Crazy Busy

We celebrated Bree's birthday the other day. This year we went with cupcakes instead of a cake.

We picked the Wall-E decorations (of course)!

The girls really enjoyed their cupcakes, not that that's really a shock or anything. What kid willingly turns down sugary cake?

Bree received a lot of fun things but I'm not posting all the pics out here on the blog. It would take up a whole post and frankly I'm way to lazy. Her favorite toys out of the group seems to be a talking purse and a guitar. It's hilarious watching Bree rock out with her guitar.

I've gotten a few things in the mail since my last post.

First up:

Some of the new Red Heart sock yarn, Heart & Sole. I think it's going to be a nice go-to sock yarn. It has a nice feel to it and at $4.99 per 50g ball it's a steal for a pair of socks. FYI, there is no acrylic in this yarn....I know someone will ask. It's wool, nylon and it's treated with aloe.

Next up:

PandaToes from Crazy Monkey Creations. Their yarns are very reasonably priced and I couldn't resist the color, Berry Cobbler....Yum!

My Yarnapalooza winnings:

I was one of the winners of Romancing the Yarn's Yarnapalooza contest. Barbara sent me two skeins of Noro Silk Garden (color 8 & 226) which is probably going to become some nice warm mittens for me, a magnet (already on the fridge), and a signed copy of one her books. I haven't read this one yet so it's next up in my book queue. I can't wait for her new book Casting Spells. I'm a sucker for a good romance novel.

Finally:

I bought one of TLE's second anniversary kits. There isn't a thing about this kit that I don't love. Coffee mug, Casbah yarn, extra little goodies and a great pattern.....what more could a girl ask for. Kaity has already laid claim to the Loopy tattoos. I can't wait to use my coffee mug.

I've done a bit of sewing.

Here are 32 more napkins. The fabric cost me a little over $16 so that roughly $.50 per napkin. Not a bad price. Kaity picked out most of the fabric with the exception of Mickey which Bree pointed out and the Flames/Water which was pointed out by Shawn. The Hannah Montana napkins will probably be used for Kaity's lunchbox unless I can find some Tinkerbell fabric. Her lunchbox and backpack are Tinkerbell this year.

I've been crocheting too.

I've made two crochet baby washcloths (Rav)(non Rav) and I'm making more. I can crochet a face cloth a lot faster then I can knit one. I'm making these to replace the wet wipes I was using to clean Bree's face after meals. The cloths can be reused where as the wipes are only used once and thrown away.

Kaity's dress is getting closer to be finished.

I think I need to do 2 more stripes after I complete the one I'm working on. I'm to lazy to get up and check the pattern. Needless to say the dress is really close to being done.

The socks are soooooo close to be done.

I tried them on earlier and I have about 2-3 inches left before binding off. I love the yarn and the pattern is simple so I can't understand why it's taking forever to finish these socks. I swear I knit on them and they don't grow at all.

I have a big order coming in from WEBS. I finally decided on the yarn for my cousins baby blanket and I ended up changing my mind on the pattern. I'm saving the Rambling Rows pattern for something else. I found a cool cabled baby blanket (Rav) that I couldn't pass up.

Happy Crafting!

Just Knittin' & Sewin'

Nothing makes a day better then a Venti Carmel Frapp from Starbucks. Yum! OK maybe hugs, kisses and giggles from my girls beat the Frapp but it's a close second!  ;~)

I've stayed pretty busy but that's nothing new. Things are never quiet around here. It's hard to believe that summer vacation is almost over and Kaity will be going back to school soon. Yikes! Must get school shopping done this payday. School supplies and new jeans are on the list of must buys! More good news, Bree has decided that she likes her nap in the afternoon a lot more then she wants to stay up an play. She's taken a nap every day for the past week or so.

I finished the sample knit for Madelinetosh and will show you all when I get the go ahead.

Here's what I've been working on since the last post.

Kaity's A Good Stripe Dress:

I'm making great progress with this one. I think this one will be long enough that she'll get a second summer out of it since the summers are shorter here. After I'm finished with the purple stripe I'm currently working on I'll have 5 more stripes to go, then the knitting the edging for the arms & neck and the collar.

My Phenomena socks:

They now have heels and I'm working on the cuff. It won't be long before I have these off the needles and on my feet.

I've also finished another test knit for Woolgirl and I'll show that to you as soon as I can. Most of my knits for Woolgirl are for kits and the sock club so I can't show those until they've been received by the members of those clubs.

The sewing machine came out for a little while too. I made some napkins to replace the paper napkins we use to use. I'm going to post about the napkins in my next post later this week. I also made the dogs some blankies for their kennels using some leftover fleece from a blanket I made Kaity when she was a baby.

This makes their kennels more comfy. I crocheted Zeus a blankie before we moved to Montana but apparently he doesn't like scratchy acrylic....he ripped it to shreds. He does seem to be pleased with the fleece blankie. We'll see how long this one lasts.

I've also gotten a few goodies since my last post. First up is some stuff I scored off of ebay.

I picked up some Patons Stretch sock and the pattern book which contains a good number of patterns. There are 3 patterns for crochet socks which is the biggest reason I bought the book. I'd like to try crocheting some socks. The booklet also has 5 different knit sock patterns, a knit patterns for fingerless mitts, headband, hat, and footless thigh highs. The pedicure sock pattern was a freebie pattern. The other is quite obviously Noro. I could not resist the Noro Silk Garden sock yarn. Hello this stuff is nice. The colors are mega gorgeous and the yarn is soft. You can now get the Noro Silk Garden at TLE. I picked mine up at ebay cheap ($15) and paid for first class shipping. I hate having to pay $6 for shipping** on a skein of yarn and right now I can't get several skeins of yarn to justify the shipping. I need to save the rest of my money for the big order I'm placing with WEBS. It's big enough to get the 25% discount.

**No this is not me complaining about web stores charging $6 for shipping. I have absolutely no problem with the shipping prices. I just saw the yarn way cheaper on ebay and took advatage of it. The total I paid was what it would have cost me without shipping from any of the stores that are carrying it right now.

My 7 Deadly Spins club shipment came in. Head over to Flickr if you want to see it. I'm iffy iffy on the project. I'll probably use the yarn for something else for me but Kaity likes the pattern so I'll get some different yarn and make it for her. Who knows, I may change my mind and knit it.

Meet the newest member of the luvs2knit family.

Kaity is now the proud owner of a Betta fish. He's been named Blue and both girls get a kick out of watching him swim around. He's a pretty blue and red. Right now he's in a 1 gallon aquarium but he's going to eventually moved to a 5 gallon tank.

That sums up what's been going on since my last knitting related post.