FINISHED: TWEED/SILK SCARF PURSE

Well, the pattern is called that anyways. . . pretty sure my fabric from JoAnn's is not tweed, nor is the scarf that I got at Target, but it looks pretty good! I made it for someone else, but I'm a little in love with it -- I'll have to make myself another. The pattern is from the perfect handmade bag (recycle and reuse to make 35 beautiful totes, purses and more).

FINISHED: OATMEAL PULLOVER

I found this pattern through SouleMama and fell in love with it right away. The pattern by Jane Richmond and you can purchase the pattern at her Etsy shop.

Rather than using a more expensive yarn, I found a similar weight at Michael's for $4/skein. I was a little nervous about how much I'd end up using since the skeins weren't the same size, so I bought 8 and ended up using 5 (hoping that I can return what I didn't use!). After looking up a couple knitting abbreviations it was quite easy to do. It's knit from the top down, so it doesn't require seaming pieces together at the end.

Next time I may decide to make the body a little longer, and the sleeves a little longer with a bigger section of ribbing on them (like on the bottom). Can't wait for some cooler weather so I can wear it!

YUM: BEIGNET

World Market is right up there on my list of favorite places to shop. Discovered a beignet mix there on a more recent trip that is super easy to whip up and then devour! Traditionally they are covered with powdered sugar, but I did some up with cinnamon/sugar too : )

IN PROGRESS: MY FIRST SWEATER

IN PROGRESS: LUCY BLANKET

CRAZY BUSY SUMMER

Gee. . It's been awhile . . . this is what I've been up to this summer and hope that the next 4 weeks have lots more sunshine and fun!

Floating the Madison River --- 3 hours on the river with a ice cold Mike's. .. perfect Saturday afternoon

Visiting Alaska --- Sitka, Haines, everywhere in between

An Afternoon at Pike's Place Market in Seattle ---

Edmonton, Canada --- to see my brother who is there over the summer, lots of shopping and some fun at the waterpark

Summer nights in downtown Bozeman --- Music on Main, Bite of Bozeman, and just because

IT'S GOOD TO WATER YOUR PLANTS

This is the plant that makes it look like I have some idea of what I'm doing . .. the other one, not so much. .. maybe you'll see that one if I can bring it back to life!

WHAT SHALL WE DO TODAY: PAPER CHAINS

Not too long ago, I brought the kids that I nanny over to my house for the day. Every now and then it changes things up a bit for them. . .and I can catch up on laundry! This particular day was a very rainy day and the 6 year old didn't have school. My mom sent me this great little book with fun kids projects. I should have been better prepared with supplies . . .so we just did the easiest one - paper chains.

I'm a paper junkie and so many big sets of paper have sheets that I don't really like too much or there's things that I really won't ever use that much of. So. . .we raided my paper stash and cut lots of strips and went to town with the stapler. There were several breaks to play with other things, but over the day we made our paper chain 75+ feet. I think it will make a nice addition to their play room.

KANZASHI IN BLOOM + ETSY SEARCH

This looks like a lot of fun and is now on my wishlist!

ESTY SHOP PETALMIX:
Hair accessories and brooch pins are a modern twist on the Japanese art of tsumami kanzashi. Each petal is hand cut hand folded from beautiful high quality fabrics.

ESTY SHOP ANGHARAD:
I make all my items at home using a combination of fabrics, some designer and vintage. This shop is basically an outlet for the things I make as I can't resist buying beautiful fabrics and need to put them to use instead of hoarding them!

BABY "K"

Customized Baby Shower Gift

- "Onesies" for Baby "K"
- Pacifier clips
- Burp clothes

DIY: REFINISHED COFFEE TABLES

BEFORE:Here's the story.

Chad's mom was moving to Bozeman and we went out to look for furniture for her new place. He found an ad in the paper for a loveseat for $100 so we went to take a look. It was pretty much brand new and gorgeous and our style. The older woman selling it said she liked us so much that she'd give it to use for $75. We bought it, for us!, thinking we could get the matching sofa and give his mom our old furniture.

I was able to track down the store where she bought it from, but the series had been discontinued. After a little looking, I found the same exact style set in leather (the loveseat we bought is a suede-microfiber kinda fabric). About a year ago, along with buying the sofa, we got a matching chair. . .and about a month ago decided to buy the small ottoman to go with the chair. .it's here, just have to go back to Great Falls to pick it up!

Nice, new furniture of course spurred a whole redecorating of the living room. Kept the same lamps, found a new rug. .. and still had the coffee tables, which we really liked but the finish of the bases were a little bit industrial for the warmer feeling that was starting to happen. Chad is great at coming up with ideas for my decorating and craft dilemmas and suggested painting the bases - perfect!

Rust-Oleum makes a spray paint that has is brown with a hammered look when it's done drying. It took about $20 for 3 cans and tada - new tables. They came apart super easy, the paint was easy to use, it dried quickly and they look great.

AFTER:

SCD: SPRING FLOWERS AT SHOEFLY

Well, technically they're dogwood blossoms, and I'm not sure what season they bloom . . .but it's spring, and they're new and now at ShoeFly!

PROCRASTINATED PROJECT: BUMPER BLANKETS

They are DONE!!

Well. . . The Winnie The Pooh blanket has been done for about a year. Which was about 2 weeks after I accepted this little project. Someone asked if I could take apart the bumpers from their kids' crib sets and make them into blankets. Seemed like it'd be pretty quick and easy. The first one was a breeze, simple to take apart and arrange to re-sew. It was finished before this little boy's birthday, but I thought that his big sister may be upset if she didn't get her blanket then too, so I waited and life went on and I kinda forgot about the second blanket.

When I finally started the second blanket it was not so easy. Whatever company made it sewed the heck out of it. . . it was kinda hard to find good pieces to use that didn't have holes all over it from where the old stitching was. Eventually I got it all taken apart and then was not looking forward to re-assembling things. So it sat some more. And more. . .and more. I got so close to finishing it and just needed to get the binding on. .. and then we were moving. So it sat a little longer while we packed and unpacked and then got busy with other things.

But I've had a super productive weekend (a painting project coming soon!) and there are so many other things I've got going in my head to do, but promised myself I'd finish this before starting anything else.

They are done . . . SIGH!

PLANNED: ALASKA TRIP 2010

After lots of frustration with how Alaska Airlines allows you to redeem miles and syncing flight times with ferry times plus what we want to do while we visit we have tickets to go home this summer!!

The end of June we'll fly up to Sitka (via Seattle AND Ketchikan - ugh!) to meet up with my parents. We're going to take a 3 day boat trip on their boat up to Haines where we still have a cabin on Chilkat Lake. Maybe we'll fit in a quick Skagway trip and then spend the 4th of July in Haines. The last time I got to visit there was in 2004, it's been awhile!

We arranged our tickets to get back to Seattle as quickly as possible with having to take a ferry and then catch a plane so that we can stay the night with some friends and do a little bit of shopping the next day. So excited for a vacation!!

I HAVE A WONDERFUL BOYFRIEND

Chad is the greatest boyfriend EVER! He recently was in Missoula and there's a Hollister there now! Apparently I didn't get my wishlist to him soon enough, but he went back again before he came home and got me two of my favorite tank tops (turquoise and a light green). They are so comfy!