For the Dogs

Today I wanted to share a quick project I finished a few days ago. A while ago I was perusing good ol' Pinterest, and came across a pin that suggested putting a dog bowl in a planter to dress it up a bit. What a great idea! We don't have a dog, but wouldn't it be fun for neighbors who walk their dogs by our house?

I stopped at my local Home Depot to check out their planters. To be honest, I had a little bit of a hard time picking a planter. I was originally planning to get a plastic urn style planter, but I couldn't find what I had in my mind. After walking up and down the aisle a few times deciding between a few other options, I finally landed on a terracotta planter that seemed short enough for most dogs to get their noses into easily and wide enough to hold a bowl.

I then went to the local Petco with my planter in hand to find a bowl to fit. Plus it was a nice excuse to peek at the adoptable animals in the store. My kids were thrilled to see a quartet of kittens in a little tent, sleeping and playing. I nearly needed to buy leashes for the kids to haul them out of the store! :)

Once I decided to use a terracotta planter, I knew it needed to be painted! I used paints I had on hand, because goodness knows I have plenty of craft paint!

I painted the inside of the planter a lighter sky blue about halfway down the inside of the planter. With the bowl inside, there really isn't a need to paint the entire interior, but you certainly could. I then painted the outside of the planter in a dark blue. Once that was dry I added paw prints in white paint around the planter, just to make it clear to the humans what the intended purpose of the bowl is. :)

When everything was dry again, I used a craft varnish on both the outside and inside of the planter. Since I was using craft acrylic paints and it would be outside, I wanted a little extra protection for it.

One more time to dry, then I popped in the bowl, filled it with water and put it in the front yard along the sidewalk. I put it next to our huge tree and while it isn't the prettiest spot, I put it there because I didn't want walkers or bikers to miss it and accidentally knock it over. My husband and I have plans to redo the area around the tree anyway so it will look nicer once that is done.

We've already had some neighborhood pups stop during their walks and get a little refreshment, which just tickles me! Hopefully they continue to enjoy it! :)

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Sock fail and other crafts

I was doing sooo well.

Sock Number 1 took five weeks to complete because I was so nervous that I would screw it up, but in the end it fit great and I was so proud of myself. I immediately plunged into sock #2, full of confidence from my newly learned skills. In a week I had completed most of the sock, and was a few pattern repeats away from the toe and binding off. I showed the progress of my sock in my previous post.

Then I decided to stack the socks on top of one another, just to see how close I really was. And then, BAM! It all came to a screeching halt.

The second sock was too big. Nooooooo!!!!!

At first I thought it might just be the leg. Maybe I had too many pattern repeats. They were just for me after all, so maybe I could get away with the second leg a little longer. Then I realized it was bigger everywhere. Length, width, everything. Like an inch too big. Apparently I was so confident when I was working on the second sock, my gauge loosened significantly. I knew I was more relaxed, but to see such a difference between them was a surprise. Looking back at the pictures in my last post, I should have realized then that the sock was looser and longer.

So instead of hanging out with my dear hubby while Sunday night football was playing (I was keeping tabs on my week 2 picks) and finishing the second sock, I sat miserably staring at this poor sock, knowing what had to be done. It had to be frogged and started over. But I just didn't want to do it...watch a week's worth of work disappear in a pile of kinked yarn on my lap. I must have looked pretty pathetic, because Andy leaned over and said "Do you want me to do it for you?" Sweet man. So I took out the needles and handed him the sock. He wound it back onto my skein and didn't even tease me about it. :)

I started to cast on the cuff again, but after a few foundation rows, I put it away. It needs to go into time out for a bit so I can work on it again without feeling so frustrated with myself. On the flip side, I could work on it now and maybe the frustration will cause my gauge to tighten up again. But no, I need a break from the blue sock.

So...I have started working on a new sock.

I bought this yarn from The Cyborgs Craft Room on Etsy the other week and have been itching to get to work for The Knit Girllls Halloween KAL (another reason I was trying to finish the blue sock). Isn't it cool?

It's called "This Isn't a Man", which a reference to a line in the movie "Halloween" and is meant to look a bit blood splattered. I think that was achieved and had just a bit of creepiness, perfect for Halloween.

I planned to make another Dreams in Fiber pattern because I love the Hermione sock pattern so much. The plan was to make the Petunia Dursley socks. As I was working on the sock, I realized pretty fast that the yarn is just too dramatically variegated and the subtle pattern was completely lost. Why spend the time on the pattern repeats if it can't be seen anyway? So I ripped it back (there seems to be a theme this week) and started again, this time using the Vanilla Latte pattern.

Just a bit of variation from a plain stockinette sock to keep me from being totally bored. I'm liking it so far although this week has been rather hectic so I haven't had a lot of time to work on it. Hopefully this weekend. :)

I have a couple other projects in the works, but they are gifts so I can't share yet. I also may have someone interested in having me make a baby Minion hat...have you seem them floating around Pinterest? So cute. I've been Pinning quite a few things to my Crochet & Knit boards, especially toys. I'm just in the mood to make some cute softies.

Speaking of Pinterest, Abby wants to have a friend over for a movie night & possible sleepover next weekend. I was thinking that the girls (and Davin too!) could make stencil t-shirts like these. Michaels has t-shirts on sale for $1.99 through tomorrow so I think it's the perfect chance to stock up!


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Rings to pins

Abby has a favorite little shop at the mall. :) It's called Glitter, and sells inexpensive costume jewelry and other accessories. Having just survived, er, finished Dance Recital nights, she and I took a little trip to get a pair of new summer sandals for her (hers were way too small!) and then popped in to Glitter as a little treat. :) With most of the jewelry costing only $1, it's the stuff a 6 year old girly girl dreams of! While she was poring over the tables of ring trays I noticed that some of the bigger rings could be pretty brooches. I love to wear scarves, so wouldn't it be fun to bling a few of them up?

Abby found two small rings and a necklace with a peace symbol on it. In the end I picked up these three rings. Not bad for $1 each, huh?

After a little bit of prying, I got the ring backs off. Then I grabbed some small pin backs and my trusty E-6000 glue!

And glued the pins on. I let the pins set up overnight just to be on the safe side.

And ta-da! Some pretty, inexpensive brooches to wear!

Making bows from thrifted clothes

Just a quick post today!
I was checking out a local thrift store and came across a pair of brightly colored floral capris. I'm not a huge fan of that many flowers decorating my bottom half, but the cotton material and print size called out to me anyway!
It would make the perfect material for hair bows!

I took one of the legs apart and cut off a short length of fabric. I hand sewed the edges and created a loop which I gathered in the middle and tacked down with some thread. Then I wrapped the center with a small piece of a mango colored fabric froma  thrifted skirt, attached a hair pin, and voila!

A perfect little bow with a pop of color as we limp through the gray days before spring finally makes its way to Michigan. We had a beautiful day in the 60's yesterday, and a gray day in the 50's today, but we'll be dropping again and whisperings of snow have been floating through the air. I really can't wait for spring...it's not usually such a big deal for me, but this year I really have cabin fever! How about you?

One last thing...I wanted to share a picture that my son made at school. We had the school book fair last week and as I was setting up, I looked up and saw this on the wall. I love their art. :)

Martin Luther King Jr Day project

Hi everyone!
Just wanted to share a little project that the kids and I did in honor of Martin Luther King Day. We actually did this on Sunday rather than on Monday, since I had to work and wouldn't be home with them on Monday.

I didn't want it to just be an extra day off for the kids...it's an important day, and I want my kids to be aware of the reason why we celebrate these days as holidays. I had originally planned to have books and videos and lots of other history materials tied in with this, but practically speaking, I just didn't have time. Weekends always seem to go so much faster than other days of the week, don't you think? :)

My husband had some of "the guys" over to watch football, including my brother in law, so he brought our niece with him. While they were playing, I grabbed some construction paper in "skin tone" colors (albeit rather cliche colors, but I worked with what I had and the kids understood the point anyway), white, yellow, orange, red, brown and black. I cut them into 1" strips and pulled out our trusty glue sticks.

I then had the kids create paper chains, first individually, and then we joined them all together.

While we worked, we talked about Dr. King, and why he was important to American history. We talked about why we are all linked together as Americans, despite what we may look like on the outside. The kids were very insightful, in their innocent way. My daughter, who is 5, was surprised that some people had to use different drinking fountains and attend different schools and other forms of segregation. My son, who is 7, was able to add what he has learned in school, about bus boycotts and marches. We also talked about how lucky we are to have access to the bus that Rosa Parks was riding on the day she refused to give up her seat. By the way, for more information on that bus, and events surrounding her 100th birthday on February 4th, go to www.dayofcourage.org. And if you are anywhere in the vicinity of Dearborn, MI on that day, stop by the Henry Ford Museum to see the bus in person. It's a very humbling experience, especially because you can actually board the bus and sit in her seat. If you can't come on that day, make it a point to visit someday...it's such an amazing museum, and tells amazing stories.

It was fascinating to see the smaller world differences that impressed Abby, while the grander scale events have now impressed Davin. My niece, who is 11 and is quieter in general, didn't have a lot to say...I think she was more intrigued by the project as a whole. I think sometimes she isn't sure what to make of us, and the random projects that we might be working on when she comes over. :) She had fun regardless, and was really interested in making her chain follow a pattern and helping Davin & Abby with theirs.

In the end we had a HUGE chain! It ended up nearly spanning the entire dining room...the kids wanted to hang it in the family room, but I didn't think the guys would appreciate the interruption as we climbed across the furniture and blocked their views of the game as we draped it across windows and the like. :)

Now, Abby has paper chains on the brain, so I predict a red, white and pink chain in time for Valentine's Day or a pastel chain in time for Easter. Looks like I need to pick up some more construction paper. :)

A few yarn projects

One of the "resolutions" I mentioned in my last post was to do something creative every day. It gives me a chance to learn new skills and techniques, as well as find a little relief and "me time" in the course of a busy day.

Lately, my focus has been on knitting & crochet. It's much easier to put a yarn project in a Ziploc bag and pop it into my work bag than to gather all of the paper crafting supplies I typically need to make a card. And once I start making a card, its much harder to stop midway. With knitting or crochet, I can just finish one line of a pattern and wrap it up. That's not to say that I won't be making cards but it's been nice to take a break.

So on to a few of my yarn projects:

I made a hat & tried cable knitting for the first time! A cable needle could be useful down the road, but I just used an extra dpn here.

I'm working on my first baby cardigan as a gift for a friend. I love this yarn, which is some of the beautiful yarn my grandmother passed on to me!

Abby turned my ghetto yarn bowl into an impromptu swimming pool for her Monster High dolls. :) I should get a proper yarn bowl some time...I truly hate when my yarn rolls off my lap! This little box is working for now, though I wonder how it will look in the middle of the summer with snowflakes all over it. Etsy has some beautiful bowls, like this one or this one.

Here's a closeup of the chevron pattern on the bottom half. Pretty, no?

A view of the back of the cardigan. A few more repeats of the chevron pattern, sleeves and some finish work and it will be done!

Decided to try out another cable pattern, this time a pair of mittens! Still no cable needle, and yes, it would have been even more helpful this time since I was knitting in a smaller round than my hat. But I managed!

These bad boys are long! No worries that a draft will give me goosebumps! :)

I love them - they are so thick and warm thanks to the bulky weight yarn I used. I didn't have enough of the same colorway in my stash so I had to go to the store and pick up new yarn for these. I finished these on Saturday, when it suddenly went up to 50 degrees! In Michigan, 50 degrees in January is not glove weather! But in true Michigan weather yo yo tradition, we have a high of 25 degrees today, so they were perfect for the drive to work this morning!

Another thing that I like about them? They prevent me from checking my phone at a red light on the drive. I don't text and drive - no way! But it's become super tempting to take a peek at Facebook or Instagram while I'm waiting at a light. Not a habit I want to get into!

I made these on Sunday. My last attempt at baby booties was a disaster so I was a little gun shy about trying again, but one of the things I love about crochet is that I can rip it out to the point I need and start again. Which I had to do a couple times with these, but in the end they turned out very cute! As you can see on the right bootie, they have button holes and the flap wraps around the ankle. They are destined for a baby girl, and mom isn't a huge fan of traditional pinks (I can sympathise, I felt the same way when Abby was born. She came home from the hospital in a lovely blue outfit. But pink is her favorite color now, so that didn't last long! lol). But I have to make these a little girlie, so I'm hoping to find some sparkly buttons for the cuff. I honestly think pink rhinestone would be really cute with this soft gray, but we'll see what I can find.

I'm thinking of making a pair of baby mitts to go with these booties and perhaps a little hat too. I have plenty of this gray yarn from my stash to work with so it wouldn't be a problem to add that to the gift. Maybe add a bit of pink ribbon to the mitt cuffs or a tiny pink bow on the hat? Just a touch so they all tie in together? I guess it all depends on what I find for the booties.

All of these pics came from my Instagram account, so if you're interested in following along with the progress of these and other random bits & pieces, feel free to follow me!

It's been nutty!

When last I wrote, I mentioned that things in my tiny speck of the world have been incredibly busy. No busier than many other people I am sure, but still a whirlwind for us! :)

August & September was full of school prep for the kids. Abby started Kindergarten, which she has been looking forward to for at least 2 years (when Davin started). She was nervous and excited at the same time. No tears for my little champ...she stood proudly in line with her new classmates, said a few shy "Hellos" to some of the other children, and when her teacher came out she happily went inside with her class.

Davin started 2nd grade (oh my goodness, how is that possible already?!?!) and for him it was all "Wash, Rinse, Repeat". He was excited to see his classmates again and do "boy stuff". :) This year he is at a new door at the school so for me it was tough because I had to choose which child to stand with in line! Davin was so excited to leave me, so I went with Abby. He was in good hands with his class, and I barely got a kiss and a "Bye Mom!" before he dashed off. :) Love that boy!

This year I was also elected as the PTO President for the school. I was the Secretary last year, but as our previous President has moved on with her older children it was time for a new person to step up. Sadly, our school has a low parent participation rate...for lots of reasons I think, mostly that so many parents work and many just aren't sure how to "step up". I don't think they don't want to help, but it can be kind of scary to just jump in. It was for me. But it's an important part of our school, so when I was asked if I would be willing I said yes. Now, I also knew what the challenges would be. I work full time so I can't be at the school as often as many other PTO members, but the VP and Treasurer are closer to the school, one works from home and the other works nights, so they have been great at stepping in and filling in when I can't be there. I will say though, it's hard work! Fundraisers, communicating with businesses, volunteers, teachers, meetings, websites, you name it and we are doing it. :) I don't know if this is something that I can do for years down the road, but I hope that we can build a solid parent base who can chair projects and teams so that the three of us aren't solely responsible for all of the events and projects. And most importantly, to build "a pipeline" of future leadership at the school.

My husband finished his last season as the high school tennis coach this fall, so he was occupied for most of August through October. Practises daily with the team and tournaments on most Saturdays - oi vey! He has done it for a number of years, but after this year he decided that he wanted to step down so he could be with the kids more. With their schedules getting busier and busier it will be helpful to have the extra pair of hands! :) I love that he is so involved with the kids, and being a teacher, he is able to be home with them after school - a huge help for me, since I usually work until 6pm or so.

The fall was also full of soccer practises and dance classes. Both kids wanted to play soccer, and practise was on Tues and Thurs at 6pm, at different schools! Yikes! We (I) made it work, dropping Davin off first under the supervision of his coach until my hubby could get to the field after tennis, and I would take Abby to hers. Games on Saturday mornings and by the end of October I was very glad to wrap that up! :)

Dance class this year is on Tuesday as well, so we had to let the coach know that we couldn't attend soccer on that day. This year, she was moved up from the intro Kinderdance session to Mini, which is the first opportunity to focus on individual classes. She couldn't decide which she was interested in, so in the end we opted to try to Mini Combo program, which is Ballet, Tap and Jazz back to back. It's nice that it's all on the same night, but Tuesdays become long nights when we are at the studio for 90 minutes. I have discovered though that if you ever need to catch up on the latest teen sensations, spend time at a dance studio...I've been caught up on all of Taylor Swifts music by now...on repeat. Yay. *wink* Abby manages the classes pretty well so far...I was a little worried that she would be really tired on Wednesdays, but she seems to be doing fine so far. She is loving all three classes and is really excited that she will be dancing in three numbers at the recital in June. That also means three costume changes, but so far the studio has been really conscious about appropriate costumes for the girls ages so I am sure she will look cute. :) I still have a tough time with makeup on a 5 year old, but after seeing how they look from the audience I understand the concept of stage makeup...and at least I don't have to put blue eyeshadow on her! :) Can you tell I didn't dance when I was growing up? I was climbing trees, so this is all new to me! lol

My job has been super busy this fall too. We closed a major exhibit on September 30, which brought in a fair few folks and left us all a bit winded. :) But we have now moved on to the holiday programming and I'm just working through all of the piles that went untouched when we had lines out the door. It was a good problem to have! :)

We spent a lot of time going to see the Detroit Tigers play this summer and fall.

We were cheering them on as they made their way to the World Series. Sadly, they were handily beaten but not before hubby and I had a chance to see one of the games! What a fun (chilly!) night we had!

I interspersed that with visits to the Physical Therapist 3 times a week to work on my back issues for about 5 weeks. Ugh. I have some compression on one of my discs so it causes pain and numbness in my left leg/foot. It helped, though I think I might be dealing with this permanently, so thats frustrating. But I did love the heat packs at the end of the sessions! lol

Let's see, where does that bring us? We hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house for 10 people, and I had a lot of fun cooking and cleaning (ok, not so much fun cleaning!) for a couple days before hand. On Friday I worked, and then we dashed off to another family gathering. I was kicking myself that I didn't take any pictures, but we were having so much fun talking, eating and playing that no one remembered to take any! Good times though! I do have two pictures of Thanksgiving...of the Frozen Lemon Gingersnap Pie we made...very lemony, but very good. The kids made the ice cream by hand using this method. I also made a Pumpkin Roll, using my best friends mom's recipe - delish!

On the crafting side, I had to table a lot of projects because I was just too busy. I had hoped that I could get my Etsy shop up and running in September, but that definitely didn't happen. :) I haven't made a card in ages...my poor colored pencils and Copics have been sitting forlornly on my desk since August! I finally unearthed them yesterday when I had a chance to clean off my desk...they were buried under a mountain of things! :) I'm hoping that I can finally get back into the groove...at the very least get some Christmas cards done for my family! I have been doing some yarnwork though. Crochet especially, but also some knitting. My mother sent me loads of yarn that belonged to my grandmother. She has had to stop knitting because of arthritis so they decided I should get it. I was so excited! I will miss my grandmothers work...she was an amazing knitter and I still can't bear to part with any of the things she has made for my kids, even though they can't wear the sweaters and socks and hats anymore. I just love them too much. I love the yarn that she gave me, and whenever I open the boxes I get a lovely whiff of her house. I love it, and I hope I can do her justice with the projects that I make from it.

I was gifted knitting needles and crochet hooks from an employee last year after his wife passed away, and I prefer to use those for many of my projects because I know how much she loved them. I suppose its sentimental, but of all the people who could have recieved them, I was the lucky one. I don't think I could ever turn someone down if they offered something like that to me.

I was super excited when a friend on Facebook saw a photo I had posted of a Hello Kitty hat I made for Abby and asked if I would make a hippo hat for a shower gift. I had never made a hippo hat before, but I did some research of other earflap hats and then scaled the patterns down to fit a newborn. It turned out pretty cute I thought! :)

I'm also working on this baby blanket in teal & tangerine (I am loving these colors!):

Still working on my first pair of socks (I kind of lost steam for them, but I'm determined to finish), a scarf for myself, a winter hat for Davin, and a doll blanket for Abby:

I just finished a couple of knit dishcloths (I love those for really scrubbing things!), a few preemie hats for the local NICU and a couple of coffee cup cozies for a coworker.

I've also been doing a bit of hunting for some vintage goodies that my end up on my Etsy shop site...what do you think of these little finds?

Wow, this has turned into an incredibly long post! If you have stuck with me through it, I think you can see why I haven't been blogging much. :) I've been around though, as I mentioned before. Now that I finally caved and got a smartie phone I am addicted to Instagram and update my Twitter page more frequently than before. Feel free to drop me a line and say hello! :)

Now that Thanksgiving is done I don't have to listen to Christmas music in secret anymore and I am slowly bring out the decorations. It has turned quite cold here in Michigan, so I am stalling on putting out the twinkle lights, but it will look so much more like Christmas once we finally bite the bullet and do it. :) By this weekend, I promise. We are supposed to reach 50 degrees this weekend, so perhaps I can coax hubby onto the ladder when it isn't in the low 30's like today. :)

Travel Chalkboard Book

Today I was at Michaels to look for just one colored pencil and got sucked into their Dollar section. :) Among a few other things, I found a plain square board book. I thought it would make a great chalkboard book for my children to use in the car. We have a road trip coming up, and I'm always looking for ways to entertain the kids so we don't all go crazy in the car! :)

Supplies needed:

Board Book

Chalkboard Paint

Sealer (I used Golden Semi-gloss Gel)

Sharpie Paint Pen

Ruler

First, I painted a layer of Semi-gloss gel (I used this because I couldn't find my Mod Podge) to make the boad a bit more waterproof if we had to wipe off the chalk with a damp towel. Looking back, I'm not sure it was entirely necessary, but I wasn't sure how waterproof the paint would be.

After it dried, I painted two layers of chalkboard paint on the board. Simple enough!

After that, I decided to add a few fun games for the kids. Using a white Sharpie paint pen, I Tic-Tac-Toe squares, a blank head outline to draw silly faces, and with a ruler created a grid for a game of Dots.

The little one couldn't wait to play with it. Hopefully it will be as big a hit on the road trip! :)

Have a great day!