My Picture Sunday

Greeting all!

 

I thought I would do something different today and show you my Sunday in pictures. It starts out with breakfast at J. Christopher's, then to the mall and a few of the favorite things that I saw and liked. Enjoy! :)

 

Breakfast & Art

 

 

 

 

My favorite things at the Mall

 

So that was my Sunday. What did you do today?

 

+Peace+

 

A. Sparkle

 

Just the Best Gift Ever.. No Biggie..

Greeting Peeps!

How's everyone doing on this fine Friday? All I know is that I'm glad that tomorrow is the weekend! Can I just do my happy dance for a minute?

No for real, it's been quite a week. I'm just getting over the flu from last week with traces of a cold still lingering. Apparently the extreme tiredness you feel from the flu lasts for weeks upon weeks after you're all better?? Not kool. Not kool at all... 

Right before my body turned into my enemy and I was on my death bed, I finally finish what I like to call The Legacy Blanket. Many moons ago, my friend told me that him and his girl where expecting the next little bundle of joy, and so me being me, I told him I would make him a baby blanket. At the time, I was experimenting with granny squares and was digging on them pretty hard. I figured why not do the same design with a blanket. I mean.... it is a classic look! He said he wanted red, turquoise, silver, and the main color to be white. This is what I came up with.

Did I mention that this process took FOREVER!!! I'm ashamed to say that I had quite a bit of animosity towards the blanket, because it was taking longer than expected. My mother told me I was gonna have to pray over the thing before I gave it away! (lol) 

 That little pile of yarn are some of the tails I had to sew in and cut off. That's what happens when you have a lot of color changes.

At some point I had to lay them out to get the big picture and to see what everything would look like.

Then after many months and three rows of borders later, a Sparkle Baby Blanket was born!!

Bwahahahahaha!

I'm really very pleased with it! It's the first blanket I've sewn together and I thought I did damn good. The best part of it all was giving it to my friend and hearing how much he appreciated all the work and love (ha ha) I had put into the blanket. It's all about the warm fuzzies people!

So now I've decided to sell custom made blankets in assorted colors! You can order one for yourself or others by clicking here! It really is a great gift and one that can be passed down through the generations. Best part about this is that I offer FREE SHIPPING! Yay for you!

So here it is Friday night and I'm ready to get the weekend started. I'm excited to be attending an Ugly Christmas sweater party on the morrow. Maybe I'll take pictures and share. What will you be getting into this weekend?

A. Sparkle

Cyber Monday and Sales!

Greetings peoples!

You know what day it is! It’s Cyber Monday! That means all of us entrepreneurs are peddling our wares for the entire week and having crazy sales! Yay, for you! November 30^th was Small Business Saturday, where you go out and support your local small shops and businesses. If you missed out you can still support your community and I recommend buying handmade as well.

Buying handmade means that you are supporting someone’s dream, helping the hard working (wo)man, and because the owner is passionate about what they do, each piece is made with love. A good place to start is on Etsy.com! If you’ve been following me then you know that I’m on Etsy as well. You can visit my shop Eclectic Oasis at www.eclecticoasis.etsy.com!

Right now I’m running a special on bracelets! Any bracelet, set of bracelets, or cuff bracelet you see if buy one, get one FREE! You know what that means right?? You get one for yourself and then give on as a gift! I would give mine to my best friend, so that she knows that she’s special and that I appreciate her friendship. You can also use coupon code HOLIDAY20 when you are purchasing $25 or more in my Etsy shop! You can use the coupon code through Dec 8^th and the special on bracelets through Dec 14^th.

I have beautiful and comfy scarves to choose from that are perfect for this colorful Winter season, starting at $20. There is an assortment of cuffs, bracelets, & bangles, as well as great statement necklaces.

See more pictures

 

See more pictures

 

 See more pictures

 See more pictures

I hope everyone in the U.S. had a great Thanksgiving! I most certainly did. I had my Boo, and the El parentes with me, so I was on cloud 9. What more can you ask for but good food and good company? Feel free to tell me all about your Thanksgiving!

*Ciao*

 A.Sparkle

Winery Good Times and Such..

Greetings peeps!

 

Over the weekend I went on home to Tennessee and me and The Boo celebrated 42 years of marriage with my parents. It may sound weird, but I actually like hanging with my parents because they're pretty freakin kool. I get to go do fun stuff like go to winery's and do tastings, and have a picnic of yummy snacky foods with white tablecloths, real picnic baskets and wine glasses.

 

 

 

 

It took about two hours to do the tasting, but it was worth it. In the meantime we got to chill out, walk around and listen to this great jazz band. I've been before to this particular winery when I was less knowledgeable about wines, so I was kind of worried when I found out that most of their wines are dry. I don't particularly like having cotton mouth and spit corners (spit corners: spit that has gathered in the corner of your mouth and is stringy and sticky and nasty looking), but hey if that's your thing.... that's kool. I prefer a nice sweet wine and preferably one where I don't really taste the alcohol! I really like their dessert wines such as the raspberry as shown above and their blackberry is totally delish too. Oh, and if you like Port then they have a nice one as well!

 

It was a really beautiful day as you can see. All kinds of people were there that day sitting on the lawn with their blankets and chairs, some brought full out table decorations including table cloths, flowers, centerpieces, and Fall themed items. While walking around I even saw some in full out Halloween costumes and tables decorations to match! 

 

Baby grapes!

 

Going through the vineyard and seeing the tiny little baby grapes was great all in itself! You always see grapes in the grocery store ready to go, but never on the vine where they grow, so it was pretty awesome to see nature at work. Walking through there they even had signs telling you not to pick the grapes! HA! I wonder how many people actually heed to those directions? I know I wanted to pick one or two. :)

 

So that was my weekend adventure! What was yours? 

 

*PEACE*

 

A. Sparkle

Suited & Booted

Greetings all!

Can I just say that I'm glad this work day is over and now I can concentrate on the job after my job. In other words play in my yarn. :) I'm so excited about the new project that I'm starting. I'm making a baby blanket by request in white, red, silver and turquoise. I wasn't sure how these colors would work together, but I've decided that I like them. You can tell me what you think as well!

 It doesn't need to be done until December, so I'm glad I have enough time so that I can really plot everything out. Also I think that I'll go ahead and add the boarders around the individual granny squares instead of having to do it all later. Doing boarders AND whip stitching just seems like too much of a daunting task. I'm sure The Boo would find me either passed out in the corner somewhere from exhaustion with the crochet hook dangling from my hand or I'll be sitting on the couch rocking back and forth mumbling to myself because I've finally gone insane from repeating too much of the same thing! lol!

So in other news, in my last post, I showed you the newest scarf I had completed that had lots of bright colors and tassels. Well, me and The Boo went to the park over the weekend and I felt like it was gonna be a great time to take pictures with this particular scarf. The weather was beautiful, sunny skies and nice breezes, we had an awesome lunch consisting of cheesesteaks and chips and then we wandered off to the park. Took some great pictures, walked around and then we were off to take in a movie. It was rounding out to be quite a perfect day. When we got back to the car there was a lovely note and surprise waiting on us. There was a nice yellow BOOT on my tire and the note said to call to have it removed! Also in fine print it said that if the boot was tampered with then it was a $450 fine!!!

I was quite amused myself because in all of my years of parking where I wasn't supposed to I've never been booted or towed. Looks like it was my turn. So in my mind this is what was going on, 'OMG!!! I've really done it now! How long is this gonna take?!?! Will it be hours? Will me and The Boo be temporarily homeless out here in the hot sun while people stare at us and my booted car.....!!!??!' So yes, I had a mini freak out moment. I called the number and the dude didn't say hello. All he said was 'I'll be right there.' and then hung up. So like 2 min later he magically appeared out of thin air and explained that him and his supervisor saw us leave the parking lot. Apparently your not supposed to and they have tiny tiny signs stating as such. I think The Boo wanted to smash Mr. I Booted Your Car in the face and he could tell, because he was looking awfully shy and scared. I felt sorry for the guy. I'm sure plenty of people have yelled and cursed the poor guy out when they were in the wrong and he was just doing his job. So he explained that the fine was $75 and whipped out his Square-ish looking device and ran the credit card to take away my hard earned ducketts. All I could do was laugh after it was all said and done. So yeah that was my weekend adventure! Here is a preview of the what's to be posted on Etsy soon.

So kiddies, did you have a weekend adventure or adventure period? Let me know!

~PEACE~

A. Sparkle



It's About to be On!

 Greetings!

Fall is here for us in the United States and I'm crazy excited about it! Why? Well, it's not just that you don't burst into flames as soon as you step foot outside of the house, or even that you get to wear cute jackets and do layered looks.... The number one reason is that it's 

YARN SEASON!!! 

Don't get me wrong... I work with yarn all year round mainly because I'm a yarn addict, but when cold weather starts to creep in people from all walks of life start to think about yarn too! So in other words, it's the start of busy season. Yes!

I've been wanting to go in a more let's say, cozy direction for this fall. More scarves will be made and featured and I want to do more things for the home as well. Thank you to those that let me use them as guinea pigs and allowed my ideas to be used in real life!  :)

Here is a sneak peek as to what's to come...

Forgive my Instagram-y photos (@ASparkleThe1)

I'm so geeked about these new scarves! I love playing with color and from what I can see, it's going to be a very colorful season. Color is here for a reason! It's to wear and flaunt and express ourselves in an outwardly way. When color is involved, always go for it! The top picture featuring the scarf with tassels is completed and I need to take pictures of it for Etsy and I love love love it!

 Click here to visit my shop

The bottom picture is the scarf I'm currently working on and am in the process of sewing together. I'm thinking that I'll be adding tassels on it too, because I'm really digging them and well.... they're fun to play with when wearing them!

I've also just added some fun coasters to The Shop as well. I've made some for myself and use them everyday at work and at home. I'll be showcasing some exciting accessories to go with the coasters soon, but in the mean time here is what is available!

 Click here for more details :)

 

These pinky and yellow coasters are for sale and they come as a set of four. Don't you just love those colors together?

 These mango and leaf green coasters are just one of many color combinations you can choose from. I felt it was important to offer custom coasters in your choice of colors from the rainbow so that they fit your personality exactly. These also come in a set of four and you can get them in all solid colors or the bulls-eye design. You can't go wrong either way and they really do add that little something that makes your space comfy and inviting. They are great as a little housewarming gift as well! I mean.. who do you know that wouldn't appreciate a handmade gift made and given with love???

 Click here for more details :)

Alright kiddies, have a Happy Saturday and go forth and play in the sunshine! I know I will!

**** P*E*A*C*E****

A. Sparkle