My Little Fairy

Our family can be odd at times, but then, whose isn't really?  But this past holiday, they really proved it they're loons.  It all started with the pink fairy wings that my Mom bought and brought to her house. 

The Youngest loves Tinkerbell and couldn't wait to put them on.  I'm loving the phase he's in right now.  He's completely gender neutral in regard to toys.  All toys are fun to him, even fairy wings and magic wands.  I'm saving this pic for blackmail later on when he starts bringing the girlfriends home:

Then my silly nephew got in on the act:

Then my second cousin combined the fairy wings with some Hulk hands:

We got my 80 year old Uncle in on the fun (he was such a good sport):

Even the dog got in on the act:

Remember the phase I told you the Youngest was going through?  Yeah, he asked Santa for a Daisy Duck this Christmas.  Ya know what?  He got it:

More blackmail for later!

Happy New Year's Day!

Welcome 2010! 

The end of 2009 really sucked for me, especially November.  Wait a minute, most of the end of 2009 sucked, not the very very end:

- December 30th, the hubby was offered a job here in Atlanta.  Yippee!
- We Don't have to move.  Yippee!
- December 30th, my Mom's re-took some medical tests and they came back with an all-clear.  Yippee!
- We were given dining room chairs for Christmas.  Now our guests won't fall through the caned chairs that were held together with electrical tape.  Yippee! (I'm not kidding.  I was using electrical tape to hold them together.  Desperation makes me do weird things.)

As far as New Year's Resolutions go:

1.  I don't do New Year's Resolutions.
2.  I'm changing that this year.

Goal 1:  I resolve to paint my living room and get rid of the hideous striped wallpaper that the previous owners left me.

Goal 2:  I resolve to finish the damned kitchen project that has taken me over one and a half years to do.  I still have to paint one counter and cover it in resin, paint around the small kitchen window and make a simple valance out of the leftover burlap for it, touch up what needs touching up, do two more joint compound stencils over the top of the cabinets, attach the last two cabinet knobs.

Goal 3:  I resolve to try and be more frugal.  I've been practicing this aspect of my life, but haven't been as frugal as I should.  I have cut my grocery bills drastically over the last year (from approx. $300 a week to $70 a week for a family of four) but need to work on other areas of my life. Christmas spending on two kids didn't help me much either.

Goal 4:  I resolve to find more ways to beautify my home that are inexpensive and creative.

Goal 5:  I resolve to simplify my life more.  This really began last year, but I'm carrying it over to this year.  I live in a very expensive "Old Money" area.  People are very caught up in keeping up with the Joneses.  We left one church because it had filled up with the old moneyed country club set of people who felt the need to out-do one another and everyone else with materialistic things.  Their children must always be dressed better than yours, their cars must be newer and nicer than yours, etc.   Getting away from them was one of the best things we've ever done.  We still have contact with those folks due to one of our kids being in the same preschool and it fills me with stress to be around them.  The Youngest wants to invite one of the kids from his class over to his birthday party and I'm totally stressed about it.  I've been in the kids' home.  It's amazingly gorgeous and could be in a pottery barn catalog.  My house?  Not so much, but it's getting there through hard work.  I want to get away from the things that stress me out completely and simplify my little piece of the world.

Goal 6:  Figure out how to accomplish Goal 5.

So there you go.  Those are my resolutions for the year.  Not difficult, not unattainable.  I already know that I am allergic to exercise, so the gym membership money can now be used on the above listed items.  :)

Not Fair!

 was wakened most cruelly this morning.

There I was, dressed in a glamorous empire waisted gown of gold, my long silky hair all wavy down my back and long cream colored gloves covered my arms to just above the elbow.  It was just him and me in this large room.  He had just walked in and stood looking breathlessly at my beauty.  He, (Tom Selleck) was just about to ask me to dance when suddenly, there was a little boy's piercingly high pitched voice yelling right outside my door that tore me right out of that wonderful dream.   Not fair, not fair, not fair...

Wouldn't you just know it?  Of course, having Tom Selleck as the leading man in the dream might just be showing my age, but who cares?  It was Tom and it was about to get good.  Darn it.

The cruel little boy and I just finished rolling out yesterday's failed nut roll dough (the second batch of the nut rolls turned out fantastic) and made cookies with it.

They're actually not bad.  Maybe my baking mojo hasn't left me completely.  I made an icing from orange juice and powdered sugar and coated the cookies.  Once they are dry, I'm going to get out the food color markers and let the kids color them, probably some time this evening.

This will be the last of the cookie baking that is to be done for this Christmas season.   Tomorrow I'll be cooking a Pork loin and making some Creamed Spinach for my part of the Christmas Eve dinner we'll be having with my In-Laws.

This is the last post until after Christmas.  I'll be out of town for about a week or so, enjoying the Holidays and spending time with family.

Have a Very Merry Christmas!

Where's my baking mojo gone?

I decided that today would be a good day for baking.  The Eldest was as school and the Youngest went off with his Grandpa.  Yes, school is still in, today is the last day though.  So, using a recipe that I got from here, I started making my nut rolls.  Well. 

Somehow, I looked at my recipe card all wrong and got my sugar quantities backwards with the bulk of it going in the dough.  Guess what?  My dough didn't rise.  All those ingredients (4 cups of flour, 1 cup milk, 1/2 pound of butter, 2.25 tsp yeast), wasted, at least on this recipe.

I have now started over and am waiting for the dough to rise, again.  I feel like such a dumba$$ right now. 

Hopefully, the first batch that went wrong won't be a total waste.  I'm going to roll it out and make some cookies from it.  If it goes wrong there too, at least I will have tried to save the ingredients.

On the good side, I did not royally screw up the 7 cups of pecans that I've substituted for the walnuts that the recipe called for.  At least I woke the hell up and stopped and re-read the recipe before doing that.  Thank God for small favors!

I'm planning on having these Nut Rolls on Christmas morning.  Something really easy and already made so that we don't have to deal with making breakfast that day.  Our Christmas mornings are chaotic enough all ready, what with the two boys and a bazillion toys and wrapping paper and cats and dogs everywhere. 

Wish me luck that I can actually succeed in making these, will ya?

Christmas Jewelry and Yarn Bowls!

I've got some earrings to share with you today.  The local Bead Shop, (I guess in yarny type terms that would be the LBS) had some really cute kits for Christmas earrings.  I made the Christmas trees a few weeks ago and the Snowmen today:

I think the little snowmen are absolutely adorable and I can't wait to wear them.   They were super easy to make as well.  I used sterling lever backs and t-pins.  The type of beads in the kit were way to fancy for just any cheap old findings.  Cute huh?


As far as knitting goes, the shawl is coming along.  I figure a few more movies out to do it. 

Also in the pic, (besides the little boy feet - he insisted on getting in the picture somehow - he's as bad as the cat), is my new yarn bowl!  My best buddy got me this at a Holiday market.  It's so funny, she had no idea what the bowl was until she asked the crafter and she knew I was the only person in the world (her world that is) that would figure out what it was.  Sure enough, I opened my present today and said, "Yay!  A yarn bowl!"  She was very smug about the whole thing of course.  :)  I love her.

The Slockin Mystery Has Been Solved

I have solved the mystery of the Slockin.  I feel so smart now.  really.

About a year ago, the kids and I discovered some really cool little movies.  One was about this tiny dinosaur who goes to audition for a rock band.  He ends up dueling (using electric guitars) with this really big ugly guy.  The big ugly guy is the Slockin.  Why the Youngest named him the Slockin?  That's a mystery for another day.

Another little movie that the kids have had me play over and over and over etc. is about two robots.  Everyone in my extended family knows about the robot movie now.  It's even infected my Dad. He and the Youngest now argue over who is going to be the tank "wobot" and the airplane "wobot". 

You should really take a look at both of these.  They're very short, just a couple of minutes each and were done really well.  Like Pixar well.  The movies were done by graduates of the University of Hertfordshire and are absolutely marvelous.  I hope these guys got a job working somewhere really prestigious, they deserve it.

I Don't Understand!

The Youngest came up to me a few minutes ago and graciously told me that I "could be his servant."  That's funny, I thought I already was...

Then he handed me a drum stick and told me that I could be a Slockin.  "What is a Slockin?" I asked.  I was told it's a man that says (in a bad guy voice of course) "I want my guitar!"    Well.  That explains that, doesn't it?

Christmas Photo Frame

I've been so frustrated this Christmas.  I've been trying to find a 5 x 7 Christmas photo frame and I don't know if I'm looking in all the wrong places or if there just aren't as many as there used to be.  I've looked in every store and dollar store that I can find and haven't seen one.

So I decided to take things in my own hands and make one.  Very cheap, cause I'm like that ya know.

1 Frame found at the Dollar Tree, for a dollar of course.  Add one gold leafing pen from Walmart for a couple of bucks (this one i consider to be an investment since I will use this in future projects), for a couple of dollars:

After using them together?  One almost instant Christmas photo frame for 3 bucks. 

Just what I was looking for.  Now if I only had better hand writing...

Clever Little Shawl 2.0

I'm not sure why, but I'm not enamored with the Pretty Thing Cowl that I've not been working on.  Yep, you read that correctly, I'm not working on it.    I have put it down and instead picked up a project that my Mom requested.  This one is Carol's Clever Little Shawl:

Actually this is the Clever Little Shawl 2.0 since I've already made this one once before out of my own handspun yarn:

The 2.0 is being worked up in Paton's Wool in color Jade Heather.  It's an incredibly fast knit and really is clever.  No shawl pins or buttons needed and it keeps me sooooo warm.  I use the burgundy one constantly around the house, it's one of my favorite knits.  It's also a fairly mindless knit too, great for tv watching. 

A Gingerbread House for Preschoolers!

On Saturday the Youngest had a birthday party to go to.  That was one brave mom.  She had around fifteen 4 year olds to contend with.  That's way too many at one party for me.  When the Youngest has his in January, he might get two friends.  maybe.

I would be so panicked to have a party right before Christmas.  Can you imagine getting duplicates of the toys that you already bought and have hidden in the closet? 

The reason I'm telling you all this is that I wanted to share a really cute Christmas idea for little hands that the kids made at the party:

A Gingerbread House for Preschoolers!

Here's what you need to make it:

1 empty and washed carton of milk or half and half.  This is the 16 oz size.

Graham Crackers - 6 cracker sheets - do not separate them!

4 Old fashioned soft candy canes

13 chocolate teddy grahams

2 Reeses Peanut Butter Cups - the fatter bite size ones, not the thin large ones

1 Pack LifeSavers Candy

1 bag M & M's

1 bag tiny M & M's

Hershey Bar - fun size

Pretzel sticks

2 Large Marshmallows

Assorted other candies

Polyester Fiberfill

1 can white frosting

Craft or Popsicle stick for the kids to use to spread the frosting

1 toothpick

Plate

Instructions:

Have the kids cover the sides of the carton with frosting.  As each side is frosted place 1 sheet of the graham crackers against the frosting.  The frosting acts as your glue.  The four sides will be taller than the top of the carton and will also not go all the way to the corners of the carton.

Next frost your roof, both sides.  Take 1 sheet of graham crackers and divide it in two and place on top of the roof.  You will need to break off the top edges of both to get them the right size to make your A frame roof.  Don't worry if the edges are rough, it will be filled in.

Next fill in the four exposed corners of the carton with frosting and then press in the candy canes.  (See the above picture for details)

Then you're going to fill in your roof edges with frosting and press in your M & M's (larger sized) into it.  The Teddy grahams are used for windows.  There are four on the back and sides and there are two teddies on top and two on bottom.  You frost the back of them before applying to the house.

Chimney - frost one of the peanut butter cups and apply to the roof.

Gum drops - Apply frosting on the plate around the bottom of the house and press the gum drops into that.  You can make a walkway if you want.

Door - Take the fun size Hershey Bar and frost the back of it and apply it to the house.  4 life savers were frosted and used as decoration above the door.

You can use any other assorted candies and apply them as you want.  The kids loved putting all the candy on.

Snowman - Yes, there is a snowman in the photo, it's just difficult to see him.  He's to the right of the house and is leaning over a little.  Use a toothpick to hold the three large marshmallows together.  Frost the front of the top one and then using the tiny M & M's, make a face.  Two pretzel sticks are used for the arms.  Frost the other peanut butter cup next and use as the snowman's hat.

Finish with using some Fiberfill as snow.  It doesn't take much, a little goes a long way!

That's it!  A super cute idea for little hands at Christmas!  I wish I had thought of it.

Good Day!

Today was a good day.  I sold some of my handmade jewelry, Woohoo!  Thanks Alyson!  I would really like to set up a trunk show soon for some of my friends and would also like to start selling at some craft fairs.  I need to get moving on building more inventory first though.

Anyway, I'm exhausted now because she came to the house to view it and it was an unholy wreck.  Piles upon piles of kid toys and school papers were everywhere, and dish mountain had grown huge.  So I scrambled to make the house presentable and set out my inventory (which I am going to try and photograph tonight to get the rest up on my etsy page) before she came over. 

Speaking of etsy, anybody got any good tips on getting more traffic to my shop?  I've had the shop open for a couple of months now and haven't sold one single thing there.  I must be doing something wrong.  Any ideas? You can see some of my wares and a link to my shop if you scroll down and look on the right hand side of my blog.  Ideas and comments would be much appreciated.  Sales also of course!  :)

Exhausted or not, it was well worth it.  Considering our financial straights right now, a little extra cash goes a long way towards keeping a roof over our heads!

Have a great weekend everybody!

Doesn't Everyone Sleep With Their Knitting?

Doesn't Everyone Sleep With Their Knitting?

Tahki Yarns Classic Pullover Complete!

As promised, I have a pic of the completed sweater:

Project:  Tahki Yarns Cotton Classic Pullover
 Size: Small
Needles:  Size 6
Yarn:  worsted weight, Hobby Lobby  I Love This Wool!  Solids - Seal Brown


Mods:

1. Did the body of the sweater in the round, but the sleeves flat. Keeping the sleeves flat helped immensely when it came time to piece it together. It turned out looking very well finished.
2. At the neckline, Idid an additional round of decreases to keep the sweater from sliding off my shoulders and then 6 rows of st. st. so that the curl at the top matched that of the bottom.
3. Used wool instead of cotton.

I was really worried that this sweater had serious problems.  Before blocking I tried it on and both the sleeves and bottom of the sweater were too short and that the waist shaping looked horrible.  The sleeves were about an inch too short, which was odd since according to the specs in the pattern, I had made them an inch longer than I was supposed to.

But with the magic of blocking, the sweater fits me perfectly.  I love the details of the cables on the shoulders matching the cables at the bottom of the sweater and also the curl matching at both the top and the bottom.   I also a love boat neck top, it's so flattering on.

My Frugal Deal Of The Day

The Youngest has this "little" hangup about Super Hero shirts.  We have had the worst knock down drag out fights and temper tantrums over them.  Mainly the fights occur when the shirts are dirty and he can't wear them.  He would wear them dirty daily if he could get away with it.  Which he can't.  Thus the huge, very loud fights.

So I went out today with the goal of finishing up all my shopping for the boys.  One of those gifts was going to be a super hero shirt.  This is a must-have gift that will hopefully save my sanity when another superhero shirt is dirty.  Well, I found one that is perfect.  It has Spiderman, Ironman, Wolverine and some other hero that I can't remember now.  I wrapped it already so I can't go and check.  Darn.  Senility comes earlier and earlier I tell ya.

Anyway, on to the frugality!  I had a JCPenny's coupon good for $10 off of a $10 or more purchase.  The shirt was normally $24.99, but was on sale for $11.99.  It came with a toy car too.  I spent a total of $2.11 for that shirt and toy!  How cool is that?   Two items for $2.11.  You can't get much better than that.

Pretty Thing

I finished my sweater project this past weekend.  It's heading to be blocked now, so I'll have to show you a pic later.  However, I did have one problem with the sweater.  The sleeves.  Too short.  I'm not sure if the designer has short arms or if mine are abnormally long, but they're about an inch too short.  What's funny, is that each sleeve was an inch longer than the pattern specs called for before being set in.  I can assure you that there are not two inches bunched up in the seams.  I have no clue what happened.  I'm going to block it first and then see if I need to pick up stitches on the cuff and add more length.  We'll see what happens.

After finishing the sweater, I picked up a small lace project:

This is the Yarn Harlot's Pretty Thing Cowl, or at least what I've gotten done so far.

For full disclosure, let me state that this is the third cast on of the cowl and it is not the yarn that I originally began it with.

1.  First Cast On:  The first time I cast on for this project, I royally screwed up.  I read the charts like the project was flat and to be turned.  Big Note To Self:  When working with a lace chart in the round, always read the chart from right to left exclusively.  There.  Maybe I won't forget next time.  So I frogged what I had created.

2.  Second Cast On:  The first yarn was some gorgeous silk that I spun into laceweight singles.  However, the yarn wasn't quite bulky enough and just didn't look right.    I could have gone down a needle size (I'm using a US4) and continued to use the silk, but I decided that the silk would be put away and used in a future project.

3. Third Cast On:  This time, my reading of the chart was dead on, my counting of all stitches was correct and the yarn is working up beautifully.  Whew!

The yarn is some recycled yarn from an old sweater of mine that a moth got hold of.  There were only two small holes, but the sweater was out of style anyway so I frogged it.  The yarn is a lovely dove gray and is so incredibly soft.  Let me read you what's in it:  30% cotton, 22% nylon, 20% rayon, 13% lambswool, 10% angora rabbit and 5% cashmere.  What a mix!

Teacher Gifts

Wanna know how I spent my afternoon?  Making teacher Christmas gifts!

Bracelets are such a great gift for teachers.  My Sister In Law is a teacher and absolutely hates the typical "apple for the teacher" kind of gifts.   I figure that most teachers probably feel the same way, so I'm making all of the kids' teachers these pretty glass bead bracelets.

I'm letting the kids pick out what they think the teacher will like.  I didn't make any of these with specific teachers in mind, I just had lots of fun playing with different color combos. 

I'm going to be making some more for my etsy store.  If anyone is interested in any of these for Christmas gifts, just let me know the colors your prefer and whether you want gold, silver or bronze findings and I'll put some together for you.

 

Flash Your Christmas Decorations!

It's that time of year, when your house comes alive and is cheery and bright.  I challenge you all to flash the interwebz with your lovely Christmas Decorating!

I'll go first.


The Main Tree (there are four, but the rest are all small and scattered around the house):

The Mantle ( my apologies, I couldn't get the lighting right and every pic I took was grainy):

My cute little hutch:

The Clay Pot Nativity Set that I made last year:

My goober of a helper:

Okay, that's all for today.  Now I wanna see yours!  Leave me a link!

What a Cat's Scarf Style Says About Her

The Daily Mail over in England had an article today about what a man's scarf style tells about him.    I thought I would do something similar to show you the completed Old Shale Scarf, but with a Cat.  That's Female.  And named Widget.

First off, is the Old School Look:

 What this says on a cat?  Please God, let this fall off of me and we'll pretend this never happened.

Next up, The Snuggler:

 

 

What this says on a cat?   Don't hate me because I'm beautiful.  Hate me because I'm superior to you in every way.

The next in line, The Undercover Agent.

What this says on a cat?  This one's not working.  The dangly bit was on top of my head, hiding my identity, but it fell off and now I look like a dork.  But this look is fabulous for elongating the body!  Dear God, am I one cat or two?

And last, but not least, The Artiste.

Or maybe not.

What this says on a cat?  I've had enough of the fashion modeling.  F-*bleep* off!

Widget did, however, like the tail that I forgot to weave in though.

It got the big dew claw up!  As opposed to the thumbs up.  that is.  Umm, please ignore the random blurry finger in the last shot.  Obviously the camera woman sucks at taking photos.

*Many thanks to Felicity Cloake for providing today's inspiration!

Afghans, Not Just For Babies Anymore

Plato said that Necessity is the mother of invention.  Do you think he could have been referring to my need for a snow scene under my retro silver and blue Christmas tree that lives in my office/dining room?

This was a baby gift for one of my sons from a great grandmother.  She'd probably have a cow if she saw how her crocheted afghan was being used now.  But isn't it better that we use it and not just put it into a box that's forgotten in the attic?  Here's a closeup:

I love finding alternate uses for items, especially when they've been given to us by family.  It makes things so much more special.

I'm Back

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving.  Me?  Well, there were enjoyable things, good/bad things and some downright scary things. 

On the enjoyable side, I finished one sleeve on my current sweater project and only have one to go.  I'm about an inch into it.  The food was fantastic.  My Mom should be a professional chef.  I've gained three pounds because of it.  Wait.  Maybe that should be in the bad things category.  I also finished the scarf WIP.  If I remember, I'll block it tonight, but don't hold your breath.

Good/Bad Things - Yay!  We're not moving to Raleigh!  Now I don't have to figure out all the moving stuff.  Boo!  Now there isn't a job in the foreseeable future.  The whole thing fell through based on several factors.    Now I just have to deal with the depression that has set in with the two adults in the household and keep it from affecting the two kids.  It's hard for me to be all creative when I'm depressed.  I tend to pick up books and read to escape reality and this severely cuts into my knitting time.

Downright Scary - A family member was given some scary results on some medical tests.  The person has to go back for more tests to confirm the first tests, so we'll know more at a later date.

Whew!  It was quite the Thanksgiving Holiday this year.  November has not been especially kind to us.  Let's hope December will take pity on us and cut us a break.