaching myself to sew on a trail by error basis. That's why when something turns out pretty cool, I'm pretty darn pleased.

So today, I'm going to share with you one of those pretty darn pleased moments. Even with all it's faults, it pleases me.

To give some background, my adventure started out with the purchasing of a pattern for a cute summer outfit that I am in the process of working up. My goal with this outfit was to try and create something that could be used both for home and work. While I was out shopping for the materials needed to make the new outfit, I stumbled on some scrape cloth on clearance. I loved the color and so I bought it too. It wasn't that much and I thought, surely there is something I can make with this.

It's a very light green, with swirls of white throughout. After thinking about it, I decided that it would make a really cool contrast to the cranberry material I picked out for the outfit. So the idea to make a scarf was born.

I didn't have a pattern pattern, but I remembered seeing one I liked by Amy Butler that I thought was really cute. I had to make a few modifications from the original pattern. First I didn't have beads. So I just did a straight angled finish on the ends.

Also my cloth was not long enough to make the sash/scarf in one long solid piece. To remedy this, I measured out enough of the material to make two strips the same length, then halved each. Combining one half of one strip to the middle of the halved primary strip gave me just enough length to make the sash.

My thought, even with the now three pieces sewn together, it will still be cool.

So on with my sewing I went.

This is where my story starts to show just how newbie I am when it comes to sewing. First, I didn't seem to match up the sides just so. As you can see by the pictures below. The seems were off when I attached that middle strip of fabric (First photo). This caused a pucker on one side of the sash (Second photo). (Yes, I used pink thread to sew the seams. I loved the look against the green fabric).

Still, even with the faults, the sash is super cute and I think it will work and the pucker will be easily disguised. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

Now I'm thinking about making another one. One with a beaded fringe.

Shutter Island

Sorry it's taken me a little while to jump back out here on the blog with an update. But getting the family settled back into the daily routine has kept me busy. Especially with my husband going out of town for business. It's tough to get it all done and by the end of the day I'm pooped. But hopefully things are going to start settling back into place and I'll be able to post more regularly.

But for today's post, I thought I'd give a movie review. We Netflixed Shutter Island the other day (weeks ago) and just got around to watching it. I remembered the previews for this one and thought it looked interesting. I'm happy to say I wasn't disappointed.

First, here is Netflix's run down on the movie.


Shutter Island (Ashecliffe)

2010 : Rated R : 138 Minutes

World War II soldier turned U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) investigates the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane, but his efforts are compromised by his own troubling visions and by Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley). Mark Ruffalo, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer and Max von Sydow co-star in Martin Scorsese's plot twist-filled psychological thriller set in Massachusetts island in 1954.


The movie sucks you in from the start with U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule (played by Mark Ruffalo) on a boat crossing to Shutter Island. The first five minutes draws in with it's ominious, forebodding feel and the soundtrack (a little anticlimatic at times) really drives home the fact that something big is about to happen. The movie progresses from there leading the viewer through a maze of plot twists and turns.

I admit, I figured out the big plot twist early on, but Scorsese did a good job making me second guess myself.

And I loved loved loved the cinematograpy in this movie. Some of the shoots were out this world wicked cool.

Leonardo DiCaprio has really impressed of late with his choice of roles. He's turned into an amazing actor over the course of years and roles. Part of that is the roles he's choosen and the other is his ability to become that character. Very impressed with him. And he doesn't disappoint in this one.

The bottomline: I give it a 4 out of 5, two thumbs up!! I highly recommend this movie is you like dark, emotional thrillers.

Simple Moments

Do you ever have to remind yourself to just slow down?

To enjoy the simple moments?

Like a simple walk on the beach.

Aaah, I wish I was back there.

And There Was Light

Anyone who knows me, knows I love lighthouses. So I was very excited to learn that the St. George Lighthouse had been restored and moved from it's at one time home on Little St. George Island to St. George Island.

It's not one of the tallest lighthouses, but it is quite charming with it's wooden steps that lead up to the light.

Here's a little bit from St. George Light.Org.

Cape St. George Light

The Cape St. George Light was reconstructed at the center of St. George Island after its tragic collapse on October 21, 2005. Remnants of the historic structure were salvaged and volunteers cleaned old mortar off more than 22,000 original bricks which were used in the reconstruction. With extensive community support and public and private funding, the lighthouse was completed in November of 2008. The lighthouse was originally built at the west end of what is now Little St. George Island in 1833, and was rebuilt on Cape St. George in 1848 and 1852.

The little muesum displays photos of the lighthouse just before and after it's collapse. Very sad that it'd fallen into such disrepair. The locals made attempts to save the lighthouse, but without actually moving it, (which is a huge engineering undertaking, just take a look at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.) they couldn't prevent it from falling into the ocean.

However, I must say, they did an amazing job restoring this beauty.

This lighthouse was decommissioned some years ago, but it is still open for visitors. The Keepers house is still in the process of being refurbished so it isn't open yet. But it should be opened soon. If you are in the area, you really can't miss the lighthouse. It's the first thing you see as you arrive on the island.

Itty Bitty Learning Experience

I'll post some more vacation photos tomorrow. But for today I wanted to discuss something else.

I've talked a little bit about my teaching myself how to crochet. This has been an ongoing thing for some time. I would get so far as to chain some but then that was it. I had no idea where to take it from there. And reading a pattern... Forget about it!


But not too long ago that Determination Bug jumpped up and bit me. I pulled out the hook and yarn and decided I was going to learn to crochet dog gone it!

That is when I sat down and worked up my "I Did It My Way Crochet Scarf". Just in time for the weather to turn hot. And I do mean hot. Mother Nature totally skipped Spring, and I don't think that was very nice of her.

But I digress.

After I completed my scarf, I decided I needed to jump right into another project. One that was a little more challenging, yet not too challenging. Hey, I'm still a beginner and not crazy!

So I searched Ravelry for a pattern. This time I decided I needed a pattern because, Hey, I'm still a beginner and not crazy! :) That's how I found the pattern for the Dot's Little Ditty Bag. After reading the pattern and looking at the helpful notes on Raverly, I decided to try the bag out. So I went for it.

It was after I'd been crocheting for a while that I realized that I was only crocheting through the top lop and that was probably not the correct way to be crocheting the bag. But by doing this, the bag was coming together with a little bit of flare. A raised spiral all the way up the bag. Only it was on the inside of the bag. So I just flipped the little ditty inside out and viola!

I like this personal touch.

One other thing I encountered was difficulty in marking my beginning stitch. So I ended up having to count the stitches. I think this was me being a dork though.

Once I finished this bag, I decided to try my hand at this pattern again. Yet this time I did quite a few alterations to the pattern. Hey, I might be a beginner, but I guess I really am that crazy. :P

One day soon, I'll post those pictures. That bag was quite the learning experience as well.

A Liesurely Time

This is a photo taken from the top deck of the beach house we stayed in on vacation. I took this photo one morning, after we'd been there for a few days. I like the relaxed feel of the shot. Unfortunately, I was way too lazy to actually get up early enough to make it for a 'great' sunrise photo. But this one didn't turn out all that terrible.

I'm not sure if I mentioned where we actually went on vacation so I'll rectify that now. We left Sunday June 6th and heading down south to St. George Island near Apalachicola Bay Florida; what has become known as Florida's 'Forgotten Coast'. It is a very nice, quiet, non touristy trapy, location along Florida's Gulf coast. Let me just say that while we were there the beaches were beautiful. No would guess that the experts were predicting that in a few short weeks they would have to close down the beaches because of the BP oil spill. Or that when we left we could see the boats along the bay placing the booms in the water in attempts to protect their shoreline. It is very sad and makes me very angry. But I will not go into that right now. It's not the time.

But the sea turtles were starting their nesting season, which is always awesome, and the dolphins were frolicking in the surf. What a sheer delight. One was so close you could see it doing flips in the surf as a wave would break.

Me and C$ don't usually take trips where we are not on the move constantly. From sun up till sun down moving. So it was nice to spend this week in one location where we could just kick back and not have to be anywhere. And Baby Girl loved it! She had such a fun time playing in the water and the sand. All in all, we had an absolutely wonderful time.

I'll post some more photos soon. But for now, I'm going to call it and wrap this post up.

Happy Father's Day!

I am working on a back from vacation post, with a series of vacation photos (I hope), that'll be posting soon. But for now I have to jump in and say Happy Father's Day to my wonderfully hubby, my dad and all the other father's out there.