Project Life

Hey... here's something cool for you to check out. And, you could win one of your own. Becky Higgins is this awesome scrapbooker and all-around creative person. Her blog is fantastic. If you're a facebooker, follow her because she's all the time posting cool links and ideas for scrapbooking and other creative things. Anyway, here's a link to a blog by a photographer that describes Becky's Project Life. In a nut-shell, it is a scrapbooking kit that allows you to document EVERY day of a year. It is a fabulous wedding present idea, or great for any reason.
Check it out!

http://amberfischer.com/blog/?p=1343

http://www.beckyhiggins.com/

Peanuts!

Gary and I moved into our first home about a month ago. We still have boxes everywhere, but I'm starting to attack things room by room. I started, of course, with the smallest room in the house, the guest bathroom.

It started small, with a whimsical spur of the moment purchase of a shower curtain at Target. It was a series of Peanuts cartoons, all showing the Peanuts Gang in various shower-related scenes. It was trimmed in red and just spoke to me. I've always thought Peanuts was a great comic strip and I thought it would be a fun way to perk up our guest bathroom.

Once it was installed, I couldn't help but transform the rest of the room. I got some cheap art canvases and some paint, did a quick Internet search for comic strips (OK, so I got distracted and read Peanuts strips for about 2 hours, but who is counting?) and printed out my favorites. With all apologies to Charles Schultz, I got my carbon paper and traced the images on the canvases, painted on the color and outlined it all with a permanent marker.

To top it all off, I found a Woodstock toy from a kids meal that's been floating around my office for years, clipped him to some fun-colored towels and here's the result!

These four little ones I've put on the wall above the potty. I left these black and white, more like a four-panel cartoon than a painting.


This one is the largest of the set. I was all finished, when I realized I had this big empty space by the towel rack by the mirror. I couldn't have that, so I made a bold statement with a larger canvas.


This is the three canvas paintings and a glimpse of the shower curtain that started it all, and Woodstock, who ties it all together.

What do you think?

Lady Bertram

I wish I knit like Wendy of Wendyknits.net. She can crank out projects every day or two. Her project page on ravelry goes on forever.

She has started putting out a few of her shawlette patterns, and I thought the Lady Bertram looked like a good shawl for a yarn that had multiple colors in it.

Perfect, let's say, for a skein of teal/cream/orange fingering weight that was purchased with SisterLoo in mind at Stitches from Pagewood Farms.

This was an easy knit, and one I will likely do again.

Jean's Ishbel

Next up in the shawl parade is Ishbel. This one was meant for Jean. I found the prettiest color of yarn at Sttiches that had Jean's name all over it - it was Miss Babs sock yarn in Waterfall, a pretty blend of blue, periwinkle, and purple. I'm not a blue person but it was lovely.



I had purchased Ysolda Teague's Ishbel pattern previously, and it turned out to be a good match. I did the largest size since I had two skeins of yarn. I used about 1.25 skeins.




I wish I had a photo of Jean wearing it (HINT HINT Jean), but here is the shawl while blocking:

Hope Jean had a happy birthday!

Amazing Alpacas

Our Brownie troop visited the PorterBray Pines Alpaca Ranch yesterday! This was a part of an overall lesson in fiber - last month they learned to sew by making a little felt beanbag, and on it they learned to sew on a button. Life skill.

Many of the girls, being city girls, hadn't given much thought as to where that thread or yarn comes from, so a trip to the alpacas was in order. Carey was our link to PorterBray Pines, and I had seen them twice at our local Renaissance festival. We had a lovely time!

Alpacas are rather shy, and third grade girls are rather noisy, so it took a few minutes for them to warm to each other, but once the carrots came out, fast friends were made (as long as there were carrots in the bags anyway).


The girls were enchanted with their sweet faces and gentle personalities. We even saw Marina, the 5 month old baby!

We got to see a bag of fleece from the recent shearing, and then our good friend Janice treated the girls to a spinning demonstration, to see that fiber turned to yarn.

The girls were fascinated at the spinning and had lots of questions for Janice. I think one Brownie is asking her mom for a spinning wheel soon if she hasn't already!
Thank you Janice and PorterBray Pines!

Mmmm... Donuts!

Wilton has these new fabulous donut shaped cake pans that I tried out for the first time tonight. Gary and I worked together to make a dozen chocolate glazed donuts and a half dozen mini donuts. The recipe was super easy and the whole project took us a little less than an hour -- including cooking time!

Check it out!

Oh, and the recipe is right on the back of the box. Hooray for Sur La Table! Here's the link.

WPBC Scrapbook

Hey all!

Happy Easter!

In honor of the holiday, I thought I'd show you what I've been working on lately. Recently, I was asked to create a scrapbook to give as a gift to our new pastor. Of course I said yes.

We prayed and prayed for a new pastor to lead our church. After two years, our prayers were answered and David Carothers accepted the call to be our leader. In late January, we celebrated our covenant with him with a special service and celebration afterward.

Volunteers took pictures -- nearly 800 of them! -- and I put together an 8 by 8 book that included the best of those and also messages from some of our membership. I've posted a few of the pages below.

The book will be given to the Carothers family so they can remember the special day and know they are an answer to prayer. It is nice, especially with Easter right around the corner, to scrapbook photos of church family worshiping, loving and celebrating God's goodness. He is so good, all the time!

Heart to Heart

Here were are at Shawl Number 4. Not too bad for the end of March. This shawl was really putting the "ette" in shawlette since it was fairly narrow. It was Sivia Harding's Heart to Heart Shawl/Scarf pattern, constructed from end to end. It had an edging, a garter stitch section that grew progressively wider as it got towards the middle and back to narrow again, and a heart lace edging, which was repeated 29 times.


A fun knit, this one has beads too. The yarn is Malabrigo Sock in Impressionist Sky, the color, as you can see, that Janice should wear ALL THE TIME it is so perfect for her. She chose the yarn so she gets all the credit for that. I was merely the knitter.



I decided that 1) Malabrigo sock is wonderful, 2) I like beads, and 3) I am addicted to lace. Not too bad.