The Lola hat, back in the yarn.

So it's that time of year again. Time for cooler days, frosty mornings, changing leaves, jeans, boots and most importantly.... YARN! Yep, it's yarny season!
I kicked the season off right by pattern testing for Cuddlepie Crochet  and her new Lola Hat. I am in love with the bonnet feeling of this hat. I'm sort of in love with all things bonnet and hood like when it comes to hats this fall.
Check out the pics of my lovely girl modeling her new hat and stay tuned for more yarny goodness to follow soon.
Happy fall, ya'll!!

A Princess Party

This weekend my oldest babe turned 5. She was very clear as to what her birthday party theme was to be... princess, princess and PRINCESS. Oh, and Pink.

We used a huge 16ft door and some cinder blocks to create a short table in the living room floor that would allow all the kiddos to sit on the floor instead of having to use chairs. (put that in the great idea column)

The fabric store had a great sale black friday weekend. All of their tulle was $.50/yard. I think I ended up with 25 yards! This may seem like a silly expense, but it isn't. You see, in the spring I will once again, plant a garden. And surely, I will have bugs and surely, I will need bug netting. Voila!! 25 yards of pink bug netting bought at $.50/yard.
The table was so pretty with the tent of pink tulle and balloons. Each little picked their own felt crown when they arrived and got to making it their own. I had glitter glue, pom poms, "jewels" and glue. All the essentials for making one super cool crown. (I will be posting later in the week with a pattern and more info on how to make these.)

 

Oh and the food.... So good! We had crown shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, fruit, veggies and homemade ranch, ham pinwheels and pink popcorn. Instead of cake we had icecream cupcakes.

I am so happy with how the party went, but at the end of it all, I have a beautiful, independent, strong willed (I don't know where that comes from *winkwink*), kind, caring and wonderful babe who had a wonderful time enjoying her special day.

(We are just going to completley ingnore the fact that I took 2 whole months off from this space, welcome back.)

New yarny love!

Yesterday I discovered this and had to try it IMMEDIATELY. Thankfully, Tuesday nights some lovely ladies and I get together in my house for a night of yarning. Knitting, hooking, embroidery, even some sewing but always, lots of talking and laughing and soul feeding. I never go to bed early enough. I'm always tired the next day and I wouldn't give one single night of it up for anything. I am better after each meeting. Last night was especially good for my soul. I was able to sit and chat with a life long friend after everyone else trickled home. As mamas it's so rare that we find ourselves without littles or husbands or duties to tend to. Very rare is the time that we have to just sit and rest and enjoy one another. We laughed and talked and I hooked.

Already filled with the blocks Poppy made for Christmas.

I am in love with how quickly this works up. I am in love with all things granny stripe right now. I am in love with baskets. So you can imagine, I am in love with this! It's super easy. I made this one exact to the pattern but have already started to play around with ways that I can change it and make them bigger or out of stiffer "yarn" material. Maybe rope? Maybe scrap fabric? Stay tuned there's loads more to come.
I hope for you a chance to sit and yarn and feed your soul.

Update: Because I have become obsessed with this I tried to make a bigger version. It worked up fine, but it's too "floppy" to stand up on it's own. Lucky for me, it fit right over a basket I had sitting next to the couch.
It woud look better on something without a pattern of it's own, but I love it anyway. The hubs is getting worried that he's going to come home and find the entire house covered in yarn! He might be right to worry.

Making, just not sharing

So I've had a hard time finding the motivation to write in this space. Finding the time to write out something that no one reads was starting to make me feel like a crazy person. So, I stopped. I'm not sure how often I'll come back here, but for today I felt like sharing.
Although I've been gone from here I haven't stopped making.  A friend and I agreed to split a vendor booth at a local festival in October and so making had to start. We turned in our application and deposit before I even had a single thing made.

I settled on Mommy and me aprons and some tote bags. Why you may ask? Well, because my fabric stash worked with those choices and because they are pretty quick to work up and don't require a lot of steps. Which translates to time that I don't have.

Here's a peek at what I've been working on.

Another Birthday Bag

A friend of mine has a little girl who turned 6 this week. Her birthday party is this weekend and while Brielle is still to young to partake of the slumber party, she is really excited about going. We will probably sneak over for a little while and drop off her present. I have come to love my stand by birthday bag. This time I used a pink denim that I had in the stash and lined it with a striped cotton. The front pocket is super cute with a little village scene complete with a sweet shop, houses and little people.

I found some great goodies that we had around the house to go inside. Brielle picked out 3 pencils, a pack of note cards, stickers and 2 stamps. I will stop this week and grab a sketch pad, a stamp pad and some colored pencils to round out the gift.

I may try to do some applique on it before it makes it's way to the birthday girl. It just looks naked without a big letter on the pocket.
I went back on Saturday before the party and added the birthday girls name. I embroidered it onto a piece of denim and then appliqued it on. She was super excited with her bag! (and so was I)

Sewing.....ahhh.

I am loving sewing with my new machine!!

  

I turned a dress into a skirt for a friends little girl.

And a quilt has been started.

Banana Bread... made with so much love!!

Yesterday was a disaster - new tires, cranky "customer service" providers at the tire store, crying babies and two a year old who decided she didn't need a nap. Thank goodness it's over! We survived and managed to wake up this morning to a new day and rested babes!!
This morning, as an attempt to catch up, I decided to use up those "ripe/nearly ruined" bananas and make banana bread. I've technically never made it. I've made a version of banana nut muffins by simply adding banana and nut to my bran muffin recipe, but never real banana bread.
It doesn't matter one bit how it turns out because it was made with so much love!! My oldest baby decided she wanted to help and for the first time, she actually helped. She climbed up on her helper ladder and stood thru the entire recipe. She even mushed bananas.

How cute is it that she's wearing an apron over her big girl panties and jammies?!! I wish I could cook in my undies and it be cute!!
Not that you couldn't find a zillion recipes for banana bread, here's the one I used.
From Better Homes and Gardens New Cook book.
2 c all-purpose flour (I used 1/2 wheat flour)
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. ground cinnamon
1/8 t. ground nutmeg (I didn't have any so I just skipped it)
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 c. mashed ripe bananas (about 5 medium)
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. cooking oil or melted butter or margarine (I used veg oil)
1/4 c chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease bottom and sides of one 9x5x3 or two 7 1/2 x 3 1/2 x 2 loaf pans; set aside. In large bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
2. In a medium bowl combine eggs, banana, sugar and oil. Add wet to dry. Stir just until moistened. Fold in walnuts. Spoon (or pour) batter into pan.
3. Bake for 55-60 minutes for large pan or 40-45 for smaller pans.  Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan. Cool completley on rack. Wrap; store overnight before slicing (this is so not happening)

A Weekend of a few firsts..... and lots of fun!!

I hope that this weekend you got to experience some of the bliss that I did!! Last year (and the year before) Brielle was in bed and fast asleep by the time the fireworks display started in our back yard. So this year we were all very excited that she was going to get to play. I have to admit, I was a little bit apprehensive that she would be scared of the sparklers and the loud noise of the fireworks. No need to worry mama... she was in love!! I have only seen the level of joy she showed a few times in her short litte life. She literally jumped to her feet and cheered each and every time that one a firework was lit and went off.

And of course there was food too!! I am in love with these. Popsicles are now a favorite food of little people around here. And I love that I get to decide what goes in them. This weekend we made a special batch (ice cream was involved and that's a big deal in this house). I layered blueberry, raspberry and vanilla ice cream (all of them were vanilla when they arrived, I just added juice and fruit) and let them freeze for a few hours. Next time I will use all ice cream, I had a little juice at the end and that froze harder than the ice cream making things a little difficult to get them out of the molds.

I also made an "ice cream cake". I made a white cake (from scratch) in a sheet pan and cut it in half once it was cooled to make two thin cakes then I added layers of the same ice creams in the middle.
As a whole the weekend was a success... full of family, good food and great friends.

Kid Crafting

 Today I'm watching a friends kids for a couple hours while she goes to a doctors appointment. Rather than just letting them run around fighting with one another over the toys in my little house, I decided to do a craft project with them.

Before they arrived I set out markers, colored pencils, crayons, buttons, ribbon, glue, stickers, glitter (I have reaffirmed my distain for glitter. It was in the grilled cheese crusts I had for lunch) and all things fun!

The plan was to make sketch books for each of them (to have to avoid bickering over coloring books).

 So we sat down and got to work. They colored and glued on buttons and stuck stickers. Then the mess really took off when I gave them each a glue stick and a shaker of glitter. Mind you, I'm working with 2.5, 3, and 5 year old. After they were satisfied with the book covers we added fill paper and a back, I punched holes and they picked their favorite ribbon to tie them up with.

Success!! I even managed to make lunch while they colored in their new books! yay!! I would totally do this again with any age really. I will however, remove glitter from the equation and maybe add some fun stamps and more stickers.

A block for baby!!

Contrary to what could be assumed from my absence, I did not fall off the face of the earth, nor did I give up on this blog. I did however, go on vacation. The fam packed up and headed to the Outer Banks, NC for 7 days. I am a little paranoid about putting it on the internet that my house is sitting empty (sans the 2 giant dogs) for that long.

I am back now and got back to work today. I saw a pattern for a cute block in one of my books and decided to give it a try. I would like to make a whole set but wanted to do one start to finish before I start cutting out a bunch of squares in a size I don't like. I did realize that 3 inch squares would be better than 4 inch and that I needed to use WAY more stuffing.

Here are the directions with the corrections that I will use next time. (This is from Amanda Blake Soule's The Creative Family)

You'll need:

6 - 3" squares cut from any fabric you like (I used 6 fabrics in different textures)

Up to 6 shapes to embellish on the blocks.

stuffing (all I can say for the amount is, lots more than you'd think)

Needle and thread

Sewing machine is optional for this one.

1- Cut out six 3 inch squares

2- Begin sewing the sides of the square panels together. (SEE PHOTO) I used my machine but you could hand sew too.

3- Continue sewing the sides together to create a block, until you get to the last side. Leave this open and stuff the block firmly with filling, so that it maintains its shape.

4- Finish sewing the open side of the block

(You could add a bell into the block if you'd like do that before step 4)

A tote for Noah too!!

So this may or may not count for Day 13 - We'll see how the day progresses.

The ladies were over for breakfast this morning (Dad had to work away from home) and I realized Noah turns 3 on Saturday. While there is no party to attend, his family is moving into their new home (yay!!!) on Saturday, I am so in love with these totes and decided he needs one too. His mom mentioned that he carries around his big sister's hello kitty purses. (This has got to be a stage in development where kids need to carry their stuff with them or something, right?) 
Finding fabric that was all boy but still cute and fun was harder than I expected. My sister had a heavy weight, camo-ish fabric that worked great for the main part of the bag. I decided not to line it because this fabric can just be wiped down with water and soap. I made the pocket out of a blue and whtie gingham. The N is denim. It cried for some color so I trimmed the pocket with the red that I used for the handles. 
I did find that I need to correct the directions from yesterday... it was way easier to sew the top hem before I sewed the sides together to create the bag. 
I am going to fill this with coloring books, crayons and bubbles. How fun, right?

Tote for Lauren

Day 12- Brielle has a playmate named Lauren who is having her 3rd Birthday party on Sunday. I wanted to make her something instead of spending money on a plastic toy, that if she's like my girls, will be no more fun in 5 minutes. Brielle is very much into carrying things in her "purse". Her purse could be an actual purse, a basket, a bucket or any thing that will hold stuff. And she insists we take it with us when we leave the house. I thought Lauren may be sharing the joy of purses too so the idea of a bag arose. I also wanted something big enough to carry coloring books and crayons or similar things that could keep her busy.

I didn't follow a pattern per se so I'm going to give very loose directions as has become the norm for me when I'm winging it with a project.

1. Cut a rectangle or square (or any shape really) out of a sturdy fabric that's folded (you want two identical pieces or use the fold as an edge) and cut one piece (i used the fold as the bottom of the tote thinking it would be stronger)

2. Cut another piece of fabric the same as the first to be your liner.

3. Cut a complimenting fabric for the front pocket (again any size or shape will do) fold over the edges, press and sew.

4. I also cut an "L" out of a thrid fabric (denim in this case) and sewed that onto the pocket with a zigzag stitch.

5. Sew the sides and bottom of the pocket onto the front of the bag.

6. Sew the sides and bottom (I didn't need to sew the bottom because I used the fold) of the liner fabric to make a seperate bag.
7. Lay the outer bag pieces "right" side facicng each other and Sew the outside bag fabric sides and bottom (again I used the fold for the bottom). Turn right side out and press.

8. Put the liner bag into the outer bag (don't turn the liner bag right side out)

9. Fold the outer bag into the liner bag to create a hem at the top of the bag. Press and sew.

10. Cut a strip of fabric for the strap and fold and press so that no edges are showing (I folded mine like bias tape) Then sew down the open edge to keep the strap from opening.

11. Sew the strap onto the bag with a straight or zig zag stitch. You will definatley want to reverse stitch back and forth a few times for added strength.

That's it! I know my directions are far from professional. If you actually use them to make something and need help just email me with questions.

Oh and Sidenote: Yes, I did change the name of the blog (for the 4 of you that actually read it). This just makes more sense. (And brielle was super cute when she said it, so there.)