Handmade Journaling Cards and Tags

Spring Hand Made Journaling Cards!

I woke up this morning and decided to get busy making some new items for my Etsy store. My dining table is still covered with all manner of papers, glue, stamps and paints. I cut about 150-200 pieces of paper to make these tags and journaling cards today and I will probably be up all night getting them done.

Spring Hand Made Tags!

I am really pleased with how these turned out and think I will continue to make these for all seasons and occasions. The journaling cards are the perfect way to showcase one of the various uses for my hand carved stamps.

Give that dog a Bone!

I pulled this knitting pattern off of KrisKnits blog. I made the first one following the pattern exactly and gave the finished bone to my mother's Teacup Chihuahua named Babee. Since I have much larger dogs, with the exception of princess who doesn't play with toys, I decided to try my hand at making a larger bone.

Here it is:I had to mend it twice within the first 15 minutes after Isabella and Loki got their teeth on it. Loki was pretty jealous of Isabella's new toy and kept trying to take it away from her.
I am knitting Loki one in yellow with a yellow/pink/white striping on the opposite side. I hope to have that one finished tomorrow.

I may end up mending these bones everyday the way these girls play, but I love them too much to let them live without toys!

Puppy Love!

It was such a gorgeous day on Sunday that I decided to spend the whole day taking it easy with my dogs. I had just spent 3 days away from home and had made it back around midnight Saturday evening/Sunday morning. I decided to put off work until Monday and just rest.

My dogs are:
Isabella - a white lab/samoyed mix
Loki - a rust colored shepherd/husky mix
Princess - a purebred Toy Rat Terrier
all girls!

We went for a long morning walk after breakfast and then I took a short walk to Church for the 11am service at the First Baptist Church in downtown Marshall. After Church my sister stopped by to drop off a set of enamelware she had picked up for me at a Garage Sale on Saturday. (I will take pics of it tomorrow and post them for you to see, they're red!
Then the girls (dogs) and I spent a few hours sitting out in the front yard. They relaxed in the grass, basking in the sun, while I worked on various knitting projects.
I had to keep Loki and Isabella leashed to the bench because they are still in training and would run off and chase people passing by if they had the chance. Believe it or not, Loki will be a year old on May 23rd and Isabella turned 1 year just after Thanksgiving. They really haven't had much opportunity to interact with other dogs or other people very much yet, so we are taking it one day at a time. Princess is 7 and until recently has been much better behaved.Later, we went for our evening walk and then we kicked back in the house for the rest of the evening.

They were all tuckered out!
you can't see Princess because she is always sitting by me covered up with her little blankie:)oh......and I can't forget The Cat.....his name is Omi pronounced oh-me. My daughter named him after some character in a Japanese Cartoon. He is a monster of a cat at 24lbs.

Rainy Day Fare

How delicious does cool, refreshing homemade chicken salad with crisp sweet fruits sound? About as marvelous as it tastes. YUM!

I spent the weekend up in mid-Michigan with family and the day I went home (Saturday) was more of a relaxing day. It was bleak and rainy and I was hoping to get some knitting done while spending time with the Family. We decided not to waste too much time cooking so we took some leftover skinless, boneless chicken breast and made some Chicken Salad for sandwiches, and since my uncle wanted to also have some cabbage, we threw together a pot of cabbage soup with a bit of veggies and beans we had on hand.

The result was a very satisfying Rainy Day Meal. It left us free to spend some quality time ........Knitting:)

Here is the recipe for our Violet Chicken Salad:

4 Boneless, Skinless Chicken breast halves boiled and cut into small chunks (reserve chicken broth/stock for use in the Cabbage Soup)

25 red grapes, halved

2 Gala Apples, cut into small chunks

1/2 medium organic onion, sliced and diced

Kraft Mayo with Olive Oil - enough for mixing to your individual taste

Freshly picked Violets and Chives growing wild in the yard.

Mix first 5 ingredients together in a medium size bowl, spoon on to the bread of your choice and garnish with freshly picked violet flower petals and freshly chopped chives.

Here is the recipe for our Savory Cabbage Soup:

1 whole Green Cabbage, coarsely chopped

1 cup dry red beans

2 whole organic carrots, sliced

9 organic potatoes, scrubbed and cut in quarters

2 organic onions cut in quarters

1 quart chicken broth (reserved from boiling the chicken breast)

Water (if needed to make a sufficient quantity)

Combine all ingredients and bring to a boil, simmer until beans and veggies are tender.

Season to taste

Serve and enjoy!

Eye Candy for Yarn Lovers!

I have been so busy trying to catch up on my knitting and get some spinning done in the past few weeks. Finally I have finished some yarn that I can list for sale on my Etsy. (I have been hoarding all my other handspun for personal projects, or giving it away to family members to try out)

For anyone interested, you can find me on Ravelry as Lildebi:)

Here is the latest Handspun and Knitting projects currently on needles.

2 needle socks

Another Pair of 2 needle socks

Mohair Blush Handspun Lace Weight Yarn

Clementine Shawlette from Interweave Knits Summer 2007! Knit with my handspun Alpaca/Silk light worsted weight yarn

Butterfly Moebious from The Knitters Book of Yarn Knit with Baby Alpaca Grande Bulky Yarn from Plymouth Yarns

Belle Wrap from Knitting Little Luxuries using my 100% Wool Bulky Handspun

50/50 Bamboo and Llama on my spindle

BFL Wool on my spindle

Plied into yarn using the Andean Plying Method
120 yds Light worsted/sport weight at 12-14 wpi

More BFL wool Plied into Yarn
120 yds Fingering Weight 16wpi

I still have 158 yds of Lace weight mohair to upload that I finished spinning this week. I am using it to knit a wrap pattern of my own design.

I am getting ready for my first Fiber Festival in June, so I am spinning as much as I can right now. I am also making my own drop spindles with polymer clay whorls. I have already made 10 but have kept 2 to use and gave the rest away to family. I will be uploading pics of those as well soon.

I will give you all an update on the Fiber Festival as we get closer to the date in case any of you are close enough to attend!

Happy Knitting (Spinning)!