Norman Likes To Help

I was gone most of Sunday helping my mom install some laminate flooring, and once I was home again, Norman didn’t want to leave my side.  The whole next day he spent next to me, as well as yesterday.  Yesterday he was being particularly “helpful” with the sewing and photographing.  He decided he needed to get pins for me and then thought he knew best how to stylize the photos.   The printer fascinated him to no end.  He had to be sure and cram his face in there.  Seriously, though, I have to go buy more pins.  He has been pulling all the pins out of the pin cushion . I finally caught on and started putting it in a drawer.  I had wondered why the heck I was so low!

Bear Paw

These are on their way to becoming a bear paw quilt.  I’m very excited to finally be working with these fabrics.  I’ve mentioned it more than once, I love working with primitive prints.  This is a bit more of a traditional quilt for me, but I love traditional and am glad to be adding it to my quilt rotation soon.

A Bit of This and That

I received some delicious goodies from my very good friends Amanda and Jeni.  It was a swag package from their trip to Sewing Summit.  We had all planned on going, but lame me couldn’t round up the funds to go.  I was so bummed about not going, but this little package made me smile big.  They know me perfectly and I love every single goodie.  I couldn’t wait to get started knitting with the Madeline Tosh yarn they sent (and the little draw string bag Jeni made – tutorial here).  I already whipped out a bandana cowl (which I’ll have to take photos of and share).  I’m thinking the Little Apples charm pack is going to be a simple quilt top with white sashing.  I wish I could get going on it now, but of course Christmas crafting is waiting.

She.

Comments are now closed.  Random.org chose #10 as the lucky number this time.  

Congratulations 'dragonfly'!  An email has been sent.  Thanks to everyone who participated!!

I enjoy journaling, and I enjoy journaling with photos.  Sometimes a photo says it better than I can.  I’m not really a scrapbooker, but I enjoy the idea of photos and words and some light embellishment.  Last year I signed up for an online art journaling class, and I really enjoyed the lessons.  As much as I enjoy writing, sometimes I struggle with what to write about.  I have always thought of journaling my life as being something important.  I want to one day be able to pass on my life stories (no matter how mundane) to my children or grandchildren, so if they are interested, they can get a true glimpse into my everyday life.  This is of course hoping I will have some grandchild that is as interested in history as I am. 

Katie (a longtime blog friend) at Gadanke is the designer behind this fun journal I’ve been working on for a few months.  I bought it back in March, and I’ve been filling in the pages ever since.  What is especially wonderful is all the prompts throughout.  I love having a few minutes to myself, and just opening the pages and writing whatever I feel like, in no particular order.  The other day I printed some of my favorite Instagram photos of late and added them in.  I’m loving the doily that was inside!

I especially love that the journal has a little pocket for holding treasures (and came with a blank sticker for me to decorate) and old library cards.

I have filled in pages with words, but obviously those are mostly personal so I haven’t shared them here.  But I love the opportunities for filing out and adding in photos and other memento's.  It’s such a fun, cute journal.  If you’ve ever wanted to have more of an “art” journal, this is a great first step with all of this fun items inside.  And this is not the only journal!  There are so many other variations – recipe, kid’s, Christmas, baby, home…  Really, something for everyone.

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Katie has graciously offered up a $25 gift certificate to Gadanke for one lucky commenter.  Head on over to their site and take a look around at the different journals let me know your favorite.  I’ll pick a random winner on Sunday!   

Here is a little more from Katie on the topic of the journals:

♥ The best thing about Gadanke journals (if you ask me!) is that they're accessible and usable for anybody. ♥ They're for people who say they never know what to write about. Gadanke journals have lots of writing prompts to help keep the ball rolling. ♥ The journals are small, so they fit in your purse. A lot of women take them to the coffee shop. You could even journal sitting in the carpool lane! ♥ The books give you a place to put your stuff. Date night movie ticket stubs? Vacation postcards? Paste them in or open the loose bindings and pop 'em in. ♥ And for those who wish they were craftier or want crafting to be easier and more fun, the tags, envelopes and cool papers in the journals help bridge the gap and inspire you to start embellishing your pages.

And because the story behind why Katie started these journals is so close to how I feel, I wanted to share it here with you:

“ A couple of years ago, NPR's StoryCorp was in town. It was also my grandma's 90th birthday.The two of us decided to hop into the recording studio to capture some pieces of her story. I had all sorts of prompts to help her with her story telling. (I was always the listener, the one who asked question after question.) The only problem? My grandma couldn't remember. Too much time had passed. Later, my dad turned to me and said, "Katie, I need you to write down your story." I knew he wished he had his mom's stories. So I started writing. I started wondering about all of the other women who have stories deep inside of them, and I started thinking about how my tendency to just listen and ask could help put those stories onto paper. Gadanke was born with fabulous writing prompts and recycled papers. I feel so lucky to be living my dream!”

Good luck everyone!

Treats For Me

I got an email in my inbox earlier in the week (as I’m sure many others of you did) from Brooklyn Tweed announcing their new fingerling weight yarn, Loft.  The Look Book of projects was fantastic, and I knew I wanted to work with it.  I decided to knit up the Pei cowl for a Christmas gift.  It’s going well so far.

I got very lucky in my purchase of these, as Knit Purl across the river in Portland sells Loft in their store.  How’s that for instant gratification.  I hurried on over and picked up these two colors, with Brice in tow. (The yarn colors are Fossil and Postcard.)  

Afterwards we headed over to Powell’s.  I was looking for a green housekeeping book that was recommended to me, but they didn’t have it in stock, but I did find another one that a friend has that I knew I wanted.  As we were getting ready to go to checkout, I scanned the sewing section, but didn’t see anything to catch my eye.  I happened to stop to look at an end cap, as it had some interesting looking books, and on the top shelf was this lovely book, Harvesting Color by Rebecca Burgess.  I hadn’t heard of it before, but loved the cover so much I had to open it up.  I flipped through a few pages and knew it had to come home with me.  I am hoping to use some of these same techniques with fabric, but I might also like to try my hand with dying yarn, too.