December

Wow, almost a whole month missed. I guess the changes at work have affected me more than I bargained for. Not that they have been bad or not necessary, it's just taken a toll. Here it is the end of the month and near the end of Winter Break that I can stop for a moment, which is all that it will be.

Work has been a hectic mess, in between more schedule changes and a student moving to another location, everyone had to be on their toes for the next change to come. Thankfully our substitute, let's call her Dee, has been a great leader in all the efforts that needed to happen. She will be with us for a short time after this break to get our original teacher up to speed. I pray it will go smoothly.

Christmas has come and gone...I need to reveal all the gifts that I made for that occasion! I showed you parts of this blanket in a later post. It took lots of time (in between other projects as well). I must admit that I got slightly bored of the colors, even though I enjoyed picking them out.

The next gift was a flower necklace I just had to do. I found it in a summer Crochet Today! The perfect partner for such a necklace? Why my not my brother's girlfriend, who loves jewelry in all its forms! She absolutely loved it.

The last gift was a spur of the moment thing. After asking what my mother wanted for Christmas I knew I had to make her a scarf. Luckily I had the yarn on hand to quickly make it. She loved it as well.

Fear not, I have not given up on the blog thing. I know I need this outlet and I hope to improve as the next year progresses. I have some projects coming up I think you might enjoy....so stick around for some fun.

Many thanks and blessings for the New Year!

A Sweet Treat

Recently a co-worker of mine brought in some delicious pumpkin whoopie pies. I have had whoopie pies before, but never in pumpkin form. She was willing to part with her reciepe and I was able to come up with an excuse to make some.

My friends decided to move back to Iowa and we planned to get together with them soon. My husband thought it would be good idea to bring them a treat to welcome them back. I agreed and thought since it was pumpkin season that the pies would be a great thing to make.

The recipe is from allrecipes.com. It is a great place to look for recipes, no matter what you are looking for! You can look for traditional dishes there or for not-so ordinary dishes as well. Not only can you find desserts you can find entrees, appetizers etc. When I first saw that on the recipe I was assured it would be good.

The whoopie pies were easy to prepare. It was like baking cookies with frosting the on the inside. Plus you had the added bonus of familar Thanksgiving ingredients like pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice.

First you mix the dry ingredients.

Then the wet ingredients.Mix together.

Put on cookie sheets. Bake.

Make "frosting" (or filling if you rather).

Put in refrigerator.

Enjoy!

When we met our friends for the get together they could not wait to dig in. I got rave reviews as well. If your willing to try a new dessert at Thanksgiving I highly recommend the "Mini Pumpkin Whoopie Pies" found on allreciepes.com.

Happy Baking and Happy Thanksgiving!

Preparing for Winter

It's hard to believe, but winter is coming! It is coming so fast that we got a snowfall just a week ago! Since I work at a school I had the audacity to think that maybe we would have a late start. No such luck....

On a scheduled day off though, I was able to help my husband with the garden by digging up some Canna bulbs.

 They were kind of hard to dig up, the ground being wet and all from the snowfall and having the weather being colder than it has been. But nevertheless I got them up with a shovel instead of a garden trowel.

tools for the job

Cannas are a tropical flower. They do pretty well in Iowa especially in the summer. But they can't survive an Iowa winter so they need to be dug up. I found we increased our bulbs by at least 50%! I guess we can give some away at some point.

My husband is  lucky to have a green thumb, I unfortunately fail at watering plants. So I guess it's good I was able to help him by digging the Cannas up.

the cut off stalks

I hope you all have a good day...keep smiling!

a great increase

Simple Receiving Blanket Part 2

Welcome to the second portion of the "simple receiving blanket" tutorial. The crochet part is a touch harder because you are punching your hook through the fabric while covering the sewing stitches. But it is worth the effort!

I used a US B/1-2.25mm hook and it worked just fine, but a thread crochet hook may be easier on the hands when punching your hook through the fabric.

Stitch glossary:

sc=single crochet

dc=double crochet

shell=three double crochet in space specified

ss=slip stitch

ch=chain

*=repeat

Round 1-Sc under every single point of your zig-zag stitch. Sc until you reach the first sc. Ss in first sc.

 Round 2-Chain 3. 2 dc in same space (Shell created). *Ch 1, Skip 3 sc's and Shell in next space.* Continue * * until you reach first shell, ss and weave in ends.

Round 3 (optional)-after ss,ch 1, sc around blanket until you reach first sc. ss THEN weave in ends.

A round 3 would just finish it off. But it looks good either way (without round 3). But it is up to you. I hope you had a pleasant experience making a wonderfully easy receiving blanket!

Simple Receiving Blanket Part 1

Welcome to the sewing portion of how to make a receiving blanket. It was a fast completion, dedicating a whole week to sewing and crocheting them. That is why I have been gone. Anyway, now to the procedure.

First you need to pick out flannel at your favorite fabric store. I chose a flowery one for the little girls and a blue and gray polka dot for the little boy. I wanted to make my receiving blanket square so I purchase 1 1/4 yards of fabric.

This blanket was made with a sewing machine. If you do not have one I'm sure sewing a simple edge around the blanket would work, otherwise if you have one you can use the blanket stitch (if your sewing machine has that option) or since mine did not change it to a zig zag stitch.

Set up your sewing machine with the appropriate settings for thread tension and stictch. For instance, my thread tension needed to be 3 1/2 for a zig-zag stitch.

thread tension

selected stitch

 Once your machine is set up, cut the "factory edge" around your fabric off. Discard. Place the right side of your fabric under the presser foot.Zig-zag around your fabric, keeping the presser foot close to the edge (this will be helpful later on).

factory edge

Zig-zag completely around the fabric, watching the edge for closeness. After the zig-zag stictch is complete back stictch a few inches and cut off strings.

There you have the start to your receiving blanket!

It was fun to get back on the sewing machine. Even though it has been awhile since I have been on the sewing machine, it was like riding a bike. I was able to get the sewing machine all set up and ready to go with no trouble. I hope you have fun starting this project as I did. Good luck!

Example of the zig-zag stictch

Bunnies!

Well my friends, my bunnies are completed. They hardly took any time and were a delight to crochet. I first found them way back in July on Attic 24. I loved their colors and their cute little faces. I thought they would make a great gift.

Here is the background on these pleasent faced bunnies: Lucy, from Attic 24 got the pattern from Kate who has  a blog called Greedy for Colour. Kate created them and shared her pattern on her blog. I loved Lucy's colors and flowers so much I decided to try them myself!

What a whirlwind of blog activity if you ask me! But I guess that's one way for the world wide web to share it's abundance.

Kate's directions were easy to understand and being inspired by Lucy's bunnies spurred on more creativity. I used Lucy's Picot Flower pattern to adorn the little girl bunnies. I made the scarf for the little boy of my own accord. And I just thought the little boy needed some adornment too.

I admit I am very excited about giving these darling bunnies away. Unfortunately that is not the end of my gift. I need to get on my sewing/crochet project as well, if it is to be done before October 29th! Thankfully the sewing machine's instructions have been easy to follow thus far. It now is a matter of time, time being the key word here, to trim the edges of my fabric and sew around them.

Nevertheless, I am excited about getting on the sewing machine again. It has been such a long time. At least since Junior High since I really have spent time on the sewing machine.

Wish me luck!

October Craziness

It is a bit crazy thinking a lot of my projects are going to go to good homes soon. A lot of them were prepared just for October.

That is what you get for a lot of October birthdays! Now I'm working on some bunnies that have been hopping around blogs lately. They too are headed out later this month. Hopefully they all will be complete soon.

As well as the bunnies I am also working on a combined sewing/crochet project that will go with the bunnies as gifts. I will update you about both in a post coming up.

Otherwise, I'm thinking quite a bit a head to Christmas. I admit I have three projects in mind that I would like to complete before December 25. Whoa, now that I think of it I have two months to prepare for said projects. Well, not so much to prepare as to complete.  I hope this post finds you all well!

I caught a squirrel finding nuts

Keep smiling!

Getaway

Why do I get relaxed once I'm around water? Is the steady current? The boats buzzing by? The beautiful trees lining it? I'm not sure. But whenever I happen to be near it I immediately get relaxed.

 My family and I took a little excursion to the Ozarks. It was positively beautiful! We stayed right on the lake. One could walk right out the door and touch the water if one wished to. It was splendid. Even hearing the constant boat going by was nice. It reminded me that I wasn't in Iowa anymore.

Inside the boat

This getaway was not just my immediate family, but all of my mother's sisters and her brother were there. A few "kids" were there as well. It was great that we got a large house to rent on the lake. It had a whopping 5 bedrooms, included was a suite that had it's own kitchen. Each bedroom even had a bathroom. Everyone had a enough privacy and we all got along fine.

lunch

It was a "catch-up" trip. We haven't seen our uncle in a little while and it was fun to see his family and enjoy the time. I also haven't seen very much of my aunts (my mom's sisters) very much either. It was nice to see them and see how they were doing as well.

We honestly didn't do much for touring where we were staying. We mostly enjoyed the house, it's several T.V's and the lake. We also enjoyed each other. It was intended that way. The only thing we did in the essence of touring was taking a small lunch cruise on a ship.

The lunch was very American, having pulled pork with a roll, potato salad and baked beans. It was delicious. The pork was tender, baked beans porky and slightly sweet. The potato salad tasted of potatoes and egg. Yummm. Every bite had it's own delight.

The tour had a little history of the Lake of the Ozarks and displayed many of it's homes and businesses. All in all, it was enjoying the lake views and feeling the water under your feet.

After the excursion on the lake we went back to the house to watch the football game and hang out. Very low key, as it needs to be sometimes.

I hope my pictures can speak louder than my words. It was a pleasent time. It was also a time to be with family that I haven't seen in some time. A good vacation isn't always the one where you are constantly doing something. It can be just a time to rest and relax. That was the main point of this getaway. I enjoyed it. And it was nice seeing my family!

My Stash

Who doesn't love to organize? I typically like to. It's a task of putting everything into place, or establishing a place for it. Recently I organized my stash, thinking "my stash is a good stash." It is in some ways.

 I suppose some of you know what a "stash" is. But to put everyone on the same page, it is the collection of leftover yarn or yarn to be used in future projects that accumulates in baskets or in bags or any place that is a good place to stick your lovely yarn.

I seem to have a good collection of cotton yarn. Lots of colors and lots of fun ways to make that yarn pop in a project. In fact I have a whole book of patterns using that yarn that it shouldn't be to hard to get rid of, well, not get rid of, use.

My stash of Araucania is very little. Three hanks. Two of cotton and one wool. My Berroco is for a project that I have yet to get around to.

On the other hand, my acrylic yarn is overwhelming. I have a lot of it, but I lack color!! Mostly it is a shade of green or a neutral color like brown or white. How boring!

But alas, have a decided to make eight quick projects for a quadruple baby shower. My acrylic yarn needed some sprucing up. So I brought more color into the room. The colors I chose I think will look delightful in those projects. I cannot wait to use them!

I wish that it wasn't so much money to buy yarn. Especially the yarn found in fantastic yarn shops. If it wasn't I might have more of it in my stash.

So all in all, my stash is good in the way that some of the yarn is waiting to be used in projects I have yet to get to. It is bad in the sense that I am not moved by it because not ALL of if is yarn like Araucania or Berroco. But I guess one day I could have lots of great yarn to crochet with.

What is in your stash? What do you like to use? Maybe you really like to use acrylic yarn. What ever the case, happy crocheting!