Try not to hug the mailman

I love the anticipation of waiting every day for the mail when you know you have something arriving, but when you get two items in one day, it's difficult not to hug the mailman.

After receiving my first order from The Loopy Ewe, I now know why everyone loves Sheri so much! I had a difficult time narrowing down my yarn choices on her website, but I let Project Spectrum be my guide and I stepped out of my comfort zone to purchase only yarns in shades of green, pink and yellow. I also decided to try out some new yarn companies. I mean, how can you say you adore Socks That Rock if you've never tried Fleece Artist or Lorna's Laces and such?

from top to bottom:
Fleece Artist Basic Merino Socks in Nova Scotia
Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Tickled Pink
Cider Moon Glacier in Congo

Not only did I receive my order in just a few days of placing it, but everything arrived packaged beautifully. The skeins of yarn were wrapped in white tissue paper and finished off with The Loopy Ewe seal. In addition, my invoice included a personal handwritten note from Sheri as well as needle inventory cards and small sample yarn cards of Regia Silk and Regia Bamboo. I will most definitely be purchasing more yarn from Sheri in the future.

On the same day, I also received another set of 10 stitch markers from Team Entrelac. They arrived just in time since I've started my next (first?) lace project. It's hard for me to put into words how ideal these markers are. There's not a single open gap or rough edge (burr), so I'm not scared of it snagging the delicate laceweight yarn, as other makers have done before. I also love how beautiful each tiny bead is, so it looks like jewelry for my knitting. You also can't beat the price or the speed at which she ships! Both my orders arrived on my doorstep in less than 48 hours! It seems that she doesn't have a lot of her stitch markers on her etsy site since she's trying to open her own storefront, but you can see all of her stitchmarkers here. Go ahead, take a peek, she makes them in ALL sizes!

I finally decided on a pattern for the dark navy Grignasco Regina that I purchased when I was with Laura at our LYS. The photo shows the beginnings of A Handsome Triangle (page 32) shawl from Victorian Lace Today. So far, I've completed 80 of the 212 pattern rows and since it's a triangle shawl knit from the bottom point up, I increase four stitches every other row, so progress is just starting to feel slow to me. I'm probably being either daring or stupid for jumping right into an intermediate pattern for my first lace shawl, but if all goes well, this should be a nice present for my mother-in-law (mum) for her June birthday.

DH & I entertained ourselves for a few days by finally adressing our landscaping problem. The sprinkers were all checked and broken ones replaced. New sprinklers were added to two areas that only grew dirt. 5 palm trees were added (2 in the backyard and 3 on the side yard of our corner lot). Last but not least, half the backyard was re-seeded for grass, since the dogs tore up the old pathetic grass that used to be there. This is just the beginning though. Hopefully soon (after recovering from all the money those palm trees cost), I'll be adding all sorts of blooming plants.