Peas In A Pod

Casting on...

Well, grades are due tomorrow, so I'm having one more last push of big grading today!  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  (But my eye is twitching uncotrollably this morning.....)

Lately, I have had some stressful sewing with deadlines and all.  And I can't even show it to you yet.  But soon!  Sometimes when sewing feels stressful, I just want to do something else for a while.

Sooo.....

I got out this beautiful yarn that I had purchased in Newaygo at The New Ewe (I blogged about this shop a while back), and I cast on a new knitting project.  This is Cotton Rayon Flax Metallic yarn by Blue Heron Yarns in the color Carnelian.

I love how it's working up.  I can only show this sneak peek, because it's a special present for someone.  I absolutely LOVE this yarn!  It is so soft, the color is so beautiful, and there is that little strand of gold thread running through it that just gives it an extra oomph.  I love how the red undulates between red and purple.  The only bad thing is my hands are so dry, every once in a while my fingers "catch" the yarn and snag it.  I have to be really careful about that.  The pattern is pretty easy.  When I finish this, I'll show you the whole thing and write a pattern review.  I find that after I make one of the rows with the big holes in it, I have to count my stitches.  I find I easily forget one of the holes on the end, and it throws the whole pattern off!  After a lot of "tinking" (unknitting), I learned to just stop and count my stitches after one of those rows.  It has saved me a lot of grief!

I also got some of it in this color.  The photo is sort of deceiving....it's greener than it looks in this photo, but isn't this pretty?  The color is called "bronze," but it's a really "champaign" color if you ask me.  Love it.

I also got this in the mail the other day.  I ordered it from Bijou Basin Ranch.  I encountered them first at Fiber Festival last year....they do a lot of yak yarn.  This isn't yak, though....it's angora.  They are starting a knit along (KAL) tomorrow.  It's for the Fir Trees Cowl.  I got the pattern free when I ordered the yarn.  I thought it would be fun to participate in the KAL, because I've never done a KAL and it was a very small, doable project.  Also, this is kind of a lacey pattern, and I haven't done much with lace knitting.  I thought it would be fun to do it with other people.  I resisted for a couple of weeks when I saw them posting on Facebook about it.  But I finally caved.  I am glad I did.  When I opened this yarn, I couldn't believe how SOFT it is!  And the pattern only takes one little skein.  So, it should be fun.  I'll keep you posted on that progress.

(By the way, if you have never checked out Bijou Basin Ranch, you should.  Their yarns are just beautiful, and the folks there are so nice and friendly.  I have really enjoyed every transaction I've had with them.  They are so helpful!)

Hope you're all having a good day.  It is finally supposed to start warming up this week, but we have rain in the forecast all week.  I wonder if we'll ever get some good weather here!  I guess we got spoiled back in March with those 80-degree days that one week....

Until next time,

Mama Pea

Geez Leweez Needlework Shop

Okay, Typepad did it again!  I lost my entire post after typing half of it!  I'm really getting frustrated by this!  It's logging me out and making me sign in again when I press "Save," and I lose everything.  I want to scream!  I'll try again:

I put myself on a self-management program.

For every paper I grade, I get to have some Internet time.

I'm writing this post as my reward for grading a paper.  ;-)

A little more about my trip to Florida:

One day while I was in Florida, my mom said she wanted to go out to Sanibel and visit her favorite knitting shop.  She asked if I wanted to go.  Ummmm.....hello.....YEAH!  So, we went.  I love how "Florida" this store looks!  It was called Geez Leweez Needlework Shop.

Here is a view of the shop when you walk in the door.  That's my mom talking to the owner of the shop.  It's a nice store.  Many nice yarns.  Mom likes it because they have friendly staff and are really helpful when she needs help with a pattern.

Here is another view of the shop from the back of the store looking forward.  You can see they have a nice area to sit and do needlework together.  On the wall, you can see all the hand-painted needlepoint canvases they have.  Wow.  They are really beautiful!  I don't do needlepoint, but these were so beautiful, I was tempted to start....until I saw the price of the canvases.  All hand-painted needlepoint canvases are expensive.  Justifiably so.  They are art!  Many of these were painted by local artists.  Very cool.  I didn't take close up photos of them so as not to violate their copyright.

This wall of needlepoint wool was pretty awesome.  So beautiful!

My mom is knitting something with this yarn and it is SO nice!  See the blue/turquoise one?  I wanted to get it!  I was thinking that it would coordinate so nicely with the Urban Nine Patch I'm working on and the embroidery pillows I want to do.  I could knit an afghan to match them.  But then, I thought, "You haven't finished the quilt yet, and you haven't even started the pillows yet.  You are getting ahead of yourself now."  So, I didn't buy it.  Good self-control, huh?!

Very importantly, they had a comfy chair in the back, where Sweet Pea and Maddi could sit while they waited for us.

I have to show you this.  Next door, there was this shoe store that we found out carries narrow sizes.  Mom has very narrow feet, so this was exciting.  But look at this....

I know there's a lot of glare, but doesn't this series of signs just crack you up?  Okay, the first few make sense....It's a shoe store.  Wide shoes, narrow shoes...la, la, la.  But then, Handbag Repair.  Okay, I'll give them that one.  But Jewelry Repair?  Oil Painting Lessons?  Watch Batteries?  I totally laughed when I saw this.

I found some nice flip flops here.  But what interested me most is he had the most wonderful collection of old, antique shoes....

And some pretty neat vintage ones, too.  I love shoes.  I mean, I really love shoes.  Ask Papa Pea.  It's a problem for me.  Poor Sweet Pea has the same affliction.  I swear she came out of the womb loving shoes.  When she was only about 2 years old, we walked into a shoe store (her first experience ever being in one), ran over to the shoes, sat down, tore her shoes off, and started trying on shoes.  It was the funniest thing ever.

And of course, Sweet Pea had fun finding little lizards all over the place.  She tried to point at it, but it started running away.  You can barely see it in this photo.

Okay.  I gotta get back to work now.  Papers are calling my name!  See ya' soon!

Until next time,

Mama Pea

 

Cupcakes, anyone?

Okay....Typepad did it again.  Lost my post again!  At least this time I was only partially through it! Gonna try again!

I have a confession.....I haven't had much sewing time lately.  You may have already guessed that.  What little time I have had, I've been working on some projects for The Quilted Fish.  I can't show them yet.  But I'm really excited about some stuff with her.  I can't wait to show you.  But it will have to wait a bit more.  Patience, my precious.

So, in the meantime, I may need to have a couple of "non-quilty" posts.  Can you bear with me through those?  I'm hoping that you may still find some inspiration in the posts....

I'd like to share a couple of fun things with you from my trip to Florida.

While I was in Fort Myers, I went shopping one day with my mom, dad, and Sweet Pea.  I went shopping for a dress for the gala I went to, and I bought the dress I was wearing in this blog post.  After a full day of shopping, Sweet Pea had asked if she could get some ice cream.  We saw a sandwich board on the sidewalk that said "ice cream" and was pointing down this little sidewalk.  We walked down that sidewalk and found this adorable shop.

Check out these wonderful looking cupcakes!  The vanilla ones look so pretty, don't they?!  I love turquoise.

Mmmmm....chocolate and peanutbutter (said like Homer Simpson saying, "mmmmm.....beer").  They had a peanutbutter cup in the middle!  Honest!

So many good choices!  Cupcakes sure are the rage these days!  My dad was entranced.  We brought 4 cupcakes home for dessert.  The owner went in the back and found us some more Caramel Mudslides. It's no wonder I've gained back some of the weight I had lost.  :-(  Gotta get back on the diet.

They did have ice cream, too.  Really good ice cream!  I tried to get a nice photo of Sweet Pea, but she was not very cooperative.

The whole shop was adorable.  Don't you love the turquoise walls and the polka dots on the menu?  I really loved this light fixture over the cupcakes.  I wish you could see the furniture they had.  The chairs were these really cute clear plastic, modern-looking chairs.  And the tables were stainless steel.  My dad was talking to the gal behind the counter.  She was one of the owners.  She told us they had only been open TWO days!  Wow!  I hope they make a great go of it!

They had some cute little serving stuff for sale, too.  I loved this platter.  Don't you love that saying?!  (If you can't read it it says, "My age?  If I was wine, you couldn't afford me.")

And how about this one?  I sort of wish I had bought these.  They would be fun for serving at parties.  (This one says, "To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites!")

And how about these cute, cute, cute towels?  That should give you some inspiration right there!

This was a fun day in so many ways.  Some good, quality family time, a new dress, and something yummy for the tummy.  I am missing my mom and dad as I write this.

Anyway, if you are ever in Fort Myers, you should visit this cute little shop.  It's called Grace and Shelly's Cupcakes.  (Click the link for locations and information about the shop.)  Stop in and show them some love.  You won't be sorry.  Both the ice cream and the cupcakes are AWESOME!

Until next time,

Mama Pea

 

I'm a gifted (but frustrated) girl!

I'm frustrated because....

Last night, I spent an hour writing this post.  I had all the photos and links in.  I pressed "Schedule to Publish," and lost the entire post.  I was so mad!  It's hard to get motivated to rewrite an entire post, you kow?  Okay, here goes.  Do overs.  (I'll try to remember to Save more often this time.)

I'm gifted because....

I am so blessed and grateful to have wonderful friends and family in my life to gift to me now and then.  I have the most wonderful SIL (SisLH) who lives near Nancy's Notions in Wisconsin.  She goes there often and sends me little gifties.  I often don't blog them, because I use them right away.  (Or sometimes Sweet Pea absconds with them.)  I'll have to show you what she sends sometimes.  She's awfully good to me.  I am excited because next weekend, we are going to Nancy Zieman's big Sewing Weekend at Nancy's Notions.  There are all kinds of classes going on....oh, and shopping!  Mostly, I'm looking forward to hanging out with SisLH a little bit.  Should be fun.

The other day, I received a box in the mail.  In it, were my bee blocks from Shelly from Prairie Moon Quilts  (more on those later).  Also in the box was this little quilt.

She said that her modern guild issued a challenge for the members to make something with a heart on it and gift it to a friend they cared about and needed.  Shelly made this and decided I was her friend who needed. it.  Wow!  First, I was honored that she considered me such a deserving friend.  Second, I did kinda need it, what with all my stress lately!  Thank you so much, Shelly!  It's just gorgeous!

There is so much attention to detail on this.  Notice all the little buttons sewn to the ribbon.

And then there are three quotes printed on paper, framed out beautifully, and tied to the quilt.  They are all wonderful, but the last one is my favorite.  I love this quilt.  It will hang in my sewing room.  Shelly, you brought tears to my eyes with this.  I don't know how to thank you.

Then, at Easter, my mom gifted me this figurine.  It's a Jim Shore figurine of a cat.  You might recall I have a nativity scene that is from Jim Shore, which I blogged previously.  I've often thought I'd like to collect his figurines.  I guess Mom agreed that I should and started it for me.  She said she felt a little bad about PJ and the kittens dying.  So, she got me this.  I adore it.  Thank you so much, Mom!!!

I thought maybe he should live here by my African violet.  Sorry the photo isn't so great.  I have done some editing to it (e.g., to crop out that plastic bag that peeking in the corner--grrr), but cannot get it to save when I upload it.  I'm about ready to throw this computer out the window.  Plus, it's operating really slow.  Anyway, I love this cat.  He kind of reminds me of the Cheshire cat.  Doesn't he?

Well, better run.  Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Until next time,

Mama Pea

 

I'm a lucky girl....

Again!

I've had a good couple of weeks in blogland with prizes!  I'll show you what I've won:

My friend, Cindy, over at Live a Colorful Life blog had this nice giveaway for these unique fabrics.  I left a comment.  She e-mailed me and said Mr. Random picked me!  I was very happy!  Thank you so much, Cindy!.  I'm going to tuck these away until just the right project speaks to me for them.

Next, I was reading Sherri's blog, A Quilting Life, and she announced the winners of a giveaway she had done.  She said I won the Fit to be Geese ruler!  So, Monique, from Open Gate, sent me this wonderful ruler.  Yippee!  You guys know what a ruler freak I am.

The ruler comes with this nice little quilt pattern, too.  I can't wait to try it.  I have heard so many good things about this ruler from so many people.  One time, my friend Linda of The Quilted Pineapple blog was raving about it when we were sewing together.  So, I bought one that day, but it was the mini one.  I still haven't tried it yet, because I've always needed larger ones.  I really can't wait to dig into this.  I hear you get perfect geese with it.  Thank you so much Monique and Sherri!!!  (I'll blog a product review of it when I try it.)

How about this one?  I about died.  You know the stitcheries I'm doing for the Aurifil BOM?  I showed you one in this blog post.  I uploaded those photos to their Flickr pool, too.  Every month, they draw a name from all the photos on Flickr for an Aurifil prize.  A while back, I got an e-mail from Pat Sloan, stating that I had won the drawing for the month.  She asked for my mailing address so they could send me the prize.  I kind of forgot about it, with all my traveling.  I figured it would be a spool of thread or two.  I got home one day, and there was a box sitting on my doorstep.  It came from Italy.  Ooohhh!  My prize!  What's this?!  An entire thread collection???!!!

Check it out....12 spools of Aurifil thread that Mark Lipinski picked out.  These are 28 wt, so they are thicker threads than what I use for piecing (which is 50 wt).  This is supposed to be good for hand or machine quilting.  I know I will use this!  Wow!  My jaw literally dropped when I opened this package.  Thank you so much Pat and Alex of Aurifil Threads!  (Now that I think about it, I do remember them saying they'd give away a thread collection every month.  So, if you are not doing the stitcheries with the Aurifil BOM, you might want to think about doing so and uploading your photos to their Flickr group!  You mught just win, too!  Even if you only put one photo up, you are in the running!)  I've got to get back on it.  I'm falling behind.

Papa Pea and I went to a big gala fundraiser for autism in Detroit last weekend.  (Our friend snapped this photo as we were trying to take a picture and Papa Pea made some smart a** remark.)  We had to get all dressed up.  I haven't worn a long dress since high school.  I felt like we were going to prom.  Anyway, there was a silent auction and raffle at the gala.  We bought 5 raffle tickets for $50 to help with the fundraiser.  I told Papa Pea, he better let me put them in the boxes.  My luck has been pretty good lately!  But so far, we haven't heard that we won anything.  Oh, well.  The kids were the real winners.  The Autism Alliance of Michigan raised over $250,000 that night!  Woo hoo!

I can't believe how lucky I've been in the past year with giveaways.  Thank you to all the lovely bloggers out there who hosted these nice giveaways, as well as the giveaways I didn't win!  Makes me think I need to start hosting more giveaways, myself, to pay it forward.  Hmmmm....My birthday is coming up this summer.  Remember last year I did a week of giveaways at my birthday?  I may need to do that again.  :-)

Hope you're all doing well today.  I'm off to grade some more papers.

Until next time,

Mama Pea