Knitting Mojo
My knitting mojo was officially gone. I did not have any desire to knit for almost a year and then I realized my kids all need hats for the upcoming fall/winter. I started with the smallest, Kameron, and I had so much fun designing this hat for him. Despite his face in the pictures he really likes it and tries to put it on himself. It will be warm and cozy and I think he looks very cute in it!
I haven’t started the other kids hats yet, but I do have in mind to finally finish my Estes Vest from the Interweave Knits Fall 2008. The last time i worked on this was about a year ago. All I have left is the edging and buttonloops and it will be done. Shouldn’t take too long. Maybe the mojo will stay long enough to finish it.
In other crafty news, I turned this little number that cost me $1 into something I just love. I got the chalk/bulletin board from a local thrift store and removed the cork. Then I painted it and covered the cork with fabric. I do still need to make some kind of piece for the cutout at the top. Thinking about using chalkboard contact paper so I can write my title in and change it whenever I want to. I bought some chalk markers and I love those too. If you have never used them, get some. They make chalkboards desireable again!
I also fixed (with nails, amazing) and painted this table and chairs that were mine and my sisters when we were little. We are going to use this for a our school table for now. While we would like to get something like this, it just isn’t in the budget now. This was free and will be big enough for 2 of the kids to work on. Sometimes you just have to work with what you have!
And, in garden news, we are picking green beans, banana peppers and tomatoes now. Just not as many as I had hoped for. My in-laws gave us tons of tomatoes though and some green peppers, so I can can and freeze some things for winter. I bought some corn from my favorite producer here and am working on it today. I am still hoping my second planting will be worth picking. The first was destroyed by deer, ants and worms – we only got about 5 ears. My cucumbers, gourds and cantaloupe are producing small babies now and I am hoping that they are able to grow to pickable goodness. I also have several cold weather crops to plant in a week or two so we have some yummy stuff for the fall. At least my flowers are beautiful!
Filed under Creations, Homeschool, Knitting, Other Crafts | Comment (0)Finally, an apron for me!
I have wanted an apron for awhile now. My grandmother always had an apron on and I have such fond memories of her in the kitchen. It also seems like aprons have made a comeback and are actually cool now. So of course I want one – I’ve always wanted to sit at the cool table;) Anyway, I bought the book A is for Apron last year and there are so many cute ones in there that I want to make. I made a reversible gingerbread apron, for my secret pal last year, from that book. But while the patterns in that book are very nice I just never got around to making myself one. I got burned out on the ones I made for other people last year. So, when this pattern came up on the sew4home blog on Monday I knew I had to make it. The apron is so cute and looked much simpler to make than the ones in my book…and it was. It took me an afternoon to whip this out and I used fabric from my stash: ‘surf & sand’ by Michele D’Amore for Marcus Fabrics. I loved the colors and patterns of these fabrics and had 5 yards laying around in the different patterns, so it was perfect! The back is khaki with the white and turquoise stars, so it is reversible, the back just doesn’t have any pockets. I love the way it turned out and I have worn it the last 2 days to cook and check on my garden. Perfect!
Filed under Creations, Sewing | Comment (1)Merry Christmas to Kameron
4 months late.
This monkey (Mikey Monkey from Larissa Holland) was meant to be a gift for Kameron Christmas 2009. I kept putting it off because it looked difficult and even though I really wanted to make it I just didn’t have the time during December of last year. Finally on Christmas Eve I cut out the pieces and then was too tired to go any further and since he was just 15 months he wouldn’t notice, right? Babies always get jipped because they won’t notice or care… So the pieces have been sitting on my desk since then and today I decided to go for it and start…and I finished, because Larissa’s pattern is totally awesome! The pattern is so well written and it looks like a lot, but it is pretty simple. She has it all there for you so you won’t make mistakes. :) I am so glad I finally made Kameron his pirate monkey. I decided that his name will be Jolly Bean. Kameron just happened to be eating Jelly Bellys when I finished sewing him up. I just finished the pirate pieces five minutes ago though, so he hasn’t seen those. I am so happy with this monkey! I hope he becomes a family heirloom and that he isplayed with and loved and hugged millions of times. I really think this might be the coolest thing I’ve made so far. Can you tell I love it?! Have a beautiful week everyone!
Filed under Creations, Holidays, Sewing | Comments (4)Easter Baskets
When I pulled the Easter stuff out this year I realized that Kameron didn’t have a fabric covered pail yet, like I had made the other two a few years ago. I wasn’t planning to be somewhere I could buy a metal pail, so I started looking for other ideas. I found this cute tutorial via How About Orange (a favorite blog for ideas!) and got to work. At first I was just going to use these as Easter baskets and put them away, but I’ve decided that they’re so cute that the kids can just use them to hold toys on their shelves. Taylor’s matches her toddler bed quilt that I made and the boys’ baskets are made with Michael Miller’s Bot Camp line of fabric. Taylor’s wasn’t finished until Monday morning, but they are all pleased with their little baskets. :)
We had a wonderful Easter day and a beautiful weekend! We were able to get a lot accomplished in our yard (though there’s still much more to go!) and had fun as a family. Then on Easter we went to church and then waited in town for my mother in law who came and purchased a wooden swingset for the kids. We are all very excited about that – hopefully we can put it together this weekend. Thank you, Gram & Grandaddy! After that we went on to their house and had our annual egg hunt and huge meal. We cooked the ham that Kody got for part of his Christmas bonus from work and it was so good. We got home around midnight I think. Perfect weekend. Here are some pictures from Sunday. Eventually, I’ll try to get my facebook page updated. A family photo was not taken again this year – big surprise. I am never in any Easter pictures. I manage to get in at least one from all the other holidays, but never Easter… Hope your day was happy and filled with Christ’s love for you. I’ve said before we only celebrate “Easter” because everyone else does, but we celebrate Jesus and what he’s done for us everyday and will continue to do so forever!
Welcome!
Welcome to our home. I hope you’ll enjoy your stay!
As you come up our front steps you’ll be greeted by these cute snowmen that my husband’s Aunt Regina painted for us. I just love them and although they saw a rough winter last year they are still standing.
Well, don’t stand there all day! Come inside:) As you walk inside you’ll be greeted by our fireplace. I framed the entryway to the kitchen in tinsel to hang our Christmas cards. I have to have some sparkle!
The living room also houses our Christmas tree. I decided to keep it simple this year and just do lights and my favorite ornaments. No tinsel, no ribbon and no topper… The top of the tree is my favorite; that is where I always put our “First Christmas” ornament and each of our children’s “First Christmas” ornaments. Having our family ornaments up there all together makes me happy.
You’ll also see my “new” decoration of pine cones, twigs & candles that I put together. Simple things make the best decorations sometimes, don’t you think? I put my nativity up on a shelf so that it wouldn’t get broken. I’d been wanting this willow tree one for a while and my mom bought it for my last year. As I was taking it out of the box it said to be very careful with Joseph so his arm would stay intact; I didn’t think my kids needed to be able to reach him!
Come into the kitchen – I’m not going to show you the whole thing, because it’s messy! I’ve got more baking to do today on the bottom half, but look up at my favorite plates:) I’m so excited that in this house I can put things up on my cabinets and hang garland there. I’ve not been able to do that in our other homes.
The only place I had for my old but cute wreath is on the door to our sunroom. Go on out there…
This is my current workspace (one of them – I’m sure Kody thinks the whole house is my workspace). I had to decorate it a little bit too:)
If you go upstairs, you’ll be in the kids domain. They have decorations all over their rooms, but here is the tree that they set up and decorated themselves. Kody did help a little with the tree set up, but we didn’t give other instruction. They had a lot of fun decorating:) The books under the tree are all of our Christmas books – really most of them are just winter books, I guess we need a few good ones. And of course no home with children would be complete without a few Christmas-y stuffed animals!
I hope you’ve enjoyed your visit. :) Our decorations are simple, but make us happy. There are many small things you didn’t see, but I thought it best not to take pictures of everything. If you stop back by later, I’ll have some cookies for you!
From our home to yours – Have a Very Merry Christmas!
*This post if linked to on The Nester’s Christmas Tour of Homes. Go there to see many more blogs with inspiration for your decorations! Also, please excuse all our unfinished bits that you see in the photos – our home is a work in progress and we have much more to do before it is “finished.”
Filed under Blogalongs, Creations, Fun, Holidays, News | Comments (4)