Inspired

Whoopsie! Apparently I've been a little preoccupied lately! Over a week since my last post and no good excuse... my bad!
I suppose I have been a little busy, what with family visiting, cafe stuff and trying to get our house fixed up. Not to mention Gabe is getting more molars in so he's a bundle of joy lately. But I think the main reason I haven't posted has been a lack of inspiration. We're still finishing our renos in the kitchen, which means my baking cart and stand mixer are still located in the living room. Obviously this is not very ideal for baking. Then we've been out alot lately during dinner time so our meals have been either not prepared by myself, or rushed to make sure we're out of the house in time to make it to our commitments. This week we've had Spaghetti and meat sauce and hamburgers at our house - and that's it! In the past few weeks (since the crazy biscotti baking marathon) the only things I've baked have been a Beet-Carrot Cake and last night I whipped up a loaf of Chocolate Chip Banana Bread. Oh, and for some reason, whenever I'm knitting and switch between a knit and a purl, I get this huge gap that I can't figure out how to fix. It's not tension and it's not how I put the yarn over, so I need to seek help, and until I can do that my Christmas knitting projects are on hold. That's another thing: Christmas. I'm excited for it and want to decorate my house but I'm not allowed to until at least the middle of November (just ask my husband.) All in all, I've been feeling rather unimaginative as a result of these things and every time I went to start a post I felt like I had nothing to say that would be worth reading. (pretty high up on myself to think what I normally say is worth reading, eh?)
Anyway, all that has changed as of today I have decided. You know what's changed??
Today is Martha Stewart Day :)
Yep, I got my magazine today and now the world seems bright again! When I first got it I skimmed through it and still felt blah, but when I took the time to actually read every article I realized the brilliance of the issue. There's a section on how to organize your front closet, your fridge and your table for having lots of company over and they had some really good tips in there! Another section I loved so far was the Follow Your Art section - a look at 3 women and how they made their crafts profitable. Oh, and one more noteable: To The Letter - a look at the art of note writing and a reminder that handwritten is an uber personal, super cute alternative to just sending off an email. I personally love note writing. At HomeSense the other week I found a box of 50 cute cards in different designs for dirt cheap and I've already used nearly 1/4 of them. Thank You cards, Birthday Cards, Just Because... there's almost always something that you can write someone a card about. When I was pregnant with Gabe I pre-wrote a load of cards for anniversarys and birthdays so that all I had to do was mail them at the right time. One of my items on my eventual wishlist is personalized stationary for my note writing hobby. I think it's nice when people get things in the mail other than bills and I like to contribute to that cause!
I have kind of overcome my knitting stall too. I simply changed my project. I'm knitting my first felting project! First, I'm knitting a hat using oversized needles and double strands of wool. Then I'll wash the hat and shrink it down to felt. Then I'm going to needle felt a pattern on.
Well, I'd best go pull some meat for dinner because as soon as Gabe's finished his snack we're going on a nice long walk. The sun's up, it'll probably be one of the last night days of October and I'm feeling inspired!

Mrs. Vander Leek ;)