Friday's Fabulous Finds

I'm thinking I should actually call this 'Saturday's Fabulous Finds' LOL - ugh, when I work a Friday then I don't seem to be able to sit down and write it out!!

Today I am starting at the begining, the begining of how I got my knitting mojo back :-)

About 5 years ago I was in a real funk when it came to my knitting. I have always loved knitting (well mostly, when I was 13 and my best friend Justine came up with this nutty plan of having a sleepover that involved staying awake knitting till we were finished our current project, I wasn't too rapt with it at 3 in the morning. I'm also pretty sure I remember Mum wasn't too rapt either as we woke her up!!) However as the kids grew up and life became busier, I started back in paid employment but now had a family and home to look after too, projects took longer and longer to complete and I'd finally finish something to find out the kids had outgrown it. To top it off they both decided to moan and complain that wool was too itchy and hot so then all that hard work didn't often get worn.

So, I didn't knit for a wee bit. However then I found Lolly one day when I was surfing the net. I honestly have no idea how I stumbled across her site but wow, what an inspiration. She hadn't been knitting for long but her absolute love of it shone through in her blog posts. I sat there that night and read through all her old posts and looked at her projects. I admit I feel a little stalkerish at times - after all this is someone who I've never met in person and who has no idea who I am, yet I read about her life and her passions often, but she just inspired me so much that I picked up my needles again and have not put them down again for a long time!! In fact, I think I have an even bigger love of knitting now. Her blog posts introduced me to Ravelry, free net patterns and designs that I would never have found down at the local knit world. I'm inspired to buy sock wool and try out things that I wouldn't have.

If you want to check her out - here's her blog here:

http://www.lollygirl.com/

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

I don't know what to write about......

but I promised myself I'd do a post in between every Friday Find and as tomorrow is Friday here in NZ and there's a new Find coming I had to slip something in!!

So here are the highs and lows of my week (yeah I know, boring!!!):

HIGHS:

• I joined the gym!!!


• I LOVE it - I've been 3 times now and today after a pretty blurgh morning I toughed out 30 whole minutes of hard cardio and felt like I could have done more (but had just had my weight programme done and he'd given me a bit of a drilling on going too far to fast so was good instead!)


• I made my daughter a pretty lame pig costume - it's book character day at school and she's going as Wilbur. Seriously though, why a pig??? Couldn't it have been something pretty - shots up soon!


• I went to knitting group - yay for Stitch and Bitch, it's definately high up there on the highlight list.


• I've been reminded that I have some pretty awesome friends - both old and new ones thank you all :-)


• I've finished another hat and have almost finished another top down cardi - yay for easy patterns


• My new business cards arrived and they look ultra cool


• The Silver Ferns whipped Australia's backside - though I do question why they couldn't have done some whipping earlier and won us the series!!

OK now I'm rereading and my highlights are really boring but oh well, that's what you get when life's so busy LOL!!!

LOW'S - not many

• We lost netball against a team that were quite frankly bitches - why, why, why do teams play in social grades if they want to pretend they're the Silver Ferns???


• I have to work tomorrow due to an appointment today, I always feel so hard done by when I have to work Friday, it just feels wrong.


• We still have no idea if my stupid boy dog (though very lovable) managed to get it on with my girl dog so it's a waiting game to see if we'll have puppies soon or not - grrrrrr I want to know NOW, I'm no good at this waiting thing.

And on that note I'll leave you with this cute photo:

Friday's Fabulous Finds

OK, OK, it's actually Saturday here in NZ - so I'm running late, that's pretty much the norm for me sorry :-)

Today it's all about the craft I don't do. I pretty much do them all - I knit (no, really?), sew, embroider, scrapbook, mosiac - probably easier to list what I don't do and that's paint (just cannot get the hang of it!) and crochet.

However I don't need to crochet as if I ever need any I'll just ask the super-talented Janis to do it for me :-) Janis not only crochets she is constantly making up new designs as well, in a matter of days!!! I am totally in awe of the wonderful stuff that she's constantly doing.
Not only does she do all that but she's a pretty darn good friend as well. She's really helped me out over the last few months with my ETSY store, on raverly and for some good old fashioned venting when needed - I don't think I've actually ever said it properly but thanks Janis - it sure is appreciated!

You can check her out here:

http://www.marshmellowmagic.etsy.com/

and just to tempt you here are some photos of her latest creations





Go check her out - it's well worth a visit and if you want to see Janis' blog - it's there to the left under blogs I follow :-)

Pirouettes, Pliés and Tutu's

Well OK, babies can't actually do the first two but they can wear tutu's and it sounded good having some French in the title!!

Baby's First Ballet Cardigan:

I'm so over the moon at how this turned out! I have to admit I had help - I had the Classic Shepherd pattern that I used when Brittany was doing ballet as how I wanted it to look overall and I had my secret weapon that helped me size it (I'm sure how I did it meant that it took extra time but it worked!) and I had an old vintage pattern that I sort of incorparated as well. However, combining all those things meant I ended up with this lovely, lovely cardi. I didn't do the classic wrap around tie as Babies spend most of their times lying down and a knot at the back would dig in so for comfort, it ties at the side instead and has a pop over the otherside. Also because I hate bulky seams it is almost entirely seamless - only where the arms attach are there seams. I'd love to try to convert it to a top down and have none at all - maybe next time I knit it :-)

Knitted in Treliske 8ply organic merino means that this cardi is super soft and honestly, you just want to cuddle it all day!! The yarn is just soooooo divine, if you're a knitter and you're out there reading this I can't recommend it enough. In fact here's the link to their store - http://treliske.co.nz/ I've used most of their wool and am really happy with it all - how it knit's up, how it looks and how it feels.

Also, as you can see, Jane once again did a beautiful job of the photos, here are some more just to show off how totally scrummy it is:

Now I just need a photo of Charlotte (it's owner!) wearing it and I'll be even happier :-)

Friday's Fabulous Finds

As Friday is my-day (actually not today I had to work dern it!) I have decided to do a feature each Friday on people that inspire me and things that I love. It's a longish list so far and it was hard to know where to start. I always believe in that old-fashioned saying 'start at the begining' but actually I'm not going to sorry!! I'll save that one for later. Today I'm actually going to start at the end - my latest and bestest find!!

Actually that's a fib - she found me and I'm mighty glad she did. Drum roll please ........ Meet:

www.photographybyjane.co.nz

The wonderful gorgeous Jane has been taking product shots for me. Just have a look:

This was my favorite (until she sent me my latest shots and now I cannot for the life of me decide which is my fav!!). It's her beautiful daughter Ella masquerading as a wee boy - now don't worry - it won't traumatise her in later life! I've used it as my avatar on ETSY and Raverly and on my new business cards that are winging their way here as I type (well I hope they are - hurry up business cards!!!)

These are: my Treliske Organic Merino (yum, yum, yummmy yarn!!) tassel hat, my Debbie Bliss Mary-Janes and a Cocoon that I've done for Jane to use as a prop.

Below is a photo of three of my original designs (no patterns sorry - they're up there in my head at this stage):

I love this photo - it's such fun!!

These are just a few I have - you'll see more popping up as I put up posts about my finished objects :-)

So, as I'm sure you can see she fabulous!! Her photos are so darling and her ideas such fun - go check her site out and have a look (and become a fan) of her facebook page (OK I'm an idiot, I cannot get the facebook link to go small - help anyone??) but you can find it through her website.

Both my kids are having a little protest over any photos at the moment due to braces but as soon as they're over that I'm so going to get her to do a shoot of them too - it probably won't be quite as pretty as my products and it will probably involve a lot of arguing but I'm sure she'll sort them out and provide us with masterpieces.

Well it's not been a good week .....

I'm in a bit of a funk really. We had a really great weekend away, just the 4 of us in a bach doing nothing but a couple of walks on the beach and reading, and then we had a bad start to the new week. Here's a hint:
Hmmmm, I'm not going into specifics but I'd really like to rant about teenage boys and how their brains just don't work!! My workmates have rallied round and given me lots of 'there's worse to come' and 'it's not as bad as what my brother, son, boyfriend did' stories and now I don't know whether I'm relieved or scared for the future!!

We then had some pretty sad news and right about now I'm feeling quite down.

I guess the only good thing about this week really is that I'm finally not blowing my nose every 2 seconds!! The cold was a right doozy, the worst I've had for years actually. Hopefully I've built up some nice immunity now though and I won't have anything quite that bad for a wee bit - you realise at this point I've probably just jinxed myself so I'm doing quite a lot of knocking on wood!

I'll try to be back soon, in a better frame of mind with some nice cheerful posts :-)