Nature is a great resource

Joshua, my four year old, enjoys being outside and it was a perfect afternoon to go on a nature walk and to explore the world around us.  We collected fall leaves, pine cones and pine needles to make a festive wreath.  I normally don't decorate much for fall (because I like to jump straight to Christmas) but this year I've been inspired by the gorgeous colors of the fall leaves.  Plus I absolutely LOVE doing arts and crafts with Joshua.  We made a huge wreath to hang over the mantle so all of our family will be able to see it for Thanksgiving.  After we were finished with the wreath I sprayed it with poly acrylic to preserve the colors of the leaves (hence some of the shininess).

  Pine cone turkeys and garland are still in the works!

Progress

Well it's not much but I'm super excited about my FIRST pair of socks!!  I'm not used to knitting with such small needles (sz 4) it feels like I'm knitting with toothpicks!  But this is my ultimate goal in knitting... knitting my own pair of socks and I'm doing it, hurray!

Thought For The Day

I attended a Women's Retreat a few weeks ago.  The theme was Worry.  What do we worry about and how do we let go and give our worries and fears to God.  Everyone's placement had a different quote and I liked this one the best.

Have a beautiful Sunday everyone!

Looks can be deceiving

I don't like to cook.  My husband is the chef in this house and he makes dinner every night.  But I like to bake... cookies, cakes, pies, you name it.  So when I came across this book called Two-Bite Cupcakes by Viola Goren I had to have it.  Just the photos on the front let you know that there is more to cupcakes than cake and icing:

And then when you flip through the book it definitely expands your mind to think outside the box, or cupcake liner as it were.  For example on page 104 there are "Sun-dried Tomato & Basil Cupcakes".  This will definitely be a finger food I'll be making this holiday season:

For breakfast you could serve up Sticky Bun Cupcakes (found on page 55):

There are, of course, more "sweet" cupcakes such as Snickers Cupcakes and Chocolate Porcupine Cupcakes.  But I believe my absolute favorite is going to be the Orange & Chocolate Cupcakes.  Wow how yummy is that? 

This is one of my secrets (and I'm glad to see that someone shares my taste buds): I LOVE orange and chocolate together.  And when I'm really craving these two flavors I've been known to buy orange sherbet and put Hershey's chocolate syrup all over it.

Today my little mini cupcake pans were just staring at me waiting for me to  bake something in them.  So for starters I bought a fudge brownie mix from the grocery store and made little brownie bites:

Wow don't they look delicious?!

Looks can be deceiving... they were as hard as ROCKS!!!  Or as my mom and I would say "They were as hard as HOCKEY PUCKS!"  But have no fear I made another batch that turned out yummy and chewy and chocolaty and delicious.

I will be adding a new segment to my blog posts and that will be baking because I do believe baking is a form of creativity.

Update on my knitting projects:

1.  I now have about 400 of the 725 beads strung onto my skein of yarn I will be making a beaded scarf out of.

2.  I started knitting my very first pair of socks!!  I have cast them onto my double pointed needles and have done about two rounds so far.  I am super excited but Ive never worked with needles this small, I'm used to working with size 11 (US) and my socks are on size 4 (US) needles.

For great craft ideas check out...

There is this awesome website out there that I think everyone should know about, it's called One Pretty Thing.  It's so different from any other website I've ever visited.  She gathers links to other websites on crafting ideas and tutorials and posts them here.  She updates every single day and, well, you just have to check her out:  http://www.oneprettything.com/ 
I copy and pasted Rachel's description of her own website which is a lot better than I did: 

Welcome to One Pretty Thing- a daily website dedicated to bringing you inspiring projects for a handmade life. I'm Rachel and I scour the craft forums, sites and blogs to bring you the best tutorials and DIY projects from across the internet.
Weekday mornings One Pretty Thing will showcase a different holiday, seasonal or project-specific Roundup of projects from across the internet.
In the afternoon I publish The Daily DIY- a compilation of the day’s DIY projects from around the blogosphere. On weekends I feature reader projects from the One Pretty Thing Flickr community, and an additional Weekend Roundup!
One Pretty Thing welcomes submissions, ideas and project requests. If you’d like your project included in The Daily DIY, just email! If there is something you would like to see featured, email as well! While I cannot respond personally to every email, I will let you know if I'll be linking to your project.
If you'd like to share a completed craft, consider uploading a picture to the One Pretty Thing Flickr group. You might see your picture and link in a future Flickr Friends Roundup post!
One Pretty Thing
P.O. Box 6397
Eureka, CA 95502

"Friday's Photo"

Even though today is not Friday I've decided to add a little something to my blog, I'm calling it Friday's Photo.  Before my knitting needles, paint brushes and sewing machines I had a camera.  My first "real" hobby was photography.  Around the age of six my dad taught me how to use his camera and ever since then I've been fascinated my them.  He didn't have to explain much to me because it was a 110 film camera, but I was amazed that you could push one little button and capture an image on paper forever.  As time went on he taught me how to use his manual focus SLR film camera.  I fell in love with photography all over again.  We are in the digital age now and I remember it taking me a long time to convert over because if I didn't have a negative in my hand then chances were I could loose an image forever.  I've since gotten past that and have been shooting digital for about 15 years now. I have two cameras that I love and do not travel without them; they are my Canon Digital Rebel and my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18.

So all of this to say that I have hundreds if not thousands of photos I've love to share with the world.  I am on Flickr but I initially set that up so I could share pictures with my relatives that were far away.   

I may be changing the title of Friday's Photo to something else if I find that I'm posting more than one a week. 

I welcome you fall with open arms...

(Photograph taken at Colonial Williamsburg).

I've been inspired again

I dabble in a lot of different types of media and when I can "marry" the two of them together it is such a thrill for me.

While waiting for my sock knitting book to come in the mail I went to the library just to see what they had, one can never have too many art books.  In my collection one can find anything from sculpey clay books to glass fusing to quilting and embroidery books.  I love learning new techniques and am always inspired by other people's work.  So in the library I found this wonderful "combination" book entitled Knitting with Beads by Jane Davis.  Right up my alley!  I love beads and I love to knit... why didn't I think of this?

My first project from this book is on page 83 and it's called Cascading Diamonds Scarf.  The pattern calls for 2 skeins of yarn and I am to string 725 beads on each skein.  I only have about 200 beads on the first skein so I don't have any progress pictures to show you yet but this is what it will eventually look like:

The color of the scarf in the book is eggplant but I will be doing mine in a marina blue with blue beads.  I will definitely be purchasing a copy of this book after I have returned it to the library because this one needs to be in my collection.

Happy knitting... and beading!

The knitting Bug

Good riddance summer... we are now moving into my favorite season, fall.  I love the crispness of the air, the pumpkins on my neighbor's porches, and the vibrant colors of the changing leaves.  I can wear my hair down again and not worry about it sticking to the back of my neck like it does in hot, humid Virginia.

I have so many creative interests and one ever knows what I'll be working on a month from now.  I may be revisiting old projects or trying my hand at something new.  Well the knitting bug bit about two weeks ago.  With the weather changing as fast as it did it seemed only natural for me to pull out my needles again.  My mom taught me the basic knit and purl stitches six years ago but I have never gone any further than that.  I've knit on circular needles which I find to be tons of fun.

I'm not aspiring to knit a sweater, frankly because I don't wear too many sweaters, but I definitely want to learn some different designs.  I told my husband that I'm going to try not to buy any new yarn until I use up some of my old stuff... and complete some of the knitting projects I started last fall.  I'm off to a great start.  I pulled out the 2 small tubs of yarn I had stashed away.  I inventoried then organized all of it and to my surprise I had many UFO's (unfinished objects) that were nearly done!  Which means I'll be able to buy new yarn sooner than I thought, yeah!

Like I said I'm not aspiring to knit a sweater but I would just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to knit a pair of socks for myself (or two or three).  Last night I got on the computer and ordered, what looked like, the easiest sock knitting book there was.  By the time the book arrives I will have finished two more projects from my stash.  I think that may be enough to treat myself to sock weight yarn... YIPPEE!  

Happy Fall Everyone!