D is for Done

I've finished my bag. it's now felted and drying. I wasn't sure if I would finish in time. (it's an OWL for my HPHC over at ravelry) but it DONE. and with an added pocket inside! the bottom ended up being 51/2 " wide by 101/2" long with being 121/2" high. (and the opening at the top is bigger)


Of course my fave part of this process is having my 4 year old wearing the before felting and the after felting. It's really funny to me b/c the before is so HUGE and the after is... well um.. a bag. LOL
I think it turned out rather good!
what do you think?

Yup I bought it.

So um yeah I did buy it.
and I watched it again, then I watched all the special features. now I've got to watch it with the commentary. I'm trying to get myself off this thinking that it needs to be exactly what the book says... I'm having a hard time convincing myself of that though. Not sure why. B/c i can do ok with the HP movies and books.
so that's my photo of the day.
But while i was at wally world getting the movie, i also got new batteries for my watches. (i have been forgetting them every time I'm out.) so last week i got smart and finally shoved them into my purse. that way I only needed to remember they were in the bottom of my purse waiting for their insides to be replaced. I also picked up some heavy fabric to make a lining for my sheer curtains in my bedroom. Since Walmart is getting rid of all their fabric i got it 1/2 priced. And I'm not going to get into how stupid it is that they're doing away with their fabric... sigh.
anyways I've been visiting people for the UBP'09 and I'm loving it! You can still join if you'd like.

It's Party time.

It's that time again. Time for the UBP!!!
i had so much fun last year browsing blogs and leaving comments. this year it's totally bigger. You can check it out here.
I'm glad to meet everyone and I'll bounce back to the blogs of people that leave me a comment. I'm on Facebook Here.
I'm not a twitter person. I'm not sure what twitter is but it's all the rage. feel free to clue me in

and there's a whole bunch of prizes! i'm not able to fathom it all. so may generous people and it's possible I may win something. I'm going to make a list of the prizes I would love to win.....

First of all I'd love to win #58 the Kitchen Aid! In red i think.. I LOVE IT!

I think i'd also like to win #49 b/c i love jillian michaels

also #20 the goat milk soap. we can always use a bit of pampering!

and who can pass up #21 the target gift card?

#60 the Pepsi tote filled with goodies sounds like a great prize too.

there's sooo much more but i can't decide.
why not join the party and go look at the prizes for yourself?
feel free to look around and leave a comment or two.
thank you for stopping by.

B is for Beautiful

Over at Ravelry Project 365 we're doing an ABC challenge. and today I have B.
I've got 2 beautiful girls (thank my dh for that), the bub and the bead. so that fits with B also... it was a beautiful day yesterday too. Today it was yucky cold again.
The girls were "painting" with their chalk. they scribble a big patch (outside of the photo) and then use some paint brushes to paint a pix in another part of the driveway. pretty funny. they also like to use the paint brushes in the sandbox to uncover fossils. but someone left the lid off the sandbox and the sand got wet and yucky. so I've got to get new sand this year. I'm thinking about buying some fossil toys and some shells and hiding it in the sand box with the new sand.... how fun will that be for them when they're at the "dig" LOL.
not sure where I'd find some fossil toys though.
any ideas? TIA

Crazy Cool

So lately I've been crazy busy. This past week FLEW by.
On Wednesdays i take the girls to awanas and then since there's nothing for me to do I usually go to walmart and do the grocery shopping. This past week I stopped at goodwill b/c the bub needed some new pants. (she's growing sooo tall lately) I walked away with much much more. for only $24 I got my DH 2 new pairs of jeans (one is from the gap), a pair of sketcher shoes and a sweater (also gap) for me, and a pair of dress boots and 2 pairs of pants for the bub. Nothing for the bead but she got stuff last time. I love it! for what I would've paid for one pair of jeans or shoes i got 7 items. Gotta love it!

This Friday I put some knitting bling up in the LYS. I wasn't sure if Margaret would want to hang up the bling or put it in a basket or what so Thursday I packaged some up with tabs so they could be hung or put in something on display. So now if you're in the area and you want to pick some up stop by the store and get some bling! If you don't live in PA I have some available at my etsy store. Contact me for shipping outside of the US. (I do ship outside of the US i just have to get you a price)
Another exciting thing that has happened is I joined the Etsymom street team. What that means is I've joined a group of moms who have etsy stores. We support each other by browsing, buying and referring people to their shops and also we have some forums where we can inspire each other, help with our shops and encourage each other with mom-related things. here's a quote from the etsymom blog "EtsyMom Street Team is dedicated to promoting women artists and crafters who also share the joy of being mothers. Some of our members work from home, some work from other places, but we all share a love of creating beautiful, useful, artful things. Our goal is to create a forum where these creative EtsyMoms can inspire each other, discuss our work, share the success of juggling kids at home, with housework, jobs and creating for our etsy shops, as well as marketing ideas for Etsy.com, advertising and promotional opportunities, and maybe make a few friends along the way."
If you'd like to join here's a link. If you'd like to buy handmade you can go to etsy and search etsymom or you can click here as I've done it for you! there are some great things in that group! go take a look! It's super exciting.

For Project 365 I've decided to also photograph the ABC's. One a week. My first week was this week so....A is for anniversary. Friday was our 10th anniversary! My Dh and I got a whirlpool room at the local Hampton Inn. It's something we do every year. Well every year since he's been out of the army. We figured we spent so many annv apart and away from each other we're going to make it a tradition to spend it together in the nicest way possible. so my In-laws had the girls sleep over and we got to "sleep" over at a hotel. Pretty nice. we also went out to dinner and watched a movie that we wouldn't recommend. We went to see the watchmen and from the previews we thought it would be a good action movie, maybe a little bloody and some swearing. maybe if you follow the comic book maybe you know what to expect. here's my short overview:The one guy walks around the whole movie naked. Yes he's CGI but he's anatomically correct (if not a little bigger than normal) . and then there's some sex scenes in there that leave nothing to the imagination. I guess we're used to watching PG-13, PG and G movies and had NO idea that R ratings showed so much. I personally think they pushed it a bit. And the storyline was ok, it seemed to jump around a bit not really explaining some things like the should've been. The bloody parts some were normal and others were just weird. like one part there's this kid he jumps on another kid punches him and then bites his cheek. totally gross! but i guess b/c it's a comic book it probably was written in there like that and it just translates more gross on screen. I'm seriously wondering why we didn't leave the theater. We felt really bad b/c some guy brought his 6-8 year old little kid in there. I'm sure he thought like us, it'd be an action/superhero flick nothing too major. that poor kid will probably have nightmares.
I think if they took out the porno-ish parts it would've been better. but that's my taste. Anyways we wouldn't recommend it to anyone. it was kinda funny to see all the comic book geeks crawling out of their parent's basement to watch the movie.

busy busy

soo a quick update on the Star Knits front:

I've been totally enthralled with our new Wii Fit! we got it on Tuesday and I've been playing it since. I love it. and it totally KICKS my butt! I snapped a photo of my DH trying it out with his snowboarding game. It's pretty cool I'm still not good with the games though.

and on the crafty front. I'm feeling the sewing bug coming on. Like I've been finding myself looking at my fabric and thinking about sewing. I even brought down my sewing machine. But I haven't started on anything.

I've picked up a few more classes starting this past week. Monday afternoon and Tuesday Night I have my crochet classes. I created a crochet sampler block for them. It's a few squares that each week I walk them through the basic stitches and by the end I'll teach them joining and finishing. as they go through the week they're supposed to make extra squares for practice so as they go they're almost at a lap blanket at the end of the class. (it's a 4 week class) The sampler is displayed at the store. I'm pondering an Amigurumi class. but it's still in it's planning stages.
Along with my crochet classes I have Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday afternoon and Thursday night knitting classes. So as you can see I've been really busy. But it's a good busy and I really enjoy it. I've just got to find a sitter for Thursday night.
As for knitting I've finished my sleeves for my cabled sweater. (it's supposed to be a hoodie) So I'm excited to get going on the body of the sweater.
and last but not least
I signed up for Sock Wars IV . It's looking to be better than last year. SO I'm super excited! go ahead and sign up for yourself! it should be fun.

KCS4

I got my package today! it totally made my day. My partner Marisol sent me a wonderful package. look at everything that was inside, she really spoiled me.
She gave me a Page a day calendar from The Yarn Harlot. 2 beautiful skeins of Interlacements sock yarn. It's just lovely. My fave chocolate covered espresso beans and some lovely Biscotti.
a great journal with pockets inside a fun chocolate trivial pursuit game. And the coffee! it just smells delicious! She picked out some Sumatra Blue Batak from Peet's Coffee. I can't wait to try it tomorrow morning. I would try it now but I just made a pot of coffee and I don't want to waste it.
Thank you so much Marisol! The package was wonderful and I love it! I can't wait till you get your package.

History Of Magic (in the kitchen)

For my HP Knitting/Crochet House Cup HOM homework we had to pick a character out of the books and creates something with them in mind. Wednesday I realized I had enough bananas to make lots and lots of banana bread:My family likes to eat bananas but we always have 1 or 2 that turn spotted and no one eats them. so I throw them in my freezer until I have enough to make some banana bread.(freezing them is great but they don’t look pretty, but they’re the best and when you unfreeze them there’s no need to mash them!) So I chose to channel Mrs. Weasly, Thursday Night and bake some banana bread/muffins for my HOM homework. I love Mrs. Weasly as she’s the ultimate mom. always caring for people In the books i mostly see her baking and cooking to feed the ones she loves. I relate to Mrs. Weasly that way. I’m always trying to feed my family and friends. Though for Mrs. W. she’s got to be constantly cooking with the huge family. But i’m sure magic helps a lot. My ultimate faves are the mocha double chocolate chip banana muffins in the front of the photo (texas sized if you please! you can actually see an star plate with one on it.. hot out of the oven yum yum) Just my way of feeding those I love and making out home more “homey” and really very burrow-ish with the cluttered counter.

After Turning in my homework i was asked to share the recipes sooo I did, and I thought I'd share here too. Like when I'm knitting, I've tweaked a few of the recipes and i’ll share the tweeks with you. each of the recipes also freeze well so after they’re cool throw them in a ziplock bag and freeze and unthaw when hungry. (in the microwave for 25-50 seconds and it’s like out of the oven)

Get your ingredients ready!

1st we have a recipe that I love and grew up with it’s from my Grandma’s It’s a banana bread recipe but i just threw it in my muffin stone and made muffins.
ps when i say texas sized muffins i mean the big ones b/c everything is bigger in texas.

Grandma Fran’s Banana Bread
yield: 2 loaves or 4 mini loaves (12 muffins and 2 texas sized muffins)
Preheat oven to 350 F and grease and flour pans.

Ingredients:
1 3/4 c Flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 c shortening or oil (i use oil)
1/2 c sugar or 1/3 c honey (i use honey)
2 eggs slightly beaten
1 c mashed bananas (3-4 bananas) I use the aforementioned freeze and thaw method so no mashing needed.
1/2 to 1 c chopped nuts (optional) i used walnuts. but it’s good with out nuts too

Mix all ingredients but nuts together alternated bananas with flour and shortening. (i just throw them in my kitchen aid and mix away) until all is moistened. add nuts and mix in. Fill your pans 3/4 the way full bake bread loaves for 1 hour adjust time for smaller loaves and muffins. a toothpick will come out clean when it is done and it looks a nice golden brown on top. cool and enjoy!

The second recipe I found a couple of years ago on the Internet but i don’t remember where and I didn’t have it written down so here you go.

Monkey Muffins
yield: 12 muffins and 8 texas sized muffins.
preheat oven to 375 F (last night i just used the 350 b/c i didn’t feel like playing)
spray and flour muffin tin

ingredients
1 1/2 c old fashioned oats (i almost never have these i just use the instant plain oatmeal that I have also when i made these last night i ran out of oatmeal so i added 1/4 c of wheat germ)
1 1/4 c whole wheat flout
1 1/4 c all purpose flour
1 Tbls baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c sugar
1 1/2 sticks (12 Tbls) of melted unsalted butter (the real stuff)
3 eggs
2 banana’s mashed (gain the freezer thing but i used 3 bananas b/c that’s how many I had)
3/4 c milk
1/4 c veg oil.
1 c semi sweet chocolate chips (i forgot for my texas muffins b/c i was in muffin mode but they taste wonderful anyways but i remembered for the regular muffins)

Spread oats on baking sheet and toast for 10 min. (i almost always forget this step so it’s not important) Combine flours baking powder and salt in large bowl and stir in oats. In a separate bowl mix together sugar, butter, eggs, bananas, milk and oil until well blended. Add the egg mix to the flour mix and stir until the ingredients are moist and blended. (almost all recipes say this and i think it’s stupid getting 2 bowls dirty and i’m impatient so i just dump everything together and it all turns out fine) Fold in the chocolate chips (see if i followed the recipe i’d remember to do this)
scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tins. about 3/4 the way full or if you have a large scoop just one scoop or 1/3 c measuring cup. (I sprinkled mine with some raw sugar for the sparkley top)
bake for 25-30 min until the tops spring back when pressed lightly or a toothpick comes out clean.
let cool for 5 min and then take out of tins. Enjoy! (these are good hot!)

and finally my fave of all fave’s muffins. they’re almost like a dessert but good for bfast! This is a heavily modified recipe from all recipes so i call it my OWN b/c i’ve changed so much.

Mocha Double Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins
Yield 12 muffins and 8 texas sized muffins
pre heat oven to 350 F and grease and flour muffin tins

Ingredients
1 c butter or 1/4 c oil and 1 c plain applesauce
1 c sugar
1 egg
3-4 ripe bananas (whatever you have on hand)
4 Tbls instant coffee dissolved in 1Tbls hot water (it’s like a syrup)
2-3 Tbls cocoa powder.
2 1/4 c flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 c semis sweet chocolate chips (reserve the 1/2c for on top of muffins)

dump everything into your kitchen aid mixer bowl and mix away add the chocolate chips last. Put into your muffin tin about 3/4 the way full and top with reserved chocolate chips for that bakery look. Bake for 20-25 min. cool and enjoy!

Ok If you have any questions just ask. if not enjoy!

Bling Bling!

I've bee busy! I made some Knitting Bling as Christmas presents for the ladies in my classes. Well they loved them. (they still rave about them!) So i decided to make more and put them up in my etsy store to see if anyone else would like them.
I like them. They brighten the knitting up and make you smile as you slip them to the next needle. Just a little added something!
Go have a look and LMK what you think!

A Magical Creature!

I found a Jobberknoll outside in the cold. Well at first he looked like a regular Blue speckled bird to me but when I referred to my Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander (every household should have one you know!) I recognized it at once. I coaxed him inside with some small dirt flys that have been hanging around my potted plants this winter. He’s really sweet and helpful at getting rid of the insects around. It seems he likes the spiders the best! to my pleasure of course.
For those of you who don’t know a Jobberknoll is small blue speckled bird that eats small insects. Normally found in northern Europe and America. It makes no sound until the moment of it’s death then regurgitates one loud scream of everything it’s ever heard backwards. (oh what it will say after leaving this house with the girls jibber jabbering all the time) A Jobberknoll’s feathers are used in truth serums and memeory potions.and the M.O.M. classification is XX-Harmless/may be domesticated. alt text Here, you can see he’s taken up nesting in the Christmas cactus that never blooms. It amazes me that a bird with such a large beak is so quiet. He’s even charmed the pants off our cat, Simba Jeffery: the master of cuddles and spills. Who is more interested in chasing his tail.. I guess it's good I didn't put any catnip inside! you can see more photos of him in my flickr photostream.

I’ve been calling him Hiro b/c he likes to eat the spiders and I was watching Heroes when I "found" him. I've left him nesting in my plant to see how observant my family is... so far neither of the girls have claimed him... LOL

I've turned him in for my Care of Magical Creatures homework for this month. I'm working on my DADA as I type and pondering a charms project too.

an Elephant story

Isn't this the cutest story you've ever seen? I'm researching what my patronus would be for my HP Knitting/Crochet House Cup homework and I was having a hard time figuring it out. So I emailed the proffessor and she helped me figure it out. So right now in this time of my life my patronus is an Elephant. pretty cute... now to figure out what my Homework project should be..... hmmm.

O.W.L.s

In case you haven't noticed I've changed my template a bit... we'll see how this one works out. LMK what you think.

I've been working on my two of my OWLs for my HP knitting/crochet house cup this week or past week...
My first is in transfiguration. I'm making a Villiage St. Market bag. The pattern is available at the LYS with the purchase of yarn. I made one a long time ago as a test knit and my SIL saw it and wants one. Here's where I was on Saturday. I'm much further now. It's a great project.

I've also been working on my Arithmancy OWL. I've signed up to make 20 baby bibs. It's b/c everyone i know seems to be having a baby these days and I like to make my gifts so these are going to be mass produced for gift giving. (also everything seems to be revolving around my HP K/C house cup these days)

This month there are new assignments and I've signed up for Care of magical creatures. So I need to make an amigurumi. I'm excited.. I'm just deciding what to make. There's also DADA and figuring out what our patronus would be... it think there's a few others that I've got to re-look up. It's a great group to join over at ravelry if you're looking for fun ways to tie in knitting with your love of all things harry potter.
anyways that's my commercial.. LOL

KCS4

I signed up for the Knitter's Coffee Swap 4. I love this swap it's the one I wait for. Here's my questions answered.

1. Whole bean or ground? I like beans but will take both. sometimes the kind I want is only ground. so I'm not picky about that.
2. Fully-loaded or decaf? fully-loaded (still don't know the reason for decaf)
3. Regular or flavored? Both, but only certain flavors i love hazelnut, vanilla creme, toffee. etc. I don't like fruity flavors or chocolate flavored coffee.
4. How do you drink your coffee? with cream. (half and half)
5. Favorite coffee ever? It changes with my mood/tastes
6. Are you fussy about your coffee or will any old bean do? I like to buy higher end stuff b/c the flavor is richer and the acidity isn't bad (no heartburn) I try to buy from local roasters/coffee shops. I don't prefer starbucks b/c I think they over-roast their beans and "gasp" burn them.
7. Favorite treats to have with your coffee? Chocolate covered coffee beans, brownies, cookies (my fave are oatmeal raisin with pecans), anything sweet really, and Popcorn
8. Anything else about your coffee preferences? it changes but but mostly i like a full flavored strong coffee. but i will enjoy anything you send.
9. Yarn/fiber you love? anything super soft, baby alpaca has caught my eye again and again but i like most all yarns
10. Yarn/fiber you hate? I don't mind acrylic as long as it's super soft...but red heart super saver and the like are OUT.
11. What's on your needles? Lets see, all my (all ravelry links) HP Knitting/Crochet house cup OWLs: #28 Hoodie, 20 baby bibs, and a felted bag, I'm sure there will be more on the needle soon. I'm surprised I don't have a pair of socks on the needles.. i normally do, hmm that's weird. also on the hook is my babette blanket and a blanket I'm designing to teach crochet.
12. Favorite colors? I like most colors.. but i really don't like pastel colors or orange. I love blues, pink and chocolate brown (together) , green and purple (together), greens, purples, pinks. I'd say bright is the way to go.
13. Allergies? nope
14. Anything you really love, really don't like, or just need to get off your chest? Um how about a little about me. I like to read. But i find it cuts into my knitting time so I've been doing the whole borrow from the library the books on CD it helps a lot. I love to take photos (hence the project 365 I'm doing) I also like to bake bread and sew. I have 2 daughters but i don't really knit for them b/c they destroy everything. My DH i will knit for but get annoyed b/c he doesn't always appreciate what I make him. um i think that's all if you have any questions just ask!

ummm is the laundry done?

So I like to make things. (as if that's news) Though this week and last, I've been a little slow on the projects. I have been reading (actual reading not listening to books on CD) I did, how ever, finish this scarf for a friend. Her birthday was Sat and we were going to her house on Sun. So this simple seed stitch scarf was the perfect gift to knit. I used Limari by Aruacania it's a Merino/Alpaca/Silk blend. Just Lovely! I actually finished knitting it on Saturday and had enough time to block the scarf. My friend was really excited to open the gift and said she needed a scarf. (and it's getting cold this week) so it was the Perfect gift!
Friday at sit and knit I was talking with a friend and she'd gotten the cutest Bull Terrier beads/trinkets (I'm not sure what) off of ebay. She was asking me about how I made stitch markers and where I got the stuff. For Christmas I made some knitting bling for the ladies I teach and a few other ladies. (I forgot to take photos) They went over really well! So while I was explaining what and where I got the stuff to make them I offered to throw together some stitch markers for her. So today, I finally had some time to sit down and put them together. They turned out really cute. I used only one bead with them just to add something "extra". So what do you think? I've been pondering making up a few sets of Knitting Bling and putting them on my etsy site. I'll have to get on that soon... LOL ... I keep saying that. (one day I'll just sit down and do it)

Until then I'll just share with ya'll what I've made here on my blog.

A Parade

It's a parade of Knitting projects! Whoopee!

This post is going to be FULL-O-Pix. I realize I've severely neglected this blog and updating you with all my FO's lately.(I'm so into ravelry it's not even funny) To start I thought I'd catch you up with my Christmas gifts. (with as many links as I can put in there for you)

But first let's look at this hat I made for my Dh. Originally I was going to make it for him as a surprise for Christmas b/c he saw me making the "may the force be with you" hat for a friend's kid. And he kept hinting that he'd like a storm trooper hat. I got so far as the ribbing, then all the other projects I needed to finish got in the way so to the back burner it went. I finally finished it on Saturday. and I'm glad I didn't make it for him as a surprise Christmas present b/c i would've been really upset, it's a tad big. I even knit him one that was 1 inch smaller than his head but since it's St st it doesn't pull in...... so I've got to knit him another but smaller. i like it maybe i'll use it. anyways onto the Christmas presents. they're in No particular order.

First we have some Crochet Pac Men. I made them for my little brother. He's hard to shop/knit for b/c I'm not sure what he likes anymore. I figured these can sit in his room and he can use them as balls and throw them around or something fun like that. The coolest part is I used glow in the dark yarn so at night they'll light up! SO.MUCH.FUN! if I didn't have to give them away I'd keep them to play with. But since I used that yarn I couldn't use the true pac man colors.. but i don't think he'll mind.. or even really care/notice.. etc.

Next is a combo of some patterns in the Amigurumi!: Super Happy Cute Crochet book. I made this french chica for my niece. When she opened it at first she didn't like it. but that was b/c her brother just opened a leapster... and being a normal sibling she wanted what He got..etc. But I spied her the next day running around with it and then sleeping with it. So all is well. I liked it and so did my sister.



Up next we have a hat I made for my sister. She really liked it and started wearing almost immediately. In this photo it's me modeling the hat. The pattern is a great pattern, Robin's Egg Blue Hat. it reminds me of a cloche type of hat. It was a fun and easy knit. The button is one I had in my button stash.. it looks nice doesn't it?


Next up is some amigurumi I whipped up for my neighbor's kids. They surprised us unexpectedly and I thought they should get something from us.. so I made a hamster from one of my Japanese Amigurumi books that i got off of Yes Asia. Then the elephant is a pattern from Lion brand.(you have to log in to see it but it's free) It was pretty simple. The last is a monkey that I just made up. I needed something simple and quick. So that is what I came up with.



Next are some gifts for my niece who didn't get her present until a week after Christmas. I *think* she liked them (she's 8 months old). The first is a little ditty bag. made to hold all the finger puppets and anything else she'd like to put in there.
The frog isn't part of the pattern of finger puppets that I made for her. It's one I've added. Usually when I make these finger puppets I add another one. b/c 5 just makes it fit on a child's hand or hands. I've made a dog before when I've given these away in the past. But a frog I figured, goes really well with the whole Fairy Tale Finger Puppets theme. Don't you think? Anyways the frog isn't a pattern just something I kinda made up. I really like finger puppets as gifts for kids. and I find that the youngins like them too.


The next gift we have here is one of my fave's this year... I think it's b/c I made it up from scratch, plucked it from my head and it came out great. It's a Robot I made for my nephew. (who at first wasn't so jazzed about it b/c he'd just opened that leapster...grr) anyways I caught him sleeping with it the next night so I don't mind his initial reaction. The wheel at the bottom moves! sooo cool! and I used that great glow in the dark yarn for the white parts so it gives it an added neatness at night. It's cool huh?

So this little amigurumi was a gift for my niece. It's a donkey but she kept calling it a pony. So it's now a pony. Not that I mind either way. She LOVED it. She carried it around all day. As is the tradition of getting together with family for Christmas, either my kids or my sister's kids are sick. This year it was my sweet little niece. But she still really liked this little gift. Which warms the heart. It's that type of reaction to the things I make that makes me just jump for joy (inside of course)


Next I made some Star Wars guys for my Nephew. who hasn't opened his gift yet as we haven't seen them.. (I know!) SO I'm not sure if he likes them or not. I think they're cute and the girls were playing with them so we'll see. As an added bonus I made him a hat. The pattern is the Basic Earflap Hat for the whole family (a free ravelry download) I didn't make it until really late. It's a great pattern and goes really fast. The yarn I used was paton's classic wool. I like how the yarn pooled it looks really neat. That's the bead modeling the hat btw. It only used half a skein and that's with the poof ball on top. And It was used as one of my homework assignments for the HP Knititng/Crochet House Cup (ravlery) group. Which now all my knitting projects are consumed by.. but that's another post another day!


Last but definitely not least I made a scarf for my future BIL. The pattern is for a neckwarmer but has modifications on it for a scarf. It went really cool. It took a skein and a half of the paton's classic wool. (I made it before the hat for my nephew) I didn't get it done in time for him to open on Christmas. so I've got to send it to him...
yeah that's my goal for this week or next to get the packages in the mail!

Ok so I think I've updated ya'll for now.. if you've read this far why not stop and leave a comment, it should only take a few extra min! thanks a bunch.

ahhh mom!

The faces of the girls in this photo just cracks me up!
I caught them a they were coming in from playing outside today. Tomorrow they won't be able to b/c it's supposed to be really cold and I don't want them getting sick (or hurt). So since it was relatively warmer today I sent them out. they had a ton of fun and turned our backyard into paths and paths. (that's what they told me at least)

So it gets colder....

Right around Christmas we didn't have much snow.. in fact it rained and rained and rained... a lot! now it's getting colder and snowing some. Tomorrow's big news is it's going to be COLD. with that in mind I sent the girls outside to play today so that they got the snow play out of their system for a bit, while it's bitterly cold.
I have been finishing so many projects it's been crazy. You can look at my ravelry page or my flickr acct. that will update you... I fear if I did it here I would have way toooooooo many photos... so I send you there instead with promises that I will try to post here more often. and with that I must go.

missing me?
you can find me more frequently over at my other blog MommaCrafter. stop on over!

It's official.

Our tree is decorated all the way to the top with a nice bright star to light the way!
This weekend we have a great one planned.
Saturday Night My husband and I are going with some friends to see Fireproof. I'm super excited my family (sister, mom and dad) said it was really good. And this is the first time it's been around here. It's actually in a really cool theater around here they have a great cheap date. They wait a little longer to get the movies but it usually is well worth it. It's not very often you can see a movie with popcorn and dinner for $30. I'm wondering if they're going to get House. I'd like to see that movie as I love Ted Dekker's books. and i love a good scary movie.


Then Sunday we're going to friend's to celebrate 2 of their son's birthdays. For the one he love star wars and I knit him this hat. It has all kinds of star wars guys on it and of course says "may the force be with you" around the bottom. I fear it's going to be a little big on him but I'm sure he'll like it regardless. The inside looks a little crazy. But the yarn I used was really soft so it shouldn't bother him. I had ribbing on the bottom but then the hat would've been way way way tooo big so i folded it up and sewed it down so when he gets bigger he can take that out and still use the hat. The whole time I was knitting it my DH was pestering me for one. So I think I may have to surprise him and make him a star wars hat. actually he'd really like a storm trooper hat. so I told him after Christmas I'd make him one. but secretly I'm going to try and make it for Christmas.
Oh the joy of gift giving. I love it so much!
speaking of gifts If I don't get cracking no-one is getting anything... of to work!