greetingarts

starting a lot, finishing nothing

I haven't posted lately because I'm feeling totally - blah.  Fussy, unable to focus, restless.  I've got a million projects going, it seems, but am not able to concentrate on finishing anything.  I'm knitting another pair of socks and a baby blanket for a couple of charities, and a mermaid costume for Becca, I have a quilt I need to start hand quilting, and half of a beaded crocheted shawl is gathering dust.

But the socks and baby blanket are hurting my hands, and the mermaid costume is just upsetting me.  The stitch pattern is very interesting, but because of the variegated yarn I'm using, the details are getting lost, and I feel like I'm doing a lot of work for nothing.  The quilt has just been sitting, sitting, sitting.  I've had it in various stages of done-ness for almost two years now, and finally it's been backed and basted, and now I just need to actually quilt the darn thing.  I'm not good with a machine, so I'll do it by hand.  Since the blocks were embroidered, I decided to try big stitch quilting.  But it's twin-sized, and I've always got two kids clamoring around me, and I don't know why it seems like such a big production to get started.  I imagine the quilt all puddled on my lap and covering my legs and the seat and having to get up and down and set it aside and secure the needle, and... and... and.  So I haven't done a thing.

Then yesterday, instead of picking up any one of these numerous projects I have lying around, I decided to make myself a bag.  Now, being a mom of a three year old and a one year old, I rarely need anything smaller than my massive backpack, which holds the diapers, wet wipes, cheerios, juice box, water, pre-measured formula (Jessie, I just bought my last can of powdered formula, do you hear me?  Last. One. Ever.) hair clips, crayons and scratch paper, and everything else that might possibly be needed on any given excursion.  But once in a great while, I occasionally need something smaller, just for my wallet, cell phone, keys, you know, stuff normal people without children carry around with them.  The strap on the purse I was using broke, oh, like a month ago, and I've been walking around with a strapless purse.  And it doesn't look stylish, it just looks cheap and broken.  So, having been inspired by this and this and others like that, I tried to make my own.  The result?



A dining room table that is a total mess, nothing that looks remotely like a finished bag, and a picnic dinner on the living room floor.



Becca wants to do it again tomorrow.

simply socks

Finished another pair of socks, for all my various sockalongs.  This pair did triple duty, for Count Your Socks,  Sock-a-Month, and the Six Sox Knitalong (which is where the pattern came from).  I liked knitting them a lot, it was very brainless, easy to keep track of, and therefore easy to make both socks the same length with a minimum of counting involved.  Always a plus at the end of a long day.



The best part about the pattern was the short row heel.  No stitches to pick up, no gussets!  Here's a super mega closeup...



Next time, I think I'll still do a Kitchener toe, though.

Okay.  For you non-sock knitters, I'm going to write about something else next time, I promise.

pincushion challenge

It's a new monthly challenge, this time all about pincushions.  Go check it out!



Thanks, Julie, this is going to be so much fun.  I've got loads of ideas already!

wee memories

Here's the two wee bunnies I added to the growing litter.



I've always known I was going to save some of my children's outgrown clothing to make memory quilts with, but now I'm constantly trying to think of other things I can do with them, too.  Of course, most are given away, but I just can't bear to part with some outfits.  I'm sure you moms know what I mean.  Jess is growing up and out of stuff so fast, and another child is definitely not in the plan (small *sniff*), so it's on
to softies.  I used the zigzag stitch for the first time to do the ears.  They aren't perfect, but I was pretty happy with the way they turned out.  Don't you think that bunny on the right needs a mouth?  Jess doesn't seem to care.



This was the sleeper before de-reconstruction (hey!  I remembered to take a "before" shot!).  It was originally worn by my sister's boyfriend's daughter (I should make her one, too) and then passed on to Rebecca, and then Jess, whose feet were practically popping out of the bottoms.  Kind of pill-y, very worn, practically translucent in places.  Really really hard to machine sew... I gave up after one and just sewed Jess' all by hand.  But it makes for a soft, familiar new bunny.  And ah, the memories.  The rest of the bunnies' bodies were cut from some quilt blocks I had left over after I made some charity quilts for Hurricane Katrina victims. 

 

Yeah.  Funny how I can finish quilts for charity, but not for myself.

Oh, and here's the back (so you can actually see the fabric I'm talking about).  The pompom tail is for Becca, and I don't know if you can see it from the picture or not, but Jess' bun's bum has a little loop of ribbon for a tail.  Because she puts absolutely everything in her mouth.  I got the idea from those Ribbon Rascal toys that I love (yes, I said "I").



Thanks, Hillary!  You're the best.

sunny mail

I got my ColorSwap package in the mail on Monday, and look at the sunshine Faith sent me from New York...



Thank you!

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the box I put together for her before I packed it all up and took it to the post office!  Kind of like I always forget to take "before" photos of my makeover projects.  Oh, well.  I included skeins of fuzzy yarn, curly, soft eyelash-type yarn, and charm/ladder yarn, gum, reusable flower-shaped ice cubes, a lemon-shaped kitchen scrubbie, knitted carrot and amigurumi banana from my previous post, crocheted coasters, some foam flowers, stickers, gift tags, mini paper picture frames, a dishcloth I knitted with a picture of a watering can on it (Faith loves to garden) and... I think that's it?

Now, on to May... think green.

one

Saturday was Jessie's first birthday party, full of friends and relatives, good food, and a lot of laughter.  My husband and I have always entertained a lot, and even after we had kids we still can be counted on to have at least two or three parties a year.  And though a few of the faces change, year after year, all the guests are mostly relatives and friends that we've known for at least a decade.  But one thing we've noticed, as more little ones get added to the guest list, the volume increases exponentially! 

Not everything turned out the way I'd visualized it, and there was rain in the morning, but the sun was out by 2:00 pm or so, and I think a nice time was had by all.  I know it was better in the long run for me to let certain things go, be more flexible, and reduce the stress.  I made only about half the amount of flower sandwiches I'd intended, but they tasted good and were mostly reserved for the kids who appreciated the shapes.  The floral fruit skewer display I'd planned on making just turned into basically a plain old fruit salad (thanks, Richard, for diligently cutting out all those watermelon flowers anyway), but maybe the lack of sharp, pointy sticks around sugar-hyped children was a good thing, after all.  And I'm sure no one but me cared that there weren't any individual cupcakes baked in terra cotta pots.



These are the daisy favors I made with a lot of help from Big Sister Becca, they're white chocolate with yellow chocolate centers.  The idea was to stick one in each of the aforementioned terra-cotta-pot-cupcakes,  but I think these by themselves, handed out by Rebecca (sorry to those that left early, I totally forgot about them until about half of the people had gone home!), was just fine.  And I think, ultimately, that my letting go and being realistic really saved my sanity.  And prevented any stress-induced disagreements between my husband and myself.  We usually end up having a few tiffs over the food (not enough, too much), but this time it all went pretty smoothly.  Maybe after all these years we're getting better at it.

 

The flowers turned out pretty well, I think, and were so very easy and fast to make.  I liked the ones with the rounded petals best, and used six sheets of tissue instead of eight (just because that's how many of each color they had in the package I got at the Dollar Store).

The birthday girl was pretty tired by the time the party started, but she managed to hang in there pretty well. 

 

She started dancing in her seat when we sang "Happy Birthday,"

and oh, my, she loved her first taste of chocolate cake, clapping and laughing after every bite.  Uh oh, guess I gave her my sweet tooth... sorry, my love!

And after everyone had gone home, she collapsed in a heap of exhaustion.  Kind of like her parents!

"Sometimes," said Pooh, "the smallest things take up the most room in your heart." -AA Milne

Happy first birthday, my lovable, shnoggable, darling little Jem.

still recovering...

Wow.  What a busy, crazy, colorful, jam-packed weekend. 

Saturday was Jessie's first! birthday party, but I'll save the details and photos for tomorrow, her actual birthdate.

Then came Easter...  Thankfully, not too terribly much chocolate and candy was consumed.



There was the hunt



and egg dying at Uncle Jack's house,



(the part about Easter that lasts for days...) and at home, there were a few Easter gifts.  Before Rebecca was even born, I'd wanted to start a tradition of buying my children a book for each special occasion or holiday, and so far it has been a real joy for me.  I love going to the bookstore, or online, and browsing.  So there were two books each

and

a puzzle book that sort of is a tiny bit educational(?) for Becca, and

and

for Jess.  They were a big hit.  I was especially happy with Bunny and the Very Windy Day, by Liane Payne.  It's a sweet story with cute illustrations, and you can't beat the price of $6.98 for a hardcover book with rich color, high quality paper, and texture on every page.  I can't find it on Amazon.com, but I got mine at our local Barnes & Noble.

There were also two new wee bunnies added to the world, but I still have to try to get them to stay still so I can take a photo.

All in all, a great weekend for everyone.  I think I need at least two more weeks until I'm fully recovered.

don't go away mad, just go away

Why?  Why?  Why do they insist on coming to my home, at all hours of the day and night, weekdays, weekends, when I'm cooking dinner, when I'm on the phone, when I'm trying to get my babies to take a nap?  After an hour of fussiness, Jess finally, grudgingly, fell asleep.  For a whopping eighteen minutes, until the doorbell rang four times in a row.  Now, before I start getting hate mail, I know not all missionaries are like this.  And I know that a large part of certain religions is the effort to spread the teachings.  But, c'mon, sometimes it's just an invasion and very agressive, at that.  Ding dong, ding dong, ding dong, ding dong.  Not a good way to get someone to the door, first of all.

Hi ma'am, are you of a particular religious faith?  No.  Not particularly.

Would you like to hear about the teachings of Jesus Christ?  No.  Not particularly.

So, are you just hanging around the house today?  (Yes, they really asked me that.  With a three year old at my knee, jumping up and down, and the sounds of crying coming over the baby monitor behind me.)  Uh, no.  Not really, I'm kind of in the middle of something.

After they finally went away, this is what they left behind. 

I know, I'm a horrible mom, to take a photo of my poor babe's utter despair, but if I didn't find humor in the situation, right that second, I would have left the house, hunted down those two lead-fingered doorbell ringers, and dragged them back to my house, giving them the pleasure of consoling my little one.  I figured taking a picture was actually quicker.  And, really, Mom, the camera was right there.  And then I picked her up and hugged her right away.  Really.

Please excuse me while I go make a sign.  Maybe something like this.

who am I kidding?

I was holding back. 

But I'm 'fessing up now, and just added to my list of blogs that I'm addicted to.  And I still have more to add.  After seeing the results of Julie's question, my goodness!  I felt it was safe to come clean.  I only have like 36 blogs I keep up with, and  even that is too many for me.   I only have so much time in a day, but yet, I get so many ideas!  You all make me want to knit and sew and do and see and go and experience and taste and travel and learn and read and listen and photograph and smell and shop and play and

I really haven't decided yet whether that's good or bad.

Did you get in on time?  I hope I did!  Now I just have to wait a week to find out for sure...

green & purple in the mail

The green and purple Coloriffic swap package went into the mail yesterday, after I had to spend way too much time in line at the post office.  And way too much money!  I'll spare you the details, but I nearly had a heart attack.  It's not even like my package was all that big, and nothing was terribly heavy...

The knitted eggplant went in here, of course, along with some gum, yarn, kitchen scrubbie, reuseable flower ice cubes,  apple magnet, foam flowers, alligator keychain, lotion, scented candle (I bet that was the culprit), and crocheted coasters.

The main part is made with raffia and the edging is done with cotton thread.

I hope the package gets overseas soon, and that everything is well received.  I really had a ton of fun gathering and making these things over the past month or so.  Looking at things through color seems to be a big theme these days!