Happy New Year

I'm sitting here drinking a nice warm cup of tension tamer tea and breathing a huge sigh of relief and pride right now--I just completed my sales tax form for the last quarter of 2013.  Got the check filled out, put a stamp on the envelope and it's now ready to be mailed out tomorrow!  Way ahead of my usual practice of waiting until the day before (or of) the deadline, frantically asking my sister for white-out because I messed up the form... this time I started in PENCIL--what an awesome feeling to have that done.  It really feels like 2013 is over, officially, now.

I realized today that I haven't blogged since before Christmas.  This holiday was the busiest I think I've ever been.  I had great intentions of blogging throughout it, as evidenced by my thought of sharing my favorite Christmas songs in my last post... that never happened because I was either knitting for my new online store, knitting for a Christmas gift, or running to the post office to ship some Etsy orders.  After I closed my shops for the holiday break I pretty much completely disengaged from my computer, the internet, and the world in general to relax and spoil myself with some fun projects for myself, as well as some slacking off time that I REALLY needed.  I haven't even been taking any pictures, which is why this blog post is missing the sparkly and magical photos I usually include.

I kept reading other bloggers' posts about the 2013 year in review and it really inspired me to compose a similar post.  I'm looking through my photos on my laptop right now, getting very inspired and happy about all the things that have happened and that I accomplished in 2013.  I plan on taking my time working on that post though, because its got a a lot going on in it.  I've learned not to promise you an upcoming blog post--I seem to get overwhelmed pretty often after a big event--I have this exciting blog post in my head (like the one I thought I'd share about the art fair, way back in August) but it never seems to get typed and published...

It sure has been cold here in our corner of Kentucky these past few days.  Even as I sit here and type this my fingers are not warm enough and they're not typing very well.  Last night as I was heading to bed I checked the thermometer and it said -1 degrees.  No telling what the wind chill was--I don't even want to know anymore.

This picture was from when Janey was modeling a cat scarf for my shop, looking thoughtfully out the window.

My cat, Janey, is getting cabin fever because I've been keeping her indoors the past couple days during this polar vortex.  She usually likes to go out with my dog Gilbert and I in the morning--and Gilbert has had to suffer through wearing the little winter coat I found at the Goodwill a couple years ago. 

These temps remind me of growing up in northern Michigan and how me and my sister would have to wake up really early and walk to the bus stop and stand in this kind of cold, when we were in Junior High, and we lived very close to the bay, in Traverse City.  Makes me remember that we are strong women though, and that we can survive just fine in the negative temps.

My sister took this picture of me and my dog Gilbert as we braved the frigid temps of the polar vortex yesterday

What a fun New Year's Eve we had this year.  My sister and I went up to my granny's house and they taught me how to play Euchre.  We ate junk food and tooted our noisemaker horns and then watched the ball drop at midnight.  It was so fun, I think we're making it our official New Year's tradition.

We played cards out in my granny's little quilting barn, which is a cozy little shed-type building that sits beside her house and stays very warm with the wood stove going.  She always has a lot of finished quilt tops hanging on hooks and a work in progress on the frames too.  My mind just started whirring when I was there, looking at all the pretty fabric and different quilt blocks (she was working on one called the bear claw) and I got a very cool idea for a new project inspired by the quilts and the fabrics that I plan on beginning soon.  I'll share the finished idea with you later on.  :)

I hope your mind is whirring too--and that you're feeling excited and invigorated that we're beginning a new year.  Everyone stay warm out there, and don't forget to leave your cupboard doors open under the sink... :)  I'm off to stoke the wood stove and try to get warm!

Getting in the Christmas Mood

I've really been getting in the Christmas mood around here.  I painted my nails the other day, to look festive and sparkly for the holiday craft fair I helped out at yesterday.  What a fun but very busy day it was.  It's always fun seeing everyone all dressed up in their most shimmery, sequined and Christmasy colored sweaters, scarves, earrings and pins.

I've been knitting these red and green cat scarves pretty much constantly.  And listening to Christmas music while I work.  Also watching the occasional Christmas movie!  Today I put in While You Were Sleeping, one of my favorites.  It's the perfect blend of 1990s, winter, single woman with a cat in a cute, tiny apartment in the big city, happy-lovey welcoming family vibe, and romantic comedy. 

 
I keep seeing Sandra Bullock's sweaters, scarves, and hats in this movie and wanting to knit them to wear for myself!

Everyone seems to love the little scarves I'm making and I've even received some very cute customer images of faraway kitties modeling their new scarves! 

Photo Credit: Christina C.

Photo Credit: Kelly W.

It is so cool to think about my little knit creations traveling to places I've never been.  (These two lucky kitties are from way out west!)  I bet there are some really embarrassed and/or annoyed felines walking around wearing these this month, but it is worth it, seeing how darn cute they look.

And I love this Etsy treasury I was included in.  The colors are so cheerful.

 It was called "Country Christmas" and was created by Cyndie, who runs the very neat shop called Vintage Envy on Etsy.

It is looking so wintery outside today.  It's the perfect day to be inside where it's warm, listening to Christmas music and knitting.  Right now my cat Janey is curled up in a ball, sleeping peacefully.  So peacefully she was starting to twitch her mouth, like she was dreaming about drinking something really good, like warm milk or eggnog or something!  :) 

I hope you are all staying warm and happy out there, whatever you are up to on this very wintery Sunday afternoon.  I'm planning some relaxing activities this week, making hand drawn Christmas cards for friends and family, and maybe baking some cookies or trying out a new holiday nail polish design.  Have a great week and try not to get too overwhelmed with the holiday busyness!

Winter Day at Home

Today was a very wintery feeling day.  It wasn't snowing, but the day was so dim and cloudy and cold, I was glad I didn't have to run to town or be outside very long in it. 

 I was feeling pretty inspired looking around Etsy today and decided to make a treasury:

It's somehow comforting, yet unbelievable that it's already December.  I did a lot of processing today about the change of course my life has taken this past year. 

The change of course has been for the better.  I feel like I've gotten back in touch with what's important to me and it's hard to look back and not get emotional at how far I've come from where I was last year around this time.

Last year on this day I was running my first craft booth at my local holiday arts and crafts fair, selling my knit and crochet things, and hand drawn holiday cards.  I was in a pretty stressed out mental place.  I had just ended a long and dysfunctional relationship and was struggling to find myself again. 

Then

Now

I had a lot of hard work to do on myself and it's really paid off.  I'm so thankful that I have a close family who have really supported me this past year.

I am proud of the new person I'm becoming as I continue to make wise choices and not beat myself up about my past decisions.  I'm excited about my plans for my future. 

I hope your year is ending on a thoughtful and glad note, like mine is.  I know we have a whole month yet until the new year is here, but I'm already feeling the fact that this year is coming to a close.

My new venture into making sweet things for pets is well on its way.  I recently opened a new Etsy shop called Janey in the Meadow.  I named it after my dear cat Janey, who is almost 10 years old now. 

She is a special companion to me and has been through a lot.  I adopted her as a kitten from the humane society in 2004.  She has a very feisty and bold personality and will not think twice about biting if she doesn't like what's going on.  She's a tough girl and she loves to run around outside and take walks with my dog Gilbert and me.  She likes to hunt field mice out here in the country, and her favorite flavor of canned cat food is turkey with cheese.

I was petting her one day, about two weeks ago, as she was curled up on my bed and I thought how cute she would look with a little winter scarf on.  I immediately went to work knitting her a sparkly royal blue tiny scarf and just couldn't stop smiling when I finished it and put it on her.  Let me be clear, Janey was not smiling...just me.  My sister thought it was a cool idea and militantly encouraged me to make more of them and put them up for sale so other people could love them too.  So I did.  I worked very hard to knit up a quick inventory and open a new shop devoted to pets, and on November 15th I opened for business.  It's been nonstop ever since.

I'm so glad to be making these cute things.  I somehow don't get tired of knitting these precious little scarves for cats.  Janey has been my faithful model, for all the new color designs.  And my mom's cats, Lynxy and Molly, have helped out too. 

I have a dog scarf design in the works... and Gilbert will be modeling that for me soon.  Yesterday a customer sent me a picture of her cat wearing one of my scarves and I was so giddy I couldn't contain it.  It is so cool to be able to make things I love and share that with other people who love them too!

I'm already brainstorming some future designs for Valentine's Day and spring that I can't wait to get started on.  I wonder how long Janey is going to tolerate this?

Pumpkins and Afghans

Well I thought I would be posting once a week here on my blog, sharing updates about new items in my store and also what's been going on behind the scenes, but it's turned out my blogging frequency is averaging about once a month.  Oh well.  Just take it as a sign that lots and lots has been going on around here...

I spent today listening to the magical Joni Mitchell


and finishing a very cheerful afghan for a friend's baby shower this Saturday.  It makes me happy just looking at this sunny afghan.  I had fun making it and I plan on listing a made-to-order version of it in my shop this month.  This pattern was found on Ravelry, it's a free pattern from DROPS Design, however I had to make a few changes for it to look the way I wanted, and of course changed the color scheme.

 
Halloween is this week, and I've had a lot of customers requesting more color options for these little baby legwarmers, so that is my big project this week and next, getting more of those made and photographed and listed.  Next year I'll have them in fun Halloween colors.  I came up with a cute holiday color scheme that I think is really sweet.  I'll share some images of that project when it's complete, later on in November.  Here you can see the black option for the baby legwarmers, now available here in the shop.  These were requested for a baby Halloween costume and I was happy to quickly complete them and send them off in time for Halloween. 

I feel like I've really been neglecting my drawing lately, and made a goal of at least doing some fun ACEO sized drawings regularly to keep things active on that side of my brain.  Not sure what I'll do with these, they're almost more of a stress-relieving activity than anything official, which sometimes turns out to be a better final drawing than when I really sit down to draw something specific.  I think they might make cute tiny notebook covers, or greeting cards.  Definitely need to keep brainstorming on them.

 That's my cat, Jane, seen out my window as I sit inside with a cup of hot tea and my drawing pens at the ready.

Can you tell by this snowy drawing that I'm feeling ready for winter?  No sign of snow in our yard yet, but other parts of Kentucky did see some flakes last week!  I think it's exciting and inspiring, and makes me homesick sometimes for Michigan, where I grew up.   My sister and I have agreed that if one of us wakes up before the other, and sees snow on the ground, we are to immediately wake the other up, no questions asked.  It is that big of a deal, yes.  I'm definitely going to be taking pictures and sharing them on here when we get our first snow.  :)


 
I tried to take a break from television last week.  I realized it was making me feel a little bit down, and getting into that bad cycle of comparing myself with the characters in the show and their homes, their jobs, etc.  Sometimes that happens to me on facebook too, and I have to take a break from those kinds of activities that make me think I'm not measuring up.

My first day I attempted to break my tv addiction I completely failed and ended up binging and watching a whole bunch of episodes of The New Girl on Netflix.  It's a cute show, but as usual, has me comparing my clothes and my body size, my career, everything... so I realized the quitting cold turkey technique was not going to work.

The next day I told myself I could watch tv, as long as it was something that aired on PBS.  So I would at least be learning something.  That worked awesome!  I watched some Nova documentaries and loved it.  I felt a lot less negative and down on myself and remembered how much I enjoy scientific and social documentaries.  I think my brain had really been needing that.  I even decided to go to the library and check out some books.  I keep feeding myself these mental messages that I'm not allowed to read certain things, either because they're a waste of time or because they're shallow, or whatever little myth I make up... the day I went to the library I did something I've wanted to do for a long time, and people might cringe or judge... but it was so fun.  I just went through the aisles at a very leisurely pace and picked out about 10 books based purely on their covers.  I didn't read the back of them or anything.  Some of them had interesting illustrations on the cover, or just an interesting title with a neat font.  And wow, what a weird variety of stuff. 

One of them I started reading and it was kind of a slow pace, not really my taste and wasn't really grabbing my attention.  But the cover was very intriguing.  It was called "Lookaway, Lookaway." By Wilton Barnhardt.  Isn't that an interesting cover?

I moved on to the next one and found out I had accidentally picked a book 8 in a series... oopsie.  But it was super interesting so I went back the next day and checked out book number one.  That one is called "First Grave On The Right" by Darynda Jones.

I can see myself getting sucked right into reading the entire series.  It's really grabbing my attention so far.

This little adventure is proving to be a really cool way to open up some of my old judgmental tendencies about only reading certain authors or genres.  If I get my act together in November, I'll do a blog post on this fun adventure.  I keep wanting to do some kind of book review post, after all the reading I've been doing.  Anyone out there reading anything good?
 

My sister and I have been going for evening walks with the dogs and I saw this nice sunset last week.  I think that was one of the nights it really got cold.  One night we even walked in a very cold rain.  The dogs really love it, and we have a nice warm wood stove to come inside to when we're done!

 Today I'm leaving you with these sunny images of the finished afghan.  I can't wait to start another one of these.

 Here's a very colorful granny square afghan that's still in progress.  I love how bright and happy this one is.  It's going to be hard to let this one go...

Hope you have a good rest of the month! 

The End of September

Wow it sure has been a busy month here.  I can't believe the last time I wrote here was way back in August.  The weather is turning colder, the leaves are starting to change, and I all of a sudden have cravings for apple cider and pumpkin bread.  Can you believe how bright and happy these mums are?  There's nothing like a big pot of mums to celebrate fall coming.

I bought some in every color for my mom's birthday:

I think this fall is going to be great.  I'm about to start working on a fun crocheted baby afghan for a friend who's expecting, I've got about three different knit cowls going, and also some knit fingerless mitts. 

I even had time for a nature walk one evening after I mowed the lawn.  I love the way this grass looks near sunset.

Today I decided to make a fall themed treasury on Etsy, just because thinking about fall makes me happy and relaxed.  If you want to look at these great items closer, just click on the image below and you'll be able to peruse their shops.

I'm not usually big on making treasuries but it sure is a fun way to network and chat with other sellers on Etsy.  I'm definitely finding a bunch of new favorite artists and makers from this group of items.  I think each of these items makes me want to go rake some leaves, pick some apples, and make a fire in the wood stove.  Yeah, it really is finally fall here in Kentucky.

I saw this sweet orange cat recently while stopped at a gas station with my mom.  He was very friendly and totally comfortable just hanging out while people pumped their gas.  I wonder what his name is.

Last month I went to a drag race and a mud race at the county fair.  It was so cool!

This big pack of turkeys hangs out in the yard in the mornings and in the evenings now.  Poking around for caterpillars I guess.  Not sure what they eat.  It was a pretty big deal though, every one of our cats was looking out the window and even my dog too that day.  They continue to be the top news story around here, among the cats.

I worked on a very cool family craft project with my mom and my sister.  We made these very bright and happy stepping stones with glass pieces and concrete.

 Here you can see the planning stage where the pieces are set up on paper first. 

 

Here's what it looked like after we mixed up the cement and put the pieces on top.  I need to go take a picture of them all now that they've dried.  They all look very pretty and sparkle very nice in the sun.

Later I took pictures as my mom and sister planted some small trees in the yard.  Cats helped, in their own special way.

On a random side note, it's a little bittersweet to not be participating in the local holiday arts and crafts fair this year, but at the same time I'm so relieved!  It's a whole lotta work crammed into just a little bit of time... and I am excited to be able to take the fall and winter seasons at a slower, more relaxed pace this year.  Come this December I'll be kicking back in the recliner, nice and warm by the fire, knitting and crocheting fun things instead of turning into an assembly line of manic production for my booth inventory.  Maybe next year I'll try again, just to see if it's for me.

Meanwhile I've listed some great child legwarmers in my shop.  I think these fun stripes are so cheerful.  I'm thinking about inventing an adult fingerless mitt or full mitten from these.

I hope everyone out there is having a nice fall and getting to do some relaxing, comforting things.