Hearty congratulations to my youngest brother Eric and his bride Kelly, who were married last night and who will spend Thanksgiving with us tomorrow. Kelly brings three sweet boys to our family. I couldn't be more pleased to welcome them all, and I pray many, many years of happiness for Eric & Kelly.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
wedding congratulations
Hearty congratulations to my youngest brother Eric and his bride Kelly, who were married last night and who will spend Thanksgiving with us tomorrow. Kelly brings three sweet boys to our family. I couldn't be more pleased to welcome them all, and I pray many, many years of happiness for Eric & Kelly.
thanksgiving blessings
That being said, I want to make a list of some things I have to be thankful for:
- faith in God who sustains my life
- living in a free country
- a wonderful husband and three healthy boys
- my loving extended family
- my mother's successful surgery and recovery
- two new sisters-in-law, 4 new nephews and a new niece
- a job I enjoy
- friends who love me and put up with my foibles
- my art, which is better than therapy
- this blog and all the wonderful new friends it has put me in touch with
Whether you're in the US and celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow or in another part of the world that doesn't observe that particular holiday, I urge you to be mindful of your blessings. Thankfulness is always appropriate.
Monday, November 24, 2008
weekend doings
This is a felted bucket bag I knitted to my own pattern. I'm really impressed with how well Lion brand 100% wool yarn felts. Every bit as good as spendy wool yarn and I can get it at Wal Mart or Hobby Lobby. The color of this is "cadet blue", with a plain black handle. Can't remember what the fuzzy stuff is.
This isn't a good photo but it shows one of my handknit acrylic scarves. This was taken in 100% natural, brilliant sunlight streaming through the window of the Gallery, which shows what kind of weather we've been having. Gorgeous, in other words.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
knitting up a storm
This one is Icelandic wool. It's on my needles now, going to be a felted purse. It had to be pink, of course.
I was intrigued by this. It is strips of silk fabric, torn and tied together at the ends, for knitting. It is apparently waste silk that ends up on the floor in the process of making garments, etc. I like the idea of taking something left over and making something beautiful out of it. This will probably become a scarf.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
and now for something completely different
Now for some craftiness. This is some luscious yarn I've been working with, 75% wool and 25% silk. I decided to try and make a felted handbag, so I knitted a rectangle....
...and then I got clever and decided to decrease at each end of each row until the knitting came to a point at the end for the bag flap. I think it worked rather well. This is the knitting after felting in a washer full of hot water with a couple pairs of slacks to agitate against the wool and help the felting process along. I will finish it with a large button closure, a felted strap, and maybe lining.
My mother, bless her heart, has done absolutely beautifully since the surgery. She's been up and around really since she came home on Tuesday, feeling a lot better than she had expected too. It has been a great blessing to have my sister around to look after Mom; the rest of us have been able to be easy in our minds knowing Mom was in very capable and loving hands. We've been out to lunch a couple of times and Mom and Sarah have been shopping--Mom looks really good, certainly not like someone who just had surgery last Monday! Again, thank you all for your kind thoughts, prayers, and concern. It really does make a difference to know you all care.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
mom update/drawing
That all being said, I completely forgot to do the drawing until today. I didn't want to wait until Dylan got home from school so I used this cool randomizer here and came up with the following result:
List Randomizer
There were 8 items in your list. Here they are in random order:
1. maureen
2. jules
3. viv
4. kate
5. bethel
6. julie m.
7. genie
8. robin
Timestamp: 2008-11-11 16:03:31 UTC
That means Maureen wins the bag, Jules wins the scarf, and Viv wins the embellished silk pillow. Congrats to you all and I'll pop them in the mail very soon. Thanks to everyone who entered. Hope you're having a good week so far.
Friday, November 7, 2008
happy friday
Since I hate to post with no photos, here's one of the campus of the University of Kansas in the autumn. It's from the world of stock website, obviously.
Have a great weekend, everyone.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
kansas sunrise
I forgot to mention that this past weekend I participated in our town's Main Street holiday shopping kickoff. The Opera House and VAAM Gallery cooperated in a "Festive Holiday Market" featuring several artists' booths in the Opera House annexe and theatre lobby area plus a display of beautiful holiday table settings and other gorgeous decorations in the Opera House ballroom. It was quite well attended and as my booth was right next to the elevator I had a lot of traffic and good sales. One thing I sold was this hat which you may remember from a previous post. The young lady who bought it asked if I could make a scarf in the yarn I used for the stripes, so that's what's currently on my needles. Her sister wants a similar hat with a turquoise stripe so that will be next, followed by some chemo caps for my mother who will be needing them fairly soon. I've got some yummy yarns ordered especially for those caps.
I'm also planning to knit some wool purses to felt. More on that later.
Hope you're having a good Wednesday.
BTW, don't forget to go to yesterday's post which talks about my latest giveaway and send me a comment saying you'd like to be included in the drawing.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
bag giveaway
This is the photo I posted when I blogged about the workshop. The bag as pictured is not completed. The finished product has a tidier strap and more embellishment, including beads and other goodies. It's not large, probably 10 inches up and down and 8 across or so. It is lined and there's a little pocket inside, and it snaps closed with one big snap.
I'm also going to give away a hand dyed silk scarf in fuchsia red and tangerine, and one of my little silk velvet painted/stamped art pillows which can be used for a pincushion I suppose, or just for a cute decoration.
All of this giveaway will occur one week from today, Tuesday November 11, Veteran's Day here in the US, which reminds me of another thing I'm grateful for--my cousin who was fighting house-to-house in Baghdad not too long ago has returned safely home and was recently married.
If you want your name included in the drawing, please leave me a blog post specifically saying so and I'll put your name in the hat.
On a more somber note, my mother has had a recurrence of breast cancer and must undergo a mastectomy in a few days, followed by 4 months of chemotherapy. The earlier cancer was 10 years ago so this was a bit of a jolt. She's doing well though and just wants to get the treatment behind her. My sister, a nurse, will be here to care for Mom post-op, which is another thing to be really, really grateful for, as is the excellent medical facility and physicians involved in the treatment. We'd all appreciate your prayers and positive thoughts in our direction.
Hope you're all doing well today.
Monday, November 3, 2008
witchie-poo
As promised, Halloween pictures. I was certainly colorful, that's for sure.