Santa Clause Came To Town

I know. It's February. But he really ... ahem ... she came again. Seriously. I'll prove it.

My package arrived encased in this beautiful box

A hand made raspberry pin and an adorable button

Oh so soft alpaca yarn (left) and merino wool/alpaca/silk yarn (right). Far Above Rubies Goat Milk Soap - Kitchen Scrub (Santa must know how I {love} to cook with garlic and onions ... the more the better!) and some Alaskan Cranberry soap. In a house of boys ... I need all the smell good stuff I can get ;-)

Look how cute the soap looks ... those elves know how to whittle!

And if you still don't believe in Kris Kringle my dear Susan's

Just look what came from the North Pole! Melt in your mouth caramels, unbelievably smooth but just strong enough coffee and, bite size biscotti and dark chocolate.

I know.

I'm drooling too.

sigh.

I love swaps.

Thank you so much Nicole for your generosity and sharing the bounties of your wonderful state of Alaska ...This note card is "Gathering Berries" by Barbara Lavalle who is an Alaskan painter "of happy subjects ..."; this picture indeed makes me happy :-D

Ok - I'm not done yet ... you got that right. There's more. As if I wasn't spoiled enough. Nicole also included Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's laugh out loud book Things I Learned From Knitting (Whether I Wanted To or Not) and an adorable emery board with knitting needles and yarn embossed on it - too cute!

Now I'm off to enjoy a good read with a cup of java, some candies, and contemplate what to knit/crochet next ... hope you have a great weekend!

I Totally Flaked

I forgot to mention the Bend the Rules Sewing Swap.

It's the charming hand bag. So cute and easy to make. You know you want to sign up for this one too!

Random Bits of Information

There are a couple of swaps, sew alongs and just a few random bits that I wanted to share before the deadlines passed ... in case you didn't already have enough on your over committed plate ...

I recently signed up for these swaps:

Deadline to sign up is March, 17 or when they get 100 participants. Details here.


I stumbled upon this sweet stationary swap via SwapDex. Deadline to sign up is February, 27 so hurry up! Details here.

Lola Again is doing a secret sew along ... this definitely is tickling my MOJO. I've had the purses she's designed on my 'to-sew' list for faaarr tooo long. Details here.

And lastly, May(d) For Me! is coming back! I am determined to make some items for me this year so I'm already starting to plan ahead. I know I have 2 months until May but I want patterns/fabric/machine ready to roll come May. Here's what I have in mind ...

(Amy Butler photo's from her web site and Peasant Blouse from Quilt Home)

Ambitious I know. That's why I am planning now. Will you join me on some swapping-sewing adventures?

They Say Things Come In Threes

I have been blessed with three wonderful souls in my life.

All in different stages.

A loving husband, father, and provider.

A sweet, ornery, and old beyond his almost 5 years little boy.

A rambunctious, feisty, head first, thinks he is as big as his brother 2 year old.

These were the tulips that DH gave me for Valentines Day. Little did he know how much they would mean to me. I saw more than just beautiful flowers. I saw three people God has blessed me with.

I am enjoying slowing down to take in the smells, sights, and sounds of my three. I hope there are blooms in your neck of the woods too.

Happiness Is

Receiving mail that isn't a bill. Thanks Mindy!

Fresh baked bread.

Oh so soft alpaca yarn.

Relaxing with my boys.

Never mind that I had to bribe them with a movie to keep them still.

I am going to take some time off to enjoy these happy things and many more. I know I've said that before and then posted the next day ... this time I really am going to take a few days if not a week (or two) to just be. I need to focus. I have too many balls in the air and it seems the more I blog the more I become aware of what I haven't finished and what I'm not doing. See, I sit down to write a post and I think, oh, if I had only finished that scarf; or, that hat that I've made DH 4 times over that doesn't fit him but Henry *still* doesn't look right; or, this fabric is staring at me waiting to be made into ... You get the picture. I just need to be. Be happy. Be content. I have so much to be thankful for. I am just going to sit back, relax, and enjoy what true happiness is.

Wordless Wednesday - A City Unto Itself

Oh What A Difference ...

A day (or two) makes. Thank you for all the well wishes for my injured digit. The swelling has gone down and I am almost back to 100%. Your suggestions of chocolate, delegation of household duties, and most importantly ... adult beverages seemed to do the trick. Did all of you stay at a Holiday Inn Select?

I did finish my hat before I decided to do flip over my back seat ...

I followed the direction for the Durango hat through row 12 and used a H hook. My intent was to finish the band following the modifications that Simple Beans made ... my gauge was way off (no I did not do a test swatch ... what kind of crocheter do you think I am. jeesh.) so the band would either covered my eyes or I would have had to wear the hat like a crown! I decided to improvise. My first thought was to follow Simple Beans instructions but only chaining 4 (vs 8) cutting the band in half. About 4 rounds into it I was worried I would run out of yarn. I ripped out what I had done and decided to do 3 rows of single crochet instead. I did all three rows on the 'wrong side'. First row single crochet, second row I only looped through the loop facing me (vs both loops of a normal single crochet - I don't know how else to describe this - sorry!), and the last row single crochet. I liked how it turned out. Doing the band this way tightened it up a bit; it is nice and loose on top (read - only slight hat head hair) but snug around the band.

I've been happily wearing it every day!

Ouch

Oh yea. My pinkie hurts. Really bad.

I'm such a goofball - I fell over my backseat in the car trying to move the stroller so we could load goods from a super-sized store. In catching myself I bent my finger the wrong way - I think. I'm not really sure b/c I sorta blacked out for a brief moment from the pain. Seriously. It hurt that bad.



I did manage to finish up my hat this weekend and will post about it later in the week ... when it is a little easier to type ~ who knew typing would be so difficult minus one finger ...


Heres to 10 happy healthy little fingers!

Can Someone Tell Me

How to get to Sesame Street?


Seriously. I need to see The Count. You know, Count Von Count.


I've been working on my hat and come to a crossroads. I've remade this thing 3 times. The first I realized about row 6 that my "posts" were off ... so I pulled it. The second time about row 8 I realized that I had managed to add quite a few stitches ... so I pulled it. The third time I realized that I had to few stitches ... I didn't' pull it. Guess what. It fits. Hmmm ... the crochet hat Goddesses must have smiled on me because I.can't.count. Not to mention that my gauge must be off too ... sigh.


If I finish off the band the way she did (which I love by the way) it will be waaaayy to big / long - like over my eyes to big. Here's a pic of the partially finished hat on me

Ha! Terrible picture I know. Just keeping it real ;-) Thought you could use a chuckle this Friday.


So all you crocheters out there ... what would you do? I was thinking about taking the band that Simple Beans made and cutting it in half (start with chaining 4 vs 8) but there's another slight problem looming. I don't know if I will have enough yarn (there goes that gauge thing again). All I have left is in the picture below. Would you go for it and be prepared to rip it or just come up with some other modification?

The temperature is dropping again and the wind is blowing ... a wool hat might indeed be in order again soon. I eagerly await your suggestions ~ in the meantime ... I'm going to try find my way to Sesame Street.

Hope your weekend is filled with lots of love!

Weather Ouside ...

Isn't frightful. It's down right warm. It got up to 70 degrees here yesterday. So what better time to pull out the wool and begin crocheting myself a hat.



Recognize the yarn? At least I'll be prepared for next winter. sigh.

Wordy Wednesday

Henry's and my conversation the other day (in the car of course). The names have been changed to protect the innocent:


H: Pete wants to know when he can come to my house. I told him I'd have to ask my mom.


M: We can plan a play date with your friend.


H: With all my friends?


M: Maybe when the weather is nicer and we can play (stay) outside.


H: I don't want Sue and Jen to come over. I just like boys.


M: Remember, you always need to be kind even if you don't want to play with someone. Even if they are girls. God made them too.


H: I know. I am. You're the only woman for me. You know, 'cause you're my mama.

One

One can make a difference.

One second, one minute, even one hour can change our lives. In one breath it can go from laughter and silliness to worry and stress.

I'm finding less time for myself to sew, run errands, to have one minute of peace ... So what can one do when there isn't enough time in the day?

Tie one on. Don't worry ladies this is still a family friendly blog - I mean tie some yarn on our needles or hooks. Make a hat, a blanket, booties ... or all for a baby in need.

You might be wondering if I'm running out of time how can I possible suggest this ~ I discovered that I could make one hat quite quickly. A nice fix for the need to knit or crochet.

So. Where to go from here. I don't know. I am looking for a home for my little red hat. Will you help me? Are you aware of any organizations that accept baby hats? I haven't had much luck searching the Internet. I did however discover Project Night Night via Simple Beans. I am going to share that lovely idea with an organization I am involved with and see where that takes us. But what about just one little hat? An organization (or many) that could use a hat here and there when I do find one hour of peace ... one can make a difference.

Classified

I was inspired by my bloggy friend's post to get on the ball and finish something I had started a loooong time ago; organizing my recipes. I had this delusion that I would also make a spread sheet that listed all my cookbooks with my favorite recipes for easy access ... um, ya, right. Don't see that happenin' anytime soon. So I began with what I could accomplish; getting all my random pieces of paper classified and filed.

I decided to take all those loose recipes and cards and put them in vinyl and then in a folder. For those that were small and awkward (most) I glued them to a piece of colored paper. For those that were double sided but too small for the large vinyl sheet, I put in these.

I did run across a few items that stumped me. Like what do you file deviled eggs under? Vegetables? Appetizers? Random (Not Good For You) Goodness?

I use a spiral notebook to write down all the random UFO's (unidentified food objects) that are in my freezer. This way I know what I've got - 1 whole fryer, 1 serving of tacos. 1 bag of broccoli ... you get the picture. I also write on my storage container with a dry erase pen the date and what the UFO is so when I purge ... you know ... like a year later I can throw it away ... so efficient ;-)

I did chuck quite a few into the trash that I knew would never get made and rediscovered a few favorites like this one:

As you can see it has been well loved (and that we are very messy cooks)! Sorry the print is so small. If you copied the picture you could then enlarge it - it's a time consuming recipe but it is soooo yummy.

So tell me if you can, what's your most well loved recipe ... or is it classified?

Here It Is ...

... the bag that took forever.

Seems to be my m.o. these days.

It's huge.

I love it.

It turned out to be different that what I had originally planned to make. I lost the picture of what I had doodled midstream (like back in November!) and for the life of me could not remember where and how I was going to pleat it. Since everything was cut I decided to fall back on the Bend the Rules Beauty Bag.

I also adapted the Artsy clutch from the book as well. I made it a wee bit bigger, made one side have a flap to overlap, and

I'm diggin' this too.

It holds 2 or 3 diapers, cream for their bum, and a thin container of wipes.

Since my bag seems to be a black hole I made a zippered pouch using this tutorial to keep the little stuff (lip stuff, lotion) tidy.

I added a little pocket on the inside. Not because I'm clever but because I completely misjudged the size of my cell phone with it's sleeve on. I had to make another pocket for my purse about double the size of the original one. I hated to waste it so I added it to my pouch. Perfect size for my ID and a credit card to fit into.

Here are the stats for the purse:

Lining 23" x 15 1/2" ~ Contrasting exterior band 23" x 4 1/2"

Main exterior 23" x 11" ~ Handles 2 1/2" x 26"

Pocket 9" x 4" (original pocket size was 4" x 4")

Here are the stats for the diaper clutch:

Front side 8" x 12 1/2" ~ Back side 8" x 16 1/2"

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Love Is In The Air

I'll tell ya. I love me a good swap. Nothing like getting a package in the mail filled with goodies. Mindy hosted a Valentine Swap and I jumped right in. Bunny Bunster the Queen of Medium Maintenance (that title just cracks me up) and I were paired up and I got right to work. We both agreed that we were chocolate kinda gals so off to the store I went. I stumbled upon a giant Hershey's kiss and new that was a must. My dad used to live in Hershey, PA and as a kid I had season passes to the park and I would always come home with huge Hershey's kisses for my friends.

I figured since Bunny was only medium maintenance (as opposed to high) a little pampering might be in order. I included my favorite hand balm. I also thought she might enjoy her underthings staying under wraps ... and since this was a Valentines Day swap I pulled out some fabric appropriate for the occasion.

I also made two note cards. One of which I used to write her a note and an extra for Bunny to use for her Valentine.

I just cut hearts out from the fabric with my pinking shears and straight stitched them onto the card.

Now as I was typing up this post (I knew Bunny had gotten her loot) the mail man came a knockin'. Shew weee! I've got enough sugar to keep me high for some time. Heart Peeps, Hershey's chocolate bars, and Brach's conversation hearts. And when I come down to earth ...

Fun socks to keep me warm.

This sweet little number is on my front door

And this awesome plaque is in my sewing room

All I have to say is, Bunny,