Happy November

Happy November!  We've actually had a real fall this year with cooler, but not freezing temperatures.  Virginia's idea of fall is normally alternating days between 90 and 45 degrees.  But this year, we've been having low to mid to upper 60's during the day and upper 30's to mid 40's at night.  It's been awesome!

I have been spending as much time as possible outside.  A lot of knitting has been getting done beside the fire pit.  Last night I worked on a plain garter stitch dish cloth knit with free, donated yarn.  It's the first thing I've knit for myself since early July.  I've been focusing on bazaar knitting instead of selfish knititng.  The bazaar is next weekend and I can not wait for it to be over so I can knit All the things just for me.  Actually, I have another show in December so I probably won't be doing much selfish knitting until after Christmas.  Or Christmas Eve.  I do love participating in #ChristmasEveCastOn.

Anyway...

Here are a few of the Christmas gnome ornaments I've made for the bazaar.

Sorry for the bad lighting.  The gnomes are hanging on the pegboard in my closet.

I can't imagine why the realtor thinks I need to clean/straighten/purge my closet.

She obviously doesn't knit/craft nor understand a bazaar vendor's lifestyle the week before a big show.

But yeah, even I can admit, my closet is screaming for help.  I can't even get to my shoes.

I hope you had a fun Halloween.  Hayden had a blast for the first few buckets full of candy but by the third or fourth, she was done!  Thankfully the rain held off until well after acceptable trick or treating time. 

Well, I'm off to go put more tags on more items for the bazaar.  Hopefully I'll have time to post next week but no promises.  My 'real' job takes up a surprising amount of my time and I still have an awful lot to do to prepare.  Thank goodness for the end of Daylight Savings and gaining an hour.   Wish me luck.  And focus!  😀

More Bazaar Knitting

 Knitting for the upcoming bazaars continues.

This week I'm focusing on creating Christmas gnomes.  I'm sure I'll share photos when I actually get a few finished.

The making is going slowly because the house selling ordeal continues.  No acceptable offers yet but interest in the house remains high and it feels like we have to leave the house almost daily for showings.  And yes, I am aware that I shouldn't be complaining.... but .... I'm starting to complain..., pretty loudly.  

Meanwhile...

Quack, quack, quack.

Hayden's duck feet worked well.  She went to a local trunk-or-treat event this past weekend and had a blast.  She remembers being a ladybug last year but she doesn't remember getting candy.  She is Quite excited about the Halloween candy this year!

Busy, busy, busy

It's been a busy week!  I cleaned out and rearranged the pantry.  Doesn't sound like that big of a deal but...  You should have seen the pantry before I started!

After cleaning out the pantry, I spent a few hours Googling recipes that use huge quantities of potatoes, bread flour and powdered sugar.  Yes, amoung many other excessively purchased things, I found four 2 lb bags of powdered sugar, a 5 lb and three 10 lb bags of potatoes, and four 5 lb bags of bread flour.  

The pantry looked so clean and organized, I decided to rearrange and reorganize my room and craft supplies the next day.  My room proved to be a little bit more challenging than the pantry.  And took quite a bit longer.

I watched the daffodils bloom - and practically blow away in the wind.  That whole "March comes in like a lion" thing has certainly been true, wind-wise at least.  I couldn't even get a half way decent photo because the wind was moving them around so much.

I listed several new items in my Etsy shop.

I watched gas prices rise almost 75 cents over a four day period.

I went to the store to buy trash bags.  The next day I went to get a trash bag and couldn't remember where I'd put them so I had to go buy another package.  And when I got home and went to put them away in the cleaned out pantry...  Yep, you guessed it.  There was the original box, sitting just where they were supposed to be.  Aack!

I went to a local craft show, bought a few things and talked to the lady in charge of organizing the event.

And I immediately went home and applied to be a vendor at the April craft show.  I also signed up for the Hanover Strawberry and Wine festival in May.  That one is a much larger, two day event.  And because wool hats and scarves probably won't sell well at either event, I've been frantically crafting non-winter things.

That's only a few of the things I've finished so far.  I've made four potholders, seven pairs of beaded socks, three sunflower gnomes, two sets of crocheted coasters, four chapstick holders that attach to your keyring, four garden soap bags, four knitted market bags and I've tie dyed the fabric for twelve more fabric market bags.  Later today I plan to sew those market bags.  And maybe take a nap.

How about you?  What have you been up to?

Who Knows

Who knows what's about to happen to this blog.  Today is the day the domain expires and I still haven't been able to communicate with the current domain company.  

I also haven't had the time, energy or nerve to attempt to change the domain address to the new name on my own. Plus, I'm torn about changing the name.  I just handed out over 500 business cards at Winterfest with the old name and I still have 1,000 more on hand.  I hate to waste all that.

And because, as I've mentioned before, I'm lazy.  I don't look forward to the hassle of changing the name on all my social media accounts and every where else it shows up.  Heck, I don't even know the locations of all the places the blog name shows up.

But I also have never been able to figure out if I can re-purchase the old name with the new domain company the day after it expires with the old company or not.  Confused yet?  I sure am!

And then there's the fact that I've been considering changing blog hosting companies for years.  Maybe this is the push I need.  Simply shut this one down and start completely fresh with a new name and a new location.  

Who knows what I'll do.

Meanwhile, instead of thinking about/doing something about the domain name issue, I've been preparing for Valentine's Day.

Well, preparing my Etys shop for Valentine's.  I've been making these little fur faced gnomes.  I think they are adorable.

And beading Valentine's socks.

But mostly, I've been hanging out with my favorite little Valentine.

And yes, I realize January 14th is a little early to be talking Valentines but.... seeing as though this could potentially be the last post, Happy Valentines! 😍

And don't forget, if I don't show back up here, you'll be able to find me at jeanniegrayknits.com.  Eventually.