The First Pencils Again and a Scarf Update

I decided to take a photo of these great colored pencils in the order that I had written them down in the last posting. Just so you remember, here is the list of names of the colors with the pencils photographed from left to right: Raccoon Dog, Sambal, Truffle, Windsor Rose, Mahogany, Caffe Latte, Tea With Milk, Soldier Suit, Hopscotch, Tragedy, Vivien, Coconut, Aubergine, Anaconda, Tobacco Road, Black Coffee, Earth Brown, Buster Brown, Walnut, Secret Past, Pecan, Semi-Sweet, Apricot Brandy, Creme De Cacao and Tiramisu! Don't you wonder how they came to name some of these pencils by these names? I sure do. That most pink one is Vivien. I wonder why?

Lea Redmond has a great blog about these pencils. She's doing an art project where she's sharing a 6 subscriptions of these great pencils with 150 people. She's sending 1 pencil to each person each month and (simplified) they have to do something related to the name of the pencil during that month, then write about it on the paper she has sent them , using the pencil and mail it back to her. Isn't that a fascinating idea? Here is her blog about this project - With a Pencil in my Pocket. Yesterday, I read all of the submissions that had been posted to date. I think there are about 100 so far. I would have joined in on this project myself, but I discovered it too late and it was full. Watching the video she posted for February shows me that I did not get the same pencils this month that she did. So, I don't know exactly how the subscription stuff works.

I'm tempted to play along with her group using my own pencils and my own blog. One pencil, randomly drawn each month. I'll have to learn how to use the scanner or get my hubby in on the action in order to do this. I might as well give it a try. I think I'll enjoy it! The pencil I grabbed is "Soldier Suit".

My poopy yellow colored scarf is nearing completion and is, at this point, 40 inches long! Just amazing to me! I just learned the knit stitch last Saturday night. One week ago. I don't know how to purl yet. I wanted to master this stitch since I knew I could actually make something from it. Dianne encouraged me not to rip out on this one, but to keep knitting. I think it was a good idea. Yes, there are lots of mistakes in this scarf and it is not one I'd want to give to just anyone. I'll probably keep it forever in fact, so that I can always judge how far I've (hopefully) come. If I had ripped out, like I've done in the past when I've attempted to learn to knit, I may have quit working on it, like I've done in the past. So, I am indeed a very happy person. I keep looking at this scarf in total awe, even with it's imperfections. I can only imagine what it will be like to knit well one day. All that being said, I'm knitting until I get fairly close to the end of the yarn. I know I'll need some to bind off, but I don't know how much or how to do it -- yet. I hope to learn in the next day or two.

Treasures in the Mail

I've been somewhat emotionally consumed this week. One of my very close family members is considering divorce. It's upset me greatly since the family member has young children. So please forgive me for taking so long to post lately and posting so infrequently. It's amazing how stressful things like this are.



Monday was a great mail day! I had been out of town since the Thursday before at a quilt retreat. When I got to the post office, I had lots of wonderful packages! So fun! I got two of my prizes from the One World One Heart giveaways. The first one is this lovely print of a painting done by Karen. The photo I took of it does not truly capture its loveliness. To see it in Karen's original post on her blog, please look here. Her blog is called Daily Creations by Karen Benvenuti. Thank you Karen! I love birds and bird nests with eggs. I'd love to find one like this in a bush near my home. Just lovely.





The other prize I have to tell you about tonight is from Nikki. She is so sweet. She sent me her amazing little book charm and a print of a volcano world. Here is the posting about her OWOH winners. She has great photos of both of the prizes she sent me. Much better than my sorry photo. I really wish I had a camera that took different lenses, but my hands shake a lot and I need one of those no-shaky cameras. I haven't found one that lets you change lens. Times like this, I really want a macro lens so that I could take a great photo of this charm. When I get the courage, I plan to write the dates of my son's and grandchildren's births in the little book. Then I'm going to hang it on a necklace. Nikki's "wee planet" photos are really cool! You can get to all of them from her original post about the giveaway here. Nikki's blog is called Nikki Smith - Book Artist. If you have time, please check out both of the blogs of these talented ladies.



The last thing to tell you about was something that I ordered and it just happened to arrive in the mail on Monday with the other goodies. I read about this on The Bright Side Project. It's a subscription of 500 colored pencils -- 25 pencils a month over 20 months! I'm going to have a lot of fun with these over the months and, I hope, for years to come. I can't wait to share them with my grandchildren when they visit the next time! CV will especially love them, I think. The colors are wonderful. And something equally fun -- each one is named. Just listen to these names -- Raccoon Dog, Sambal, Truffle, Windsor Rose, Mahogany, Caffe Latte, Tea With Milk, Soldier Suit, Hopscotch, Tragedy, Vivien, Coconut, Aubergine, Anaconda, Tobacco Road, Black Coffee, Earth Brown, Buster Brown, Walnut, Secret Past, Pecan, Semi-Sweet, Apricot Brandy, Creme De Cacao and last, but certainly not least, Tiramisu! Now, these names are not in the order of the pencils in the photo. I didn't think of it in time. I'll try to remember to do that next time. Or if I get really wild and crazy over the weekend, I may lay them out as I've written them and take another photo.

Hope you have a great one! I'm done for tonight. Off to practice my knitting. At least three rows a day so that I don't forget the knit stitch.