greetingarts

coming out of the pantry

Ali, this post's for you, as promised.

I have a confession to make.  I have a lot of cupcake liners, paper cases, baking cups, whatever you call them, I've got them.  Lots of them.

Plain pastel.

Valentine's, regular and mini.

Mini Halloween.

Christmas ones.

And I hadn't even realized it, but they pretty much all have silicone siblings.

It's shocking, I know.  In my defense, all of these were purchased *after* each holiday, when they were on clearance.

Maybe I'll break out the cookbook and get baking with my girls when Becca gets off school today.  Nice treat after homework, don't you think?

rollin', rollin', rollin'

My sewing machine and I have been playing together quite nicely lately.

I made this crayon roll (thanks for the awesome tutorial, Cindy!) for my youngest, using fabric that she picked for the outside.  She's totally into cats, likes to crawl around  (half cat, half puppy) with things in her mouth, licking people and meowing.  Yeah, whatever.  At least she doesn't eat out of the cat's dishes.

It really is a cute fabric, from the 2004 Alexander Henry "kitty getaway" fabric collection.  I only had 3 fat quarters of it, unfortunately, but parted with one because, really, who can deny a two year old when they pick out a fabric?  (Amy, I know you know what I mean.)  I'm trying to learn how to let go and use. up. my. stuff.  I keep reminding myself that I have major storage issues, and can't get anything new if I don't use up some of the things I already have.  Since the new year, I've been helping my kids donate to charity or otherwise get rid of one of their old toys whenever they bring a new one home, so I should follow my own rule.  Ha.  Well, we'll see how well that goes.  Good theory, anyway, don't you think?

After I finished up the sewing and pressing, Becca used a cotton swab and a little dish of water, erasing all the sewing lines I'd drawn.  Then she dug through our crayon bucket and picked out the nicest, longest crayons in the prettiest colors to fill up the pockets.  She was so proud when she presented the roll to her sister, saying, "Oh, Jessie-ca, look what I made for you."  Then she paused, and added, "Well, Mommy helped, too."

Jessie loves it.  How do I know?  Well, she took it to bed that night and slept with it next to her pillow.

look out, here I come!

So excited!  I got my ticket to attend a class at Stitches West, a 1 hour Market Session.  We'll be learning short rows, making a scarf.  I get to take the family on a road trip (the first one since we got our minivan), see my parents, and pet pretty yarn with my sister.  Man, now I just have to wait for the next four weeks to go by...

Oh, and my friend Judy was the winner of my little contest.  The cable on the Denise Interchangeable Knitting Needles I was using just snapped right off at the tip, where it connects to the needle head.  Total bummer.  I wasn't doing anything crazy, not even knitting as tightly as I usually do, and crack!  They do have a lifetime guarantee, though, so hopefully I'll get to continue knitting my afghan for charity sometime soon.

Anyway, Judy, just email me, let me know what type (knitted, crocheted, sewn, beaded, whatever) of goody you want, and I'll try to deliver it to you in person next month.

what's wrong with this picture?

Sigh.  Well, something good might as well come out of this...

Everyone with the correct answer will be put into a drawing for a little goodie, yet to be determined.  If you're a knitter, it will be a knitted thingamajig, if you're a crocheter, a crocheted one, if you sew, I'll make a felt doodad (probably a softie in each case, but don't hold me to that).  Or, heck, maybe you don't do any of those things, who am I to judge?  The winner (I'll have the girls choose a name Sunday night) can pick the way they want me to make their gift.  Just something small, for fun, so postage won't cost an arm and a leg.  If you want, you can click on the photo to see it in a larger size.

I signed up for Thing-a-Day, so I figure I'll have plenty of opportunities to  create something new.

more burping

Had my first, entirely free day yesterday.  The kids were at Grandma's house (yippee!) and instead of balancing the checkbooks and starting our taxes like I was supposed to, I cleaned house, organized, and made more burp cloths.

Another set of three, two with the truck flannel.  I'd been wanting to do something for an expectant friend (scroll down to the last picture.  See?  I wasn't kidding!), and when I saw that I had the flannel that matched one of these, I just had to make more burp cloths.  Do you know how hard it is to make things for someone who knits, embroiders more beautifully than anyone I know, felts, cross stitches, sculpts with polymer clay, and is an all around crafting whiz?  I'm sure I left out some other things she does, but ha!  Kristin doesn't like to sew with a machine (yet).  So, while I'm getting some practice and gaining confidence, I can make her some things that would take her too long to do herself by hand.  Now I just have to include something for big brother, and then mail off the package.  Hopefully it will arrive before the new baby does!

I know I've gone and spoiled the surprise, but I just couldn't resist another burping post.  I think I got it all out of my system now. 

Urp.  Excuse me.

go ahead and burp

Babies on the brain lately.  So many friends having babies.

Such cute flannel, I couldn't resist whipping up a few essentials.

red + lime green

Okay, not crafty, but it's the end of the week, and I have to post my color picture.

Dark chocolate M&Ms, my newest vice.  I bought three bags on clearance at Target (yeah, I'm there almost every other day, seriously) after Christmas.  Should last me until the next clearance sale, after Valentine's Day...

balance

One of my new year's resolutions is to spend more quality time with my kids.  Time when I'm not distracted, wanting to finish/start/design a new project, stressing out about paying bills, or dreading all the laundry/dishes/grocery shopping that needs to be done.  I realize a lot of my impatience and snippiness with the kids occurs when they want my attention, but I'm trying to do something else.  Which is like *all* the time.  Multi-tasking is always touted as a great trait, but sometimes I think it's the pits.  Why should I have to do sixteen things at once?  Why can't I just enjoy my two sweeties and do absolutely nothing else?  Grandmas get to do it, I want to, too.

Over the weekend, I picked up this game at Target, off of one of their clearance shelves.  At the risk of sounding like a commercial, I love it.  It's pretty, made of bamboo, simple rules, exciting, encourages imagination (Becca has to have a story to go with each object we add onto the boat), and fun.  We had a great time, just playing, talking, enjoying each other's company.  Best $4 I ever spent.

Oh, and look, Mom.  They both got haircuts!  Bangs.  I gave up on trying to grow them out, it just takes too dang long.

Okay, for everyone else who isn't related to these two, I'll try to show something knitted, sewn, or otherwise crafty in my next post.

orange + yellow

This week's color photo was taken back in November, when I was trying to spice up a boring day spent indoors.  Just strategically placed slices of tamago, bread, and some seaweed salad for the face and hair (yeah, my kids will eat that).  By the look of those smiles on my girls' faces, I think I succeeded.

Christmas vacation ends tomorrow, then it's back to school on Monday.  It might be difficult to get back into the routine, especially the early to bed and early to rise.  Hopefully, though, there will be a renewed energy, greater focus, more patience and understanding on everyone's part.  I think I'm ready for 2008.

to warm the cranium

Certainly not the most thrilling or dynamic photo ever taken of a knitted object, but here's Peter's hat.  I hope it fits, I hope he likes it, and I hope it keeps him warm when it's snowing.

I used a wool/acrylic blend, making it toasty but still machine washable, and it's very stretchy so it can be pulled down to cover the ears if it gets very very cold.  And I think it matches the pair of convertible gloves I knit for him two (Two?  Really?  Yikes!) years ago.  I used this pattern, and cast on 116 stitches.  It was knitted to 9" before starting the decreases, and the twisted rib (knitting into the back of the stitch instead of the front) kept it interesting.  If you think it's too plain, don't look at me, talk to my husband.  I'd wanted to knit one of these but my husband scoffed and said "No."  Quite quickly, and quite vehemently (no offense to Jared, of course, it just wasn't my husband's thing - and he was guessing probably not Peter's, either).  So there you go.  The last Christmas gift, or, if you want to look at it in a different way, my first finished object of 2008.