Just the sleeves to go!

I finished the knitting the body of my sweater!! Once it was off the needles I was so excited to try it on!  (I would have tried it on while it was on the needles if I could.)  It fits great (phew!) and now I just have to knit the sleeves & it's done!  I'm so happy with how it's going and that it is getting done!

Long weekend

This past weekend was a long one here in Ontario...

Lots of time for baking & cooking.  On Saturday afternoon I had a solo "Cookernoon" and made cinnamon bread & buns, spring rolls, bran flax muffins, chocolate chip salted caramel cookie bars and carrot ginger soup - yum!  Although by the time I got to the spring rolls my sister was home from work so I roped her into helping roll them so it would go faster.  Homemade spring rolls are so yummy but quite labour intensive so I don't make them very often (maybe once a year).

I spent the holiday day at the ski hill.  This was my second time downhill skiing so I was pretty nervous at first but 20+ years of dance training pays off in body awareness!  I was good to go on the green circle hills but couldn't make it down the blue square hill without falling/crashing.  After skidding face first down the hill I decided not to push my luck any longer & went back to the easy hill for the rest of the day.

This picture was taken first thing in the morning - it definitely wasn't that empty by the time we left!  We've had a warm winter here so it was nice to get out & do something wintery before the snow disappears!

(less then a month till spring, who else is excited?!)

Snail Mail

Do you enjoy receiving snail mail as much as I do? There's nothing like opening the mailbox & finding something that doesn't have a typed address on it!  How about finding amazing envelopes made just for you?  I've signed up for the Elevated Envelope exchange and there's still time for you to join!

"The Elevated Envelope is an artistic pen pal project designed to bring back the fun of checking the mail.  You’ll create a work of art in envelope form, execute it about 10 times, and mail them to 10 people." (taken from the EE website)

You don't have to mail your envelopes till May 1 so there's lots of time to let the creative juices simmer. :)

Crafternoon in February

This weekend I hosted a small crafternoon - just one friend; we were using my sewing machine so having just the two of us worked really well.  We made these lovely zippy pouches from this tutorial on Skip to My Lou.  Super simple instructions and going assembly line style we made 5 pouches in about 2 hours!
 

It was lots of fun to match & co-ordinate lining fabric, outer fabric & zippers!  I forgot to get pictures of the linings but you can see some of the zippers in this photo. 

I did remember to get some "action pictures" of me crafting!  I don't think I've seen myself sewing before!  In the other photo,s where my face is more visible, I look like I'm concentrating pretty hard!

Did you get up to anything crafty this weekend?

One Month Sweater-versary!

In this post I alluded to a sweater I am knitting... well, this weekend marked one month of working on it (my one month "sweater-versary") and I am so pleased at how it is coming along!

When I decided to knit this I was hoping it would be done within a year, I'm well on my way to making that goal!

The pattern is Shellseeker by Heidi Kirrmaier, the yarn is Spud & Chloe sweater in Beluga & Moonlight.

Best of my Days

About a month later then I meant it to be, this post is finally getting uploaded!  Obviously there was no new year's resolution to be better at blogging!

Last year I found a lovely printable whereby you record the best of your day for 365 days.  I love journaling but sometimes it's I don't feel I have a lot to say, or don't have much time to write.  This project was perfect because you only write a line a day which is manageable even at the end of busy days!  At the end of the year I was excited to read back over the best of my days and, because I like statistics, I counted how many entries there were in different categories.  For instance I had 62 "bests" about food: cookies I baked, eating out, roast chicken, etc.; 45 about crafting and 81 about triathlons/training.  I kept my pages on a binder ring which made it a great place to store ticket stubs and the like.

AshleyAnn has made two versions for 2012... I chose the stripey version and am almost a month in to collecting another year of bests.  I'm looking forward to comparing the two next year and seeing how many bests repeated themselves and how even one short line can trigger so many memories!

Baby Kina

Over the Christmas holidays I cast on and finished a baby sweater for a friend at work.  The pattern is Baby Kina and it's knit in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino.  Lovely yarn to work with!  I chose deep purple which isn't a typical baby girl colour but I think it'll work.

Finishing this little sweater in a week got me motivated to finally cast on for a sweater for me!  Look here for a sneek peek.  Hopefully by this time next year (if not sooner) I'll have it done.