I have thoroughly enjoyed Lori’s African Journals - so much so I had to start one of my own. Just day-to-day journals… and I thought I would occasionally scan them in for you all to read.

Anyways… I had a fabulous Mother’s Day this past Sunday. Did you?

Have you seen the newest Country Living?

I was absolutely thrilled when my copy came into my mail box. Finally an issue I could truly relate to.

I love the Country Living magazine and look forward to it every month, don’t get me wrong. But sometimes I get rather disappointed because the home owners have just gone to “such and such” upscale antique shop and purchased “thus and so” and put it into their home.

This issue contained home owners I could relate to and ge me ideas I could do ASAP rather than wait for my bank account to grow bigger.

It was the Knox home in North Carolina that made me really squeal with delight. Emily did some of the things that I have wanted to do but didn’t have the guts to do…. namely rip up old dirty carpet and paint the plywood floor beneath. Yes! She did it and it looks great. After pouring money into our upstairs two years ago for mold remediation and hardwood floors it will be quite a while before we put anymore hardwood in. But with allergies it is hard to be on the floor with John…. so I have received the green light from my husband to rip out the carpet in the play room and paint the plywood!

Thank you Emily Knox!

The next thing that Emily did that I must do is recover her couch and chairs in painter’s drop cloths from the hardware store rather than pay expensive prices for linen material. Loved the idea! I’m a terrible seamstress… but I really want to do this.  And… I actually have a very simuliar couch and chairs I snagged off of Craig’slist for $50.

So.. my hat is off to Country Living for a spectacular issue and to Emily & Michael Knox for showing us how to have a truly handmade home!

]]> http://classiccableknits.com/blog/2012/05/handmade-home/feed/ 0 http://classiccableknits.com/blog/2012/04/shoes/ http://classiccableknits.com/blog/2012/04/shoes/#comments Sat, 28 Apr 2012 16:53:01 +0000 Christina http://classiccableknits.com/blog/?p=2732

I laugh when I look at my feet these days.

I always tend to think that shoes tell a lot about a person. Who they are, what they like, what kind of pain level they can tolerate, what their job is, who they wish they were.

Right now, in my stage of life I’m a Granola person.
I’m the mom of a two year old who likes to be outside.
I’m the mom of a boy thus I’m on my feet running around a lot.
I’m a mom so keeping comfortable while working long hours is key.

What kind of shoe are you right now?

]]> http://classiccableknits.com/blog/2012/04/shoes/feed/ 4 http://classiccableknits.com/blog/2012/04/back-to-work/ http://classiccableknits.com/blog/2012/04/back-to-work/#comments Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:25:08 +0000 Christina http://classiccableknits.com/blog/?p=2726

Hello friends! After such a lovely weekend it was back to work for me… fun doesn’t last forever!

Wednesday I headed over to Wiley Publishing to shoot knitting videos to complement their “Knitting for Dummies” ebook.

I was in for a surprise when I arrived. Not only was I to do the hand work but I was supposed to do the voice narration! AHHHHHH… I know that if I had known that before I arrived I would have said, “No way.”

Somehow I managed. I’m sure you’ll laugh when you see them. Next time I’m going to go with with cue cards… =)

Thankfully, Eric and Melanie were extremely patient with me and all my blunders. The raw footage would be hilarious!

I have put my poor little garden on hold until I finished theses videos so I didn’t mess up my hands too badly. Now that they are done (for right now) I’m off to spend some time in the dirt!

See you all soon!

Christina

While Little John spent the night at his grandparent’s house, JK and I headed into a relaxing weekend.

Friday night we drove in the rain down to The Fiber Event in Greencastle. It was fun to reminisce about the first time I had gone to this event 9 years ago and how JK had teased me to death about going. This time he was driving me… =) 9 years go we were just getting to know each other. Just goes to show you what you will do for the one you love! Thanks, dear!

I browsed and browsed and reminisced about how big it used to be. I can’t believe how small it has become. Oh, what a pity. I think I’m going to be checking out some other fiber fairs from now on.

I always like to go to these events with a bit of a goal in mind. Otherwise I’m overwhelmed. But if I have something to hunt for it makes it fun. I found what I was looking for when I first walked in… made me laugh at myself!

What was I on a hunt for? A knitting dolly – do you remember those? I remember using one when I was a little girl in Africa. After reading Lori’s lovely post on them I thought that knitting dollies would be a fun thing to hunt for at fiber fairs.

And despite my promise to myself not to walk out with any fiber… I did buy a half a pound of fiber from Hidden Valley Farms

Which I promptly put to use the next morning.

I had been promising myself some spinning time for months and months. This was the one birthday thing I really wanted to do… have a morning to spin and spin.

JK poured me a glass of champagne (nothing like champagne in the morning) and went to town. It was bliss….

and managed to finish one big skein from fiber I purchased last year! =)

Today I’m off to be the knitting model for “Knitting for Dummies.” Yep… you can laugh.  You can see the ones I did 3 years ago here. We’ll see how it goes… it’s usually a lot of work… big sigh… back to work…

For my birthday dinner we ate outside. It was so lovely and we were headed into such dreadful weather over the weekend I couldn’t have us eat inside.

As you can see… John hates eating or coming to the table… ugh… such is life.

I set the table with some of the beautiful things I received.

An April Cornell tablecloth – isn’t it lovely!

Pink roses from my new rose bush for my garden

And blue & white dishes (my grandma’s pattern) to add to my little collection

And of course we had simple food – food that was my favorite… namely sausages on the grill from Goose the Market! Yum, yum.

It was simple but spectacular and made me sooooo happy!

It’s that time of year again – my birthday. Another excuse to gather friends and family and have a party.

My garden decided to give me a gift the morning of my birthday. I was so excited to find the first rose of the season had bloomed! Isn’t that fun?

I asked John if he wanted to smell the rose. “Sure.” He said and promptly began to blow on it. Didn’t know you could smell flowers by blowing on them. Made me laugh so hard. I think he got a little confused after hearing me say it was my “birthday rose.”

Then it was off to the gardens for a birthday lunch. Last year it was raining so hard we had to have the lunch at Heather’s house.

Heather made some scrumptious Coronation Chicken Salad (Yes, we’re getting ready for the Jubilee celebration in June). I can’t find the recipe she used, but let me tell you, it was spectacular.

And the cake! Did you see the cake? It was a Champagne cake with lemon curd, whipped cream, pineapple flowers and blackberries. Several people had seconds it was that good!

The little people were entertained with another Easter egg hunt and then begged us to play with them.

I love these photos of John and Laura interacting – or not. They treat one another as siblings. In other words… they fight a bit. It’s sooooo funny!

John really enjoyed having his very own Auntie A there.

What a fun memory!

]]> http://classiccableknits.com/blog/2012/04/birthday/feed/ 0 http://classiccableknits.com/blog/2012/04/pretending/ http://classiccableknits.com/blog/2012/04/pretending/#comments Fri, 13 Apr 2012 10:51:04 +0000 Christina http://classiccableknits.com/blog/?p=2683

Pretending

One of the things about childhood that I adored was pretending. I have found that John loves it just as much as I did.

It is quite a joy to give him something and see what he pretends or imagines with it.

A few afternoons ago we pretended we were on an expedition (expotition) with Winnie-the-Pooh. The grand day out ended with a Popsicle in a tepee and Kanga (i.e. me) reading Roo (i.e. Lil J) stories.

Yep, there are days where we don’t get much done. But these are the days for play, these are the days for imaginations. All too soon he will be away in school…

For some reason I can never manage to host an event, take pictures and blog about it. Perhaps that skill of juggling everything will come to me one day. For now I’m just grateful for a sister who takes wonderful pictures and wrote a beautiful blog piece on the Easter dinner party I just hosted.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend full of rejoicing and family.

I’m savoring the memories of the wonderful day.

I’m also savoring the fact that I go all the napkin rings made. Hooray!

The family Easter dinner will be celebrated at my house this year. It’s always something fun to plan. Really it’s the first dinner party of the summer season.

This year I decided to have some “crafty” decorations. Well, to be honest, I am still finding inspiration from the original flower I made for the Mom’s Beads pattern. 

This time I decided to use the basic flower to decorate napkin rings. They are so easy to make. I’ve been making them while I watch Lil John play outside. 

Here’s the pattern:

You will need
US #7 needles – you can use straight, 2 dpns, circ – whatever you desire
US #1 needles – again you can use whatever you deisre, straight, circ, dpns
Worsted weight green cotton or wool 
Sock yarn in bright colors – pink, blue, white, yellow
Assorted small buttons
tapestry needle

 For the ring:
With the US #7 needle and the worsted weight green, co 6 stitches, knit 34 rows, bo leaving a long tail.

Sew the piece together using a tapestry needle, (end to end) to form a ring.

Next make a flower:

Small Flower:
Using a US #1 (2.25mm) , leaving a 4″ tail, cast on 3 sts.
Row 1, 3, 5, 7: P
Row 2: K1, yo, k1, yo, k1. (5 sts)
Row 4: K2, yo, k1, yo, k2. (7 sts)
Row 6: K3, yo, k1, yo, k3. (9 sts)
Row 8: K
Row 9: K
Row 10: BO in p.
Make 4 petals. Sew petals together, one over lapping the next, using the yarn tails and a tapestry needle. Wet block and pin into shape. Sew button into the center of the 4 petals.
Make the following number of small flowers: 3 white, 2 pink & 3 yellow.
Using a tapestry needle, weave in ends.

Now all you need to do is sew the flower to the ring. I made sure to sew my flowers to the ring where I had sewed the ring together so the seam did not show.

It get’s rather addicting to make the flowers  - I need to make 17!

happy knitting!

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