tania howells

Hello!
I made this clock before Christmas.  I feel sorry for my waving rabbit who did not get a holiday, and sorry for anyone looking- that endless waving can be annoying to the eye.  Still, I am enchanted by the animated gif.  We had a nice quiet holiday around here, just the way I like it.  No travelling far and lots of knitting, reading and eating.  Mixed in were lovely visits to and from good friends.  Looking back I did not do any of the Christmassy things that impress me on other people's blogs, but we did have a tree, a fantastic Christmas dinner and lots of chocolates which more than made up for the lack of any baking or crafting.  And now its nearly a new year!  Hard to believe!
What are your hopes for the new year?

hi you guys!!

Lookit!  I did it- I made an animated gif and I am thrilled.  Here is my first one ever.  It all started because I discovered the cutest blog I have seen in some time , happy doodle land.
Look at the cute rain animation in her sidebar!! I love it.  I emailed my brother to see if he knew how to do it.  I thought I might need flash but no!  I just need my trusty photoshop and image ready.  I googled a tutorial and ta da, there we go.  I really have not been this exited in a long long time.
2009 will be the year of animated tania gifs, I can tell already.

All this so I can have a bunny waving bye bye and wishing you all a happy Christmas!  I am officially on holidays and we are in the midst of a whirling twirling snowstorm.  Let the cocooning begin!

mug for the camera

I made six mugs for the craft sales and sold them all!  I only managed to take a picture of the last two though.  I was pleased to have sold them as they seemd a bit shakey- it's hard to draw on a curve.  They are done with the magical porcelaine pen.




Here are some sketches of the possibilities.  The city of craft was awesome and a big thanks to Jen and Becky for wrangling it into shape! 
Sunday was also a fun little neighborhood sale in my knitting neighbors home. Tres bien!
And now all that is done I am starting work on a new picture book!! Yes, that is my special happy news- I got picked to do another one and I am so thrilled.  That might be all you will hear about it for a while as the publictation date is not until far far off into the future.  Lots of deadlines in between though, with thumbnails, then roughs, then revisions, then a mock cover and one final page and then finals, more revisions and all of it due in June.
I will be a busy duck, starting now. Yay!

hello? I can't come to work today...

...I've just got too much knitting to do.
Ha! I wish...
I rushed out and bought this gorgeous malabrigo merino wool on the weekend  as a special treat, after being totally inspired by Modern Acorn's post about maine morning mitts.  I was just about shouting "yay for knittng!" when I was done reading it, so infectious was her enthusiasm!
Well, as you can see I am nearly done mine, despite the gloomy grey photo reflecting our day here and the "battery dying!" warning on my camera.  I quite mucked up the thumb area as I had forgotten how to do that bit and then the ribbing got turned around a bit too but what the heck!  I am rushing to get them done for Saturday and City of Craft.  We just got our seating plan and Kessa and I will be right by the front door, and likely participating in a howling gale.  These mitts will help part of me stay warm.
I do hope you will come by and say hi!  The show will be crazy good.
:)

the ones that got away...

Back in October, when we went out to Belleville, we obviously stopped at the Value Village because it is the best one ever.  I had to make some tough choices.  Our cupboard space is limited and we have eight tea pots already, not counting the two I use as planters on the porch.
Perhas it was a poorly directed choice on my part- when I got home I realised we have a tea set to match the brown teapot on the far right ( don't tell my husband! ) and I have one saucer to match the one on the far left.  Also, our brown betty teapot at work is starting to get very grungy and releasing horrifying black bits into every tea cup...plus they had cost almost nothing!!  One must forge ahead though and not regret past decsions!
Stiff upper lip and all that!
Instead we can look at the picture and think "Aw, nice teapot."

 

Oh, tea pots... how I love them.



Then there was the pyrex.  I LOVE the snowflake ones, but we have four covered pyrex's already, two large bowls,  4 smaller bowls... really, lets be reasonable.  These were easier to leave as they were quite well used and a bit yucky inside.  But what about those red stripes!! Brings to mind the circus and popcorn...




I gasped to see this single wee tea cup, quickly snatching it up only to see it was very chippy and filthy looking closer up.    It was a neat sighting though, because I had just seen the very same ones over on angry chicken.



...till next time VV.

zippan!

 This very poor photo really does not do justice to the beautiful work of zippan designs .  Danielle was across from me at the CBC sale last week and as soon as I made a sale, I skipped over to her table to spend that cash!  I went a bit nuts and bought all this, but she was having a crazy sale!  I also got gifts for my mother and sister in law.  If I had been paying attention I would have seen her work already on the gorgeous Good Egg .
Stop into her etsy shop becasue she has tons and tons of beautiful items there also.  Gifts for everyone on your list!