Morning Glory Madness

Tonight I had entirely too much fun putting together this arrangement in my floral class! Last week, I had pre-selected the flowers and had a good idea what it would look like before I even started. Today, I was running behind and had nothing picked out ahead of time. Sometimes you gotta go with the flow! And sometimes the flow leads to really cool, kooky things like this Morning Glory Madness! I ran through my craft room 15 minutes before I left for class, grabbing stuff left and right. I must try that method again....I'm way happier with this arrangement than the one I did last week :)

I'm a Knitiot :(

I don't mean a knitiot in the happy "hey look at what I made" sorta way. Just try saying "I'm a knitiot" a few times fast and you'll find the true self-evaluation of my latest crafty undertaking. Silly me decided to learn how to knit and I know it's not something to be mastered overnight but...JEEZ LOUISE! I AM an idiot at knitting. I'm sure a kindergartener could do better than what I've been churning out! And I haven't even begun to purl yet. OMG, I can't even think about purl yet!! My head might explode.

Fortunately, my Mom is an excellent knitter and she is offering her knitty wit and wisdom to me. Okay, maybe not so much wit, more like sarcasm as she watches her daughter massacre a skein of yarn. Or, in my own words...in the case of an emergency I'd be able to make something to keep me warm but it sure would be FUGLY!

Please tell me that this gets easier!!!!!!! I'm going to need a ton of encouragement to keep on knitting.

Crappy Day Becomes Happy Day

There are days when I really wonder about myself. Today, of course, was one of them. I'll spare you the details but I did not cope very well with how my work day developed at the office. It started when I got a LOT of ink all over the sleeve of one of my best sweaters. One of my co-workers came to the rescue...hairspray removes ink. I never would have guessed that. Anyway, it got worse from there......

(leaving this part to your imagination, mostly because I don't want to revisit it)

.....until I left for the day and headed off to my floral design class at the local community college. I have the privilege of learning from a well-known local freelance floral designer named Carl Klabbatz who has worked with a whole slew of designers over his 34 year career. His work stands out and is fantastic! Every so often he teaches this class. In the past, I've not been able to enroll due to time issues. But finally, I'm there and I've already learned a TON of things from him. The photo in this post is from the arrangement I created tonight. Carl said I did "very, very well." I'm thrilled!!! There's hope for me yet!

This arrangement is a little more formal than I intended and it won't work in my house, so this one is off to the salon where I sell my stuff this Saturday!

Penny Rug...

A while back, some of us were musing over the term "Penny Rug." This morning I stumbled over this while visiting a craft-zine I subscribe to...

"What is a Penny Rug? It is a name given to a folk-art style of appliqué dating back to the mid 1800’s. The rugs were traditionally made from felted wool. This technique was used to make table runners, pillows, and rugs that were not placed on the floor. The “penny” comes from the coins that were used as templates for the circle motif that was often used in the designs."

Now we know!!!

Winter Reverie

I've been given a nudge to update my blog...and to snap out of my winter reverie! I haven't been completely idle...been plugging away at my Pink & Brown crafty items for Claire :) I have to confess that the materials I chose also include blue and a little orange. The pink is not as prevalent as I had hoped when I started the project but there's no turning back now!

Lucy tagged me to go blog-surfing and find 5 blogs of interest by starting with the 5th blog on my list, going to the 5th blog on her list and so on.....I had to bend the rules a teensy bit and start with the 4th blog on my list. Here are all the fun places I visited!!!

Bitter Betty
Mommy Mosh Pit
Punk Rawk Purl
A Fistful of Stitches
Fresh Peth

I've also been out & about gathering up a variety of silk flowers for the commissioned piece I am making. Blues, mauves, creams, bamboo, orchids....I can't wait to get started on this one!