Presents!

I love getting surprises in the mail! My friend Sarah is probably the best surprise sender ever!

She sent me this:



She just got back from an awesome trip - read about it here... and she went to a sea turtle center. I love turtles, as you may or may not know, and she got me these cute sea glass earrings!



And this one may need some explaining - but I squealed like a little girl when I opened the box!



Remember when you were like 12 and everyone had those Broken heart necklaces for Best Friends where half says "Be Fri" and the other half says "st end"? (Well maybe you have to be 30+ to remember this - but everyone had one! If you need a reminder - look here ) Anyway - we were making fun of those necklaces and I started calling Sarah my "Be Fri"... so she decided to make me a necklace out of it! In a much more fashion forward and updated form!!

How awesome is that!? Thanks Sarah - you're the bestest Be Fri ever!


I also got this amazing yarn from Coleen!



It's Tilli Thomas Flurries yarn. It was a birthday present from a yarn shop at Dewey Beach DE - I love it! I've always wanted to try this yarn - but never could justify the purchase. It's it great when someone just gives it to you!?

Thanks ladies!!

Playing Catchup

I haven't blogged in a while and man do I have a lot to share! This will be my catch-up post.

Two weekends ago I had a bunch of friends over to make Lilly Ollo jewelry. There is a paint your own pottery place near my house - The Pottery Stop - that also does Lilly Ollo silver jewelry. I was interested in trying it - so I called the shop and found out that I could have a party at my house if I got 6 or more people to attend! Yay! So I did.

We had a blast!



We were able to pick out a design, press our silver clay into the mold, fire it in the kiln, then burnish it and pick out a necklace.



Here are my two creations... I finished the tree with a black coating and left the bird plain silver. I love how they came out! I definitely want to try that again.



Moving on to this past weekend - some of my knitting friends and I have a yearly Handmade Holiday Swap where we each get assigned a person to make a present for and then swap at a tea party.

We all loved our presents! I can't wait to show you the amazing tatted ornaments I got from Jen - I just need to take a picture! I was speechless!



Sarah was down for the weekend too and I gave her her Christmas gift a bit early since she was here in person. I made her an apron!



I know Sarah loves to cook and thought she would enjoy an apron to use in the kitchen. She told me today she plans to wear it to spinning to help keep the fiber off of her clothes! What an awesome idea!



Miss you already Sarah!!

Phew - all caught up.... almost.

Stay tuned...tomorrow - a new free pattern!

Yarn, jewelry and more!

I am sending out the prize package today for Knitty Mama. I hope she likes it :)

Here are all the goodies she will be receiveing for winning my Got Labels? contest:


My hand dyed "Dreamsicle" yarn, hand made stitch markers to match, a little purse to keep the stitch markers in (made by me), two funny farm animal erasers....



and some earrings to match - to wear with whatever you end up using the yarn for. Yes I made these too.

I had a crafty day yesterday - full of jewelry-making and sewing! Fun! I love making earrings - I tend to give most of them away to friends as gifts and usually make up a huge batch in one sitting. I think I made about 15 pairs of earrings and 5 sets of stitch markers yesterday. Jolene - I made some for your fund raiser too!

In knitting news - I have started the shoulder decreases in my Central Park Hoodie yesterday! I love this yarn soooo much! Did I already mention that like 50 times already! But really - I do. I got to knit on it a little bit today over my lunch break - a rare occurrence indeed!


Some other knitty gals and I went out for a fiber lunch. My co-worker - Giants Knitter and I met up with several knitters who work near us - Sheila, Kathy, Kathleen and their friend Theresa (?) - (I'm bad with names - sorry if this is wrong!!!) She is a crocheter - but we let her hang out with us anyway. They are all bloggless too - the shame!

Anyway - this makes my third visit to the new yarn shop in Hyattsville - the Tangeled Skein. I didn't buy a thing this time - but instead sat on one of their comfy couches and knit on my CPH. I have the store memorized at this point and gave directions from my perch. You want cotton yarn? - it's over there. Bamboo? - around the corner. Everyone was suitably impressed :)
I actually remembered my camera this time too - will wonders never cease!

This was my view from the couch:





We had a great time at Franklins too - Gotta love those onion rings!