Tie Dye Easter Eggs make kids happy

I bought the candy two weeks early this year. Big mistake. BIG mistake.

And the Easter Egg kit sitting on the counter has been torturing my lil ones. So, we dyed eggs early, too.



Have you tried the tie dye kit? It's almost like a scientific experiment.





But the traditional way is awesome, too.







Easter eggs make kids happy. We should do this all year long. (If we had chickens....)

Spring ventures...

Look! It's so lovely when it's spring. You can chill out on a lounge chair and read your happy heart away. (even if you have no idea what those printed words say ;))


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My husband, a super daddy-o, bought a spring time cookie kit for the kiddos.
Here's his (isn't he a hottie?)

The kids working on theirs:





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With Spring come the tulips:



AND! The bunnies. I despise bunnies. I know they're cute and all, but every year they are the bane of my existence. So, with the start of spring, I planted some Gladiola Bulbs And to my dismay, the bunnies have already dug them up and are eating their happy hearts out.


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Do not fret, for I have been knitting, too. I have been felting bags up the wazooo and I have 4 upcoming ventures!

1. I am donating a bag to a good cause: Power of the Purse.

2. I will be here next week:


3. I will at the Spring Boutique in April. A percentage of my profits go to 2 charities: Freedom Firm and Hope Academy.


4. I will be at the HandmadeMN Spring Market in May:


Look for sneak peeks in upcoming weeks (a spontaneous poem ;))

xxoo,
G

Happy St. Pattys!

Well, I finally finished Cutting for Stone. It was 600 pages. When I first started it, I wasn't sure I liked it. It seemed so slow. Too descriptive for my taste. But I persevered and I was mightily rewarded. What I enjoyed about the book was its character depth. By the end of the book, I knew these people. I knew their life stories. They were good friends of mine. This book is definitely in my top 10. The problem is what do I read now? Please (please!) comment with your favorite book (for ideas).

(Other books in my top 10: Running with Scissors, Love in the time of the Cholera, Plainsong, The Bean Trees, Sarah's Key, Their Eyes were Watching God, and She's Come Undone.)

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It is Spring. Not officially, not technically, but by default. Last week it snowed, this week it is 70F. Things are starting to sprout.



Time to start the seedlings! (note to self: too much moisture causes fungi. But fungi causes pretty awesome photos.)



And...
A Gilda Knits photo set just wouldn't be the same without a droopy sunflower collage.



Oh wait. Does Charlie have something he'd like to ask?



Oh. Right, Charlie, thanks.

Here's what I got:



Can I get a woot woot for how awesome my little package is? There's some hair pins, barrettes, and pendants. AND! A cute little wallet (for my phone maybe ;)).

My little girl was just as giddy as me.

(and yes, she is a thumb sucker. But so was I.)

My partner was Kindra at The Novice Crafter. THANK YOU, KINDRA!!!!

To see what every one else got, click on the swap link below.



So, lads, grab a pint and have a happy St. Pattys!



xxoo, Gilda

The truth.

The truth hurts:



But even though I know the truth, I still love me some felting, because it is so forgiving. And we all need a little forgiveness, right?

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Last night, I read a hundred pages of Cutting for Stone. I have grown over the years with this book (really just a few weeks, but it's like I've lived a lifetime with the characters.) Every night that I peer into that novel world, I come away with having a new way of articulating what I meant to say, but never had the words. For instance, :

That’s the funny thing about America — the blessed thing. As many people as there are to hold you back, there are angels whose humanity makes up for all the others. I’ve had my share of angels.

It seems we humans never learn. And so we re-learn the lesson every generation and then want to write epistles. We proselytize to our friends and shake them by the shoulders and tell them, “Seize the day! What matters is this moment!” Most of us can’t go back and make restitution. We can’t do a thing about our should haves and could haves.

Life is full of signs. The trick is to know how to read them.

Life, too, is like that. You live it forward, but understand it backward.

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I am participating in a St. Patty's day swap. I can't tell you what I got or what I sent, but I promise I will on St. Patty's day.

Pup love.

My puppy turned 3. Aw, he's 21 in dog years now. I lurve him.

So, I bought him a can of of wet dog food and stuck a candle in it, like a puppy cake.



You'd think my two dogs never ate the way they looked at the bowls of wet dog food.


(kid tried to hold em back for a pic, but they were crazy for the wet dog food.)

That puppy cake was gone in a minizule!



Ha!

But speaking of puppy love, look at my dear son snuggling with Jake, who is almost 9.

(He thinks he's a lap dog!)

(But as you can tell, he's so not!)

Puppy lovin aside, it's my human babies I love best!



xxoo,
G

The good times are not over, baby.

You wonder what I do when I am not knitting and it is this: rocking out, yo!





That's right. This ol' hot mama out on the town...

And then...

This girl said to me, "oh, I wish I was in the time of the Smashing Pumpkins. They were before my time." And I thought we were the same age, so I said, "what! The Smashing Pumpkins were so my time." And then she asked me how old I was and our conversation was over.



The Smashing Pumpkins were rad, but I don't want them to be the indication that my good times are over. Why not REM? They were around so much longer!!!



Anyway, free patterns rock. Guess what! I've had 165 downloads of my baby bear hat. That is so awesome!!

I think this is a going to be a good week.

xxoo,
Gilda

p.s. You know how sometimes you're so appreciative that you can hear ... and feel... the rhythm of music, so you dance all night long (especially after you've had a couple of vodka tonics) and then at the end of the night you say, 'wow, that guy was an amazing guitarist?' Well, that guy in the black is that guitarist. A little dark, a lot unique, but a really cool guy and an amazing musician. Here's a small clip of his band:

Baby Bear Hat Pattern

Do you love baby bears as much as me?

aw, yay.

Would you like a free baby bear hat pattern?

Yes?

Okay, here it is:


(click on the photo and it will take you to the ravelry link.)

Or! Click here to take you to my ravelry page.

Or! Just click on this to just download it now: download now

If you make it, come back and comment with a link to your site/photo.

Have a BEARy good day! (hehe, get it?)