A Fresh Start

So I'm tired of Mary Wigham already :) Plus I just had an itching to work on something new.

I started something that I've been holding on to for a while now. It's a design by a local woman named Renee Greene. She's the in-house designer extraordinaire at Salty Yarns in Ocean City, my closest LNS. When finished, it will be a map of the Delmarva Peninsula. For those of you who aren't familiar, Delmarva is a large peninsula on the East Coast of the US. It is made up of the entire state of Delaware, the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Because it's separated from the rest of the US by the Chesapeake Bay it remains, for the most part, an environmentally protected and rural area - a fact Delmarva-ians are very proud of.

Believe it or not, I actually started this chart on Saturday night. I got a bunch of good stitching time on Sunday too and ended up finishing the outline of the map. It's worked in backstitch so it comes together pretty quickly. Place names, symbols, a map title, and a North arrow remain.

Stay tuned to see Delmarva come to life!

What a Nice Weekend

I've been a busy knitter. And I think I'm finally speeding up! I have 16 inches of scarf knitted so far. It's so soft and lovely - I can't wait to be finished. I'm going to make this scarf nice and long so I can wrap it around my head about a thousand times, right up to my eyeballs! Side note: it's been so cold out that my dog doesn't even want to go for a walk in the mornings. Brrrrrrr...

And, drum roll please...

I pulled out the ol' Mary Wigham Quaker sampler last night! After months and months of neglect (it may have even been a year+) I finished the white motif. I even stitched the initials and got started on the pink section. It's still not my favorite thing but I'll keep working on it.

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. Yay for Monday being over!

This may be totally useless...

... but I'm doing it anyway! And, of course, I'm late jumping on the bandwagon.

Daffycat has created this totally useless stitch-a-long - her words, not mine! Every New Moon of the year (dates of which can be found here) you're supposed to take a picture of that glass jar you throw all your leftover thread, floss, and yarn scraps into. The problem is I don't have one of these jars.

I finished up my delicious Claussen pickles this weekend and now I have a jar! It even has scraps in it!

The ORT (old ragged threads) jar

Getting Started on Those Goals

I have about 5 inches complete on my very first scarf! I'm using a blended grey and white wool. I'm knitting the whole thing. I figure I'll start easy. Maybe next time I'll throw in some fancy stitches :) And to tell you the truth, I though knitting would go a lot faster. Maybe it's just because I'm still getting used to it. I have to concentrate pretty hard to make sure I don't lose stitches.

On Saturday I also got a big load of stuff together to go to Good Will. It's still sitting in the back of my car because I couldn't find anywhere to drop it off this weekend. It will happen though! It feels good to get rid of unused things and give them to people who actually need them.

LEGOS!

We drove over to BWI Airport last week to pick up my car in long term parking (my momma was using it when she was home from New Zealand). We don't get over to that side of the world much - Baltimore, not NZ :) - so we made a pit stop at Arundel Mills Mall. We went to Books-a-Million and the Lego Store. I finally bought a kit!! I put it together a few nights ago...

Look! It's me and Jeremy!

30 Things to Do Before I'm 31

Since it's now a week before my 30th birthday, I think it's a really good time for me to set some goals for the upcoming year. I've seen this on a few different blogs and think it's a great idea.

So here it goes... my 30 before 31:

1. Exercise 4 times a day (*edit - a WEEK :) ... I'm not that hardcore*) - I got EA Sports Active for Christmas, hopefully I can keep it up!
   
2. Find a job in Baltimore
3. Make all homemade Christmas presents
   
4. Get an iPhone
   
5. Finish the teardrop
6. Attend an out-of-state Tear Jerkers rally
7. Buy more local produce
8. Have a party at the house
9. Knit my first scarf - in the works!
   
10. Go to New Zealand
11. Design a cross stitch chart
12. Take a personal day off of work for myself and RELAX
13. Complete my footware photo project
14. Spend less time on the internet at work
15. Install new AC in the house
16. Insulate under the house
17. Make an article of clothing for myself
18. Buy a new "fancy" camera
19. Make a rug
20. Transfer childhood recordings to digital - I've been wanting to do this for years
    
21. Learn 1 new craft
22. Yarn bomb something
23. Take a class at the Arts Center
24. Learn to play the mandolin
25. Learn to surf
26. Rearrange the living room
27. Simplify the house - downsize!
28. Donate unused clothing and shoes to a charity - downsize!
    
29. Grow a beautiful garden
30. Don't stress over little things - focus on the positive and live a happier life

I think most of these goals are attainable. I can't wait to cross things off the list!

What are your goals for the new year?

A Finish!

It's finished! It's finished! All You Can Eat is finished! Yaaaaaaaay!

Now it has to be framed and a spot has to be saved for it in the teardrop galley :) And the peasants rejoice.


It's on to knitting!

How-To: Postcard Calendar Journal

In the beginning of December I was looking at Design*Sponge and was smitten with this lovely calendar. Each day you write a little blurb about what you did - like a mini journal entry. This continues through the years and the life of the calendar. It seems like a real keepsake :)

On New Years Eve we were invited to a party and thought that this would make a perfect host/Christmas gift. It was pretty easy to make. You can make it too if you follow the tutorial here.

We bought most of the paper supplies at Walmart so we saved money there. We picked up the mega-index cards there - 2 packs of 100 - and the paper cutter. The date stamper and ink pad came from an office supply store (Walmart only had the self inking). The postcards (50 cents each) and enamel container ($6) came from a local antique store.

Jeremy cut all of the index cards in half with the paper cutter. He cut about 5 at a time, running the blade back and forth over the cards 2 or 3 times. The postcards didn't need to be cut. They were actually about a half inch smaller than the halved index cards.

When it was time to start stamping dates (remember, no year!), I began at Dec 31. That way I didn't have to reverse-sort every card in the set when I finished. That saved some time.

Also after I inked the stamp with the date, I put the index card on top of some scrap paper. Since I couldn't avoid inking the year on the stamp I just let that portion of the stamp hang over the right edge of the card. The scrap paper worked perfect for catching all of those "2011"s :)

The cards fit perfectly into the enamel container and were finished off with a little holiday ribbon.

See Ashley's full calendar tutorial on Design*Sponge.

January Calendar

Here is the new January 2011 calendar. You can find it on my Flickr. Feel free to use it!