Yarn Along

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a single photo and share it ~

Ginny from small things

I haven't actually started knitting on my sock yet this week, but I did pull it out of the bag of UFOs that I have lying around.  Hopefully, this will be a pair of socks for me!  I started them a year or so ago, got scared when the pattern talked about picking up stitches, and set them aside. 

I have since knitted several pairs of socks and overcome this fear!  Yay!  So I am ready to complete this poor pair that's been sitting neglected for so long.

The yarn is Crystal Palace "Maisy" - made from corn fiber and nylon.  I thought that was pretty fun, and I figured that would make a sock to wear in the spring when you don't really need heavy wool socks.  At the rate I am going with these, I'll finish them by next spring!

I'm working my way through Pillars of the Earth for a second time.  I love this book!  It's my book club's book for this month, so I thought I had better refresh my brain a little bit.  It is getting all muddled up between Pillars and World Without End (which, if you didn't know is set in the same town, but a century or so later!).  I'm also watching the miniseries on Netflix, it's not too bad!

Yarn Along

Linking up with Genny again for the Yarn Along over at small things.

No WIP pictures this time, but an "action shot!"  I got 3 mittens done this week - 3 because the first one was way too big, so I had to go down a size.  I'll finish a fourth in the larger size, and then she'll have some to grow into!

Now I need to figure out which knitting project to start next.  I'm thinking it needs to be something for me, but it will probably end up being something for E again.

What have I been reading?  Ummmm . . . aside from numerous children's picture books?  Not much.  I will have a post up on Friday about our books for this week, as part of the reading challenge.  Maybe by next week I will have gotten my act together and actually start a new book!  I even have a couple on my bookshelf calling my name, I just haven't had time to pull them out and say "hello!"

Easing Back into Things

I thought we were going to start school last week.  Hmmmm.  I have noticed that I tend to procrastinate more as I have gotten older.  I didn't get half of the things done that I wanted to over the weekend, and since it was E's birthday week, and we were still recouperating from illnesses, I decided to just wait until this week to start up again.

We did, however, do some activities for Epiphany!  I saw this neat and EASY art project, and thought we would do something similar.  I don't have step by step pictures, but here's what we did:

I only have large white paper, so I had E color the whole page with different blue, gray, and black crayons.  Since I wanted to do this project, too, I chose to paint my page with blue and black paint.  I had E use crayons so she could move directly to the next step without waiting for paint to dry.

I made a star stamp (like our fish stamp) and let her stamp all over the paper with white and yellow paint.  Then we let our paintings dry for a day and I put them under some weights to flatten out a bit.

The next day, I had cut triangles, circles and a star for each of us.  We glued our triangles onto the paper, and topped them with a circle.  Then it was time to decorate with glue, glitter, and sequins!  After decorating was done, we added our star for the wise men to follow.

I put my picture behind our nativity set,

E's went up on our new art display I created on the back of my kitchen cabinets.

Pinecone Ornaments

As part of our Advent calendar, last night we made ornaments for our Christmas tree.  I was inspired by these pinecone ornaments over at The Magic Onions.  I was all out of broken crayons, and thought using beeswax would be nice, but as I thought about it more, I wasn't sure I wanted a 2 1/2 year old playing with hot wax. 

I scored on some pinecones at the thrift store this past weekend and knew we were still doing to do a pinecone ornament.  I know, I know, I live half an hour from the mountains and I could have gone out and picked my own pinecones.  But.  I've been feeling lazy, and these pinecones already had been drilled and wire hooks added!  Sweet!

We decided to make our pinecones a little sparkly.  We painted them with glue and then added glitter.  E loves any craft where Mama gets out the glitter!

Christmas Crafting in Progress!

I finally got to the craft store to pick up the yards and yards of felt I need for all of E's Christmas presents.  Can I just say right now that I LOVE felt?  Especially wool felt, but even the Eco-recycled stuff is good.  No finishing seams or hemming, no applique, and it stands up to play pretty darn well.  I've been working for the past two naptimes on E's card table playhouse.  I am discovering that our card table is pretty much on the tiny side - but I still think it's going to work out OK.  I am pretty much done with the front side.

There is the obvious, um, a door to get in and out, a plant (stuffed, and I plan to make flowers she can stick on it as well), and a mail box (the door opens and she will be able to drop mail into the house through the slot).  I also sewed a few "bricks" on there for ambiance.  All that is left is the edging for the top and to back it.  Not too bad for a couple hours work!

Other sides of the house will be a garden with an apple tree, a birdhouse, and at least one window.  Gotta have some light and air in that house, ya know?

Some Finished and Almost-Finished Projects

Now that summer is pretty much over, I finally finished the Shades of Summer Dress for E.  It took a lot of time to make that twirly skirt!!  But she loves it.  It is made from cotton yarn and is SUPER soft!  As with most of the things I make for E, it is too big right now.  I'm going to put a ribbon in it to cinch up the waist.  If I'm going to spend so much time knitting clothing for E, I want her to be able to wear it for more than a month!  Hopefully, she will still be able to wear it next spring.  Maybe it will be her Easter dress.  I think it will also look cute with a long sleeve t-shirt underneath it on cold, dreary winter days.

My almost-finished project is my FIRST pair of socks!  They are made with some neat Ty Dye yarn from Knit One.  They are a little too small for me, as I intend them to be a gift, but I did try them on.  Oh My Goodness!!  I can see why people can get obsessed with hand-knitted socks.  They are like little massagers for your feet!!  :)

What have you finished recently?  Any works-in-progress to share?

Homemade Holidays

I know, Christmas is still a little less than 100 days away, but I feel like I'm WAY behind.  It's easy to get that way when you try to make most/all of your Christmas gifts by hand.  Plus, E's birthday is a week and a half after Christmas, so I have get get started on things early.  I thought I'd share a few ideas that I had for handmade gifts that I am loving right now!

The Montessorian in me LOVES this soft globe.  I had been wondering how to make a globe without spending a fortune or spending a week meticulously painting.  The continents in this globe are the regular Montessori colors.

E would adore this card table play house.  It looks like the seller even has room for a few more orders before Christmas.  I will be making E's, though.  Most likely using the tutorial from Sew Much Ado.    Now, where can I find pink felt on the bolt?

Sally the Eco-Fairy has been on my to-make list for more than a year.  She's so cute.  I actually have all the body parts finished, I just need to sew her up.  And make some clothes - I decided to go with wool felt clothes instead of knitted, should be quicker that way.

The newest edition of Living Crafts Magazine has an adorable doll house felt board that I just love.  I'm hoping that it will get a rave review from the munchkin, as well.

Speaking of Living Crafts, I just love their tablecloth and napkins set with crocheted edges.  Now, if I just knew how to crochet.  I'm strictly a knitting girl.  But they might still look really neat with just the blanket stitch edging.

12 Crafts Till Christmas has a super-cute doll bassinet and diaper bag play set that is totally calling E's name.  Last year was the "year of the felt food."  I think this year is going to be the "year of the dolly."

Enough talking, time to get started!  Do you think 100 days is enough to get all this done?? 

Craft Corner: Train Table

Once upon a time, there was a very ugly table.  A VERY VERY UGLY table.  With fake wood veneer that was buckled and peeling off.  But it had cute legs - isn't that always important?  And it was a good size, and pretty sturdy.  And so it sat in the storage room, getting dusty and spiderwebby, waiting to be thrown away or turned into something awesome.

Then E needed a train table for her tracks, and I thought of that UGLY table again! 

So I peeled off as much of the veneer as I could, and hot-glued some felt to the top.

Trimmed up the sides and glued them down as close to the edge of the table as I could. 

And voila!  Just like new, but better, because it has a purpose now.  And I still have felt leftover to make a felt board.  (The original reason for purchasing navy felt.)

Family Questions

Well, we're back from our trek across the country!  I will tell you about all the fun we had on our trip later this week, we ended up visiting 8 different states!!

Today I wanted to share with you a fun idea for getting your family talking around the dinner table.  I don't know about you, but I married a "strong, silent type" guy.  My hubby is a true introvert, and truth be told I'm pretty introverted as well.  I am always looking out for little tricks to make dinner more than just a time to eat.  At my MOPS group's spring tea last year, the Mentor Moms gave jars full of questions to each of us.  They have been a lot of fun to use at dinnertime!  The jar was decorated very simply with a ribbon an a sticker that says "Family Questions." 

How it works: someone chooses a question and reads it aloud.  Then, everyone at the table answers.  Even E at 2 1/2 gets in on the action.  When we sit down at the dinner table, she often says "Want to ask a question!" right away.  Here are some examples of questions you might use to make your own Family Question Jar.

* What is the happiest day of your life so far?
* Things you dream about.
* What is your favorite sport to watch?  Why?
* What's the most exciting adventure you've had in your life?
* What is your most favorite meal of all time?
* Name 3 things the person to your left does that make you happy.
* What is your least favorite vegetable?  Why?
* Tell about something special that you own.
* What have you learned about being a friend?
* If you could live on any planet which would you pick?
* What does the person to your right do that tells you they love you?
* If you could be a character in a book, who would you be?
* What is love?  What does it look like?
* Have you ever been lonely?  What did you do about it?
* If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
* Have you ever been blamed for something you didn't do?
* What is your favorite holiday?  Why?
* Things that take courage.
* If you could make a new animal what would it look like?
* What is the bravest thing you've ever done?
* Things you hope you can still do when you're 85
* Things people like about you.
* What is your favorite song?  Sing it!
* What is (was) your favorite bedtime story?  Tell about it.
* What is your favorite way to spend your free time?
* List 5 things you would like to do this year.
* Things you would do with a million dollars.
* What is the most important thing that you do?
* If you could be any animal, what would it be?
* Name 3 friends and tell something about them.
* What kind of job would you like to have?  Why?

As you can see, some of these are more for kids, some are more for older kids/adults.  I simplify some of them for E, and Hubby and I have to answer them, too. I hope you get some use out of these for your family as well!  Feel free to add your favorite conversation starter question in the comments.

How to Keep a Munchkin Busy

We are leaving in a couple of days to go on a HUGE road trip.  Although E is a pretty good little traveler, I'm a bit nervous about being in the car for long 6-8 hour days.  We're planning on making lots of stops to run around, but she needs something to occupy her in the car, too!  I picked up a couple of backissues of Living Crafts from my favorite yarn store for me to peruse in the car, but I couldn't wait.  I found the cutest little drawstring backpack, and I knew I had to make one for E.  She chose the fabric from my embarrassingly large fabric stash.

Then, what to fill it with?  We decided that she would bring some of her finger puppets and some of her castle dolls.  I am going to surprise her with a magnetic storyboard and an I-Spy pouch.  And of course, a 400 page coloring book and new crayons for my little artist!

Other than the coloring book, it all fits inside quite nicely!

Hopefully when we return, our internet will be working properly again, and I will be able to resume normal posting.  See you all in August!

Watercolor Butterflies

Watercolors may seem kind of scary for preschoolers to work wtih, especially if you're anything like me.  I had visions of the yellow being covered in brown, green and purple.  Even now I cringe at the thought!!  But once I finally got up the courage to try it with E, things went okay!  (Of course, I did have to buy my OWN watercolors, just in case the above tragedy actually occurred!)  The one thing I will say is to make sure you buy watercolor paper.  Construction paper just doesn't cut it, and will leave both of you frustrated with a soggy mess!  And yes, the yellow will get some other colors of paint on it.  I let it dry just a bit and wiped it off with a rag when we were done.

I showed E how to wash her brush out after each color, and how to mix the color with water to make the paint.  I did have to remind her several times to "paint then rinse."  She loved painting her butterfly, and the free form watercolors we did were a favorite as well.  Using a larger brush also helped.

These butterflies are from ideasforkids.org.  I saw this balancing butterflies project over at Childhood Magic.  E and K were so excited when they came into the kitchen this morning to find the butterflies they had painted would rest on their hand or shoulder!!

I am also interested in trying wet on wet watercolor painting with E.  Sounds like fun, especially since she loves to "do art" so much!

Fruit and Veggie Printing

I love my mom's group.  The moms are awesome, the kids are so much fun, and we are always having really cool playdates!  This week, we met up at a local park for some fruit and veggie painting.  Each mom brought one type of fruit or vegetable to paint with.  There were oranges, bell peppers, apples, strawberries, potatoes, and corn.  We loaded up some plates with a little bit of paint and let the kiddos have at it - outside, no messy paint all over someone's house!  And when they were done, they went to play in a cooler full of water and got all clean.  What a great time!

Strawberries made cute heart-shaped prints.

Rolling corn was fun - and messy!

Bell peppers made neat outlines like flowers.

The finished masterpiece!

Craft Corner: Plant Markers

My dad loves to work in the yard.  His mom, my grandma, grew up on a farm, and she still has a giant garden.  My dad has been yearning for a garden ever since I can remember.  When I was little we had a small garden, with tomato and cucumber plants.  Now, he's trying out square foot gardening, in some fancy garden boxes he built this spring.

What does every dad who gardens need for Father's Day?  Some fancy plant markers so everyone knows what plant is what out there in the garden!

I made my plant markers out of oven bake clay (I used Sculpey), aluminum foil, and an old coathanger.  If you have older kids, this would be a really fun project to do together!  You can find the clay and all the tools for it at the craft store.  Honestly, the only tool I use is a long blade (like a razor blade), and you could probably use a knife for that.  Oven bake clay is used a lot to make beads and such, so bead templates and things to poke the holes through the clay were included in my tool set.

First, take aluminum foil and crunch it up into the shape you want your plant markers to be.

Then take out your clay.  Each brick is scored into four sections.  I used 3 sections for each plant marker.  I cut up one section each of two different colors into slices:

And stacked the slices together, alternating colors.

Next I squashed them all together into a big roll.  How you do this will make a difference in how your final product looks, so think about it before you squash.  I didn't think before I did this one, but you can see some prettier patterns in the last couple of pictures.

Roll the clay out to the desired size, and cover one side of the aluminum foil.

See, only one side is covered.

Take the last section of clay (either color, it doesn't matter) and roll it out for the back side of the plant marker.

Take your coathanger, and some wire cutters and cut off one corner.  Sandwich this between the foil on the back side of the plant marker and the plain clay.  Cover the back side with the clay.

Now - to make it pretty!  Roll out a long, thin snake of black clay and use this to edge the whole plant marker.

Then, out of the same black clay, roll out another long, thin snake to make the letters.

Bake according to your package directions.  Mine was 15 minutes at 275 degrees.

Let cool, and show off in your garden.  Or, give to your dad or husband for Father's Day!!

stART: It Looked Like Spilt Milk

Last week, E and I went to a FANTASTIC playdate at a friend's house.  I get such a kick out of watching her play - it seems like all of her friends are little 2 and 3 year old boys.  They were running around like wild things and E just stood there watching them for the longest time, wondering what in the world they were making so much noise for!  But, anyhow, I digress.

We got to do a lovely story and art project that I didn't have to plan!  It was great!  First, we read It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw.  This is a really neat book about . . . . clouds, of all things!  Specifically, how clouds can look like other things: spilt milk, a squirrel, a pig, whatever.

Then we got to the art project.  We were provided with blue paper and white paint in squeeze bottles.  The kiddos squirted paint all over their paper . . .

folded the paper in half and smooshed it real good . . .

and then opened it up to see what they had created!  E thought hers looked like a crab.

Here are some of the other children's masterpieces!

stART: Rainbow Fish

E just loves the Rainbow Fish books.  So this morning, we did a sparkly rainbow fish craft!  I used the fish stamp I made, and she stamped glue fishes all over the paper.  Then we used all different colors of glitter to make the fish sparkle just like Rainbow Fish.  The result doesn't really look like fish, but E had a great time and loves her picture anyhow.  :)  It's all about the process, right??