We did it!

The Orange and Red, Zoe and Elmo birthday party was a hit!

I drove a couple states away and set up the party at my sisters house.
I brought the decorations and they made the cupcakes!
Everything was Super cute and we all had a good time too!

Best of all these two were celebrated! We are so glad they were born!

Bobbles

Bobbles and more bobbles, in lots of spring time colors
I started a top down sweater which is a knitting first for me.
The appeal is knitting in the round and having no side seams
to sew up when you are done knitting.



My daughter has been begging me to knit her a sweater
so she lucked out to be the recipient of this one.

Wishin' you.....

a green and happy day!



 

I do I Do

DO YOU?
How about when you were little?
I remember small green foot prints all around the kitchen
leading to a pile of gold coins. My mom arranged it of course,
that a green footed fairy person would come to my house.

A few years ago I wanted to put up a few green thing in my home
to aid in the Celebrating of St. Patricks day. When I realized I wasn't a
big fan of Leprechauns... but I did have a love for Faeries! Little creatures
we don't see but are surrounded by. Like in fairy tales, I likes brownies,
elves, and of course winged fairies! So taking an old wooden carton apart
I began making little sign to let the fairies know I was one of the believers.
(It also sprang from my love of the story Peter Pan.)


I also feel a kin to the Cottingley girls who would play
with the faeries and take pictures. Actually I made paper
dolls and spent hours drawing and coloring and cutting
them out and designing little lives for them.
This year I want to make more fairy things with my girls.

Making Party Hats

Got my paper and scissors out. Practiced making a hat
then used that as a pattern. Punched out lots of eyes and
noses with my circle punches. Started drawing eye balls
and mouths. Glued, added hairbows, Zoe's never match.

Now I have Orange and Red Zoe and Elmo hats for our party!

Getting Excited...

Well following my college teachers advice
when you don't know what to do RESEARCH!
and then make a design board!
With my fabric beside me I began the internet
search and found s few fun things.


Here are some great places to go...
Hostess {with the mostest}
Polka Dot Birthday
Daisy and Dell
Martha Stewart
Baby Boyd Blog
Accent the Party


I had lots of fun looking at parties and photos of favors!
The blogs I have listed here were my big inspiration
for my design boards. Now I'm off to craft!

Looking for inspiration!

Alright I am trying to put together a joint party for
my boy turning 1 and my girl turning 4 to throw at
my sister's house when I go in couple weeks.
Her cousin's Abby ca dabby party was such a favorite
of my girl she picked an Elmo and Zoe fabric to base
her party around.
So now I am trying to pull together a party plan,
something I will enjoy taking photos of and
scrapbooking later.

do something nice...

for somebody else!


Inspired by An Sew On, I went to the Downy
Quilts for kids and volunteered to sew a quilt.
You click volunteer and and request a kit.
They sent me a kit with bright colors and a motorcycle print,
As well as a simple pattern to follow to put it all together.
So that is what I worked on today.

They also include a tag to fill out and tell about the quilt and
who sewed it with love. I think I am going to go through my
fabric stash and dig out something more and send a second quilt
along too. When that one is done I'll post it too.

Green Cables

It's Finished!


After weeks of work it's ready to wear!
(Well I still have to sew in loose yarn tails.)
I am glad I tried to create it! Remember I was making up the pattern.


Pretty close to the drawing...hurray!

I got inspired by a vest I saw that had patches of colors.
I didn't like the colors they chose so I decided to create my own version!
I collected all my books and few from the library.
I have three key helper books I used

Knitters Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd I used the child
Vest pattern and followed it for Cast on, arm hole, neck and
shoulder shaping to make my vest I just added my color changes
and stitch pattern choices and ribbing. Page 56

From Needles to Hook (it's full of stitch patterns, you could use
any stitch dictionary)

Continuous Cables by Mellisa Leapman (this book is awesome
for Cable stitch designs, I used three of her ideas in my sweater)

Pattern for Green Cables Sweater Vest
Selected my yarns. naturally Caron.com Country Merino Wool Blend,
colors Naturally (cream) and Green Sheen (green) and Caron Simply
Soft Eco in Charcoal (gray) One ball of each (used all the green
but the other colors had lots left over for other projects)
Knit a couple of swatches to get gauge and an idea of the look.
I determined I was going to make a size 2 toddler vest which gave me
64 cast on stitches according to the gauge I was knitting. (5 sts inch)
All my patterns needed to go across 20 stitches except my middle
design which was across 24 stitches.

First I picked out the stitches and cables I wanted to use and
then drew my design on paper for a rough idea.
I choose these stitches
Bottom row Right to left
Diamond stitch (in green),
Parallel (raised) Line stitch (in cream),
and a Berry Stitch (in gray)
Middle Row
I got these cable stitches from Continuous Cables
baby cable (1 over 1 cables) on either side of a cable bobble design
page 116 Panel C (in gray)
a knotted diamond cable design from page 116 Panel B ( in green)
an X cable design page 104 (in cream)
Upper row
6 stitch Cable (in cream) I put this one together myself
2 Stitch Basket weave stitch (gray)
Dash Stitch (in green)
Shoulders
Purls (in green)
Horizontal Purl stripes (in gray)
knit 3 rows Stockinet then a row with Purls on the front face
to make a raised horizontal stripe, repeat

To make it easier to follow I copied each page and cut and pasted the
stitch guides side by side in the order I would knit them.
Tip* when changing to a new color make sure the yarns intertwine
otherwise you end up with to separate pieces and you have to
sew them together

I hope this is helpful.
I didn't want to copy anything I took out of a book
because of copy rights. If you know more about what I can or can not
do let me know. I'd love to give a better pattern but am
not sure if that is proper given the copy rights.

If you make this vest too Post it, I want to see!

Homemade Granola

I don't know where I originally found my basic recipe.
It has the bones for your granola making, then you add your
special ingredients.
but here it is...

Basics for Granola
In a large bowl mix
4 Cup of Oats (I like old fashioned not quick)
1/4 Cup brown sugar dark or light
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
then here is where you have fun
1 Cup or so of an ingredient ~ sliced almonds, sun flower seeds,
wheat germ, toasted coconut, dried fruit (these can toss in
at the end if you want), walnuts, pretty much
what ever sound good and yummy to you.

In a small sauce pan
1/4 Cup Cano la Oil (this oil doesn't had any weird flavors)
1 Table spoon Water
1 tsp vanilla *optional
Then add a sweetener of your choice.
1/4 Cup , 1/2 Cup up to 3/4 Cup ~ Honey, Molasses (this one
is really strong use smaller amount), Maple Syrup, sugar, corn syrup...
Heat until warm and bubbly
Pour over oats mix
stir to coat evenly

Spread onto a baking sheet (I use my jelly roll pan)
bake at 300 degrees
stir every 10 minutes to brown evenly fora total of 40 min

Cool and toss in Crasins, dried cherries or raisins I add these
last to save them from drying out and getting tough to chew.

Enjoy!
For Honey Vanilla Almond
I used 1 cup slivered almonds in my oats
3/4 Cup of honey
and upped my vanilla to 1 Tablespoon

Granola

for gifts I made granola
and to make it more exciting I made many flavors
a sort of gourmet granola collection
I think my favorite was the Honey Vanilla Almond
but I heard that Walnut Molasses was a winner too.