Amy Artisan

Family | Travel | Craft | Life | Books

Month: June 2006 (page 1 of 2)

Home again, home again…jiggety jig!

June 30, 2006 / / 8 Comments

Woo hoo! I’m back in Chicago for, *gasp*, 10 whole days! Because of the July 4th holiday & a previously planned vacation day next week I will be working remotely from home next week & won’t head back to Chattanooga until July 9th.

I don’t have big plans for the weekends but am looking forward to enjoying some simple things that I can’t do while on the road…making my favorite Frappe as my morning coffee…grocery shopping & cooking…doing some paper crafting – including some belated Project Spectrum work…spend time with Miss Butterfly & Miss Doodlebug – their family is in town for the whole week & I can’t wait to catch up with them.

More to come in the next week. Have a safe & fun holiday weekend!

Oh Baby…skinks, that is!

June 28, 2006 / / 8 Comments

As I mentioned previously, when I was home with the folks over Father’s Day weekend we discovered a Mama Skink was nesting in our front flowerbed.

Late last week Mama Skink hatched her eggs & for a few short days there were baby skinks in the front. As you can see from some of the pictures below their tails were an electric blue.

 

(Thanks Mom & Dad for capturing the pictures for this entry!) 

Mama & the babies have now left their nest in the front flowerbed & are out in the great big world. For a few days Mom & Dad enjoyed checking on the little nest. Just like Doris the dove that has nested above my back door for 3 years, I think that Mama Skink knew that the Artisan family would provide a safe place for nesting.

Mom & Dad have always shown us the simple pleasure in little things in our world – including these types of “nature encounters.” Some day I will share the story of how turtles came to be one of my favorite animals…until then I will leave you with this hint:

How did the little turtle cross Ridgemont Dr. in 1989? With the help of Amy Artisan guiding the way & watching for traffic (with a bit of a nudge from Dad Artisan)…

 

Fun from the Mailbox

June 25, 2006 / / 12 Comments

While back in town this weekend…at the top of the errand list on Friday was picking up the 2 weeks of held mail. In addition to the regular “boring” mail, magazines and catalogs I was pleased to see this stash of mail held several fun goodies!

 

I had mentioned earlier that I was participating in Dacia Ray’s Gift Tag Swap and this week I received my portion of the swap. More detailed pictures about each tag & artist are found on this Flickr set.

 

Several months ago I came across Tanya’s blog & the fun postcards that she makes. With the latest postcards she also included a fun & colorful ball of yarn that was unexpected. Thanks Tanya! I’m not sure what I will make with the yarn but I think it may end up being for a kid in my life because the colors remind me of children’s crayons.

 

Purl Needlemeyer is another “new in 2006” blogger that I read – I think she was my first “Let’s swap blog links” buddy. She has a fun “Getting Knit Together” kit and is continually expanding her goodies. A couple of weeks ago she offered up some fun “hand knit” labels for commenters. These are very fun – I don’t know which projects they will be attached to but I will enjoy using them.

Kirsten recently went to Croatia to help ready the Logos Hope ship for ministry with Operation Mobilization. She sent along this postcard from the team that she was with. Prior to her trip there was a bit of knit blogger fundraising that I stumbled across & I was glad to help – we have several friends involved with OM so it was great to support another great part of their ministry.

 

The final fun thing in the mail – my tickets to the Pink Martini show on Sept. 8th at the Chicago House of Blues.

 

Belatedly posted…my Project Spectrum green postcard arrived from Amanda Cathleen several weeks ago & I didn’t have a chance to snap it. The sheep were a very appropriate part of May since Amanda Cathleen was one of the multitudes that enjoyed Maryland Sheep and Wool.

Other mailbox fun this weekend…seeing The Lake House with a friend.  In the age of emails it was fun to see a story that evolved through letters in a mailbox. While the media reviews have been mixed to negative I thoroughly enjoyed this movie & was glad that I went to see it in the theater instead of waiting for the DVD.

 

I did just a bit of knitting during the movie – the yarn that I picked up earlier this month during our lake weekend. I am making the Soft Weave (Linen Weave) Belt from the Knitting to Go set – although it will be a sash instead of a belt. This is a fast knit & is such a small project that is will be my travel project for this week.

In other knitting news this weekend I got started on my first pink scarf for The Think Pink Challenge, made some progress on my first felted bag, picked up the Knitting to Go kit & matched several of the project cards to yarn in my stash and finished up a couple of dishcloths to put into my “hostess gift” box to have on hand.

Hanging Out with the Folks…

June 19, 2006 / / 11 Comments

Instead of heading to the airport to fly back to Chicago on Friday I picked up a rental car (a slick new Azera which the family has dubbed Hank) merged south onto I-75, set the cruise control & headed down to the ‘Ville to hang out with Mom & Dad. It was a fun weekend – filled with playin’ in the dirt, grillin, chillin’ & knittin’.

Playin’ in the dirt…

Saturday was a gardening day for Amy Artisan & Dad Artisan. I definitely inherited my green thumb from him and since I didn’t do my deck plantings or flowerbed this summer since I’m traveling it was fun to ‘play in the dirt’ for a bit & help get everything planted at home.

The first thing we did was plant the zinnias in the front flowerbed. (Zinnias are an Artisan Family favorite flower.) As Dad lifted up the turtle statue to move it out of the flowerbed he discovered a Mama Skink had nested & was watching over 6-8 eggs. So, the turtle statue will stay where it is & Mama Skink now has a lovely flowered & mulched home for her babies.

Skinks Home

We also planted up several color pots for the front entry to the house as well as the back deck. I think my favorite planting was the red & white coleus in the red pot – look closely & you’ll see a familiar “As Seen on TV” item – that’s right, the coleus are in the “Pasta Pot” from several years ago. The pot had outlived it’s usefulness in the kitchen & was such a pretty color that we thought it would be fun to plant into it – the red coleus leaves are a perfect match for it. Next year I vote for basil in the pasta pot – how fun would it be to grow “pasta herbs” in the pasta pot?

Pasta Pot Coleus

The other color pots indeed contain a lot of different colors: zinnias, coleus, petunias and more!

Flower Pot Color

Â

Grillin’…

Dad & I cleaned up the grill & made use of it for dinner on Saturday & Sunday. Saturday got the grill going for the season with turkey mignon, Vidailia onion slices and yellow squash slices. Sunday was yummy marinated steak. The meals were rounded off with super sweet canteloupe and Mom’s homemade strawberry pie. Having Mom’s home cooking is always great but I appreciated it even more this weekend since I’m eating out ALL the time while on the road.

Â

Chillin’…

A couple of fun movies that we watched over the weekend: Nanny McPhee & Glory Road. Both were fun flicks & good entertainment!

Â

Knittin’…

On Saturday afternoon Dad & I went to Hobby Lobby & spent the vast majority of time in the yarn section. There were several ‘new to me’ baby yarns that look like they would be so soft & cuddly for baby blankets – I have to make 2 baby boy blankets this summer so I think I will try some of these yarns instead of reaching for my “standard” Bernat Cotton Tots.

While browsing through the yarn at Hobby Lobby on Saturday I found a good selection of my favorite Sugar’n Cream for dishcloths – including several colors that I haven’t seen in store before. So, even though I had some SnC yarn in the suitcase for hotel knitting I picked up 5 balls of summertime colors. Saturday evening I got started on 1 “Grandma’s favorite” & kept on going all Sunday afternoon & evening. I’ll be finishing up the 5th dishcloth later this evening. Since suitcase space is a premium 4 dishcloths stayed in Georgia for my mom & sister to enjoy.

Summer Flavor Dishcloths
(L to R: Cherry Swirl, Swimming Pool, Key Lime Pie, Creamsicle)
These colors just seem to capture the vibrant fun of summertime!

Also…a bit of hotel knitting…Last week was fairly busy in the evenings here in Chattnooga – the annual Riverbend Festival was in full swing so our project team checked out the events on a couple evenings. I still managed to get 2 small knit projects completed: a simple dishcloth & a scarf.
Hotel Knitting

Project Spectrum: Blue Hydrangeas

As I was taking pictures of our flower plantings last night & Dad was watering the plants he asked if I needed any more blue pictures for this month and suggested that I take some pictures of the hydrangeas along the side of the house. So this Project Spectrum digital collage is from Amy Artisan & Dad Artisan.

Blue Hydrangeas

Â

All in all it was a great weekend – it was a treat to hang out with my Dad on Father’s Day!

Happy Father’s Day!

June 18, 2006 / / 1 Comment

Happy Father’s Day Dad!!

“It’s only when you grow up, and step back from him, or leave him for your own career and your own home – it’s only then that you can measure his greatness and fully appreciate it. Pride reinforces love.” –Margaret Truman

 

 

« Older posts

Archives

Meta

Pages

© 2024 Amy Artisan

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑