Meet and Tweet!

So I'm a huge fan of Twitter.  Love it.  Enjoy it.  Try to convince all of my friends to join it.  Get an embarrassing amount of my news from it.  I am also a huge fan of the weekly Meet and Tweet over at Our Reflection.  It's a great way to find new people to follow and to gain some new followers yourself.  I've also been known to use completely random images as my avatar:

What.  Doesn't everyone want to follow someone who has a thing for the early '90's?

Despite my shenanigans with the avatars this week I am a co host!  Super, super excited to be hosting this fun link up.  I really hope that all of you play along, too! And please don't feel like you need a blog to join in on the fun. This is all about spreading the twitter love:

I'll turn things over to Laura: 

One of my favorite things about blogging is the community. Especially Twitter.
It's a fun way to make some new blogging friends and keep in touch.

Here's how this Meet & Tweet works...

HOST

Laura @ Our Reflection

This week's co-hosts are:

Lena from Mom2MephisAndRuby

Kimberly from A Night Owls Blog

Jeanne from Life in Cleavland

Brighton from Simple Brighton

Amy from The Charming Blog

Meredith from All Dressed Up

The Rules

1. Mandatory you follow your hosts

{They are the first 7 in the linky.}

2. Follow at least 5 new people via Twitter

{Or more! Introduce yourself... Its a great way to make new friends!}

3. Spread the word!

The more the merrier! Grab a button and add it to

your blog, Tweet or Facebook about the link up.

<div align="center"><a href="http://our-reflection.blogspot.com/" title="Our Reflection"><img src="http://i1099.photobucket.com/albums/g383/_laurahernandez/MeetTweet-2.jpg" alt="Our Reflection" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

One lucky link up person will WIN a FREE

solo guest post on Our Reflection blog!

Drum roll please....

Last weeks Meet & Tweet winner is Aimee from By Aimee & Co.

Congratulations!

Please link up your Twitter account, not your blog.

Want to be a future co-host?
Only requirement is your become an Our Reflection sponsor.
Email me at momsgonnasnap@gmail.com.

Group Sponsor Love for May!

So this is a new thing at Life in Cleveland.  During the last week of the month I'm going to do a sponsor love post.  Just a quick thanks to the people who wanted to be on the sidebar for the month! 

This month's Large Sponsors are:

Chocolate Mints in a Jar Patterns:

I am so happy that Yasmin wanted to be a sponsor because her patterns are lovely!  You can check them all out on the Chocolate Mints in a Jar Ravelry pattern page.  I think the Shabak Shawl is my fav:

Super pretty.  And I LOVE that it's knit out of DK weight!

Although if I knew how to crochet (read: if crocheting didn't end in tears for me every. single. time) I would totally make this:

SO CUTE.

She blogs about her crafting at The C Side or you can follow her on twitter (@Jessyz) and be her friend on Ravelry (Jessyz)

Hammersmith Design:

Angela is a good friend of mine and is a UC educated graphic designer (one of the best schools in the country).  She works from home now while raising her two little boys.  Her stuff is top notch and if you live in Cleveland I'm sure you've seen her work.  Most recently she did the graphics for the Hooley.  So if you are looking for a graphic designer her email is Hammersmithdesign@yahoo.com !


I was also fortunate enough to be able to swap buttons with the following blogs:
Tico and Tina
Little Mudpies
The Fontenot Four
Confessions of a Semi-Domesticated Mama
Absolute Mommy
Paisley Boulevard
Untagged Seeds
Three Years Down
Little Homemade Housewife
My Beautiful, Crazy Life
The Dreamy Meadow
Jany Claire
An Unstyled Life

I've had a great time swapping with them and have discovered some great blogs this way. 

Want to get in on the fun?  There are lots of Sponsor spots available for June!

Note:  I'm still working out the timing of all of this and how it will work out with the rolling start of the passionfruit ads.  If I didn't include your ad in this post it will be in the June group sponsor post.

Rocky River Spray Ground.

So a little known but super cool place for kids in Cleveland is the Rocky River Spray Ground.  It's only open to the public for a few short weeks.  After that it's only accessible through the pool and if you are a Rocky River Resident.  But!  Before the pool opens for the year they let the riff raff in for free:

It is awesome.  Such a fun place to spend a hot summer morning.

The Girl LOVED it this year.  No hesitation.  No second guessing.  Just RUNNING THROUGH THE WATER!!!

Or flying if Daddy was involved:

The Dude was a bit more hesitant:

He did enjoy playing with one jet that seemed to be broken - it wasn't shooting up at all just bubbling a bit:

But what he really wanted was to be standing:

A skill that he does not possess on his own.  So we did ALOT of this:

And even more of this:

Back breaking, yes.  But let's zoom in on his face:

Anyways I wasn't able to find online when the pool officially opens (and the spray ground closes) but I'm hoping we can get there at least once more this season.

Yay summer!

Uprinting Giveaway!

So recently through Bloggy Mom's Uprinting offered me the chance to host a giveaway for my readers.  I was super excited about this opportunity because I think their die cut business cards are pretty neat:

Super interesting, right?  I think they'd definitely stand out in a pile of plain old square corners.  They even offer a full circle!  I love the design potential of that. And with all of their editing tools your creativity is basically unlimited.  Or you can even upload your own design!


If you want to win 250 custom die cut business cards for your very own you can enter from now through June 4 below:


a Rafflecopter giveaway


Disclosure:
 You should assume that the owner of this blog will receive free print products in exchange for the post. Any and all reviews posted are based solely on my own experience and may be atypical. Please practice due diligence in making any related purchase decisions. Interested to hold a giveaway like this? Please sign up here.

Speaking of Amazing...

4 things that are Amazing.

1.)  My brother ran the Cleveland Half Marathon on Sunday:

 My little girl and I went to root him on:

Super proud of him!


2.)  The water table (affiliate link): American Plastic Toy Water Wheel Play Table

Those pictures were taken literally HOURS apart and it was still amusing all 3 of them:

I see us playing with this toy a ton over the summer.  I just have to figure out how to keep the dude from attempting to climb into it.

3.)  I'm in my friend's wedding on Saturday.  We're going to Kentucky just Matt and I for the weekend.... and I'm not freaking out about it at all.  I dunno what's different from last time.  I think just the fact that I just left the kids and they were perfectly ok.  So I'm pretty sure they will be alright again this time.  Plus I know the expectations at grandma's house are different - the kids aren't going to miss me because they don't expect me to be there.  And I'm really looking forward to seeing all of my out of town friends!

Pro tip, though.  If you're in a wedding it is NOT a good idea to wear a tank top outside all day working in the yard in an attempt to get a tan for your very tan-necessary dress.  Sounds like a flawless plan though, right?  Until you also wear gardening gloves.  All day. Oops.

The Girl's "help mommy in the garden" outfit.  Everything is a fashion moment.

4.)  Life in Cleveland's Facebook Page is thisclose to 100 likes.  I might even be there by the time this is published this afternoon.  I don't know why this is so thrilling for me but I'm Jessie on Caffeine Pills excited about it:

YES.

So if you want to help me out with that please like Life in Cleveland!  I promise I won't spam your feed with a bunch of nonsense.  I really only ever post updates there when I update here.  Just another way to get your Life in Cleveland On.

What's super fun is while googling for that image I found a side by side comparison of the Glee drug use episode vs the Saved By the Bell one.  Which is perhaps the most unnecessary thing I've ever found on the internets. You're welcome.

Wordless Wed - What's Blooming.

So it seems like the end of May is the best time for my yard.  Everything is in bloom right now:

FINE.

I"d like to say that I handled this whole Color Affection debacle with a little grace and patience.  But really it went down like this:

FINE.  Everyone on the internet is right.  I have to rip it out. *storms off in a snit*

I actually took the whole mess to my knitting group for some ripping moral support.  Because noone should rip out that much knitting without some backup.

Our master ball winder helped me and at the end of the night the whole blue shawl was wound into a lovely blue ball:

Sigh

Matt went out on Friday night so I put the kids to bed, put on some terrible television that he would never approve of (Grays Anatomy why can't I quit you?) poured myself a big glass of wine and started again.   The Mulled Wine part went pretty quickly:

And I wonder why my knitting is always covered in dog fur.

But then I hit a bit of a snag in that my stitch count was off and I had to fudge some things.  Seems that knitting in a snit and wine don't mix even if it's just basic garter stitch.  Good to know.  The payoff was worth it, though:

Not even two stripes in and already it's clear...

You guys were so, SO right.

I love this shawl now.  The combo is exactly what I wanted.  Mostly contrasty with bits of similar colors to tie it together:



I seriously love it.  And I"m almost back to the magical place of being back to where I was before I started ripping... and I can't wait to see what the next part with all 3 colors looks like:

Must. Knit. Faster.

Thank you so much for bringing me back to my senses.  It's never worth it to put this much effort in and not have it be amazing.

I think this qualifies.

Ohio Blogging Association All State Blog Swap.

Ok first of all thank you everyone for your thoughts on my Color Affection Shawl!  I have made a decision and a big post about that is coming tomorrow.  But today something really cool is going on - The Ohio Blogging Association is having a blog tour!  Everyone who wanted to play along was assigned a guest post partner.  Mine is Lilia from Lilia Write Now.  So I'll go ahead and turn things over to her: 

Jeanne and I decided we were both going to blog on the same topic: Why blog? So here's my take.
When I first started blogging, (at Planet Positive) I was going through a few tough things. More than anything, I wanted someplace to put down my thoughts. My blog was like my online journal. I type faster than I write. Plus, it was a great way to share what I was going through with those nearest and dearest to me without having to have uncomfortable conversations. Things started looking up and the subject matter in my archived posts was too personal to share with the world at large at that time. So I decided not to blog there anymore and switched the blog to private. But, I still wanted to write. I needed an outlet for two things: my need to write; and my need to express my sarcasm. So I started a new blog, the one referenced above. And there are some posts in there that I really enjoyed. I enjoyed writing them and I enjoy reading them after the fact, and when I go back and revisit them after some time has gone by. I like when other people read my posts and get it. You know, really get it. And I love when people comment and can relate.

What I don't like? Feeling like I have something hanging over my head. The pressure of keeping up with my blogging. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I have millions of readers hanging on my every word. But, I see all these other delightful bloggers frequently tweeting links to their latest blog posts. And, I feel like Such. A. Slacker. Speaking of the lovely ladies of blogging (that sounded like G.L.O.W. gorgeous ladies of wrestling reference), now that I have opened up my world and interact with so many of these girls on Twitter, I also feel like I have to somewhat censor myself. I leave you with this question: whether it be twitter, facebook, or blogging, how do you figure out how to draw the line between censorship and being your authentic self?

Thank you for reading, and if you liked what you read, or would like to read more, hit me up at: Blog: Lilia Write Now Twitter: @lilialipps Website: Indulgence

Thanks so much, Lilia!!!  Great question about censorship and authentic self.  It's a tricky thing, that. One I'd love to hear everyone's take on.  Anyways for the full listing of blog swap participants, please visit Poise in Parma today. 

Crowdsourcing my Color Affection.

So this post is just blatant crowd sourcing but I really need your opinions.  I seriously cannot make up my mind about this shawl:

The problem. aka addiction.  aka Color Affection.

See it all started with this hat:

I had some leftovers from my Chartres Socks and a skein of Mulled Wine that was kicking around and I thought they would be a lovely combo.   I planned on making a simple slouchy hat.  Perfect idiot knitting.  Perfect sample of a few of my colorways.

And then I took said knitting to my knitting group:

And they told me that combo would make a pretty Color Affection:

OHMYGODLOOKHOWPRETTY

And then the next day I went to River Colors to meet the Yarn Harlot.  She showed me her Color Affection/Infection/Addiction:

Pic from the yarn harlot's website.

And what pathetic amount of will power I posses was shattered into a million pieces.  I MUST KNIT THIS NOW.

So I went home and dug through my dye rejects pile and found this combo:

Mulled Wine, Chartres, Sea.  LOOK HOW PRETTY.

I love it.  I cast on with the Sea thinking that I wanted the blue to be the primary, the variegated to be the stripes, and the Mulled Wine to end up as the edging:

I knit and knit and knit and knit and I'm finally at the stripes:

We're obsessed with the park these days.

And.... I'm not loving it.   It's just not contrasty enough:

I didn't realize when I cast on in the heat of the moment that I would be striping with just the blue and the almost completely blue variegated.  I was picturing the stripes more like the ones on the hat:

Stripe comparison.

The next sections stripes all 3 colors but this part makes up a good chunk of the shawl and I'm just not feeling it.  But it is pretty....

But is it as pretty as the hat?

So I'm basically struggling with the following options:

1.)  Restart with the Mulled Wine as the primary.  If I really don't want the blue to be the edging then you I knit that part with the Wine, too.   Or not.  But either way it's dumb to spend hours on something you're Meh on.  FROG IT AND START OVER.

2.)  Seriously, are you insane?  You're going to frog both a hat and HOURS worth of this shawl?  Because "you're not feeling it?"  What is wrong with you!  It looks lovely.  The wine will look lovely on the border.  JUST KEEP KNITTING.

3.) Cry.

What do you guys think?