Changes...

It's wild to go back and read my posts. It's been an interesting few years full of growth and change. Had you asked me back then if I thought my life would be like it is now? No way. I have learned so much about myself. I have gone deep into the gears of my mind and given myself a tune up. Some minor tweaks here and there, and some major overhauls in spots. I'm in a place now that I don't feel lost. I feel very present. Aware. Conscious. Stable. SECURE.

I didn't realize how out of control things were because I was so busy trying to control things I couldn't. What's that saying? You can not control the things that happen, you can only control your reaction to them. I think that's it... 

Growing up, change was the only constant. We never really stayed anywhere very long until high school. Every few years we would pack up and move somewhere totally different. Not just to another town, but to another state. No chance of running into anyone you knew at the grocery store. 

Each move I had the chance to recreate myself. I could be the quiet girl in class. Or the funny one. Or the smart one. I could be the ring leader, or hang back from the crowd. Whatever the choice was, I knew in a little while we would go somewhere else and I could try something different. I knew I had to hurry up and make friends. I knew that soon I'd say bye and move on. Along with the negative there were many positive aspects of growing up like that.  

As an adult the choice is mine. I have come to several points in my life that I can just FEEL the need for change. The realization that the path that I am on, or those around me, is not heading in the right direction. Some of these have been easier than others. But all of them have taught me great lessons. 

I'm so thankful to be in a good place in my life.

I have a charming, clever, thoughtful, funny, brilliant son who just keeps amazing me. He is almost 9 years old now. Such a wonderful human being. 

I have a job that is varied and challenges me in a good way. I work with the most awesomely random assortment of people ever. The benefits do not consist of bonuses, but they're all around you when you're out here. 

We live in a beautiful home on property where I work. Sometimes I sit on my porch, watch the cowbirds follow the longhorns that neighbor us. The wildflowers growing tall near the fence, butterflies and hummingbirds at the thistles. Lu the cat (who came with the house... he's a whole other story. Love that little weirdo.) curled up in my lap. I seriously feel like some storybook character. 

How in the world did I end up here? I'm not really sure, but I like it. I guess I just worked as hard as I could.  I hoped that someday, somebody would see my true potential and I would end up in a good position. The way it feels to be actually be living in that light, it's inexplicable. 

Don't get me wrong, there are still changes that I would like to see happen. I've by no means settled. Hopes and dreams are still in full swing. But I am absolutely enjoying the journey. 

I hope that you are enjoying yours. 

It's been a hot minute since I've posted anything here. I'm going to revamp this place and get to writing again. Stand by...

How Many Hours Does It Take To Homeschool?

How many hours does it take per day to homeschool?




I have Googled that very question and was not surprised to find a wide range of answers. Many links I found were homeschool parents being quite defensive, I don't blame them though. Naysayers can be a bit brutal.

I may also come off as a little defensive and at times sarcastic, please take it in good humor. I find NOTHING wrong with parents who want to send their children to school! I will be the first to tell you that homeschool really is NOT for everyone. It works for us. I have friends I would strongly discourage from homeschooling, it just wouldn't make sense. That being said...





I thought it would be interesting to compare the time that public school students are actually sitting down at a desk or table studying from a book reading, writing or mathematics. Typically, a child goes off to school for 6 hours 5 days a week. So how much of that 6 hours is actually spent sitting at a desk on focused school work? I searched and found a few examples of 1st grade class schedules. They all varied a bit, but had the same general progression. Here is an example:




8:05-8:15 ~ Basically getting everyone settled, coats and bags put away, supplies gathered

8:15-8:35 ~ Circle Time (I'm not really sure but this doesn't sound like sitting down school work so, moving on...)

8:35-10:45 ~ Language Arts
*8:35-8:50 ~ Phonemic Awareness/Phonics
*8:50-9:15 ~ Phonics/Spelling/Handwriting
*9:15-9:25 ~ Restroom Break
*9:25-10:45 ~ Reading Groups/Reading Centers

Here is some sit down desk work! Well, except for that restroom break. I also imagine the Reading Groups/Centers have more game based activities and reading books which is learning yes, but I don't count reading into our "school hours" each day. We tend to read books throughout the day. So collectively, accounting for distractions from other children, restroom break and the game type reading activities/books, this would leave about an hour of sit down focused Language Arts. (This school's schedule allots about twice as much time than other schedules I came across for Language Arts. Kudos!)

10:45-12:00 ~ Lunch, Recess, Restroom Break, Drink Break

11:15-11:30 ~ Story Time/Silent Reading: Also trying to get the children settled then chilling out after having been fed and then wound up for the last hour.

12:00-1:10 ~ Math and Math Centers: Boy, an hour and ten minutes seems like a good chunk of time for math! I know some children really have issues with math though. With the number of children in the class, even a conservative 15 students, there are several different learning styles that best suit each child. Also the math skills of the students across the board will vary greatly. From the child who understands the current assignment and is already finished and bored that has decided to entertain himself by tapping his pencil against the desk or talking to another student, to the child that really just doesn't understand and needs to have it explained slowly, one on one, and with visual aids to grasp it. Between distractions by other students, passing out worksheets, and explaining the assignment, answering general questions, I am guessing the actual sit down working out of math problems is about 30 minutes.

1:10-1:40 ~ Music/PE: Both of these are VERY important for children in my opinion! Learning, expanding and testing their physical self is a huge part of growing up and learning boundaries and building confidence. Still... it's not sitting down "doing school" so we can move on.

1:40-2:00 ~ Social Studies, Science, Silent Reading: WHAT?!? Only twenty minutes to learn about the society we live in and other cultures clumped together with the wonderful and amazing world of Science... Here I will pretend like there are no distractions whatsoever, that nobody has any questions and that every student absorbs every single lesson that is taught in this twenty minute span. So we have another 20 minutes of sit down study work.

2:00-2:15 ~ Gathering all of their things to take home

Alright so let's add that up: Out of a 6 hour school day there was 60 minutes of Language Arts, 30 minutes of Math and 20 minutes of Science, Social Studies for a grand total of...

About 2 hours.

Interesting...



One cut and dry average day of homeschool takes us about two hours. That is sit down at the table, learning, focused, concentrated "school" time.

That does not include:

~ the days that creative writing is involved
~ science experiment days
~ days that we end up getting completely immersed in a subject unexpectedly
~ chapter books we read and review and discuss throughout the day and night
~ fun quick books we read together
~ art projects and crafts
~ nature study subjects we come across just playing outside
~ Karate
~ Cub Scouts
~ different local learning programs for children
~ piano lessons
~ playing with friends
~ any of the plethora of questions any homeschool parent is bombarded by from the moment they wake up to (often times) past bedtime

That's the thing... school is ALWAYS in session. The dialogue between the homeschool parent and child does differ a bit from the child who goes off to learn at a school. There is an element there that welds teacher and parent together. It is very easy and natural for the child to ask questions about anything and everything. It is very normal for the parent to want to give that child the answer, find out, Google it (we do a lot of Googling).

Many parents wonder "Are they getting enough hours in?" I know I did. Especially when we think of children being at school for 6 hours a day. I read on a blog "If the public school can count standing in the line at the water fountain as “school hours”, then I can count the children sorting the recycling as school hours." On that same blog she mentioned how long it takes them to homeschool, on average:

Kindergarten & 1st grade: 30-45 mins
2nd-4th: 1½-2 hrs
5th-6th: 2-4 hrs
7th-up: 4+ hrs

Every school is different and every homeschool family is different. Things vary day to day.

I wrote this blog post for several reasons...

First and foremost was for selfish reasons. I wanted to prove to myself that I am doing the right thing. No matter what a parent does I think we all doubt ourselves at one time or another. Since I am doing something that so many parents don't do and don't understand, I have that feeling thrown onto me pretty often by family, friends and strangers. When I write things down they all seem to fall into place and make sense.

The next reason is for other homeschool parents who often wonder the same thing. Am I doing enough? How can we be done so early? Why isn't this a challenge, a struggle? Even on the days my child is cranky or distracted maybe from lack of sleep or having too much sugar or whatever, we get through it. Is my child getting enough socialization? How many kids get in trouble day after day for talking in class? Can you think of any negative "social" situations that you encountered while attending grade school? Is a few hours a week of free play with friends enough for my children? I plan on writing more about some of these things as they come up. I have been SO thankful for the blogs I have come across of other homeschool parents. I just want to add to that pool.

The final reason is...

...for all of those people. You know who you are. The ones that look with that look... the "Why isn't that boy in school?" look. The ones that we are about to encounter more and more since he most definitely looks school aged now. The people that wonder why, during school hours, are we out with another homeschool parent and children having ice cream and hanging out at the library. At the grocery store during the day, the park, the river, out to lunch with family and friends. Also for the family and friends who refrain from asking us to do things and go places because "we have to do school that day." Hey guess what? Not only are we probably already done with it, but we can totally hang out with you, finish up school after dinner if need be. We can have a pop math quiz during bath time. We can practice phonics with street signs and license plates. Total worst case scenario, we can do school.... are you ready?!?! ON THE WEEKEND! Yep. In fact, we can schedule it pretty much any time that works for us. Our routine is usually get up, eat breakfast, get dressed for the day and sit to do our school. Then we are free to do as we please for the rest of the day. That is just what works for us.

Whew! I feel better. How about you?

To School or Not to School...

Back in the beginning of the year I made the decision that kiddo will go to public school for 1st grade. He needs that social environment and I need some time to myself to decide what I need to do. I was happy, confident, excited about his new adventure and looking forward to mine. I can get a job, go to school, do things I never had the time for, go to lunch with my mom and mother in law alone, girl time, gym time, grocery shopping alone time, house cleaning time. I will get to hear stories about new friends and all of those little art projects they bring home, PTA meetings, class mom, parent teacher meetings, holiday parties, classmates birthday parties... I mean, hey, I went to public school... he will be fine!

We had a pretty relaxed approach to homeschooling for Kindergarten. Working in workbooks, life experiences, artwork and the like. Most of what he learned he didn't realize was even school. I saw how quickly he picked up on things and what a fantastic memory he has. Teaching him is simple, he is full of questions and I try to provide answers. What I am not sure about we Google.

After I had made my decision to send him to public school, I started to do more scheduled type school work with him. Try to get him prepared for school and having to sit still for longer periods of time. More work in workbooks and initiating "school time" by sitting down at the table. Encouraging him to finish a certain assignment instead of letting him come and go as he pleases. Then a funny thing happened...




I remembered every single reason I wanted to homeschool him. The more I thought about him going off to school everyday the more I wondered why in the world I made that decision?!?! Getting to see him figure things out, being there when it clicks, listening to him sound words out, seeing him very seriously focus on a picture of coins and figuring out how much they are worth. Laughing with him and helping him understand. Seeing what methods work and which ones don't. Taking extra time when we need to and skipping over things he clearly already knows.

I was in kind of a sad place in my life when I made the decision to send him to school, but I won't get into all of that. What I will get into is the fact that 90% of the reasons I was looking forward to him going to public school, were selfish. Not that I feel like I have to be completely and totally kid focused and forget who I am and give everything up for him. Not at all. In fact with a little better time management I can do all that I want to and more. Also encouraging my family members here to take him on mini outings WITHOUT me, I will have moments of alone time while knowing he is with a loved one. We have already joined Cub Scouts, I am going to find out about Karate and we will try to attend the Tuesdays at the park with the other homeschoolers, weather permitting. When I discussed it with him, the things that he was excited about going to school for were getting to meet new kids and the playground. When I asked him what he liked about doing school at home with me his voice and his face lit up and he was even laughing while he explained the reasons he liked it.


So...


Once again the decision has been made that we will be homeschooling him. It feels good. It feels right. I am SO excited about it in fact! I found a curriculum that comes highly recommended. I think we will be getting Sonlight. With the core package and adding on the required materials and also splurging on the science package, we will be pretty well set up.


**If anyone has the 1st grade Sonlight set up that would like to sell it to me used, I would be more than happy to purchase it! Or, if any of you have bags of money laying around that would like to gift me the entire $900 set up for 1st grade, message me and I will give you my address. lol ;)

Kindergarten at home...

So... it is official. Kiddo is 5 years old. School is now in session. Had we not seen the masses of people and huge displays of supply lists at the stores, we would have found out simply by the number of people that ask kiddo "Are you in school?" Which he answers now, quite quickly and with just a hint of irritation "We homeschool." The reactions we get are mixed and long enough to fill lists even longer than the Kindergarten required school supply list.

I say we have been homeschooling since birth. To say that we just started is a little ridiculous, but I suppose officially, we have just started. By that I mean that I have started keeping daily notes of some of our activities in a student planner. This is what I plan to use when family members start poking. Family members do poke. Poking is not fun. Only I know what happens all day every day with my son. You know why? I am here, with him, every single moment of every single day. Every meal, snack, lesson, question, game, play time, experiment... did I mention the questions? I am the answer lady. The Googler if you will. The speller, the sounder outer, the encourager, the counter, the comforter. I am also many times the student. He has so much to teach me, and stories to tell. We live in an open learning environment. We all share with each other what we know. It's the best and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Really the only frustrating part of homeschooling, is explaining it to other people. Kiddo has had the question from family members "What did you do in school today?" After he looks at them a little crazy, he will look at me like... ummmmm. Learning has no start or stop for us. No official seat. No line to stand in. No certain time for math, science, spelling, snacks, socializing, art, story time. While I understand schedule being important, if we want to play dominoes for an hour and then talk about special effects used in movies, we do.

He knows the basics. He can write his letters, numbers, colors, shapes, is reading and sounding out words. He will stop me if I am helping too much. He will put his hand up or shush me. He enjoys being challenged and is the first one to challenge himself. He is determined, excited, open, confident and very sure of himself and if any of those dip just a bit, he has me. The person who loves him the most in the entire world (now there is a list of folks that would argue that but I know better) to help him and fill in the blanks.

Today he woke up, came in and gave me a giant hug. He told me I was the best Mom in the whole world and that he wanted Halloween Ritz crackers for breakfast and some apple juice. We continued on with our day, him constantly coming with questions. How do you spell this or what comes after 29. Stories, all day I get stories. Tells me about his dreams, or makes them up, you choose. I don't miss out on anything. So anyway, later in the day he asked for crackers again. I started to explain again to him that he needed to eat a balanced diet. About carbs, protein, vitamins and nutrients. Then I thought of the food pyramid. I Google image searched it and blew it up on the screen. We talked about the different types of foods and how those foods fuel your body in different ways. I asked him what he had the most of and what he needed to complete a balanced diet for the day. From that we fixed an early dinner that contained pasta, meat, vegetables and dairy. He was VERY excited about the one part of the food pyramid he had not eaten. You know... the top tiny little triangle. We called it the treats triangle. He is quite the self monitor when it comes to treats anyway. If he had a tiny package of m&ms he will be the first to remind you if some other sort of treat comes about during the day. "Oh I already had a treat, remember?" He decided today it would be a chocolate popsicle, one of his favorites.

He absolutely loves to draw. He will draw pictures of anything and everything. Detailed or not so detailed. Almost always there are stories to go with the drawings (unless they are love letters to me or his Dad, I certainly do not argue with those... ever). Since he has learned to write all of his letters and some words, he most often labels his drawings. We once did an activity where you had to number which picture in the story sequence came first, second, third and forth. This is now showing up in his drawings. A child's drawings can speak volumes about what is going on in their head. I still remember what a huge thing drawing was for me. It is an limitless way to express yourself.

Anyway, I decided it would be a fun idea to draw a blank food pyramid and let him fill in the spots from what we had learned earlier. I wrote the major group names and asked him to sound out the words. He really works hard to prove himself to me. To show me that he knows things. So he sounded them out, figured all of them out and then he started drawing pictures in the correct spots. I had him sound out the letters for the names of the items he had drawn and he wrote them in. We made it to fruits and he chose apples, oranges and tomatoes. At first, just from what I had thought for so long, I wanted to say "That's a vegetable!" Then it occurred to me that in fact, tomatoes are a fruit, and I thought it was very interesting that was how he classified them.

I know I am going on and on but hey? This is my stinkin blog! I wanted to vent. To explain a little bit about how a day in the life of our type of homeschooling goes. I don't purchase gazillion dollar curriculum. I don't have a schedule. I don't have certain things that I have lined out to learn every day. Yes, we have official Kindergarten workbooks that we sit down and do. Most often it is him asking "Can we do school today?" To him, school is sitting down to do 15-20 pages in his workbooks. He doesn't realize that from the moment he opens the door from his room in the morning, class has already started. I like that. That way, there is no "Isn't it the weekend? Do we have to do this today? I don't want to sit down right now." Which brings up another point. A child of his age should not have to sit in a chair. They are growing, moving, experimenting, testing their physical abilities. Movement and fidgeting is just inside of them. On the other hand, I will tell you that I have had countless people come to me, most of the time in restaurants, to tell me what a well behaved child he is. Just two weeks ago I had an older lady who ended up sitting with her back to him in the adjoining booth. She stopped me as we were leaving and told me that when her friends chose that booth she thought "Oh great..." but that it was only moments later she completely forgot that there was a child there. He knows how to sit still and behave.

We have many many rules. It is not a free for all. The neighborhood kids know about the rules. I remind them all the time, make up new ones as needed. We are by far the most strict house on the block. I keep a close eye on them when they come to play. Having said all of that you would think this would be the last house on the block that they come to knock on the door, but the opposite is true. Rules are important. They offer safety and consistency. Kids will always always always test them. Push them to see what they can get away with, but in the end, rules are a good thing.

I don't know/don't care about classifying what type of homeschooler we are. There are enough labels and cliques in the world, education doesn't need to be a part of that. The boy is learning, he is happy and he is completely brilliant.

Have a beautiful day!

Adventures in First Time Gardening!

So this year I decided to plant a small garden. I figured since I've kept my house plants alive for several years, why not right? I found the perfect spot in the backyard where the sun shines for most of the day. I grabbed my shovel and went for it! I'll tell you now, the soil/dirt here in Texas is a wonder. In about a 10 foot by 10 foot area, there were four distinct types of dirt: actual soil, sand, rocky mess, and clay. A few hours and 100s of burned calories later, I had a nice big square of freshly tilled dirt! (I will definitely be investing in a tiller of some sort for next year, enough said).

I found these little peat pots that start as nuggets, then you soak them in water and they soon become these perfect little starters for your seeds. This is the point when the magic began and it has only become more and more magical since then. Now, I did look over a list of things that were seasonally appropriate to plant at the time, but I bought some broccoli seeds along with my other choices anyway. I chose snow peas, white eggplant, green onion (also not suggested to start from seed at the time), tomatoes, marigolds (just to keep critters away) and broccoli. I wanted to make sure it was stuff that we would actually eat and also that it wouldn't end up taking up our entire yard. I planted the seeds in my nuggets, covered them with the lid and set them on the counter.

I'm not sure why it was such an exciting discovery when tiny little leaves started poking out of the tops, but it was. Everything except the marigolds that is. When they were big enough to plant, I lined them all up in, what then, looked like WAY too large of a garden. I watered and waited. Then... the weeds. Oh goodness the weeds. I started by plucking and plucking and finally grabbed my mini hand rake thing (surely there is a name for it) and just sort of tilled them in, hoping to never see their little leaves again. At last, my garden looked like it was supposed to, the plants still way too small for the space allotted, and carried on with the waiting.


Everything was slowly getting bigger and I went to closely inspect it. Now... I had been told that broccoli was not a good one to grow at the time, but rules are made to be broken right? I was thinking, "Oh well THEY can't grow broccoli but I can." My lady at my knitting group shared with me a story about when they grew broccoli at the wrong time and all the bugs that they couldn't wash off, even after many tries. Yeah, well let me tell you...every single leaf (which was about two per plant at the time) was absolutely COVERED in tiny black bugs! Seriously? Sure enough, so out they came. Ripped them out one by one and tossed them. This was just a little on the heartbreak side because if you knew my son, you would know that he ranks broccoli up there with m&ms. They are a staple and I couldn't wait to grow our own. All in time I suppose...

Once things were seeming to actually flourish, I decided to expand our garden and add a special plot for corn. Reference the above shovel, hours and 100s of calories burned, and at last, a place for corn. I wasn't sure on the timing and how to do everything, clearly I was a professional gardener since I had the sprouts to prove it in the neighboring plot, so no worries. Kiddo picked out some yellow and white variegated corn seeds and I plopped them in and covered them up. I realized afterwards, that perhaps I planted them WAY too deep in the soil. A while went by and nothing came of it, though I had a pretty dirt rectangle in my yard, seemingly ready for plants. Then one day, little goose came running up to me and announced "OUR CORN IS COMING UP!!!" In my head I thought "Ahh, a lovely plot of weeds awaits..." I walked back there and oh my goodness, there, in perfect little rows right as I had planted them, a gazillion little leaves! Almost a gazillion, well, whatever they put in the pack anyway. We were both so excited and I was in awe.

My "rake, bury and forget" weeding technique worked wonders. I have had very little problems with weeds since then. A few plucks and buries and all is well.

So I have these gorgeous trellis', black iron, tall, all rounded at the top with little circular insets of stained glass with dragonflies on them that I placed behind my snow peas. Every visit I would encourage (a.k.a. wrap and hook) them around the trellis so they could get all vine like a fabulous. Each time I would find them flopped and stretching across the ground, unloved and sad. I guess that the black iron got way too hot in the Texas sun and they hated it. They were not looking so good and even after growing them from seed decided that they would meet the same fate the broccoli did. I ripped them out. Oh and the white eggplant, yeah... not so much. Not really sure what happened with them but we will just say that they are in a better place now in some broccoli, snow pea, eggplant salad in Heaven.

I was left with gorgeous tomato plants, corns sprouts, green onion sprouts. It was not quite the variety I had planned, so I headed to the nursery to grab a few plants to fill in the spots. They were out of strawberries so we ended up getting a small watermelon plant and two different pepper plants. I spread them out in the broccoli row and they looked like they fit.

Water...weed....wait....

It was the tomatoes that bloomed first. I probably asked anyone I talked to that day making sure that the blooms were where tomatoes were going to be. They all answered "Yeah I think so..." And so they did a few weeks later! Every step of this process has been magical. Like they are some sort of magical seed I planted, when really, they are just doing exactly like they are supposed to. It is quite something though, the whole process. Rewarding to say the very very least.

So here is a picture of some of my tomatoes recently spotted in my garden:



The watermelon plant was a nice little plant. All contained and leafy green. Staying nicely in the spot where I planted it. Seemed to be doing great! Then... it grew these arms. LONG arms. Reaching out and grabbing everything in my garden. At first I would carefully replace these monstrous vines in the spots I deemed fit. Then, it completely won me over. I have no idea how I didn't see it before hiding beneath the mass of leaves and unruly vines but I missed it. There it was:


And for a close up:



Keep in mind it is about the size of a baseball but isn't it BEAUTIFUL?! In the first photo there you can see my little green onions in all of their goodness. You know... the rebel onion seeds that were not supposed to make it this time of year, those ones. It was so great the first time we had baked potatoes and I ran to the backyard and plucked a few sprigs off of them for toppings. That is the first thing we actually consumed from the garden. The next thing we tried was one of our peppers. If you haven't grown peppers before it is absolutely amazing how quickly these things take off! A little dangling green pebble one day, and a huge pepper the next! We chose to plant Anaheim peppers because they have a great flavor and thin skin. Both are prime for, well pretty much anything you need a pepper for. Here is a glimpse of the ones that are growing right now:


The next thing to go wild was my corn plants. Now, everyone told me "Oh they are going to get really really tall!" I mean, the rate that they grow is fast but they reached about hip high and then grew these big shoots out of the tops. I think we must have gotten some sort of sawed off corn hybrid because all of the sudden I noticed while I was watering one day that they had...

Little puffs of corn silk stuff where the corn will pop out! How FUN!

We should have plenty to share too! (our storage building is in the background):

So now it is time again for the "Weed...water...wait..." game.

I will update our adventures in gardening soon! Oh by the way, the plants no longer look like they are drowning in a giant garden. They have filled it completely!

If you are a first time gardener or an old pro, "Doesn't it ROCK?"

And if you aren't "It is something you should try sometime for sure. I went from knowing nothing to being a total expert in no time! (or so I think)"

Exciting News!!!

I have some very exciting news! A while back I was approached about having some of my handspun yarn featured in a magazine. This in itself was amazing.

I absolutely love spinning and experimenting with different fibers and colors and techniques. The folks who come to my Etsy shop to purchase skeins, ask questions or have comments always offer me a bit of validation for my craft. In getting to know some of my customers I often learn what they will make with my creations: who is getting married soon, having babies, getting a new grandchild, just learning to knit and who just bought a new coat that needs some new warm woolen knits to accessorize. Then there are the mystery skeins. The ones I wrap up and mail off, never hear a word from the customers, to be left only with my imagination as to what they will become. Spinning gives me the chance to create something that others get to create with, which fills me with joy.

I must say, when I was first approached for the magazine opportunity, it all seemed very surreal. Silly thoughts entered my head like "Do things like this really happen?" and "Why me?" Well guess what...things like this DO happen and I gratefully accept that they happen to ME!

After a little reasearch and asking around my knitting buddies, I realized just how amazing this opportunity is! The magazine is called Yarn Forward and is based out of the UK. It is full of unique and interesting knitting patterns and brimming with gorgeous photography. It is one of those magazines that you have a special spot for...after riding around in your knitting bag for a few weeks that is.

They were kind and sent me a copy of the issue I am featured in so I thought I would share some snippets of it with you all! It can be purchased at your local Borders or Barnes and Noble booksellers here in the states. You can also go directly to their site and purchase. They have just launched the digital version for a fraction of the cost of hard copy (earth friendly...gotta love it!).

The cover~

My skein of supercoils named "Fresh Corn" seen in the index (BONUS!)~

The "Things We Like" feature (half page spread AND #1? Sweetness!)~


There is the another spot I am featured, it is an interview about working at home, loving what you do and making it work!


I am so very grateful and excited to be a part of this!