Earthy Knits

Happy Sunday! It is a rainy chilly day here in Victoria (okay, so it is actually pretty mild and about 10 C) but it is the perfect season for knits! With colder weather looming as November progresses I am certainly happy to own these:

As it happens I took these pictures quite a while ago and really went crazy over the earth tone knit close ups! I just love the textures, hints of colours, and neat stitches!  Any guesses on what they are? 

No? How about from this image:

Yay! Aren't they lovely? Fraser's Mom Susan was the wonderful creator of my new wrist warmers and I couldn't be more pleased with them! They're super handy for fall and are perfect for activities requiring a little finger dexterity (like when I'm driving, blogging, or texting/playing with my phone)! How handy! Thumbs up for knits:

Hooray! Thanks Susan for the wonderful homemade knit warmers! Anyone else out there a wrist warmer fan? If not - if you make some to give a try you'll never go back...believe me...

At long last - an update!

Yesterday morning I was one determined lady. After the past few weeks of a complete and utter of productivity I was sure that I would get at least one thing crossed off my to do list! The verdict? Success! I finally got around to listing my embroidery hoops in my etsy shop! I even had some nice filtered natural light to photograph in too. Check out my babies that are up for grabs:

Hooray! I forgot how time consuming making etsy listing is, which totally explains why I've been focusing on craft shows and consignment these days. It does feel good to refresh the shop up a bit though, I even redid the shop sections for easier searching too! Yay! Just in time for the holiday buying season! You can take a peek at the listings in my embroidery hoop art section (link)! Yipee! Happy buying! 

Friday Find: Emho Collections

Well it's Friday and since Halloween has passed we are jumping straight into xmas! Okay, so I treat November more as a preparation month and December as time to decorate for the holidays, but when I saw these darling needle felted mushroom ornaments from Emho Collections (link) I just had to share them! Aren't they just the cutest?

(source)

I think they would look super sweet on a tree or maybe just strung up together in a little garland! I must admit I am a sucker for the amanitas and these rainbow delights are just too tempting! Perhaps I'll need to work on my needle felting skills this winter and attempt my own versions (probably with little smiles on them too)! What do you think? Have you ever dabbled in felting? 

November/Movember time!

Well it's finally come to that time in the year when the weather keeps getting chillier and men all over try desperately to grow impressive mustaches! Sophisticat has no problems growing one hefty handlebar so naturally he is featured on this month's free printable calendar (link)! Check it out:

 you can download me here!

Hooray! Like each month you are free to print this puppy out and can turn it into your own desktop/countertop stand up using an old cd jewel case and this tutorial (link). Yay! I used the My Memories software to whip this baby up and really getting the hang of it after six months of calendar making. Since the My Memories people were nice enough to sponsor me, I've even got a discount code on the side bar there if you're interested in trying out their great (and very reasonably priced) software (link) too.  Yay!

As for plans for this month I am finishing up my health class at the Arthritis Center and am aiming for one extra healthy Kate as we head into the holiday season! Hopefully I'll have some spare time in there for a little crafting and etsy shop updates too! How thrilling! Heck, maybe I will even manage to get all my xmas shopping done early this month as well! What a dream! What are your November plans? 

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Looks like we've made it to the end of the month already which means it's time to celebrate one of the funnest holidays of the year! I had high hopes for lots of decorating to go on this year but just didn't seem to make it happen  - so here's a sweet little pumpkin I carved a few years back instead:

It isn't quite as impressive as the dozen or so pumpkins my mom likes to carve every year, but he does the trick and since I don't have any carving tools (or the wrist strength to do any pumpkin gutting) I will just keep milking off the carving I did three years ago until I feel motivated to carve again.  I was motivated enough to buy a little plastic pumpkin (oh I know, such hard effort involved) and put one of my succulents in him for some end of the month festiveness! Take a peek:

Hehe! Isn't he a smiley chap? It also involved zero wrist strain, no mess, and can be used from year to year! What a win! I am dressing up in my fox costume today for work and am looking forward to seeing what creative costumes other people have come up with. I tried really hard to convince one of my favourite customers to come to work dressed up since he told me he went as "Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory dressed up as The Doppler Effect" (here's a link to the episode clip if you haven't seen it)! Maybe Matt will humour me and make some nice Doppler Effect noises for me regardless of costume... What are you doing to celebrate Halloween today? Trick or treating with the wee ones? Handing out candy? Dressing up as something spooky? Details please! 

foxy

I finally got around to taking some pictures of the fox costume I freestyle crocheted for Halloween and I am oh so thrilled with how it turned out! Turns out my skills weren't all that rusty and I whipped up something on my first try! Hooray! Take a peek at the fox ear headband I made:

Okay, that picture sort of looks like a sad clown/frog face, but I'm sure you get the point. I think the headband will be nice and cool for my work day and I figure if the ears start slipping I can always throw some bobby pins in there for good measure. I am particularly happy with how the ears turned out too! I did two orange triangles, then sewed on a smaller offwhite triangle for the center of the ear, and sewed on some black bits for the tips. Here's a better front and back view for you:

Next it was tail time! Jim told me to take the tail the same length as my body and since I didn't want it to be too heavy (which would be awkward for wearing all day) I didn't make it too thick. After making a big long orange cone, I topped it with some scallop-y white tail bit that I did loads of increasing and decreasing on to get a little flip at the end. Lastly I just had to make a little hoop to attach it to the belt, stuff it, and tie up the loose ends! Here she is:

Hehe! What a fun craft project that was! I will have to try to get some pictures of this baby in action on Halloween! Yipee! What are you dressing up as for Halloween this year? Do you get lots of trick-or-treat-ers in your parts? 

How does your Hamish grow?

While Fraser was here this past weekend for my cousin's memorial service he was thrilled to see that I didn't manage to kill anything while he was gone!  Fraser was doing such a good job of taking care of the fish and plants this summer that when it was time for him to go away on his practicum he was a little concerned he would return to a house of dead things. Well apparently our fish and plants are okay at dealing with my neglect and, in fact, Hamish (my lovely milking cactus) has even thrived! I hadn't even realized how tall he was getting until Fraser pointed it out so I thought I better share my excitement:

OoOo! What a good boy he's been! Here are some pics from past posts (link and link) so how his wonderful progress! I bought him in May, successfully moved him to the coast in Septmeber and by December he had already outgrown his third shelf height and needed to be moved to the top! 

Looks like it's time to figure out a new home for this pal - but since we're heading into the coastal winter (meaning no sun and loads o' rain), he shouldn't be moved too far from our only source of natural light. Hmm...looks like I've got a few weeks to decide since there is still about a centimetre before he actually hits the ceiling:

Oh my! I am pretty stoked that I haven't killed him off yet, and think I need to only purchase hearty plants like Hamish in the future. How about you? Are you good with house plants? Any suggestions for me?