Connor's 1st hat for the homeless

In my previous post about our December Daily 5 school work I had mentioned that Connor and Lillee have to put in 20-30 minutes knitting a hat for the homeless. Connor finished his first hat last week.

The Magic Quilt

I wanted to share this awesome project with all who read my blog.

I can't explain the magic quilt any better than having you visit these links and reading about it yourself. If you're interested in participating in the next magic quilt project, please contact me or join the sisterhood of the magic quilt.

For anyone who knows Stan Tolman, he is the first recipient of the magic quilt and you can read all about it here.

And here is the post of Stan receiving the magic quilt.

Our Valentine's Day

We had such a nice Valentine, this year.



I stopped off at the fabric store a few days before V Day and snagged V Day prints on sale for 75% off. I knew Connor wouldn't be interested in pink hearts so I also snagged some fleece at 65% off. I made pillolws for the girls...some nice comfy memory foam pillows. And Connor got a pair of Transformer fleece pajama pants. Al bought flowers for everyone, roses for me and yellow daffodils for the kids.

We made V Day cookies on Saturday so the kids took treats to their church teachers along with the extra daffodils and some corny monkey Valentine Cards.

After church, we had a nice nap time followed by games and a family activity planned by Lillee. She was so cute directing everyone. It went something like this, "Isabel, you'll do the song. Daddy, you'll do the scripture. Mommy, you'll do the talk. I'll do the prayer. And Connor, you'll do the silly dance. Then I'll hide all the prizes and we'll all go together to find them."


Lillee took stuffed animals and other trinkets from her room and hid them, then directed us where to find them. It was a really fun evening and I love that when our kids think of fun family activities that it includes prayer, talks and scriptures :)

What a fun filled 2 weeks we've had

AAAARRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!

I'm done with snow :) We've been hit with over 40 inches of snow in two back-to-back storms and the state has no money to deal with the huge mounds of white stuff.

This is a measurement after the first storm.

We have enjoyed drinking lots of hot chocolate. Actually, I think Isabel gets all geared up to go play in the snow just so she can have hot chocolate when she comes back in because she never stays for more than 5 minutes.

Speaking of Isabel, she turned 4 years old last week and we had a great party! I stayed up late to make her Strawberry Shortcake birthday cake.

The next morning, when she hopped into bed with us, Al said, "Let's go have cake and ice cream." And he wasn't kidding. We had cake and ice cream at 7:30am

and were opening presents before 8:00am. She received some great gifts and had a fun day.

Isabel saw a cute little fabric dollhouse in a magazine and said she wanted on like it with little bunnies (just like the picture). I sewed this cute little house but wasn't able to find bunnies to live inside but thought she would still enjoy it. She's not played with it once. She wanted the bunnies and the stuffed bed and chair that was pictured in the magazine. maybe one day she'll appreciate it...when she's 30 and has her own kids to please :)

She got a new baby doll and baby bed from Grandma. This doll sucks her bottle and binky and closes her eyes and and breathes deeply when she goes to sleep.

Strawberry Shortcake was the star of the day. She received a doll, movie and 2 books all Strawberry Shortcake.

She's also been saying and doing some really funny things:

Grandma Jane has been organizing all of her hundreds, maybe thousands, of photographs. So one day, Isabel went downstairs where the sorting has been happening and said, "Where are those books with the pictures of the human beings in them?"

One afternoon, I asked the girls to clean their bedroom. After a bit of time, the girls appeared in the kitchen to announce the bedroom was clean and ready for inspection. Lillee continued to share that she cleaned the room almost completely by herself. When I questioned Isabel as to why she did not help clean the room, she spouted back, "I wanted to see how good Lillee could do by herself."

One morning at breakfast, we were having a little family chat...nothing serious, just talking. Isabel is something difficult to understand as she's lazy in her speech. On occasion, Al and I will tease her a bit to make her aware of her mispronunciations. This particular morning, I had mentioned that Connor made Isabel's cake all by himself and that he really enjoys commenting on the food I cook, with very descriptive language. Isabel wanted to chime in that she was a good cook, too. Al picked up on this and started teasing her about being a 'dood took'. Well the teasing continued in a slew of other funny word combinations. She corrected him over and over, "No, I'm a dood took!" She finally gave up, slapped her forehead and shook her head. It was hilarious!

I took her for her 4 year old check-up today and she was wonderful! Of course, I bribed her with a milkshake and chicken nuggets from McDonald's. Normally, she would scream when the Dr approaches her, but the bribery really worked! Dr. Pedriera told me how sweet and kind Isabel is and said, "Isabel, you're my favorite patient" and that made her feel so good. He always tells me what a good mom I am, that's why we really go to see Dr Pedriera :)

Amish Friendship Bread

Photo courtesy of Allrecipes.com

Doesn't this loaf look beautiful and delicious? Well it is! And the real beauty is you share it with your friends.

That is, if you have friends. I've discovered that I don't actually have friends, well at least not Amish friends who appreciate a good loaf of bread or two or twenty. Nor do I have non-Amish friends who are grateful that I want to share something so delicious with them.

10 days ago, a good friend asked if I would like an Amish friendship bread starter. I chuckled at first, remembering my mother receiving one of these in a mason jar when I was a kid. The reason I chuckled was the memory of a slew of cursing that occurred with each feeding, separating and sharing time. I had been wanting a bread starter (sourdough, not a sweet bread like this) but figured this would be a way to get my feet wet and back into bread baking, regularly.

I accepted the offer of the starter. I spent ten days mushing the bag, feeding it and lovingly baking two gorgeous loaves of bread, but not before I separated out 4 servings of starter to share with my friends...well, the people I thought were friends.

I posted on Facebook to see if anyone wanted a starter---I figured this was a good way to ask for volunteers without sending a direct email to people or worse, calling them! I sent one starter with my mother-in-law who was going to visit a friend that she only sees once a year. It just happened that they were heading to a church fundraiser at a local restaurant and would see lots of people they knew. My mother-in-law gave it to her friend with the caveat, "I don't care if you take it over there and throw it in the trash, but you have to take it." So abrupt over friendship bread, where's the friendliness surrounding this sacred starter?

I saw the first hit to my Facebook plea, I was hopeful as I opened the email. Nope, no response to the bread...she wanted to know what soup I would be bringing to soup and swap.

Second response, WAHOOO!!! It was about the bread, YIPEEE!!!

It read, "Haha. I just saw your mother-in-law trying to get rid of some at Cici's. good luck to you!"

Friendship bread, my foot! You don't make friends with this stuff, you run them off as they're laughing in your face.

Well, for all you HAHA friends, I won't mention any names, there is a cure for someone who has lots of Amish Friendship Bread starter: Take Control of your Amish Friendship Bread Starter

I will be fine with my Amish friendship bread starter and my 10 step program (HA, I don't need 12!---if you don't get this joke, congratulations). I am in control and am now equipped with the tools to liberate myself from the oppressive thumb of a simple bread starter.

Lillee's Easter Dress

In between conference sessions, I completed Lillee's dress!!!

And here are the girls together

Isabel stole the flower from our neighbor's yard...she got in trouble for it, but then we realized what a great prop it was :)

Repurposing

Late last summer I was looking for a dresser solution for the kids as they have lots of clothes but their dresser took up so much floor space they barely had room to play. So I was tooling around on craigslist one Friday night looking for a solution when I came across a yard sale advertisement offering 2 dressers and a toddler bed for $60! Al and I headed out early Saturday to get the dressers. They were really cute...white with soft, pastel knobs in multiple colors.

Little did I know that they were not only cheap in price, but also in construction. They quickly started falling apart under the abuse of a 3 & 4 year old. Drawers started breaking, rails were bending...it was sad. So we got rid of the first dresser, a tall 5-drawer dresser, but I snagged the knobs off of it because they were cute and I was certain I could use them on another dresser.

Then dresser #2 started falling apart. I was really upset to get rid of this one, I held onto it for nearly a month thinking we could fix it somehow. I knew we wouldn't fix it, though. So I decided to pull the face of each drawer off and use them to fix another storage problem!

The kids have so many light jackets, hoodies and bags, I figured we could make a place for them to hang things on the wall. We added 4 knobs to each drawer piece and I painted on them. Connor's isn't finished yet and we're waiting on my husband to bring a drill home to attach them to the walls. I'll add more pictures when they're on the wall, but here is what they look like

And as a bonus, I was able to tie in a lesson on recycling!!

We also pulled off some other pieces of the dresser and will be using those to glue on clothes pins and attach to their bedroom walls for hanging art work. Our refrigeratore is not big enough to hold all the coloring and painting sheets of 3 little ones :) This way it's in their room for them to enjoy and manage, instead of me deciding which ones are worth keeping on the fridge! I'll get pictures of those up soon, too. We've painted our clothes pins, we just need to get them attached to the board and on the wall.

Great Backyard Bird Count

This year the kids participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count. The first step was to provide a place for the birds to come to. Considering it's cold outside and we can't plant inviting flowers we made bird feeders from pinecones, peanut butter and birdseeds.

Slather on some peanut butter, directly to the pine cone.

Roll in bird seed

And viola, a birdfeeder.

I was surprised how quickly the kids tired of this activity so we headed outside with 5 rolled pinecones to hang from the tree. I strung them up while Connor ran around the yard snapping pictures.

Here is a great shot that Connor snagged of Lillee...he's not too bad behind the lens.

Since it was so cold and windy we waited inside and watched out the window.

We waited for the birds to come....

And we waited....

And we waited....

For 2 full days, not a single bird. But we fed a couple of lucky squirrels and those rascals ripped our pinecones right off the tree. So now we have 5 strings blowing in the wind and still not a single bird to be seen. We had nothing to report to the Great Backyard Bird Count, but we tried.

Relay For Life Quilts

Do you all remember my dear friend Kristy and her precious daughter Katie? Katie lost her battle with brain tumors 1.5 years ago at the tender age of 3 years old. Two years ago I started a Relay For Life team on behalf of Katie and we had great success. This past year, Kristy co-captained the team and really brought amazing energy with her. She put together a quilt project where the team members could sell quilt squares for donations to Relay For Life and then she had the quilts put together with volunteers. We ended up with 12 quilts! Look at these beauitful creations!

Today, my children and I get to deliver these wonderful donations to Children's Hospital in DC to be distributed to children diagnosed with cancer. What a blessing it is for my children to see the beauty of love through service to others and to be able to deliver such love to those who might need some comfort today.

I'm so excited!

I received a sewing machine for Christmas so I've been trying to learn the fine art of sewing. My mother works in upholstery furniture and has access to some really lovely fabrics and has snagged me a few short ends to practice sewing with different textures. She brought me this beautiful striped silk that I've been wanting to make something with but could not figure out what to use it for.

Two days ago, Lillee said she wanted a hat like Pig's chef hat in Word World. So I found a pattern and started sewing. Normally when I have an idea to make something for the kids or other family members I never get around to making one for me. When I learned to crochet, I made scarfs for everyone....but me. When I learned to knit, I made hats for everyone....but me. This time I started with one for me and then I'll make them for the kids :)

So here is my lovely creation!!!

Pajama Friday!

You know how some public schools have themes for each day of the week during homecoming? Since we've had more relaxed school days lately we have not been diligent about some details....like chores, getting dressed, staying on schedule. We had Pajama Friday, today. It was nearly noon before everyone was out of their pajamas and I'm still in mine :)

Al was feeling extraordinarily energized and free from completing the bedroom project so he decided to do a craft project with the kids and it just kept ballooning.

The idea began with making rubber band guitars from cardboard boxes. The kids decorated their boxes while Al worked on getting the strings/rubber bands just right.


Connor made a banjo from the box that came with a Wiimote.



Lillee's was the first completed and she was ready to move on to another project, but Connor and Isabel still didn't have guitars. So I quickly jumped in with a drum making idea. I grabbed the plastic wrap and different sized bowls, buckets and cups from around the house.



We tested the different sounds from each drum and of course discussed sound vibrations and how to obtain deeper sounds.

Then the kids piled on the floor and began playing their insturments


We then added a cymbal (aka the lid to my dutch oven)



The music was wild, just like the kids so Isabel added her war paint to get in the real spirit of the tribal beats resonating from our living room.

Loving my hats!

Well, I've made it through 2.5 weeks of bed rest, a major construction project in my bedroom and taking on a new hobby and making some money while sitting around all day.

I really thought I'd write more while I had all this free time on my tush, but I found I have little to write about as I cannot get up to do anything...funny, how that works. Fortunately, the bed rest is great for my blood pressure, it's definitely dropped. But I'm retaining lots of fluid...I went to the Dr today and found I'd gained 7lbs in one week. Did you know that a gallon of milk weighs about 8lbs? So that means I've packed on enough fluid to in one week to add up to almost a full gallon of milk!!! No wonder my hands and arms go numb so often.

So anyway, this was suppose to be about my hats, but before I get to that topic, I have to give my hubby good strokes again! He's been working hard on this bedroom construction project. It started out with having to rip out walls, floor and reinforce the floor as it was not structurally sound. Once that was complete, he had to replace walls, make a new wall where one did not exist and make it all look pretty without causing too much dust and clutter...oh and because all of that he had to recarpet, too.

The project wrapped up today!!! (well, minus a small finishing touch - crown moulding). He went to Home Depot 3 times to get color samples for the walls...what a wonderfully patient man he is. He found the perfect color, in an eco-friendly paint which is perfectly safe for me and baby without releasing VOCs. I have the most wonderful shade of yellow on my bedroom walls, it's bright and cheery without being canary yellow. I have perfect clean and white baseboards that do not need to be scrubbed for awhile :) I have a new wardrobe area, reading lights over the bed and SPACE!!!!

OK, I'm sure you're all sick of hearing about my construction project so I'll move onto the hats. I've started knitting hats as a fun project to help occupy my time while on bed rest. But my entrepreneurial sister-in-law suggested that I sell them on etsy.com. I was skeptical that I could sell them, but figured, "What will it hurt to try?" Thanks for the encouragement, Emily!

I've been knitting for a couple weeks and am loving it! I'm having such fun creating new hats, new patterns, new color combinations and actually filling orders! I wanted to share with you some of my newest hats:




I wish you could see the textured pattern in this one, it's not standard rib knit. It's a really pretty variegated yarn with smoky blue, cream and camel. I call it Smoky Winter Whispers.




This one I call, Peppermint Kissed



I made this one for my niece and call it Cotton Candy Clouds




This is my latest and favorite!!! I call it Chocolate Covered Pistachio





Al decided he needed a hat to match the scarf I made for him a couple years ago.

My crafty side

I have never felt like a crafty person; while growing up I remember wanting to make things, but I never felt equipped to do so. My husband lovingly mocks me when I claim I cannot make anything. I do not make cards, do scrap booking, nor anything along the lines of sewing or quilting. My husband even purchased me a TON of scrapping software and printable papers when our 1st child was born...he was so hopeful. I shot it all down quickly, though. I explained this was not my cup of tea and put an end to the years of feeling the pressure to lovingly and beautifully preserve our lives in binders while knowing there was not a chance I would ever enjoy doing it.

HOWEVER! Five years ago I joined the church on Sept 27th and attended my first Super Saturday event one month later and vowed I'd learn a usable craft and overcome my feelings of being a craft-inept Mormon girl. If I could not scrap, sew or quilt I was going to be a useful one way or the other. You can see how skewed my views were at baptism, these crazy misconceptions do not still hold true today. I have embraced Molly Mormon and accepted that I'll never fit into her many shoes...I'll never make funeral potatoes nor store wheat under my mattress.

Well, learn a craft, I did! I was taught to crohook, which is a form of crocheting and I could make scarfs and blankets. I did not learn how to crohook in the class, though. I thought I figured it out, but then when I went home I could not recreate the steps. So I sat up late one night (3am late!) until I figured out a way to make crohooking work for me. I did not use a traditional method, but it was mine. I made beautiful, cozy scarfs for everyone in my family the following year. I made blankets for my kids and friends who were having babies. Then the newness wore off or I just had no time with 3 kids 3 years and under so I put all my yarn away in a storage container and have rarely touched it since.

HOWEVER! The yarn storage has been resurrected! A friend of mine (THANKS Sherry!) showed me a fabulous loom system called Knifty Knitter. Now, I'm sure you Michael's and AC Moore addicts are shaking your heads and thinking, "Hello, what rock has this girl been under?" But I don't get to shop often. Taking 3 screaming kids into a craft store makes for a really explosive situation. But I did it, after seeing this loom I took all 3 kids to Michael's in search of the Knifty Knitter; I only braved it because my husband was in tow. After acquiring this amazing loom I sat down one night when I couldn't sleep and decided to give it a whirl. Look what I made!!!

This is for baby Chase, our soon to arrive baby boy. I was hooked, I could not stop myself from diving into the next hat. Last year I made a scarf for Connor by crohooking and had some left over yarn. So I decided to make a matching hat.


My husband was so impressed (read: jealous) he insisted on a hat just like Connor's.


Then I got really crazy and took all 3 kids by myself to Michael's so my girls could pick out their own yarn for hats. BAD idea...this resulted in all three kids sitting on the floor in the middle of the aisle while I gave them a stern lecture on manners in public. But I'm happy with the results of the yarn they chose.
Lillee's Hat



Isabel's Hat

So for a pregnant momma put on bed rest in her 31st week of pregnancy, I found the perfect time-consuming task that I'll never have a free moment for after the baby comes. The plan is to hit the craft store for stocking up on yarn once a week when I have my many OB appts and spend the rest of the week with my butt planted on the sofa, my feet propped up high and crank away on hats and scarves.

EDITED: Now that my models are awake I was able to get pics of each hat on it's owner