Okay...I have been more than bad at keeping up on my blogging and it's not like I don't have anything going on in my life to write about I just haven't put in the effort. My friend Shawna sent me a friendly reminder to get back to it so her I am :) I haven't posted since September I think and we've had 4 birthday parties,Halloween,Thanksgiving,and Christmas whew... and I'm sure there is stuff I'm missing it was a very busy Fall!

I'll start with Halloween, L was a dark fairy princess....I'm just glad she didn't want to be someone from High School Musical! and my son was Darth ( or Dark as my son calls him) Vader. Over the last several years we go to the Fall Fun Fair etc. and my kids are over Halloween by the time it actually comes so we did an old fashioned Halloween this year and went trick or treating and that's it and we had soo much fun!

Thanksgiving and my Dad's birthday fell on the same day this year , we were all supposed to go out of town for the holiday but we all ended up getting sick with a terrible cold that turned into infections for all of us so needless to say it was mellow and all we wanted to do was rest....

My son's birthday is Dec. 7th and we had a Batman birthday party and my Husband's dad and his wife came out for it. I am blessed with wonderful inlaws and I'm so glad they came :)

My daughter's first school Christmas play was this year and she was a penguin..so cute! She hated it of course and it was really hot in the auditorium so she was really uncomfortable.

My daughter's birthday came soon after and she decided to have a slumber party, which was actually alot of fun. She got to pick 3 girls to stay and they are all really well behaved little girls!

Than came Christmas Eve! One of my most favorite nite's of the year! We go to my parent's house and have dinner and than open presents...it's the nite I finally get to relax and have fun and spend time with my family! It's much more fun now that there are 4 children , my nieces are getting Christmas now and it's really fun to watch all of them open the presents.

Christmas morning of course I love! It is always so fun to see my kid's faces I love it! We go to my Mom's for Christmas early dinner and then go relax at home. I love Christmas but I am glad that it's over and a new year is starting!

Speaking of New Year's , we are having some friends over tonite for New Year's Eve, nothing fancy just hanging out and visiting. My Aunt and Uncle are going to be here from New Jersey on the first and I am so excited, they will be here for two months and I'm really looking forward to it as we don't get to see them as much as we'd like since they live across the country.

Hope all three people that read my blog have a wonderful New Year's Eve and safe too!!

Dottielous

Coolest book cover ever and my first tomato!

I am reading this GREAT book called The Seamstress. It's is set in Brazil in the early 1920's about these two sisters. One gets captured by the cangaciero's and one marries a man she doesn't love to get out of the countryside and move to the city. It's so good I have a hard time putting it down, I read until 11:30 last nite and had to make myself go to sleep. It has the prettiest book cover , I would frame it if it didn't have words all across it.

I have been doing alot of knitting lately, I'm inspired by Fall coming. It doesn't feel like fall where I live as it was 115 outside this weekend! The fall catalogs start rolling in though and it makes me want to feel cozy. I'm so bad about capturing what I'm working on in photos, I really do need to make time to take pics, so busy is the life of a mother of two!

I FINALLY have tomato's!!!! I picked my first one Sunday, it is the size of a golf ball, it's small but I am proud all the same of my little tomato! I'm going to cut it into liittle wedges with some salt and eat it tonite! I can't wait until I can pick tomatos everyday...I love them :)

It has been threatening to rain all day , I wish it would I love the rain. It probably will not though

my husband says it has to do with the mountains around us and the humidity off the lake blah blah blah blah and so it always goes around us :( or storms at nite when I cannot enjoy it. Maybe I'll do a rain dance around my tomatoes tonite.hehe!

love :)

love :)
Originally uploaded by Dottie Lou Knits.

Sad Days....

Sorry I haven't been here in a while,we have been busy little bees since we got back from camping and then we had a very bad day last week and I haven't felt like posting anything.

I am feeling better now and feel like I can post without crying...we'll see.

My very awesome best friend died last Monday...my dog Oscar. I came home to check on him like I do everyday and found him and then proceeded to freak out! I don't even remember last week, I cried everyday. This week is better and I'm getting to the acceptance part, it's wierd how certain animals just make their way deep into you heart and it hurts like hell when they die.

Oh ya...here come the tears! I thought that I would post some pics of him so you can see how cool he was.We loved him very much and he so so so so so missed!

Help spread the word!

New Orleans still needs help and the company Dirty Coast makes some pretty cool T's that bring
attention to New Orleans, all shirts are printed with lead free ink :) So click on the link to the left and buy a T!

The Camping Trip from He**!!!

Actually there have been some really really fun parts but in between the fun parts have been pretty bad, we have a black cloud over us for some reason this weekend! I guess I could just list them on order of appearance:

1. arrive at Mohave Narrows and try to set up but propane tank has a leak,drive to town and get
more propane, come back fix leak.
2. generator will not stay on, see that batteries look old, clean connectors and try again, no deal
go back to town and buy two new batteries, come back and hook up batteries.
3. everything working now except t.v. and microwave and outlets, too tired to deal with that, will
wait till morning
4. dog wakes up hubby at 4 am , hubby lets dog out to pee yells at dog to wait then trailer fills with
skunk smell! dog sprayed by skunk that was at our front door!
5. husband gets t.v. working and outlets
6. everything is working finally, hubby and I drink a beer in celebration, life is good :)
7. hubby drives truck to his dad's camp site , backs up to come back to our camp site
truck starts spewing something very fast!
8. truck is not working , we are stuck!
9. it's saturday and memorial weekend so we are stuck until at least Tuesday, thank goodness
family is here to take us to the store to stock up on supplies etc.
10. Monday morning go to the playground happy despite truck being broke, at least everything
is still working in the trailer :)
11. generator starts to make a wierd sound...generator turns off.....generator blew a rod..no
generator.
12. all family is leaving and going back to their comfy homes, hubby catches his dad before they
leave to help move trailer to full hook up site, everything is now working again.
13. life is good again ......so far :)
14. lets hope there is not a 15 or more!

On the plus side, it's beautiful here, we have had so much fun with family and riding our bikes and fishing , campfires etc. There were tears this morning over saying goodbyes.
I have a wonderful hubby who has been great considering he really hasn't go to enjoy himself since we got here. We are now finally getting to relax and he is out riding his bike with our daughter , we are grilling tonite and just trying to finally relax!
I don't believe we will be camping again any time soon...LOL!

My New Garden!

This is my new garden and my first green bell pepper! It gets bigger everynite, I know this becuz I check on it first thing every morning :) I planted tomato, green bell pepper, and a lemon cucumber because it looked different. The lemon cucumber is getting big fast so I'm super excited to see a bud! I am doing it all organic cuz it makes me feel better ;)

Happy Cinco!!!

Eglu!

So, I want chickens really really bad and goats but I live in city limits so no goats and I thought no chickens until I found out that you can have chickens , no roosters!,and they have to be in a coop! So...I got online and did some research and found the Eglu! by http://www.omlet.us/ it is made for people that live in an "urban setting" it holds two to four chickens and it's a very cool design for cleaning and it comes in several colors, I personally like the green as to blend in with the rest of my backyard. You can order chickens from them or get your own but the chicken on the top is the kind they send you and they are supposed to be really friendly and good with kids and they like to follow you around the garden annnd they lay lots of eggs! I'm saving my pennies cuz I'm getting one!! and two chickens. I'm liking Molly and Polly or maybe a Betty?
Also, if you go to www.flickr.com and punch in eglu all sorts of pictures from people that have gotten them and their chickens.

One of my favorites

One of my favorite blogs is http://www.bloesem.blogs.com/ she finds the most beautiful and coolest stuff I've seen. I don't know how she finds it all?! and she also has a kids blog which I visit everyday no matter what! On the kids blog is a link to her artist friend who posts a new art project to do with your kids every week, and they are such fun and new unique art projects. The link is http://bkids.typepad.com/bookhoucraftprojects/ . Here are a few pics from the kids blog and one of the crafts, a kinetic drawing bug! I can't wait to make one!

showin off the new do!
Originally uploaded by Dottie Lou Knits.

I think she looks like Natalie Portman in The Professional!

Moooom!
Originally uploaded by Dottie Lou Knits.

HAPPY EARTH DAY!

Happy Earth Day to everyone! We are celebrating by planting some flowers in our garden and having a picnic at the park tonite. My kids have been looking forward to it all month !

Crushin' on James Mcavoy!

James Mcavoy
Originally uploaded by kellijo2.

I'm totally crushin on James Mcavoy after watching Atonement and Becoming Jane in the same weekend! I want to be Kiera Knightly in the library scene!! (did I just say that?!! ...shame on me..lol!!) and listening to him speak in his Scottish accent (swooon....!) lucky lady that wife of his!

Little brown eyes

Little brown eyes
Originally uploaded by Dottie Lou Knits.

I think this picture is funny,I love him!

My beautiful daughter

My beautiful daughter
Originally uploaded by Dottie Lou Knits.

I didn't think it was possible for her to get cuter but she gets more beautiful the older she gets :)

Little Butterfly

Little Butterfly
Originally uploaded by Dottie Lou Knits.

This was my first attempt at some mixed media, it was really fun! I made it for my friend this is her youngest and she is such a doll! Doesn't she make the perfect butterfly?

rainbows

rainbows
Originally uploaded by Dottie Lou Knits.

We had two full rainbows this weekend, it was pouring rain and lightning so I didn't get the full pic but they were beautiful and sooo bright you could see every color!

Sweet Stationary

I ran across this little gem of a shop today and fell madly in love! Everything is so beautiful and colorful. Go check it out at http://www.papayalicious.com/page/page/3547068.htm

They have stationary,cards,journals etc. They have really pretty Mother's day cards that I'm def. looking at as I have a mother in law, step mother in law and my own beautiful mother to buy them for :)

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE !!!!!

Tea Roses

Me and my daughter went to the Winterfest yesterday, it's kind of turning into a tradition for us. There are always cool artists and beautiful jewelry and of course all kinds of yummy junk food! We always come home with something cool to show off :) My daughter fell in love with an Alaskan Jade stone ring,very beautiful and the name of our late Boxer so she had to have it :) I got a coral and a turquoise ring and cute little hippy top :)

I have to show off this jewelry from Busarin Designs http://www.busarindesigns.com/index.html Her jewelry is made out of real flowers and leaves! The website does NOT do it justice, it is just beautiful and delicate and very vibrant! Her booth was lovely and I really wish I could have gotten a piece from her, but she does have a website thank goodness. The flowers are mostly tea roses and the leaves but she has some with big rose petals and orchids, really unique and beautiful.

Etsy and Easter

My mom makes these beautiful nests and she made some new ones for Easter, go check out her Etsy store at http://www.robinbirdsnest.etsy.com . These are two of my favs and she has one that would be perfect for Valentine's day with red eggs and glitter! She hand twists the nests and hand dyes and felts the little eggs, she makes pincushions and hanging ones.

Visit this shop at http://www.montessoribyhand.net/patterns/emmeline.html to buy this apron pattern! How cute is this ?! It's reversible and the color combo is great, I hope I can find that same color of aqua fabric! I will be so tempted to where this out of the house just like she is wearing it. Have a swell day :)

New Anthropologie Catalog

Got my new Anthropologie http://www.anthropologie.com catalog in the mail yesterday and could not wait to sit down with my cup of tea and look thru! Especially since there was an umbrella on the front page! I love love love umbrella's! And the top picture here how beautiful is that sweater?! Oh how I wish I had the money to spend , I would buy one of everything! I do like to scan the sales , they have amazing sales...$80 shirts for $20! Oh ya ..I'm all about that.

How do you like the new banner?! I'm trying to make my blog a little more pretty and simplified.
Also, come check out the new book store! I opened it through Amazon's astore, I get to pick what books to sell and I get a percentage off of the sales :) It's a pretty cool little thing and it's run through Amazon so the check out is the same. It's called Dottie Lou's Little Bookstore and I've got some really cool ones and one's for children too :)

I finally received my pattern for the skirts, it got sorted wrong at UPS but it finally made it to my house! I can't wait, I'm going to get some fabric today , I think I am going to make the skirt that's on the cover first I like the rough edges on it.

The Winterfest is this weekend and I'm going to get some info on how much for a booth etc. , I really want to open a booth next year! I want to sell my handspun yarns and maybe some roving etc. It gives me a whole year to plan and spin alot of yarn and save up for the booth fee..LOL!
My friend Sarah is starting to get very good at making purses and maybe she will want to do it with me?

New Projects!

Hello! Ya, I'm still alive...lol!

I have several new projects in the works and I am truly excited about all of them! One of them is I promised myself to make some of my own and my daughter's spring and summer clothes this year, so I am making some pillowcase dresses/tank tops for us and I just ordered from Purl Soho http://www.purlsoho.com/, the Amy Butler pattern for the Barelona skirt http://www.amybutlerdesign.com/. The picture is at the top here and it's 3 different skirt patterns! When I get it I am going to order some fabric to make all three from Purl Soho too :)

I already have some fabrics in mind! I also just bought some wood carving tools and some ink to make my own woodblock stamps , I've traced out some designs and am going to start carving tonite hopefully. I really want to buy some good solid colors of fabric and stamp my designs on them and make myself some clothes and accessories and maybe some cards..oooo the possibilities!!! I have more too but I have to get goin' Will post again tomorrow :)