Back from Vacation and with an FO at that!

Last week was vacation week, I packed up the kiddos & headed to grandpa's house. It was really great having a week where I didn't have to clean house, go to work.... well you get the idea. I also got to spend some quality time with my little sister. There's 10 years between us so we've never really gotten to spend lots of time together :(  But we had a whole week to spend together, we had a great time thrift shopping, crafting & cooking.  She's getting ready to open an etsy shop .....that girl has some serious jewelry making talent! I put the bug in her ear about making stitch markers for us knitters ;) She even made me some super cute fishy stitch markers. Can't get a better pic than this....sorry

I also finished the shawl for my friend Kim. Now I was only blessed with 1 biological sister but consider myself very lucky that I have 2 more sisters I gained along my way through life. I worked with Kim once upon a time & we became instant friends, neither of us work there anymore but we've always kept in touch. A little over 3 years ago oldest kiddo was in an accident & was hospitalized for over 3 months.....we almost lost him as it was touch & go for awhile. The day after the accident I called Kim to tell her, her first words to me were "I'll be there as soon as I can". It's not often you find friends like that. That same time period is when I gained my other sister, Auburnchick (her online name). She & I had met on a knitting website a few months earlier & had chatted a few times, I emailed her asking her to pray for us. I had no idea she would end up being 1 of the closest people in my life. When she had details of where we were (what hospital), she called me every day during what were the 3 hardest months of my life. We still text each other daily & talk on the phone several times a week. It's amazing how sometimes you find just what you need when you aren't even looking.......
Ok now that I've gotten all mushy how about a pic of that shawl? Now I haven't blocked it yet so it's much smaller than it will be once It's done blocking.

And last but certainly not least here's a pic of the current WIP I spend the most time with, the Oaklet Shawl in Unplanned peacock colorway is Purple Martin

Look Who's Back

Wow it's hard to believe it's been over a month since my last blog post. Sorry about that life has been a little hectic here lately. Here are a few of the things to share:
1) I got the yarn from the local lady that hand dyes & oh my is it ever lovely!

I've been looking at shawl patterns on ravelry & think the oaklet shawl is what I will make with it.

2) I've been working on a shawl for 1 of my best friends. Kim is the kind of friend that you can call at 3am and she'd totally be there for you. I luv her bunches so I decided a boneyard shawl in her fave color would be a great way to say thank you for being an awesome friend. Here is my progress so far.....well it's a little bigger now since I took this pic a couple weeks ago.

 3) and last but not least here is a pic of yesterday's yields from the garden

Last week we got a basket of beans & onions, this week tomatoes. Hopefully next year we'll get an earlier start & have a bunch to can :)

Yarn Makes Any Day Better

Today I got to do 1 of my very favorite things...... yarn shopping. *happy dance*  What made today really great is I had full spousal approval. Don't get me wrong I don't have to have permission to go yarn shopping or anything but it's always better when the man knows what I'm doing & is absolutely fine with it. :-)  This was actually his idea as he had some apologizing to do......
Now who doesn't love a man who knows how to apologize in all the right ways? Yep the man knows yarn is his ticket out of the dog house ;) So on to the adventure, there is 1 store here about 10 minutes from our house and I like it but it's not my favorite store. They don't have Malabrigo for 1 thing :O and there's other yarns I love they don't carry so I every so often just get the urge to travel to the store about 45 minutes from the house. Now there are many reasons why I love this particular store: 1 I met a good friend online & when we discovered we live only about 30 minutes from each other we started meeting at yarn stores - the 1 closest to her house is this store, 2 Gina has the best sales ie: a 50% off room. So that being said I always head straight to the back room when I go in & see what goodies I can find. Today's find was Ella Rae Lace Merino now this is extra fine Merino wool & man is it ever soft. I already had 1 skein in a lovely blue-green colorway that  will eventually be a Traveling Woman shawl. So  of course when I saw this in the back room I knew it would come home with me. I got 2 skeins, 1 purple & 1 blue. I am on a serious purple kick these days - I'm not sure why but the color purple just makes me really happy (my children find this very amusing).

Next up I found some Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine in the sale room. I got a skein of dark gray & a skein of beige. Yeah not quite as pretty as the Ella Rae but I bet they will make some cozy socks.

Last but certainly not least is my very favorite of today's purchases.  Something new to the store.....Shalimar Yarn. Now this stuff is just OMG awesome with 75% superwash merino wool, 15% Cashmere & 10% silk! And yes folks you guessed it my color of choice was indeed purple. I cannot wait to knit with this yarn & have been trolling ravelry looking for just the right pattern. I welcome any suggestions for all of the new yarns.

Oh I also & I had to caution Auburnchick not to cry over this......got rid of 12+ skeins of Red Heart SS today :O How you ask?? Well I traded it for a skein of hand dyed sock yarn *happy dance* A local lady hand dyes yarns & she mentioned last night at knit night that she needed some RH & perplexed I asked why on earth she needed that. She explained she uses it to tie her skeins once she's done dying them. I then told her I have a whole tub in my basement & she is more than welcome to it. She offered to trade and I immediately agreed. So when I came home last night I grabbed a big bag & filled it full of RH for her.....trust me she will never need more. She didn't have the exact color I wanted today so she's going to dye me some & get it to me when she can. This is the color I wanted: Purple Martin oh my gosh this yarn is soooooo gorgeous in person. I have some of her laceweight & sport yarn already.

WIP Wednesday

Today I have pics  of my knitting wip's (work in progress). I have 3 new projects going & I'm positive someone *cough Auburnchick cough* will have plenty to say about that. 1st is my birthday shawl....made with the Green Dragon yarn I got on my birthday. Pattern is charentaise by Katie White - I love her patterns.

I have a feeling this will end up being my favorite shawl :)  The other  2 new projects aren't far along so I haven't posted pics yet but they're coming soon I promise.  I also have some new pics of the garden. Almost done with planting for the season. Hubby has 2 more boxes to build for me & then we get to plan the chicken coop *yay*

SFG 1

SFG 2

Petunias :)

SFG 3

sometimes a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.........

I scored a bunch of pallets from hubby's work to pull apart & make raised garden beds out of and so far hubby has pulled 2 apart & made raised beds out of them. But like all men he does things in his dear sweet time instead of at the pace I'd like him to. Well Boy #1 went off to summer camp - about 2.5 hours away. Hubs didn't want to go round trip in 1 day like he did last time so he drove up yesterday, spent the night with 1 of his sisters, dropped kiddo off& drove home today. Well while he was gone the wifie got impatient lol. So this morning I woke up & decided I was gonna "Get R Done" and set to work taking pallets apart. I was done taking apart before I even had breakfast. After breakfast I measured the 2x4's & cut them to the size needed, measured my boards to make sure they were all the same length & cut those that weren't down to right size, next was removing the nails from the boards. And yes  I re-used the nails as well. Then I got to work nailing boards to my 2x4's. This is not the easiest thing to do but I am living proof that anyone can do this.....and yes I do mean anyone. So here are some pics of today's fun :)

BEFORE

 

the tools

AFTER

 

Not bad if I do say myself........
After all that I got to  head to  Lowe's to buy soil for the 2 new beds. I use a mixture of Peat Moss, Top Soil and Humus & Manure and I use the Square Foot Gardening method by Mel Bartholomew. If anyone has any questions feel free to comment or email me :)

some more gardening fun

Today was all about the garden day. I started off this morning at Lowe's for soil & of course ended up picking up some pretties on the distressed rack. I scored a raspberry plant for $2, a rhododendron for $1.75, a hanging basket of Petunias for $3 & some other flowers for cheap. All these babies need is some tlc & they bounce right back :) So I came home & unloaded the flowers but waited until dusk to unload the soil (the kids were so excited to get to help let me tell you.....) and start planting. I can't work when the sun is up & it's so hot out there.....it got up to 100 here today. Hubby built my potato bin yesterday *yay* so I planted them today. Here are some pics of the progress so far:

 <---- Potatoes, lima beans & marigolds. 
thyme, lavender & echinacea ---->

 <----Petunias
more hanging baskets --->




 
 

<---bulbs (can't remember what flower), catnip, coffee plant & stevia plant

dwarf orange tree, rosemary & more bulbs -->



and the pics above this set are of square foot garden #3 look at all those beans & peas sprouting!

Gardening Fun

This morning was spent in the garden. I was finishing up the third square foot garden. I needed to put divide it up into sections - didn't have any wood so it's just roped off with string for now. I also planted the last of my seeds - well last until hubby gets some more boxes built for me. I planted carrots, sugar snap peas, cucumbers, zucchini squash, yellow squash, green beans & marigolds. I need 3 more boxes 1 for corn, 1 for potatoes and 1 for more carrots & beans. There are some more pallets here so hopefully it won't be too long now. I'm really looking forward to fresh organic produce this year....it tastes so much better that the pesticide laden stuff from the stores & there's a great sense of accomplishment that comes with knowing you grew it yourself. Next up after all the gardening stuff is set up is building a chicken coop. Oh yeah baby!! Fresh eggs, less trash & toxin free pest control......what's not to love about chickens? So here are some pics of what's going on in the garden:

purple petunias

strawberry patch

flowers in the flower bed 

SFG #1

SFG #2

Pear Tree

SFG #3 1st half

SFG #3 2nd half