vacation
Hawaiian adventures
Earlier this summer, one thing led to another and I ended up spending a week of vacation in Hawaii. Yep, one beautiful week in a pacific paradise.
I’m lucky enough to have a lot of vacation time but I didn’t really know what to do or where to go this year. I took a week off on my birthday, so from August 27th do September 2nd and thought I’d figure something out eventually. And finally, one week prior to my vacation, I stumbled on a 600$ plane ticket to Hawaii. Yep. That’s what happened.
I am still amazed at what I saw and experienced there, and to this day I still do not understand why the entire population of the US still hasn’t moved to Hawaii yet… Because I would if I could.
That’s it for now folks, cheers 🙂
Where has summer gone?
Anyone else here feels like June was just yesterday? I swear, I really feel like summer just barely started, but it’s already the end of August, how exactly did that happen? Where was I? Where did summer go? I know, I know – it’s not technically over yet – the end of August and September usually bring some of the best summer has to offer, just before it all goes out with a bang in the fall, when the leaves change in October. And I know that I still have a lot of fun stuff coming in the next few weeks, but somehow I still feel lovelorn – summer felt so short, I want to start it all over again and rekindle the romance.
Oh well… at least, we had some good times. Less than a month ago, I spent a week in Ohio where we took advantage of the great weather and planned all sorts of activities. We spent a day at Put-in-Bay, on Lake Eerie, also visited the beautiful Shedel Gardens in Elmore, OH, went antiquing and yarn shopping and so much more!
Although it’s been fun, I guess I haven’t been making much progress when it comes to knitting, sewing and such but I guess I have made a few bags, started an afghan and a baby blanket. I’m not quite ready to share those yet since but I should have something craft related to share with you next time, I promise! 🙂
Thanks you all folks, and I’ll talk you again soon!
Spring revival
Ok, 4 months is a long time. I have to admit, I really (REALLY) have been neglecting my blog… But then again I guess I’ve been neglecting a lot of things, because in those 4 months, I haven’t used my spinning wheel or my loom, only used my sewing machine for minor clothing repairs and barely made any progress on the WIPs I’ve had on the needles for months.
There could many different reasons behind this general disinterest I have been experiencing towards both crafting and the blog, but I think it’s mostly a mix of bad case of winter blues and a much needed break after completing such a big project as this dress. Add to that the fact that I also fell back into an old love of mine and picked up a couple good books to read, and there you have it – almost nothing to show for the last 4 months.
Actually, that’s not entirely true either because I DID finish one project since January, and that is the Star Anise hat that I started in December.
I also have a couple sweaters on the needles, namely here the Dessine-moi un mouton I showed you in July last year and the striped Snowflake I started early in January using some Berroco Folio I had in stash in color “tan” and “raspberry coulis”.
In other news, I also spent 4 days visiting Washington DC last month, and we had a blast! Although we were a bit late for the cherry blossoms, we still had a lot of fun visiting parks, memorials and monuments and visiting the US Capitol and the weather was just GORGEOUS the whole time we were there. For those interested, here’s a little photo recap of our fun-filled vacation in DC.
So that’s it for now folks, and I surely hope next time won’t be in another 4 months! Cheers!
Texture, oh texture!
Things have been a little hectic lately for many reasons; namely here various knits in progress, tour de fleece and a week-long vacation in Ohio. I won’t bore you with all the details, but let’s just say that it’s been a little hard to keep up with everything.
First thing first, I want to share with you all my happiness as I found a fellow knitter on Ravelry who was sweet enough to send me her Cascade Heritage’s leftovers so I could finish my Dessine-moi un mouton. Yay! I started working on the sleeves last week and should very soon have something interesting to share with you guys so stay tuned!
In other news, I also just recently finished test-knitting this gorgeous Call &Response Cowl for the lovely Sarah Schira and I am in love with it! This design hasn’t been published yet, but I’ll make sure to update this post with the link as soon as it is.
The pattern was every shade of perfect; it’s easy to follow, it’s fun and interesting to knit and it’s got lots of changes so it’s never boring. I also love the fact that the cowl is tapered off towards the top, creating a very flattering shape around the shoulders. Awesomeness!
Among other cool things, I’ve also been spinning along a little bit as the tour the fleece is progressing, but I must say that I have been making very, very little progress on the gorgeous Merino/Tencel roving I started. Since the tour is almost over already, I think it’s obvious by now that I won’t finish in time but I’m fine with that – a little spin is better than no spin at all, isn’t?
Enough about me now, how’s been your summer so far yarnies?
Vacation is no time to be lazy!
Guys, I just came back last Sunday from an AMAZING vacation, and I feel totally recharged! It was definitely much much needed after working all summer with no real breaks, covering for everybody else’s vacation.
Today though, I feel like karma really does exist because after waiting patiently all summer for my vacation to come, I ended up with what was (probably) the most beautiful 2 weeks of the summer, weather-wise!
We spent a good 10 days on the go, first visiting friends in Buffalo, NY then driving to Toledo, and then taking the bus there for a short 3-days getaway in Chicago. There, we visited the Art Institute of Chicago, the Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum, the Skydeck at the top of the Willis Tower, we also took a boat ride on lake Michigan, walked the waterfront and ate an awesome deep dish pizza at Uno’s downtown. Here’s a little photo recap of our time there :
After all this, I felt totally revived, and it’s good because… I came back to a real construction site 🙂
Thing is, before leaving for vacation we started renovations at the house, mainly adding a shower to the bathroom and redecorating said bathroom and my craft room. Most of the hard work had been done before leaving for vacation, but not everything is quite functional yet.
The shower works, but the bathroom has not been repainted yet, and I don’t have a towel bar. The sewing room is painted, but the IKEA furniture I bought for it has not been put together yet. Since there’s still a lot to do, I am so glad I came back feeling so energized! I will share with you guys pictures of my bathroom and craft room makeovers when they are complete but in the meantime, I can tell you that I chose a very bright and playful color scheme for my sewing room that uses yellow, white and gray. Most of the room is very basic, but I went all out for the accent wall, with which I had quite a bit of fun. Want to see it? Here it comes…
Drum roll….
Tada! What do you guys think? Yay or nay?
A little taste of summer!
I just got back from a very warm, sunny, crazy week of vacation in Nevada and Arizona with my brother and his girlfriend. It was so much fun, I feel totally recharged! After so much snow, and rain, and cold weather here up north, a little sunshine was definitely more than welcomed. We first visited Las Vegas and the Hoover Dam, then saw the Grand Canyon and Sunset Crater Volcano, we drove through Sedona and the Tonto National Forest, hiked the Hayden Butte, and so much more! I definitely kept myself really busy, but it it was all worth it. All in all, I had an incredible vacation, and I really want to share a little bit of it with you guys, so here’s a few pictures I took – hope you like them!
And of course, since I was going to spend a lot of time on a plane or at the airport on the way there and back, I had to start a little project to keep me busy, right? RIGHT? So I started the Estuary shawl, using some Confetti Superwash yarn from DGB I had in stash. Lucky me, a little bit of knitting here and there during the trip and some knitting time at the airport allowed me to reach the halfway mark in only a week. Yes! It’s a very easy pattern so far, very well explained with easy to follow charts and instructions.
One thing led to another
It is finally vacation time for me, and I can say (for sure!) that I have been waiting for this moment for a very, very long time. We can never really get enough of those, do we? But I was so stressed out the last few months that I sincerely believe that I really, truly needed a break from it all. Plus, summer’s been so busy for me that I feel like weeks and months just went by in the blink of an eye. Doesn’t seeing time flee so fast, right before your very eyes, scares the heck out of you? Well, I can tell you it scares the heck out of me, if anything! Where did my summer go? What did I do? and WHY, OH WHY IS IT SO SHORT?? So I finished work last Friday, and just like that, half of my first week of vacation is already gone.
Oh, I know what I did though. Saturday morning, I set off on an expedition… A fiber expedition (I bet you wouldn’t have guessed). Last weekend was the Twist Festival, held in St-André-Avellin, Québec. It probably is one of the largest (if not THE largest) festival of it’s kind in the area, and I was just so, so excited to go! Even though I couldn’t stay for the the entire event, I still sniffed around the (100+!) vendors and found a few treasures to bring back home 🙂
Since we were already so close to Ontario, we decided to drive a little more and spend a couple days in Ottawa. Since the weather was on our side and all the attractions were so close, we were able to walk pretty much everywhere. On Saturday afternoon, we saw the Canadian Museum of History, then on Sunday we visited the Supreme Court of Canada, the Parliament, the Canadian War Museum and saw the Rideau Canal, Library and Archives Canada and the Byward Market. All in all, we walked around 12K(±8 miles) in between places, plus whatever distance we covered going through the monuments and museums. Oh boy, was I sore the next day! We finished our trip by going to the Museum of Nature on Monday, then drove home. Here’s a few pictures of our trip, it’s really not the best quality but it is the best I can do with a phone camera! (yes, I know… I won’t forget my camera ever again. I. AM. SO. MORTIFIED.)
As I came back from vacation, I also noticed that I was nominated for the Liebster award by the very lovely Šárka from Berries and Yarn, I was very surprised and also very happy! I was not expecting to be nominated for it, but I found it very touching, and it’s really good to see people enjoy reading my random rants 🙂 So here are my answers to Šárka’s questions :
- What got you into blogging?
I got into blogging because I like to talk about crafts, and I really enjoy sharing my adventures with like-minded people. Unfortunately for me, there isn’t a lot of people around with similar interests I can talk to, so I decided to share my stories on a blog 🙂 - What is it that you enjoy the most about the blogging experience?
What I prefer about blogging is to be able to connect with people all around the world who share the same passion but have a different background, different views and different experiences. Being able to exchange with these people allow me to learn and grow, and gives me a different outlook on things. It’s a mind-opener, I think. - And is there anything about blogging you find annoying or irritating?
Not really, except maybe when a post I make doesn’t reach people in the way I would’ve wanted it to, maybe 🙂 - How do you find new blogs to follow?
I generally look at blogs followed by people I follow, or look for specific tags (yarn, handspun, etc.) - What inspires you?
Life, in general 🙂 I tend to be a very positive, empathetic and free-spirited person, and I find inspiration in everyday beauty. Sometimes it’s just by looking out the window and seeing a mom and a child walk to the park hand in hand, or sometimes it’s just a song playing on the radio, or the way the light is shining through a piece of stained glass. I don’t follow a strict pattern when it comes to creation, I just feel it 🙂 - Do you prefer paper diaries, calendars, planners, stationery, etc, or do you rather go digital?
I do both. I’m a very organized person, and I like to have digital planners, organizers and data bases. But when it comes to creation, nothing beats the good old pen and paper 🙂 - What´s the best book you have read this year?
I can’t say it’s a book I have read as much as a book I have re-read, and that would be Alice’s adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. I have been completely in love with Alice’s universe since the first time I saw the Disney movie as a child, until now – and I daresay I could never get tired of it. I re-read the two books earlier this year, and it still is like magic to me. Every time I read it, I discover things I did not quite see (or see like that) before, and it opens up to a wonderful new adventure to me. - Given unlimited time and resources, what is your dream project?
Surprisingly, I don’t really have one. I think if I concentrated my dreams in a project, I would feel very empty once it is finished, so I prefer to simply enjoy creativity as it is, and enjoy every step of the way 🙂 - On the other hand, what sort of a quick project do you go to for instant gratification?
That… I don’t have one either. If I need instant gratification, I’ll go for a jog, for me creation is not about instant gratification 🙂 - What was your favourite boy band in the 90s? Don´t tell me you did not have one 🙂
Oh, I plead guilty… My favorite boys band in the 90s was the Backstreet Boys 🙂 - If you could meet any historical figure, who would it be and why?
That is a hard one since there is so many extraordinary people in this world, but if I had to pick one, it would probably be Gandhi.
So according to the rules, I should be nominating 11 other people with less than 200 followers and ask them 11 questions, but I must admit that I am not very much a “shout-out” kind of person -there’s too many blogs I like, and I have no idea how many followers they have. Plus, I feel if I had to make a list, it would be unfair to those I forgot to mention, or I would end up making a mistake and nominate someone who’s over 200 followers. It’s just really difficult for me 😦 If anything comes to mind, I’ll edit this post and add nominees and questions, but for now I will leave it at that. If you are reading this and wish to participate, I then officially nominate you, and ask you the same questions I was asked 🙂 Fair?
On that note folks, I think I will let you go and walk to the grocery store to buy myself a little treat to celebrate my 28th birthday 🙂
Cheers!
Because everything is nicer on vacation.
While spending the last 13 hours in a car Saturday, I’ve had a chance on the way to pick up my needles and finish my sweater for the Nice&Knit summer sweater knit along (#NKKAL). I’m definitely very happy about how it turned out!!
http://ravel.me/saphirsteph/sbThe TDF has been going pretty good so far, I have been able to spin a brand new skein of yarn last week, full of colors. I used a combination of yellow and blue corriedale fiber, and although it didn’t turn out as soft as I would have expected, I’m definitely happy about the color scheme. And the best of it all is that with this skein, I was able to achieve one of my TDF goals, which was to spin a finer yarn! This one is about fingering size and is mostly constant, it’ll definitely be a charm to knit!
http://ravel.me/saphirsteph/ninsThe only down side about this yarn is that I think I put too much spin in it when I plied, and the finished skein turned out much more twisted than I would’ve wanted it to be when I got it off the wheel -_-‘ Even the cat was making fun of me!! I had to let it soak for a long time to let the twist set, and stretched it out real good as it was drying. Oh well.
I still have 2 ounces of blue and 2 ounces of yellow that I’ll spin as solid colors, and I’ll combine the 3 skeins to knit the Comptown Races Cowl with it. Isn’t going to look amazing?? I cannot wait to start it! So since my fiber stash has been shinking considerably, last Thursday I decided to stash up again on fiber, and I went for the first time to a little shop located in Nicolet, Québec called the Julie Factrie. I really liked the place, and thought it was cute and quaint (and full of my favorites!). The shop owner, Julie, is a real fiber artist, and it was a pleasure to chat with her for a little while. I left with mostly solid colors this time, and I’m really looking forward to spinning those into wonderful and colorful skeins.
Crafty Effie 