{this moment}

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{this moment} - Inspired by SouleMama.  A Friday ritual.  A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from this week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Wedding Favours

Bride Truffle Pops

Groom Truffle Pops

These are the wedding favours I made for Josh and Sheena's wedding.  They're bride and groom truffle pops, just like the cake pops, but made from vanilla truffles instead of cake, because that's what Josh requested.  They're were a bit tedious, but worth the effort with how cute they turned out.  I'll have to snap a picture of how Sheena packaged them, they look adorable!

xoxo

Some Baby Shower Gifts

Hello,

A few of my sister's friends have either had a baby recently or are having one soon, so I made a couple of gifts for them.  The first one is an adorable little crochet short sleeved cardigan for a baby girl due in the fall.  I made a bigger size, so she can wear it probably next spring.  The pattern is from Crochet Today! magazine, and was very fast and fun to make.

I've talked about this blanket before, but I finally got those ends wove in and it washed, so here's a completed picture:

This was a very, very quick project!  I fully enjoyed working on it and the yarn washed up nice and soft so I think it will be just the thing to wrap up a little one in.  The baby who this is for was born a couple of weeks ago, and she's a little girl named Olivia.  She has a big sister who I didn't want to feel left out, so I crocheted up this pink and purple fish for her.

This is of course a Stacey Trock pattern and I can't say enough about how cute and fun her patterns are.  I bought the whole Rainbow Amigurumi collection of 7 patterns and I can hardly wait to make more of them, especially Tipper the Tiny Crab and Ro the Tiny Monster.

Well, that's all for today.  I'll have to get packing since I'm heading back home this evening.  I'd appreciate lots of prayers over the next couple of days as I make the wedding cake and for the whole family for the wedding on Friday.  It's hard to think our little Josh is all grown up and even old enough to get married!!  I'll do my best to take pictures so I can share the whole day with you all.....I need to find a bigger purse to fit my camera in!

xoxo

August Socks: The Beginning

Hello,

I started the August socks a while ago, but I haven't mentioned them till now, at least that I can remember.  This was the first time I had to make a substitution to my originally planned year of socks.  The pattern that I had picked out of the box this month was Harris Tweed, which I had been wanting to try for quite a while, and the yarn was Crystal Palace Mini Mochi.  I gave it a good try, but these two just did not go well together at all.  I honestly really like the Mini Mochi yarn, but I just don't think it's suited to socks, at least it's not my ideal yarn for socks.  I found that each time I purled, and even sometimes when I knit, the yarn would split, and I had to constantly watch my knitting, which I didn't like.  I was hoping since the pattern was pretty mindless, I could just sort of go on auto-pilot and knit away, but with the splitting, it just wasn't possible.  These socks would have been super soft and lush to wear on my feet, but I couldn't bare the thought of knitting them when I was struggling so much.  I decided that it was okay to switch from the original plan, so I substituted another yarn and pattern I'd been wanting to try instead.  I picked the Vanilla Latte Socks pattern and I'm using Knit Picks Felici in the exact same colourway as the original design.  This is a fun pattern, very easy and mindless and you all know how I feel about Felici, so they make a beautiful combination to me.  I have one done, and I'm on the leg portion of the second one right now.  I haven't had as much time to work on them as I would like, but they are coming along.  I will do my best to get them done before the end of the month.  Some days I wish I could knit in my sleep!

xoxo

Wedding Weekend Recap

Hello,

We had such a lovely time this past weekend at my cousin Micaela's wedding.  The day was perfect, with only a light warm breeze, dappled sunlight, and no rain even though the skies threatened it a few times.  The whole wedding party was gorgeous, but the bride was especially radiant.  She is the most extraodinary girl - full of love, a bubbly personality, always has a good word to say about everyone, and a smile that can light up a room.  The groom is a wonderful man who is going to be an even more wonderful husband.  The two of them make a truly beautiful pair.  I'm very excited to see what the Lord has in store for them in their new life together.

This is the whole family - Grandparents (my Uncle Don and Auntie Ruth), Mom and Dad (my cousins), and the bride's two sisters and brother, and the happy couple.

The whole family with significant others.

As I mentioned, there wasn't wind (praise the Lord!), just a nice light breeze, so all went well with my dress.  Here are a few photos Mom snapped of me in it before the cerimony.

All in all, it was a truly blessed day and so much fun.  I wish the happy couple all the best in the world, they deserve it!!

The next day (Saturday) I got to spend some quality time with my sister and our friend Jess (she's really like an adopted sister).  She lives around 8 hours north, so we don't get to see each other nearly as much as we'd like, so when we do get together there's always lots to catch up on.

Sunday I did laundry, blocked a few shawls, washed a baby blanket I crocheted for a gift, and packed to go visit my sister for a few days.  My cousin Josh and his lovely bride-to-be Sheena's wedding is this coming Friday and since I'm doing the cake I can just go visit for a few days, but this is the only time I can go for the rest of the summer, so I wanted to make sure I fit it in.  It's always so much fun to go and stay with her.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend as well!  I should be back tomorrow with some sock pictures.
Till then,
xoxo

Randomly on a Monday

Hello,

• I have so much to tell you and don't even know where to begin, so I thought I'd write a random bullet point post in the meantime.
• I finished Gone with the Wind last night, and oh-my-goodness, it is one of the best books I've ever read!  I highly recommend it.
• Now that I'm enchanted with the South, I'm reading Eugenia Price's book Savannah.
• I have to admit, that since I was a little girl, I always wanted to be a Southern Belle.
• I also wanted to be Miss America.
• Even though I knew I was Canadian and there wasn't any chance of that actually happening.
• I still dreamed about it anyway; I always was a big dreamer.
• I am feeling a bit bogged down by my knitting/crocheting lately.  
• Yes, again.  What is going on here??
• I've been uninspired to work on anything I currently have on the needles and hooks.
• I do force myself to keep plugging away on things here and there though.
• I've learned that when you have to force yourself to do something, the joy isn't really there...
• I'd start something new to excite me, but my WIP pile is growing and I don't want to start getting stressed out by it too.
• There is going to be a lot of things coming up in the next two weeks that are going to require me to work very hard and long, and this may help with all my projects, because I seem to have this strange thing where the more I have to do, the more knitting I get done as well.  It's very, very odd, but hey, it works for me!
• Then again, it could go the other way where I'm too tired to knit...I guess we'll see soon enough, but I'm pulling for the first one.
• Today I had one of those moments when you start laughing at something only slightly funny and end up crying, and not the funny kind of tears, the real ones.
• Needless to say, it's been a long day. 
• Wow, there are a lot of "I"s in this post!
• Wouldn't make you think I was self-centered or anything like that now would it?
• Actually, don't answer that.
• There are at least 4 shawls that need to be blocked in my closet right now, how sad is that?
• Can you tell I tend to procrastinate on things?
• At least I wove in the ends...but then there's that baby blanket...
• We have a family wedding on Friday.
• I did make my dress, and I will share some pictures if I get any good ones of me in it.
• It's held together with two grommets, some black cording and a few hand stitches to make sure the front stays closed (which I actually haven't done yet, but will when I put it on).
• I made it in, I'd say, less than 2 hours.
• I'm praying for no wind that day...
• Or I may come back with some pretty good stories.
• Well, it is now after 10 PM and I need to get to bed. 
• Goodnight!

xoxo

{this moment}

. . . . . . . .

{this moment} - Inspired by SouleMama.  A Friday ritual.  A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from this week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

The Finish Line

Project: Honeycomb Scarf
Started: July 27, 2012
Finished: August 11, 2012
Pattern: Honeycomb Scarf by Ligaya Gritz
Yarn: Knit Picks Shimmer Hand Dyed Lace Yarn in Stained Glass (given to me by Leanne in the Itty-Bitty Teddy Bear Swap 2 years ago, I finally found the perfect pattern for it!  Thanks Leanne!!)
Hook: G (4.00 mm) and 1 mm (for adding the beads)
Mods: None

This was my final project for the Ravellenic Games.  It is a Christmas gift for my Aunt, and therefore, the first completed Christmas gift for this year!  That right there is so exciting to me, I feel like this year I may actually get my gifts done with time to spare.  The pattern was great and fun to crochet, although adding the beads was a bit tedious, but I think that's just how it goes with beads.  They are very subtle, but when the light catches it just right, they add a nice glimmer to the scarf.  The yarn was of course beautiful to work with, as is almost all Knit Picks yarn, and the colours are stunning, the photo (taken at night) doesn't do it justice.

I had such a great time being a part of team Itty Bitty Knitty and I can't say enough about how wonderful all the ladies in this group are.  They're such a supportive and encouraging bunch!  I hope that each of you enjoyed the Ravellenic Games as well if you took part in them, they're a great way to bring all us crafters together in unity and friendship.

Have a lovely day,
xoxo

Strawberries

Project: Strawberry Mittens

Started: August 3, 2012

Finished: August 7, 2012

Pattern: Strawberry Mittens by SpillyJane

Yarn: Knit Picks Palette - Cotton Candy, Pimento, Edamame 

Needles: US 3 (3.23 mm) Harmony DPNs

Mods: None

xoxo

Whizzing by to Say Hi

Hello,

Sorry it's been awhile since the last post, things just haven't seemed to slow down here at all.  At the beginning of each week I say to myself "this one will be slower" and then before I know it, I've got tons to do as well as many appointments to go to.  By the end of the day I just fall into bed and sometimes try to sneak in some reading before going to sleep.  I'm now reading Gone with the Wind, and much to my surprise, I am enjoying it immensely.  I thought Scarlet would annoy me, but I was wrong.  I think I had a preconceived idea about her due to watching the movie, but there is so much more in the book that helps me understand her better and make sense of why she acts and reacts like she does.  I do have to say though that there are so many times when I get frustrated with her in one moment and then love her in the next.  I'm around a 1/3 of the way into it right now, so it will be interesting to see what I think at the end.  I've been finding reading to be a great way for me to relax and unwind at night when I'm too tired to knit.

Even with all the busyness I did manage to get my 20 hexipuffs done for the Ravellenic Games.  I finished them up on Friday afternoon:

As soon as I finished them, I started a pair of SpillyJane Strawberry Mittens.  I am still working on my Honeycomb Scarf, but I wanted to have a knitting project going too.  I've got one mitten done, except for the thumb, and I'm two strawberries into the second one.  They're so cute, I'll have to snap a picture of them tomorrow.  I forgot how much I enjoy colour-work.  It seems to make the knitting go by so much faster watching each strawberry pop up.

I hope you all have been having a great time during the Ravellenic Games too and that you're enjoying your projects as well.  I've been having lots of fun with mine, but I forgot how much I like to have a few more different projects on the go so I can jump from one to the other to keep things interesting.  It's definitely been a challenge for me to stick to just these, but that's what the Games are all about, right?

xoxo

Weekly Report

Hello,

I had planned to blog all this week, but there just never seemed to be a spare moment to sit down and write. I've been working away on my Ravellenic Games projects and I even got one done. A did a hat that I hadn't originally planned on because I felt like my Honeycomb Scarf was dragging along and I needed something I could finish quickly to keep me motivated. It worked and now I'm almost half-way done my scarf. I've also got 8 hexipuffs done so far out if 20, so I feel like I'm making some progress. I've been wanting to start a pair of SpillyJane Mittens ever since Jill and Mary Rose were talking about them in the Itty-Bitty group, but I'm trying to resist until I at least have one of these projects done.

Yesterday my parents and I drove out to visit my Aunt, Uncle and cousin who are camping this week about an hour south of us. It was a lovely warm afternoon and we had fun visiting and relaxing in the shade.

Well, that's all I've got for today. I'm in the city for the day to do some shopping and get my hair done, so I don't know how much farther I will get on my projects, but I'm planning on spending a good portion of the weekend working on them and maybe even watching some of the Olympics. I hope you all are having a lovely week!!

xoxo