Another reason to leave a comment on that post… I am going to draw 2 winners! :) On Tuesday I whipped up this little lap blanket & thought I would include it in the drawing so that I could pick 2 winners, since I knew I wouldn’t be able to pick only 1 when so many of you came out to say hi:)

It is a really simply blanket & it only took about 1 hour to cut & sew it all together (and that is an hour with 2 cats trying to get my attention). It is just four strips of alternating fabric on the front with a beautiful flannel that I found the other week on the back. I couldn’t resist buying the flannel since it was on sale & I think I have a weakness for flannel now. Flannel & linen, okay who am I kidding… any fabric really! :) No binding – just topstitching, since I am not brave & figured I shouldn’t practice on a blanket that I am going to give away:)

I mentioned this a few blog posts ago, but I had looked at my local library for photography books & found that they just didn’t have much… So with a couple of Barnes & Noble gift cards in hand, Ben & I went to the bookstore the other day & I was able to pick up a couple of photography books…

See a trend there:) (If only it was actually warm enough to take portraits!) There were a few more general photography books that looked interesting, but I figured I would order those off amazon (hopefully used that way they will be a bit less expensive…).

Speaking of photography I have to share this photo…

I could hardly believe it when I saw them cuddling like this on top of the couch the other day. Both of them love to lay up there, so sometimes they will fight over who gets that spot but you hardly ever see them sharing like that:) So cute!

Friday was my 2nd blogiversary! It is hard to believe that I have been blogging for 2 years now. I am so happy to be part of the wonderful community of craft bloggers & it amazes me to think of the wonderful friends I have made all across the world. So thanks to all of you who visit here & read my ramblings! :)

I meant to blog all of this on Friday, but I didn’t have anything to giveaway & I really wanted to do a giveaway:) So yesterday I made this Pleated Bag…

It was quite fun to design, make up a pattern, and put together this bag. There is definitely going to be at least one more using this design in my future, since I was quite tempted not to give this away but keep it for myself. Luckily for whoever wins, the idea of not being able to give something away for my 2nd blogiversary won out over keeping the bag for myself:)

Inside pockets (2 of them)…

So to enter the giveaway, just leave a comment on this entry before Friday evening (February 1st). Now would be the perfect time for all of you to delurk:) I would love to get a comment from each person subscribed to my blog – there are over 100 of you, so that would sure make my week! :)

edited to include: For Laurie who delurked & anyone else who is curious – yes the outside of the bag is 100% linen & the lining is fabric from the “Katie Jump Rope” line…

While she was here visiting at the beginning of January, I told her to pick out any fabric from my stash so I could make her a scarf. (Well I should be honest here any fabric with the exception of one Japanese print that I am hoarding for myself :) I I love the fabric combination she picked out & hopefully she will like the squirrel flannel that I picked for the back.

Last night Ben & I went out to the library to get a few books I had on reserve & to see about finding some other stuff to read… This is the pile I came home with, an odd mix of photography books, an art book, one knitting book (I like looking at knitting books but never use the projects since I am still very much a scarf only sort of knitter), and a couple fiction books…

Unfortunately our library has a very limited collection of photography books. I was really hoping to find some more, but I guess I will have to start looking online (which is a slight disappointment because I much prefer checking out a book from the library first to see if it is any good before I buy it). Any good suggestions for photography books or really any books in general? (I am also quickly running out of good fiction authors that I enjoy.)

This post is mostly going to be photos, since I really wanted to share these. I had a lot of fun taking these on Friday, when I braved the cold and ventured out to the flower shop where I bought these 2 gerber daisies. I thought everyone might enjoy some flower photos to cheer them up from the cold temps (if you are in the northern hemisphere – I suppose if you are in the southern hemisphere you have plenty of flowers around you & warm temps & I am so jealous of that! :)

I think that this last photo might be my favorite of this series…. (Oh calling it a series of photos makes me think that I need a name for this series – and have you ever said series over & over, it starts to sound weird if you do:)

I am really enjoying Project 365, but I can tell that it is going to be a bit more difficult this week to think up subjects than last week. That is probably due in part to the freezing cold temperatures outside and my reluctance to step foot outdoors for fear of freezing (and there is only so much I can find indoors to photograph that is interesting:)

A finished scarf just in time for the cold spell we are supposed to get this weekend!

I can tell you one thing, I really like this scarf but there is no way I will ever be selling any sort of knitting ever:) I am a very slow knitter & this afternoon I watched one of those online knitting videos because I could not remember how in the world to bind off (it had been quite awhile since my last knitting project). Well watching that made me realize I knit sort of funny:) Oh well!

It felt good to finally get that scarf crossed off the list since I have about 7 other w.i.p. going on right now (and I wish I were exaggerating about that number). My most recent w.i.p. that I started yesterday…

Can you guess what this is going to be? :) I was actually brave & cut into my new grey linens for this project! :)

Project 365 days 2 & 3 photos up over on flickr here… (go take a look so I don’t feel too lonely over there:)

These beautiful grey linens are from namolio on etsy and the different shades of grey are just gorgeous. I think I am going to have a hard time cutting into these and actually using them! Especially since grey linen seems pretty difficult to find, which means I only have a bit of it. (Unless anyone can recommend some place to buy yardage of grey linen? Fashionfabricsclub.com has some grey linen, but I have never ordered from them… Has anyone else ordered from there?) If you love linen though, definitely check out namolio’s shop, because she has some absolutely beautiful shades of linen!

So Project 365 is off to a good start for me! :) Not only do I want to make sure to take a photo a day, but I would also like to use this project to learn a bit more about photography & get a bit better. So today I experimented a bit with photo backdrops & made the cats sit & pose for me (ha, that is funny – I should say that Pounce was sweet enough to sit and tolerate me taking his photo… Axel was too busy trying to play with the backdrop & his toys so I didn’t really get any shots of him:)

This photo makes me smile…

So I know the project is only supposed to be one photo a day (and I am only going to put the first one in my Project 365 set on flickr), but I really like this one of Pounce too (it will just go into a different set on flickr)…

I have a bunch of ideas right now for this project, so it will be interesting to see how it goes. I have a feeling the first week or so it won’t be difficult to find subjects for my photos but I am sure it is going to get a bit more difficult as the year goes on… (And I don’t plan on it turning into 365 photos of Pounce & Axel. I just thought it was totally appropriate that Pounce was my first photo of the project since I do take a lot of photos of him:)

If you have been reading my blog for awhile, you probably know that I dislike the cold & tend to bundle up in layers for winter. I bought some arm warmers this year at Target and really liked them so I thought I would have a go at making my own. My first version did not turn out, the sweater I used was just too thick to finish off the raw edges… So I decided to try making another pair using the sleeves of an old turtleneck that I had. There is still room for improvement, but these are such an easy quick project!

Have you ever tried taking a picture of your arm + hand while holding a heavy camera? Not so easy… Oh and the band-aid is from cutting my finger with the rotary cutter…

Karyn reminded me about Project 365, which I had meant to start at the beginning of the year & totally forgot about. So I think I am going to try & start it tomorrow. Basically I will take at least 1 photo a day for a whole entire year. For now I think I am going to create a Flickr set (yay, I got a pro flickr account at the end of December so I can have more than 3 sets finally:), but I may post photos occasionally on my blog from the project too.

Then yesterday I got a package from Laurie & I totally wasn’t even expecting one! Last week she had made an owl & I had remarked on how cute he was. Little did I know, that she had actually made the owl just for me!

I was seriously so excited when I opened up the package from her and saw Mr. Owl. He is amazingly hand-crafted (her work is just wonderful) and the cutest thing ever (well maybe besides my cats:). She also sent this very cute pig ornament (all these cute ornaments are making me wish I had a Christmas tree up year round in my studio. I should probably admit that I have hung a couple handmade ornaments from the bookshelf brackets in my studio because I just couldn’t bear to put them away till next Christmas:)

Thank you so much Laurie for being a sweet & generous friend! :) It totally brightened my day yesterday, especially since I got a jury summons in the mail too. (Which I am not overly thrilled with to say the least…)

Here are the outtakes from the owl photo shoot too… The cats were both oh so interested in him! Axel trying to steal him…

Pounce knocking Mr. Owl over…

There probably would have been outtakes from the goodies Lera sent me too, but since the soap has a bit of chocolate to it I was oh so careful to make sure the cats were not around when I took it:)

By the way, did anyone notice my new banner & that I added an “about me” page? :)