I'm baa-aaack...

Hey all!

I hope your holidays were stellar and that this new year is looking bright to you.

we had a fabulous, family-filled, comfycozy, snowy holiday celebration that went on for days.And you know what?

I took like no. pictures.

Shame on me. But I have a small issue. Either I'm shooting or I'm enjoying the moment, I have a hard time doing half and half. Oh well, add it to the new Year's resolutions.

I do however have a shot of the cutest ever bacon and eggs for my sweet niece.

See?



I hate to pat myself on the back (truly) but I think these are the cutest things. in the world.

advent activities.

day eight: decorate foam trees scored on last year's clearance.





They loved this. ( kindly ignore the messy house behind the children. pretty please...) I got a pack of regular little star stickers and a bunch of jewels from the Michael's clearance aisle.

day nine: Bake a snowman cake.



(How do you feel about the low winter light? good different or no-good? I can't decide...)

No icing in the house? That's okay, powdered sugar looks better this time of year. to me. Hazelnut buttons and raisin face. That's what we had in the house... He's cute AND good for you!

And I'm working on this blanket. Anyone remember it? From like...last November?



Yeah, that one that I put down and forgot about. Now it's traveling with me, getting picked up here and there. Like when the bridge is closed. Could I just be putting off the Christmas crochet I should be finishing (read: starting)...?

How are your advent activities going?

warmth vs. warmth I guess....

It was eighty-two degrees yesterday.

September twenty-ninth for crying out loud!

But with any luck this weather won't hold for long. Isn't that such an odd thing to say: I don't want to warmth anymore?

It's true though. I want my warmth elsewhere. I want to wrap up in this...



It's almost done.

It's from the Lion Brand free pattern called Elspeth. ( You know, I even love the name!) I love all the baubles and the scallop trim and it worked up rather quick with all those openwork bits. I am adding a few extra rows though for extra snuggliness. ( blogger tells me that isn't a word! blogger apparently doesn't crochet...)

I'm making it up in Vanna's Choice in Linen for washability. My boys are notorious blanket thieves so I know this is bound to end up under the sofa and covered in crumbs sooner or later.( but if you saw their sweet faces, you wouldn't be able to refuse them either...)

Of course the best part is I can remember where I started it every time I slip it on....



Yum! look at that will you? The gorgeous Woodstock Inn on the Millstream. Such a zen little spot, loaded with hammocks and gliders and shady spots and don't even get me started on how sweet and crazy helpful our girl Bonnie was!

oh sunny breakfasts, I miss you so....



Jill ( the super-talented shutterbug ) tells the story better than I do, and she has three (!) posts full of beautiful shots of our weekend on her blog. Clicky clicky to go see...

Have you been to Woodstock, NY before? You should go. There's so much easy beauty there. And while you put your feet up and listen to the river...

Gomez will sit on your lap.



Who could want more than that?

Annnnd, the forecast is telling more warmth to come. Looks like there's no rush... I can sit with my hook and dream about the millstream a few days more.....

back at it.

I'm grannying away again.

I need a hundred grannies to make this blanket. It'll be all bright and spring-y like. And I could use some spring-y right now thankyouverymuch.

My biggest thing with trying to crochet a large project is figuring out colours, I always WAY over-think it and get bored before I'm too far into it. This one, I just picked out four colours at a time that I liked and made a few, then picked out four more, made a few more and I'm going on in that way for now.

I always love bright busy blankets like this one by Pip..

or this one by Gertie P?

Oh and these lovely sunburst grannies I'm seeing all over the place...I'm sure I started some of those last summer...?

And while we're talking about colours; how about this bag?! I think I'm in looooooove... ( yeah, I just used a semi-colon.)

(almost) instant gratification

that's what these little booties are.

I have a hard time finding bootie patterns that are cute and crocheted. Why are all the cutest ones knitted?

Anyway, I had a baby shower fast approaching and needed something extra special for this particular baby.



I found this pattern and now I'm kind of, well, bootie crazy. That almost sounds like something else, huh?

But come on, how cute are these? And they can be cuffed down,



or worn up.



How cute? So stinking cute.

I can make a pair in about half an hour. I made nine pairs in twenty-four hours. Waiting at the doctor, out having lunch, on the ride to the bank. ( No I wasn't driving, but I bet I could. I won't try though for the sake of other drivers. oooh and pedestrians...)

cutesie buttons optional...



They'd make some rather cute Christmas ornaments, too. How about one with a little peg doll stuffed in it? Or a tiny candy cane? How about make some red and white stripeys and use them for place card holders at dinner? Or of course, put them on baby feet.

I can't wait to meet the feet these are bound for!



ps - I made the following changes to the pattern:
I chained seven, and sometimes eight instead of six.
I made Row 3 in Half Doubles, then added another row of singles on top of it.
I made four and five rows in the cuff depending on the yarn type and weight.

it's done!

For the past two months, this bag has gone everywhere with me. Family visits, appointments, long drives, everywhere.

It started on the very long drive. And now, it's done!

It's the biggest thing I've ever crocheted! My ripple blanket!



Fifty-one beautiful stripes, twenty colours, two months, one great blanket!



That was put immediately on the bed just in time for the cold nights we've been having, mmmmm.



The finished size is fifty-one by seventy-four inches, yeah an odd size, but that's as far as I could reach in the cab of a dump truck. And no one's coming to check my work, right? haha!

Now I need to pick Harry's blanket back up. And then there's that neutral ripple.

And that granny I started.

And the Sunburst grannies....

I guess I have a whole winter worth of work in front of me. But who can really complain about a blanket growing in your lap? I can't wait to finish the next one. But which one will it be?

sunny day?

yesterday was bright and beautiful and somehow I ended up doing all rainy day type things. It was a hot chai drinking, apple cake baking, curl up and crochet type of day.

Chai tastes better when you use a cute little witch-y napkin!

Harry got to see the magic of the apple peeler. ( like this one but I got mine for four bucks thrifting ) We had one granny smith peel that came off all together and stretched all the way across the dining room!

Try this apple cake recipe. It's super easy and wicked good. Add some cloves and nutmeg like she says. And it fits just in a nine-inch round pan. (I like to use my cake stand at every chance!) And it absolutely demands fresh whipped cream, so do like my (genius) sister-in-law and make some with real maple syrup instead of sugar added. I wish I had a photo to share but it disappeared so quick. Just an excuse to make another today...

I won't give in!

We have to put on sweaters.
And the tea is hot, not iced.
And shoes are now required.

But I'm not ready to give up these early morning breakfasts outside. Snuggled in crochet, on the swing.

rippling more.

I'm working on Harry's two-tone rippler and my ghan of many colours right now and it looks like ripples are just the way to go this season. ( She said in her best high fashion voice, haha!)

Miss Carina has some beautiful brights going on in her lap. All those colours make me wish for maybe just a little more summertime.

And dottie angel ( my new crochet/style crush! ) has the most perfect wonky wave I have ever seen. It makes me think that maybe a line of doilys down the edge of every afghan may be required from here on out. Makes me wish I had asked about the prices on that basket of them I saw in NY. Ugh, the agony of a missed deal. You thrifters know what I mean.

Click on over and see the beauty. And let me know if you're rippling away somewhere, I'd love to peek!

please...?

ripppppling

This is what I worked on for the very long ride.





I started out taking hourly photos but forgot as I got more into it. It started out as the ice cream blanket because the colours made me think of: mocha, black raspberry, coffee, then mint chip, but the blue threw me for a loop so I suppose I'll just have to call it the traveling blanket now. Or the relaxing on the awesome back deck with amazing new friends blanket. I can't decide which has a better ring to it. I also can't decide whether to keep on rippling away or wait until those great people come (soon) to visit and keep it in tradition of sorts...?



I'm trying to go neutral, colour, neutral, colour all along to try and use up some stash, but I think I need to expand my colour scheme a little. Which may mean a trip to the store...maybe. We'll see.

last shot before the light failed me.

party all week

Thank you so much everyone for all the nice birthday wishes. I've been having a great week with dinners out and lunches on the water, thrifting and girls' night and, oh my, now a little getaway with my hubby. (Off to see Matt and Jill!)

Let me tell you, I spent the whole day crocheting under a tree. I'm rippling now, in green and blue for Harry.

I was thinking it would give me something to do on the very long drive, but I don't have enough yarn! What to do? Grab some of the stash and make up something new of course! One can never have too many afghans.

The boys played like angels all afternoon and I got to pick some gigantic pumpkins and butternut squash from the garden. It almost makes me worried that tomorrow will be terrible to make up for all today's pleasantness. But let's not think like that...

I'll be back in a few with stories of New York. And some photos of my new kitchen maybe? And how about a few more nut-so ideas running around in my head?

Happy holiday weekend all!

Okay, I was never back yesterday.

But if you were me, you wouldn't have spent a second here either. Not with everything else going on: Walking to eat breakfast out, playground and beach time, periwinkle and seaglass hunting,







Say what you want about our rocky New England beaches, they make the best seaglass, this is just a tiny fraction of what we brought home yesterday. Yes, I admit my addiction...



naptime, sunning time, fresh library books, "fun food" shopping*,

take out dinner with Uncle Reg, pooltime, feeding marshmallows to llamas and cows and a campfire! Phew! Who has time to blog? ps - Sunday is National Toasted Marshmallow Day, just so you know. ;)





And I did get that hat done at the beach on Wednesday! Plain and sweet. Not the best photo, I wanted to give it to the mama right away. (Hi Azzy!) Apparently the the secret to getting to sit down at the beach is more kids, not less, the occupy eachother pretty well! We only had to corral them back in front of us three or four times. Not bad in my book.

Now we've got a full weekend ahead of us of birthdays, and end of summer celebrations! That is if we don't get a hurricane. Of course, being trapped inside with cooler weather doesn't sound so bad. Cooler means I don't mind spending some time baking. And everyone in this house is partial to some wrapping up in blankets to snuggle.

You know, I better stock up on some essentials just in case we do get hit: More library books, popcorn, balls of yarn and of course, wine...

My word, this is a long and wordy post! Happy weekend all!

*Every now and then we head over to the local discount store and pick up fun food from the grocery department. Like lingonberry jam, organic pickles, stevia soda, lots of food in fun packaging. For a few dollars you can kill time a rainy day and see better things than you find at the regular market. I guess you could do this in the imported aisle at the supermarket, too.

my kind of weekend.

grass, bugs, yarn, paper.
dogs, kittens, and of course llamas.
pool, garden, and a little travel.

I could get used to this.

And I actually finished something. I'm calling it the quiet morning hat, for when I actually got to finish. We were all so relaxed, I didn't even mind when I had to pull out the last two rows to make adjustments.



Okay, it's not completely done. I think it might need some embellishment...
We'll see.

under my pillow, etc

*Okay, I practically inhaled Mudbound, I read it so quickly. It was a good story and the ending wasn't completely predictable so I'm pleased with it.
*A Homemade Life is something I've been eyeing since Jessica posted about it awhile back, I'm halfway through and now I'm kind of rationing it out, too.
*And that cheese book has a date with me and Kathryn some Friday night soon.

And last week's books? Read We Took to the Woods. It's written so perfectly, the voice is so casual, it's like listening to someone you've known forever. I definitely need to own it. And I NEED to get Vegetable Love. Three words: Avocado. Ice. Cream.


And I'm grannyaday-ing again, this time some sunbursts. That's actually navy, not black but the sun was so bright the camera was overwhelmed, I guess. I want to make something big enough for my bed, we'll see how long until I get bored, haha, as always

(pattern here, scroll and click on the left)

Check out this afghan. Love it. I'll be glad if mine is half as cute.
and this one.
Okay, one more.

crappy weather.

this week may have been no good for playing outside. and you certainly weren't going to try to get into that mushy garden, the weeds thank you for that, but it has been just the kind of weather that you don't mind a blanket growing on your lap. So the task of choice has been piecing together the grannies from the granny a day at meet me at mike's.



I admit, I gave up and started putting it together early. But at this rate, I can be snuggled under it by the thirty-first instead of just looking at a pile of squares. With this weather, that's what I want.

I'm still in.

I'm still grannying along. I was playing hooky (no pun intended, I just caught that proof-reading.) for awhile though and now I have to play catch up. If I can do two a day, I can make something big enough to go on the couch instead of a doll bed. That should be no problem. My new bedtime routine is a pile of yarn with a big cup of tea and my iPod.
Way early.
As soon as the boys are down, lately.
Like eight o'clock sometimes, haha!