Today's Ten on Tuesday topic is 10 Collections I’ve Had Over the Years.
At first I thought..hmmm, so I have any collections? 

Ken is home today for the holiday and yah, he pretty much laughed and said, "Are you kidding me?"  You are the queen of collecting.
  Hmmpf!  I'm not that bad and I have done a lot of down sizing, but these are some of the things he quickly came up with and I have a few from my past as well.

1.  These sweet little bunny pottery designs from Price Kensington Potteries.  Incredibly hard to find now and when I do they are always in the UK where shipping is so crazy expensive.

2.  Torquay Mottoware, another British pottery that I started collecting years ago.  I love the little sayings.  I don't have a lot and what I do have it packed away right now until we finish working on the house.  I don't want it to get broken.

3.  Sewing machines.  Yes, I have more than a two and each one does it's own job perfectly. 🙂

4.  Ariat Fatbaby Boots….love them!

5.  Beautiful wood and that can be in the form of a spinning wheel, bread rolling pin, the sweet salt and pepper bowls that live by my stove, etc.  When I use something made with a beautiful birdseye or flame maple, figured walnut, deep cherry, it makes my heart smile.

6.  Primitive Rabbits, this Woolen Rabbit loves them!  I will share one with you on Friday.

7.  Dolls…you've seen them last week.  Yes, more than two of them here as well, but not too many. 😉

8.  …and these from my childhood.  My beloved collection of ALL of Nancy Drew Mystery Books.

9.  Archie comic books.  I ran to the corner store each week in anticipation of a new one.

10.  Little Wishnik Trolls, especially if they had double horseshoes.

….I am trying though not to collect anything else, and actually, I have let go of a lot of it over the last 2 years in the hopes of moving some day in the not too distant future.  While I love collections, if I have too much of anything it makes me anxious.  So in this case, less is more, if something comes in, something else has to leave. 🙂

Whoops, I totally missed blogging yesterday!  I really didn't do much but read online and rest my back, so I have no excuse other than a brain cramp.  Oh well.

So, you saw my Saturday picture of what Ken was doing all weekend and Saturday, this is what I got to do.  A visit to see my little sweetie pie and enjoy a girls day lunch at Stacey's house with Hannah.

Hannah had not been to Stacey's new place yet and was anxious to see the little nugget, so it was a fun way to spend the afternoon.  I just love babies at this age.  Full of wonder and curiosity.
I love that he had on the sweater I made him for his baby shower.  It's getting a wee bit small for him and sadly he is showing signs of wool allergy, so I guess I will be knitting sweaters for him in something other than wool.  The sweater pattern is Sunnyside, designed by Tanis Lavallee and the yarn is my Opal yarn.

He is now up on his feet and walking like a pro.  It took him some time to get walking with the help of a physical therapist that came to their house every week.  Some kids are just slower at wanting to walk.  I know I was one of them….15 mos before I took steps and Ashley was 17 months, so we weren't really worried. 

This little guy is such a ham and loves to see himself on the phone camera…ha!
Hannah doesn't get to see Asher very often, so it was a special treat for her.

Speaking of special treats…I don't get to see my youngest grandson, Finley, nearly as much as I would like to as they live just that much further away, but we all are heading down in 2 weeks to visit his cute little face to celebrate his birthday.  I can hardly believe that it's been almost a whole year since he introduced himself to us!

How was your weekend?

….we knew it would be bad, this old house is almost 200 years old….
but the good news is, it's getting fixed! 
It will be bigger, better and I will finally be able to soak in a tub again..whoo hoo!!
Onwards and upwards!

My field of gold…….
I am so fortunate to have this lovely view during the changing seasons.

Have a wonderful Friday!

If you are a knitter and are not using this fantabulous app, called Knit Companion, you are truly missing out, especially if you have a tendency to misplace your paper patterns.  I am the queen of losing my paper patterns and with that paper pattern are all of the notes I have written on it, like any changes I made, which row I might have been on etc.

When you use knit companion there is NO.MORE.PAPER!  Yes, you heard me right, no more paper patterns.  You just import your pattern into the app, set up your key and your charts and it will keep track of where you are on the chart and the numerous row counters that let you know what row you left off on.  You can also place little sticky notes where you may have made a change just like those hand written notes you write on your paper patterns.

When you are working on a few different patterns, this makes staying organized so much easier.  Everything is in one neat little spot and you just open the project that you want to work on.  This has eliminated the piles of paper that were always on the table next to the sofa.  I LOVE it!  Truly, you will not regret spending 15.00 on this program.

In addition to the program, this little clip on stand, called Felix, is a nice thing to have as well.  Last winter when Dale and Carole stayed with us, she was using one of these and I could see how much easier it made following a pattern when you don't have to constantly shift your tablet. Of course I bought one right away and I use it all the time, not only for knitting, but also when I am cooking and using a recipe from the internet.  Truly a nifty little addition.

Well, that's it for tonight folks.  This time change always kicks my butt, I almost missed getting this post done before the day was finished.  I am usually a night owl, but this week it's been a challenge to stay awake much past 11pm.
Have a good evening!!

One of the things that I have really practiced this year is monogamy in my knitting.  I have found that if I only have one project on my knitting needles at a time and it gets all of my attention, I am more apt to get it finished and so far it really has been working.

So why then do you see 3 project bags?  Well, it's not that I fell off that monogamous wagon, but rather they were projects that needed to be worked on.  Up at the top is my Morning Coffee sweater (focus project).  Both sleeves are knit, so I took a little time to finish my Cactus Flower shawl before I set about starting the back, which I will start this weekend, after I block that shawl.

The blue socks made with my favorite Hayrick pattern was cast on for Fryeburg Fair to demonstrate lace knitting.  I know this pattern well enough that I "thought" I could knit and talk at the same time, but that really was a challenge that did not go well….a lot of ripping back happened each night when I got home, but they are great for car knitting and I really need a new pair of blue socks, so it's all good.

The third item is the Featherdown mitt pattern from my yarn club.  I'm not always good about getting yarn club projects knit mostly because my brain is pretty tired from it by the time it gets mailed out.  I really love these however and I know my daughters will probably want a pair in different colors too.  It's going to be a fast and easy knit that will not really take much time away from my sweater, so there you have it. 🙂

The pink ipad underneath the bags is for another post….tomorrow.

Happy knitting!!

So, today's Ten on Tuesday topic is Ten Favorite Books in Series.

Hmm….I am not a serial book reader at all.  I never jump on the band wagon of the latest trend in reading.  Nope, no Harry Potter here or Hunger Games.  I don't know why I have avoided them, but I have.  Maybe it's that attention span thing that I deal with all the time, but once I am finished with a book, I am ready to move on.  Having said that, what I do tend to do is read a lot of books by the same author, though not in a series.  Jodi Picoult is one of my favorites and I have read almost all of her books.  If I read a book that I just love, I will look to see what other books the author has written and will usually read them too.

However……when I was a child, I did love some serial books.  I think I owned and read every single Nancy Drew book along with the Bobbsey Twins.  Oh Pippi Longstocking, she was forever my awkward child hero, so much so that Hannah was almost named Annika instead of Hannah.

I've told you many times before that you could always find me with my nose in a book and the other thing you could find me with were my dolls, which was so contrary to my tom boy awkward ways.  I loved them and as my girls were growing up, I could never understand why they didn't love them too…but they truly did not.  Well maybe Stacey did, but the others just groaned when they got a doll.

So finally I just decided if there was to be any doll buying at all, it would be for me…ha!
When I discovered the world of Blythe dolls a few years ago it made me rediscover that love of dolls. Being able to combine these dolls with my love of color and art, I was hooked.  Having the ability to transfer a doll that is a bit creepy and shiny into a work of art in a different way is a nice challenge.  You would truly be amazed at the talent that is out there.
I did not make either of these dolls, but purchased them a few years ago as art inspirations in the hopes of learning how to carve a dolls face.  I am not completely there yet, but I'm getting there.

…and oh hey… these girls, really love to wear bunny knits as well!
(repurposed angora designed by the very talented Abi Monroe)

So there you have it….when I have to post daily, I am going to have to dig down deep…ha! 

After a week of rainy weather last week, it felt good to be back outside doing something positive and relatively pain free again.

The road that I usually walk on was going through major reconstruction including the sidewalks over the last month which made walking around everything a bit more challenging. Unfortunately it really kicked my never ending shin splints up a few notches.  After a week of resting them however and with the sun shining, it was time to get back out there with some tunes and enjoy the day.  It felt good!

Yes, it was definitely cold enough to wear those fluffy woolen rabbit mittens….brrr!  There's a winter chill in the air for sure, but it feels good when you are walking.
~
(full disclosure…I did not knit these mittens, I bought them from a fellow bunny knitter)
 

Sooo…..I am going to do something that I never ever would have done in the past, mostly because I knew I would fail, but I am in a different mindset right now, so I am going to join along with some of my friends in the NaBloPoMo challenge.  Basically what that means is that I will put up a post every day in the month of November.  I think it will be a good mind stretch for me and it will force me to get my camera out a lot more.

Speaking of pictures, I am a bit excited about this picture that I took last weekend when the sun finally came out.  It was for the Start2Finish class I have told you about previously.  The challenge was to use a piece of brown paper, chocolate and a kitchen utensil.

I liked the way it came out enough to submit it to Kim Klassen for a possible critique.  Kim chooses a few pictures to critique online in our class module and I was so excited when she chose this one for the most recent critique pictures.  Her comments were very favorable and very helpful.  I am so happy that I have managed to stay focused enough to keep up with the weekly sessions.  I have learned a ton about taking better pictures and post processing and hope to move forward with another class, when this one ends in a few short weeks.

No new pictures today though, it is gloomy, rainy with a chance of snow in the air for tonight….let's hope they're wrong about the last part!

Thank you Carole for the tiny push I needed to do this.  I am looking forward to joining along with you girls!