The yarn snob has left the building....

I've written before that I'm somewhat of a yarn snob. The only store that has ever won my heart, not to mention oodles of my cash, is located 9 HOURS away. I'm certainly in to road trips but that's a little excessive. So today, I went to AC Moore to get a few essential seed beads for my pendants. Low and behold, I found myself steering towards the yarn department. I think I have to apologize to AC Moore for thinking that they only carry substandard craft yarn. I was visually bombarded with hundreds of skeins of yarn AND it was all 25% off! Check out my finds:

A gorgeous purple super chunky chenille yarn:


How could I not buy a yarn called "Cupcake" in the color pistachio? I'm making it in to another hat for my niece's baby.


I found this charcoal gray merino wool blend to make a ribbed hat for Breen. Gotta keep my baby's gorgeous bald head warm during the winter. After the 25% off, it came to less than $3 for the skein! I'm sure this same yarn would sell for at least $6.50 at my local yarn shop.


Here's the added bonus of the day: an over sized square red pendant with a Robert Frost poem on it. I can't wait to bead a necklace out of it.

One cute little hat and a little neck bling

Oh my heavens...I'm in love with this adorable little hat. I made this last night for my niece's soon-to-arrive baby boy. I wanted to break tradition from the normal light blue hat. All it took was one skein of Plymouth Yarn's Jelly Beenz in Yellow. I cast off a little too soon which resulted in a hat that will only fit a tiny newborn. But guess what? It was so ridiculously easy to knit up that I'm going to make another one that he can wear well in to February and March. And when I'm finished that, I might just make a big boy version for Breen!



Last night I also finished the necklace I beaded. I simply needed to connect the pieces to each other and add a bit of chain. I love the feel of this piece. It reminds me of crocheted flowers done up in glass beads and swarovski crystals.

I've really been making an effort to finish up projects before I start a new one. I'm infamous for half finished things stashed away here and there. So this week I made an Excel worksheet for unfinished projects. I also have a tab on the worksheet for new ideas. When I check the necklace off as finished, I can start a new project. There are so many, I hardly know where to start. Here are some possibilities: a paper bowl, a book purse, more beaded jewelry and some hand painted furniture. Oh yeah....and a few more ribbed hats :))

art updates

I've been doing lots of creating lately. I've always known that my creativity was one of my spiritual gifts meant to bring me peace and joy when things don't feel very pretty. These days, between job searching and one sneaky ex-husband, I've been stepping up to my creativity in bigger ways. Thank you God. Here are some things I've been making:

Artist's block

I am absolutely hating this new chair project. I am uninspired. The chair is simply not speaking to me. Today, I decided to take a few moments and start the seat. Again, this is not going in a good direction. I am sad because I know this will not be done in November. I know me and I have a history of abandoning a project and not coming back, sometimes for a year or more. I'm beginning to think it will be better to just buy the baby some onsies and be done with it.

But on the other end of the spectrum, I made a necklace out of one of the new crown pins. It's simple, but I love it. I really need the reminder that I am indeed a queen. Here, I paired the new necklace with an old brass locket necklace:

I'm chugging right along with my 365 photo project:

Art update

You get what you pay for. Period. Take yarn for example. I'm a complete yarn snob, I have to admit. This was the first summer in 4 years that we did not stay for a week at the lake in Harrisville, New Hampshire. When I'm there, it's my one time of year that I splurge on the most amazing yarns from the weaving center and store in town. I love soft alpaca and heathered bulky wool. Yesterday, I was at a big craft store buying paint for a chair project. I bought 2 big skeins of a pretty ice blue eco-friendly recycled blend. I had a craving to make a new scarf. I'm going to keep working on this but I am reminded once again why I save up the money and buy the really good stuff once a year. I started this basket weave scarf last night:

Yesterday also found me at a consignment shop where my mother does volunteer work. Check out these awesome faux pearl encrusted crowns. They came in a set as two pins but I'll be making them into necklaces fit for the queen mother:

I also found a beaded pendant just screaming to be turned into a funky retro disco necklace!

My favorite find of the day was this over sized jewelry box that looks like it was made for little girls. But I'm going to sand it, prime it and turn it into a personal homage to ME! I'm envisioning colors of black, cream and gold with found objects and vintage photos. I'm going to use miniature dice as the knobs (with the numbers 5 and 2, of course). I have to be patient though because my creative project list is LONG and it will take some time to get around to this.

Photo and aprons

Day 4 of 365:


Earlier this week, I cut out patterns for 6 new sugar sack aprons. I'm in one of those mental states today where I need some distractions of the creative kind. I pressed and steamed two of the aprons for preparation. I'll post them this coming week.

Photo updates

I'm starting up my 365 days of self-portraits again. It's a challenge certainly but so worth it in the end.

Here was day no.2:


Here is day no.3 (today) done especially for husband's birthday:


Thrift Store find of the week. Gorgeous vintage silver and white chandelier earrrings for $7. I'm in love :)


I found this in a regular store marked down to $1. Perfect Italian earth red bowl for some cereal, soup or small heap of steaming pasta!


I have no freaking clue where this week went. It flew by. Needless to say, I didn't get as much done in the creativity department as I would have liked to. My current challenges are 2 furniture painting projects. I'm having a dreadful time with the latest ottoman I started. I'm not pleased at all with 2 sides of it. I keep re priming those sides over and over. Finally, I just had to walk away for a while. Hopefully, a flash of artistic brilliance will hit me. My other project is a rocking chair for my niece. I haven't even selected colors or patterns for that one and the clock is running out! Good thing tomorrow is a new day :)