the first day

at the cute knitting shop, near my daughter's house there is a hallway with..."the wall of shame". 

 tacked up there are the flops, the duds, the mishaps and mistakes. a baby bootie that wouldn't fit a mouse, a felted sweater (but wait, sweaters can't be felted because then they don't fit adults. they fit 2 year olds but only 2 year olds with arms as big around as toothpicks), a hat that would fit a giant, some of the items aren't even recognizable. you know the stuff i'm talking about. some of it you just "don't know what happened", some of it "the pattern was wrong", some of it "you saw it coming, you felt it in your gut" but knit-on anyway. and yep, it turned out bad....very bad.

if i lived near that knitting shop i would proudly tack up my first felted slipper. it's bad. i've decided it falls under the description of "you saw it coming-but you knit on anyway". infact i SO saw it coming it's not slippers, it is a slipper. even felted this beautiful pink and squash, two/tone slipper would fit my hubby. and it's lumpy. i just can't live with lumpy slippers they look frumpy. thank goodness i had that knitting sense, stopped while i had that "feeling" and only made one.

but.....that didn't totally stop me....ooohhhh no. i was on a mission for the perfect slipper. so this weekend i dug through the stacks of knitting books, the piles of yarn stash and tried another pattern.

saturday morning, thru to the afternoon the cable channels were showing great movies. i knit slippers while watching Love Actually, then i knit thru Notting Hill. i will admit i had a brief moment, during the first ten minutes of the movie when i felt like dropping those slippers and digging for some yarn to start knitting a cute beret like Julia Robert's was wearing, you know when she shows up at the cute bookshop looking so stylish with her hat, sunglass and all....but i knit on. that beret got me thinking of Europe so i flipped to the travel channel.

by 4:30 i was filling the washing machine with very, hot, soapy water. threw those babies in there and hoped for the best. (i had a good feeling!)

20 minutes later i had THE CUTEST, felted, ballet slippers you've ever seen!

i've already cast on for another pair! let me think who else can i make them for? and christmas next year...everyone's getting slippers! don't fall asleep around me you might get your feet measured. and decorated? how cute would that be!

and BTW: i had a (PRODUCT)RED party at my little knitting shop last week. sold every kit!!! how cool is that!

speaking of red....i love Valentine's Day!!! it's so....RED and PINK and....

WHITE!!!! as in SNOW DAY!!!

i'm home today and staying in my p.j.s till at least noon.

it's been a fun celebration of Valentine's Day. hubby has surprised me this year with the 14 days of February. what-a-guy! what-a-surprise! and he hasn't missed a day. all sorts of fun little sweet treats, flowers, mugs, he even found a heart shaped tape measure for my knitting bag!

also, about a month ago i joined the Free People Valentine Swap and my package arrive during the blizzard last night. the cutest, hand-knit, sooo Free People inspired earflap hat with cute felt pink and white hearts placed on the ears. perfect for the blizzard last night, out with the dog today, and i'm almost sad today's a snow day but will wear it to work tomorrow. now this is a hat that makes winter fun! with this big blanket of snow i think i will still have plenty of days to enjoy this hat. thanks Alicia.

happy heart day to all!! enjoy!

  (PRODUCT)RED has continued to grow.

good-ole'-Bono. he had such a great idea. i'm glad it didn't stop that day on Michigan Ave, here in Chicago with Oprah on her shopping trip in her cute little RED sports car starting at Gap.

i've mentioned Manos Yarns here before. one of my fav yarns to knit with that i sell it at my little shop. already a global yarn company that provides jobs for women in Uruguay.

Manos is going RED!!  i will be able to sell their (DESIGN)RED KITS!!! so you can knit a lacy scarf with Cotton Stria Red Manos Yarn. and of course profits go to the United Nations Foundation that Bono founded.

and did you know....what the meaning of the parentheses are? (the embrace). each company that becomes "RED" places its logo in this embrace and is then elevated to the power of red. thus the name- (PRODUCT)RED. you, the consumer, can take your purchase to the power of (RED) simply by upgrading your choice. thus the proposition: (YOU)RED.

do (YOU) want one? and how about a kit for a friend!

a pause....a rest....time off.

guess i took a bit of an un-planned blogger's break.  i'm not in the doldrums and i wouldn't call it a february funk. i'm rather fond of february.

didn't really plan on it.  more like i got out of the practice of meeting up with the keyboard really.

just felt like i did really have much to say, you know, nothing much exciting was happening.

elizabeth berg, one of my fav fiction authors also wrote a non-fiction book years ago about writing called, escaping into the open. this quote, found at the beginning of one of her chapters  really rings true about a writer's purpose. about journaling and blogging. and about this interesting form of communication.

"the greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and to tell what they saw in a plain way".  -john ruskin-

communication about life is really just about the plain everyday. most days, something worth telling does happen every day, if you really look for it i guess.