Thank You!

Recently I was blessed with a wonderful surprise!

Stefanie, from Knitspiring Odyssey honored me with

theaward!

The purpose of this award is to share 5 enjoyable blogs with under 200 followers with the blogging world.

Very quickly, I had my own list in my head of who I wanted to nominate!  (Stefanie came to mind immediately, but since she gave me the award, I needed to pick other people.) :)

1     Fairytale Knits:  Raili is so inspiring.  She shares her knitting, crocheting, baking and other activities with her readers.  She’s not afraid to write about her faith and readily shares both her accomplishments and her struggles. 

2     Saucy: I love reading Jill’s blog.  Her knitting is amazing – she can knit a sweater faster than you can blink an eye!  I would love to be able to knit that fast and that well. Many of the things she knits I would love to try myself.  But her blog isn’t limited to knitting, she also writes about her family, her garden, her reading list.  She’s a busy woman!

3     Useful Hands & Heart: On Debby’s blog, you see an obvious love of her family.  She’s always writing about her kids and grandkids and all the things she does for them, as well as how God’s love strengthens and supports her.  Sewing, scrapbooking, knitting and taking care of her grandkids keeps her busy.  She’s an amazing lady.

4     Knitting a Baby: Melissa has been a bit occupied lately, as she recently welcomed her baby girl into the world in July.  Although she hasn’t had the time (a baby takes a lot of work!) to blog as often as she used to, I always find her posts to be enjoyable.  She’s honest and straightforward.  She’s one of the first blogs I started reading consistently . 

5     Lucy’s Arts & Crafts: Lucy lives in China and has an interesting perspective.  Her blog used to mostly encompass her knitting, but has grown to include her love of art and culture.  She frequently talks about differences or traditions in China, which I love to read because I feel like I gain a different perspective myself. 

Congratulations, ladies! 

Pass on the love!

A Little Something More

Each week on Wednesday I give you a peek into my project bag (or work pile on the sewing table).  And on Fridays you see my favorites - of all shapes and sizes.  These days deserve more than just a dated title.

So I designed some buttons.  I haven't added button codes because each Wednesday and Friday I'll be using the buttons - so if I add a code, it will take me to the same place every time, when in fact, each week it changes.  Nevertheless, I'm still very happy with how they turned out.

I was trying to figure out what I'd use in the buttons.  Where do I find the pictures and what should they be of?  Instead of fretting over this for a very long time, I decided it was easiest to go to a place I'm most comfortable.  My project page on Ravelry!

I picked out a couple photos from my collection and set them to work on my blog buttons! :)

Here they are in all their glory!

WIP Wednesday couldn't be a finished object - that'd just be silly.  So the current photo is of my Traveling Woman shawl, that is sadly in hibernation at the moment.

Friday Favorites was a bit more difficult.  How do I choose a picture that best represents what Friday Favorites is all about?  Silly me - what's more perfect than one of my most favorite finished knits?  You've all seen Gerald many times now on my blog.  And you'll see a lot more of him from here on out.

I used Scrapblog to create my buttons, a site I've used many times.  It's free, which is perfect, and there are a lot of neat things you can do to simulate scrapbooking.  :)

A Few Tricks of the Trade

I had some ideas for today's post, but then upon reading a friend's blog, I changed my mind.

You all know how I excited I was about the "comment replies" addition to my blog.  I know, I blew your minds with that awesomeness, right? :)  I think part of the magic of blogs is learning new tips and tricks from those around us who are good at being creative.

I've tried for the last few months to really be creative and fun with my photography.   It's fun to spice things up and take wacky photos or use weird angles, etc.  What I struggle with the most, though, is how to get good photos of moving objects, like X.  (Knitting is easy - it sits still and just lets me do my thing!)

I don't have a photo box I can sit X in, and I don't have a house big enough for a photo studio.  But thanks to Sarah, from In Light of the Truth, I have a few new tricks I'd like to try.

Sarah explains how she just uses different color bedsheets, positioned over her television and against the wall to achieve a "background" look, and one of her newest tricks - using fun wrapping paper!

Sarah's photography is awesome.  She's always sharing pictures of her kids and the world viewed through her eyes.  I'm envious of her skills! :)

Anyway - hop on over to Sarah's blog and check out her tips.  It's fun to learn new things and can bring such an element of creativity to our work! :)

Comment Replies

So I just found the coolest thing - okay, maybe it's just me who thinks it's cool.  But I'm so excited about it I have to share!!

Have any of you with a blog (or have commented on a blog) wanted to reply to someone's comment, but haven't figured out a good way to do so? 

I was reading my friend Lucy's blog.  She has the option to "reply to comment" on her blog.  I asked her how she got it there - but was too impatient to wait for her to answer (our days aren't the same since she lives in China).

I googled how to add this function to my comments and came up with a website.  At Spice Up Your Blog, they will walk you through the process to adding this function to your blog. 

I don't know that using this function actually notifies the original commenter of a follow-up comment (unless they've asked to be notified of follow-up comments), but at least when they come back to read, or when someone else is reading the comments, you can see the replies. 

I love reading comments that my readers leave.  And I love leaving comments for others on their blogs.  What can I say?  Now I'm super-duper excited!  :) 

And hooray that tomorrow is Friday!  I'm home today because I'm not feeling well, but I'm hoping that tomorrow will be a good day and that I can get a lot done!

Notice Anything?

Not a huge change to the blog, but I decided to start keeping lists.  I have what my husband would probably call an obsession with lists.  I love writing them, and checking things off them. So here, the I've created lists that reflect what I'm working on, projects I'd like to complete and I officially feel are on my "to-do" list, that sort of thing.  Yesterday I added two such lists. 

The first is my to-do list.  These are the things that are always in the back of my mind, nagging or prodding me to get completed.  I'm so good at forgetting, though, that the less interesting things (like mending) take a backseat to the more creative outlets (like knitting, obviously!).  As I get things completed, I'll remove them from the list and every now and again, I'll post an update on how I'm doing.  There's no deadline or time restriction, it just helps me keep track.

To-Do List

Sew Up Dad's Vest for A
Mend Blankets
Unwind 2 Skeins of Cotton for Dying
Tie-Dye Cotton (1/2 done)
Haruni Shawl for Mom
Squishies
Vertical Stripes Hat
Traveling Woman Shawl
Sinful Ribbed Scarf
Secret May project 1/4
Springtime In Paris Swap Complete
Make project bag for myself
Create Knitting Needle Case
Finish sanding eggs
Curtain for kitchen shelves
The other list right now is for a swap I'm working on: Springtime in Paris.  Since I'm not just including the knit items for the Springtime in Paris swap, it's good to have a record of what is left to complete.  And besides...I like checking items off a list.  I feel more accomplished that way. :)

Springtime in Paris Swap

Find yarn for Frenchie - stash dive or buy?
Stash dive - yarn for socks
Knit Jelly Bean Socks
Knit Frenchie
Collect Goodies - 1/2 done
Write (& include!) note
Box Up
Mail to Swap Partner
Update Ravelry w/ pictures & comments
*The items on this list may not be crossed off quite so quickly.  Just in case my swap partner reads this, I don't want to give away anything in her pacakge.  So instead, I will have to maintain somewhat of a list on a piece of paper....that I'll lose and rewrite several times...lol*

In other news, I started a new project recently called Vertical Stripes Hat (yes, yes, I know, another hat.  I promise soon there will be other knit items because, let's face it, the weather WILL be warming up and Xander would probably really enjoy a new toy or something.  Or maybe a sweater for the fall.)  But for now it's a hat! :) This one is intriguing because the hat is created by knitting 10 separate panels, joined together in the round as you work.  This is going to be trial and error for me - never done this before. 

From the notes I've read thus far, the most important thing is to measure, measure, measure those panels!  If not, they won't line up correctly and the hat will go wonky.  The pattern uses about 6 different stitch patterns (I'm going to modify this a bit so that each stitch pattern is used twice).  I'm using 2 different blues - should be pretty.  And I think I'll probably post progress pictures on this one, just because the process is so visually interesting and helpful.  Wish me luck!