SparkleShan

My daughter goes to catholic school and every year at Christmas time they put on a show called lessons and carols. This year they changed it to a Christmas show. Each grade sang two Christmas songs, one god one and one traditional Christmas song. They also have to dress up in Christmas clothes. 

I've been doing some holiday gift knitting recently and I am on a head band kick. They are perfect to keep your ears warm in the winter months. I even knit one for myself. The patterns were all easy and fast I found them on ravelry.com 

I counted the number of knitting projects that I have on the needles that aren't hibernating and I have 8! I have a bad case on chronic cast on! Luckily I finished one of those projects tonight, a headband to keep my ears warm.  I'm also working on a linen stitch scarf with scraps of sock yarn.  My first sweater, the Boxy. The Sastrugi Cowl designed by my friend Brittany Wilson in some yummy angora blend yarn. The Bee keepers quilt has been brought out of hibernation.  I'm also working on a test knit for a friend, designing a shawl and another head band and some wash cloths for Christmas gift.  I made a challenge for myself that I won't cast on any new projects until I finish two. Hopefully I can stick to it!

This little makeup palette by too faced is my favorite new thing. It fits perfectly in my little makeup bag that I carry in my purse and it has everything I need all in one spot. Great for when I'm on the go and don't have time to do my makeup at home! It even came with a cute iPhone 5 cover! This would make a great gift for any makeup lover. 

This past weekend was crazy with the knitting work in projects. I actually managed to spend time on all of my active projects on the needles and finished two projects! I am still working on the Boxy Sweater, the Stole with One sleeve. I am also working on the Terraform Shawl/Scarf for a Fall knit a long, with hand dyed yarn from Bohoknitterchic . I also started the Sastrugi Cowl, designed by my friend Brittany Wilson, with Fleece Artist Peter Rabbit angora/mohair yarn and that yarn is a dream to knit with. I also worked on one of my own shawl designs.   

This weekend I finished up a child size hood that I was test knitting for a friends pattern, made for Emma. She also had instructions for an adult sized one and I loved Emma's so I had to start one for me. It only took me a few hours to finish. Emma's hood is made out of hand spun yarn from my friend Sara for the brim, and hand spun yarn by me for the main hood. For my hood I used Loop hand spun Yarn for th brim and Fleece Artist Bfl for the main hood. 

After giving my mom the Herbivore shawl for her birthday she asked for an infinity scarf. I wanted something quick, so I choose the I Infinitely Simple Lace Infinity Scarf designed by my friend Jessica Cook (you can find the pattern on Ravelry.com . I knit it with Dragonfly fiber Traveler DK yarn in the Winter Woods colorway. It only took me a few days to finish it. I gave it to my mom tonight when we went to meet her new dog she got from the shelter. Her name is Bella, she is a pit bull mix. They think that she is between 5 and 6 years old and was used as a breeding dog and then someone dumped her when they didn't need/want her anymore. She was found in a remote location in the middle of the woods :( She is very sweet and already knew how to sit, give her paw and she LOVES to give kisses.    

I made some knitting related ornaments for my knitting friends! Super cute idea I found on Ravelry. I got these clear glasses ball ornaments from Michael's and added some mini skeins of yarns and cut off the end of tooth picks to make mini knitting needles.

Every year my family all brings our kids trick or treating together in my moms neighborhood. She has the best neighborhood to walk around in and the houses are close enough together. Hope everyone had a great night! 

I  wanted to get some really good pictures of my daughter this fall that looked professional. I have a Nikon D90 DSLR camera and I know about taking pictures a little bit. Though I am no means a professional at all or claim to be.  So I took her out one day to Harkness Park and snapped a bunch of pictures of her until my camera broke and now I have to send it out for repair. :( Here are aome oft favorite pictures from that day.  And Emma even took one of me and told me how to pose and I think it came out good! 

My ten year old daughter has been in love with everything Dr. Who for the past year.  So naturally she wanted to be a character from the show for Halloween.  Of course she had  to pick a costume that no one makes.  I take that back I found two on Etsy for $300 in adult sizes.  Yeah that wasn't happening. But I'm crafty so I had to figure out a way to put this costume together.     The Mask         Luckily I was able to find one weeping angel mask on amazon for $15, so I bought that and spray painted it grey to match the rest of the costume.                                        The Wings   I found some wings that weren't like the normal feathery wings and spray painted those with gray spray on the front and back of the wings. The Dress   For the dress I bought a geek goddess dress cut off the sash and spray painted it with gray spray paint. I originally tried to dye the dress with rite fabric dye but it didn't take the dye good enou

Yes you read that right. "Friends I'd like to meet". I belong to an online knitting community called Ravelry. Its a place where knitters, crocheters and other fiber artists can come together and share projects, advice, organize their yarn stash, find patterns, etc. I have been a member of the website since January of 2008. I have made many friends over the years on the website and I have had the pleasure of meeting several of they in person. But there are still a bunch of them that I want to meet in person. They are Savetheplanknit, Voxless and Muddymoose. I've know these ladies for years and love them to pieces and I hope soon I will get to have a meet up with them!

Currently I live in the city of Groton, Connecticut. Weirdly part of Groton is considered Groton Town and a smaller part of it is considered Groton city (that's where I live). I've lived here for about 8 years on and off. I originally moved here because I worked in Groton and I wanted to be close to work. My work was moved to Niantic in February this year, but I'm still in Groton. Here are some facts I found out about Groton City: Groton was first settled in 1655 as Groton Bank. It is the only remaining city in the state of Connecticut that is not governmentally and areally consolidated with its parent town. The population is about 9, 395 In 2000 the median income for a household in the city was $40,515. 33.6% of all households were made up of individuals.

So I have been doing makeup for years since I worked at an Aveda Salon, but this summer I decided to take an actual makeup class at a cosmetology school so I could be "certified".  I finished the class in August and launched my website and have been doing makeup mostly for Brides, but for other special occasions as well.  If you are in the CT, RI, NY and MA area and need professional makeup services check out my website, Makeup by Shannon O'Neil , I travel to you!

This is a funny question to me. I have so many hobbies its hard to pick just one. It's always weird to be when people don't have any hobbies. Most of my hobbies can fall under the arts and crafts category. Here's a list of my hobbies that I currently work on: 1. Knitting 2. Sewing 3. Smash booking /journaling 4. Yoga Some of my past hobbies that I still like to do but am not currently working on: 1. Spinning Yarn 2. Making jewelry / hair accessories 3. Dance 4. ice skating

My life is pretty boring so my daily routine isn't really anything special. During the week this is my normal routine:  0700: wake up, brush teeth get dressed. 0800: Leave the house 0830: Yoga 0945: drive to work, shower and put on my uniform.  1015- 1615: Work 1615: Drive home 1635: take dog for a walk 1700: change out of my uniform into comfy clothes 1715: do some cleaning around the house 1830: knit, sew, journal, watch tv. 2030: read 2130: meditate 2200: sleep

I have been on a canning kick lately. The other day I decided I wanted to make salsa because I love fresh salsa.  I wanted a salsa that isn't super chunky so I ended up buying a food processor to get the consistency that I wanted. Overall I think it came out good, I just would have put more garlic in there because I love garlic. Below is the recipe I used: 8 Organic Roma Tomatoes chopped 1/2 Jalapeno Pepper chopped 1/2 Red long skinny pepper (I forgot the name) chopped 2-3 cloves of garlic minced juice of 1 lime 1 Tbsp. Honey Cumin Spice (to taste) Red pepper spice (to taste) I added all the ingredients to my food processor and blended until I got the consistency that I wanted.  You can use any variety of hot pepper that you want.  I put the salsa in a mason jar and let it sit in the fridge overnight to let all the juices soak together.  If you don't plan on eating your salsa right away make use that you seal your mason jar using the warm bath method or a pressure ca

Today ’ s Challenge was to put your iPod on Shuffle (or in my case iPhone) and write down the first ten songs  that pop up.  Not sure why most of mine are slow songs. 1.       Beneath you beautiful by Labrinth 2.       The Only Exception by Paramore 3.       Love  song by Adele 4.       Both of us by B.O.B 5.       I ’ ll by you by the Pretenders 6.       Fast Car by Tracy Chapman 7.       Have yourself a Merry little Christmas by Bing Crosby 8.       Loser by the Glee Cast 9.       The Scientist by Coldplay 10.       Hard by Rihanna

It has been a long time since I posted a work in progress, because I haven't knit anything this the beginning of April, but I started again last week. Currently on the needles, I am knitting a Stole with one Sleeve out of a bunch of different fingering weight yarns and leftover skeins in blues and greys. It is a lot of garter stitch and I still have a long way to go!   I am also knitting the Terraform Shawl (pattern from ravelry) out of hand dyed yarn by Bohoknitterchic in the Rooster colorway from her Fall Knit a long. I have been working on this mostly because I want to finish it in time to be entered to win a prize in the KAL.  

I have sort of an informal Bucke t list of sorts.  It first started as a pinterest board with photos of things I want to do in my life time.  And then it became a page in my smash book (well as many as I could fit on one page).  Some of the things on the list I have actually done. So the following is my informal Bucket list in no particular order: 1.       Go to India 2.       Go to Tibet 3.       Visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter ( Done February 2013) 4.       Befriend and NHL Player (preferably Brad Marchand) 5.       Ride first Class on a plain 6.       Stand under the Hollywood sign 7.       Kiss a dolphin 8.       Go to Hawaii 9.       Get every tattoo I ’ ve ever wanted 10.      Live in New York City 11.      Kiss in a snow storm 12.      Kiss in the back of a taxi (Done) 13.      Stay at every Disney Resort 14.      Make someone less fortunate Smile at Christmas 15.      Let my hair grow really long 16.      Go on a cruise 17.      Volunteer at an animal shelter 18.    

If I could do any job in the world and not worry about how much I got paid, I would own a yarn store.  That is my dream job.  It wouldn’t be just any old yarn store though.  I would carry yarns and other things that you can’t get at the chain craft stores.  I would carry indie yarns and fibers, handspun yarns, knitting accessories, notions and so forth.  I would also spin and hand dye yarn and knit a lot! I love knitting and the fiber arts and I would love to have a cool place where people could come and find one of a kind quality items to spin and spin with.  No crappy acrylic yarn here!  Well that is my dream job that will probably never come true because I have crappy credit.  Oh well, I guess that’s why it’s called a ‘dream’ job.

So I got very far behind on my 31 Day Blog Challenge. So I am starting where I left off and hopefully I can actually make time to do this every day! I miss blogging, but sometimes life gets in the way. Day 6 of the challenge is to "Your last random act of Kindness". I try to be kind to people every day even in small ways, like saying hello to everyone and have a nice day to the clerk at the check out counter. But the last random thing I did was send a few gift knitting patterns to friends on Ravelry. The have an awesome feature where you can buy a pattern and gift it to a member of the site. I love it!

My first project I finished knitting project, the Herbivore by Stephen West, after my 7 month knitting break. I started this back in April and it was more then half done so it was a really fast finish. I gave it to my mom for her birthday. I knit it using hand dyed sparkle sock yarn from my friend Carrie, It was an easy, fast knit so I would definitely knit this again. Excuse the crappy cell phone picture.

There are several movies I could watch over and over again and never get sick of them. They are, in no particular order: Singing in the Rain Dirty Dancing Harry Potter (All of them) Grease Forrest Gump

The best memories I had as a child were all the years that I danced from age 8 to 19. I loved dancing ballet, jazz and lyrics so much. And performing on stage was the best feeling. I was so happy when I Ed chosen as one of the few girls at my dance to school to train in pointe. It was something I dreamed of for such a long time.

Today the challenge is to post about something that makes me happy. This one is really easy. My daughter. No matter what goes on or how bad of a mood I'm in she can always cheer me up. She is sweet, funny, smart and adorable. I am so lucky to have her as a daughter.

This days challenge is perfect for me because I'm really into quotes. Below is a short list of some of my all time favorite quotes. "There are too many mediocre things in life, love shouldn't be one of them." "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." -Ghandi "Love conquerors all." (I have this tattooed in Latin on my back.) "I'm tough, ambitious and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay." - Madonna "There are all kinds of love in this world, but never the same love twice."