What's New in the Etsy Shop!

Now that The Paper Sparrow is a new shop (Anchor 5 Boutique) and in new hands, i am able to focus more on my own little shop with Etsy.

I've added some of my Mom's super soft, super wonderful baby blankets that she crochets. She is usually busy making these for babies in the family, but now that the family has slowed down a bit in the baby department, she has a few extra to share with the rest of the world!

Mom has been making these blankets since my first baby was born, and i actually still have the 2 blankets she made for my daughters over 30 years ago!

She works with easy care acrylic yarn that can be tossed in the washer and dryer and used again and again. These blankets make great baby shower gifts....

Also, a few more critters have joined the Etsy team! This is Rosie the lop eared bunny

and Fuzzy

and Happy. All of my knitted bunnies and teddies are made without buttons or small parts that can come loose and cause problems for small children. So they are safe for children of all ages. I have a few orders to fill for the brick and mortar shops i am working with, but will soon be adding more baby hats, scarves, jewelry and more malas and rosaries. Time to start thinking about Christmas!

Lola's Tomatoes

This year i bought all my tomato plants from the Troy Farmer's market. And because Lola was interested in her own garden, i bought her her own tomato plant

I chose all sorts of heirloom tomato varieties for the garden

but decided to get her a special plant, different from all the others. So i bought a cherry tomato plant called "Sugar Sweet"
(just because the name reminded me of the little girl who would tend the plant! ;)

What a wonderful time we are having in the garden with this plant. Every time Lola comes over for a visit, she goes out with her crocks on and her basket on her arm and we pick handfuls of super sweet and tasty tomatoes. And she is standing in front of her tomato plant in these pictures. Yes, that big bush behind her is Lola's tomato plant! It's huge!

I am hoping this little taste of gardening will stay with her for her lifetime.

And i hope we have many more years to share this love of gardening together...

Even Paper Sparrows need to fly

Just wanted to let all my friends know that my daughter Katie sold her business, The Paper Sparrow. She was well into a three year lease and was approached by a friend who wanted to have a brick and mortar store of her own. And so the deal went down. I have to say for me, and all of us really, the experience was bittersweet. I loved that little shop. And i am so proud of my daughter for making her dream of owning her own business a reality. Now she is taking some time to think about what her next step will be. Maybe we will have some time to spend together before she goes on to her new and exciting future adventures... Things have changed for me too! My things sold very well at The Paper Sparrow and now i have to decide what direction i want to go in. I will definitely plump up my Etsy shop for sure, but i may take a few classes to expand my horizons and take advantage of the slower pace...We'll see....One thing is for sure...change is everywhere!

Snuggle time

In this house

it's never too hot to cuddle!

30 Years Ago....

I married my Best Friend and Partner for Life...

Last night we all went to my Parent's house to celebrate my Dad's 80th Birthday and say goodbye to my Sister Nancy who came up from Florida for the big event. When we got there, my Family had a beautiful bouquet of roses waiting there for us...

and this beautiful card

signed my our Beautiful Family. Thank you Everybody. Happy Anniversary Willie. Happy Birthday Daddy. We are Blessed in so many ways...

The Sweetest Gift

My little friend came to the house the other day with a special gift just for me

She picked it all by herself

It was the most beautiful dandelion flower

Here is a closeup

Lola and i like to take walks and we notice all the different wildflowers we see on our way. She knows i love all of them, and brought me this flower as a gift from her own yard.

i love that she thought of me that way...

New Buns

Two new bunnies for the Etsy shop! I used the same pattern by Barbara Prime of Fuzzy Mitten, but for the pink bun i used smaller needles, and made longer floppy ears.

Both are knit with love of acrylic yarn that looks a lot like mohair and stuffed with polyfil. I just have to decide if they need clothes or just a couple of cute bows tied around their necks!

They are both super soft, floppy and squishy, just right for some good hugging action. And their faces are embroidered on so that there are no small parts for babies to pull off and put in their mouths. I love knitting these little guys...

I thought i'd leave you with some cotton tails...

Now THAT'S a Tomato!

Well, here it is, the biggest tomato we have picked here this Summer....

It's not pretty....

and we haven't tasted it yet...

but it sure is a big one!

How is your garden growing so far???

Lola's New Friend

Meet Jack, Lola's new friend.


We just brought him home from a new local shelter called The Annex. It is a division of the Saratoga County Animal Shelter, and it is run entirely by volunteers on proceeds from sales and donations. Jack(who's original name was Jack Daniels) was surrendered to the shelter by his family who could no longer keep him for financial reasons. It is so sad they had to let him go because he is the NICEST cat! His paperwork said he is 7 months old, and very good with children, other cats and dogs and generally likes people. When we brought him home to Lola's house, we opened the box, he jumped out and made himself right at home. Welcome Jack! We Love you already!

Think Differently...

I'm Back!

(Mine and Lola's garden crocs waiting by the back door)

My computer is fixed and as good (or better) than new! I have so many photos to download and crop and ideas for posts that i have been sitting on since the computer crash... I'll get busy with that this afternoon. But for now i just wanted to say HI and send out a big Thank You to my son in law Ben, the Computer Wizard! If you are local and need computer work done, he's the man!

Ahhh.... it's good to be posting again! I really missed all my friends out there!

Down but not out!

Well, right after i made myself a promise to blog more, work more consistently and produce more things for my Etsy Shop and The Paper Sparrow, and to promote my little business more, my computer went down....(It is amazing how much i count on that little machine for just about everything every day...Maybe it's just tired?) We're not sure what is happening with it, but my son in law Ben, who is a computer Wizard Extraordinaire is on the job trying to figure out what the heck is going on...He also took pity on us and let us borrow his lap top so that we could keep up with correspondence, but without my address book, and the ability to download and prep photos, i cannot post anything much of interest to my blog or my Etsy shop... It has been frustrating to say the least....Hopefully it will be good as new and back to work here soon and i will have a lot to catch up on with you all. My cameras are full of new shots of the knitting and crocheting i've been doing, and we have garden updates and the usual family and dog stories....Oh and we have begun the Summer tomato count too! Lola picked 5 tomatoes from her cherry tomato plant i bought for her at the Troy Farmer's Market. So please keep checking in with me and i hope to be back real soon. In the meantime i am doing a LOT of blog reading from my daily reads list. It sounds like everybody is having an interesting Summer so far!

Bread and Jam for Mellon

I'm goin' out tonight folks and i am very excited about it! We're going down to a local cafe called Bread and Jam, to see one of my very favorite local performers, Sean Rowe. If you haven't heard of him yet, check out the little videos below. ("Wet" is one of my very favorite songs) If you're local, get yourself down to Bread and Jam Cafe tonight at 8ish. Sean's voice is very masculine and deep, a bit gravely, and absolutely filled with so much feeling and emotion. And his songs are amazing...Not to mention, Bread and Jam Cafe is also amazing! Good food and a comfortable environment. It feels like you are sitting in a good friend's kitchen eating good food, sipping good drinks, loving life....Enjoy....

Lavender! My First Harvest

After we got hit with the late blight in my tomato containers last Summer, i had heard on NPR that it might not be a wise thing to replant tomatoes using that same container/soil again. At the time, last year, they just weren't sure how or if this thing might winter over or whatever.... Not wanting to repeat that experience again, i decided to plant hardy Munstead lavender

Last year, planting it so late in the season, it was just a pretty but small set of plants in the container. Now in it's second year it is really coming along!

So pretty...and the bees seem to love it!

I love it too, as it brings back memories of my Grandmother Mary...
I remember hugging her and breathing in this scent...lavender....The color reminds me of her too. (i can hear my friend Kate T laughing as just about everything reminds me of my Grandmother!)

Now i have heard that the local garden experts don't worry too much about the late blight coming back thru the soil. But still i am happy with the decision i made to use this big tub as a lavender garden.

I'm hoping to make some sachets from my own flowers...

Everybody into the pool!

It has been brutally hot here in the Capital District! And when i have to force the dogs to go out and it isn't even raining, you KNOW it's not nice out there! But i've found a solution.... I get out there first thing, and fill up the new doggie pool with nice cool water, and they absolutely run out and jump right in!

Well...to be honest, it took a few days for them to be ok with the new pool. And still Gipetto and Zinnia have to be lifted in to cool off. Pollyanna isn't too good at jumping in either as she has those little short puggy/chi legs, and appreciates a lift in... But the Jack Russell Gang just jump right in!

Here's little Honey checking out my feet

And here comes Rubie Dubie!

Geeps likes to watch the younguns splash around

Rubie with a face full of pool water

and here's little Polly waiting for her lift into the cool water

The only down side to this is, those two little Jack Russells jump out of the water, race around the yard, and then wrestle and tumble in the only part of the yard that has no grass... Water plus dirt = mud.... oh well...

Here are Little Honey and Polly playing in the little bit of muddy water that is left in the pool.

When the day is coming to a close i use the leftover water to water the container garden, and set the pool on it's edge to dry for the next day! It's just an easy way to keep the doggies happy here on the Hot Dog Days of Summer!

Kids are Amazing