I Accidentally Ate My Christmas Present

Christmas presents tend to be modest and often somewhat odd in our household.  When I encountered a yummy bag of potato chips in the living room last night, well, I opened it and ate some.

Yummy Potato Chips - aka Christmas Present

How was I supposed to know that it was supposed to be my gift, and my daughter had forgotten to hide it and to wrap it?  Would you have known?

The blanket in the background was made by the same daughter for her brother.  It is a fleece blanket with monkeys on one side and ponies on the other side – inspired by a Jonathon Coulton song, Skullcrusher Mountain:

You like monkeys, you like ponies
Maybe you don’t like monsters so much
Maybe I used too many monkeys
Isn’t it enough to know that I ruined a pony making a gift for you?

Olive and Lapis

Olive Green and Lapis Blue Glass Lampwork Bead

I’m glad that I waited a bit to post the picture of this bead.  I was not happy with it at first, because it did not match the colors from my inspiration.  I have had this problem in the past of not immediately liking my work. Just as before,  now that I have had some time to look at my work a little more objectively, I do believe that I like it after all.

Rosemarie Hanus melts glass and makes beads in her home studio and sells on Etsy, Artfire and her website.

Olives at Midnight

I did make some beads attempting to duplicate the colors used in the Olives at Midnight treasury.

I’m not sure that they are photo worthy.  They probably are, but since they did not turn out the way that I had envisioned, I was disappointed.  Once I get over that, then I can evaluate them more objectively!

First of all, I tried a blue that was much too bright.  Then I got the blue closer, even thought I don’t have any color that really matches the midnight blue.

Then, instead of using the nice, muted olive green that I used for the beads that were in the treasury, I used a color that actually is called Olive green.

I definitely did not achieve the effect that I wanted at all.

Olives at Midnight Etsy Treasury

My beads are in another treasury.  This one is called Olives at Midnight, curated by paisleykitty.  I think treasuries are usually so wonderful to look at… I think that I may be inspired to make some olive green and midnight blue beads – but not right now, it’s only 37 degrees F in the studio.

Olives at Midnight Treasury

The curator, paisleykitty, is a buyer and is totally sweet creating treasuries.

Here are the shops included:

• Jen Jeglinski Ceramics
• Made by Keli
• Spawn of Flame Glass and Fiber Art
• Unique Handbags
• Maggie Weldon Lace Pottery and Maggie’s Crochet
• Moonlight Dreams
• Bread and Roses Essential Vintage Wear for Children
• Tzaddishop – Designs in Glass
• Decadent Designs
• Steinvika’s
• Mrs. Jan’s Jewelry and Accessories Jewelry and Accessories
• VirtuousCreations

LEST – Lampwork Etc Street Team

On Etsy, there are groups of people that promote each other’s shops – these groups are called Street Teams.  I am on one such team; we all all lampworkers ( or flameworkers) that frequent an online forum called Lampwork Etc.  Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself!  Etsy is an online selling venue that can best be described by their tagline – “Your place to buy and sell all things handmade”.

Back to our team.  We have a website (Lestbeads.com) , a blog (Welcome to LEST), an area on Flickr (Lampwork: Glass Beads), and probably some others. Update: sadly, this team is no longer in existence.

We run promotions each month, and for the month of December we are having a Holiday / Winter Challenge.  Several members have uploaded photos of beads and you can vote on your favorite.  Go ahead.  Go vote. Go do it now!  I wouldn’t mind if you happened to vote for mine.

Candy Canes and Candy Cane Wreaths

Plum Pudding Treasury

Treasuries on Etsy are groupings of different items chosen by a curator.  A curator can be anyone that is a member of Etsy, whether they are a seller or buyer (or both).  The treasuries usually fit some theme.  Here is a treasury called Plum Pudding by Julie Christie that includes one of my lampwork beads!

Isn’t the treasury gorgeous?  It can be viewed for the next few days here.

Plum Pudding Treasury

All I Wanted to Do Was to Knit a Sock

I like wool socks, and recently I got the bug to knit some of my own.  I have done a lot of machine knitting in the past, but I just don’t have the room to set up my machine right now.  I am pretty clueless on how to knit one by hand, so with the help of the Ravelry community and Lionbrands website, I at least had a way to proceed.

My husband, Paul, was out running errands, so I gave him a shopping list.  After numerous phone calls to make sure that he had picked out a suitable weight yarn, he bought the goods.  This was the day before Thanksgiving, which was November 27 this year.

On Thanksgiving day, I settled in to knit a sock.

The pattern called for needles.  Paul had forgotten to buy needles!  We decided to venture out to Walmart to see if they were open and if they even had needles.  Well, they were open; I felt kind of bad because I was supporting people working on the holiday, but not bad enough to stay away apparently.  They did not have the right size needles, but they had one size larger, so we eagerly made the purchase.  Picture me clutching the precious needles as we exited the store.

Back home, I settled in to knit a sock.

Oh no!  The pattern called for 5 needles, and the pack only came with 4 needles.  Well, I guess I can make a swatch to get an idea of the gauge.  I did, and even with the larger needles, I was pretty close.  I cast on the stitches and well, was done for the day.  In retrospect, I could have split the stitches onto 3 needles, and used the fourth to knit, but I didn’t think of that at the time.

The next day, Paul picked up another set of needles and a third set for himself.  He actually knows how to knit a little, but not socks, and he has decided to knit socks too.

Later, I settled in to knit a sock.  I actually got going pretty well – for me, and several hours later I had about a half inch of rib started.  Then, disaster strikes!  As I was knitting along, one of the needles suddenly slipped out of all of the stitches!  I didn’t know that this would happen.

Several disasters of one sort or another, and more than a week later, and here is what I have:

My Knitted Sock

Here is what Paul has done:

Paul's Sock

Thanksgiving Hike – Done

After about an hour of hiking around Hinckley Lake, we caught a glimpse of our car through the woods.  This caused us some excitement, not because we were almost finished, but because we like to see our car from unusual view points.  The car was trying to hide, but I outsmarted it by putting a big black arrow in the picture.

My Car Hiding in the Woods

Because we could not just traipse directly through the woods to the car, we still had another 10 minutes or so before we actually got to the car.  On the way, we saw a sign that caused the impertinent part of me to wonder, “if horses are not allowed, how can it be all purpose?”.

Usage Fail

As an aside, have you ever read Fail Blog?  I’m not asking for any particular reason… it’s just funny.

I’ll leave you with a gratuitus winter scene.

Stream in Hinckley Reservation

Thanksgiving Hike – The Heck?

Sometimes, we observe things that we just can’t explain.

Random Blue Posts

This crop of blue posts was actually pretty far away, my feet were getting cold, and the nearest parking area had those sawhorse blocking things with a “Closed” sign. Thank goodness for my telephoto lens.

If I had to guess, they look like those protective coverings that can be placed around trees to keep deer from demolishing them, but I don’t see the trees.

Any other guesses?

Scenic Overlook from Three Vantage Points

There are two different Scenic Overlooks at Hinckley Lake; this is the one on West Drive.

We often walk past the base of the overlook on the inner lake trail.  Our family actually calls it the Lookout, and whenever we spot it, we yell, “Look Out!”.

Look Out! From the Bottom, Looking Up - Vantage Point 1

After passing the overlook, we continued to walk eastward on the trail to where it meets State Road.  We crossed the State Road bridge and began to walk west on the north side of the lake.  From there, we could see the overlook again from across the lake.

Look Out! From Across Hinckley Lake - Vantage Point 2

After a while, we backtracked east to State Road, back across the bridge, and then continued on the paved trail that parallels West Drive.  Here, we passed the overlook at the top.  Here is what you would see if you were hiking the upper trail or were simply passing by in a car.

Look Out! At the Top - Vantage Point 3

Sign Announcing the Scenic Overlook

If you chose to stop and take a look, you would quickly discover why this spot was chosen for a stopping point.  At the bottom of this photo is the trail from which I photographed Vantage Point 1.

View from the Scenic Overlook

You could read a little history about the location.

Sign at the Scenic Overlook

A bench intended for quiet contemplation of the scene was not very inviting on this particular day.

Bench at the Scenic Overlook