Easter Decorations

We've completed the final decorations for Easter.   What do you think of them?

You wouldn't believe how long he left that egg up on top of his head, at least 10 minutes.  The cat decorator thought this was fabulous fun:

The photographer snuck in a Toe Floof pic, just for herself:

I'm off to the lake for Spring Break & Easter.  Posting may be sporadic at best next weekend due to poor internet connections and speed there.

Have a great Easter everybody!

Easter is Upon Us!

Easter is upon us and preparations have been made.  Tell me if you can guess what these are:

No, it's not giant teeth.

What about this, know what it is?

It's definitely not giant Calamari Rings.

These?

They could be pickets for a cute little picket fence, but they're not.

When those not-pickets were being cut up, there were some pointy shaped leftovers.  See what the Youngest did with them (check out the cape too):

Okay, I'll have mercy on you.   I bet you can guess what they are now:

Yep, Bunny Ears.  The Youngest's class party is today and I was scrambling to get these made in time. 

I used one giant (36" x 60") piece of white Foamies and two of the regular (11" x 17") size pink Foamies to make them.  At JoAnn's they were charging $.99 per (11" x 17") sheet.  At that price, this project could get expensive real fast when you need enough to make 12 hats.  But I found the giant roll of white Foamies on an endcap on the aisle and they were charging only $7.99 for it.

I would have needed 3 regular white sheets per child (12 kids).  Ouch.  Without the big roll or a coupon I would have paid $38.00 for 12 hats or $3.16 per kid. 

With the roll and a 40% off coupon the Total price for 12 hats = $6.80 or $.56 per child.  Much better.

The bands that go around the head was 4" x 20" and was stapled together at the back of the head (smooth side of the staple to the inside please.)  I made a template of the white part of the ear and drew it onto the big sheet.  I made a smaller template for the pink part of the ear.  Assembly of the ears was done with regular glue and then the ears were stapled onto the back as well.  I'm a big fan of staples, can you tell?

Super easy Easter project and they turned out darned cute if I do say so myself:

How I Spent My Morning

I haven't knit anything in, like, four days. I'm starting to get the shakes. My hands have been all twitchy and stuff.

I finished a big project and want to start another. The problem, is that I used up my spare change to buy fiber to spin, so there's no money for yarn. So last night and tonight I will be spinning like crazy to get enough yarn for a medium sized project at least.

Meanwhile, this morning I started opening boxes of Easter Egg dye (25 of them to be exact) and breaking everything down into it's component parts:


I now have 25 of each of the 6 colors that came in the box in separate bags. I also clipped the directions and put one in each of the bags. The directions were interesting because they gave instructions on using different kinds of acids to get different shades of each color. I probably won't pay much attention to these, but it will be nice to have them if I get curious. I ended up with one mixed colors bag. I had one box of PAAS dye that came with 12 different colors in it. Nothing labeled, so telling one from the other was just too much to take. I'll play with those later and figure out what they are the hard way.

Unfortunately, I now have 25 sheets of stickers, 25 sheets of an Easter memory game, 25 sheets of cardboard circle creator thingies and 25 egg dipping tools. There has to be some use for these, doesn't there? I hate throwing these kind of things away. Feels wasteful. The stickers won't be a problem, The Youngest will take care of those, but the rest? If anyone has any crafty ideas on what to do with those, I'm all ears! My Sister In Law is a teacher. Maybe she could use some of those for something.

This afternoon's project will be to dye some wool top in the microwave. I haven't done that before. I'm also going to experiment with mixing some of the egg dye and hand painting it onto the wool. I'm really looking forward to making a big mess in the kitchen. I might, maybe, eventually cook dinner for the family too.

Believe it or not, I got more than enough time to knit this past weekend. I actually finished the Owls Sweater. It's not blocked yet and I don't have a modeled photo of it yet (fits great, but snug - note to self: block it bigger, lose weight or get another pair of Spanx), but I do have this:

I used glass beads for the eyes. They are not gold in real life. They are red with swirls of gold, green and blue and are stunning to look at. This pic does not do them justice. I tried and tried to get a good one for you today, but the stars were just not aligned right.

This morning I took a trip to Walmart for some 50% off Easter goodies and boy, did I find them. Check it out:
Normally 88 cents a piece - Got 'em for 40 cents a piece. I bought 20 of them. Gotta love a good sale. Have I told you that Sale is one of my favorite words? It ranks right behind the word Free. :) These should color a heck of a lot of roving/yarn. Not pictured: I grabbed some dessert paper plates and napkins for 50 cents a piece, 1 yellow and 1 green. Also, some cute brightly striped kitchen towels for a buck a piece.

Somebody got some fake teeth in his Easter Basket this year:

A face only a mother could love?

Notice the chocolate on his face as well. Boy devoured his chocolate bunny in about three seconds flat.

As promised

I hope everyone had a great Easter Weekend. I did! Saturday night I was knitting bunnies and guess what?


The Easter Bunnies are finished!

Heap O' Bunnies

And as promised, here's the Monty Python Killer Rabbit:

Run Away! Run Away!

I used black embroidery floss for the eyes and brows. Leftover red acrylic yarn was sewn all around the mouth area and over the top of the fangs once they were attached. I created fangs by making i-cord and then sewing onto the mouth area. The Eldest loved it.

The Eldest also received a Mentos & Coke kit in his Easter basket and just had to try it out. Here he is with his Dad racing to get away from the geyser.



We also had an Easter Egg hunt. The Eldest and the older nephew had a ball finding the eggs. The two younger ones? The Youngest found a few eggs, cracked them open immediately and at all the chocolate he could get his hands on. The youngest nephew just wanted to play in the sand box. Oh well. They had fun anyway.

Ta-Da!

Finished in 10 days flat. Fastest sweater I've ever knit and it fits to a T! It's now blocking on my freezer, the only flat space that doesn't have a child or animal on it. Oh, and welcome to my red powder room. :)


Got something else for you that I did today at naptime:

This little guy only took about an hour to do. It's a free download that you can get from Heartstrings. Super Simple and perfect for Easter. I'm going to make three more, one for the other son and two for my nephews. They would all prefer cars, but they're getting stuck with bunnies.

Bunny Profile

Same bunny, different view

I'm considering tying a different color yarn around each of the bunny necks so that each kid will know his own bunny. They tend to get a little possessive. :)


Forgot to mention that I modified the pattern. The tail called for you to sew a puff of the stuffing to the rear end. However, this is going to small children and could be pulled off too easily. So I knit a small square about the size of the ears, but without the decreases. Then I sewed the tips of the squares together, stuffed the ball and then sewed it in place. Worked like a charm!

Four Easter Bunnies and a WIP

I forgot to mention my Stole that I'm knitting when I blogged last week. Doesn't look much different does it? Oh, but it is! I frogged the last one. With the thicker yarn that I'm using, it was knitting up a little too dense. So, I went up three needle sizes and I'm much happier with it now. It's much lighter and lacier looking. The other fabric was beautiful, but not what I was aiming for. This is currently about three and a half repeats of the pattern. Only a bazillion more to go!















Not one, not two, not three, but Four Easter Bunnies! I claim the top two, but I have to blame my brother for the bottom ones.

Ain't they cute?

Spring Break/Easter Celebration

Another no-pic entry, but I do have a good excuse. You see, I'm about two hours away from home in Wedowee, AL. Why would anyone want to go to some town where there isn't even one traffic light you ask? Well, for one thing, that's where my folks live. For another, there is a fantastic lake (huge, gorgeous and relatively deserted - hehe, except for my relatives that is) that is so beautiful to visit and to top it off, no awful Atlanta traffic! It's Spring break lumped together with Easter. I can't wait til school's back in! Then there would only be one offspring to keep up with.

That's the good news. You'll love the bad news that happened to me the night before we left town.

Okay, you already know from previous posts that we're pinching pennies, right? Normally I go to a fancy shmancy hair place to get my hair cut and colored. This place charges ungodly money for a cut ($55 big ones) and worse for color. I decided to save a buck or two and do it myself. I use to color my hair all the time, several years ago. So, off I went and bought a box of color. Revlon's ColorSilk in Ultra Light Ash Blonde. I'm a dirty dishwater blonde naturally. Huge mistake. From my ears down the hair was the right color, up top? Apricot. Lovely, absofrigginlutely lovely. TIP #3328: You should also never ever color your hair at night. The lighting makes things look better than they are in the day time. Needless to say, the next day I proceeded to go back to Target and, with my eyes pointed down so's not to make eye contact with anyone, went and got what I should've gotten in the first place, L'oreal hair color.

The color was great, the fried split ends, not so great. So, today I made a trip to a different hair dresser and had those trimmed. It's been a hell of a Spring Break for this mom. It's always something with me, ain't it?

While here in the huge metropolis of Wedowee, AL (population 102 or so), I found out my little nephew was in the hospital back in Hotlanta. He's home now and just fine. Then my eldest has a combination of cold/allergy and has coughed his head off for the past three days. Oh, and the littlest got a fat lip from falling down on some toys. I also caught him climbing the staircase at my folk's McMansion. He was halfway up and couldn't figure out how to get up or down. I don't recommend stair climbing as an Olympic sport when you're only 15 months old.

On an upbeat note, everyone still has all their teeth (huge plus in the deep south) and their health is getting better and my dh finally saw a little sunlight at the end of the long dark tunnel he's been working through lately.

The best thing though, the Easter Bunny comes tomorrow night. Yippee! Can't wait to see the kid's faces and to celebrate Christ's resurrection! Life is pretty good over all, especially now that my hair is back to normal. :)

Happy Easter Everyone!