Secret Identity Revealed!

I've discovered who my secret pal is!
It's Aurora (She has been The Best secret pal. After discovering her blog, I realized that we have quite a few things in common.... A love for children, education,and healthy eating. We're both fans of the same author, and she's living my dream life out on 20 acres in California. Thanks so much for being such a great secret pal!
Here's my last package of gifts (She went out with a bang, don't you think?!)


4 Great Books. I'm especially looking forward to reading "Seven Times the Sun."

And how cool is this:



(The sewing is impeccable, and it came with a matching pincushion that I forgot to photograph.)

And last but not least (you would almost think that she knew that my feet are killing me in this house. It has all hardwood floors, and I'm used to carpet.)


I've made my final reveal as well. My secret pal was Astrid .
My children and myself really enjoyed having a pal from Germany to spoil. It was fun to try to think of things that we have as a part of our day to day lives that she might like to try over there.

So there you have it! The grand Finale to SP7. I'm looking forward to doing it again with SP8!

Home sweet home!

We've moved in!
At long last, we've moved in to our house. It's still quite undone. My kitchen cabinets haven't arrived, the closets aren't in, it's only got primer on the walls, and only one bathroom is finished, but it's home!
Here are a couple of pictures:

Before and after front:




Before and after back:




It's taken nearly 3 years to renovate this house in our spare time. It's mostly been done with only 4 hands... my husband's and my oldest son's. And since we try to not have debt, the majority has been done as we could afford it. I'm so, so happy to be home, and despite it's unfinished state, I feel so blessed to be here!

Since I'm in a pictue mood today (can you tell I'm avoiding the monumental task of unpacking?) Here's a pic that I promised my secret pal.... the whole family taken a couple of weeks ago at Duke Gardens:

You know it's not really possible to get all of us smiling at the same time don't you?

There has been a spot of knitting going on.
I joined
, but have been thwarted a bit on that front. The three items I had going on were:
The cloth diaper cover, Bless, and Tiffany. Here's where I stand:


Cloth diaper cover completed last night. Little Turtle Knits hybrid rib pattern, done with Blackberry Ridge Farm yarn.


I'm stalled on Tiffany (From Rowan's Classic Cafe book.) I've never pieced together a raglan sweater before, but I believe the sleeves should be meeting up at the top where I've pinned the rows together, and they're not. I pinned row by row, and I just can't figure out what's wrong. I know I did the crocheting right, because the pattern tells how many stitches you should have at the end of each row, and I did the shaping right, so why isn't it fitting together??? I'm flabbergasted at this one. I took it to my LYS for help, and she suggested that I stretch it, but I don't really like to stretch things THAT much, so I'm at a stall.
And finally, Bless, that I started in January. I loved that one, but it got left behind in the wake of the Jaywalker craze, followed by the Knitting Olympics. I wanted to pull her back out, but alas, now I can't find her. I used to know approximately where everything was in our jumble of boxes, but now that it's all gotten moved around, it may be a little while before Bless and I become reaquainted.
SO, that left me with nothing to work on. Naturally I cast on for this:


My STR club sock.
I'm so excited about the STR club. You know how you sometimes get a gift that is something you never would have picked for yourself, but you just love it. That's why I'm so looking forward to STR. It'll help me get to try new things that I might not have picked for myself, and it'll be like a mini-Christmas in my mailbox every other month!

Guess I should go do some unpacking now.

Updates, updates!

Well, I feel so crummy for my lack of posting lately. Especially since I've got THE BESTEST secret pal out there, who has a pretty boring task looking at an un-updated blog here constantly! (You can be sure that my pal will be nominated for the "Best Secret Pal" award. Hardly a week has gone by without my getting an email, card, or package. Look at my most recent gift:


The silver box has some ultra cute stich markers, which I love. (Beaded stitch markers are like jewelry to me. I just get happy every time I come across them again in my knitting.)
The white box is full of yummy chocolate turtles. Not the pecan, caramel, chocolate things, but milk chocolate in the shape of turtles!
I've got a great book on knitting for babies. You can be sure my little peanut will be getting a new sweater or toy from the great patterns in this book.
I've also got some very cool quilting fabrics. I love batiks, and now I've got some new ones to add to my stash! It's so great to get quilting fabrics from far away. Different quilt shops kind of have their own personality, and carry different things, so it's so neat to get fabric that's not available around here. Secret pal, look for some of these fabrics in my block of the month, coming up next week!
Thank You so much for being such a great pal, and I'm sorry I've not been good in return the last few weeks while we've been embroiled in the final decisions that have to be made for the remodel. (Who knew it took so much thought to coordinate paint, cabinets, flooring, counters, bathroom fixtures, etc.! Of course, I suppose that having 5 1/2 bathrooms doesn't help the issue.)
Here's a (shoddy) picture of my completed Klaralund. I don't like it as much as I was hoping to, but it's wearable.

I've actually have yet to knit a sweater that I really love. I've been consulting with Claudia about it, and hopefully that will help me to make some better yarn/pattern choices in the future.
Hope spring is coming to everyone. It's hit here, and I'm just loving it. It's mine and hubby's 11th anniversary tomorrow, and it's supposed to be sunny and 80 degrees. (And we're taking a day off from working on the house.) I'm really looking forward to our day!