Thirty {A Birthday Giveaway}

We had a little party over the weekend for my 30th birthday and everyone in the family got together to get me two things I've wished for often in the last year:

No more waiting to have yarn wound at the shop, ordering online will be a little easier now that I don't have to consider how much hand-winding will be involved before I can start a project, plus it's so much fun for the boys.


Ender has already wound 4 skeins.


And yes, we've already had the conversation about the swift and winder not being their personal toys...

Thirty feels remarkably like 29 and 28 and 27. . .  but for some reason this year feels like it might have more potential than the last few. Its hard to describe since everything is just in "plan" mode right now, but I think the general shape of the next several months is a good one.



Want to join me in celebration?


Upon looking through my modest-to-most yarn stash for skeins to wind Ender declared that I have "way too much small yarn" (sock yarn) and he's right.

So I have 2 lovely skeins of Knitpicks Stroll in Wonderland Heather to give away. You certainly don't have to make socks with these, but it is the perfect amount for a cute pair of socks.



Two ways to enter:


:: Leave a comment below and tell me how you celebrated or plan to celebrate your 30th birthday.

:: Subscribe to the blog and leave me a separate comment to let me know you subscribed.



Comments will close on Friday, June 17 at midnight Eastern time and a random winner will be announced on Saturday the 18th. I can ship to Canada or anywhere in the U.S. for this birthday giveaway.

****This giveaway is now closed****

AubreyLaine was our winner- I'm contacting you by email for your address. :)

Return of the Mojo

I think the knitting mojo has returned.

Blurry pic, but last night's "do something every day" equaled half of a little mitt. One more half to go to get a pair!

Mitt Envy [Rav link]

We spent our weekend with a lot of this:

And there may have been a party to celebrate a big day for me. The big three-oh kind.

The big day is really tomorrow... Wanna come back and join in the celebration?

Inspiration

:: What You Need to Teach Your Child to Read. This is pretty much exactly what we do, minus the actual books. We make our own cards, silly sentences, and learn phonics rules on the handy little white board we use for everything. For readers we totally take advantage of the library. The only thing we are a bit different about is the text for readers- if my son will read a whole book about super heroes instead of just one page of another reader I will totally go for the superhero book.


:: The super awesome Sorbetto Top by Collete Patterns. I'm trying very very hard not to start this in keeping with the summer pledge to not start new things when I'm still looking at a stack of old things.




This book has acccompanied me this week to three baseball games, one hospital visit and even to church, y'all! Okay- not into the actual service, but for the car ride to and from.


There is serious goodness in here and I have a strong urge to make it ALL this summer.


I've been told this serious craving for progress in creative areas I've been feeling lately is because there is so little we can do to help my mother-in-law right now. So I'm over-riding that helpless feeling bying doing as much as I can elsewhere.



:: We haven't made butter since last fall. I'm not really sure why, but oh it is so good... Another thing on the "to do" list this summer...


:: Ahhhhh the summer fun list. We haven't made one yet and it's already June 9th! We need to get moving on this one!



Have you run into any inspiration this week?

Quiet

I feel a bit wordless this week.


My mother-in-law had a procedure on Monday and now she is not doing well.


They don't know if she's just sick, if it's the cancer or both, but she has been terribly ill ever since the procedure.


The treatment they were planning is no longer a possibility and they are calling other doctors to discuss whether or not there are any other options available to her.


Will you pray with us?

Do Something Every Day

Dear Erin,


You  have a serious problem.


You love to have a lot of things "in progress" and that means eventually having a lot of things that should truly be classified as "unfinished".

And

And

Just to name a few.

Ahem.

This evidence kind of smacked me in the face when I had to find an important paper on my sewing desk and it took me forever to dig it out. I found myself thinking,

How do I ever get anything done over here?

And the truth is that I just don't. My sewing table has become the place to stack projects in a variety of states of progress instead of a place to actually do the work.


So, I'm making a little challenge to myself. A challenge to take a step forward on a project every day.

My rules:



1. Do Something Every Day.

Seems super simple, right? But if it's so simple, then why is it such a challenge? I know, I know- kids hanging around, work, dinner to make, homeschooling, church activities, that summer baseball schedule...


We have all that here too. I'm also babysitting my 16 month old nephew on the days I'm not working. But I need to make 10 minutes or more every day to work on things. I'm happier when I'm making things and that makes me a better wife and mama.


It can be cutting out pattern pieces, pinning in prep to sew, sewing just a seam or two, knitting a row or two (or more!), weaving in ends on a knitting project that is otherwise complete... I need to do whatever is the next step forward on a project, even if I only have 5 or 10 minutes to do something.



2. Plan time.


If I don't think ahead to find a little gap of time for crafting it just won't happen, especially not with the schedule we have going on this month. There *is* time to be found, but I have to plan to devote it to crafting if 'm going to get anything done.



3. No new projects until I've completed 3 unfinished projects.


I really need to make a dent in my "in progress" pile, and I think I have to narrow myself to only working on those things before I can start anything else.


The only exception to this is Ezra's birthday gift that I need to sew before July 1.


After I've completed 3 "in progress" projects I can only start 1 new thing for each unfinished project completed. I'm trying to be realistic here- I *will* want to start new projects plus I have a few new projects that must be completed at some point this summer so that we will have them to wear in the fall.

Do you have a pile of "in progress" crafting to work on?

Please join in!

Challenges are always more fun when we work together. :)