play dough

It's the kind of weekend where there isn't much going on and the weather makes you want to sit inside, watch TV, play words with friends and drink hot tea all day long. Problem is, we have watched Cars about a million times and there isn't much else on the tube *until 3 or so when the football game starts*, there is only one iPod touch and I am over fighting with O about who gets to play it next and hot tea and kids just don't work very well.
So what's a mom to do?
I remembered a few months ago that I had pinned a recipe for play dough over on pintrest.
Supposedly, this is the best homemade dough recipe there is. Why not give it a whirl?

I didn't read the instructions all the way through and hadn't realized that you needed to actually cook the concoction after mixing up all the ingredients I started to get a bit nervous. I had a vat of goo that didn't seem to be thickening. One more quick trip back to the original post and I realized that you had to put the slop into a pan and heat it up until it thickens.

 

Good thing I have been working out because there was a heck of a lot of stirring involved. I was really worried the stuff was going to burn to the bottom of the pot. It didn't, but don't take your eyes or your spoon away for a minute.I also had it in my head that the boy would be able to play with it right away, but the finished product was almost to hot for me to handle and transfer into a ball and then into the bag.

O settled on three colors, red, green, and blue. I put about two cups of the mixture in each of the color batches. Each one filled a sandwich zippy bag perfectly. I think after nap time it should be at room temperature and ready for play.

holiday crafting

Over the weekend in Greagle the kids (and adults) got to craft, holiday style.








It's really fun that the kids are old enough now to all participate in the making of gingerbread houses and puff ball pine cone trees.

Thanks Aunt Ra and Aunt Lo for getting all the supplies-
These are traditions in the making, I love it.

64:365, tea leaves progress

I am getting further along!.

I feel like the slowest knitter ever.

I don't even want to look at my rav stats to see when I started this.
I know it was before Fifi was born though...



I just have to dedicate some time and get this bad boy done!
I am still loving the yarn I am using and how it is knitting up. I did have a problem when I started the sleeve- I some how managed to be inside out and got at least 2 inches in to it and realized what was going on, grrr. At least I caught it before I got much further and didn't have much problem ripping it back. I am always scared to rip back for fear of dropping stitches.

sewing sewing sewing

I have been a busy little elf in my sewing room the past few weeks. Sneaking in time here, there and when ever I can when the kids are asleep or occupied. I can show these because most of the have been gifted already and so it won't ruin any surprises.

Kid aprons.

I paired them with a DYO (decorate your own) cookie kit I found at Trader Joe's.

I love the way these came out and they were really quite easy to make. I think they will be a great 'go to gift' in the future.

Wristlet key fobs

These are teacher gifts for O and Fifi's teachers this year. I wanted to come up with something that wasn't the typical coffee mug and while browsing around on Prudent Baby I saw the idea and a tutorial.

PERFECT!

I like a pretty way to keep track of my keys and these were fun and easy (and VERY affordable to make) which is good since O has been in 3 class rooms this past year and has had a bunch of great teachers along the way.

Wide leg lounge pants (amy butler, in stitches)

These are some of the comfiest jammer pants around. They look HUGE, but the roomie-ness of them really makes it perfect for hanging out around the house on a lazy Sunday morning. The best part is, (and this should have been on my list) I figured out how to make a button hole on my sewing machine while making these. I was literally jumping for joy when I got the darn thing to do what I wanted! In the past, the button holes for the draw strings were totally sloppy, but not this time around. This will make # 1 on the list that much easier, should I choose something that needs buttons.

I love a good handmade Christmas!

A few sights around here

Just a couple of things that I have been seeing around the house these past few days...

It is important to be dressed properly when decorating the Christmas Tree, right?

Right.

Other goings on...

I am feeling pretty set to go for Christmas. A few stocking stuffers have been purchased and MrO's gifts are waiting to be wrapped up and set under the tree. All the cousin's gifts are ready and are just waiting for wrapping paper. I made wristlet key fobs for quick little gifts and just need to decide who gets what.

I have been busy with my sewing machine over the past few weeks, but haven't found time or good lighting (darn, it gets dark early these days!) to photograph any of my projects.

I have big plans for some cookies and peppermint bark, which I would like to gift to co-workers and to the teachers at day care. I would also like to get a couple of other gifts sewn up, but I am not quite sure when all of this is going to happen! We have a busy weekend ahead and my work night evenings are filled with dinner making, cuddling, bath giving and story reading. I can't really complain about any of that, but boy it would be nice to have an afternoon to just hang with the sewing machine!

How are all of your preparations coming along?

covered

I have been in the sewing room making goodies for friends and family. Camera straps are a quick and easy gift. Here are a few that I have made lately.

I used a mixture of tutorials, but really all you need to do is find some fun scraps in your stash, some felt and your imagination. Measure out 26x5 inches of felt (this is for the 'backing' and to give the strap a bit of padding, you could also use padded interface if you have it around) Then mix and match fabrics to measure the same length and width (so 5 inch wide scraps combined to equal 26 inches long when sewn together). Make sure to iron the seems open flat so they lay nicely for the next steps. Place the fabric wrong side down on the felt or interface (you will have the right side of the fabric showing and the felt/interface on the back)and fold down the ends over towards the felt/interface and secure with your sewing machine. This will make for a smooth and clean finish to the ends of the strap cover. I then did some free form 'quilting' and sewed the lengthwise along the strap, up and down about 3 or for times. This adds a nice detail and also secures the felt and the fabric together. Turn the whole thing so that the felt or interface is facing out and sew the sides together along the long edge to make a case. Turn right side out and then iron so it lays flat and neat. Slip it over your existing strap and there you go! a custom strap cover. Easy, no?

The next round I make will have a little pocket to slip my lens cap into- I am always loosing it, setting it down or sticking it in a random pocket of my pants or jacket. It would be great to have a designated spot for it to go. I even found a tutorial today that beat me to the punch of this idea on Craft Gossip.

getting into the season

Doing a bit of Halloween crafting the past couple of days. This is an in progress shot of the garland I made to hang on the mantel. MrO has been coming home with witch's hats and tissue paper ghosts from school. It is fun this year to see him get a little more interested about the holiday.

I put up these old decorations that my mom gave me (I remember these in her class room back when) and O told me, "That guys is mad, mama?" I felt sort of bad that he was a little worried/scared of them. Thinking about pumpkin carving, though that always makes my arms itch, does this happen to anyone else? The pumpkin guts just irritate my skin like crazy.

I have also been doing some baking. Remember all of these I got the other week?



Well, the have been sitting because our oven decided to call it quits and all those mouth watering day dreams of apple pie, bread and crisps were put on hold.
That is, until last Saturday...



This is the scene Sunday morning as we tried out the new shiny oven. The rolls aren't homemade, but they were highly anticipated.



And I peeled and cored and made this yesterday morning.



Apple bread is a perfect match to a cold autumn morning cuppa-cuppa. I found the recipe here if you are interested.
I am going to get my apple on again and make this galette today. The dough is waiting patiently for me in the fridge. (and I so want to make those pot pies that are linked in the dough recipe! yum!)

I really do love this time of year!

on the needles

I 've been working on a knitting project. A project for me! I am so excited about this knit, my very first adult sized sweater, Tea Leaves. A bit intimidating because of the amount of yarn involved and the possibility of wonky fit, but I am going for it. When I first saw Tea Leaves on a few other blogs I loved it. I kept thinking it would make a great cardigan for the fall/winter/spring months for a couple of reasons- It would be really easy for wearing while nursing the new baby and because I just love a nice cardigan for throwing on at work to keep me warm while at my desk.

I originally wanted to use grey but the yarn shop didn't have enough of the yarn/color I wanted. I spotted this brown just before I was about to give up and head home. I hesitated, thinking if I was going to knit my first sweater and hopefully do it again I should make it exactly as I had envisioned it, but am glad I went for it. I have perfect wooden buttons already in my stash and the more I knit the more I like the color choice, plus this yarn is SO soft!

So far I love the pattern- I am almost done with the yoke. I really like that the pattern is just interesting enough to hold my attention, but not so demanding that I can't set it down when a certain two year old needs help washing his hands after a yogurt or applesauce fest or another certain little person needs to be fed, burped or changed. The only thing I am finding is that I must hold the needles sort of funny because my right hand pinkie finger winds up carrying a lot of the weight and getting sore and tired. I had to put it down for a few days to let my hand feel better. Does anyone else find this happening?

If I have success with this cardi I might just go back and get the grey for the Shalom. I like this version or this version with the longer sleeves. Knitting for myself is fun, tee hee.

the pebble 'tunic'

Hey look! I finished a knitting project. Remember waaaay back when I started blogging and it was all about knitting. yeah. well. things change, but I do still love to knit and this project has been in the works pretty much all summer. Squeezing in a row here and there when I could.

I am glad to have it off the needles and on this little dude, even if it is a bit bigger than I had anticipated. (I don't quite get customizing size for knitting) It will fit him for a year or two, so that I'm cool with that. We are thinking that with a belt, a helmet and a pair of boots and sword this will make a swell Halloween costume, King Arthur anyone?

He didn't want to take this off after I slipped it on him last night to see how it fit- a good thing, right?! I haven't blocked it and need to find the rouge button that I thought I had for the shoulder, but couldn't locate once I sat down to sew them on to the piece.

ravelry details

made

Look what I made!

I am loving it with all its funny little mistakes and imperfections. I am already planning my next 'quilt' (I think for O's bed and once Deuce is here and we know boy/girl I will make one for the crib too).

It has already seen some good use over the weekend too.

in-tents

So I am going to bet that at least of few of you who read this blog are going camping over this fine Memorial Day weekend... and if you aren't then I am sure you have at least one tent sleeping situation planned for the upcoming summer months. No? Well read on anyway...



My camping for the season may be over (I'm not sad, we got to go camping four times since last Memorial Day weekend.  I would say that is pretty good considering we had the boy in tow for each of the get aways and I have been pregnant for the last two road trips .) But, as I get bigger and bigger with this baby belly of mine, I can hardly get comfy in my bed at home, let alone the cot and sleeping bag set up that we have going in the tent. That is totally besides the point of this post (sort of). If we were going camping this summer (it *might* happen, with a big old head nodding no from me) I would totally want to make these shirts. I mean, come on, how cute are they? Making them would mean I would need one of those Yudu gizmos though. (Anyone have an extra couple hund-os laying around they want to spot me? I will make you stuff, promise) Think of the possibilities! I could go nuts with it.



For now I will just have to settle on my freezer paper stencil skillz (see the apron he is wearing? funny, no? I made it...) I think even though my camping season for the year is over I need to make a version of these shirts up, one for each of us int he family. And It think we should all wear them around on the same day, just to be silly like that.
~~~
Oh and if you are going camping this weekend, here's to good weather, minimal bugs and no late night raccoon parties. Have fun and enjoy a s'more for me, would ya?

Knitting Update

Hey! Guess what? I got some knitting done in the last month or so. I have been fun getting my needles and yarn back out again and doing some little projects here and there.
We have had a few new babies born in the first couple weeks of May and it is my duty to make sure they have a hand knit thing or two. For my new niece, a pink Milo.



And for the baby that came from this pretty belly, the Baby Squash Hat- adorable right- that baby girl has the prettyiest kissy lips ever.


Both were easy and fun knits. The sweater will fit baby B. this fall I am sure and keep her toasty warn since it is wool. And the hat for baby H. should be just the right weight for those cooler nights (and days) we are still having around here (what the heck it is almost 80 on Saturday and snowing the next).

Details for both of these projects can be found on my Ravelry, here and here. Next time I do the Milo I will use bigger needles if I use the same bulky yarn or switch up my yarn. I would like to make one in gray for MrO to wear for the summer evenings when we are up in the mountains- I really like that this vest can be worn by either boy or girl. That hat was silly easy and fun to knit. I think I could jump the gauge of needles and yarn and make it a bigger size (or do some math and increase the stitches)- might even be really fun for an adult!

I would really like to make myself something and jump out of my comfort zone of knitting things that are either really small or for the littles in my life. Go big, ya know. The Tea Leaves cardigan is so pretty and I like the February Lady Sweater too. Both have the buttons at the top with an open lower half that will be perfect for my growing belly and for nursing later on this fall when things get chilly but I need easy access to the "girls".

What do you have on your needles these days?

Just Sew, Ya Know?

I was out checking my google reader and from a post on Uncommon Grace I fell into the rabbit hole that is My Sewing Circle. I just spent about an hour adding projects, completed and those I want to make, to my profile. I obviously have more hopes of sitting at my sewing table then I do time, but a mama can dream right?

My Sewing Circle is like Ravelry only for sewers (is that a word?). It is a new (to me at least) site. I would love to see the ability to link directly to my Flickr photos and to related blog posts like you can on Ravelry and I am sure some bells and whistles will be added to it as more people start using it.  I have most of my completed sewing projects in a folder on Flickr, but I love a good organization tool for those 'wish list items'. This is a perfect place to group all those things I want to make in one spot.  Instead of doing what I do now, staring patterns and tutorials in Google Reader and hoping I can find them later.

Check it out if you have a minute or 60.

Strung together

I had a 'mommy' date last night. I headed over to a my friend, mama of twin boys and artist; Lisa's house for dinner (spaghetti and meat balls- homemade I might add). Once her two boys were down for the night, a lesson in bead work began. We were up waaaay too late, especially for a school night.  But it was o-so fun and worth it. How is that time speeds up and passes more quickly when you are in a creative state of mind?
I think I have the bug now and may need to make another trip down to the local bead shop for some fun new beads to play around with!

A year and a shuffle

A year ago today he looked like this:

Silly and crazy and fun.

Today, he looks like this:

Still silly, crazy and fun. This past month has been full of little things that I love to see and hear. He has been practicing whispering and yelling, changing the volume of his voice is something he has learned will totally get a reaction from. "DADDY!" can be heard when he hears the garage door go up in the afternoon. He is figuring that if he starts a song with a, "lmnop" or 'row-row'we will sing along. (Have you heard the version of row,row, row your boat that includes "if you see a crocodile, don't forget to SCREAM!" we hadn't either until my mom brought home an Aussie nursery rhyme book- I am sure the day care wonders why O screams when ever they sing this song to him!

He started to call it "applesauce" nose when he gets a snotty/runny nose. It is one of the best descriptions for the ailment that I can think of- it is like having applesauce running out of your nose when you have a cold.

He loves, loves, loves to go outside and play in the back yard- first plucking pieces of the garlic/onion greens and 'smelling' them. (he saw me doing this when I was trying to figure out what plant was what and thinks it is what you are supposed to do). Then up the side yard to the sitting area up top and declaring, "UP-high" to the entire neighborhood. I turned my back for a minute the other weekend and found him dangling, action hero style, from the edge. If you think my heart wasn't racing then you would be crazy. when I got up there to help him he just kept repeating, "ball, ball, ball" he had thrown his ball and was on his way to go get it and then realized that even, 'feet firt' wasn't going to help him from the 4 foot ledge.

We are getting ready to move his room to the other "kid room" (we have a 'jack and jill' set up) I am looking to do a robot theme in there for him since I have a couple of these prints from the fabulous LeSophie and I also found these super fun wall decals over on Etsy. I am loving this room's color scheme from "Land of Nod", though I won't be purchasing anything from them right now, our budget is a little tight.

This move means that my craft room will be shifting it's home as well. We settled on putting it into the master bedroom after tossing around the idea of putting it in the office area or maybe the guest room. Our bedroom is HUGE and so part of it will be sectioned off for my craft/sewing table and shelving. I have been trying to come up with some fun ways to store my yarn and fabric stash, but right now it looks like it will be plastic bins/drawers. I am crossing my fingers I can find something fun and affordable at one of the local thrift shops-Any ideas or inspiration out there from you guys??

funky circles for Kristin...

funky circles for Kristin..., originally uploaded by NessieNoodle.

Around 50 of us 'strung together' to make this very special lady's birthday very special...

For the slide show click here, vimeo.com/9721575
~~
Have a lovely new year Kristin, thank you for all your inspiration!