New shoes!

A week or so ago, when we were at the mall, I decided to look a bit to see if I could find some sandals to wear when we go to Florida.

My criteria were:  my size (11, ugh), comfortable (low-heeled, heel strap, some sort of support), inexpensive.  OH, and maybe a teensy bit stylish.  Tall order.  Mostly, I couldn’t find my size.  At the sporting goods store I saw the Keen sandals, but couldn’t wrap my brain about $90.

But then I got some birthday money, and decided that’s how I was going to spend my gift.

Oh.  My.  Goodness.

I’m in love with these sandals.

I’ve had them on all day and I’m already contemplating which style I want next.  They’ve got clogs and Mary Janes and sneakers and boots and….

Mark tried on a pair, but he’s got these l-o-o-o-o-ong, narrow feet, and they were way too wide for him.  Bummer.

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I miss my design wall

Working on the floor is for the birds.

Must. Get. New. Design. Wall.

(at home.  the old one is at the shop).

You can’t tell, but that border print is really cute — it has brightly colored wrapped candy on it.

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Which is more exciting?

The yarn?

Or the boxes the yarn came in?

Tough call if you are 8-going-on-9 and love Calvin and Hobbes.

The 4 big boxes turned into robots, a transmogrifier and a duplicator.

Personally, I was more impressed with all of that yarn from Cascade.  Yum.

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Yesterday? Where did it go?

So, yesterday was my birthday, and I was busy all day long, but I couldn’t really tell you what I accomplished.  I did move a few things to my new sewing room (as the boys moved in to THEIR new bedroom the day before).  Double header at the baseball diamond.  Mucking around on the computer.

We had had a birthday celebration last week (supper at Red Lobster) and bought my birthday gift at Sam’s Club (Garmin nuvi 750).  I kind of wish I had had SOMETHING to unwrap, but I’m not really complaining.  My mom did bake me a batch of cookies in her brand-new oven, which I will share with the boys if they are nice to me.

Busy day on tap today:  a guy from a sign company is company today to give me a quote on a sign, plus a another sales rep will be here this afternoon.  Oh, and more baseball tonight.

I also handed my knitted bag to my Mom yesterday.  My washer is a front-loader, which means I can’t really felt projects in it.  Mom’s is top-loading, so I let her felt my bag for me.

As a reminder, you can scroll down to yesterday’s post to see it unfelted.  I think it shrank up by about half.  It’ll be several days before it is dry, and I still have to decide exactly how I’m going to attach the handle.  I had a plan, but I think I’m goign to change the plan.

The yarn I used is Lamb’s Pride Worsted Wool, which is actually a wool/mohair blend, so it’s got this cool halo-y effect from the mohair.  The picture, as I look at it right now, doesn’t really do it justice.  Once it is dry and the handle is attached, I’ll take more pics, in better light.

Carla cleverly noticed that it is the same colors as my blog header.  Imagine that!  LOL

I’m know I’m late getting into the knitting and felting game, but this was so much fun, I’m going to have to do more, I’m sure.

I’m expecting a big yarn order to arrive tomorrow, can’t wait to see what that will look like!!

Have a great day!

Suzanne

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Thank heavens for knitting

We got stuck at the dentist on Thursday for 3 hours.  Nothing wrong, but the boys had sealants put on last summer and several of them needed to be replaced (for free, the dentist said he had apparently had a bad batch, these weren’t hte first that needed to be replaced).  The dentist had time right away after their cleaning, so we decided to stay.

Thank goodness I had my knitting.  I started the day with about 30 rows done on my bag, by the end of the day I had about 45 rows.

The boys had books, but poor Will got bored.  He only needed one sealant replaced, Joe needed 4.  Partway through waiting for Joe, I remembered that I had this little gadget along with me:

I asked Will if he would like to learn how to use it.

I went from having about 5inches of my bag’s handle made to having FEET of it.  In the car later, Joe wanted to learn too, and between the two of them, the handle was quickly finished.  I think it is…77 inches long!  LOL

I finished the bag itself last night, and can’t wait to felt it!

The picture doesn’t do the yarn justice, it is super yummy.  The monochromatic pink is a Lamb’s Pride Worsted Wool called Strawberry Smoothie.  THe two solids are also Lamb’s Pride.  I’ve got the monochromatic in about 10 other color ways, adn I think I wanted to try every single one of them!

I need to start a new bag so the boys can make me some more i-cord for the handle!  I should probably get another one of those gadgets too, they can make long skinny tubes of yarn all the way to Florida and back.

Pictures of the felted bag…soon!

Suzanne

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Time to reveal…

A few more details.  I think it’s probably time to come clean.  Especially because I now have a logo, and that makes it feel all the more real:

As some of you have probably guessed, I’m not just moving my longarm quilting business into the shop that I’ve shown pictures of over the past weeks: I’m also going to be opening the doors as a retail store.  We’ll have yarn and fabric, and the assorted tools that go with those things.  I’m starting very small (although every time I talk to a sales rep, my dream gets bigger, but I keep having to remind myself of the goal.  and the budget).  Everything will be online right from the start, too, and thankfully I have my sister to help with that.

So far I’ve got fabric from Marshall Dry Goods (all closeout stuff, so the price will be LOW) plus some yarn.  And more yarn arriving on Thursday.  I still need to make a decision about kntting needles, and to order some notions.  The fact that I’m going to be gone on vacation for part of July makes everything seem even crazier, but it’ll all work out.  I figure I have to start somewhere, and if what I’m doing when the doors open doesn’t work:  I’ll readjust.

One thing on my list?  Buy a bunch of nuts and bolts at the hardware store, so I can have them in a jar on the counter for the smart-alecks that come in asking for them.

Anita asked about the shelving, and what we used to make it.  It’s plastic shelving from Lowe’s that is supposed to be 4-tiers of shelves.  We bought 5 sets and then Mark cut the tubes that make up the supports to a specific length (to make the shelves the right height for bolts of fabric).   He staggered the shelves so that each shelf is used to help keep another row of bolts from falling over.

My mom gets credit for the name of the shop.  Isn’t it clever?

Now you probably understand why there is a lack of quilting content, or just a plain lack of content, period.

OK, back to work.

Suzanne

p.s. before anyone asks, i’m planning on being open somewhere around the 1st of august.  i don’t know if the website will be ready then, but the doors need to be open in time for our town’s summer festival…

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He’s got my number

Scene: Bedtime

Mom: Joe, come give me a kiss.

*Smack*

Joe walks away…and wipes his mouth off.

Mom: You could at least wait to do that until I can’t see you.

Joe: I do that because I know it annoys you.

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Joy Defined

That’s Joe jumping, and Will mugging.  Too bad they weren’t having any fun.

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Some things take awhile

But are totally worth it (according to Joe).

As evidence.

The ingredients:

The process:

Unfortunately, the photographs of them eating their s’mores didn’t turn out, too dark.

Remarkably, Mark had never actually had a s’more.  And the boys had had them at a friend’s house, but without chocolate.  And the marshmallows were microwaved.  So they’d never really had them.

We tried to sing campfire songs, but I couldn’t remember any words, and the boys really hate it when I sing.  I don’t know why.  I don’t like to brag, but I have a really good voice.  They are weird.

And speaking of weird, I’m including this photo just because it totally cracks me up.

Mark got a camera for father’s day, and so of course, it was necessary to make crazy faces.

Other things worth waiting for?  The yarn sales rep coming tomorrow.  She was supposed to be here on Monday, but the highway was closed.

Bedtime here at the ranch, I’ll yak at y’all later.

Suzanne

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Colors

The main problem with a two-color paint job is that there is twice the clean-up.

Not that I’m complaining, mind you, because I managed to avoid having to do any painting.  I waited long enough that Mark was able to tackle it this weekend.  With the boys.

They’ve done the lion’s share of the rolling.

The yellow didn’t cover the purple (or pink) that was there before real well, so it’ll likely need another coat.  But it’ll be finished with a different roller, the nap on the roller used for the yellow wasn’t as good, which is why I’m washing all of the brushes and rollers.

I love how the paint cans say ONE COAT COVERAGE.  Yeah, if you are painting on WHITE, I suppose.  Not so much when it is a dark purple underneath.

The colors on the RADAR continue to be scary off and on.  We had a tornado warning in the middle of the afternoon yesterday, and another one again in the middle of the night.  I’m not sure what woke me up, the wind I suppose.  Mark was going to roll over and go back to sleep, but I made him turn on the TV.  Tornado warning, the storm was pointing straight at us.

After the Parkersburg tornado, I found myself thinking about what it would be like if hit here, but consoled myself with the though that even though tornados can happen, it was unlikely we’d be hit.  Sitting in the basement last night during the 2nd tornado warning in 24 hours, I felt sick to my stomach.

I feel a little bit guilty doing normal quilty things, but I don’t know what else to do.  I can’t just sit and watch the 24 hour coverage of the flooding that continues.  I’ve gotten some piecing done, some quilting done, and even some knitting done in the last few days.  Nothing much to show yet, though.

On a happier note, I’ll leave you with some more pretty colors.  Make note of the clever shelving my DH put together for me.

TTFN-

Suzanne

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