Mish Mash

Yet another mish mash of photos from the past week. Some from sewing, a few from the beach, a bit from home, and a couple of my favorite pup. Oh how I love her so. She is such a comfort to me. Happy Sunday!

a few photos

^Lately I have been feeling quite uninspired when it comes to my shop. I've had a pretty serious creative block the past few days. Looking forward to it passing. I really need to find my groove again. Anyway I did manage to make the simple prototype pictured above. Hopefully this weekend I can gather some more inspiration. ^So much pretty yarn waiting to be sorted and put away. I feel as though I can never get enough. I'm completely addicted. ^Cute little alpaca my mom gifted me for Christmas. She knows me so well. It's pretty sweet. ^Giant crochet rug that I need to start working on again.

Weekend at home

I had my wisdom teeth removed on Friday so this entire weekend was spent at home. It consisted of knitting, endless catnaps, reading, soup making, and yarn dyeing. Not bad at all for a weekend in. Luckily the tooth pain was completely tolerable with the medicine the doctor prescribed to me. The only severe pain I felt was on Friday when the anesthesia wore off and my pain prescription was not ready for pick up. Oh I felt like I had been repeatedly punched in the face. Not fun! But today I am doing very well. Still quite swollen but ready to get back into the swing of things. Looking forward to going back to work tomorrow after a nice long and enjoyable holiday break. 1. Wool soaking in a mordant which allows the color to adhere to the fiber
2. Curious Mimi checking things out.
3. The wool just before being submerged into the dye pot. The dye was made from the pits of avocados. Quite a bit of color was extracted from the five pits I used.
4. The finished product. I am so happy with the results and am really looking forward to starting a project with the yarn on the left.
5.Today I made a simple lentil curry. I think it turned out great and will definitely make it again.
6. Yesterday I made a butternut squash soup and it was so very good. I needed sage and thought that sage growing in the backyard had died but I was pleasantly surprised it was alive and doing very well. Next time I make the soup I'll have to share the recipe. It's such a quick and easy but seriously tasty dinner recipe.
Hope you all had a Happy New Year!

A Day Spent in Santa Barbara

Spent the day with my sister, cousins and friend, Nelson, who is visiting from Scotland.

Life Lately

These past couple weeks have been extra busy. Between work, church, and other responsibilities Iv'e been using any free time I have for Christmas festivities and gift making. I'm so glad I was able to finish making all the Christmas gifts I planned on knitting. I was really getting worried that some of my projects wouldn't be completed in time. That's the thing with Christmas knitting, you usually have to start making gifts in August for them to be ready by the 25th of December. Oh, the joys of handmade! I was unable to take photos of all my Christmas makes but hopefully I can photograph them soon with there recipients and share them in this space. Aside from the knitting I did a whole lot of baking and quite a bit of gift wrapping. I truly enjoy taking the time to make and wrap gifts. Every handmade gift is so personal and much time and thought goes into each one. During the process of making something for someone they are constantly on my mind.
Well, I do hope everyone had a lovely Christmas. I wish you a Happy New Year! xo

Gift Making

These days any spare time I have is spent working on gifts for friends and family. I adore both gifting and receiving handmade gifts. I think it's so wonderful to be able to give a unique and one of kind present. This weekend I finished a quilt for one of my favorite littles. I hope it will be something she will cherish as time passes. I chose to do the most basic and simple quilt pattern there is. Six by six inch squares sewn together. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. It is sewn with some of the same fabrics I used in the clothing items I've sewn for her this past year. Looking forward to sharing more photos of gifts I made this holiday season. I just have to get them to friends and family first before I share them on the blog. I don't want to ruin the surprise for them. Happy Christmas!

snaps

A couple of snaps from the day.
1. Spun some Carole King (Tapestry). A well worn album I thrifted a couple years ago.
2. Scored this hand painted beauty thrifting today.
3. Christmas projects in the making. So much to knit so little time.