Treasures

This may come as a shock to you but...I've been knitting.  I know! 

I brought a few small projects with me to Frankfurt and I've been using up the leftover yarn from those to make other stuff.  (I have found a couple yarn shops here but my husband works 6 days a week and somehow it's just not as relaxing to go to yarn shopping with a 4 & 7 year old who really don't want to be there.) 

I had several small bits of cotton yarn that I'd been making dishrags with when I came across this pattern on Ravelry.  It's the perfect project to use up leftover yarn.

And it just so happens my children are collectors of treasure.  I made these a little larger than the original pattern.  You can see my Ravelry notes here.  This way they also hold a little snack before you start collecting.

 

It really is a great size for a small apple or orange.

Try this project out!  It's quick and simple.

Kristin

Borrowers: The Beginning

Hello all and Happy New Year! 

We made it to Germany about 2 1/2 weeks ago and have been slowly coming out of our travel haze.  Yesterday was our (the kids and I) first real get out and adventure day.  We were on a mission to find fireworks.  (turns out Germans really like to blow stuff up on New Years Eve.  Really.  Craziest thing I've ever seen as far as booms go.)  Anyway, we found them, had fun blowing them up and staying up late.  Today has been rainy and cold so we decided a movie day was in the cards.  (cause we haven't had any of those lately - she says sarcastically.)  Since I've seen all these movies I decided to craft...

Okay, you need a little back story first.  We are starting The Borrowers by Mary Norton as a homeschool book project.  It's a fantastic book if you haven't read it and I was more than a little obsessed with it when I was a kid.  I like little things.  Fairies, gnomes, pixies, borrowers, etc.  Anyway, when we moved here (we're not here forever FYI) we left all our stuff and 90% of the kids toys at home in Colorado.  So part of our Borrower project is to make a Borrower world to play with.  (Kill two birds with one stone?  Yes please.)  This will be ongoing and probably my favorite project ever so expect more Borrower posts. 

I feel like my last few posts should come with a cuteness warning and this one is no exception. Cuteness alert!   Here we go.

Oh yeah.  It's a Borrower bed in a blueberry box.  That just happened. 

About a year ago I made Piper this tiny little Rapunzel for her birthday.  (I made Eugene too and I imagine we'll see him when we make up the boy room.)  I used Sally Mavor's book Felt Wee Folk: Enchanting Projects which is super awesome.  Tiny Rapunzel is one of the 2.5 inch dolls.  The perfect Borrower size.  Peg people would work for this project also.

 

 

I've been knitting a lot lately and decided to make up a blanket for her little bed.  It's nothing complex or counted or measured.  I basically made a gauge sample.  

 

We brought a small bag of scrap fabric and sewing notions for just such an occasion.  I hand stitched  a tiny mattress and pillow to fit in the blueberry box.  I used fluffed up cotton balls for the stuffing.

The crayon props up the lid.  You could use anything.  Corn dog stick.  Sucker stick.  Stick from the yard.  Crayon.  I thought the pink was a nice accent.

It all folds up nicely too.  If you don't want to commit to an entire world you can just have a tiny plaything for your purse or backpack. 

This may be my favorite thing ever.

This is going to be such a fun project...for me.  The kids will enjoy playing with everything even if they aren't super into making the stuff.  I may not want to share that part of the project anyway.  :)

Hoping you have a fabulous (and crafty) 2013!!

Kristin

For the babies...

Two, count them TWO, dear people in my life have recently had beautiful baby girls.  I was so excited to knit and sew for a baby girl again that I got all giddy and light headed and, for just a second, considered having another baby.  That didn't last long though.  I realized other people will always be having babies I can sew and knit for.  Phew...(right babe?)

Anyway, I broke out some trusted patterns, Made by Rae's Big Butt Baby Pants and Joelle Hoverson's Pointy Elf Hat from More Last-Minute Knitted Gifts.  Seriously I LOVE these patterns!  They are both fairly quick and easy.  The hardest part is picking out the right yarn and fabric for the job.

Are you ready to see the cutest pants in the history of forever? 

Front view

 

Back view.

Don't even try to tell me these aren't the cutest...cause you'd be lying.

And now for the super sweet pixie hat.



I think I need to knit myself a pixie hat...

Together?

Shut the front door!

I especially love that the hat is as long as the pants.  Although you can roll the hat brim to make it a little shorter.

Tiny clothes make my ovaries hurt.

Knitting Needle Roll

I thought I'd show you all my needle storage roll.  I was going crazy with needles everywhere and trying to keep little people from breaking them or loosing them.  I decided to make up a needle roll. 

Never mind the wrinkles...it's well loved.

It turned out really great.  I think the only thing I would do next time is make it slightly shorter or sew the flap farther down.  I end up folding past the sewn flap line.  No big deal but it's what I'd do differently.

Right now it holds all my needles with plenty of space for new ones I make.  It holds circulars, double points, and regular ol' straight ones.  I will add that my homemade needles are a good bit longer than the ones I had purchased at the store so I had to make it taller to work with those.

Sewing this up really didn't take that long.  Just a couple hours on a Sunday afternoon.  All the materials were from my stash so that made it free too.  I'm thinking of making a tutorial... what do you think?

Anyone else craving cinnamon rolls?

Repost: The Tooth

** This one was originally posted on The Fipper Show July 6, 2011.**



Oh. My. Goodness. Would you look at that face! Can you see what's different? He has graduated to the official "big kid" ranks. That tooth was so wiggly for SO long. But today... it came out.

I realized YESTERDAY that we had to be getting close. I mean, that thing was barely hanging on. So, in somewhat of a panic, I started looking around for what kind of tooth fairy pillow to make him. He's a gigantic fan of the game Angry Birds (who isn't really?) so I decided to see what I could find online. I found this link yesterday afternoon and saved it to my favorites. About 10:00 last night I started gathering up all the ingredients. I didn't have some colors in the fleece but substituted wool felt. I was finished by 11:45. Just in time.

The only change I made was to add a little pocket on the back for money. It's pretty cool and a very simple tutorial. I see lots of Angry Bird making in my future.

After I finished it up last night I wrapped it up in one of our play silks. I was thinking a present waiting in the wings would help motivate him to pull it. But no, he kept telling me he wasn't going to do it. I think he was just afraid it would hurt. Enter Clif Bar's Z bar. I gave him one of these delicious little treats on the way home from the store and with the LAST BITE...the tooth came out. You know what that means?? Present time.

He figured out it was an Angry Bird right about here. 

And was SUPER excited.

Of all the things I have EVER made him, this one was the most successfully received. He was beyond thrilled. (It was very satisfying for me as I had just stayed up super late to make it.) They played with it for quite a while and he has declared he's sleeping with it forever. (which may look weird in college??)

(this is my favorite picture of the boy and his bird - taken with my ipod.)

Our boy is growing up!

Love,

JKFP and Fisher's tooth.

I'm Back

Wow, can you say crappy blogger??  It has been a while.  I think I told you all back in April about the little (read that HUGE) mold problem (this post over at The Fipper Show has more detail) we had that took over our lives for a bit.  We'll that's all taken care of now but it sure took a while.  We were out of our house for about a month and still working on it when we moved back.  It's all finished now (except the base trim) and I'll be doing a "bathroom remodel" post soon.  It was a pretty big process.  Even though it took (what felt like) forever I'd do it again a hundred times.  We haven't been sick ONCE since our attack on the mold.  Not ONCE.  It's our longest stretch of good health in I can't remember how long.  That asthma diagnosis was such a blessing in disguise. 

Our next big distraction came when my husband's overseas work started back up again.  We took him to the airport last week....

...and we were quite sad about it. 

We've been getting back to our "normal" routine and things are finally starting to come together.  It's a process though so thank you all for your patience.  We have been crafting, knitting and sewing these last couple of months and I think we'll be playing catch up for a bit.  Now that you know ALL that....

Here's a quick project for you knitters. 

A happy rainbow candle holder.

I had seen something similar to this on Pinterest.  I do love Pinterest.  (I have plans to figure out the whole "follow me on Pinterest" thing soon FYI.)  Anyway, I'm a beginning knitter and still haven't messed with gauges yet.  I tend to just go for it with a vague plan of what I want to end up with.  Shockingly it's worked out for me a couple of times. 

This is a great (and quick) beginner project and I'm working on a tutorial for you now.  It's so pretty and happy.  I used the 4oz. canning jars with tea lights inside to protect everything.

In addition to the tutorial for this candle holder I have also lined up Part 2 of making your own needles where we apply the finish (they turned out great, by the way), a fabric roll for needle storage, and tiny knitted gnome hats for a little peg person.  So much fun! 

A Present for the Bug

My sweet little nephew Bug turned two a few weeks ago.  I wanted to make him a little something his mom (my sister) could toss into her purse to occupy him when he needed occupying.  Do you remember the memory game I made for my kids last year?  Well, I decided to make Bug his own version. 

Please excuse the less than ideal lighting. 
My house was NOT designed with lighting in mind.

I went with simple shapes and colors wood burned and painted with watered down acrylic paint.  I also finished them with my homemade beeswax polish.

He loved the game!  He's been over to play twice now since receiving his game and has apparently insisted on bringing it each time.

And here's a little sneak peek at one I'm working on for my sweet kids.

I'm loving it so far!

A Quick Game

My parents sent my children sweet Valentine cards in the mail.  My son's card had a cute little alien tic-tac-toe game inside.  It was a game board to cut out and removable stickers. 

We decided we'd like it to be a little more long term than the stickers would likely allow. 

Here's what you'll need to make your own:

- Valentine card with tic-tac-toe game OR just make/print off your own.  Here is a cute hamster one.

- 10-12 wooden 1 1/2 inch circles.  I get mine at Michaels.  $2.99 for a pack of 22

- glue if you aren't using stickers.

- optional: clear contact paper to make the game board really sturdy.  **an especially good idea if using the printable option**

Okay, here's where it gets really tricky...

Step one:  Apply stickers to wooden circles.  Just kidding, it's not really tricky at all.  You'll need to glue them if using the printable sheet.

Step two:  This one is optional.  For an extra sturdy game board you'll want to carefully cover both sides in clear contact paper and trim the edges.  You'll want to do this as smoothly as possible so you're not left with air bubbles.  (Poke tiny pin holes in the bubbles if you need to.)

Step three:  Play.

Thanks Mom and Dad for thinking of the kids and inspiring a craft!