CHRISTEPHI

In spite of the recent 105 degree temperatures (today is a "cooler" 93), I've been doing a lot of knitting. I usually prefer to sew in the summer months and knit or crochet in the winter, but this year I felt like knitting and so I am! I finished twowoolen hat I started last winter and now I am working on a knitted afghan using some icky durable Red Heart acrylic yarn I was given. (I think I'm a yarn snob.) I will probably put the afghan on the kids' bunk bed when it finally gets cold this year. It's about 70% finished and is going along at a nice, quick pace!

 The Real Princess, more commonly known as The Princess and the Pea, is a fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen in which a prince's sole criteria for marriage is that his bride must be a "real princess."  Her true princess-ness can be determined by her delicate constitution and sensitivity to the most minute discomfort. While the Princess and her bad night of sleep may not be the most desirable role model for our daughters, it's a story that captures the imagination nonetheless.  And now one lucky little girl can play out the story over and over with her very own Princess and the Pea set! She has 12 mattresses (Sorry, Hans...your 20 mattresses and 20 featherbeds were a bit much for me!), a tote bag, 3 peas, and a card printed with the original story.  And she was a birthday present for a now-4-year-old little girl this past weekend. The Princess and her mattresses were from the More Softies Only a Mother Could Love and the tote is my own design...

I found this darling knit bird pattern free from the Handmade Holiday post on Plain and Joyful Living .  I made a little I-cord worm to go with it per Miss M's insistence. To make it a little safer for my young children, I used a pipe cleaner for the feet (it's all one piece and the sharp ends go way inside the stuffing so even the baby can handle it) and felt for the beak.  I really like the look of the wooden feet in the original pattern, but it wouldn't have been practical for our home.  (I wanted to make a toy, not a decoration). If I can wrest it away from Miss M, it will be a Christmas present for one of her cousins. The pretty purple yarn was just a two inch ball of wool (leftovers my mom gave me).  It suits the birdie perfectly, don't you think?

Meet Madam Pig. And her six wee piglets. They are preparing themselves to go to the county fair. Where they will charm the judges... And delight the  masses... With their roly poly antics. I <heart> them! The pattern is from LiEr at Ikatbag .

My mom has been paring down, so she brought me some craft supplies.  In the mix were a few kits for these cute Christmas ornaments. I put them together today while Little Guy was sleeping on my lap.  Cute, no?  I'll put them away for Christmas as part of the Holiday Handmade Crusade .

Two of my cousins have boys, only boys, ages ranging from 5 months up to 9 years.  When Christmas comes around, it can be expensive getting (or even making) gifts for all of them.  What I prefer is to think up something that works well for a wide range of ages and make just two, one for each family of boys. Last year I made two of these canopies .  I printed up little fliers of what the gift was so they wouldn't have to actually open it amidst all the holiday hoopla and then transferred the packages directly from car trunk to car trunk, a foresight that was much appreciated by the mothers. With the exception of the newest babies, all the boys will be able to use the canopies for imaginative play -- indoors or out!  (And as we all know, babies grow quickly, so they'll be able to join the fun in practically no time at all!) Yes, it's only February, but I'm already thinking of Christmas 2010.  I think it would be fun to make some I Spy books for the ...

At long last the indoor hopscotch is finished! Or at least, as finished as I'm planning to make it for now.  Eventually I'd like to back it with denim, either yardage or thrifted jeans legs.  I figure that way it'll make a nice picnic blanket and hopscotch-on-the-grass. It didn't come off completely pucker-free, but the ones that snuck in aren't too noticeable...especially if you're actually hopping on it!  It'll be a great way for Miss M to burn off some energy while the weather's still cold.  We're eagerly waiting for Spring!  There have been more and more birds in the area and the skunks and raccoons are coming out of hibernation.  Still, nothing is green and it remains below freezing most days. I'm so glad to have this done.  Although it was basically easy, delays (including a stint in the hospital!) made it feel like an unending project.  I started to feel very resentful toward it which, of course, made me not want to sit down a...

My nephew is turning three the end of the month.  Like many boys his age, he's enamored of trucks of all kinds.  So when I saw this dump truck bank tutorial  the other day, I knew I had to make it.  Sadly when I looked at Dollar Tree today, they didn't have any shadow boxes, so I'm going to either have to look elsewhere or improvise some sort of substitute.  Any ideas? Dollar Tree did have some super cute liquid soap dispensers that looked like real apples, lemons, oranges, and pears.  I loved them, but couldn't think of a good excuse to get them.

Miss M wanted to make a "rower" with a paper towel tube and an empty granola bar box.  A few snips and two strips of packing tape later, she had a new oar for her bilibo boat and I had a few minutes extra time to work on the indoor hopscotch. I got all the numbers cut out and sewn on.  Hopefully I can get it finished up in the next few days (a couple solid hours and I'd have it finished, but I never get good chunks of time like that!)

Many thanks to Lu Bird Baby for her lovely felt Valentines and tutorial on making felt mail .  As I mentioned yesterday, I picked up an unfinished wooden mailbox at JoAnn and some sheets of felt in red, white, pink, and grey.  Miss M would have been perfectly happy to play with the mailbox just as it was, but I thought it needed a bit of sprucing up. I was a bit short on white acrylic paint, so it could use a second coat, but as long as you don't look too closely, it is nice. Miss M was also perfectly happy pilfering used envelopes as I paid the bills, but I wanted to try my hand at felt mail.  I'm so glad I did.  They turned out so cute and Miss M was delighted to have "my own, my very own mail, Mama!"  She has been delivering and checking the mail all day long. For anyone who's thinking about making mail for their own kids, I find Miss M doesn't have much trouble at all putting the "letters" in the envelopes, but she is exceptionall...

If you have young children, you may be forced to endure  have watched Blue's Clues   over and over without ceasing on occasion.  Miss M watches it on Netflix which she is getting quite adept at navigating (frankly, she can use a computer better than her grandfather...and she can't even read!).  She's loves the part when Blue and Steve get mail and laughs and laughs at the part in the song that says, "It makes me want to wag my tail." Her fascination with mail and mailboxes brought to mind this post over on Lu Bird Baby.  So while out today on a spending spree (thanks to Uncle Sam and the fat tax return we got this year) I picked up a few sheets of felt and a wooden mailbox.

While at the hospital, I was delighted to be presented with this handmade abdominal pillow.  A nurse gave it to me immediately after I woke up from having surgery  with the instructions to carry it with me every where I go and use it to "splint" my tummy if I feel the need to cough or sneeze or the like. I simply love the fact that it's handmade!  Someone, some volunteer probably, made it with their own hands.  It could have been an elderly woman filling her spare time with volunteer work.  It could have been a young girl learning to sew and donating her services to a good cause.  I'll bet it was someone local.  For some reason that especially warms my heart.  I haven't had the pleasure of meeting many crafters after my own heart in real life (other than family), so the knowledge that there are crafty caring people locally is heartwarming.  Okay, so maybe I'm a bit too drugged, but anyway, this is one much appreciated pillow!

I have finally finished the tree plaques I've been working on (see here and here )!  Now that they're finished, I'll be packing them away until Christmas as part of the Handmade Holiday Crusade 2010 .  I'll be giving them to my mom and I expect she'll hang them in her kitchen.  I don't know if she'll hang just one and change it out season by season, but I imagine she'll hang all four at once so she won't have to remember to change them.  I bought these self-adhesive saw-tooth plastic hangers to stick on the back (you can sort of see one there in the picture).  I just hope the adhesive is strong enough.  They've been sealed with glossy polyurethane spray.  Hubby would have liked them to be sprayed with matte finish, but I preferred the polyurethane to acrylic spray, and gloss was my only option.

The other day Miss M was tossing bouncy balls into a shoebox and it occurred to me that she "needs" a beanbag toss game.  I used the Google blog search feature and came across this tutorial .  I scrounged around in the garage for the box and used poster paint (bad idea...it falls right off wherever there is still packing tape on the box...next time I'll do like the instructions say and get some latex interior paint). I used hot glue to secure the flaps to the inside before painting, and I hot glued a couple of popsicle sticks to the backside of the triangle "ears" to give them a bit of support. Miss M was napping when I started and when she came out, she was fascinated.  She decided where to put the eyes and as soon as they were on she said, "Now it can see us!" and promptly sat down to chat with her "monster box."  This morning I drew around the mouth and eyes with a black Sharpie.  She saw the eyelashes and said, "Is it a ...

Last night I finished my very own Secret Garden tam !  Today I added the pom-pom.  It's deliciously soft and snuggly!  I've been wearing it all evening to Hubby's great amusement. I'm certain there will be more of these in my future....maybe distant future, but still.  I'm not the fastest knitter, but this was a fairly quick and easy project.  The band is a bit loose for me, so I think I'll run some elastic thread around the inside to tighten it up a tad.

I ran across this post on Craftster  about a week ago and decided I must have a Secret Garden tam as well.  I rarely make anything for myself, so this is a big deal.  My mom gave me some yarn a while back and among the bits of icky acrylic yarn were 2 skeins of Tweedy Angora -- 60% wool, 40% angora.  They are leftovers from a sweater my mom knit before I was born!  Super soft and snuggly!  And expensive!  The faded old price tag says $9.50.  Yowzers! I'm nearly halfway done.  I can't wait to wear it!  (Just watch, as soon as I finish it, the weather will miraculously warm up and I won't need it...guess I wouldn't really complain about that though!)

I've made some progress painting my tree plaques .  That's no small task with a demanding infant and overly bouncy toddler jostling me all the time.  They aren't perfect (due to said jostling), but I'm pleased nonetheless. I love how the colors turned out -- especially the fall leaves!  I only have one problem...  What color to paint the borders.  What color would you use?

Can you believe I started these tree plaques last January?  I finally decided to whip up another batch of salt dough and finish them.  The summer and winter trees were already done, but I needed to make the spring and fall trees.  They will be a gift for my mom for Christmas this year. (Yes, I'm starting early!)  Once they are completely dry, I'll paint them and seal them with several coats of polyurethane spray.  I'm hoping the paint will help distinguish between seasons more fully (right now spring and summer seem a bit ambiguous to me).  I'm also entering them in the 2010 Holiday Handmade Crusade .