New gloves

I have lowered my prices on all of my fingerless gloves. I realized I had a great go of it after the Dooce post, but I think that I know my best prices now and I don't want to fool around with it any more. Please check out Second Seed when you get the chance.

Etsy

I am trying to upload new work on Etsy - I will have five more pairs of knitted gloves up this weekend but last night I got a couple more recylced glass earrings in teh shop. Check them out here.

pics

This is a picture of the shelf in the living room of the house I grew up. The photos are (left - right) My mother's step father Charlie Buscher, pictured again with my mother's mother Isabelle (Mum Mum to me). And then my parents Carol and Bill (Doc) Lenker in the beginning of their marriage.

Mom's Mittens

I gave my mom thse mittens for Valentine's Day. She bought me the yarn which is a wonderful soft bamboo and merino mix. I put some pink french knots in the flowers' centers to match her pink scarf.

Sleepwalking

I had a busy travel filled week. As NY schools had a whole week off for the Presidents' birthdays, I took the kids to see their grandparents in Malvern, Pennsylvania. My dad and my brother are dentists, my mom is the receptionist and now my sister is working in the office too! So it is a one stop family visit and we all got our teeth cleaned. My cousin, Amanda, came up from Maryland to see the family Dentists too. This is my cousin's son, Jack in the dentist chair with my dad.  Jack is in first grade. It was so wonderful to see everyone.My mom hosted a wonderful Valentine's Day dinner for everyone. My Brother's wife, Lisa, wore a sweater I knit for her some twenty years ago. I think I even made the heart buttons out of Sculpey. Pretty cute, huh?

After five days with the family, I then drove the kids up to Manhattan to meet up with my husband. He had some "work" in the city so we tagged along. We went to this "play" off broadway on Thursday night called Sleepwalk with Me. Mike Birbiglia performs this hysterical one man show. If you have a chance - see it! It is both comical and heart warming, an autobiographical narrative that left me wanting more. He mentioned that he gets Google alerts when ever anyone mentions him in a blog so I am hoping he reads this. I loved the show, I don' know how he does it night after night, fresh and funny each time (I assume each time is fresh and funny, as the time I saw it, he was definitely wonderful). We just wished that there was a t-shirt for sale with the image of the giant flying jackal hovering over a little Mike Birbiglia.

We did too much shopping and eating in NY and I am very happy to be home. We sped through Moma and I finally felt some desire to make art, but I will have to wait until Spring break to have any time to do it. A piece that inspired me is Matisse's 1914 View of Notre Dame. I particularly like how he scratched into the paint, the abstraction of shapes and odd balance of the whole and the parts.

positive thinking

Hello All,

A friend will be having surgery tomorrow, Wednesday, and I am asking that anyone who reads this just offers a little positive thinking to the universe and to and to my friend Rachel. I  know she will be fine and I know she is strong, but I believe we are all part of something bigger than ourselves and we have to power to make things happen. So, please if you wouldn't mind, have a little prayer or positive thought for Rachel tomorrow. Thanks.

Bad Girl

I just now purchased this vintage salad set on Etsy. I randomly went to the home page - saw this in the home treasury and purchased it with out even hesitating. So much for the end of desire. I have a thing for salad servers and this set will be too much fun come spring when we can eat out on the deck.

It's all about Joy

(an amazing Orla Keily design)

The other day Megan wrote about finding contentment in her blog. I am sharing some of what she wrote because it feels very true and needed these days.

In Lama Surya Das’s book, Eight Steps to Enlightenment: Awakening the Buddha Within (Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World), he refers to the famous Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna, who said that contentment is true wealth.

“Success will not be found through the gratification of desire, but in the end of desire – which is contentment. Wealthy is he who enjoys what he has.”

The end of wanting more, will it ever happen? Being content with what I have....why is this so difficult? I have so much. I have unbelievable abundance but I still want those Orla Keily juice glasses.

The Twisted Collective

There was a guest speaker at Knitting Guild last night. Kate from Twisted Collective spoke about the online magazine Twisted Collective. There was a fashion show of some amazingly beautiful knitted pieces that are featured in the magazine. It was great! You should check out this magazine if you are a knitter. They have awesome patterns for sale that are very good unique patterns. You can trust these patterns! And the designers get the money. No more buying a magazine and then feeling like you wasted your money on all the ads. This paperless, designer supporting magazine is a dream come true for knitters.

Great Day

What a beautiful day! The sun was a big orange ball in the sky as I drove to work. I got out of my car and slipped on the ice but made it in to my office safely. Tomorrow it is supposed to be 58 degrees. Yeah! No more ice. And tonight is Knitting Guild. I like going to Knitting Guild meetings a lot. I had a very busy and very productive weekend. I am leaving on a ten day trip Saturday so I had finish up all my projects and do eight loads of laundry. The trip is part see family in Philadelphia and part to vacation in NYC. I hope it isn't back to freezing temps when we are in NYC.

The Grammy's were so much fun last night. I usually watch and wonder who those people are, but last night I knew them all and enjoy them all. I am smitten with Chris Martin of Cold Play. And it is so much fun seeing Stevie Wonder at work. He was also on the Ellen DeGeneres show this week. One of the first albums I ever fell in love with was Stevie Wonder's Journey Through The Secret Life of Plants. It was my brother's vinyl album but I would borrow it and listen to it for hours. Our formal living room held the record player in the back and there was a brilliant sapphire blue couch that was placed a few feet in front of it. So I could lean against the back of the couch, put on the big plush black head phones and listen with out interuption. I felt like a special princess in a far away place when I listened to the songs on The Secret Life of Plants, (I was probably 12 years old). If you have never heard this album - do your self a favor and listen.

new knitting

This wrap has taken forever. And I did not really like the color combination so it was painful to knit. I had these vintage buttons and I chose colors so that I could use them as the closure. But the colors just were not that wonderful when knit up in the pattern I chose. I was worried it was too striped. Six skeins later I am very pleased with the result. I actually sewed metal snaps on the underside of the buttons, because the button holes would have stretched. The end with the buttons is 8 inches wide and the wrap widens to 12 inches wide on the other end. It is for sale, check it out here.

year round flowers

I have numerous beautiful vases. But I refuse to buy flowers now that we have to save our pennies, so I decided I am going to make some felted and zipper flowers to put into the vases. I purchased some lovely hand knit flowers in December and I don't know where I put them. These zipper flowers are by Zippinning. The felted ones are in hannebdesign's shop.

I did it!

A while back I went on and on  about wall paper and I did it. Last weekend I began wall papering one wall in our living room. I ran out in need of just one more 8 ft. piece and on Tuesday I ended up driving to Batavia to get the last roll in the upstate area (they had sold out on line). So I have some extra if any of you ran into the same problem with the same exact wall paper.

Not Much

Here is April, after she folded her bed in half so that she had a thicker more cushy place to rest.

It has been a month of surprise gifts! My wonderful husband took a weekend excursion to Toronto and brought me home some lovely maize colored wool yarn. I think it will become a pair of mittens for moi! The yarn he bought me is pictured with the yarn I spun. It may go nicely together but I think it would be too much...

I am a Winner

Lucinda at Belvedere Beads awarded Perched on a Thin Branch the Proximidade!

What does that mean?

Proximidade is described as follows:
"This blog invests and believes in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes for self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers!"

the instructions (as passed on to me):
"The rules are: This blog award should be sent to your favorite eight bloggers and they, in turn should forward to eight of their favorites. You should include the text for Proximidade (above) in your announcement blog."

Now I have the pleasure to award eight of my favorite blogs.

Cozy Makes

gomeatyourself

a-friend-to-knit-with

aesthetic outburst

millions of people happy

Camilla Engman

a photo and a link

how 2 draw a cup of coffee

Congratulations to all the Proximidade Award Winners. I personally do not appreciate the chain letter like quality of this award, so I am not going to expect you all to fullfill the responsibility of citing 8 wonderful blogs - but if you want to to it please do!