oh the busyness

Ok warning! Lots of pictures coming up!  The last couple weeks have been busy, busy!  My sister in law Lacey has been visiting for the last couple weeks and we have done so much!  Which explains why I haven't been as present here on the blog.  Lots of fun and good stuff though so I know you understand.

Last week, Thursday, we went to see one of my favorite bands, Needtobreathe at the Britt in Jacksonville.  It was so, so, so good!  So GOOD.  The drive over was nice, beautiful weather and we shared licorice.  We got pizza on the way because you can take food into the Britt.  We sat on the grassy hill on a blanket, very relaxing and the music was amaze-balls!

 Here's a during concert picture.  Not the best quality but oh well, we had fun!

Saturday I worked all day and then Sunday did a baby shower for a coworker.  She is expecting a little girl.  I enjoy making decorations for baby showers.  So, here are a few of the highlights.

The shower was at a local park in a covered area with picnic benches.  So I picked one bench to be the check in spot where people could write their addresses on envelopes that will be used to send out a thank you card.  It's a good way to make sure no one gets missed!

There were poles in that we used to put up cute banners.  Danielle from the office made this one in the middle with baby clothes that were part of her gift.  She used clothes pins to put them up.  One either side of that we put up the banners I had made which were these cute elephants and tissue paper tassels.  You can't see so well but there are two shades of pink, white and silver metallic tassels.  Lacey helped me make those and I really like how they turned out.  It was super windy that day so they really blew around!

In other news, I have been making progress on my Thunderstorm MKAL!  This is a spoiler so if by chance you are also working on it don't look at this last picture!  I think chances are good though no one reading this is actually doing this pattern tee hee!  Let's see, I think I am on clue 3 in this picture? 

I finished the eyelets this week which is the Ribbons phase called raindrops.  I have also finished clue 4 which was super short and about to start clue 5 which is a large section called "downpour".  This yarn just makes me so happy.  There are two skeins that are actually different colorways.  I really loved the one with the green but the store only had one skein!  The second one is a mix of the pinks and plum but are meshing well.  I have started to kind of stripe it so that it blends.

Today Lacey and I are going to head up to Crater Lake, it's a beautiful sunny day so should be nice!  Hope you are all having a great weekend!  Next weekend is my 20 year high school reunion so I may not be updating again till after that! Wish me luck!!!! Yikes, I am so nervous!

bright hot

Last weekend I was out of town visiting my Mom.  It was......so nice, super hot, and really what I needed.  I could have done without the heat!  I left my house at 75 degrees mid morning and went down to Chico to upper 90's on Friday and 104 on Saturday!  Yikes.  To say I was melting is an understatement.  whew

But!  visiting with Mom was perfect.  Reminiscing and learning about her, quilt talk, garden talk.  All kinds of chatting and laughing.  I'm at a point in my life that I enjoy my Mom.  Yes, we drive each other a little crazy sometimes! but mostly she's pretty cool.  So, spending the weekend chilling at her house was just nice.

We did attempt shopping.  But seriously it was so hot.  One place that I really wanted to check out was the yarn store.  There is a really great yarn store there called Heartstrings.  I had printed out the pattern for the Thunderstorm Mystery Knit A Long and was looking for yarn for that.  It's my first shawl and MKAL!  I may have picked yarn that is not exactly perfect, but I really love the colors.  They are super duper bright.

I think that's all for now.  Sorry for such a short update.  I'm in a bit of a funk so not really chatty I think.  Everything is mostly fine, no worries.

super quick update

Nothing too exciting going on here this week.  Just wanted  to quickly share my current project.  I started this a couple (?) weeks ago.  I have to say it's so stinkin cute so far!  I added the stripes just for fun.  Not sure if I'm going to make the kangaroo yet or alter it into a bunny.  Dunno yet.

Hey, hope you all have a great week!

berry lovely

It's no secret that I love berries!  Love them. I totally scored a bunch of strawberries, raspberries and blackberries after our potluck at the office Friday.  The gal that brought them didn't want them so I took the leftovers home :) Blackberries, in particular, make me happy.  When I was growing up my Mom, brother and I would walk along the Sacramento River in Dunsmuir, CA and during the summer we'd pick warm sun-ripened blackberries and eat them as we went.  The smell, the sun, the warmth.....carefree summer!  And when I find a sweet blackberry it takes me right there.

It's been awhile since I made any amigurumi, I've been so caught up with knitting that crochet has been sidelined.  But when I started that garland project I started wanting to crochet again.  I found a super cute little doll on instagram but haven't been able to find a pattern for it, but! I did find a similar one that is equally cute!  Lalylala Kira is the pattern I bought.  I picked out this magenta acrylic from my stash.  I just love this color!   

Yesterday was a fun mail day that I had been waiting for!  So, in case you didn't know, my first name is Colima.  Growing up personalized pencils or keychains or whatever were really popular.  Um, yeah.  Try finding Colima on anything.........unless you're in Colima, Mexico you're just not going to find anything!  So I was scrolling through my instagram feed and saw that a lady is making these personalized cups as gifts and the gears in my head clicked on!  I messaged her and asked if I could buy one and she said yes!!!!  I got to pick what I wanted it to say and the color and the lid design.  And I LOVE!!!! IT!  

Yesterday I intended, fully, to sort through fabric for the yard sale coming up.  Fully intended.  Aaaaand then I got distracted but my fabric!  Hahahahhahhahha I guess that's the point, right?  So I started with, I'll just try one little block.  Well then you've got to have 2 to see the contrast.  And then I started to get excited.  And when that happens you just gotta roll with it.  

And this is the end result of yesterday's sewing frenzy.  I really like it!!  I found this tutorial for a quilt called, the Arrow Tail quilt and I liked the aesthetic.  I did not download the template she provides, I just made my own with my 60 degree triangle ruler.  It came together very easily.  I am thinking I will use the pink polka dot fabric as backing and maybe the dark grey as binding?  We shall see.

Currently I'm listening to Tilly Trout's most recent podcast.  She's telling us about her recent trip to France, and it's just lovely!  She's very descriptive and just delightful in general.

So, I hope you all have a wonderful week!  I'm going to continue with the crochet for a bit :)

garland

I had one of those moments yesterday (Saturday) that I just suddenly had to make something!  Like stop whatever you're doing and make it kind of thing.  I picked out some bright prints that mesh well together and then made a little template, and then stitched up these little flags for a banner.  Then! felt like I needed a crochet border.  I found a clever tutorial online from a google search where she did a back stitch along the edge and then used that as an anchor to crochet onto the fabric.  I actually almost just left the back stitching because even just that is cute.

This was my first idea of yarn, buuuuuuuuut it's like so thin that I had a hard time keeping hold of it and also would have to crochet a million stitches so I abandoned it for a thicker yarn.  Which, apparently I'm a little Goldilocks about it because it's just too thick.  In lieu of buying more yarn (!) I'm dealing with it.  Next time though.

Here is what I ended up with, I do like the way it looks.  It's very cheery, yes?

Today I sat in the back yard and Rocky napped next to me.  It's a ruff life.  Seriously though.

 And!  made these delicious kabobs for dinner.  O.M.G. so good.  I marinated the chicken in a mesquite mix that is a little bit spicy and a lotta bit yummy :)

In other news, book news.  I finished the last book in the Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare called Clockwork Princess.  I had been listening to the series on CD while sewing, knitting and stitching.  I really liked it.  It was kind of like a prequel to the Mortal Instrument series by the same author that I had started but the next book wasn't available at the library.  So it's set in the 1800's England, it's fantasy that includes otherworldly creatures, warlocks, magic.  I don't want to give too much of the story away but I will say that there is a love triangle situation and then ending was pretty satisfying.  I still cried a ton but really the author worked everyone's story out.  

I have to say I can't really handle love stories.  I mean, I can and I can't.  I feeeeel like romance stories set up huge expectations that just don't happen in real life.  Well. At least to me they don't.  And, we all know as a widow I really miss my love and wish I still had it.  ugggggg. so that was part of what made me cry at the end of that story.  But!  good story and characters and all that.

And, I popped into the library today and they had the rest of the books on CD in the other series so I snapped them up :)

Hey, have a fantab week!

stitch stitch stitch repeat

So I realized (a bit late) that I kind of didn't post last weekend.  I do try to keep current, but I had one of those weekend where there just wasn't much exciting happening.  One of the days Rocky and I chilled out in the back yard in the shade.  I stitched and he milled about.  There was a pleasant breeze, it was great.

I also realized that this week would be the last for one of my co-workers.  I thought it would be nice to make her a little something.  I decided on a mug rug because she likes to drink tea and coffee. I embroidered a little weiner dog with her name in it because she loves daschund's and who doesn't like something personalized???

I gave it to her today so I'm safe to share it here even though I'm fairly certain she doesn't read my blog anyway! ha.

I finished up the May frame for the Storytime Sampler from in The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.  This month is Charlotte's Web.  I tried to add a pinwheel on the barn to look like a barn quilt.  It kind of turned out (?) but not super obvious what it is.  I also added the darker green grass and made Wilbur the pig a couple shades darker than what the pattern called for.  Also I made her jeans a darker blue.  

 And!  I have finally gotten back to knitting these socks!  yikes I have been avoiding them for some reason?  Don't know why really.  But I was.  So I have finished one heel and am about to start the second one.  Then I think they should go pretty quickly.  I have another pair of socks on the needles and once I finish those I am going to really debate about going back to double points.  Magic loop is fine and it's nice to have two done at the same time but it's kind of a bummer to fuss with adjusting the cable between the needles.  Geez what a whiner.  I'm glad I've at least tried the magic loop.

So this weekend is going to feel really short because I'm working tomorrow morning, which is why I'm home this afternoon.  It's been a lovely Friday, I hope you are all enjoying your day whatever you do!

cloudy

Yesterday I snapped these pics of the clouds.  They were gorgeous and dreamy and fluffy and it was almost warm out!

But the wind kicked up late in the day and a chill set in.  This morning I woke up to rain and the thermometer says 51 degrees.  Ha!  Never know what we'll get here in June!