Cool days ahead.

I love this weather!!! It's about 70 degrees outside, a beautiful blue sky with a few puffy clouds. Did I say clouds we never have clouds in the summertime.



Apples, pumpkins, mums, apple cider, sunflowers, scarecrows, hay bales, corn stalks, raw apple cake, leaves changing color, vineyard harvest this is what makes this time of year a favorite of mine. Where is my camera??


Busy, Busy Busy. Does anyone else out there knit for holiday shows. I love it but it is a bit time consuming and no matter how early I start I always feel a little behind. Here are a few of my hats. The skateboarders and snowboarders love these....

Talk to you later...

Barter for the Holidays

Hi guys,

I like to share this site with you http://www.maryjanesfarm.com/snitz/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=25 This is the barter section of their website. Tina came up with a great idea about bartering for Christmas presents so if your interested go by and visit. I personally think its a great idea and what a wonderful way to get handmade gifts for everyone on Santas list. I am going to put together a listing of items that I'm making with a description and a barter price (or selling price) and then shipping would be extra depending on the weight of the item. So what do you think. There is so much talent out there ladies lets get to bartering. To see pictures of what I'm making look for the word BARTER under the labels section.

Good Morning!!

Hi girls been busy hope everyone is enjoying their summer. The weather here has been beautiful , mid 80's. The plants are also enjoying the cooler air. My plants did not take the move well and it just now looks like they are going to recover.

We have these neighbors that just keep helping themselves to whatever plants they like, so they stripped my peach trees of their peaches, the impatiens of all their flowers and anything else that takes their fancy like the grass that we are trying to bring back from the dead.

But how can you stay mad they're so cute.

Well I thought I would share my project, still in the making, a knit cosmetic bag. I love the stitch, looks hard but its not. I need to line the bag and add a zipper. Will show you when its complete.

front

back

close-up

Also, here is a mosaic lazy susan that I made. Loved how it turned out.

And I haven't posted any pictures of flowers lately, refer to first paragraph. But I was

able to take a of snap of these mums.

Hope your dog days are bearable.

Where is the time going?

I can't believe how fast the time is going. I am still trying to get the house in order from the move and knowing in the back of my head that the holiday shows are right around the corner. I have been knitting but have not felted anything, so nothing much to show except for this pile that will hopefully turn into beautiful purses, credit card holders, washcloths and knitting

needle holders

If all turns out well (the joy of felting, never quite knowing for sure what you might get) the chocolate brown becomes a felted messenger bag

Washcloths

I also need to work on my mosaics but it is icky hot outside and I have NO desire to go out in 100 degree weather.

Look at the pictures my daughter took of the hot air balloons that take off every morning from the valley. Pretty cool. Nice pictures Jennifer.

I was also very lucky and tied for first in blackout bingo from the Virtual Vacation Swap

www.virtualvacationswap.blogspot.com/ I just received four skeins of Knit Picks Crayon in red and two wonderful bars of Lime Margarita handmade soap (smells wonderful) from Sharon at http://www.soaps-n-stuff.com/ . Go by and check out her wonderful soaps. How very lucky I am! Thank you, Anne, Jessica and Sharon.

Take care everyone and enjoy your weekend

Making things

Meet the kitties

strutting their stuff

Here are some pictures of some things that I have made recently for a blog buddy. Valerie has 2 cats Kiya and Sigh and she loves embroidery so I thought I would embroider her some napkins with her kitties on the front and I also made her a skull washcloth. Too much fun.

Meet Kiya

and Sigh

OOOOOOOoooooooooooooo

Spooky huh. ; )

Love knitting washcloths. Quick and easy.

Peace

I'm bbbbaaaaacccckkkkkk!!!!

HELLO everybody. I have missed you all. Well we are finally in, there were times that it looked like it was not going to happen but finally everything fell in place and here we are. Oh happy days......

There is so much to talk about and I have some pictures to share. So lets get going. First a picture of the house. I'll show you the inside once we have everything in and situated.



Here are the boys swimming at the lake.



and that's our house just below the ridgeline at the center of the picture. It's beautiful here and we are very blessed to be able to live here.






Now pictures of the felted bag that I made for my swap buddy Lia for the SFBE. I also made an organizer to insert in the bag and you can take it out and use it in all you handbags or totes. Hope she likes it.












I am very happy with how it turned out.

Well it has been fun to be back at the blog will talk to you guys soon.

Enjoy

Show and Tell

Thought I would share the things that I sent to my swap buddy for the Spring Felted Bag Exchange. I made a few of the items. The napkins that you have seen earlier in the blog, I felted the blue and black striped change purse with the flower, the embroidered felt ladybug pincushion and I also made the felted knitting needle holder with the three red flowers. I was really happy with how that turned out. It's a nice way to keep you needles together and to keep them from getting scratched.






So tell me what you think...



Take care

Swap spoiler!!

Well, my daughter and I started cleaning out the garage today preparing for the move, we had a garage sale on Monday, Memorial Day with all the things that we had cleaned out from inside the house. We thought it would be a great day for a sale, but everyone must have had other plans, it was a little slow. So we will try again this Saturday with all the goodies left from the last sale and the new goodies from the garage. I don't think anyone cares about my old craft supplies like I do. Well wish us luck!!

I sent away both of my swaps yesterday so I thought I would share some pictures of what I sent to one of my buddies, I need to make sure my other buddy receives her package before I post pictures. (She comes here to visit and I don't won't to ruin the surprise). The first swap is a Bees. Butterflies and Birdhouse Swap. All items needed to be handmade. First I knitted a blue butterfly wash cloth (I've never tried that before, it was fun knitting from a graph)

I also sent along some bath salts,





then I embroidered a pair of napkins with bees buzzing




and last I made a mini mosaic birdhouse (about 3 inches) on a stick (something everyone
needs, LOL).










Hope Mooki99 enjoys!

Maybe tomorrow I will be able to show the other swap. The first of 2 packages (full of all kinds of goodies) for Lia at the Spring Felted Bag Exchange, the second package is a felted purse and that needs to be shipped by the end of June. Then I have one more swap (embroidered pincushion) and then I done with swaps for awhile.

It was fun to share. Talk to you in a couple of days.

Garage Sale

I am learning to embroider and am loving it. I basically do the stem stitch, back stitch and french knots. But its amazing what you can do with those stitches, and I am much more a student of the Sublime Stitching http://www.sublimestitching.com/ school of embroidery then the more intricate embroidery that is so gorgeous.

My new project, a set of napkins that I designed of a dandelion clock (you know that fluffy flower that you love to blow on when you were a kid or if your like me you still like to blow them into the wind).

So now on to the info about garage sales. Well, I look forward to spring for many reasons: the trees starting to get their leaves, the new grass, that special color of green that you see only at this time of year, flowers, flowers and more flowers and of course garage sales. My daughter and I get up on Saturday mornings and go crazy checking out all the sales. We love to collect all kinds of goodies. Jenn enjoys getting things for her 2 boys and I am always on the search for yarn, fabric, gently used linens, craft supplies and things for the garden. So I thought I would share what I was lucky enough to find: this embroidery stand that my fluff napkin is on and it was only 5 dollars, too cool. The women that I bought it from had given it to her Mom for a present and her Mom had recently passed away, she was happy that the embroidery stand was going to a home where it would be appreciated again, and it will.

Everyone take care and enjoy all that you have been blessed with,

Jane

Magic 8 Ball

Bet you didn't know that I was a fortune teller LOL. Well, I knew this was going to be fun even before I started cutting the glass for this project.

Also, I thought I would share some pictures of beach glass that we collected from Glass Beach in Point Arena, CA. This beach was used as the city dump for years and then the city reclaimed the area and now the beach shows its appreciation by giving back the glass now with edges softened and polished.

Enjoy.

Jane