Summertime!

Whether the calendar agrees with me or not, I declare it summer.  These are my reasons why.

1) School is out in my neck of the woods.

2) My neighborhood pool is open.

3) The Farmers' Markets are open. 

4) Caprese salad with ingredients from aforementioned Farmers' Market.  Summer's lovely simplicity in a bowl. Yum!

5) It hit 90 degrees this week.

6) It has stopped raining daily.

7) It is strawberry picking time.

8) All of the people in my knitting group are doing open work or lace instead of blankets because "dear, it is just too hot."  I am knitting cute little hats for the same reason.  Watch for a blue one soon.

9) The summer concerts have started.

What makes it summer for you?

My New Ride

It has been a wild ride for the last few months but we are now moved into the house and mostly settled.  (No pictures of the house until the lawn is installed, the downfall of moving in February.)  There were hassles with the build and the move but it was worth it.   We have wonderful neighbors and friends close by.  I am also, finally, back to knitting and filling my Etsy store check out the new stuff and the gorgeous pictures.  I can't take credit for the vast majority of the outdoor pictures, by the way, those were taken by my dear friend Jolene.  Check out her photography blog here.  I told you she was talented now didn't I?

With all of these changes has come another.  I've gotten a new ride.  Cool huh?  

My daughter and I have taken to riding to the local parks in the mornings before it gets too hot.  She loves the trailer, I love the exercise and we're saving quite a bit of gas.  We are lucky to live in a place with so may parks and nature trails available.  We plan to explore them all this summer.  I hope that you and yours find some nearby and do the same.  I'd love to hear how your adventures go!

Progress

More work has been done on the house and the much awaited bannisters are in!  Munchkin may now tour the house freely.  No closing date yet but we are getting close.  I'm so ready to live out of drawers and cupboards instead of boxes and to have some semblance of order.  Sure our house is clean and gorgeous for showings but papers have a way of disappearing when I have to keep putting them somewhere "safe."

I'm now also dabbling in bead work for my Etsy store.  I currently have 2 sets of prayer beads for sale in my store and more to come very soon.  This is something I stumbled across a few years ago and shared with the women at my church recently.  They are fun and thought provoking to make and they are peaceful things to have in your life.  I've very excited about these and even if no one buys them, I hope to spread the word about them and encourage more people to make their own to use in their own prayers.

In addition to the prayer beads, I've been knitting like crazy, especially for Christmas.  In 10 days I knit 6 scarves and a purse.  They came out wonderfully but unfortunately there are no pictures since I gave them all away before photographing them.  Rookie mistake. 

Home building - Quite an adventure

As I mentioned in my last post, we are building a new home.  Something we never thought we would do, but we are enjoying it nonetheless. Pretty huh?  They tell me the dirt piles will be gone by spring and then maybe we'll have some plants too.  If everything goes well, we should be in the new home by mid-January.   

My child is mostly thrilled about the move because we know a lot of families who live very near the new place and now they are only a bike ride away instead of a 10 minute car ride.  We enjoy wandering through the new construction even with the dust everywhere just to see the changes.  There are some things about the house tours that make me a little nervous though.  Remember the child I mentioned, well this is what the hallway just outside the playroom. 

Terrifying isn't it?  Soon there will be a railing, but right now, nervous nellie mommy!  Never have I been so appreciative of trim carpenters!  Wish us luck.  Now back to knitting.

Busier Bee

Since May lots has happened.  We've decided to build a house which should be finished in the next month or so. We've been to Canada, Michigan, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Florida where we visited Grandma, Grandpa and Mickey!  We've been strawberry picking, apple picking and gardening.  We've gone on our first field trip, attended the Symphony on the Prairie and worked hard to make VBS fun for all.  We've attended summer camp and met Elmo and all his pals.  We've learned that you can make your our Yeti just by vacuuming brand new carpet.  We've gotten one year older and helped a dear friend launch her photography  business.  She is seriously talented and, if you are local, you should consider having photograph your family.  

http://jolenejohnstonphotography.blogspot.com/

I've started to sell items at a local store, Gallery 116 in Fishers, IN. http://www.gallery116.com/

And most exciting of all, I now have a NIECE!  She is gorgeous, of course, and since she lives about 900 miles away for now I'm visiting her via webcam.  This auntie thing is great, cute kids and I'm not the one they are throwing up on, usually.

I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and thus far a calm holiday season.

Enjoy your adventures, I certainly enjoy mine.

Busy Bee

I have been a  busy bee.  We put in a new garden.  Yesterday grass today this.  The plants are mainly those from my April 22 post. Obviously there are more plants to add and mulch to lay down but after moving more than 2,000 pounds of sod, topsoil, compost and hay we decided to call it a day.  It is a three day weekend after all.

I've also bought out half of JoAnn's kids crafts section.  They are having a great sale and I have a 3 year old constantly home until preschool starts again next fall.  She loves little craft kits, stickers, etc. All told, including the bins, this was under $100.  Not a bad price for a few months of sanity.

I've also been working on items for my Etsy shop and,

 potentially, a local shop that sells handcrafted items.  I'll reveal the name if they like my stuff.  My latest creation is a lovely light purple summer shawl.  I like it so much that I don't want to list it but I will tomorrow.  There is more yarn out there and goodness knows I have plenty of needles.

Good night my lovelies.  That's all I have for now.

What Is A Gratitude Envelope Anyway?

If you have checked out my Etsy store lately you have likely seen sets of gratitude envelopes for sale.  The idea came to me while thinking of gifts to give to my family last Christmas/birthday season.  Ours is not a huge family, currently 8 adults and 1 munchkin but of those 9 people, 6 of us have birthdays in the first three months of the year.  Birthday presents are distributed at Christmas as well since we live hundreds of miles apart.  Being a stay-at-home mom, I wanted gifts that would be fairly inexpensive to make but would mean something.   The answer was gratitude envelopes.

I knit a different envelope for each person using different colors of yarn.  Everyone wrote something special to the other family members and we all walked away with a collection of thoughts from our dearest, if not so nearest (geographically that is).  My envelope and the lovely thoughts it holds now rests on a shelf above my desk.  Whenever I miss my family, I read through the cards and know that I am loved.

Currently, I have sets of 4 envelopes on my website with sets of 8 coming soon.  I welcome custom orders, after all the original set was custom made.