Top ‘O’ The Mornin To Ya!

Happy St Patrick’s Day!

I don’t have a drop of Irish in me (at least I don’t think I do) and being English we have never celebrated St Patty’s Day, but I know many of you do, so I wanted to wish you a wonderful day. And even though we don’t celebrate it, I still love to see all the decor and fun ‘green’ things around. If Kristen was in school no doubt she’d wear green too ;-) I have a few ‘green’ things I thought I’d share with you today, and I’m joining in with Ginny for this week’s YARN ALONG!

Ginny, like me (and many others, as you will see from her Mr. Linky) loves to knit AND read! I don’t think there’s ever a time I don’t have something on my needles and a book on my side table . . . this week I’ve been reading The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie! It’s for our monthly book club pick, and our meeting is tonight. I’ve got about 10 pages left to read today!

The story is about an 11 yr old ‘detective’! An aspiring ‘chemist’ at that! When Flavia discovers a murdered stranger in the cucumber patch outside her bedroom window early one morning, she decides to leave aside her flasks and Bunsen burners to solve the crime herself. . . . it was an ‘ok’ read (when it comes to reviews I can never quite find the right words!) not something I would have picked off the shelf myself. There are other books in the series but I don’t think I will be reading them. The only thing I kept thinking is ‘how does an 11 yr old know SO much!’ The way she acted, and the things she said were more in keeping with a much older person.

Usually I would take a picture of the book with my knitting but as usual one item was upstairs while I was downstiars with the other, and I’m lazy, so I just snapped a shot of my knitting ;-)

And the knitting is this . . .

This is the beautiful ‘Spring Garden Tee’ from the lovely Alana at Never Not Knitting. She has some gorgeous patterns, and I just bought this one last week while she was having a ‘spring sale’. There is also a little girl top that matches this (actually she did the little size first and got such rave reviews she designed an adult version too).

The pattern is modeled by the beautiful Julie from Knitted Bliss. You can see full size modeled shots HERE. The pictures are gorgeous! I can’t imagine mine looking so nice, but I hope it does! As you can see I’ve picked a pretty soft green bamboo yarn, perfect for Spring.

And finally, this little guy is on my needles, just about finished. (picture above taken from the magazine cover) Just one of the many Christmas gifts I’m knitting this year, so I won’t say who it’s for (actually I’m not sure who it is for just yet)! The yarn is Lion Brand ‘Homespun’, readily available at Michaels and Hobby Lobby.

So, that’s my ‘green’ day. What’s yours looking like?

Busy Busy Busy!

Is it really Wednesday already? Whaaaa! This week is going too fast, but I must say I’m really enjoying the downtime from early morning school days.

I’m still working on a whole new look for my blog (with the help of a certain someone), all will be revealed soon – I can’t wait! In the mean time I’m going to start posting as I said I would and incorporate my knitting, crafts, healthy eating etc here, because it’s all of these things that make Me who I am, and make my blog what it is all about, my ‘daily’ life.

Housework is going by the wayside this week! I am busy busy busy in my craft room coming up with new ideas for my Etsy store and to sell at craft fairs with Cheryl. And when I say ‘craft room’ I mean the guest room, with a craft table set up next to the guest bed, because Jason won’t give up the storage room to me so that I can create my own space!! So, the guest/craft room it is for now.

Something new I’m making this week . . . . shoe bags!

These are great for packing your shoes or flipflops in your suitcase when travelling, keeping them separate from your clothing. They don’t have to just carry shoes, they can also be used to keep your ‘smalls’ or socks all together in the case. I’ve made myself a similar one to carry my small knitting project with me when I take Kristen to piano lesson.

I love this chic butterfly print, and I’ve added a pretty little butterfly charm to the ribbon tie too. I’ll be making larger bags too that can be used as laundry bags. Be kind to the environment and leave those plastic 'laundry bags at the hotel!! :-) These will be in my Etsy shop soon.

I’m also working on my birdfeeders too. We think these will do really well at the next craft fair. A perfect gift for Mothers Day!

I was trying to take pictures using a ‘light box’ I made (but I need ‘natural light’ bulbs to make it work well), once I get some spring flowers planted I can probably take pictures outside again!

So, that’s what’s keeping me busy this Wednesday. I’m linking up with Kara for . . . .

Spring Break!

I love when Spring Break coincides with Daylight Savings… it meant I wasn’t trying to get up for school this morning at 6am, which to me would still feel like 5am until I adjust to that one hour we lost! I did however get up with Jason at 7.30am (which is really 6.30am) so not much of a sleep in this morning! I can’t just lay in bed and let him get up for work on his own though… silly of me really when he has no problem sleeping til after 7 every morning when I get up for school!

So, no school for a week – hooray :-) Spring Break started last Thursday for Kristen. Jason decided to keep her off school and go camping with his friends a day early. They were going to go on Friday afternoon but his friends were going Thursday, so he did too. Camping isn’t my thing, so I told them to go try it themselves (it’s been years since any of us have been) and perhaps next time I might try it with them?!

I thought they might not be back til Saturday or Sunday, but I was thrilled when they decided to come home the very next day. Short trip I know but a few factors made them decide to come home early. One, it got really cold during the night, and Kristen didn’t sleep very well (she said it was very cold PLUS Daddy snored alot!) and sadly the air mattress Jason took didn’t hold air (must have a leak we didn’t know about ) and by morning they were sleeping on hard ground!

Jason had taken my van so I was more or less stuck in the house, because I do not like driving his Corvette! So I was rather thrilled that they came home early…. I was missing them both like crazy.

Here’s some pictures they took with my camera . . .

They camped at Inks Lake State Park, which is just about an hour from us.

Kristen loved catching butterflies and then letting them go.

I’m working on a new look for my blog and as I mentioned in my last post, will blog about my knitting and healthy eating here too…. so stay tuned, I feel like I have lots to ‘journal’ about now :-)

Thank You!

I want to thank you all for your comments in my last post. Your kind and thoughtful words really meant a lot to me, and everything you said made sense :-) It made me really think about why I have this blog. I have this blog because I LOVE blogging, I think I’d be kinda lost without it to be honest. I blog not just for my family and friends, but for ME too. I just lost track of that for a little bit I think.

I’ve decided to keep my blog open :-) I’ve also decided to ‘merge’ my blogs. I will write about my knitting here, and my healthy eating, and my cooking and my gardening (when I do it) and everything else in between that makes up my ‘Daily Life’

I’m working on ‘re-organizing’ things around here. . . . I’ll be back next week hopefully with a new look - stay tuned!

Been thinking!!

I’ve been thinking a lot about this blog lately, why I started it, where it’s heading? I’ve always enjoyed blogging but lately I just can’t seem to find the creativity that seems to be needed to make a worthy post!

There was a time (when Kristen was younger) I would just sit here and journal about things that happened on a daily basis – hence the title of my blog! But over the past year or so (or has it been longer) I seem to have veered off track a little? When I look back at my posts, I don’t see a journal like I used to have, but posts about things I think might interest ‘my readers’!!

My READERS?!!! When did that happen? When did I start thinking like that? I always blogged for my family back home and for ‘friends’ I’d met on line. Most of you who read my blog I consider dear sweet friends, so who are my ‘readers’?

I’m wondering if that’s why I don’t feel like I have much to blog about, because the ‘readers’ out there would find my usual posts about doing laundry and making crafts, or knitting or planting flowers, boring! Not to mention that I haven’t taken a picture of anything ‘blog worthy’ in I don’t know how long!!

I think I need to ‘re-think’ this blog. I’m not sure if I should just close it or take a little (or long) break, as some do when they feel they have nothing to blog about.

Thinking. . . . . . . .

It’s about time. . .

OK, so enough of this procrastination! The house work is getting done, laundry is up to date (sort of), kitchen is tidy (sort of), I have craft stuff I’ve put to one side since before Christmas and it’s about time I got it out! I have things I can list in my Etsy shop if I would only get some photos taken, I have material to sew more aprons, if I would only plug in my sewing machine – you get the idea . . . it’s TIME to get moving.

Today I started making more tea cup bird feeders. I’ll be listing them soon.

Spring is on it’s way and I think these will be a great seller as everyone starts getting out in to their garden more and clearing up flower beds (something else I need to start doing), and of course Mothers Day is just around, what great gifts these make.

I have also listed two pretty aprons in my Etsy shop . . .

I bought some cute material a few weeks ago and will finally get out my sewing machine again and start making more. The next aprons will be a little bigger , without the flower and longer ties to wrap around the front.

So, if I get on and ‘do stuff’, then I’ll have more ‘stuff’ to blog about right? RIGHT!

What to post about?

I’m seriously having writers block here. It’s hard to post about stuff when you don’t do stuff!!!! Just wanted to let you know that I’m still around, trying to read blogs and comment, but I have nothing to share with you here :-(

I’ll have to put my thinking cap on! All my days are filled with laundry, house cleaning, eating ‘healthy’ lunches, making ‘healthy’ dinners, walking on my treadmill going to the grocery store and knitting! Doesn’t make for a very interesting read!

I’m sure I’ll have more to post about as the weather warms up and I get off my butt and get outside more, but until then, well there’s always my Healthy Blog or Knitting Blog to check up on too ;-) Sometimes I KNOW what to post about there!

Thanks for sticking around :-)