Happy New Year!

Another year has come and gone! This past year I've quit my job, had a baby, joined a few new groups around town and have been crafting as frequently as I've always wanted to, which is EVERY DAY!! This coming year we plan to travel and adventure more (as finances allow), devote more time to my Etsy shop (Hear those crickets? I'll be shoo-ing them away!), giving more time (and maybe money) to our church we joined and hopefully will get all my Christmas gifts done before December, I'd like to devote some serious time to creating gifts this year, I'm burnt out of the holiday madness shopping. NO MORE!

I hope you all have a fun and safe New Years and have goals for your year to come as well!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Merry Christmas!

A little something to drink this holiday season or give as a gift to those you love...

FRIENDSHIP TEA

*1/2 cup instant tea powder

*1 cup sweetened lemonade powder

*1 cup orange-flavored dink mix (Tang)

*1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

*1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Mix well and store in airtight container. Makes 40 servings.

To serve, put 2 to 3 teaspoons of mix in a mug. Stir in 1 cup of boiling water. Adjust to taste. Enjoy!

Ornament Arrival

YEAY!! That's right, my enchanted ornament arrived finally!! It got mixed up at the post office, sent back to the sender before coming my way again! I got two "made with love" and very enchanting ornaments, a pair of super soft and I'm sure toasty warm socks, a tin with some chocolates that the three-year old has already eaten, a stocking with a package of hot cocoa and Erin's favorite chocolate (YUM!! How did she know I like DARK chocolate??), a Santa and a package of small ornaments. Nice!!

I got the CUTEST little owl and gnome ornaments! Doesn't the owl have the cutest expression??

Thank you Erin!! It's all great!

Crazy Holidays!

I see that I haven't posted for over a month...which goes to show that I've been crazy busy with this holiday season. It all started in November with the Enchanted Forest Ornament Swap AND a mystery knit-a-long on Ravelry with Woolly Wormhead. It turns out I chose to knit Everglade which she now sells on her website. It is SUPER FUN to knit up, but I still need to finish it. That's one of my holiday knitting projects. However, I created a second hedgehog for someone...it just got mailed today so I won't say who. :) I've started testing another knitting pattern for the Ravelry group for test knitters. Turns out that I chose to work on Hermione's Beaded Bag, (hopefully this link will work for you non-ravelrers) inspired by the 7th Harry Potter book, SO COOL!! It's turning out to be more time consuming than expected largely due to my idea of beading the beads to create a pattern instead of just stringing on one color of beads. WHY did I do this to myself?? On top of that, I get to test knit Kudzu Kuffs, which are Twilight inspired knitted wrist warmers, also on Ravelry, also SO COOL, which I will be making for my mom for Christmas. Should I be mentioning this?? Mom?? How often do you read my blog?? This pattern will be available for purchase next year. I've managed to finish my gauge swatch, so now I'm ready to cast on. Don't think I'll get these done in the next 6 days, so I'm going to give my mom the pattern, needles and skein of yarn with however much I have completed by Christmas. I wanted to get a package in the mail to Wisconsin...however the items for that package are incomplete as well...yet another top secret craft project. :) Last, but not least, I wanted to knit my husband a beanie hat. I have the pattern, which was a free download (Mr. Tom's Beanie, another by Woolly Wormhead, THANK YOU WW!!), I have the yarn and needles, I'm just running out of time. Again, another gift of the pattern and yarn skeins. However, I did manage to find this woodworking project for him and it arrived pretty promptly in the mail. I hope he digs it and is excited to build it for baby. I want to encourage his hobbies, I just hope he finds wood working a hobby. I hope you all have enjoyed this non-picture post, I'm hoping the number of links makes up for that. Since it may be a while before I get on again...

HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Enchanted Forest Ornamets Completed!

YEAY! I've completed my first swap! Valerie of YarniGras and YarniGras Swapper Spot hosted an Enchanted Forest Ornament Swap that I participated in. Below is the pic of everything I'll be sending off tomorrow. One adorable little hedgehog, two sweet little owlets in their holiday colored nests, lots and LOTS of little chocolates, some friendship tea and a pine scented candle for all the critters to feel at home in the forest when it's lit.

I've bundled them all among a red garland (instead of packing peanuts or bubble wrap) inside the tin with the enchanting tree on the lid. :)

These two little owlets were so fun to make! I think I'm going to make more for Christmas gifts this year. My favorite part of this whole swap was that I got to buy more yarn!! FIVE NEW SKEINS!!! The brown is a super soft alpaca/acrylic blend by Bernat (it's so soft and they had great neutral colors to choose from), I lost the label to the white one but I think it's a Lion's Brand, the orange is Lion Wool (which I'm so excited to possibly use the rest for a hat, I just love the shade of orange it is!) and the red and green are Vanna's Choice. All are nice and lovely yarns to work with.

I originally posted about all of them here which has the links to the oscillating owlets and hedgehog knitting patterns, you know, just in case you'd like to knit them up as well. I'll be mailing all these guys off tomorrow to my secret top secret swap partner. I hope she enjoys them all!

Enchanted Forest Ornament Swap Update

One of the blogs I frequent for inspiration, Little Cotton Rabbits, designed this cute little guy...You can purchase his pdf pattern here.

I've been eyeballing him since she designed him, now I finally had an excuse to purchase his pattern. YEAY!! This little guy will be made up with a Christmas ribbon as well as these little guys...

They were designed by Mochimochi Land and they're another pattern I've been eyeballing since she put them up for sale here. This ornament swap has given me yet another excuse to purchase cute and adorable patterns. I'll be making up the owls in the same brown yarn as the hedgehog yet their nest will be Christmas green with Christmas red ropes to hang on the tree with. Hopefully I can get pics up soon of my WIP!!

Crafty Update

I have finally overcome my laziness of getting on the "slow" computer and downloading all my pictures from the past several months. I just dread getting on this computer because our new laptop is on and going in a snap! This first pic is a crocheted baby blanket that I made a friend who had her baby in July. I finished it the day she was born and delivered it the following day. I'm not that experienced, but I wonder if blocking it would have helped out the waves that occurred as it got larger? Not sure. I made up the pattern, it's a basic granny square with about six rows of double crochet in between the center and the outer edge. I used Lions Brand Homespun in their Tudor colorway. It took two full skeins and turned out SO SOFT!These Gabu's are all saying farewell to the pretty gray Gabu. She was made and sent as a PIF. The other four Gabu's were all made for office coworkers over the past year. There's my first Gabu, the Red Receptionist, Black Velvet Gabu with sparkly eyes, Camo Gabu with a line of black to look like his unibrow, then the green Gabu with a tuft of brown hair and a smile (he was for my son). Gabu was designed by Roxycraft and you can get the free pattern here. They are quick and easy to make, my son loves his!These owls were so fun to make! My sister-in-law came to visit and we decided to each make one, me, her and my toddler. Then I thought we could glue them to a cut branch from the backyard to cluster them all together. It turned out so cute!! We then sent them home with my mother-in-law. I got this idea from BabyCenter in an email they had sent me. You can get your instructions to make them here. It's a great craft to do with little ones since you first have to collect half the pieces. I used the hot glue gun instead of regular glue so that they would stay together faster.These were two of three Gnome Babies that I knitted to donate to our churches craft bazaar. They were another free pattern from a blog I found. You can check the pattern out here. The larger one sold and the other two were still there yesterday when we went to church. They are sitting on the four baby blankets that I sewed last week. I had the sewing machine out all week to get those baby blankets done for the church and my sons dragon costume completed.

This last picture is one I took for fun. I spilled a drop of milk on the counter when I was making my morning coffee. This is how it landed then splatted. I was so amazed I had to take a picture. You can see my feet on the floor wearing pink Smartwools, THE BEST sock your foot can ever wear. We used to get them at REI when my husband worked there, now we only get them for Christmas from family (they are not cheap!).

Well, that's what I've been up to in the crafty department for the past several months....well, really the past week mostly. The rest of it was before baby #2 was born. Enjoy!

Enchanted Forest Ornament Swap

YEAY! I just signed up for my first swap ever! Yarni Gras is hosting an ornament swap with a theme that I just could not resist. She hosts quite a few swaps throughout the year and they are really fun to read about and follow. I've read so many blogs from different bloggers about swaps. As a new mother of now two boys, this one sounded do-able. I'm so excited!! If you are interested, the theme is Enchanted Forest Ornaments and you can go to Yarni Gras swapper blog post here. She explains everything and it sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun!

No Sew Costumes...

THIS is the CUTEST costume!! I'm not the biggest Martha Stewart fan, however, from another blog I follow, I learned about her no-sew costumes. The tutorial for it is here on Martha's website, it is so easy to make. I would LOVE to make this for my 3 year old, however we just bought our costumes yesterday and he wants to be a dragon (you can view it here at the Target website). I know, I know, I should be sewing his costume like I did for the past two years. Last years Halloween costume is shown here in last years blog and the year prior to that he was an Oompa Loompa from the original Willy Wonka movie. I made both of these costumes. The Oompa Loompa costume was so cute, I even made two others for our friends kids we went trick-or-treating with, so there were three little Oompa Loompas together. This year, time is not really on my side. But I do have to make the hooded head and dragon legs, it's only a partial costume, it was missing pieces so we got it for a great price. I'll have more pictures after the event, until then, I do need to get sewing on the dragon head.

Awesome fabric!

Rae Gun Ramblings is having another awesome fabric giveaway! You can go here to check it out and enter. They are VERY cute fabrics from Japan! Yeay!

Ten Tiny Toes...

You'd think that I would have been able to post sooner, time just flies when you have two kids. My new little guy was 8 days late and now he's 8 weeks old! I think I've adjusted pretty well from working mom to home mom, I've managed to maintain a semi-clean household. However, in doing so, I have had very, VERY little me time. What I mean by me time is craft time. I have spent about 5 hours in the past 8 weeks on crafts and only then was it because I'm forcing myself to get a baby gift completed. My crafting is my stress outlet, is my form of relaxing from a long day, and I have no time for it!!! I will manage. In the mean time, baby is doing great, 3 year old brother is adoring little baby brother, gotta watch him with his love squishes, and the house is cleaner than when I was working and pregnant. :)

Iraqi Bundles of Love

In my patience and boredom in waiting for baby #2 (who still has not arrived), I was surfing the net today and came across this really cool idea from a US soldier currently in Iraq. It's called Iraqi Bundles of Love and it's all about raiding YOUR stash of sewing fabrics and supplies and sending them to this soldier currently in Iraq to distribute to the Iraqi's. Bundle up a bunch of stuff in a larger piece of fabric with ribbon, place it in the large flat rate box from the USPS and mail it to his APO address, which you have to request from him through his blog. Being a military wife (who's husband has been over there once so far) and crafter myself, I REALLY support spreading the love of crafting, even to a country we have had "issues" with, and I REALLY like the idea of thinning out my stash. I know my husband would appreciate it as well since my hobbies take up a whole room upstairs. I encourage all you readers to check out this soldiers site and send your own box of craft goodies. Here's the link again...

IRAQI BUNDLES OF LOVE

or if that doesn't work...

http://ibol.wordpress.com/

He explains everything in case mine doesn't make sense.

Anticipation and Adventure

Well...Thursday was my last day of work as an interior designer. Yesterday was my first day of work as a full-time mommy. Tomorrow is my due date with baby #2. ALL of it is so surreal, nothing has sunk in yet. I'm just going through the motions like it's another three day weekend and Monday I'll be back in to work. Only I won't be. I'm anticipating that once baby arrives, which I hope is Monday or after since doctor is on vacation until then, that everything will sink in and I'll have one big emotional break down. The reality that I will no longer be working will hit me, the loss of one identity and the gain of a new one as full-time mother may be overwhelming. This new one I'm not quite sure how I'll handle, I'm in control of structuring it, not a boss. Thus begins a new journey and adventure in which I'll probably have A LOT to learn. Wish me luck!

Harry Potter and Fabric Giveaway

Well, I went and saw the 6th Harry Potter movie yesterday. I have mixed feelings. I LOVE these books, but the movies...I don't know. I think it's still too soon to have a full idea of how I feel about it yet. Some major parts of the book that I remember were not even mentioned...hhhmmm....I may touch more on this later.

On another note, there is this AWESOME giveaway on RaeGun Ramblings for some super cute Japanese fabric precut into squares. I would love these fabrics!! They would be super quick and easy to sew together for a new baby blankie for baby that's expected to arrive in less than three weeks. Check it out at the link below...

Rae Gun Ramblings: Giveaway: 3.5 inch Japanese Fabric Square Pack

Catching up...

Remember back in May when I blogged about going on a family vacation?? You can read about it here. Well, now that I have my camera back, here's a couple pics. We stopped at a rest area that featured this geological site. My prego-baby-brain is preventing me from remembering the name of it even. It's on Hwy 12 in Washington.

We also took a family pic on the concrete, you can see my prego belly and the square of the camera on my head.

Once at the Great Wolf Lodge, I learned about MagiQuest, I had briefly heard of it before, but as a video/computer game (I don't even know which it is). The resort made it an actualy wave-your-magic-wand game that you can do quests, adventures and the like with. The little one really enjoyed it, it requires A LOT of walking on foot, back and forth down hallways and in the lobby, and up and down stairs, sometime five floors worth. It's great for wearing out kids. :)

Here's a couple of WIP's...they both started out for my PIF but my super creative brain just went with the flow of how they were laying out and both are not want I had intended them to be. But, they're not bad.
This one is copper pearls, square matte onyx, black faceted glass, copper seed beads, Swarofski AB bicones and the center bead is a stone that again, baby-brain is not allowing me to remember. The button is one from my vintage stash that I blogged about months ago here. So, just to tell you a little bit about it...I'm beading along with my needle and thread, going back from having finished the button end of the clasp, when I get my needle stuck in the first copper pearl from the end. I pull and shove with the pliers to get the needle through, which I was beginning to feel like was a bad idea, when the thread breaks!!! AAHHH!!! I was SO CLOSE to being done with it, now it has to be completely restrung. That's why it's a WIP.

For this one, I bought these lampwork glass beads on the craft retreat I went on with my mom, aunt and grandma back in February. I wanted to play with some wirework, just the simple loop and wirewrapping. I had plenty of beads in my stash to match to the focal lampwork bead. Again, this started as a simple elegant necklace for my PIF receiver, but turned into something more elaborate than I wanted and some parts became difficult to find. The copper chain is not right and the focal lampwork needs a couple tiny pendant drops. I don't know....it headed in a completely different direction, so I took a break. That's why this one is a WIP.

I have a ton more WIP's to show off once I find my other camera cord to download them. They are all crochet related. I'll be catching up more soon!!

Great News!!

YEAY!! I FINALLY found my battery charger. I've neglected posting a few vacation pics, new crafty pics and other related sorts because the camera has been dead. I've started writing a knitting pattern that I posted about here. I'd like to post about it soon, WITH pics. It's an interesting story, an interesting pattern and a big learning experience for me. I've created a few crafty things since I last posted about something crafty, I'll have those up soon. AND....the best new news of all...I think our 2-1/2 year old is potty trained!! YEAY!! He still wears a diaper to bed at night, but all day he wears his undies and the accidents have become minimal. Minimal as in maybe two accidents in the last five days (so far). YEAY!! It's such a good feeling. :) We'll see what happens once baby #2 arrives...only 7 more weeks +or-.

More and More Fabric...

My new blog I learned about yesterdat and have been checking up on lately is doing two giveaways right now. I've already entered the diaper cover one...so cute!! Now she's giving away THE CUTEST fabric I've seen in quite a while. Check out Rae Gun Ramblings: Giveaway: Fabric Bundle and enter. One of the great things is that she lets you use her pic to post on your blog...that's so nice!! All these sewing blogs are really making me want to sew, but a very messy sewing area is preventing that. Mostly due to the roof leaking a few months ago and having to scramble to move everything from one side of my craft room to the other. I just haven't gone back up there to organize it back into shape again. :( I miss my sewing machine. I miss sewing.

New crafty blog I discovered...

I just learned about a new crafty mom who creates cute, cute clothes!!! She even does giveaways!! Check out this current one: Rae Gun: Giveaway: Citrus Summer Ruffle Diaper It is so cute! She'll even boy-afy it....I'll have to request neutral in my entry until baby #2 comes along this August!! Now, to catch up on this crafty blog and see what inspiration awates...

Wednesday, Wednesday

It's been a week or so since last posting...I've done absolutely no crafting and took only a handful of pictures on our vacation. Why?? I don't know, I was busy I guess. We even forgot to take a group photo in front of those great big wolfs. So disappointing. I have been out in our yard cleaning, weeding, planting...it's coming together, we've made a lot of progress. We went to a bare root plant sale and got a few new things. They're all twigs right now with tiny blooms of green, but this is what they may look like someday...

French Lace Weigela, has pinkish blooms and varegated leaves, it only took about two years for our first one to fill out. I had to get a second, I like the varegated leaves.

Thundercloud Plum, right now ours our six foot tall twigs with a few leaves sprouting. Not sure how long it will take to look this good.

Red Leaf Rose, this was our free plant with purchase, they're six inches tall and about two or three twigs...they're really cute right now actually. I just don't tknow if this is the color the bloom will be.

Japanese Snowbell. Again, not sure on how long it will take to fill out and look this beautiful, ours our a four foot twig, maybe a few years. We also got a few Bristlecone Pines, they're 8 inches tall, Japanese Wisteria and a few others that I can't remember right now.

Weekend Getaway

Two more days and the whole family, including grandparents, sibling and his spouse and all three (or should I say 3-1/2) of us will be here...

And everyone but me and the toddler will get to enjoy this tornado whirly fun slide...

That's okay, we'll play in the wave pool, get dumped by buckets of water and listen to story time. And I just might get a pedicure and a maternity massage at the spa. oooOOOooohhh!!! Can't wait!

There are twelve locations (two in Wisconsin, hint, hint, Jamison's), if you want to enjoy this type of family getaway, here's a link to our family fun weekend, so you and your family can enjoy going there too.

Have a great weekend EVERYONE!!!

Grosgrain: Loose Teeth Vintage Inspired Sundress with Petticoat GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!! Custom Sized!

Grosgrain: Loose Teeth Vintage Inspired Sundress with Petticoat GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!! This dress is SO CUTE!! I would love to be able to wear it, obviously not until after August when I am no longer growing a baby. :) I may have to check out this Etsy seller and add another to my favorites!

Happy Mother's Day!

A day late, but I tend not to get on the computer whenever I'm at home because I spend my work day on the computer. We started our day by sleeping in, which was about 8:30am....yeah, no longer are the days when we sleep in until 11 or noon. Made waffles, I got to add my cinnamon, raisins and chopped apple to the batter. Mmmmm!!! Then we went for a three mile hike up north near the Little Spokane to seek a geocache. Our 2-1/2 yr. old did AWESOME! He walked most of the way, only really wanted to be carried up hill and the last quarter mile back. I was surprised at how well he did. I was also surprised at how well I did, being around six months pregnant, the one up hill part was a bit steep, it burned my legs more than my lungs, but I made it. We saw 6 wild turkeys, a white tail deer, squirrels galore, a couple red ant hills, big black beetles, and a newer deer carcass of mostly bones but had been dragged by something (it still smelled bad!), we also heard peacocks, we were near a farm at one point and they must have owned some. About a mile into our drive home, little one was zonked out. The rest of the day was pretty leisurely and lazy on my part, I didn't even get any crafting in, that's how lazy I felt. My hubby worked on our yard, he started landscaping the front. On top of it all it was sunny all day and around 70...SO NICE!! Overall it was a very lovely day, I wish I could have more like it....with absolutely no cleaning done by me. THAT was nice.

WATER!

Tonight was a help-the-hubby night...a simple task of replacing the kitchen faucet turned into a five hourish adventure. I don't think I want to even go into the details, they are too exhausting. But I will say how nice it is to have running water, you know, for the little things in life we take for granted like flushing the toilet, washing hands, getting a quick drink, brushing teeth...ALL GONE!! For five-ish hours....we obviously survived but it was not a fun time.

On a lighter note, here's my latest creation. I made if for someone only to second guess myself with the piece to the personality, so I'm not gifting it after all. I'll create something totally new that's lighter, airy-er and more delicate. I'm having a difficult time with this task...

This pretty little thing was created with a black and white lampworked focal I purchased in Wenatchee on my craft retreat with my mom, aunt and grandma. It features silver sead beads, black Swarofski teardrops, white pearls, and black and silver glass faceted crystals, plus a few other miscellaneous beads. I used beading wire which makes it a little stiff. I'm considering putting it up on Etsy, our currently empty shop. But I've had another idea for our Etsy shop, we shall see...

I really need to learn my camera settings, these pictures are not very good. Too much white, glare, and blurry. Someday...add it to my list of ideas to someday complete. :)

Experiments

Today was our "kinda second" Easter with my family. My parents came up to visit for the weekend and my brother and his wife came over, we all hung out this afternoon and I made a dinner that was supposed to be like Grandma's. We've spent all our Easter's at Grandma's house and she always made great dishes! Growing up, Grandma would occasionally make this chicken and broccoli casserole in a 9x13 glass pan. It was creamy and good and full of cut up chicken and broccoli and topped with sliced almonds. Well, she didn't remember what I was talking about and couldn't find the recipe. Between my mom's cookbook, my cookbook and both our memories, we came up with our own recipe and experimented and I was dissapointed. Grandma also always made the green bean casserole that's topped with those fried onions, so naturally I also made that, along with a vinagrette pasta salad, mandarin orange jello like salad, dinner rolls and plain steamed broccoli for the sis-in-law and kiddo. It was a pretty tasty meal!!

Experimental Chicken & Broccoli Casserole
3-4 cooked chicken breasts, cut up (I added some seasoning and cooked in a tablespoon of oil on stove top)
2 cups understeamed broccoli
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1/2 to 3/4 cup Stove Top stuffing
1/2 to 3/4 cup milk (I would make it 1 cup)
2 tblsn cooking sherry (or chicken broth or white wine)
1/2 tspn dried chopped onion (I was too lazy to sautee half a chopped onion)
1/4 tspn curry powder
1/4 tspn mustard powder
Topping: 1/2 to 3/4 cup Stove Top stuffing and 1/2-3/4 cup shredded pecorino romano (or parmesian)

1. In 9x13 pan, layer chicken, stove top, then broccoli.
2. In separate bowl, mix rest of ingredients, then pour over chicken/broccoli.
3. Top with Stove Top and shredded cheese.
4. Bake 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

Here's my only complaint...my brother and I thought it was little on the salty side. My mom, dad, and husband did not. I was trying to figure out if maybe I added too much seasoning to the chicken before I cooked it, which was in a little oil on the stove, or if it was the Stove Top since it has all that seasoning in it already too. I would love for someone out there to try this and report back to me with any suggestions or recommendations. Other than that, it was pretty tasty, not quite like grandma's but good enough to have created a whole new recipe that I will probably alter some more when I make it again.

ENJOY!

Happy Easter!

A little late, but that's okay! We dyed eggs Friday night with the little one, this is how they turned out. The interior designer in me just had to put them in order by color....it's always more pleasing to my eye. I look at A LOT of paint fan decks....to me, the colors needs to be orderly. So pretty!! This was our first Easter we stayed home. It was so quiet, it was almost sad and lonely. But then our friends came with their two toddlers and the quietness was gone. It's always fun to watch them play. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Grosgrain: Pleated Petal Tank ANTHROPOLIFICATION GIVEAWAY!!!!

I've always been inspired by Anthropology to create my own clothing, I even have fabrics and patterns and pictures pulled together in the depth of my sewing area...I guess I'm not the only one. Grosgrain's Pleated Petal Tank ANTHROPOLIFICATION GIVEAWAY!!!! has that same feel...I would LOVE to win this giveaway. You gotta check it out and read her story about it...she did such a wonderful job! And it's not totally from scratch, she recycled an existing silk top. I LOVE IT!! How cool is that??

Featuring...

A new baby Orangutan!! You have GOT TO check out this beautiful new baby orangutan...he was created by Planet June who's been working on him for a year or so. There's more pictures on her blog, they're cute! She has so many wonderful crochet patterns, they're just awesome. Someday I hope to be able to purchase a few and make cute little creatures for my kiddies.

Happy Wednesday!

Contests and Giveaways

Well, I submitted my bracelet for the semi-precious gemstone contest last night. YEAY!! Wish me luck! I'll find out more around April 17. I think I'm going to put together a tutorial on how to make it, it was pretty fun and easy. Although, before I get carried away, I need to finish my Golden Compass Lyra Hat from this post. I need to keep my promises. I'm also almost done with my PIF...another big YEAY!!! I've been so excited to show it, until I get it to the lucky receiver, it's a top secret project. Here's a sneak peak though...

This isn't my picture, but it's a free pattern from another blog that I took a part of from and created something different. I'll tell all in good time.

On another note...it's looking as if our Etsy shop is dwindling. I'm considering letting all the items expire and posting new and different product. I've been looking into ideas of mine, some are saturated already on Etsy, some have none at all. I'd like to sell something that is desired but not overly sold already. We didn't get many bites, nor sales, with the jewelry and buttons, but they are both areas on Etsy where's there's plenty to look at. It would have helped if we added new product weekly. My mom, aunt and I all work full time and just didn't get to it as often as we should have. We shall see!

Delicious Cake!

The past two nights I've been working on this delicious beast! Today was a birthday party at work and I offered to make the cake. Neopolitan! The bottom layer is from scratch, it's the recipe off the back of the Hershey's Unsweetened Cocoa Powder tub, the middle layer is a box white cake and the top layer is an actual strawberry cake!! Oh! It's so moist! Here's the recipe for the strawberry layer...




Strawberry Cake:
1 package Betty Crocker SuperMoist white cake mix
3/4 cup water
1 package (0.14 oz.) strawberry flavored Kool-Aid (or other pink colored flavor, I used cherry)
1 package (10 oz.) frozen sliced strawberries, thawed, undrained
3 eggs
frosting




1. Heat oven to 350 degrees, greese/flour or spray 13x9 or two 9" rounds.
2. In large bowl, beat cake mix, water, Kool-Aid powder, thawed strawberries and eggs with electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, then medium speed for 2 minutes.
3. Bake 30-35 minutes for 13x9 or 20-25 minutes for the round pans.
4. Let cool completely before frosting.




I like to layer the two rounds with the confetti frosting in between. Originally the recipe is one I found for a strawberry daiquiri cake, it includes 1 tablespoon grated lime peel and 3/4 teaspoon rum extract. The frosting also called for 2 teaspoons grated lime peel added to a tub of vanilla frosting. I've made it this way too, it's not bad. Either way, it is a really moist and flavorful strawberry cake!




This next pic is my contest piece that I will be entering shortly. I can't decide about the background, black makes the opalite glow, white makes the new jade stand out. I don't know which one I want to accent more. This picture is much better than the one I mentioned two posts ago.


Happy Wednesday!

Second Baby

Today was our 20 week ultrasound, so exciting!! It's so cute too!! It didn't want to turn around and allow for good pics for the technician. It just wanted to stay curled up in it's little ball facing mommy. So precious. It even yawned and rubbed it's eyes.

In the first five minutes of tuning in to where baby was, she found it's hand giving the thumbs up sign. Then when she went back to it, it was giving the peace sign. That was funny, she said you don't see that everyday. I think being an ultrasound technician could be a fun job!

Latest Projects

Well, I finally got around to taking a pic of at least the fabric I used for the nursing covers that I mention is this entry. I've given them to all the area La Leche League leaders to sell at their meetings as a fundraiser. I even sold one this past Sunday at the Baby Fair. So cool! I could sell them on Etsy, but after having done a quick search I saw that this area of the market was already a little saturated. So I'll just stick to the local LLL leaders and their meetings. If you're interested, I sell them for $25.00

I want to enter this gemstone beading contest using the square new jade beads I showed in my Leavenworth post. I've designed a bracelet using 4mm square new jade, 6mm opalite rounds and labradorite rectangular chips with various silver beads and components. I'm not experience enough with clasps and finishing simply strung beads on wire. I bought a crimper and crimp beads to attempt a few ideas, but I'll have to pull out all my magazines to get techniques and ideas. The deadline is March 31, time is running out! I'm pretty excited to enter it though. It will be my second beading contest that I've entered! Maybe I should'nt be showing my design...hhhmmm.....oh but I must!

I just had to show this picture...

One night I was getting ready for bed, my husband was in bed reading, and all I heard was this thump-thump-thump of little feet from the bedroom to the living room over and over and over. When I finally came out of the bathroom and entered the bedroom, this is what I found all across the foot of our bed. My sons Cars stickers, all in a row at our feet! He even put one on my jeans which were hanging off the foot of the bed and were apparently in the way of his line up across the bed. He was so proud of himself it was too cute to pass up the photo op!

AWESOME GIVEAWAY!!!!

Two of my favorite blogs that I follow have teamed up to do a giveaway!! I LOVE these necklaces!! I've been eyeballing them since last November. I WANT ONE....any of them!!! YEAY!! Check it out here...Grosgrain: Muntedkowhai Necklace GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

You Are Not Alone...

I'm not huge into politics, but I am huge on my freedom and living a happy life. Since I've become an adult, I've learned more and more about politics, especially with this past presidential election, which to me for the first time was very frustrating. My adult life has also opened my eyes to world history, war and fighting, how some things came to be, religion, greed, etc. All this information has led to adult nightmares, not like the simple running from the monsters of my childhood or aliens coming from above, but the invasion of our city, of our country, of America. I've had dreams of running from foreign invading soldiers and hiding in my basement, of airplanes coming to drop bombs and tanks rolling through the streets, and fearing for my childrens future. I've had some scary dreams being a military wife with a husband who was once in Iraq and with children in our lives, a whole new set of bad dreams. But these dreams are scarier than all of those dreams I ever had because they threaten my freedom. Not to be glum on Friday the 13th....moving on...


I'm also a Glenn Beck listener and I do agree with many things he discusses, a lot of which tends to be politically related. In a few more hours he will be discussing his We Surround Them - The Unveiling which will discuss how we as Americans can UNITE and FIGHT the helpless feeling that is occurring more and more frequently among us. He will be discussing 9 principles and 12 values and more. I will not be able to watch it live, which is 5 eastern time, and 2pm here, but I will see it later. I encourage every one to learn more about this and participate. Here's a map of the USA so that you can find one in your area.


Happy Friday!!

Another Tuesday

Well the weather has taken a turn for the worse! We got three inches of snow yesterday and the temp has dropped to the teens again....BLEAH! The high 30's were feeling SO GOOD.


I was checking out the latest on Wilcox Wizard Wears blog to see what she's been up to lately. She's attending school at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and participates in a lot of Harry Potter related craft swaps (my personal favorite stuff to check out, maybe someday I will start in on the swaps too). She got a new yarn that is JUST GEORGEOUS! I don't know if it is okay to copy pics of her blog, so here's the link to it...I would love, Love, LOVE a skein of this yarn!! However, my stash being now 3 large tubs of yarn, I really should complete many things prior to adding to it....but how do you resist!! A knitter/crocheter needs a yarn stash to choose from, a beader needs a bead stash, a quilter needs a fabric stash and a scrapbooker needs a paper & embellishment stash.......AND I HAVE ALL OF THEM! My husband is not too thrilled about me taking up half the upstairs with my crafting. So what I'm really trying to say is, not only is my stash of yarn up to 3 large tubs of yarn, it's also 6 large tubs of fabric (not to mention two boxes worth of just patterns), two medium size organizers of beads (one being just the seed beads, so many colors!), one upright roller cart and one travel case of scrapbook paper & supplies, and piles and piles of miscellaneous craft stuff crammed in between it all! This whole confession is really making me want to create something with what I already have...


...WAIT! I am!! Last night I dug out many yard pieces of fabric, D-rings and boning. Odd combination?? I'm making several nursing covers for this weekends Baby Fair that I'm assisting my local La Leche League chapter with. We'll be selling the Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, raffle tickets for an adorable baby basket we've assembled and the nursing covers made by me! All as a fundraiser for LLL and to inform the public about who we are and what we do. As soon as I finish them I'll take a pic and add to this post. I have so much in my stash that I didn't have to buy any materials for this project...it really felt good!


Happy Tuesday!

Grosgrain: Sunday Laundry Shirt Dress GIVEAWAY!!!!

Yet again I was browsing my usual blogs, and Grosgrain is one of them. She makes the coolest and cutest clothes for both her girls and herself! Her current giveaway Sunday Laundry Shirt Dress GIVEAWAY!!!! Is SO CUTE!! She used the funnest fabric! I actually have one similar that I bought years ago that I meant to make a nightgown out of, but me and my lack of.......well, energy perhaps,....the fabric is still sitting in my fabric stash.

Catching Up

YEAY!! My husband is home!! He's been gone for three weeks for military training (he was the instructor) and now he's back! It's so nice to have him home. It's also the reason I haven't had a computer to download pics. Now to catch up...

I received my PIF from YarniGras the first week my honey was gone, a baby hat and blanket. Isn't the hat adorable! It has inspired me to make a bunch for myself and 5 other of my pregnant friends. It is SO SOFT too!

The view from our room from last weekends Leavenworth craft retreat with my mom, aunt and grandma. So beautiful!

In Leavenworth, I bought this Misti Alpaca 100% baby alpaca yarn made in Peru that I want to make a baby blanket with for the next baby (cross your fingers that the pink is appropriate, we still don't know). Unfortunately it will only make about a 14" square knitted, at least that's what the sales lady said, and I can only gently hand wash the completed item (am I a glutton for punishment or what?). I guess I'll find out. I'm thinking I will start with a knitted square, buy more, then maybe crochet an edge. I just found a book at the library that combines knitting and crocheting. Very encouraging, inspiring and FULL of ideas!

And of course, ALL the beading that I did on our Leavenworth craft retreat. My two beaded beads, my fan-fare necklace component, the anomone bracelet and the New Jade and silver incomplete bracelet.

Gotta go! We're heading to the grandparents now!

Weekly Update

I always feel guilty when I don't type a new post every few days. There are SO MANY new crafty things that I can post about but just haven't been able to. This past week we closed the office at work, so I had an entire week to be creative. Instead I travelled to my parents (where I began my PIF for muntedkowhai, I'm pretty excited about it, a new design!), then spent two days home full of non-work related meetings and playdates (so fun! can't wait to have more for my son's sake) then this past weekend in Leavenworth, Washington for our yearly family craft retreat with my mom, aunt and grandma. All in all, I guess I was crafty, but not as much as I had hoped for.


This past weekend was beading devoted, so I have 5 new beaded items to post about. The difficult part is that I don't have a computer at home and thus cannot download pics until I do. For now, it's going to be just words describing them all. I made two bracelets, one completed green "Anemone" bracelet from this instructional technique link at Fusion Beads (one of my FAVORITE bead stores to go to in Seattle), the other bracelet is just an incomplete inspirational piece so that I wouldn't forget it later. I also made two beaded beads, one with size 11 seed beads over a wooden bead and one with black seed beads and copper pearls over a black faceted glass bead. The fifth item I made was a pink, red and white fan-like component to a necklace project out of Beadwork magazine that I will probably turn into a pendant type necklace. As soon as I am able, I can download the pics and add them to a later post.

Happy Valentines Day!

A day late, but that's okay! I currently don't have a computer at home. I came to visit my parents who live 3 hours away and am using theirs to catch up. The little one and I had a full day with our friend, we had lunch, then went to a movie, then went to the mall to have a snack and play in the kiddie area. By the time we got home we were exhausted!

A couple years ago I went and saw The Golden Compass. Towards the end of the movie, Lyra, the main character, was wearing a knitted hat in the fight scene. Since I had an infant at the time I just HAD to find the pattern online and make one in blue for him. I ended up finding a few blogs that provided knitted patterns and upon making them, found that there were a few areas I was unhappy with. I ended up changing the patterns I found and created one of my own. Here's a pic of the current one on the needles...


It was for my friends daughter for Christmas, I believe it's a little too big and since it's not finished I'm saving it for next year. I'm currently working on writing up the pattern, hopefully I'll figure out how to add it to the blog as a downloadable pdf. But for those who would like a sneak preview, here's a list of materials:

LYRA HAT (from The Golden Compass)

Materials:
1 Skein Lion Brand Wool Ease, color: Natural Heather
1 Pair 19mm US 35 Knitting Needles

Gauge:
Using both ends of the skein and doubling up the yarn: 6 stitches and 7 rows to 4 inches of stockinette stitch.

Pattern:
STAY TUNED!


Here's another WIP I started a few years ago. I finally finished the main body of it. It was a free Red Heart pattern I got at JoAnn's Fabrics for a knit cell phone cover. At the time I started it, my mom had still had a really OLD phone that would have fit into it once it was hemmed up and a flap and handle were added. Recently she finally got a new phone so the size will not work but it is a good size for an eyeglass cover. I thought I would line it with a soft flannel fabric and still add the flap and handle. It was my first cable pattern. I wanted a challenge and it ended up being very fun!