Why Hello Blogger, I forgot all about you.

HI! It has been 7 months to the day that I have posted anything here. I'm sorry. I can't believe I have any followers left!! I guess no news is better than some random, crazy ramblings. Right? Well, yeah, I'm still here. Not really crafting a whole lot since this is the current state of my craft desk:

That's right! All packed up! We are moving July 15th. Yay! Can't wait. Wish I could say that we bought a house but um... yeah, not in the cards at the present moment. But we are getting out of the large apartment complex buildings which I am so grateful for.

For your listening pleasure:

Hope your spring is off to a good start. Summer is right around the corner and my kids' last day of school is tomorrow! eep! I can't wait for September!

Cheers!

rawr. Grizzly Bear. (rawr love.)

I found this and fell in love. Just wanted to share.

My mess and gifts.

See this mess? This is the area that is normally so inspiring for me. Well, needless to say, in this chaotic state it leaves much to be desired. Reorganizing this mess is definitely on my to-do list. Hopefully soon. I am doing quite a bit of knitting right now but that is no excuse for it to look like this. :(

I got presents in the mail today. :) Presents from my good friend myklia who is such a sweetheart! On to the goods...

LOVELY yarn. I can't believe how soft this 100% acrylic yarn is! I am usually a really big yarn snob but this stuff has melted my snobby heart. The first is a Halloween inspired colorway and the second is what we are calling 'super hero' because well, it looks like you put a bunch of super heroes in a blender and mixed them all up. Hows that for imagery?

She was also a doll and sent me some FABULOUS craft felt. I am obsessed with craft felt lately and I have never seen these textured sheets before!! LOVE them! (hmm... what can I make with these????) Thank You Jeanette!

My Grandmother.

My Grandmother passed away on October 30, 2009 and I just wanted to share some photos that I found in one of her many boxes that were given to me. There are so many refreshed memories in this box, these three photos are just a brief sampling of the woman that she was.

I miss her very much. I had the opportunity to say my goodbye last week and the following day she suffered another stroke and was left completely unresponsive. I am so Thankful for taking that hour just to sit with her and enjoy her brief moments of lucidity.

Love. Take a moment today and think of someone and do something, say something, just for them to let them know how you cherish their impact on your life.


Photo 1: My brother, myself, Grandma. (Guessing 1994?)
Photo 2: Myself, Grandma (1998)
Photo 3: My Grandma holding my brother, I am standing. (1983)

NaKnitMo

a.k.a. National Knit Month. NaKnitMo is a group that I belong to on Ravelry see group: NaKnitMo
which in the month of November, each member strives to meet their number of stitches knit goals. It is a knitter's version of the National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo where novelists are striving for a 50,000 word goal.

Well, I am not a writer. Pretty obvious right??? Since I have fewer than 20 blog posts and only 6 (WONDERFUL) followers. I don't really have a lot to say and even less patience putting it down. But, I am quite fond of knitting. AND the Holidays are quickly approaching. I have some holiday knitting that I need to get cracking on. What better incentive?

If you feel like joining, GREAT! If not, feel free to cheer me on. I plan on updating my ravelry projects page with finished objects for this and hopefully this blog.

Happy Knitting!!

p.s. This is my first attempt at a ticker... please forgive me if this doesn't update.

Information for Swap Partners

Hi! I have seen so many other posts like this and always appreciated knowing that someone took the time for their partners to get this all down in one place for easy reference.

Allergies:

• Alpaca. This is a very serious allergy for me. I cannot have anything with any amount of alpaca fibers in it.
  
• Nickle. I am allergic to most metals but nickle being the usual trigger of reactions. I have been known to have problems with sterling silver and stainless steel too. Because of these allergies, I rarely wear jewelery even if it is beaded because I just never got into the routine of doing so.
  
• Not allergies but bothersome just the same: Cigarette smoke and synthetic fragrances. These can trigger migraines.

Colors:

• LOVE: Olive, eggplant, rust, mustard, jewel tones and I LOVE browns. I wear a lot of earth and rich jewel tones.
• PASS: I am not a fan of pastels. Especially pink. I like to say that I am allergic to pink. ;-)

Supplies:
Supplies are always a safe bet for me.

• I am currently obsessed with anything relating to felt. So, craft felt be it wool or synthetic, wool yarn for fulling, roving for needle felting would all be welcome with open arms.
• Yarn: I am a yarnie and will always be a yarnie. I find myself using more wool these days but would welcome almost any blend except fun fur types or alpaca blends of course.
• Sizzix dies: I recently purchased a sizzix bigkick machine and would love it if anyone has any dies to share.
  
• Paper: This ties in with the above information. Any scrapbooking paper.
  

Well, this is a start. I hope this helps someone. I will probably add a similar post sometime soon. Until then, Happy Swapping!

The Purple Potato Experiment

Last Tuesday, after work, I visited one of our local Farmer's Markets. It is a great time of year to do so as many of the vegetables are reaching their peak. I picked up some sweet corn, carrots, onions, an eggplant and something new... Purple Potatoes! These were a new sighting for me! Turns out not so new for other people. Well... I wondered what I would do with these. I wanted to try something that might highlight the purpleness of them. Purpleness? Like how I just made that word up?
Above: Washed and waiting to be peeled. Bellow: Peeled and waiting to be grated. Yes, they are purple throughout.
I wanted to show how pretty it looked as I grated them. Just one tip though. Don't wear a white shirt while doing this. The juices from the potato sprayed my white shirt while grating and now I have a purple polka dotted white shirt. Bummer.
I had 8 or so medium sized potatoes. I added 2 eggs, salt and pepper, and enough flour to create a pancake batter like consistency. It might have been a 1/2 c. or so. I just spooned it in until it seemed right.Naturally, I don't have any photos of the cooking phase but I heated a griddle on medium and then added some butter before spooning a bit of the mixture onto the hot pan. Fry them up, flip, press down and let other side crisp up a bit. I added onions in only some of these as I am the only one that likes onions. But they added so much flavor, I definitely recommend the addition. As you see, the purple fades to an unappetizing gray. Um, they look like meat pancakes. A bit disappointing. Oh well. They still tasted pretty darn good.