These past few weeks have been quite hectic. I had a presentation to prepare for at work and that’s been consuming every spare moment. I gave it yesterday and felt an incredible weight lift from my shoulders and it felt weird this evening. I kept feeling like I needed to work on my speech and had to remind myself several times that it’s over and I can spend my time with other things. There’s still lots to do. Last week I helped a friend make cards for her holiday open house. I made eight cards in about two days. It was intense but fun.
She brough over the stamps and supplies and I just had fun creating Halloween and Christmas cards. I’ll share them soon.
From there I’ve moved directly into creating cards for a publication. The due date is Oct 1st so they’ve got to get in the mail by Monday. It will be a busy weekend getting those finished up.
I’ve also been studying the Sept. Art Bead Scene artwork and have been eyeing some beads to create a necklace. I wasn’t planning to participate because the month is so busy, but I ordered some beads from Heather Powers that have beautiful fall colors and I’d love to use them to create an early fall necklace. Aubergine purple is my favorite color at the moment and I want it everywhere – my jewelry, clothes, even my hair. I’m a bit behind in my personal calendar artwork challenges and have August’s layout on the floor as I debate how to put it together. Then I’ll need to attack September (which has mushrooms and turkey tails!)
About two weeks ago I signed up for a Halloween knitting swap with a group online called Tiny Owl Knits. It’s a wonderful group of knitters and we have swaps each Halloween and Christmas. Because it’s Tiny Owl Knits, we call our swap “Owl-o-ween”. Isn’t that cute? We need to include a hand-made item and a treat and then any extras we’d like to give. I’ve decided on a theme for my recipient and excitedly picked out a pattern I thought would be perfect. I had lots of trouble with the gauge and after restarting the mitts 5 times I decided to try something else. So I moved to an ambitious shawl pattern that I’ve wanted to make for a while. I had the exact colors I wanted to use in my stash already so I started that this week after swatching.
I was a bit concerned that I would fall in love with it and want to keep it. Perhaps in an unconscious bit of sabotage, after knitting on it for days, I found two mistakes I made early on and had to rip out 25 rows of it. Losing a couple of days of knitting work has now made my deadline highly unlikely, so I’ll be making it still, but not for the swap. I’ve identified several other patterns that will be more doable and am headed to the knit store tomorrow to see what might match up the best. Then it’s back to the knitting needles and looking for leaves to start changing. I noticed more on the way home today. Hope your weekend is filled with happiness and ordinary miracles.
Blessings to you,
Sarah
anordinarymiracleday 