Knitting Sandwich

on the hunt for agates

the minnesota river, which runs right though mankato, is really low right now.

i mean really low right now...

all that uncovered riverbed is the perfect place to hunt for agates!  my friend eva got me hooked on hunting for agates a couple years ago and while i'm mostly good at finding quartz and interesting looking non-agate rocks, i can spot an agate every now and again.

this is a pretty typical haul for me, a few tiny agates, lots of quartz and lots of randomly awesome rocks.  lily, who inherited her love of rocks from her mother, also enjoys pouring over piles of riverbed looking for treasures.

she and i happily spent well over an hour after school today down by the river, enjoying the weather and each others company, sifting through rocks sharing all our cool finds with each other.  

i did actually manage to find one pretty impressive agate:

although lily's favorite find of the day does a better job of summing up our sentiments:

love indeed!

-melissa

le sigh... crafting ennui

i can't think of a time since the birth of lily that i have been this unproductive on the crafting front... i am definitely suffering from a case of the crafting blahs.

here's what i'm currently not really working on all that much... 

after its being misplaced during our move last summer i *finally* found the squirrel cross stitch!  i was motivated to finish it for, i don't know... half a day?  but i'm so close i don't want to move on until it's finished.

after the intense deadline to finish crocheting that ripple afghan for my friends' wedding i have been loath to pick up another yarny project.  i've been working from time to time on blankie's never ending solid square... but meh, it's just not speaking to me in exciting terms.

i need someone to smack me, a la cher in moonstruck, to "snap out of it!!"  i'm thinking maybe crocheting a square for the square-a-month afghan will motivate me.  but we'll see... the yarn for that project is waaaaaay over there..... meh.

-melissa

instagram-a-rama!

i recently jumped on the instagram bandwagon (i've no chance of being a hipster, i know... better late than never, that's my motto!).  i'm having fun playing around with all the filters and such, but i think it would be more fun if i had more contacts...

so my first question is: are YOU on instagram?

my next questions are: have you ever wondered what my cat peapod might have looked like in a photograph from the 70's?

have you ever wondered what my other peapods would look like in a photograph from the 70's?

do you want a peek into the unblogged life of lily?

or the unblogged life of me?  

then go look me up on instagram and add me to your contacts!  

my username is: mlmartense

or leave your username in the comments and i'll go add you!  come on!  it'll be fun!!

-melissa

put a cat on it!

look at this fantastic bag that lindsey made me!  (she also made one for claire that is brown with a green pocket, she is both generous and talented.)

it's the perfect size for a knitting project bag and has lots of pockets, both inside and out!  that big brown pocket on the front was calling to me... it was telling me it wanted to be the home of my cat scout patch i got from my friend michelle's etsy shop!

i'm putting this next photo up so you can see how awesome the patch is up close... (not so you can see how craptastic my sewing job is...)

ha!  i am apparently not good at sewing machine right now!  please don't be offended by what i did to your lovely bag linds, just look at how cute the cat is!

meow!

-melissa

prizes are surprises winner

thanks to everyone who played along with my prizes are surprises giveaway!  i had a lot of fun deciding what to make and then, obviously, making the prize!

surprise!  it's a happy flower decoration (pattern by lucy at attic24)!

and the winner?  oh yes!  and the winner is:

the lovely charlotte over at elephant knits!  yay charlotte!!

turns out i really fell in love with these flowers, so i made one for myself too!

i found this entire surprise prize giveaway to be a very fun time!  don't be surprised if i have another one in the future!!

-melissa

prizes are surprises!!

i seem to be on the lucky receiving end of the prize train this past week!  up first is a set of key chains that both claire and i won (claire, if you respond quickly i'll let you pick which one i send you) after we solved a thrifty mystery over at my friend blair's blog mcmaven haven.

then just today my mailman delivered me a package from canada!  imagine my joy at discovering that i won kate's 1000th post giveaway over at her blog rocks, waves, beach!

the photo of the blue heron was taken by kate's 13 year old son, and the dishcloth (which is a new to me pattern that i'm going to have to add to my queue) was knit up by kate herself!

i'm feeling quite inspired by everyone else's generosity and i want to play along!  SO...if you too want to win a prize leave a comment on this post and in one week i'll draw a winner.

what will you win?  i have no idea!  that's part of the fun!!  prizes are surprises!!  yay!

-melissa

one world

here's what i made for my grandparents for christmas this year:

i bought a vintage u.s. map on ebay and stamped hearts over the cities where all of their children and grandchildren/great-grandchildren live.  they stated many years ago that since they had downsized they didn't need anymore "stuff" for christmas...

...so i have fun coming up with a new sentimental gift to make them each year.

in other news i've been embroidering up a storm the past few days, and the perks of inheriting all of my (other) grandmother's sewing notions is i get to find treasures like this whilst digging around looking for needles:

oh i wish we still had packaging like this... isn't it just fabulous!?!?

-melissa

it's high time we had a chicken parade!

i was visiting my friend heather who lives on a farm outside of town today, and i just have to say how much i love all her chickens.  i could sit and watch them all day long.  so i decided today the sandwich needed to host a chicken parade.

here's our parade's grand marshall, mr. stinkeye rooster:

he's here to make sure we don't disrespect any of his ladies.

heather has an amazing number of varieties of chickens, and they're all just so darned gorgeous!

and last but not least is this little guy who's gorgeous but has a bit of an attitude problem... i present to you the little jerk rooster:

aren't they just amazing?  like i said i could look at them all day long!

and if you're wondering, yes, heather is the same friend who brought the baby lambs to visit me a couple months ago.  wanna see how grown up they are now?  of course you do:

aw, they grow up so fast, don't they?

-melissa

on the move

my presence here over the next couple of months will probably be a little sparse, the main reason being that after five months on the market we have sold our house and will be moving to a new home!

even though our new place is only 8 blocks away from our current home there is still a lot of packing and organizing to do to get ready for the big move.  also in between all the packing we'll still be doing some summer traveling (we leave for omaha to visit my family tomorrow morning, then a meet up with melinda, and our anual trip to little pine lake for the 4th of july).  

i'll do my best to keep up with blog reading and posting on a regular basis but wanted you to know why i have been, and will probably continue to be, pretty sporadic with my online presence.

i'm still finding time for crafting though.  along with some knitting i've been putting in a fair amount of time on the counted cross stitch squirrels (pattern from dance needle on etsy).

okay, enough with the chatting - i've got boxes to pack!  :)

-melissa

the old gal's still got a little snap left in her...

i finally got around to sewing the elastic into the waistband of lily's skirt.  i found this elastic in my grandma's sewing basket.  i have no idea how old it is, but given that it cost 29 cents i'm guessing it's seen a few years.

but luckily, as i said in the title, the old gal's still got a little snap left in her - so into the waistband she went!

-melissa

ps - you know what this means... finished skirt photoshoot coming soon!