Everything's Better with a Butterdish and a Happy One-Year Blogiversary!

When I started this blog one year ago, I had no idea how much fun I'd have with it. Despite this being one of the most stressful, insanely difficult years of my life (and believe me, I've had some doozies in these past few decades...) this blog has been a constant source of fun, inspiration and community for the past 12 months. 

I've always liked the phrase in my blog header: 'dream, inspire, create'. I don't know when I first started using it as a life mantra -- I think it may have been when the Sailor bought me an iPod mini (remember those?) and I wanted my name and a quote engraved on the back of it. Since then, I have always carried those three words with me in some form or another. 

You can interpret the three words any way you like, but here's how I tend to think of them: 

DREAM: In college, a professor once told us to make a list of goals -- both short-term and long-term -- things that seemed attainable in days, weeks, months, even years. Then he told us to add a third column of 'dreams' -- the stuff that seemed completely impossible -- even absurd. As I mentioned in this post, a decade after college, I was astounded to realize that nearly everything that I wrote in my dream column had actually happened. It wasn't small stuff either -- the list included huge events that I dreamed about but never thought would actually happen: moving overseas, working for a magazine. Since then, I continue to dream, daily. Life often surprises us when we let it. Never stop dreaming. 

INSPIRE: I like to look for inspiration in ordinary things -- whether it's knitting needles, or by simply watching the weather. I started this blog knowing that I needed to share that same inspiration. Hopefully people can take a little of that inspiration with them after they visit here!

CREATE: I feel a little lost if I don't create something every day. I write more about that here, but it could be something as simple as making soup from scratch, or completing one row on a crochet project.  

Maybe some of you are dreaming of adding to your vintage Pyrex collection? 

If so, this could be your chance! 

To celebrate my First Year Blogiversary*, 

I'm giving away a Vintage Pyrex Butterfly Gold Butter Dish.  

If you missed the Great Gravy Boat Giveaway and didn't win, this could be your day!

All you have to do is leave a comment below and you're automatically entered to win the butter dish. I'll draw the winner randomly and I will ship worldwide, because I believe everyone deserves a chance to own a piece of precious Pyrex. 

So take a chance! Leave a comment below -- this time with which piece of Pyrex you need to complete your 'collection'. (If you're not collecting, or you're new to this Pyrex craze, you're welcome too! Just leave a comment and say hello.)

Giveaway closes at 23:59 EST October 24, 2013. Winner will be chosen at random and announced on this blog on October 25, 2013. No purchase necessary. The winner has two weeks from the date of the announcement to contact me for their prize. If I don't hear from the winner within the two weeks, they forfeit their prize and I will draw another name at random. Void where prohibited by law. 

* My official blogiversary is October 18th, but I was so excited to celebrate, I had to post this early.  

*** THIS GIVEWAY IS NOW CLOSED. SEE THE WINNER HERE. *** 

Bohemian Bag

I've already established that I usually have more than one project going when it comes to fiber fun. No matter what else I'm working on however, I always like to have a project with a simple repeat pattern going -- something I can do when friends come to visit, or while I'm watching TV in the evening. 

The above shawl, while simple, has such tiny stitches and some serious increases and decreases every few rows. I didn't want to repeat the mistake I made with it over the summer, so I'm working on it when I can focus (although I'm happy to report that there are 10 pattern repeats to make the big shawl -- I just finished #8. Hallelujah. I don't think I've ever worked on any knitting project as long as this one.) 

It's still 80 degrees here during the day, so I didn't really want to start something big like a blanket yet -- I'll save that for wintry, icy days when I need an extra layer on my lap to keep me warm. 

Instead, I scoured through my magazine stack and found this pattern for a shell crochet bag in Vogue Knitting Crochet 2012. (I know, I know, I already made this crochet bobble bag over the summer. But I've also already established that I love bags. Let me have my fun.) 

This thing doesn't look that big, but it can hold a ton of stuff. 

 

I plan to use it as a market bag. Now that it's finished, I can focus on finding a local apple orchard. It may still be warm outside, but I hear temperatures are supposed to drop next week. That means homemade applesauce, apple pie and dehydrated apples for snacking will all be calling my name.

And, if I'm still working on the shawl by that point, at least I'll have a cute crocheted bag to carry my project around town.

PS: Bag handles were thrifted. Wooden handles can be a little pricey, so I like to keep a look out for them at thrift stores. Sometimes perfectly good handles are attached to not-so-nice handbags that should never have made it as far as the thrift store. But at least the handles are useable!

 

The Incredible Itch...

Insanabile Cacoethes Scribendi 

- Juvenal

OR, simply... 

The Incredible Itch to Write

I'm working on a few things this week that I'll hopefully be able to share on the blog later. In the meantime, let's all raise a glass to the inventor of the cut and paste feature on the computer. While I learned to type on a vintage contraption like the typewriter above, I'm not sure I would be as prolific or productive if I had to type out everything on one today.

Stay tuned... later this week I'll be announcing another giveaway, as well as a few other fun things! In the meantime, I need to scratch an itch... Thankfully I don't have to change any typewriter ribbon.

I Love Yarn Day and #7vignettes Part II

It's no secret on this blog that I love to knit and crochet. (Don't ask me which one I prefer -- they both have their place...) 

I also love yarn.

Yarn is so tactile... so versatile.

It also seems to multiply completely on its own.

I knew the lure of yarn could easily become an obsession. It's one of the main reasons I resisted crocheting and knitting for years whenever I wandered past the skeins in a store.

My hunch was correct. The stash took over within months of picking up my hooks and needles. In 2012, I made a pact that I would use up a sizable quantity of my yarn before I purchased anything new. It worked pretty well, until that trip to Idaho after Thanksgiving (Read all about it in this post). 

This year, I created some new yarn rules. I allowed myself several purchases, but I couldn't buy yarn to simply stash it -- I needed to have an actual pattern and purpose for the yarn.

No matter what 'rules' I make for myself though, I still love yarn whether it's new or in the stash. Apparently there's a whole day to celebrate that love. I Love Yarn Day kicks off tomorrow! If you're a fiber freak, then there's plenty of ways you can celebrate and share your love.

Not having my iPhone for a week meant that I couldn't actually post any photos to Instagram, so I missed out on October's #7vignettes. There's always next month. Besides, September's #7vignettes fit in perfectly for tomorrow's special day. It just goes to show you that I really do love yarn. Even photographing it can be fun. 

Here are the 'stories' behind #7vignettes from September. 

GREEN: yarn salad topped off with a sprinkling of buttons.

FOLDED: Folded hands.

ALCOHOL: Don't string me along... What are you having? Red, white or whiskey?

PILE: one pile simply leads to another pile. 

BORROWED: my mother-in-law's needles, the scratchiest yarn ever, and her steely resolve as I learned to knit without surrendering.   

ROUND: What's round? A yarn hat cake, of course, complete with optional (and detachable) pompom decoration.  

FRAMED: it's time to take the kid gloves off. I'm not just spinning a yarn -you've been framed. 

If you missed Part I of the #7vignettes, you can view that post here.  

Happy I Love Yarn Day to my fellow fiber fanatics! 

Lessons Learned from State of iPhonelessness

My phone has been 'drying out' in a bag of rice and without a mobile device to hold in my hands, I've had a lot of extra time on them instead.

So, I've been pondering life without my phone. And here's what I've learned so far.  

1. It is hard to function in today's society without a phone. 

I had to cancel plans with someone this afternoon, and let me tell you what a palaver it was to get a hold of the person without the use of my phone. For starters, I didn't have her number, because it was stored in my phone. (Who memorizes phone numbers nowadays?!) 
 
2. I am waaaaayyyy too dependent on my iPhone. 

Years ago, the Sailor bought me a Nokia smartphone -- back when that term first popped up. He promptly dubbed the Nokia 'second husband' because I spent so much time with the phone. It wasn't that I was TALKING on the phone so much per say as I was texting, surfing, and playing games (solitaire proved to be my drug of choice on many occasions). 

It really was the beginning of the end. 

After that, the Sailor bought himself an iPod touch and when I started playing too much Fruit Ninja on it, he bought me my own. Apps, music and calendar entries galore ensued. My iPod touch and I were inseparable. And, as my old faithful Nokia started falling apart (literally -- keys cracked and those little rubber stoppers meant to keep dust out of crevices were suddenly missing...) we realized it was time for a new phone. Not just any phone though. I was finally going to get an iPhone.

Once I transferred my data, I gave my mom my iPod touch (part of our 'no need for excess' household policy) and I was thrilled to now have everything on ONE device.   

But that one device soon went everywhere with me. I'd take it to get the mail. Or to the gym, even if I wasn't listening to music. I'd walk to the garden, thinking that I was just going to take photos of growing peppers, but in reality, there was a slight bit of separation anxiety if I was away from it for too long. If I left the phone on the counter, I'd check it as soon as I walked in the door.

It was the first thing I looked at before I even got out of bed, and the last thing I looked at before I switched the lights off at night. 

I am not a Hollywood celebrity. Wall Street does not depend on me getting all of my messages. I don't have a job where lives are at stake if I don't answer my phone. I don't need to be with my phone ALL OF THE TIME.

3. It is good (and necessary) for my creativity to disconnect every once in a while.

I may not have crocheted or created more than usual lately, but I feel like I had a few extra hours in the day to breathe and to think. The other night I sat on the balcony, candles burning. My drink was finished and it was too dark to continue knitting. I was about to go inside -- what would people think if they saw me just sitting there, doing nothing? But I stayed anyway. Sometimes you need to do absolutely nothing. (It's also good for your neck to look up once in a while. Your chiropractor will thank you.) 

Over the past few days, I realized that I sometimes spend more time looking to see what other people are blogging or tweeting about, than I do on any actual creative project. I have a renewed sense that I need to set aside more unplugged time to brood over ideas and projects. Technology for sure has its place (I'm a total closet tech geek, if you couldn't already tell...) But sometimes it gets in the way of plain and simple imagination.

Apparently sometimes I need to simply unplug and watch a candle flicker. Who knows - it may spark the next great idea. Hopefully though, next time I'll do so willingly, and not because of another phone incident.