3 Am Feedings

Northman Cowl

2012-01-14T14:06:00.004-05:00

I designed this cowl last year for my big-headed brother, and then knit a second for my big headed, big shouldered and necked husbeast. I love how the textured, but super easy stitch pattern looks, especially when worn.

I got to try it out myself last night on my thin neck and shoulders and it was wonderful. I loved the height of it, though it could have been an inch or two smaller around for me, it still worked well. As you can see I could even pull it up over my hat to keep myself warmer while I pumped gas!

It was inspired by Eric Northman of the Southern Vampire series and I wrote the pattern in a simple to follow, row-by-row stitch diagram that leads you through 3 pattern sections seperated by simple garterstich.

The size may be adjusted by going up or down in needle size and using heavy or finer weight yarn. As is, it’s sized One Size Fits Most.

I used almost 2 balls of Lana Gatto Camel Hair yarn in navy for the first one, and less than one skein of Kramer Yarns' "Perfection" for the 2nd (pictured on me). Any similar DK weight yarn of around 250 yards would work.

Click here to go to the Ravelry pattern page.

2011-07-06T21:48:00.001-04:00

I have been severely neglecting this blog; I have in fact been wooed over by the quick and easy use plus social media platform of tumblr.

It's so easy to just hit "text" and type out whatever frustration I'm having at the time.
I'd love to get back more to this one though, as this was my creative-outlet blog where tumblr is more my emotional-outlet blog. My Dr recommended I blog or journal so that I can better manage my anxiety and not have to go on Xanax LOL! So far, so good. 2 yrs and counting.

I also regret to inform you that I haven't knit any hats for the homeless yet this year. I think I can still pull it off though.

I've done a moderate amount of quilting, finishing up a couple lap or baby sized ones to list in my etsy shop and I've managed to add a single row down the side of our previously queen sized shaggy quilt! It now actually covers our huge king sized bed and will wonderfully once I get the 2nd row done.

I'm getting ready to take on a whole new different type of quilting project than I've ever done before. I'm going to make a quilt, slightly bento box style, out of t-shirt fabrics. A woman my MIL works with gave me an entire rubber maid tote the size of a coffee table full of her grandson's baby blankets. I've bought some fusible stabilizer and next week I hope to set forth on this adventure.

For tonight, I'm going to play Transformers with my son and finish knitting a "True Loves Socks" pattern sock (search Rav for pics).

Trying to reply to a comment

2011-03-06T18:31:00.002-05:00

Carla Dawn commented on my "Big Ugly Man Mittens" post/pattern for plain 'ol "man sized" mittens saying, " Hi Love your blog !!! Can you tell me how big these mittens are when complete. I have a male friend who wears 3 XL hands. I have been searching for a pattern to no avail. This is a wonderful pattern. I didn't see any finished measurements, perhaps, I missed the numbers. Thanks for the pattern. "

Unfortunately I can't reply to her, and her profile isn't public so I have no way to contact her directly to answer her question. I'm hoping she will see this post.

In answer to her question:
Laying flat the mittens are:
8" from the tip of the fingers to the inner edge of the ribbing (where the ribbing ends and the mittens start).
The ribbing is 3.5" long.
Across the widest part of the hand they measure 5" (unstretched, not including the thumb)
The thumb is 3.5" long at the longest edge (from the edge of the palm out to the tip)

If these would still be too small a person could knit with the yarn held double and do the ribbing on size US 5 needles and the body on size US 8 needles, with the same row and stitch numbers and it would increase the mitten size without having to alter the pattern.

I hope this helps and that Carla sees it!

Hats for the Homeless

2011-01-07T21:06:00.005-05:00

Last year my goal for the year was to knit one hat every month to donate to our local homeless shelter in downtown Knoxville called Knox Area Rescue Ministries.

Along about October I realized that 12 hats would not be a drop in the bucket so I began to knit hardcore. My younger sister Diantha knit 4 or 5 hats for me, and I found a couple laying around the house I'd knit for no one in particular so I washed them and tossed them in the pile.

I ended up with 36 different hats!! That's more than twice my goal!
I don't know if I'll do it again this year; I wanted to. But it made me so sad when I dropped them off, it was not quite cold enough to snow and even though it was only about 2 in the afternoon the streets around the shelter were already lined with homeless who were sleeping or just hanging out on the sidewalks. I was thinking maybe my time and money would be better invested to buy in bulk things like sweatshirts, tube socks, etc? things that would help more people than just the few I was able to help this year?

I haven't decided yet; I'm still thinking about it. Whatever I decide, I'm pretty pleased with my turn out last year and I was excited to get to try some new patterns like the HeartFail hat (pattern on Ravlery) which was just great. Will definitely have to knit it myself again.

If you'd like to cruise my ravelry projects, most of the hats are listed as projects there. If you're not a raveler, here's a picture of all of them together just before I dropped them off!

Quilts, Quilts, Quilts!

2011-01-07T20:37:00.015-05:00

I am sooo behind in blogging. Allow me to try to catch up.

The last 2 weeks of October and the first week of November was Massive Quilting Time around here as I prepared to do a craft show. I had plenty of quilted bags, though I did also put together 3 Learning Purses to take with me.

I made several lap quilts, one was huge--nearly twin and then a wall hanging. I, of course, true to form only sold ONE batik tote at the show and right before we shut down the final night. Oh well. I've sold 3 of these quilts out of my etsy shop since, and one actually before the show, so I am not complaining.

First we had Whirlwind which was a lap quilt made from a fall 5" charm swap I'd participated in through the Quiltsy etsy street team. It's a Disappearing Nine Patch pattern and actually this also was my Weird and Ugly Challenge entry for the N2Quilting yahoo group I'm in. I cut the W/U fabric into 5" charms and dispersed it throughout the quilt top. It is sold.

Then I made a simple pinwheel quilt from 50 different red charms and one white on white print fabric. I called this one The Red Queen and it is still available for purchase in my etsy shop here: t he Red Queen

Mine of Moria was one of my favorites and actually took me the longest to do because I left it on my design wall for months so I could rearrange the squares here and there until I got them just how I wanted them. It's a Jewel Box pattern and done with a single White on White print and a ton... I think around 100?... of different batik fabrics. I named it Mines of Moria after the mines the dwarves dug in the Lord of the Rings... 'cause I'm just that cool. This one has (thankfully!!) already sold! It was the biggest too, almost twin sized.

I finally finished the Primitive Nativity folk art quilt I'd been working on for years. I'd made the top but had never gotten around to stitching down all the shapes or quilting it. It is finally done!! A nice Christmas wallhanging, it made it thru the holiday season and is still for sale in my shop here.

Then I put together a very simple charm quilt from a moda charm pack someone had sent me last year. I pulled all the pink and lime fabrics out of it and arranged them in a checkerboard pattern. Then I appliqued huge whimsical flowers around the borders with some moda fabric from the same line that I picked up at the quilt shop. I love how cute and simple this one turned out to be!! It went to a new home just before Christmas! I called it Printemps which is French for "spring."

It had been a long time since I'd done any quilting, piecing or actual quilting, and I really enjoyed putting these together!

Yarn Lust

2010-11-18T09:45:00.035-05:00

I have yarn lust. I've been knitting almost exclusively for the last couple months for the local homeless shelter, using acrylic/wool blend yarns and I find myself looking longingly at my sock needles and my etsy favorites for some more higher end and/or exotic yarns and fibers.

I thought I'd share with you a few that particularly caught my eye. Christmas is 37 days away and for us knitters that means panic! A couple of these yarns are worsted or bulky weight so would knit into a super quick gift for you if you too fall in love with them.

First we have "Caramel," a hand painted merino/cashmere sock yarn in a gorgeous burnt gold color. I am not normally attracted to gold but the color on this yarn is delicious and who doesn't want to knit with cashmere?!
Find it at: http://www.etsy.com/listing/60590591/

Then I saw "Truth or Dare," a fun and funky bright colored thick and thin handspun plied with a commercial black yarn. At super bulky weight this would make an almost instant (and most awesome) hat. I'm thinking a Gnome hat, but that's just me! You can go drool over it at: http://www.etsy.com/listing/61576187

Back to sock weight, we have "Midnight". Oooh... I love this one. Gorgeous, gorgeous blues. With my love of short socks this 400 yard skein could get me two pairs of luscious socks! If you'd like to nab it before I do, hit: http://www.etsy.com/listing/59567388/

Or cool down your color palette with this super silky handspun bamboo yarn, "Ice Princess." Barely discernable colors lend this the hues of reflections in ice and would make a wonderfully soft scarf for someone special on your list! Check it out at: http://www.etsy.com/listing/34354541

I've had the pleasure of working with "Mystic" and I was not disappointed! It knits up super squooshy and warm, with the blue and purple colors pooling and patterning nicely and is very soft on the feet! Pick up your own skein from: http://www.etsy.com/listing/52996563

"Chutney..." how warm and inviting are the colors in this yarn?! It makes me think of sitting before a fire, eating a hearty bowl of soup and keeping warm. And warm is just what this BFL wool yarn would keep you. I'm thinking some chunky mittens. What do you think? http://www.etsy.com/listing/43135560

The wonderful color of "Eire" makes me think of course of the rolling green hills of Ireland and maybe even, a little luck? And again, this yarn is a superwash merino/nylon/cashmere blend! Knit your man some lucky luxury socks to stick in his stocking this Christmas. Go ahead, you still have time! http://www.etsy.com/listing/56257584

And how can I not include "Palette by Yarn Lust? A super stripey cashmere blend of pinkish-red, yellow, green and blue, this yarn would be so much fun to knit with! Let the fun begin at: http://www.etsy.com/listing/41657777/

This "Black Beauty" is simple gorgeous. Slightly thick and thin worsted weight yarn, handspun from local (to that shop) alpaca. Could it be better? Could it be more warm? I don't think so! Very manly but very beautiful, truly a unisex yarn. Drool over it at: http://www.etsy.com/listing/60304939/

"Pretty in Pink" is another fun and chunky handspun. If the blend of very soft merino, bamboo and sparkles weren't enough it's also had some light pink jump rings spun into it! How fun is that?! Jump on over to it at: http://www.etsy.com/listing/33263078

And last but certainly not least, I give you not a yarn but a decadent carded fiber batt. I have a CD spindle just itching to get this fiber on it! It's gorgeous!!! "Bloodlust" is almost 6oz of scrumptuous, yummy fibers like superwash merino, bamboo, milk fiber, etc. It will make a killer yarn! Lust over it at: http://www.etsy.com/listing/62070749

I can TOO make Pumpkin Pie!

2010-11-17T21:55:00.021-05:00

I've never made pumpkin pie before. This is because I have a mother. A mother who makes the best pumpkin pie ever. But...

My church let all the kids decorate small pumpkins for Halloween and had a ton leftover and my boss let me take 4 home. So these pumpkins are sitting around, staring me down for a week. I know I have to do something with them before they expire. Finally I got up the nerve and called my Mom.

"Can I bake pumpkin pie from a real pumpkin?" There was silence on the phone, I assume she was deciding whether to pretend she didn't know who was calling. Finally, "Yes."

"Can I bake pumpkin pie with small pumpkins?" Sigh..."Yes."

"How do I do that?"

The instructions were: Cut the pumpkins in half and lay them on waxed paper on baking sheets and bake for a couple hours until they were mushy. I didn't have waxed paper (or tin foil, this brought more sighs.) So I lined my baking sheets with butcher paper, plastic-y side down, and sprayed it with Pam. This worked marvelously but left the edges of the pumpkins a little black (not burnt!) but I dealt with that later.

Amidst this there was a lot of, "Are you sure this is gonna work?" "Yes."

"ARE YOU SURE?!"

I baked my pumpkins at 375 for 3 hours; while I watched TV. You may choose to clean or knit or have a roll in the hay with your hubby; any of these are an option for passsing the time.

Then I turned the oven off and went to bed, leaving them to cool in the oven overnight.

The next day:

"What now?" Sigh. "Scoop the guts out."

"How do I do that?" Sigh...

I cut each half pumpkin in half again just to make it easier to handle.

I armed myself with a gallon size ziplock bag, a large spoon and a smallish sharp knife.

First I trimmed the black edge off the pumpkin, which I assume was just caused from the butter flavored Pam. This did not harm the pumpkin nor the flavor.

Then I used the spoon to "scoop" the guts out of the center of the pumpkin. This was SO much easier to do after the pumpkin was baked!!

Then I used the spoon again to scoop around just between the rind of the pumpkin and the mushy pumpkin I wanted to "harvest." Kind of like you do with avacado. See picture. This also was a lot easier than peeling the pumpkin before hand, and was actually easy to do with the spoon than the with knife. I tried both ways.

In the middle of this my darling husband called and said, "What're you doing?" To which I replied, "I am channeling the spirit of my prairie foremothers in preparing food from raw form with my bare hands." He said, "Sorry I asked. See you later."

Once you have all your pumpkin scooped and the part you want to keep (that's the mushy soft part between the rind and the guts, okay?) put all the "keep" pumpkin in the gallon sized ziplock and throw it in the fridge overnight. Throw the rind and guts away in an manner you wish (compost pile, garbage, pig slop, neighbors' doorstep).

The next day:

The Making of the Pie:

A text to Mom: Pie. Directions.

The resulting ingredients and directions were:

1 1/2 cups pumpkin

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

dash of salt

small can of evaporated milk (5oz I think)

about a teaspoon total of pumpkin pie spice or a mix of cinnamon and nutmeg (I used almost 2teaspoons)

Bake about 45 minutes at 400 degrees. It's done when a knife comes out moist from steam but not gooy with pumpkin.

This makes ONE pie. You can double it for two. It's good.

To do all this I started with the pumpkin and the eggs in the bowl and beat them to total mush with the mixed. Then I added the sugar, etc and beat it. The mix is runny when you're done (I was concerned but Mom assured me it was fine). It does set up just fine in the oven, so no real cause for alarm.

I cheated and used a STORE BOUGHT CRUST. This is because I was leaving for a 34hr trip to Parris Island, South Carolina the next morning and was also baking an applie crump-topped pie and a spiral sliced ham. I can make pie crust. I can make really good pie crust. I just chose not to. Don't judge me.

Bake your pie; let it cool while you run to the grocery for a small container of heavy whipping cream. Do not eat Cool Whip, it will kill you. I never understand people who buy Cool Whip "cause it's easier." Heavy whipping cream is $1.48 at Walmart. You need about 1/4 cup of white sugar, a clean mixing bowl and cold beaters and 4 minutes. How hard is this?

So if you want to put whipped cream on your pie:

Toss your metal beaters in the freezer for 5-10mins.

You don't have to, no, but it helps.

Pour cream in mixing bowl.

Begin to beat on speed 1 for minute or two.

Slowly sprinkle about half your sugar in the cream. Increase speed to 2.

Continue to beat until it begins to thicken. Sprinkle the remaining sugar in and continue to beat until it's completely whipped and fluffy in texture.

Enjoy! Impress your inlaws! Or, keep it all to yourself and eat it out of the pan in front of the TV. Just enjoy!

Des and Tony take a Grown Up Trip

2010-10-07T19:24:00.020-04:00

Last Saturday (October 2nd) was my husband's and my 6th wedding anniversary. Jeremiah arrived a quick 9mo and 10 days after our wedding (our honeymoon lasted 1 night before Tony had to be back to work) and we've never been away from both kids for one night since. Jeremiah has spent the night from time to time with Nana but there's always been Hannah here.

Tony put in for some vacation so he'd have a couple days off and my MIL Cheryl volunteered to watch the kids Fri and Saturday and then on Sunday so we could take the TN hangun safety for carry/conceal permit class.

Friday we drove over to Gatlinburg and got a motel room with hot tub access for the night. We took a stroll down the main drag of Gatlinburg trying to decide where to eat and finally settled on TGI Fridays since neither of us had ever eaten there. The food was *wonderful*. Best meal I've had out in forever! I can't tell you how relaxing it was to sit there, have grown up conversation and eat a meal (hot) without having to get extra napkin, forks, take salt out of little hands...

We took a soak in the hot tub afterward and I'd never been in a hot one, just one with Jeremiah once that was the temp of bath water. I can understand why they're popular because after 20 mins I was soooo sleepy and relaxed! Wonder if we can put one on our front porch? It was nice to lay around on the bed and watch non-PBS sponsored TV and knit on a sock a little while Tony talked to me.

Saturday morning I awoke to my beloved coming into the motel room with a box of a dozen glazed fresh croissants from The Donut Friar which is located in "The Village" in Gatlinburg. They open at 5am! Apparently Tony also sneaked a photo of me snoozing away in the middle of the bed. If you are ever in Gatlinburg at any time of day, you owe it to yourself to hit the Donut Friar. They have the best donuts ever (HUGE eclairs, delicious and almost too much to eat!) and it's so much better than standing in line at all the local resteraunts. Good coffee too, which you'll need to wash down an eclair. We each ate a couple and brought the rest home to the kids.

Then we walked around town a little more, did some browsing in a few stores (and how nice was it to go into a store, look at what you wanted to look at and not have to pry a single thing out of tiny fingers?!).

Then it was time to head over the mountain to the 2nd part of our Grown Up Trip: Harrah's Cherokee Casino. I'd never been, not having been old enough to enter a casino when we married and Tony has only been once since then. We're not big gamblers. He's a bad gambler and I'm cheap, so taking some cash in with us suits us fine. We played some .25 bet card game the whole time we were there LOL! Lucky 7s or something that had rules kinda like anything, straights, flushes, 2 pair, 3 of a kind, etc. If you got 3 7s you got to rub one of 3 pots of gold that appeared and that would be bonus winnings. I lost $10 out of my $25. I think Tony lost $60 LOL!!

The drive from Gatlinburg to Cherokee is a gorgeous 35mil winding road up and back down a huge mountain. I could hang out the car like a dog to look at the view, I really could.

After we left we went into a couple tourist traps in downtown Cherokee to get the kids some "Indian drums", feathered headdresses, etc then it was back home to Cheryl's house here in town. By the time we got there the kids were asleep which was sad to me because we were reall y missing them at that point but we spent the night there, left their presents and donuts and got up early the next morning to take the gun class.

We got done with the class and the written test, which we both passed, by about 1pm on Sunday and finally got the kids back. The rest of the day we laid on the couch, snuggled and watched movies. It was a very nice weekend, indeed!

In retrospect casinos are really depressing as hell. None of the games run off coinage or 1 dollar bills, they all take $5s which isn't too bad. They also give you a "member card" which you put in each game and the more you play, you rack up points that you can redeem as coupons off food, hotel, etc. These member cards are attached to small bungee cords. We only saw 3 other couples our age, everyone else was 65+. Looking around you saw hundreds of old people, tethered to whatever game they were playing and most of them chain smoking, their walker or oxygen tank next to them. Atmosphere of lost hope and dissapointment. BUT they serve alcohol now so if you're of that mindset, you can drown your sorrows (we didn't) and then it won't really bother you LOL.

Big Ugly Man Mittens

2010-09-19T14:32:00.011-04:00

My brother Artemas is heading off to college in New York in January and has been loudly complaining that even with all the knittes in the family he still doesn't have any knitwear to keep him warm. My sister Diantha and I have secretly begun knitting him a little cache of cool weather warmies. I could't find a suitable plain ol' mittens pattern I could use so I came up with my own. I thought I'd share it here so you can use it too.

These mittens look incredibly huge but they fit my big handed husband (and hopefully brother) really well. The decrease rounds toward the fingertips make them fitted through the fingers and less bulky for handling things.

Big Ugly Man Mittens
I used 1 skein (approx. 200yds) of “Encore” worsted weight yarn by Plymouth Yarns. The fiber content is 75% acrylic, 22% wool and 3% viscose for some nice warm and user friendly mittens.

You will need:
1 200 yd skein of worsted weight yarn
1 set of 4 size 3 (3.25mm) DPNs or one shorter circular needle of the same size
1 set of 4 size 5 (3.75mm) DPNs or one shorter circular needle of the same size
One stitch marker
Waste yarn (2 pieces approx. 6” long) or 2 stitch holders
Yarn needle

Abbreviations:
Sts = stitches
K = knit
P = purl
Kk = knit knit, knitting a stitch then pulling the yarn to the font before removing it from the needle and knitting it again, effectively increasing 1 stitch (making 2 sts where there was 1)
K2tog = knit 2 stitches together, effectively decreasing 2 stitch

Directions:
Both mittens follow the same pattern thru row 32 and then again from row 48 on.

Loosely cast on 48 sts (16 sts on 3 DPNs) on the size 3 needles.
Join in the round without twisting, placing marker at the end of the row and work in k2, p2 rib for 24 rows.

Switch to the size 5 needles and work in plain stockinette for 8 rows (you are now at row 32).

1st mitten:
Row 33: k47, kk
Row 34: k47, kk, k1
Row 35: k47, kk, k2

Continue in this manner, increasing 1 stitch on the 48th sts every row for 15 rows (until row 47).

Row 48: k48, place next 15 sts on waste yarn or stitch holder, make a loop of yarn by twisting yarn backward onto working needle twice (effectively “casting on” 2 sts). Join back in the round and knit 2 rows.

Row 50: k23: k2tog, k23, k2tog
Rows 51-55: knit all sts
Row 56: k6, k2tog to end of row (42 sts)
Rows 57-65: knit all sts
Row 66: k5, k2tog to end row (36 sts)
Row 67-69: knit all sts
Row 70: k4, k2tog to end of row (30 sts)
Rows 71-79: knit all sts
Row 80: k4, k2tog to end of row
Row 81: knit all sts
Row 82: k3, k2tog to end of row
Row 83: knit all sts
Row 84: Cut yarn about 10” away from knitting and using the yarn needle thread that tail through all remaining sts, pull tight and tie off to the inside. Weave in end.

Thumb:
Using your size 5 needles, pick up sts from waste yarn or sts holder and 5 more sts over middle/web of thumb area (where you increased by casting on 2 sts when working the main body of the mitt) You should have 20 sts.

Work in stockinette for 14 rows then cut yarn about 8” away from knitting, use the yarn needle to thread that tail through all sts, pull tight and tie off to the inside. Weave in end.

2nd mitten: (follow previous pattern thru row 32)

Row 33: k47, kk
Row 34: k48, kk
Row 35: k49, kk

Continue in this manner, increasing one stitch at the end of each row for 15 rows (until row 47).

Continue previous pattern directions for rows 48-end of pattern.

Incredibly Veggie and Beef Stew

2010-09-07T21:43:00.003-04:00

Cooler weather is finally upon us here in East Tennessee. We've been able to have our air shut off and our windows open for 4 whole days and nights now; which may not seem like much to you but I am thrilled!

To celebrate the reprieve from the heat my dinner menus have turned to warmer meals. Tonight's was incredibly veggie beef stew. Yes, I mean "incredibly" instead of "incredible." This is because there is an incredible number of veggies in my stew.

I use:
1 14oz can of petite diced tomatoes
1 30oz can of tomato sauce
1 14oz can of low fat/low sodium beef broth
1/3 cup frozen peas
1/3 cup frozen corn
1/2 a container of mushrooms, sliced
2 huge cloves of garlic, minced
2 stalks of celery, sliced
1 large onion, diced
1 green pepper, chopped
1 cup of sliced carrots (I use baby carrots cause they're easy to cut & good for snacking)
2 cups fresh green beans, snapped into 1.5" long pieces
5 small red potatoes or 2 regular potatoes, cubed
1 package of beef tips or a large steak cubed

I start with the heartier veggies (carrots, celery, green pepper then onion) sauteeing in about a tablespoon of olive oil. Then I add the garlic, peas, corn, mushrooms, green beans, and cans of tomatoes and broth. Season with about a 1/2 teaspoon of salt and some pepper. Add potatoes and beef. Simmer, stirring occasionally for about an hour or until all veggies are softened (but not mushy.)

Delicious, low maintenance, low hassle dinner! It keeps in the fridge for several days, tastes wonderful reheated and also freezes well. Pair with some crusty bread and there's your meal!

Variations: Use whatever veggies *your* family likes! Like okra? Add it! Don't like peas, leave 'em out! Want to try it a little spicy? Substitute a can of rotel diced tomatoes and green chilies for the can of diced tomatoes. Don't have any beef tips? Cut up a couple chicken breasts or toss in some sausage! The sky--and your budget--are the limits.

Princess Lily Turns 3

2010-08-16T22:00:00.012-04:00

Princess Lily turned 3 a week and a half ago, but aside from a couple Dollar Tree gifts her birthday this year went by without much ado because this week her Daddy comes back for a visit from his current tour in Afghanistan and they're planning a big birthday party for her to share with her sister and brother to make up for their missed birthdays this year.

Lily, my Goddaughter, is very opinionated about all things girly. For instance she asked for a big, poofy, fluffy, pretty princess dress. It needed to be pink. Pink is a girl color, or maybe purple she said. Not blue, blue is not girly enough. Sparkles are good.

So, Auntie Des headed off to the fabric store with a sample dress (from Lily's older sister Summer's 2yo old days) and a plan and returned having met with a great sale.

Princess Lily is getting a huge, poofy, fluffy, sparkly light pink satin dress for her birthday, just in time for Daddy to come home to see.

My own Princess Hannah will be getting a matching (though smaller) dress in light purple from us for Christmas. Hannah's dress has not been cut out yet but the materials were bought during the aforementioned great sale.

Lily's dress was made 2" too big around the middle so it will fit her longer, but with ties at the side to make it fit now. It snaps at the shoulders because I didn't want to snag the satin with my cheapy machine trying to zigzag stitch button holes. The buttons at the shoulders are for show but are pearlized and have small, girly flowers on them. The material for the bodice of the dress is pink satin with sparkles. The sheer fabric over the plain pink sating skirt also has sparkles and rhinestones. The skirt of the dress has a lining complete with 4 layer section of toule to make it fluffier. It is long, good for twirling. I know she will love it.

The Ride Home

2010-06-11T22:57:00.014-04:00

I took these pictures around town a couple weeks ago and they have been hanging out and waiting on my desktop for me to finally post them. I truly love where I live, here in the foothills. Things have a little more color on them now with all the rain we've been having but you can still see how beautiful the countryside is in the little town I live in.

Just Call Me Murphy

2010-06-08T22:18:00.013-04:00

I don't know if it's creativity, a mischievious muse or maybe just pride that makes me look at something that's already wonderful and think, "Yeah, I can do better."

It all started with an idea. Let's have another TwitterKAL. I've had that Susie's Reading Mitts pattern in my queue since the last TwitKAL and 2 skeins of Lavish super-fine alpaca in a gorgeous blood color, sent to me by a fellow knitter in a yarn swap. In preparation for the cast-on date (which is Fri!), last night I took my beautiful yarn and wound it around the back of my Mom's couch so I could dye half of that skein and the yarn would self-stripe. (We discovered Mom's couch is actually the perfect circumfrence for dying yarn for socks/gloves so that they stripe in 2row wide stripes!)

For some reason the black dye I used didn't work. This morning I mixed orange koolaid with grape koolaid and the resulting color is very dark dried-blood/almost black which works for me cause I was planning on channeling Tim Burton's version of the Queen of Hearts with my mitts anyway. I'm calling this colorway "Iracebeth" in her honor.

Which brings us to Murphy's Law. If it can go wrong, it will. Great idea, bad in execution. The part that went wrong? The re-skeining. I made sure not to tangle or twist the HUGE skein while it was dying, being rinsed and hung to dry. I began to wind it around my swift to form a 2yd skein and got exactly 3 rounds before it all went to hell. Tangled. Terribly tangled. I think it took me 3 hours to untangle it. While I was working on it, I made homemade pecan cinnamon buns though so it wasn't a total loss.

But finally, I have my 200yd ball of dark red and darker red which will stripe in a spectacularly gothic manner. I wonder if I should try to wind it into 2 center-pull balls so I can make sure to make each mitt the same size (since I'm already 20yds short, gonna have to tweak the length) or if I should just wing it? After all, it isn't like I couldn't dye the other skein....

How About We Twit-Along?

2010-06-06T22:00:00.004-04:00

At the beginning of the year SpazzyYarn hosted a Twitter-Knit-A-Long thru her blog. We voted on the top suggested patterns and eventually settled on knitting the Travelling Woman shawl (pattern available on Ravelry.) It was a ton of fun!

One of the patterns we voted on was Susie's Reading Mitts; an adorable fingerless gloves pattern that could be knit from wool to be warm for winter or from cotton or silk for a pretty little summer accessory. From what I've read while paging thru the pages and pages of completed projects they knit up quickly (graduation present anyone?) and seem to look good in solids and variagated yarns!

Let's have another Twit-Along, knitting the Susie's Reading Mitts! How about if we have a cast on date for this coming Friday, June 11th and a finishing date by Wednesday, June 30th.

The pattern for these mitts says it calls for approx. 220 yards of yarn, which I'm sure most of us have in our stashes. Join us! If you tweet about the KAL or your progress, make sure to use the "hash tag" #TwitKAL2 so we all can track progress!

This will be FUN!

I Love my Living Room

2010-05-22T10:27:00.007-04:00

Finally, finally we have our living room "back to normal." It's taken almost two weeks (though I've been sick this last week) but last night for the first time since we tore it apart to paint the floors, it's clean and decorated like we usually have it!

We still need to paint the trim along the back (or side, however you look at it) wall and put the quarter round molding around it and the entry way but at least where any furniture needs to be the molding is complete and the trim is repainted! Amazing what a difference a little piece of quarter round makes.

Tony also found us some beautiful grate covers for our air conditioner vents in the floors. Since we moved in we had these ugly generic brown ones that didn't fit in the holes. They just sat in them, lopsided, half sticking up on one side. We'd spent hours looking at them at Lowes and Home Depot but didn't think they made ones that fit. Tony, on a lark, picked the next size up from what we thought and beyond belief, they fit perfectly! Black wrought iron looking too like our lamps and DVD racks. I love them.

I am so happy with our progress. We are still planning to texture the ceiling to cover up some patchwork we had to do before we moved in, and hang a ceiling fan but for now the living room looks AWESOME! I love the black floors, what a great idea!! I love how the new bright white molding and trim just pops.

In other news... we passed the building inspection for our bedroom upstairs, just need to get the electrical inspection ordered on Tuesday (ran into a little snag and that got delayed a week or two). Then it's on to insulation and drywall! Stay tuned....

What We've Been Up To

2010-05-09T16:48:00.013-04:00

What did you get for Mother's Day? I tend to be a little unconventional, and my husband hasn't had a day off since April 12 so I took the liberty of shopping for him. I got a really awesome, sexy pair of black high heels, 2 books by Janet Evanovich and a painting for above our fireplace.

When Jeremiah was about 18 months old I let him finger/brush paint an 8"x10" canvas and we have it framed hanging in our stair well because it turned out really cool. We've been unable to find an appropriate art print or painting for over our fireplace for an amount of money I want to spend on one, so Friday I bought a large canvas, set the kids up with paints and brushes on plastic in the yard and let them have at it. The result was awesome! Mom and the kids showed up as they were finishing painting on their way home from Kentucky to pick up ducks so we painted duck feet and let the ducks walk across the painting as well. I try to be a cool Mom and I think I succeeded this week.

I, we, also got the "gift" of re-doing our living room floors this weekend. I thought we could do it yesterday but it's turned into a 3 day thing as we put the first coat of clear/hard sealer on it this morning and have another planned for tomorrow morning since my MIL will have the kids all day. We can insulate around the cracks and put up half round molding too and finish it with one fell swoop.

Conventional "wisdom" said we couldn't paint our nasty, stained and dog-urine ruined hardwood floors without sanding and re-staining them. Bah. I laugh in your general direction, sir. Our theory was that if we could find the right type of paint/clear coat we could simply paint the floors the black we wanted without staining and ruining the wood (that way if we ever get tired of the dark, we sand up the paint, sand up the sealant already there and have light wood to work with.

It is fabulous.
We are so in love. Now the molding looks shabby but that's nothing another gallon of bright white paint won't fix.

We've also still been making progress upstairs, we have both windows in now!!! Our friend came over Tues and helped us finish the electrical so
we're ready to order BOTH the building and electrical inspections!! Hooray! We missed calling the electrical inspector this week, he only takes calls on Tues and Thurs mornings from 8am-9am and we called the building inspector but apparently he took Friday off, so tomorrow... it's on.

I've also spun this skein of hurt your teeth pink merino I carded with black merino, blue bamboo and blue and black angelina (I handdyed the last 3). I got 167yds of bulky wieght average yarn.

And I was in a yarn swap and received this gorgeous hummingbird green 100% bamboo sock yarn. I have a wonderful mother in law. She loves green, hummingbirds and all things luxurious. She is allergic to wool so bamboo is perfect. She can wear them, sitting in her menopause-ily freezing air-conditioned house, in comfort. She loved them.

Betsy Dresses, round 1

2010-04-19T16:11:00.013-04:00

Two new dresses for my babiest sister Betsy, who just turned 3. Her favorite color is red and she had startling blue eyes just like the vampires in the Underworld series (when they start to feed, LOL! Google image search if you'd like.)

When I found this small mushroom print in the clearance rack at a local quilt shop, I thought it was perfect for a Betsy dress. I pulled the perfect red from my stash, washed and ironed it and then realized it has very faint paw prints on it. What the heck? Anyway, it doesn't show up very well and I am unable to go buy more fabric right now so the pawprint fabric was made to work for the top of the dress.

For the skirt for the 2nd I used a 1/2yd of "fat eighth" fabric that Tony got me for our anniversary years ago. I think it was our 1st anniversary, he and baby Jeremiah went out and bought me several half yard cuts of fabric (3 of which were these type), some thread and a really good pair of scissors. : ) He's so sweet! I had to piece the lining of the top to get it all cut out of the piece of solid blue I had but it looks very nice inside so I'm happy with it. I would rahter have to piece the lining then just throw the larger chunks of fabric in the scrap bin.

I have a couple more dresses I'm planning for her, one shaped just like this from some AWESOME fabric I found in mine and Mom's stash. You'll just have to stay tuned to see it, I'm excited so I'm not giving anything away.

Bouncy House USA

2010-04-18T22:04:00.018-04:00

This post is basically for anyone in the Knoxville, Tennessee area. Hidden away in the gently rolling hills off Clinton Highway in the Shaad Rd. area of Knoxville is the most wonderful creation ever: The Bouncy House.

An indoor, heated and air conditioned, fairly clean, inflated playground wonderland awaits all children for open play between 10am and 2pm on weekdays! Have a roudy kid? Boucy House! Raining, don't know what to do? Bouncy House! Can't take anymore sun exposure? Bouncy House!

This place is awesome. My friend Tara has 3 small children roughly the same age as my own and we hit this place several times over the winter because there isn't a whole lot to do indoors for pre-k kids around here (though the Children's Museum in Oak Ridge is terrific too!) We love this place and go as a treat every few months.
They have one moonwalk type thing specifically for children 2 and under, complete with a mini slide & ball pit; another one that's a mini obstacle coure just for 7 and under and then all the others are any age!

We took Tony and Artemas while Tony was on vacationed the day it rained because the kids had been wanting to show him how much fun it is. For the 3 of us adults to take the 2 kids to bounce for the 2hrs we stayed cost me $14.60. Where else can you entertain the whole family for that??

The larger obstacle course one is quiet a workout for grownips and the giant slide is a BLAST! They have (slightly overpriced but still fairly reasonable) drinks/snacks you can purchase and they also do birthdays, but for us just going during open play works well.

If you go, make sure you bring socks as the bouncing area is strictly no-shoes but don't worry, if you forget they have socks for sale for about $.75 LOL!

Lily Dresses

2010-04-18T19:50:00.010-04:00

Lily is my 2nd and youngest, beautiful Goddaughter and she loves to dress up pretty! She's very girly, into accessories and frills. She loves cake.

I've been having a lot of fun lately making those few sundresses for Hannah. They were so easy and so quick, and honestly write now my quilting and knitting have taken a back seat because I just can't deal with the tiny bit of added stress of another ongoing, long suffering project. These dresses take about an hour and tada! Something to show for your effort!

The other day I took advantage of JoAnn's 40% off quilting fabric sale, raided my stash to see what larger pieces I had that would work and came up with materials for 4 little dresses for Lily. I actually dreamed the cupcake one and I was so thrilled when I made it first and it turned out just as cute as it was in my head! For Lily, who wears about a 4-5T and has about a 24" waist, I needed 1/2yd for the skirt and about a 1/2yd for the top (though I bought 5/8ths/yd just to make sure I'd have enough.) For Hannah's I used the same 1/2yd for the skirt but it took considerably less for her tops, in fact one Mom managed to squeeze out of an FQ and the rest I bought 1/4yd cuts for.

One has the same skirt fabric as one of Hannah's, where Hannah's was dark purple on top Lily's is blue. The brown colored bottom of the one dress is a old-prairie looking chicken fabric. Lily also loves chickens. : )

I can't wait to get these to her, and I so hope they fit! I will probably have to come up with a couple dresses for my other Goddaughter, her older sister Summer too but might have to use a different pattern. We shall see. : )

Slowly, slowly

2010-04-13T22:28:00.033-04:00

We have had a very busy couple of weeks. I've had good intentions of keep y'all posted with pics and whatnot, but honestly, at the end of the day I'm too tired to bother with the computer. Plus my darling hubby bought me 4 of the "Full..." books (Full House, Full Tilt, Full Blast, etc) by Janette Evanovich so I've been reading instead of wasting my life in the internet.

We had great expectations of Tony's 2 weeks off. We greatly over estimated not only our ability, but also our energy and the amount of help we'd be able to get. As it stands it was pretty much Tony and Artemas all week, with our friend George coming by a couple times to help out invaluably and me helping when I could and the MIL had the kids. We had thought we'd get the room done (at least to the point of drywall, though I had hopes for paint and carpet too), paint the floors in the living room, build the tiny little deck for the other side of the front porch and put in a small garden. Go ahead, laugh. It's okay, we are. What did we get done? We got the bedroom destroyed and *almost* framed back in. All the other stuff will either become morning before Tony leaves for work or weekend-warrior type things.

At this point we still have one small triangle piece of wall to tediously built on the left side (if you're looking at the back of the house) and then put "flashing" along the edge of the new structure and old shingles so that crack won't leak. Then it's *simply* putting up siding, putting in windows and putting on shingles. For the outside. Inside we still have to run elecrtical (a friend is supposed to come help Artemas and I do it Thurs while Tony is at work but we'll see if he can make it), then insulate, drywall/tape/mud/sand. Then it's ready for paint and carpet. Will this ever be done? *sigh* Eventually. The good thing about this project is that it's sort of like pregnancy; once it's begun there isn't an out and you just have to grit your teeth and see it through til the end. The end result is always worth it; it's just the process that's laborous.

We had a great day on Thursday because we took the day off on the count of rain and treated the kids to a trip to the "Bouncy House." I have a whole blog post about that planned in my head because it is really an awesome thing to do around Knoxville, for fairly cheap, in rainy (or too hot or cold) weather.

Saturday we had Hannah's 2nd birthday party at the little park behind our house. We set up under the shelter, and in retrospect should have set up in the sun because the cool breeze left the kids freezing while they ate (though the strong sun left my shoulders and neck sunburned while they played). Hannah got a bunch of really nice presents but what is more spent some quality time having a ton of fun with her aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. We let her pick out the decorations which were simple flowers with a gigantic 10lb princess tiara piniata. I packed that sucker full, I'm telling you. It was so heavy in fact that on the first whack the loop on the top broke and Tony had to rig it up again by wrapping the rope around the middle of it. Still, a blast!!

I've been trying to spend as much time outdoors as I can with the kids who are tired of being in the house. Lots of sunscreen has been used, lots of knees have been scraped and lots of showers have been taken afterward but we are having fun. I have been trying to knit Jeremiah another pair of socks, something mindless I started on Thursday to help me relax and cope with the stress we had/have going on with not finishing the room and getting ready for Hannah's party. It hasn't exactly gone as planned though since the first sock I finished too small and (after throwing it across the room) I had to pick out about half of it and start over. Then in the middle of finishing it I dropped a needle at a local pizzeria (New York Avenue Pizza, newly opened on Kingston Pike between Lovell Rd & Campbell Station Road, VERY YUMMY PIZZA). Thankfully the bamboo needles I use come 5 to a pack so I had a "spare" at home.

The only bad thing about the newly gorgeous weather and spending time outdoors in it is my son Jeremiah's allergies are acting up terribly! He went through this last spring too, after the first few weeks when the pollen died down he was fine but for now, poor baby. He's been almost mainlining benedryl or zyrtek, itchy eyes all the time (medicine isn't helping that at all.) We're trying flushing his eyes with salt water; my MIL says that helps her sometimes and I don't want to use eye drops on him if we can help it. Even with the medicine in his system his face is still swollen. If it doesn't slack off in a couple days I am making him a Drs appointment. I'd hate for him to have to have allergy shots or something but I would rather the little pain and bother to help him be able to play and sleep without a problem. : ( Still he's a big boy and is very diligent about washing his hands before rubbings his eyes, etc and is having so much fun playing outside though he told me tonight "Pollen is the worst thing. Ever."

Demolition is finished!

2010-04-01T21:21:00.023-04:00

My Mother in Law was off work today and picked up the kids for a day of who-knows-what kind of fun, leaving Tony, Artemas and I to finish the demo which involved tearing down the rest of the ceiling (top and left side), taking down the old ceiling fan, bagging all the old insulation, remove the rest of the roof, the rafters and the frame for the side wall. A big task!

We got it ALL done!! This morning Tony and Artemas took a load of debris to the dump that involved 12 bags of insulation. This is a picture of my front walk right now--all these bags are full of insulation too. We're not sure the dump is open tomorrow with it being Good Friday and this being the Bible Belt. Anyone local know if the one on Racoon Valley is open? LOL!

The windows in our "bedroom" seem quite superflous right now, so we left them open for the night. Tomorrow the goal is to lay the subflooring, build the "knee wall" and begin putting in new support beams for the roof. The actual secondary goal is to be able to at least put the roofing felt on, so when the expected (and therefor definite) thunderstorms hit Saturday night we don't have to worry about our house getting wet inside!

We'll see though since the kids will be with us tomorrow. We are really missing them with the time we've had to be gone away from them already this week, and know they miss us. I am going to try to spend my time with them tomorrow reading books or rocking while watching TV. The house needs housework stuff done again by now but I am really missing some time with my babies.

Him vs Me

2010-03-31T23:33:00.043-04:00

Not that productivity is a competition at all! In fact, we've been working together upstairs in that he tore everything up and last Sunday I cleaned it, LOL!! But since then, this is what we've been up to:

Upstairs, before you get to our coming-along bedroom, there is a nice little bookshelve/reading area. I have books and decorations up there and everything had gotten mighty dirty when we put up the outside wall of the bedroom so Sunday night I cleaned it. This is before, and then after. I'm pretty happy with after though the chair isn't staying (I have a nice arm chair awaiting reapholstering at Mom's) and it's being covered with destruction/construction dust again as I type this.

The next day, he laid pavers and count them--26--bags of white rock in front of his shed building. The shed honest to God had a 4 feet by 10 feet section of mud in front of it, every time it rained even the tiniest bit. He couldn't even get into it because the mud was so bad. We found these pavers at Knox Rail Salvage and laid them out (with me very neurotically overseeing the layout process) and then he and Artemas filled the inner area with rock, creating not only curb appeal but making the building functional once more no matter what the weather.

Then to one-up me just a little, he put in the new kitchen sink faucet we'd bought on Sunday. It's nothing really fancy, just a bigger arch and an "uber-sprayer" LoL! But I am so thrilled with it!

Monday we also purchased windows for the bedroom at the Rail Salvage place and ordered the rest of the supplies (sans drywall, next week!) for the new addition. Yesterday we got a call at quarter to 8 that the supplies were being delivered, which was a Godsend because they had told us they weren't sure they could make it by Wed (today) and we needed them ASAP but that also put us 3 hours late leaving the house for Dalton Georgia where we were going to purchase carpet. We ended up getting a nice berber carpet for the stairway for $5/yd and a nice regular carpet for our room (about 40 linear yards!) for $8/yd, plus the padding at half what it costs here in Knoxville so a long day but in no way a wasted trip! We'd left the kids at Mom's house and took Tony's truck with a borroned 14" trailer attached at the back.

This morning he begin cutting the hole in the roof, for the section we thought was coming out, that the new dormer-roof would attach on to. I took some before and then right after pics, of Tony cutting nice little neat holes in the roof. He said when our friend/contractor George came over, they began just bashing the roof out and it came down in a matter of minutes compaired to what he'd gotten done all day! I told him George is sort of goal driven and gets things done with the quickness, LOL! A male/contractor version of me that I can truly appreciate! ;-)

Today, I made Hannah another dress. Oh, I know. I said I was done, that she had enough dresses to get her through a week for this summer. But then I saw this so totally adorable mushroom fabric by Alexander Henry. I bought a 1/2yd of the mushroom fabric and a FQ of the gold fabric. I actually cut the mushroom to 14.5" by the width of the fabric (roughly 44") so this dress would be a little shorter than the others. I belive it falls to about her knees. I made it while she was napping and when she woke she carried it all over the house telling us about her "pretty dress!" I love the buttons, though the dress is crooked as everything in this pic.

I had to work in childcare at church tonight and when I left there was a nice little hold developing on the roof. In fact I took a pic from the yard of Tony sticking out of the roof, and then some pictures from the roof of the view standing up through the hole. See the pretty view?

This is what I came home to. Once George got here, apparently the "plan" changed to take-out-the-low-ceiling-and-"just"-do-vaulted-ceilings. Ei, plan 6.5. This is like the ever evolving remodling job. It started with simply moving the doorway back 3 feet and taking out the existing and un-needed 2nd closet. Then it morphed into take out the side wall and build a dormer roof over the eaves to make the room 8 feet wider. Now it's tear out the ceiling too. I am having a hard time staying off a panic attack. In fact, I had a small one complete with crying, at church in front of 5 strange children but it's okay, it only lasted about 2 minutes. I just needed some time to adjust. Honest. I'm good. It's gonna be great. In 2 weeks...

National Quilting Day

2010-03-20T11:26:00.003-04:00

Today, March 20th is National Quilting Day!
In honor of this momentous occasion I am running a FREE SHIPPING special on all quilts listed in my etsy shop! Now through Sunday night you any of the quilts I have listed will ship to you, or to a loved one, for free!

I have a recent new quilt listing, one I call "Eventually...Spring".

I also have recently listed a few new bags so be sure to check out the "Shop Home" link on my etsy page.

Tell your friends, and have a very happy National Quilting Day!!

A Long Day

2010-03-19T22:25:00.030-04:00

Today started out with a quick trip to Oak Ridge, where we got pulled over by 2 K-9 cops who followed us for over a mile and then ticketted us for the window tint on my car being too dark. Their reason? After discovering me & Tony up front with 3 kids (in car seats and seat belts), they couldn't see into the car at all or tell how many people were in it. Maybe because the 3 in the back seat's heads don't come up ABOVE the back seat? And how is it I can see through my car, with all the windows up and read signs posted in buildings behind it but they couldn't? Whatever, I am paying the fine and not removing the tint I've had on the car for *2* years.

After that majorly crappy start we hit the butchers and spent $60 on about $100 worth of meat for our chest freezer. Pretty excited about it.

On the way home I talked Tony into running back out before work and renting me a tiller for the weekend since today & tomorrow were supposed to be beautiful and sunny. We have an old stump between our driveway & mailbox that had these scrub grass like bushes planted around it (like these trees in our side yard) and I wanted to dug a flower bed on each side of our porch across the front of the house.

It took me 4 hours to tear out the bushes around the stump, and then I still had to move pavers around another bush and plant bulbs and pansies I'd picked up in a quick run to Kmart. Artemas helped me by tilling in front of the porch because after Tony left I couldn't get the tiller to start. And then the tiller "broke." We have no idea what happened and since it's a rental, I am a little worried. Did I mention that Tony, who didn't really want to go get it today, ripped his fairly new and very good blue jeans taking it out of the truck? Well he did. Oops.

I alternated pansies with daffodil and tulip bulbs that may not come up this year because it may be too late for me to have planted them. I want to pick up some more pansies or maybe even some marrigolds or mums to plan to add more color. It's looking a little bare outthere.

Mom and the kids came over and played for a while, Betsy had her hair up in a curly little pony tail that was SO adorable!! They got some pictures of me sitting in the dirt, and who cares if I plant flowers with a serving spoon like a redneck? I forgot to buy a spade!

Hannah had fun dancing on the stump, Mr Strong aka Jeremiah helped me by picking up sticks and piling them up out by the curb for the city to remove. Mom and I made a big stack of the pavers out by the mailbox which I'm sure my maillady will LOVE. I wasn't about to carry them all around to the back yard to put with the other things Tony needs to take to the dump. They can sit there til Monday. All the little bush pieces you see on this tarp were around the stump. Incredible huh?

Now I am sore, sunburned, I have a headache...my wrist is hurting me so badly I think I may die but I am happy to have accomplished something that wasn't sweeping the floor, showering the kids or sewing. It was nice to get out there in the sun and do some manual labor to add to the curb appeal of the house! Tomorrow, I may try to tackle the hutch in the basement. :-D

Soooo crafty

2010-03-15T21:44:00.017-04:00

I got 2 more dresses for Hannah made this morning and this evening. The last dress made was actually the first fabric I bought, LoL! The 2nd dress she liked so well she wore today to run errands. It was of course miserably cold outside today so she wore a white turtle neck and white leggings underneath and was very stylish.

Her favorite color is purple (I've probably mentioned that before though) so the final dress is a pretty little purple and blue floral pattern with metalic gold edges. I am in LOVE with the buttons!!! They are some of those 1860s repros buttons JoAnn's carries now and I originally bought them to use on a bag for my shop but I just had to put these special buttons on my special girl's pretty dress.

I also finished squaring pieces for my Weird & Ugly Fabric challenge quilt and sewed the first 3 rows together! Kickin' butt and takin' names today, I tell ya!

See yesterday's cheery dress here.

Another one bites the dust

2010-03-14T23:28:00.012-04:00

And I do mean dust. LOTS and LOTS of dust!

While Tony was off day we (and I mean "he") pressed on with our demolition of the master bedroom upstairs. The weather is getting more pleasant (sort of), we have the money for the re-construction sitting in the bank, and he had time off so... another wall came down.

With the help of a sledge hammer, lots of muscle, Diantha, Dad, a shovel, and an old trashcan one long wall and part of the ceiling was torn out and toted outside to the back of Tony's truck where it will be hauled away to the dump!!

There is dust and dirt everywhere but we are one step closer to completion! You can see in the last pick the area behind where the wall was that will soon become just another area of the bedroom. The roof will come off and be moved up to a less sharp angle by way of a dormer, as well as some windows being added into the new wall that will go on the back of the house.

We're all tired now, Tony from banging on a concrete wall and me from cooking all day and keeping kids from going upstairs. Now we will shower and watch reruns of That 70s Show and all will be as it should. Life is good.

Instant Gratification Sewing

2010-03-14T23:04:00.013-04:00

I am not a seamstress by any means. I've made the occasional item of clothing, but probably not very well. I quilt, that's my sewing. Usually straight lines, 1/4" seam allowance... I'm good with that. However I saw some fabric at JoAnn's a couple weeks ago that I (and Hannah) just loved and I thought would make her the cutest little summer dress. Then a few days ago I found some more, haha!

My family came over tonight. Tony was off and beating down a few more walls upstairs with a sledge hammer, Dad was off and came with them. Allen brought over his new girlfriend; it was a regular party! We made chili, devil's food cupcakes with fudge icing, apple pie and salsa. We ate...a lot.

My Mom is Madame Seamstress Extraordinaire, winner of awards, zen master of patience with curved seams that need snipping, maker of all my childhood play outfits. I said, Hey Mom...how's about you help me cut out these 2 sundresses? Without a pattern, she laid my fabric (prewashed and ironed) on the table and cut out 2 bodices for dresses that fit Hannah perfectly. I was inspired and pulled 2 more fabrics out of my stash for the bodice and skirt for a 3rd dress.

It took me about a half hour, including having to rip out the final seam around the chest, to sew the first dress together!! Hem, buttons, buttonholes and everything! INSTANT gratification sewing for sure! Of course, sleepy and grumpy little girls don't make the best models but she told me her dress was pretty and so I'm leaving it at that for the night. I will work on one of the other 2 tomorrow, it's too late tonight and I am tired after all that cooking (and cleaning I did the last two days, which now has to be done again due to the removing of the wall upstairs...post about it later.)

Summer is on its way and my Hannah will be SO cute and very cool in the heat wearing her little sundress. I'm so proud of it!

Hannah's Sweater

2010-03-11T17:25:00.004-05:00

This week I've finally finished Hannah's sweater! It's the one I'd been working on that I was designing as I went. I knit in the round, from the top down. Now that it's done, and a little large on her, I've discovered it will probably fit her better next year but she's wearing it anyway because she loves it.

I used 2.5 skeins of NaturallyCaron.Com's "Country" yarn, which you can get at Michael's and JoAnn's. It's a microfiber-acrylic/wool blend, which I wanted for the machine washability and so the slight wool content would help it block and hold it's shape.

I cast on 96 stitches. I have no idea how many I had when I put the sleeve stitches on waste yarn and continued in the round on the body. I do know that I got the chest and a sleeve from one skein, the other sleeve and the remaining solid part of the body out of the 2nd and started the 3rd for the lace around the bottom (as well as switching to a larger needle.)

The first time she wore it she broke an egg and rubbed it on it. Thank GOD it's washable!!

A Date with Jeremiah

2010-03-11T17:04:00.016-05:00

Monday it was gorgeous here! Sunny and almost 70 degrees, a very welcome change from the cold and the rain we've been having. My Mother-in-Law called and said she wanted to take Hannah shopping, so Jeremiah and I got dressed up and went out to have us a "date."

First we drove over to the little park behind our house (in fact, in the picture he took of me swinging you can see the brick of our house behind me!). I took lots of pictures of my cheery little boy, who was SO thrilled to be out with me on a "date" he kept telling everyone he saw. I of course took some knitting with me (and a book, just in case) but spent my time following him around with the camera, take pictures and pushing swings. A much better use of my time for the moment!

We had an itinerary of park, ice cream, then Books a Million because they have an *awesome* Thomas the Tank Engine table covered with wooden train pieces and a nice little chair and footstool nearby for Mama to sit on while little boys play.

We always just get a Frosty from Wendy's or a "sundae" from McDonald's if we go out for ice cream at all so I thought it would be a nice treat to take him to a "real" ice cream parlor, Baskin Robbins. We got done at the park, drove to town and discovered a handwritten note on the door saying "Closed Due to Expected Bad Weather." In other words, the manager wanted to go fishing. Something that happens a lot here, but without the charm and sense of national tradition tradition places like Italy have.

Jeremiah opted to go straight to Books a Million where we played until Nana and Hannah showed up to meet us, then the 3 of us (Jeremiah, Hannah and I) headed off to Knoxville to a lovely Baskin Robbins which was open, where we got ice cream and ate it outside on the patio in the sun.

It was a beautiful, simple day and I was so happy to get to spend most of it with just my son. He was so thrilled to spend it with me too, saying we didn't get to do things together much since Hannah was born but then he was excited to have his baby sister back and share his trip for ice cream with her.

Psychedelic Super Nova

2010-02-26T14:01:00.015-05:00

Months and months ago I bought these awesome, large peacock blue jump rings and then began the search for the "perfect" batt to spin them into. I finally found it from ArtemisArtemis in the form on her 30z "Super Glitz India" batt which was mix of handdyed angelina, glitz, sari thread, firestar, silk, bamboo and merino. SO soft, incredibly so! Usually with that much glitz yarns can get rough but not this one!

I spun it fairly evenly, about worsted weight and decided instead of spinning the rings into it I would spin some solid white merino I had with the rings and then ply them together.

What I ended up with was 100 yards (around 5oz) exactly of the hugest, softest super-bulky weight yarn ever! I took these pics before I soaked it to set the twist and I can't imagine how much more it will "bloom" once it's set. My kids had a lot of fun running around with it on their next like a gigantic boa; Hannah didn't want to give it back. The skein you see around their necks is a 2 yard circle. I ended up with 26yards of the super-glitz single, which I will keep cause it would make a nice trim on whatever I end up knitting with this huge skein.

I am thinking perhaps I should buy another batt from ArtemisArtemis and do this same thing again, only with solid black merino I have hanging around. Sort of like an evil twin yarn? Could knit a one skein sweater on HUGE needles, starting at the top with one and switching to the other for the bottom?

For comparison I took a pic of it with a skein of a handspun sockyarn single I did that's about 215yds.

The whole time I was spindling (I use a drop spindle, you can see my "plying spindle is a CD spindle!) I was thinking that this yarn reminded me of a man I know, or at least one of his kids so I was thinking of naming the yarn "McCarley Kid" but Tony says it looks like psychedelic fruit stripe gum instead. : ) I wish all the sparkles showed up in the picture, something so asthetically pleasing shouldn't be lost in the picture but it is. : (

All in all though, I'm super happy with my super bulky yarn!

Aha!

2010-02-25T18:40:00.008-05:00

The problem:

The ugliest "sheer" "bathroom" curtains ever, complete with embriodered oak leaves. What?!

The Budget:

$10.

The Skills:

Using a measuring tape and rotary cutter, sewing a straight seam on a sewing machine and ironing.

The Time:

1 hour, start to finish!

The Solution:

(Could NOT get a pic where the bathroom looked white like it's supposed to, so making do (sort of) with the close up. Sorry!

Tackle it Tuesday...late

2010-02-25T15:45:00.014-05:00

Well not really, I did all this stuff on Tuesday and took pictures but then I didn't get a chance to put them into the computer until yesterday but yesterday was knit a sock day (tell ya later) instead of blog day.

So, for my Tackle it Tuesday I did house cleaning but I started at the back and worked forward. Whenever I clean I always start with my living room as it's the first room people see when they walk in the front door, get it nice and sparkling and looking like I have my act together, move on to the kitchen and maybe it get done and then between kids and cooking I run out of steam and time and never get any farther. If you walk into the bedrooms and bathrooms you'd think, Dear God, this cannot be part of the same house as the living room!

On Tuesday I started with washing massive amounts of laundry and while it was cooking I...

Made our bed and gathered all the clean laundry around the house and dumped it in the middle, making a massive mountain of fresh laundry to fold at some point. I cleaned the floor in Jeremiah's room (where our bed still is) and resorted all his toy bins. I'm not anal, really... I'm just very into organization.

Then I moved on to the kitchen floor, picking up strange odds and ends deposited there by little hands and then I swept and mopped it. I figured while I had the mop out I might as well clean Hannah's room, sort her toys, remake the kids beds and sweep and mop in there. Now her room is "shiny and clean" like my kids say (from Thomas the Tank Engine) and they have room to sleep and play.

Then since I still had the mop... I swept and mopped Jeremiah's floor, cleaned the bathroom (sink, toilet, floor) mopping in there too. I folded and put up 4 loads of laundry and then spent a half hour painted the yellow stripe on the road on Jeremiah's wall in the mural. I hadn't done that and I thought it was finally time, though I didn't do as good of a job as I intended because Hannah kept shoving my arm and telling me it was pretty! LOL!

There's my Tackle it Tuesday. I got a LOT done, the back/side part of my house looked awesome and I was really proud of myself though at the same time I was bummed at what I didn't get done. Vicious cycle, hahaha!

Evolution

2010-02-18T15:17:00.006-05:00

Last year this was a majorly quilting related blog. This year so far it's a mostly recipe related blog with some knitting thrown in. Just one more way my life is "evolving" and constantly changing. This year I am knitting a *lot* and also trying to lose weight and get in shape, and this is the medium I am choosing to share my progress with the world.

Another evidence of creative evolution is this item I have been knitting for Hannah. When I first came up with the idea it was a svelt little fitted knit dress with decreases to the waist and ribbing to make it fit, then increases for the skirt with the adition of lace. It was also short sleeved. As I'm knitting it though it is evolving into a comfy loose fitting sweater.

I am using a wool/microfiber-acrylic blend yarn because I wanted the garment to be machine washable but since I was including lace in my design I wanted to be able to block it and have it keep its shape.
I cast on 96 stitches and knit in the round on DPNs for the ribbing around the neck and the first few rows of increases. I places stitch markers 30 sts, 18 sts, 30 sts & 18 sts and increased before and after each marker. 10 billion stitches later I put the sleeves on waste yarn and continued knitting in the round for the body. My plan was that this would take 2 skeins, but im halway through the 2nd and I've only finished one sleeve (and not the body!) so I'm thinkning it will be 3 skeins. Also, it's much bigger than I anticipated. I think it will probably fit her next winter, LoL!

As I knit I am wishing it were even bigger though and would fit me! It is *super* comfy! I used 1 repeat of lace around the cuff and then did ribbing. I am not sure I'm happy with it, I may end up pulling the ribbing back out and decreasing so the cuff is smaller. There will be a couple repeats of the same lace around the bottom of the body but done on a bigger circular needle so it shows up more.

Egg Rolls

2010-02-18T15:06:00.030-05:00

Tonight on the menu for dinner we have homemade egg rolls. This super easy snack is really worth the time it takes to put together.

To make egg rolls you'll need:
1/2 a standard package of shredded cole slaw mix
2 boiled boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or approx. 6 tenderloinds of the same)
1 package of egg roll wrappers (I use Nasoya because that's what brand Kroger carries)
Vegetable oil for frying

Hardware:
a glass of tap water
a large mixing bowl
a sauce pan of some sort suitable for holding oil and frying egg rolls
paper towels or wire cooling rack

Chop up boiled chicken into small pieces about the size of your thumb nail. I also include a can of sliced water chestnuts in mine, but that is totally optional. I like the crunch. In a large mixing bowl combine the chicken and cole slaw mix (also the optional chestnuts).

Set yourself up a little work station, frying pan with oil on medium to get hot, a plate, your wrappers, glass of water, bowl of egg roll mix. Lay down one egg roll wrapper and put a small handful of mix on it, in the middle. Each egg roll will use about a 1/4-1/3 cup of mix, but just eyeball it. Wet the tip of your finger in the glass of water and then use it to wet one corner of the wrapper. Folf over, almost in half, over top the filling. Use your finger to wet 2 more corners and fold them in. Then wet along the edge of the rest of the wrapper and roll toward the final corner.

Set aside on the plate (BTW those adorable cherry plates of mine are not paper plates, they are Corelle. LOL!) and continue making egg rolls until your oil is hot enough, then start cooking them. I can fit about 6 at a time in my 12" pan but you may have to work in smaller batches. Don't over crowd! If you do, they'll take longer to cook and be greasier!! Flip over when the down side is a nice golden brown. Once the 2nd size is cooked drain on either towels or your wire rack.

Properly drained these about about 120 calories a piece--less than store bough and better for you because *no* preservatives and no sodium at this point. The addition of soy sauce or sweet & sour (duck) sauce will of course throw off your calorie count just a little, so adjust as needed.

These can be made with chicken like I did, or baby shrimp or no meat at all if you want to go vegetarian. Substitute mushroom, green onion or bell peper for the meat. Sorry there isn't a vegan version of this, even if you leave the egg out of the fried rice the egg roll wrappers themselves have egg in the ingredients. Unless of course you know of a vegan wrapper and then, game on.

I'm serving them along side a boxed chicken fried rice, which I will leave the oil and chicken out of and only use 1 egg and also a huge pile of fresh steamed/boiled broccoli crowns. All together, 2 egg rolls, rice and broccoli will give me a dinner of about 500 calories. Not bad for very tasty!!

It took about 40 minutes to make all 20 egg rolls, but I am made them this afternoon. They will keep at room temp on the counter for a couple hours until I need to make a quick dinner and then all I have to wait on is the broccoli and rice!

To reheat, wrap in a paper towel and microwave or bake in the oven for a few minutes.

Everything Frosted

2010-02-15T18:25:00.038-05:00

We got snow again last night, during the night. We awoke to over an inch, almost 2", of fluffy white blanket all over everything as far as the eye could see. By mid morning though, the nasty sun in all its ferocity had come and begun to melt it away. I used to go on 1.5miles walks everyday and sometimes I would take my camera with me. I'd snap a picture of a cloud here, tree bark there, a bird on a telephone wire, an old TV out to someone's curb, etc. Close ups of things I thought were interesting. It's been a while since I've done that; when Jeremiah was about 10 months old I dropped my beloved 35mm camera and haven't gotten it fixed yet so now I use a fairly expensice digital one that I can't make focus on what I want. Bah! But, much to my husband's amusement I layered on sweatshirts and hat and went wandering around in the snow to take pictures. I hope you enjoy what I found. : )

Ignoring the Cook Books

2010-02-11T19:34:00.006-05:00

I have a bunch of cook books. I even have one I made myself, from over 300 no-fail, much-loved recipes begged from friends and family. I rarely use them.

I'm kind of a "whatever" cook. I toss in this and that until it tastes good and then we eat. Tonight was no exception. When I made out my weekly menu (I pick 7 dinner meals and shop for those items) my DH said he wanted "hamburger steaks with mushrooms and onion gravy and stuff."

For the gravy I used:

1 lb of mushrooms, thinly sliced

2 medium white onions, thinly sliced

2 huge cloves of garlic

a pat of butter (about the amount you would use to butter 2 slices of toast)

1 can of fat free cream of mushroom soup (condensed)

about 1/2 cup of 1% milk

Spices/seasonings:

2 squirts (about 2 Tablespoons) worchestershire sauce

paprika

pepper

oregano

powdered mustard

I sauteed the onions, mushroom and garlic in the butter until soft and just starting to brown/camamelize and then I added in the seasonings. I used these because I opened my spice cupboard and they looked good. I have a bag of spicy/hot paprika my grandparents got me in Hungary that I'm trying to use up. I used almost a teaspoon of this stuff because it's starting to lose its potency and even then the resulting gravy was not spicy. Mustard powder because I like mustard on burgers (which is an odd line of reasoning because they don't taste the same at all), oregano because my DH wants it on everything and no salt because the worchestershire sauce is salty enough. Hannah made me take a picture of the garlic, though I'd already put half of it in the pan.

I let them cook a couple more minutes while I made hamburger patties out of some fresh ground beef and set them to cooking in another skillet. I sprinkled them with salt, pepper and a squirt or worchestershire sauce (because it was still out).

Then I added the can of mushroom soup to the onion/mushroom mess and whisked it in with my trusty rubber whisk so as not to scratch up my lovely new pan. Add in the milk, whisk, turn to low and let it hang out.

When the hamburgers were done I de-greased them a little by laying on paper towels and then turned them over and over in the gravy.

Side dishes consisted of tater tots (another request) and green beans. Start to finish this meal took me about 45 minutes but that's because I forgot to preheat the oven before I started cooking and we had to wait on the tots.

The "gravy" was *awesome* and I kept thinking along vegetarian lines so I've come up with a couple alternatives for any of you veggie lovers out there!

Vegetarian:

Instead of hamburger, slice and toast some everything italian bread in the oven. Once crispy, ladle gravy over it! It would also be yummy over some thick-sliced and fried egg plant. Sliced grilled or fried tofu might also work but I don't know, I have no expierence with it.

And, if going that route...

Vegan:

Subsitute the toast or egg plant for hamburger but also substitute a can of vegetable stock for the milk and olive oil for the butter (that we sauteed the onions and mushrooms in).

Wandering Aimlessly Shawl

2010-01-31T22:35:00.010-05:00

I joined a "Twitter Knit Along" about a week ago which was the brain child of @SpazzyYarn. She put up a blog post about it, took opinions on different patterns, etc and then began a series of polls where we involved could go and vote on our favorite pattern in each catagory and then finally out favorite pattern out of those top picks.

The pattern picked was from a lace shawl pattern on Ravelry called Travelling Woman. I had never done lace pattern before and since I figured I'd get it wrong and bumbling my way though it I named mine Wandering Aimlessly. It was a beautiful leafy lace pattern, that was actually really easy to do once you got the hang of it. The pattern called for the use of stitch markers which messed me up royally so I pulled the knitting out and began again without them; smooth sailing after that!

I also ended up with an odd number of stitches at the end of the rows, even though I counted and counted. So instead of doing whatever the last few extra stitches on each row called for (after the last pattern repeat) I just repeated as much of the pattern as I could before the yarn-over, k2 for the garter stitch border. Since each row increased 2 stitches every row the extra pattern I was doing got larger and little by little more leaves apeared so it worked out well!

I had 2 skeins of "Mini Mochi" sockyarn by Crystal palace which Tony had given me for Christmas. I decided to use those because it was the only appropriate weight yarn I had enough of, and I used a size 8 needle because it was the only circular needle I own. The 2 skeins of yarn gave me a total of 390 yards of yarn to work with.

I did the stockinette the pattern asked for, ending with 159 stitches before beginning chart A. I did 4 repeats of chart A and then began B. On beginning the 7th row of chart B I realized I would quickly run out of yarn, so I changed the pattern a little. I worked the "leaves" (yo, k(x),slk2p,k(x),yo) as directed by the pattern but between them I switched to yo (yarn over),k2tog until it was time to repeat the leaf pattern. This gave me a serious of "holes" and allowed the leaves to form "points" as they finished. I bound off and had about 5 yards of yarn left!!!

I will need to block it again since I don't really know what I'm doing. I straight-pinned the wetted shawl to a bath towl but it pulled in a little in places. Maybe I can invest in some of those rods when we get our tax return back in a week or so! As it is though the shawl measures approx. 60" across the widest point by 22" long!

I love it. This was a real challege for me and stretched my creative ability! I resolved to knit less boring (in other words, more complex) things this year and I think this is a great start!

If you're on Twitter you can search the keyword "#TwitKAL" and see what we're saying about our projects and see pics of other's process/finished shawls!

If you're on Ravelry you can look at my other projects by clicking on:
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Hamncheezr

Oh, Snow!

2010-01-31T21:58:00.017-05:00

We actually got snow here in Clinton. Like, Snow, snow. Not a sprinkling. Not a dusting. Not the normal 18 flurries furiously floating through the air. We got 6-8" inches of fluffy white stuff piled EVERYWHERE!

With it we got slick road, slick driveways, frozen trunks and car doors, etc but it is SO cool! I grew up in West/central FL and then moved here, so I've never really experienced "snow" before. Yesterday we bundled the kids up in the proverbial Randy's Big Fat Snow Suit (see a Christmas Story) and took them out for a romp. A romp which lasted about 10 minutes until they complained that their hands hurt and wanted back inside the heated house. : ) I didn't blame them. Mine were cold too!

I don't understand people with the patience to make real, decent sized snowmen. I tried and managed a large snowball before my hands were too cold and I gave up. I did get to make my first ever snow angel! Maybe professional snowmen makers wear waterproof or thick gloves? That might help. All I had on was some pirate-striped fingerless gloves from Hot Topic. Not really winter wear but I can't press the camera button in my chunky warm handspun Bella mittens!

I was so thrilled that it snowed that much because everytime it's even flurried in the last few months Jeremiah has said, "If it snows enough, I'm going to make a snow angel." Well my little boy got to! He made several, all over the yard. Then walked through them.

My sister Veronica had spent the night and she very patiently made a small snowman. When she finished she proudly told us, we admired it and then Jeremiah promptly snatched its head off and threw it at her.

It was warmer today and the snow began to melt in a few places (like the roof on the south side of the house) but even still, it makes for some cool pictures!

Think Ouside the Box

2010-01-23T16:08:00.012-05:00

So using my handspun I shared in my last post I began knitting my darling husband another hat that is inspired by the simple ribbed watchman style cap Jacob wore in Twilight on the beach at La Push, and also because of the russett-y Jacob/Wolf color LoL!

Fiber was soft, yarn was soft, hat is itchy. Shoot! Very strange, some of the alpaca hairs have worked their way out of the twist of the yarn and out of the knit stitches so the hat has these little 2" long hairs all over it, LOL!!

I knitted my simple ribbed pattern forever and decreased down to 2 stiches, tried on the hat and I thought it was too short. Crap! Only had 5.5yds yarn left too.

What to do? What to do?
Do I frog the entire project? I talked it over with my friend Marion for a few minutes and settled on this little "fix up":.

I picked up stitches with size 4.0 needles along the inside of the cast on edge and knitted about 30 rows of stockinette stitch with black NaturallyCaron.Com’s “Country” yarn that I had leftover from another project. It’s merino/acrylic and machine washable. When that was about 3.5" long I bound it off and whip-stitched it up inside the hat all around as a lining so it won’t be itchy around his ears. Added bonus, it also makes the first half of the hat thicker and therefore, warmer. I used Jeremiah's head as a hatform because his big ol' head stretched the hat out nicely and made it so easy for me to sew the lining in. Shown here in the picture with the hat turned wrong side out so I could sewn it more easily.

Then I picked out down to the row before my original decreases, marked out 5 yards on the yarn with some waste yarn and began reknitting until I got to the waste yarn, then re-decreased and finished the hat. I ended up with about 2 feet of yarn leftover so I could have gone a little farther before my decreases but I didn’t want to cut it any closer.

He isn't home from work yet to try it on him or see if he likes it. If this doesn’t fit him, it can go in the Charity bin with this year’s homeless/hospital knits.

Sometimes projects don't go as planned. Sometimes the thing to do isn't always the most obvious (like my first idea to frog.) Think out side the box and be creative; creating is what you were doing to begin with anyway!

A Lovely New Yarn?

2010-01-19T21:33:00.010-05:00

Remember I mentioned my dear husband Tony was complaining his hats let air through which makes his head cold? So I bought some superwash merino/alpaca fiber to spin for a new hat for him.

I weighed out 2 ounces of my trusty new gram scale and stuck it in a dyepot with a bunch of orange koolaid. I weighed out 2 more ounces and began to spin it without fooling with it, while the first bit cooked and dried.

I ended up with a gorgeous russetty orange "Jacob Black as a Wolf" color, LoL! I thought it would be very pretty plied with the natural gray/brown of fiber.

I finished plying it today though I am drawing a complete and total blank on the yardage I got. I'm thinking 120s? Plenty for a tightly knit hat regardless.

Now that I'm done plying it I'm not sure the two colors work as well as I'd thought. I guess I can always knit the hat and if it's ugly, just chuck the hat in a dyepot and no harm, no foul.

Hodge Podge

2010-01-19T11:48:00.009-05:00

We had a busy weekend! We drove to South Caroline to do "Christmas" with Tony's Mom's side of the family. It was great to all get together again, it had been about a year and a half since we had. It's fun to see how everyone is changing, how everyone is the same and meet the new people (like our cousin's girlfriend and her daughter, both as nice as can be.)

We had a nice drive down there and back, figuring out it's really only about a 3 hour drive if you don't get lost....which we do. Neither Tony nor I are the type of people that get lost. We're good with directions, have a good sense of directions and generally find our way around without help. So to drive around in SC where everything is screwy just makes us MAD! LOL! We had to turn around over and over, added about an hour and a half to the trip down and back just for that. Argh. At least we get a good story out of it? Nah... but at least the scenery is pretty! I love North Carolina but they don't paint their roads with reflective paint and going over a mountain in the dark and rain is a little hairy without it, haha.

Nana loved her slippers and hat I'd knitted her. Jeremiah gave her the present as soon as he walked in the door, LoL! He couldn't wait! We all had a nice visit and Tony's aunt Charlene is already plotting the renting of a lake house somewhere in Georgia over the summer for a week of family water fun.

Yesterday we celebrated Artemas' 18th birthday at Mom and Dad's house, even though his birthday isn't until tomorrow. I went a little nuts in the exotic spice aisle and we gave our budding chef a world tour of spices and little glass jars to put them in. I hope he gets good use out of them and doesn't kill the family with the curry powder. ;-)

Mom's birthday is Saturday but I was impatient and we gave her her present early also. Just yesterday morning I finished the Eleanora socks I was working on (for about a month now). I took the 2nd one with me on the road and managed to do from the middle of the heel to about 6 rows from the kitchener stitch while sitting around Tony's Uncle's house chatting. I am sure they think I'm a boring house guest, though I left with 2 requests for a deadfish hat and a watchman style cap LoL!

Mom also got "Les Chaussettes Folles" or the Crazy socks I made; named so because a woman I work with told me she thought it was crazy to knit socks while I was making them. The toes and heels are the same Bamboo and Ewe Sensations sockyarn I used for the Eleanora socks but the main body parts are from Mini Mochi yarn, which is wonderful! I love it.

Today my best friend is coming over and I'm going to help her make a Tennessee Titans pillow case to send to her hubby at war. I'm going to teach her to quilt too so we're going to start going over the basics of that, verbally. The sewing will come later. : )

Look What I Got!

2010-01-19T11:36:00.003-05:00

I am soooo terribly late in posting this, my extreme apologies Jenn!

Last week, midweek I think, I got a lovely squishy package in the mail from Jenn of Sunshine of Autumn Quilts on etsy! Inside were two gorgeous, bright red towels that she had taken and machine appliqued (with a pretty leaf design) some black cherry fabric on!

Both ends of the towels have the fabric appliqued on them. They are thick, fluffy and wonderful! I just love how RED they are too! These were the perfect little surprise for me! My kitchen is done slightly retro in red, white (and a little black) and cherries. They look wonderful hanging from my stove!

I don't know what happened when I took this pic, everything was straight...or so I thought. Maybe my kitchen has vertigo? LoL!

Check out her Etsy shop...she has lots of other totally cute towels, quilts and burp rags!

Depression Bars

2010-01-10T16:11:00.004-05:00

I've had the pictures of these on my desktop since before Christmas because I meant to make a post with the recipe. I know many of you are on your New Year's Diets, I am (and not doing well with it I might add) but I figure Valentine's Day is coming up and these are great little bars to take to a potluck or party (so you don't have to eat them all yourself) LOL!

Depression Bars:

You'll need to make one standard graham cracker crust (sugar, crushed graham crackers, butter)--if you don't have a recipe you use already, just do a google search or try foodnetwork.com's recipes.

One small can of sweetened, condensed milk

1/2 cup of slivered almonds

1/2 a bag of chocolate chips

1/2 a bag of butterscotch chips

1 - 1/2 cups shredded coconut

Press the crust onto a cookie baking sheet with at least a 1/2" lip all the way around.

Using your hands, scatter chocolate and butterscotch chips all over the surface. Then do the same with the almonds and shredded coconut. Drizzle the entire can of sweetend, condensed milk evenly over top of all the other ingredients and the crust.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. Keep on eye on it, if the coconut stars to burn take it out sooner. You want it everything to brown (chips will not look melted though!)

Remove and allow to cool for about 20 minutes so the crust firms up enough to cut. You can speed this up by putting the pan in the fridge, these are just as good cold as they are warm!

Cut into 2" square "bars" and enjoy!

Variations: Swap peanutbutter chips for the butterscotch ones, or chopped pecans for the almonds or add extra chopped nuts or dates to a little extra "healthy" ingredients.

A Small Frolic in the Snow

2010-01-09T22:42:00.005-05:00

It snowed like the dickens 3 days ago. We got a whole whopping 1/4-1/2" of snow. That's right, a HALF INCH of snow!

It was just enough to make the roads slick and treacherous with ice. Driving was a little scary, people were obnoxious. At the threat of snow here the locals go crazy, buying gas, milk, bread. I hate to think what they'd all do if they lived somewhere it actually snowed. Like Fargo.

Anyway 2 days ago the snow was still on the ground so when we got home from running a couple errands I let the kids play a little. They both really enjoyed dancing around in it, hearing it crunch. I tried to make a snowball to start a little tiny snowman on the steps butthe snow was too powdery and wouldn't stick together.

Both Jeremiah and Hannah seemed unsure if they liked it or not when they stuck their hands in it. Hannah yelled "Cold!" Jeremiah used his fingertip to draw a heart in the snow on our front walk because he loves me. :-)

It's almost all gone by today, though it hasn't gotten any warmer outside. We've walked most of it off the front yard by now LoL!

Progress, progress, progress

2010-01-03T22:23:00.016-05:00

Well we've made some progress on our bedroom and upstairs this week.

Tony got the rest of the drywall up on the new wall and got it taped and mudded, then I sanded and painted it. Together (me cleaning and him hauling buckets of water) we cleaned the mess upstairs. Drywall dust gets EVERYWHERE!

Everything upstairs and downstairs is going to have to be wiped off/down with a soapy cloth. I did my stash bins, the walls, floors, railings and end table upstairs--still have to do my bookshelves and all the books--yesterday before I painted.

Today I did that to the kitchen. Every surface had to be wiped and cleaned and mopped. I am tired!

We are trying to keep the bedroom door shut to keep the rest of the mess contained the best we can. Tony finished knocking out the old wall and doorframe and is working on hauling away the debris. He needs to patch the floor and ceiling where the old wall was, put drywall on the inside of the new wall and then we can sand it, clean and paint.

The end is in sight...I keep saying that, right?

Until we get our taxes back and knock out the long wall on the back of house, change the pitch of the rood and extend our room the 8 feet back into the eaves. When all is said and done we will have a huge master bedroom that will greatly increase the value of our home. We are hiring someone to help us knock that wall out next spring. LoL!

Christmas Presents Revealed

2010-01-02T22:52:00.014-05:00

It's taken me a couple weeks to get around to it but now I can finally show some pics of some projects I worked on for Christmas gifts!

The first I am really excited about. I bought 7 ounces of luscious fiber back in July, 2 batts that were a mix of blue bamboo and purple colonial/corrie wool and one that was a red, black, purple and gold mix of bamboo, merino & angelina. I also bought 50 grape colored small jump rings (from UnkamenSupplies on etsy). I only spun 48 in the yarn for some reason. I got 366 yards of thick and thin, average worsted weight yarn from the 7oz.

That was Mom's Christmas gift. I actually bought the jump rings and held onto them until I found just the right colors of fiber to spin them into for her. I hope she didn't think that was a dumb present and I hope she can knit herself something fabulous from it.

Second we have some Bella/Twilight style horseshoe cabled mittens for Diantha. I used the pattern I bought last spring from LilyKnitting on etsy, only I used smaller needles than her pattern called for and I added one extra repeat of the horeshoe pattern between the cuff and thumb to make them almost elbow length. I used NaturallyCaron.com brand "Country" yarn which is a machine washable blend of microfiber-acrylic and merino-wool. It is soo sooo sooooooo soft and loveable.

I had planned something else for Diantha and already had it in the works when she asked for some Bella mittens. I decided to make the original item for her birthday and make her the mittens for Christmas. I had the cuff/arm of the first done and had already begun increasing for the thumb when she mentioned that she really thinks horseshoe cables are stupid. ARGH! She got mittens with them anyway and she says she loves them.

The Christmas-turned-birthday project was given to Diantha at Christmas anyway, wrapped in birthday paper with a note that she's old enough to understand her birthday present came 3 months early. Because what we were giving her was this awesome black baby-cord suit-style jacket which I used batik fabrics to applique an old-school tattoo style motiff of sparrows and heart on the back.

Diantha also got my Tanya Denali/Twilight inspired fingerless gloves, given to her by Jeremiah and Hannah. She has that modeling convention to go to next week and she's sure to be in great style now!

Jeremiah got some Christmas surprise mittens just like the ones I made for Rush. I knit them while he was alseep since he was sad when he saw me knitting them since they were supposed to be a surprise! Apparently I hadn't gotten that particular memo. I stuck them down in his stocking with some store bought Iron man socks and he was thrilled!

Then last but certainly not least we have Riley's kiddie cadet hat. This pattern is so quick, it only takes a couple hours of uninterupted knitting (which means it took me at least 1 day to knit). The same pattern as the one I knit Rush, only in solid navy instead of a varigated yarn.

I think that's everything. I already shared pics of Rush's hat, Dad's socks.

OH! I did knit a pair of slipper socks for Tony's Nana Juanita this week, to give to her in 2 weeks when we go to SC to do Christmas with them. I am also working on a "Sparkling like Diamonds" hat. The slippers are knit from that "Country" yarn I love and the hat is from the same brand's "Spa" yarn which is microfiber-acrylic and bamboo blend--very sparkly and nicely machine washable.

How we do New Year's

2010-01-02T16:16:00.004-05:00

Our first New Year's Eve together, Tony and I had been married already 3 months which meant I was 2.5 months pregnant and suffering some hellacious morning sickness so our NYE festivities involved him sitting on the couch watching football and me laying in bed trying not to die of nausea. (He did come turn the bedroom TV on in time for me to watch the ball drop and to give me a New Year's kiss.)

Since then we have had small children, and no friends, so we don't go out for NYE or have a party, etc. We stay home, do stuff around the house, watch TV. It's good fun and we don't have to worry about driving home.

This year we treated the kids to a bottle of sparkling apple cider and some kazoos. They stayed up to watch the ball drop on TV. I cleaned house--all the floors were swept, mopped and the living room and kitchen were straightened. Dishes were all washed too! What a great day to start the new year, with a pleasant home. It's been 36 hours however and you can't tell I cleaned anything but that is the way of it.

So this is how we do New Year's at our house. We hope yours was as safe and happy as ours, that you were near some loved one and that the Lord will bless you in the coming days!

Goodbye Grandmom

2009-12-30T22:12:00.009-05:00

Monday morning at 7:30 am my Mom called to tell me she'd just gotten a call from my Uncle John saying Grandmom had passed away in her sleep. My Dad was actually undergoing hernia surgery so we found out before he did that his mother had died. Does this technically make him an orphan, since his dad died years ago? Can a person be orphaned at 67 years old?

My Grandmom was a small, firey, fiesty, mouthy German lady with a big name; Dorothy Charlotta Schaediger Ross Zadlo. Her peers called her Dot. She was 93 years old.

I found out 3 weeks ago that her favorite color was purple. I'd always thought it was blue.

Grandmom had 6 children, my Dad is the next to youngest of them. She had, as far as I know, 18 living grandchildren and upwards of 25 great-grandchildren. Maybe even some great-great grandchildren, since most of the grandkids are in their 40s & 50s and the great grandkids are mostly around my age in their 20s. My Dad was a late bloomer.

Until recently Grandmom drove a little red Cheverolet, with lead feet and lots of brakes. Everyone else on the road was a "jackass" or a "dummy."

When I was a teenager my Dad would take me to her house for the afternoon and I would help her with chores. I ran her acient, heavy (and when the self-propel kicked in, posessed) vacuum and scrubbed her plastic covered patio furniture which never any looked better when I was done. Sometimes I would sweep her driveway. She always forced me to take a $5 when I left.

For lunch we would eat real deli-sciled ham on crusty bakery rolls with Helman's mayonaise and watch Matlock while drinking gingerale from the can. They were the best sandwhiches I have ever eaten. I don't like mayonaise.

When I was born she told my parents that Desiree Nicole was too big a name for such a small baby, and from then on only called me Dolly. Even my birthday cards were addressed to "Dolly Ross." The card I got for my 21st birthday was addressed to "Desiree Bowman." When I turned 21, she'd given me my grown-up name.

She drove from NJ (where she moved about 2002 to live with my Uncle John) to be at my wedding. They also came for my son Jeremiah's second birthday party, the first time she ever met him. They visited again last fall when Hannah was a baby. (See the above pictures).

I was not sad when I learned of her death. As I write this, I am getting sadder by the minute. When I told Jeremiah on Monday that Grandmom, Grumpy's Mom, had gone to live with Jesus he said "Okay." I told him I just wanted him to know because now he only had 6 Nana's instead of 7. He said "Mama, even if a person goes to live with Jesus, they are still a Nana." He's precious.

Living in another state 12 hours away, Grandmom hadn't been a big part of my life for several years. She called occasionally, or I called, or talked to her at Mom's but not nearly enough. When was the last time I told her I loved her? Did I tell her that the last time I talked to her?

93 years is a long time to have a full life but I suddenly can't help thinking that my brothers, sisters and kids will never get to hug her tiny little, frail frame. To kiss her papery soft cheek. I won't ever get another birthday card with 3 crisp dollar bills stapled inside; neither will they. Funny how that was so weird but now it seems like it was so special.

The one joy, other than the memories we have, is that she did love Jesus. My Mom said Grandmom was in her 70s when she told her, she'd been a member of the Lutheran church all her life. Every Sunday she'd attend, but never before had a preacher made her understand that Jesus loved her.

I don't really know how to close this blog post, except to say Goodbye for now to my Grandmom and to pray that everyone enroute to her funeral (my parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins) have a safe journy and the Lord will bless them with comfort.

Chocolate Snowcap Cookies...again

2009-12-14T00:10:00.010-05:00

I shared the recipe for these last year but since it's burried in my archives and they are delicious (allbeit NOT on a low sugar diet!!) I thought I'd share again.

Tonight I made a batch of these and my family went through a whole dozen before the 2nd set of trays came out of the oven!

Chocolate Snowcap Cookies:
Makes about 11 dozen (I never end up with this many, but I make big cookies)

Ingredients:
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled slightly (2/3 bag choc. chips)
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/3 cups light-brown sugar, firmly packed
2 large eggs
4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
1 cup confectioners' sugar, plus more for rolling

Directions:
Heat oven to 350°.
Chop chocolate into small bits, and melt over medium heat in a heat-proof bowl or the top of a double boiler set over a pan of simmering water (or microwave on high, stirring every 30 seconds until melted). Be sure not to get even a DROP of water in the chocolate because if you do it will ruin it! Set aside to cool.

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, powdered sugar and salt.
Beat butter and light-brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat until well combined. Add the melted chocolate.

With mixer on low speed, alternate adding the dry ingredients and the milk until just combined. The last addition of flour you will want to switch to a stiff spoon.

Dust hands with powdered sugar. Using a t-spoon dipped in powdered sugar, dip up balls of dough and roll them in more powdered sugar.

**Alternately or if your kitchen is warm, on a clean countertop sprinkled generously with powdered sugar, roll each portion of dough into a log approximately 16 inches long and 1 inch in diameter, using more confectioners' sugar to prevent sticking. Wrap logs in plastic wrap, and transfer to a baking sheet. Chill for 30 minutes. Cut each log into 1-inch pieces, and toss in confectioners' sugar, a few at a time. **

Using your hands, roll the pieces into a ball shape. If any of the cocoa-colored dough is visible, roll dough in confectioners' sugar again to coat completely.

Place the cookies 2 inches apart on a foil, parchment, or waxed paper-lined baking sheet. Bake until cookies have flattened and the sugar splits, 12 to 15 minutes.

Transfer from oven to a wire rack to let cool completely.

Note: I always end up having to chill the dough in the refrigerator for a few minutes before I roll them into balls. Otherwise the dough will stick to your hands like no tomorrow! But these are totally worth every bit of "trouble".

Spin Along Mittens

2009-12-13T23:02:00.007-05:00

I've been knitting my Aunt Bev some mittens from the yarn I got from WoolyHands' Spin Along. I knit almost a whole mitten yesterday but then I frogged the whole thing because it was too big! Not to be detered I cast on again with less stitches and started to knit.

This is what I've come up with! I LOVE them and I think she will too! The tan merino yarn I had to substitute with for the finger tips and thumb looks much better in person that in does in the pictures for some reason. I decreased twice between the thumb and fingertips to mske the fingers more fitted and less bulky.

I cast on 32 stitches, joined in the round and knit 2, purl 2 for the ribbing for 10 rows.

Knit for 8 more rows and on stitch number 32 I knit the front and back of the stitch to increase 1.

Continued this process for 8 rows so that I effectively increased 8 stitches for the thumb.

Placed those new 8 stitches on another needle to hold them and knit 7 more rows.

On the 8th row I knit every 7th and 8th stitch together to decrease evenly and slightly.

Knit 5 more rows, on row 6 I decreased every 6th and 7th stitch.

Knit until I ran out of the spun along yarn and switched to the tan merino. I think it was 5 rows until I cinched and tied off.

I wear a woman's size large glove and my hand is 7.5" long. I just had to try the mittens on occasionally to see how much farther I had to go. These were VERY quick to knit. If knitting while watching TV they only take an hour or two each. The yarn is average worsted but is think and thin. The needles are size 4.5mm which I think is a 7.

Happy Knitting!

And the hits keep comin...

2009-12-13T22:46:00.008-05:00

Right now I'm fondly remembering the days of having maintenance men on call at our appartment complex. Our tub had been drainging rather slowly as of late, something my dear husband blames on my ever-lengthening hair that falls out fairly easily. I picked him up a bottle of some Drain-O type stuff he likes to use Friday and Satruday morning he tried using it on the tub (we've done this before with no problem.)

It never drained.

He took a quick shower anyway before work yesterday morning and by bedtime last night it still hadn't drained. So today he went out and bought an auger/snake plumber thingie and tried that.

No dice.

Thankfully we have another free standing shower downstairs, stuck almost as an afterthought next to our washer and dryer. I used that to shower Jeremiah and couldn't figure out why he cried the whole time until I showered in it and it was like being beaten to death by a geyser. I told Tony our next move is to get a low-flow shower head for it because honestly I think it dumped 400 gallons of water on me in my 2 minute shower. In which I didn't get to shave anything because THAT shower wasn't draining quickly either and it only has a 2.5" lip around it to hold water and it was almost full when I stepped out into the freezing basement.

To find Tony had set up this blow up firehouse my MIL got Jeremiah. It has a continual air pump that keeps it afloat, kind of like those bouncy house things. Tony and both kids were playing in it. I kept trying to get a pic of Tony but Jeremiah, the terd he is sometimes, kept sticking his head in the way! Hannah had great fun running around in it until she ran out and into the shower, still wearing her tights, and got her feet wet.

She got "bath" in the kitchen sink because I wasn't sure I could keep her standing upright in the scary shower downstairs.

Before we came up from the basement I scraped some more paint off the antique hutch that was left in the house. Still haven't managed to get it refinished and up in my entry way, but eventually!!

Not sure what we're going to do about the tub. I guess we'll have to call a plumber or redo the bathroom. Neither which we can afford right now, but we can't go without a tub either. Although...my MIL does live 5 minutes away and she has maintenance men!

Budding Gothling Fingerless Mitts

2009-12-11T23:47:00.009-05:00

I made myself a to-do list today. It said:

Change Sheets

Put up ALL laundry

Read the Gruffalo book to the kids

Actually cook dinner

And I kind of failed on some of that.

I changed the sheets, grocery shopped, Walmart shopped for things like paper towels and miniature flying helicopters, hit the post office, read The Snowy Day instead of the Gruffalo, wrapped some presents and finished my Budding Gothling fingerless mitts I was working on for someone for Christmas. Oh, I also inhaled massive amounts of Excederin and homemade pizza Mom made. And not quite good store bought chocolate chip cookies.

Oh! And I spun 52 yards of camel colored merino to use for the fingertips and thumb of the mittens I want to knit for my Aunt Bev from my spin-along batt yarn from yesterday's post. Whew, that was a mouthful...

I absolutely love these fingerless mitts. They are knit from NaturallyCaron.Com's "Country" yarn which is a blend of micro-fiber acrylic and merino-wool; I've said before the yarn is horridly splitty but once you get used to it is very wonderful. They took hardly any yarn. I got almost one whole mitt from what was leftover from Tony's hat, actually all but the 3 rows of ribbing/bind off around the fingers and the thumb. I bought another skein for the 2nd mitt and it used hardly any of it. Very quick knits too, though the pair took me a week because I had to do Rush's hat and mittens in the meantime. : )

I am also so in love with these little skully pewter buttons! They are a little snug on me but they're intended for somene who's hands are significantly smaller than mine but I wanted them to have room for that person to grow. : )

While we were out Hannah's hair was static-city! It was so funny I just had to snap a pic! And, weird, weird, every fast food place I've hit in the last 2 months has given me 1 more straw than I needed! I now have this collection of straws in my car that I don't know what to do with.

WoolyHands' Holiday Spin Along

2009-12-11T00:08:00.009-05:00

I follow a person on twitter, who just happens to have an etsy shop called WoolyHands and she just happened to be doing a thing earlier this month called a Spin Along. You bought it and what you got in the mail was an approx. 2oz batt of some kind of wonderful fiber, some fun add-ins and some chocolates.

My chocolates were immediately decimated by my family. My husband picked up the batt and said, "OOOOooh this is SO soft!!" I got one called "Aspen Lodge" (which you can purchase for yourself here) which was a wonderful blend of icelandic wool, coopworth locks, corriedale, wool mill ends, mohair, angelina and firestar sparkles. My "add-ins" were some sparkly sheer ribbons in brown and white and brown/turquoise and 2 cardinals on wires. I got some woodsy colored jump rings from UnkamenSupplies (great people to work with, awesome products!!!) to spun in the yarn also and I cut all my ribbons in half length-wise to make them thinner to spin in.

This batt was a JOY to spin. It drafted easily enough that a beginner would have no problem, but was textured, colored and the fibers were different enough to keep an expirienced spinner from being bored. I was actually sad when I got to the end of it!

I got 84 yards of yarn from the 2 ounces, spun thick and thin with the ribbons and jump rings thrown in here and there to make it artsy. I am going to spin about 30 yards of some moorit/camel-colored merino I have to go with it and make my great aunt some mittens. She loves these colors and LOVES cardinels, which I think I will attach at the cuff/wrist somehow.

I had so much fun doing this Spin-Along; I will definitely be up to doing another!!

Winter Warmies

2009-12-08T17:17:00.015-05:00

Time to share some more crafty, okay, mainly knitty, projects I've been working on that last couple weeks. Though a couple recently completed projects won't make an appearance until after Christmas because some people are nosy.

I finally finished Tony's "Random Bump" hat, which I only had to rip out 4 times but now fits him perfectly. As if it were made for him, LOL! I had seen in a knitting book once where a lady knit a sweater in a chunky yarn, and just randomly threw purle stitches into the body of it so that there was an occasional "bump" or even sometimes a line of 6 or 7 purl stitches. I thought that was so neat so decided to do that with Tony's hat. He wanted a solid black hat and just knitting it seemed rather boring; it needed some texture. I used NaturallyCaron.com's Country yarn which is a microfiber-acrylic/merino-wool blend and is lovely to use! Very splitty, almost like knitting with 10 unplied threads, but once you get used to that it's worth it I think. The knitted cloth is VERY nice!

My Goddaughter Lily LOVES cake. With a passion. It really is all about cake. I thought I would knit her some cutesy pieces of cake but after attempting on piece twice I gave up and threw it out. (gasp!) I can knit sock without a pattern but plain triangles? No! Then I went and picked up some cheapy craft felt, cut out a piece and hand sewed it. Nope, still wasn't right. Sure the pieces were right but the hand stitches didn't look secure enough for a 2 year old to chew on. I finally went with machine piecing them and hand sewing the pink beads to the "icing" (top piece of felt), then handsewing just it on. I LOVE the way they came out! SO cute, I think! Jeremiah says Hannah needs some of these for her birthday. Her birthday is in April, so I'm good.

My Godchildren are army kids; their Daddy is right now in Afganistan. My Godson Rush just turned 5 so he's about the same age as my Jeremiah. I found this pattern on ravelry.com that was SO cute, it was called "Kiddie Cadet" and made a little, military-style cap for kids. I knew I wanted to make him a hat using the pattern for Christmas. For some reason, I couldn't bring myself to by the camo-colored/patterning yarn. Don't know why. Instead I picked up the same type of yarn in the blue/brown camo colorway. And it didn't pattern like camo! Still though, the hat is pretty cute! I have no idea why Jeremiah closes hisa eyes for every picture now. The flash on my new camera is BRIGHT but Hannah doesn't do it. Who knows.

Today I've been working on him some mittens to match. I used Jeremiah's hands as a guide and got one mitten started and finished in about 5 hours, taking 2.5 hours out to have a nap with the kids. They are quick knits! I have the ribbing done on the other and I'm almost ready to start the increases for the thumb. Hannah had to try on everything I had Jeremiah try on today. Jeremiah is absolutely smitten with the mitten, saying he wants some out of the SAME yarn! No matter that I am almost out of this yarn and will be lucky to get the 2nd mitten, and I still have almost all of a huge 244yd skein of the navy blue I used for the lips on his fish hat. Does he want navy mittens to match his hat? NO! He wants blue and brown stripedy mittens. Of course. So...probably I'll buy another skein of this yarn.

I have also been working on a pair of "Budding Gothling" fingerless mitts for a friend of my sisters, for Christmas. I have kind of designed these around 1) the ribbing I used on Tony's hat, loved the chunky look and 2) these distressed pewter skull and cross bones buttons I saw at JoAnn's last week. :-D Originally I was just going to sew 2 buttons in the purl stitches of the ribbing on th cuff but then I had a bright idea to pick up stitches and knit a flap, pull it over and sew it down with one button. The button then of course is non-working but still looks really cool! They are just a tad small for me but not everyone is built like a dockworker with man hands, so I think they'll fit the recipient nicely. Made from the same Country yarn as Tony's hat.

Painting Christmas Ornaments

2009-12-07T15:00:00.014-05:00

All the fun you can have for $2.79!

The last time I was at JoAnn's I grabbed a couple poured plaster Christmas ornaments to let the kids paint. This morning we broke out the paints and brushes and they had at it. I don't do a whole lot of crafty things with the kids, which makes me feel bad because I do plenty of crafty things myself. One thing I do do with them is let them paint. I have a ton of those little Apple paint bottles and keep a supply off tons of brushes, small canvases, etc.

Jeremiah painted a snowman with a scarf around his neck and Hannah painted a little bird. She said "It's Daddy's!" while she painted so I guess it's for him. She also painted her hands, face and chest. Jeremiah, being profficiant at painting, did not. LoL!

When he had finished his sparrow he painted a little tiny canvas I'd also bought. I think it's 2.5"x3", so cute! They sell little easel stands for them which I will have to go get one of since Jeremiah says this painting is for his Nana Cheryl. He always paints in abstracts and I always love them.

Dear Santa

2009-12-07T11:17:00.003-05:00

Dear Santa

I've tried to be a good girl this year and as always, but especially at Christmas, it's the thought that counts. Right?

So this year for Christmas I'd really like the Twilight movie on DVD (my son Jeremiah wants to give it to me), a gram scale (for weighing yarn and fiber, not dope--I promise!). I'd also like a smallish wooden peg board to hang at the top of the stairs to hang my purses on and the DVDs of Chocolat or the Taming of the Shew (with Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton.) And maybe the Twilight soundtrack on CD; don't judge me Santa, it's a good book!

Thank you!

Love,

Desiree

P.S. I could also use a cheapy handheld electric mixer for the kitchen. It doesn't even have to be red.

Okay, We're Festive Now

2009-12-06T22:44:00.016-05:00

It has been a long weekend. Jeremiah has been bugging me since Thanksgiving about our tree not being up. I am not a decorate the whole house for holidays type person; I decorate, moderately, for Christmas. I do Easter baskets for the kids. That's about it. Naturally I would do even less than that, but for my children's sake I try to get cheery about things. I usually try to have us set up the tree Thanksgiving weekend but this year I am just running behind.

I have been having a really hard time emotionally lately, though I have no idea why. That, the lack of sleep I have (or haven't!) been getting, and normal get-ready-for-Christmas business have put me far behind in my holiday preparations. I'm not done shopping, haven't begun baking, and am not done decorating totally but by golly, we got the tree up!!

Yesterday afternoon the kids and I went to my niece's 3rd birthday party and sat around for 4 hours in a cigarette-smoke saturated house that induced a headache I've still not recovered from. We picked Diantha up on our way home because she really is so much help to me, with the kids and the house. When we got home I decided that before we could start working on the tree I HAD to sand the wall upstairs.

You see our tree goes downstairs next to the stair railing and upstairs above the stair railing is the closet Tony built and if I didn't sand it and clean up all the resulting dry-wall snow, it wouldn't have gotten done until after Christmas. And if we don't get a move on these renevations I'm going to have a meltdown. Again.

So, Diantha plays with kids while Des very efficiantly and professionally sands the drywall mud/joints. Then I had to dust and mop upstairs, the edges of all the stairs, the ladder, the walls up and downstairs and the floor. Thankfully yesterday morning before the party Tony helped me move all the living room furniture, clean out from under the pieces and sweep so the couch wasn't against the wall with the stair railing to get

covered in dust!

While I mopped Diantha drug up the boxes of Christmas things and then we set up the tree, fluffed up the branches and I put on half the lights. That's as far as we got. My headache was too bad and the kids were too sleepy and cranky to do any more.

When we got home today I finished putting lights and garland on the tree, then Diantha and the kids decorated it while I fussed with making the fireplace more festive. Never before in my life have I been able to hang stocking by the fire!!! These are just Jeremiah's (left) and Hannah's (right); I need to get another package of hangers and fix my stocking before I had Tony's and mine.

During all this our neighbor brought over 4 freshly made and still too hot to eat oatmeal raisin cookies, which Hannah and Tony sat around eating. : )

When they were all done decorating they helped me wrap presents! We still have about 6 people to buy for, Tony says he needs to shop for me and we haven't shopped for our kids yet. Behind, behind. But, we have big families and we are very blessed to not only have the family but also be able to budget in gifts for them!!

DURING all this hubbub I finally managed to finish Tony's stupid random bump hat which I had to pull out 4 times but now fits him beautifully and perfectly, cast on and knit 75% of one fingerless glove for my sister's friend for Christmas and cast on the KiddieCadet hat for my godson Rush. Whew!

No wonder I'm exhausted.

Jeremiah, Budding Photographer part2

2009-12-04T23:16:00.022-05:00

Jeremiah got ahold of my new, new camera today (not to be confused with the old new camera that went back to the store because it took pictures of purple fuzz) and did some more of his photography snapshots for me to share.

First we have the inside of my car, complete with random trash. This is his view since he likes to ride in the middle.

Then we have the ever important, all encompassing new Walmart they built in Clinton out at 1-75. Yes, he really was taking the picture of the Walmart and NOT the car. In fact, he said the car was in his way. The nerve.

Then when we got home, he sneaked in on me while I was doing dishes. He made sure to get not only me in suprise, but also me in action and then the Grande Finale the baking dish being rinsed. He's nothing if not thorough.

And then he found the sausage I laid out on the counter to thaw for dinner. YES, it's SAUSAGE. Heart-healthy turkey smoked sausage if you must know. Get your mind out of the gutter.

And then suddenly the floor was interesting.

Knitting Book for Trade?

2009-11-30T23:00:00.010-05:00

I picked up this knitting book recently, looked through it and then decided I wasn't really interested in making any of the items in the book, even though some of them were really cute! So I am offering it up here for trade, if anyone wants it. It's in brand new, excellent condition.

The book is titled "Knits Three Ways," the front cover also says "Mix and Match design elements to create a custom-made sweater." The back cover says, "Whether you're a novice or experienced knitter, this innovative guidebook offers a fresh new approach to sweater patterns, with variations on 12 different projects."

The book retails new for $32.50. I am willing to trade yarn, fiber, whatever for it. : ) I don't expect the retail, but maybe figure on a $20 trade and I'll pay to ship it to you? Anyone interested can leave me a comment but make sure to leave your e-mail address so I can get back to you!

Knitting, Spinning and a Mini Quilt

2009-11-28T12:42:00.033-05:00

It has been a crazy knitty couple of months!

I wanted to make my Dad a pair of handknit socks for Christmas, but when I finished the first pair I liked them so much that I used the leftover yarn to make a 2nd pair. I actually have about 200 yards of the semi-solid brown yarn left! I stashed it for future toes and heels. : ) I named the first pair "Dad Doesn't Drink Tequilla!" because the orange yarn is Red Heart Sock yarn with Aloe in the Tequilla Sunrise colorway. The 2nd pair I named "70s Porn Star Mustache" because the orange/brown color combo reminded me so much of the 70s and until I was 11 my Dad had one of those HUGE thick BLACK porn star mustaches. Just a little twisted humor; he'll like it!

Then I finished the hat and scarf set I was making for my friend's mother. The scarf ended up being about 73" long and only 3" wide once the cable drew it in. Very nice tho! It's made from Lion Brand's wool ease which is supposed to have enough acrylic content to make it machine washable without felting. We hope!!

I spun a 3ply SUPER bulky weight yarn for my sister's shop (http://fluff4ewe.etsy.com/) the other day too. The white is corriedale wool from a local farm, the green is handdyed merino and the brown ply is natural "moorit" colored merino I got in trade for some walnut hulls. That merino is a JOY to spin! I still have a lot left; can't wait to come up with something to do with it!

I also spun myself 290 yards of what was dk weight yarn when it was on the spindle. When I soaked it to set the twist it bloomed to about worsted weight! Go figure! Anyways I still ended up with 290yards from a 4oz batt. This was that Grape Goddess batt Mom got me from Spincerely on etsy and is merino/tencel and L U S C I O U S! I think I'm going to knit myself a very wide scarf I can use as a hood/wrap and use the Elvish Leaves lace pattern everyone on Ravelry makes dishclothes out of. Unless I can do a lace pattern in a moebious, then I will do that. I'm not sure lave will work with the over/under way a moebious is knit in the round but can't find anyone who can tell me so I might just have to expirement.

I knit Hannah a pair of socks that were slightly too narrow, so when I tried them on her feet they drew up a little and got shorter. I figured I'd need to make them about 4-5 rows longer in the foot than I planned to allow for that, though on size 1 needles 4-5 rows isn't a huge increase! I tried them on her feet and was right; the sock was the exact length it needed to be when I started the heel. Finished the sock and tried it on her foot and darn if it's not 1/2" too long in the foot! She loves them though and wears them anyway! I will try again soon since I still have a LOT of this yarn left!

The N2Quilting list I'm on is going a Holiday Mini Quilt Swap. My quilt came out REALLY mini! I chose the traditional "Goose in the Pond" quilt block and used semi-solid, not quite traditional Christmas colors (the the back is a dark red Christmas print and the binding is a striped/gold metallic Christmas print). Using scant seam allowances I was able to get a 13" square quilt, LOL!! I love it though, I am thinking of making myself one.

I got this batt in the mail the other day, which I bought from ArtemisArtemis off etsy for the sole purpose of spinning these gorgeous peacock colored jump rings I bought from UnkamenSupplies into! I am thinking maybe of tearing off a handful of the batt, spinning it, then tearing off a handful of either the solid white or solid black merino I have and spinning it, and so forth just to make the yarn have more yardage. Haven't decided yet.

And last but certainly not least, there is a little girl in Diantha's modeling thing named Nia who so loved the fingerless mitts I made Diantha (orange) that her mother offered to buy them!! So as a favor to my Mom and hers a couple weekends ago I just about knocked myself out trying to knit her some little purple ones out of washing machine-friendly yarn (Diantha's are handspun). Nia is about Jeremiah's size so I was using his hands as a guide. The first mitt I knit, and finished, fit Hannah. Try again! The next one was the correct size and so I made it a mate. Hannah meanwhile feel in LOVE with the fluffy purple fancy mitt so today I have been working on knitting her a mate for it so she will have a pair. And wouldn't you know, Nia wasn't even THERE the next day at the modeling practice thing. I didn't have to stress over finishing it at all! ARgh! LOL!

And I finished Hannah's, but my brand new wonderful camera is aparently defective. Have to return it, darn it! It wouldn't even let me take pics of Hannah's but they look just like Nia's so you get the picture.

Mom's Piebald Socks

2009-11-28T00:31:00.007-05:00

I was making myself a pair of striped-y socks. Expirementing with a very simple lace pattern across the top of the foot. For some reason the coloring in the yarn pooled a spot of pale/white right in the center of the top of the foot of the first sock! So, my socks were Piebald.

I got them done and put the socks on, wore them for 5 minutes and decided they were too itchy for my incredibly sensitive skin.

I gave them to my Mom, who wears the same size and was *just* lamenting not owning more than 1 pair of handknit socks. LOL!

Mom wore for a couple days and then decided the red/white/little bit of purple stripe pattern wasn't really her thing so she overdyed them with blue koolaid since her signature color is lots of purple. :-D

Hey there, it's been a while

2009-11-28T00:01:00.007-05:00

Hello again! It's been a while since I blogged, again....

I blame my camera. Or rather, blame could maybe be placed on my precious little Hannah who attacked my camera while it was plugged into the computer and damaged the receptor for the USB cable inside the camera. Then it wouldn't connect to the computer and I had no way to put pictures in the computer. And who can blog without pictures? BoRiNg!

And then Betsy dropped my camera on the floor and busted the battery door, which in in all class I packing taped shut.

And then my wonderful mother bought me a new camera. A better camera. A RED camera.

So now I can share pictures.

We traditionally ignore the Black Friday shopping bananza, having all worked in retail and hating the general public we try not to add to the madness. However Mom and I do have one little tiny ritual of going to JoAnn's for fabric, etc, so we ventured out there this morning. I picked up some yarn for a project I have in mind (none to stash! Aren't you proud of me?), some batting and some fabrics for a wall quilt for my living room above my fireplace.

Came back and went to the local chinese buffet for lunch, then Tony, the kids and I decided to wander around Big Lots. They had little 4' colored trees on sale for $12. They had a purple one. Hannah's favorite colors is purple, and her big brother loves her so much. He talked us into buying one. Only they didn't have a purple one except for the display (which they wouldn't sell) so he settled on getting the pink one and helping Tony find purple and silver decorations for it. Isn't he a good big brother?! When we got home she fell asleep and he helped me set it up. He decorated it (except for the ribbon/garland which I did first) while I tied ribbons in the shatter-proof balls and handed them to him. When she woke up she smiled ear to ear and said "Berry preddy!!!" over and over.

I had been tinkering with knitting a pair of fingerless gloves out of some of the leftover yarn from my Piebald socks. Mom actually dyed those socks blue which made them incredible! I planned on over dying these fingerless gloves too when I finished them. I got the 2nd one done this evening, except for weaving in the tails which I will do when they've dried. I knit them size ladies small, with a ruffle around the cuff and a simple lace pattern just like the piebald socks. When they were done I over dyed them purple which made them Gorgeous! I named them "Tanya" after the Denali Vampire because I love Twilight. Go ahead and make fun. ;-p BTW they look a LOT better on Diantha's size small hands then they do on my size large or extra-large hands. Will have to take pics of them on smaller hands later.

Hopefully I can get back into the swing of blogging, I really missed sharing all my crafty pictures. In a couple days I'll have some fake "cake" pictures to share!

Little Ponderosa Zoo

2009-11-11T14:05:00.017-05:00

I am actually 2 weeks behind in posting this, as we went to the zoo 2 weeks ago! It seems like everytime I sit down to try to blog lately something else comes up either on the computer or here at home and I don't get to.

There's a little zoo in Clinton TN where I live called "Little Ponderosa" and they advertize a petting zoo and admission for only $8. Not bad considering admission to the larger Knoxville zoo is upwards of $16 each. A friend of mine and I had been meaning to take our kids for a couple months to try it out, but scheduling issues had kept us from going. Finally, 2 weeks ago I called Mom and said why don't we take our kids and see what's up?

It is a cute little zoo! They had the petting zoo part, which appears to just be goats LoL!, closed for the day since by the time we got over there it was about an hour til they closed. They had lots of little goats though and the kids enjoyed looking at them. They had one that looked pregnant with twins! She was HUGE for no taller than she was!!

For a little zoo they had lots of different and exotic animals. They had huge hairy yaks, sheep, goats, a pony, porcupine, tigers, "zonkies" which apparently is a crossbreed between a zebra and a donky, regular zebras and donkies, llamas, alpacas, deer, some sort of antelope, emus, ostriches, camels and dromedaries, kangaroos, and this little fellow that Mom mistakenly called a "Chupacabra" which we all know is that alien thing plaguing South America. ;-)

They also had some cages of birds which includes white pigeons (doves?) and a couple different kinds of pheasants. The spinner in me thinks I should definitely re-create the colors of these gorgeous birds in fiber!

I got some cute pictures of the kids on a porch swing overlooking a small pond, Betsy talking to a duck, Hannah enjoying the deer, Jeremiah enjoying the penny-toss fountain, Artemas being a man who stares at goats (yes we DID go out in public with him dressed like that!!) and Josiah who was dressed to match the zonky!

Mom wandered around collecting small down feathers that had fallen on the walk path to wash and spin into an art yarn, LoL! While Dad randomly exposed the corn in their fall decorations for the local wild birds to eat. I'm sure they appreciated that.

This sheep got out and followed us around until Hannah chased it yelling "Kitty!!"

Don't Diantha and Hannah both look happy about it?

Bacon loving Pumpkins, Pirates and Princesses

2009-11-01T18:53:00.011-05:00

Wednesday Veronica spent the night and we picked up some pumpkins to carve. I let the kids draw of them with a sharpie while Tony gutted them (he's a good pumpkin gutter). Jeremiah drew a cat and Veronica drew a smiley face holding a piece of bacon. I know. Weird, but super cute. I drew a simple smiley with heart-shaped eyes for Hannah's, she was asleep.

Our church did a Pirates and Princesses puppet show/drama/play for the 2 yr olds-6th grade kids and they said if possible, for all the kids to come dressed as either a pirate or a princess. Jeremiah has a "Jack Sparrow" costume that he wears regularly, so that was no problem and Hannah actually already had a shirt that made her look as if she were wearing a pirate costume. I asked her if she wanted to be a princess though and she said, "AAARRGGH!!" Alrighty, pirate it was. I picked up some material at JoAnn's and made her and me each a simply, flowy, ragged edge elastic waist skirt. I love mine and plan on wearing it for everyday where too, not just costume opportunities. Jeremiah asked to wear black eyeliner and eyeshadow like I usually do so that he could really look like Jack Sparrow.

Thursday I cast on and began to knit MYSELF a pair of socks from some sock yarn I had bought and dyed. Yesterday I finished the first sock (had to rip out the heel, add 4 more rows and re-do the heel, that was the hold up. Honest.) and tried it on. It itches me. Sigh! So I handed it to Mom and asked her if it itched her; it doesn't. I told her I guess I'd just give them to her then, since I'd hate for them to go to waste. She sat around for about 5 minutes wearing sock #1 and when her left, unsocked foot began to feel cooler than her right, socked foot she began to look for the 2nd sock. Then realized that it hasn't been knit yet and told me, "No pressure but my other foot is cold."

So last night I cast on the 2nd sock and I'm just about to turn the heel. The first sock ended up with this strange little spot of very light colored yarn right at the top of the foot. So I'm calling them Piebald. And when I'm done with this second on, Mom can have it. I'll just have to try again with some superwash merino instead of just superwash "wool."

One last pic; I made another pleated fabric purse for Lucia and somehow only managed to get one lousy pic of it before I mailed it.

Jeremiah Photography

2009-10-25T20:16:00.020-04:00

Today I discovered a bunch of pics on my camera and desktop that Jeremiah has taken, that he wanted me to put on my blog. Since I've been remiss about doing so I thought I'd share them all here now.

Bob the Tomato, a picture Jeremiah and I colored at work last Tuesday. <---

A couch pillow, on the floor, at his aunt Charlene's house in South Carolina. --->

His latest box of cereal. He had to have. He doesn't like. <---

Me cutting up a green pepper to cook in something for dinner. --->

His new kicks. He's very proud of them; though he's driving me insane with the wanting to learn to tie his shoes. It's slow going. <---

Mater, on my cutting mat. --->

The Men's room door at Charles Town Harbor Landing in Charleston, South Carolina.<---

My schedule for October and list of pertinent people/phone numbers for work.--->

The star I colored in at work the other night. It was a slow night. <---

Nana Juanita's wheelchair wheel, being rolled along at Charles Town Harbor Landing by Nana Cheryl. --->

I hope you've enjoyed this little look at the world through a 4 year old's eyes. Either that or you're taking my blog off your follow list, LOL!!

The Crabtree Vow Renewal

2009-10-25T17:12:00.011-04:00

5 years ago my very best friend Bethany married the love of her life Rush, in my parents living room (was supposed to be an outdoor wedding but it rained.) A lot has happened since then.

They've added 2 beautiful childen to their family, bringing their total of kids to 3.
Rush has served 18 months in Iraq (not to mention the weeks of basic they put him through before he left, again).
They moved out of state, away from family, to be near an army base he's currently stationed at--just to name a few.

Most importantly, a few months ago, Rush gave his life to Jesus. What a blessing that now their marriage is "equally yoked." I know this has been a great relief to Bethany, having a husband who wil lpray with her and believe with her for things when life is hard.

The Army is sending Rush back to Afganistan a couple days before Thanksgiving, this will be his second tour there, he went when he was 17. Before he leaves they wanted to have a small ceremony, outdoors like their first wedding was supposed to be, to renew their vows as husband and wife before the Lord and their friends.

This past Thursday Mom knocked herself out cooking a wonderfull dinner to serve: Coq au Vin, which is a delicious chicken dish (she made her sans mushrooms because Bethany's Mom is terribly allergic, but cooked them seperately for we who love them) , brown-sugar glazed baby veggies, garlic cheeseball, an orgasmically chocolate cake with strawberries and ganache (the top layer, heart shaped, was white cake with strawberries and ganache). I took some orange almond rolls I'd made out of the freezer to add to it, along with some honey/rum butter for topping them.

Bethany's Dad "officiated" the event, saying some nice things about the couple and then Bethany and Rush read each other their vows that they had written. Beautiful words!!

The food was almost cold by the time we ate, but still incredibly tastily delicious and everyone had a good time! We did it at the park behind my house and the kids all played on the playground. I swept 1/4 cup of sand off my floors after they all left, LOL!!!

Please remember to say a prayer, if you will, for Rush while he's overseas for safety, and for Bethany who will be doing the single-Mom thing again for 18 months, for sanity and peace.

** I know those probably aren't the actual recipes Mom used to make her coq au vin and ganache but I thought I'd share some good ones with you, incase you were inspired to try something new and INSANELY delicious!!!

A Princess Cottage

2009-10-24T22:19:00.007-04:00

Rome may not have been built in a day but this adorable little princess cottage was, sans interior decorating but we didn't have paint for that.

The church we attend, Faith Promise in Knoxville TN, is having a Princess and Pirates play for the kids on Halloween weekend. Wednesday night they, being some other people, built a pirate ship. Saturday we, being Mom, Diantha and I met and spent 4 hours building a stone cottage out of 2" industrial foam.

We mixed some gray and painted the whole thing, then went around with a lighter color painting "mortor" between the "stones". Mom and Diantha painted a flower vines while I used brown paper sandwhich bags to make a "cedar-shake roof".

It has a "wooden" door that sets in the life-sized (at least height wise) doorway and a window box in the window. The person playing the princess is a grown up woman so the doorwa is actually about 5'8. We figured if I could walk through it, chances are she will be able too.

The roof also just sets on top of the two-sided cottage, otherwise they wouldn't be able to fit it through the doorway to take it to the stage.

Mom did the majority of the cutting, all I did was the measly crooked window box, LoL! It seems she is better with a razor blade than the rest of us! : ) We used hot glue and wooden dowls to put the walls together.

Mom also did these super cute little "stones" and the fake "window" on the one wall.

Oh walNuts!

2009-10-22T14:47:00.009-04:00

We have a walnut tree in the yard, and though I'd much rather have a pecan tree (not liking walnuts very much myself), one can't complain. So it's walnut harvest time and I've spent several hours the last 2 days creeping around my side yard with a bucket hauling walnuts. There must be 2,000 walnuts that have fallen our of the tree. A couple weeks ago my Mom mentioned that I should give her some of the hulls so she could make some natural brown dye to dye wool/yarn with. Last night on twitter another lady asked the same thing, so today I've been wandering around with 2 buckets--one for nuts and one for hauls.

The nuts I'm tossing up on the roof of our little metal shed to start drying until I can make some sort of screen drying rack thing. The hauls I'm laying on our driveway to dry. It may not look like much in the picture but the hulls take up about a 4'x3' area right now, the nuts cover about 1/4th-1/3rd of the total shed roof. I think I've "harvested" about 1/4 of what has fallen. And the universe has been mocking me today; more nuts have fallen around me, narrowly missing my head.

I have no idea what I'm going to do with all these nuts. I just hate to see them all go to waste. This is being a big task but I am dreading the bigger task of shelling all these things after they've dried! LoL! I am wondering if I can sell gallon-sized bags of the hulls (after they've dried of course) on etsy for fibery people to use for dye? I dunnp, we'll see how much Mom wants. : )

I am too OCD for this though, I work at it for a couple hours and decide it's time to go wash up and can't because on my way to the house I see MORE WALNUTS! It's driving me nuts. I feel almost panic that there are still walnuts on the ground, even though I am leaving some on purpose for the squirrels. Isn't that odd? LOL!! And I have a feeling the squirrels are going to help themselves to the nuts drying on the roof too. I found one this morning that had been bitten into even though I am making sure not to keep any like that for us. Maybe I'm making it a little easier on the little furry critters. The Bowmans will have fat squirrels to match our fat fish!

Meanwhile, Artemas has been helping by occupying the kids:

Celebrating Squishies!

2009-10-21T12:02:00.010-04:00

Only to a quilter or knitter would a "squishy" be a good thing, LoL! This week has been a week for squishies so far, and I am lovin' it!!!

Sunday, while the shower fiasco was going on in the bathroom, I sat upon the couch in the living room and finished not only Jeremiah's "deadfish" hat (badly) but I also then added eyes to the hat I made niece Maisie last year for Christmas because she loved the eyes on Jeremiah's so much. I tried to do girly eyes but I had limited supplies and I'm not sure they turned out like they were in my head but she was happy with them nonetheless.

I also finished that "Finger Friendly" hat I was working on for my friend's Mom, Nancy. I hope it fits her! As soon as I got it done I thought, oh no! It's too small!! Of course I have a big head where my friend and her Mom have realitively small heads so I hope it will fit her.

Monday's mail was AWESOME! Diantha sold some yarn I'd made and instead of giving me the moola they went on etsy and picked me out something fun! This cool iron on patch that says "Knitting Ninja - Armed with Pointy Objects"-- I can't wait to put this one something. I'm thinking my jacket. Right on the arm, like a tattoo.

Then a BEAUTIFUL merino, bamboo and nylon batt called "Grape Godess" from Spincerely on etsy. I can't wait to start spinning this one however....

The rosey pink jump rings Mom had ordered for me to spin into Diantha's Rosalie batt came in the mail from Unkamen Supplies!! I have to start on that today, LoL! I LOVE using their jump rings, they are so wonderful to work with, and spinning them into yarn adds such a bright, unique touch!

Also in the mail were the peacock blue jump rings I ordered from them! Squee! These are going in some kind of yarn for ME. Wonder if peacock blue would would in the grape goddess batt? haha Maybe not but I will stash them and get another batt to go with them. Hmm, might have to buy some more fiber.

Which brings me to the yarn I finished last night! The white is pure, undyed merino and the brown is a mystery wool that Marion sent me. I thought the brown by itself might be a little scratchy for me but now that it is plied with the merino the resulting bulky yarn is sooooooo soft! Like a cloud! I love it. I thought it looked like an Oreo or something but Tony says it reminds him of an owl. : ) I am wondering if I should knit him a hat out of it. It's only 88 yards but since it's bulky that's plenty to knit him a hat or me some fingerless gloves, LoL!

.....

Also on Monday morning I got a new tattoo! I drew a rough drawing and took it to Alter Ego Tattoo and Piercing on Kingston Pike in Knoxville. Jon there did my and Tony's last tats and we were really happy with our experience there. Jon was busy so Josh did this one for me, he cleaned up my drawing, fixed the leaf to look like a cherry blossom leaf instead of just a plain leaf and drew the cherry blossoms for me. He did a beautiful job on the tattoo. I Love it!! This picture isn't very good, I couldn't get it sharp enough. It's hard taking a pic of the outside of your ankle. Also, it will look better in about a week when it's healed more!

The Shower Fiasco

2009-10-19T23:27:00.010-04:00

Saturday we drove 2.5hrs over to Greeneville for our niece's 8th birthday party. The kids had a blast, we ate pizza, socialized with family. It was a nice time. During the party my brother-in-law Jordy mentioned to Tony that he and Keely (his wife) were worrying they were going to have to get a new shower soon. Apparently theirs was poring down in the wall and flooding the floor whenever they used it. He was worried I guess because he doesn't really know how to do home improvement-y type things.

Tony and I talked about it privately and decided to help them out by buying their new shower and starting to help put it in. We thought it would be a few hour ordeal. It ended up being a 27 hour fiasco.

We hadn't intended to spend the night in Greeneville but we got back from Lowe's with the shower about 9:30pm, the guys turned the water off to take the old shower out. Got it out (and laid in the yard, true redneck style) and discovered the leak had molded the wall. Ooops, too late to buy drywall! Crap!

The water-proof-treated boards under the tub were saturated and we thought they might have to be replaced too but after having the window open and a fan turned on them 9 hours later when they were mostly dried out the guys were thrilled to discover they were just wet, not molded!

They recruited help from brother-in-law number 2 and together they biult 2 new sub walls to set the new shower to, ran new pipes (which was a fiasco in itself) and set the walls of the shower in. But then the old pipe to run up to the shower didn't fit. So off they went to walmart for some felxhose and some fitting glue. 2 hrs later they hooked the shower head up, turned the water back on and the fitting on the backside of the shower sprayed water all over the wall. Sigh. This happened 3 times.

Finally it was 1:30am Mon morning and Tony had to admit defeat and we packed up and left. Keith (bro-inlaw #2) said he was off today and would fix it.

So we tried to do a nice thing and really ended up tearing up their house and making them go without running water (flushing toilets) for 22 hours. But! When they get it done they'll have a really nice, beautiful, white, sparkling shower!!

An Etsy Day

2009-10-16T21:18:00.010-04:00

Today was one of those days where it would have been better to just stay in bed. Everything I've done has gone wrong today, right from the minute we woke up and I started to dress Jeremiah to leave and realized his sneakers had gotten soaked in the rain yesterday and had soured overnight. It's a good thing he had some nice new knit slippers to wear over his socks in the car and at Nana's!!

Then on the way to Mom's I discovered Hannah riding in her car seat with 6 cents in her mouth. 6 cents she must have put in there about 20 minutes before I discovered it. At least, I hope it was just 6 cents. Sigh.

We went to Mom's bright and early because the local large newspaper, the Knoxville Newsentinal, was sending a photographer to take pictures of our family doing our respective crafty things for our shops. I made a bad, Diantha carded some fiber, Veronica spun some yarn on a drop spindle, my Mom and Dad made some soap, Mom dyed some recycled yarns and Artemas worked on a walking stick from pearwood. Whew!

All my mayhem, mishaps and annoyances from things not going correctly aside, today was a productive day. I made this "Think Solar" bag and listed it in my etsy shop. I really got in touch with my quilting roots making this one, actually making a wonky star quilt block instead of just scrap piecing the front.

I helped Mom sort, photograph and list these little pet yarns-- small mini skeins of handspun yarn we spin from each batt Diantha makes to sell in her shop, so people can see how the fiber will spin up. They are gorgeous, wonderful skeins of yarn, they are just little. We separated them into "Manly" colors and "Fun and Bright" colors and they're available in Diantha's Fluff4Ewe shop.

I unwound a sweater for Mom and dyed some skeins of yarn for her shop. Like this one, Florin Channel, which is one of the latest recycled yarns in her The Princess Bride series! If you're into high-end fibers at reasonable prices, pop into her My7kids shop from time to time, as she listed a couple new yarns today and has 2 or 3 to list over the rest of the weekend! One is a gorgeous blue and black self-striping sock yarn, that if it doesn't sell, I will be keeping and knitting myself some luscious socks!...after Christmas.

I made the CUTEST little spindle for my brother Artemas to list in his GotWood4You shop. My parents has a couple storms knock down 2 HUGE bradford pear trees in their yarn and instead of just throwing out the wood he is recycling it into all kinds of things, spindles, buttons, walking sticks, votive holders--anything he can think of. It's a lot of fun to play with power tools! The little spindle I made isn't listed yet, but there are a few others to look at.

Then the kids and I went to walmart to get Jeremiah some sneakers and me a pair of jeans--gasp! I actually found one that FIT! And to get my niece a birthday present. Now we're finally home and I would love, love, love to spin a little. My overwhelmed and overwrought mind is craving the relaxation of using my drop spindle but my body might just be too tired. Might just have to sit here and veg and watch The Proposal.

Holy 2x4s Batman!

2009-10-13T23:58:00.013-04:00

It's a wall! I had to work Sunday night at our church from about 6-9 and when I got home, I was very surprised and extremely please to discover that in my absence my dear hubby and my brother had built the doorframe, wall frame and hung the door to our bedroom upstairs! Squee!!

You can see in this picture that we're basically just moving the wall and doorframe forward about 3 feet, even with the existing wall on the right (you can see a sliver of green). Then all the existing walls on the inside of the doorway are going to get torn down. We're still needing to put up one piece of drywall on the outside, and drywall the inside, but alas... we ran out and here in East TN "winter" means "rain". Today was sunny but instead of going to buy drywall Tony ran out and had my oil changed, bought me new windshield wipers, put gas in my car, etc so I'm not complaining! I'm so excited that progress is really being made upstairs and the end is in sight--soon we will actually have our OWN bedroom! Nuts, I know!

Sunday we went to Mom's where Tony and Dad put in their new dishwasher. While I was sitting around helping yell at children I got the rest of 1 slipper sock and an entire 2nd sock knitted for Jeremiah! He LOVES them. He picked out the yarn saying he needed new slippers and a deadfish hat. I am working on the hat now and it is never ending. I'm starting to get very burned out on it but it really is not too far from completion and is already so cute.

Saturday night Tony was off and Mom and all the kids came over so we could hit the annual Antiques festival that they have here in downtown Clinton. We left Tony off to begin working on the doorway upstairs and we wandered around downtown in the cold, with the children's noses all running. It was great fun and I bought Mom a screen door LOL! On our way home Mom got a call that her very dear friend Tina was passing thru town on her way back home to FL and wanted a visit. I live closer to the interstate than Mom so we gave her directions to my house and we all had a very fun, noisy visit! I finished my purple Decode hat while they were here.

After Tina left, Mom snapped a picture of me being very worn out and having a very bad headache. I was lying on the floor and Hannah put a Bumblebee transformers mask on my face. Sometimes people take your picture when you don't particularly care for them to. The scissors are not really sticking out of my head but were in fact just lying on the floor where I left them when I finished using them to snip the yarn on my purple hat. I did pick them up when I got up.

As some of you may know, and the rest of you will know now, my parents are expecting their 8th child in May!! Mom had her first prenatal appointment with Dr Roberts yesterday which also happened to be my Dad's 67th birthday.

My Dad LOVES flannel and thinks everything should be flannel and so as a birthday gift/joke/sort of I took the Baby Bjourne carrier I had for Hannah which was still in new condition, washed it and made a flannel cover for it! The cover has a zipper on one side for easy on/off to make it machine washable and is oooh soo fluffy and comfy. I wish I had thought of this when I was using it for Hannah because it would have been SO much softer against her skin than the material the carrier is made out of, which is slightly rough. Though I swear the cover looks like a flannel uterus to me.

My "Decode" Hat is Done!

2009-10-11T00:30:00.006-04:00

Finished tonight, finally, and no where near what the hat that gave me this idea looks like.
As you remember my fiasco with beginning of the hat chronicled here NOT Haley's Decode Hat, I'm sure you're just as thrilled as I am with its completion.

What I am not happy with is that my camera will not pick up the incredible, too cool, diamond pattern in the knit pattern no matter how many pictures I take or how much I try to foctor them. Also there is the enigma of the fact that the hat is a different color every time I take a picture. This picture here on the left is the truest color I have, and it's pretty right on.

So what do you think? Even tho the original hat from the Decode video by Paramore had cables and bobbles, I am entirely happy with mine and I think I like it better because I went my own unique way. The diamond pattern that you can't see is beautiful and I love it and cannot wait to use it in the top of the foot of a pair of socks!

And, btw, yes...that is my real haircolor. LOL

Fall Means Flannels

2009-10-07T16:38:00.006-04:00

Unless you're my Dad and then anytime means flannel. Seriously, he wears flannel shirts during the summer. Crazy huh? Alright...anyways!

I still have all these gorgeous, gorgeous flannels Jenn sent me. I put together a messenger bag with them before and it sold almost over night, so I thought hey--it's fall. Time for another. And as I cut squares I thought might as well make one with the button/tab thing like I normally do. I just love the wooden buttons on both of them, my brother Artemas made them and sells ones like them in his etsy shop: http://gotwood4you.etsy.com/ Both bags are available at my etsy shop: http://hamncheezr.etsy.com/

I should mention that Monday night I was climbing up our basement steps which happen to be directly under our inside-the-house steps because I'd been downstairs doing laundry. Hannah had followed me downstairs and as I climbed upward I stooped to pic her up and upon standing errect cracked the very top of my head on the underside of our inside-the-house stairs. The result was a slight concussion. So for 2 full days now I have been suffering from a splitting headache that people tell me nothing but major amounts of caffeine and Motrin will help. I am not sure they're really helping. I've thought tonight that my head wasn't hurting quite as badly, but I'm pretty nauseous and now that I've talked about it I realize my head hurts worse.

I've been making slow progress on my knitting too. Hannah thoroughly tangled my brown sock yarn and I can't knit any farther on my Dad's socks until I untangle it. I rationalize this lack of untanglage by telling myself that I already have Dad one pair of socks for Christmas, so if I don't get this one done it's okay and I have many other projects that need knitting before Christmas and I can come back to them.

I've gotten about half of my Finger Friendly hat knitted for Nancy. I had Mom close her eyes today and feel it all over to tell me if she thinks Nancy will like it, LoL!

I just got my first paycheck from working for our church tonight so tomorrow I'm going to get a tattoo! Actually, I'm going to stop in Alter Ego (in Knoxville) and show them my drawing and ask them how much it will cost me, and if they have time to do it tomorrow I will and if not I'll make an appointment to come back. As you may know my dear hubby Tony and I just celebrated our 5th anniversary and I'm going to get a tattoo for him, a cute little drawing I did of some heart shaped cherries and cherry blossoms. No, it wasn't his idea. I'm planning on getting a tat for my children in January (one of each of their birth-month flowers) and I thought I should have one for him first. I'm pretty excited about it. He knows I'm planning on getting one in the next week or so, but I am hoping they can squeeze me in tomorrow so it will kind of be a surprise for him.

Crown molding and knitting for the blind

2009-10-05T13:15:00.013-04:00

Last night we officially finished the put-up-crown-molding adventure!! I am thrilled! We had to buy 6 more feet of it yesterday and while I worked at church last night Tony and Jeremiah did manly things like put it up and change out the downstairs toilet seat. When I got home I caulked around it, then painted the corner pieces and touched up the ceiling paint along that wall so now it's totally done!!! It looks awesome! This was the wall that didn't actually go all the way to the ceiling. Tony had to patch it, both sides around the corner, with a 1"x3" board. Luckily our molding is 3.25" so it covers completely. I love it.

Now Tony's talking about putting a texture on the ceiling to hide the spots that had to be patched. We'll see. If we do, we'll probably do it the weekend we resurface the floors--which will be soon!

We've also been making progress on the bedroom upstairs. We still have a wall/doorframe to build and one to tear out but we've gotten the far wall (the one that had the built-in) almost ready to paint with primer. I am going to try to tinker with it this afternoon if I can sneak away from the kids. : )

For Christmas last year I knit my friend Bethany a soft, brightly colored hat with a huge puffy ball on top. Her mother Nancy is blind and says she loves it and could I make one for her in gray and red. Her coat is gray and red is her favorite color. I got a lovely dark red/cranberry color yarn and some gray fun-fur. I am knitting the ribbing for the cuff of the hat with both yarns, then I will discontinue the fun-fur and just use the red for the body. I am planning cables and other patterns so it has a lot of texture and is "finger friendly." This way Nancy can "see" it easily by feeling it.

I am starting on the 2nd sock of the 2nd pair of socks for Dad for Christmas. I haven't finished the first yet, but have knit it from toe to heel. I am going to run out of the orange varigated yarn so I put it on different needles to hold and I'm beginning the second sock so that at least they will look the same, haha.

I have so many projects that need doing before Christmas, I'm starting to get a little overwhelmed! Need to knit:

Nancy's hat

Nancy a matching scarf

Summer a hat

Rush a hat

Lily a hat

Jeremiah a fish hat

Jeremiah slippers

Finish these socks for Dad

Need to make:

3 more large, pleated fabric purses

22 more flannel/batting "sandwich" squares to add to our queen sized flannel shaggy, making it king sized.

A couple more regular and funky purses like I put in my shop, by the 1st week of November, so I can take them to craft shows.

I think I need to make a pot of coffee.

A GREAT trade!

2009-10-01T22:40:00.013-04:00

Somehow my Mom "met" this woman named Marion through the internet and I've started talking to her/getting to know her by osmosis I guess, LoL! Marion loves all things fibery and knits, spins, sews, and makes and sells spindles just to name a few things.

A while back she asked if I'd like to trade; if I would make her a knitting bag in exchange for a spindle. I was definitely up for it! The trade got put off a couple months while she worked at the pool during the summer and I moved (I wonder who had a better time??) but finally in the last couple weeks we've gotten our act together.

I wanted to make her a special bag that would be very easy for her to tote her knitting or crochetting in, or even a small spinning project. I chose an all-over print because she likes bright colors, with a blue lining because she said she liked any shade of blue. I chose to make it messenger style so the flat over the top would keep things from falling out, but I cut special notches on each side so that if she wanted to walk around and knit her yarn could thread up through and have a place to come out easily!!

She told me she mailed me a box and when it arrived, stamped Priority Mail 8 days later (thanks for reliability USPS) I was floored when I opened it!!

She MORE than held up her end of the bargain!!!

Oh my goodness, she sent me a couple ounces (I'm not good at measuring so I'm gonna guess 2-3 and she can correct me) of really fluffy some kind of naturally brown fiber. It is slightly....something, sticky is the wrong word. I think it may either be superwash or it may have some of the lanolin in it though it is not sticky like other wools with lanolin I have felt, so it remains a mystery. It is spinning wonderfully about sock weight, and I think I might ply it with some natural white merino I have and have a wonderful natural brown and white 2ply.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SPINDLE EVER! OMG! She knows I like bottom whorl best and I love red so she painted the flower on this wooden spindle red before she clear coated it. It is wonderful. It spins like you wouldn't believe and has a great weight, it is heavy enough to keep spinning (longer than my arms are, LOL!) but isn't breaking the yarn! Like I said, I'm spinning sock weight and it's working beautifully!!! I love, love, love, love, love it! (Please ignore my nasty living room floor, we're refinishing it in about a month).

3 balls of almost white sock yarn, one of which is being dyed a lovely shade of pink while I type! A gorgeous pair of knitted socks for Hannah. Hannah was so thrilled with them she had m e put them on her immediately, wore them the rest of the night and fell asleep in them. She even took 2 pictures of her feet; sorry they aren't totally clear and I hope you can see the lace pattern.

Hannah even took a picture of Mama being very happy about the goodies in the box!

And last but certainly not least for Jeremiah she sent a fishy toy, which he LOVES. It has a little pull string and then the fins flap so it can swim in the bathtub? We haven't tried it out yet because after a stressful day I threw the kids in the shower instead of a bath but we will! He spent a lot of time today amusing himself and his baby sister with it, and making up a story about how the pull tab is acutally a baby fishy but it's so small because it was just born, LoL!

Thank you, thank you Marion!!! I love everything.

Did I mention I love the spindle??

NOT Haley's Decode Hat

2009-09-29T20:07:00.022-04:00

The last time I rented Twilight (yes, I've rented it more than once. Heckle and mock me if you will but pay attention.) I watched the video "Decode" by Paramore that's in the bonus features. I had seen the video before but noticed for the first time Haley's awesome purple slouchy knit hat! I've been obsessed with it ever since.

Of course I wanted to do it out of a handspun and I proweld etsy to find just the right shade of purple batt, which I finally did from FiberOptic. I was SO thrilled, it was even superwash! I spun my yarn slightly thick and thin 'cause I wanted some character, all the while dreaming of this hat I was going to make myself. It was going to be awesome.

The picture I had in my head, that I'd gotten from watching the video in my living room in poor lighting looked like it had k2p2 rib for about 4.5" so it turned up quite a ways and then it looked to me like it was knit with a diamond/diagonal grid pattern of purl stitches through it.

Today I decided to Google image search "paramore decode video" and "paramore purple hat" and discovered that I had gotten it all wrong! Knitters feel free to pummle me with acrylic nastiness for missing something so obvious! The hat had CABLES and knittle (knitted and little, ha!) BOBBLES not diamonds! Curses!

So I was devestated all day. This wonderful beautiful hat I had planned was not as I planned. I love cables but I do them all the time. I don't like bobbles/knitted knots so I don't do them at all.

I decided since I wasn't as thrilled about the actual Decode video hat as I was about the one in my head that I was just going to make the one in my head instead. Do you own thing and all that. As I poked biscuits and gravy in Hannah for dinner I drew a little graph of X's and O's since I don't own any graph paper.
I worked out my repeating diamond pattern over 12 stitches. I didn't know what my guage was going to be so I did something I've only ever done once--knit a guage swatch. It was too loose so I cast on with smaller needles, LoL! I cast on 84 stitches on 4.5mm double-pointed needles and I've only gotten about 4 rows knit but it looks like that's going to be a good size. I'm pretty unhappy with that little guage swatch anyway, the pattern didn't show up well but I guess it's hard to see how a pattern will look on a 12 stich swatch! I am however lovin' this gorgeous, orgasmically wonderful purple yarn! Superwash merino too, can't beat it!!