Inspiration: Pretty little things all tied up in a bow

I've never been one to follow recipes or patterns, but I love to buy books full of both and then just peruse time and time again for inspiration and ideas. When it comes to knitting, I will grudgingly admit that I have a terrible time following other people's patterns! Isn't that funny? Well, it's actually rather annoying. I finally realized that my finished projects deviated so far from the original pattern thanks to my inability to follow the instructions, I might as well just create my own from the get go.

I've been longing for two books that arrived in the mail last week (I finally succumbed!), and true to form, I keep turning pages in glee and awe.









First is Alicia Paulson's Stitched in Time. Alicia, as you might know, is the tour de force behind Posie Gets Cozy, a blog that I just adore. I am so smitten by her dog, Miss Clover Meadow. I sigh over her photos of gorgeous gardens and lovely old crumbling walks. I've really been fantasizing about living in Portland lately, due in large part to her wonderful photos! (Don't worry, Mom and Dad, the thought of actually moving fills me with sufficient dread to keep me put.)



















I have a very very VERY very different design aesthetic than Alicia's, but her book is chock full of wonderful ideas and adorable projects, some of which I'm really looking forward to playing with. Can I also just say that I was knocked over with delight when she mentioned stuffing a plushie with a hemostat (there's the plushie, right above!)? A hemostat, you say? Well, her husband is a nurse, so she spoke my language with that sentence. A hemostat is a medical instrument and seeing that one little word in the midst of such fun craftery filled me with nostalgic longing for my days in clinical care. (Then I remembered body fluids and body parts and was OK again ...)

As for book #2 ... y0u'll have to come back tomorrow to find out about it! (hee hee) In the meantime, I hope you'll check out this wonderful book, which was a steal from Amazon!