Coming Undone and Waitin' on Tom Video

Sometimes, even as much as our creative juices are flowing, mistakes happen in the pattern and, well, it can't be fixed. 

I tried everything with this pattern.

I absolutely loved the edging it was making.

and as big and far as I had gone............into the first lace chart, I had to take it all back apart. 

I mean...........to the first knit stitch.

Coming undone.  I was undone to say the least. 

I spent a good 6 hours trying to avoid that but I decided knitting is a hobby not something to stress over, so the answer was to make something better with it. 

Lessons were definitely learned:

when starting to learn a new technique, start on a small scale

always, always, always keep a lifeline row!

don't knit when sleepy

everything can have a new beginning

sometimes we can even make something better

My DH took me for a road trip and consoled me as I did rewind the entire skein. 

I was inspired again to start over but not using that pattern. Nope. Had way too many start overs with it. It is a beautiful lace pattern but on to something new.

So, with some inspiration one morning near our homestead, I decided to try again.

Of course it also helped to be on the way to the local yarn shop.

The  colors in the early Fall air and clear skies got me thinking.

Even Abbie got to thinking.

So I tried to make a go of blending to start a new shawl.

I also was inspired by some Etsy stash of new, little owl markers from this sweet lady who sent her card and a bird. Right now, it looks like a turkey to me, but that could be because I see about 25 or them every morning and evening feeding in the yard, getting fatter and fatter for Thanksgiving.

If you order from her on Etsy, I can assure you she has great service, quick and fair shipping and will put in 1-2 gifties extra like these buttons and the extra marker.

Guess what?

I made a mistake again.......................

and I couldn't fix it.

so............my mojo for cross stitching a WIP was really making me antsy and 

I pulled out this one from about 3 years ago and re-pulled my threads to start working on it.

This is Pink Hill Manor from Blackbird Designs. 

With the use of my magnifying glasses with a light, I was in Heaven again...........enjoying my work, like revisiting a long-lost friend, and getting somewhere!

And I have had the best week on staycation!!!!

Instead of going on a trip, we both wanted to work on our house alot and we have really worked the outside and the inside, moving some rooms completely to other rooms, purging and finally letting go of some things I should have a long time ago. It's nice and cozy again. 

We also got the complete season 1-5 of Downton Abbey on DVD now and watching a few episodes, starting all over with popcorn and cuddling in the evenings. 

We've taken bookoodles of pictures of turkeys and put them on FB and we even made a video that was quite funny.

Even though we could have gone anywhere for the week on vacation, we really enjoyed it more staying home together. Improving our homestead and putting love in it, readying it for the Fall and Winter guests!!!

Enjoy!

 

not only these guests but people guests too!  :)

A Freebie For Valentine's Day Sampler: Love Is

Love Is

designed by Feathers in the Nest

copyright 2015

I hope you enjoy stitching up this little sampler. You can use any colors you want. You can even work all of it in a pretty overdyed red color for redwork.

Print this only for personal use. Please do not sell or pin on Pinterest. Thank you.

This will be free for a short while on the blog.

Please feel free to share this webpage/ website blog with others by html.

Linen of choice

105 x 100

Enjoy!

If you stitch this up and would like to share a pic of the finished product, please email me at jenniferann_fox@yahoo.com. I enjoy those emails and will put them on the blog here.

I hope your weekend went well.

I love finishing off the weekend with Downton Abbey at 9pm. This year is certainly moving right along with mystery, romance, and just about everything in this season.

In between working, I am reorganizing one entire room, closets, clothes, and redesigning it for more practical use. This has been a long time project but I am about to see the light! You Tube has certainly helped me in doing this large project.

Twisted Tuesday~~~~~~Going With the Pattern in Life

Hello sweet readers!

It's been a long time since last posting. I took a bit of a break while I am adjusting to a new schedule, new job, and learning lots of new things!!!  In the interim, I have decided that cross stitching AND knitting will be on this blog. I tried to create one just for knitting but kind of like "frogged" the idea. Yup, just going with the pattern of my life right now. It's kinda like going with the flow, so to speak---- a necessary retrospective evaluation for the best and purpose of my blog, and still balance other areas in my life. Simplicity is my goal for 2014 and I appreciate all who are strictly cross stitchers sticking with me through knitting projects and vice versa. :)

I love both needle crafts so!

So, soon I will be deleting the knitting blog. I really didn't have much on there. I have craved the time to stitch and work on a sampler of late but still in the home rennovation mode here at the homestead and into almost the third month, we are still waiting for the flooring company to finish the trim. It was kinda like moving as we had to completely remove things out of all closets and two rooms..........all while starting a new full-time job!!!

We are so pleased with the new flooring which blends in well with the family room, guest bath, hall, and two closets.The colors are very neutral and looks like, but is not, patterned tiles. Anyone who has looked at the new flooring really thinks it is real tile!

Miss Abbie was a bit confused through all the rennovations, and we had to do a bit of "re-potty training" again, but she is worth every bit of extra time and with a lot of love, she is getting back to normal. In fact as I write, she is taking a long sigh on the sofa, stretched out completely on a quilt. Seems like 9pm is her bedtime and slowly becoming my new bedtime after a long day of work ;)

In the beginning of the Summer, I put the knitting needles to mostly working on cotton dishcloths and washcloths. I started making a sweet blend of muted teal, green, and natural beige washcloths for the guest bathroom basket. I'm working on a fourth one now. (pics to come soon)

In the cross stitch world, I'm overwhelmed with the new beautiful samplers that are out. Just absolutely gorgeous!  I'm trying not to leave my WIPs to start another one, but the temptation is strong.

Is anyone else as pulled between the love of cross stitching and the love of knitting???

What are some of the samplers or knitting projects you are working on now??

Most of all, are you a morning stitcher or an evening stitcher??

Just some thoughts as I reach out to all things needles today!

I hope your week has gotten off to a good start. Time is certainly flying this Summer.

So it's off to bed without a stitch this evening.

  But, definitely every day is a new beginning for something new.

It's amazing how much "stuff" we have found and then "stuff" we have lost in shifting all the things around for putting in the new flooring!  When I find my memory disc for the computer, I will post some pics soon.

In closing, just a thought for encouragement. Figs make the Summer sweeter. As I love poetry, I read this tonight in one of my books of poetry I read over and over again.

 The book is "Poems That Live Forever" selected by Hazel Felleman.

First Fig

My candle burns at both ends,

It will not last the night,

But, ah, my foes, and oh, my friends~~

It gives a lovely light!

~~~~~Edna St. Vincent Millay

and my WIP awaits.........for new patterns of my life.............

Goodnight

This is How We Roll in the 2014 Summer---Good Changes to the Homestead!

Hey there!

This is the first day of Summer officially and the longest day of the year!

It seems to be a long time since I posted last. I'm working full-time now and getting adjusted to the change has been so refreshing. I'm really enjoying this job and in fact, it combines the best of all worlds in the areas of nursing I have been in in my 30 year career. The folks I work with are the nicest I've ever worked with, very kind, helpful and alot of teamwork. I've been in the car alot, so I've read nearly 2 full books on my Kindle this week. When I travel, I just turn on my Kindle to text to speech mode and it makes the time fly by and also some interesting reads I had picked out on Pixel of Ink. If you haven't seen Pixel of Ink, go to facebook and search for it. This page offers about 8 books a day for free, or at a deep discount. You have to grab them when you can because then the next day the price goes from 0 to like 12.99 again. I enjoy watching out for some good reads on this page daily.

 We also have been working on the homestead here in the mountains and had a little hiccup with the new floors. After they put them in, bubbles started to appear and the store manager states that this has happened one other time with the particular flooring and is a defect. They now have to pull up all the flooring and start over with a new kind.  I'm bummed out about that because we had guests coming soon and I really liked the new floors alot! We are going today to pick out the new pattern and I think it will take a couple of weeks again to get it in. Slowly but surely though some changes have made a big difference in the flow of the house and to simplify and have only what we use and love.

Here is a peek at one side of the rooms. Yay, to my loving husband for moving a 600 pound piano across a huge room!!!!

Here's Abbie, a little confused for day 2 of the project, but now she loves the arrangement. The sofa is under the window and she loves to look out and watch the wildlife around here. Lou the cat, loves to sit on the porch bench and watch us in the house.

So this is just half of what we did and it really made a difference. It feels huge in this house now.

The kitchen I will take extra pics of later, even though that flooring will have to come up so you can see the kitchen table in there. The kitchen island was moved to the laundry area and provides a GREAT nook for storage of linens and a wide open top for folding clothes.

Over the buffet my downstairs sampler wall is rearranged a bit. This is where the piano used to be.

Abbie has her own spot. She loves the vintage, down-filled pillow to sleep on, and has her own basket of toys and "wardrobe" box. There's a little ray of sun there in the day and it's her favorite nap spot.

I absolutely love our chairs comfy by the fireplace now. My stitching chair will be cozy this Winter.

I sat down and played a tune or two and will soon be getting this piano tuned. I was waiting for it to be moved before tuning because any time you move a piano it has to be retuned anyways.

My dearest husband plays the guitar and he has two of them. They fit well in the house and we both share a deep love for music.

From the kitchen, this photo was taken, looking onto a whole different layout that really makes the flow in this area much better. Much bigger for entertaining guests.

As frustrating as it is cleaning out and sorting, donating and having to redo all the kitchen, hall and bath floors, there has been so much positive out of it. And it makes a world of difference for you to have a life partner/ husband who is willing to do anything to help. We make a good team and have very similar tastes in decor.

My other project is making my downstairs guest room, a REAL guest room. I've got some new ideas from a friend who has a you tube channel, about how to make it GUEST ready.

So more pics to come in the future of the old kitchen.................. the best part of the house to have a cuppa. Well, I take that back, the back porch is cozy too this time of year. Honestly, as hot as it's been in town, it's been no higher than the 80s here on the shaded back porch. We enjoy barbequing on the grill on Saturday nights and eating on the back porch table. 

I hope you are having a great weekend! Till later and after more cleaning and moving................and finding a good recipe for Kale. Yup, I've only eaten Kale once in my life and I love it. Trying to incorporate more veggies in our diet.

Thank you for hanging in there with me this Summer!

Jennifer

Finished and Framed At Home with Jane Austen sampler

At Home with Jane Austen

designed by The Sampler Girl

WIP in my stash for 3 years!

finished per instructions in packet using Crescent Colors and linen 

I finally put the rest of the stitches in this piece and framed it. The frame is from a clearance at Target. I loved the dark pink border. While the width was not perfect for it, the length certainly was!!!

Here are a few other pics. I could NOT get it without shadows which appear to be wrinkles in it.

Even in this pic I can see myself in the shadow. I decided to leave the glass in. 

This one will go on a sampler wall in one of the guest rooms.

I love the saying.

So, another one bites the dust!  About 40 more WIPS to go!

There is a patriotic one, still in lap frame from 3 years ago...........Battle Hymn of the Republic. I do think it's the time of year to work on finishing that one next.

We are still quite busy with our house hold projects this Summer and putting some new kitchen and bath flooring down. Still waiting for it on order. More on that as time comes.........

Here's hoping you are having a beautiful weekend, staying cool and at peace. ;-)

Jennifer

Some Knit Finishes and Valentine Inspirations

It's been so long since I posted this time!!!  I can't believe how time flies. Since I last posted, I have done many things, just not all stitchy news. I did finish and pieced together my Chunky Edge Lace scarf and decided that putting this many sections to connect in one scarf was more than I wanted to do. Although it came out lovely, soft and oh so warm and girly, it has more bling in it that I thought when putting it on and looking in the mirror.

With that being said, I still love it, enjoyed knitting it and used 3 full skeins of the colorway Constellation, Thick and Quick yarn. I gartered all the stitching except the two end pieces. Used a # 13 straight needles.

 

 

 

 

Each end piece is a full skein of yarn. I joined them all with a quilting needle and weaved in the ends. I did have to taper down to fit the other 2 sections at the end but I still love it!

We had some really COLD weather since last post too!  Colder than I have ever seen it here before. I have seen colder air in Chicago in the past but this was like brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr cold for North Georgia. Our outside cat, Louie, of whom we love dearly, has an outside "cabin" Mr. Fox made for him but it was way too cold for Louie about 4 days so he boarded in the downstairs bath. I have a cat allergy but I will say that it didn't cause me any problems this time. They say allergies change and it's been several years since I was tested so.........maybe it's gone now?/?? I hope so because Louie clings to the door all the time.

Miss Abigail snuggled away in her knitted throw and pillows as she places them as she likes it for different times of day. She is so funny and so loveable. I love her so much.

Another finish this morning, well start to finish, is this Valentine colored washcloth. I simply gartered it because of the colorway in Damask, Sugar and Cream. I love the light pink, the dark pink, red and a hint of milk chocolate this makes. I can make a few more of these for washcloths.

 

It's funny how I really didn't see the pattern it made until I posted pics. Close up I couldn't see this pattern.

 

 

 

 

We've had 2 callings of snow by the weatherman but each morning, no snow.

All in all, January is halfway over and I do look forward to Spring. Actually, the daffodils here are already sprouting from this cold mountain!

Downton Abbey this past week was really intense and I was so upset about Anna Bates. We'll have to see what next week brings. I think Mary is realizing she needs to be in the "living world" instead of the "dead one" as her grandmother described now. This should lead to a lot of good adventure in the next episodes.

On the book side, I'm reading and participating in a Bible Study on facebook called Wife After God by Jennifer Smith, The Unveiled Wife. The book on Amazon is called Wife After God as well.  This study is something I look forward to every morning after I wake and grab a cup of coffee. She posts a 2-6 minute video in the study and some study questions for pondering through the day. We are all following her devotional book which can be found on Amazon and if you are looking for a good one as a wife, you will find this one to be full of humility, strength, encouragement and just really a lot of hope. Interesting discussions have been stimulated by many wives and her husband in fact, has a facebook page Husband Revolution. I do not see him doing any studies right now but I suspect he will in the future. The couple has been married 7 years and have the cutest baby boy. The focus of their ministry is an Ephesians 5 marriage.
Topics from this include faith, fears, arrows of the enemy, Satan and how to handle them, humility, submission, love, forgiveness, and many more. It's a 30 day study but her videos are available to the public so people can catch up if interested.

Ok, so in keeping with some other January beginning-of the-year resolutions, I have been trying to follow FlyLady and other websites for cleaning and decluttering/ organization which is not one of my good traits (really). This week is the bathroom detail and yesterday I spent 5 hours....yes 5 hours in one bathroom taking............every.thing..............I mean everything out of cabinets and reorganizing all the girlie stuff, tossing out old stuff, changing out shower curtains, scrubbing the tub, and I even changed the look of the bathroom by taking off the cabinet doors and putting in some old pretty baskets I already had for organization. The open cabinet effect is so much cleaner and easier to access. I read a book from Pixel of Ink freebie off of my Kindle that fired me up to start this weekly detail cleaning. The name of it is The Busy Mom's Guide to Speed Cleaning and Organizing by BJ Knights. Of course any couple or single person could utilize the info in it. It's easy to read, about 160 pages of just really GREAT remedies for things in cleaning. There are scattered recipes for natural cleaning solutions such as baking soda, peroxide, vinegar, water and others but very simple. 

I found the book to be a great motivation.

 I don't know about you, but I add free books daily offered at Pixel of Ink if you have a Kindle, You have to grab it though then to download at zero dollars because the next day it goes back to the 6-14.99 cost. Pixel of Ink on FB like and then you can check it out each day.

I have a list of several more to get read soon. I like the option on my old Kindle for text to speech. Crossing my fingers this is the first Kindle to come out and it's still working. :)

Another New Year's resolution is to start back yoga daily. I have enjoyed it a lot and look forward to it. Just using You Tube yoga lessons for my sessions. The stretching and movements are very beneficial for the body and mind. We also do couples yoga as Mr. Fox got a men's yoga mat and stuff for Christmas. He really likes it too.

I have completed half of the last row of flowers on At Home with Jane Austen by The Sampler Girl. I am so close to finishing it, I don't know why I have not already. I think I'm dabbling with ideas in my head on how to "finish, finish" it. We will see how it strikes me with the last stitch and I hope soon so I can show you.

Here's to changing up to finish this sampler and soon I will get a progress completion pic.

Jennifer

Fall Shawls, Flowers and a Fine Gentleman

I haven't posted in so long I couldn't believe it~~~ but~~~ a few things I've been up to lately are:

~welcoming Fall in the North Georgia mountains!

~making Apple Cider again on cool evenings

~enjoying Mr. Darcy's sweet spirit, and feeling so blessed

~road trip to mom and dad's

~starting a new business for a second part-time job

~making a fire in the woodstove on cool evenings and mornings when we sip coffee together

~enjoying the back porch like a room of the house with this beautiful sunny cool weather

~trying new recipes

~knitting Christmas gifties and thank-you gifts

~attended a Joyce Meyer conference with Mr. Darcy, along with 90,000 other people (yup that is a correct count, it was BIG)--one word---INSPIRING

~reading some new, good books

~watching wildlife in the yard, including a flock of wild turkeys (5), tending to Thelma and Louie (yup, not Louise we found out) :), keeping a bear out of the trash, squirrels gathering acorns, and appreciating all the sunny days after such a season of rain this past Summer.

~and soooo much more~

I finished my Fall Shawl Ya'll and here are a few pics:

The colorway is one from Bernat and I can't remember it totally but this pic is much lighter than the actual color. It's dark burgundy. I used 2 large balls of yarn. For some reason my camera or the lighting is making it lighter.

{{{whispering}}} Abbie has a disclosure she wants me to tell you: White hair here or there is NOT from her at all! :P

 

more of the true color here.......................

I made it so that it would fold on the edges for a small collar effect.

 

I actually finished knitting this a couple of weeks ago but today, just getting to mending in the loose ends by hand. I didn't use a pattern, just knitted on some stitches for a set-up row and then increased KFTB on each end for................a very long time! Then I purled all stitches for 8 or so rows to make it curl for a collar and then BO.

It was a great TV, watch-the-Waltons knit project.

 

The camellias are blooming in the yard. They really get no attention at all so Mother Nature blessed us with several that I picked today for the dining room. A pop of bright pink, white, yellow and green with a lovely fragrance in the house.

I worked on the second repeat (twice this) and then made a mistake and couldn't save it so had to pull all out and started over! I do love this. It was a freebie on the internet. Will make a large chunky lace scarf in colorway of Redwood.

Sometimes starting over is not a bad thing. I look at it as giving me another chance to learn again and pay more attention when I should be~

 

Admiring Abbie's long hair on her tail. She is so funny but smart, smart and more smart.

 

 

And admiring Mr. Darcy as he is blessed now with a new job! So proud of him. One fine gentleman!

 

 

 

And enjoying some fun days, free-spirited.

 

I love October. Always have. The leaves will be turning their colors soon, the cool nights will get even cooler, and the knitting needles will be moving a lot faster! Hubbie and I have been very blessed.

 

 

 

Mum's the word!

 

 

The back porch is our most-loved spot here at the homestead. It's not perfect but just right for us.

 

 

Miss Abbie is enjoying the chaise. Yup, she is shedding like crazy.

Where's Waldo?

 

I hope you have been having some blessed days as well. I will be writing much sooner. I needed a lil' break on writing but I so love to read and write.

 

Till our needles click again,

Jennifer

 

Progress on At Home with Jane Austen designer, The Sampler Girl. My hopes to finish this one if I can, by the weekend and get it framed in a special way.

ok, bye for now...........stay cool!