New adventures

So begins the new adventures.

I am thinking about starting a new blog. One that refocuses my energy into something that works a bit more for me. I want something that can encompass my career path as a crafter, my dreams as an eventual mother and loving wife, and my crazy quirkiness of being a bit of a geek. I will still post here, just not as often as I had hoped. I hate that I never feel the motivation to actually make a post. I feel that every post needs to be crafty, and that every post needs to have a tutorial, or something of that nature. I don't feel the love anymore of this blog.

I am not giving up blogging, just giving up on this one for a bit. It'll still be here for reference, and it'll still have some new posts every once in a while, but keep your eyes open for a link to my new blog.

Thanks for all the fun!

A New Year with New Goals

I haven't been the best blogger this year, and I want to change that. Even if I don't have many readers, I want to chronicle my creative and crafty ideas, projects, and completions.

I figure if I put my goals up here, then I will be able to better account for my actions towards my goals. Now, I have plenty of non-tangible goals: removing neagtive energy from my life, going after more healthy habits and lifestyle choices, etc., but I do have plenty of tangible goals too.

Last week, I miscalculated my bank account, and didnt have enough on my card to get gas. the employee had already pumped the gas, and I was starting to panic! The lady in front of my in line offered to pay for my gas as well as her own. She asked only that I pay it forward when I could.


Now, paying it forward is usually thought of as a monetary thing, you are given a bit of money or something is bought for you, so you buy a cup of coffee for the next guy in the diner, or you leave $5.00 with the teller at the grocery store to pay for part of the next guys groceries...but what about paying it forward with your skills, rather than your wallet.

I have set for myself a goal, or a few goals, rather. a few goals.

In light of the loss of a friend from our local knitting group, I have started to look into donating to charities that accept handmade creations, hats, scarves, blankets, etc.

I want to make at least 1 hat every week until December 1, 2011 when I will donate them all to the regional FAN (Family Access Network) office to be distributed to students who need warm clothes from our local school districts.

I also want to make at least 1 baby blanket each month to donate to Grandma's House of Bend, a non-profit organization in my local area that works to shelter and educate teen parents and their children who have been made homeless by their situation.

I am also planning on getting a clientele set up for my baby shower boutique business, and lining up vendor accounts at local baby stores.

On the blog front, I want to make at least 1 post per week, even if it is just a picture, and a hello.

I am in my final year of school before I graduate, so I want to make certain that I stay on track. Last term I made Dean's List, which is an honor awarded only to those who take more than 12 credits per term and maintain a steady 3.60 or above GPA. I want to keep that up.

Finishes, and Baby Showers

I have an endless list of holiday knitting, but woke up this morning from a dream about knitting designs...

But that is for a later moment. For now, I need to update you on some finishes, some gifts I have been waiting to blog about until they were given, and some decent weather to photograph some of my finishes from last month.

So, here is all is!

We will start off with Fynn and his baby shower gifts. My friend Taylor is expecting her first child. She and her fiancee are a very non-orthodox couple. They requested that nothing be "typical baby". The nursery theme is pirates, and the baby shower was themed Jungle.

That got me thinking, every new parent I know has a blanket that they really like to put on their baby's crib or to wrap them up in when they are running about town with their little one. I wanted the blanket I made for them to be a representation of their personality as much as a gift for the baby.

Here you have it:

Yep, that is right, those are pirate skulls on a hand embroidered baby quilt...I wish I could have gotten better pics of that, but the pic I got of the skulls up close were a bit too blurry to save.

I also gave with this set, a handmade card (should have gotten pics of that too), as well as a granny square blanket crocheted out of Joann Sensations Rainbow Boucle in Blue (self striping) and a matching hat, as well as a couple of outfits, and I will be taking washcloths and burp cloths to her in the hospital when she has baby Fynn, I didn't finish making them before the shower.

Next, I have been trying to get some photos of some of the finishes I have done, the main one being the climbing shells scarf that I did over a month ago.

With school and the weather being so annoying, I couldn't get anything decent.

This was my first attempt:

Not so great, right?

How about this one?

I decided to try something, I decided to go into the bathroom, turned on the light, used the mirror to see my digital screen and used the auto setting on my camera... That way, your camera isnt fighting the light facing you, it is only using that light.

 Next thing I wanted to show... I have seen those adorable ear warmer headbands that have fun buttons or cute flowers offset to one side or the other, they wrap under your hair and cover your ears for those cold mornings, and frosty nights walking the dogs or heading to school.


Here is my rendition:  The Head-hugger!

Really simple garter stitch with big needles and super bulky yarn... I will post a recipe for this design in my next separate post...


You will also be able to find it on Ravlery. It is SUPER warm, and I got so many compliments today at school.

I am about half way through my diagonal garter baby blanket with eyelet border, but didn't get photos yet, and I think I might do another version of the Back-2-School with Flair scarf in Lion Brand Homespun, also, I may have found an adequate yarn replacement for the suggested, but discontinued Moda Dea Dream I used on the original for this pattern...