Winter Weary

It wasn't until I began loading pictures for this post that I remembered my friend Laurie wanted to see the card I made for Scott for Valentine's Day. I'll have to take a picture and post it this week. I absolutely forgot that there is anything to write about except Winter. Along with my children being underfoot, Winter is the constant in my life.

Why? This is the most snow I remember receiving in Winter before. It snows and snows. It stops for a day or so then it starts again. We go from one televised Winter Warning to another with rarely a break. The kids have snow days, 2 hour delays, and built in days off for MLK Day and President's Day (today).

I often worry about money issues and things like paying for college someday, then I know that I may never go back to work. My oldest son proves his irresponsibility again and again and I know he can't be left to his own devices for any length of time. I don't know who these mothers are who work outside the home. What do they do with their kids in the summer? Who gets them on the bus when school is delayed? Who watches them after school when they are burning their bagels in the toaster? God forbid the day will soon come when they are entertaining friends of the opposite sex and looking for unapproved images on the internet. I am just not at a place in my life where I feel that my kids are safe without parental supervision. At the same time, I like it more when they are in school and I can do things like a knitting class or grocery shopping in peace and quiet.

I took the kids to the local park last week and we went sledding on a snow day. We crossed the bridge to the sledding hills and the snow was softly falling. It looked like Narnia to me. It was warm enough to be enjoyable and we played for about an hour. I eventually fell off the sled and went bare stomached down a hill. Once I got snow melting into my under garments it was time to head home.

I made cookies last week for all the people who work with my husband. I do this every year for Valentine's Day. Everybody gets at least one dozen cookies, many get more, based on their family size. I baked and packed and loaded up the cookies. Scott delivered them so I didn't have to make an extra trip out through the snow. I made 23 dozen cookies, and thankfully we had enough that some stayed home. The kids love to come home after school and have cookies waiting for them. Despite the fact I have days when I think I may go crazy as a stay at home mom, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Snow and More Snow

We got some snow in the past few days, like many people in the U.S. It is under six inches, so once it stopped falling we were fine to get out and go somewhere again. The snow started on Friday, during the day and the kids were released from school an hour early so they could get home safely. We are supposed to get another big batch of snow Monday and into Tuesday, so I am hoping school is not cancelled.

The kids were out of school last Monday for Staff Development and are out next Monday for President's Day, I don't need them to have a snow day this week. There just isn't enough to do to keep them entertained in cold weather. Maybe we could go see a movie or go out to eat, but that's all I can offer, and the roads have to be good for those things to happen.

I don't have any pictures to post. The kids spent the day out in the front yard playing with the neighborhood kids, all day yesterday. And I do mean all day. There was not the usual in and out. The yard looks like a herd of moose trampled through, so there was no use in trying to take pretty snow photos. I did not step even one foot outside with my camera to get pictures of the kids, either. I like to stay in with some hot chai, a book, some knitting, and maybe even fall into a nap. That's my kind of living. The kids are letting me live the good life right now and I don't want to disturb the pattern.

I hope you are warm and cozy where you are, too.

More Auction Items

This is another item I sent to my friend Beth for her amazing work on the charity Ball she is hosting. I made push pins from the stamp set she designed. I sent a set for her to use and a set for her auction basket of homemade items. I hope she loves them. They are made with Stazon stamped onto shrink plastic and glued onto push pins. Easy Peasy.

She also got this cute little cupcake pin cushion for her cupcake basket. It is made out of recycled wool sweaters and a bit of felt. These are so cute it is tempting to make a basket of them and place them somewhere in my house. They just make me smile.

I also donated a set of lampwork beads made in my studio. These are made with Italian glass and have a swirled pattern that gives them more of an organic feel. I donated another set similar to this for my Ukrainian friend and the International Talent Academy she is associated with. I am hoping this will be the end of charity season for a while so I can concentrate on opening an etsy shop with my friend Steph. We both would like to make some money with our crafts so we will see if we can do it or not.

I may add comment moderation soon or a word decoder type thing. I don't want to make it harder for anyone to leave a comment, but it seems as though the spammers have found me and I want them to go away. This seems to be the only reliable way to block them that I know of. My apologies for the inconvenience.

If there is something you think you'd like to see in our etsy shop, or something I make that you think would sell well, please let me know. For those who don't know, etsy is an internet marketplace for hand crafted items. I'll add a link to it (our store site) when it is fully functional.

Shadows Expanded

The boys are both in love with the loom. I haven't woven anything on it yet, at least not by myself. Now I have two shadows waiting in the wings to get their hand son my craft items. Both boys took turns weaving on the first item I cast onto the loom. They look deep in discussion about some trivial aspect of weaving here, don't they? At least they are cooperating.

You can see I have not had a lot of time at the loom, since Seth has taken it over. I left the room and Noah and Seth could not wait to weave the day away. We finished the first practice piece and Noah was dying to make scarves in school colors. I bought some cheap yarn and got the loom ready for him, only to have him weave a few rows and no longer be interested. It is okay, though, the project was not very attractive (Noah picked out the yarns himself) and we learned an important lesson (Cheap yarns i.e. acrylic, stretches too much and isn't good for weaving.) Better to learn on his weaving than mine, I say.

I have an internet friend from my Hanna Stamps days (Beth Silaika) who is hosting a huge charity auction/dinner/dance and asked for handmade items for some silent auction baskets. I was packing up some crafts to send her and I remembered I had previous plans to make a bracelet for her out of a stamp set she designed for Papertrey Ink.

I made the shrink plastic charms using her set,Winter Swirls, but hadn't actually made the bracelet. I finished the bracelet for her this week, and it is on the way to her in New York now. I hope she likes it, as I made it for her to keep and not for the auction. I'll post pics of other items I sent for the auction in my next post.

I think she'll love it.

Fish Bake at 250 for 20 minutes

I was searching Ravelry.com for knitting ideas a week or two ago when the pattern for a Fish Hat came up. Unfortunately Seth was with me and saw the pattern so he immediately exclaimed "Oh, I just have to have one of those!" He was dead serious. He wanted it in blue, so I had to search my scraps till I found the right colors for him.

Thankfully the pattern was pretty easy, since I often can't read patterns written for knitting. I don't know why they don't just use plain English for them. Seth is thrilled with his hat!

One of the eyes looks wobbly here, it's just the way it was laying at the time. You knit and knit for the hat, then I washed it gently to soften it up a bit. Because we aren't patient people, I often dry my items in the oven. I know, it's odd, but even the Yarn Harlot does this. I took my damp hat and baked it at 250 for about 20 minutes. It wasn't completely dry, but close enough that it would be dry by morning and I wouldn't give poor Seth frost bite while he waits for the bus. He adores this hat. He wears it every day. The ladies in my Friday morning knitting group have asked about it, but I can't get it off his head long enough for show and tell.

I baked the hat before I added the buttons, just in case they might melt in the oven. I added circles of white felt for the eyes and blue buttons for eyes, both sewn on with a needle and thread
Oh, the things we do for our kids!

Me and My Shadow

I have a shadow, his name is Seth. Everywhere that I go, my shadow goes. Everything that I do, my shadow does. I sat down today to cut apart sweaters as I (still) have not finished crafting with them, and Seth came to help. When I stood up, he sat in my chair. When I put my scissors down, he took them for his use. See the sweater parts he has his hands on? He took them from me and has plans to create sweater animals from them. This is my new craft:


Making flowers from sweaters. It's a great idea, but it uses up sweater pieces even slower than the mitten making did. I have a neighbor who recently got "gifted" her mother's old jewelry. I begged the clip on earrings from her, and am using them for the inner part flower. I also have some felted fleece pieces for the inner aprt of the flowers, but I had to buy them from Etsy. The clip ons were free, baby, and that is always the right price for me.

Once again, I find this very addictive and just can't stop, despite the pleas from Seth that I finish making the hat I am knitting for him. I just knit him a hat for Christmas, so it isn't like his ears are cold or anything. Plus, I have knitting of my own I'd like to do. Ravelry.com has a pattern for French Press Slippers I am dying to make. I can make a pair with one skein of wool yarn and they are desperately calling my name.

If you still read here, please comment. I have so few commenters that I get seriously lonely.

We Have Returned

Scott likes to go on vacation after Christmas and when he mentioned Florida, I was immediately interested. It means 1) I won't be trapped in the house with the kids with only my wits to keep them entertained and 2) Florida is warm. Well, this year Florida must have known we were coming, because they had a cold front come in. It wasn't horrible for us, but definitely cooler than expected. I have very few beach photos because the beach is always cooler than the land due to the wind. Noah and Scott did get up early one day and see the sunrise and this is a photo of that endeavor.

I kept myself entertained by knitting. These are the cozies I made that go around a cup of coffee, so you don't have to use (and throw away) a cardboard sleeve every time you get some take out coffee. I didn't keep count when I was making them, I just kept knitting. You can see I still have one in progress. I was busily knitting along when Scott started to tell me how great the book he was reading happened to be. When he finished it, I picked it up, and any thoughts I had about knitting quickly subsided. The book is A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson and talks hilariously about his attempt at walking the Appalachian Trail. Bill is so funny I want to read every last book he has written.

I got a loom for Christmas and Scott put it together for me, so now I can't wait to work on that. No pictures to show, since there is nothing in progress. Hopefully soon.

The dog is back from the kennell, the guinea pigs will be home soon, laundry is done and dinner is in the oven, so it was a productive day for me. Tomorrow? I get to do it all over again.