Day 5 of 21-Day Challenge

Day 5 of 21-Day Challenge
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

Rhonna's QOD here. Liz Phair's lyrics immediately came to mind. I need a page like this to boost my spirits now and then.

I tried an all-digital layout this time. Partly because I was curious to see what I can do with Microsoft Picture It (not as much as I'd like; I'm an old-school Adobe Pagemaker gal) and because I wanted to do this one QUICK (still so far behind...)

Feeling MUCH closer to normal today (4/6). Must have really been some bug, not just a 1st trimester relapse (although it felt like that yesterday).

Day 4 of 21-Day Challenge

Day 4 of 21-Day Challenge
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

Deathly ill yesterday (4/4, in reality). Still recovering. Now, further behind than ever. Let my sloppy handwriting go for this one.

Quote here.

Day 3 of 21-Day Challenge

Day 3 of 21-Day Challenge
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

Quote of the day here.

(19)88 is significant, because that's when I went to Ireland. The QOTD reminded me of the twists and turns of Celtic art, and my trip. At the time it seemed like a major detour in my life, but it turned out to be a great adventure.

Day 2 of 21 Day Challenge

Day 2 of 21 Day Challenge
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

The quote for the day is here.

It brought a little chick to my mind (chicken legs, chicken heart, big bodies with little legs...) but I didn't want a cutesy chick, so I drew my own. Gah, drawing is hard.

Oh, and sorry if you've now got Springsteen playing in your head.

Day 1 of 21 Day Challenge

01dayrhonnaf
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

It's been two months since I've had a scrapbooking weekend, and just before I embarked on my crop Friday (it's actually April 2nd as I write this...see below), I looked over the latest newsletter from Farmington Hills' Scrapbook Zone.

I haven't been excited about a class -- stamping or scrapping -- since taking a slew of stamping classes last spring. Mega Meet is coming up, but I took some of their classes in 2003 and was underwhelmed. The vendor area can be inspirational, but I will probably have to skip the whole thing this year due to a major dent in my scrapbooking budget (see next paragraph...)

The Zone has Ali Edwards visiting in May (same month as Mega Meet). As she is the author of A Designer's Eye, I am VERY interested in taking one of her classes, and signed up for it Saturday. We'll be making a chipboard mini scrapbook with 7 Gypsies stuff, a company whose embellishments have always intrigued me, and working with mixing patterned papers, always a puzzle for me. Love the "shabby chic" look, can't quite figure out how to get it.

Long story short, from Ali's site I found Rhonna's, and decided to join her 21 Day (Art Journal) Challenge. You can read all about Day 1 here.

I'll be back-dating my entries until I catch up. If and when that happens. It's all about the journey, after all ;)

Happy Birthday tag card

Happy Birthday tag card
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

Despite having to take the nasty Glucose test this afternoon (drinking a large bottle of sugar water, after which I had to have blood drawn EXACTLY an hour later), I managed to get home while Tess was still in school and get a card done.

The small tags say "celebrate" "dream" and "enjoy." I love the Happy Birthday script stamp; just got it from CTMH yesterday. The striped paper was a freebie from some paper crafting magazine; they want my subscription. Too bad they didn't get it.

Pink fluffly cloud sweater-DONE!

pink fluffly cloud sweater
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

The finishing just keeps on going. I did a simple, single-crochet to finish the neck on this one. Such a relief to work in saturated color after all that white in the wedding shawl.

Now I'm off to work on a new, bright-colored pair of socks. As soon as I finish my Yarn Girls sweater.

Clicking on the photo above will send you to my flickr site, with tons of other silly photos of the kiddoodle in her finished sweater. Like wrangling a cat, getting a good photo of this one. She was laughing at all the silly shots I caught on my digital.

Wedding shawl--DONE

shawl front
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

Yes, despite my disappearance from knitting nights on Tuesday, and general barfiness for the entire month of February (slowly fading...very slowly), I was able to knit from time to time on this. Tracey's reception is Saturday. I had a burst of energy this past week and just sat, knitting like mad to beat my deadline.

My mom did this shawl in orange mohair, very pretty and much sturdier than my version. Mine is soft but it is really going to stretch. It was done in Dropps Cotton Viscose (shiny, slippery) and a thin thread of gold (to match Tracey's dress).

Remind me not to knit something white in the middle of winter. Ever. Again.

Since this pattern came off of a photocopied sheet of paper (no copyright, no credit), and because it's so disgustingly simple, I'm sharing it with you here.

Really, you could figure this out all by your lonesome.

Triangular Shawl

Loosely cast on 4 stitches.

Row 1: Knit.
Row 2: Knit.
Row 3: K1, M1, K2, M1, K1
Row 4: Knit.
Row 5: K2, M1, K2, M1, K2
Row 6: Knit.
Row 7: K4, YO, K4
Row 8: Knit.
Row 9: K4, YO, K1, YO, K4
Row 10: Knit.
Row 11: K4, YO, K3, YO, K4
Row 12: Knit.
Row 13: K4, YO, K5, YO, K4
Row 14: Knit.

Continue increasing every other row as established, until total length at the middle is 35", ending with a even knit row.

There will now be 2 more st between YOs each time.

New Row: K4, YO, *(K2tog, YO), repeat from * across to last 5 st: K1, YO, K4.
Next Row: Knit.
Next Row: Knit.
Bind off loosely.