And the winner is...

And (thanks to the folks over at random.org) the winner of the Dots and Dahlias stationery is.....

Eliza from Case Study! Congratulations! 

If you find yourself in need of stationery, please remember that Julia is offering my lovely readers 20% off your order (through the end of the year!) with the coupon code: WTWBsave20 Thank you Dots and Dahlias, you've been a pleasure to work with!

I'll be back later this week (I hope!) with more regular posting. These days leading up to my sister's move are busy and full of all of those little everyday things that become the "last ...... before the move" and I'm trying to soak it all up! Thank you for understanding and bearing with me. 

How's your October so far?

{Crafting On}

Last weekend when I went to the fiber festival my children each sent a request for a special yarn of their own. Bobby of course asked for rainbow colored yarn, or anything orange. I scoured the entire fair, that's three large fairground buildings full of fiber + the outside vendors! I finally (thanks to the help of my sister and her hubby) found the perfect rainbow yarn. (As a bit of an aside/vent, why oh why do dyers always make the red in rainbow yarn pink?? I don't especially mind my boys wearing pink or anything, but my children DO mind that what is supposed to be red is pink. We're rainbow enthusiasts around here...) Back to the yarn...I made the "Wintry Weather Cowl" in "Rhythm of the Family" and I'm sure I'll be making more. Bobby loves it and has been wearing it daily, and I love that it only took about four hours to knit! Much less fussy than a scarf, just as warm, and can be warn at all hours of the day or night...perfectly simple for this no-nonsense four year old!

{And this picture is a few days old, I have taken "September" down and replaced it with "October"}

This next project was inspired by Melanie, I saw her adorable leaf gnomes and couldn't wait to make our own garland! The kids had a bit of a hard time doing the leaf rubbings, but I able to just cut the out a leaf shape out of their leaf-oid (that's totally not a word) rubbings and it worked really well.  I have it hanging over our nature table and I just love it. I'm already thinking of variations I can do for other seasons...I could literally spend the rest of my life drawing gnomes and be perfectly happy! 

And I'm still loving my cross stitch! I'm working on the little flowers above the "t" now, despite my late start I'm keeping up pretty well. It's just so much fun, and Jenny is itching to learn! Any thoughts on when would be a good age to start learning counted cross stitch?

{P.S. Don't forget to enter the stationery giveaway I'm hosting!}

{Dots and Dahlias}

{Above photos are from Dots and Dahlias etsy shop!}

Don't you just adore getting a letter in the mail? Mixed in with the junk and the bills, a non-business-standard envelope with a handwritten return address...it's like a present and a hug rolled into one and tucked into your mailbox. At the end of July I was lucky enough to win a giveaway for a set of stationery from Dots and Dahlias. After a few days of drooling over all of the lovely choices and possible color combinations I finally made my choice, and recently I found myself unable to resist placing another order. I asked Julia (the lovely owner) if she would like to do a giveaway here and she said yes!

One lucky winner will be receiving a free set of 8 note cards in any of the designs in her shop! So that nobody has to go without beautiful stationery, Julia is offering you dear readers 20% off your order (through the end of the year!) with the coupon code: WTWBsave20

To enter simply leave a comment here telling me that you're interested. For additional chances you can add her lovely shop to your favorites, follow my blog, and share about the giveaway on your own blog or facebook/twitter. That's up to four chances for each of you! Just leave a separate comment for each entry, and I will draw a winning name on Monday, October 15th.

Now go take a moment and send someone a little note to brighten their day!

{For Daddy}

Yes, he's covered in dinner, and yes those are {still} boxes waiting to be emptied in the background. {We're almost done...almost.} I couldn't resist those cheesy cheeks after dinner this evening...and I was just talking with my hubby about how Nomi is always napping when he calls, so I thought we'd do one for the Daddy. 

To Daddy~

Love you babe, see you in just a few more weeks! xoxo

To everyone else~

Be sure to come by on Monday, I'm pairing up with a lovely etsy shop for my first giveaway!

For the Mama!

 

{That cookbook is fantastic!} 

These pictures aren't quite what I was hoping for, but that's the trade off for this lovely grey fall weather...it's perfect "sick" weather, so I can't really complain! First I thought I'd share my favorite hat! I realized over the last few months that despite having nearly 200 projects on my ravelry page, only one or two of them were for myself. I think that making things for myself is an important part of teaching my kids the value of handmade, but a part that I certainly hadn't put much time into. I am very much of the opinion that kids learn through example/imitation so if I want them to think that mama-made things are where it's at, I should probably wear a few myself. *darn* So now I'm making a point to include myself on the list of projects and it is absolutely delightful! I've made myself two hats so far and I'm working on this gorgeous "Circumnavigate" cowl, in some beautiful Luna Grey yarn...I'm really, really in love with her yarn! There aren't enough words to explain how awesome it is.

The cross stitch is an exciting new area of crafting for me. Grace and Ginny had the grand idea to organize an informal stitch along with this great winter themed cross stitch pattern. They set up a flickr group for sharing our progress, and it's been so much fun! The idea is that we started the first week of fall, and need to complete two letters and one or two motifs each week, and we will be finished in time to hang it up the first day of winter. Smart, right? And now I totally see why people like cross stitch! It's so easy to take out mistakes, and so forgiving if you decide to leave them in (don't compare my "N" with yours, okay?). The kit included really gorgeous hand dyed floss...at first I wasn't sure why that was a big deal, but the way the colors subtly shift makes for a really lovely finished piece. 

I'm still down with this bug, the boys seem to be pulling through quickly and Jenny isn't showing any signs at this point...hopefully she will be left out! My sister and brother in law (remember they've been living with us this summer waiting for their GA move?) are off to go house hunting in their new state so it's going to be a quiet week around here. I'm hoping to finish up this fall cleaning list so that I can enjoy their last few days here when they get back. For today I'm off to the store for the second day in a row because I managed to forget the ever important pullups and wipes....I still haven't found the box with our diaper covers and cloth wipes...this week is the week!