recent projects

Whenever I had a spare moment during the last two weeks I've either been knitting or crocheting. It was enjoyable to get my needles out again, and like I've said before, ever time I go back to it I always wondering why I don't do it all the time. It's very calming and such a great activity while listening to a book or watching TV.

Here are the two gifts I made for my expecting friends that I mention a couple weeks ago on my blog.


[purchase this pattern here]


[find this pattern here]

Since I had the chance to both knit and crochet simultaneously I decided I prefer the way the needles flows when I crochet (i "throw" the yarn when I knit), but knitting comes much easier. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I've been knitting for longer, but I ended up crocheting two extra booties to make sure I was doing it correctly. It's what I like to call "perfecting my skill"--there was a lot of undoing and restitching on the first two booties. I suppose that's what you get when you teach yourself from a book. Now I am crocheting slippers for myself to up my learning curve, hopefully it's working. I'll share when I am finished.

Do you have any projects in the works?

Have a great Monday!

handmade + giveaway

Jewelry. Jewelry was the focus of my handmade gifts this year. It was something I played with earlier in the year, remember, and something i wanted to learn more about. My friend Amy knew this so she took me to her friends bead shop in Logan and while I've been to bead shops in the passed and actually had a game plan (idea) about what I wanted to get, I simply was not prepared for the amount of beads I'd have to choose from. The moment I walked in all was forgotten--I was completely overwhelmed.

Although i had a rough start, I am pleased to report I did make it through the experience and at least an hour into it I was able to find my groove and get the beads I was looking for. I have decided though, that maybe I am a better online bead shopper.


Here are a few of the pieces I made (I made a few more earring sets not shown her, but they were earrings much like what I made over the summer so I thought i would just focus on these. Here's one to give you an idea).

Since I had learned your basic jewelry making skills I was itching to learn something new so I started to play with chainmail. The bracelet in the top right I made for Adam's mom and it's the Byzantine design weaved with 4mm jump rings. Although tedious it was a lot of fun to put together.



The other thing I've been itching to learn is stamped jewelry. I went back and forth for months trying to decide whether or not it was worth spending the money on the supplies, they are not inexpensive, but I figured Christmas was the perfect opportunity. So like most things I do I bought the stuff and went for it. I only wrecked one blank which surprised me (i bought extra in case) and created a few other pieces just for practice--like this one for myself above.

Since I bought a few extra and have a blank left over like the "hope" charm in the bottom right picture I thought it would be fun to do a giveaway to start out the year. So if you are interested in having a name, initials, or your 2011 word stamped in metal make a comment and I'll draw for a winner Saturday January 8th at 8pm MST. After looking at the example above I think I could easily get 5 letters maybe 6 on the blank. So be thinking.

Have a great weekend!!


P.S. if you're not the winner but are interested in getting a hand stamped charm for yourself email me.

teacher gift

Today is Megan's last day of school which means yesterday I was scrambling for ideas for a teacher gift since I've been out of commission all week. I guess this is the perfect example as to why I should be more prepared...you never know what can come up. Anyway, because I am still down with my back (seriously I feel like I will never be the same) I had to come up with something I could easily do.



With Adam's help getting the jars (IKEA) and filler, this morning I was able to etch the glass jars for a more personal homemade touch and fill it with swedish fish. It was harder on my back then I thought, but nice it was something I could do, for the most part, sitting down.



Here is the finished product minus the ribbon and tag. It is not what I had in mind a few weeks ago, but I really like the way it came together (the ribbon and tag really added). I still have two more week if I want to do something different for Tess and Bella's teacher, but I may just do the same thing.

Not bad for last minute, eh?

Our holiday

I'm not sure what it was, but I can't remember having a more pleasant Christmas than we had this year. Of course it could have had something to do with the fact that I was in my pjs all day just hanging out with family. It was simple, low key, and perfect...definitely worth all the crazy that ensued days before.



Christmas Eve was spent with Adam's family. It's been several years now that we've kept up with our Christmas Eve tradition. We get together in the afternoon, have a fabulous meal, open up our gifts to each other, and then usually play games and eat some more. What could be better than that?

Christmas morning we started around 7 o'clock, quite a change from last year when I had to wake the girls up because my parents were coming over and they were all asleep, but I wasn't surprised. They went to bed pretty excited about Santa coming. Poor Bella woke up feeling sick and threw up several times. She didn't look too bad, but her multiple trips to the bathroom weren't just for show. I felt bad of all the days it was Christmas she wasn't feeling well. Lucky for her it didn't last all day. After she ate something for breakfast she was fine. She kept telling me the OJ cured her.

It was enjoyable watching my girls excitement as each gift was unwrapped. I think I will miss that most when they grow up. Hopefully the Christmas morning magic will never go away...I'm crossing my fingers. I was happy they liked their homemade gifts and surprised how much they loved their new robes...that was the big hit. Who knew?

After gifts were opened and those blasted plastic packages & twist ties finally loosened my family (parents & sister's family) came over for breakfast. It's a tradition we started a few years ago and it's something we have loved hosting. From there we just hung out and stayed as we were...our_non_showered_pjed_selves. It was delightful.

And as for me, well, the gift Adam gave to me may have helped in making my Christmas magical...



A canon 5d Mark II. (jaw drop)

If you don't know what this is, it's a magnificent glorious piece of equipment that I have been dreaming of for two years now. When I opened the box I was speechless, completely surprised. Adam laughed as I held onto the box for quite some time as if someone was going to come take it away from me. I just couldn't believe it was actually mine, I never thought I would see the day. I haven't stopped smiling and don't think I ever will. As far as I'm concerned I don't need another gift again.

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas holiday. It's crazy to think it's behind us and another 365 days away. Bella got teary when she realized the day was gone and would have to wait a whole year to do it again. It's definitely hard to feel so much anticipation and then have it gone so quickly. A tricky lesson to learn as a child and one I'm still not use to.

projects

I was busy the last week working on a few Christmas gifts. There are some I can't show you, but a few that I can. Namely the ones I made for my girls. I was pretty excited about making each of them a different gift and hope they will be as excited to get it as I was to make it.



First of all we have welcomed in December with the same advent calendar we made last year. We put the finishing touches, the candy, on last night. It was a crazy event, everyone was fighting over the peeps (note to self buy more peeps next year), but fun nevertheless.



As promised here is the finished elephant I made for Bella. I was at the fabric store a month or so ago looking for fabric to make Megan a dress with and found this cute pattern for the elephant. Immediate I thought Bella would love having her own, she adores her stuffed animals, so I abandoned the dress project and spent the time I had getting supplies for the elephant. It was harder than I thought and I ask you not to look too closely. I fear that unless this elephant stays on her shelf the ears may fall off. I don't think they are sew on too good. Oh well, it's cute, original, and all hers. Here is the website it gave on the pattern if you are interested.


[German case binding is the method I used for putting the book together]

For Tess I decided to make a sketch book. She loves to draw and the only problem is I find papers all over the house. My initial instinct is to toss them, but I don't really want to. My solution, giving her drawings a place of there own, a bound place, so they can no longer get lost or accidentally tossed. I think it will be cool over the years to see where she started and hopefully she'll have several of these as she grows up.


[Knit hat]

Megan is very fond of hats. Really she's fond of anything you can wear, but she looks so cute in hats so that's the route I decided to take. I think its a little big and am debating whether or not to make another. I guess it all depends on what kind of time I have when I've finished with my holiday list.

Are you making any gifts this year?

my favorite q&a

Tess drew this picture for me of us together and answered some questions about me on the back. I just love these Q&As. It's funny to hear what she thinks, though I felt she was pretty dead on on most of them.
Her answers are in bold.



She is 105 years old.

She is 59 inches tall.

She weighs 68 pounds.

Her favorite food is potatoes stew.

She likes to wear her jeans.

While I'm at school, she is on the computer.

She likes to read.

She doesn't like to clean up the messes we make.

christmas morning

My parents joined us this year for Christmas morning opening gifts and a delicious breakfast. I wasn't sure what time to have them come because I didn't want them to miss anything, but I also didn't want my kids to have to wait. They ended up coming around 7am and we had to wake Megan up. Apparently she's not there yet.