Before I left home, the most gorgeous yarn appeared in my mailbox thanks to the lovely Aprill.

I think I am in love.  Well, as much as you can be in love with yarn.  I couldn't stop looking at it or touching it.  So so so pretty.  I thought about bringing it to Colorado with me, but I was too afraid it would get lost or some other horrible thing would happen.  So it is sitting at home, on the family room shelf waiting for me to return.

I know what I am going to knit with it.  The colors match this bolt of fabric perfectly.  I am just hoping that my hands can construct what my brain has designed.

Thank you Aprill!  I can't wait to get it on the needles.

The 9 hour journey to Telluride did not take 9 hours.

Flights: 3
Take-offs and landings: 4
Planes: 5
Airports: 4
Hours spent at O'Hare: 13
Food vouchers redeemed:  9
Hotels visited: 1 (Denver)
Hours awake: 22
Hours asleep: 6
Drinks spilled: 6 (4 for Kate, 2 for Jane)
Crying episodes: 3 (1 for each of us)
Books read: 2
Granny squares crocheted: 1
DVDs watched: 1
Resilient kids: 2
Tired mom: 1

It took 31 hours to get here, but seeing my parents and the view made it all OK.

We are on summer vacation for the next two weeks.  The kiddos are at day camp and I have lots of free time.  I brought the crochet and some embroidery and I have some other projects to share, too.  I plan on some site construction to revamp the blog and I am sure I will take lots of photos while I am here.  But right now, I am going to take a nap.  See you when I wake.

A tulip t-shirt for our 7 year-old neighbor

And a turtle for our 6 year-old nephew and cousin, Evan.  Hope you had a great birthday!  Thanks to Beki for the inspiration on this little guy.

Have a great weekend!

In the interest of full disclosure:  I swiped this idea from Leslie.

We never seem to have enough clean place mats so I bought a bunch of Martha Stewart dish towels and cut them in half vertically (fold top to bottom, press and cut on pressing line).  A quick hem to the cut side and for $9.99, I had 14 place mats instead of 7 dishtowels.  Well, make that 28 place mats - I made two sets.  Less laundry for me.

Yes, my laptop sits on the kitchen table for now.  I have grand plans to make myself a little desk out of an old door up by our bedroom, but for now, this is command central most of the time.  The kitchen is the hub of the house anyhow.  Of course, I do move it when we sit down to eat.

Another great use for these dishtowels:  skirts like the ones I made the girls last year.  Throw on some embroidery or applique and they would be super sweet.  If you make them, just be sure that both ends of your towel have trim instead of just one.  Of course, you could always use one without trim and add some yourself.

Happy Thursday!

I don't want you to think that I have abandoned my sewing machine.  I swear I haven't!  I am working on a couple projects that I am not ready to blog about.  I hate secrets, but that's the way it has to be for now.

What I can and want to talk about is Amy Karol's fabulous new book, Bend-the-Rules Sewing.

First off, I love the title!  Love it!  Mostly because I do bend the rules when it comes to sewing.  I fully admit to being a lazy sewer at times.  I am glad I know the right way to sew because it comes in handy when I want to take some short cuts.  I know what I can get away with.  Case in point:  the Heidi Headband.

I made this a couple of weeks ago in about 15 minutes.  I kid you not.  I used a scrap of brown silk and some gorgeous ribbon that Nolan and Georgia gave me for Christmas.  In the book, Amy calls for twill tape so you can tie the headband at the nape of your neck.  I substituted elastic and when the piece I sewed in was way too big, I cut it and then zig zagged it together at the right length.  I also used whatever bobbin was in the machine because no one but me will see the back side of the headband.  See, I do know what I can get away with.

Fuzzy photo, but you get the idea.  I have worn it over and over.  I am going to make a lot more of these for me and for the girls.

There are so many wonderful projects in this book.  I want to make the bibs for the babies that will be born into our family this fall, the clutch, the wallet, the small quilt and more.  Check out the flickr group for the book - there is plenty of inspiration there, too.  I am going to recommend this book to anyone who asks - it is perfect for a beginner, but has great projects for those of us with more sewing experience.  And I just love Amy's easy, witty manner - it makes for a good read.

Here is something I love:

Kate is at it again.  She asked me if she could embroider something to make a pillow.  Of course!  She drew this frog and I traced the back side of the drawing with a transfer pencil and then ironed it onto this cotton.  She worked on it for about 30 minutes a couple of days ago and then put it down.  This is why it takes her six months.

Not to be left out, Jane is working on a swan from the Sublime Stitching book.  She really wasn't interested in stitching one of her own drawings.  She is a wonderful little artist, but she likes lots of details and that doesn't always come across well with embroidery floss.

Something else I love:  the Creative Summer flickr group started by Molly.  Wow!  There are lots of great ideas over there and I plan posting as much as I can.  I am especially enamored with Mama Urchin's lily pad toss game.  Such a wonderful idea.

What creative things are you doing with your kids this summer?

And I have it bad.

I have wanted to learn to crochet for a very long time.  Well, maybe re-learn as I am pretty sure that I crocheted some (simple chains) as a kid.  I don't know why, but the hook just intimidated me.  On a whim, I went to my local yarn store last Tuesday and bought this book recommended by Kristin.  It has nice projects in it and very good basic directions with lots of pictures.  Just my speed.  With some leftover bits of yarn and a F hook, I crocheted some small swatches.  By Tuesday night, I was two granny squares into my newest obsession.

I went back to yarn store on Thursday and settled on seven colors to make a granny square throw.  I bought all that I could there and then drove around town looking for the missing skeins.  And it was certainly meant to be because I found them all and some were even the right dye lots.

I am using Cashmerino Aran by Debbie Bliss.  I have said before, but here I go again:  I am in love with this yarn.  Soft, soft, soft and with some really wonderful colors:  lime green, another green, denim blue, gray, red, pink and chocolate brown.  I had bits of all of these colors (except the brown) left over from the 2006 hat knitting spree.

I am hooked.  14 down, 63 more to go.

And I think I need more yarn.

Project::Sock Elephant

I made this little elephant for a birthday present.  The happy 6 year old promptly named her Ellie.  I used the pattern in this book.  Blair was the one who turned me on to it, but I was skeptical.  My only other sock animal experience was not good.  Then I saw Blair's dog and decided to give it another go.  The elephant is not perfect (my mistakes), but the pattern was well written and the book is full of cute little critters.

Color week::Blue

The sky at dusk and

me wearing a light blue shirt.  I am also wearing these beautiful earrings from Susan - you just can't see them in the shot.

In other news, I taught myself a new craft and am aching to tell you all about it.  I'll save that for another day.  Let's just say, I'm hooked.  Happy Friday!