New Beginnings

Well, hello stranger! It's me. I know I have been away for awhile, a lot has gone on in my life in the last year, but I will save that for another time.
Right now, I would like to share with you that I have relisted some things on Etsy. It is a start. I am working on some other ideas besides my coffee condoms. If you are curious, have a look at my shop. It is nice to see everyone again!!!

Back on the Horse

Just a quick note to let you know that I have started listing again on my Etsy site. For now it is just my Coffee Condoms, but there will be some new items coming soon.
Thanks for sticking with me!!!

Bits and Pieces

What is it??




It is my 3 1/2 year old LG dryer that isn't under warranty anymore! DD#2's clothes weren't drying and I had my sheets in the wash when we realized it. So we called where we bought it and apparently we didn't get an extended warranty on the dryer ( I do believe the sales guy said that dryers rarely break down LOL!!). So without a warranty, my electrician hubby took it apart to see what was wrong. It turns out it was just a fuse, but of course we figured this out late Saturday afternoon on a long weekend. We couldn't get the part until Tuesday!! Oh, by the way, Sears is a great place to find parts for appliances! We didn't even buy it there! So DH and DD#2 took the wet laundry and travel Yahtzee to the laundry mat to dry. DH put the new fuse and a sensor in yesterday and all is well!! It was only $50 in parts. The place where we bought the dryer from wanted $100 just to come look at it!! My DH is definitely my hero!


In other breaking news.....the world is being taken over by aphids! Who knew!! There are millions of them out there!!! AAAAHHHHH!!!!!!


The good news from this weekend is that Michael's had a 50% off coupon!! I know, I don't really need more craft supplies, but I just had to feed my addiction! I got this...



It is a Xyron 510!!! It makes anything into a sticker!!!!!!! This one is 5" wide. You can also get refils for laminating and for making magnets!! This is going to be so much fun!

I put a new Coffee Condom up in the shoppe.



I finally got outside to take pictures yesterday morning. The aphids lightened up a bit so I rushed out and got some done... just before my camera battery died!! LOL!! I feel like a comedy of errors lately LOL!! But I did get some done, so check out the shoppe for some new stuff. I really love this new soy/wool yarn from Patons! The colourways are just so nice and the yarn is really soft!

Off to do laundry! Have a creative, bug free day!!

We Have Cukes and Zukes!

Good morning!

I wanted to share some exciting pictures this morning. Ok, exciting for me LOL!!! Out in the garden, the cucumbers and zucchinis are finally showing their faces!! This year the garden didn't get nearly enough attention, so we have just had radishes and lettuces mostly. We did have a whopping 5 carrots and 3 beets though LOL!! But now the cucumbers and zucchinis are out!! I have to remember to pick the zukes before the get as big as DD#2's head this year! Here are some gratuitous garden shots!





Speaking of DD#2, she has been drawing a lot lately. Her newest thing is to just use black markers. She has drawn some amazing things in the last few days and has been really experimenting with this new medium. What do you think? She made this for a friend of hers.



I have actually been making new things for the shoppe!! They are almost ready to put up. I have to just work out the logistics for them and have a sunny day to take some pictures and then I will add them. I am hoping to do a few craft fairs in November and I think I need more on my table than just my Coffee Condoms. I also need some variety in my shoppe. I have realized that the block that is bothering me so much is that I feel that even when I am just trying something out, it has to be perfect because it will go up for sale. I have finally convinced myself that I can just try new things - just for me! They don't have to go into the shoppe until I am pleased with the result. For some reason that was a hard thing for me to get past, but now I am finally having fun making new things again!! Yay me!!

Thank you to everyone who is reading my blog and for all the great comments! Even if you are just passing through, please feel free to say "Hi!"

Have a beautiful and creative day!

Is it Spring?

So, what have I been up to??
I keep asking myself that too!
I have been knitting away, making up a bunch of Coffee Condoms that I will be putting up in my shop soon. I have also been hibernating quite a bit with all the snow we have been having on and off. I find it a bit depressing when we have 12C to 16C for a few days and then the next we wake up to snow and -10C. But alas, that is spring in Calgary. You would think that I would be used to it by now. This next week is supposed to be nice, though so hopefully that will bring my spirits back up!!!!

Michael's had a coupon for 50%off this past weekend! We picked up a starter kit for screen printing! I have succeeded in getting DH interested in it!! He is soooo creative and I hope this will give him an outlet for his creativity! I think it would be so great to put some of his art up in my shop or maybe one day for him to open his own Etsy shop!!! He is also a bit of a techie! We always say he is hardware and I am software. He likes to take the computers apart and add things and I enjoy the programming and such. You can find a link to the blog he is trying to get going up at the top right of my page. Say "hey" to him if you go take a look. He doesn't think anyone is looking at it. Of course, if he had more time, I am sure there would be more on his blog. It is a work in progress though!!!!

I am going to leave you today with some spring life from my garden! This makes me feel so good and gives me hope that the beautiful weather is on its way!!!

Mother Nature has a sense of humor

I do believe that Mother Nature has a sense of humor! We had almost a week of beautiful weather. It got up to 16C and the snow had just all melted. We even had rain the other night! The following evening, it started snowing an overnight we got over 12cm of snow!! That's almost 5 inches-- overnight!! By the next afternoon, at least the roads had melted, but there is still snow on the ground and it may snow again tonight. By Saturday, we are going to be into a Chinook again and it is supposed to be up to 16C again!!! She is such a tease!! I was out an about without a coat a couple of days ago in short sleeves!!

I had a sale this week!! Yes, it was my dear sis-in-law, but it was still a sale!! LOL! She purchased 3 of my bookmarks. I would love to find some coffee/tea related charms to make more of these bookmarks so that I could keep in that theme for my Etsy shop. I finally got a car wash today and put on my Etsy shop address decal that I got from HardcoreBaby . It is really cool! I put it on the back window of the van in hopes that people behind me will notice it.

The Coffee Condoms are all knitted up, now I am just adding the trim on them. They will be done and on their way by this weekend!! It has taken me a lot longer to make them than I thought they would. I think I have been doing too many other things at the same time. The basement/craft room is looking great though and DD#1 has a door on her room finally!! I will leave you today with a few pictures of the new additions.