Summer Vacation

Hubby and I have been enjoying our annual summer vacation and this year we decided to leave our schedule wide open so we could do whatever. Or nothing. We've been doing both... we enjoyed a day with family in northern Wisconsin, a few leisure days at home with the kiddos, we tended to some much neglected work around the house, took a day trip to Appleton, and visited the Horicon Marsh twice. 

Our trip to the marsh on Friday was highlighted with absolutely beautiful weather that was reminiscent of my hike in the Colorado mountains a few weeks back. We commented during our marsh hike, that even though Wisconsin is very different than Colorado, the landscape is equally stunning - especially on a day with perfectly blue skies. I'll be sorting through my Colorado pictures soon, so you can see what you think.  

We made another trip out early this morning. After the crazy commotion of getting the boys into the car for the 20 minute drive, everyone had a great time! With Logan now at 13+ years and Rollo a mere 5, we have to go at different paces since Rollo and can run circles around his older brother (and us, for that matter). When Logan decided it was time to enjoy a bowl of water (laying down), Hubby stayed with him, while Rollo and I went off on our own for a few miles where we saw turtles, frogs, and lots of birds, including these geese. It was beautiful again today, but the skies weren't nearly as beautiful as a couple days ago. Both boys are currently napping off their exciting excursion. 

I've also done a fair amount of cooking during our time off and hope to do more today yet. The best part of cooking during time off is not having any time restrictions - I could start something and tend to it throughout the day. I made us a fresh batch of Roasted Tomatillo Salsa from Against All Grain's Meals Made Simple, but I grilled everything this time and it added so much depth to the flavor of the finished salsa! I also made an extra large batch, so we have plenty in the freezer - it freezes REALLY well. And... I also made gyros - from scratch... 

I've been gluten free for 2 years and the benefits have been tremendous for me, but there are many things I miss, including gyros. So, on Friday I made homemade gyro meat using this recipe by The Domestic Man with this tzatziki recipe and some delicious Mybread gluten-free pitas. These pitas were SO soft and SO chewy that I could have mistaken them for the real thing (from what I can remember). I'm skeptical of the GF substitutions/recreations, but I was introduced to these pitas at our local heath food store, The Natural Way, a few weeks back and they were just as good as I remembered. YUM!!! We have leftovers and I can't wait to dig in again!

Of course, I've been knitting. I have a new finished sweater (it's been too hot to get outdoor photos of it) and I'm close to finishing a couple other projects, so hope to have details to share soon. I've been pretty focused on working through my current WIPs and I've been doing pretty well, so far. I did get a wee bit distracted because I have to finish up the next knit along project for Firefly Fibers, but it will all come together. Right? 

I'm off to knit a bit before we record this week's podcast episode and make supper. I hope you're enjoying summer and finding time to do what you enjoy!

CHEERS! 

Simply Handmade-along | June Simplicity & Giveaway

Life has been crazy here lately so the new project for our wee 'along' for has been delayed, but the wait is over! 

JUNE | Leafy and Ballband Washcloths | THROUGH July 10th

Leafy Washcloth by Tricksy Knitter

Ballband Dishcloth from Mason Dixon Knitting

With how busy things have been for our little family, I can only imagine that we're not alone in the chaos as of late and I hope that the simplicity of wash/dishcloths is welcome. I wanted something low-stress, fun, small, and quick to knit. Also, we desperately need some new wash/dishcloths.

I'm planning on using some of ourlovely Blue Sky Fibers Worsted Cotton for mine (especially great for face and body cloths and babies because it's SO soft). Of course, traditional kitchen cotton (Sugar n Cream, Peaches n Cream...) are great for kitchen dishcloths, so I might end up stash diving for kitchen dishcloths, but we'll see. Both patterns are available for free on ravelry and I'm guessing you can't just make one. *wink*

If you'd like to join me in using the Blue Sky Fibers Worsted Cotton, Firefly Fibers is offering 15% OFF all solid colors of Worsted Cotton through Sunday, June 19th with discount code 'HandmadeJune'!

And... as promised, it's almost giveaway time! Since I've been absent, we're going to extend the giveaway through the end of this project (July 10th) - yes, that means you can knit cloths to your hearts content this month and have even more chances to win! Here's a peek at what you could win...

To be entered, just make sure you've signed up officially here and shared your WIP either in our ravelry group or tagged your photos with #handmadealong on social media to be eligible (you don't have to finish, but we love seeing your FOs). Good luck!

Thanks so much to everyone that's been participating and I hope you'll join again to knit some cloths with me over the next few weeks!

Cheers!

SIMPLY HANDMADE-along | May Stitching

As you may know, I'm primarily a knitter, but I do also enjoy other shapes and forms of handmaking. Since most of the Handmade-along participants are also primarily knitters, our projects are mostly knitted, but my goal for us this year has been to add a project here-and-there that utilizes other handmade technique - you know, for a little variety and fun. This month, we're doing just that!

While visiting my family in Colorado a few years ago, my cousin and I were lucky enough to sneak away for a trip to a local yarn shop - it's not often that I get to shift from yarn shop proprietor to customer -  and I was just a little excited! As I was focused on yarn and fabric, my cousin found a cross stitch kit and I merely glanced at it while we were at the shop. Upon arriving at home, she opened up the kit and I was a wee bit jealous of her newly acquired treasure and I've been thinking about it ever since.

I was so inspired by her cross stitch necklace kit that we now carry them at Firefly Fibers and I hope you love them as much as I do. Say "hello" and "welcome" to Red Gate Stitchery!

MAY | RED GATE STITCHERY CROSS STITCH | through May 29th

I did a fair amount of cross stitch growing up. Then, in my twenties I created quite a collection of DMC floss, along with cross stitch patterns and several kits. To be honest, I love cross stitching, but my time is rather limited and these projects take HOURS and HOURS to complete and I always run into a brick wall with the actual finishing of my creation. 

That's why I love these kits - everything is included (you may need craft glue, but that's about it), they're SUPER quick to start and finish, and they're wearable so you can show off my FO with minimal finishing effort. Yay! 

I'm drawn to creative pairings and the mix of traditional cross stitch with bamboo, acrylic, and leather, is simply irresistible to me. Susan, the brilliant creative behind Red Gate Stitchery, recently added some holiday bamboo and red thread ornaments to her line up and these have me thinking about getting ahead on a few holiday gifts. 

New to cross stitch? Not a problem. These projects are small and totally do-able for a first cross stitch project and Susan has a great tutorial here on her website. 

I adore these little snowflake ornaments and they would be so fast to stitch up! I'm having a very hard time deciding on which kit to start with, but I think it might be one of the black teardrop kits and the leather cuff is sure to be next up. 

Do you want to join the cross stitch fun this month? The Red Gate Stitchery kits are available at Firefly Fibers - both in our brick-and-mortar shop and online - or if you have your own small cross stitch project, please join and share your progress with that. I hope you'll join in and I can't wait to see what you stitch up!

Learn more about Red Gate Stitchery here and if there's anything that we're not stocking at the shop that you'd like to see added, please drop me a line at the shop and let me know!

PS - I keep promising a giveaway and the details will be coming soon and you'll have until the end of this project (5/29/16) to enter. Stay tuned... 

CHEERS!

All photos by Red Gate Stitchery.