Valentines

RePete has never been to school.  Ever.  Not even preschool.  A couple of years ago, I had a Valentines party at our home and our kids exchanged goodies.  But he's never experienced the thrill of getting a bag full of Valentines from twenty-something of his closest friends. *snicker*  Not that his life would have a void if he never did, but it's a fun thing and I wanted him to experience it.

AND this may be the last year RePete is not too cool to exchange Valentines with his friends, so I took the initiative and set up a craft table at our co-op today to help him grow out of it with style.

And I did it on crutches. (different story for another time)

I bought several sets of different colored bags, markers and lots and (I thought) lots of stickers.  Do you know how hard it is to find Valentine stickers that boys don't think are too "girly"?  But we made do.

I spent about $30 on stickers.  I thought it was a lot of stickers.  I forgot how much girls like stickers.


I'm used to my boys.  One or two stickers, their name and they're done.  The girls spent lots of time at my table today.  Everything was perfectly decorated and coordinated and beautiful.  Luckily, the foam stickers held out until the very last crafter, but next time I work a craft table, I'll know to bring more.  Much more.


I think we ended up with close to 30 kids who made bags that will be used to collect Valentines from their buddies next week.

I can't wait and I need to remember to take a picture.

~R

Christmas Stockings

My sister asked for one thing for her birthday, a stocking for the baby.
Apparently, many years ago, I made one for my nephew who is now 17.  I have absolutely no recollection of making a stocking except for the detail of the “T” hanging off the end of the cuff.  That rings a bell.  The rest..not so much. 
His was crocheted.  I’ve all but forgotten how to crochet anything more complicated than single and double stitches.  Seeing a picture of the old stocking does nothing for my memory, so the baby’s stocking had to be knitted.  I waffled back and forth on designs and after several false starts decided on a simple pattern of my own design.  The yarn in my stash played a part in that decision as well.  I wish I had had more of the green. 
So I knitted and knitted and finally came up with this.

But because the yarn I used wasn’t that thick and I used a bigger needle to knit this, I decided to try felting.  As is, the stocking is limp and holey, although I think the lettering turned out nicely.
Here is my first ever attempt at felting.

This phone pic does not do it justice.  The picture is blurry due to low lighting, but the stocking is fuzzy.  The lettering is not quite as nice as before the felting process, but the stocking has weight to it and feels more like it can handle all the Christmas goodies my sister will place in it next year. 
And hopefully, it’ll last as long as his big brother’s has lasted.
~R

Market Day

Yes, that is the best I can do.

I really need to get hopping on the Christmas ornaments the boys and I are making.  Our homeschool co-op has started a craft fair once a month and for a small donation (determined by the seller), we can have a table to sell wares.  

I thought about selling something myself but everything I make is so laborious.  Take my socks that I knit.  I would have to charge about $100 per pair based on the hours of labor.  What?? I'm a slow knitter...but a good one.  :o)  At a very minimum, they would cost $10 just to cover the yarn.  So not worth it.

My soap takes time to cure and that requires pre-planning.  Not so good with that these days.

I'm just not in the mood to mass produce anything right now, so I decided not to make anything.

Until the fair in October happened.

Someone set paper and markers out on a table for the kids to draw and one of them got the idea to sell their artwork (just like the adults).  RePete drew and sold three works of art.  He made 45 cents.

And the fever set in.

Now both boys want to have something to sell so I decided to help them make the ornaments my mom taught us to make.  They are having fun and I plan to really dress up the table for them.  Pictures to come since our sale won't be until December 1st.

~R

Sock Monkey

beginnings...

~R

Sewing

I've decided I need a new hobby.  I have so many half finished projects, I figured adding a few more won't hurt a thing, except the already crowded spaces in my house.

Ever since I bought and made this pattern,  the company I purchased it from has been sending me emails showcasing awesome fabrics.  (I bought these fabrics from a local fabric store.)

I am a sucker for pretty things and fabrics are one of my favorites.  I have a piece of toile that I've had for about 8 years now.  I found it at the Design Center in Washington, DC when I was studying interior design and used it in one of my projects.

Anyway, (D=47*), I found this at Fat Quarters online a few weeks ago.

I bought this coordinated set of fabrics and they are a little bit crazy but I love them all and I plan to use them on smaller items, like a wallet pattern I bought from a Lazy Girl like me,  and small accessory bags, like for makeup or personal items in a purse.  Mixing and matching wherever I can.

I can't wait to start. 

~R
*my discombobulation number

Baby LJ

Remember a few months ago I threw a baby shower for my sister?  Well,  here's how my diaper cake turned out.

And here's the neck of the baby that wore those diapers.

~R

It's List Time

It's time for me make a list.  For whatever reason, the day goes by and I've done nothing outside the norm.

The norm being: cooking, cleaning, cooking, cleaning, running the boys to activities, cooking, cleaning, and catching up on Faceb00k.

Then I'm pooped so I sit down in my favorite spot and don't move until bedtime.

I have so many things swirling around in my head and with the nicer weather, I'm feeling like I can do anything.

So far the list is:  Knitting projects, cleaning the office closet so that I can get to all my stuff for organizing my photos to digital scrapbook, ordering gardening seeds and buying compost tea (Because as usual, I didn't make a compost.  Again.)

When I write that all down, it sounds so lame.  Where did my life go?  Oh well, with the sunshine comes renewed hope for more exciting adventures.

What are you doing to shake off the weather doldrums?

~R

I love party planning.

Truth be told, I'm not that sociable.  I can be sociable, I just prefer not to be.  Until a party comes around.

As mentioned in this post, I'm hosting a baby shower for my sister and she wants a monkey theme.  So I searched around the net and stole all kinds of ideas.

Actually, I never steal anything - I'm too much of a goody goody to do such things, but sometimes I borrow. (a Spongebob episode is coming to mind here)

Here are some goodies I've made so far.

The monkey heads will be toppers for my large diaper cake (4 tiers) that will be the centerpiece for the food table and smaller ones will grace side tables around the family room.  This idea came from her and her.


These tags will go on the ribbons that wrap up the gifts for winners of games.  My idea but graphic is from her.  She offered downloads for free.

And these matchbooks (with mints inside) will just be lying around or in little bowls.  I got this idea from Oriental Trading Co.  Ignore my nails.  I had a few break so I cut the rest off in a fit.

While it might be easier just to buy these things, I never do for a couple of reasons.  First, I'm super picky and I always have an idea of just what I want.  Unfortunately, I can never find just what I want.  Secondly, paper crafts are just plain fun to do.  Nothing here was hard.  

For the tags, I had to clear out the mod monkey print and type in my sister's shower info.  The monkey heads were simple since I used my circle cutters from CM.  For the matchbooks, I had to type up quotes and figure out how to line everything up.  Btw, I have 18 matchbooks with the quotes upside down for sell.  Grrr.  That was the toughest part.  Apparently, I have spatial reasoning issues.

So that's my start and I have less than two weeks before the big day.  Thankfully, the rest is in my head.

~R

It's December!

It's become my own little tradition to post the birthdays of my fellow December Birthday Buddies (some links may no longer work and I'm not gonna fix it) and rather than recycle that old post for the third year in a row, I'll just give a little link. Go wish everyone a Happy Happy Day.

In other news, I really dislike those pre-made gingerbread house kits. But I bought one anyway because the boys have already made do with my Lazy Mom's Gingerbread houses. Not only are the pre-made ones not quite right, it is quite impossible for 9 and 5 year old boys to create what is shown on the box. Lucky for us, my boys are more interested in how much icing and candy they can sneak into their mouths than the actual outcome. Even still, their house is super sweet.

Let the countdown to Christmas begin.

~R

Candy.Corn.Treats

Sorry,Beckie...I.misspoke.

I.havent.been.knitting...First.I.had.to.finish.a.fouryearlong.cross.stitch.project.

and.then.I.have.been.crocheting....Found.this.pattern.on.Lion.Brand.

and.modified.it.to.make.the.goody.bag.

The.chinese.takeout.container.is.from.Michaels.about

two.years.ago...But.I.see.them.every.year.

I.later.saw.a.pattern.for.a.candy.cane.bag.similar.to.mine.that.was.felted.

I.may.try.that.too...Like.it.much.better.

~R

The.Great.Candy.Corn.Debate

I.am.making.candy.corn.goodies.for.all.our.little.friends.

Question?

White.Yellow.Orange.

OR

White.Orange.Yellow.

Think.on.that.without.cheating.and.looking.it.up.

~R