2011!

2010 was a rough year for the Sadlers. Needless to say, we're both glad it's 2011. It's a new year, which brings - of course - the resolutions for the year to come. Now I'm not going to kid anyone. I'm not a resolution keeper (ah, 12 days of cooking anyone? although, i did cook most of the recipes, I just haven't blogged about them yet - that will come though!). I know saying "oh, I'm going to blog EVERY DAY!!" is just misleading. That's not going to happen. But I do have a few things I'd like to improve on this year. And, what's even awesome? I've already started on one!

our white Christmas - we got 12 inches of snow!

- be more organized! This is the one I've started. I've started by winding up all my skeins of yarn, taking pictures and uploading them to my Ravelry stash page. This is still in the works, but I've done a good chunk of my yarn. This will help me to remember what all I have, which will help me with my next goal, which is....

- stash busting! 2011 will be the year of knitting with yarn from my stash. The only time I plan on buying yarn is if I need more for a project that I'm working on, or am ordering for a specific project that I am going to start as soon as the yarn arrives.

- continue to experiment with new recipes. I've really enjoyed my 12 days of cooking, even though I haven't done that great of a job documenting it.

- spend more time exploring the beauty of Asheville. Id' like to try and go hiking once a week, but seeing as how right now it's winter and it likes to snow here, I'm just going to say that we're going to do a better job of getting out and spending time outdoors.

- take more pictures! I got a new camera for Christmas, and I'm SO excited to put it to good use.

There are other things I'm sure I'd like to try to improve on, but these are at the top of my list!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year - cheers to a happy and healthy 2011!!

sunset at The Grove Park Inn

and one organ later...

My surgery was this past Friday, the 20th, and I'm well on the road to recovery. I may no longer have a gall bladder inside my body, but look at the cute one I have outside my body!

you thought I was going to show you a picture of the gall bladder they took out, didn't you? Well, I'm weird, but I'm not that weird. This guy was a gift from my good friends Chrissy & Wilson - he's so awesome! I took him to the hospital with me for surgery, and he was such a hit. After surgery, while I was in my room recovering, my nurse took him out and showed him to everyone on the floor.

I'm really excited because I got lots of new, exciting yarn to try out! My wonderful friend Ashley sent me this yummmmmmy skein of Silky Merino Malabrigo in a gorgeous color - can't wait to try it out! 

My in-laws went overboard and really spoiled me:

2 skeins of Art Yarns Silk Rhapsody

Prism Lace Wool

Mountain Colors Winter Lace

The last picture doesn't even come close to doing the yarn justice - it's gorgeous. The colors are so rich and fall - just beautiful. All this yarn makes me think maybe I should have surgery more often.......

But in all seriousness, I can't thank my friends and family enough for everything. Both my parents came from NC to be with me, my mom stayed all weekend, Jake's dad surprised us by driving from VA to be there, my grandparents drove 2 hours to be there with me, and of course Jake has been by my side every second of each day. Thank you to everyone who sent text messages, left voicemails, sent tweets, and just sent good thoughts and prayers. They were all very much appreciated, and even though the past few days have involved a lot of this,

I'm feeling better every day, and have had a fairly easy recovery so far (the snuggling kitties have helped).

a collaboration

**UPDATE** All the KAL kits have sold!! Yayy!!

Hey Guys! Just wanted to pop in real quick to let you know about a collaboration between myself, Maya of SpringtreeRoad and Alecia of MadBird!

It's a knit-a-long, and I've provided a pattern, while Alecia sewed up some gorgeous project bags, and Maya's spun up some amazing yarn! We only had 10 spots available - and there are only 2 left! You can find out more info here, in Maya's etsy shop. This is a fabulous opportunity to try knitting with some incredible handspun yarn, and to get a project bag made with such incredible attention to detail and superior craftsmanship - I definitely recommend it!

picture via madbird

picture via springtreeroad

a brief absence

I do, however, have an excuse for this one rather than just saying "I've been busy" or something like that. We've been on vacation!! We've been in Killington, Vermont for the past week with Jake's parents, and it's been so amazing! I'll share more tomorrow or Monday when we're back in Athens and I've got some pictures to post, but for now I'll share my latest FO:

me, with 8 inches less hair, a new shawl and surrounded by wild flowers

That's right. I jumped on the bandwagon and knitted the Haruni Shawl by Emily Ross (My ravelry link here). It was my first time knitting with Malabrigo yarn, and now I understand what all the fuss is about. It's incredible. And that word doesn't even do it justice. It's like knitting with clouds. But softer. 

And now I'm obsessed.

face lift

Well, you may have noticed, I've made a few changes here on the blog. What do you think? I know absolutely squat about html and all that computer jazz, so I'm forced to use free things I find on the internet, but I think it does a pretty good job at reflecting me.

Currently, my camera is out of commission (more on that later....), so I can't share any pictures of my current project, so instead I wanted to share a few things I've come across on the web. First, let me backtrack a little....
I consider myself to be a cheap person. Meaning, I never buy something that I think I can make, I prefer to buy things that are really on sale, or snag things from the thrift store. Because of this trait (sometimes it's good, sometimes it's a flaw), I rarely buy things that aren't yarn. But, lately, I've decided to try and loosen the purse strings a little in order to support other handmade artists like myself.
So, here are a few artists that I find to be simply amazing and love supporting!

Not only does Maya take amazing photographs of her gorgeous yarns, but she is just a wonderful person all around.  Her yarns (I think I'm up to 4 of them now?) are just incredible to work with, and are made with such care and attention. I didn't have much experience with handspun before I bought some from Maya, and I have to say - if I was made of money, it would be all I knitted with. There's just something about it that I can't explain - I love the way it looks before it's knitted, the way it looks after it's knitted, and knowing that someone took wool in its rawest form and turned it into something amazing as these yarns just really gets my heart beating a little quicker (read: i'm a huge knitting nerd!). 

Sometimes I see an artist who just blows my mind with what they can create. As in, I literally can't imagine how they make things that are just so amazing. Taylor's Eclectic is definitely one of those shops.  I bought a ring from Taylor back in February, and it is absolutely one of my favorite pieces of jewelry, hands down. She's a very friendly seller, who creates one of a kind jewelry and home accessories, and I definitely reccommend hopping over there to take a look. You'll definitely find something to add to your wardrobe - probably more than one thing! So good luck deciding on what to buy!

This seller is from my hometown of Asheville, NC. A friend of mine had a bridal shower a few months ago, and I knew I wanted to get her something from our hometown that really used the beauty of the mountains as inspiration. I had to look no further than One Clay Bead. Not only did she gift wrap my purchase at no extra charge, but she worked with me to arrange for a local pickup, since I was going to be in Asheville anyway! Her work is just to die for, and I can't wait until I can have a large collection of her pottery in my house - especially her dinnerware! I can just picture my cabinets overflowing with gorgeous sets of her dinnerware.....one day.....

I'll share some more shops with you later in the week! In the meantime, are there any other shops I should be checking out? I hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend (for those US residents!), and have a great Tuesday!

february goals

well, it's hard to believe, but today is the last day of January. this is a good thing because it means Spring is coming, and (more importantly), Spring Break is coming! definitely one of my favorite parts about working in the school system is the amazing schedule...can't ask for much more than that!

beach chairs watercolor print by lauratrevey

i want to do a quick recap on the january goals that i wrote out for myself.

my shop goal was to list 3 new items every week (not including relisting sold items). now i wasn't sure how this was going to work out for me, but i must say, it well really well! i had a little hiccup about a week and a half ago when i cut open two of my fingers and had to get stitches, but even that week i was able to list two items, and this past week after i got the stitches out, i was able to list two.

my new shop goal for the month of february is going to kinda play off of last month's goal. i want to still stick to three new items a month, but of the three, only one of them can be a pair of fingerless gloves - the majority of the items in my shop are fingerless gloves, so i need to make sure i mix it up a little. so that means more cowls, clutches and other fun things!

my personal goal last month was to step more outside my comfort zone - be embarassed. i'm a very by the book kind of girl, so this was pretty difficult for me to do. i did an okay job - nothing i feel i can really brag about. i did, however, remove my own stitches, which i felt was pretty outside of my comfort zone!

my new personal goal for this month is, well, really personal. so i'm not going to write it down (i know, lame, right?). but i knowing that i have to do it is enough.

another goal of mine (which i suppose would be both personal and could potentially have to do with the shop) is to learn how to use this....

(sorry for the crappy phone picture, haven't gotten around to taking a real one yet)

my new charkha!! jake bought me this while he was up in north carolina doing some thesis research, and i absolutely LOVE it! it's the perfect spinning wheel for a beginner like me, and it didn't break the bank. i'm so excited to learn how to use it, if for nothing else than for personal use. but hopefully i can get the hang of it and start to spin beautiful yarns for everyone else to enjoy as well!

do you have any goals you want to accomplish this month?