Silence is Golden.

This blog has turned into my once monthly check-in, with a public goal-sharing forum (though I'm not sure how many people are still reading my blog).  Here we are at the end of May - I have no idea how that happened!  We're almost at summer already, even though Mother Nature has been keeping us here in Central Ontario wondering whether we will ever have more than two consecutive days of summer before shocking us with a fall or even winter type day!

Anyways...this past month I have realized a few things recently that have inspired me. (Note:  I am a huge fan of lists.  You will see that in this post, if you haven't noticed my monthly lists already!!)

1.  I've been stumbling across some of the bloggers who are blogging about Me Made May.  It has inspired me to get sewing.  I want to join in on MMM 2014, and to be able to wear something I have made every day next May.  If I only sew 2 pieces a month until then, I will have more than enough to get me through the month with what I already have.

2.  The bloggers have also inspired me to find a way to take photographs of myself wearing my clothes.  I have a great camera.  I have great clothes, and I am making more great clothes.  I need to find a way of showing you all how I look when I'm wearing them!  I get inspiration from other's outfits and sewing projects.  I want to give back some of that with you.  It may be a bit shaky at first (hopefully not literally, that would be bad for my camera and the photographs!), but I'm going to try playing with it this weekend.

3.  I tried on my summer clothes from previous years.  They do not fit - the shrink fairy has visited my closet over the winter. So...instead of feeling sorry for myself and getting down on myself, I am going to do three things - exercise more (more walks, more yoga, maybe even get the bicycle out), make healthier eating decisions (does eating vegan cake for breakfast count as healthier?  LOL), and sew new summer clothes.

With all the talk about me actually getting some sewing done, I STILL don't have any pictures to show you (see #2 above).  I'm hoping to change that.  SOON!

Last weekend I went on a cutting binge.  This is the best way for me to get things cut out.  If I cut out in the evenings, I make simple mistakes that cause a lot of problems, so I spend a few hours on a weekend afternoon to cut out a whole bunch of stuff.  Last weekend I cut out eight (8), yup, EIGHT pairs of slim pants from Vogue 8774 on Saturday afternoon.  Sunday and during the week, I've finished three of those pairs - a black stretch twill pair, a heavy linen/ramie pair and a black/white novelty stretch denim/twill pair.  I've worn two of them already this week.

Let's take a look at the goals I had set for myself for May:

Goals for May 2013

Knitting:

1.  Weave in the ends of Melissa's sweater and send it to her on Friday (is it cheating to write a goal you know you're already going to accomplish?  I'm taking this to knit night tonight!)  Done and mailed!  Pictures are on my camera.
2.  Finish Emerald Raspberry Fingerless Mitts for my mom.  Umm...no further today than last month.
3.  Finish Colonial Rib socks for my dad FINISHED!!
4.  Start socks in Casbah yarn for myself. Nope, didn't start.  Going to put this off until at least July, because I'm starting a Camp Loopy sock project, if my yarn EVER arrives!!
5.  Pick out sweater pattern and yarn for a sweater for Sara Done!  Finished the body of the Featherweight Cardigan out of Manos Lace in a gorgeous coral-ly colour and starting on the sleeve.

Sewing:

1.  Should I even bother??! I have far exceeded this goal!!  The red Sandra Betzina knit sweater I thought was a cardigan was actually only a vest, so it was even FASTER to finish!  Again...pics to follow.  Plus, I finished three pairs of slim pants!

Here are my goals for June 2013

Knitting:

1.  Finish Sara's Featherweight Cardigan, and post pictures to Knit Girllls KAL (deadline is June 30th)
2.  Start and Finish Camp Loopy Project #1 (deadline is June 30th).  Need to get the yarn from the mail yet!!

Sewing:

1.  Finish four pairs of slim jeans from Vogue 8774, which have already been cut (three in various shades of denim, and one in red!)
2. Make another Butterick 5678 shirt - I'm thinking of a red one
3.  Make a top from Simplicity 1694 out of embroidered cotton eyelet (white with black embroidery)

Living the Enchanted Life

Hello there...is this thing still on?  I've been absent from the blog lately, but with really good reason.  I am NOT sick, and nothing horrible has happened to me.  In fact, I've been spending a crazy amount of time away from home lately and as a result the blog and my sewing have been non-existent.

So...in April, I spent some time in Alberta, hanging out with my brothers.  We skied (well...I skied, one of them boarded, and the other had to watch from the sidelines due to work and a knee injury).  I took a TON of pictures of the mountains (you'll have to believe me for now - I'm having a techno-burp with my phone and all of my "real" pictures are on my camera at home).   We at awesome food we cooked for each other (yup, all foodies), we hung out at the fitness centre (for the pool! and hot tub! and steam room!).  We saw a MASSIVE GRIZZLY bear, which immediately curtailed any thoughts we had of hiking or snowshoeing.

Touristy picture of me taking a picture of my brother who is taking a picture of me...
enjoying a Rock Creek Dry Cider after a good day of skiing at Lake Louise

The brother who doesn't live there and I are dreaming up ways to get back there as quickly as possible.  Summer in the mountains brings a whole realm of different things to do! (horseback riding, camping, hiking, fly fishing, mountain biking...so many choices!!)  Ah...the mountain life is the life!

Back to reality...I attended a conference in April for work, which seriously cut into my sewing time as well, and have another starting this weekend.  So instead of sewing, I will be visiting my brother in Ottawa for an overnight before heading to the hotel for the few days of the conference.  It is the first weekend of the annual Tulip Festival, and I have never been before, so I am very much looking forward to going!

There has been knitting.  Again - you'll just have to believe me for the time being until I can upload my photographs.  I have started a pair of Colonial Rib socks for my dad, and I'm really enjoying this knit.  Not mindless, but I am certainly finding these to be a relaxing knit. Here's the Rav Link.  I'm loving these!

I also started and finished a pair of plain vanilla socks while I was away in Regia yarn.  I enjoyed knitting on these when I was too tired to knit anything else after skiing.  Here's the Rav Link for these.

In the meantime, let's take a look at those goals from last month, shall we?


Goals for April 2013

Knitting:

1. Finish Reims socks Hooray!  Finished!
2. Finish Melissa's sweater, block it and send it to her in the mail Finished, blocked but still need to weave in the ends before sending it to her.
3. Finish Emerald Raspberry Fingerless Mitts for my mom um...yeah.  No further than last month.
4. And just because I'm feeling SO bold owing to finishing my goals for March, I'll throw in this one too - finish the Francis Revisited sweater I started for myself eons ago.  A warm alpaca/wool sweater just in time for spring. hahahaha...no progress at all.

Sewing:

1. Sew the *&@#$ red sweater.  I have till the end of April, right?! Famous last words...
2. Sew yoga leggings and tank tops to wear on my spring skiing vacation in two weeks. And again...famous last words.

Goals for May 2013

Knitting:

1.  Weave in the ends of Melissa's sweater and send it to her on Friday (is it cheating to write a goal you know you're already going to accomplish?  I'm taking this to knit night tonight!)
2.  Finish Emerald Raspberry Fingerless Mitts for my mom.
3.  Finish Colonial Rib socks for my dad
4.  Start socks in Casbah yarn for myself.
5.  Pick out sweater pattern and yarn for a sweater for Sara

Sewing:

1.  Should I even bother??!

LOL.

Picture-less Post

It's me checking in!  I know the true way to build readership is to regularly post with interesting things to say and with lots of great photographs of finished objects...but well, life seems to have taken over.  Still ABSOLUTELY NO sewing to report, though I'm getting antsy about getting to the sewing machine.  I desperately need some new clothes for work, or I'm sure you'll be seeing me on What Not To Wear soon. (Is that show still on??)

I have however finished some knitting, though I don't have any photographs at the moment to post.  If we revisit my March Goals we will see that I actually have accomplished a few things.

March 2013 Goals - Knitting:

1.  Finish Temperance socks before March 30 (Rav Link for Temperance Socks)

2.  Block the socks shown above

3.  Finish sleeve for Melissa's sweater (Rocky Coast Cardigan), and start second sleeve (Rav Link)

Guess what?!! I have completed ALL of my knitting goals!  I finished the Temperance Socks, I blocked all of the socks in the previous post, and I've finished the first sleeve of the sweater for Melissa and started the second.  

My sewing goals, as I mentioned above, were a complete fail.  That being said, ski season is done (aside from my upcoming ski vacation), and I am almost finished one of the two courses I am currently enrolled in, so that *should* give me some sewing time.

Goals for April 2013

Knitting:

1. Finish Reims socks Rav Link for Reims Socks

2. Finish Melissa's sweater, block it and send it to her in the mail

3. Finish Emerald Raspberry Fingerless Mitts for my mom Rav Link for Emerald Raspberries

4. And just because I'm feeling SO bold owing to finishing my goals for March, I'll throw in this one too - finish the Francis Revisited sweater I started for myself eons ago.  A warm alpaca/wool sweater just in time for spring.

Sewing:

1. Sew the *&@#$ red sweater.  I have till the end of April, right?!

2. Sew yoga leggings and tank tops to wear on my spring skiing vacation in two weeks.

And yeah...I did spring clean the main floor of the house (washed the walls and baseboards, scrubbed the floors trim and windows in the kitchen, living room and front hall).  That counts for something doesn't it??

I'd better sign off because now I'm just grasping for excuses as to why I'm not sewing. LOL.

Goals! and FOs!!

Yes, spectacular and witty title to this post.  Life has been busy.  So busy that I haven't been able to even touch the sewing machine in months.  I have stuff cut out, but just haven't had the time or energy to drag them out.  Skiing is taking up a lot of my time as are the two courses, work and all the other stuff that seems to come my way.  At least I'm not bored :)

While there hasn't been any sewing, there has been knitting.  I think I've been gravitating to knitting because it is very portable and meditative for me.  For a while I was knitting only stockinette stitch socks (which for those who knit know is just the knit stitch over and over and over...and over again).   Like I said, meditative.  Though recently, I'm being pulled towards socks with texture and interest again.  And I am finding I *can* actually knit on those types of socks when it is not completely quiet around me, and I can even take them with me to knit night!

So...on to FO's.

These socks are my international travelling socks - knit on planes from Toronto to Chicago, Chicago to Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City to Denver, and Denver to Toronto.  They are also my sick on the couch socks after I got back from my trip.  I just have to add that I absolutely love Opal.  It is so colourful, it feels great when knitting, it's not splitty at all, and it wears like iron.

Opal Hundertwasser Socks, Plain Vanilla

Rav Link for Opal Socks

These are another pair of sick-at-home socks.  I cast on and knit the first one in ONE DAY.  I know!!!  Crazy, right? ONE DAY.  The second sock took a little longer, but I finished the pair in under a week.

ThreeEwesInFiber Kerosene Colourway

Rav Link for Kerosene Socks

Here's a pair that had been languishing, but are now finished (as of this morning):

Bees and Blossoms Socks out of Knit Picks Stroll Tonal 

Rav Link for Bees and Blossoms

These were a great knit, and the pair that opened me up to including pattern and texture in my knitting instead of plain vanilla.  I figure if I could do these at knit night, then I'm sure  I can do other patterns too.  These are a birthday gift for someone who I love dearly, and I know she'll appreciate them!!

On the needles - I'm working on the Temperance socks for my sister for her birthday, which also happens to be at the end of the month.  If I can get them done, I can give them to her in person (she lives in Vancouver but will be home for a few weeks visiting).  I cast these on last night and am really enjoying the knitting!

So...the title says Goals.  I need to make some goals for myself, I've just been sort of floating around out there, getting by because it's been so busy.  Ski season will be coming to a close later this month, which will leave me with Friday nights and Saturdays free!  What on earth will I fill my time with???!!  

Here are my goals for March:

Knitting:

1.  Finish Temperance socks before March 30 (Rav Link for Temperance Socks)

2.  Block the socks shown above

3.  Finish sleeve for Melissa's sweater (Rocky Coast Cardigan), and start second sleeve (Rav Link)

Sewing:

1.  Finish red drapey sweater from Vogue 1124

That's it - one sewing project.  Since I haven't been sewing at all, I think that is a lofty goal!

Whirlwind

Whew...what a month.  It's finally caught up to me.  This post comes to you from my couch in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday, where I am snuggled up with my puppy, wearing yoga pants and a fleece sweater while watching episode after episode of the final Fringe season.  Not my normal weekday activity.  I have caught a flu bug that has brought me down - must have picked something up in the airports I traveled through last weekend on my way home from Salt Lake City.

Rewind...I've been busy busy busy this month!  I had a LONG weekend (of the vacation sort) earlier this month in Ottawa, visiting my brother during the final weekend of Winterlude.  We celebrated winter in full force with skiing (of the alpine variety) at Mont Ste. Marie in Quebec, watching the hockey game on TV on Saturday night (a family tradition), skating on the Rideau Canel (a full 5 km!), and followed that up by snowshoeing in Gatineau Park.  The weather was wonderful, sunny and cold - perfect for outdoor sports.  My brother is an AWESOME host, and the food was, as usual, amazing.  Good times!

I was home for a day then traveled out to Utah for work for two full days of training.  Regretfully, there was no skiing this year (SO disappointed!) but I am partially pacified by the thought of skiing in Alberta in the spring.

That brings me to today.  Feeling lousy, but definitely catching up on my sleep today!  And my internet browsing - I've been going through various blog posts of my favs, and getting juiced up for spending some time at my sewing machine.  I'm also being inspired by spring and summer retail websites.

For spring and summer, I've decided to again focus on my core colours of red, black and winter white, with the addition of a few for spring and summer to "lighten" it up, like tan/beige.  Tan/beige makes me look ill if I wear it near my face (unless I'm deeply tanned), but I love the classic look of it so that colour gets relegated to pants, shorts and skirts, or picked up in accent prints.  I need the basics for the summer, like shorts and capris, buttondown shirts as well as a pair of jeans in black and denim.  I also am in desperate need for some work clothes, and think I'm going to focus on dresses since I just can't seem to master the pant fitting battle easily.  I need some buttondowns for the office too.  I need some gratification so I think I will start with a dress or two that I can wear with a cardigan now or at least in the near future.

I've also joined the Ready to Wear Fasters back in December, but since I've done absolutely NO sewing, I really haven't managed to be able to join in with their fun.  That being said, I've also been really "good" and not purchased ONE thing as far as ready to wear clothing goes.  I need to log some serious time with the machine, and I'm hoping to do that this weekend.  I'm looking forward to two full days of fun!!  Now to get rid of this bug!!

There hasn't been much going on over here, not in the creativity department anyway.  I finished all those projects for my kitchen, and then...Nothing.  Nada.  Zip.  No sewing.  Until Friday afternoon anyway.  I was sent home early due to the great winter weather we were having (I'm a skier, and the slopes on Friday night and Saturday were AWESOME!!), but it made for lousy driving and a LOT of shoveling.  And, when I got home on Friday, someone had already blown out my driveway for me!!!  I don't know who you are, but THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!  You are making me very happy when I come home and don't have to do it myself!

Anyway...back to the sewing.  I didn't accomplish anything spectacular, or even anything I can really show here but I did whittle down the mending pile that was threatening to topple off my sewing table.  I can see my sewing machine again!  I  think I will  actually be able to pick up a "new" project and not feel guilty.

I've been doing a lot of yoga lately, and my yoga gear is...dismal at best (10 year old sweatshirts and sweatpants that are 4" too short for my LONG legs).  Fortunately, I do yoga on my own with DVDs and streamed videos on the internet, so no one sees me in my fantastic gear.  A while ago I cut apart a pair of yoga pants that had bit the dust and copied a pattern off them to make my own.  I've made one pair in the past (a year ago already?) but am aiming on making another pair or two for my next project.  I also would like to make some tank tops and some leggings to wear both as exercise gear as well as an underlayer for when I'm skiing.

Not terribly exciting this update, but hang in there.  I can feel my sewing mojo coming back, even as I type!  I am even at home a couple of nights this week, so hopefully I can share a finished project with you soon!

Hello Coordination!!

Hooray!  I had a really productive day on Saturday, followed by skiing all day on Sunday (yup, in the rain no less) and sleeping in terribly late on Monday (nothing like getting up at 8 to be in at work at 8:30 LOL. Fortunately I have a really great friend who phoned wondering where I was or I would have slept the whole morning away).  Zoinks as Shaggy would say.

Anyway, back to the focus of this post...THE KITCHEN!

Without further ado, here are the crappy cellphone pictures results of my efforts.  I promise to take higher quality photographs with my gorgeous new camera, but that will take a moment or two to get them transferred over, and I want to share these with you NOW!!!

Appliance Cart aka Kitchen Office
(holds pens, paper, notepads, stapler, etc.) 

Curtain for the bookshelf holding my cookbooks,
just to tidy it all up.  I have yet to add a piece of
weathered stained wood for the top
to make it even prettier

Large print toile for the large window

Ticking fabric for the small window

Breadmaker cover on the appliance cart/office

I cannot believe the difference a few curtains have made.  It adds such a cozy, homey feeling to the room, and it makes it feel "finished."  All without painting or replacing the countertop!

To do yet:  Curtain tie backs for both the small and large windows, apron, potholders, tablecloths, and placemats.

Any other suggestions as to how to decorate your kitchen with fabric??  I have a TON left over!

I had a great suggestion from my mom to place a large mirror on top of the bookshelves where I keep the extra plateware, so I'm now on the hunt for a large mirror at the local thrift shops.  When summer comes, I'm hoping to paint those shelves white and add etching to the glass. (I have a thing about paint fumes, they don't make me feel very well).