Feeling the love

This is the extent of my valentines enthusiasm this year. A red carnation that my boss gave me to wear in my hair at work and a pink ruffly dress that I sent to Karlie. I also made the best chocolate chip cookies and sent most of them to my family.

My sister in law texted me yesterday that Karlie had worn the Christmas dress that I made her to school. I felt a little bad that I hadn't mailed this sooner so that she could have worn it yesterday, but I'm glad she likes the other one so much. This is the same pattern with ruffle knit added to the bottom, so she ought to love this one even more.

Work was hectic and the holidays there kind of ruin them for me personally. It is just so busy and exhausting that you have no energy left to do anything unless you have planned in advance and I'm not good at that. Last year I was working in floral on Valentines, so I saw it from a different perspective this time.  It was so funny to see all the men gathering around looking dazed and confused.  I was lucky to open yesterday and was able to enjoy the lovely sunshine with a cup of tea and my new Saveur Magazine in the backyard after work.

Happy belated Valentine's day!
I'm off today, recovering and getting stuff done around the house and errands run.

ps, I got this picture of Karlie wearing her dress to a birthday party.

Plant Life

Part of my Year of the Home New Years declaration has been sprucing up the house by bringing in more house plants. They really make me happy and give a more finished look to a room. Instant upgrade! I'm not usually good with houseplants, but do much better with my gardens. I'm trying to become a better caretaker to my indoor plants since they bring so much joy to my life.


I have been reminding myself of my PawPaw with my plants. He never met a plant that he didn't try to divide and multiply. I only do that with the easy ones, like succulents. I have my little pot full of succulent rootings by the window and check on their progress regularly. I love to see them grow!

Karlie's Princess Canopy

I'm finally getting around to sharing the Princess Canopy that I made for Karlie for Christmas. I had seen a pattern for such a thing but it was out of print and rather than spend $15 for one on ebay I just made it up and figured it out myself. I used an 18" embroidery hoop for the base. The curtains are from Ikea and I already had them on hand. I was able to machine sew them onto the hoop. The cone and zigzag at the top took some calculating. I used this tutorial to figure out the dimensions of the fabric cone. For the zigzag portion I measured the circumference of the hoop and then drew out a pattern for the zigzags. I cut two pieces and sewed them right sides together catching the tassels at each point. I love how it turned out and I hope Karlie loves it too.

The pillow is made up mostly of fabrics that I had on hand and have used for projects for her in the past. I bought short pieces of a bunch of trims and just played around with the layout until I was happy with it.
 

She was not feeling like posing for pictures and was being quite silly.

I love making things for Karlie and feel like every time I do it is the cutest thing I have ever made. This one was no exception and even Frank agreed that it was over the top cute and that the tassels added that finished touch! I'm hoping to get a little something made for her for Valentines too.

The 10K that I'm running is less than three weeks away, eek! Frank and I went to my new favorite outdoor spot in town, Sansom Park on Saturday. The weather was absolutely perfect and we hiked around for about an hour. I hadn't been for a jog in over a week because I got sick last week. I ran up hill as much as I could and hope to do that again next weekend. I just love it. The trails are really well maintained and there are ten miles of them to explore. You an hike down to Lake Worth and it is really beautiful. I'm going to get as many runs in as I can this week while the weather is so nice.

A Scarf for me

My lovely friend Robin gave me a gift certificate to Madtosh Crafts for my birthday. I used it for this gorgeous Tosh Vintage yarn. I think this is the nicest yarn I have ever worked with. I picked the yarn first and then had to find an appropriate pattern. That was hard! I spent weeks obsessing and having such a hard time choosing but finally went with the Saroyan scarf. It really isn't hard at all and is a perfect intro to lace knitting. It is going faster than expected too. I can't wait to wear it with my gray jacket, I picked the color just for that.

Unrelated to knitting, but exciting none the less, my husband Frank and his friend John have just launched a Band Camp page for their new musical venture, Wire Nest.  Check it out, you just might dig it.

Cathcing up

This month is flying by. My computer died a few weeks ago and I am now sharing Frank's computer, so I'm back up and running.

I went down to Austin with my dad at the first of the month to see my family very briefly. We drove down late in the day and the sunset was so beautiful. It was one of those sunsets that lasts forever and keeps changing. I couldn't take my eyes off of the sky.

The whole reason for such a quick trip to Austin (only 24 hours) was to take this princess her Christmas gifts. She was supposed to have come up to visit with my parents but my mom got sick so that didn't happen. We gave her a Snow White barbie and she just had to put on her Snow White costume as soon as she opened it. Sorry for the blurry pictures, but I think they're still pretty cute. I made her a canopy for her bed and a pretty pillow that I will share soon.

I went for a run today and did almost six miles in just over an hour (1:12) and that was with a lot of walking.  The cowtown 10K is exactly one month away and I have two goals, mainly I want to be able to run the whole thing.  My second goal is to do it in an hour, but that one is not as important.  If I run the whole way I don't care so much about speed, but an hour would be nice to achieve.  I feel like it is getting easier again, after taking a month off and struggling to get back into running.  We went to a local park on Lake Worth Sunday afternoon and I ran on the trails.  That was a great workout, and I hope to do it again soon.

Year of the Home

Frank and I had a lovely day off together this past week. It was rainy and cold and we set off on an adventure. We hit a few of our favorite thrift stores searching for treasures and enjoyed lovely cappuccinos together. A simple day off is a rare treat for us and I sure enjoyed it.



I was out for a jog the other day and it hit me that in 2012 I became a knitter and a jogger. Both things did not come easy or naturally to me, but were things that I wanted to conquer for a long time. With practice, patience and persistence I did indeed achieve what seemed beyond my reach. I'm really proud of those things and hope to continue to jog and knit. The jogging is definitely the more challenging one. I started up again this week after a month off. I signed up for the Cowtown 10K and have a little over a month to train. Since I'm not where I was before the month off I have a ways to go.

I looked back to this time last year and I hadn't declared any resolutions so much as a general goal.  I had declared 2012 the year of Finishing Unfinished Projects.  I'm not sure I pulled through on that one, though I would still like to keep that goal.  Instead it became the year of Achieving what seemed out of reach.  That's fine by me.

For 2013 I would like to make this the Year of the Home.  I love to knit and sew and often do for others or for clothing for myself.  I want to work on loving our old house more and making it a place full of handcrafted loveliness.  I'm more of a planner than a doer and that may not change.  I actually enjoy the planning part of crafting and home projects.  However, I do hope to have more doing in 2013.

Enjoy your weekend!
I'm off to work soon but will have another day off with Frank tomorrow.
xo
Ashley

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Yes, I know Christmas is long gone and New Years has passed. I'm a little behind, okay? I couldn't let the holidays just slip out of mind without sharing my little bit of holiday cheer. It was a quite Christmas and New Years for us. We weren't able to see my family, which was strange for me. I'm going to Austin for a couple of days to make up for that and to say a quick hello to one of my best friends. I did a lot of baking in between the craziness of work. I didn't give out cookies to as many friends as usual, but did take a lot of them to work. It was fun because I wasn't the only one sharing baked goods in the days leading up to Christmas.

I finished my felt garland and LOVE it! I saw the idea on pinterest and it worked perfectly. I cut circles from wool felt and then sewed them together with invisible thread. So cute and it came out a lot longer than I expected.

I couldn't resist one new ornament, a Mariachi Kitty. This is the first year that we have had Roberta at Christmas and we needed a cat ornament for her. The guitar is a bonus because that is Frank's instrument.
 

It snowed on Christmas day! By the time we drove home from dinner at our friends' house there was a pretty good amount on the ground, well for Fort Worth, Texas!

We spent New Years at Frank's aunts party but didn't stay too late.  Frank said I was asleep on the couch before midnight, I think that's a first for me on New Years.

I haven't made any resolutions yet. I haven't run for several weeks as I hurt my leg, then between the cold and the craziness of the holidays I took a break. My leg is better but it's still cold. I need some proper layers and some motivation to get out there in the cold! I really do miss running and after all the cookies I ate the past few weeks I really need to get back to it. So I guess running through the winter will be one of my resolutions.