Dahlia table..!!

Ok.. the Dahlia table is finished. The day I started painting the table I was a bit under the weather and felt tired and sicky and not very focused. So my pedal placement was off a bit and the next day I had developed a soar throat and painted anyway and added highlights to the wrong pedals. Then when I was feeling better I went back and tried to fix it a bit and this is the outcome. It is not exactly like I wanted to paint it but it's close enough. I feel its a bit messy. One coat of varnish really brought out the colors nicely though. I already know what my next painting project will be and will hopefully start that on my next day off. 


The Brobee sweater is a little over the halfway point. As you can see I am up to knitting the sleeves. The pattern calls for knitting the sleeves flat 2 at a time, but I choose to knit them one at a time in the round. I tried the sweater on Micah and it's a good fit.  Sorry to post the same pictures in this post as in the last.. next time there will be something new to look at. (^_^)

 

a day of rest....

 Works in progress for the day... I finally got an afternoon to work a little on the flower table. Not sure if I will get to finished it today but that's ok. Below is the little Brobee sweater that I restarted. The size is much better and the fabric a bit softer. I tried it on Micah and it looks like a good fit with a little growing room. They grow so fast and he wont be wearing this for a while because we are still in the 90 degrees.
This week has been one weird week of ms-adventures. If something could have gone wrong.. it decided to all go wrong this week. The internet went out and the company was searching all the boxes in the neighborhood for 2 days until they found the bad one. Both of my computers needed work and had to be taken to my local computer repair guy. My dog decided to throw up and have diarrhea right when I was leaving for work one day. She has recovered.. seems she ate some yarn and after she pooped it out all was good.. 0.o'  We had a customer at work that brought up one of our giant shopping bags full of shoes.. probably about 30 or so pairs without the boxes and when she asked me the prices of the shoes .. she no longer wanted them.. so I took the pile in the back and tried to sort it out where I found her doing the same thing and said she was tired and would like the manager to find shoes for her and that she was in  a hurry not to sort out the mess until she was finished... 0.o'.. You just have to love retail. I think it took us about 2 hours to finally find all the boxes... I developed a sore throat earlier that day and still have a bit of the sniffles.. but now I get to sit and relax for the afternoon and paint for a bit until I need to just rest and knit.. I look forward to next week... sigh....

The blogger app

Blogger just released their first app and I wanted to try it out. So this is a test run. I had a rather tiring 2 days at work starting with a meeting at 7:30am on Saturday. I work in retail, so that's an early day for me. I work a lot of closing shifts. But... Today I have a day off to rest and work on some projects. Last week I started painting a table and would like to finish it today. After that I see an evening of knitting and probably playing Rift with a friend.

I added a picture of the wildflower boarded to see if it was easy to edit. I think the app is really easy to use. Yay!

lots of green!!

 I finished the the baby ripple blanket the other day.. now all that is left is tucking in the ends. My daughter said she would do half.. hehe. Anyway I started a Brobee baby hoodie for Micah who is now 9 months old. He loves Yo Gabba Gabba and every time he watches the show he smiles and jumps up and down. When I did my gauge swatch on size 8 needle it was measuring perfect but when I started knitting the actual sweater I think I started knitting tighter and it was way off gauge. The fabric was too firm and the sweater was coming out way to small. So I ripped and started again yesterday with a larger needle and its way better. Softer and bigger.

 So much green in this post.. I just noticed that. Years ago I threw a lot of wild flower seeds on the side of my house where the yard is right next to this little reserve and now there is a giant border of little wild flowers. I walk the dog in that area and yesterday there were  butterflies, big ones, little ones and all color butterflies flying from flower to flower. I took a picture of the biggest one.

project-less!!

After finishing my lace shrug..I didn't really give any thought to the next project I would like to work on. So I'm kind of project-less right now. For months this pretty crochet baby blanket has been sitting in the corner in a very large basket. My daughter had started to make this when she was pregnant with her second child who is now 9 months old.. hehe. She had a good excuse at the time for not finishing it because she had developed a form of carpal tunnel syndrome that you can get during pregnancy. I guess I was hoping she would pick it up again and work on it. I guess not. The two little ones keep her pretty busy so unless I add a few more rows to finish it...  it will sit in the corner forever. I'm on the last color and then all that will be left is tucking in the ends. She did say that she would help with that part. Working on this gives me time to decide on my next two projects. For some reason I'm having a hard time deciding. I would like one project to be a pair of socks and I think I'm going to start some hoodies for the little ones and maybe squeeze in another shawl.

This is the last picture I took of the Diamond lace shrug. As you can see it was still blocking. Hopefully on my next day off the man will help me with some better pictures. Even though it is still pretty hot here.. there seems to be a little coolness to the air. Maybe because it rains for about 30 minutes every afternoon. If it's a pretty day out hopefully I can get some pictures outside. Below is a picture of just that sort of rain which decided to pore down right when we were about to leave wholefoods and of course it was sunny a few minutes before so the umbrella was in the car....

paint & knit..paint & knit

              Lately I have been feeling more like painting on my days off. It's proving to be very relaxing. I used to paint quite a bit but started knitting more than anything else. It's nice to split up my time between the two. My newest project was repainting an antique cabinet in my breakfast room. Years ago my daughter had painted a mermaid on it and I think it was time for a make over. I have lots of photos of the mermaid so nothing will be lost. I wanted a little more updated look. We are planing on purchasing a new table and chairs in the very near future and I was thinking  white wood chairs with a black table with some solid white dishes. I think the over all effect will be pretty. I also added faux marble to the top. All that is left is a coat of varnish.

 As you can see my Diamond Rib Lace shrug is on the last few rows. After I varnish the cabinet today I plan to finish the ribbing on the last armhole and then wash and block it so I will be able to wear it this week to work over some pretty tank tops. Like most jobs in the area sleeveless shirts are not in dress code.

 This is the change of seasons in the retail business and every week now we are getting new inventory for early fall. This strange looking shoe just came in at work and I tried it on. It's not my size but you get the idea. It reminds me of something from the 1920's.