I love getting mail– other than my credit card statement and various money grabs from the government (i.e. income tax notification of money owing… yuck). And I was ever so happy to open the mailbox today! Because in the midst of a Quizno’s flyer (they now deliver! for a charge of $3 not including driver’s tip!), an ad for our provincial MP, and a pamphlet giving me advice on preventing swine flu (wash your hands! don’t sneeze on other people!) I found this!
A wonderful packet of lovely surprises from Jenny, over at Stitcher and Scribbler. Now, she had asked a little while ago for any volunteers to send some stamps to fill her journal, and in exchange was offering the most adorable handmade stamp badges. And despite the fact that the post office man had nothing more exciting than a Vancouver 2010 Olympics stamp for overseas delivery, she sent back a whole bunch of papery goodness!
Some of my favourite little things were:
- a postage stamp from Poland (I’m part Polish! And I’m sure I never mentioned that before!)
- a little button sewn on some ribbon
- some adorable bunny paper
And, of course:
My heart stamp!! Yaaaay– thank you super-much, Jenny!! This type of hand-sewn sweetness, along with the sneak peek into Cath Kidston’s new book (in Country Living this month), really really makes me want to learn how to sew. I mean, more than just sewing a button back on, or sewing up a spot under the sleeve of a sweater that ripped when I tried to take it off. You know. Good sewing.
This letter was really quite a nice surprise at the end of a rather tiring work day (someone off sick and the rest of us had to scramble to do both our job and hers). I do so love papery things… note paper, stickers, cards. Apologies for the lack of photos of every adorable thing, but WordPress was being cranky and kept taking forever to upload pictures, and giving me “IO errors” in angry red letters. (Which, let’s be honest, is a bit unfair, seeing as it’s me who should be talking in angry red letters when I am unable to upload photos). Rest assured that my paper-love is being satisfied.
I heart mail!
Phew; it’s been a little while since I’ve posted! (*blush*) I haven’t even truthfully been that busy or anything, so what the heck?
As you’ve probably noticed, it is October already (!!) … and I am actually enjoying the cooler weather for the most part. Usually I find fall a bit depressing, at least when it rains tons and the leaves all turn brownish. Just not really my thing. However– I love love love wearing rain boots, so… it kind of evens out. Mine are blue, with birds on them. But I sort of fell for these:
… as well as numerous ones I saw in the Cath Kidston catalogue (which miraculously got delivered to me, even though I don’t live in the UK! Woo!)
And then there’s jackets– I do love jackets. So I’ve also recently become obsessed with the idea of a yellow coat. Maybe it was this-
And I definitely spent some time examining one in the Sears Wish Catalogue last night. Not sure if it has something to do with the fact that I highlighted my hair, but I’m loving yellow for fall.
I’ve been regularly feeding my British magazine obsession, mostly with Country Living UK (where the above two photos were from), but also House Beautiful UK, and Coast.
We’re a bit behind on UK issues in Canada, but I managed to score the October House Beautiful the other day in the Coles in our teeny mall!
Also I’ve been working on a new crochet project– another (yes!) Ripple Blanket!
I realize I only just completed the previous ripple, but my hands were aching for the soothing repetition of rippling, and I found myself wanting a nice woolly fall project that I didn’t have to think too much about. This time I’m trying out Lucy’s Neat Ripple pattern, and I like how the ripples are a bit softer than in my last blanket. The grey yarns are from my stash; I was meaning to make a boy sweater with it, because of the amount I had, but I couldn’t face sweater knitting just now, and I decided to use the yarn up on something I’d enjoy. It’s subtle, but I do like it.
I have a new favourite tv show- well, it hasn’t taken the place of 30 Rock (which premieres tonight! Yaaaay!!), but it’s come close. It’s The Office (US version). But no spoilers please! I’m only on Season 4 (they’re currently airing Season 6), because I borrowed the dvds and am watching every episode in order so I don’t get spoiled by watching the new episodes. Hello? Awesome show. Just amazingly funny. I love it.
I have my heart set on a “The Office wall calendar” that we’ve seen at the mall bookstore. I saw the (unrelated) movie Office Space months ago, and it has a gift set you can buy that comes with an actual replica of the red Swingline stapler from the movie. I also want that, haha. Imagine using it at work.
Thank goodness for non-work weekends, because I was beginning to go a little nutty. Last Friday was the last of the half-Fridays at work, and we went to the beach!! It was the only time I’ve been this year, and I didn’t take a single picture as I forgot my camera at home. But it was perfect… the rock-hunting, the careful selection of oddly-shaped pieces of driftwood which we will try to put in the fish tank after cleaning them… the swimming (the water was awesome! So blue!)… the picnic (sandwiches, chips, lemonade)… and the lying in the sun with a book, and half dozing off. Loved it.
We brought home some neat rocks and driftwood-
I haven’t really had the chance to go through them yet, but just think of the vignettes that can be made!
Speaking of going through, I recently took the time to sort through my Jar of Random Buttons…
When I was a kid, we used to sort them by colour, size, use them as currency… etc. And I still enjoy doing that– although not many places would accept buttons as currency I imagine.
And in crochet news, I stumbled across Sarah London’s wonderful day-by-day mystery motif tutorial, and I made a doily! I found the tutorial after all six rounds had been published and I saw the end result before starting, but still, I had fun.
It is currently living in the bathroom, jazzing up the toothpaste holder:
Yay for brightening up random surfaces in the house. I love sneaking in teeny knit or crocheted things in every room and waiting to see when Himself notices. It’s lots of fun!
I also started knitting some socks, just simple ones from Interweave’s Favourite Socks book. They’re supposed to be a birthday gift for Himself, but I’m not sure they’ll be done by then, then being the end of this month. Haha, I’ve had the yarn since spring, I think, but sock-knitting feels so much more a fall activity.
Anyways, off to do some quick grocery shopping I think. Enjoy the weekend!
Fall boots! With fringe!
I am super happy for several reasons, the most important being:
- they FIT over my apparent larger-than-most-human-women-sized calves (seriously– I have the hardest time getting tall boots that I can zip all the way up)
- they cost $37 (original price: $74.99!!)
- they have fringe (have I mentioned?)
- they are super-cute
I freaking love them. And I love that when I tried taking a photo of them just now, Leela-cat jumped up to play with the dangling lens cap, resulting in this:
I’m ecstatic to say that we are even expecting at least a few days of boot-appropriate weather, so I don’t have to wait ages to wear them!!
Last week the Summer Garden Granny Blanket looked like this:
It was coming along nicely, well on its way to being 10 squares by 10… and then I ran out of white. It wasn’t a big deal, as I managed to get it to be 10 x 8 squares in size by that time. So I decided it was time for a border.
After already taking full advantage of both the Summer Garden Granny Squares and Joining Granny Squares As You Go tutorials from the lovely Attic 24, I figured why not go all the way (!) and try out the scalloped edging tutorial as well. I’m so glad I did!
In spite of running out of white yarn, I still had plenty of pink left, as well as some blue and green. So I first did some rounds of plain grannying around the entire blanket (and thank goodness I had joined the squares as I went, otherwise nightmare!) and then did three rounds in the apricot yellow before starting the scallops. The edging is so pretty! I love the finished effect it gives the blanket.
And… here it is in its fully complete state:
And on the couch:
It’s a teeny bit smaller than I expected (again with the overestimating yardage) and will work as more of a decorative throw than an actual blanket. But I pretty much call anything rectangular that is relatively large a ‘blanket’, so there.
Yay! Another completed project, with yarn to spare, even! (Tally: 2 balls yellow, 1 ball pink, .5 green, .5 brown, and maybe .25 blue left over. Any ideas for a small stashbuster?) PS- I used Patons Grace for the whole thing, remember?
I don’t currently have anything else major on the go, aside from a few things I started knitting ages ago and never really got into. I have promised Himself a pair of socks for his birthday, which is coming up in September, but the recent heat (yes, my cool un-summer has ended with a brutal heatwave) isn’t really prompting sock knitting. I have the yarn already, though, so maybe I will start sometime. It’s not like I have to wear the socks, right?
