The Winners!!!

Now announcing the winners for the Blogaversary prizes! David randomly drew numbers and our winners are......Corvus, winning my hand-spun yarn, and scottishbunny2003, snagging David's sweet photo.

Thanks so much for joining in on this Blogaversary celebration. I have so enjoyed reading all of your comments, thank you so very much and keep them coming.

Don't forget to give David a little love over at his Etsy shop. And stay tuned, I'll be back next week with some knitting updates, Christmas present plans, and new recipes.

Blogaversary!

What a busy day. Lots of work at work, grocery shopping after work, and then I felt the need to be a foodie till my about 9:30pm. I made myself a pork chop with roasted asparagus and honey balsamic glazed carrots (yum). Following that I canned six jars of strawberry jam and made olive and sun-dried tomato tapenade. But believe it or not today's post isn't about food.... it is my blogaversary!

It has been two whole years of blogging, unbelievable. In honor of my two years typing I decided to have a sweet give away for all you faithful readers (and the newbies too).

Fun thing number 1 to Give Away:
Hand Spun, Hand Dyed Yarn

This lovey skein over here on the right is 320 yards of my personal spindle spun super wash wool. It is called Sapphire Rising.

Fun thing number 2 to Give Away:
The HDR Photo Above

In honor of my two years I'm gonna give my hubby a little boost as he prepares to open his Etsy shop this week (since there isn't anything there just yet have a look at his Flickr)! Some lucky winner will receive an 8x12 photo of the gorgeous fence and sunset shown above.

How do you win these exciting items you ask? Well, let me tell you.

Leave a comment with "Yarn!" or "Photo!" or both! The two winners will be posted on Friday.

I plan to post each day this week and with each additional post you can make another comment that will be entered in the drawing. So, that means you could have your name entered up to five times!

What are you waiting for my friend, post your comment and share the fun with your friends.

Bloggers

So yesterday David happened to notice that there was a book signing in Denver that he had been interested in and since one of our reasons for moving closer to a city was to actually attend events like this we decided to go.

The signing was at the Tattered Cover Bookstore. I had heard about this bookstore from reading The Yarn Harlot's blog (that is where she had her book signing) and it sounded like a cool place, and it definitely was. We had a nice time and some good laughs.

Anyhow, the book being signed was Cake Wrecks:When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong. The book originated from the Cake Wrecks blog. If you haven't seen the blog before you should check it out, there are some pretty funny mistakes out there.

I got quite a bit of sock knitting done at the book signing last night, that was a nice change. I am closing in on the Barn Raising Quilt! I have two squares left to knit and I have 1/4 of the seaming done! It looks pretty cool if I do say so myself - and I realized from looking at back at my blog posts I started this in February! It is no wonder I am antsy to finish it up. Photos to come!

Espresso Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

Yes, you read the title correctly, heaven. So yummy. I mentioned awhile ago that I started using Google Reader to keep up with some blogs. Since doing that I have been introduced to the wonderful world of foodie blogs. One of my favorites is Smitten Kitchen - if you haven't read much of her stuff I highly recommend it.

So while I was on my travels I was determined to try her Espresso-Chocolate Shortbread Cookies because I had read about them before I left and almost everywhere I was going had a bigger kitchen than mine (and a KitchenAid mixer - love).

At our second stop, my in-laws, I got the chance to do a little baking. It is a good thing I made them when I did because her oven went out the next day. Although it may not have been a tragedy to have to eat all that buttery dough plain, anyhow we didn't have to.

These cookies were really good for anyone who likes coffee even a little bit. Few friends who picked them up were expecting gingerbread so that was a little bit shocking to taste coffee and chocolate, but they still enjoyed them. So give them a try!

I'm messing with new looks... is this color too intense?

Featured

Take a minute to check out Dragonfly Gems blog, she has featured many artists and today I am one of them!

You Can WIN!

Check out subu's blog - today you have a chance to win my lovely handspun pocket! Go take a look and enter to win!!!

Manic Monday Craft Giveaway

I've been Tagged!

I have been blog tagged by yellowfish and so I shall share seven random things with you...

#1 I live near this mountain - Blanca Peak

#2 I once peed in a field of land mines, oh Mozambique.

#3 I am a full time volunteer working as an Immigrant Advocate.

#4 I never ordered a burger at a fast food restaurant until I was a Senior in High School, what can I say, I like chicken.


#5 I love to cook and experiment with new recipes.

#6 I can't stand it when my husband picks at his beard, which is ALL the time, ha ha.




#7 I am a recovering camp-aholic - yeah Menno Haven ...... I was a camper since I was 8, a staff member and counselor forever, met my husband there, got engaged there, AND got married there!


Alright time to tag seven other folks: hilo verde, Cute Indie Finds, Ophelia Miller Boutique, The Shetland Trader, goshdarnknit, Yarn Miracle, and Indigo Mouse.

Don't forget to VOTE on the NEW POLL!!!

The Spirit of Giving

I'm in the spirit. Soon you'll be seeing this purple pocket on subu's blog give away. Here is the blog address so that you can get your chance to win one of her many give aways - http://www.suburose.com/blog.

Also this week I decided to gift this recycled silk hat to a dear friend of mine who is working very hard to make the lives of troubled teens better. This friend is also the one who first inspired me to work with recycled silk.

So I have taken these listing out of my shop, but there are still many items to choose from, and I am still up for custom orders. Feel free to come by and have a look! Enjoy!

Thinking About Me, and I need YOUR help

It's true, I have actually been thinking of projects to do for myself! Crazy, I know. Since I started knitting hard-core in August or so I have been cranking out gifts for Christmas and products for Etsy - both things that I love to do. Don't get me wrong I have made myself a pair of fingerless gloves and a hat (that I plan to take apart and redo), but really that is about it. So here are my thoughts...

I recently spun my first ever bit of yarn, and I think it is actually good enough to knit with, surprisingly. With that I plan to make myself an adorable French Press cozy to keep my coffee steamy.

Also, the other day as I was cruising the internet I found this amazing blog, The Shetland Trader. She has designed some fabulous produce bags that I plan to make for myself. The only snag I am running into with that is I don't have the opportunity to get nice hemp yarn unless I order it online - so that is going to take a bit more effort.

Lastly, I want to make myself some leg warmers. Not to wear with tights and a long bright pink sweater, but to wear on a daily basis as I freeze here in the valley. Tonight they are calling for -29 so you can understand why I might find leg warmers to be useful. My high hope is to spin the yarn for these leg warmers, but here is my request from you... cool leg warmer patterns, preferably free and online. So share with me what you find and I'll keep you all posted with my pattern choice and progress. Thanks for your help (in advance)!

Featured - yay!

This week myself and my earrings have been featured in a couple places so, of course, I wanted to share them with you.

Dharma Designs featured me this past Tuesday on her blog with a little interview.

Also, today my Fiesta Earrings (the wooden bead pair) were featured on Wickedly Chic in their Daily Ditties section. You have to scroll down a little, but they are there.

Thanks for the support from all of you!

where to begin

So I have been thinking about this blog thing, and well I do really love to write I just have never really used a computer as my venue. And since I just opened my lil' etsy shop and there are a lot of things that inspire me to create I've decided to write about it - so here I come!