~ Friday Morning Visitors ~

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What a beautiful morning...not the temperature which is well into the -30's but the sun is out shining so brightly making all the snow sparkly and look who decided to pop by for breakfast? Make sure to click on all the photos to get a real good look...I left them nice and big!

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These 3 gorgeous deer (the other one is on the right hiding behind the tree...camera shy perhaps?) spent about 20 minutes in our front yard this morning just munching. Don't mind that rope in the way...that's my kids' contraption...a rope tied from one tree to another that they walk along...there's another one tied above it as well for them to hang onto....kids :o)
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The deer on the right decided to join the other one that was playing shy, but the cute one on the left wanted to go off on his own for a bit.
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Just making sure the others aren't going to leave without him.
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Something caught his eye...
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Perhaps the sound of my kids trying to get his attention? Look how big the ears get.
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Okay, this is my favourite shot...he's just stuck his snout in the snow to eat whatever's under there....and then....
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Out comes the snout, all covered in snow! Too cute!
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I couldn't imagine trudging through all that snow in minus thirty degrees celcius for my morning grub!
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I just love the way the sun makes the snow all sparkly!
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Think it's time to head back with the others now...
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I tell ya, I wouldn't trade living in the country for anything! It's so beautiful and so peaceful. I love it!

X's and O's.....

Which one is the Hug & which one is the Kiss?

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This is the dishcloth that I designed for our February 2009 Mystery Dishcloth Knit Along in Rachel's Knitting Room, "X's and O's"!

You can also find this free pattern on my website Knits By Rachel under my Free Patterns :o)

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I always assumed that the X's were the Hugs and that the O's were the Kisses, but apparently after reading this from the urban dictionary and this from Wikipedia there are some people that think it could be the other way around as well.

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What do you think? Which one do you think is the Hug and the Kiss? I personally don't think it matters...that's the reason why we use both I guess, to cover all the bases!

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Hope all is well with everyone! Have a great day ;o)
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Rachel
xoxoxoxo

Here's our Miss Molly sitting pretty waiting for the fire to kick on...it's a bit of a challenge to photograh her cuz she always seems to be flying around the house...I've never seen a a kitty so hyper before...she runs and slides into the walls, climbs the couch and the window sill...she's nuts! She will be one year old soon...how fast the time whizzes by! Seems like just yesterday she was our little ball of fluff!

Just Hanging Out......

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Mr. Squirrel was enjoying our sunny weather yesterday afternoon, jumping from one tree to the other. The trees sure look different from one week ago when they were all covered in snow!

~♥~ The Real Way to A Girl's Heart ~♥~

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This is what hubby brought home for me for Valentine's Day...I've been staring at them and trying so hard to resist them cuz I know once I open the pretty heart box they'll be gone...I have absolutely no self control when it comes to hazelnuts and chocolate! I only ate 6 yesterday, in one sitting...that's not that bad is it? Oh who am I kidding? That's terrible cuz I know that I'll end up eating another 6 today and then there will just be 4 lonely choccies left and I'll end up feeling sorry for them and I'll have to gobble them too! But what I was thinking of doing is saving all the pretty gold foil wrappers and brown paper cups and wrapping them back up real nice and putting them back in their little spots in the pretty box and no one here will ever know the difference...until of course they try to sneak one behind my back...won't they be in for a disappointing surprise! Ha! That'll teach them! Oh, Chocolate brings the evil out in me!

Hope your day is as special as you are sweetie pie!

You are growing up so fast.

I am so proud of everything you do!

I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful daughter!

May all your dreams and wishes come true!

You deserve nothing but the very best!

Mama loves you big whole bunches!

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Happy Birthday Kiddo!

~ ~ ~ ~ Happy Valentine's Day! ~ ~ ~ ~

Just wanted to wish you all a Very Happy Valentine's Day! May your day be filled with Love!

In honour of Valentine's Day, here is a handful of my very favourite Valentine Patterns for you available on the web...Enjoy :o)

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heart-shaped table mat and serviette ring

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olive you

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Smitten

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Pop Heart Pattern!

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Love Bunnies!

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Two Hearts as One Kitchen Hanging Hand Towel

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Hearts Go Round Hat

Here is the photo for this adorable crocheted hat

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Hugs for a wonderful weekend,

:o)

Rachel

The Beauty of Winter?

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Winter has NEVER been my favourite season...it's too cold and in my opinion it lasts way too long. But I must admit that it really is beautiful at times...this morning while I was outside with the kids, I couldn't help but notice how pretty all the trees around us were after our last snowfall. I swear, EVERY single branch, stick, and needle was COMPLETELY smothered in the white stuff...it looked so beautiful...my only wish is that the sun would come out so everything would sparkle nice...perhaps later on. Check out all the snowy photos...I left them big so you can click on them!

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This one above is my favourite. If you click on it you can see all the snow hanging on the delicate branches...you can even see tiny little water droplets frozen on the ends of some of them.

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First Time Felting For Me!

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Felting has always been one of those things that I have always wanted to give a try. Just recently I saw something that caught my eye on Ravelry. A couple of people have made felted coasters out of the free knitted star coaster pattern from knittingonthenet.com. You can check them out here and here. Anywho, the last time we were out shopping Hubby took me to Michael's to find some real wool so I could give this felting thing a go! Found some really nice colour combos so that made me happy and I went home and casted on the star coaster pattern. I found out real fast that I didn't like the method of picking up stitches along the side of my star after every wedge so I ripped it out and went looking for some other kind of knitted star that I could use. The first star shape that came to mind was Dione's great starfish cloth! I figured after the felting that my finished creation was going to shrink a whole bunch anyway so I thought why not do up a dishcloth? So there I went again...casted on the required 15 stitches and went to work. What a wonderful pattern to follow...the only change I made was I didn't do the yarn overs as I didn't know how the holes would look when felted so I just knit in the front and back of the stitch before the yarn over as not to make a hole. Here is my finished starfish knit with Patons Classic Wool/Rosewood.

Isn't it pretty? All those beautiful colours together? I was extremely happy with the way it knit up. So now I had the shape I wanted and it was time to figure out what method for felting I would use. I was reluctant to throw it in the washer as I didn't want to just have this one little bitty thing to throw in there and also I didn't want to throw anything else in with it being scared of the colours mixing in the hot water. So I found these great instructions on knittingabout.com for hand felting. I threw my star in a sink of really hot water with a tad bit of dishwashing soap and I swished away with it in there. It didn't take long at all for it to shrink and start getting all fuzzy...so I just kept doing that until I thought it looked good and then I rinsed it in cold water and lay out to fully dry. Here is my finished felted starfish.

As you can see it shrunk quite a bit...it's still a bit big to be considered a coaster but I am more than happy with the way it turned out no matter what it gets used for. Now I'm trying to figure out what else I could felt. What a neat thing to do with wool! There are so many things to try...bags, bowls, slippers, flowers, vases...the possiblities really are endless!

Feeling Blue............

Not the sad kind of blue, but the colour blue of course! If anyone knows me, they know that I am just crazy over the colour blue! Especially when it comes to things in my kitchen! I seem to be drawn to this colour for whatever reason...people laugh at me when I tell them that I love when Hubby takes me into Canadian Tire and Home Hardware cuz they have a wonderful selection of "kitcheny" things and lots of them in blue too!

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So you can just imagine the look on my face when I received this Gorgeous Blue Snowman Lamp from my dear friend Marilyn! She told me that she was sending me a little package for Christmas and she said it was delicate and fragile so I was expecting something small...when Hubby walked in with the parcel I nearly fell off my chair! Marilyn made me this beautiful lamp out of an old wine jug...it is so unique and so cute and so BLUE!!!
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As you can see, it matches perfect! Not sure if you can see, but the lamp shade is all sparkly too! If you click on the pictures you can see all the work that went into this beauty!
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Here is a close-up photo of the adorable snowmen..these cute little guys made their way around the whole lamp...pretty cute, hey?

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And here you can see the sparkly snow on the bottom of the lamp...when the lamp is turned on they just sparkle like real snow in the sunshine!
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Here it is all lit up...it looks sooo pretty in the evening...I just love it so much! Thank you so very much Marilyn for taking the time to do all this for me!
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And another big thank you is definitely in order...this time for my dear friend, Mary Anne! If you don't know Mary Anne, you seriously have to get on over to her blog...every Friday she updates her blog with all that's been going on in her life that week...sometimes it's knitting, sometimes it's not, sometimes it's pictures of the beautiful scenery or of a certain fella with his bike...but whatever it is, Mary Anne always has this charming way of entertaining her readers with a little humor and a little education too! Anyway, last night when Hubby came home from work, he gave me a package that came in the mail addressed to me! Here it was an envelope filled with beautiful knitted dishcloths in all tones of blue!
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Don't they all look wonderful on my kitchen counter? I love them all! There are of course Mary Anne's extremely famous Feather and Fans and also there were a couple in the Basket Rib stitch!
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Check out her beautiful yellow card with the blue flowers on it...so pretty!
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And she even sealed the envelope with a teddy...how adorable!
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All ready to dive into all those bubbles and do the dirty work now!
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Thank you so very much Mary Anne for all the delightful blue dishcloths, I love them all!
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Hugs and Love to the pair of you for thinking of me and taking the time to brighten my holiday and making me feel special with these beautiful gifts made from the heart!

Yesterday Hubby and I celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary! I can't believe how fast the time has flown. So much has happened since then..so much to be thankful for, so much to be proud of. 10 years ago yesterday, Hubby and I were on our way to Minneapolis with his sister, our beautiful 10 month old little girl, and two of our friends...we were heading to Minneapolis to get married in the Mall of America in the Chapel of Love...it sounds so corny and cheesy I know, but when we saw it on our previous trip to Minneapolis we both thought it would be kinda cute! Nothing seemed to be going right leading up to the big day...Hubby barely found a suit in time, I had just found a dress to wear the night before after looking around town ALL day long. A few days before that, I had had a tubal pregnancy and had to have an operation to have it removed which left me feeling a little sore. Hubby's suit pants needed to be hemmed so his Sister was hand sewing them in the front seat of the car on the way with the little sewing kit they give to you for free in the hotel room...when the teeny tiny little scissors broke we stopped at a gas station to borrow a pair of scissors so she could finsih the job! We still didn't have a ring for Hubby so when we pulled into Mineappolis we stopped at the fist store we saw which was a Target and quickly picked him out a ring from their jewelry department...thank goodness they had his size! In the meantime, we had lost site of our friends that were riding in a seperate vehicle...they ended up going the wrong way but fortunately they were able to find their way to the Mall where we all met up eventually. By this time I was a complete basket case, thinking to myself that this was never going to work out because everything that could go wrong, WAS! We made our way up to the Chapel where we were escorted to the dressing room where we all frantically got dressed. Just before the ceremony I had a little emotional breakdown where I started crying because I was just so nervous and had been worried all day that we were going to be late...talk about being stressed out! I quickly picked up my beautiful little girl, gave her a kiss and said a little prayer to myself. I opened the door to the chapel and as soon as I saw Hubby I felt better...still very emotional but I knew that the moment was finally here and all the stress of getting ready for it was over. I walked down the aisle with our baby in my arms, we said our vows and I cried through the whole time...couldn't help it, it was such an emotional day for me. Now, every year that goes by we have a little giggle over it all as we remember how everything that could go wrong, did, but in the end it didn't matter because it all worked out just fine.

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To celebrate our 10 years being married, Hubby surprised me by taking me to the jewelry store and letting me pick out diamond earings! He is always so good to me, spoiling me rotten all the time. Never wanting or needing anything for himself but always over-joyed when it comes to giving me things to make me happy...what a guy! I know that I am not the easiest person to live with at times and he still takes me for who I am no matter what and I truly love him and appreciate him for that!

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Here are my beautiful diamond earings...I love them so much, aren't they so pretty and sparkly? I am so lucky!

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(pictures are clickable)

Happy Birthday To a Wonderful Grandmother!!

With a few thousand kilometres between us, we don't get to see eachother as often as I would like to. A couple of months ago I was fortunate enough to have been able to see her for only a short time though. We ALWAYS try to make the most of our visits cuz they just don't last long enough.

She is the most wonderful Grandmother anyone could ask for! She has always been so supportive and encouraging. She has always shown how proud she is of me...from a little girl to the woman I am today.

She always says that she doesn't want or need anything, so on this special day of her's I would like her to know just how special she is to me, how much I love her and miss her, and how much I truly appreciate everything she does for me!

Happy Birthday Granny! Enjoy your day and know that we are thinking of you lots!

I'll leave you with a few photos of her and I together...a couple from a LONG time ago and one from more recently. Sure brings back memories...here's to many more Granny!

Love Rachel Marie

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

~ My Granny...my best friend ~

*** Enjoy & Have a Safe & Happy Halloween!! ***

Hugs,

:o)

Rachel

~ Calendar of Hope 2009 ~

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13 Original Dishcloth Patterns Created to Raise Awareness and Money for Breast Cancer Research

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This is our Calendar of Hope for 2009 which I am honoured to be a part of. This all started from a little thought Cindy (aka, FitterKnitter) had to create a Breast Cancer Awareness Calendar to sell to raise money for breast cancer research and it snowballed from there into this beautiful work of art! Cindy has done such a beautiful job with this calendar. I am so proud to be a part of it!

Below you can find my contribution to the calendar, "Little Praying Cherub". It was a lot of fun working with so many wonderful people on this project. Thanks so much Cindy for this opportunity!
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This Calendar is available for purchase on KnitPink.com. It is being offered as an instant pdf download and all proceeds made from this calendar go to Breast Cancer Research. Thank you so much for checking it out :o)