Just a quick question from the couch tonight.  Is it just me or is American Gladiators the most homo-erotic thing on TV right now?

I know it has been two weeks since I last wrote.  I have been working through my sadness in losing Jesus.  The house still seems empty without him.  I have taken to sitting on the couch with pillows on my side because it doesn't feel right with nothing there. 

 

In other news, both my best friend and my sister in law had babies this week.  Erica's son was born on Monday evening.  She had a little boy who is very beautiful and sweet.  Andrea, my sister-in-law had her daughter on Wednesday afternoon.  From her photos, she is a beautiful healthy little girl.  I haven't met her yet as my whole family lives in Wisconsin.  All the babies have taken my mind off my sadness, but in other ways, they have made me feel more sad and empty.  

As a gift for Erica, I made her a bracelet with the birthstones of everyone in her family.  It's not really a mother's bracelet, but more of a family bracelet.  It has garnet, amythyst, quartz (I didn't have diamond beads for April) and aquamarine.  It turned out very nice.  I had also made her a pair of mittens that I was making for her from yarn I got on sale at our LYS and finished them in time to bring them to her in the hospital.  

I am still working on my sweater.  Last night I bumped my elbow somehow and ended up pulling a couple rows of stitches off my needle.  After about an hour of messing around I figured that I can't fix it myself and will have to go in the the LYS on Tuesday to have the owner help me out. 

On Thursday I was supposed to start my Jewelry Making II class at the Sharon Arts Center, but it was cancelled because not enough people signed up.  Instead I am taking a metalsmithing class with the same instructor.  I think it will really help my metal shaping ability and will hopefully give me more jewelry inspiration.

My next big project is getting my house clean for the upcoming visit from my mom and sister.  

Just a quick entry to say that last night Jesus lost his fight against Congestive Heart Failure.  He was a wonderful little doggie and I will miss him with all my heart.

Yay!  I am done with knitting and crocheting for other people for now!  As my reward, I bought enough yarn to make myself a sweater.  The yarn is a beautiful rust color with little bits of yellow in the fiber.  The pattern is by Norah Gaughan.  A picture of the sweater is here.  I am about two inches into the back of the sweater.  I did have to pull it apart three times for dropped stitches and the like.  I went to the knitting lunch at the yarn store today and bought the UGLIEST yarn ever.  It called to me to make something fabulous from it.  It is varigated and sewn together with metallic thread.  I don't know how to describe it better than that.  Beverly, the shop owner, gave me a very strange look when I went to buy it.  I don't mind. 

Next up, I am going to try to get all my new jewelry onto Etsy.  I just have to photograph it.  I hate doing the photography.  It is such a pain in the butt.  I try to make a ton of stuff before I haul out my photo tent and lights to take pictures.  

On January 15, I am starting an advanced jewelry making class at the Sharon Arts Center.  I should be a lot of fun.  Among the new things I will be learning is setting faceted stones!  Can't wait to post photos of everything I'll be making.

Merry Christmas Eve Eve!  The last week has been insane finishing up the last of the holiday crafting.  I also spent a lot of time at the post office shipping off the family's gifts.  Thank you post office employees!  We have been having crazy insane weather lately.  I think we have had more snow this month than we had in the last two years combined.  The snow is taller than Jesus, but he is a good boy and has no problem going out since we shoveled the grass for him.  Tomorrow we have been lucky enough to have lived with Jesus for two years.  

Currently crafting...I am working on another baby blanket for one of Patrick's co-workers who is expecting.  I got the Vanna's Choice Lion Brand yarn and it works up pretty nice.  I recently got my invitation to join Ravelry.com which is awesome!  I am so impressed by that site.  I was actually planning on starting some sort of journal to catalogue all of my projects.  Ravelry has all the tools to keep track of finished projects, wips, pattern books, and needles and hooks.  There are also lots of great forums and groups to join.  I highly recommend getting on the waiting list (I had to wait about three weeks to get the invite) if you knit, crochet or spin.  

Just a quick post tonight to announce that my first felting project worked.  I can't say what it is because it is a gift, but it is AWESOME!  I am so excited I just had to post about it here.  I crocheted, threw it in the washer with an old towel and magic.  It would have really sucked if it hadn't worked right as it took me two days to do the crocheting.  

I'll post pics after Christmas.  I will say that I took a couple of patterns from SNB: Happy Hooker and mixed them up a little bit to create a fabulous new item.

YAY!

If you knew me and saw me recently, you would know that my butt is much smaller (not really) because I've been working it off!  This year, because I haven't been working, I am making most of our Christmas gifts and am getting close to being finished.  Dollar-wise, we are spending less than $500 for all of our family and friends' gifts.  Usually we spend about two to three times that amount.  I am very happy with how everything is turning out.  I'll post more than a taste (see previous post) after the holidays are over.

Saturday night was my first performance with the Souhegan Valley Chorus and the Valleyaires at the Nashua Holiday Stroll.  Everything went well except for my out-of-tune "solo" during the Valleyaires performance of "Hang the Holly."

Our big concert is on December 9th at 7:30pm at Souhegan High School in Amherst.  Directions are available at the Souhegan Valley Chorus Website

I had my last knitting class on Thursday. Everyone graduated! The instructor said that she was very impressed with all the work we all did. Everyone in the class signed up for knitting with a teacher starting a week after Thanksgiving until the end of the year. I am going to make mittens. I am excited!

I am still hard at work making Christmas gifts for everyone. I finished my sister's and I am half finished with my brother's gift. I just finished my last craft swap on Craftster for a while. I had the very best partner. She sent me a great package. Especially this apron she made out of her husband's old jeans.



Thanks Jennyleigh!

Recently, I signed the Buy Handmade Pledge (see sidebar). I am very happy I did so. This year, as I tried to start making a living through my jewelry, I realized how many amazing craftspeople and artists are in this world who deserve our support. I am going to try to buy handmade for all the gifts that I don't actually make myself. Back to working my butt off!

Happy Veteran's Day. I want to thank all the service people who have given their lives and their freedom to ensure the freedom of people all over the world. Regardless of how I feel about the war or about war in general the troops deserve our support and our respect. I spent three years in the US Army. Those years gave me an insight into what life with limited amounts of freedom is like. Every day I am incredibly thankful for the freedoms so many people in this country take for granted.

To the woman who left the thank you card on my windshield at the mall, thank you, it touched me.

In crafty news, I have been working very hard making Christmas gifts and just playing around with beads. I took a whole bunch of old glass beads and made a cool bracelet:



Here's some hints of the crocheting I have been doing:





Jealous much? Bet you want more than taste, huh? Too bad, so sad!

And last but not least, a cute blanket and hat combo I made for a friend's baby:





OK, so I have one more picture, a gratuitous shot of my baby sleeping:

The in-laws have gone home and life is now returning to normal. I am knitting knitting knitting for my class and I found out that after I was practicing for a week that I was doing it all wrong! I know what I am doing now for the most part and am about a third of the way through my scarf.



I am so awesome. Soon, there will be no craft I cannot do! HA!

Happy November! I know it has been a while, but not a lot of crafty things have been happening. My in-laws are visiting for a long weekend so most of my time is devoted to them.

I went to my first knitting class last week and knitting is much easier than I thought it would be. I look forward to making lots of lovely things with all the gorgeous yarn that is available in this world.

In doggie news, Jesus is doing well. He is on a low sodium diet and on lots of medication to keep his heart in check and to keep his lungs from filling up with fluid. He is extra spoiled and now gets to sleep in bed with mommy and daddy every night. He has to be touching one of us at all times. He especially loves all the attention he is getting from his grandma and grandpa right now.

I got another sale today. Unfortunately the good news was kind of marred by the fact that my Chihuahua was in the hospital for two days and was diagnosed with end stage congestive heart failure. According to the vet, the average length of time a dog can be expected to live with the condition is about six months. This news was especially hard since we lost our other dog, Petie, in June to kidney failure. Our new goal is to spoil our little Jesus with lots of love and affection and make the most of every day we have left with him. I know he'll be here with me for a while longer, but my heart is still breaking over the thought of losing him.

Yippee!! I got my first Etsy sale on Friday! I was so excited I freaked my husband out in the shower.

In other news, I spent most of the day yesterday making origami for new jewelry pieces. I am still working on the origami so I haven't made any new pieces yet. Tomorrow, Patrick and I are heading down to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts to see the Jewelry by Artists exhibit. I am then going over to my friend Kate's house for a little stitch and bitch session. Should be a good day. We were going to go to the museum today, but with the Red Sox craziness we decided to stay out of the city. Hopefully I will get some inspiration as I am kind of in a jewelry making slump right now.

Yes, I know. I promised that I would post one new item a day for the month of October on my Etsy site. I see you checking there every day for the past four days wondering where oh where is the newest jewelry offering? Sorry to say, I ran out of items on Sunday and haven't had a chance to make anything new until yesterday. I will be working all day tomorrow as well so expect more items out this weekend.

As you can see, I have also decided to forego proper punctuation for the time being. I don't have time to do everything! Gosh! What do you people expect of me?

In other news, three crocheted baby projects are finished! One has already been delivered (and was well loved as far as I could see) and the other two will be mailed out shortly. I also signed up for a knitting class which starts in two weeks. Hopefully I won't impale myself on the needles, or poke an eye out or something. I can be a klutz.

I am working my booty off! In the next couple of months there are babies babies babies being born to many friends and family members. So I have been crocheting like a madwoman. I'm not going to mention what I am making or post photos yet because a lot of the receipients of the items might be reading this blog. I'm also making lots of Christmas presents and jewelry. Come January, I'm going to need a vacation for my hands.

I have to admit, my favorite part about crochet is that I can do it while I am sitting on the couch in front of the TV. I am such a TV-aholic. I'm from that generation whose parents just tossed their kids in front of a TV as a babysitter. Not that that's a bad thing, just an observation. Right now I'm watching the Red Sox kick Cleveland's butt in game 1 of the ALCS.

In other news, I have posted new items everyday so far in October on my Etsy shop. I also posted an ad on Craig's List and sent out some e-mails. I should post some bulletins on Myspace as well. Hopefully I'll start getting sales soon.

Sorry for the random rambling of this post, just wanted to remind everyone that I am still here...

Feminist Swap items
Originally uploaded by coveykeating

I guess I promised to post everything I sent for the feminist swap. I think I sent a lot of great items and received TONS of complements from everyone in the swap, except for my swap partner. I have no idea when/if she will even be sending a package in return since I haven't heard from her in a while. I really hope she likes everything she received and the reason she hasn't been in contact is because she is so absolutely amazed and astounded by everything I sent that she has been rendered speechless (or e-mail-less or unable to type or something). Yeah, we'll say that.

So here's everything I sent: I sent the "Fashion First Aid Bag" from the Stitch and Bitch Happy Hooker, a Wonder Woman Accordian book, feminist quote artwork, and a female symbol necklace. I made the pendant out of sterling silver and the necklace itself is amethyst, rose quartz and swarovski crystal strung on silk.

As I said, I hope she liked it.

Autumn is here! Patrick and I had quite an adventure this weekend. We drove up to Mt. Washington and went up the auto road. I really know why people proudly drive around with the "This Car Climbed Mt. Washington" bumpersticker. It took us about a half an hour to get to the top. At the summit it was about 35 degrees and there were 75 mph wind gusts. Not only that, the summit was completely covered in clouds. I could barely walk and I couldn't see five feet in front of me. On the way back down the mountain we stopped to cool our brakes and to take pictures of the beautiful views. We have been living here in New Hampshire for three years and this was our first trip to really experience some of the lovely natural scenery.

The scenery was so very lovely that I was inspired. I have been making tons of jewelry and will be posting one new item in my etsy store every day in the month of October. Keep watch, I think you'll be pleased with my fall offerings.

Patrick worked SO hard on the pirate costumes for us, I had to do something in return. So I found a pattern for an amigurumi chihuahua and whipped it up for him. I had a lot of fun doing it! It turned out very well.

I actually changed his eyes to big black buttons, but I don't have pictures of the update. Patrick named him "Buttons" and he now lives on his desk at work. I'm not sure Jesus liked him very much, but they do have matching ears!!

A quick update since I am trying to blog more. I have finished all my items for the feminist swap and will be sending the package out tomorrow. I am really happy about how everything turned out.

The pirate party was a great success. Patrick and I won for best costume and the flintlock pistols were a huge hit. Everyone posed for pictures with them. We had a great time.

Happy September! I have been pretty busy lately. I had poison ivy all over my arms and that kept me itching for a couple of weeks. Nasty stuff. Labor Day weekend, I put hardwood flooring in our living room. It is so beautiful! Jesus did not like it one bit. He acted like he couldn't jump on the couch from the hardwood even though he had no problem jumping up when Patrick and I weren't looking. We bought an area rug and his life is so much easier now. Spoiled dog!

In crafty news, I have been busy working on items for a feminist swap I am doing on Craftster. I will post pictures after I send as I want my partner to be surprised and I don't know if she reads this blog. I am making some amazing things and I am very excited about sending them off to her. I am also trying to start making jewelry again. I haven't done much lately since this summer was so hectic. Entering September was like a breath of fresh air...I can finally get back to my routine. I am back to the gym everyday, I joined a local choir and the Nashua Pastoral Care Center Gourmet and Auction committee has started meetings.

Tomorrow night some of our friends are having their annual costume party. Last year the theme was "High School Graduation" and everyone had to dress up like they did in high school. This year, it's "Pirates." My husband, being the historically accurate man that he is, insisted on getting me a (real) cutlass and a (real) flintlock pistol. He is also making my costume from scratch. I can't wait until it's done! I'm going to be one hot pirate wench.

I'm busy, my life is going good, and I'm happy right now.