Category Archives: crafts

for spring

Some people’s kids consider watching a movie together or something like that quality time.  Mine expect me to perform.  Activities and projects are a requirement, preferably with some kind of tangible result that can be shown off to the siblings when they arrive home.  It’s nice, but it can also be a lot of pressure.  Like last week when it was Elijah and I alone and he wanted to know, with a great sense of urgency, what we could do to start his quilt.  And then there is me thinking, “Well, let’s see, I spent the entire day doing hard physical labor.  I want nothing more then to go to bed.  I’m only upright because this is supposed to be our time together.  Even the thought of lifting my hand sounds exhausting. All of the supplies are still packed, in several different boxes, possibly on several different floors, who knows exactly where.  And the very thought of starting that particular scavenger hunt makes me want to cry.”  And aloud, “Well, we can look at the fabric and maybe start to plan it…”  …not what I think he deemed a satisfactory answer by the way…  Followed by my very feebly trying to explain the importance of looking and planning without making it sound like I was blowing him off.

So, when I found out I was going to have an impromptu night alone with Galen, I had to think fast.  I floated the idea of redecorating our Christmas wreaths for spring and he was all for it.

Mine is characteristically ric-rac-errific.  Yes, I really just said that.  I completely understand if you need to stop reading me now.  The pink and green were the only two pastels I had left in my collection (hmm…time to buy more??).  I really wanted pussy willow for it.  I’m pout-y about there not being any around here that I know of.  It’s very much on my “too grow” list.  I’ve always had a soft spot for it, since I was a little girl and our neighbors had an American Willow growing in their backyard.  In the spring time I used to pretend that the catkins were a whole bunch of baby bunnies all curled up to sleep with their little bums sticking out!  I think I quite believed my own story too.

Goosey’s got all gussied up with lace.  A whole rainbow of pastel lace.  We made a center piece of it by arranging other spring related things in and around it.  I set the whole thing up on a china platter so that it can easily be moved around as needed for setting the table.  It’s nice to have since I haven’t managed to set up an official nature table here just yet.  I’m sure that things will be changed and added to it as the season progresses.

By
celebrations and festivals, crafts, Kids
2 Replies

Where we’re at…

I come to you without photos today because, while I have a few to share, my photo storage program has decided to update and reorder all of my pictures.  And it seems like this is going to take a while.  I’ll try to add the pictures in later when I have access to them again.

*********************************

With the house…

It’s been a whirlwind week.

*We’ve moved almost all of our possessions over.

*Had family come for a short, work intensive visit.

*Came close to finishing painting all the bedrooms.  Ours could use another coat on the ceiling and a bit on the trim.

*Decided to pretend that closets don’t count as actually being a part of the bedrooms and therefore don’t need to be totally painted for the bedrooms to be considered “done”.  La, la, la, I can’t see you!

*Except that I can because they don’t yet have doors either.

*Cleaned out under the house and in the basement, including the cord of wood covered in white fuzz.

*Had the air quality specialist out.  Again.

*Got internet hooked up.

*Had the heating ducts cleaned.

*Moved things and re-arranged and moved some more.

*Enjoyed this glorious, strangely warm weather and watched the snow melt in the gardens, revealing to us the things that have grown there before and the things that will grow there again.

*Found little bits of green peeking out from under last years debris in the herb garden and was delighted to find some of my favorite plants already in place and well established.

*Started to excavate said plants, as a “break” from hard manual labor.

*Consistently forgot to schedule someone to come out and empty the septic tank.  Which is really not the thing you want to forget.  Especially considering the inspector said it looked like it was a couple of years over due.

*Pried off, labeled and stored all of the baseboards from the second floor.

*Ordered more paint.  Again.

*Put a lot of stuff in the attic, just to get it out of the way.

*Wondered why on earth we have all of this stuff anyway?  And where did it all come from?!?

*Set up a P.O. box.  Had the postal women exclaim, “thank god!” when we came in.  Apparently three unclaimed packages constitutes over-whelming in our tiny new post office.  Oops.

*Had 700 board feet of wide-plank white pine delivered.  Forget Rubik’s Cubes, you want a real challenge?  Try getting 16′ long boards around a bend in a stairwell without damaging either board or wall.

*And we still managed to get in our second trimester homeschooling report the the local school district, which has nothing at all to do with the house, but was way high up on my to-do list!

Personally

It’s been a strange week for me.  Not at all in a bad way, just very out of the ordinary.

*I think I took all of two pictures in seven days.

*I haven’t knit at all.

*I have been making slow progress on a needlework sampler.  I’m up to ‘F’ now.  It’s very slow going.  Or at least it feels so to me.  I’m told I’m quite a fast knitter and I’m used to quick results.  But really this is just the pace I need right now.

*I’ve been going to bed early.

*The fast and easy foods we resorted to over the move did not do well by my tummy.  It’s led me to intentionally fasting for the first time in my life.  I’ve been wary of fasts in the past but I’ve found a method that’s quite effective in keeping blood sugar and energy stable.  I’m three days in now and so far it’s going well.

*I haven’t been on the computer almost at all, no blog posting, no blog reading, really no idea what’s going on in the outside world right now, beyond the little sun-shiny hollow that encompasses home.

*The exception being the couple of times I’ve been called upon to shop for things to keep the work on the house moving along.

*On that note, I suspect many people who follow my pinterest boards are ready to kill me, or well, at least unfollow me, on account of my current switch plate obsession.

*I have not missed posting here and was quite happy for the break.  But the last couple of days I’ve started taking a few pictures here and there and I’m starting to feel ready to ease back into being in this space regularly again, feeling refreshed.

*I’m starting to think that this may well turn into a house blog for a while and hoping no one minds too much.

*I’ve started my own mini yoga practice.  I’ve not been able to maintain a regular practice since I got ill last summer.  It takes too much strength and energy to maintain postures that have always come so easily in the past.  But post-move, aching shoulders lead me to sitting in a basic sitting pose, our first morning here, taking 10 or so deep breaths, while raising and lower my arms, then stretching to each side and forward.  So simple that it’s barely anything, but it’s felt so powerful to me and I’ve done it every morning since then, adding in a slight back bend a couple days later and occasionally, on the days I feel up for it, a bit more.  I’m hoping that as I heal I’ll be able to branch out from here.

So, what do you think is strangest, that I haven’t been knitting, that I haven’t been eating or that I haven’t been taking pictures?

By
crafts, Life, Our Little Home, The Renovation Journal, Yarn Crafts
11 Replies

Of birthday sweaters and other things…

Last year first, since it occurs to me that I never managed to post about those projects.  You already saw his 2011 birthday sweater and the pumpkin.  His birthday table this year (shown here), was set up on one of the gorgeous play stands that Steve built for him last year.  I’ll be sure to get a picture to share of them all set up at the new house.  They are currently there and I am currently not.

This is the crayon roll that I made for him: 

And this is the shield that Steve helped Iain and Elijah to make for him:

It was Steve’s design, there are two leather strips on the back to slip your arm through.  Galen decorated it himself, after the fact.

He’s very fierce you know, even with what I believe to be a bit of blueberry juice on his forehead.  How it got there, I couldn’t possibly say.

There was also a cloth bag that I made to hold the little wooden animals that my parents got him.  It was just a simple drawstring thing, made out of a fabric printed with nursery rhymes and vintage looking illustrations.  It’s in a box right now, so no pictures of that either.

And now on to this year!  We made much less this year.  Considering everything that’s been going on, I let myself off the hook for the doll that I had been planning to make him.  I thought that was uncharacteristically reasonable of me.  It’s possible that I may even be learning a bit of self-preservation.

There was, of course, a birthday sweater…

The pattern is Hestapeysa, again.  The same as for Elijah’s most recent birthday sweater.  This time I didn’t modify it at all.  I just made the child’s size.  Well, I did add  in a bit of a fourth color on the on the yoke, but otherwise…

The other bit of home-made came from Iain and Elijah, in very typical (for them) style.  They went out into the woods and cut a branch, then came home and whittled an entire baseball bat out of it, just like that was a regular old, every day, type of thing to do.  Which I guess it is.  For them.

I think it was his favorite gift ever.  He just kept shaking his head, wide-eyed, saying, “I just don’t know how I can ever thank them enough!”

By
crafts, Kids, sewing, toy making, Yarn Crafts
5 Replies

birthday-ish

Some scenes from my birthday, earlier this week.  It really was the loveliest of days (perhaps excepting the part where the Wee Girl got not one, but two gold beads stuck up her nose!).

In other news, Craftsy patterns are now live!  Offering up a little bit of everything you could possibly want, from knitting and embroidery to paper arts and jewelry making.  I have plans to set aside some quiet time tonight to browse through them all myself.  And of course this also means that Misselthwaite is now available for purchase through Craftsy as well as Ravelry.

Happy weekend everyone!

By
celebrations and festivals, crafts, Life, my knitting patterns
7 Replies

the Christmas making

I think this is the first year since I’ve had children that I didn’t gift a single hand-made item.  Not a one.  And I’m completely at peace with that, though I don’t expect it to turn into any kind of tradition.  And thankfully, with my amazing kids around, there was certainly no lack of hand-crafted gifts under the tree.  Iain and Elijah really out did themselves this year!

On the one night a week when Iain is at dance class, Elijah helps me to put the little ones to bed, then we get a pot of tea brewing and work on some little project together.  Well, sometimes we curl up together in a sleeping bag and read to each other!  But when the holidays/birthdays are coming up this is the best time for us to get some top-secret crafting done.  With the making of his Halloween costume, Elijah discovered a new love in machine sewing.  That’s how this shirt for Iain came about.  Elijah shopped through my stash for fabrics to make it.  And we lengthened my favorite boys top pattern (Kwik Sew 3366, which now appears to be out of print), because *gasp* the largest size is now to small for him!

I love these photos of him in the shirt he made his big brother.  These were taken right before he wrapped it.  He was so excited!

Other then their gifts for each other, they decided to team up for all of their gift making this year.  So everything else from the rest of the post, they worked on together.

For many months now they have been working on perfecting their bow and arrow designs.  There has been a lot of trial and error here.  Their current designs are pretty outstanding.  Taking many variables into consideration, they hand select, harvest, whittle, sand and notch each bow stick.  They were having trouble finding the right material for bowstring.  Nothing seemed to be up to their standards.  Finally, I managed to track down actual bow string material (here) that they now use to braid their own bow strings.  Their arrows are also hand-carved and adorned with feathers…sometimes authentic and sometimes boy-made.  They tape the tips for safety’s sake.  They made a set each for 6 of us this year; Steve, my father (pictured with his above), both of my sisters, my mother and myself.  You can see photos of our archery competition on Christmas day here.  Those arrows can travel an amazing distance!

Also pictured on the Christmas post is the scarf that they both worked on together for me.  I meant to get better pictures of it, but never got around to it.  You can see it in the second picture from the bottom.

Oh, and there was chocolate too.  Did I mention that they make chocolate every year and fill Steve and my stockings with it?  Yup, that too.

But perhaps the biggest investment of time and energy went into their gift for the little ones.  A whole selection of fruits and veggies for their kitchen set…

strawberries,

zucchini,

leeks,

yellow, green and purple beans,

cucumbers,

carrots and parsnips.

The general idea of how to make them came from here.  But after seeing the pictures, they mostly went their own way with them, rather then strictly following the directions.  All of the wood was gathered in the form of sticks from the forest around our home, with the exception of the strawberries, which they made from a bit of scrap wood.  They were accented with wool felt (where applicable), painted with watercolor paints and finished with beeswax polish.

I think they may have gone a bit overboard.  But they did such an outstanding job!  The little kids bypassed playing house and went straight for opening up a pretend restaurant.  Personally, I think they should set up a farm stand or maybe a CSA.

By
crafts, Kids, sewing, toy making
1 Reply

making a vine wreath

I wanted a wreath for our front door this holiday season, but I didn’t want to buy one or even buy the supplies for one.  I wanted to work with what we had.  I considered our resources and mulled over my options for a bit before deciding to try my hand at making a vine wreath.

This meant a trip to the area where the forest and our yard meet.  I had help in the harvesting.

And our coming and going earned us a great many burdock burs to pick off ourselves.  But we gathered up a sizable heap.

These are all wild grape and wild cucumber vines.  Both of which we have in abundance here.  For those in the south I’ve heard that kudzu works well too.  Most of the vines we cut were around 10′ long.

I knew that I wanted to keep my wreath fairly simple, with sparse decoration.  So I wanted it to have a lot of texture.  I specifically looked for vines in a variety of shades and thicknesses, especially seeking out ones that had interesting looking tendrils.

I started with one of the thickest grape vines and made a loop of it, gently twisting and twining the overlapping ends.  Then slowly started layering over vines on top, twisting them around and tucking the ends in where ever they fit.

I added many, many layers because I wanted it to be thick and sturdy.  If I had one piece of advice to offer it would be to keep your work away from your pile of vines!  Otherwise they grab at each other and tangle again and again.  So, if you are working at a table, keep your supplies on the floor.  If you working on the floor put them in a different room, or better yet, just leave them outside and bring in one vine at a time.

 

When it was done, I decorated mine with baby rick rack and some clippings from the yard.

I think the more official way to attach ribbons and things would be with a hot glue gun, but I wasn’t willing to permanently commit my rick rack to the wreath, so I just tied the ends to the wreath in the back.  Everything else I slipped into the nooks and crannies created by winding the vines.  This way I figure I can redecorate it with the seasons if I choose.

 

Galen made his own.  He was all about the ribbons for decorating his.

By
celebrations and festivals, crafts, Gardens, tutorials
3 Replies

clowning around

This is a “Crazy Clown”.  I’ll be honest with you here, I don’t really know what that is, but maybe you do?  Or well, at least he seemed to.  This entire costume was his creative brainchild, I stepped back completely and let him do his thing.  There was a lot of repurposing here.  And electrical tape.  A lot of electrical tape.

A lot of effort went into making it look weird or “crazy”.  My pinking shears made several appearances.  Half the buttons were purposely sewn on the wrong side of the vest.  He tried to make the colors clash as much as possible and used vivid colors of yarn to sew on the patches to be sure that it would show.

The shoes are extend-able, but they are actually retracted in these photos.  Still bigger then his feet, but not as big as they can be.

~Oops!  My hat fell off!~

By
crafts, Kids
Leave a reply