New Ideas for Designs and Thank You!

Before I get started writing about all the new design ideas popping into my head, I have to say a huge "Thank You" to everyone who has been so kind to comment regarding my Mom's death. It's been very hard these last few weeks. I am trying to move forward, knowing my Mom is rejoicing in heaven ... but I miss her ... and it's still really, really bizarre to think that I won't see her anymore. In any event, I pray for courage ... and for my Dad ... and we go on to another day and hope I can do my best with it.

SO ... onto new designs! I'm really excited about these. While I was sitting outside one day, admiring the little statues and the bird bath in the shady spot I call a garden, I started thinking about knitting them! Small, stone statues made of knitted felt! I am setting aside my BIG project (which will remain hush-hush for now) to knit up a couple of test statues and see if they can come out in real life as I envision them in my head.

Also, I am just putting the finishing touches on Cool Cat (which will be renamed!) and the Garden Rabbits ... they'll be up soon!

In Loving Memory...

My Wonderful Mom

Dorothea A. Mumm

February 8, 1926-April 1, 2010

I miss her so much

So sudden ... so unexpected ... my Mom's death. Now, my Dad, whose health has been fragile for so long, faces the future without her by his side. Please keep him in your prayers.

Things my Mom loved:

Heath Bars

Peanut-butter filled pretzels

Ginger ale

Pancakes and bacon

Coffee with cream

Walking

Sitting outside

Her red gloves

AquaFreshToothpaste

Dial Soap

Viva paper towels

Arpege perfume

Hot tea with milk

Butter cookies

Singing

Saying the Rosary

Going to Mass

Shopping

Giving hugs

Making everyone feel special

Your Not-So-Average, Garden-Variety Rabbits!

Introducing the Tapestry Rabbit and the Topiary Rabbit ...

Tapestry Rabbit

Topiary Rabbit

... both are knit on double-pointed needles with wool yarn, then felted in your washing machine.

The Topiary Rabbit is knit with wool held together with one strand of Little Flowers novelty yarn. This one is Dappled Forest.

The Tapestry Rabbit is embroidered with simple stitches using Knit Picks Palette yarns.

I hope you like them! The pattern will be available shortly. (As in, as soon as I have time to lay it out and put it up on The Pattern Box!)

Signs of Spring!

Finally! The first signs of Spring are popping up here and there in the most unexpected places. A return to sunshine, warm weather and all the hope that it brings with it! A new season! As I usher in Spring 2010, I am still in the midst of all the health issues with my parents ... my mother is the one now in the hospital ... my dad still trying to recover from his hip surgery, now has bronchitis. *sigh
I have; however, completed a new Spring design! As soon as I finish the embroidery, I'll post it up.
I will return! I promise!

Winter Blast!

Here's Maggie waiting to get back inside!
Here's why:



She doesn't like the ice on her feet ... but she's not crazy about her boots, either!

Happy New Year! (a little late!)

I can't believe it! Here it is: January 10, 2010! Do we say, "Twenty-10" now? Or is it "Two thousand ten?" I can't decide. It seems futuristic either way! Especially to look at it!

I haven't been posting lately ... not because of the holidays and baking and wrapping and cleaning ... nope. It's because my father has been so seriously ill. These past few months ... from October to now ... have just been a giant blur. Just when we thought my dad was turning a corner for the good, he fell the Sunday after Christmas (Dec. 27) and broke his hip. He needed an immediate partial-hip-replacement surgery ... and then he got pneumonia and they discovered he had another UTI ... this time, they phrased it as a "raging" infection. *sigh. His swallowing has always been weak, but after the surgery, he can't swallow at all. They just put in a PEG tube on Friday so he can still "eat." So, after about a week in the surgical intensive care unit, he was just transferred back to the orthopedic floor.
It's been very scary. Especially, since all my brothers and my sister live out-of-state and across the country, I've had to be the one to make a lot of decisions. I don't know why I'm always amazed at how God takes over in these situations. He's done it so many times, you'd think I'd know by now I'm going to be led in the right direction!!! I just keep praying and, somehow, just when I think I'll never know what to do, I get an answer as plain as day. Maybe it will come to me as I'm washing my hair in the shower ... or maybe it suddenly strikes me as I'm blowing a big bubble from my constant wad of bubble gum ... whenever it is, I get the answer and I can move forward for another day.
I have lots of ideas for fun, new designs, but I just don't have the time to knit them up right now. Instead, I'm learning all about PEG tubes and bolus feedings and what a PICC line is.
I'll be back, I promise! It just may take me a little while.

It's Christmas Week!

Here's Maggie, our Bearded Collie ... she just celebrated her 12th birthday on November 30! She's just been groomed and ready to have some fun!

Here's our under 6-foot-tall Christmas tree. I always buy our trees from the same family every year. I love to have a small enough tree so that I can reach the top without a ladder! Once it's done up with ornaments, lights and tinsel, it looks very much like a proper Christmas tree!

I made our annual spritz cookies with the cookie press over the weekend. They are almost gone now! It's so much fun to have everybody home for a little while. We broke out the Super Mario Bros. game before Christmas so that we'd actually have time to play! (I am, by the way, absolutely terrible at it!) I'd still love to make the cut-out cookie angels and santas, snowflakes and penguins, but I'm not sure I'll have time. I can't believe Christmas is Friday! If I don't get to write anything before then, I wish you all the merriest of Christmases!