Fall at Hawthorn Hollow

On of my favorite places is a local nature sanctuary and arboretum called Hawthorn Hollow. An old co-worker told me about it about four years ago and I was so surprised that I had driven past the place as many times as I have without even knowing it was there! I am always amazed at how much cool stuff there is locally that I don't even know about. Sometimes being a tourist in your own state, and even your own city, is just as amazing as a trip somewhere farther away.

Today I was playing taxi for my sister since her car is in the shop, and while she was in a "business meeting" (aka she is a marketing major so her school projects are basically free work for local businesses) I decided to skip just sitting in the car with a book and instead use the time to check out the fall foliage. With the exception of a school trip on my way out, I had the place to myself. While I was walking it was very peaceful, but when down to work on my current crochet project, I was amused by how loud all the the squirrels and chipmunks were after they got used to my presence.
















Hawthorn Hollow closes December 24th to March 1, but I am hoping for a few more fall walks...and a couple of good snows to try my hand at snow shoeing this year. Luckily Hawthorn Hollow is also located right across the road from Pets, aka Petrifying Springs, a great county park. They are open year round and have even more hiking trails.

nine bags to sew

1. Go Anywhere bag // from Noodlehead
2. Pleated, lined handbag // from Warehouse Fabrics Inc.
3. Buttercup bag // from Made By Rae
4. Messenger bag // from no time to sew
5. 241 tote // from Noodlehead
6. Braided Belt messenger bag // from Cold Hands Warm Heart
7. Two Tone fabric totes // from Make It and Love It
8. Phoebe bag // from artsy-crafty babe
9. Cargo Duffle Pattern for Robert Kaufman // from Noodlehead

I love bags. I put everything in bags. I put my bags in bags. I also love to sew. I do it very rarely and I am not very good at it at all. But practice makes perfect (or so they say....) so this year I would really like to sew more and practice those skills! These are nine bags that I really like and would love to try my hand at. If you couldn't tell, I am also really fond of Anna's designs (Noodlehead).

One of the reasons I don't sew very much is because, as I said, I am not very good at it and I find it disappointing and discouraging to finish a project, step back, take a look, and find it uneven or lumpy with crooked seams and hemlines. But every new bag is a chance at practice and a project you will be happy with, so I am going to try sewing all these so that by this time next year every project I pick up I can sew with the confidence that when I step back to take that look I will be pleased with what I see.

nine things to knit

1. paulie by Isabell Kraemer (photo © Isabell Kraemer)
2. Anemoi Mittens by Eunny Jang (photo © AnAbundanceOfLisa)
3. Bears Rainbow Blanket by Purl Soho (photo © Purl Soho)
4. Mystery + Manners by SpillyJane (photo © SpillyJane)
5. Podster Gloves by Glenna C. (photo © Glenna C.)
6. Camp Out Fingerless Mitts by tante ehm (photo © kararstanley)
7. Emmanuelle Sweater by Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark (photo © Knitscene/Harper Point)
8. First Snow Mittens by Aet Terasmaa (photo © Aet Terasmaa)
9. Whippoorwill by Carina Spencer (photo © Carina Spencer)

I admit, I tend to drift towards mittens. I still wear the pair I made five years ago pretty religiously (except for that one winter two years ago when I thought I lost them!), so it is kind of odd for me to make so many. But I just love them! I love the process of knitting mittens and I also know that I will wear them when I am done because they always turn out. Not to mention, I have yet to meet a person who doesn't love a pair of homemade mittens as a gift.

This year I want to do more sweaters. And failing that, at least one. I am just terrified I will spend the money and dedicate the time and in the end I will produce something that doesn't fit and looks awful. But then again...

Today is actually my first day off in the new year, which is kind of fun because although I worked the 1st and 2nd, I now have a three day weekend to enjoy! I thought that today I would share some of the things I hope to do in 2014.

I got the Kinfolk cookbook for Christmas and I hope to try most, if not all, of the recipes in it this year. I like the recipes that I have found in Kinfolk because they always make me try something new. Just flipping through the book I have seen some ingredients called for that I would probably never have tried on my own. I try to make a new recipe at least once a week, although this seems to happen more in the summer than in the winter...Probably because I am less likely to want to go out in the cold for any ingredients I don't already have. I will be sure to share and let you know which recipes make it onto my 'will make again' list!

Knitting, knitting, knitting. Something I dearly love but...I...am....so...slow...at. Mostly, I think, because I tend to jump around a lot with projects. I also plan to finish and actually wear a sweater this year. I will! I must! I want to share my progress and projects because I find that a lot of the patterns I end up really liking and want to use are ones that I have seen on other blogs. I think there is always something inspiring about seeing the finished work of something someone took the time to make with their hands. I love Ravelry and it is my go to for finding patterns when I have something specific in mind, but sometimes it's the projects I stumble randomly upon that I like the most.

And finally, there is the pile of books I hope to make it through in the first part of the year... not to mention all the books I have waiting on my Nook!

I think I struggle with having so much I want to do that I overwhelm myself and end up doing nothing. I forget what book it was in, one of the classics I know that, but one of the characters divided up her entire day... from 10-11 embroidery, from 11-12 knitting, from 12-1 lunch... that is not, of course, her exact schedule but I think you get the point. Perhaps I should try that??

Hello to a new friend: 2014

I am one of those people who is always a bit melancholy around the new year... I am always feeling disappointment over the things I had wanted to do and never got done, sadness the the pure and simple joy of the Christmas season is over, and, being the nostalgic person I am, the bitter-sweetness of all the things that have happened that would now be nothing more than memories of "a better time." I have to constantly remind myself that it is a case of "the grass isn't always greener."

That is why I am going into the new year with the thought firmly in place that there is nothing to be sad and wistful about! 2014 is going to be so awesome it will be like meeting a new person who becomes an amazing friend!

The year dawned grey and snowy... My favorite kind of weather for the long, cold, Wisconsin winters!








I already have plenty of plans and ideas and hopes for the new year, so here is just a sort list of my New Years Resolutions:

1. Do more! And by that I mean actually make some of those bookmarked crafts and recipes; get out there and learn my camera better and take all those photos I wish I was!
2. Read more books and spend less time on the internet. I read a lot as it is, but with all the time I spend just clicking around imagine what more I could actually read! Last year was a little light on the nonfiction, so I want to remedy that too!
3. Take more pictures
4. Be more organized
5. Work harder at maintaining friendships, something I have been bad with since high school.
6. Finish getting my "dream body." 2013 was a great year for that, and this year I am going to finish what I started!
7. Spend less money!! So I can buy that dream house out in the country.... ok so that is a dream that is still many, many, MANY years off, but starting now is always good!
8. Complain less about work. Face it, a job is a job... Go in with a smile, do your job, and go home with some money in your pocket to do all those things you actually want to enjoy!!!

Sophia Mittens by Half

Actually, it is a little more than by half. The second mitten is almost half done itself. Things got a little crazy and absolutely no progress was made (which I find understandable for once), but with the weather getting colder and a promise to a sweet cousin yet unfulfilled I figured I had better get my hands a moving. Not to mention that I may have already promised my best friend a pair too.... and I lost one of my own mittens last year so now I need another for myself.... No matter how many projects I want to start, I just can't seem to escape mittens!!

The thing that made me smile the most today was this, though:

Photo copyright © 2012 Posie: Rosy Little Things.

I made one of her kits last year and had so much fun with it that I think I am going to make it a yearly tradition! I hope to get my mom and my sister in on it too. I am excited for it to come in the mail, but then the hard part starts: I refuse to start any Christmas crafting until after Thanksgiving!

~Alison

Dad.

On September 9, 2012 my dad took his life. Despite being surrounded by a huge family who loved and cared for him deeply, we were unable to help him fight the internal battles he was having with himself daily, or alleviate the huge amount of pain he was living in and had been living for a majority of his life.

Despite being hurt by the fact that he left us, my love for my father is strong, enduring, and unending. I know that many people claim that they have the best father, but I truly believe that I in fact, have the best father who has ever graced God's green earth. He loved us and took care of use and always put us first until the very end.

There is always going to be a hole in my heart from his loss, but I will strive daily to fill it with love for him, the rest of my family, and by living the live I know he would want me to live.

My cousin spoke to me about memorializing him, not necessarily with a stone with his name carved in it, but by continuing on the little traditions he always had, like making "chicken legs" out of drink straw wrappers, and many other things.

I always used to speak to my dad about how I wished I could have one of those "cool crafty blogs that everyone went to and was inspired by." I thought it was so cool how someone could, for example, come up with a cool ornament idea that everyone would love, and would in turn inspire a new idea and then a new idea, etc. I always wanted to be a part of something so creative like that. The feeling of community that craft blogs seem to have is truly inspiring! But I always let my own fear hold me back, and I think it even stunted my creativity a bit.

But my dad always praised anything I made, wither it was silly looking, a complete failure, or not. He was always there to cut wood or metal or PVC for whatever half-cocked idea I had floating around in my head.

So from this day forth I am going to spend less time looking at all the other amazing things that other people are making, and start trying to make some amazing things of my own and live the life my dad wanted me to live. This blog and all the silly, crazy, or even awesome things I come up with, will be my memorial to him. Plus it will be a space to show off how awesome of a dad I have when I get to talk about him :)