a little owl family

Finally finished up this little owl family. Fun to knit, but lots of little parts that needed to be whipstitched on. I found that if I got the small parts knitted first (the wings, feet, eyes- which I only did this with the smallest owl) then I could add them to the body right away, instead of being done with the body and then impatiently knitting the small parts (because really I wanted to see the owl come together quickly:)
Right now they are perched on my dresser, but I'm sure not for long!

the pattern for the owls can be found in knitsimple-Holiday 2010.

friendship through the distance

sometimes in life you meet people that just get you. they are easy to be around. they like things you like. they like things that are different too, and that you admire. these are the friends you treasure~

today I received a package of lovely goodies from that kind of friend. a friend I miss a whole lot. I miss our adventures, our lunches (which we always enjoyed some baked goods and a nice cup of hot tea or coffee), our library visits and our knit nights which included sharing our favorite fish sandwich. initially I was worried about the distance and sometimes what it does to friends, but you know somehow I think being aware of this distance makes me cherish our friendship even more.
always hold on to your friends.

just the facts....

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~one of my children has been in her p.j.'s for almost two days straight, only was she now convinced to get dressed to go out and get ice cream with her dad and sister.

~our little kitty is being very adventurous, not so long ago he hid himself in a kitchen drawer one morning after I had dropped the girls off at school. I was on the verge of tears. I had looked almost everywhere in the house-until I pulled open a kitchen drawer and found him (he was just lying there-looking completely unfazed).

~I'm still drinking my morning decaf, and its past three in the afternoon.

~I need to catch up on my garden reading.

~ I have knitting needles sticking out my hair at this moment
(probably should be reading instead of knitting, huh?)

~I made soup for lunch today, so we could have it again for dinner.

~I'm hoping for an early bedtime, for everybody.


Happy Monday!

dishcloths and orchids

I was asked to be a volunteer driver and parent assistant for a field trip today. Grades K-5 of the girls school went to see a play at the local community college.
Just as we were rushing out of the door I grabbed some yarn (the colorway is fiesta) and some size nine double pointed knitting needles and stuffed them into my purse. I just wanted to knit something, something that was not going to need any attention to detail. Since the theater was dark I knew that I was going to make something super simple and do whatever stitches that came to my head. Now mind you the dishcloth came out wonky (increasing and decreasing stitches with no rhyme or reason will do this to a project) but a little crochet edging decreased the wonkiness factor a bit-plus it's just going to be a rag to wash the dishes! It was nice to have something small to work on during the play.

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For Valentines day I received an orchid-truly to make me happy for any occasion just give me a plant of some kind. I'm so excited that my collection is now up to four orchids.

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I am going to try to attend a community garden meeting tonight that is being held at the library. A big pot of beans are cooking on the stove and to tell the truth I'm here blogging to avoid making dinner-but soon my ears will be met with famous "I'm hungry", so for me (after I push publish post) it's back to the "chopping board".
Happy Tuesday!

this and that~

I am

~working on knitting up an owl family, two more to go


~painting on a big yellow canvas (more on that later:)


~liking the blues on this recently thrifted vase


~glad we saw a rainbow today


this weekend also included church, ordering pizza Saturday night, attending a birthday party (for a classmate of my youngest daughter), vacuuming, with Sunday evening being topped off by a deep, deep cleaning of the upstairs bathroom-yeah. I love seeing the shiny chrome on the hot and cold water knobs-again.

in the garden cowl, three ways

this cowl is something I worked on a lot during the girls weekly piano lessons. all it is really is a couple of rounds of stockinette stitch with some rounds of seed stitch thrown in.

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~cowl pulled to the back

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~cowl shoulder to shoulder

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~cowl pulled to the front

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for the last couple of rows I did add some increases so that the cowl would be wider at the bottom than at the top. I don't even know how many increases I actually added, I just added them at whim.
I think my favorite way to wear it is going to be the pulled to the front look.
now I gotta go find something else to keep my needles warm!

untangling the tangled....

I spent a good part of my Tuesday night untangling yarn. I won't tell you how long it took. For the love of knitting, a knitters gotta do what she's gotta do.
(but I won't lie, this certain thing along with this are both looking quite appealing right about now).
goodnight!

ribbed

ribbed hat, originally uploaded by *nichole*.

finally finished up a hat that's been in my knitting basket too long. The hat is a simple ribbed hat, pattern from More Last-Minute Knitted Gifts (pg. 42). I got this book this past November and it is so lovely-great photography and also a great variety of projects for all different skill levels. Last night I started work on a cowl-both the yarn for the hat and the cowl came from Quince & Co. (for the hat I used lark yarn, color "storm" and for the cowl I'm working on now I'm using chickadee yarn, color "honey").

Here's to more knitting in 2011!

Sunday talk

small house, originally uploaded by *nichole*.

well lets see what we did this Sunday~

~realized that making my bed at the beginning of the day gives me the feeling that the rest of the day may possibly be organized, (possibly of course is the key word).

~got a little more Christmas decorating done, however I'm looking for a particular set of ornaments that I just can't find- maybe I'll continue the search tomorrow.

~did some knitting while watching football, the 49er's beat the Seahawks!

~ate waffles for dinner, including some curry onion waffles made by my hubby.

~washed and twisted my youngest daughter's hair-the tangles were aided by this product, so glad I found it at the local co-op.

~got some of these water globes for my plants from Ross. In all actuality I think they are a little silly, but I like the colors of the globes and they were of sale, I mean deep discount.

~realized that tomorrow needs to be my down day, because the rest of the week is going to be hectic-tutoring,piano practices, school Christmas play (two performances in the same day), church Christmas program, and some baking to do (or maybe buying-just depends).

The busyness of this time of year can catch me up in a whirlwind, but really this year my perspective is that what gets done will get done and what doesn't, doesn't- (or it can wait) because in the grand scheme of things I know I should be focusing on my loved ones and not on my expectations of what the "right" holiday should entail. Letting go (which isn't necessarily easy for me and my control freak tendencies) is perhaps the biggest gift we can give to ourselves and to others.

this evening

Our Monday night consisted of the usual-homework, dinner (squash soup with turkey salad sandwiches-yes still eating turkey), showers and chores.
I did however find a couple of moments to sit on the couch to look at a Josh Groban dvd (checked out from the library), knit a few rows-really just a few, and browse thru a couple of magazines~


~aren't these slippers so festive, maybe I could knit two pair, for the girls knitted gifts




~look at those cute animals and owls!


Josh on stage singing (I'm kinda silly to take a picture of my tv :)



~ribbed hat in progress, can you see my copy of MSL magazine peeking in there? I somehow just can't resist her Christmas/Holiday issues


~sweater, coming along slowly

so from now until Christmas, I'll get in one stitch at a time (hopefully more) whenever I can, wherever I can-because realistically I'm no jack rabbit when it comes to knitting, I'm more of a "tortoise" speed (perhaps tortoise and speed shouldn't be in the same sentence, huh?)
Have a wonderful evening!

for the love of knitting

knitting can be found on~

my arm, an i-cord bracelet


on my phone

my cup of coffee (a decaf mocha), both the cell phone case and coffee sleeve were given as gifts to me, thanks Tara!

my neck, keeping me warm

Hopefully this upcoming winter, with the rain coming down and winds whipping, I'll be found on my couch-blanket covering my legs, a warm cup of tea at my side with some yarn and needles in my hand, making more knitted things to love.

this week so far....

breakfast, originally uploaded by *nichole*.

The above picture is one of our breakfast on Sunday, waffles with homemade applesauce, a good way to start the week-don't you think?
We've also been working on fifth grade math (the distributive property). My oldest daughter and I worked on that Monday night- it took me back to my own grade school years and my lack of love for the subject, but I think by 9:30 pm it started to click- for the both of us.
Today the girls and I ate an early dinner right after school at Baja Fresh, then we visited the bookstore, and then decided it would be a good idea to get a sweet treat. Now its time to get ready for bed-I feel like night comes so early now with daylight savings time being over.
Other things I need to do this week include getting us some rain coats and some socks (the manager at Baja Fresh told me there are three seasons here, which are" rain, rain, and more rain-which somewhere in between is broken up with about fifty days of sunshine", oh boy, no wonder there is a coffee shop on every corner in town). The girls will start up piano lessons tomorrow. I found someone who teaches lessons in her home and she can teach the lessons back to back (before I was taking the girls on different days, but at that time my youngest had only half days in school). I'm hoping to get some more knitting done on my sweater this week too-I worked on it a little bit on Sunday. I don't want this new project to become a ufo!
You know, we've been in our new home for a little over two months and some days it seems more like home here than others. Change is very hard for me, I accept this, and I also realize that in the process I am growing, learning, and understanding that now matter where I am, God continues to bless us and gives us the grace we need.
grace.

at home....

~by the sink


~in my lap


I've got a little knitting going on, the pattern is here.

Have a good weekend!

photo February-day 9

bag, originally uploaded by *nichole*.

this
finally

knitted
and
felted.

took awhile.

hey I'm slow.

crafting out

Today I met some friends downtown at the yarn shop to do a little knitting (in my case I did do a little knitting, I mostly talked and enjoyed my coffee).
I had a fun time, in fact I know I need to do this more often (plus it's one of my crafting goals for this year). Hopefully I'll make the time for knitting, friends, coffee -all together- at least a a couple of times each month. It's so nice to get support and to admire the handiwork of others as well.

~hot drinks

~busy hands


~in the lap

a really nice way to spend a Sunday.



(just a little note~January was both a busy and emotionally tough month on the personal front, so for February I'm looking for new inspiration. I'm going to do a picture a day blogging-"photo February" -just taking a snapshot and then posting a few words about the picture or just about the day, I'm looking forward to this.)

Advent-day 9

a candle above the kitchen sink

Hey there. Is it possible to have cabin fever this early in the snow season? Well I think I'm getting a bit of the fever this evening. The girls have been handling staying in all day pretty well (we ventured outside yesterday, not today-the high was 10 degrees I think), -but of course siblings do what siblings do-disagree, then agree, then disagree-again, then agree-again. And I won't lie, it sometimes gets the better of me, but hey it's all a part of growing up (says the mother who grew up as an only child, to herself all. day. long.
Well we did manage to get some more Christmas decorations up and finally we got the tree up. Seems like the lights have gone missing though, so I've got to get some more tomorrow. We like to put the lights on first before the other ornaments of course, but at least the tree is up.
Our reading for Advent last night came from the book of Micah, Micah 5:2. This verse discuses how a Ruler will come from Bethlehem, from the nation of Judah. I love to see how passages of the Old Testament come to fruition in the New Testament, and understanding even more the connection between them.
Hubby was in charge of the Advent treat/gift last night so the girls got ice cream with chocolate syrup (yummy)!
On the knitting front I finished a pair of hand warmers for my oldest girl~

just in time for winter I'd say.
Hope you had a great Thursday.
Stay warm!

knit away

I knew it would happen. As soon as the weather turned cooler, the need for some wool in my hands became so clear. I'm still working on the bag, here it is so far~


can't wait to see it all done up and felted.

A trip to the local yarn shop yielded some malabrigo cosecha in my hands. The oranges, browns, greens are just wonderful representation of the Thanksgiving season-so that's why I'll now call this cowl my Thanksgiving cowl~



Knitting, with its rhythmic, repetitive movements has a way of letting my mind just focusing on what is at hand-literally. It helps my mental outlook and lets me realize (even when some of my stitches are less than ideal) that you just need to keep on keepin'on, both living and knitting.

(Sorry, but really its kinda of impossible for me not to look for life lessons everywhere- it's just me I guess :)

Happy Wednesday friends!

ufo's and apple love

Its really chilly today my friends-I think the high today is going to be 50 degrees, 20 degrees below the normal high (I get most my weather news from NPR as I'm taking the kids to school). Right now I have on a skirt with tights, socks,and two shirts. I'm determined not to turn on the heat so soon into the fall season-I think we can manage to wait it out a little longer. Well this chilly weather is conducive to one of my long lost hobbies (which I well neglected this past summer) knitting! Yes I've started a new project, a project I hope will be finished in a reasonable amount of time, because well-my closet is full of ufo's (unfinished objects of the knitting kind) that need my attention but have not gotten it. Right now I'm knitting a bag, a bag for autumn. Once I finish knitting it I'm going to felt it. The bag is very colorful, that's how I like things of course, and I'm looking forward to a finished product, I mean it-I'm for real this time (:

On the kitchen front we have been making apple desserts. This week I got a bunch of apples from one of the teachers at the school, so last night for dessert with had apple crisp with cream. The hot apples with the crunchy topping topped homemade whipped cream was so good, so appley! In fact the girls, who are prone not to like cooked fruit, ate it up.


This weekend we are also planning a trip to the apple orchard with a group from church which should be lots of fun. The change of seasons is always exciting, seeing the changes in nature-the colorful magnificence of God's palette.

baby blanket

blanket for baby, originally uploaded by *nichole*.

Around late June/early July of this summer I started making a small quilt for my lovely new niece. The quilt is small-measuring around 26 inches by 36 inches. I used squares from moda's Hello Betty charm pack. I sewed six squares together then sewed these six squares to another group of six squares (to make a bigger row). Then I sewed these twelve squares to large strips of pink fabric. I used cotton batting, and one piece of green fabric for the backing (the quilt is hand tied). The binding was machine stitched on the front then hand stitched on the back (hand stitching is great for a quilt of this size :).
This was so fun and gratifying to make, but I haven't done much sewing since. In fact my daughters have been asking me when I'm going to sew something again, and really I don't know-I'm thinking most likely when it gets a bit colder and there will be more time for crafting in general, I hope. But I am knitting up a dishcloth using this pattern and I kinda messed up on first couple of pattern rows, but I refuse to frog it-after all it's just going to be a dishcloth you know?

Tonight I'm thinking of making this for dinner, this soup along with some homemade pizza should do it.

small knitting

I was able to finish up a little knitting for a precious little someone, my dear new niece. The pattern for these baby booties is from the same book by Melanie Falick which has the pattern for the felted balls. See all that color, I need it-daily- and I know the little one receiving these will look so adorable in them.

So school has started for the girls and I'm feeling just a little overwhelmed, but its all good. I got up way early this morning and before nine a.m. I had~
*checked my e-mail
*put a load in the washer machine
*made breakfast
*washed dishes/started the dishwasher
*packed lunches
*checked backpacks
*bagged some tomatoes for the freezer
*helped the girls with better clothing options (its a bit cooler today)
*combed hair
*lotioned up faces
*drove kids to school

(I think I typed this list out so I could see what I've done so far today :) but regardless of my reasons for typing this list, I definitely think a little nap is in order. Who says that napping should be only for small ones, goodness-I think I need them even more now as I get older, how about you?

toodles.