Odds and Ends

This project is good in so many ways. You can brighten your winter with warm colorful accessories and address your yarn stash at the same time. I've heard most crocheters and knitters have a common problem in small balls of leftover yarn from various projects. It's certainly true for me, mine tend to unroll and get tangled horribly in the rest of the yarn. This is a great way to use up the little bits you have and make space for more incredible yarn. That's what all good stash-buster projects do right? So, start with a pile (or bag to make it a portable project) of a variety of your leftover yarns. Pick one of your favorite patterns that doesn't take too much yarn, skinny scarves, mittens, and hats are great examples. Crochet (or knit) away switching colors whenever you feel like it.

This is probably a good time to hook you up with an incredible pattern site. www.ravelry.com is by far my favorite. Don't be turned away by the fact that you have to sign up on it. I've never seen spam from them and they have some pretty awesome stuff! They have a plethora of patterns (with thumbnails!), an incredible search feature, and a favorites folder so you can keep track of patterns you find that you like. That's just a couple of their great features. But I'll stop the commercial now. They don't pay me, after all!


For each of these projects I used the all the colors of homespun yarn I had leftover and a big crochet hook, J or K. Whenever you do such a colorful project, just remember you'll have LOTS of little ends to work in! But I've got ideas for that too, read on... past the next paragraph too...

Um, just in case it doesn't turn out quite as cute as you thought I suggest trying it on a child. My creative hat didn't look so great on me but Drew loved it. Kids seem to pull off unique really well. :)

Another idea for what to do with your extra yarns, or with all the ends from your very colorful projects, is to use the it for stuffing. I keep the little ends I cut off to use for stuffing amigurumi animals I make for my kids but you can use it in place of stuffing for any other project too.

You can also use extra yarn and ends for yarn art. Give the kids glue and paper or cardboard and lots of yarn and scissors. If you're really brave, break out the glitter. They may want to outline their shapes first or color them first then decorate with yarn. Or they may go abstract with it. Either way it's fun! Here's some of the 6 year olds latest yarn art. Christmas tree, cat, and tiger if you couldn't tell.

You can always use up your little balls of yarn to edge other projects.

So that's it for now. Many more ideas, so little time. But hopefully I'll be blogging again soon!

Christmas Candles

So... this is an awesome time of year and I've been enjoying creating a lot of things for Christmas. I thought I'd share one of my projects from last year, so that I'm not giving anything away to recipients this year. It was fun and easy and a very versatile project.

As a result of moving many many times in the past years I had an assortment of candles that didn't quite make the heat in a move or two. They were warped and smooshed after being partially melted in the moving van. You may have candles that have burned down to about nothing. Why throw away the wax when you can up-cycle? Last holiday season I saw a set of little Christmas mugs and dishes at a second hand store for a few dollars. Soon my warped candles and my few dollars became these:

I did invest a little in candle wicks and scent which I'm sure you can find in any craft store. Scents for candles are available in a variety of holiday, and other, scents. We went with spiced pear I believe. I wasn't brave enough to do the dye too but later I kinda wished I had. These would be beautiful in glass jars too! Just make sure they're ok for heat first. Canning jars would make beautiful holiday candles. Here's the step by step how to in case you're inspired.

1. Prepare your mugs, jars, or muffin tins. If using muffin tins or something else as a mold, grease it first with cooking spray.

2. Prepare your wicks by tying them around pencils or a similar object. The pencil is laid across the top of the mug (or whatever you're using), in such a way that the wick hangs straight down. Trim the wick so it reaches to the bottom of your container and hangs nicely.

3. Melt your candles in a saucepan over low/medium low heat. Follow instructions on the candle scent and or dye for adding it in.

4. Pour melted wax extremely carefully into the prepared containers. Let them cool in a safe place.

This year, I am yet again melting wax. But not candle wax! You'll have to wait till after Christmas to find out what we're doing with wax this year. Have fun Christmas crafting!

Dinosaurs and Flowers

Another blog for the kids. I love crafting with my kids, maybe even as much as they love it. So when it came to their birthdays this year we had lots of fun making party favors ourselves. They were free and unique and that more special to our little guests too!

The kids were born 3 days (and 4 years) apart so we have a big party for the both of them together. The 2 year old wanted a dinosaur theme and the 6 year old wanted a flower theme. Here's the how to for each favor we did. I got the basic ideas from websites, though we tweaked generously, so will give credit where due.

Flower bookmarks

If you'd like to try this fun craft with your little readers you just need foam board, foam stickers, glue, and ribbons. Cut foam board to the size you want, cut ribbon to size, and glue on foam board, top with foam board stickers. Easy and quick and cute!

inspiration credit: http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/felt_and_ribbon_bookmarks.htm

Dinosaur Finger Puppets

To do this fun simple craft you only need foam board and silly eyes. Optional: feathers and foam stickers. I drew a template on paper first and used the inside of an adult ring to make the circles for the kids' fingers. When you're happy with the template, cut it out and trace it on foam board. Cut out the foam board and decorate your dino by gluing on feathers, shapes cut out of foam board, and eyes. Spikes, rock star hair, stripes, and spots are fun! Enjoy!

This would be super easy to adapt to any animal shape. The kids stick two fingers through the holes and these are the dino's back legs.

inspiration credit: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/puppets/twofinger/

Mini Me

Well, I have a helper to assist in emptying out my fabric/materials box. Oh, and here is the ugly thing all full.

Ugly, I know. Hopefully I'll have a picture of it slightly less full soon!

My helper is my 6 year old. She has been asking a lot to sew and if you have wondered how to introduce sewing in a fun way maybe you'll find these ideas useful.

To let her get familiar with the basics I started with a plastic blunt needle and yarn. For the material I crocheted a rectangle for her, just single crochets, and made a border out of a different color and in a shell pattern. It reminds me a bit of a large scale cross stitch material. It's very, very easily to poke a needle through the holes above and below each stitch. She decided she wanted to make a princess on it and also did purple stitching around the border, but I'd let your kid go wild and stitch all over it if they desire. It gets them familiar with working with string and material and needle. It's great for hand-eye coordination, dexterity, and all those fancy good things. For a motivated attentive learner, this is a great medium for learning simple straight stitch and even backstitch.

After this she wanted a real needle and began folding over little squares of fabric and sewing up the edges, except for a little hole to turn them right side out again. She had been watching me intently and asking all kinds of questions about sewing concepts. So it was soon time for a "real sewing project." She wanted to make a stuffed dinosaur for her 2 year old brother's birthday from some brown fabric she found in the box. If you want to help your little one with a similar project, here's the how:

Simple Stuffed Animal

Obviously each child will need more or less assistance with each step. Just let them do the part they want to/can do. They will learn a lot by watching the parts they are unsure about or don't want to do.

1. Have your child draw the shape he/she wants on paper (ideally thin paper, but normal paper is fine.) You may have to explain to "think big" and not make any part (limbs, neck) too thin so that there will be plenty of room for seams and stuffing into the parts. Think bubble animal shape.

2. Have your child cut out the paper shape carefully with safety scissors.

3. Fold over the fabric you're going to use and help you child pin the paper shape onto both thicknesses. An adult should then cut out the shape with sharp fabric scissors. I took this opportunity to include a little extra for seams all around.

4. Now the child can embroider eyes or any decorations they choose on the animal.

5. Decide where on the shape you will leave the hole for turning the animal right side out after sewing and stuffing it. Then finish the edges of this area (on both pieces of fabric separately) to prevent fraying. I sewed with a zigzag stitch over a good portion of the edge of back of the dinosaur on both pieces, separately.

6. Have your child put the fabric shapes right sides together and pin around the edges. Then sew with your machine- I used zigzag stitch very close to or over the edge of the fabric to finish the edges. On a long straight part I let my 6 year old push the foot pedal while I guided the fabric and directed her on how hard to step on it. She loved that! Make sure to not sew the fabrics together on the portion you will leave open for a turning and stuffing hole.

7. Have your child turn the animal right side out now. You, and/or child, can poke in the corners and edges if necessary. I find a crochet hook especially useful for this. Then the child can stuff it. The crochet hook is also useful for getting stuffing into corners and appendages.

8. Finally you'll turn in the edges of the hole and sew them together by hand. Drew sewed this part herself too.

And you're done! Have fun introducing the kids to sewing. It's a very useful skill to have and lots of fun for them to learn to create whatever they can dream up!

Top and Bottom

I'm really a minimalist at heart. I love to get rid of all the excess things that clutter up life. We usually have a give-away box that doesn't stay empty for long. But this aspect of my nature comes in conflict with my creative side, as I do happen to have a chest of yarn, a big box of fabrics, and container upon container full of arts and crafts supplies. The box of fabric has yet to find storage in our house and actually sits at the end of my bed. Thank goodness my husband is a very tolerant one!

The box is full of clothes that need to be taken in, like jeans with holes that have a destiny to become shorts, materials destined to be pillow, and, of course, many items to be born again as more functional or completely different articles of clothing.

My latest project was inspired by my expanding bump and the decreasing temperatures outside, but, to be honest, I'm gonna be using this long after my baby bump is gone.

Enter, my old gray shirt. It's ridiculously short. Think hobbit short. I don't know why I ever got it, except that I had plans to wear it under shirts. When I'm not pregnant it still doesn't reach my waist. And, stage left, a shirt with fabric I love, but I don't love the style of the neck and sleeves so much. So I thought I'd mix and match.

The How To

1. Try it on and mark. I folded the top of the black flowered shirt down inside the shirt and held it where I wanted it. I marked this spot, on the gray shirt, with a pin. I didn't have to mark the shirt I'm using for the bottom half because it has the black line. Otherwise mark both pieces.

2. Measure from your mark for seam allowance, usually 5/8 inch and cut. (I left 1 inch for the seams. You don't have to do this, but I don't have a serger and I've found French seams help with fraying and making a seam that lies nicely. So I'll do my first sewing at 3/8 inches, and the second at 5/8 inches.)

3. When I had both pieces cut I laid them together to check that the width was the same. It was in this case, but if not, just take in the difference at the seams of the larger article, or ease it in while pinning and sewing. 

4. Pin together (right). If you've got a serger or want to do a simple seam, pin right sides together and sew. {If you'd like to try French seams, pin wrong sides together and sew at 3/8 inch (below left). I used zig zag stitch to retain some stretch at the seam. Then I turned the fabric around, ironed the seam flat and with right sides together pinned again and sewed again at 5/8 inch (below right). This is a French seam in a nutshell.}

5. Press your seam down. My seam was pretty bulky so I actually hand stitched it down which flattened out the waviness you see in the picture.

I like my new shirt a lot. The bump is covered! It was super easy and quick! And I got a project out of my box. Yay! Stay tuned as I empty more things from my big ugly box and transform them.

Don't Be a Rain Cloud!

*You may find that every post of mine so far is on a different topic. Well, that's how it goes. As my application of creativity in my life is very diverse... You will see it echoed in my blogs. This one I would categorize as a mommy lesson.*

These days it's not odd for the following drama to unfold.

The (almost) 2 year old: "NO, DREW!"
The (almost) 6 year old: "MOM! ISRAEL HIT ME!"

or

The 6 year old: "NO!!!! STOP IT"
The 2 year old: "Wah! Drew push me!"
The one in the whom: KICK! (Just for good measure I guess.)

They just can't seem to play nice sometimes. I was praying about it this morning, after telling the children they WOULD behave while I took my shower. I was thinking we needed something to get them out of this funk, as repeated discipline wasn't quite doing it. Then, an idea. Illustrations and metaphors work particularly well for my 6 year old and as the 2 year old mostly copies her behavior, I'm hoping this works!

Don't Be a Rain Cloud: Mommy Lesson Number One

We sat down to do school and I told Drew and Israel we were starting with a Mommy Lesson today. Since I haven't done that before they were very interested and Israel was excited to be included.

I began to speak as I drew a fluffy cloud and raindrops. Me: "What are rainy days like?" Replies included, "Cold. Wet. Dark. Rain, rain go away." Me: "And what if you want to play outside on a rainy day, you can't then, can you? That makes you sad." I went on to draw the rest of the picture and we talked about things that people do that can make you sad (rain on you.) We took turns telling examples of how Israel can be a rain cloud to Drew by saying no to her, hitting her, pinching her, and ruining what she wants to play with. And we talked about how Drew is like a rainy day on Israel when she won't play with him, yells at him, and shoves him. "That makes it like a cloudy, wet, dark, cold, sad day in your heart."

Then I started to draw our sunny days and we talked about how beautiful, bright, and warm sunny days are and how pleasant it is to play on a sunny day. We talked about how we can make people feel warm and happy inside by loving them and doing things to bless each other. The kids listed things they do that make each other happy. On our list were: hugs, playing together, talking nicely, being gentle, and giving.

Last we talked about how to act when someone is like a rainy day to you. "How do you respond when someone is mean to you?" We discussed "putting on our warm clothes, our rain boots, raincoat, and using our umbrellas" and that we can do this by forgiving. We talked about how to respond (No, thank you.) and that we don't have to let a rainy day, or someone else in a bad mood, make us mean too.


The kids wanted to color the pictures.

Drew said, sometimes you can fix a rainy day by being nice, and that makes a rainbow because the sunshine is shining through. I think the message got across.

Voila, beautiful children playing peacefully together. Well, maybe not for long, but I can envision myself saying, "Don't be a rain cloud!" and the smile of the happy little girl on the sunny day popping into my 6 year old's head and transferring to her face. It just might help.

By the way, you're welcome to use the pictures I drew if you'd like. And you can feel free to copy my lesson if you desire. You know, just in case your kids are less than perfect too. :) Please ask permission first, before using other photographs that appear on my blog. Thank you! And may you have a sunny day.

On Second Thought... And Another Thought

On Second Thought

A sad confession. Remember the No-Oven Muffins a couple posts back? Well, turns out they weren't such a good idea. I retract my statement that you can make muffins without an oven and will stick to quick breads in the bread machine.

My crock-pot broke. The ceramic cracked and split with a very small bump that should not have broken it. After we saw the inside of the ceramic (see below) we figured it out pretty quickly. Seems like one of those warnings you'd read and think "What idiot would contrive to do that anyway?" CAUTION: Do not run your crockpot with nothing in it! Which is essentially what I did because the muffins were elevated off the bottom of the crock. It appears the heat, without any food to transfer directly to, "burnt" the ceramic. Ah well, one has to experiment, right? I just wish I hadn't done it so publicly this time. I take that back. Maybe this will stop someone else from being so very creative with a crock-pot and regretting it later. On to something else now... with a happy ending.

And Another Thought

One of my inspired happy places is re-purposing, like in my sweater post. Here's another re-purposing that may make you see things in a new light. The picture from above is from about 2 1/2 years ago, not my current pregnancy. I don't think I've worn that shirt since the picture but I like the fabric a lot. One day, going through my closet I saw it in a new light. A little snipping, taking in, more snipping, and voila!

A dress that will get much more use than it ever did as a shirt, and a very happy little girl with a twirly skirt. Makes me smile.

So, if you're like me and you have some clothes you don't really use but keep them around because you like some aspect of them, well, go look at them again. Squint real hard and see what you see this time.

Try it on, pinch it up here and there, measure, pin, sew, and enjoy!

And stay tuned for more ideas, and more details on how to execute. I've got a list full of ideas, and a box of clothes with a transformation for each in mind. I'll include some step by steps in the future.