Love for our military- knitting style

I have finally learned how to knit! Thanks to Kelly from my happy little life. She had a knitting 101 class and I loved it. Cupcakes, cute girls and yarn, could you ask for anything else? She is going to be posting about more classes so if you are interested pop on over to her blog.

photo from the purl bee*

but if you are already a knitter or crocheter then I've got a great way for you to help a soldier/soldiers:

Operation Gratitude is a wonderful non-profit organization that sends care packages to our soldiers serving overseas that help them out in so many ways. Right now you can help by using your yarning talents to make hats, scarves, and helmet liners to send to troops serving in Afghanistan. We can all feel how cold it is now I'm sure you can imagine sitting in the mountains of Afghanistan with nothing but a tent to keep you out of the elements. This is such a great way to show these men and women that even though some people seem to be dragging feet on decisions about their mission, we the American people haven't forgotten about them and their huge sacrifice for us and the people of Afghanistan.

(This info found on the blog proud liberal army wife)
There are some rules you need to follow, and these are not suggestions, these are mandatory.
First - NO acrylic or rayon or other artificial yarns. It must be 100% wool. Acrylic melts when it burns & when it gets wet, it gets cold and nasty. Wool, even when wet, keeps the body warmth in. I'm told that the Cascade 220 superwash is warm, soft and washable. There are other washable wools too.
Second - muted colours. tans, browns, Army green, black, deep maroon if you must, dark blue if you want to send to airforce.

This is short notice but they need to be sent by Dec. 5 to:

Operation Gratitude/California Army National Guard
17330 Victory Boulevard
Van Nuys, California 91406

And including a little note of support with your name and address or email address pinned to it would be super nice. Or anything else they might need.

Here are some links for helmet liners: 1 2
and troop hats or other mens hats

As for the scarf - simple is good, plain and long enough to go around the neck once then get tucked in.

*I love purl soho for yarn & the purl bee for patterns

opinion please

So after yeeearssss of talking about new flooring I think I have finally found something and would love your opinion- and soon, the husband is tired of waiting for me to make up my mind.
What do you think?

Home Legend, hand scraped elm walnut

room view:

And while I'm at it the bathroom needs to be redone too, I'd love a vanity like the one below
isn't that bathroom dreamy?

spotted on stephmodo

And am thinking this honeycomb stencil design would be fun for the walls- instead of wallpaper

spotted on design*sponge

sweet nothings or loverlies

I couldn't decide what to name these posts I'm going to start doing to remember the little lovelies (hey that's good too) I find & want to remember & catalog because you never know when someone is going to want to start paying me to do this- ;)

On you are my fave she had a post about this Jcrew sweater asking someone to do a tutorial on how to make this because the original was sold out ($118 dollar sold out) and Anjelica at mismatcherie did it! yea for her & us. Someone get this girl a gold star. This is one I definitely will do, someday

Remember this tutorial by laura from orange beautiful ? another gorgeous piece of clothing from Jcrew

And speaking of ruffles. Here's another tutorial from Etsy's blog the storque

I will make the pillow as long as I can have the eames rocker too.

you know what I need?

No, not a life- ha ha

what I need is a place to store all these cute ideas I find online. I'm pretty sure I'll never do 90% of them but they are very inspiring and fun to look at.

Like these S'more kits:

from twig & thistle -spotted on you are my fave


Also loving this kids table:

from sweet paul - spotted on you are my fave

Couldn't I just be paid to look online at all the super cute and creative things people do then catalog them for someone?

sick, sicker, sickerest *update*

we're sick
it bites
no one likes cleaning up things that should just stay put
especially me
especially not at 3 am


*Now that we're all feeling better & I can sort of laugh about it I should inform all of you that I am now the expert at cleaning up throw-up and am also the expert in reading the warning signs of when it will make an appearance and the best way to get the kid in front of a toilet.
a quick tip: the sink is NOT a good choice for throw-up, but I know a good home remedy for unclogging that sink if you happen to make that mistake & it's 1 am and your husband is at work- oh your husband isn't at work at 1 am? -huh, well I guess you can forget the home remedy & just send him to the store for Drano.

you can say "Thank You!" with your cold hard cash too

I know you've been wanting a great way to say "Thank You!" to all the soldiers out there sacrificing everyday and a way to get rid of all that spare cash you have laying around & I have found a way to kill those 2 birds with one click of a confirm button.

Project Valour-IT is the way.
It's a great program that gives laptops and voice recognition software and other such things to help injured soldiers in their recovery.
To learn more you can go to my other blog and learn more or go right to the source that's probably the best way anyway.
Be sure to donate through the Army link- you know it's a competition

oh no!

Remember THIS post? about our loverly pet manti, mantis, mantises (honestly what is the plural?) Carolyn & Joe? Well we have an update on those two love birds*

*it's not pretty

The other day Lily was helping me hack my way through the jungle of weeds in the out of site, out of mind backyard. As we worked toward a corner Lily excitedly informed me she had found our long lost friends Joe & Carolyn. She sat there studying them for a few seconds while waving me over and insisting I drop in to say hi. As I was leaning my double edged hoe* against the fence I heard her cry out
"Oh NO!"
I ran over (okay, my backyard isn't that big) quickly took the two steps over to where she was and asked what was wrong.
"Carolyn is EATING Joe!"
she told me in utter shock, horror & disbelief.
What do you tell a 5 yr old after she witnesses one of her favorite pets whole heartedly consuming the other? I was about to start explaining the wonderful & wonderous circle of life. How when one thing dies it helps feed another, but she beat me to it,
"EWWW she just bit his head off his body- that's so COOL!"

RIP joe


* while purchasing this wonderful double edged hoe at Home Depot a man waiting for his paint asked me what sort of tool I had and what was I going to use it for. I was in shock- SHOCK! "why it's a double edged hoe" I politely & incredulously informed him, "it's used for weeding and turning up dirt." He acted as though it was the most ingenious thing he's ever seen. Then promptly help up his 500 gal container of liquid poisonous weed killer, "this is my double edged hoe" He chuckled- uh yeah gotch-ya.