Pre-Vacation Preparations

October 6, 2011

My title might be a little misleading since I have now already left and returned from my vacation. I would like to slowly share bits and pieces of my pre-vacation and actual vacation home. I had a wonderful time at my sister’s wedding, visiting friends and family, and adventuring all around Michigan with my dad. Even at 27 years of age I never tire of taking vacations with my dad.

Before I could leave for my vacation I had a lot of projects to finish! I was a busy lady having the day job, the jewelry side business, and making sure I was tidying up all the loose ends before my travels.

One of the most important projects I was working on was a wedding shawl for my sister. The moment she got engaged I knew I had to find the perfect project to knit for her. I went straight to ravelry and found Summer Affair by Carol Feller! This was to be the first time I really had done a lace pattern with lace yarn. I knew I had a challenge on my hands but I was determined in the name of sisterly love! After a rough start I got the hang of the pattern and it came along quicker than I figured. I was delighted and perhaps a bit surprised that a couple weeks before the wedding I was actually done with the shawl! WOW! I’m a goofball and did not get any pictures of my sister in it but here is the finished product.

I was so ahead of schedule with the shawl I even offered to knit the garter belt in the leftover yarn!

 

Once ALL the wedding knitting was complete I finally had time to finish up a knitted tunic I was working on, Idlewood. It’s nice if I have time to finish some warm knits to wear while I’m in Michigan because here in Texas it will be at least another 2 months or so until I can comfortably wear them here. I’m happy to say I got a chance to wear the tunic at least 4 times while I was home! I finally had to stop because it was getting too stretched out. 🙂 So far it’s my favorite knit clothing.

With all my knits complete I was finally ready to start packing and head out of Austin!

New products, new pictures

September 9, 2011

So I’ve been working on a few new things. They have actually been made for a while but I’ve just been getting around to taking photos of them all.

I really really like the tiny states I’ve been working on, despite the fact that they are a little tricky to cut. I love each one when I am done though. I’ve always been in love with small things (being just under 5ft tall I always say small things are cuter-I’ve got to find the up sides of being little), so deciding to miniaturize some of the states was not a stretch for me. Perhaps it was more like, “why didn’t I think of this sooner?”. I am also proud to say that my home state of Michigan has been the best tiny state seller! Woo!

While we’re on the subject of Michigan I also decided to cut out a few of my favorite lakes! I had been thinking of it for a while when a friend encouraged me along by saying how cool it would be. Ok, ok I’ll give it a go! I think Lake Superior is my favorite of the 3 and also the least likely one I’d swim in (it’s always super super cold-even during the hottest days of the summer!)

Bought a new dress, making an old dress new.

September 2, 2011

I love receiving packages in the mail! So today was a very exciting day. I received my Thimble and Acorn dress I ordered from etsy and some camping essentials for my upcoming trip.

The yellow dress I ordered was made specifically for me. I provided the lovely Eve of Thimble and Acorn my measurements and a tiny modification and it fits me perfectly. Yeah! In case you were curious I wanted to take photos, despite they’re lack of quality I posted them anyway (I’m horrible at taking pictures of myself and the packaging materials all over my room were no help).

My cropping means blurry photos 🙁

So once this failed photo shoot was over I got to working on my $1 garage sale find. A while back I came across a very dated dress in a very intriguing pattern. I figured for $1 I could at least try to improve it’s looks. I’m redoing the neckline completely, bring the hem up by about 2 feet and shortening the sleeves. Curious now aren’t you? 🙂 I’m going to wait until the dress is complete to share my before and after photos but here is a sneak peak of the material.