it’s been awhile

so I’m considering dropping this blog as I have tons more things to take up my time and I feel like I might be better suited to keeping track of my projects in a scrapbook but until I decide for sure, I thought I would post a couple of things that I did over the last couple (several really) months

These are most of the hats I made.  The ones shown were done for my nephews, sons, and brother.  I also made one for my grandpa and one for my father-in-law.

The snake  scarves were made to go with all of the boys stocking caps (thought not for grandpa or Steve).

Not the best photo but I was wrapping after dark and the iron was not out.  Anyhoo, I made two of these sets, one for each of Jim’s nieces.  The dress is from a vintage pattern my grandma gave me and the booties were from the pattern I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I just altered the size a bit.

These scarf and hat sets were made for my niece and my sister.

I made these for Jim’s sister and sister-in-law.  They were my first socks and really were not as hard as I had anticipated socks would be.  I actually really enjoyed it.  I much prefer patterns where I am doing something interesting to patterns where I knit the same thing over and over (like afghans….bleh!)

I have a couple more things that Jim and I made the boys but I can’t find where Jim posted the pictures so those will have to wait for a later date…..if that date comes.  I am in the middle of doing a MAJOR house overhaul trying to get everything organized and get rid of things we don’t use or need.  I’ve realized that with #3 on the way, I am going to go crazy if things aren’t a great deal more in order around here.  Things are progressing but veeeerrrry slowly with interruptions from the kids and just life in general but I hope to get there before the baby comes, especially since we are planning a home birth this time around.

Until next time, I leave you with a couple of pics of the boys.

First Henry painting the airplane he got for Christmas from Auntie Elisha and Uncle Dan.  Notice the concentration always shown with the tongue!

And Jack, our little camera lover who is actually wearing his Christmas Eve pajama pants which I made for each of the boys.  He love to stack things or put things inside of containers (the toy cow in the cup)

Garage sale goodness

So Saturday was the first day we have been able to go to garage sales since Jim’s ankle surgery a little over a month ago and it was actually a good day. Sometimes you go and you find nothing but this time we spent about $12 and got some really great stuff. I was so excited about it I took pictures to post and then forgot and was just going through my camera and remembered.I found a tree skirt for 50 cents. Can you believe it? I love the country-ish/homemadeness of it. There is a little button that slips through a ribbon on the opposite side to connect it around the tree trunk.

We always try to give some people homemade cookies and other goodies for which I picked up the tins but I might have to keep the one on the left for myself.

We were looking for some plain shiny red balls in the after Christmas sales this year but all we could find were the frosted ones. For a buck, I picked up a box of 12, 3 of which are pictured on the Christmas plate to add to my collection of Christmas dishes.

Another dish, this one for my teacup collection. This I think was my favorite find of the day. I love the colors and the picture on it.

We also picked up the mini-loaf pan for 50 cents. It makes 6 small loaves and I thought Henry would have fun making little loaves of zucchini or banana bread. I made the “mistake” of letting him help me make pumpkin pie (which he called crust pie) last week and now any time he hears me make a noise in the kitchen, he comes running to “help”. Cute when it’s wanted but when I’m just feeding the dog and he doesn’t believe me or I’m trying to make dinner fast, it can come with a bit of a fit from the boy.

And last but not least, we found an older gentleman who was selling these wooden toys that he made. (Pardon the crappy pictures). These are by far not the best that he had, however they are the operable ones that we could let Henry play with and not worry about him breaking off any of the detailing. He had some really cool trains all detailed out with “logs” on the trailers and detailed semi-trucks and old style cars. He also had a seal that you would pull and when he moved a ball set on a peg that went down into his nose would bounce up and down.

A guy a couple of doors down also had some woodwork out however his was a bit more detailed and not stuff you would buy for your kids. Amazing tractors and cranes with working parts but the prices were huge (understandably with the amount of time that had to go into them) and they were things that you would buy to set up on a shelf, not to play with.

Afterwards we came home and Jack slept while I finished putting in my garden and Jim and Henry went back into town to watch the soap box derby. All in all, it was a very good Saturday!

Barbie beds and laundry soap

So here is another thing I did back in March. I had orginally bought this craft box at Michael’s to be a box to hold paper dolls for my niece, Gentry for Christmas. The dolls were WAY smaller than I had anticipated so I had to get a smaller box for them, thus I was left with this one to hold for that project that just needed a wooden box. That came about 3 months later when I decided to make a Barbie bed for Gentry’s birthday. I used fabric I had bought at a second-hand store for seventy-nine cents to make a quilt and matching pillows. Well, once I got going I couldn’t stop and before you knew it I had bolster pillows made from some of my quilting scraps, a sheet made from some fabric samples the interior design firm in Jim’s office had given me, mattress made from those same samples and I decided to pull out the box to use as a bed frame. I roped Jim into cutting out a couple of magazine pictures to glue into the lid so it looks like pictures hanging on the wall and walla…..a bed in a box.

A 1 hour project turned into 2 1/2 hours but it was fun.  Maybe it’s a good thing I don’t have any girls….

On another note I have new favorite laundry detergent……that I made myself. I have been trying to save money and at the same time do things more naturally/organically and I found this recipe on the internet. I must admit, I was skeptical but it was so cheap to make I figured I should give it a try. I splurged a bit and bought a $2 bar of 99% natural rosemary mint soap instead of using the 33 cent bar of Ivory that the recipe called for. I have used it this week to wash our laundry and it works great. My clothes feel and smell clean.  It has kind of a weird consistancy….my sister was over yesterday and she just kept sticking her fingers in it. I was trying to figure out what she was doing and then I realized she was trying to figure out what it felt like and I told her it was frog eggs and she agreed. (We used to go out and catch frogs in our pond and take their eggs and put them in buckets of water so we could see the tadpoles when they hatched.) Don’t let that turn you off of it…..it just feels like them doesn’t look like them. It works great and I have 110-ish loads of laundry detergent for three or four dollars as opposed to the twelve something I usually spend to do the same amount.

First day of spring????

So it’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything. It’s been pretty busy around here. I have been watching my sister’s kids 2-3 days a week and then we have had nasty colds and stomach bugs come through…..I am so glad that spring is finally here…..or is it? It’s so stinkin’ damp and cold outside right now it doesn’t feel like spring at all. But there are daffodils in the yard and the trees across the street are starting to bud so it must be coming soon. Hopefully with some time outside, people will start to get healthy and stay that way. Even with the business, I have managed to get a few things accomplished besides laundry, dishes, and taking care of kids. Not as much as I would like but a few things. Right now I’m pushing on a sweater to get done by next weekend for a baby shower. We’ll see if it happens. Here are the things I recently finished.

A monkey for Henry’s birthday. I made one like this for Henry’s cousin, William, for Christmas and both of them have been huge hits. William’s came with a cape since he is very into super heroes right now. This pattern came from a book I checked out at the library called Knitted Toys by Fiona McTague.

A hat and bear for the baby of a friend of Jim’s from college. Jeremy loves orange and their wedding was actually orange and hot pink since his wife likes pink. It sounds awful but it actually worked out really well. So anyhoo, since they had a boy, we thought we would send them something orange. Both patterns are from Simple Knits for Cherished Baby by Erika. Knight

And these are some desperately needed kitchen towels that I embroidered. All of our towels but two we have had since our wedding (3 1/2 yrs ago) and between everyday use and our dog deciding they were chew toys, our supply had either hit the rag bag or needed to. I freehanded the embroidery on these and decided to go with a theme….as you can see rather than all the same thing.

Another great knit

I love to get good mail. That’s one of the things I love about the Christmas season is that you never know what you are going to find in your mailbox. Cards, letters, and packages are such a welcome relief to the seemingly endless junk mail and bills (especially post baby and gallbladder surgery). Yesterday, we received a package from my good friend Deborah down in LA….a sweater for Jack. It just fits him and with perfect timing since we have had freezing weather the last several days. My camera doesn’t do good close ups so I can’t get a good shot of the details. It has a great diagonal line on both front panels that comes to a V when it buttons where the stitch appears to switch directions. Anyhow, very cute, warm, and the charcoal color really brings out his bright blue eyes.

My camera doesn’t really do it justice but here is a picture of Jack modeling it.

Baby gifts

Here are some baby gifts I recently made.  This little bonnet and booties I made for a new little baby at church, Hazel.

The bonnet was really a lot easier to make than I thought.  I found the button’s at an antique store (who knew that you couldn’t find nice little brown buttons at a craft store?).  The patterns were more from Erika Knight.  I love her stuff because it is so simple yet elegant.

This I made for my cousin.  She just had her first baby, Scarlett.  I call it a nursing blanket.  Someone gave me something similar when Henry was almost a year old so I really didn’t get to take much advantage of it (besides the fact that it wasn’t the most attractive thing in the world.  I plan on making myself a new one for this baby.  It snaps around your neck so you don’t have to try to hold the blanket under your chin while nursing and the baby can’t pull it off of you as easily when he/she gets to that wiggly I want to look around while I eat stage.

Now I am working on finishing the bumper for the cradle (the bumper I started when Henry was about 6 months old and almost out of the cradle) and some fall leaf coasters to keep marks off my furniture.  Three weeks to go until this little kiddo is due so it could be any time.

Sweater for our October baby

Ok, so I think I figured it out. It turned out a bit stiffer than I would have liked but by the time I realized it may turn out this way, I was over half-way done and didn’t feel like ripping it out. I got the pattern from a book by Erica Knight….I think it was from “Simple Knits for Cherished Babies.” I altered it a bit in that it was actually short sleeved instead of long sleeved and it tied with a ribbon instead of buttons. I figure with the baby being born in the fall, short sleeved wasn’t practical and if our baby is a boy I really can’t see myself dressing him in ribbons. My husband would kill me.

So, here I am…….

At the prodding of my husband for the last several months, I am finally starting a blog. I have been crazily canning, cooking, sewing, knitting, and taking care of my son and my niece and nephew an he wants me to keep track of the things that I do so I can see what I have done and not get overwhelmed with what I have to do. I don’t really think that what I have to offer is that interesting and I am definitely not a writer but we’ll see how it goes. I enjoy reading other peoples blogs, especially anything that has to do with any sort of crafting or cooking so I guess I might as well contribute. Right now, Jim is at a meeting and Henry (our 20 month son) is snuggly sleeping in his bed. It’s nicely pouring outside, the only thing wrong is I can’t see it because it’s dark but I can hear it which is lovely. I love this time of year when the weather starts to get cold. It makes me want to snuggle up on the couch with a cup of something warm and make something. I just finished doing the dishes and working with our puppy, Zoey, when I started to have some of those lovely Braxton hicks so I decided that I should sit down and take a break. I already had a scare with early labor this week and I certainly don’t need another one. I still have 4 1/2 weeks to go until baby #2 is due. Technically, if the baby comes in a week and a half, I’m fine but it has to wait at least until then. Otherwise I have to go to the hospital and not the birthing center and I really am not a huge fan of hospitals. They have their place, I just don’t like to be there myself. No, we don’t know what we are having. It’s a baby. I like to be surprised. It gives me something to push for is what I figure. I was going to show a picture of the sweater I recently finished for the little October baby but I can’t figure out how to make it work so I am going to have to wait for Jim to help me.   What can I say, I am not super computer savvy.