Saturday, July 16, 2011

monster madness

mailing monster

i'm pretty sure anyone who regularly reads my blog knows i'm a member of ravelry's Sock Knitters Anonymous (or SKA for short). and, more recently, i joined the Danger Crafts group.

what i like about the danger crafts group is we do swaps! (they do kal's too)
i have never joined a sock club, or any kind of swap, before this group.

i really like this group. we knit MONSTERS. and i LOVE me some monsters! ... whether knitted, crocheted, or sewn. teddy bears? ... not for me.

my latest swap partner and i were paired up, and we both love the color green (it's a color-themed monster swap). i'm very pleased to report i got her package in today's mail, and i'm hoping it gets there before the end of the coming week.

mr. postman said, "should get there by thursday". oh, mr. postman, please don't jinx me!

but, i'm gonna fully confess what's in the package. perhaps i'm naive to think she wouldn't come and check out my blog?

here's all the stuff i'm sending her! (ps. i have a VERY hard time keeping secrets)



EVERYTHING

here's a shot of everything that went into the fabulous green bubble mailer. ps. i found the bubble mailer at office depot. they had red, green, and blue mailers.

monster on the left is sammie the sock monster, and monster on the right is max the sewn monster. i made a max for my last partner, and he's just cute! the sewing pattern comes in 3 sizes. the first time (for first swap) i sewed the size small. this time, i went for medium.



summer 087

i also knitted a couple of dish cloths. i first ran across this pattern in the 1st mason-dixon knitting book. but, the pattern is from Elmore-Pisgah yarns, and they call it the ballband dish cloth (click link and scroll down just a bit). i like mine a little smaller than theirs, so i only cast on 33 stitches.


fabric quarters

i also got her a couple of fat quarters ... they were on sale at the joann's fabric store for $1 each. i used the 3rd one to make the sewn MAX monster up above.
(i actually had a hard time deciding which fabric to use for the monster! maybe next time, my next swap partner will get nothing but sewn monsters?)



monster magnets!
THIS THRILLS ME THE MOST!

so, the same day i went and got my ice cream maker, i ran over to the nearby barnes & noble bookstore. i was looking at the page magnets, and found MONSTER MAGNETS! ... a little $ (well, for a swap, that was 1/2 my budget), but how could i not?! i got a set for myself as well =)

if you've never used page magnets, they are awesome. i use them to mark the page of my knitting pattern from whichever book i'm knitting from, or as a general bookmark. and, the backside, it says, i ♥ monsters !



and, the candy


candy is usually welcomed, and it was a challenge finding green candy. but, again, i got lucky ... and there is a candy shop in my city (candy shop, not a chocolate shop). they had these bulk bins, to purchase candy by the pound. i was able to go through and pick up a variety of candies in green only. the little green tin came from the fabric store as well ... i found it in the $1 bin just before checking out.

it's always great to get things, but giving is so much fun too !!!



Monday, July 11, 2011

ice cream!

last weekend, i bought an ice cream maker (and i don't really have much of a sweet tooth!). but, there are recipes that are not your standard variety, and some are quite savory or spicy.


ice cream maker


though once the mix goes into the maker, it only takes about 20 minutes to create a soft serve ice cream. BUT, the bowl it mixes in has to pre-freeze for up to 24 hrs. thus, there was no ice cream on the 4th!

yesterday, a friend came by to visit for a few hours, and before he left, we made some crystalized ginger ice cream. i'll post more on that later .....

Monday, July 04, 2011

some more beach pictures

it's a holiday, i SHOULD be at the beach. instead, i'll just pretend ...

pinch pinch

near sunset

path to beach

cloudy morning

morning waves