Friday, September 26, 2008

A Pig And Some Cupcakes


This week so far I have finished two projects. I borrowed a book from the library called Knitted Toys by Fiona McTague. It has many great patterns in it that I would love to try. My first project from this book is my little pink piggy. Actually he's not that little. From snout to butt he probably measured about 10 inches. I knitted him from cotton yarn I got from an unravelled kids cardigan I bought second hand. So he is a thrifty piggy. I have alot more yarn left over. The cardigan was knitted in the light pink and dark pink that you see his face was embroidered with. I call him he because as soon as I showed Megan my finished piggy she fell in love with him. She has been trying to snatch him for two days. He is very soft and squishy. She has kissed his snout and says that that now means he belongs to her. She calls him Wilbur. What she doesnt know is once I saw how much she liked him, he became her birthday present for Monday. Wont she be surprised hehe. Immediately after seeing how much Megan liked him and knowing he would have to be hers, (she kissed his snout so he has to be hehe) I realised I had to make another one. You see Victoria fell in love with the piggy too. I am now halfway through knitting another piggy in the darker pink for Victoria. I have a feeling the piggy knitting will not end at these two hehe.




Gotta have the piggy butt shot hehe.


I mentioned before about knitting Megan some cupcakes for her birthday. Well yesterday I put the finishing touches on those so they are ready to be given. You may be wondering in the shot above what the white lines are in front of the cupcakes. Every time I need to take pictures of finished projects our kitty Ringo has to come over and inspect them. Well this time I decided to just shoot the photo without moving him. Here he is sniffing out the cupcakes. Yes, he has very long whiskers. I managed to find these perfect silver ball beads for the pink cupcake. They look just like those little silver balls they put on cakes. Always Megan's favourite when it came to cake decorating. If its one thing you need to know about Megan is that since she was a baby, birthdays are always about the cake. I dont think that will ever go away hehe. The only shame now is that her Grandma isnt here to bake her the elaborate cakes she use to make for her. There's no way I could top those. Whatever kind of cake Megan would want my Mum would bake and Megan really put thought into her ideas. One year she asked for a dolphin cake. Grandma went into panic mode on how to make a dolphin cake. In the end she cut dolphin shapes out of blue fondant and put them on a pink cake. Apparently that was good enough because Megan was very impressed hehe.



On a Knitted For Ewe update, things are coming along slowly but surely. This week a lady has designed the stamp for my tags. She has already started making it. It looks so cute. I cant wait to show it off. It turned out just how I wanted it. I found this lady on Etsy of course. Her company is J L Mould. She makes clear stamps and can design anything you need. I love the fact that she makes clear stamps. It will be so much easier to position the stamp in the right spot if I can see through it. That should be ready in about a week.
My Mummy decided that she wanted to help support my business venture so yesterday I received a $100 money order in the mail to put towards the supplies I need to start listing items. Its going to be a tremendous help and I will have to find some way to show my gratitude.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Yay An Update


I finally have everything finished for the order I got a couple of weeks ago. It would have been finished and sent off a week ago if I didnt have to special order the blue yarn. Its all ready to go and will be posted off tomorrow. I have my fingers crossed that everything will fit fine. Im not sure if the booties are a little big or not. It was a long time ago that I made Victoria's pair when she was that age. If they arent the right size I have no problem in making a new pair to send off to the customer. I dont mind doing that because I want them to be happy with what they get. The hat and booties look almost black in this photo but they are really a dark chocolate brown.


Here is that seafoam bag that I felted a couple of weeks ago. Its not that fancy yet because I have did was felt it. I havent shaved the fuzzies off or made the handles or done anything other than felt and dry it.


I think the tree still looks good after felting. This was me experimenting with knitting shapes into the bag before felting and it turned out pretty well I think.


This is a shot of the side leaves so you can see those too. To embellish this bag I am thinking I could use either a clear glass button for closure or the seafoam ceramic bird button I have. I havent thought a whole lot about the handles either. I guess this bag has kind of been ignored hasnt it hehe.


On Saturday was our towns history fair. Every year we go and have the big breakfast and then watch the parade. This year Joe was able to be up at that time and do it all with us so that was nice. I think he had fun. Megan was in the parade with her Girl Scout Troop. It was kind of rainy that day but it stayed dry enough for the parade.

Megan's Troop made pies for the pie baking contest a couple of days before hand. It was absolute chaos getting them done. I have never baked a pie before and partnered up with one of the girls to make a strawberry rhubarb pie. I was so sure our pie was going to be the most disgusting pie ever made I did put my name on it when we entered it. Well I guess I should have just been proud of what we accomplished because our pie came in 4th place, the only one of the troops pies to win a prize hehe. Who knew I had such skills? My Nanna would be proud hehe. The girl that I made the pie with and I split the prize in half. She got $3 and the envelope that said that we got 4th place and I got the ribbon.

At the fair they have all these different stalls. One stall had a lady doing face painting. She had photos of all the different looks she did. When Victoria saw the Spiderman face she just had to have it done. It was the best $3 ever spent because she was a happy girl for the rest of the day. She even happen to be wearing her Spiderman shirt that day. We went shopping after she got it done and people everywhere kept saying how cute she looked. Perhaps it was the huge grin that went with it. Because of the rainy day every time she got out of the car she would put her face down to walk to where we were going so as not to get it ruined.


Here is a shot of Megan playing in her first Junior Varsity Girls Soccer game. She is loving playing all this soccer. Last night they finally won their first game. They seem to be getting better at playing. They had to lose 4 times before this to get their first victory but Im sure it was worth it. Its funny though, every time they lost Megan had a new and interesting reason why they lost. It was never just that they lost it was always a reason that wasnt their fault hehe. She has always been on teams that were undefeatable so this has been a new experience being on a team that hasnt won every game.


Speaking of Megan, she has got a birthday coming up in a couple of weeks. I can't believe she is going to be 14 soon. Its a scary scary thing. I think she is just going to have sleepover with some friends. She has to wait until the weekend after her birthday because another friend whose birthday is close to hers is having a party the weekend before and Friday night soccer games are in the way of doing it that night. I dont think she cares as long as she has one and the people she wants can come. I am making her a little surprise to give on her birthday. I am knitting her some cupcakes. I just finished one last night. I think it turned out pretty well. I will take a photo of it today. I am going to make a second one as well. They dont take long to make and they are great stash busters. I can see myself making many more of them.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Our Niagara Falls Visit


We did the big trek up to Niagara Falls on Tuesday to meet up with Megan's grandparents. It was really great to see them. I got this really nice picture of them all together. They couldnt believe how big Megan had gotten. Before they left Megan's grandma even thanked me for being a good mum. I was so surprised and choked up no words would come out. You just dont hear that very often and I could tell she said it from her heart so it meant alot. She even called Megan a beautiful young lady.


This is the photo that I realized when I saw it how much Megan looks like her grandfather. I had no clue until I saw it. Now I know where those cheeks came from. Its funny that everyone is always saying that Megan looks just like me but no one knows how much she resemblance she has with her dad and his side of the family.


Here is my postcard shot of one of The Falls. We went on perfect weather day.


This rainbow comes from the mist of the horseshoe part of the falls. Victoria wanted to know where the Skittles were because she wanted to taste the rainbow. I thought she was joking at first but then realized she was kind of annoyed that she couldnt find any Skittles hehe.


Megan admiring the big waterfall.


Just to throw in a little more photos, here is Victoria on her first day of Kindergarten. She was very excited.


She came home and told us all about it. She spent the afternoon singing us the new song that she learnt, The Wheels On The Bus. They are still on half days this week but next week is full days. We will see if she still likes it once she experiences the long days at school. Oh her best friend Ashleigh came to school with her new Spiderman lunchbox, guess who wants a lunchbox now hehe.

Monday, September 1, 2008

The Seafoam Tree Bag PreFelting


As I type this, this bag is being felted in the washing machine with my fingers crossed that it will turn out the way that I want it to. These are pictures of how it looked before it went into the washing machine. I couldnt decide which ones to put on here so thats why there are so many.


Here is are some close ups of the tree design that I knit on the bag. Ive never knitted a design into one of my bags before so it should be interesting how it turns out. I got inspired by the felting book that my mum gave me for Christmas.


This is the leaf design on the side of the bag. I found this design in the same book as the tree and thought they looked pretty similar.


I havent made the handles for this bag yet because I wanted to see its size after felting so I could get the right length. I have an idea of what I would like to make for it. I know how this stuff works though. My bags usually change a hundred different times before the finished product is put together. It starts out as a basic idea and gets rearranged as the creating process goes on.

While this bag is at its felting stage I am working on an order I got at the end of last week for a pair of booties and a hat in chocolate brown for a 1 year old and a blue fluffy hat for a one year old. The booties are done. I just need to make the hats. The blue fluffy hat is a little tricky because the yarn I used is discontinued. I found it on Ebay which was good but the seller is away on holidays until the 8th. Now I have to decide whether to wait for the yarn I want or order a yarn that is very similar thats not discontinued but costs more. Hmmm I will have to decide soon so I can get this order out the door. I hate to keep people waiting long when they place an order.

The order that I just got will help fund some of the things I need to get to start listing in my store. I have decided that in the long run it will be cheaper to make my own tags so I have been pricing the things I will need to do that. It will be more fun to make my own tags and I will be able to have them however I want.

Last night we went to a Fireworks Extravaganza for Labor Day. They set of syncronize fireworks all around the lake to music. It was quite the display. The guy who organized it had a dream that it would be seen from space. I wonder if it came true. I think he saw that movie Deck The Halls too many times hehe. It was a great night well apart from the hour and a half of listening to an ABBA cover band being blasted into our ears hehe. I could have done without that. I also discovered that Bemus Point, where it was being held, is very pretty and I want just about all the houses there.

Tomorrow we are heading up to Niagara Falls for a very exciting meeting. Megan' grandparents that she hasnt seen in about 8 years will be there and she will get to spend the morning with them. We are all excited and yes I am getting my camera ready hehe. This will also be Victoria's first trip to Niagara Falls. The only thing I am not looking forward to is having to leave at 6.30am to get there. Im not looking forward to waking Victoria up but hopefully we will have a great day.

On Wednesday it is the best day EVER! THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!! YAY!!!!
The girls are so bored these last two weeks. It seems the only source of entertainment is to annoy each other. After the first week Victoria will be on full days at Kindergarten so I can get some serious uninterrupted painting time in. The silence will be golden.