Lil Pink Sock

Any fans of Patrick McDonnell's cartoon "Mutts"?

Then you must remember the cat playing with his 'lil pink sock'?

Well I made a pair of them for a co-worker who's expecting her first baby in 3 weeks:

The stitches are tiny but the sock still knits up pretty fast! With only 30 rows for the leg and 8 rows for the foot. I made these out of an elastic cotton, I figured they would wash up really well, and stay on really well (since some babies can really fling those feet around) and she should be able to wear the for quite a while.

Unfortunately I had to make three socks because it wasn't until I was finished my second one that I found I had looped the yarn (by skipping a needle)

If it was for me, I would have left it but since the mom may want to roll down the sock it would then be visible, plus I didn't want her finger or the baby's toes getting caught on it. So I had to rip it all out and start the sock again.

Cute Card

We recently had our wedding anniversary as you know but I forgot to show you this cute card from Jp to me:

I just love this girl's outfit, her stance and her facial expression!

I love the card and it will stay out where I can see it for a while. Jp, however, doesn't give a damn about cards and to prove my point, I pulled last year's card out and gave it to him. He pretended to read it and and thanked me for it. He didn't even notice that it had last year's number on it. I had a good chuckle. He picked up on it the next day.

Dance Experience

Today I went to a dance workshop. This was an extra special event because Jp had signed me up as a Valentine's gift. He had contacted my dance instructor a couple of weeks prior to ask her if she had any suggestions for Valentine's. She directed him to some websites where he could purchase gift certificates for items - dance gear, props, accessories etc and gave him some workshop names. So he signed me up.

And, even though it was a little bit snowy out there, I went and had a wonderful time. The instructor was fabulous, and fun and very talented. Three hours went very quickly. And I think I've reached the place where I will benefit the most from workshops as I have the foundation skills to understand the movements and the instructions so I can concentrate on the tweaking of them - or the combining of them.

I am very happy for the wonderful gift that was more than just 3 hours - it's going to stay with me for a long time. Especially when the instructor was kind enough to hand everyone a CD with the music he had used in the class, bonus!

Now it's time to resume my normal Sunday programming. Hope you're having a great weekend too!

Inspiration

So the other day I saw this picture:

And I immediately thought of my friend Susanne who rides her bike everywhere she goes (she doesn't have a driver's licence). She spends a lot of time on it visiting her elderly mother in the hospital and going to work everyday. I thought it would be fun for her as she's a very "rainbows and unicorns" kinda gal.

I have never seen her bike in person so I asked her to send me a photo and then I set about creating something for her. I changed the bunting to stars as she's a very celestial being.

Here's her newly decorated  bike basket - do you think it's fun? 

I used synthetic yarns so they can stay on in the rain too. Why not? That's the day when you need the most fun and colour - riding in the rain is never fun is it?

Birthdays, I has them

Last week was my birthday and I thought it would be helpful to provide Jp with a list of the things I want since I often keep it to myself. One  of the items was a helium balloon bouquet which I thought would be fun and cheerful. Unfortunately he had a super busy day prior to my birthday and couldn't get them. Next up was a gift idea. I wanted a patio heater. He felt that the 7' tall version was too big and too hard to store so he purchased the table top heat. Fortunately we were advised from someone that owned one that they went through the little propane tanks nightly - something I had no interest in doing especially since I am usually the only one sitting outside, so I asked him to return it. Which he did.

But now, technically I didn't receive a birthday present. I'm an adult so it's okay, right? I had a good day, so a gift isn't really all that important - is it?

I see birthday people in two categories - the receivers and the takers. Some people are lucky enough to have those around them give them everything for their birthday - they receive a cake, a party, gifts, flowers etc. And then there are those that don't care to wait for others and create their own birthday, invite people, make an event, buy their own cake/cupcakes. They also often buy themselves their own birthday presents.

I seem to be a receiver in a taker world and therefore I am often left without anything. Should I change? Does it matter? Are we supposed to care about our birthdays when we're older? What do you do? What category do you fit into? As you can see, I'm very confused by the whole thing.

Well folks, I finally did it.

My husband is notoriously very hard to shop for. He has a very particular taste and he shops all the time. Usually he's "been there, done that" and after being with him for many years I have basically given up trying to buy him gifts.

But this Father's Day I did it!

Yup, I finally found a gift that he didn't have, nor did he even think of (thanks CityLine -Fashion Friday)

This is  the  ultimate luxury my friends - check out these shoe laces!

This is a collection of 3 sets of coloured laces, one pocket square and one flower label pin. I went conservative and picked the "Wall Street" collection - but you can go wild with the hipster collection.

Since Jp has a beautiful collection of dress socks filled with fabulous colours and designs -  I thought "what is better than to dressing up his shoes?" The company is called Stolen Riches (love the name too) - and I recommend the next time you're looking for a gift for the guy who has everything - this might be your solution.

Stadium seating anyone?

This is a cushion cover I made for my mom. She said the church bench seats were hard for her to sit on and she wanted to bring a pillow with her to church. When I was visiting her in March, I had quickly sewn a grey cover, but I wanted her to have something nicer and so this is what I designed.

Front

Back

The pillow form is not inside of this one yet, so what looks like a 'gibble' on the bottom will get straightened out when the form shapes it better. I included velcro on the bottom so she could slip in the 12" x 12" x 1" foam pillow form and included a litte handle to make it easier for her to tote to and from her car. But this would also be good for patio chairs (use the handle to hang it up so it's out of the rain) or for the stadium to help with game watching comfort.

Boxing Day 2012. Today it'll be a nice, quiet day. I don't plan on doing too much in the kitchen, not sure what we'll have for dinner yet.There should be enough leftovers that I can be lazy. However, knowing me, I say that now but by 4pm I'm whipping something crazy up!

Christmas Day was good. We both did a very good job on presents for each other. And my family did a very nice job of picking out items for me as well. Thankfully I don't have family that runs through the mall at the last minute grabbing something that might be in their price range - my family thoughtfully picks out items for me, which I very much love.

One of my favorite gifts from Jp is this deer head: 

Now I'm sure many of you wonder why the heck I'd want that but I think it's beautiful done in white, on a white wall. It is very well done and I love it. And I don't know how he found it so easily -  I had been looking for a while and either they were not available or not in my price range. This one has a bit of "glittery flocking" on it - which doesn't necessarily sound nice, but it is. It gives just the right amount of texture and reflects some light back.

I hope you received the presents you wanted and that your gifts were thoughtfully chosen for you as well. What was your favourite gift? 

Sedona Sunsets

The project that I had been rushing to make has arrived and now I can show it to you:

I made these socks for my mom and wanted to include them in her Christmas present box and wanted her to be able to wear them right away (so I didn't wrap them). I am pleased to say that her presents arrived yesterday and she loves the socks. I took a risk because orange isn't my mom's colour, but since there were bits of beige and purple and turquoise in them I hoped she would like them. Besides the colours are to commemorate her recent trip to Scottsdale, AZ and so perhaps every time she looks at her Sedona Sunset Socks she can think of that happy trip. These socks were specially made for her, and I knit them a bit looser so they would fit nicely around her legs and loose on the feet and be easy to put on and take off.

Check out this photo that I borrowed from this site:

See the oranges and purples and
turquoise in there? Similar colours, no? 

It's nice when something you've made is well received. My mom frequently tells me how much she enjoys my homemade socks and so I am happy to make them for her. Jp on the other hand tells me he never wants me to knit for him so I won't. 

Done!

7:30 Sunday night and I am finished all the gifts I wanted to make that needed to be mailed. Now anything I start making is either for someone locally, something for my shop or something for me.

And speaking of my shop - two good things happened to me last week. One, a friend of mine with 5500 friends promo'd me on her facebook page. That's nice exposure. I am very grateful. And second, I received an invitation to join EtsyBABY which is an exclusive group that promotes shops specializing in baby items. Being part of EtsyBaby gives me more exposure to my shop and they profile items and promote their members, as well, it's not so easy to get in so getting an invitation is a good thing. I am very grateful and very excited. As soon as I wrap and mail my out-of-town gifts tomorrow, I will start working on my MustHaveThat Etsy store (see right side bar for the link) and figure out a game plan. I have some very good advice to follow from my Number 1 fan - my brother and from Leonie Dawson who offers several how-to business course and planners etc  - so  definitely have my work cut out for me.

 I am very pleased to have completely my hand-made Christmas gifts "on schedule" and look forward to some 'free' time. I say free in quotes, because it's really stuff that I should put first but always struggle with as I always let the minutia of daily life get in the way. If ever I had a resolution that would be it. To make time for creative time NO MATTER WHAT. Which is kinda what I did to finish this last project, I neglected some housework and cut back on the baking/cooking as I had to get that last gift done.

I have also finished shopping  - unless I have forgotten someone - so I am feeling positive about the next 2 weeks.

How about you? Do you celebrate Christmas? 

Are you on schedule for gifts and preparations? 

Lovin' my cuppa

Recently Jp made some changes and stopped drinking coffee which meant I too had to make some changes. It used to be that I'd make coffee for the two of us either in a french press or the drip coffee maker and liked the coffee very much, but I couldn't seem to get a good cup when I was just making it for one and since I drink my coffee black, the taste isn't masked by crem or sugar so it had to be good. I had just decided that I would switch to tea for my daily cup when he surprised me with a Keurig coffee system for one:

Wow! I am impressed! The manual said it would take 2 minutes for the water to get warm and two minutes to brew coffee but I've got a nice hot steaming cup in 2 minutes total! Can you believe that? I am amazed. And the joke around here is that I need three days to warm up to new appliances introduced by Jp, but this was love at first cup.

And check out all the varieties of coffee- they list 71 on the site! The machine came with a sampler box of 12 k-cups and I've been keeping track of which ones I like - so far the ones marked 'bold' are a bit strong for my liking but they are pretty good. I'm liking "Donut House" which is strong but not super strong. My one issue is that the k-cups are not very environmentally friendly since the little plastic cups have a mini filter inside they have to go into the garbage - but Jp must have known I'd think that about that and so he also bought me a reusable filter. This way I can use the coffee I want and not have to throw anything away. (The grounds go into my compost)

It also brews tea, which I understand if you're in an office or or RV or other location that doesn't have a kettle, but otherwise, tea already can be brewed one cup at a time so I don't see the need for that.

What a great gift idea! He knocked it out of the park with this one! *

Do you have one? Which flavours do you like?



*Note to family members, mum really wants one now too.....

PHOTO  CREDIT: http://www.keurig.ca/brewers/keurig-mini-plus-brewing-system

Finished Projects-Mother's Day Scarves

I recently finished some projects, but couldn't show them to you because they were for Mother's Day.

I mailed the parcel to me mum on Friday not expecting to to arrive for a couple more days, but she called today and said the package arrived so I "authorized" the unwrapping of two items.

Here are the scarves I knit for her, I figured they are a good accessory piece that she could wear since it can still be cold for a couple more weeks where she lives.

Deets can be found on my Ravelry page. She told me she didn't know which one she liked best. Happy Early Mother's Day!

Happy Easter

My sweet brother sent me a lovely chocolate dog 

(a chocolate lab, maybe?) for an Easter present see? 

I didn't realize it was going to be a puzzle and that some assembly was required! 

Wishing you a Happy Easter, and hope you're having a wonderful weekend. 

It's All in the Timing

Sometimes the timing of an event can completely change how we feel about. Here is a story of completely perfect timing:

In July, Jp and I were at an Art in the Park event and he found a beautiful beaded hematite ID badge holder. We were told that it complied to the WCB rules that the badge holder had to be a 'breakaway' style as it was used for hospital/health care workers who risked getting their badges caught or pulled by patients. Jp suggested this would be a terrific gift for my SIL who is a doctor. So I held on to this present until her birthday at the beginning of October.

I had the present all wrapped up and ready to be mailed in September but decided not to send it too early. Then unfortunately I waited a big too long and the present was late. And then the post office delivered it one day later than they should have, and then due to her busy schedule, my sister-in-law didn't get to open it until Wednesday.

But what's most coincidental is that her hospital has had a badge/ID requirement since the summer but decided on WEDNESDAY to enforce this requirement. She came home that day with a new badge that she was required to wear everywhere in and around the hospital, and then opened her birthday parcel and found the beaded badge holder. Exactly perfect timing!

Many things had to come in to play for this one to work just so very perfectly and I think this is all so  very interesting. Don't you?