Big Sky Colorworks

Sock Club

2011-05-01T18:32:00.000-06:00

At my local yarn store Mountain Spun, we have a sock club. I love doing this! Not only does it keep me motivated, but you have the benefit of having someone there to help you if there are any questions about the sock you are knitting on. Whats great about the sock club I'm in, the owner decided to use only local yarns. How cool is that????

We decided to use the book Sock Innovation by Cookie A. Let me tell ya, there isn't a sock in there that I did not fall in love with. The socks are just amazing.

For the first sock, we knitted Wanida. It's a little tricky to knit though, but it turns out beautiful. You have to do some shifting for the charts to line up, as long as you remember to do that, its actually fun! The yarn we used is from Wolf Creek Wools in this gorgeous shade of blue. It has bamboo in it, so the sheen is lovely.

Now for this installment of the sock club we decided to do Sunshine. Once again we are using yarn from Wolf Creek Wools in a wonderful spring green. I'm getting so spoiled with this yarn, it has cashmere in it, so I drool whenever I work on these socks. I'm looking so forward to getting down with these so I can wear them and spoil myself even more. (sigh) This is what I have done so far.

This has been a fun mix of yarn overs and cabling. So far its been working up pretty fast. In case you are wondering, the needles I'm using are Darn Pretty Needles in winter sky swirl. These are some of the best needles I've ever worked with and I highly recommend getting them.

Peeps Pizza

2011-04-28T13:49:00.000-06:00

One of the craft newsletters I get had a link to a cooking blog. She's got some great stuff on there. One of the ideas she had was to make a pizza incorparating peeps. I'm a peeps person, I even like stale peeps. What can I say?
Its a nasty weather day today, snowing, windy, raining..all that jazz. I decided to make that pizza to give a pickerupper for spring time. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy. I think this would be a great way to teach kids to cook too.

Who doesn't love marshmellow treats?

Knitted breasts created by 91-year-old pensioner - Odd News | newslite.tv

2011-03-09T11:58:00.000-07:00

Knitted breasts created by 91-year-old pensioner - Odd News newslite.tv

Lushiness in chocolate!

2011-01-31T15:51:00.000-07:00

I finally got them!! The special order from Lush Confections. Let me tell you, I was very impatient while waiting for them to get here. Of course on Friday they showed up. Could I get them then?? NOO of course not lol. We didn't get back from Helena until after the post office had closed, and cus the town we live in is so small, the post office is closed on the weekend. So today I went into town and got them. O.M.G!! That's all I have to say.

She did a butter chocolate cake center soaked in spiced rum, coated them in white chocolate and decorated them with white chocolate. The tastes all blended perfectly together, the center is very moist with just the right amount if rum, and the white chocolate balances perfectly with the center.

Since this weekend I'm going to my parents to watch the Superbowl, I am seriously thinking about ordering her Kahula Coffee Cake and having it sent to my parents. If its even half as good as what I got, it will be a huge hit.
Thanks Lush Confections for giving me yet another thing to drool over on Etsy.

Whats for supper?

2011-01-25T18:43:00.000-07:00

Pizza!! Homemade pizza at that.
I've been having problems with some of the ingrediants in store bought pizza's and decided its time to start making my own. Well for a while now I've been using this recipe for my pizza dough. It is really really good. The dogs will sit and watch you eat it so they can get a bite good. Why no they aren't spoiled at all..why do you ask?
Anyway...tonight I was craving a white pizza. You know the one with garlic sauce and differnt types of white cheese, onions, garlic sauce, all that good stuff. Well after searching the web I decided to try this for the garlic sauce. My house smelled so good while the garlic was roasting.

I then mixed in some powdered parmesian and herbs into some ricotta. Grated up a couple differnt types of parmesian reggio. Cut up some black olives and some white onion. I kinda wish I had some chicken thawed out that I could of grilled to add on top, but maybe next time. Cooked all of that for about 16 minutes.

The dough recipe actually makes a fairly good sized pizza, I just cut it in half for my own and still had a nice thick crust and the right size for me for a couple of meals. Cus face it, leftover pizza for breakfast is always good.

Treasuries

2011-01-23T15:06:00.000-07:00

So I've discovered the fun of making treasuries on Etsy.
Its amazing some of the fun things you can find when creating these wonderful ways to advertise. There have been some new shops I've discovered that will quickly become my favorites. WOW! thats all I can say. There are some incrediably talented people out there who I bow to.
Today I made a Button treasury. Who knew buttons could be so fun and creative?
Yesterday I made an Undiscovered treasury. Some brand new shops that caught my eye. Some don't have sales yet, so I'm hoping this treasury helps them get discovered quickly.
Then on Friday I made a Winter Wonderful treasury. There are some amazing and truly beautiful items in this treasury.
I hope you have as much fun looking throught these treasuries as I had making them.

I just looked outside, and its snowing. Surprised there hehehehe. It was supposed to be sunny and clear today.I'm hoping I can get out of the driveway. The fourrunner is getting its facelift tomorrow and it needs dropped off tonight. Wish me luck.

Despicable Me and Nanny McPhee Returns

2011-01-22T10:21:00.000-07:00

Have you seen these two movies? If not WHY?

Both of them were throughly entertaining and very heartwarming. The graphics in both were breathtaking. I will confess though, during Nanny McPhee I did end up crying. I know that doesn't surprise those that know me. I can cry during a kleenex commercial. A friend of mine was teasing me about that and told me I needed to go watch a zombie movie to reset myself. Did I tell ya he's a brat?
I got these movies for Christmas and these were some of my favorite gifts. In fact, I may have to watch both of them again this weekend while I work on my socks that I want to finish.

So what movies have you seen lately that you have really enjoyed??

My dad is a cooking genius

2011-01-21T14:49:00.000-07:00

But I will deny it if you tell him I said so lol. Actually he is an awesome cook and lately has been expermimenting with new recipes and making his own up. Tonight I am going to make one of his dishes. Super easy and really good.
Here ya go:
Take some Nacho Cheese Dortitos and run them through your food processor. Pound thin some skinless boneless chicken breasts. Make sure you keep them as wet as possible. Dreg the chicken breasts through the crushed doritos, cook in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes or until the juices run clear. Serve with cilantro creama or pico de gallo.
How easy is that????
He also introduced me to this recipe. Don't let the name turn you off, trust me it is amazing for both pork and chicken. Chocolate Spiced Pork Chops not only are they great, but another super easy food to cook that tastes like you slaved for hours. Since the action figure doesn't like pork, I decided to try them with chicken breasts, they turned out just as good as when I had them with the porkchops.
If you try these, let me know how they turned out for you.

Hello

2011-01-18T11:11:00.000-07:00

After a hiatus, I'm back. It was a great break for me.
I got to see my kids, had a wonderful christmas,and got a few wips done.
A wip is a work in progress for those that don't know.

Right now I have two socks, a baby jacket to seam and a sweater to finish. Well those are the projects I'm currently working on. I have a few that I have put into hibernation until I am ready to get back to them.

I have been busy at Mountain Spun in Helena teaching both crochet and double knitting. The double knitting class was a huge success. I had 7 students and we have decided to offer the class again in March.

Over then weekend I took a dying workshop. The teacher was Patti from Sweet Grass Wool. It was amazing and I learned alot. She gave us a few tips to help with our dying that I know I will use. If you haven't seen her yarns, you really should look at her site or visit her at one of the three places she will be visiting. Of course you could always stop in to Mountain Spun if you are in Helena.

Then on Sunday, I went with my family to Bozeman Hot Springs. What a great way to relax and have a good time visiting with your family. I've got great memories of going there as a kid. I'm so happy that after the fire it was rebuilt and more families can make memories of that place.

Coupon code

2010-11-29T18:33:00.000-07:00

Between now and the end of the year you can save 10% when placing an order by using the code BIG10OFF in the checkout. What a great way to save some money, there is never any sales tax and I don't charge shipping for orders in the States. Feel free to share this with those who might be interested too!!

No Longer Silent

2010-11-09T18:11:00.000-07:00

Has anyone read this?? Cus let me tell you, if you haven't it is a MUST read!
I've been throughly enthralled with the memories written in this book.
Basically, this book is a compilation of memories of children all over the world affected by World War II. There are some very poigant stories here, some heartbreaking, some heartwarming and some just plain shocking. It is amazing how two kids could have basically the same experience, yet be affected completely differnt. However, of all the stories I've read so far, every single child has not only been able to move past the things that happened, but have been able to become a better person BECAUSE of the things that happened to them.
I will definatly tell my kids to read this book, and neither one of them really like to read, and I will encourage all their friends to read this too. I think it is that important, so that we all learn, and hopefully the things that happened in WWII will never happen again.

Helping a college student

2010-11-04T13:50:00.000-06:00

So I came across a Twitter post about a college student trying to get some money for college expenses. He is selling a fish finder.
This is a good way to help a kid out while getting an awesome christmas gift for that fisherman in your life! I hope he does well and that he continues on in his college education.
I always love to see kids who take the initiative to get things going for their lives. Good luck to not only him, but all the kids out there who are trying to make themselves better.

Silent Buffalo

2010-10-27T10:54:00.000-06:00

Silent Buffalo is a site that I found the other day. I got to talking to the owner and I am so impressed! All her items on this site are hand made Native American crafts. She makes them all herself. You have got to check out her site.
I just might have to order a couple things for the holidays. I bet I won't get anything else like her items anywhere. I just sat there in awe looking at each of her items wanting each one for myself lol.
She also does custom orders...so what better way to shop for the holidays, birthdays, or any upcoming special day?? She really is a nice lady too and have truly enjoyed my conversations with her.
I hope everyone takes a few minutes to look at her site today...It will truly make your day.

SNOW!!!

2010-10-26T12:28:00.001-06:00

YAY!!! We got the first snow of the season this morning. To make it even better, it was the first snow since we've moved back. I'm in pure heaven. It wasn't alot of snow and by tomorrow it will probably be gone, but hey it was snow. To make it even better, I made bacon, eggs and blueberry pancakes, got a fire going and just enjoyed the scenery. It made for a wonderful morning.
This afternoon I have to go into town and get the tire on the FourRunner fixed. I hate slow leaks in tires. While I'm there, I am going to be picking up some yarn for a scarf that was requested. A customer wants one like my purple frizz but in reddish color. She wants one thats about the same color as my Rouge Red yarn. I will see what I can do.
Now as a special gift to those that read my blog...Th first 10 to leave me a comment and I will get in touch with you for a free set of stich markers. This will only be to those that leave a comment. In the mean time, enjoy the pictures I took this morning of the snowfall we got.

Chipmunks anyone

2010-10-23T16:31:00.000-06:00

I normally don't post two blogs in one day but I couldn't wait to share these!
I love where I live, and you will soon see why. Everyday I have a family of chipmunks that visit the feeder, up until now they have been very skittish whenever I went outside to take pictures. Today they finally let me!! AND they were hamming it up too!!! Here you go:

I wish I could of gotten a shot of how full this chipmunks cheeks were.
Now...onto getting the squirrels......

Finished!!

2010-10-23T13:54:00.000-06:00

YAY!! On Thursday I finished two, yes count them TWO projects. I am so excited. Now I only have 2345097235 other things to finish, only a slight exaggeration.
One was a Purple Frizz Scarf that I have already sold one of. The other is a baby blanket that I have been making for my daughters best friend.
Sydney is expecting a little girl and I've been making things for her. She requested purple and pink in the exact tone my daughter would of used lol. It's funny how you can hear tones over the internet if you know someone. Syd is like another daughter to me and even calls me Mother. It's kind of funny.
I crocheted this blanket for her in a lilac color out of some kind of shiny yarn and made it a little larger then a normal baby blanket. This way if her daughter decides that she really likes it, she can use it past being a baby. I think it turned out beautiful.
This is the scarf:

And this is the baby blanket:

Target Practice

2010-10-19T13:22:00.000-06:00

So on Saturday, the Action Figure and I went up near Deer Lodge and did some target practicing. Its been a while (we aren't gonna go there cus I'm not that old damnit!) since I've fired a weapon, but it all came back to me. It was so much fun to get up in the middle of no where and to just fire away!

Now before I get any lectures and stuff. I don't hunt, and I was brought up with gun safety being a priority. I was born and raised in Montana, and its extremely rare to find someone who was born and raised here who doesnt know how to fire a gun. Alot of people do hunt, but its mainly for safety reasons. Montana is very rural, and I live 15 miles from the nearest town. If I had someone trying to break in, it could take the cops a good half hour to get here. Not because they are that busy, but because they could be that far away. If I waited for them, I could be dead.

Where I live, there are lots of wild animals. Even though I do respect them, know the rules for being out in the mountains and safety, things happen. I want to be confident that I can protect myself and my loved ones. I do carry bear spray if I'm going into bear country since that's safer then a gun, but I do also take a gun with me. I can fire it to get someone's attention if nothing else. I also take my whistle that I use when I'm out searching for someone who is lost. Let me tell you that sucker is LOUD!!

Anyway..here are some pictures of target practice on Sat.

this is me posing with my shotgun

not to bad of a grouping for not firing in a long time.

I was about 15 yards away.

who could not love to be up here?

Luckily it wasn't that cold.

storm moving in

As you can see, a storm was moving in, but we didn't get that wet. Its a little to early for it to snow down in the lower elevations, but we did see some snow up top.

My arm is a little bruised, but it doesn't hurt as bad as I thought it would. I just need to remember my ear plugs for the next time.

Spot on Knitting Pointers

2010-10-18T22:13:00.000-06:00

Has anyone gotten this book yet? How much does it help? I'm looking for some great resources that I can refer to no matter where I am and was wondering about this book. Living out where I do, sometimes access to the internet can be interesting at times and the closest knitting store to me is 50 miles away. Don't get me wrong, I love living here and well am throughly enjoying it! I just want to be able to have access to things here when I need them is all, is that asking too much?

Bullying and society's responsiblity

2010-10-10T12:58:00.000-06:00

Everyday I watch the news and want to cry when yet another report of a kid being bullied to death appears. I want to just take the kid who was being bullied and hold them, let them cry until they can't cry anymore. Assure them that there is nothing wrong with them. I want to take the bully and smack them upside the head til some compass appears. I know this won't happen though.
What has happened to our society that people think its ok to bully, harrass, tease, make comments, or whatever the going term is, until the victim feels there is no other way out but to end their life? What is going on in the bully's life that they have to victimize another person in order to feel good about themselves?
I think that we as a society can do alot to ending this recent trend. We need to start celebrating our differnces, embracing the fact that each person is a person of worth. The parents need to realize that yes their little angel can and will do those things. You are doing your child no favor by pretending that your child is perfect in every way. We need to step in when we see bullying happening and put a stop to it, even if its just for a brief few minutes. Sometimes those brief few minutes can mean the differnce between life and death.
I had been bullied while growing up in a few places. I don't know if it was because I knew that I wasn't going to stay in that place for very long, if it was because I had a sense of self worth or what it was, but I know I was lucky. I also know that in this day and age a person can not escape the bullying like we used to be able to do. Home should be a place of sanctuary..not a place where a child dreads going to. Now home can mean anything, home is a place of peace and well being.
In a way I'm also glad to see those reports. They are waking us up to the fact that this does still happen, and appears to be getting worse. When we as a society step up and start taking responsibilty for our actions. Remember adults teach childern how to act, maybe we should take a few lessons from them and how at an early age the do accept each other regardless of the differnces. Its not until they get older and have learned from us that bullying happens.

Wicked Appetite

2010-10-09T16:16:00.000-06:00

I just got done reading this. As usual Janet Evanovich never fails to tickly my funny bone. Since Diesel is a character out of the Stephanie Plum series, you can see the similitaries in the two books.
One of the funniest scenes I've read in a long time is in this book. It involves a monkey named Carl, rain and the roof of a suv. I think I laughed for a good 15 minutes when I read that. I still giggle whenever I recall that scene.
I passed this book onto my Mom to read, so I'm sure she's been up to all hours devouring this book.
Pick this book up if you need a great light read that transports you away for a few hours. I really hope you enjoy this book.

Being Boss and a knitting book.

2010-10-08T17:00:00.000-06:00

Yes I am my own boss. In several ways its nice, but in other ways its conflicting. Is that thing you are thinking about going to help? Are you making a good decision? Now what shall I do? You know things like that.
Once in a while though making a decision is easy. This time is one of those. I went back and looked at the shipping at my shop and I thought WOW...thats not too smart. So I made some changes and decided to add a freebie.
For now on, there will be free shipping in the States. Plus, whenever someone spends $50 that customer will get a free set of stitchmarkers that I made. Who knows, I might even decide to throw in a surprise or two also.
I have also been using this book for some wonderful ideas. It has been very helpful in explaining things with some wonderful pictures to refrence to. Now if it would only provide a little elf to sew up my projects for me and it would be the perfect book.

Satin hands

2010-09-25T17:54:00.000-06:00

The other day my cousin was here. She recently started selling Mary Kay. I'm so proud of her getting out of her comfort zone. While I don't wear thier makeup, I LOVE LOVE LOVE their Satin Hands and Satin Lips products. As someone who works alot with yarn and dying, my hands tend to be a tad bit...ok alot... on the dry side. What I like so much about this, is it works! My hands always feel so much better after I use this. And it lasts a couple of days. I also love their Satin Lips.
Right now Mary Kay has a Vanilla scent for their Satin Hands product. So of course I had to get some, plus it helped my cousin out alot. I'm really hoping this scent stays around for a while. Vanilla is one of my favorite scents and now I can pamper my hands too.
Since my mom and other cousin ordered things too...I'm getting free stuff! WOOT!!! I can always use free stuff. So what do you think I should get? I've got about $50 of free stuff to pick out and could really use some suggestions.

Test Knitting

2010-09-23T13:50:00.000-06:00

I've been test knitting a project for The Knit Princess. I love this project I'm doing. Allison has been wonderful in answering questions, and is a very easy person to talk to. I can't wait for everyone to see the book they have in the works too. I know as soon as it comes out I'll be getting one.

This has also inspired me to really get busy on the scarf ideas I've had. One I'm sort of working on. I made a mistake in crocheting it the other day and LOVE LOVE LOVE the mistake. All I have to do is frog it to figure out how I made the mistake to be able to write it down in the recipe. Another cousin of mine as asked me to design something for her dog who has arthritis real bad. She's got something pictured in her mind and I think I may have some ideas to plan for her.I'm hoping to have some patterns written down soon to put in my shop for sale.

Man Vs Food

2010-09-17T21:50:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago the show Man Vs Food was in Butte filming. One of the places they filmed was at my parents resturaunt. It will air Sept 22nd on the Travel channel. This is so cool!!! I can't wait to see what ends up on the show after watching them film all day long.

Military and getting help

2010-09-16T13:24:00.001-06:00

I've been meeting more and more people lately who have some connection to the military lately that have no idea where to turn to when they need answers to questions, help or just a way to vent. I always tell them check with your unit first, they should have something in place. However, not all unit has the best support group, or the support group may not know the answers. All 5 branches have teamed together to set up a website for just that reason. It started off as just an Army thing, but soon all the branches got involved. This site is for anyone who is connected to the military for any reason. Spouses, parents, childern, siblings, friends, significant others, etc can access this site. Its been a while since I've been on there, but I still can't reccomend it enough!!! This site is http://www.militaryonesource.com/. PLEASE..send this site to someone who might be struggling and afraid to ask, or to anyone who is aquainted with the military. You will be doing not only that person a great service, but you will be helping the service member out by letting that person know their family is being taken care of. Thank You!!