First Quarter Catch Up ~ 2019

I feel I’ve been a little neglectful of the blog here recently. So I thought it would be fun to do a roundup of what’s been going on the first quarter of the year. Kind of like the monthly roundups I used to do! This was supposed to go out this past Friday, but I was having some technical issues, which are always fun – ha! Lots of pictures to see & I hope y’all enjoy this first quarter catch up for 2019. I’m going to try to make it a regular thing each quarter of the year. Also, some changes are coming to the newsletter soon, which I’ll explain further down. : )

Life Lived

The first part of the year I was watching beautiful sunrises when walking the dog & driving to work in the mornings.

Then time changed last month & it was dark o’clock in the mornings! It’s finally starting to be light again when I leave which makes it much easier to look for deer trying to cross the road. : )

The weather has been kind of crazy & we had a very warm week or so in February. So warm that it made azaleas start blooming!

Then it got cold again, then hot again, then cold again, etc. I think we are finally fully into spring & I love the contrast of blue skies & budding trees. This is looking to the left of the end of my driveway…

Things are blooming & growing everywhere…

That’s all beautiful, but it brings with it something very disagreeable to my allergies – pollen! This is what puddles look like after a rain & this really isn’t that bad…

Sometimes I have to use my wipers just to remove the layer of pollen on my windshield – bleh!

My dad’s chickens are growing & starting to fly around their enclosure…

He built a whole coop for them & added the portable chicken coop to the front so they could roam around. Now, there are new chicks in the starter pen…

These are called leg horns & seem to be growing more slowly than the last ones.

My dog Lucky is loving the warmer weather! He really likes to roll around in the grass…

Hefy-lou seems to think it’s way too hot already…

She hurt her foot during her “great escape” and is still limping around on it. I can find nothing wrong with it, so I think it’s just for extra pets – haha! Either way both agree that my thinking chair is a comfy place for a nap…

In other news, one of my students & I measured a 100 year old, 4 story motel for carpet. This photo is from the top of the fourth floor stairs on one end of the hotel…

There was another set of stairs on the other end that had carpet too. Those stairs only went up halfway to the next floor & had a landing in between. So. Many. Stairs! Also, nothing was straight since the building was 100 years old. Phew!

In food news, there’s chocolate whip cream out there y’all! Delish! Lays also has some new chip flavors out…

I’m not sure about flamin’ hot dill pickles, but I do love the lime & sea salt ones! I had that picture because I sent it to my son who loves spicy things. : )

Crafty News

I came upon an epic crafty estate sale last month & I did a blog post of my first visit. There’s also a video about it on my YouTube channel if you want to check that out. Even with all that coverage {like it’s breaking news y’all!} I still left out some things…

There were several sewing machines for sale, but my favorites were the old Singer & industrial Singer. Man, I wish I had room for the big one, especially since I’m down two machines! The top right is an embroidery/quilting stand my dad bought. He plans to turn it into a holder for my window screen embroidery project – yay!

Speaking of my YouTube channel, this is what my work table typically looks like after a podcast….

So many things to share & talk about! That’s one reason I’ve been a little absent from the blog. Another reason is because I started an Etsy shop in November selling maker bags.

I didn’t even know if I would sell anything at all, so I’ve been surprised that people are buying them faster than I can make them! Then there’s all the packing & cutting more bags….

It’s very time consuming, but I really love it! Just wish I had a magic elf or something to help out, haha! I’ve also participated in 4 different crafty swaps this year. First I did a beanie swap, then I did Fibre share, then a fabric scrap swap, & then another yarn swap. I’m about swapped out y’all! : D

I also decided to tell my YouTube subscribers I would send them a Valentine if they emailed me their address. Ten sent me emails, so I sent out 10 Valentines! The rest of the pics are things I’ve bought or received from some of my new YouTube friends. On the top right is a gift from the lovely Beth of Heaven’s Piecemaker. She has an Etsy shop too with some quilt patterns & stitch markers, so y’all check her out!

I got the cupcake & donut stitch markers from Llama Mama Kayla’s shop. She said her son made these, but she also has loom knitting patterns & finished items for sale in her shop. Check out her YouTube channel for some great loom knitting tips & just crafty goodness! Last, but not least are buttons from Zelda of ZeldaNRJ3. She loves to crochet & share her yarny makes!

The 100 Day Project kicked off on April 2nd & this year I decided to try to make a dent in my fabric scraps…

The pinky ones on the right came from a bag of scraps sent to me by another YouTuber, Rell of the Dabbling Hook. Apparently several people told her that I might take them in & who was I to say no? Haha! I’ve missed the past two days because I was sewing bags, but I’ll be back at it today.

I did a post earlier in the year about learning to knit. I’ve continued to practice & you may have seen the progress on Instagram…

My ultimate goal was to combine crochet & knitting in one project. I did achieve that as you can see in the last two pictures! Here’s what it looks like now…

Yep! I frogged the whole thing! It was just practice & very uneven, but I did learn a lot from it. Right now I’m working on these rectangles that combine crochet & knitting to make an afghan.

I decided to cast on 3 at a time since I was using such long hooks & it’s going pretty well so far!

This year I decided to try out a different yarn club on Etsy each month. Lots of indie yarn dyers have clubs that not many people hear about. The one I signed up for in March came from Southern Skeins, which is out of my home state of Georgia. This is an awesome club & y’all need to check her out! The other 3 pics are of yarn she showed on her Instagram feed for sale. It’s called black light & I just had to have it – hehe!

I seem to have a bit of start-itis this month! I’ve got two sweaters, a shawl, & a cowl started. Plus I have plans to cast on my first knitted shawl & I’m super excited about that! The combined yarn below is Caron Simply Soft Tweeds in gray heather & a baby alpaca lace in a rust color I’ve had for ages. It is so soft y’all!

The shawl on the right is much larger now since I’ve been working on it every night since I started it. It’s a pattern from the Dabbling Hook called the Yvette shawl & I’m using a Big Caron Cake in Cake Roll. It’s so squishy!

This is the year of the sweater for me & I’ve finished two so far. They are both cardigans, but that’s just a sweater with an open front in my opinion – ha! Here’s my most recent finish…

The pattern is the Cascading Kimono Cardigan from Mama in a Stitch. I combined Lion Brand Heartland in Pinnacles & silk mohair in sunset to make this pattern. You may have seen the other cardigan on Instagram or my YouTube channel, but I cannot seem to find a picture right now! My phone mysteriously did a factory reset itself earlier this year & I lost lots of pictures – boo!

So, if you’ve made it this far you get to hear about the changes coming to the newsletter. I’ve decided to change the newsletter to just once a week or once a month. I want it to be a real newsletter that gives y’all a little insight to what I’ve been up to during the week. I’ll include links to blog posts for the week, the most recent podcast, & links to anything I’ve found interesting around the web. I’ve seen some other newsletters like that & I like it!

That also means I can post when I want to during the week & not have to adjust email send outs when I have a post on a different day than usual. I’ve also got to get back to adding some drawings & print outs to the free coloring page, I really miss doing that! This will be happening about mid-May when I get a break between semesters from teaching. I hope everyone likes the new format & that you’re still awake after reading about my “super exciting” life – haha! : )