Paris or London?

It dawned on me that I got a little off track. I still have just a few of the dishcloths I made Hilary left to show you. Today I'll show these two together. I found them on Ravelry. I had to pay a dollar a piece for the download but they're so cute that I think they were well worth it!

The sweet little white dress with purple and lime specks is called,  "Let's Go to Paris" and the darling blue dress is called,  "Let's Go to London". How cute is that?!

They remind me of my childhood. I remember my mother having a crocheted dress hanging over her bottle of dish soap. It certainly makes things look a bit more Ooh~La~La!

Happy Day to All!

Divine Handwork

As I mentioned recently, Thursday is Girl's Day at my sister's new house now that she has moved back home. One of the things I love most about being there is the breathtaking view she has of the setting sun. So for today's post I thought instead of showing any of my handwork I would show something a bit more Divine. Let's face it ~ anything we can do pales in comparison.

"For You, O Lord, have made me glad by what You have done,

I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands."

Psalm 92:4

Happy Little Pincushion

My Saturday morning started with a trip to the mailbox and much to my delight this is what I found.
My Happy Little Pincushion! YAY!!! Sorry that the picture just does not do it justice. I have so much shade around my house that I struggle to fight back the shadows in all my photos, even on a bright sunny day.  For a really good view of these little lovelies, and much more, go to visit Debbie in her
HAPPY LITTLE COTTAGE at http://happylittlecottage.blogspot.com/
I promise~ she will make you HAPPY  every single time! I always head her way when I need a bit of cheering up. Her blog and her Etsy Shop are very cheerful and... well... HAPPY :)

So, how did I come by this wonderful goody? I won it! She had a give away recently and this was my gift. I LOVE IT!  Thanks so much Debbie! It will make me Happy every time I look at it!

"A cheerful heart doeth good like a medicine."

Proverbs 17:22

By The Beautiful Sea

Okay, so I'm not actually By The Beautiful Sea.... but a girl can dream.....and I am always dreaming of the sea and it's sandy shores and the mysterious creatures that live beneath its glorious surface. What could be more intriguing than a magical starfish?! They almost look like the stuff of fairy tales and mermaid legends to me.  Ever since my first glimpse of one as a child I've been smitten. 

So imagine my pure delight when I tuned into one of my favorite places to visit ~ KNITALATTE which you can find at :
http://karenlcase.blogspot.com ~  and discovered these lovely STARFISH DISHCLOTHS twinklilng across the front of her beautiful blog. If you pay her a visit you can click on the link to download the free pattern. I couldn't get that to happen here. Sorry! {Truth is I don't have a Son~in~law about the house at the moment to walk me through it!}. But this way you'll get to visit Karen if you haven't already ~ and you'll just LOVE her! :)

Once I started crocheting these I had so much fun messing around with different color combinations I just couldn't stop myself! By the time one evening passed and the next afternoon rolled away I was surrounded by 5 of them! YAY! There were stars dripping from my fingertips like manna from heaven.

"I have pined for the sight of the sea for years-

Pined amid hoping, and wished amid fears;

And my heart grew glad, and it bounded in glee

At the sight of the broad expanse of the sea.

The sea, the beautiful, beautiful sea-

Beautiful, boundless, joyful and free!"

Taken from The Beautiful Sea

By Mary Eliza Perine Tucker Lambert

Rosy Tulip

Remember I said I made 10 dishcloths in 7 days and still had 1 on the needles? Well this is the one that was on the needles. Now I know that in the mind of an organized person things would have been presented differently. I would have shown you the dishcloths I made for Hilary in the order I made them for her. However, and here's where I'm going to make a confession ~ I just don't roll that way. Never have and sadly ... probably never will! I kinda forge ahead in life rather willy~nilly flying by the seat of my pants. You know, doing things as the mood strikes me. And today I was in the mood to show you THIS pretty little dishcloth I JUST finished. Oh! And by the by ~ I'm not even giving this one to Hilary. Nope! Think I'll give it to Chelsea {daughter #2} instead. Gabby is absolutely NUTS about all things PINK especially if there are flowers involved {got a bit of her Grammy in her!}.So I thought she might enjoy helping Mommy wash dishes with this one.

I love the little eyelet holes created by the k2tog and ssk stitches that end up looking like a tulip in the center. So sweet!

And for a simple touch of texture around the border a moss stitch {or seed stitch} is my old standby favorite. It's quick and easy to do and most pleasing to the eye :)


Today's Happy Thought~ "When at last I took the time to look into the heart of a flower, it opened up
                                            a whole new world...as if a window had been opened to let in the sun."
                                                                     Princess Grace of Monaco

A Heart Full of Love

Today my heart is full to bursting! I just got to walk along with my daughter, Chelsea, and my Son~in~Law, Eric to take Gabby to her first day of kindergarten. I was armed with a camera in one hand and a huge wad of toilet paper in the other {no kleenex was big enough for that job!}. 
It seems like just yesterday I was walking her mommy to that very same grade school {and crying those very same tears!}. WOW! History really does repeat itself. And way too quickly...

So I took some pictures along the way I thought you might all like to see while you look at today's dishcloth choice, which is of course a basic garter stitch heart. Any design that includes a heart always grabs me. Love the simplicity of this one.

Eric, Gabby & Chelsea

Grammy & Gabby

And here we go!

And so it begins!

Today's Happy Thought ~ "Where ever you go, go with all your heart."

Falling Leaf

Today's dishcloth is knit to look like a leaf. I chose this variegated yarn because I really love the combination of cream, yellow, purples and greens. I thought it might even make it seem like an Autumn leaf. Guess I should have used something with hues of orange and brown instead. Oh well! Live and learn! {I like PURPLE better! Ha!}

This cloth is one of the smaller of the set. Hilary has rather narrow, delicate hands with long fingers   so it should fit quite nicley.  I do think I will make some leaves up in solid shades of green eventually so the veining shows off a bit better. It seems to have gotten lost a little in the rambling colors here. When I found this pattern online it came as a set of three different leaves. I have yet to make the other two. I liked this one because the tip of  the leaf curves so prettily. It makes me think of a falling leaf.

When I took this picture it was right side up. It shows as being right side up when I pop the memory card into the computer. But then when it comes up here for some reason it wants to be sideways {even after I have tried repeatedly to turn it with the little arrow thingies!} Oh well! Guess it really is a falling leaf!

Today's Happy Thought ~ "The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed. "

Sebastien-Roch Chamfort

Okay ~ Let's Dish!

So ~ here it is ~ my first of 10 dishcloths in 7 days. Whew! {And I have one on the needles and one more I want to make so Hilary has an even dozen}.

This one I was hard pressed to part with because it really matches my kitchen quite nicely! But it was very fast to knit and I have tons of the yarn left so I will eventually make one for myself. It's the only one in the bunch that I used the good old standard LILY BRAND SUGAR N' CREAM cotton yarn for. I've had this monstrous cone of cream forever and I just happened to have a ball of the red lying about as well and I started this project the day before I discovered the I LOVE THIS COTTON was on sale at Hobby Lobby. So this first one is the odd ball. But I love it!

This one is done in a waffle stitch and I really like the texture. In fact, you'll see later in the week I did another one in the same stitch with a border and different color combination. I think the pattern will make for nice scrubbing.

Although today is actually Hilary's birthday {my firstborn is now 27!}, I gave them all to her yesterday when we gathered as a family to celebrate. She loved all of them! Being a new bride, she is still excited over kitchen things and the like! Ah ~ the good old days! Ha!

Happy Day to You All!

The Cat's Meow

Although I wasn't going to do a post today, I just can't resist showing you how much fun the ANIMAL KINGDOM in residence has been having with my dishcloth project! I had Gabby {the precious granddaughter} here for the day yesterday and when I stepped into the front room just long enough to turn her fairy movie on for her, Mercedes ~ a.k.a. Miss Puddin~ succumbed to sweet temptation. Now mind you, she was literally NO WHERE IN SIGHT when I was in the kitchen 30 seconds sooner.  Typical...

Notice that first it's the YARN that really grabs her.

Then suddenly.... Hmmm.... "What's this?......
Oooooohhhh......Mom has something pretty here."
Can you believe the little stinker?!

And finally...

"No wonder Mom likes these little babies. The perfect blend of beauty and balance.

These things really are THE CAT'S MEOW!"

Soft Yarn & Pretty Needles

As I said yesterday, I have been digging my needles into dishcloths lately. I have been making as many in various colors, shapes and sizes as possible over the last week to give to my daughter Hilary for her upcoming birthday. She got married in the Spring and will put them to good use no doubt. Though she is a knitter herself {because Mom taught her a few years ago!} she wants some made by MY hands. A nice compliment.

As everyone knows, all projects start with the proper supplies and tools. So here's a peek at the ones I gathered for this venture. {LOVE the basket ~ $1.00 at the second hand store!}. The yarn is I LOVE THIS COTTON from HOBBY LOBBY. And I DO love it!

Then, of course we must have our pretty knitting needles. I am crazy about these blue and white beauties from CHIAGOO. They remind me of that lovley old china my grandmother had when I was a child. You know the pattern. Not only are they pretty, they're smooth as silk to work with, making 100% cotton glide along quite nicely.

Have a GREAT WEEKEND! I will start showing you all the individual dishcloths on Monday.

P.S.  Some things NEVER change! Even the little guy can't resist a  nice basket full of soft yarn! :)

I promise ~ I am NOT posing him in these yarn baksets. I leave the room for a single minute and when I return this is the nonsense I find. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

Girl's Day & Vintage Finds

Hello again Everyone! So sorry I seem to have disappeared. What a whirlwind of a summer it's been... Too much to go into. But I have missed all my blog friends so I will try to get back in the swing of things here again. Hope you have not all given up on me!

The end of June ushered in two things for me ~ I turned 48 and MORE IMPORTANTLY my baby sister, Bridget, FINALLY moved back home from Milwaukee. HIP ~ HIP ~ HOORAY!!! We are having a wonderful time burning up the road back and forth between our houses as many days a week as possible. Though she tried to find a house in the same town as me she ended up a few towns over. But it only takes about 20 minutes for us to reach each other instead of 4 hours. MUCH better. We are sisters who had never lived away from each other before. I am nearly 10 years older than her but she is my only sibling and we are very close, so having her back in my armpit, just next to my heart for safe keeping, is much more to my liking!

Every Thursday my Mom and I go to Bridget's for our Girls Day. We have discovered a couple of fabulous Antiques Shops close to her house where we are on a first name basis now with the lovely little old ladies who own them. So between cooking, baking, eating and laughing together we usually take a quick road trip into town to blow the dust off their latest treasure. Sometimes we bring a thing or two home with us. This week this gorgeous crocheted tablecloth called my name from a far corner the moment I entered the store. I walked straight back, picked it up and hugged it to my heart, which skipped a whole beat when I discovered the price was only $10.00! Then on the way out, wouldn't you know it, a perfect English Bone China Teacup covered in Pink Roses {pictured at the top, because I tried but.... couldn't save it for last.... I had to show it to you FIRST...and by the way... my sweet Baby Sister bought it for me} beckoned to me. And it was only $4.00!!! Well ~ for under $15.00 I came home feeling like the Queen of Sheba!

And while I'm showing you my latest Vintage Finds, I have to include this beautiful pitcher I found a couple of weeks ago at a Cancer Care Fund Raiser event that was held 2 blocks up the street from my house. They had a BBQ cook off, a craft show and MY FAVORITE ~ A VINTAGE SALE.
{Being a vegetarian, I sure didn't go for the BBQ!}.

I know summer is busy for everyone and I pray yours has been a happy, healthy one.
For those of you who are stitchers and crafters, I hope you have been enjoying your playtime!
My latest knitting project is a simple one. I like to work up a few dishcloths in the summertime. Light and easy! Hilary, my oldest daughter/newest bride requested a stack of my knitted dishcloths in "all shapes, sizes and colors" whenever I have the time. Monday is her birthday so I decided to surprise her with a fun stack of them. Tomorrow I will start showing pictures of them. I figure if I show them just one or two at a time it will give me something to blog about and get me in the groove again!

Happy Day!

The Wonderful Land of Blog

Ummm.....Excuse Me......but What do you think you are doing there Little Mister? Just like a nosy neighbor ~ all up in my business again!

Every time I set this basket of crochet work in the floor and turn my back my 3 1/2 pound chihuahua curls up in it like he belongs there! He seems to know it's a baby blankie in the making. And God knows he's the biggest {okay ~ the tiniest} baby in the house! He can't ever resist something to snuggle in or under, especially if it smells like his mommy {uh ~ that would be Me}. 

Eventually he will have to face the sad fact that I am actually making it for my friend Diane's daughter who is expecting her first baby later this summer. This will be Diane's first time to be Grammy. She's in for some fun stuff! And I will most certainly be washing the finished product up in some baby Dreft before I mail it off to Kentucky! Just because I am ga~ga over this goofy dog doesn't mean I expect everyone else to be the same way. {Shhh!!!....Don't tell my family I said that. They ARE expected to be the same way. Or, at least tolerate my silliness and pretend it's perfectly normal :) }.

Back to the crochet in progress. It's called an Oops~ A ~ Daisy! Blanket and will look like a round doily style flower when finished. The pattern is very easy and fun to work on. Since the wee one is due in August I think the airiness of  it will be perfect.We all like to have something special to cover our new babes with but we don't want to smother them in the heat! Oh ~ and in case you couldn't quess~ IT'S A GIRL!

I hope all of you are healthy and happy and enjoying life as May is about to turn into June. I have been struggling with my RA but am back on medication and slowly getting better. I am able to sit at the computer a little bit at a time again and am looking forward to seeing you all again in the Wonderful Land of Blog! BE BLESSED!

Life Is Good!

Scott's MRI was GOOD!!! Praise God! We are so very thankful. My dad took us out to dinner at Cracker Barrel to celebrate last night and, knowing I like salt water taffy, he bought this box of candy for me when I wasn't looking. I love the vintage picture. When the yummy stuff is all eaten up I think I'll save the box to keep bits of ribbon or something stored in. And every time I look at it I will remember the Goodness of God.

Thank You All for your Prayers and Well Wishes! Now ~ it's on with the last minute wedding preparations for us.....   See you all next week sometime.

Life Is Full

I haven't been blogging much lately. Sorry! Life has been a bit hectic on the homefront recently. Thought I'd share a few tidbits with all of you. One bright spot is there are lovely little flowers popping up in my garden. I do love Spring! It smells so wonderful..

As I've mentioned before my husband, Scott, has had a recent bout with pancreatic cancer. He's been having some peculiar health issues for about the last 6 weeks so we saw our family doctor a couple of weeks ago and she did more bloodwork and another CT scan. The type of tumor he had can be persistent.  He will have to have a scan every 4 ~ 6 months for 2 years to make sure it isn't growing back. But all was clear there. Thank God!

Last week we saw the oncologist who ordered an MRI of his brain. That was done on Monday and we go back to the office at 3:30 this afternoon for results from that. It turns out that some of Scott's symptoms could be neurological. This type of cancer is prone to heading for the brain. We did not know that before. So we were a bit shook up with that news. However, the doctor's say the problems could also be a combination of side effects from radiation, which he finished in mid January, and the fact he only has 40% of a pancreas now. He did find out 4 weeks ago he is now diabetic. So, anyway, I have been a bit preoccupied, you might say. We are praying and believing for the best. I appreciate any of your prayers as well.

Another down side for me is that anything that taxes me emotionally flares my rheumatoid arthritis and I have to limit how much time I sit at the computer because it causes me too much all over pain. Plus I have no new knitting or crocheting to show :( because my hands, elbows and shoulders are bothering me so much I have had to take the last couple of weeks off. But hopefully I will pick up the needles and hooks again next week and get back at it. I have still been having my Monday night Knit Night here and love laughing with all the Girls while they create beautiful things! Plus I still  work with my homeschool student most weeks. So I don't ever cut myself off from the world of yarn play totally.

And to end things on a happy note ~ the other thing that has been keeping our household in a flutter around here is that we have another Bride in our midst. So we have had plans to make, apartments to hunt and showers to attend. {The picture below is of my granddaughter, myself and my daughters at Chelsea's house during the shower she hosted for Hilary}.  Oh! And we've had wonderful Mother/Daughter chit chats filling in the gaps here and there. What a whirwind with both of our girls leaving the nest 6 months apart! Though it is time and we are happy for them, it is bittersweet for Mom and Dad!

Gabby, Me, Hilary, Chelsea

Our youngest daughter, Chelsea got married in October. And now our firstborn daughter, Hilary, is getting married this Saturday. We will be taking a little trip for this one. She is having a small, private outdoor ceremony about an hour and a half from home. We will all spend the night away. Then they will be off for a honeymoon and on May 5th we will have a big reception with all our family and friends.

So! Life is full, as it is with all of you. I hope you are all healthy and happy. I will let you all know how things go with my husband and I will post some pictures of my lovely Bride.
Be Blessed!

White Coca ~ Cola Easter Cake

My sister, Bridget, is here from Milwaukee and knowing that Coca ~ Cola cake was my childhood favorite but that I am allergic to chocolate and have not been able to have any for many years now, she made me this wonderful White Coca ~ Cola Cake for Easter. It's so darn cute I just had to show it off before we cut into it. I haven't tasted it yet, but I can hardly wait! I'll share the recipe soon if anyone is interested.

HAPPY EASTER!

Lacy Shells Baby Shawl

Yes! A Dinosaur Egg really can become a Baby Blanket! Remember that MONDO ball of yarn I was so excited to find? Well it did finally hatch itself into a lovely blankie  {a few weeks ago actually ~ I just realized I forgot to show you all!}. So here's the BEFORE picture again:

I love the fact that it was a continuous feed of yarn that didn't require adding new skeins and working new ends in. Just like knitting from those wonderful cones of yarn. Makes the working time faster and the finished product smoother. And then of course, the real frosting on the cake is  when it's over it's over. So... without further ado.....the finished product.... 

Hope you like it as much as I do! I'm crazy about the vintage feel the lovely shade of beige lends it. I put it up for sale on my new {and still tiny!} Etsy Shop ~ Front Porch Knits.

Happy Fiber Frolicking {and whatever else you get your fingers in to} To All Of You Today!