What I've been up to..

Something about being pregnant really seems to kills my creative energy which is why I've been so MIA on this bloggeroo.  Or maybe I'm just exhausted from pregnancy and chasing two boys.  That's probably it. I know I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again.  Either way, I feel like I've been a tad neglectful here. 

But what I have had is this crazy craving to knit.  It really is a craving.  The same way I almost always want to eat a plate full of fettuccine alfredo these days.  Its my creative alfredo.  Oh how I can barely contain my desire to make cute little baby things with yarn.  Except I actually don't know how.  I learned to crochet a little a few years back when I worked at a residential treatment center but I didn't really know what I was doing.  So a few weeks ago I hired a babysitter for an hour or two and took a little beginning knitting class.  And then last week I got online and with the help of youtube started to learn how to read a crochet pattern.  Woo hoo!  And now I'm a bootie away from finishing a little newborn mittens/bootie set.  How about that?!

Its nice because its something I can do just sitting snuggled up on the couch with an episode (or two) of Downton Abbey (are you watching this yet???  I looooooovvvveeeee it way too much).  Now I just have to go out and buy some more boyish yarn since the new babe is a boy and the only yarn I have in my stash is pink and purple.

My other project has been this custom baby blanket that is coming along really nicely.  Its for a sweet new baby girl due in a month and I really love how its turning out.  Its just waiting for some finishing touches and should be ready to ship off by the end of the week....I'll do more showing off of that next week once its done....

a new table mat and some morning tea

The other night I was itching to finish something and since I was waiting on some fabric to arrive to finish my most need to finish project, I settled on starting a whole new one and staying up late watching old episodes of Law and Order next to my sewing machine to finish this one.  It was nice and felt good to finish something quick and pretty.

I started off just making string blocks and then sort of eyeballed a triangle shape and ironed it and resewed it enough so that it lays flat.  And I think it looks so pretty and adds such a nice splash of color to my table.

The other plus is it acts as a nice place to set my teapot in the morning.

Today I'm linking up with:

   

A new year and a new quilt

The other night I stayed up after all my boys were asleep and finished up my red and white hourglass quilt top.

I like how it turned out and sort of wish I'd have finished the whole thing up before Christmas.

It would have been a nice little addition to the decor.  Oh well.  It will be ready for next year.

My intention in designing this quilt was for it to be a wall quilt in my living/family room.  We have this enormous blank wall that I feel needs a little something to homey it up.  I tried to tape it up on the wall to see how it might look but wasn't terribly successful.  I got the basic idea of it and I think it may work. 

We'll see once its all quilted up.  I think I'm going to do straight line quilting on it once I find the right backing for it.  I need a good white fabric with a red print on it. 

Any recommendations?

Today I'm linking up with:

 

A new toy...

Santa did a good job this year thanks to my rad sister-in-law.  She planted a little seed in my mom's ear that this was something a crafty girl might like to have. I think I have the best sister-in-law ever basically (and not just because she knows how to plant good gift seeds in my mom's ear-she's actually really fantastic anyway)

I freaked out when I opened the box since I've never mentioned one to my mom before and I couldn't figure out how she even knew what it was in order to think to get it for me.  I believe I've entered every bloggity giveaway for one of these because I would never really allow myself to entertain the luxurious notion of actually buying one.  There are just too many other more practical things I feel like we need to buy so I never have even really contemplated putting it on my wish list.  

Now my dilemma is hooking everything up in a non cluttered way in my little studio corner.  My Bernina embroidery machine uses a computer and so does the Cameo.  Unfortunately my Bernina software isn't made to work on any Windows operating system after XP (which no one sells computers that run that anymore) and the computer that I've used thus far is so darn old and ssssllllllooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

 I'd rather not use it.  I found a website that said how I can still do it on our Toshiba laptop that runs Vista but so far I haven't been able to get it to work. Blah. 

But I'm really excited to get to playing with it!  

Homemade Gifting

I posted previously about this idea for homemade mugs and it just seemed like a great gift idea.

I went to Goodwill and picked up two white mugs and for family night we set to work.  Luckily my husband has a collecting bug so we had basically every color of permanent marker available on the market.  In the original post I got it from they just used black markers but I thought color would be more fun for the boys.

I also took some creative liberties with the directions and instead of using carbon paper to trace the pattern on the mug I used masking tape and a scrapbooking cutter dealie (not really sure of the official name of the thing, a razor blade I guess) and cut out the letters to create a negative space cutout of the letters we were doing.

(does that make sense?) I figured that would make it easier for my little guys (3 1/2 yrs old and 18 months) to keep things looking like letters.  It worked like a charm and they just colored to their hearts' content and then we peeled off the tape and there were the letters.

It was a fun project and I think my little C had a great time doing it.  Highly recommend this activity.

Ideas for a homemade Christmas: Design Mom via SouleMama

Image from SouleMama.com

I saw this really cute idea over on SouleMama yesterday and I thought it would make a great Christmas craft for my kids.  Here's the original link up over at Design Mom.

I think when we try it I might try to use contact paper or maybe even a wide masking tape since my guys are so little.  I don't know that the carbon paper would work for us.

A season of hope and miracles

This morning an old friend from high school is giving birth to her sweet baby Anna Joy.  This pregnancy started as a miracle and despite the bumps in the road, we pray for another miracle today.  Their faith is so inspiring and as a mother, particularly a pregnant mother her story is particularly precious and heartwrenching.  She's been on my mind all morning as I'm praying for strength for all that my friend and her husband will be facing today.

If you feel so inclined, read her story and join me in prayer for this sweet little family.

http://www.babyannajoy.blogspot.com/