A New Season Gets Underway....

Had a little flurry of sales for Christmas in my Etsy shop, JeanBeanGifts. I was really happy about that! My little bottle toppers were popular, along with my owl ornaments ("owl always love you"), also people bought my steampunk snowflakes, so that was wonderful, too. And I sold a cowl, so I will definitely keep making these things for next year, too.

So it's on to new things, thinking ahead to Valentine's Day and beyond that, spring! The days here in Bradenton are just about all like summer days, (it was 80 degrees the day after Christmas!) so it's hard to visualize the seasons and to motivate myself to making things that are pertinent to each season. But I try....I change out my dishtowels every month (I do wash them several times a month!) in some sort of theme...Like for February, I will be putting out my Valentine towels. 

They are not made by me, but some day I hope to get back to making appliquéd towels for my little shop. This is one I made for October a couple of years ago....

On a whim, I decided to make a little charm dangle or key chain/key fob that reminds me of one of my favorite animated movies by Pixar. It's called "Up." The movie is heartwarming, funny, and very well done. It's a love story, too! Carl, the elderly gentleman, who's pining the loss of his many years of happily wedded bliss to his Ellie, decides to tie a bunch of balloons to his house, and take off on an adventure. Little beknownst to him, a little explorer scout accidentally tags along. So here's my little charm/movie memorabilia piece.

It makes me happy to think about this movie, so I'm glad I made it. I'll probably put it in my little shop in case someone else wants to remember this movie, too.

I tried to knit a hat for my daughter serving overseas. It's getting cold at night where she is, but for some reason, I am having trouble with lace patterns these days. After tearing out the hat twice, (once for not doing a gauge and checking to see that it was going to be HUMONGOUS), I decided to give it a rest. But I do love this yarn, and I'm going to try again this week to find a different pattern that's not quite as frustrating. The worsted yarn I found is really pretty. It's a deep dark cherry with flecks of blue and gray in it...A Vanna's Choice yarn called Plum Jam.

Hope I can get this hat done soon! Before spring and warmer weather come her way!