Curtain (singular)

Yes it is true, I have finished my one curtain. And here is it in all its glory:

I am wildly impressed with it - it is fully lined, mitred corners, the pattern matches perfectly down the seam and it looks fantastic! All I have to do now is make the other one (and then the other pair!)

This has taken ALL my time this weekend - although just for a bit of fun supper did look like this:

Jamie Oliver eat your heart out!

My reward for finishing the one curtain is to order some wool dyeing kits from Get Knitted. If anyone knows a good wool dye that you can actually get in the UK let me know!

Project Spectrum Postcard for May

As it's nearly June it's time to reveal my postcard creation of the month, ta da:

Hope you like the butterflies!

Curtains - aargh!

Aaargh indeed.

"I know," said the knitter bravely, "I'll make the lounge curtains over the bank holiday weekend. That's a nice weekend-sized project." "Good idea" said the lovely husband, "after all, it's only a few rectangles".

"Oh yeah!" said the curtains.

Perhaps my suspicions should have been awoken by the lovely husband's shock at how much fabric we needed. Suffice to say we have plenty! We have a little window and a set of patio doors in our lounge and I thought I'd make the small ones today and the patio ones on Monday.

I present to you this:

Curtain chaos and the net result of the whole of today. I have cut, cut again and seamed the material and lining for both small curtains and I have mitres two corners (sewn one of them), sewn one side seam, slipstitched most of the hem and pinned the other side. This is quite enough. My revised ambition is to finish one curtain by the end of tomorrow. Seriously revised aim!

However, the curtains will look lovely when finished - here is the pattern

I am alternatively hating it or loving it depending on whether or not I need to cut along the nice straight lines or match the pattern!

On the knitterly front I have been a little industrious. Yesterday we went to visit some equally crafty minded friends from university (I love visiting other knitters/crafters - it seems completely normal to have a WIP with you and friend just picks up her quilt and keeps quilting it!)

ANYWAY... The Rowanette Project Exchange is now upon us and whilst I haven't started the main gift I have done a little something. Voila!

It's a dishcloth with little houses on it which just about fits a Hearth and Home theme perfectly. The pattern is here and I found it through the Knitting Pattern Central Dishcloth Directory. It is knitted in Rowan Handknit Cotton (254 flame) on size 4 bamboo needles. My recipient says she likes orange and pink as a favourite colour combination so now I just need the pink to match! The dishcloth still needs blocking but otherwise I'm very pleased with it. The only alteration I made was to change the border from garter stitch to moss stitch.

Aside from time to sit, chat and knit, the other great thing about visiting friends is swapping project tales (and books!). Lovely friends had a copy of the Autumn Interweave Knits which they weren't planning to knit anything from (and I now am) and a great book on socks, the Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook. Guess who borrowed it and now has serious plans to dye some yarn........

Must finish curtains first, must finish curtains first, must finish curtains first

(Yeah right, who am I kidding!)

Secretly knitting

Yes you read correctly, I am still knitting (and fairly intensively at that). Unfortunately it's a big secret so no piccies. I promise piccies next week (and an updated sidebar).

Shh - don't tell!

I must be back at work...

It really is my only way to justify the blogging silence! Having said that, we are pretty busy at work and at home we have been plumbing the bathroom (by we I of course mean the lovely husband - my role was to provide pints of beer, occasionally hold the spirit level and generally be impressed). It was finished on Monday night and we duly held our opening ceremony (red ribbon on the door handle). Mum and Daddy are coming to visit overnight next week and I'm really glad they will get to see it finished.

I have also been being rather industrious in creating Mum's birthday pressie. OK so her birthday was Monday but I don't see her until next week and therefore I have a little extra time! In this vein I went to meet a lovely local knitting group last night - hurrah. I found out about it because Diane reads my blog and tracked me down and it was great fun!

Two slightly surreal moments. The first was walking to be met with the comment "I know you, you just got married and had appendicitis" (Swift conclusion was that this was indeed Diane!) and the second to discover I'd just come home on the train in the same carriage with one of the other girls - we had both been knitting and just not noticed each other! Anyway I had a fab time, the one thing you miss when you stop living with a group of girls is the girlie chatter - lovely husbands just can't quite replicate it!

The great news from Mum is that she loved her birthday card (which I forgot to take a picture of) it was a ribbon embroidered garden - my first attempt and it does look really pretty - I will have to give it another go some time.

Right, must go be creative (or at least do the washing up!!)

Project Spectrum - the Green Theme

Now I know that for a Project Spectrumite I have been particularly lax in actually creating anything knitted in the appropriate colour in the appropriate month. I plead wedding in my defence - definitely diminished responsibility!

In a small effort to disguise the fact that I will only produce something green if I am very organised and it will only be partially green I produce pictures of my current favourite green things.

First we have:

The Flowers from my office. OK the flowers aren't green but the very useful cardboard bag they came in is and will almost definitely turn into a knitting container in due course. Flowers are pretty and merit a picture anyway!

Next up is this random assortment:

On my green duvet we have a Devonian flag. See here for further details. I'm originally from Devon so my little flag is very special. The purse was given to my by my godfather and is very pretty and the clock belongs to my lovely husband and supports his Glasgow Celtic football team.

And finally this gorgeous picture of some apples which was a wedding present from an uncle and aunt. Tres bien new uncle and aunt for being in keeping with the theme!

Silence.... and another knitalong

Drop.......................(drop)

Echo ......................(echo)

What's that we hear - yes the sound of silence as little Cariemay has gone back to work. Cue sadness from lovely husband who misses the hotel style living he has experienced in the last week and a half, great joy from the boss whose first comment to me was "well you're a sight for sore eyes!". Me suspects that the boss has (a) missed me and (b) had to do rather more work than he might have wanted to in the last few weeks.

This notwithstanding he has saved lots and lots for me and it is taking quite a lot of effort not to dive straight in at 150 mph which would predicatbly collapse me rather soon. Must pace self, must pace self, must pace self. I did get lots of sympathy from everyone at work and a lovely bunch of flowers and a card from my team to say welcome back or in the boss' case "Welcome home (thank God)"!

Still to cheer myself up I have entered a little summery knitalong for SOCKS. I read about it on Lolly's Blog and it's being run by Zarzuela for the Summer of Socks and it sounds fab with the idea being to knit socks, knit lots of socks and take little socks travelling with you! Hurrah.

Plus a very funky button (see sidebar)!

In other news I spent 30 minutes last night doing one row of the lace trellis scarf. It's only 59 stitches for heavens sake (although admittedly at some points there were 57, 58 and once 60). I think I've picked up all the lost stitches and I'm back to the right number in the right place (phew). My next plan is to put stitch markers in between each pattern repeat (horizontally) so I can see where I've made mistakes as I move across the row rather than when I get to the end and have too few or too many stitches. My biggest problem at present is being able to read the pattern in what I've knitted but lace is a skill and this is the main reason why I am making the scarf - to practice before reattempting my Rowan Carolina which is a fair bit more complicatedl.

If anyone has any tips please let me know!

7x7

I came across this meme in the blogosphere and I rather liked it!

7 Things to do before I die
Become a mother (but not just yet)
Learn to crochet
Finish my UFOs - including the curtains (stop laughing, I can hear you!)
Become a partner (I'm a lawyer)
Travel and maybe own a boat
Keep my husband as happy as he is now

7 Things I cannot do
Crochet
See without my glasses
Cook steak as well as my husband
Ski
Operate our lawnmower
Keep basil plants alive
Keep my study tidy

7 Things that attract me to my husband
He loves me
His smile
The little things he does for me
His eyes
His kindness and generosity
He is my soul mate
He married me!

7 Books I love
(now this one is hard - only 7!!)
The Bible
Swallows and Amazons (and the other 12 in the series) Arthur Ransome
Gaudy Night Dorothy L Sayers
I Capture the Castle Dodie Smith
In Pale Batallions Robert Goddard
The Silver Pigs Lindsey Davis (and the rest of the Falco series)
Yes Man Danny Wallace

Eclectic I know but a tough choice from over 800 books that I own and love and re-read a lot. I deliberately excluded knitting books from my choice which would otherwise also feature strongly.

7 Things I say
Excellent
Cool
Awesome
I love you too
Could you just...
I have a cunning plan
Hello lovely husband

7 Movies I love
Pirates of the Carribean
Top Gun
I Capture the Castle
Calendar Girls
Rebecca (the Charles Dance/Emilia Fox/Diana Rigg version)
The Thomas Crown Affair
Enigma

7 Ladies to tag
Well cheating a bit on the 7 I tag everyone who reads this. Post a comment if you do it and then I can check out your blog!

Wednesday's meditations

Well today is my last day off work before I can go back following the interesting honeymoon appendicitis. What have I achieved/learnt in my week and a half at home?

1, My house is designed to be untidy. Particularly my study/craft room. I tried to tidy it up and sort out my various stashes (particularly card making supplies) and they are all still just as messy, probably because I have been using them.
2, I am definitely a process person rather than an FO person. I confirmed this yesterday by making two batches of brownies and some homemade custard creams just to see if I could. Although they do taste very nice and the custard creams were a special treat for my lovely husband as he eats them at work.
3, I do enjoy my job, particularly having company and stimulation. The craft productivity I suspect is a result of needing a bit of a challenge and I have enjoyed working on all my projects but it has been a little lonely. Hence the vast numbers of posts over the last few days.
4, I don't want to go back to work because it means I won't see my husband as much (I have a longer commute).
5, Plumbing is harder than it looks (don't ask!)

On a crafty note I have spent the last day making birthday cards - for my Mum and my Brother-in-law (both on the same day) and a friend having a party at the weekend.

Mums remains unphotographed ( I forgot to photograph it before I wrapped it and anyway she reads this site) but the others look like this:


So pretty! The one on the right has flowers imbedded in the paper so it is flowery all the way through and the one on the left is a shaker card so the little glitter stars all move around - I hope they like them!

And another one....

Really this being at home all the time not able to do anything particularly strenuous is turning out very productive!

In an effort to finish things that are close to finishing anyway and therefore feel happy at my ability to actually finish things I have put in the last bit of work on my goldwork sample from the Stitch 2005 goldwork class. And here it is:

Again not the best of photos as the background material is actually cream and not grey but it shows off the gold quite nicely. The technique is couching and chipping: the couching is laying down the gold thread and sewing it onto the fabric to make the lines and the chipping involves cutting little chips of a gold metal coil thread and using them randomly to cover your chosen shape over the top of a bit of felt - in this case the main leaf is chipped and the five little blobs at the bottom are also chipped.

I really enjoy the RSN classes and I think I should go down to Hampton Court to do a full weekend course or something some time as they are so much fun.

Back in the real world I have been trying to do as much pre-cooking as possible today as my father and our wedding presents arrive (separately) tomorrow. Dad is returning my car and then I'm back to work on Thursday - gosh the last week and a half has gone quickly!

I've also added another three projects to the ongoing list - little ones though..... three birthday cards for up and coming birthdays!

What type of Knitter are you?

All my posts about unfinished and finished projects, knitting and other, have led me to contemplate the age-old question, what type of knitter (or crafter) am I?

In terms of generalisation there are a number of available categories: a process knitter - more interested in creation than the final article, and perfectly happy never to see the object in question once complete- the knitter/shopper - who sees a finished object, wants to wear it and knits it to be able to wear it - and the knitter whose goal is always the finish - to be able to say that they have done x, y or z.

I rather suspect that I'm most likely to be the process knitter (especially given my ability to neglect things once the interesting stage has finished!). I will often choose projects because I want to try tapestry, canvaswork, lacework, fairisle etc, although it is rarely that I don't like or wear the finished article (the sad sock being an exception to the rule). The trellis scarf in particular is something chosen as a pretty pattern for which I had the yarn in my stash and I wanted to try some lacework even though frilly scarves are not usually my thing and it may turn into a present to someone.

On the other hand I do keep most of my FOs - I knit for myself and for babies and occasionally socks and hats for other people. However, my other crafts do yield presents for other people so maybe I'm a regular mixture.

Conclusion: Greedy Process Knitter in the stash!

Any thoughts?

A Happy Weekend

Having posted my massive list of unfinished/unstarted projects I was (as I had hoped) lured into working on some of them. Admitedly the ones which I either really wanted to start or were very close to being finished but nevertheless I have now done 4 of the 26 and worked on two more.

On Friday I make my Project Spectrum Postcard for this month (no piccies until Janette my swap has actually got it or it will spoil the suprise).

On Saturday I finished the right front of the baby cardigan (it's white - doesn't merit a picture) and I go the needles and started the Interweave Knits lace trellis scarf (more on that later).

Yesterday the lovely husband had a hockey competition all day (he came second) and as it was grey and drizzly I installed myself in my study with a fair number of Reese's mini peanut butter cups (remnant of trip to US) and the following projects.

Project number 1 to grace the finish line was this:


It is the cross stitch cushion which was waiting to be made into a cushion finally finished. I finished the cross stitch several years ago and it's been sitting around ever since.

The pattern is very pretty and what you can't see in the picture is that the little blue flowers are outlined in silver backstitch. That was the only modification I made to a pattern which appeared in Cross Stitcher in November 1998!!!!!

Yes, I must admit that this project has been sitting around unfinished for a while. It has been waiting to be made up for 5-6 years (ouch!). I know this for two reasons. One: I can't recall doing the cross stitch in any of my last 4 houses, and two: the backing fabric (and border fabric) is lining fabric which matches the colour beautifully but is a nightmare to sew with, therefore I bought it while still a student.

It took me only a couple of hours to finish this, poor cushion, why did I abandon you for so long (cushion: "because you didn't have a sewing machine, because you had forgotten I existed, and because of the lining fabric as backing thing", Carie: "fair point".)

All this leads us to project number 2, and having had such success with project number one I was inspired to try making up the other cushion in waiting. This was a little bit more trixy as it was a tapestry I did and tapestry requires blocking just as knitting does. I don't have a proper blocking board (big hint to lovely husband for next birthday) but I happily improvised with a cardboard box, stretched it out, damped it down and prepared to wait the potential two days for it to dry. I think as I only sprayed the canvas with water rather than dunked it under Niagra Falls this helped speed up the drying process and it was dry enough to make up after lunch. Ladies and Gentlemen I present to you, FO number two: The Fuscia Tapestry Herb Cushion:

It has Pot Pouri sprinkled into the wadding so it smells lovely and the Fuscia is not quite such a violent pink as in the picture but is in fact a lovely dusky rose colour. It is quite a small cushion - I suspect the formal Martha Stewart term would be that it is a scatter cushion not a go to sleep on type cushion. It's from a kit by Cleopatra's Needle and I suspect also dates from 1998 (that's the copyright date printed on the canvas anyway!)

GRAND APOLOGY TO CUSHIONS

Dear cushions. You are both beautiful and both much loved as WIPs and now as FOs. Welcome to the world of madness (and bizarre mismatched colours) that is Carie and Husband's house. I am sorry for neglecting you for about 6 years.

On the point of the colour scheme, anyone reading this must think I have the most insanely eclectic house out. The answer comes from the neglected for 6 years element of these projects. When I made both of these cushions I was a student. Student decor (in Oxford anyway) comes in one of three colours: Student colour A (grubby cream), B (grubby ivory/white) and C (grubby pink). Nothing goes with these colours so the only way to make your rooms look nice is to pack in as many loud colours as possible to distract the eye. Both cushions will now join some friends in our conservatory which has lots of mismatched but beautiful cushions in it.

And still the day went on. Inspired by this bout of finishing-itis I grasped the nettle and unfinished an FO. Yes the sad sock is now a ball of multicoloured wool and a hank of very nice red debbie bliss aran wrapped around a chair. It's always a little sad undoing something that took so long to do but I know it is the right thing to do when you will never wear the item and never make it's second sock.

At this point lovely husband was still wearing himself out on a hockey pitch so I cast about for another close to finished to just tidy up the loose ends on. When I went to Stitch and Craft 2005 I was very taken with one of the canvaswork projects so I got a kit and set to. I think it hit the wall when we moved house in May 2005 and got tidied into a box. When we moved again in November 2005 it came out of the box and yesterday I finished it. Ta da!

It's called Surf and Sand by Northern Pine Designs and it's counted canvaswork. It reminds me of the beach at low tide when you get those little rippling ridges in the sand and very gentle waves that just lap at the shore.

I think I will struggle to repeat such a crafty day any time soon but it was great fun - I rounded off with a bit more knitting on the IK trellis scarf et voila!

It is a spectacularly bad photograph but it does show the start of the trellis nicely. I have done the 18 row border and the first two rows of the lace repeat. The lace repeat includes the challenging stitch knit 7 together - seriously how do you do that easily!!! I have taken to counting the seven stitches onto my needle by lifting them on with a pin but I'm becoming increasingly tempted to sharpen my bamboo needles in a pencil sharpner to get better point. I will have to consult Knitty as to the best needles for lace knitting.

Hope everyone else had a good weekend! <><

Sandcastle Cake - the pictures

They say the proof of the pudding is in the eating...

I mentioned before about my wonderful Williams-Sonoma cake tin in the shape of the sandcastle and the pictures are of the cake I make with it - using the vanilla bunt receipe from the back of the tin sleeve - deeeeeelicious - and disappeared suitable fast.

Apologies for yet another completely un-knitting related post but I'm very impressed with my cake tin - no skill required on my part - the tin did it all!

UFOs on the lurk

As I am housebound and unable to do anything useful at the moment (see post below for details re appendicitis on honeymoon) I have compiled a list of my unfinished (and in some cases unstarted) projects which I will set out in an effort to provoke me into finishing at least some of them.

The Knitting Projects
Rowan Carolina - started the back, colour rubbed off on my hands and needles, yard had to be retruned and has not yet been replaced by me. I have started the sleeve but I'm finding lace knitting a little complicated and I think I've got to row 5. May have to frog and restart to make sure. May also have to try another simpler lace project first.

Baby Cardigan - was making relatively good progress just need to keep cracking. Also need to wash one front to see if the pink that came off on my needles and then onto my white knitting will wash out. If not, must re-knit the front. Happily baby clothes are small and the front will take an evening.

Jaywalkers - Yarn, needles etc still at parents house as taken home for pre-wedding nerve calming. In the event I was very busy and not at all nervous so I'm still on the first round, I don't like using 5 needles in the round (prefer 4), I think it's got twisted so may KO (knit-over).

More socks - I have some lovely varigated yarn for a pair of socks but I need to learn toe up as I think I should need three balls of DK and in fact I have two. I also have three balls of Sugar and Cream to make cotton socks.

Smoulder - finally got all the yarn together but not yet started. Oh Carie it says, I am so pretty, you will wear me so much so please get your act together and knit me before the summer starts - please pretty please. OK Smoulder cardigan I will try. I have plans to actually do the sample square for this one which may be what is putting me off!

Suffering sock - a long time ago I knitted a long sock from a pattern in simply knitting without anything like enough yarn. The ankle is red and the foot is multicoloured. I don't like the pattern now I've knitted it and the second sock is never going to get make therefore I must frog it and do something useful with the yarn.

Floating plans: I also have intentions to make a cabled jumper from some lovely blue alpaca, a facecloth from the Sugar and Cream, a Lace Scarf from a pattern in Interweave Knits and numerous things from SnB.

The Embroidery Projects

Before my knitting self re-awakened I was (and still am) very keen on cross stitch and interested in other embroidery projects. I have plans for countless cross stitch kits which are sitting in a drawer (a couple of which have been started and put away) and a Christmas Stocking pattern which I saw in a magazine.

I need to make up a cross stich cushion and a tapestry cushion which I did ages ago, finish a goldwork sample from an RSN taster class, finish a canvaswork embroidery piece and if I get really bored I've got two ribbon embroidery cards to play with.

The Sewing/Quilting Projects

Aside from making curtains/blinds for every room in this house...... (Lovely Husband has great confidence in my abilities in that I have a book, I have my sewing maching and therefore I will be able to make the curtains - never done it before in my life but they are just big rectangles with curtain tape on top - famous last words!)

I have some beautiful fabric in aqua - wool crepe - which I bought years ago to make a dress. I'm not particularly tempted by the dress pattern I got now so I shall keep my eyes peeled for a dress pattern I do like as this fabric is so lovely.

I also found some red cotton fabric when sorting through my bits and bobs which was originally going to be a pair of trousers (I think in about 1997) and will now be a Vogue skirt I saw a pattern for. Unfortunately the pattern divides at sizes 12/14 and as I'm about a 13 I have no idea which to get... probably the 14 to be on the safe side!

In the quilting I have the fabric and pattern for an Ocean quilt that I want to attempt. I also now have embroidery patterns for 4 "snowmen through the seasons" which I think would look great in a quilt - just have to actually embroider them and then design the quilt, and I've promised myself that I will design and make the American cushions with some fabric I got from a trip to New York and Boston last July.

Scrapbook and Cardmaking

I have now made and sent all the thank you cards for our wedding presents (save where I'm waiting for the addresses).

However, my scrapbook from last summer's holiday needs finishing, I have some little bits to add to our wedding guest book - pressed flowers from my bouquet and the husband's button hole.

Finally and probably first to be done I get to make another Project Spectrum postcard for a green May! Yippee

The Presents
Not much can be said about these for obvious reasons but suffice to say that my sister-in-law is still due her birthday present from last November (ouch!) and I have plans for my mother's birthday later this month!

I think that makes a quite shocking total of 26 projects (not counting the curtains). As I reckon I have a good three years' worth of projects there (at least!!) it should hopefully curtail my stash enrichment at least until the Autumn Rowan magazine arrives!

Happy crafting one and all!

The Long Silence

Is now ended!

The reason for my lack of blogging activity is, as could probably be deduced from my sidebar, that I am now married, and I was away for my wedding and honeymoon! Yes that's right, little Miss B is now Mrs K - gosh! Being married is great and our wedding day was the happiest day of my entire life. I'm told I didn't stop smiling all day and my face certainly ached afterwards!

The weather even played along - it was freezing in the morning and cloudy but by the time we took some of the photographs in the early evening the sun had appeared - it was however freezing cold - I'm shivering in most photographs!

Anyway here are some non-knitting related wedding photos!:
















Mr and Mrs K on the balcony of my parents' house.
















Extreemly cheesy photos I know...






















Aah my dress - sooo pretty I really didn't want to take it off but as it was a boned corset it was rather hard to eat anything while wearing it!

The last picture is me collapsed at our hotel, it was the most comfotable place to sit as those dresses take up quite a bit of space!

We then set off on our honeymoon to Florida, the plan being to spend a couple of days in Orlando and then go to Naples and Clearwater - lots of walking along beaches into sunsets etc.

Unfortunately I started feeling a little unwell when we arrived in Orlando. Thinking I was just airsick we went to sleep but that didn't really do much and the darling husband ended up on a 4am trip to the Pharmacy, followed by an 8am trip to the doctor with me. Doctor looked at me, prodded my tummy and sent me to the hospital in an ambulance where, later that evening a very clever surgeon removed my appendix through my tummy button!

Yes dear reader I got appendicitis on my honeymoon!

It's one of those things where you either laugh or cry. Having done the crying while in lots of pain, I now think it's quite funny. Certainly I never imagined that the first use of my married name would be on a hospital bracelet, nor did my lovely husband plan on testing out the "in sickness and in health" part of his vows quite so soon!

Still when I was released from hospital three days later we did manage to do a bit of sitting by the pool sunbathing (no swimming for me) and with a wheelchair loaned by Disney we did a little bit of pottering about.

One of these days we will go back and do our honeymoon properly but it will never be quite the same and while I don't really mind for me, I do mind that my lovely husband had a pretty wretched time and whereas my time off (including the further week and a half I have to have off work now) is sick time, his holiday won't get refunded and it really wasn't much fun for him.

Still we were put in place by a guy working in the magic shop at Downtown Disney, Lovely Husband had been a fairly regular visitor there while I was in the hospital as he is quite into magic tricks and he took me back to meet the staff (and to buy him some more magic tricks!). We explained that we were on honeymoon but had appendicitis and Charlie said oh I know how you feel, my wife has cancer and the day after our wedding her intestines collapsed and I had to take her to hospital. Mr and Mrs K duly counted their blessings - in the grand scheme of things appendicitis is not bad. It can be fixed and they don't even leave much of a scar - the whole operaton was done through three little holes, 2 are 1cm long and the one on my tummy button is only slightly longer!

Still lots of fun things that we did in Orlando:
1, Went to Cirque du Solei - WOW!! They are just amazing - nothing I have ever seen compares to these guys - their reputation is well deserved.
2, Went to Disney's MGM studios which is great fun and was a good park to do in a wheelchair as I could go on most of the rides and they had some cool things like the Indiana Jones stunt show and an animation studio where you could learn to draw Mickey Mouse - I'm getting better at it slowly!
3. Went shopping!!! (Caution: actual knitting related content approaching!) (Well not just yet!) The lovely husband acquired some magic tricks and some pretty new clothes and his wife discovered Williams Sonoma - ah I could live in that shop it is so cool. Unfortunately cake tins do tend to be a little heavy to bring back but I am the proud owner of a cake tin that makes a sandcastle cake - I would post a photo but I need to reconnect the camera port to the computer and I'm not supposed to bend that much. We also went to Barnes and Noble and I have acquire Stitch n Bitch (long overdue) and the Happy Hooker (as I really must learn to crochet) as well as Yarn Harlot's book which is hilarious. Little trips of Michaels and JoAnns enriched my scrapbook stash, my quilting stash and my knitting stash by a set of crochet hooks and some Sugar and Cream cotton in a green white yellow and blue colourway and also green and purple. Piccies to follow at a later date.

I suspect this is the longest post I've ever done but that's me up to date!