It's the Busiest Time of the Year!

And no....it's not Christmas!

With garden work, keeping up with my fast-growing herbs (harvesting, drying, and crushing), helping out with the welcome bags for the CHEF conference, and preparing for the booth that I will have at the said conference in addition to all of the normal duties of life....the last month and a half or so have been pretty full. Oh, and hockey playoffs...we mustn't forget that! :) I knit during games...further down, I'll post some pictures of what I've been making!

On May 7, I set up a booth at Houston, Missouri's Spring Festival. Here are some pictures:

I should have taken pictures before I started selling. Several things are gone, especially the necklaces...so my display is half empty! I love my new earring display! A friend of mine bought that for me. :) Also, notice that I now have a really nice hand mirror on my table! A nice lady from church bought that for me when she found out that this very essential item in the activity of trying on jewelry was missing from my display at last year's CHEF conference. How sweet! :)

Speaking of the CHEF conference, Jewelry By Jaime will be at this year's conference! It's only 17 days away! Wow...has it been a whole year already? *time flies*

I've been trying to make a variety of new things to sell. To the right are stitch markers for knitting.

To the left is a new necklace using the diamond stitch pattern that I've used several times before and an interesting idea I had for the center dangle. Click on that one to see a bigger picture.

I'm really trying not to get stuck in the same situation that I always seem to....that is, waiting until the last minute to do everything and then end up staying up all night before the morning that we leave. Over the past few days I've completely reorganized my bead boxes (with Ahnnah's help). I didn't plan on doing this, but you know how it goes...you move one thing and then end up moving them all! Also, we're going to be very busy the week before the conference....filling 1200+ bags with 15+ different items that will be handed out to all of the conference attendees. Wow. That's a lot of bags! We don't have a final count on the number of bags yet, or the number of things being put in them. I think that we added another item to the list this morning, though. I'm glad that it has turned out so well! Anything that helps CHEF out with paying for this conference that blesses us so much is time well spent! :)

At the end of April, we had a lot of rain here. We visited a really neat waterfall nearby on the 18th, and then again on the 26th after a whole week of rain. Here are two pictures that I took, one from each visit:

Amazing, isn't it?

Here are some more pictures. You can click on them to see larger images.

Here are some knitting projects that I've finished recently. Click on the images to go to their corresponding Ravelry project pages, where you can see more information and pictures. :)

I actually just finished a second penguin. He's more rotund. :P I think I like him better, too. I don't have a picture of him yet, though.


This is one of my current projects. I love these socks!




I have several more things that I don't have pictures or pages for yet, including lots of baby booties.

I just remembered that in an older post from nearly a year ago, I mentioned a project I was working on that I would post about....and never did. Oops. Here it is. :)

Here's a link to the project page of a second one that Ahnnah and I made together.

I've recently started teaching sign language to a young girl that I know. Tuesday was my first class with her, and I was surprised to see how well she already knew the alphabet. She also learned how to do the song "I Love You Lord" very quickly. It was fun to finally be able to teach sign language to someone. I need to figure out what I'm going to teach her this coming Tuesday. I'm not the type who plans ahead very well...LOL. Lesson plans....what are those?? :P

Ahnnah also now has her very own drawing student. Yay! Speaking of which, here is her latest masterpiece.....I'm amazed. The scan doesn't do it justice....it's simply awesome.
That's Ben Barnes, a.k.a. Prince Caspian.


Ok, I think that's all I've got. Quite enough to last for a while, right? :) It's more than I planned on posting, anyway.

What Can I Say?

Ok, well....so much for keeping up with posting - again.

It seems that Facebook has made blogs seem almost useless. How much do I have to say that hasn't already been said there? Or how many readers do I have that don't see my Facebook posts? I always seem to think that everyone who reads my blog posts already know everything that is in them. Oh well....we'll see what I can come up with. :)

Currently, I'm working on knitting a chemo hat for a lady at church. It's a pattern from KnitPicks.com that was given to me by a friend. So far, it;s turning out quite nicely.

Speaking of Knit Picks...I got this pattern from them and made it as a Christmas gift. I absolutely love the pattern!
Pixie Child Poncho/Skirt
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I've also been working on a pair of socks. Spiral Tube socks with Paton's stretchy sock yarn. I have one done, and I'm pretty happy with it. Now I need to finish the other....


One of my Christmas gifts was a graphic tablet. It has made working with graphic art in PhotoShop so much more fun! I made a couple of desktop wallpapers for my Mom with Tigger in them. Here they are:





Click the photos to go to the page where you can download full-size copies. :)

You can see all of my other recent creations in my Picasa Web Album where I upload them as I make them. :)


We've been enjoying the warmer weather we've had off and on here. I take walks with Ahnnah every day that I can. We've found that if you walk up our road and continue on to the part that's mostly unused, we pass the well and the old horse stables and end up on a gravel road...that's very squishy when it's wet. It's wet quite often, because when the well is full, the overflow runs out and down across the road. Sometimes, there's a steady stream running across the road. Eventually it ends up at a dead end where it circles around a big tree. It's perfect though, because if we walk at a good, brisk pace all the way to the end and back, it takes a full hour. :)








We had an ice storm hit our area about a month ago. I took some really neat pictures of ice-covered things. I've had my uncle's "old" camera for the past couple of months. He let me borrow it when he got a new one. Being a professional photographer, he has nice cameras. :) I LOVE this camera! It's a Nikon D80.








And we had a big snow....








Well, not bad for spur of the moment, huh? :) We'll see if I can come up with more soon...

After a Long Disappearance...

Yes, I am still alive...in case you were wondering.
All I have to say for myself is that I do acknowledge that I have a weakness in keeping up with things...perhaps it's tied in with my bad habit of procrastination? I don't know...but there it is - my full confession. Perhaps I'll do better now. I'm granting Lizzy full permission to hold me to it as soon as she's finished throwing her little party.

So, what have I been up to? Lots. If you take a look at my site, you'll see that it's being majorly updated - lots of new stuff! Once I get all of my new things on there, I plan on making a nice banner. It's just plain wrong to have text up there when I love to make pretty graphics. I also noticed that I really need a new blog banner, too.

Knitting - lots of knitting! I always knit when I listen to John MacArthur (you can download his daily radio shows at gty.org) and audio books (LibriVox.org - free audio books that are in the public domain, meaning before 1924). As usual, I'm in the middle of several projects, but I like it that way. I like to do a little bit of one thing, and then change and do a little of another. Once in a while I'll have a project that I do straight through, and usually very quickly. :P Last week, I started and finished both a shawl and a cabled scarf. Right now, my main projects are a set of placemats for my grandma, a triangle lightweight shawl, and a pair of socks. I'm determined to knit a pair that are the correct size. I think I've got the right pattern this time. Pattern writers need to realize that not all women have a medium-sized foot. So many patterns are for women with medium-sized feet....that's not a 9 1/2! I guess I need to learn how to edit a pattern to make it bigger...but I think I'll learn to knit socks better first. :P

Reading. :) Have any of you read Mark Cahill's books? I highly recommend them. One Thing You Can't Do In Heaven and One Heartbeat Away. Check them out at MarkCahill.org.
I'm also reading the gospel of Matthew this month. I enjoy reading the Bible in different translations or study Bibles. We have so many good ones. The Modern King James translation by Jay P. Green is very good, and a recent addition to our library is the "restored" 1599 Geneva Bible that Marshall Foster gave to my Dad (he basically ran his table at the CHEF conference this year, and a few years ago, as well. He's such a nice guy, and has blessed us with wonderful products from his table). My Dad also has John MacArthur's study Bible (a father's day gift from his children) and I have E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible. Today, I read from The Message Bible...a very interesting translation. I think most are familiar with The Message by now? "The Bible in Contemporary Language". Parts of it are translated very well, I think....other parts not so much. :P One passage, in particular, made me laugh today. It's from Matthew 6: "And when you come before God, don't turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat?" Ha, ha! I can see it now...God is sitting up in the balcony with his little spy glass watching the Pharisee's on stagereciting their elaborate prayers....um, yeah.

I also like to take walks when the weather allows. Here are some pictures from them:
Exploring the Lake
Old gravel road with a creek (only the first 19 - the others are older)
The old horse stables

Soo...the conference went well this year. I had a table for my jewelry again, and it sold pretty well. However, I managed to get a bad ear infection because of the air conditioner blowing on my all of the first day. That wasn't fun. :( Photos can be seen here. About the time that I got over that, my dog got sick. She's 16. After much worry on my part, she did recover, and is almost her normal self now. :) She doesn't jump anymore, and has some trouble with the stairs. But I can deal with that. I'm so thankful that she was spared to me, because I can't imagine doing without her.

A question for my readers (if I still have any left): For future posts, what would you like to see most? Graphic art from me? Drawings from Ahnnah? Something else? Leave your suggestions in the comments. :)

I guess I'll leave off there. I have a book to pack for Paperback Swap for Mom and it's getting late. Goodnight!

A Tour of My Herb Gardens

Yes, I have more than one. :P And there are several scattered all over the yard in various places. So you can't exactly call those gardens. :P

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In area number one (in our back yard), the most prominent plant is the sage. I had no idea they it could get so big. I should have gotten a picture of one of the huge leaves. But I also didn't want to get too close to it at the time...the bees love it. :P I have more sage than I can ever use in my lifetime. There's another plant in an area in the front yard.

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To the left of the sage is a big Oregano plant that I've had for a few years. Right now it's more underneath the sage, though. :P Once the flowers on the sage die, I'll be cutting several of the branches. To the left of the oregano is basil (not pictured).

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Off to the right of the sage is rosemary. I really don't feel like it's truly "mine" since I have to buy a new plant every year.

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All the way to the right are several little savory plants. They're all babies right now. :) To the left of the savory is parsley, but it's currently going to seed and isn't very pretty. :P

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In the back is orange mint. A very hardy little plant. Se how these branches are growing up between some bricks? :P

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Overshadowed by the sage on the right side is marjoram. A little behind it is lemon balm (not pictured). Also in this area are several tiny dill, feverfew, and horehound plants.

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All the way on the left is chocolate mint. It smells wonderful! :)

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In a small area to the right where we just dug up a 40+ year old rose bush that died over the winter are a few of my herbs that will grow into large plants.

Thyme. It's very hard to get a good-looking picture of this one. :P

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Lavender. This plant is 3 or 4 years old. It's slowly getting bigger. I also have English Lavender in an area at the front of the house. It's new this year.

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Russian Sage. Probably my most prized plant. I love it! It gets tiny pale purple flowers on it later in the summer.

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To the right of that one is another area...

Chamomile. One of the easiest to harvest from. :)

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Parsley. We use lots of it, mostly in salads.

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More oregano, taken from the plant in area one.

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Watercress. Great in salads. It tastes kinda like radishes.

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Also in the back yard is tons of mint in several places.

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And chives in two places. Mom likes it in the garden to attract the bees.

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In the front I have a small area with rocks around it. One of my huge sage plants is there, as well as one of my stevia plants (I couldn't get a good picture of that yet). I also have a big ground cover between all of the plants that has pretty purple flowers on it in the early spring. Also there are:

Germander. It has tiny purple flowers later in the season. Notice that the majority of herbs have purple flowers...:P

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My biggest marjoram plant. Marjoram's an odd one...it's flowers are white. :)

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Lemon Balm. My biggest (the sage here doesn't get in it's way). It has a sweet lemon taste and scent.

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Feverfew. It's flowers are like a bigger version of chamomile flowers.

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Others that I have that I don't have pictures of yet are catnip, basil, dill, horehound, tarragon, yarrow, coriander (aka, cilantro), aloe, and stevia. Hopefully my lemon verbena, lemon thyme, and tri-color sage will revive. They don't look too promising, though. :(

I can post pictures of flowers as they bloom. :)