Gift's for the Little One's

I Finished up gifts for the niece's today. Little zippered pouches with something special for each girl ... a nail kit for the oldest, who I noticed at Thanksgiving has the longest prettiest nails I've seen in a long time! Another for hair things. And for the youngest, colored pencils, markers and crayons. I sure hope they like their new personal pouches!

Knitting More Gifts

My First pair of Socks. I think I did pretty well these are for my oldest daughter who asked for a pair last Christmas and I finally got the nerve up to try out a pattern And something special for a special Client. A "Luxe Neck Warmer" from this book . I made lots of these last Christmas and just love them because they knit up so quickly.

And sooo many more things to get done in the next few days.

What are you making for the holidays?

Coffie Cup Cozy

I've been having such a fun time gifting these little babies this year. I love how quick they knit up and the best part ... no cable needle required.

and I'm happy to share it with you ( you still have time to make lots of these little cuties )

yarn~worsted weight

Amount~ not really sure I've just been using my left overs

needles set of 4 2.75 or 3 needles

Pattern

CO 48 stitches divide between 3 needles. 16 on each

Join for working in the round

Round 1~ knit 2 purl 2

Round 2~ knit 2 purl 2

Round 3~ knit 2 purl 2

Round 4~ knit 2 together then before you slip the stitch off the needle come back and knit between the two stitches you knit together, purl 2 repeat to end.

Repeat these 4 rows til desired length BO in pattern weave ends and gift to your self or loved one(s)!

Making Soap

I made my Third Batch of soap yesterday( This picture is of my second batch of soap with the remainder of my first batch on the very bottom. I have to say that for me there is a learning curve. My fist batch I did not reach "trace" but it did eventually set up and was beautifully creamy and can I tell you the stuff lasts forever! I did not use any fragrance in the first batch. For the Second batch however I went all out and added fragrance along with lavender buds I thought it would act as an exfoliate and It does, but the lavender buds turned brown in the soap ... Not the prettiest bar of soap in the world so I will not be giving these out as gift but will be using them for my own family.

This is the beginning part of the soap making proses getting the the lye to come down to temp and the oil to come up to temp

and finally my soap molds ... old cheese boxes and tea cups the tea cups have little piece of lufa in it I thought this was such a cleaver idea. As I had mentioned this was my third batch of soap, I used Patchouli as it is one of my favorite scents. I have it on the drying racks now and am so excited because it smells amazing.

I am still experimenting with the whole thing and trying out different recipes for the process. One thing that I did differently with the second and third batches was to use a stick blender as opposed to a stand mixer and the stick blender brought it to trace right away.

for the first two batches of soap I used this recipe and for the third batch I used a recipe that used only lard as it was much cheaper. I think the next batch I do will have a combination of both lard and olive oil and I will use a cardboard soap mold as the soap was really hard to get out of the old cheese boxes.

well there you have it.... I'm now addicted to soap making.

New Books and Finished Gifts

I have new inspiration ( as if I needed another knitting book! ) Great books, both of them

Two people's gifts finished and ready for giving.

Now on to the next project.

Pumpkin

Pumpkin on the walls Pumpkin in the Kitchen

For the first time this year I did something other than carving my pumpkins. I learned how to cook them down to make my own pumpkin puree (I love my computer ) now I have a freezer full of pumpkin goodness!
have a great weekend

Knitting for Christmas

I've got the knitting bug now that the weather is turning cooler. So many things that I want to make for Christmas gifts this year. Beautiful Scarves for close friends, Warm Socks for my children

From this Book Fingerless gloves. I love this pattern no Cable needle needed!

So many thins to knit...

A Few Things Our Garden has Yielded

First and most obvious is Vegetables lots and lots and lots of veggies. This is a load that is going to the Cities with us as we have plenty to share with family and friends In Trade~ Smoked Salmon

In Trade~ Canning jars and homemade Pesto

In Trade~ More Canning jars

In Trade~ 2 big bags of Huge Shrimp and wild caught Salmon

Lots and lots and lots of Tomatoes

Farm Fresh Eggs~ The Farmer that owns the land that we have our garden on has Chickens and he always sends us home with Eggs!

Yes our garden yielded very well for us this year

Wishin

Wishin I had more time to spend on this project... A sweater/coat that I started a couple of months ago and then summer got crazy busy

I had full intentions of having this one done and ready for fall outings

we will see, maybe I will get some time to work on it when I go to sister Penny's house.

Have a great weekend.

A Good Red

I found this wine at my local Liquor store while they were having a little wine tasting and I love it its a blend of three different wines A Syrah a Zinfandel and a Merlot the perfect end to a day filled with... lots and lots of this

and This

and This

Have a great rest of the week

A Fun Week With Family

Family in From California... we had fun with lots of this Lots of this

Learning new things ... My nephew learned how much fun a kayak is

Oh yeah and I learned that it may not be the best idea to take your cell phone along with you on the kayak trip. yup that sucker went right into the water!!! after finding it, which took about 5 minutes! I thought she was a gonner but thanks to mom who helped me take it apart and my kids who knew to put it into a bowl of rice completely covered for a couple of days, it now WORKS!!!

yeah it works I was so happy that I would not have to spend another 100.00 or so to get it replaced. The RICE did it.

In the Garden

Lots and lots of time in the garden lately beautiful produce that we are getting and soooo tasty

lots of canning. I'm surprised at how much I'm enjoying this proses.

Here is a picture of HALF of the garden.

and oh yeah some Beet's, yup Beets that I canned a few weeks back they where white on the inside with red rings throughout.

now I'm off to do some more canning

Finished... for the most part

Well there you have it. I am calling it finished for now because I need to move onto other projects mainly, work! I am happy with how it all came out. I really love the bedding and the color scheme, it is a very calming room to be in.

I even had a visitor this weekend ~ my father-in-law who said he slept perfectly.

One of the main things that I am waiting for is the Art work that goes above the bed so for now I have simple wreath of hydrangea's

Notice no headboard well I didn't get that done. I think that I will save that project for fall.

Along with the chair and I may paint the window wall at that time also but for now I'm happy with The Room

Final Talley

Bed 25.00 Memory Foam topper 50.00

Bedding 139.00

Headboard - not yet put together 40.00

Window Treatments 53.95

Curtain rod 4.49

Lamps 50.00

2 Side tables 19.00

Art Work 15.00

Chair 13.00 Not yet Slipcovered

Pint for light fixture 3.97

Total 347.81

slowly its getting done

Lamps have been purchased and end tables have been painted. I found these two lamps on clearance for 25.00 each they came with the shades ...love them bedding has been altered I found this set at an antique shop for 39.00. It came with to standered sized pillow shams and the bedspread (queen sized) the color was perfect but I needed euro shams so I ripped out the seam that created the flange and that added an extra 4" to the size of the sham.

My ceiling fan has been re re painted in an almond spray paint

Pillows have been re ticked and re stuffed with feathers and fresh lavender buds... they smell so good.

I'm getting there.

Have a great weekend

Painting and Shopping

A whole day of Painting Starting with taking everything apart Cleaning with acetone priming and painting with a brushed nickel

all for this, a plastic and fake looking brushed nickel finish! soooo we move on to plan B. Results in a couple of days.

On a lighter note I got some more shopping done. Curtain panels from Target 53.95 for all 5 panels

Solid white for the outside and sheer for the inside. I wanted quite a bit of curtain but I did not want to completely block the view.

This cute table was purchased a couple of weeks ago at my local thrift shop for 4.00 I love it!
It will be one of the night stands, but I needed another one to somewhat match .......

After looking around here at all the thrift and Antique shops and coming up with nothing

I headed up to St Cloud yesterday with DD#2 and we found this at a thrift shop for 14.99 not quite the bargain I was looking for but it was similar in size and Scale They will both be painted white. by the way these are both old sewing tables how perfectly they will fit in my home.

and my find of the day at the same thrift shop, this Chair!!! I love the shape I wanted something that I could reupholster as apposed to slipcover because the accent fabric that I have chosen did not come from the bargain bin

That's it on the chair

There it is with the other fabrics I'm thinking that this fabric will be used for the chair and lampshades but you know how that goes, we will just have to see how it all comes together.

and finally I shopped the house and came up with these thing so far.