Matt found that he loves linen clothing a few years ago. Since then, we have dabbled with linen bed sheets, linen curtains, linen placemats.... These linen napkins make me happy to look at, and I would love to add them to my giant stack of cloth napkins.
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| Linen Napkins from Magic Linen |
My engagement ring is a Yogo Sapphire, found in Montana, and I have a huge soft spot for sapphires in rings. Well, I have a soft spot for sapphires set in anything...but rings especially. The shop that creates this ring does enrapturing work, and this has got to be my favorite item of theirs.
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| Blue Sapphire Ring from Nangijala Jewelry |
Well, the snow and ice outside would lead me to believe that perhaps this isn't the best time of year to be shopping for skirts. But a girl can dream of warmer days! Or maybe just dream of warmer tights to wear under the skirt...
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| Wool Ruffled Skirt from Love To Love You |
Christmas is on it's way, and these adorable ornaments would cheer up any tree! She doesn't have one featuring a white kitty with brilliant blue eyes - at least not yet! But maybe once we reach out and ask nicely...we might just get a Norman Santa ornament for our tree :)
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| Custom Christmas Cat Ornament from Art by Julene |
Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone, and most folks are putting up their trees. I usually fight this time of year - it all seems so silly for us to take the time to put up decorations that will come down in a month, when it's just the two of us, and no children to spoil. Norman could use a little spoiling, but cats and Christmas trees aren't the best of friends. Maybe by next week I'll feel a little more in the spirit, but today I am holding onto another season, and another sort of decorating. This flower vase is so intriguing - simple and yet alluring in it's complexity. I could imagine lots of surfaces for this to sit on (maybe especially that Bourbon shelf from a few weeks ago! Or just the shelves I already have...but what's the fun in that??) and I can see my beautiful Iris sitting up in this bowl. Where would you put yours?
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| Single Tube Flower Vase from Loma Prieta Pottery |
They say time flies, and boy does it. I'm not sure what happened to the month of November, since we're almost at the end of it already. Thursday is Thanksgiving, and I'm excited to have the day with Matt. Of course, he is scheduled to have wrist surgery on Wednesday, so it'll be even more a day of rest than usual. :)
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| Thanksgiving 2018, with the Hoffmans |
Matt and I have both been struggling to get out and exercise regularly, but we are hoping to get out and get a nice hike in today.
I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday this week!
This bookmark is just gorgeous!! It reminds me of fairy tales, wood fires, and hot apple cider in a heavy mug.
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| Leather Bookmark from Rogue Apparatus |
I love the smell of lavender. It is soothing and clean and herbal and amazing. I have lavender hand soap in the upstairs bathroom, and lavender lotion pretty much everywhere. Lavender scents go in Matt's DoTerra machine, and my Scentsy lights. This year especially I have been calmed by the scent, and continuously find myself drawn to it. This soap sounds like an excellent addition to our collection!
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| Lavender Oatmeal Soap from Amelia Bath & Body |
How cool are these little shelves?? This shop sells other items that are also made from recycled Kentucky Bourbon Barrels - perfect gifts for the bourbon lovers in your life. :)
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| Small Shelf from Kentucky Live Edge |
Apart from Halloween earrings, this is not my favorite time of year. Scary stuff doesn't sit well with me, unless it's tempered with humor - like Supernatural, or tempered with humour - like Midsomer Murders and other British Murder Mysteries. :) Anyhow - I do so love black/blue/gray kitties, and they are probably my favorite symbol of Halloween. This image has been in my favorites list on Etsy for years - it is adorable.
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| Russian Blue Cat Portrait by The Lonely Pixel |
Hello!
It's been a while. My weekends have been full of Japanese homework, knitting, garden cleanup, and flower bed creation. Now the ground is covered in a foot (at least!) of snow, we have a weekend off from homework, and I am between knitting projects as of right this moment!
I pulled out the leather working supplies and started making my leather tags for the knitting - they are pretty cool! But it was a day full of learning lessons about all the little intricacies - how wet should the leather be? How far apart should the stamps be? Should they go the same direction or upside down? Which of my scraps work for the stamping? Should I buy the heat gun so I can burn the suede style leathers since they won't stamp?? There were also lessons learned on how large the holes need to be in the leather so that I can actually get the needle through, (bigger than I expect they should be) and how to keep the label straight on the knitting while I stitch it (lesson still being learned...) But, overall, I'm pleased with the project. It has been years in the making, and finally seeing the labels on my hats and scarves is very satisfying.
The knitting projects always come in waves for me - I wanted to work on my colorwork mittens, so I have yarn set aside to make about four different pairs. Of course I didn't swatch my new yarn, assuming it would work since it is sport weight, and while the mittens will fit a variety of hands, they look very silly - long and thin. So...now I have to decide how to proceed - do I rework the pattern to fit my yarn or do I find yarn to fit my pattern? I also have two different colorwork patterns that I want to test out, and one is quite a bit smaller than the other - so that raises even more questions. What it really means though, is that I am doing a lot of thinking about knitting and a lot of charting, and a lot of math, but not actually a lot of knitting.
With the holidays coming up, I have several custom order malas to be working on, so I'll need to get my thoughts and materials gathered for that. Yesterday I worked on my Etsy listings for the jewelry shop, I have jars of jewelry sitting on the coffee table staring at me: earrings and bracelets and necklaces that have yet to be photographed or listed.
We shoveled three times yesterday and once on Thursday - so we are fully into snow season! Matt and I are hoping to get out in it today, put on our long johns and go enjoy the sunshine and the blinding white snow. Hope you all have a lovely week!
Matt bought me coin pearl earrings and a matching necklace a few years ago, and since then I've been really intrigued by all kinds of pearls. This shop has many beautiful examples, but this pair in particular caught my eye....
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| Dainty Pearl Earrings from Crystal Glow Design |
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| Merino-Silk Top Roving from Pacific Wool and Fiber |
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| Orange and Calendula Bath Bombs from Bath Thyme Bakery |
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| Agate and Gold Earrings from Gypsy Jade Soul |
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| Hand Painted Shoes from Painted Peacock Shop |
Some weeks I have no idea where the time went. This is one of those! Most weeks when I sit down to write these I have to pick and choose from all the things I've done with my time, and then there are some weeks where I stare at the screen and think, "Gosh, what did I do this week?" The fires in the West (and still smoldering on the other side of the Bridgers) meant that our air quality has been pretty rough all week, so my energy levels were pretty low. Yesterday we had rain, and it has brought our area back down to a green/yellow dot, so hopefully we can get out and do more now! Friday I had the day off and worked in the backyard, clearing the deck so our landlord can paint, and then working on clearing bulbs and sod from my back flower bed. Yesterday I ordered new bulbs to plant, and picked up some bricks for the edging :)
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| Pink Snow Crocus |
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| Iolite and Labradorite Bracelet |
はじめまして、よろしく おねがいします。(How do you do, pleased to meet you.)
Hope you all have wonderful weeks and we'll chat next week :)
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| Wall Hanging from Native Vermont |
Hello!
Sorry I haven't posted the last two weeks. We have hit the time of year where I have more work than time! Last weekend we had a pretty nasty fire in the Bridger mountains, and on Monday we had snow fall and a killing temperatures. Matt and I spent all day last Sunday moving plants and picking everything that was even close to ripe. We managed to save the majority of our bucket tomatoes, but a lot of the plants in the raised beds didn't make it. We did manage to make some stuff and do some canning, and we now have about 16 jars of salsa sitting on the shelf!
With the weather turning cooler, I have been driven to do more knitting. I've made about five hats in the last two weeks, and a pair of mittens! I have a lot more yarn just waiting to be turned into something warm for the winter. I try to keep my crafting area clean - but right now it's a bit of a mess, with yarn recently finished and waiting to be put away and yarn waiting in skeins, the ball winder has been out and in use for a little over a week straight. I figure the knitting fever will slow soon and I can get all my needles and notions and yarns all organized and put away.
Since I've been doing so much knitting, I haven't done much for jewelry making, but I have a few things on the back burner. Matt's mom has sent us some findings for jewelry making, and I'm excited to turn those into necklaces and earrings. I have two more commissioned malas to make as well, and I've been turning those over in my mind, what stones and what design I want to use.
I am taking a day off this coming week and I'm hoping to get some good work done in the garden - I need to trim things back, dig up annual bulbs, and set down some cardboard to prep new beds for next spring. I wish you all luck with your fall efforts, and hope everyone had a lovely Labor Day weekend last weekend :) See you next Sunday!
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| Scrollwork Iron Trivet from Forge and Flower |
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| Large Copper Coffee Table from Nature Inspired Crafts |
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| Black and White Bow Tie from Dahlia Street |
There are fires in the west, and the smoke has settled in the valley. The last few days our town has been a red or orange dot, and you can feel it in your lungs. This air is unhealthy for at-risk people, and not much fun for folks who aren't at-risk. Matt and I have been trying to keep the windows closed, and we've been riding the Peloton more instead of walking outdoors. The garden doesn't seem to be too bothered - although the light is heavily filtered through the smoke, things are growing and coming ripe! I didn't manage to get half the plans I had for the garden put in place this year, so I wasn't able to plant beets or carrots, but the peppers are going nuts, as are the tomatillos. We've picked a few batches of green beans now, and some of the onions are starting to flower and tip over. My big oxheart tomatoes are also covered in fruit which are slowly turning colors. I picked a German Red Strawberry this week that has to be close to a pound in weight. Huge, huge fruit!
Our evenings this week were filled with Japanese language homework - hoo boy it goes fast! And I have such a hard time hearing the words. I struggle understanding the English words I hear - so trying to hear and recognize and translate another language is really difficult. Luckily, Matt is really good at that - so between the two of us, with me reading, and him verbally communicating, we should be golden for our next visit to Japan - or Nihon. :)
I did manage to get out my knitting needles this week! I've been wandering into the yarn room and squishing yarn, thinking, and dreaming. I had a bag of leftover yarns that I had been thinking about turning into another hat and scarf set, so I brought that downstairs and cast on Friday afternoon. :) I also brought some other yarn downstairs, and can't wait to turn that into hats too! It's hat knitting weather.
Hope you all have a wonderful week, and we'll chat next Sunday!
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| Bird Feeder from Stonewerks Statuary |
Matt heads back to campus tomorrow to start his Sophomore year of college. We're looking forward to all of his classes, but a bit apprehensive on how the year will go. He's got a bevy of masks, so he should be ready to be in a room with young people who aren't known for taking many precautions health wise. He starts Japanese language classes, and I'm trying to learn along with him. We've downloaded some apps and have been working on learning the hiragana, but it's a lot to learn!
I've been thinking about knitting, a lot. But haven't actually done any. I have a couple of projects on the list to do right away - some hats and scarves to prep for winter - and then some back burner projects I'd like to work on. Mostly I just want to buy and squish yarn. :)
This week's creative energies were focused on jewelry making. I had a family friend custom order malas for Christmas gifts, and the beads came in early this week so I was able to get those put together. Matt put the finishing touches on for me yesterday, and I can't wait to send pictures out to make sure he's happy with them. I also had a co-worker request necklace options for their sister's birthday, so I spent yesterday afternoon and this morning putting that together. Of course, she requested that back in June...and the birthday is Tuesday...so we'll see if she even still needs a gift! If not, I'll have some really beautiful necklaces and matching earrings to put up in the Etsy shop.
I've started a new position at my job this last week, so I'll be busy learning all my new responsibilities, and teaching other folks how to do the stuff that I won't have time to do anymore. It's exciting and nerve-wracking! Hopefully this will even out my schedule too, so that I can have a more structured timeline for my days. I'm really looking forward to that!
This week we made our first batch of Tomatillo salsa and canned it in the pressure canner. I have tomatoes coming ripe, so hopefully we'll be making tomato sauce and pizza sauce in the coming weeks. I think I also have enough tomatillos ripe for another batch of salsa!
I hope you all have a wonderful week!!
I am having a hard time believing that it is August already. It feels like this year is just slipping past, soon it will be snowing. Uff dah!
This week has been pretty busy with work stuff, and I haven't had much energy when I get home. Plus I have been feeling rundown the last couple of weeks. Too much something, not enough something else, and when I figure that out I'll be top notch again.
We are running headlong into harvesting season, and my peppers are already a little hard to keep up with. Today I picked a bowlful of tomatillos, and by this evening we should have some salsa ready to jar and can in our new pressure canner! I've got herbs in the dehydrator, and some tomatoes that have come ripe too, so maybe we'll make some salsa fresca and figure out a yummy Mexican meal to serve it with. Last night we picked enough green beans to make a side dish for our dinner, and topped our cheeseburgers with jalapenos and green onions from the garden. We have chinese five color peppers that are ready, and I can't wait to make some breakfast eggs with them tossed in.
As far as crafting is concerned, I haven't been able to do much. I'm working on two commissioned Mala necklaces, and made a handful of stretch bracelets this week. I've also finally set up my soldering station upstairs, and I can't wait to try my hand at a new skill. Knitting has been crowding into my brain - especially with Fall knitting magazines coming in, but with the summer heat my knitting plans will stay locked away in my brain for a while.
I hope you all have a wonderful week and we'll see you again next weekend :)
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| Peach Soap from Maid-A-Milking |
