Love this cartoon! There was a contest on Knitting Daily to come up with the caption. See here for more.

"Never stand too close to a knitter when you

have an end dangling."

Manic Monday #139

Manic Monday #139


What is the greatest value that guides your life? As I think about this question, many things come to mind. The "Golden Rule" I learned as a child seems to rise to the top, ...."Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". It's really about treating others with respect and it's one of the Principles of Partnership we talk about in my work..."Everyone desires respect".

Fill in the blank: If I could be anybody besides myself, I would be _____. I don't really desire to be someone else, but if forced to be someone else, I'd definitely choose to be 10-15 years younger.

What is one item in your house that you should really throw out but probably never will? I don't like throwing things out (except things like the leftovers in the back of the fridge) but there are MANY things that I should recycle by giving away. I need to have a major clean out of my closet and give away 50%+ of the clothing I own, because I have an obscene amount of everything in there.

Southeast Idaho Treasury

Kate from KatieBlairDesigns made this lovely Treasury West of SE Idaho items and included my neck warmer and my Etsy card case. She makes lovely little note cards in her shop, check it out. She and I will be among the SEI Etsy sellers who are participating in the ISU Holiday Fair, November 7th. If you are in or near Pocatello, come by the Student Union Building for this annual event which always has wonderful items. It's our first year participating, I've always been a customer before. You should click on the photo for a larger view.

Stick Your Neck Out

My neck warmers are featured in three treasuries on Etsy today:




Don't know what a treasury is? Go here.

Fall on the Boise River

This photo was taken on Thursday at Kathryn Albertson Park in Boise. I love visiting there in the fall, it's gorgeous!

Welcome Visitors from Derfwad Manor

Do you know what a derfwad is? Yesterday, I was fortunate to be profiled on Derfwad Manor, the blog of the popular Mrs. G, as part of her series “Slow Cook Thursday.” Click on over, and check it out. There is a recipe and a poem and bits about me and my creations.

I have long been a fan of Mrs. G who posts about home schooling, the world as she sees it, her secret boyfriends, with her clever take on all manner of topics. Check out her post on Home schooling, and two I particularly liked: the one about starting a Women’s Colony where Johnny Depp and George Clooney are the houseboys and this one on not answering questions in the Vice Presidential debate. Her Ass Project '08 inspired me to have my own workout challenge.

After that, be sure to read through some of Mrs. G’s other posts. I guarantee you'll want to return for more.

Idaho Treasury

Check out this nice treasury by JeniferGlagowski  Sorry, I couldn't capture it all since I am using my laptop. 

THE BEST OF IDAHO

Are you a chocolate champ like me?

I took the quiz and the results are in, I'm a chocolate "champ". I got 8 out of 10 right on the chocolate quiz you can find here:

What's Your Chocolate IQ?

Sleeping Beauty

It's been a busy week. I spent two days at meetings in Boise, then flew to Southern California where I am happily ensconced in my "grandma" role, taking care of my 2 1/2month old grand daughter. At the moment she is a sleeping beauty so I have a few minutes to post to my blog. Yesterday was a whirlwind with her, I now know why nature doesn't let women my age become first-time mothers, we just don't have the energy for it.

No Manic Monday post this week so I went exploring and found this link for Friday fill ins.

Friday Fill in #94:

1. Follow the smell of fresh baked bread.
2. My knitting is something I always take with me on vacation.
3. To achieve your goals, you must know what they are.
4. I watch my grand-daughter sleep and am filled with hope and worry, hope about her future and worry about our country and world, is something I'd like you to know about me.
5. I have things to do and places to go, but nothing more important than watching my grand-daughter sleep.
6. Hope floats.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to seeing my son, tomorrow my plans include going to the yarn store and Sunday, I want to read stories to my grand-daughter.

Running Away from Home

I am excited to make a trip to California to help care for my 2 month old grand-daughter, but if that wasn't enough to make me want to run away from home, this scene this morning added motivation. It's October 11 and our first snow here in SE Idaho. It's cold and windy, too.

I'm thinking I may get lots of knitting done while I travel for two weeks (I have a business trip at both ends of my pleasure trip) to Boise and California. So, this weekend I need to decide on some projects to take and do some yarn shopping. I can't seem to keep alpaca neck warmers in stock, so I think I definitely need to knit more of those in different colors. I'm off to shop for yarn and for some jewelry findings for my scrabble pendants.

Do you want to run away from home, too?

Featured Blogger for October

this month's Featured EtsyBlogger is bfbeads!!

The peson behind bfbeads is Jen - one of the original members of the EtsyBloggers street team. She actually has 2 shops.

Her blog is Mama's Magic, and she features an Etsian every week on her blog in a series entitled "Mama's Magic Friday Feature".

She sells baby friendly beads/nursing necklaces like he ones shown above in her first shop and whimsical jewelry in her second shop.

Knitting to Relax

This week's blogger topics include something about my work outside Etsy OR what I do to relax. Well, my day job is certainly not what I do to relax. Knitting probably relaxes me more than anything and I liked to spend some time each day knitting. Some knitting projects that involve reading from a graph or complex patterns aren't as relaxing for me something familiar or simple.


I've made so many of my cabled neck warmers and these little bags, that I can really relax when I knit them. I'm working on a new project right now which I'll be posting in a few days.

The neck warmer is a recent custom order and the beautiful buttons came from this shop on Etsy.

Button, Button

I'm afraid I'm developing a new addictive, time-killer, making Treasury posters for Etsy. I got the one above posted today and you can see it here for the next couple of days.

New product for craft shows

If you've spent much time on Etsy, you know that there are a really large number of sellers who have pendants and other items made from scrabble tiles. They're adorable. I bought one from Ryan(Girl) at Littleput Books who was the first to make and market them.

Jerry and I have been playing around with making some for local craft shows and came up with the idea of making them with custom designs. We'll see where that goes. Here's the prototype using a photo of someones new home. Could be your house, your boyfriend or spouse, your dog or cat, your car, etc. The pendant can be a necklace, key chain, etc. We can also make a scrabble pendant of a map piece of "your city". Contact me using the "send me an email" link on the right side of the blog if you are intersted in one of our custom scrabble tiles.


This will be a fun project for at least the next few weeks.

Comfort Food

With the weather turning cooler and the economic news becoming gloomier and gloomier, I thought some comfort food was in order, so last night I made up my favorite Chicken Pot Pie.

If your mouth is watering sufficiently, here are the easy instructions and notice, it's actually a little more "guiltless" than the traditional recipe:

Deep Dish Chicken Pie

INGREDIENTS:
1 Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie crust
2 T olive oil
½ cup sliced celery
¼ to ½ cup chopped onion
¼ to ½ cup sliced carrot
1 small potato, diced (optional)
1 can “Healthy Request” cream of chicken soup. I also have substituted cream of celery soup
¾ cup low or non fat milk

¼ cup cooking sherry, wine or chicken broth
½ tsp poultry seasoning
¼ tsp pepper
approximately 2 cups cubed cooked chicken (2 large breast halves)

PREPARATION:
· Let pie crust pouch stand at room temperature for 15-20 minutes
· Meanwhile, heat oven to 400. Put oil in Dutch oven or large frying pan. Add celery, onion, and carrot and stir until tender. Add soup, milk/wine, poultry seasoning and pepper. Cook until thoroughly heated. Gently stir in chicken. Pour into glass pie pan.
· Remove crust from pouch. Unfold and place over chicken mixture. Roll up and flute edges. Cut slits in several places
· Bake at 400 for 40-50 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Yum, it even makes good leftovers...that's what's for dinner tonight.

Manic Monday: Manic Monday #137

Manic Monday: Manic Monday #137
What is one thing you admire about each of your parents?
My mother: her creativity
My father: his ability to communicate

Which parts of your home do you like best?
I love the downstairs (basement) which has a large family room, one side is set up for tv watching and the other side is set up with two computers and a work area for my sewing and crafting. The photo above shows one side of the room. We spend most of waking time here or in the kitchen.

Which would you prefer and why? To have every stoplight turn green upon your arrival for the rest of your life or to have one week of the best sex any person ever had?
The stoplight thing is pretty tempting, think how much extra time that would give me!

Aquamarine Tangerine-Wow Colors on Etsy

I've discovered it's really fun to put together a collection of beautiful Etsy items into a poster sketch and try to get it posted as a treasury. Here's my new creation, aren't the colors stunning?

Something New for Something Old-Blatant Self-Promotion

I've added a paypal button to my blog and website so folks can purchase my Cabled Neck Warmer pattern directly from my blog. You'll find it in the right margin to the top of my blog. This is an original knitting pattern I created and started selling in February of 2008 and I've sold almost 100 copies to date.

This pattern makes a great first cable pattern so if you have basic knitting skills (knit, purl, cast on and off) you can make it. Free technical assistance is also available via email from me if you run into trouble. I'm also selling the finished neck warmers in my Etsy store so if you don't knit or don't want to bother, I can make you one in alpaca, an acrylic/wool blend, cotton, or 100% acrylic.

Etsy Love

I reached another milestone with my Etsy shop yesterday, 600 people have marked my shop as a "favorite".

And today, I found my felted needlebook (2nd down on right) in this lovely treasury. Thanks, flightsofwhimsy! I am also feeling Etsy love because I am in the process of a couple of custom orders for my neck warmers.

Tagged by LittlePaperDog

I was tagged by LittlePaperDog, an Etsyseller who's also a member of Etsy Bloggers and my nieghbor from Utah: http://littlepaperdog.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-to-etsy-street-team-scene.html

I am to tell 6 things about myself that other people don't know and then tag 5 others, so here goes:

1) I've lived in two Canadian provinces and six states in my life, but my longest residence has been in SE Idaho. Nevertheless, I am yearning to live somewhere warmer as winter approaches.

2) I returned to playing tennis after a 20 year hiatus and enjoy playing doubles in a local tennis league. I play at a "3.5" level which means I'm not great, but I'm good enough to enjoy the game.

3) My "day job" consists of being a Regional Manager for the Department of Health and Welfare. My region is a seven county area in SE Idaho and the programs I oversee include child welfare, developmental disabilities, and infant/toddler.

4) I spent one summer in Japan and a year in Europe during my college years. I memorized (and subsequently forgot) a large number of Japanese kanji (characters). At one time, I did know enough Japanese to carry on a simple conversation.

5) My favorite snack foods are rocky road ice cream and buttered popcorn.

6) I once went on a low carb diet, but it was agony since I do love my carbs. I make bread at least once a week and can't imagine life without good bread.

And, in turn, I'm giving the following folks an opportunity to tell us 6 things about themselves:
Berlin'swhimsy
The Kniterella View
KatieBlairDesigns
Wenjomatic
Winemakerssister

Wordless Wednesday-Yosemite

Photo by JJ--Click to view large!