Fall Tea & Postcard Swap

(Received)

( Below:Sent )

I received another wonderful package of teas and a postcard from Poland in the mail yesterday! I never tire of receiving some thing special from a friend and a kind word to go with it, She sent me a beautiful postcard of Herceg Novi, which she visited on vacation. Looks like a dream! She also sent along some nice teas. My mouth waters just reading the flavors. Caramelized Pear, Chocolate Mint, Cherry Banana & my first flowering tea! I can not wait to try that!! Its been on my to do list for a long time. Another pleasant surprise she included was a little mini poster of her favorite book..."On the Road", which has recently been made into a movie. I plan on looking it up, I never have to many books on my reading list, and yes, most of the time I actually read books my friends recommend for me. Whether they are action, kids books, romance, sci-fi, Im willing to at least give them a try.

(Above:) I've handmade my envelope and got my teas and postcard ready to send in the post Monday. The envie didnt take long to make at all. I used a pre-made envie for the pattern and chose fall/.halloween colors. Had fun picking out the paper pattern and stickers. Used ink to accent the edges and a roller stamp for the tree design on the bottom of the envie.

Fun Note: I know there are three spellings for the word "whether" which I used above, but I had to look it up just to be sure I used the right one. I knew it wasnt "weather" (outside conditions) so I just had to pick from the other two spellings and ya know what I found ....."Whether" (as in whether or not) was correct, so I guessed right the first time, but the second spelling of choice "wether" is a castrated sheep...Good To Know!

Fall Is Here...

Got motivated enough to dig out some fall decorations and enjoy the weather outside. This is my favorite season. Love the cooler weather, beautiful colors, activities & hot tea/mulled ciders. Knitting on the porch is also one of my favorites...I usually cuddle up with a blanket on the swing and just enjoy it all. My son and I used to light the candles,  make popcorn ,and play board games at night out on the porch table. Its been a while for that though. I havent given up hope, maybe he will give in and enjoy it again this year. I blame xbox! Im no where near being a gamer, so I still tend to like the old fashion games, Chinese checkers, Sorry, card games...you get the picture. Any way, it will soon be time to carve the pumpkins and make pumpkin seeds. Both my kids are a little old for Halloween these days, but they still like all the treats that come along with the season=) Happy Fall!
I hat the little witch hat in my box of decorations...thought it would be adorable on Khloe, but as you can tell by the look on her face she was having no part of it!

Vintage vs. Modern

This isnt my normal type of post, but I had to share. Today we stopped by the gas station on the way home from school & my son grabbed a soda while we were there. No big deal right? We didnt give it a second thought. Once we got home he brought it to me and said he couldnt get it open. He usually opens things for me, so I was surprised. We got out the rubber jar lid gripper and tried to twist it off--
that didnt work....strike one. Once we figured out it wasnt a twist cap like all the others, we started digging around for the bottle opener I knew I had stashed some where. After cleaning out the whole utensil drawer we found it. Yes, now weve got it ...nope that didnt work either, strike two. The cap was to large for the opener. So we started looking for where dad would have stashed his Leatherman ( one of those tools that has all the gadgets on it), shoot, he has it at work with him. Ok, now we are both annoyed! I walked over to my neighbors figuring she would have a bottle opener, the kind that had the point on it and ....they werent home, strike three. Of course, by now we are laughing about it, and Im still digging around the kitchen for "some thing" that will work. Finally, I found it! My grandma's vintage bottle opener...its a wicked looking thing, but it worked!!! Im not even sure how to use all the parts on it, but it looks like my grandma has used it for many things over the years. This was my first time using it...but from now on I will keep it in mind for all those little unusual tasks. I have to say that my grandma's gadget won hands down! Goes to show they dont make 'em like they used too!! My grandma would have gotten a good laugh! I miss her!

National Crochet Day...

Since today is National Crochet Day, I decided to put the last row of trim around the middle square of my jewel tone granny afghan. Unfortunately, this project has been pushed to the side lately. I had hoped to be closer to the finish than I am, but I should have expected that. Its been

rainy out today, one of those dreary days where the sun is hidden under a bunch of clouds and rain comes down in spurts. Perfect time to get back on track with a project. I hope every one picked up their hooks today and celebrated the tradition of crochet even if it was just for a moment or two.

My next step for this afghan is to finish making the smaller (7 inch) surrounding granny squares. I have a good start on them, but need to incorporate the shades of pinks I added to the larger square on a whim. There isnt really a pattern for this afghan, its just straight up granny stitching. Here's an idea of what it will look like with the small squares around it. Khloe seemed to like it a lot=)

August/September Swap Squares

                                                Above: 12 petal daisy granny square

8 petal daisy granny square

I think these turned out pretty nice. Hopefully the people that receive them will think so too! I tried some new flower patterns this time, well new to me. Looking for some thing sweet and cheery. What do you think? I'm thinking I like the flower on top the most, but cant decide which one I like better for sure. I have a couple other flower patterns that I havent gotten to yet. Waiting for some down time to work on those.

I'm looking for a cute pattern for a baby afghan. Its been eons since Ive made one. Making these swap squares gave me an idea of what the patterns would look like & send some thing different to those in the swap. Kill two birds with one stone so to speak. The colors were picked via their profiles, even though they ended up blue & pink. So far I have come up with three ideas for this afghan: 1) send the jewel toned afghan I have been working and just finish the edging instead of making more surrounding squares. The colors are actually kinda perfect. (2) find and make a pattern with flowers and grannies (3) forget the grannies and go with a cute bobble pattern. Help!

Rag Bag

Nope, I didnt make the bag! Would enjoy giving it a try though. I found this little gem of a rag bag on our last trip to Chicago. Its too cute! I like it because of its raggy look (sorta like those generic rugs you used to see every where, but its thick & the colors are way better, and has tiny little sequins sewn in the multi colored weave.) The weave is close enough together that it holds my crochet hooks or knitting needles without poking through. Im pretty rough on some of my bags! Even though I bought it at the beginning of summer, its colors remind me more of fall.

I'm more than ready for the seasons to change... speaking of fall, I found a really cool owl spoon rest & some yummy teas to try and send as swaps. We like to try them first, so my son and I can vote on the flavors. Today I picked up some Pumpkin Spice, Hot Cinnamon Spice, Cherry Marzipan (cherry & almond), and some Organic Passion Plum. (I love the "Kitchens" store, which is where I found all these goodies, they closed the one in our area=(