Happy Easter!!!

Happy Easter Weekend Knitters!!

I hope you are all enjoying yourselves and are getting to spend lots of time with family and friends...and even to knit a bit! Things here are going great. My Mom and I were going to take a run into the city today, but this morning when she went to drop off some cookies at the Pancake House, she found out that there was only 25 bags of popcorn left. So instead we stayed home and made 6 batches of the Maple Caramel Popcorn. She ran 12 bags up as soon as they were done around 11:00 am, and then she has now just took up the last of the bags. I'm so glad that the Lord is really blessing everything! Now we are planning on going to the city on Monday. Which I am really looking forward to because I have a Knit Picks order as well as a Jimmy Beans Wool order just sitting there waiting for me! It's all working out though, because it gives me something to anticipate! :-)

I wanted to include a couple of pictures of some of my products I've been making so you'll know what I'm talking about when I'm babbling on about them! lol The picture at the beginning of this post is of the Easter cookies (in the basket on the left), the Easter themed cookies on a stick (they are animal themed - bunnies, puddle ducks wearing their Easter bonnets, birds, etc...), and in front are a few bags of Maple Pecan Shortbread cookies (in the light-coloured square basket). They are all sitting on the counter by the cash register at the Pancake House.

This is a picture of the Maple Caramel Popcorn (sitting on the table in the big basket as well as in the little basket down below) and if you look really hard, you can see the tops of the bags of Espresso Maple Pecan Shortbread cookies (they're in the small basket right next to the small basket of popcorn). This is a shot of the picnic tables with the benches stacked on top of them in the gift shop. The story behind the tables is that when we had our old Pancake House (we build a new one I think 5 years ago), these were the tables that we had, and you would sit on the benches! We've gone a long way since then! lol

This is a close up a some of the Easter cookies. I thought that we had close to 200, but I was wrong, we only had almost 130 that went up for sale. I so hope that people enjoy them!

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend reflecting on what our Saviour did for us, and spending some time delighting in Him! And I hope you also get to spend some quality time with the folks who are important to you (and sneak in that knitting!).

God Bless you and yours and have a great Easter everyone!

Eastery Goodness!!!

Hello Everyone,

Look what I got in the mail today...the most loveliest Easter package ever!! Just look at the adorable cupcake wrapping paper!! And the beautiful box!!


Now, take a look at what is in this beautiful box...

Oh my, OH MY!!! This great package is from the lovely Brittany (britbrit). Look at all the wonderful things she sent me!

The package includes: The most adorable Bunny she made (he is wearing shoes!! Love it!!) he is so soft and cuddly, I couldn't stop hugging him! There are also two packages of flower seeds - a pastel mix of snapdragons and Lady Bird poppies (which is totally perfect because I have my own garden!), two beautiful glass Easter egg ornaments - one yellow and one pink, a bunny and carrot cookie cutters (how did she know I like making cookies!), both from from Crate and Barrel (oh how I adore Crate and Barrel!!) and also a package of Green Beans which are all-natural jelly beans that are so yummy and great due to my food allergies! (I snuck a root beer one right away).

Then there is the yarn! She sent me these gorgeous colours for the Dotted Chickens from Itty Bitty Nursery, as well as Crystal Palace Bamboo DPNs (yay!) to knit him with. I can hardly wait to start! I was showing my Mom the pattern and telling her how much I wanted to make one, and she's like "Well, after this weekend things should slow down a bit, then you might have some time." So there you go, I will start next week :-)

Look how pretty they are! I have never knit with Rowan handknit cotton, or Knit Picks simply cotton, so I am beyond excited!!!! Can you tell???

This was the most amazing package ever! It completely made my day! I am so blessed!! Thank you so much Brittany!! You are so incrediably awesome!!

The Easter Week Begins

Good Morning Knitters,

How is everyone doing today? I'm doing very well. I just wanted to take a quick moment to update you all on what's going on around here. I'll be super busy this week due to the Easter holiday coming up, so I'm not sure if I will be able to blog very much.

Yesterday my Mom and I went up to the Pancake House for lunch with my cousin Theresa-Lynne, her husband, their girls and her Dad. We had a great time! Afterwards I went with her and the girls to visit our aunt for the afternoon. We had a lovely time chatting about all sorts of things, including knitting. Our aunt showed us three lovely sweaters she knitted for some of her relatives in Holland that she is going to visit at the end of the April. They were gorgeous! She's a very talented knitter. It was such a fun day to spend time with Theresa-Lynne and the girls :-) I miss her a lot since she lives about 5 hours away from here now. We keep in touch through email, Ravelry and of course our blogs, but it's not quite the same as getting to have a chat in person! I'm looking forward to the Summer when I can hopefully get some time to go up and stay with her for a bit! Until then, our visit yesterday was a great way to tide me over :-)

I have begun a new knitting project (yes, I am still working on the pig, although it's put on hold because I need Mom to give me a hand with some of the seaming parts) but I want to wait a bit before I show it to you. I just started it last night while watching Dancing with the Stars. I'm hoping to get the chance to work on it again tonight when we watch the results show, but I'm not sure if my schedule will allow me to take the time to watch it. I'm working on it while I have my coffee and plan my week this morning though. I think it helps my mind work more clearly ;-)

Well, I'm off to get the day planned out! I hope you all are having a wonderful week! Are you all ready for the Easter weekend?? I'm sure not yet!! Good luck with all your plans, and make sure you make some room for knitting!

Happy Tuesday!!

New Spring Yarns and Plans

Good Morning Knitters,

The weekend is in sight!!! I'm very excited to be getting a bit of time off soon so I can do some knitting. I never got the pig finished in time for Ella's party last night, but I'm hoping to get it done by Sunday so I can give it to her at church. By the way, the party was very nice, my Mom said the cake was delicious, and everyone, especially the birthday girl and her older brother (who is the ring bearer in my sister's wedding) had a wonderful time. It was nice to catch up with some relatives I haven't seen in a while.

Today is going to be a bit more of a hectic day. I got a couple of baking orders from my Auntie Myra. She's ordered some chocolate cupcakes with a twinkie filling as well as some banana bars. My baking for the Pancake House today consists of a few batches of Maple Pecan Shortbread cookies, and Espresso Maple Pecan Shortbread Cookies, and quite possibly some more Maple Caramel Popcorn, but that depends upon how much they sell today. To keep me company, I've downloaded the newest Knit Picks podcast. I'm very excited about this one because they are talking about how they dyed some of the new yarns. I always like listening to how the whole dying process works.

Speaking of new yarns, Knit Picks launched their Spring yarns this week!! I honestly have been waiting for their new line of sock yarn called Stroll Tonals for at least three weeks. I wanted to order one of each colour, but I thought I should just start with a few to see how I like them first. The colours I got are: Blue Yonder, Queen Anne, Golden Glow and Blue Violet (which is for socks for my Mom). I also ordered some of their other sock yarn that I've had my eye on at the same time as well as a stitch dictionary and their DPN holder, so I can take my socks with me wherever I go! Seeing since I've bought so much sock yarn in the past little while, I'm going to have to knit socks from now on! lol Since I should be getting a %10 off coupon in April, I'm going to order some lace yarn as well as some CotLin (which is getting new colours the first week of April!) and maybe a few yarns from their other lines as well, if I find projects for them. I've only worked with Stroll fingering weight and Wool of the Andes, so I want to try some other lines of theirs to see how they knit up. (That's my excuse for all this yarn buying...good one eh?)

Another exciting thing is my cousin and her family are coming down here for a visit this weekend and were are getting together on Monday at the Pancake House!! I'm so excited to see all of them!! She was down at Christmas time, but because of our dog's leg surgery, we were unable to get together, so it's been since last Summer (at her wedding) that I've seen her and her family. I can hardly wait!! :-)

Well, I should be going! I hope you all are having a wonderful end to the week, and I wish you all a fantastic weekend!!

Happy Knitting!

P.S. If you have any suggestions of yarns that you love from Knit Picks and you think I should give them a try, please leave me a comment! I'd much appreciate it!

Late Sneak Peek

Hello Knitters,

I know a while back I said I would post a sneak peek of some knitting I did for my Itty Bitty Group Easter Swap Partner...well here it is! (Sorry it took so long!)






These are made from the pattern Rabbit from the Spud and Chloe blog Spud Says! I made them out of Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton since I didn't have any Spud and Chloe yarn. They turned great, and are so soft!! This is great yarn, and I highly recommend it for anything baby-related!

On another note, my cousin Ella's 1st birthday party is on Thursday, and we just got the invitation a couple of nights ago, so I've been busy trying to finish the Pig from Itty Bitty Toys. If it turns out, I'm going to give it to her. I sure hope it all goes together well! Wish me luck!!

I'm off and running yet again! The kitchen seems to be calling my name. I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

The Old Switcheroo...

Hello Knitters,

Here it is!! My Mini Reversible Duck to Bunny toy!! You can find the free pattern here! It was a breeze to whip up, and oh so much fun!! I highly recommend it as the perfect little something for your own Easter Bunnies!! I can't think of any kid (or adult) who wouldn't thoroughly adore getting this in their Easter basket :-)



How totally cute, eh? I made mine for my Grandma. She's the one who knit the sweaters my Mom and sister wore for their Ravelympic pictures. She was an amazing knitter, and one of the biggest reasons I wanted to learn how to knit. She can no longer knit, but I know she will enjoy this adorable toy, and she'll think it's so neat that it's reversible! I hope to get a chance to bring it to her next week.

It's been a long day, so I'm off to bed!!

Take care everyone!!

Happy Spring!!!

Happy first day of Spring knitters!!!

Yay!! I'm so excited that Spring is finally here :-) The weather has been beautiful, although today is a bit colder than what the week has been, but still warmer than usual for this time of year I think. This is my favourite season, I love to watch everything change, it's all so beautiful. God is doing so much creating; making new flowers, leaves, baby animals...it's all so uplifting and inspiring. Makes me want to be creative too!

This is going to have to be a quick post since I have some icing flowers to make, but I wanted to let you all know (if you don't already) Susan B. Anderson has created another amazing free pattern for the Spud and Chloe blog, Spud Says! and this time it is an Easter theme!! It's a reversible duck to bunny toy and is absolutely adorable! You can check it out here! By the way, this is the pattern she designed for the knitting classes she held at some of her book signings recently, so if you are like me and didn't get a chance to go to one, you can now make the pattern just like everyone who did. I know what I am going to be knitting later :-)

Have a great day everyone!!