life « GOODKNITS // a knitting & crochet blog

Just smile!

By Lisa Gutierrez on 04/14/2011

Thing I’ve been repeating to myself, this week:
-Laundry can’t kill you. It will try, but it won’t succeed.
-Your yarn will be there later.
-Your camera is your friend.
-The edibles will grow. (And it’s true! I have a jalapeno growing!)
-There’s always tomorrow.

Spring cleaning is in force. Sorta. I’m starting with closets. SO.MUCH.CLOTHES. I am kind of embarrassed. So much doesn’t even get used. Some is being donated, some will be put in a garage sale. I’m on my 4th (5th?) load of laundry. Ugh. Laundry won’t kill you. Laundry won’t kill you. Laundry won’t kill you.

Sometimes I wish my head were an amigurumi head. So cute and cuddly and always smiling.

knitting: the pickle pillow

By Lisa Gutierrez on 04/06/2011

I made this enormous bolster pillow and the kids immediately started calling it “the pickle pillow.” It doesn’t really fit on the love seat (I needs a couch, yo), so the boys use it as a head rest when they’re laying in front of the tube watching episodes of Inspector Gadget. It’s their new favorite TV show. It’s 22 minutes, so they get to watch one episode unless they’re sick and quarantined to the living room.

Details:
TWO strands of Lion Brand Wool-ease Thick & Quick in lemongrass (which was ON CLEARANCE at my local Michael’s last week for $3.99/ball)
Size US19 needles.
35 (or 36? something like that) stitches and approximately 22 garter ridges (44 knit rows).
Seam the BO to the CO, then cinch one end shut.
Fold a towel in half (short end to short end), then roll it up and wrap it with a few layers of quilt batting.
I made an inside case with some green fabric so the guts wouldn’t be so obvious through the stretched stitches.

Stuff it! Close the other end.

I LOVE garter stitch. It’s so easy and textural and……yeah! it’s awesome. <3

like birds of a feather, we stick together.

By Lisa Gutierrez on 03/30/2011

It’s been a few weeks since I shared photos of my littlest. With Nathan in kindergarten, Andrew and I spend a lot of quality time together. He’ll be three (3!) in less than 2 months and that blows my weee mind. He’s learned his colors and shapes and can count to five. I suppose we could start working on numbers more.

He never really entered a “terrible two” phase, but I do believe he is a strong-willed child. I have had to learn how to get around it and sort of “trick” him into thinking my ideas are his. I do this a lot when I want to get photos of him.

He gets annoyed when I try to keep him in a certain spot for long and makes it perfectly clear with his facial expressions. It doesn’t help that he’s at the age of awkward smiles. SO, unless I get a candid photo of him in a good mood, all his smiley photos look totally forced. Ages 3-5: the awkward smile phase. He’ll grow out of it in a few years. Right now, he’s just too occupied with much more fun things than my silly camera.

Like the big firetruck! Look, I turned day into night.

Which leads me into a little bit about my newest camera accessory. Cactus wireless flash triggers! I received them in the mail, last week. A late birthday present from my wonderful husband. A whole new world of off-camera flash has opened up for me and I am excited, scared, inspired, excited, and scared some more! I’ve taken a few photos with them and I’m so disappointed. You mean I have to PRACTICE?! (sarcasm)

Let’s see where this leads me.

Let’s be friends…

By Lisa Gutierrez on 03/16/2011

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Sunshine Resale

By Lisa Gutierrez on 03/15/2011

I talked about my favorite thrift store, last April. That was before we moved across town. Before I could head over there every Saturday morning just to browse and always end up with a bag of lovely stuff. I’m sad to report I only get to visit once every month or two. It depends on how busy we are or if we want to visit people over there.

Because a girl needs a good thrift home, the family and I have been regularly visiting shops nearby. There’s actually quite a few around here–a Value Village, Salvation Army, a few Goodwills, and then there are the ohsosweet resale shops run by various churches.

The one we find ourselves visiting most often is aptly named Sunshine. It’s a pretty small shop in a strip center. It’s small to the point of there not being aisles, but rather “roads” around and through stuff. It’s remarkably easy to navigate, though. It’s not messy and I always, always, always find some sort of treasure.

We went there on Saturday and after picking up some melmac teacups, I landed in the craft/fabric/sheets section. It’s really 2 big utility shelves facing each other with a tension rod between them. The fabric and sheets are on one shelf and the other has boxes of craft leaflets among other discarded kits and/or half-done projects. Anyway, I decided I should browse the leaflets. There was no sign telling me how much they were, so I went through and found about 12 that I liked–cross-stitch, knitting, bargello, etc. I also checked out the fabric and found a pretty yellow floral queen sheet and a floral heavyweight piece of fabric.

I waltzed up to the counter with my loot and was informed fabric and linens were half off that day. Score!

Then, I was told the leaflets were 25 cents a piece. The sweet lady asked if that was ok. UHHH YEAH. Double score!

THEN, my darling husband came up to me with a rectangular box. I thought, “oh brother, what now? MORE CARS?!” but NO! It was something for me! Two different Fiskars cutters–an oval and a circle. Dude remembered me nagging about the price of them at Michael’s once. ha! They were still in their original package and there was even a set of replacement blades. All in a convenient case and for $3. Triple score!

All that to say–Sunshine is officially my new favorite thrift store.