A Mini-Vacation (Part 1)

Yay for summer vacations! This year we took a trip in our own backyard, just 1 hour away to Estes Park. We often go up during the summer to hike Rocky Mountain National Park, but we hardly ever stay overnight (unless we're backpacking!). We rented a cabin outside the park with Grandma and Grandpa - which is just perfect when you have 6 adults and 1 toddler needing to spread out!

We got up there on the 4th of July and immediately it started POURING rain! Not a mild shower - a deluge!! It stopped long enough for us to get to our spot to see the fireworks at the lake, and then started up again with a vengeance. Poor little E was miserable! I took her back to the car in the rain to take a nap and when she woke up the weather had cleared. We even got a rainbow out of the deal. It was still pretty cold, but the fireworks were nice, as always, and E did great! No crying or being scared.




We are working on our colors right now, and I was telling her what colors the fireworks were. After a while, I heard this mumbling from her. When I listened, she was saying "blue, purple, red, green, yellow, purple . . . " with each firework that went off. It was so funny! I don't think she got too many of the colors right, but hey, points for trying! Here we are all bundled up and trying to stay warm - silly Mommy forgot socks for baby and for herself! Guess who's feet got to be covered by the blanket!










E and I both had snazzy new outfits for the 4th of July - but both were too summery for this chilly day up in the mountains and had to be covered up with jackets. I finally got around to making the spring top from Sew, Mama, Sew for me - I really like it and am planning on making at least one more before the end of summer. Emily's outfit was an A-line tank top with a button closure on the back of the neck and a pair of capris. The tank is in a cute red and blue bandana pattern, with a red ruffle on the bottom. I'm happy with it because I had to do some alterations to make it fit correctly. She's just so skinny and tall! I ended up having to make it 1/2 toddler size in the chest, but 3T in the length for it to look the way I wanted. The pants, too, were supposed to be long pants but they would have been too short, so I chopped them off a little more and made them capris. Hopefully I will have a picture of both outfits soon to show off.

More on our vacation tomorrow or whenever I get the film developed. I have a good shot of a moose on there that I want to show off.

What's Up, Doc?

Oh, my! I just realized I haven't posted anything since February!! In this post, I hope to catch everyone up on the goings-on over here since I last posted. :)

New projects!
Here is a sampling of the projects I have completed recently. It is only a sampling! I see some craft-alongs that are the "50 projects" or "100 projects this year" craft-alongs and I laugh. I feel like I finish 50 projects in a month sometimes!! But these I'm exceptionally proud of.

Felt Sushi, made for a swap, but another set is in the works for E. I am so addicted to felt food right now! I have made this sushi, a set of hamburgers and fries, salad, summer squash, and celery. I am participating in the Play Food Sweat Shop Swap on craftster.org - I have gotten so much nice play food! I have given E a little bit of it to play with, but most is getting put away to give to her for Christmas with a play kitchen - yay!























These are two outfits for a friend of mine from MOPS. I was her "mystery mom" - kinda like a secret Santa, but it lasted all year, and this was my final present to her. I got to practice more sewing skills and do some new things: rows of buttons for the shirt fronts, shorts, collars, and sleeves! Yay! I pretty happy with how they turned out, too, and I think they fit the kiddos as well. :)



Here's yet another baby gift! This one is for my cousin and his SO who had their first baby girl yesterday!! I got this gift off to them just in time! I love doing these little appliques - I really like the way the apples turned out. Those are from the Alexander Henry fabric I bought to make me pajama pants. (Which I also love!) The Japanese one is a stencil, and the baby carriage is an iron-on. It says "That's how I roll" - which I think they will really get a kick out of. I love love love these baby bibs. I have a whole pile of them to make for various friends having babies. Then I am going to make some with pockets for E.




Last to share today is the outfit I made for E. Just so you can see that I do make some things for her, as well as all this stuff for other people! The stencil is my design - so proud of it! - and I also dyed the shirt. These longies are the first ones I've knitted. They turned out pretty well, I think. So, yes, a matching set for my munchkin!




I hope to get another post up very soon - after the holiday weekend, and I should have some good mountain and hiking photos to share!

Crafting and swapping, oh my!

I have become addicted to a new website. Two new websites, actually. First is craftster.org, a wonderful craft website where I can get lots of new ideas and show off my work. The second is ravelry.com, for all my knitting projects. I love these websites! Recently I found craft swaps on craftster, and I am totally addicted. It's so much fun to make things for other people, and then receive surprises in the mail!

Recently I participated in a pincushion swap. This was good for me, because I do not have a pincushion. Or, I should say, I did not have a pincushion before this swap. I was partnered with youngmom, and she sent me the most beautiful, fun pincushion I could ever ask for!


When I received it, E happened to be wearing the same exact color of blue, and she really wanted to play with him. But youngmom also included a little Carebear pillow for her, which she really likes.

I made two smaller pincushions for youngmom, a cat, and a flower. The cat I am very proud of, because it's the first embroidery that I've done in a long time. Probably since I learned from my grandma way back when I was 10 or 11 or so. And the flower is just cool. The "stem" is a golf tee, and it fits in a spool of thread, so if you are hand-sewing something, you always have your pincushion close by!


Currently, I am in the process of a couple of new swaps. I'm in the Ongoing Wish Swap, which is really neat, because you put out a wish list of things you want, and people will make them for you. In previous rounds I've received neat cloth napkins for my kitchen, a tree of life pendant, scrapbooking supplies, and holiday cards. Yes, some of you received those cards from me for Christmas this year! I'm also signed up for the Inchies Swap, which I will post on sometime soon, and the Yarnie Scavenger Hunt Swap. I'm really excited for this one, what with my new love of knitting and yarn!

Enjoy the update!

Whew! The Holidays are Over!

Whew! What a crazy couple of months! Don't get me wrong, I love the holidays, but between that and E's first birthday, it has been super busy and crazy around here! Here's an update for all of you (finally)!

First up, Christmas!

I think E had a pretty good first Christmas. As is typical for almost-one-year-olds, she was way more interested in the wrapping and tissue paper than the actual presents, but that's ok. :) She got quite a lot of presents! We're going to have to watch it, or she will become one very spoiled little girl - oh, wait, she already is! E loved all her presents, once the exciting wrapping paper was taken away, but she just received the most exciting gift about a week ago! Great-grandpa made her a toybox!! I am way more excited than she is, because now when she goes to bed, I don't have to look at toys all over the floor anymore! It has her name on it, and on the side, there is a plaque that says made by Great-grandpa T. Even though she didn't get it at Christmas (the varnish was still drying), she did get to play in it!


Then, at the beginning of January, it was E's FIRST BIRTHDAY!! Oh, my goodness, is she 1 already!!! So, what does one do for the momentous occasion? We make a rocking horse birthday cake, of course! Which is apparently the same cake that was made for me on my first birthday. Awww . . . how special! This is E stealing some of the frosting off of her cake!


I made her some apple/pumpkin cupcakes that didn't have so much sugar in them. Man, did she ever go to town! She ate the whole darn thing!! I didn't know her stomach was that big!!


By this time, E had gotten the hang of opening presents, and she was happy to help me! She was spoiled once again. :) She loves everything. We have to rotate things so she doesn't get overwhelmed with too many toys, but hey, that's what the toybox is for!

More later, I'm sure! I hope you are all having a very happy and healthy New Year!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving! Thankful for food, a nice home, a good job, and the money to buy the things we need. Thankful for E and that she will have surgery soon so she can stop so many medicines. Thankful for family and friends that live close by and are always willing to lend a hand.

I let E watch a little of the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. I thought she might enjoy the floats. Nope. She had much more fun trying to watch football and seeing the dogs in the Westminster Dog Show. I think she thought they were really big cats! She got so excited!

For E's first Thanksgiving, her Grandma and Grandpa wanted to give her the turkey leg and see what she would do with it. She just gave them a look, like "why did you put this huge thing on my try and what the heck do you want me to do with it?" She picked at it a little, but had much more fun with her cheerios.


Aunt M made these really neat turkey cookies for our plates this year. Then she got "mad" when everyone decapitated them! They were so tasty and cute!!


How to make the turkey cookies (from Aunt M):

For each cookie you will need:
2 double stuff oreos
1 mini reeses peanut butter cup
1 whopper
5 slivered almonds
chocolate frosting
white, red and yellow icing.

1. Set one oreo down flat and attach the whopper and p.b. cup for the head and body using chocolate frosting.
2. Turn the turkey body oreo on its end and attach the other oreo right below the p.b. cup using chocolate frosting.
3. stick slivered almonds in the turkey body oreo for feathers.
4. decorate with red and yellow icing, do a beak, feet, and color the feathers. Add eyes too - she did them with plain white icing.
5. leave turkeys to set up while lying on their backs, feet together.

Enjoy!! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. There is so much to be thankful for!!

Holiday Crafting

Being that it is two weeks away from Thanksgiving, I am in full Holiday Crafting Mode! This year I decided to handmake most of the gifts for family and friends. Dont' worry, the only gift spoiler are for E, and she can't read!

Most of the things I decided to make this year are pretty easy, seeing as E is 10 months old right now and I don't have a whole lot of spare time. Although she is very happy right now to roll around on the floor while I am typing this morning. Hmmmm . . . maybe I should whip out the sewing machine! The trouble is that E's birthday is about 10 days after Christmas - I have no idea what to do about that. It doesn't really matter this year, she will only be 1 and not know any better. So I have a whole list of things I am making her, but some are for her birthday and some are for Christmas. I am making cloth blocks, a couple of dresses, a birthday tutu and onesie set, some new blankies (tie-dyed), beanbags, a knit hat, and a poncho/onsie/hat set. Most of this is finished but I still have a lot to do . . . not to mention gifts for other family members and friends! But I think handmade gifts are just so much more meaningful than the store-bought kind. Not that I won't be doing some of those, too! I have my eye on some Fisher-Price Little People sets for E!

My crafts-to-make list is growing exponentially!! Every time I make something cool for someone I want one too! I just don't have time right now to make it for myself. I'm hoping I can start on all of that after Christmas. A really neat new project I am making for a craft swap is a "scoodie." I got the tutorial from vegbee's Just Tutes blog. I am so excited to make it for my swap buddy - and one for myself as well. For those of you who don't know what a scoodie is, it is a scarf with a hood attached for extra yummy warmth! Anyone who knows me knows I am constantly cold during the winter. I am looking forward to having one of these!

Well, that's it for my first post!! Yay! Sometime soon, I will post pictures of some of my crafts for people I know won't visit here. Hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoy writing!!