Finished Scarf and Roses in November

Here's a picture of Jimmy's scarf. I think it turned out well. It's all single crochet. I chained 175 and then single crocheted until I was almost out of yarn. I used Lion Brand Jiffy in Paprika color, 2 skeins. It's very soft and will be good and warm come cold weather. Very autumnal, don't you think?

Beautiful roses, right in our back yard. You can look out our kitchen window and there are two roses like this looking right back at us, plus two smaller buds. That's one of the bonuses of living in the South. And after the heat (and I mean HEAT!) of summer, we deserve a bonus. How nice!

Knitty

I knitted! Continental. I have proof...that little brown lump there is knitting. Garter stitch for about 20 rows with 20 stitches. I cast on 20 stitches, and I cast off 20 stitches...amazing! The edges look straighter in real life. Honest.
It feels so different from crochet. I feel like there is so much more going on with 2 needles and so much more to think about. But it definitely felt more comfortable as I kept going. I did another swatch in purple before this. You will not see that one. Ugh...not pretty! But I shall press on...

I also finished a single crochet scarf for Jimmy. Need to get a picture of it...I'm proud of it, it looks darn good! Crochet...I love you!

( Beautiful mums in our yard.)

Who can turn the world on with her smile?

You better know it! Mary Tyler Moore! We got this DVD earlier this week and have been loving it. This is the first season and it is great...even Jimmy says so. And you CANNOT stop humming that theme song. Even though, interestingly, the lyrics for the first season are a bit different than the one everyone knows. They changed it after the first season. But it's still so great. My mom was a big MTM fan, and her name was also Mary, and yes, she had a big "M" on her wall too! And have I fallen into that 70's trap door, or do the clothes and stuff seem kinda cute! I'm thinkin'...yes, they do!
Anyway, we'll be enjoying life with Mary for the next little while. And I'm putting the next season on my Christmas list...and maybe a Bob Newhart. Groovy.

Good finds

We took a little trip last weekend and stopped off at some flea markets. How is it I always manage to finds lots of things and poor Jimmy finds one.little.thing. Of course, I have many and varied interests and am usually on the lookout for at least 25 different things at a given time. For instance, the above knitting needles. I "have" to learn how to knit. I have to. Actually, I knitted an afghan about 10 years ago. But it was all garter stitch...the whole dark green, cotton yarn, thing. After that, knitting lost the battle with quilting for my attention. And that was as far as it went. Until now. Glorious knitting blogs are everywhere! Everywhere, I tell ya. Who wouldn't want to learn to knit after looking at some of the delicious stuff out there. And since I'm already rapidly acquiring a yarn stash from my newfound crochet skills, why not?

And sewing...can't forget the sewing-love. A whole box of totally wild 60's and 70's patterns and some darling old pink teeny tiny rick rack. And that apron (you can't really see it in all it's glory), it's beautiful. Faded, soft and more tiny rick rack. And a stack of crochet doilies for 75 cents. 75 cents!

And these two books. The one on the left is Jimmy's one.little.thing. The one on the right is a children's book (we have no children), but I couldn't resist...it is so darlin'. The illustrations are excellent and it was a buck. The books are sitting on a wonderful fall colored wool blanket. I'm still debating...felt, don't felt, felt, don't felt. Haven't decided...any thougts?

Not so tiny baby hat

Well, I talked about the "not so tiny" baby hat, but I forget to post a picture of it. This baby hat turned out better (and bigger!), and I like the ruffle. I'm still pretty new at this crochet thing, so you can definitely tell where my rounds join. How do you make that look better? I can't find anything about that in "Crocheting for Dummies."

I don't have a baby laying about the house, so Flopsy here is my model. Pretty cute, huh. I just can't get the booties on those big ol' bunny feet.

Bitty Booties are done

How cute are these? I decided to leave them as is and not add anything except the little white pom pom. I would love to have a pair of these for myself! They are so sweet. But, alas, they will be given away this weekend at a baby shower, along with the "not so tiny" baby hat and a handmade bib. Oh the cuteness!

I have an Etsy shop!

Wahoo! I finally got it done over the weekend. My own little Etsy shop. I'm starting kinda small, but I'm thinking good thoughts. Ooh, I hope somebody will buy something! Here's a peek at what's in the shop right now.



Go take a look! More to come...soon I hope.

Fall Decorations, Part 2

As promised, here is a picture (and more) of the wonderful letters Jenny at allsorts did for everyone to enjoy. I printed out the word "autumn" and colored them in a brownish color. Hung them on some great velvet ribbon I got at a thrift shop in Branson, Missouri a couple of months ago.

All of these pictures are in our living room, which we call the "den." It's a wonderful, large room that still manages to have a cozy feeling. I've been thinking about painting the walls a little bit lighter color, but not until next year. They're a great fall color right now. The autumn sign is hanging on an old blanket chest that belonged to my grandmother. She gave it to my aunt and my aunt gave it to me last year. The blanket on top is a thrift find from this weekend. More on that later...

This is our fireplace mantle...I love how I can cram lots of stuff up there and the rock keeps it from looking junky somehow.
Of course, gotta have some candy corn. It's in a set of leaf dishes I found at a flea market a couple of years ago. I always get them out for fall.
This shelf is our most recent purchase from a great store called Moonlight Antiques. We still want to add some hooks for hanging jackets and scarves, but it looks great over the blanket chest. Nice and roomy.

Fall Decorations, Part 1

Well, he is very fall-ish in coloring, don't you think? It's too bad he can't relax any...of course, if anyone dared come within 20 feet of our yard, he'd go beserk, but usually he looks like this. Pretty sweet, gotta say.
We woke up to crisp, cold air this morning and trees are definitely looking autumnal (it takes a while around here, it is Arkansas!). I love to decorate for fall. Not so much Halloween. I know I'm apparently in the minority these days, but we are just not Halloween people. But "autumn" "fall" "harvest"....those are a different story! I absolutely love this time of year and everything (well, except the Halloween thing) that goes with it...pumpkins, mums, acorns, apples, candles and all that cozy, wozy stuff. I have printed out the fabulous letters Jenny over at allsorts did (what a great thing!) to say "autumn." Now I just need to take a picture of it! Which I will!...this weekend....I promise.

Corners of Our House

My first "Corner" is our freshly wallpapered hall bath. With the above wallpaper which was purchased at our Habitat for Humanity store for $3.00 a roll. Total of 3 rolls used for a grand total of $9.00 to re-paper our bathroom...love it. And it so happens it is just what I had in mind for this room. The window lets in a good amount of light, so I wanted something to really make it feel fresh and light. Perfect! It's hard to tell, but the pattern has two shades of blue in it, an aqua blue which is the flowers and a cornflower blue which is the stem. Very sweet. Now comes the fun part, the decorating. Adding all the doo-dahs. Oh yeah, still gotta paint that dingy window and lose the dingy valance. We had already painted the cabinets and shelf a nice crisp white, but kinda forgot the window. Before the paper was up, it looked whiter...not so white-looking now! This was our first wallpapering in a long, long time, so we were thrilled it actually stayed on the wall!

The picture on the left is one we've had for years and I actually had it in the yard-sale pile, until I realized it would look perfect in here. I'm planning to use my new found crochet skills (still very beginner!) to make some shelf edging and maybe put a crochet edge on a new window valance...we'll see how that goes. We've been in this house just over a year and this is really our first "renovation" project other than painting. We've also put down a new floor in here and added new cabinet hardware. If I can find a "before" pic (lots of gold!) I'll post it hopefully with a finished "after" pic sometime soon!

Are they done?...not sure

The Bitty Booties are together, and I think...maybe....finished. I had planned on doing a feather stitch around the seam line, but it made them look a little too moccasin-y, (not what I want) so I took it out. Now I'm stumped as to whether I should add anything else, or leave them simple but cute. The color in the picture is a little dark, they are really a soft paler rose color, but I'm still working on my photography skills. The fabric in the background is another WIP (I love that fabric!).


I crocheted a baby hat to go with the booties, but it's more like a super teeny-tiny baby hat! Any baby who can wear both the hat and the booties is going to be one deformed baby. I mean pin-head! So, I will be attempting baby hat #2 in the next couple of days...hopefully with "larger" success. I'm just really tickled with how well I seem to be picking up the crocheting. It makes me want to crochet, crochet, crochet!

WIP Friday

My very first "WIP Friday" and I actually have a WIP. Not the scarf. Finished that and actually wore it this morning, since it was actually below 40 degrees and since I am notoriously cold-natured, even though I love cold weather, go figure. But, I digress. I mean to talk about Bitty Booties...hooray for Bitty Booties! What an adorable little pattern, thank you Heather for this great pattern. This picture was taken a couple of days ago, so I've got them pretty much together now, just some finishing touches left to do. I of course, had to make it more difficult than need be, and use the thickest felt ever. And line them with a thin little flannel so the super-thick itchy wool wouldn't bother baby feet. Anyway, they look....darlin'! I'll post a finished pic next week. Happy weekend!

Projects - one finished and one almost

The crocheting is going well. I'm just about to finish this scarf, which is my first wearable project. I've promised Jimmy one too, so I'll be starting another one as soon as this one is finished. The picture unfortunately doesn't do justice to the yarn. It's a milk chocolate color with chocolate sparkly stuff throughout. I actually got the yarn at Hobby Lobby on sale for $2.22 per ball. It's called "Airy" in "brown" which I think is a totally boring way to name your yarn colors. I mean come on, what about "cocoa" or "molasses?" But I've got (well, almost got) a beautiful scarf for less than $5.00! Who doesn't love that? And am I thinking about heading back over there for more colors for Christmas presents? Oh yes I am.


The finished project is actually a few weeks old, but hey, I didn't have a blog a few weeks ago! For someone who loves to cook and bake as much as I do, I have a pitiful lack of potholders. So I decided it was time to make myself some. These were a totally fun, brainless and quick project with loads of instant gratification. Well, I did take a couple of evenings to do the hand quilting (which I am woefully out of practice with) and bind 'em up and they're done! And we use them almost everyday. I have plans to make a few more pairs so I'll have plenty on hand for holiday baking.

The perfect cup of tea

I love tea. We have tea every morning with our breakfast, and on the weekends we usually have 2 or 3 cups and leisurely enjoy the morning. I have definite ideas about the perfect cup of tea. First, give me good strong tea. We use a brand called PG Tips which apparently is popular in England. I don't like weak tea. Secondly, I'm not a big fan of flavored teas. Other than Earl Grey which I enjoy on occasion I don't go in for blackberry peach, or raspberry whatever. Thirdly, it must be sweet. Sugar is our friend (actually a sugar/Splenda blend is my favorite). Last, there must be milk. I'm partial to skim milk so it doesn't cut the tea flavor too much. But I've been known to indulge in a little half & half during the holidays. The perfect cup...yum!

I think I can

I have seen so many wonderful crochet things on different blogs that I decided to give it a try...again. I tried to learn crochet about 20 years ago, doing the very "happening" broomstick afghan. Basically, mine was a dishcloth. And crooked.

But things are going better this time. I actually checked out a book from the library, read it, and followed the instructions. Amazing what that will do! The picture shows my first 3 official projects. I made a couple of attempts before these, but I'm not going to show them to you. So, I have a coaster, a very small doily, and a flower. Maybe not much to the expert crocheters out there, but I'm proud. Can it be that I've actually gained some wisdom in these 20 years, because it seems clearer somehow. Anyway...I'm loving it!

October Day

Fall comes late and slowly to Arkansas, but Sunday was one of those gorgeous, crisp days. We took a hike after church on one of our favorite trails at Lake Catherine State Park. The sun was shining, no bugs (!), one snake (albeit a very small one) and lots of beautiful views. Jimmy would hike everyday if he could...so would Shepherd for that matter. I'd go about once a week given the opportunity, meaning I'd like six days to sew, stitch, cook, clean, do projects, and all that other stuff that makes for a nice home, and one day to take a hike.
Shepherd is the intrepid trail dog. This is serious business to him.

I actually remembered to take the camera, thinking about this blog. We are terrible about forgetting the camera for all kinds of events, big and small. So maybe this blog will be a help in that area. It's nice to think about a record of our normal life, you know the stuff we do all the time, not just the big, special events.

Website relaunch

After having our website for a little over a year, we've just re-launched it and changed the looks and a few other things. Hopefully, now that it's up and running, I'll get some sewing done so there will be something on it! It's a pretty simple format and that works real well for me right now. Keep it simple. I'm excited about the changes and the new direction we're taking, focusing on handmade things and sewing stuff! "We" would be me (Robin) and my husband Jimmy. And oh yeah, Shepherd...the dog. Our baby. Do other people have full fledged conversations with their dog? And take turns talking for him? Or is it just "we."

Zowie!! My first comment!

Thank you, Selena, apron thrift girl, for being my first comment. I read your interview with The Salvage Studio this morning, and I was drooling with envy at the goodies in the pictures, especially this one!

All righty

Well I just can't stand it any longer...all these great craft blogs! I must join in, share in the crafty goodness of it all.