Memorial Day Weekend

I have been enjoying the nicer weather and steadily working on gardening chores. It's difficult to keep up though with so much going on. We spent the day in Boston yesterday for the Earth Fest concerts. The girls enjoyed it but we were hot sitting on our blanket in the sun amongst the crowds of people. My oldest got a T-shirt autographed by Vega-4 and was so excited. We let her run up to the stage when then approached the audience too.




Today we enjoyed a beautiful day for our town Memorial Day Parade. Every year we look forward to this and the lovely ceremony they have down at the bridge along our river.




The girls still love it but of course they are happy to run into friends too. We ate chicken and hot dog barbecue down at the town common and listened to the first town band concert of the summer. Attendance was sparse but the girls enjoyed a good water fight and running around on the green.


It ended earlier than we expected so we decided to fit in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie tonight instead of tomorrow. None of us liked it as much as the first but it was entertaining if a little confusing too.

Featured Etsy Artist and Shop: Sarah Knits

I have always been in love with babies since I first held one. So when I saw these wonderful hats and booties knitted by sarahknits I couldn't help but remember fondly when my own children were that small. The little white booties and hat looked so adorable and soft -- so perfect for that sweet little baby in your arms. Well I can dream anyway... So while I dream, let me introduce the wonderful shop created by Sarahknits -- so you can join the fun.


Sarahknits...
Tell me a little about yourself...
I just finished up my first year at Whitman College and am planning on majoring in geology and physics. I love math, crazy, I know. That's part of what draws me to knitting though, figuring out the number of stitches I need, etc. I live in the pacific northwest, and can't imagine living anywhere else. Being surrounded by the wheat fields of Walla Walla for nine months taught me that I need trees and mountains to survive, and I can't really see myself living anywhere else, except maybe somewhere in Latin America, but for that my Spanish will need to improve.

Describe your shop and your work.
I love knitting, and I see my shop as an excuse to buy even more yarn than I already do. Currently, my shop features mostly baby items, since this is what I have been inspired to knit lately (I get to knit cute baby clothes without having to have a baby, who could ask for more). I try to use all natural fibers whenever possible, or at least blended yarns with some natural fibers. I think they have a much nicer feel than most synthetics. Right now, I'm working on some hats from Noro's silk garden yarn, one of my all time favorite yarns because of the color combinations and soft feel.

How long have you been doing this and what inspires you to do this?
Well, I started knitting a little more than three years ago. I decided one day that I wanted to learn to knit and searched the entire house for a pair of knitting needles. Finding none, I picked up the closest thing I could find, some skewers, went online and taught myself to knit. Since then, I've gotten some real needles, more than I know what to do with actually, and I rarely put them down. I love being able to turn a mass of fibers into something you can wear. Hats are my favorite, because they're the one thing that you can go crazy with in your wardrobe. I have a rainbow striped hat made from noro yarn that I wear all the time. If it was anything else, I'd never wear it, but as a hat it's small enough, I guess.

What are some of your interests outside of your work?
I love making things with my hands, and always have numerous projects in the works; jewelry, bookbinding, drawing (though I'm not very good at any of them, still, it's fun). I also love spending time outdoors gardening, or hiking and backpacking. Oh, and photography, I'm really into that too.

How would you describe your experience within the Etsy community?
Well, I just found Etsy a few months ago, and I just set up my shop only a few weeks ago, but so far I've loved every minute of Etsy. I've posted numerous questions on the forums and have gotten excellent answers every time; the Etsy community is terrific! I've only bought one item, some silk roving from copperpot, which arrived very quickly, but I'm sure I'll be buying more soon, as soon as I get my summer job figured out.
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So if you have a baby or know someone with a little one don't miss the opportunity to buy one of these sweet little knit items from Sarah Knits. Keep an eye on her shop for other items too. You can visit her blog to learn more about this new Etsy artist.

Oh! I've been tagged!

Yup that's right. In the world of blog land I've been tagged by nycole. This means I have to list seven random things about myself.

1. I grew up in a family as the eldest of 3 girls and have 3 daughters myself. I love my children and enjoy watching them grow. I do wish they could stay little a bit longer though. I love watching the children play happily. When they are fighting and whining I feel pretty grumpy and annoyed. I enjoy making them happy and am pretty frustrated when they aren't happy.

2. I've written and illustrated three as yet unpublished books. Someday when I have more time I keep promising myself I will further pursue the publishing of them. I do attend a monthly writers group but haven't worked on anything new in some time.

3. I love creating things and wish I could do this every day. Its nice having a shop on Etsy because now I don't have to feel guilty making things since I'm selling them. I would much rather create something new than clean the house.

4. I collected chicken salt and peppers shakers for several years and though I have many displayed I have several boxes full of them now. I actually like the pottery chickens I now create myself a lot better.

5. I love gardening and being outside working in the gardens. I love lots of flowers and my gardens tend to be on the natural side and less formal. I don't like weeding out new seedlings and have created many more gardens just by moving these seedlings around. I don't think I can handle any more gardens now. Watering during the summer can be a big chore. I really like making planters and garden sculptures out of hypertufa and cement.

6. I love reading a good book but haven't had much time recently to do this. Once I start one I usually have to stay up all night to finish it.

7. I dream about sitting on my porch and relaxing but there is always so much to do that I rarely sit very long. It's difficult to keep up with things.

These are the people I am going to tag...
magscrafts
artsyclay
lilyriver
purposedesign
soloartworks
ahna

I need to set some goals regarding the photography for my shop. In general I am pretty happy with what I have, but it does take up a lot of my time. Maybe if I was better streamlined it wouldn't end up as such a time sink. I was just reading Enthral's tips included in one of her blog posts. I do manage to follow some of these but I really have to find out more about this macro setting on my camera since I am sure I must have one. I do hate reading manuals though. But I have the tripod so if I just set up a little area to photograph I think I would have better success.

My littlest had her kindergarten end of the year show this morning. They were all so cute dressed in red, white, and blue. Their sign language singing of "God Bless America" and "America the Beautiful" was adorable.

Another rainy day...

I finished this little french hen or "la poule" today. Craft night with my friends is tomorrow night and I'm really looking forward to it. I started work on another wedding couple and I may be doing a custom order for an upcoming wedding. Exciting! Anything to do with weddings is so much fun.

Well it looks like rain in the forecast for the next few days too. I think this will mean the end of the lilacs for us. My beautiful white crab apple only had 2 days before the rain spoiled the flowers. Here is the last photo of the lilacs I took while the sun was out. The deep purple is already fading.

You can't sell it! It's mine!

Yes, that is what my daughter proclaims after everything I make now. But who can blame her -- they are pretty cute. So I often end up making her a version to keep as well. She has a few chickens now and this morning when I finished my little white kitty and grey mouse she protested again. When I wouldn't give in she ran off and brought back a dollar for each. That ought to do it mom, right? Arghh!

My items are listed in two new treasuries today. The first is called "You Animal" by montezumamudd.


The second is called "Teachers Pets" by Majo.


Between the thunderstorms I worked on a new label for some of my things. I would like something a little different for the wedding items. This picture was taken yesterday of our crab apple tree.

Tuesday....

I finished up this little bear and his stand today even with my daughter home from school. We ruled out a fracture yesterday but the bump on her head is huge still. While I worked on this bear she sat down and drew up ideas for other needle felted works. For 6 she has some pretty creative ideas.
My bride and groom birds on Etsy sold yesterday after reaching over 3000 views! They were linked to on a blog called MightyGirl. I was surprised to see such a huge jump in views so fast!


This is a photo of the wind chime thing I made up on Mother's Day. The spring was found by my husband along the old railroad track. He was good to carry this heavy thing the rest of the way on our walk. It makes a nice sound when the door straps clang against the spring.