Yikes…a whole week went by and not a visit from me here.  It was a crazy week!  We have all been working a ton to get ready for the upcoming school season.  Hannah will head off as a freshman to Plymouth State University and Courtney will be starting her senior year at the University of NH.  Both girls have really put a full effort into working as much as they can to offset the expense of college and Ken and I have worked right alongside of them to help as much as we can, so last week was just a blur.  Thankfully a week on the Cape in a few weeks is the carrot dangling in front of our noses. 🙂

In between working, I tucked in a little trip to Patternworks and picked up a bunch of Rowan 4 ply cotton that is being discontinued.  The price was very fair, so a bunch of little balls hopped into my bag……..

…..you know what they say about rabbits.  These are very addicting!

I have never been a patient person, one who carefully sits down and reads directions, but rather one who learns visually and carelessly plows thru things hoping for the best.  Book learning has always been a challenge for this ADD brain, so when I started this pattern and noticed on Ravelry that a few people said to read the tips carefully, I tucked that tidbit away in my brain and promptly ignored it.

I will back up a little bit.  I have been following Julie's blog, Little Cotton Rabbits for many years.  Julie knits the sweetest little bunnies and if you are lucky enough to win a random drawing to purchase one, you are rewarded with a very sweet little bunny, and what Woolen Rabbit wouldn't want a sweet little bunny, right?  I was fortunate enough to purchase Blanchine, the brown and white bunny above and I just love her!

A number of months ago, Julie released the pattern for 2 rabbits and some dresses and I was so excited that I bought all of the patterns right away.  It's taken me months to get to it as I have been happily knitting away on some stockinette sweaters, but I needed a change of pace in my knitting with a little challenge for a spell so I picked up this pattern, all 14 pages, and started on a little companion bunny for Blanchine.

Well …..back to the directions part.  If you look at my bunny, you can see that her bottom half seems to be bigger than Julie's and that would be because I used the wrong needle size.  Sewing the joints onto the body….so much trickier than it would seem to be.  Stuffing the body to just the right firmness, again, not as easy as you would think and of course in re-reading the directions I found little tips that I should have followed to make it easier…aggh. 

Well, while I might not be good about reading directions carefully, I am a very determined person when it comes to doing something right, so I will finish this little blue bunny and then I will start another one reading the directions carefully and hopefully it will be half as nice as Julie's.
(The bunnies are in a baby bunny bucket)

There is a ton of work involved in making these little bunnies.  I am amazed that Julie has made so many of them and each one lovlier than the next, God bless her!

With that I am off.  Have a wonderful weekend in your corner of the world!

This week's Ten on Tuesday is Ten Favorite Summertime Treats.  I didn't get a chance to post yesterday about our weekend, which was another trip to the ocean, except this time we went with Hannah, Shawn, Ashley and Brian which made it extra fun. Hannah snapped off this picture of the gulls in the marsh…love it!
 Top of my list of summer time treats is:

1.  Going to the ocean.  By far my most favorite summertime treat!

2.  Seeing seagulls at the ocean….love those little scavengers with their steely blue eyes.

3. Lobster.  I don't eat it often, but every now and then it is a wonderful treat.

4. Knitting on Summer evenings with a glass of wine.  I think I actually knit more in the summer than any other time.

5.  Lemon Drop Martini's.  (used to be a summer treat, now its a regular Friday nite treat…LOL)

6.  Ice Cream.  No doubt about it….ice-cream is and always has been my biggest weakness.  Y.U.M!

7. Caprese Salad made with yellow and orange tomatoes.  I don't love red tomatoes, but I really enjoy these heirloom type tomatoes that you can only find here in the summer along with fresh mozzarella and garden basil.

8.  Watching the fireflies on a warm night.

9. Corn, bean, tomato salad with feta…..mmm….thanks Carole, it's definitely a big summer time favorite here!

10.  Summer winds.  I really love a warm windy early afternoon.  Gentle summer breezes.

How about you, what is your favorite summer treat?

 

It's been hot, hot, hot here this week, so I tried to keep the dye-pots fired up only a few long days and worked up in the air conditioned studio making some new bags for the shop the rest of the week.

Bags that are big enough for a sweater project and easy enough to tote along.  Through lots of trial and error, I came up with this simple little tote bucket.  The bucket is lined with a layer of cotton batting and a layer of stabilizer to hold it open and has a pocket for smaller tools or a phone. I like it. 🙂

Tomorrow promises to be another scorcher, but Sunday is going to bring us some much needed relief with drier air and cooler temps.  It's going to be another beach day for us..yay!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend in your corner of the world!!

Soap!

Yesterday was a tough day for us.  We lost a little companion and it was very hard to be motivated to do much of anything.
(I don't want to make this a sad post, so I will leave it at that.) 

I spent most of the morning just sitting and being sad, but then I knew I had to get moving and do something to feel better.  It was just too hot yesterday to fire up the dye-pots that late in the day, but I did have an order for some soap that I had run out of, so an afternoon of soaping sounded pretty good.

I keep most of my soaping supplies in a primitive type cupboard in our kitchen and as soon as I opened it all of those wonderful scents just made me smile.  I knew I had made the right decision to cook soap.

The blend that you see above is called Moroccan Spice which is a wonderful unisex scent and one of my best sellers. As I made my downstairs this morning the scent of the freshly curing soap made my morning a little brighter.

Sometimes you just have to look for the reasons to smile in a day..even a sad day. The are usually there if you look hard enough. 😉

Have a wonderful day!

This week's Ten on Tuesday topic is 10 Ways to Beat the Heat.

It's no secret that I am NOT a fan of hot, humid weather….well actually the hot part doesn't bother me, it's the humid part that makes me cringe when I see the week long weather report forecast for this week.  There's nothing we can do about it though other than to make the best of it right?  Here are a few of the things that I do to stay cool.

1.  Go to the ocean.  Not only is the water refreshing, but there is usually a sea breeze that keeps it a little bit cooler.

2.  Put up the pool.  The last 2 years we have not done this, but after this summer, no matter how much Ken grumbles, that pool is going up!

3. Early evening reading under the shady trees….before the mosquitos make their appearance.

4.  Office work in the a/c.  I get more office work done in the summer for just this reason..LOL

5. Summer sock knitting.  Courtney's been wanting a pair of socks, so this will become my beach knitting

6.  Early morning walks, before the humidity is high enough to melt a soul

7.  Move to Iceland…(it's looking more and more attractive…grin)

8.  Go for a car ride.  Ken and I do this on the weekends now and then and usually end with an ice-cream/frozen yogurt

9.  A cold shower aways makes me feel better

10..and my favorite, a Lemon Drop martini when the late afternoon heat subsides a bit and the geese are quietly honking in the pond across the road.  Very peaceful and enjoyable….here's the recipe:

Lemon Drop Martini

3 ounces citron vodka
1 ounce triple sec
1/2 fresh squeezed lemon juice
Place all ingredients in a shaker with enough ice to make it good and cold…and shake, shake, shake
…use the lemon after it's been squeezed to coat the rim, then dip in sugar. 
…and enjoy!!! (I guess I should clarify…this will serve 2)

What do you do to keep cool…I am always looking for new ideas because I am not tropical. 🙂

It's looking like this summer is going to be a very hot and humid one, which is not unusual for New England, but the continued humidity up in the Mount Washington Valley is very unusual until just the last few years, and this year it has been relentless. (anyone who still does not believe in global warming is in denial, just sayin')

Yesterday Ken and I took a trek down to Pine Point Beach in Scarborough Maine for some relief and some sun.  It's a beach that I have never been to, but my daughters have and they raved about it.  It's only a short hour and 15 minutes away which was even more attractive.  Parking is ten dollars and well worth it as they have clean bathrooms and a little snack shack.

After spending a week on the Cape last year, Ken and I decided that once the girls were finished with college, we were going to move a lot closer to the ocean…hopefully in Mashpee.  I figure if the humidity is going to be a common occurrence up here in the Mountains, then we may as well go closer to the ocean that I love, where a sea breeze frequently keeps it a bit cooler.

Of course visiting a beach would not be complete without a picture of my favorite birds.  Funny little scavengers..LOL.  We are going to make a weekly trip to the beach this summer.  Ken has become more tolerant of visiting the beach now that I bought an umbrella to give him some shade to read and do crossword puzzles.  Who knew something so small could get him to go…I should have bought one years ago!

How was your weekend?

Rain dripping from eaves
Sounds nature's poetry.
We speak and write to
Explain to ourselves.
Deng Ming~Dao

It certainly has been rainy here as of late.  Pitter patter, misty weather with frequent downpours in between the wet mists.  I don't mind the occasional rainy day because it does give me some quiet time to do some of the things that I love, but we have had so much rain that everything is starting to feel moldy, even if it really isn't.

Now that my back is feeling oh so much better I have finally been able to sit behind this lovely spinning wheel again.  It's been such a long time …. I fell in love with spinning all over again!  I'm only spinning for short periods, but I enjoy each one of those minutes.  I know what I will be doing this weekend…how about you?

One of the downsides of not getting much exercise this past winter was a little bit of a weight gain, bummer.  Not much mind you, but I am trying to tackle it before it gets away from me and in doing so, I have been searching the internet for good recipes to help keep me on track.

Now, my picture above is not the best, but I cant rave enough about how good it is!  This breakfast pizza is a crustless egg pizza.  Similar to a frittata, but not quite.  I got the recipe from Kalyns Kitchen.  My picture is not quite as appetizing as hers because I broiled it a tetch too long, but still it was amazingly good.  Who knew turkey pepperoni could taste so good?

If you are looking for a very filling and satisfying breakfast that only takes a few minutes to toss together, this one fits the bil.  Yum!

….or should I say, someone new is soon to arrive!

Little Finnley Allen Spalding is due to make his arrival early this coming December.

Last April I had an early morning dream.  In my dream, my son Miles, his wife Jen and her son Jax were all in it and they were all so happy.  No particular reason, just all so happy.  Now, it was strange to have all 3 of them in my dream, but even stranger that I would remember this dream.  When I poured my coffee at breakfast, I looked at Ken and said, "I think Jen is pregnant." Ken just laughed at me.

 Later in the day however I texted Miles, asking him about my hunch.  He called me later that day with a little chit chat and then said.  "Mom, you know that question you asked?"  HOW THE HECK DID YOU KNOW?????

LOL…they don't call it mother's intuition for nothing. 😉

We are all excited for the arrival of another little boy into our family!!