Cheryl Mason's Garden

The Pitter Patter of Potentiality

cheryl — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:24:19 +0000

With everything going on lately an how early it still is I’ve kept a secret from the online world, till now

I’ll try to keep this area for my crafting and cats but if you want to read more about baby progress hubby has set up a blog over here http://baby.masongarden.com/

Missing You Mom

cheryl — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:25:05 +0000

Early Sunday morning my mother, Carol Jean Driver, passed away. She’s missed soo very much. God has taken away her pain and let her go in her sleep.

My 2011

cheryl — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 03:16:16 +0000

2011 started with my Mom. She was sick with what we thought was a cold that didn’t get better. Turns out it was cancer. The year was overshadowed with her illness.

In the realm of crafts I’ve learned a lot. It’s really easy to get into a craft rut so I’ve been pushing myself to learn new things.

February I tried to make mitts out of a felted sweater.

and made a salve with arnica and willow bark.

March I finished my first pair of socks.

In April I worked on using natural ingredients in my soaps.

and layering soaps

and made my first batch of marshmallows

and visited my first LYS

In May my Mom went in the hospital for a cell transplant and out of some mental preservation went crazy with crafting.

My first batch of rebatched cold processed soap.

I participated in a soap swap and had this beautiful soap

Hand balm pearls and coffee butter lip balm

Indoor rose bush cultivating

My first hand knit dish cloth

Got to see myself knitting (this is a silk shawl)

In June I turned 30 while I waited to see if my Mom would make it out of the hospital.

I tested out several premade lip solutions.

I had my hair cut with a cute aline bob (this is me in the morning before styling)

If you haven’t tried the card game Dominion I highly recommend it! It’s so fun and we played several games on my birthday.

Felted my first and second pair of slippers.

Tried weaving again using roving

In July I was still waiting for my Mom to get out of the hospital but I was looking forward Sock Summit at the end of the month.

For the 4th hubby and I went to the mall to see the show.

3 am pie!

The week before the summit I fostered a cute baby kitty for a few days before his family picked him up. Such a sweetie!

Sock Summit!

August

Astoria in August

A swift at the Maritime museum in Astoria

August was also when I decided that I wanted to make handmade things for Christmas gifts and also when I started knitting up these fun cowls.

Since this post is getting really photo heavy I’ll finish up the year in another post. I am wondering how 2012 will go though. After only half a day this year I managed to step on a knitting needle that has put me out of commission for the rest of my vacation time (maybe) and my Mom is back in the hospital. Wish me luck. I think my family could use it.

Happy New Year!

cheryl — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 19:52:48 +0000

2011 has not been an easy year and I’m really looking forward to 2012 with it’s endless posibilities. Live, Laugh, Love is the moto I’m following.

Merry Christmas Weekend

cheryl — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 07:30:31 +0000

As this Christmas weekend is coming to a close I’d like to express how thankful I am to have shared it with wonderful family and friends. The year has been crazy and I’ve wondered on numerous occasions if everyone would make it through the year but here we are just a week away from a whole new year with endless possibilities.

Self Preservation During the Holidays

cheryl — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 03:19:13 +0000

This week has been unusually stressful during a month that I really need to take extra care of myself. December is often a very mood driven month and I easily slip into Scrooge/depression mode if I’m not careful. My current theory is it has something to do with less sun and too much going on around me. Last year was a perfect example. I was in charge of my day job’s Christmas party after coming out of an emotional Thanksgiving. Hubby and I ended up without a real tree or groceries on Christmas day so the day was filled with very simple fair out of what we had on hand (last year I did have an obsession with sweet potatoes so we weren’t completely festivity deprived). A tiny fake tree was all I could muster. Whatever the cause this year I’m trying to stay positive at what continues to be a very hard year.

This week the Yarn Harlot shared important words of wisdom in this area and it just feels like the right thing to re-share at this time of year.

“I’ve spent the last week being really super careful to keep my expectations in check, to remember the humans I share the Christmas with are imperfect, and that I am too. To remember that when I think of all the stuff I like about Christmas, there’s actually not a lot of stuff, and that not once, ever, in all the years that I’ve been worrying about it, not once has any person ever told me Christmas was ruined for them because I didn’t get the right wrapping paper, or because I used the regular napkins instead of the ones with holly on them. NOT ONCE, and frankly, there’s been the same amount of regular family crap no matter what napkins I get out. I’ve even ironed them, and there was still some trouble some years. ” -Yarn Harlot

Handmade Gift Planning

cheryl — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 03:57:39 +0000

Giving a gift, for me, is my own way of saying “I appreciate/love you”. When I give a handmade gift I feel that the recipient is worth the time it takes to make that something special. However, I have nothing at all against store bought either. Hubby is always welcome to buy me jewelry or yarn

Over the summer I made plans to hand make all of my Christmas gifts this year. That was probably a crazy idea but it looks as if I might be able to at least give each person one handmade item this year. Over the last few days I washed all of my growing FO knits and now it’s time to get serious. No more fiddling around with projects that aren’t gifts!

On that note……last night I worked on shop orders…..and fiddled around with a new hand balm recipe that needs more adjusting (too much coconut oil) but looks amazing.

Happy holidays and here’s to procrastination!

Tis the Mitten Season

cheryl — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 02:47:11 +0000

On the left is the Fiber Optics green Kashmire and on the right is Be Sweet Bamboo in color Storm.

Socks and Mitts

cheryl — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 09:11:18 +0000

With the colder weather I’ve been feeling chilled so the mitts have been flying off the needles. Unfortunately, the mitts for me (read – two finished pairs for others are done) are flying off in single mitts instead of pairs so I have one blue mitt almost finished and one green mitt that’s done. No pairs though.

On that ADD-ish note I started up some mini socks for my cousin’s baby girl that will be arriving in the spring.

Hopefully the socks will be finished before spring

Lots and Lots of Dish Clothes

cheryl — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 08:15:16 +0000

Easy to knit up, cheap, and useful.