Hearts and Needles

Happy Valentine's Day! We had a weekend of heart shaped food including toast with hearts cut out and filled with eggs. We call these birds in a nest but I'm not sure that's an official name for this food. We also made homemade pizzas in heart form.


Today is a no school day for Sydney. The girls have been having a fun day playing together. While Vi was napping I decided to work on a little hand-stitching.


It is so lovely to look down at this fabric (from Anna Maria Horner). But so much better to look up to find Syd has joined me with her own project. She knows how to make a mama feel so loved.


The only thing that would make this day better is having my Valentine here with me. But alas, a day of love is not a holiday for the movie making folk. :) I'll just have to wait until dinner.

Beginning embroidery

Sydney is always interested in trying different crafts. I have been meaning to let her experiment with some hand embroidery for some time now. Last week I let her pick out some fabric and thread from my stash. She picked out some Anna Maria Horner fabric (she is a girl after my own heart) and some pink thread (of course). She decided to add some stitches around the different designs on the fabric. We talked about all different things we could do with her embroidery once she was finished: a shirt, skirt, purse, etc. In the end she decided she wanted to use it as a hankie so that she could start using it immediately.

Mother's Day Craft

Sydney and Violet made these little pendant necklaces for their Grammy and Oma for Mother's Day. Well, mostly Sydney and Mommy made them. I saw the idea over on The Crafty Crow and thought it would be a great project for Sydney. We just added little Violet's fingerprint too. Now both grandmas have a pendant with the girls' fingerprints. I will say it turned out a bit too big to wear though so these necklaces may become Christmas ornaments.

Happy 29th Shane!

The man I love turns 29 today. I struggled with what to get for him. He means so much to me and another Blu Ray or book just seemed sort of....not enough. In the end, Sydney picked out a record for him (his newest hobbie) and along with a couple small gifts we each made him something. Sydney used some clay that bakes in the oven and made him a pencil holder for his desk. I decided to make him this crocheted yoda to sit and guard the pencil cup. The pattern was a little confusing to me so I sort of changed some things as I went, but that may be because this was my first attempt at any sort of animal or doll. I am happy with the way it turned out and I look forward to trying other creatures in the future.


Shane, I love the way you love me and the girls. You are such a wonderful man of God, an amazing artist, and of course, an amazing father. May your birthday be filled with lots of laughter and fun, and may the Dodgers win today for you! ;)

Care Package

Here is a crocheted lap blanket for my grandma who recently had hip surgery. It is a big granny square and made mostly of Red Heart Soft yarn. We love getting handmade gifts, and unexpected gifts in the mail are always fun, so I thought we would pay it forward. Sydney made a potholder from a loom to include. She is getting really good at making those little potholders.

Hiking

In an effort to spend more time outdoors I have been taking the girls out hiking recently. Here in Southern California the weather is beautiful and perfect for being outside right now. Often Sydney will get frustrated with hiking and complain that her legs hurt after only a few minutes so I decided to give her a little motivation. To encourage her to explore and look at the world around her we made the following:


Basically, I had her use markers to color an egg carton. Then on our hikes I simply encourage her to find different objects in nature that match her colors. The picture above is some of her treasures from today.

Cherilyn's Washcloths

My sister just bought her first house and I wanted to give her a little something to celebrate. As you know I have decided to try and make more handmade gifts this year. I've desired to try making washcloths for awhile so I thought this would be a good opportunity. I used some 100% cotton yarn I already had in my stash and just started crocheting away. It took a couple tries to get a size I liked but I think these turned out well.


The stitch is just a simple double crochet except I crossed them to make little X's. Basically, I would skip a stitch and double crochet into the follow stitch, then for the following double stitch I would work into the one I had skipped. I will definitely be making more in the future and will be trying different patterns too.

Valentine Paper Hearts

Sydney made these paper heart garlands to hang in the front window for Valentine's Day. It was inspired from Marta's beautiful and sophisticated version. It was so beautiful and I knew instantly that Sydney would love all the hearts in the window.


First, we collected papers from Mommy's stash in reds, pinks, and blacks, scissors, tape, and string (or in our case pink embroidery thread). Because Sydney is still learning to cut I thought she could use a little help with the heart shape so I just gave her some heart-shaped cookie cutters to use as templates. They worked perfect because they are nice and large for her to hold on to as she traced and after a few hearts she was cutting away confidently without the 'template'.


Meanwhile, I prepared seven lengths of string that would hang in the window. Once Sydney had a good stack of hearts she taped them onto the strings.



Finally, we hung them up.


I think they look great...especially with all that rain on the other side of the window.

Thank you (from Vi)

Violet has been blessed with many sweet and thoughtful gifts. I just had to share these two in particular. First, my auntie knit these sweet booties for her in the perfect color, violet of course! She also made her a little blanket which is extra special because I still have the blanket she made me from my own birth. Second, Jamie sent her this amazing doll that big sister Sydney keeps trying to claim.

Thank you for blessing my littlest babe.

Preparing for a party

Sydney turns 4 in one week! I can't believe that my little babe will be 4, but it is true I checked her birth certificate to make sure. haha

We are having a party on Saturday for her. Of course, she is super excited. We made her a paper chain to keep track of when the party would be so each evening she runs around the house yelling about how many days are left. On the other hand, I am sort of wondering why I decided to throw her a themed party while 36 weeks pregnant. Call me crazy if you must. Since Sydney is an avid reader and artist I decided to throw her a birthday party all based around Eric Carle's books and artwork. I will try to share all the inspiration and pictures after the party but today we started preparing.


These will be cut up into shapes for the kids to use to create Carle inspired butterflies. More to come soon. I am going to try and post more in the next couple weeks because soon I will be distracted by a new bundle of joy.

Another Blanket in Progress

Even with the other three blankets in progress I started another one this past week. This is a hexagon shape in burgundy with rose pink stripes. The plan is to have four large hexagons and then use triangles to connect them all. I am not sure exactly how it will work out yet but I have a visual in my mind. We all know that sometimes it takes a little trail and error to get something in our minds out into the world so I will let you know how it goes. Like the previous WIP's this one is for a gift too.

Painting with Sydney

Sydney has really developed a love of painting. It is a rare day that she does not ask for some sort of painting project. Most days I let her watercolor; primarily because it is washable and stays pretty well contained on the table. We have started exploring other painting options and mediums though. It is fun to watch her experiment.


Recently we used fabric paint and tea towels from Ikea to make gifts for her Oma and Grandma's birthdays. I just cut sponges into shapes and let her dip them in a little bit of the fabric paint and then arrange them on the towels, inspired by this post. She used a leaf shape for one and a star shape for the other.


Today is just beautiful outside so I let her paint outside and make a mess. This is her first canvas and it is fun to see her painting out there through the kitchen window. At first she was timid but of course she quickly jumped in with both hands...literally.

Hat for Monsters Vs. Aliens

I thought it might be fun to throw together a hat for Sydney to wear tomorrow when we see Monsters vs. Aliens. So I introduce you to the blue, one-eyed monster hat. We have family coming to celebrate with us. It should be fun to see it in theaters and see everybody else's reaction to the film Shane worked on for so long. Plus it is always exciting to see his name up on the big screen (yes we are some of those weirdos who stay through the credits.) If you get a chance to see it let me know what you think. The reviews are pretty good but I like knowing what other people think not just critics. I know the pictures are a bit redudant but Sydney was just being so cute I had to post more than one.

Great Morning Tradition

Amanda Soule is so inspiring to me as a mother. I love her book The Creative Family and I am looking forward to reading her newest book soon too. Her blog post today really touched me. She talks about setting up an activity for the kids before she heads to bed. Then when the kids get up they have a fun way to start the day. What a great way to start our days on a positive note and encourage our kids to be active either with an art project or fun activity. I am looking forward to trying this out with Sydney some times.

I remember growing up that my mom would surprise us with lavishly decorated dinner tables for different holidays. I have distinct memories of arriving home after school to find an array of Valentine or Saint Patrick's Day treats overflowing the table in the kitchen. It is these little things that we do as parents that make the biggest impression. A little forethought and planning goes along way in our children's eyes. So whether it is preparing something for the morning, after nap-time, or after school think of something fun to surprise your family with this week.

New Tablecloth

I love the rainy weather and the coolness of winter as it turns into spring. I thought the house could use a little revamp. I think I am just tired of the same old stuff around our apartment so I purchased some of Anna Maria Horner's new oilcloth. It is beautiful and I love how it livens up our apartment. Add a little color to the 'mantel,' which is really just the top of our television cabinet, and I feel a little more cheer.

DreamWorks Holiday Bazaar

I had a great time participating in the DreamWorks bazaar for the first time. I met some really nice people including some ladies who make amazing children's clothing. I had an array of blankets, elf hats, scarves, and onesies. You may remember a little sneak peek at a new pattern I was working on. Well, as you can see from the picture I worked on a design for an ogre beanie. It was a big hit. I sold all the ones I had and took orders for a few more.

I learned alot from my first two craft fairs. I learned that you never can predict what people will like. I also learned that in economic times like these people prefer smaller items. I look forward to doing more shows in the future but for now I am ready to only craft for our own gifts and my own fun for a little while. After I finish up a few more Christmas gifts and a couple orders I really want to try my hand at some new things. I will be working on getting the extra blankets and hats in the shop over the weekend so check back.

Day 3: Ornaments

Today's Christmas activity was making ornaments to hang in Sydney's room. She really loved doing these. In fact she spent a little over 2 hours working away on them. I was inspired from this post and just simplified it for a three year old. We used silver pipe cleaners and as you can see Sydney picked all pink beads. They actually look really cute and festive all hanging in the corner of her room.

1. To make just use 3 pipe cleaners and twist at the centers. Then arrange to resemble a snowflake or star.

2. Then have your child place beads on the pipe cleaners in whatever order or color they want. The beads stay on the pipe cleaners by themselves.

3. Then hang from string.

Note: You could also use a nice ribbon instead of string and use them on the Christmas tree or have your kids hand them out as gifts.

Christmas Anticipation Day 1

Now that Sydney is three she understands fully that Christmas is coming and that it means lots of fun presents, food, and activities. I would love to make an amazing advent calendar for our family like this one or this one. But alas, it is December 1st and no such calendar is finished (or even started for that matter.) So last night we made an old favorite, a paper chain, to help her see visually the count down to Christmas. I have also decided that every day I will have a Christmas activity for her. The goal is to share them with all of you but I am not promising to get to it daily. I hate making promises I can't keep but I will do my best.

Today's activity was making her own Christmas cards for handing out. She made Christmas tree cards last year so this year we decided on Snowmen cards. This is pretty easy but here are a few steps in case you are interested in doing this with your little ones too.

1. First, we read a book about snowmen so she could see different pictures of snowmen and get different ideas for details.

2. Then I let Sydney pick out construction paper for the actual cards. I just cut them in half and then folded those pieces in half.

3. I assisted Sydney in cutting large and smaller circles for the snowmen.

4. Finally, I left her with all the cards, circles, scissors, glue, markers, and extra construction paper to assemble and decorate the cards.


Sydney says that this one has 'branch' arms, boots, a hat, eyes, a smile, and buttons. So cute!

P.S. I have misplaced our camera so for now you are going to get cellphone pictures. Forgive me...I am cleaning the house today and hoping to will turn up soon. :(

Holiday Boutique Coverage

Thanks to everybody who stopped by at my first ever boutique. It was super fun to participate. The event too place in beautiful Pasadena and I was lucky enough to spend the day with Amy. We spent the time talking with each other, with other vendors, and with lots of visitors. I felt like if I sold one thing I could consider it a success and so it was a success. Hee hee.

Actually I sold an owl onesie, both of the elf beanies below, a bunch of buttons, and received a very special commissioned lap-size blanket that I will share with you all soon.

I have posted a couple of the blankets that did not sell in the shop and I hope to post more blankets and possibly a couple hats in the next couple days so stay posted.

Holiday Boutique

There will be a holiday boutique in Pasadena on November 15th. I will be participating and sharing a table with a dear friend, Amy from Knit Me Pieces. If anybody is in the area and available please stop by and say hi. There will be lots of opportunities for holiday shopping for unique and handmade gifts. This is my first time participating in anything like this so I am a bit nervous to see how my creations are received. I have a list of things I am trying to make in time for the boutique including crocheted baby and lap blankets. You will just have to come visit to see all the fun things I am making. ;)

The boutique will be at 1841 Fiske Ave. Pasadena, CA 91104 from 10am thru 3pm. Some of the handmade items will include dolls, quilts, cards, soaps, jewelry, bags, and my stuff just to name a few. I hope to see some of you there.