Catching up on the crafts

Random pics of random projects...

Book bag for Max - made of placemats, with coaching from Noelle. Thanks for the tips, Noelle.

He seems to like it. It's good for holding the hugely oversized books he drags home from The Little School library.

Class pillows to match the class quilt. Split up the work with another mom, so you only see 1/2 of the class's pillows. Max was disappointed that they were going to be so small. He wanted one big enough to sleep on! We compromised with a pillowcase (thanks Grammy for the inspiration on custom pillowcases - very handy!).

And here's a quick blanket I whipped up for Max. We were in the fabric store, looking for fabrics to make a quilt for Jim & Kris's new baby-on-the-way, when Max spotted this. HE HAD TO HAVE IT! I thought it was insanely cute too, so I bought two panels worth, and then we went home, dug through my stash for some fleece for the back, and in less than 2 hours, Max had a new alien blankie. The fabric is Alien Invasion from Moda, and it's hysterical!

Sleep (lack of) and Trips (not taken)

Current effort making sleep difficult: get Max into his own bed all night long.

• Last week - awful! Not much sleep for me or Max most of the week. Cranky mom, cranky kid.
• Weekend - not bad! Escape valve of "okay to come in Saturday nights" seemed to help a lot.
• This week - much better. Two nights of staying in his bed (Monday, continuously, Tuesday, just one break for a snuggle). Too bad I'm now trained to wake up at 2 & 4 am every night. So now it's my sleep schedule that is the problem!

Trips that aren't getting taken:

• Considered a quick trip to Leavenworth for this weekend, looking for snow. Couldn't find an appropriate room, decided it was too much hassle anyway. Holding out for a drive to Snoqualmie on Saturday to see snow. Maybe it'll happen.
• Considered a spring break trip to Orlando - mostly so Max could see Kennedy Space Center. Thought, heck, why not see Disney World. Priced some packages, got extreme sticker shock, read the Unofficial Guide, decided it was a big hassle too! Scratch that vacation.

Other news:

• Observation: shouldn't tease others about blog breaks - it causes them on your own blog.
• New on the needles: Gathered Pullover in Knit Picks Telemark Colonial Blue. Getting gauge, but it seems too big. Hmm. Need to measure again.

Auction Project 2 - Sun Print Quilt - Check

Another year, another class auction project for The Little School. This time, a quilt (one of my specialities!). The kids did sun prints on fabric, some of us moms turned them into attic window blocks (thanks Aimee and Monika), I put it all together, and the moms and I tied it (thanks again, Monika and Aimee!).


I think it turned out fun with the bright batiks. What do you think?


Hmm. I must be over the blahs...

Hats are Easy-Peasy

A friend had a baby. I needed a gift asap. I realized that I had cute pink/white variegated cotton yarn, just a ball, enough for a little baby hat. I like hats. They're easy-peasy and super quick. All it takes is the right circumference, and the rest you can pretty much make up. I used a pattern for the sizing and decreases, but did some modifications for fun... and ain't it cute?





And boy, did I cut it close on the yardage (see, it was one ball, but I'd swatched with it before, so it was more like 3/4 of a ball). See photo above right for how much was left when I finished the decreases. Ooh that was close. Now I just hope it fits the little kidlet.

Specs

• Yarn: Trendsetter Yarns Scoubi Du in color 054 (Pink stone wash)
• Needles: Addi Turbo size 6, 16 inch circulars, plus bamboo size 6 dpns
• Pattern: Borrowed sizing & decreases from this one, but the hat itself doesn't really look much like it ;-). Thanks for the sizing, though!
• Modifications: Added eyelet row about an inch and a half up, skipped the top knot when I ran out of yarn.

In other news, I think I neglected to post a picture of Max's cool new loft bed from IKEA.

After spending the first night up top, he decided he'd rather sleep on the floor underneath. And after I ironed the canopy up top, he decided he didn't want that on the bed. Ah well.

The Winter Blahs

It's winter. Not the fun snowy winter of Christmas shows, but the oh-so-blah-and-grey winter of only 9 hours of rainy daylight in the Pacific Northwest. Sigh. It's given me the blahs. I don't even feel like crafting! No knitting progress to share (because I'm not doing any knitting). Can't work up the enthusiasm to make progress on the auction quilt either (even though it's due Feb 1st). Haven't gotten far on the"year of organization" idea that Colin and I had either (Cyndy's progress all last year was making us envious) - although we do have a nice new whiteboard/corkboard/calendar in the kitchen now.

Add on to the regular blahs a kiddo who's been sick on & off and wailing at school drop-offs and you get the picture of an exciting time at our house lately. Max is now on a bland food diet for a week, trying to stabilize his tummy and get it to digest foods correctly again, then off milk and cheese for another 2 weeks. Hmm, what can I make out of noodles, rice, or potatoes for dinner tonight? I'm exploring casseroles...

Hey, at least we have clean carpets now (finally used the coupon we bought at last year's auction) - and Max sure enjoyed taking everything out of his room & the office and putting it all back in.

Quick note to sis Lisa: Thinking about you today. Hope surgery went well. Love you!

Gingerbread, Snow, and Project Pix

Last night, we made a Gingerbread house (cheating, with a kit). Max really enjoyed himself.


Some snaps of Teri's backpack (hope she got it! FedEx couldn't seem to figure out where her house is. I'm relying on the fact that she never gets near her computer to not spoil the surprise ;-).

I'm rather pleased at how it turned out. Not bad for no pattern. And much better on my second attempt! (It had gotten really big & shapeless, so I frogged and tried again with a more defined round bottom and fewer stitches).

And we had some snow back in early December. Here's the snowman Max & I made with the inch or so of snow (pretty much actual size ;-).


Here's a photo for scale. It was really a snowball snowman.


A quick peek at a few of the assortment of Christmas cards.

There. Enough photos for you Lucy?

Pathetic Blog Break

Sorry for the radio silence here. Been busy? Isn't everyone this time of year? I have very few projects to show for it too, but here's what's been up on the project front:

• Christmas cards - done! And arriving soon! It was fun to do them all a little bit different this year, although it took longer. Cool paper, and cool cutout designs, plus a little ribbon I had laying around for some, and my famous Crop-a-dile for eyelets on some. Maybe I'll post a couple of pictures of my favorites.
• School auction quilt - finally, finally, finally!, got all the sun-print fabric squares back from all the kids. I now have a complete set of 12 squares, ready to sew up. 2 Moms have volunteered to help piece, one has her row back to me, one I expect any day now. Taking Thursday & Friday off this week, so I should have time to work on them then, or on Saturday's DOS.
• Knitting - not much! Ordered enough yarn for Juno (Estelle Alpaca Cashmere Tweed - super yummy, and it went on sale at Ram Wools), but still don't have the pattern, so no progress there. Finished up Teri's backpack (picture coming soon) and sent it off as a Christmas present (oops, just spoiled that non-surprise). Cast on, frogged, and cast on again for a wrap for me (Cozy in Nashua Julia, Velvet Moss). Not really thrilled with the lace pattern for this - I just want a simple rectangular wrap to keep at work and keep me warm. Maybe I'll be lucky & get a stitch dictionary for Christmas and I can find the perfect easy lace for my own custom wrap.
• Sewing (or rather, altering) - ordered some cord pants from Lands End, which fit well in length & hips, but sadly are saggy in the waist (i.e., falling down!). Trying to alter them to fit my waist (starting with the super-on-sale, can't return, green ones ;-). I hate sewing clothes. And altering is almost worse. The green ones are unpicked, ready to take in. Definitely need to take these to DOS for a consult with the master sewers there.

Hey - very cool idea on Chef Messy's blog - all homemade Christmas. Whattdya say, Robertsons - up for that next year?