Non-Knitting FO

Wrapping Paper!

Why spend money on wrapping paper, when your town has a plastic bag ban, and every time you buy more than will fit into your re-usable bags, you get paper.

Here's What you do... cut the paper bag so that it will lay flat.


Choose no more than 5 coordinating colors, and get a ruler (unless you want to free-hand it)



Come up with a design.. Stripes are fun, and using a combination of different widths adds a new design element than just stripes. You could also do polka dots in different colors and sizes, or big swirly lines, etc. When you are doing something that isn't as rigid as stripes, it will take less time to color the paper.



I used the width of my ruler as a spacing guide, that way you can just roll it over and mark along the width of the paper. You mark with one color, then two times with the next color, that way you get the variance of wide versus thin stripes. Go back after and color them in.



Voila, you're done! You can use the paper for any holiday, birthday, wedding, or other gift giving reason.


Happy Crafting!

More Thanks

So, A long long time ago, in a faraway land I signed up for a pay it forward on my mom's blog.. however, nobody signed up for mine... so do I just not send any hand made items? I guess if anyone wants to they can respond to this post and the first three commenters will be gifted within the next year.
Anyhow, this is the gift that I received in the mail last week!


It is a beautiful shawlett in this awesome greenish yellow color, and it can be worn in 2 ways,(traditionally, wrapped around the shoulders; and scrunched up around my neck in the front, which is way cute with this shorter length shawl) and I love love love it!

Thanks Momma :)

Apartment Warming In a Box

The week after I arrived back at my apartment, ready to start my new job, and the next chapter, I found a box in the hallway where the mail boxes are located, with my name on it!

It was from my sister and my mom :)

Jessica sent me some Chai tea from this little tea shop in Olympia, Washington (which I've actually never been too, but have had this same chai before and it was the best mix I've had). We have a friend who lives down there and so I thought that she had gone to visit and picked up the mixes while she was there, but as it turns out, she was on the trip just to get me this tea which I love so much, and then ended up seeing our friend sense she was down there. The Chai, for all of you that love it and want to know is by David Rio, and is the Tiger Spice Chai (which is new to me, but also good), and then the Elephant Vanilla Chai... yummy!


Then from my mama, I received these wonderful Tomato Soup Socks! The reason why they are tomato soup and not any other creamy red and white food thing, is because the colors (especially still in the hank) look like when you are making homemade tomato soup, and you add the cream into the pureed tomatoes. It becomes this swirl of cream and tomato for a second before they mix together. Growing up, tomato soup and grilled cheese were a favorite of mine, and still, I love tomato soup because it gives me that warm and homey feeling. So when my mom was visiting CT and NY during the spring of 2008, she looked up several little yarn shops in NYC and when we were there, we ventured into this cute little place where we saw the tomato soup yarn, and I'm not sure if I saw her buy the yarn after I pointed it out to her or if I did and then forgot that she had it but it was really great to open up a package from home and get the warm homey feeling of tomato soup when I took out my socks! They are so warm and cozy, too, that I can wear them whenever I need to feel warm and homey :)

I love getting packages, especially ones that are filled with love!

Update!

So I decided to do some updates on my blog for the holiday season! Check them out! I added a picture of sweet little white holiday lights on the header, then I updated my avitar to be me waiting in line to see Santa, in an adorable Christmas dress! I love Santa, and actually went to see him the week that I was home for Thanksgiving...it was fabulous! I love love love Santa!
Other than the holiday changes I made some other small edits....including puting my tags up so its easier to find things on my page, taking some of my side pictures down, and updated the list of blogs I read.

In other news... I got more packages!!! Yay!
One was just my new contacts from my sister's optical shoppe in Seattle. I had ordered them while I was home but they had to order them and ship them, I am surprised they arived so fast.. and I love them they are way comfy :)
One more package I received, or more of a medium sized manilla envelope really, was from my mama. She sent me our 2 favorite Christmas CD's! I love Christmas! Its soo cheery! And if you need help getting into the holiday spirit, then go out and get yourself Garth Brooks' Christmas CD and Gloria Estevan's too... they are both magical for the season!
I feel so loved :)

Alright... back to finishing my final essay for classes, and then I just have one two more final exams and Fall Quarter will be complete--I can't wait!

Happy Holidays

I gotta Package...

I gotta package! I gotta package hey hey hey hey!!


And what cute packaging with the tissue too!

And it was from my Fall coffee and yarn swap pal....Megan! Look at all of the wonderful things that she sent my way:
Here is the wonderful coffee stuff:


The first picture of a coffee cup which is that adorable one at starbucks that has the impression of a cable knit on it... I love love love it!
The second is of all the wonderful coffee she sent! Including two bags of Asplund whole bean coffee...one is the Northshore blend (on the bag it says it is a "complex, intense, full body" coffee..sorta sounds like me..lol) and then the other is a bag of WI Wake up blend (a "bright, fruity, medium body") they both sound absolutely scrumptious! And the third bag of coffee is from Dunkin Donuts... this one was my moms idea because for whatever reason I am terrified of trying it, she thought that it would be funny to have my swap pal send me a bag. Haha mom! (Although after reading the bag, and smelling it a little, I suppose I iwll have to give it a try....after I finish the other 2!)
Here is all of the fun yarn stuff I received:



The first 2 pictures are of my favorite part of the package: Megan made me a cute little needle holder with three sets of new needles in it! But look at the amazing little coffe cup detail with leaves stitched inside..don't you love it! I do :) The last picture is of 6 thats right, count'em 6 skeins of yarn! All of beautiful colors and really soft and luxurious! Can't wait to get creative with all of this :D
The other 2 things that she sent that I didn't mention above were some maple lollipops which I have one pictured in the mug above, and then a box of french vanilla splenda coffee flavoring for my coffee.. which I've been using all week in my coffee and loving it!
What a great package! I love it all, thank you soo much Megan! I hope you recieve a wonderful package as well :)

Ok all of the animals in our zoo are going crazy so I have to go fix them!

WIPs

Spring Flinger T.O.W.
We'll go free form this week - Post about your WIPs, post about your package, post about the weather where you are - just be sure to include that the post is for the Spring Fling Weekly Topic somewhere inside it when you tell us it's there! I'd love to hear how folks are enjoying the goodies they received, if they have, or how much fun you had shopping for your pal!

So.. My WIPs are a few springy scarfs... I bought some turquoise yarn that is very springy, and then I got some coral-y colored yarn that looks like flowers! So I found some patterns for some skinny lacy scarfs and have gotten the turquoise one cast on. I am also still working on my blue/green variegated shawl.. I'm on ball #3 now, out of 5...coming along nicely.

As for my package, I just finished my handmade item for it, so my package will be off... I will have to do an express package so that my swap friend will get it on time! I will post more about my package tomorrow!

As far as shopping for my pal! Well I may as well be called a professional shopper! So I have found a few really great things for my pal.. And I received my package from my pal today too, and it was awesome!!! I will post those pics tomorrow too! So basically this swap has been a blast!

Mail Time!!

I love getting mail! (well except bills!) Last week I received 2! packages!! hooray! One from the queen:

She sent more yarn for me to finish my 'Midwest Moonlight' Scarf. Which is actually coming allong quite nicely after tearing it out once and starting over! (Its a pattern from a book called Scarf Style I love this kind of sea foamy, pale, blue green. The Yarn is kid-n-ewe, color 660, and it is very lovely to knit with. I'm hoping to finish it up in time for the holidays to give as a christmas present. (I'm a slow knitter!) Anyhow she also sent this cookbook on kids cooking. Little Ann doesn't give me many options when it comes to lunch and dinner time, and I was getting tired of making the same handful of things over and over again! Well I think we have solved the problem (temporarily at least!) Little Anne and I were flipping through the cookbook, and she was getting excited about almost all of the recipes! I think that it helps that all of the recipes have pictures by them to show how good they look as well as sound...I know that when I was a kid I always wanted to eat the food from the cookbook with the yummy pictures! (I still do!) So when I go grocery shopping tomorrow I will pick up some new ingredients and we'll test out a new recipe!

The second package was from my sister! It included: She sent a whole lot of toothpaste! yup! Well I kinda have a dental hygene obsession where I brush my teeth at least 3 times a day if not more...Jessica has an issue (or more of a fear maybe) of never wanting to run out of toothpaste or extra toothbrushes, so she buys them everytime she is in a grocery store! She kindly passed some along to me so that I won't ever run out either! I also received from her a little notebook and tinkerbell pen! And some candles in my favorite fragrance from Pier One (Ilsand Orchard). Yummy! I love candles!

I will also have to take more pictures of my room...I got all of the art put up onto the walls and then set up all of my candlescapes, so it feels like a real home now! With the paint done and everthing in place it is very serene! More to post on this later, for now I am off to bed! I've been waking up late, and having to run downstairs in my pj's! I don't particularly like standing waiting for the bus in my pj's where all of the neightbor's can see! :)