Moonraker Lampwerks

Free Pattern! :)

2012-02-13T16:57:00.001-05:00

Ewe & Eye & FriendsRoly-Poly Frosty I decided I'm probably not going to ever stitch this again, so if you would like the pattern for free, just leave a comment here on this post saying so and I'll draw a random name on Saturday or Sunday out of those people for it. Better it go on to someone who can also enjoy it vs. sitting here all lonely in my stash forever and ever. :) I was going to post

My bad.

2012-02-07T18:19:00.001-05:00

I think I forgot there for a couple weeks that I have, like, a blog and stuff. And I should, I dunno, like.........USE it or something. lolI have been keeping myself busy OFFline though! :) There have been a few new beads posted:I am making good headway on the long, long, long list of WIP stitching projects I have started or kitted up around the hosue:An Ewe & Friends Roly-Poly Snowman. I had

We got some snow! Finally.

2012-01-25T15:41:00.000-05:00

And then it was 55 degrees the next day and all melted away within 48 hours. Oh well. It was pretty while it lasted. I can't say I'm not enjoying the extra 'sunny' feeling this winter because of the lack of storms. (Anything to avoid that mid-winter blues/depression thing, yes?) I wasn't feeling super great last week but I managed to suck it up and finally finish my last remaining knitting WIP:

Oh happy happy weekend!

2012-01-14T15:25:00.000-05:00

And it's nice and SUPER sunny too, which is ALWAYS a mood booster this time of year. :) Hard at work this week on adding little goodies on the site/Etsy for Valentine's and spring. Ahhhh, spring! It won't hit here until May but one gets tired of working on nothing but snowmen after awhile. (Still no snow here though. Haven't had a single flake since Halloween, which is totally crazy! I really

Obsession over.

2012-01-07T16:53:00.000-05:00

A fun little project for the holiday. Little Cotton Rabbits free pattern, heavily modified because I did mine in the round vs. her doing 'em flat and seaming them up the backside. I think in my mind I wasn't going to be happy until I hit an even dozen of these little jobbies and I was having fun coming up with new ways to do the designs but then the last one popped out like this:Uh. Can you

Happy New Year everyone!!!

2012-01-02T15:51:00.001-05:00

Hope everyone had a great one. :) It's been fab having the last week or so off but now it's back to the grind, eh? Booo!It was a fun week of making things, listening to 923413123421 Xmas songs on the Sirius Holly channel and enjoying lots of cookies OMG I'M FAT FAT FAT enjoying Santa's presents. He was much too good to me this year. Literally. I suspect *he* was the bad one this year and I'm

Merry Christmas!!!

2011-12-24T18:01:00.001-05:00

That Maru is a cutie, isn't he? I LOVE that blog. I have a few cuties of my own too though. :)Maggie. Taking advantage of an empty tin on the stove. So cute but......*sigh*. Her 'new' thing is sleeping on the stove, which is sure to be completely disasterous at some point, of course, when she jumps up there when the cook top is still hot. :(Yelling at her is useless because she's deaf. All I've

Yay!

2011-12-19T14:23:00.000-05:00

I got the tree up this year before Christmas Eve! A WEEK AND HALF before Christmas Eve, to be exact. I'm so proud of myself. *pats self* I'm not going to bother to try and take a 'picturesque' photo of it though because it's impossible. Large sunny window + killer huge tv that can be seen from space on one side = no good angles for proper photo taking. Plus, I'm not dedicated enough to have a

Winnah Winnah, Chicken Dinnah!

2011-12-19T13:52:00.000-05:00

Here are the winners for the December Giveaway-palooza:My super scientific method to picking names is to sort them by name/date/subject, click click click click the sort randomly, so they are sorted differently each time, use the the random number generator to grab the winning number and then count down (or up) and there you go. I figure that way it won't matter if you entered in on the first day

Big Whopping December Giveaway-palooza!

2011-12-13T18:10:00.000-05:00

December is the month for gifting giving so let's give some stuff away!!!! Here's what you can win: A wire wrapped pendant with either a penguin or Santa focal bead (made by moi), with matching cell phone lariat. (Which you can put on anything - including a pair of scissors. Or take the lariat off completely and put it on a chain.) A pair of hand made wool socks, knitted by me last month. They

Hand-Dyed Floss Giveaway for Xmas!

2011-12-07T16:19:00.000-05:00

No, not from me (though I would *LOVE* to get into dying my own threads....but that's a deep, dark rabbit hole I don't want to fall into).....but over HERE on the Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe blog. I have some of her hand-dyed threads in my stash (purchased from her shop) and they are divine. I'm always in awe of people who are so skilled at dying. It really is an art form to be able to

Random Tuesday.

2011-12-06T14:28:00.000-05:00

Nothing to see here...Clearance Felici striped yarn from Knitpicks. *cough*cough*cough*I, like, needed the darning egg though. That big 'for me' Black Friday purchase? (Not my house.) An official Ass Kicking Machine aka rower. I loves me some exercise machines, man! ESPECIALLY ones that fold up, like this one, AND it was on lightening deal for cheap-cheap. He joins the line up along with my

Did we all survive the holiday??? :)

2011-11-29T15:19:00.000-05:00

I'll let you know if I did - as soon as/if I make it through the heaps of turkey soup in my fridge without bursting. Ooof. *pats stomach* I filled a big stockpot right up to the tippy-top when making it (literally - I had to watch it like a hawk so it wouldn't go over the edge) as I kept throwing leftover stuff that didn't get cooked (a bit of string beans, a slice of prosciutto) and stuff that

Oh my poor neglected bloggie. :*(

2011-11-23T14:06:00.001-05:00

November is just SUCH a busy month with work and stuffs. I just don't have space in my head to come up with the bloggies on the fly and stuff. So, neglect neglect neglect. Poor thing. Everyone ready for Thanksgiving???? :) I've actually closed the shop for a few days so I can have enough time to clean the house a bit and get my Thanksgiving cook on without having to sneak downstairs for a few

Klunk.

2011-11-09T15:00:00.000-05:00

<--Sound of me falling down the rabbit hole. Yes, thanks to all of you posting about the super-keen new L*K snowman series (and the guilty know who they are)........ ...I, too, now have to stitch this series. Oh hello, great-big-new project I have no time for! But aren't the colors bright and fun? :) So thanks for that, people. lol Also, 'October' socks............ Fini. The yarn is an Opal

Patch job success!

2011-11-03T15:38:00.001-04:00

From these holey heels: To two new life-saving patches: Annnnnnnnnd my favorite pair of socks are back in action for a little while longer. I even had some of the original yarn left in my cupboard to use for the darning! (Though, obviously, we've got some MAJOR fading going on here over the three years these socks have been in use.) You basically use a lot of duplicate stitching with a regular

Bullet: DODGED.

2011-10-31T14:54:00.001-04:00

As in, I was sweating bullets when that October Surprise aka SNOWMAGEDDEN passed through here this weekend because I was *sure* the power would go out, given how many damaged trees there are now from that pesky Irene. It flickered enough to keep us in a state of anxiety about it but crisis averted! WHEW. This should be the last one we sweat through too because the electrician is finally coming

Stashing!

2011-10-27T11:20:00.000-04:00

That post got a little long yesterday. So I ran out of time to do a full stashing report. No fear though, stash report coming up, because everybody likes looking at the stash porn, right? :) I went into the show not wanting to go TOO nuts because, upon looking back at last years show, I realized I used very little of what I bought last year THIS year. Thanks to my exhaustive and detailed stash

Whew! Weekend overload.

2011-10-26T15:04:00.002-04:00

That was such a crazy weekend I needed a few days to recover from it. Seriously. First up was the crazy overwhelming and much-anticipated Stitches East show in Hartford. (Picture from last year because I wasn't brave enough to thwart security this year and try and sneak a pic. They are CRAZY SERIOUS about no picture taking inside the venue.) God, this show is exhausting. I mean that in a good

Last week, in a word was... (+ lots of pics)

2011-10-17T16:22:00.001-04:00

HOR. RIB. BLE. The Horrible Sinus Sickness finally caught up with me. Like it does, every_single_fall. Every single one! It was getting kind of late in the season for it so I thought, fingers crossed, I had managed to not attract him this year. Uh, not so much with that. *cough*snot*hack*aches*death* (Plus some terribleness with my totally broken girl parts but we won't go there. Let's just say..

Something new, old and FREE! :)

2011-10-08T15:09:00.001-04:00

Something new: Welllllll, someone asked for a pink owl, to go with the purple one.........and that just seems to have spawned a few, uhhhh, other colors as well. (Plus a Christmas one is not pictured here.) Some glorious new thread packs in pumpkin oranges and christmas colors from the Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe. (Seeing as I feel like I work mostly with Xmas or Halloween stuff......these

Trip to Mecca aka WEBS.

2011-10-05T14:32:00.001-04:00

Rays of light from heaven? COULD BE. A trip to WEBS Yarn Store that is. AKA America's Yarn Store AKA the biggest yarn store you're ever likely to see in your lifetime. The place is legen........dary amongst knitters. For real. They even own the yarn.com domain. (How early did you have to get in on the internet craze to grab THAT?!?) I've always meant to go there but it's in a part of

Halloweenie Stitchies!

2011-10-01T15:57:00.000-04:00

...ignoring the fact that I was too busy to notice it's been over a week since I last posted.........*cough* The fall leaves are terrible this year - truly terrible. They just dry up, turn brown, and fall. Not a single tree here has a color other than "hello, I'm dead-deady-dead" brown. It's kinda sad actually. (Is this because of the late summer storms and flood of rain? I have no idea, to be

Now I REALLY AM done.

2011-09-23T15:17:00.000-04:00

With framing stuff. At least for this year. Really. I am. This last batch took me about 2 months to put together after the frames had come in because, quite frankly, I think I'm exhausted with all the framing going on this year. lol (Doesn't stop me from getting a thrill seeing htem done up though!!) What a treat to get this Drawn Thread one out of 'storage' - especially since I stitched in 1999

Boo hoo, vacation is over.

2011-09-19T13:55:00.002-04:00

Wait, was it not apparent I was on 'vacation' last week? Well I was......sort of. I still worked an awful lot but we managed to get out and do a few things outdoors too before the weather gets totally frigid. He worked on painting the window sills for a couple days, another day we headed down to the RI coast to walk the Cliff Walk in Newport with my mother. I haven't been on the Walk in quite a

State of the Stash.

2011-09-14T15:47:00.000-04:00

But first......I know I said I wasn't going to do any more new Halloween items but someone asked for an owl for Halloween so.............. Who am I resist such a thing? I am weak in the face of Halloween requests. :)(A few other, non-Halloween things, have also been posted, btw.) Well...................we made an attempt to go through my poor stash stuff this weekend and here is what I was able

Deep breath.

2011-09-11T00:03:00.002-04:00

Definitely been a trying week, you know? But I felt much better today so moving on.. I went back to the project that I tried to start on Thursday, gotta get back on that horse you know...... Oh............my...... Yes the project that started all this was Death. Black Death to be exact. How prophetic. Or ironic. Or........something. It's Death by Candy Corn and why didn't I notice those cutie

OMG. Guys.

2011-09-09T14:36:00.003-04:00

I don't even.It's like what?Head is broken.Panic attack.I just don't even understand. Was expecting to be sad about having to say good bye to Nitwit (we did end up putting her down yesterday morning) and then...............something happened later in the day and it was like a record needle scratch and now I'm instantly over it. Snap. Sadness gone. Things had been bad with her since January but,

Busy busy busy as a bee.

2011-09-07T15:16:00.002-04:00

Catching up to orders again after getting behind a bit last week with the 'no power' thing= NO FUN AT ALL. Quite frankly, I'm a little mentally tired of making beads after going non stop on them now for a full week without a break. One more long work session and I'm caught-the-hell-up so weeeeeeeeeeeee!! Because of that and all the mess of last week we didn't get to go to the Fair all weekend

SWEET HAPPY HAPPY DAY.

2011-09-01T10:37:00.000-04:00

Lovely, glorious power! Oh how I love thee! So warm and inviting and full of the promise of running water. Yes the long national nightmare is over the power is finally back on! Weee! Four days of using the house as a camper while we 'camped' in the woods without water/power hook-ups was enough camping experience to last me for a long, long time too, let me tell you. No........................

Today was a good day.

2011-08-30T22:06:00.001-04:00

I really need to not type out posts when I'm feeling morose, you know? Having no cell service all night/day just started getting to me when I thought of him going back to work today and I would have nothing running AND no car to leave the house. (He leaves for work at 1am & works an hour away from here so dropping him off, etc. really isn't a viable option 'just because'.)Thankfully they got the

24 hours later....,,

2011-08-29T08:52:00.001-04:00

I was clearly wrong about the state of this storm. After an inventory of our neighborhood and a drive around the area, it's a flipping miracle we came out of it unscathed. I thought it was just one neighbor who got hit with a tree but it was actually three, just on this little road alone. And a lot of the people who didn't have their houses hit had their yards torn up by falling trees. It's

Still here!

2011-08-28T14:48:00.001-04:00

Bit blustery outside but the worst is definitely past. Seemed no worse than a real good Nor'easter in the winter, to be honest. A tree fell on the house of the neighbor across the street but it doesn't look like it *crushed* his house so I think they'll be okay. (His pool may be toast though.) Little damp in the basement but it's only in one area so it should be easy to deal with........once the

Stay safe peoples!

2011-08-27T13:24:00.000-04:00

To anyone in the path of Irene this weekend. This, uh, would include us. lol It's supposed to go over us sometime tomorrow morning with tropical storm status - not hurricane strength - but we'll see how much that difference means to all the trees hanging over our house, eh? o_0 I fully expect flooding of some sort in my basement at any rate because of the torrential rain. As long as it's

Oink oink.

2011-08-25T16:32:00.001-04:00

In the process of replacing all the carpeting with wood floors this summer, I've done some MAJOR purging. I mean major: 7-8 bags of donated clothing, countless bags of trash, and at least two big bags of paper related materials from the filing cabinet/desk. Nothing escaped my wrath. I was ruthless and threw stuff away while cackling away with glee. (I do love a good purge.) It was good times,

Knitters represent.

2011-08-23T10:54:00.001-04:00

Interweave Knit Accesssories 2009 is downloadable for only ten cents for the next couple days. Ten cents. For a couple sock patterns from Nancy Bush, a hat from Jared Flood and 60 other scarf/gloves/mitts/hat patterns too? YES PLEASE THX. (It's kinda ridiculous actually seeing as those Nancy and Jared patterns are availabe for $5 each.)

Whew! I made it.

2011-08-20T17:03:00.002-04:00

To the weekend that is. It just felt like this week would...........never....................end. But here it is. Hopefully next week will be a little easier to get through. :) Thanks for all the comments on my mittens! I do love a good hand knitted mitten. Maybe I'll enter one of these into the Fair next year, since they are both a little complicated in design, which I know the judges love. I

I might have a mitten problem.

2011-08-18T16:10:00.002-04:00

Well, and possibly a Halloween one. I get so jazzed up over doing Halloween beads I can't seem to stop tweaking and posting new stuff. lol Angry Toad. I'm hoping it passes soon, like the flu, before I need a 12-step program or something. I had a massive case of 'Second Sock Syndrome' aka SSS (and yes, it applies to more than just socks - basically anything you need to knit two of can bring on

It's the Halloween apocalypse.

2011-08-16T17:57:00.000-04:00

Lots and lots... and lots and lots (and lots) of Halloween stuff is now posted. I still have to tweak a few items here and there but that's pretty much all of it. *falls over dead*It's been a VERY busy couple of days trying to get all that up. :)

Note to self:

2011-08-09T13:54:00.000-04:00

Never ever ever get this behind in paperwork again. Ever.Never. I thought I had just been slacking since February. Urmm......how about mid-January? Yeah, it was bad. My right shoulder was completely numb by the time I was done from all the typing, typing, typing, typing. On the positive side, I can't get into TOO much trouble between now and October when I need to do my taxes with the town so

Boo Hoo Hoo. I haz a sad.

2011-08-06T15:23:00.002-04:00

A moment of silence, please, for my dearly departed kiln:8/2002 - 8/2011 Oh, I'm sure he will rise from the dead at some point when I can track down a couple new parts for him but for now he's DOA, having quit on me (of course) when I was smack-dab in the middle of a huge stack of orders. *sigh* So I am kiln-less at the moment and awaiting a whole new one to find it's way to me hopefully within a

Bee Happy! (Or Joyful.)

2011-07-30T17:17:00.000-04:00

So far, the husband's bee hives are a' buzzing this year and we should get honey from at least one of them. (One is growing a little slower than the other for whatever reason.) YUM! Honey! After the total bust of last year when the bees literally all took off for parts unknown in early fall and the hive was stripped bare before you could blink, this is good. (They had had major problems all

Everybody warm enough yet? :)

2011-07-23T15:22:00.001-04:00

What's up with that, right? It's down to a positively 'chilly' 85 degrees here today. *snort* (I'll take that over the 100+ of yesterday!)Thankfully, I have lots of 'indoor' hobbies to keep me busy (and in the blessedly cool a/c). I feel bad for everyone who has to work outside though - my husband included. :( Anyhoozle doozle. Being indoors so much, I caught up on a couple projects this week. I

Winnah Winnah Time!

2011-07-20T16:54:00.001-04:00

The all-knowing random number generator has picked the winner for the Harry Potter giveaway and it is *drum roll*....... Annie of Annie BeBop's Coloring Book! Congrats to Annie and thanks to everyone who participated!! You know I just love hosting these giveaways. :) It's fun all around so I'm sure I'll have another contest soon enough.

It's a Harry Potter Day Giveaway!

2011-07-15T12:57:00.000-04:00

In celebration of today being a worldwide holiday for everyone for reveling in all things Potter-related ...........or not............ok, maybe this holiday 'thing' is just in my mind. 0_o Ok, so who is going to see it this weekend? I, ummmm, kinda saw it last night..........at the 12:30am showing. I haven't been to bed before 4-4:30am in at least three months now so why not go for it. WHY NOT I

Well, crap.

2011-07-11T12:20:00.000-04:00

How did I manage to go two weeks without updating.................and not even notice? lolI guess I just haven't been very chatty lately. Or I've been busy. Honestly, I haven't even been working on projects much either, though I did manage to finish this super simple and sweet Lizzie Kate freebie: I used whatever colors hit my hand as I was flipping through my hand-dye box and added another red

How is everybody's summer going?

2011-06-28T17:10:00.000-04:00

Me, I can tell the gas prices have gone down because I've been inundated with bead orders this past week, letmetellyouwhat. (It really is a GREAT barometer for the nation's mood re: gas prices. Makes sense though, right?) So things have been a bit 'boring' lately because I've been spending so much time on that. I even had to work Saturday last week and I NEVER do that. Sundays I almost always

Winnah winnah time.

2011-06-20T14:21:00.000-04:00

Hope everyone had a nice weekend. I mostly worked and looked in horror around the destruction that is my house at the moment. (Work has begun on bedroom two. One day this flooring project will be complete and I will no longer have great stacks of stuff to gingerly make my away around in the other rooms....and hall...and downstairs.... And there will be no more $11-projected trips to Lowe's that

ORANGE you glad it's almost the weekend? (Small giveaway at the end.)

2011-06-17T11:24:00.001-04:00

It's been an orange kind of week, thanks to my finishing my BC Uber Jack and the newest sock club yarn from Cookie A. I know orange isn't for everyone but I think it's kind of dreamy when it's peachy/Creamsicle in tone. Or an autumny pumpkiny kind of orange. Ok, basically any orange except for traffic cone orange is cool with me. (What can I say? I like color.) Thank you, Cookie, for your

Winnah Winnah Chicken Dinnah!!!

2011-06-13T16:32:00.000-04:00

The all-knowing random number generator has picked the winners for the bead giveaway and *drum roll*....... Krista gets the first bag... And Gracie from Needles Pins and Dragonflies is the winner of the second bag! Thanks so much to everyone who participated. You all make these giveaways such fun and I love to do them! I won't have anymore bags of extra beads to give away now for a little while

WHO'S SPOILED ROTTEN? WHO?

2011-06-08T14:44:00.000-04:00

Oh, that would be YOU. Well, that is if YOU entered my giveaway. I've already gotten so many entries I thought it would only make sense if I............... .......pulled another scoop of beads out of the nether regions of my bead boxes so I can draw TWO names. :)It's not quite as big a bag as the first one because I honestly don't have any more filler beads to throw in there *but* I did manage

New beads and a new GIVEAWAY.

2011-06-07T12:17:00.001-04:00

First things first, I posted a few new things up today including a couple 'new baby' sets. Is a 6 toed footprint bead weird? I think it is but I couldn't squeeze 10 toes on a 15mm lentil very neatly. Or consistently. (AND I have to do it on both sides of the bead!) So I took a little creative license and went with the more aesthetically-pleasing-and-easier-to-make-but-clearly-alien-baby route of

SNIFF Smells like a Monday to me.

2011-05-31T13:53:00.001-04:00

This didn't feel in any way like a long weekend. It just doesn't seem possible it was three days long. Am I alone in this? We went to go pay our respects to his father on Sunday. It's quite moving see all of the flags out. He's interred at a veteran's cemetery in Exeter, RI, down by the ocean, so there was a snappy ocean breeze that had all the flags at full attention. It's a beautiful,

You can't keep me down for long.

2011-05-24T12:41:00.001-04:00

Back in February I lost a beloved member of my sock family. The King Sock, if you will. I loved them too much, for too long, and blew a huge hole in the heel. *sniff*(Mr. Chicken was in charge of the inspection process.) There was only one thing to do, of course........KNIT ANOTHER PAIR EXACTLY LIKE THE FIRST. Same yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts - Socks that Rock.Same pattern: Crusoe (free Knitty

Happy Saturday!

2011-05-21T15:55:00.000-04:00

I'm finishing up my work stuffs here so I can get away from this durn computer while the sun is still shining. It's been mighty dreary this week so it's nice to have some sunlight again, you know? We bought all our stuff for the garden (veggies/flowers) yesterday while splashing about in the rain and mud, with my hair frizzing up like Bozo the Clown. (Always the worst part. It's not the wet so

Toss Up Tuesday.

2011-05-17T15:44:00.000-04:00

Got a little bit of this and that today: new beads, new stitchy, my new career (not really) and new floors. New floors:From sea to shining seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeea.. How much do I love this floor? It's pretty. It's shiny. And, most importantly, it's not carpet so it's clean, clean, clean! (Have I mentioned it's clean?) After a long winter of sick cats getting sick on the rugs and that

New Beads!

2011-05-10T17:06:00.000-04:00

Finally got Uncle Sam up and, just for kicks, some watermelon slices too. (Not that it is remotely summery feeling today. Brr!) The hubby has the week off and is in the process of putting down wood floors in our main living area. SUH-WEEeeeeeeeeEeeT! (Not my house but this is the color.) I was so sooooooooooooooooooooo done with the ratty old carpeting! We already have wood flooring in the

Tin Can Treats & New Beads

2011-05-06T14:42:00.000-04:00

What are y'all doing for Mother's Day? Me? I'm an almost 40-year old who still breaks out the arts-and-crafts projects for her mother. Heh. Nothing says Mother's Day like a glue stick and paper cutters! Hence my 'tin can treats' for the holiday.Idea/gift tag template from Our Best Bites. All I needed was a couple sheets of paper and some ribbon in her favorite color. I only own one pair

Happy Weekend!

2011-04-30T15:21:00.001-04:00

Another month gone. This year is just flying by, isn't it? I think we're going to Hartford tomorrow for some 'bee' thing that he's dragging me to and I have to work some in the middle of that. I fully plan on bringing my knitting to Hartford so lots of knitting too, I guess. (The ride down takes a while so, at the very least, I can get a bunch done in the car.) I finished another pair of socks

Tutorial on framing your needlework.

2011-04-26T18:24:00.002-04:00

Oh my poor neglected blog this month! Can you tell the weather is getting nicer? I can because I'm away from the computer more and more and my blog gets more and more lonely. lol Anyhoo, I told Margaret (it was you, right?) that I would post some helpful hints on framing so I snapped some pics and here we go. Keep in mind - this is just how *I* do it. It's not the be all, end all of framing. When

Finishes, finishes, I gots some finishes!! :)

2011-04-16T14:00:00.006-04:00

I've been to worn down at night to do anything but watch tv like a mindless zombie but it's been good for getting some things done. My hands are always busy even if my BRAIN is shut down. (Not always recommended, mind you, because you do tend to find yourself in Frog/Tink country quite often this way. It is what it is.) Blackbird Designs - December stockings I did all of the stitching on two of

What a long week!

2011-04-15T21:38:00.001-04:00

I've been having to 'babysit' for Mr. Sad Face there on the bottom of the stack there all week and I think we've both had enough of it. (Note: the only way to get all four cats in the same picture at the same time is to sprinkle cat nip all over the cat tree. They all come running for that!) His boo-boo tail, uhhhh, 'shed' another piece last week. Woke up to it on THE COUCH !@#$!@#$!@#$!@#$,

Happy Friday!

2011-04-08T14:59:00.000-04:00

I always work on the weekends (always Sundays and sometimes Saturday if I have some catching up to do) but Friday is still special no matter what, yes? There is no mistaking that Friday VIBE. lol Which is a lot of words to say that I don't have anything special planned for the weekend. It's chilly and damp and dark outside, per our usual weather for spring, so I'm not sure I care either. Heh I

Weird thing #5922 about me:

2011-04-05T14:54:00.001-04:00

I've never had a cup of coffee. Not even one sip. Don't like the smell much. /shrug Relatedly, my husband has worked for one of the biggest coffee shop's distribution hub for the last 10 years so I could buy all the premium coffee I wanted at cost ($2 a lb.) if I liked coffee - which I don't - but I've never been remotely interested in taking advantage of this fact. (At least for myself. Let's

Austin Hoodie.

2011-04-03T14:39:00.000-04:00

Ravely link. Stick a fork in 'er - she's done!Crazy how the camera picks up different colors in each photo! The one above is the most 'true', I think.I can't say it was always an enjoyable knit - the pattern inconsistencies drove me mad - but it is a lovely design.After all that though, the size is spot on. I did good there. Roomy enough to comfortably wear over all sorts of other clothing so my

Look at me and my dried turd-like tail! Weeeee!

2011-03-29T15:04:00.002-04:00

(I totally win for most creative title use EVER. *grin*) I'm still not hopeful for that end part. It's, uhh, flat - not round. And icky. *shudder*But the part above that snapped back and is even starting to grow fur back so it would just be that last two inches (minus the small bit that already fell off) that would be snipped. Overall, not that bad. (Though if this thing pops off like a

Ugh. I'm depressed. :(

2011-03-24T22:11:00.000-04:00

They ended up keeping Mooshie at the vet's today. His tail is a total frakking mess. I miss him and feel so bad, even though we have NO IDEA what he did to injure himself. It's a mystery that will never be solved. Something fell on him or he got stuck somewhere.........who knows. Even indoor cats are secret ninjas, I guess. lol He's going to stay at the vet's until Saturday or Monday to get

I am losing my mind.

2011-03-22T15:05:00.001-04:00

I need someone to take this sweater from my hands and finish it for me before I end up in the looney bin. There is a reason, in the five years since I've learned to knit, that I never attempted to do a sweater before: because I am too anal retentive perfectionistic discriminating for this sort of work. Combined with a lack of 'knitterly' instincts and a tendency to read knitting patterns too

My green beer made the Daily Pick.

2011-03-18T14:35:00.000-04:00

Over on the Daily Handmade Pick blog. Sweet!! :)

Lots of new beads up!

2011-03-15T20:50:00.000-04:00

Including a new 'pet shop' category. It only has puppies in it for now but I hope to get some kitties in there soon. :) If puppies aren't your thing (uhhhhh....who doesn't like puppies??) there are also new bee items......in honor of my husband who is gearing up to start his beehives again after last year's colossal hive failure.. ...and a new Fairy...This one in a 'Easter Egg' striped theme.

Feh. Time Change.

2011-03-14T16:59:00.000-04:00

It's like I'm moving through quicksand today. Oh time-forward-change, my nemesis. *shakes fist*I should be feeling 'right' again by...................July or so. lol LOOKEE LOOKEE LOOKEE. I actually finished ANOTHER small stitchy! Never underestimate my ability to ignore what I should be doing (*ahem* sweater *ahem*) in order to dazzle myself with a small pretty. Distracted by teh shiny. I haz it

Got luck?

2011-03-09T13:01:00.000-05:00

I struggled all week last week to get one stinking sleeve done for the sweater (more on this later I'm sure) and needed a break from the !OMG KNITTING! madness so when Paulette of Plum Street Samplers posted this little freebie chart on Monday, I was off and running. I not only got it stitched up since then............I ACTUALLY FINISHED IT OFF TOO. Most definitely a new record for me. lol You

So much sadness lately.

2011-03-02T16:36:00.000-05:00

First it was a couple weeks ago with a person I knew for almost a decade on Livejournal. Just *poof* and she was gone in her sleep, at age 47. No warning at all.Then one of my husband co-workers also passed away in his sleep, at age 51. He was a runner and in (seemingly) perfect health. And now Lisa, who've I've followed online for a quite a while. Just a terrible, terrible cloud hanging over

Stashing and stashing.

2011-02-23T15:46:00.000-05:00

I should be and AM working on some new beads to post but it's going slower than molasses this week. So, in the meantime, let's post some stashing pics. :) I got a few cross stitch patterns from this site here: Violarium. They specialize in French designs but are located in Finland. I *literally* got my package from them 4 mailing days after I placed my order so I can not recommend them enough.

Best. Weekend. EVAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

2011-02-21T15:25:00.003-05:00

Firstly, I won Sonda's LHN chart giveaway. Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet! Seriously excited over this!! I've never won a blog giveaway so excuse me while I do a happy dance. *dance* (Which isn't to say that I don't like HOSTING giveaways, because I honestly do get a kick out of that too.) Thanks so much Sonda! YOU ROCK. :) Secondly, who is Edward James Olmos' new bestie? OH THAT WOULD BE ME, THX.He added me

Weeeee - I'm no longer a virgin!

2011-02-17T14:17:00.001-05:00

How's that for an attention-grabbing subject line? :) Seeing as I'm going to celebrate my 20th wedding anniversary later this year I'm not, of course, talking about THAT kind of virgin. I mean I'm no longer a SWEATER virgin. I've knit almost a 100 pairs of socks (or maybe even a little over a 100!), at least a dozen scarves, more than a few mittens/gloves and a few cutesy-poo toys but never,

Valentine's Giveaway Winner

2011-02-14T16:32:00.000-05:00

....is.....Terri of Dixie Samplar Designs!Congrats on winning your own bag of teeny buttons. :)Can you believe there are over 120 buttons in that little bag? I had a grand old time sorting them out, let me tell you! I made sure there was at least one pair of every color I had, with extra pairs of colors/things I thought might be more generally useful like black/white ones, stars and hearts. Oh,

A small confession. (With a free giveaway at the end so stay til the end!!!)

2011-02-09T16:34:00.000-05:00

When I said I had 'bought a bag' of teeny buttons on Etsy a couple weeks ago I wasn't being honest. It may have been more than one bag. It may even have been more than several bags. In fact..........I may have a teeny problem with collecting teeny buttons..... But, oh, what a glorious problem it is! Let's just relish in the teeny button pr0n, shall we? (Feel free to click on these to get the

Good news/Bad news

2011-02-07T15:43:00.000-05:00

Good news: Knitpicks new Chroma yarns knits up quite beautifully. It's a great alternative to the (to me) scratchy, splitty Noro yarns that have similiar gradient coloring. Bad news: I knit these in a size large for him, he wore them the other day, washed them and.............HOLY FRAKKIN' SHRINKAGE. :( I didn't notice the tag said 'hand wash', *ahem*, and all our knit socks go in the machine

NOM NOM NOM

2011-02-05T12:34:00.003-05:00

We don't really watch the Super Bowl in this house (we're more of a NASCAR family and nothing else, though I'm tired of that too now) but I do love the lead-up to it as people post all the yummy-nummy foodie things they are planning to make or want to make, etc. One thing I saw last week was these Buffalo Chicken meatballs on the Martha Stewart show. DING! DING! DING! I loves me some Buffalo

Oh, sad day.

2011-02-04T14:39:00.004-05:00

Sad, sad day. My favorite pair of knitted socks finally wore through in the heel and now they are gone, gone, gone. *sob*(Mr. Chicken is from the Pigeon Loft on Etsy. He's always helpful when something needs a good inspection. All business and cluck, cluck, cluck.) These predate Ravelry so they are pretty old. I guess it was going to happen sooner or later. They were made with BMFA Socks That

New item.

2011-02-02T16:27:00.000-05:00

You guys (gals?) have kept me so so busy lately (THX MUCHLY *MWAH*) that I haven't had much time to do new stuff these past few weeks but I did get this little guy done up yesterday: Bee Mine. I'm always looking to do things with a bee theme because my husband is a beekeeper (hobbyist) so this one is a keeper for sure. :)

Apparently we've been bad.

2011-01-29T20:49:00.000-05:00

Really really bad. And our punishment is to suffer the wrath of snow, more snow, and even more snow. Seriously, wtf is *UP* this winter with the snow?? The snow on the sides of my walkway is now piled up almost as high as I am (5 feet). And it's all come down within the last 3-4 weeks with another big storm coming next week. Anyway................sure glad I work from home so I don't have to

Stitchy Finish #1 & #2 for 2011

2011-01-22T15:25:00.000-05:00

Well, they are 2011 finishes if you squint a little and don't think about it too hard. 50% of each was actually done in December so I didn't have to put myself out TOO much to get them done THIS month. Still, a finish is a finish is a finish. :) (Terrible picture...........yikes!!)This little guy is from the 2010 JCS ornament issue. I don't think I had the DMC red, blue, *OR* yellow that it

Apologies for being a bit behind on emails and the like.

2011-01-18T15:45:00.000-05:00

A close family member passed away last week, after a long (7 years) battle with ovarian cancer, and her services were this weekend/Monday. Everything was just beautiful and I'm sure she would have approved. It was humbling to see how many people turned out for her (well over a hundred) but that's the kind of person she was. Everyone who met her loved her - myself included. She was 57 - the

Some new beads.

2011-01-12T15:33:00.000-05:00

Get 'em here. :) I'm trying to do a few new things here and there in between orders so I don't get too behind with it. Seems like I blink and all of a sudden it's been over a month since I've done anything really new which makes me sad because I always like seeing new faces around my work table. lol

First pair of socks for 2011.

2011-01-10T21:04:00.000-05:00

Don't be too impressed though because I started them right after Xmas so they are really a 50% 2010 finish and 50% 2011 finish. :) I really should ALWAYS have a simple ribbed pair of socks going on a pair of circular needles because you can really bang these guys out without even trying hard doing them two at a time. I don't know why they seem to 'bend' time doing them that way but they do and

Lots of housekeeping going on this week.

2011-01-07T16:05:00.000-05:00

Sadly, not the kind of housekeeping that involves my actual house. *sigh* I mean housekeeping of the web site. All of the snow peoples and Santas and penguins are put away for the season. (A few are still up on Etsy for the time being because they are still selling on there but I suspect those will be gone by the end of the month too.) In it's place I redid all the bunnies and hearts and

2011 Resolu........errr.........GOALS.

2011-01-04T15:57:00.000-05:00

(Older ornament currently on my tree.) Because there is almost an inherent sense of failure built into the word 'resolution', yes? Goals seems more.......doable somehow. Besides, my personal new year's resolution would be the same one I've had for many years: resolve to survive the next year as best (and as happily) as I can. The End. Having said that though, I'm setting out some crafty type

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T12:14:00.001-05:00

Or Almost New Year. :) I think I had big, soft-focus dreams of doing a whole lot of nothing this week and they turned out to be just that: DREAMS! lol Y'all are keeping me busy with orders this week so work, work, work it is. (Thank you!) And somehow, the Christmas Knitting keeps going on.........and on, well past the holiday. Partly my fault. I knew we weren't going to be seeing his grandfather

BLIZZARD?

2010-12-27T12:51:00.000-05:00

We didn't get no stinking blizzard! I am disappoint!! After days of hand wringing and sky's gonna fall weather predictions, I wanted some EPIC STORMING, man! We did get some snow (my driveway is yet to be uncovered in there somewhere) but it was just your regular ol' snowstorm. Pfffftttt. Where's the fun in that?

FA LA LA LAaaaaaaaaaa

2010-12-22T11:55:00.000-05:00

Well, I spent most of my birthday cleaning the house and doing chores but, on the flip side, I've gotten a lot of great gifts this month so I can't complain too much. (That plus the hubby helped me with everything.) And we did finally get the Xmas tree/decorations up last night. Very late. Three days before Xmas. That's a new low, even for us! I'm going to have to keep it up now until

An Auction to Help An Artist in Need

2010-12-20T15:21:00.000-05:00

Details here on Lori's blog.

So I clicked and sorted...

2010-12-17T20:23:00.002-05:00

..sorted once more......used the Random Number Generator......and counted from the top.... And the winner for this week's giveaway was Margaret!! Congrats to you and thanks so much to all who entered!! That concludes my holiday giveaways but I'll have a big one sometime after the holiday. I'm already squirreling away extra beads for an 'extras, misses, and flat out ugly' type giveaway. Should be

Trans Siberian Orchestra, rocking da HOUSE.

2010-12-17T00:18:00.000-05:00

AWESOMENESS. We got there a little late (about 30 minutes....ugh!) because the traffic was MURDER downtown Providence. Total clusterf**k. But these guys put on a THREE hour show so......there was more than enough lasers, fireworks, ear-splitting guitars, and flames left to watch. Oh yeah, and the Christmas themed music wasn't bad either. :) Unlike a lot of people in the audience, I did not keep

Giveaway & New Stuff

2010-12-16T13:33:00.000-05:00

Only one more day to enter my stitchy giveaway!! (Though I probably won't pick the name until tomorrow afternoon so you can probably squeak in there in the morning. :)) It's another crazy busy week. Let us not speak of it. new EtsyNameSpace.Mini(103627, 'shop','thumbnail',2,4).renderIframe(); I was supposed to put these silver core beads up last week but hoooooo hoooooo haaa, that didn't

Another Monday, another chance to give something away for FREE!!!!!!!!!!

2010-12-13T16:48:00.001-05:00

This week is a 'stitchy' giveaway: Two little ornaments (handmade by moi) stitched from a Bent Creek design. Simply finished with a bit of ribbon and a couple buttons. (The backing fabric is navy with 'snow' printed on it.) Hang 'em on your tree, or on a cabinet knob or....................who am I kidding? Who cares about the details when you are getting it FOR FREE!!!!!! lolol Same details as

And the winner is of the beady giveaway is...........

2010-12-12T22:36:00.000-05:00

Random Number Generator picked #59, I sorted all the entries by subject (to mix them up randomly) and counted from the bottom (instead of the top for something different this time) and the name I came up on was ..............Luann!! Congrats on winning!!! I will have this out to you ASAP. Thanks to everyone who participated! I will have a stitchy giveaway up tomorrow, I believe. (Or maybe

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2010-12-09T17:20:00.002-05:00

The husband's car needs a new transmission part to the not so FA LA LA LA LA tune of $1600...and his car is not really worth fixing for that much. (It's basically just a workhorse for commuting a long distance. There's no point in having a really nice second car............it would be a huge waste of money.) Ok, so uhhhhhhhh............worst month ever for this to happen? (Especially because on

New Giveaway for December!

2010-12-06T13:58:00.000-05:00

But firstly - I put the Harry Potter set up for ordering today. Did another set up this weekend and figured out the pricing. It's about where I thought it was going to be (which to me, is very very reasonable) so no surprises there. :) Now onto to the giveaway! I plan on doing two this month: one beady one and one stitchy one. This first one is the beady one. A cute lil Frosty type Snowman, all