Then while hanging out on Pinterest one day, I found this tutorial.

I decided to make one for myself. I bought the wire, chain and clasps at Hobby Lobby. I really liked the dark color instead of silver. I wanted to make my friend one too and I really thought they’d be so easy that I could sell some [now I'm thinking I don't want to make that many!]

I started with the silver because I thought my friend would like that better and it was the recommended gauge (24) because it is easier to manipulate. I thought that it was more difficult because it was too flimsy and wanted to bend however. Since I couldn’t get it wound as tight it bunched up when I tried to wrap the sides. Doesn’t look much like a nest, does it?

Then I decided to try the darker, 20 gauge wire, which worked much easier for me. I made a nest with 4 eggs for myself and one with 3 eggs for my friend. The only thing I don’t really like about it is the chain. I love the way it looks, but every single link is open and it pulls apart VERY easily. Not a good thing when you have a 9 month old and 3 year old who like shiny pretty things. I wore it to church yesterday and it broke and had to be fixed once. It is easy to put back together, but I’m afraid I’ll lose it. I bought a different chain last night at WM to replace it with when I get tired of trying to keep up with it. It has solid links, but needs some clasps attached.

While these were pretty easy, they don’t look that much like nests in real life and I’m pretty sure I don’t enjoy playing with wire. Too frustrating and tedious for me. Perhaps if I had the right tools, but I don’t think I want to even find out. ;) I enjoy making a necklace here and there, but it’s definitely not my niche!

Speaking of nests, I finished my nest for my neck. Here is my scarf keeping my neck nice and cozy:

Recently, my bff and I went on a little shopping trip. We were at Hobby Lobby and ventured into the yarn section. Always dangerous, this. I had no plans to buy any yarn and in fact haven’t really gotten the urge to knit much still. Anyway, as we perused the yarn I saw plenty that was pretty, but I could leave it there. Then I saw the Yarn Bee Melody Bulky yarn in the Harlequin colorway and I knew I wanted a new scarf.

You see, about a month ago I was getting ready to leave the house and knew it was colder outside. I went to grab my favorite scarf that I knit about 5 years ago. All my scarves were hanging in the back of the closet on a hanger with my other winter wear. As I went to grab it a big ball of fluff fell down and when I saw the scarf it was all chewed up near the hanger. The other scarves were also chewed and my wool peacoat had a hole chewed out as well. The mice had made a nest up on top of the coat rack. I’m not really sure how they had time to do this since we keep traps set year round (out in the country that’s how you have to roll, my friends) and we had just caught several, but they did. They also got into my drawers and ate holes in several sweaters. By the time I was done surveying the damage I was very angry and I was ready to take out some mice. We did get a few more right after that and thankfully no more clothing damage has been done since.

Back to the yarn. When I saw this particular colorway (harlequin) I knew I wanted to replace my fallen scarves. So I decided to buy a skein. Yeah, I thought I could get a scarf out of one skein of bulky yarn. I probably could have if I’d made it skinnier, but I want a longer scarf that will wrap around my neck. I used the entire skein and I am halfway to where I want to be. So, somehow I’ve got to acquire another. I really don’t want to pay shipping for it, but will if need be, so I can have a nice cozy scarf for the cold time ahead. It has been so nice for the past week that it almost seems like winter is leaving already, but I’ve lived here long enough to know that now is about the time it starts to get really cold. I know it’s coming and I know I want a good scarf around my neck when it gets here!

Many headbands and a couple of rosette clips:

A fleece UK blanket for my dad:

Kameron’s robot quilt for his toddler bed:

This was a simple square patch quilt, backed with white flannel, quilted with simple lines. It is nice and cozy and was to go with the robot blanket I made him last year. It looks cute on his bed!

A pennant bunting for my niece’s wall:

A little hat for Kyler:

Cute reversible pants for Kyler:

These pants are the “quick change trousers” from Handmade Beginnings by Anna Maria Horner. I love this book! These pants took me awhile with 4 little ones to take care of, but the pattern is easy to follow and they are the most adorable things ever! I have plans to make more of these for Kyler. One side is Car fabric from Riley Blake with brown flannel on the behind. This reverses to Brown flannel with owls on the behind. The whole time I was working on these Taylor offered her two cents. She thought they looked huge and would not fit and made that known. However, they fit perfectly!

A house pouch for a little girl:

I made several of these in the summer of 2010 and when looking for a quick easy gift for a little girl I remembered them. I stuck some paper dolls in it for fun. The roof fabric and the paper dolls are by Sarah Jane Wright, my fave designer/illustrator. If you haven’t seen her work please go check it out. Fabulous!

I wanted to write a little update on the Christmas gift crafting. As you can see from the title I have more than 7 completed gifts. I finished Kyler’s blue hat. In the photos you can see a little sneak peek of some of the other finished things. I can’t tell you all the details now since I’m not sure who actually reads my blog. ;) I will take more pictures and give details closer to or after Christmas. I know I have one other gift done that isn’t pictured and I have a few little things in my box that I keep on hand for little gifts. Not sure if any of those will work for anyone just yet, so that’s the +.

Still to go are quite a few of the larger things. Tomorrow, I think, I will work on some pants for Kyler and possibly try to finish up a few more of the unfinished projects I found when I was cleaning up the sunroom and organizing my sewing stuff today. One of those things is a fun pennant banner out of Christmas fabric that I started last year. All that I have to do is sew it together and I want to be able to decorate with it this year. I’m actually enjoying making all of these gifts (not always the case with my holiday sewing) and I’m not even feeling rushed or stressed out about it yet. I’m thrilled with how things are turning out too, and I hope that each person who gets a handmade gift from me likes what they get!

Here are some pictures of it while it’s nice and neat:

This is the chalkboard I redid last summer. I bought it at a thrift store in town. I try to keep my list updated with what I want to make most, but it sometimes stays the same for a long period of time…

The top drawer on my sewing desk holds lots of binding for blankets and small quilting projects. It also holds a few zippers and other trims.

The second drawer holds my cutting mats, sewing machine needles and thread bobbins and scissors.

This bottom drawer holds all my little metal items and magnets. I have lots of buttons to cover and keychains and hair barretts to make someday!

Large pieces of fabric organized by color – what’s my favorite color?

Flannel, Fleece and other miscellaneous fabrics. The top shelf in this picture holds my largish scraps out of the box, my small scraps in the pink box and a couple of projects on the other side.

The top shelf holds my knits and felt and then the baskets on top of the cabinet hold some long forgotten knitting projects and all of my ribbon.

I moved all my yarn out of the sewing cabinet, to make more room, and I like it better. Now my yarn is in the living room cabinets where it will be much more accessible for actual knitting. I will probably eventually clean out the knitting basket for another sewing room related item, but am not sure if I want to rip all those things out or knit on them. To tell the truth I’m kind of tired of knitting.

I also want to show you my “teacher” desk while it is nice and clean. Hopefully it will actually stay this way. This is where I keep all my office supplies in our office/classroom. We just got a fancy new printer and by putting it on my desk I can maybe keep the piles off it. Don’t be fooled too much, right now they’ve just moved to the floor. I need to get them sorted and put away…once again, the motivation is not there!

Hopefully now that I’ve gotten my fabric and yarn sorted I will feel more compelled to make some things. The children need some new fun things and I definitely need to be making baby items, for our baby and for all the baby showers coming up. Time to get to work!

First, I finished these slippers for Kristopher. He had a pair just like this in a smaller size and wore them all the time. He requested another pair, but wanted blue and green stripes. Well, I didn’t have yarn that would work and was trying not to buy new supplies for these gifts if possible. I did have more Malabrigo worsted in a dark and light blue variegated and his favorite color right now is dark blue, so I hope he likes these just as well. In the picture they still need to be felted – they are going in the machine today!

Next I finished this hat for him, also requested and I did buy the yarn he wanted for this. He told me he wanted a hat just like Kameron’s, which was kind of funny to me, but I thought I’d try. I only bought 1 skein of yarn and didn’t want to go get more, so his is a lot shorter, but I think it will be okay. It’s very thick, which would bug me, but hopefully he will wear it! It is knit from Lion Brand Hometown USA in the color Washington Denim. I did not enjoy knitting with this acrylic after the nice soft Malabrigo, but at least it was a quick knit in the chunky yarn!

This morning I finished a boy doll. It is for Kameron, since he has taken to playing with Taylor’s dolls a lot. He likes to carry them around and love on them. Worry not, he still loves his cars and boy things too! Anyway, I bought the book Wee Wonderfuls about a month ago and all the dolls are so cute, and this boy doll, Eddie is in there. In the book he is such a little cutie and I’m very dissapointed that my version is not quite so cute. I was working with what I had available to me and I had an ivory flannel for the body. He looks very pale and Kristopher remarked that it looks like a scary ghost. I think he looks slightly better with his clothes on and I looked at the flickr group and many of the dolls on there are made with lighter bodies and are still cute, so I’m going to give him the doll. I have considered trying to dye him with tea or something though. My fake fur for the hair is also a little wild. I loved the curls in the book and I’m not digging my fluffy hair so much! Anyway, here he is. Let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions about giving him a good tan!

I have finished decorating for Christmas, it took a sweet forever this year, and I will post pictures soon. I love what I decided to do with the top of the tree this year – I was tired of having an angel on top. It appears I have a burnt out piece of lights on there now, already. That’s dissapointing!

Have a great day! Time for me to start getting ready for a couple weeks of Christmas parties – I love being invited to parties! :)

or, rather, Taylor and her best friend, L’s, little houses. I made these little house pouches lsat night and finished them up this morning. The tutorial can be found here. The house is made with some canvas I had because I wanted them to be sturdy without extra work. I used little scraps of fabric for the doors and windows. I had some Timeless Treasure Apple Tree fabric (one of my favorites) that I cut the trees out of. I decided I would like this better than the flowers – I am a tree girl! This was a fun little project and was pretty quick too. I almost don’t want to give them to the girls for their upcoming birthdays. I really want to keep the blue one, which Taylor has claimed for herself. I might just have to make myself another one to match.

I also finished the knitting of my vest. I ended up just doing a ribbed edging, because I just can’t do the applied I-cord edging. This is the second project that I have tried to do it on (really tried) and I just don’t understand. My hands and needles just don’t work together. Anyway, since I did the ribbed edging I decided that I needed a zipper up the front instead of toggles and I can’t find a brown zipper of the right length right now. I’ll have to check the thrift store soon – then I can wear the vest this fall:) Yay!

Here’s a parting gift – Kameron with our basket of veggies that we picked yesterday. We are not getting much at a time, but we are getting some, so I should be happy. I am getting ready to plant some lettuce and snap peas and spinach this weekend so that we’ll have some good stuff for the fall. I hope that your garden is doing well if you have one. I hear of many that aren’t this year. Probably not the best year to start gardening, but at least I’m learning!

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!

I also just finished (about 10 minutes ago) a pair of Monkey socks. They don’t actually have monkeys on them, but the name of the pattern is Monkey and it is a free pattern from Knitty a few issues ago. I think I’m about the last knitter to make these socks, but now that I have I don’t know why I waited. They are super easy and very comfortable! I love the pattern and the yarn that I used, which is Rio de la Plata sock yarn in the Periwinkle Lime colorway. I purchased it at the Loopy Ewe and they are out of this color right now, but have lots of others. Purchasing this yarn helps women in Uruguay to stay home with their families while making money to help support them:)

There has been some more progress on the house…mostly small things. I need to take some more pictures the next time I’m out there and then I’ll share. I bought some paint yesterday and the rest of the curtains for the living room. It is starting to look like a place to live, even though it isn’t finished:) It will be fine for a few months anyway! I just can’t wait to get moved now. I’m getting really frustrated with the way things are right now – having to drive back and forth and feeling like nothing is being accomplished because we aren’t there enough. But that will all end soon, because we’ll be there!

Have a great day everybody!

I also went through my boy things from Kristopher and was pretty upset. Apparently I gave more of my baby clothes to my sister for her son than I thought. I only had about 4 items in each baby size. So, Tiffany, if you are reading this and still have any of my baby outfits please send them! I did go ahead and purchase several lots of baby boy clothes on ebay (for pretty cheap!) so I think I am doing pretty well with the 0-6 month stuff now. I just really liked some of Kristopher’s outfits and was expecting to find them in the box and they were gone. I have plenty of 2T-4T clothes for a boy, but all my small stuff was gone:( I also found that I kept all my sheets and blankets (which I thought I didn’t), so I don’t need any of those for a crib…only thing is we may not use a crib this time around. But we have blankets a plenty for baby:) It will be fun to out all the baby things away where they go after moving.

We are still cleaning and fixing for now. Hopefully I am going to talk to a painter today to see how much that might be for the house. We are planning to move in July 5/6th and then anything else we need to do can be finished while we are there. We’re ready to be in our house!

Vacation Bible School starts for me tonight. My co-teacher and I spent yesterday setting up and decorating our room. I think it looks great! We are teaching the 3 year old class. Hopefully I will be able to remember to take pictures this afternoon before the kids get there so you all can see. I am really excited about some of the things we have planned. I hope that I can do a good job of teaching and that all the kids who come will have fun. Taylor will be in my class which has been hard lately (she’s very clingy), but I think with everything going on and some friends she might be okay.

Hopefully VBS will be a good distraction for the kids and I. Kody is away for training again this week and the kids have already been a little upset that he is gone. I guess Kristopher didn’t believe that he was going to be gone that long and last night Taylor woke up, like she always does and I went to get her from her bed. She was crying and said she wanted Daddy…which was not possible. They’ll be okay and hopefully be too busy to think about it much! Kody if you read this – We miss you and LOVE you!

Thursday was my 27th birthday! Our church takes a trip for children k-6th grade every Thursday in the summer and last Thusday was to the Nashville Zoo, so we went. It was a perfect day. Taylor was not her usual self at all and had a lot of fun too! Kristopher went with the other group, so I’m not sure what he did, but I didn’t have to hear him ask about games all day which made it nice for me;)

We aren’t going on all the trips, but there are a couple that we will. Kristopher went on one the week before to play Jungle Golf and eat at Mr. Gatti’s. He seemed to like that – especially since I’m not a huge Mr. Gatti’s fan myself!

I hope that you all have a great day!