Six Girls' Mom

Happy 16th Birthday, Brittany!

2011-07-17T10:30:00.000-07:00

This is just to wish my daughter a very, very happy 16th birthday! There are days when I don't know what I'd do without her, and I hope this year brings her lots of blessings...

Happy 16th Birthday!
Love, Mom

A wonderful big sister!

During one of the outings she arranged for us this summer.

Oh my goodness, where has the month gone??

2011-07-13T15:39:00.000-07:00

Does it seem like I start nearly every post with an apology??? I thought that summer would mean more time to do less...how naive I was! I'm not really sure that I'm doing more, I think that there are just more people to walk around when I am doing things!

Here's a preview of upcoming blogs from our activities so far:

Cherry picking,

yummy treats,

family construction projects,

keeping cool,

Daisy Scout meetings,

Vacation Bible School Pandemania,

the County Fair,

Fourth of July,

family fun,

and just enjoying the summer!

Not to mention various other projects. See you soon!

May Projects

2011-06-18T12:51:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is, the middle of June, and I bet you thought I forgot this post, didn't you?

Nope, just had more pressing things to share with you, but here it is, the May Projects post!

First up, the counted cross stitch picture that I made for Don:

This was supposed to be for our anniversary, which was on Easter Sunday. For obvious reasons, I didn't finish on time, but this was the first project I worked on post Easter dresses. I haven't ironed or framed it yet, however.

After spending 3 months on Easter dresses, the month of May was all about instant gratification type projects. Here is a picture of almost everything finished:

See? All things finished in a few days or less. You remember that I've said I don't crochet, right? Well, apparently, now I can crochet, at least a little bit. It's still not my favorite, but I'm at least able to move a hook around and complete something. I decided that dishcloths were the perfect thing to practice on.

These are all crocheted. The dark blue hex in the back came from Lion Brand website. The fish cloth came from here. The red heart dishcloth I made up to test a technique I read about. The red and white stripe "flag" sort of one came from another website, (and my apologies that I can't find it now), and the rest came from various booklets that I've picked up in the last few years.

Here are the knit cloths I did in May:

See the cloth in the middle? That is an optical illusion cloth, and I found the pattern here. The cloth on the right is just a simple cloth, like the kind my mom taught me years ago. The one on the left is my favorite, though. Here is a picture of it by itself:

If you look at it from above, it looks like a striped cloth, but look at it from an angle and you see:

flowers! Isn't that cool? It's all done using strategically placed knits and purls. If you like it, you can find the pattern for this one, plus a lot more like it, here. This is the vintage flowers cloth. By the way, all 12 dishcloths were made from stash yarn.

But, I did not stop at dishcloths. No, not me! I also made a handful of:

cat toys, for my Secret Sister at church. Well, not for her, exactly, but for her 2 furry children. These were made with 100% wool yarn, then, before completing the ball, a giant jingle bell was put inside, then the whole thing was felted. When I revealed to her that I was her Sister last week, she said that her cats loved them! Silly, but hey, it was stash yarn!
I also learned how to make market bags, but market bags with a twist. These, when turned inside out, can be tucked into themselves, and become just right for keeping in a purse (if your purse is large, like mine) or stowing under the seat in the car, just in case.

Three marekt bags, folded up.

Three market bags, ready for shopping!

The bag in the center was made from stash yarn, the bag on the left was from yarn that my mom gave me, and the bag on the right, I bought new, specifically to match a beach towel I was giving as a gift:

I also made 3 pairs of children's ladybug slippers, which of course I forgot to take pictures of before I gave them to the person that requested them. I do have an order for 3 more pair, so I will be sure to take pictures of those to show you.

So it was a rather productive month, using mostly what I had in house. And I have a box full of goodies to show for it. Might be time to take on some larger projects again soon, though. I've already finished a couple of things this month...can't wait to show them to you!

Summer Fun, Part 2

2011-06-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I told you that we were trying something new this year. We have decided to try having Brittany be our activities director. The idea is that we will give her a set amount of money each week, and she can use that money to plan activities for us to do. She is really quite good at finding deals, and getting the most for her money, so we figured that if we gave it to her to research and plan, she'd make sure the money went as far as possible.

Today's adventure was:

Boomers is an entertainment center that has mini golf, bumper boats, go karts, and an arcade. She really wanted to take the kids to mini golf, as they'd never played before.

First on the agenda was mini golf. Kids under 5 played free so that saved us money right there: Katie and Maddie were free. And yes, they both played, kinda. Maddie got tired after 4 holes, and wanted to be carried, but I really wasn't surprised by that.

Brittany's boyfriend, Ramiro, helping Maddie at the first hole.

Katie's turn.

Emma, Abby, and Ramiro, watching the game.

Brittany, thinking about her next shot.

Emma, and Katie, in a candid shot. Doesn't it look like they're posing?

Maddie had so much fun, at least for a while!

Abby, Emma, Maddie, and Katie, posing by the castle.

Oh, and by the way, the "golf lady" was "amazing"...she gave everyone their favorite color ball!

After golf, we headed to another part of the complex:

Are you familiar with bumper boats? They are exactly what they sound like: bumper cars in the water! They have a pool that is 3 feet deep, and about a dozen boats in it. Each boat is equipped with a water cannon, and people drive around, bump each other, and basically try to get each other as wet as they can. They look like a lot of fun, and the kids really enjoyed it. Maddie was too little to go on them, even with an adult, so she and I stayed on dry land and took pictures. Brittany and Ramiro planned to go on them, but the group that got off the boats just before they got on were SOAKED, and they decided to opt out.

Abby, in a fierce water battle.

Emma, getting ready to pull away from the dock.

Katie, just going her own way, doing her own thing.

Abby, in the green boat, and Emma, engaged in battle.

Katie, in the blue and yellow boat, and Abby. Just to give you some idea of the size of the pool.

Katie, not nearly as wet as I thought she'd be!

Emma and Abby, a little wet, but not bad. Emma's already looking for the next adventure.

Maddie, a happy girl, even though it was pretty hot out.

After the kids got off of the boats, we went out to the car and had a picnic lunch, before going into the arcade. There really weren't any games for the little kids, and the games for the "big kids" were really expensive. I think Brittany and I agreed that the Chuck E. Cheese arcade was a better bet in the future.

All in all, the day was a big success....everyone had fun, Brittany planned and shopped for deals, we all compromised a little bit, and the kids slept well that night! I'm sure we've got many more fun activities coming soon!

Summer time fun, part 1

2011-06-16T22:19:00.000-07:00

As of today, school has been out for two weeks now. So far, so good! The first few days of vacation, Don's mom was here, so the kids were busy with Grandma. For the next four days, we just relaxed at home, and basically did nothing. After all, that's the best part of vacation, right? On the tenth, Don took Abby, Emma, Katie, and Madison down to his mom's for a four day weekend. That's right, I was home alone, at least on Friday. I spent Friday.....cleaning. Housecleaning the family room, and more specifically, sorting through, thinning out, and organizing the kids' toys. It was a VERY productive 9 hours, and the kids told me when they got home that it was a nice surprise.

The kids had a lot of fun with their cousins while in SoCal. Unfortunately, Don was kept very busy, so I do not have any pictures of their adventures down there, but I know they had lots of fun! Don's sister Therry, and niece Sydney, as well as his nephew Justin, niece Katrina, and their 3 boys kept the girls on the move. Between a health fair, playground time, and swimming, they didn't want to come home!

I also spent that weekend having fun...Friday night was a purse party at my neighbor's house and a Secret Sisters party at church. Saturday was the show Mamma Mia, followed by dinner, with Mom, Becky, and Brittany, and Sunday was a Scentsy party at my house. All of these events were interspersed with bouts of house cleaning. Fun and productive, in 4 short days!

That brings us to this week. Brittany has been bored. Monday night, when Abby and Emma got home from Daisy Scouts, Brittany decided to host a slumber party in the family room. Little did she know that all 4 girls, PLUS Don would fall sound asleep within minutes of laying down:

Brittany put down an air mattress for the 4 girls. She slept on the couch.

Maddie and Katie, curled up together.

Abby and Emma. Isn't it funny how they all paired up?

Even Don dozed off. He and I went to bed though. Leave "roughing" it to the kids!

Yesterday she was so bored that she took the 4 kids out to wash my car and Don's truck. The end result was 2 very clean cars and 5 exhausted kids. They came in, dried off, and put pajamas on, then lay down to watch a movie while I cooked dinner.

Abby, in her winter pj's, for some strange reason...it was almost 100 degrees out!

I think Katie was actually playing with that ball when she fell asleep.

Emma, under a bath towel, sound asleep.

Brittany might've fallen asleep while texting someone!

And Maddie. OK, Maddie didn't fall asleep, she took a nap between vehicles.

And those girls were sleeping HARD. Don had to really nudge them to wake them up for dinner. It's amazing what water fun in the hot sun can accomplish! And all slept really well last night too!

Tomorrow, I'll let you in on the strategy we are going to try for our summer activities this year. Stay tuned!

Last day of school: Splash Day!

2011-06-08T12:09:00.000-07:00

Abby and Emma, on the first day of school.

Last Thursday was the last day of school for the girls. I don't know if any of you have been following the California weather, but we have NOT had the sunny, warm weather that everyone pictures when they think our area. It has been cold and RAINY! The last day of school was another cold, wet day. Don't get me wrong, I like rainy days, a lot, and am perfectly happy with this. However, the last day of school was Splash Day for the girls. And they wore bathing suits. And played water games. And being typical 6 year olds, saw absolutely nothing wrong with this!

At the girls' school, there were 4 kindergarten classes, each with around 25 students. On the last day of school, they set up 8 stations around the playground: ice cream sundaes, water balloon hot potato, sidewalk chalk, hotdogs, bubbles, water relays, water painting, and potato sack races. The kids were numbered, 1 thru 8, which told them which station they started with. Then, they rotated through each of the 8 stations, which were manned by parent volunteers. Everyone had a really good time, and the rain that we did have didn't seem to put a damper on anything at all.

I had a camera with a really good zoom lens, so I was able to stay at my station (ice cream!), and capture all of the action. As the kids didn't typically know that I was taking pictures, there are not many where they are looking at me. And now, I'll let the pictures tell the story!

Abby, having lunch.

Emma, at the chalk station.

Abby, ready to get wet at the water relay.

Emma, having lunch.

Abby, at the potato sack race.

Emma, ready for some water play.

Emma, "painting" with water.

Emma's turn to race.

Abby, enjoying her ice cream.

Emma, looking dreamy!

Abby at the water balloon game.

Abby, becoming a big chalky mess!

Emma, playing with water balloons.

I realize that some of those pictures look a little bit sunny. The sun played games with us all morning...it would peek out for a few minutes, then be swallowed by clouds again. There were a few cloud bursts, but before an alternate plan could be put in action, it would stop. From what I understand, though, the initial plan was for the kids to be soaked, so I think they modified the games a little! And now, we have first graders!

Here is Emma and Abby, in their last kindergarten picture, taken right before we left for school:

See you soon!

Kindergarten Graduation!

2011-06-07T12:08:00.000-07:00

Hello there!

How are you? We are all fine here. I've been MIA for the last week, but we've been busy with end of the school year activities! Last Wednesday, June 1, Abby and Emma had their kindergarten graduation ceremony. It was so cute!

All of the kids were assembled on one side of the room, watching their parents come in. There were chairs on the other side of the room, for the guests. If you look carefully, in the back row, you'll see our girls. Abby is directly in front of the yellow flowers, and Emma is 2 seats to the right.

Abby, volunteering for something, their classmate N, and Emma.

Once the guests got settled (and it was a PACKED house!), the kindergarteners sang a selection of some of the songs they had learned this year, some complete with hand motions.

They were really cute, and finished with The Star Spangled Banner.

They all put on their caps, which had been stowed under their chairs. The boys wore blue and the girls wore red, which are the school colors. The teacher read a poem that she had written, about how special they were as a class, and how much she was hating to say goodbye to them. She got really choked up, and started to cry, which I think undid most of the moms in the room!

This is Mrs. Blanch. The girls really loved her, and Katie is hoping to have her next year!

Each child was called up, and when they got to the front of the room, Mrs. Blanch gave them each a hug. They were also given promotion certificates, but those had been placed at their chairs. The certificates are really nice: they are in a folder, with the certificate in the left hand side, and a graduation picture in the right side.
Here is Abby:

And here is Emma:

After the ceremony, it was time to mingle with the graduates, and share some refreshments. They had pizza, cookies, cupcakes, and punch, but I steered the girls away, as I had a surprise planned for them after school. Here are pictures of the people that were there from our family:

Katie, Brianna, Maddie, Dick, and Mom. Brianna's boyfriend was there too.

Brittany's boyfriend, Brittany, and I. Don and I each had a camera, that's how I managed to get in there. I'm horrible though, I didn't take a picture of him!

Don's mom, Rita. She came up the night before, and stayed for the rest of the week.

Becky was able to get the time off from work.

Unfortunately, Dad and Ann couldn't make it, as they were getting ready to fly to NJ for a family wedding.

After school, I loaded everyone in the cars and we went to Chuck E. Cheese's to celebrate. I don't have any pictures from there, as it is crazy enough keeping track of the kids, without trying to take pictures of them too. We were there for 3 hours, so suffice it to say that all of the adults were exhausted!

When we came home, I made a cake to have after dinner. The kids got a kick out of it!

Here is Maddie, practicing for her turn in 4 years:

And here are our graduates, class of 2023 (yikes!):

Abby

Emma

Tomorrow, pictures from the last day of school!

My husband is AMAZING!

2011-05-31T15:44:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, Don came home from work with a flat of absolutely beautiful strawberries. We have a local stand, and their berries are delicious. For the past couple of years, I've bought between 2 and 6 flats of strawberries, and made jam from them. Last year, I didn't make any, because in 2009, I made about 100 jars, and we didn't need any.

This year, however, we have been running low. And I've not made any moves to fix the situation. So, Don bought strawberries. I told him that I wasn't ready to do that this weekend, and his reply was....."I know. I'm going to do it this year." This made me pause. When Don and I met, he was not exactly, um....fluent...in kitchen skills. Being a bachelor, he didn't really have to be. And while he has come a long way, I was not quite sure that he was up to jam. Was I ever wrong!

See how beautiful?

Friday morning, I went to the grocery store to buy sugar and pectin. Saturday morning, we bought more strawberries, more sugar, and more pectin, as well as canning jar lids. Then the work began in earnest.

Sorting and washing strawberries.

Hulling berries.

Mashing the berries, a cup at a time.

One of three containers of puree.

Let me say right here that Don had minimal help from me. I kind of advised from the sidelines with advice like "Technically, you're supposed to do this, but I do it a different way." Without exception, Don chose to do it the way you are supposed to, which is actually better. I like to take shortcuts.

Sugar, measured and ready for the pot.

Maddie, watching and "supervising".

Cooking the puree and pectin.

Maddie, making sure that Dad is stirring properly.

I am really quite impressed. Not only did he make the jam, he cleaned up as he went along, a fairly unfamiliar process in my kitchen. Which was good, as I had scrubbed the kitchen thoroughly the day before.

Lids, sitting at the ready in boiling water.

Adding sugar to the pot.

The boiling stage is over.

Filling the jars.

The first jar, ready for the hot water canner.

Truly, the biggest contribution I made to the day was finding empty jars in the garage. And I didn't need to do that, Don could've found them easily.

At the end of the weekend, we had 40 jars of jam for the shelf, plus one in the refrigerator. It is soooo yummy! The kids had fresh strawberry jam sandwiches all weekend!

Now that I know that Don can, and is willing to make jam, the sky's the limit! I wonder if he realizes that I'm hoping to go cherry picking this weekend????

See you soon!

Bonus today: Bad Mom!

2011-05-31T15:13:00.000-07:00

OK, Confession time. It was brought to my attention that when I blogged about the Daisy Scout Investiture ceremony, I inadvertently left out one of the girls. And, it was one of my girls. And, I really, really, really thought I had included her. But, I didn't. So, without further adieu, here are pictures from Abby's investiture ceremony:

The Girl Scout Promise

Waiting for her Girl Scout pins.

Hoping Mom doesn't poke her with the pin!

A full-fledged Daisy!

I can't believe I did that. I'm not sure what happened, but hopefully, I've made up for it now!

Daisy Scout Princess Party

2011-05-31T12:34:00.000-07:00

On Monday, May 23, our troop attended a Daisy Princess Party, sponsored by a Cadet troop in our area. The girls had a ball...talk about a tailor made event! The troop that sponsored this has done so for about 7 years now. This particular event was open only to Daisy troops. There were around 70 kindergarten/1st grade age girls there!

The girls were to dress up in their favorite princess costumes, and then come and do princess themed activities. We attended in lieu of our regular troop meeting.

Abby and Emma borrowed dresses from one of their troop mates. Brittany gave them each royal hairstyles before we left the house. Abby wasn't entirely happy about this adventure, as she was a little tired, but she warmed up quickly.

Each troop was given a hand stamp, in a princess type theme. There were 6 stations set up, and the different troops rotated around to each station. Our first stop was the Royal Treasure Box.

This was basically musical chairs: the girls handed around the treasure box, and whoever was holding it when the music stopped got to pick out a prize. The girls running the station made sure that each girl got a prize. Every girl in our troop picked out a "glass" slipper. In this picture, Princess EC is handing the box to Princess C, while Princess Emma watches.

Princess Abby, waiting for the treaasure box.

Princess C, Princess EC, and Princess Emma

Here is Troop 31804's Royal Court, on their way to the next station:

Princess EC, Princess C, Princess Emma, Princess M, and Princess Abby

The next station was the Princess Snack station. Each girl was given a juice pouch and a piece of bread. They had various cookie cutters available, and each girl cut a shape out of her bread. The most popular shape was a heart, but there was a star, a flower, and a butterfly also. They got to spread their bread with strawberry jam, and the Royal Attendant sprinkled their bread with pink sugar. Yummy!

Princess Emma

Princess Abby

Princess M and Princess C

At our next station, the girls made Princess Streamers, to be used for their Princess Dancing. This was a very clever craft, and very easy for girls at this level to do. They were each given a ponytail elastic and 6 ribbons. They were taught how to fold the ribbons in half, thread the ribbon loop through the elastic, then pull the ribbon ends through the loop to tighten it up.

Princess M and Princess Abby, listening to instructions.

Princess Abby, Princess C, and Princess EC, making their bracelets.

After their streamers were done, the princesses put them on their wrists and did a twirly, spinny dance around the ballroom:

Princess Emma, in a fast paced princess dance.

The next station was the Royal Shrinky Dink station, where each girl was given a Shrinky Dink picture to color. They had already cut out and hole punched the pictures, so each girl just had to color it as she chose, then give it to a Royal Attendant to be baked. The finished Shrinky Dink was used at the next station.

Princess Emma, Princess C, Princess Abby, and Princess M. Lady Rhiannon is helping in the background. Princess EC was a little further down on the bench.

The next station was to make Royal jewelery. The girls were each given a piece of lacing plastic, with their Shrinky Dink piece strung on the middle. There were pans of pony beads of various colors and shapes along the table, and the girls were told to add beads to each side. When they were done, the ends were knotted together.

Princess C and Princess M

Princess EC

Princess Emma

Princess Abby

The final station was at the Royal Photography booth. All of the troop princesses gathered together to have their picture taken. Then they decorated commemorative frames, which will have the photo mounted on it, and then they will be sent to us.

Princess M, Princess EC, Princess C,
Princess Abby, and Princess Emma.
This is a picture that I took, the official one isn't back yet.

Princess Emma

Princess Abby

This was a really, really well run event. All of the older girls related very well to the younger girls, and there was plenty of help on hand to keep things running smoothly. The girls also received a patch for their smocks, but for a change, the event overshadowed that fact! And the REALLY good news?? They'll be invited back next year too!

Accordian Scrapbook Tutorial

2011-05-30T12:27:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I mentioned that the elementary school had hosted a craft/rummage sale as a school fundraiser, and that I made some small gift bags. At the same time that I was making the gift bags, I was making small scrapbooks, which I also learned how to do at MOPS. Unfortunately, I only got a few completed, and opted to leave them home until the next show, when I would be able to finish some more.

I did take pictures of the process though, so I'm going to share them with you now.

Supplies needed:
2 Foam core squares, cut 6" by 6"
3 12" x 12" pieces of cardstock
Scrapbook paper: 2- 8" x 8" squares, 3- 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" squares, and twelve triangles, cut from 5" squares
Glue
Tape
Ruler
Butter knife
Ribbon

Step one: Cover the foam core boards using the 8" squares of scrapbook paper. I found that it helps to wrap them, as you would a gift. Secure the edges with tape, if desired.

Step two: Using a ruler and the back side of a butter knife, score the 12" cardstock from top to bottom and from edge to edge through the center. Scoring will really help with folding crisply along the lines. After both directions are scored, fold the card stock along one line. Unfold and fold on the other line. Unfold again.

Step three: Turn the cardstock over and score from corner to corner, diagonally. Repeat with other diagonal. After both scores are made, fold along score lines, as you did in step two. Make sure that the horizontal/vertical folds were made on one side of the paper, and the diagonal folds are made on the other side of the paper.

Repeat steps two and three on the remaining 12" x 12" papers.

Step four: Lay the three pieces of cardstock side by side on the table from point to point, being sure the folds are all oriented the same way. Take the middle page and turn it over. Overlap the squares of the three papers as shown in the photo, and glue together.

Step five: Begin gluing your scrapbook squares and triangles to the 3 assembled pieces of cardstock. Mix and match papers, use coordinating papers, just generally have fun. I have done a few theme albums for holidays.

Step six: Carefully refold the papers, making sure they fold properly, and lay flat.

Step seven: Glue one covered foam core board to the top and one to the bottom of the stack, making sure the pages are centered on the foam core squares.

It may be helpful to weight the album with a heavy book until the glue is dry.
Step eight: Glue a ribbon to the front only of the book, paying attention to which direction the book opens in. Make sure the ribbon is long enough to wrap around the back of the book, and tie on the right hand side. If desired, you can glue pieces of paper over the ribbon, to use as both an anchor, and a way of labeling the scrapbook. You can also add stickers, photos, or other embellishments if you wish.

After you complete the scrapbook, open it up and add your photos. This makes a compact little album, which makes a great gift for just about anybody. Have fun!

Daisy Scouts have Jungle Fever

2011-05-29T12:06:00.000-07:00

On May 7th, our Daisy troop atteded a mother/daughter dance, sponsored by one of the older troops in Brentwood. The theme was "Jungle Fever", and everyone was supposed to wear their favorite animal print, and come for a "roaring" good time. I had asked the girls if they wanted to use part of their cookie money to attend this dance, and they voted unanimously to go!

The dance was held at our church. The troop that hosted had invited all of the Girl Scout troops in the area, but it seemed to be attended by the mostly younger troops. They did a great job: they decorated, set up long tables with lots of seating, and provided paper and crayons. The refreshments they served were taco salad, fruit salad, pretzels, and brownies. They had hired a dj, and set up a photo booth, where girls could go with their moms to have pictures taken. A few days later, the troop leader was sent the finished pictures. And, each girl got a patch, which was, I think, the highlight for quite a few of them!

Here are some of the pictures I was able to take throughout the evening:

Emma and Abby, enjoying a snack.

Madelynn, with her grandma and mom.

Carolynn and her mom, on the dance floor.

Emma and Abby, "bustin' some moves"

Troop 31804, at the photo booth.

Emma and Abby, having dessert.

Carolyn and her mom.

Abby and Emma

Emma, Carolyn, and Emma C, doing the Hokey Pokey.

The DJ. He changed his wig every so often. I'm not sure if any of the girls noticed!

This was a REALLY fun night, and I think everyone had a good time. I did see quite a few "wilted" little girls by the time we left. I've never seen so many animal print outfits in one place before, and quite a few of the moms were really getting into it. The younger girls all screamed whenever the DJ played Justin Bieber, and my girls were singing along to all of the Disney channel original movie songs. The highlight for all of my girls was when the DJ turned on the bubble machine. Glad he saved that to the very end!

We're really looking forward to our next Daisy Scout event. Stay tuned, it's not far behind!

Mini Purse Giftbag Tutorial

2011-05-28T09:32:00.000-07:00

Hi there!

I'm trying to catch up on some of the things we've done in the last couple of months. Back in April, the girls' elementary school sponsored a craft/rummage sale fundraiser, and my mom and I participated. As happens to me prior to EVERY craft sale, a couple of days before the sale, I start feeling the frantic urge to add to my stock, as I'm usually caught up on projects for gifts, not for sale.

This time was no exception, so I made 26 of these gift bags, which I was shown at a MOPS craft day. The supplies you need are:

a lunch bag size paper bag
scrapbook paper
colored card stock
ribbon
self adhesive Velcro dot
glue
embellishment for the flap

To begin, take your paper bag and fold down the flap to meet with the bottom edge of the bag. Cut the bag 4 inches tall from the bottom of the flaps.

Cut your scrap book paper into 3 pieces: 2 of them 4" x 6", and one 1 1/2" x 5". Cut your colored card stock into 2 pieces: one 4 1/4" x 5 1/2", 6 1/4" x 5 1/2". This is what you should have:

Take the larger of your colored card stock pieces, and score it cross ways 1 3/4" down from the top edge. Fold along the score line.

Glue your scrapbook paper pieces to your cardstock pieces, keeping even colored margins around each pieces. Pay attention to the patterns if they are directional or continuous patterns. Your folded piece will be the back of the bag, but the flap will be on the front.

Now it's time to attach the colored papers to the paper bag. I used white glue, thinned with a little bit of water, and a sponge brush. It seemed to work really well. Be sure to leave an evenly spaced colored border around the bag, and to line up the edges of the front and back pieces.

Punch 2 evenly spaced holes in the fold of your cardstock. Thread your ribbon through, and knot the ends. Make sure you use the smallest hole punch you can find, or your knots will have to be huge!

Center a Velcro dot on the front of the bag, and center the corresponding piece on the flap. In order to make this a little easier, I stuck the two dots together, peeled off the paper backing, and attached the first dot to the bag. Then, I closed the flap, pressing it down on the sticky part of the other dot.

Close the flap, and add the embellishment of your chose to the flap, just over the Velcro dot. Some ideas are buttons, jewels, stickers, etc.

When you open up the bag, you have a gift bag that looks like a small purse, and is just right for a small gift.

These projects are easy, inexpensive, and limited only by what is available at your local craft store. And, as you can see, they are easy to do on a large scale!

Have fun, and I'll be back soon with another idea!

Daisy Scout Investiture Ceremony

2011-05-27T13:02:00.000-07:00

On April 4th, we held our Daisy Scout Investiture Ceremony. I printed invitations for each girl to hand out to family members, and we planned a little reception for after the ceremony.

When we first arrived, I had the girls help set up the chairs for our guests.

While we waited for our guests to arrive, we took care of our troop opening, which was the Pledge of Allegience. (Brittany came with me to help, and she took care of taking pictures!)

Did you notice that Katie snuck in there???

We talked a little bit about what was going to happen during the ceremony:

Then I welcomed our guests, and gave them a little bit of Girl Scout history:

We use a popsicle stick system for a lot of things, like determining whose turn it is, who will get to be "it", things like that. This night was no exception. I have 5 popsicle sticks in one of my back pockets. Each stick has a girl's name on it, and the stick chosen is the girl who will be next. Once a stick is chosen, it goes in my other pocket. For the Investiture, each girl came forward and recited the Girl Scout Promise. Then, she and I shook hands with the Girl Scout handshake. Her mother pinned on her Girl Scout pins, and then I handed her a gerbera daisy.

The first up was Madelynn:

Next came Emma C.:

Followed by Carolyn:

And last but not least, Emma H.:

And here is a picture of Brentwood's newest Daisy troop:

And my own personal Daisies:

Abby

Emma

Now, the moment the girls were waiting for: snack time, which is a very big part of every Girl Scout meeting. I decided to get a cupcake cake, and when I found this one at the store that morning, I knew I couldn't have found anything better.

The girls mingled with their families while we all had refreshments, then it was time to clean up and go home. But there are more posts coming about our Daisy Troop adventures, stay tuned!

Brianna turns 17

2011-05-26T12:44:00.000-07:00

Brianna, my oldest daughter, turned 17 on May 3rd. I really don't know how that happened. She's not supposed to be 17 yet, as I'm not old enough for a 17 year old!

We celebrated her birthday on April 30th, with a family party. Mom, Dick, Dad, Ann, and Becky joined us for a birthday dinner. We had a hamburger and hotdog bar, which is my absolute favorite party dinner these days. Don manned the grill, and I laid out all of the fixin's. Apparently, I go overboard...I put out 3 kinds of cheese, bacon, guacamole, standard burger produce, and grilled onions. This year, I went to our garage and opened one of every kind of homemade relish out there, including homemade ketchup. I love an excuse for lots of choices!

Anyway, back to Brianna. For the first time in a very long time, she seemed genuinely happy. Made me remember the little girl Brianna, who was always smiling. It was good to see, but made me a little sad at the same time. She was around for her whole party, and engaged with everyone. Here she is opening gifts:

(Maddie "helped" her the whole time, which is why she is in so many pictures!)

Here is another picture of the cake:

When I asked Brianna what kind of cake she wanted, she told me to surprise her. So I did. This is Brianna's favorite: chocolate cake, split lengthwise, with a layer of homemade whipped cream and sliced bananas in the middle. The rest is frosted in more whipped cream. So yummy, and she was surprised. I had the 3 girls help me with the decorations. I sliced some jumbo marshmallows, and they dipped the sticky sides in various colored sugars. I really think they like to help. The stems on the flowers are green Twizzlers I found at the grocery store that morning. I hadn't planned on using them on the cake, but they worked perfectly!

I always like how birthday cakes look when the candles are lit!

Here she is, thinking of what to wish for. Katie is anxious for the first piece. I think she wanted to make sure that she got the piece with the blue flower!

Yes, she blew out all the candles, so I guess that means she'll get her wish. I wonder what it was??? Should I be nervous about that???

See you soon!

Easter Sunday

2011-05-25T12:36:00.000-07:00

OK, so I'm a little late on this, but I'm going to go ahead and post it now. Better late than never, right?

Our family begins their Easter celebration the night before, with egg dyeing. We let all of the kids participate, which makes it extra fun. Extra messy, too, and they usually have colored fingers for church the next day, but that's all part of the fun. This was the first year that Maddie participated:

We colored a total of 48 eggs, I think, which gave each of the 6 kids 8 eggs.

Abby & Katie

Brittany, Emma, and Maddie

Emma, Maddie, and Don

I didn't dye eggs this year, for perhaps the first time ever. I got a much easier job: assembling breakfast casseroles for the next morning. Have you ever made an overnight casserole? We have a couple that we really like. One is bread, ham, and cheese, layered, and then a beaten egg mixture poured on top. The other is a french toast casserole, which is a sweetened milk/egg mixture poured on top of cubed bread. Both are put in the refrigerator overnight, then put in the oven the next morning. They are great for large brunch get togethers! Here is the recipe for my favorite French Toast casserole. The only things I change are that I cut the bread into 1" cubes, and I sometimes use maple flavored french toast bread.

I also got together all the ingredients to make Resurrection Cookies with the girls. They are basically meringe cookies, but each ingredient and step is tied to the Easter story. For instance, these called for pecans, which you place in a resealable bag. The kids beat them with a wooden spoon, which represents the harsh treatment Jesus faced. The kids taste each ingredient along the way, and you explain the correlation, along with reading Bible verses. The vinegar represents the vinegar Jesus was given on the cross, the eggs represent new life, the salt represents the salty tears of Jesus' disciples, the sugar is the sweet promise that was fulfilled, the white color represents purity in God's eyes of those clensed of their sin. You put the cookies in a preheated oven, turn the oven off, and seal it with scotch tape, to represent the sealed tomb. When the kids get up in the morning, you "unseal" the oven, and give each child a cookie, telling them to break it open. It is hollow inside, which represents the empty tomb. Here is the site where I got the recipe. I really liked them, and think we will make that part of our tradition. The kids didn't like them so much, but I think that was because there were nuts in them!

We all went to church in the morning, and were met at home by Mom, Dick, Becky, and a couple of Brittany's friends. While Brittany, Becky and I worked on breakfast, the kids had their egg hunt. I missed most of it, as I was in the kitchen, but Don took some pictures.

Emma and Abby

Katie

Maddie and Katie

Emma and Katie. See that blur? That's how a lot of our pictures came out that day. The kids move faster than the camera!

Yes, our egg hunt was in the house. It was raining, or threatening to rain, all day. We've not had an egg hunt outside since we moved to this house, 4 years ago! But the kids had fun, and it did limit the spots for hiding eggs, which is both good and bad.

Here are the girls in their Easter dresses, before the hunt started. This was one of the few times they sat still all day!

After brunch, we all just hung out and played games. Mom, Dick, and Becky stayed, and it was a very relaxing day. We also did the full Easter dinner: ham, scalloped potatoes, deviled eggs, broccoli salad (Mom's special recipe, and a family favorite!), asparagus, applesauce, and rolls. I found a recipe for Blender Hollandaise sauce, that was so quick, easy and GOOD that I'll never used the packaged stuff again. As a matter of fact, I've made it twice since Easter! Dessert was a carrot cake roll with cream cheese frosting, which can be found here. This cake is much easier than it looks, and completely worth the effort. Best carrot cake I've ever had, I think!

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this belated look at our holiday. I'll be back tomorrow, with a look at Brianna's birthday party. See you then!

Back again!

2011-05-11T16:29:00.000-07:00

Hello all, I'm back again, and apologize deeply for such a long absence. I've put the time to good use, though, I promise!

As you know, I decided back at the end of January to knit dresses and sweaters for the four younger girls for Easter. As my deadline drew closer, I came to realize that if I spent time at the computer, that was time away from my knitting needles, and I needed every minute I could get. So, while I was away from you, every spare minute, and I mean Every Single Spare Minute, was spent on the dresses. But YAY, I finished, on time, and without pulling a single all- nighter!

Here are Emma's and Abby's dresses:

And here are Madison's and Katie's:

Here are the girls on Easter morning:

They were quite happy with these dresses, which was a huge relief to me, after the months spent working on them. While at church that morning, several people complimented them on their outfits. Without fail, (well, except for Maddie), each girl said, "Thank you, my mom made it.", which made me quite happy. It was nice to feel that they were proud of me!

And that is nearly the sum total of my knitting projects for March and April. I did manage this knitted, beaded necklace, which was meant for Easter, but wound up not matching the dress I bought. I did wear it on another occasion though, and got several comments about it. I can't wait to try another one!

And I spent quite a bit of time on a cross stitch picture for Don, which was meant to be an anniversary present. Our anniversary fell on Easter as well, and his present wasn't finished quite on time. As I didn't actually finish it until May, and as it isn't in a frame yet, I will post pictures of that sometime later.

Here is a picture of Don with his carrot harvest. I have to say, initially, I thought the garden was my garden, but it turns out, it is actually Don's! He takes great pride in the vegetables that he grows, and I, after all, get to do the fun parts, which consist of helping to choose what we are going to grown, and then doing something with them after harvest!

Don, however, prepared this harvest for the freezzer. He cleaned all of these, then sliced them, blanched them, and put them in the freezer. We wound up with 3 1/2 pounds of sliced carrots...not too shabby! Added to the cauliflower and broccoli, we had quite a nice little winter garden. That's gone now though, and the spring/summer veggies are in, and already doing quite well!

This post was meant to be short and sweet, just to let you know that I've not forgotten about you! I'll be back soon to catch you up on some of our other doings. See you soon!

More homemade goodies for the freezer!

2011-03-30T14:04:00.000-07:00

Another one of my favorite cookbooks these days is "Taste of Home: Mom's Best Made Easy". I came across this recipe, and had to try it!

Easy Egg Rolls
1 pound of ground beef
1 package (16 ounces) coleslaw mix (not the kind with dressing)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
onion powder to taste,
40 egg roll wrappers
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
Oil for frying

In a large skillet, cook the ground beef. Drain very well.

In a mixing bowl, combine coleslaw mix, soy sauce, ginger, garlic powder and onion powder.

Add the ground beef and mix well.

In a small bowl, mix the flour and enough water to make a paste. (I actually omitted this step, and used plain water.)
Working with one egg roll wrapper at a time, Place a heaping tablespoon of beef mixture in the center of the wrapper. Keep the other wrappers covered with a damp paper towel.

Fold the bottom corner over the filling:

Then the side corners into the center:

Moisten the top corner with your flour/water paste mixture, (or plain water), and roll up tightly:

Place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet until all egg rolls are made.

Those are Brittany's fingers, so I figured she wanted to be included in this post. Here she is:

Whoops, guess I was wrong!

In an electric skillet, heat 1 inch of oil to 375 degrees. Fry egg rolls 3-5 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve with sweet and sour sauce, if desired. I actually cooked them in the oven the first time. Arrange on a cookie sheet, spray with non stick cooking spray, and bake at 375 degrees until golden brown. They were good that way too, but next time, if I have room on my stove, I will fry them.

This recipe made 40 egg rolls, which is way too many for us to eat at one meal. So, you guessed it, I froze them! After lining them up on cookie sheets, I stuck them in the freezer. Once they were solid, I removed them to a ziptop bag, and labeled them. This way, I can take out only what I need for a snack or a meal. All in all, this recipe took me about an hour to finish.

I can see that this recipe would be very versatile, as well. Next time, I will use ground pork, and possibly add some bean sprouts. You could vary the amounts of garlic, onion, and ginger powder you use. You could also substitute teriyaki or plum sauce for the soy sauce. Use this as a spring board....as an almost complete departure from the traditional egg roll, you could use ground pork, barbecue sauce, and coleslaw mix for a pulled pork sandwich type of experience. Experiment, I know I'm going to!

Recycled Wool Sweater, Part 2

2011-03-29T13:31:00.000-07:00

In yesterday's post, I showed you the hats I made with the recycled wool sweaters. While I really enjoyed that project, it did leave me with a problem.

What in the world was I going to do with 3/4 of a sweater? Throwing this out was not an option, nor was putting it back in a bag in the garage. What to do, what to do...I know, I'll make a bag!

To begin, I cut off the features of the sweater that I wanted to preserve, namely the buttons and the pockets.

I squared up the pieces, to get some idea of the size of the bag I would be making. Basically, the sweater dictated everything about the finished bag to me.

I did not work from a pattern at all on this. I did determine that the button bands, as they were, were way to bulky. Plus, I did not want my bag to be unbuttoned. So, I set about to "de-bulk" them, and sew the sides closed.

I cut away the extra bulk of the sweater, making sure to leave the buttons in place, which is what those little square are:

I matched up the pieces again, and sewed them together through both pieces:

Next, I figured out what I wanted to do about handles. My goal was to use as much of this sweater as I could, so I cut strips out of the upper back of the sweater:

I sewed these into tubes, and turned them right side out.

They were a little stretchier than I wanted, so I threaded a piece of bias tape through them, and sewed them across the ends.

I didn't relish the idea of sewing through two layers of wool sweater; my poor sewing machine was not looking forward to it either, so I went to the stash in the garage and found some lightweight denim fabric, which I used to frame the sweater pieces. Plus, it gave the bag a classic "jeans and sweater" look.

After sewing the pieces together, I had this:

Not enough structure for the type of bag I had in mind. So, back to the garage, where I found a large piece of mat board, left over from another project. I measured, cut and taped, and made this framework for the interior of the bag:

Which meant that now it was time to make a lining. Back to the garage for fabric and fusible fleece, plus the instructions for the bag I made my mom for her birthday last year. I really liked how the pockets in that bag worked, and wanted to make some for this bag. I love pockets in tote bags!

The pockets for one side of the lining with various objects showing where the pockets are. I made the other piece with 4 pockets.
Next, I finished the lining, and squared off the bottom:

After inserting the lining into the bag, I pinned around the top edge, in preparation for hand sewing the lining in.

And here is the finished product:

I LOVE this bag. It is the right width for holding skeins of yarn upright, which really helps with center pull skeins. I can use this bag when I knit on the go, and it will keep the yarn contained. Lots of interior pockets for needles, hooks, scissors, etc. And, it was a stash buster project! I did not buy one new thing in the construction of this bag!

Someday, hopefully soon, I will be making a different style bag from the other hat. When I get it finished, I will post it here!

Recycled Wool Sweater, Part 1

2011-03-28T13:06:00.000-07:00

Quite a long time ago, I got some ideas for using old wool sweaters for felted projects. I went to a thrift store near my mom's house and bought several of them, came home, and threw them in the washing machine and shrunk them. On purpose. Two of said sweaters were cut up immediately and made into cell phone cases and coffee cup sleeves for our boutiques. I still have them. They didn't sell. Not one. So....I decided it was pointless to do any more. Which left me with 3 felted wool sweaters. Enter the chemo cap project.

I was web surfing, looking for chemo cap patterns, when I happened on a site for making caps out of recycled wool sweaters. I neglected to note the website, and so cannot share the exact link for you, but if you do a search, you'll come up with dozens of other sites, all similar. (I'm so sorry I didn't save the link.)

Anyway, that site jogged the memory of these sweaters languishing in a bag in the garage, so I retrieved two of them and got started.

The first step was to make a paper pattern. I used the finished dimensions of another hat that I had, measured out the height and width, then "connected the dots". After cutting out the pattern, I pinned it to one of the sweaters, and cut out two pieces.

Putting right sides together, and pinning around, I got this:

Well, okay, that's a different sweater, but you get the idea!

Sew a quick seam, using a 1/4" allowance, to get this:

Turn your hats right side out, and presto!

One hundred percent wool hats, in under an hour! Plus, I not only repurposed something, I cleaned out a bag in the garage!

Chemo Cap Ministry

2011-03-27T12:45:00.000-07:00

About a month and a half ago, a ministry was started at our church to provide chemo caps to one of our local hospitals. The lady heading up this ministry offered patterns and lessons for knitting, crocheting and/or sewing various chemo caps, and even offered materials, if necessary.

I decided to join, as I've gotten kind of fond of knitting hats, and have lots and lots of yarn in the garage just waiting for a worthy project. Seemed like it was meant to be. I'd purchased lots of yarn to use for a Prayer Shawl Ministry that hasn't gotten off the ground yet, so perhaps this would be a stepping stone.

This ministry was really tailored to offer something for everyone. Can't knit? Crochet. Can't crochet? Sew. Can't do any of the 3? Volunteer to make the cards added to each one. That not your cup of tea either? You can help out financially. I think the turn out and support offered far exceeded anyone's expectations! The organizer of this decided to have a goal date of March 22, and was hoping to have 50 caps done by this date. Through members of our congregation, and other knitters in the community, I believe over 100 caps were completed.

I'd really anticipated contributing heavily to the finished cap pile. Unfortunately, the Easter Dress Project began at the same time, and I really focused my attentions there. And ironically, although I pictured my
self knitting caps, I only finished one (which isn't pictured here; I donated it to one of the ladies at MOPS, who wanted one for a family member.) I took advantage of the offer of lessons from an experienced crocheter, and tried my hand at crocheting hats.

Here is a picture of the caps that I donated:

The baseball hat in back and the blue hat in front are crocheted. The two ribbed caps are made from recycled wool sweaters, and the two on the right are "do rags", made from cotton fabric. I have 2 other crocheted hats in progress, that I will hopefully finish in time for the March Project wrap up.

Here is a closer picture of the baseball hat. I was browsing for patterns, and came across this. I operate in a strange kind of way. When I see something kind of challenging, I have to try it, just to see if I can do it. This was one such project. I did hit a snag, and had to pull out quite a bit, but figured out where I went wrong, and was able to fix it. The bill is two crocheted pieces, worked over a piece of plastic canvas. I'm very pleased with how this one came out, and hope to make a few more!

Here are the 2 do rags. They are reversible, and I used each of the two fabrics in both hats. I have a stack of fabric waiting for me to do some more of these. They were very quick projects, and seem as though they would be very comfortable in the summer weather.

Once my Easter goals are met, I hope to return to doing some more of these. There is some talk about extending the ministry, to make it an ongoing project. I hope they do!

Soup Day, part 2

2011-03-26T12:11:00.000-07:00

As promised, here is the recipe for the Pioneer Woman Sherried Tomato soup, with a modification.

1 medium white or yellow onion, chopped
6 tablespoons butter
Two 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes
One 46 oz bottle or can of tomato juice (I used vegetable juice)
3 to 6 tablespoons sugar
1 or 2 tablespoons chicken base, or 3 chicken bouillon cubes
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup sherry (optional, but it really adds a nice flavor)
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
1/4 cup chopped basil

Melt the butter in a large pot. Add the onion, and sautee until translucent.

Add the diced tomatoes, then the tomato juice. Stir to combine, then stir in the sugar and bouillon. (I used 3 tablespoons of sugar, and bouillon granules.)

This is where I changed the recipe slightly. The first time I made this soup, I made it exactly as written, and it was good, but I didn't like the feel of so many chunks. I wanted a really smooth soup, so I used my immersion blender to puree it. You could do the same thing with a regular blender or food processor, working in batches, and returning it to the pot.

Add the black pepper to taste, and stir to combine. Heat almost to boiling, then turn off the heat. Now to add all of the flavor...the sherry!

Next, add the cream and the chopped herbs.

Stir to combine, and enjoy. Both times that I've made this, I've frozen it in individual portion sizes, and it reheats beautifully. Just the thing to have on hand for rainy, cold days. Try this soup, you won't be sorry!

My soup day

2011-03-25T11:46:00.000-07:00

As you no doubt know, my husband has built a fabulous garden for us in the backyard. I like to refer to it as "my garden", but the realtiy is that it is his, and he takes great pride in it. He designed it, built it from the ground up, hauled the dirt, installed the irrigation system, and does most of the planting. The only part that is truly mine is making yummy things from the produce that results.

Last fall, we planted broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, cabbage, carrots, and romaine lettuce. While everything did pretty well, we are particularly pleased with the cauliflower. Two weeks ago, Don picked the last 3 heads. Don cut 2 of them into florets, blanched them, and left them for me to freeze. We got 4 one pound packs to put in the freezer. With the last one, I decided to make Cream of Cauliflower Cheese soup.

Katie, holding one of the "smaller" cauliflowers.

Here is my recipe for Cream of Cauliflower-Cheese Soup:
4 cups fresh Cauliflower florets
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 teaspoon celery seeds
1/4 teaspoon salt
black pepper to taste
1 cup milk or half-and-half
1/2 cup shredded American cheese

I cut up the last cauliflower and came up with 16 cups of florets, so I made a quadruple batch.

Step one: In a large saucepan, cook vegetables, covered, in a large amount of boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Set aside 1 cup of cooked vegetables. (I skipped this part.)

Step 2: In a food processor combine the remaining cooked vegetables with 3/4 cup of broth. Cover and process until smooth, about 1 minute. Set aside. (I pureed the whole amount of vegetables.)

Step 3: In the same saucepan, melt butter. Stir in flour and seasong. Add milk all at once. Cook and stir until slightly thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir 1 minute more.

Step 4: Stir in blended vegetables, remaining broth, and cheese. Cook and stir until heated through, adding additional milk if necessary, to reach desired consistency. If desired, season with additional salt and pepper. (Here, I added a little bit of fresh ground nutmeg.)

I didn't have shredded American, so I cubed a pack of slices.

Of course, being me, I packaged most of this soup in single sized portions, and put it in the freezer.

Many packages of yummy goodness! I hope you try this recipe, it's great for rainy days!

(Up next, the recipe for Pioneer Woman Sherried Tomato soup, pictured above!)

Maddie's Birthday Celebration

2011-03-24T12:00:00.000-07:00

Well, it's official....my daughters are all now out of the baby stage!

Last week, we celebrated Maddie's second birthday. On the morning of her birthday, we celebrated by going to Starbucks (in our pajamas!) to get mini birthday cake donuts and chocolate milk. Even Maddie got a "big girl" chocolate milk...and she loved it!

That afternoon, Don's mother flew up from SoCal, and we went out to a sushi dinner that night. The next day was Maddie's birthday party. We tend to not do children's parties, as just our own kids are a houseful, so we invited just family: Don's mom, my mom & stepdad, dad & stepmom, and sister, plus the 8 of us. Brittany's boyfriend also joined us, so there were 15 of us for dinner! I kept it simple: ravioli from our freezer stash, a crockpot of meat sauce, sausage and peppers, green salad, and garlic bread. I'm assuming it was delicious, as we really only had sauce left over!

After dinner came presents. It only took Maddie a present or two to catch onto the ripping of the paper. And she was thorough...if there was even a scrap of paper left on the box, she wouldn't open it! And of course, every present had to be investigated before we could move onto the next!

Do you see the boots Maddie's wearing? They were abandoned as soon as she opened Brit's present.

A veterinarian kit from her sisters.

Do you see the sandals she's wearing now? Brittany bought those for her, along with 2 outfits. As soon as she opened them, everything came to a halt while she changed her shoes!

Pajamas from Great Gam.

Wearing her helmet from Mom & Dad. We got her a Grow With Me Tricycle...she'll have a lot of fun with that, if it ever stops raining!

Next, it was time for cake, which everyone knows is the best part of any party!

I had spent the better part of my day baking for our church bake sale, which was the next day, and put Abby, Emma, and Katie to work making decorations for the cupcakes. See the flowers? They are jumbo marshmallows, cut in slices and dipped in colored sugar. The girls had a good time, so I had them make extras to use on the cake. I think they really enjoyed doing something special for their "favorite baby sister". My mother-in-law even helped...she made the yellow and orange ones!

Blowing out the candles. I understand she had a little help!

In my house, you can tell how good something is, particularly a treat type thing, by how much gets on a child's face as they are eating. I guess the cake was good!

Thanks to everyone that helped celebrate Maddie's special day!

Our Girl Scout Cookie Booth

2011-03-23T12:00:00.000-07:00

On March 12, our Daisy Troop had their second (of three) cookie booths. The reason I'm writing about the second booth and not the first is because I forgot the camera at the first one. (I also forgot to bring the camera with me to my shift at this one, but remembered it when we went back to pack up!)

This particular day was the 99th birthday of Girl Scouts of America. (On March 12, 1912, Juliette Gordon Low gathered 18 girls together to form the Girl Guides of America, which was later renamed the Girl Scouts of America.) We decided to play up the birthday theme, in the hopes of driving sales. I brought birthday balloons, a birthday banner, and the girls wore birthday hats. We also had signs on our table, explaining what day it was.

See the banner on our table? One of our troop moms made it for us! It's beautiful, made of felt, and should last for years. She put "Girl Scouts Troop 31804" on it, instead of "Daisy Troop" for just that reason. Thanks goodness for clever parents on our team!

Here are the girls, making a sale. They are so cute, which helps a lot, apparently. Some of the more experienced troop leaders have advised me to play up the natural cuteness of girls this age. After each sale, the girls say, "Thank you for supporting our Daisy Troop!"

Here is Madelynn's mom, Madelynn, and Emma C. Emma C.'s mom is behind the balloons.

Oh! I've been spotted! Although our troop is small right now (only 5 girls), we've got phenomenal parents, which is half (at least!) the battle.

The girls set a goal, as a troop, of 500 boxes of cookies sold. We've done 2 booths, and sold 84 boxes at each of them. When you add that to what the girls have sold individulally, they've sold 676 boxes, so far, and still have another booth to go. Plus, they can still sell to friends and family for another week. I'm so very proud of them!

Katie's Treats

2011-03-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

On March 10, Don took the day off from work and chaperoned Abby and Emma's first ever field trip. They went to see a musical featuring the Bernstain Bears. I'm not sure that Don is very willing to go on another field trip anytime soon, as from what I gather, chaos was the general theme of the day. Take 4 kindergarten classes, 4 first grade classes, put them on 3 school buses that have drivers that don't know where they're going, and add in 48 parent volunteers, driving their own vehicles. Send them 30 miles away, to a theater with inadequate parking, and just for fun, throw in a little rain. Sounds like a good time, right? As far as the actual field trip went, Abby and Emma had lots to say about riding on the bus, and about how their snack wasn't big enough. I heard only about one small part of the actual play!

Which left Katie and Maddie home with me, and Katie was a sad, sad girl. She really takes it hard when Abby and Emma go off to school and leave her home, and having them go on a trip, (on buses! with Dad!!) made it worse. So I asked her if she wanted to make a treat to surprise everyone with when they got home. She jumped at the chance, and was thrilled to do it all by herself!

We took at trip to the grocery store for the ingredients, and then came home and put Maddie down for her nap. Then we got started. Here is the recipe:

Warm Toasted Marshmallow S'mores Bars
1 pouch Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 cup butter or margarine, melted
3 cups milk chocolate chips (18 oz.)
4 1/2 cups mini marshmallows

1. Blend cookie mix and graham cracker crumbs; add melted butter. Blend well and press into the bottom of an ungreased 13 x 9 pan.

Katie, crushing the graham crackers...

...pouring the cookie mix into the bowl....

...adding melted butter....

...mixing....

...and pressing the crust into the pan.

2. Bake at 375 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes, or until set. Immediately sprinkle chocolate chips over baked layer. Let stand 3 to 5 minutes or until chocolate begins to melt. Spread chocolate evenly over baked layer.

Putting the pan in the oven.

Golden brown and set.

The chocolate chip layer.

Spreading the melted chocolate.

3. Set oven control to broil. Sprinkle marshmallows over melted chocolate. Broil with top 4 to 5 inches from heat for 20 to 30 seconds, or until marshmallows are toasted. (Watch closely, marshmallows will brown quickly.) Cool 10 minutes. Cut into 24 bars.

Adding the marshmallows.

Ready for the oven again.

The finished treat, and a proud girl!

We made these quite early in the day, so when I cut them to serve them, I put them in the microwave for a few seconds to warm them up. Normally, I don't agree with the serving size listed on the package, but in this case, 24 bars was generous, at least for us! None of us was able to completely finish our piece, as these are really sweet and gooey!

Abby, getting sticky!

Emma, too intent on dessert to even look at the camera!

Katie, obviously enjoying her treat!

Maddie, stopping mid bite to pose for the camera!

These were every bit as good as campfire s'mores, if not better. They were sticky, gooey, and sweet, without the worry about supervising kids near an open flame. These are definitely a "must do again" recipe. I hope you try them!

February Finished Projects

2011-03-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

OK, time for the update on finished projects for February. This might've been more impactful had I done it 2 weeks ago, but better late than never!

In no particular order, as I work on multiple projects at one time:

Katie and Emma's Easter dresses. Technically, there not done, as I still have to do the embroidery around the hems, but for my purposes today, they are done. I'm going to wait until all 8 pieces are done, and embroider them all at once. To refresh your memory, these are new projects, done with new yarn.

Here is a batch of 6 chemo caps that I made for the ministry group I joined at our church. The back one is a crocheted baseball cap, done in 100% cotton yarn, that I had in my stash. The red hat and the dice hat are actually reversible; I've pictured one hat each way. These are "do-rags", made with fabric from my stash. The two ribbed hats on the left are made from recycled wool sweaters, purchased over a year ago from a thrift store, so they count as from my stash. The blue hat in front was actually my first crocheted hat. It was made from primarily new yarn. The tiny little bit of contrast trim was stash yarn. Look for future blog posts about these.

This was probably my most fun (and most time consuming!) project for February! I made this cute tote bag, not because I really need another tote bag, (although can you ever really have too many of them?), but because I had 3/4 of a wool sweater that I needed to do something with. Also, to see if I could do it. Everything used for this bag was a stash item: recycled wool sweater, denim fabric, lining, fusible fleece, thread, and mat board for the frame work. I'm very happy with how this worked out, and use it all the time now. Look for an upcoming blog about this one too!

So, not a lot to show, but they've all been fairly sizable projects. I also worked on Abby's dress, but didn't finish it by February 28, so it's not here. There are miscellaneous small projects in the works also, as well as 2 more chemo caps on crochet hooks. And I finished another cap last night, but then again, it's March, isn't it? I'll save those for next month!

Recap: 9 projects started and finished for February. 3 were made with new materials, 6 from stash materials. Not too bad, if you ask me! Happy crafting!

Happy Birthday Madison!

2011-03-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

Today is the day that my sixth daughter turns 2. Although we found it hard to believe that we were having a sixth baby, now it's hard to remember a time before she was born. She's added so much to our family, and the seven of us can't imagine life without her.

Madison Grace, March 18, 2009

Madison Grace, March 17, 2011

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2011-03-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

As most people who know me can tell you, I love desserts. And I particularly love holiday desserts, especially those kind of, well, silly holidays. (Not that I think saints' days are silly, per se. It's just that, let's face it, here, for most people, St. Patrick's Day is just a day for corned beef and green beer.) Anyway, I like days where I can get a little silly with desserts: St. Pat's, April Fool's Day, Halloween. So I was really loving making dessert with the girls this year.

Although I would have dearly loved to make the Irish Cream Mousse cake I saw a recipe for, my target audience is a little too young yet for such a thing, so our St. Pat's desserts usually center around rainbows. Last year, we had really cool looking rainbow cupcakes (think tie dye). This year, it was....Jello. I saw the idea on the last page of a magazine, and thought it would be the perfect dessert. Don't ask me which magazine, I don't know. I don't remember, and more to the point, I couldn't find it when I went to make this yesterday. But, it's Jello, how hard is it?

We used 6 large boxes of Jello in the following flavors: cherry, orange, lemon, lime, berry blue, and grape. Also, boiling water, a glass casserole dish, and non stick cooking spray. We had six flavors, and 3 girls available to help, so each girl picked two flavors to make. I'd like to say I took pictures, but the truth is, I mostly forgot. Something about supervising young kids pouring boiling water....

Here is the first layer. The colors in the picture aren't very true, but we started with grape.

I started to follow the pacakge directions as to amount of water, but soon figured out that at that rate, there was no way all six packs were going into that pan, so we switched to the Jigglers recipe starting with the blue layer. By the way, see that smudge in the middle? That's my fingerprint. Yep, the Jello was set enough to pour the next layer.

Here's the blue. I didn't take pictures of each layer, I promise. The lighting in my kitchen was not great yesterday, so there wasn't really much definition between the colors.

Here is Katie, getting ready to mix her yellow, which was actually the fourth layer we added:

And here is a square of the finished product:

Isn't it pretty? It didn't look like that in the pan at all, but once the light was shining through it, you could really see all the colors. I served it with a "cloud" of whipped cream.

This was Maddie's first experience with Jello:

She actually stopped eating to pose for the camera. Here is Emma and Katie:

And here is Abby:

Nope, not a ham in the whole Hansen clan!

One last shot of our pretty (and silly!) holiday dessert:

(And good news! There's lots left over, for my secret bedtime snacks!)

How a well supplied craft room kept me from losing Mom Points.

2011-03-17T20:18:00.000-07:00

First of all, let me just say that another two weeks has slipped past me. It's not that I haven't wanted to sit down and write to you, I just know that when I do, my whole day seems to evaporate somehow. But, I have used my time wisely, and I'm going to do my best to update you!

This blog begins yesterday. Actually, it began on March 10, which was the day before the kids got out of school for Spring Break. Abby and Emma informed me that they needed to wear green to school the next day, in order to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in the classroom. That was when we discovered that they didn't have much to choose from. Abby has one shirt that is green. Unfortunately, it has a rather large reindeer on the front of it. Emma has.....nothing. Absolutely nothing. One of the drawbacks of refusing to wear any color other than pink. We managed to find a shirt of Abby's that had enough green in it to pass, and she borrowed that.

Fast forward one week. It's the day before St. Patrick's Day, and the bunch of us are scheduled to go to MOPS. That means out. And that means wearing green. Now, a GOOD mom would've realized that this day was coming, and would have taken steps after the problem was discovered. Apparently, in this instance, I am not such a mom. Which led to yesterday's mad scramble. And because of yesterday, I am able to maintain that a well supplied craft room is critical to the well being of my children.

I found some white t-shirts that had been purchased for another project, which we never got to. After a 20 minute rummage through my craft room, I came up with a roll of Heat 'n Bond, and 5 different green fabrics. I found a shamrock to trace, and copied it in 4 different sizes, then traced a number of shamrocks, of various sizes, on the back of the Heat 'n Bond. Now, it was time to involve the girls. I put each girl's first initial on the back of her shamrocks: 1 large, 2 medium, 3 small, and 4 tiny ones. I then asked which fabric she wanted for each shamrock, and fused them to the the fabric.

I sat down and cut them out, which took quite a long time.

Then called the girls in, one by one, to design their shirts. Emma was first:

After she was satisfied with her design, I fused her pieces in place. Here is her finished shirt:

It looks slighlty like a smiling face, doesn't it?

Next came Katie:

She was very precise about how she placed her pieces, and this is what she ended up with:

Now it was Abby's turn. She really took it to heart when I told them to make sure that they were happy with how it looked, because once I ironed them, there was no changing. Abby rearranged her pieces about a dozen times!

And this was her finished result:

And finally, I did one for Maddie:

Ordinarily, I would've sealed the edges with fabric paint right away, but I was afraid they wouldn't be dry in time to wear today, so I let that go. I will be sealing them though, and hopefully, they will still fit next year! They loved wearing the shirts...couldn't wait to get dressed today, actually, and I really think the fact that they "made" them themselves had a lot to do with it.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

More Baking Fun!

2011-02-26T12:26:00.000-08:00

I like snacking. There, it's out! I feel so much better now. And while I've been done to eat an entire pan of brownies by myself (no, not in one sitting, thank you!), I do occasionally try to make healthy snacks.

This past Sunday, I decided to make Michael's Energy Bars, by Michael Chiarello. I've made these before, and I happened to have all the ingredients on hand, so now I'll share with you.

The dry ingredients. The recipe calls for a half cup each of 3 different fruits, which can get expensive. I used a packaged of mixed dried fruit, plus a half cup of dried cranberries.

Step one: toast the oatmeal and almonds for 10 minutes.

Step two: Place dried fruits and oatmeal/almond mixture in a food processor. Pulse until coarsely chopped.

Step three: Place egg, butter, molasses, and brown sugar in a mixing bowl.

Beat until light and fluffy.

Step four: Combine remaining dry ingredients and vanilla extract in a small bowl.

Step five: Add to mixing bowl and blend well.

Step six: Pour in milk and blend well.

Step seven: Add fruit/oatmeal/nut mixture and blend in.

Step eight: Pour evenly into a well buttered pan and bake for 30 minutes.

Step nine: Cool in pan. Remove and cut into 18 pieces. (The directions say into 18 1"x4" pieces, but mine are squares.)

Super yummy! The kids even like them, yet you know there is healthy stuff hiding inside! What could be better? I've found this is a versatile recipe. Use whatever kind of dried fruits you like. Substitute nuts if you want. Don't like a strong molasses taste? Try using half molasses and half honey. Or all honey, if you'd prefer. I've got some golden table syrup in my pantry that I think I'll try next time. I'm not sure how much the nutritional information will vary with these substitutions, though. I do know that I've substituted frequently, and never met a batch I didn't like. I hope you try them and like them too!

My Adventures in Crochet

2011-02-25T12:00:00.000-08:00

My mom taught me the basic knit stitch about 15 years ago. (Actually, she originally taught me some 30 or so years ago, but those lessons didn't stick!) But that's all I knew. For a dozen years, that's all I knew....the knit stitch. There's only so much you can do when you don't know how to purl, but for the life of me, I couldn't understand what she was trying to teach me. So, I decided that I would not be a knitter! That simple, it's not like my life would be incomplete or anything. Lots of people don't knit, and they are perfectly happy people. And that worked for me. For a dozen years or so, it worked just fine.

Two and a half years ago, that stopped working for me. I wanted to knit, would not be happy if I were not a knitter. I was pregnant with my last child, and was determined to knit for her, something beyond the basic garter stitch blanket I had started years earlier. So, I bought a "Teach Yourself to Knit" book. And guess what? It worked! I could knit, I could purl! I could yarn over (YO), I could knit 2 together (K2tog)! I wound up finishing 2 blankets, a nightgown, and an infant cap before Maddie was born. I was knitting booties for her while we were in the hospital! As you no doubt know by now, I love to knit.

Which is why, when the time came, I bought a "Teach Yourself to Crochet" book. Seems simple enough, right? It must be half as hard as knitting, I mean, you're using one stick instead of two! Fewer pieces of equipment to keep track of...it has to be easier. And every crocheter I've ever met says it IS easier. Who am I to doubt them? I'll tell you who I am.....a VERY frustrated would be crocheter, that's who! I decided that particular book was the stupidest book I'd ever read, so I bought a different book. The second book wasn't any better, nor were the third book, various pattern books, and scads of YouTube videos. Bottom line: The only two things knitting and crochet have in common is that they both use yarn, and they both start with a slip knot. I. Could. Not. Learn. To. Crochet. And it made me mad. I wanted to, and there shouldn't be any reason why I couldn't.

So, when I got word that my church was starting a group to sew, knit, and crochet chemo caps to donate to the local hospital, I jumped on it. I could certainly knit hats, and I would have the opportunity to learn, elbow to elbow, with crocheters. I went to the first meeting, and was told that it was easy. I was told that it was twice as fast. I was told that anyone could learn. And I was given a pattern. Now granted, all I had was a printed pattern, and that hadn't worked for me before, but as soon as I got home, I got out some yarn and a hook and got started.

Here's my very first attempt:

I quickly realized that I had made a mistake, and abandoned the project. (By the way, Abby spotted it, and decided it would make a good headband!)

Not deterred, I started again, later that night. This time, I was sure I had followed the directions perfectly, and was happily "hooking" away. About 3 rows in, I realized that....

...when I joined the ring, I had twisted the stitches around. Not useful in a hat. So, I decided that maybe I needed to learn on something else. I got out a few pattern books, and poked around in them. I found a pattern for a bathroom caddy. Something along the lines of a soft cup for holding cotton swabs and the like. I found some yarn and began. I was really moving along, and stopped to count the stitches, to compare my work to the pattern.

The cup is curving, like it's supposed to, and I'm sure this can be completed, but my stitch count is off. So, that project was also shoved into a basket. Sigh.

I know! Granny Squares!!! Perfect for a beginner. Everyone does Granny Squares. I found some complementary colors of yarn out, and made:

...a coaster. Only who needs ONE granny square coaster? It looked like it was supposed to, but it is 100% cotton, which is not really useful in a blanket, plus I'd have to make about 500 more of them. But hey, it's progress. If I could do that, I should be able to do a basic washcloth, which led me to this:

Again, the stitch count is off somewhere, and it is not lying flat. After this particular failure, I was quite vocal in my opinion that anyone that thinks crocheting is easier than knitting has CLEARLY never tried knitting! My "abandoned project" basket is getting fuller!

I decided to try one more washcloth pattern before completely giving up. This one was a little more challenging, as you crochet one triangle first, then the 2nd triangle, and so on, until completing the square. Three triangles into this, I was quite pleased with myself. I would have a very pretty washcloth when I was finished, and a much needed confidence boost in my ability to learn this craft. Here is the resulting washcloth:

In the picture, this actually doesn't look too bad, if you ignore the poor color quality. (We have been challenged in the natural light department here lately...very cloudy!) But, if you look carefully at the upper right corner, you can see that my last triangle isn't quite right. Yep, you guessed it, my stitch count is off, and I don't have a true square. However, this is the closest I've come to success yet! (Maybe I really CAN crochet! Maybe the problem is that I can't COUNT!)

Then, I found a pattern for a blanket composed of granny triangles. It uses only 2 colors, and would be slightly different from the squares, yet similar enough that I thought I could manage it. I've done 3 triangles so far:

I really like this. I'm not sure I'll ever finish 150 more triangles, but I can do a few at a time, just to practice. And in the end, I might have something useful to show for it. I was ready to concede that I might, eventually, be able to say that I can crochet. Yay! I was feeling quite good about this. Not proficient, certainly not good enough yet to call myself a crocheter, but I had hope.

So imagine my surprise when my husband came home from his mom's house with an old crocheted blanket that needed some repair work, desparately. My husband had seen this hole in the blanket, decided the pattern looked like the "coaster" that I had successfully made, and decided to bring it home to see if I could fix it. Sometimes his faith in me is a little stronger than my faith in myself. Which is a good thing, definitely. But sometimes,....it's not. Sigh.

The first thing I did was use locking stitch markers to hold the loops for the green clusters, while I studied the pattern, to make sure I understood what had to be done. I began, using the original, unraveled yarn. While it looked almost identical to the intact part, I didn't have quite enough yarn to finish. So, I undid the work, went down a hook size, and tried again. Still not quite enough yarn, but close. I did have to use some additional yarn to fasten off the row, but I'm very happy with how it came out!

This picture was taken the next morning, so you can better see the actual colors. The row I fixed is the light blue row at the top of the square. In the upper left hand corner, you can just see the little bit of blue yarn I had to add. I hope my mother in law thinks it looks as good as I do!

While looking at this blanket, I found some other spots that need some attention:

This is the worst spot, and all it will take is a little bit of re-seaming. As it happens, I have some brown yarn that is nearly identical in shade, so I will be fixing that bit directly after dinner.

There may be hope for me yet! I may be able to learn this craft yet!! But I still might not be up to making hats this way.....

Pretzel Day

2011-02-24T15:02:00.000-08:00

By now, you must know that everything I do is done on a large scale, especially when it comes to cooking. For one thing, making a recipe for an average sized family just isn't enough for a family of 8, even when 4 of those are not full sized people. For another thing, I firmly believe that making a double batch of a labor intensive recipe does NOT double the time you spend on it. At best, it is only a few extra minutes of assembly time, which saves buckets of time down the road, if you freeze half for later. I'm a big fan of freezing things for later!

So today I'm going to show you a recent Pretzel Day our family had. Ultimately, I made 2 double batches of dough, and used one batch for pretzels, and one batch for pretzel dogs. Yummy! Ingredietns listed below are for a single batch, which will yield 12 pretzels or 12 pretzel dogs.

Ingredients:
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (about 110 degrees)
2 1/2 to 3 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons salad oil
1 tablespoon sugar
6 tablespoons baking soda in 6 cups of water
coarse salt (for pretzels)
hot dogs (for pretzel dogs)

To make pretzels:

In a bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Add 1 1/2 cups of flour, the oil, and the sugar. Beat for about 3 minutes to make a smooth batter.

Gradually stir in enough of the remaining flour (about 1 cup) to form a soft dough. Turn out onto a floured board and knead until smooth and satiny,(about 5 minutes), adding flour as needed to prevent sticking. Place dough in a greased bowl; turn over to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled (about 1 hour).

Punch dough down, turn out onto floured board, and divide into 12 pieces.

Shape each into a smooth ball by gently kneading. Then roll each into a smooth rope, about 18 inches long, and twist into a pretzel shape.

Place slightly apart on a greased baking sheet (at least 12 x 15 inches), turning loose ends underneath. Let rise, uncovered, until puffy (about 25 minutes).

Meanwhile, in a 3-quart stainless steel or enameled pan, bring baking soda/water mixture to boiling; adjust heat to keep water boiling gently. With a slotted spatula, lower 1 pretzel at a time into the pan. Let simmer for 10 seconds on each side, then lift from water, drain briefly, and return to baking sheet.

Let dry briefly, then sprinkle with coarse salt, and let stand, uncovered, until all have been simmered.

Bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer to racks. Serve warm, or let cool completely, wrap airtight and freeze. (I freeze them completely, then transfer them to ziptop bags.) I reheat them in a microwave.

To make pretzel dogs:

Follow the above directions through rolling out an 18 inch long rope. Then, wrap around a hotdog, keeping wraps close together. Roll the wrapped dog with your hand on the board a few times to tighten up.

Eliminate the rising time for the pretzels, but simmer the hotdogs as directed above. Place the hotdogs on a baking sheet. I line my baking sheets with parchment paper, to eliminate sticking. I do not sprinkle them with salt.

Bake as above, but for 8 to 10 minutes. I find that they are usually golden brown by now. We really like these with mustard. You could, for a variation, top the pretzel dogs with shredded cheese before baking them. I haven't tried this yet, but plan on it some day.

You can freeze these as you do the pretzels, and then have a quick and easy lunch for the kids to grab!

(The above recipe for pretzels came from the Sunset Breads cookbook, printed in 1991. I devised the use of the dough for pretzel dogs after seeing how much the local pretzel shop wanted for one!)

January Finished Projects

2011-02-23T14:08:00.000-08:00

While I don't typically make New Year's Resolutions, I did decide that one of my goals for 2011 is to finish up some of the Unfinished Objects (UFOs) that I have around my house. And to use up some of the yarn that I have stashed in every available spot around my house and in my garage. (I promise you, you'd be horrified if I were to disclose the size of either of those 2 categories here.)

So, in order to track my progress on that goal, I've decided to take pictures of every finished project for the year. Hopefully, I will see some sense of productivity by year's end. I won't be able to show you every picture every month, as a lot of them will be presents, but I will show them to you by year's end. And, in order to stay honest, I'll let you know if the yarn used was a stash yarn, or a new purchase. Oh, and I guess I'd better designate which projects were former UFOs, and which were new.

First up, a potholder. Kind of mundane, I know, but I had purchased a book of patterns for dishcloths and potholders, and this was in there. I wanted to try out some new techniques, my pot holders all look really awful, and I had the yarn in the garage, so I was totally able to justify this new project:

Next was a new hat for Maddie. I had put a new knit hat in Don's Christmas stocking, and Maddie adopted it. I really wanted Don to have his new hat back, so I had to make a new one for her, didn't I? Plus, I tried a new technique, and I had both yarns in my stash. (See how this justification stuff works???) So here was new project #2:

P.S.: She won't wear it. She still has Don's hat!

Project #3 was for my grandmother, who fell and broke her finger. I wanted to do something for her, kind of an "I'm thinking of you/get well soon" gift. So, this was a new project. And while I have lots of this type of yarn in my stash, I had none in her favorite color. The picture doesn't show it very well, but this is a very soft purple color, knit in Lion Brand Homespun yarn. It was a really quick knit, and I wrapped it up with her favorite teabags, cookies, and candy, and shipped it off. So, while it didn't qualify for ANY of my goal criteria, I really, really enjoyed this one:

The next project was legwarmers for Katie. That girl wears dresses or skirts almost every day, regardless of the weather! It makes me cold just looking at her sometimes, so I made her some legwarmers, as a kind of compromise. I actually knitted these on her birthday, and finished them the same day I started them, so they didn't stay on the needles for very long. While they were a new project, I had the yarn in my stash, so that was a plus. Here is Katie, modeling them:

That project led to projects 5 & 6. Yep, that's right, they wanted legwarmers too. So yes, 2 more new projects. But, I used stash yarn for both, and had both pair done in 2 days. Katie's are in the pictures too, but Emma's are pink, and Abby's are purple. I was going to make a pair for Maddie also, but we discovered that her pair from last year still fits.

Project #7 probably shouldn't really count, but I'm going to. I made this dishcloth last year, and it's been sitting around for at least the last 6 months. Finished. Except for one thing: weaving in all the yarn ends. And there were about 8 of them. I hate weaving in yarn ends. That is why this at around. But, when I came across it, I decided that the time had come, and in approximately 15 minutes, I finally able to add a check mark to my list of UFOs. (I'm not proud, I'll take it!) (Again, a new technique! I found the pattern for this dishcloth online, and sadly, cannot find it now. When I do, I will publish the link.)

I'm not going to show you project #8, because it may or may not be a present for someone. I will say that I used yarn from my stash, but that it was a new project. So it counts on one list, but not the other.

Project #9 will be a gift, and it was a UFO. It was a fun project, and I learned some new techniques, so I will be making more of that one!

Projects #10 and #11 were UFOs, started before Christmas, and may or may not be gifts. Also projects that I learned some new techniques in!

Okay, so final count:

1 new project with purchased yarn,

6 new projects with stash yarn, and

4 UFOs completed

All in all, not a bad January!

Katie's Birthday Party

2011-02-22T13:51:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned, I'm a little behind on posts. Katie celebrated her 5th birthday on January 24th. Hard to believe she is 5 already!

We had a family party for her. Mom, Dick, and Becky came over, and Brittany's boyfriend was here. We had dinner, which was yummy...homemade ravioli, flower shaped noodles, eggplant parmasean, salad, and garlic bread.

After dinner, Mom read stories to the girls, while we did dishes and got ready for the rest of the party. All of them decided to wear party dresses. I have such girly girls!

Then came presents. (Katie loves dresses and skirts...wears them almost every day, in fact.) So I'm sure she was hoping that's what was in her packages!

Emma and Abby "helped" Katie quite a bit. They handed her the presents and kept track of the cards. They actually were very helpful, and genuinely happy for Katie's day.

After sending everyone upstairs for pajamas, it was time to play with the favorite present:

Abby is teaching Katie how to play with her new computer, which my grandmother sent her. It was a huge hit, not only with Katie, but with everyone else too.

Even Maddie! And she was having such a tantrum over not being allowed to play with Katie's present, that Brittany got out her computer for Maddie to play with! (No, she's not at all spoiled!)

Next was cake time:

Katie's ornament series features gingerbread houses. You can put a light bulb in the bottom, adn they light up, and are really cute. So, Katie's cake usually features lots of extra candy!

The birthday girl with her cake.

I wonder what she wished for!

And so we enter another year with our Katie. Next stop, kindergarten! And believe me, she can't wait!

100 Days of School!

2011-02-21T13:27:00.000-08:00

I'm a little behind on posting events of our family the last month or so, so I'm trying to catch up.

On January 21, Abby and Emma celebrated 100 days of school. They each had to make a paper bag vest with 100 things on it as homework. My poor children are blessed/cursed with a mother who's always trying to think of things that are different from what anyone else might too.

While Emma was in Southern California with Don, Abby and I got started on her vest. The first step was a spelling test, to see how many words she knew how to spell. (Can you see where this is going?) She was able to spell a whopping 110 words! She told me, in no uncertain terms, that she didn't want to write 100 words on her vest. So, we compromised on 50:

She did a great job, and selected which words made "the cut".
She also used her markeres in a pattern.

That left us with an empty front, and a deficit of 50 objects. So, we decided to tint butterfly pasta with food coloring. Abby used them to make a picture on the front, which she detailed with markers:

It's a little hard to tell in this picture, but she has grass, flowers,
a sun, birds, and butterflies. Ignore her facial expression, apparently,
I exasperate her!

So, of course, my desire to have my children be originals was thwarted as soon as Emma got home and saw Abby's vest. She decided to use the same ideas. Sigh. Emma's spelling test resulted in her being able to spell 105 words, and she chose which words to use on her vest.

Emma chose to use only a red marker for her words.

This is the front of Emma's vest, using her colored pasta:

Her pasta is in more of a pattern, and she drew spots on the red noodles for ladybugs!

Both girls together. Apparently, Abby wasn't in the mood to pose for me that day.

When I picked the girls up from school, all the teachers told me that in their years of doing this project, they'd never had anyone use spelling words before, so at least I hit that one!

After school, I decided we needed a special "100th day" dessert. So, using Alton Brown's recipes, we made 100 day doughnuts. I made some in the shape of 1's, and some 0's. The 1's were glazed with a plain glaze, and the 0's were glazed in either chocolate or maple glaze. We made 9 sets: one for each of us, and one for the kindergarten teacher.

That left us with the holes, and with plenty of leftover dough. We made some regular doughnut holes, and some "Maddie" doughnut holes, and rolled them in granulated sugar.

That still left us with leftover dough. What to do with it? Then, it hit me! I made circle doughnuts, stuffed them with vanilla pudding, and glazed them with chocolate. Here is a picture of the results:

And here is what our dining room table looked like that night:

The girls asked me to make up a sampler plate for their teacher, who told me she'd never had homemade doughnuts before. I thought that was very sad for her, but on thinking about it, I guess she is more the norm than we are. Probably most people don't make homemade doughnuts. There are no doughnut shops in Brentwood; a couple of bagel shops carry a small selection, and you can get them at our local grocery store, but there are no specialty shops. Brittany suggested that we start one. Hmmmm......

Gnocchi!

2011-02-18T13:09:00.000-08:00

Growing up, gnocchi was not one of my favorite foods: gluey, heavy, little lumps of dough...yuck! Then I married into a family where gnocchi seems to be a family favorite. Sigh. In the interest of keeping everyone happy at the dinner table, at least occasionally, I found a recipe and learned to make them. Lo and behold, that recipe I LOVED! So now, on occasion, the kids and I make a giant batch of gnocchi and freeze some.

A while back, Don decided to surprise me and make a batch of gnocchi. In the end, I think he used a full ten pound bag of potatoes, so we had lots for the freezer, which is one of my favorite things. Don and I make these completely differently.....

...he boils his potatoes, I bake mine.

Draining...

...and peeling the potatoes.

Mine contain potatoes, eggs, cheese, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. His contain potatoes, egg, and....

...flour. That's it.

I cut mine and roll them on a fork to give them the distinctive ridges. He...

...cuts them and pushes them wtih his thumb.

We both try to let the kids help.

And we both end up with trays of yumminess!

I think, on this day, he wound up with enough gnocchi for 5 dinners or so. I love that! Having things on hand for those days when life gets in the way of cooking dinner is priceless in this family. And even though our recipes and methods are totally different, having him take the initiative to have a "gnocchi day" with the kids goes really, really far towards bridging the gap.

Even Maddie got to be at the table "helping"!

And any smart woman will tell you, if your husband decides to surprise you and cook dinner, only open your mouth to put in more food! (And Don is a good cook, too!)

Our first Daisy Scout Meeting!

2011-02-13T15:38:00.000-08:00

Among the things that are keeping me ridiculously busy these days is our brand new Daisy Girl Scout troop. Daisies are the youngest girl scouts- kindergartners and first graders. Our troop is only kindergartners, and we have only 5 girls right now. I've mentioned this troop before, but between one thing and another, it has taken us a long time to get off the ground.

We actually had our first troop meeting on February 5th, and it went very well!

Here are my little Daisies:

Emma

Abby

I really needed to get this troop moving, so we could take advantage of the Girl Scout Cookie sale. That's right, it's cookie season! From February 11 to March 27, Abby and Emma are selling Girl Scout cookies. Hooray! (No big sales pitch, here, I promise. However, I do have all of your favorites available!) This is a picture of the stock of cookies left AFTER the other 3 girls picked up their cookies:

Doesn't look too bad, does it? The week before, I had 41 cases of cookies stacked in our entry. I wish I could show you a picture of that! I ordered enough for each girl to have 5 assorted cases of cookies, with 3 extra girls' worth left over. I think we may get another girl or two in the near future, and I wanted to be ready. Plus, this will keep me from having to run to the Cookie Cupboard quite as often.

Anyway, back to our first meeting. I spent the better part of the afternoon making this:

We are holding our meetings in one of the preschool rooms at our church, and are unable to have a permanent bulletin board, so I made a portable one. The space underneath the colorful letters is reserved for our craft project at our next meeting, so I will be sure to post a picture when it is full. Here are the other components of the board:

One of the first things the girls learn is the Girl Scout Promise. This is the craft we did at our meeting, to help the girls learn it. I figured if they were hung up in a strategic spot, they could learn it while they were eating breakfast, brushing teeth, etc. I hung one on the refrigerator, and Abby and Emma seem to know it already!

At this age, the girls don't earn badges, they earn Daisy petals. They earn the center of the flower when they know the Girl Scout Promise. I made a spot on our board to track their progress:

This is a black and white, 200% enlargment of the patches they will earn. As every girl in the troop completes a petal, we will replace the black and white image with a copy of the colored image. As I said, the center is for the Promise. Each petal is a different color, and corresonds to a different aspect of the Girl Scout Law.

Here is the Girl Scout Law, with the words printed in the colors of their corresponding petals:

The girls will get to choose which petal to work on next. It would be nice if they chose according to the words, but I have a feeling they will choose based on their favorite colors!

Since I've never been a Girl Scout myself, and neither has my co-leader (or, I think, any of the other parents!), I've made a section called "Did You Know?" I will be putting up facts about Juliette Gordon Low, the woman who founded Girl Scouts in 1912. Although the girls need to learn about her too, I really like this part for my own knowledge. (As a girl, Juliette's nickname was Daisy, and that is why the little girls are called Daisy Scouts. Do you feel enlightened?)

We're also going to have a "Song of the Week". This is the song I thought I was going to teach them at the last meeting, but I chickened out. Instead, we learned "Make New Friends". But, Abby, Emma and I have been practicing this one for next time.

If there are any current or former Girl Scouts reading this, or any current or former leaders, I could sure use some ideas! Email them to me, leave a comment on this post, or otherwise contact me. It won't be long before the girls know more than I do!

Well, It SEEMED like a good idea!

2011-02-11T16:29:00.000-08:00

The last week of January, I got a new knitting magazine in the mail. As I always do, I sat down right away and marked any projects that caught my eye. Frequently, I mark projects, then get sidetracked, or come to my senses, or otherwise change my mind. This time was different. I found this:

from the March 2011 issue of Creative Knitting,
designed by Sara Louise Harper

I instantly thought this outfit would be so cute for each of the little girls, in their "signature colors" for Easter. After talking to Don, I ordered the yarn. Not the exact yarn called for, but a more affordable option. Then I set out to finish a few more WIPs (works in progress), to "clear the decks" for my new purchases. (Yep, so much for the New Year's Goal!) And then, The Box arrived. It had to have been the biggest box I've ever received from JoAnn.com. I unpacked the yarn:

I guess I should have expected it, but some how, 5 balls of blue, 5 of pink, 5 of purple, 4 of yellow, 11 of cream and 1 of green sounded like a lot less in my head. Unpacking that box, I felt totally overwhelmed. What had I gotten into? And I stretched the budget to buy it; I was committed now, or the girls wouldn't have Easter dresses.
That night, I got started on Katie's dress. She gets the blue, of course. This is the beginning:

Ten rows of cream colored 2x2 rib, and the beginning row of the blue color. So far, so good. I think I can do this. After getting to this point, I decided that I'm not really skilled enough to knit separate pieces of a dress at different times, and have them come out exactly the same length. So, I cast on the back piece at the same time. This means I was knitting 2 different pieces, on the same needle, with 2 balls of yarn. Are you with me so far? The first 17 inches were easy: identical directions. The hardest part was keeping the yarn from tangling, which still wasn't bad. Time to cast off for armholes and neckline. Different for each pieces, but still pretty easy. Time too finish the arms. This is a sleeveless dress, so it was really just armholes. Now, I was knitting 2 pieces, on one needle, from 4 balls of yarn. A little more challenging! Just about the time I was thinking the twisted yarn was going to win, I discovered I was done! Yay me! I sat down that night and seamed the two pieces, which was a first for me. Then, I had to pick up and knit the contrasting ribbing for the neck and sleeves, and presto, I was done, except for the embroidered details.

Yay! And it fits her!! Double Yay! From the time I unpacked the yarn until I took my last stitch was only 8 days, and 2 of those days I never picked it up at all, so I'm thinking that this is very doable! Especially since Easter is late this year. My plan is to knit the 4 dresses, then the 4 sweaters, then do the little details. If there is time and yarn left over, I will make them little purses too. And yesterday, Emma asked if I could knit them hair bows. I feel like it's all possible!

Yesterday afternoon, I started Emma's dress, but modified the pattern. Instead of knitting 2 separate pieces and seaming them later, I joined the pieces to knit in the round. Not only is knitting faster for me than purling (which is eliminated by doing this), I won't have to do the seaming either. This is how far I got last night:

Almost to the halfway mark. Not bad for about 3 hours of knititng! I will definitely keep you posted!

Homemade Pasta, Brittany style

2011-02-11T13:09:00.000-08:00

After our homemade ravioli day, we had some extra pasta dough left, so Brittany agreed to roll it and make fettucine with it. She agreed to let me take pictures, so long as I didn't show her face, so here she is!

Rolling the dough.

As usual, there's never a shortage of people waiting to help!

Cutting the noodles.

Emma has a turn with the pasta machine.

Sprinkling the noodles with flour, so they won't stick.

Separating the noodles.

Look at those fingers fly!

Rolling the noodles into "nests".

Ready for drying!

I love having children that can function in the kitchen! Such a nice treat to be cooked for once in a while!

First Milestone of the New Year!

2011-01-08T17:59:00.000-08:00

Last week, on January 1, we made the decision to get rid of Maddie's crib. For one thing, the poor crib had been through at least 4 children, and was showing the wear and tear, in the form of a critical screw that kept falling out. (This being the screw that allowed the drop side to move up and down, or stay in place. Like I said, critical!)

So, we took the offending furniture out, loaded it into the truck, and carted it off to the dump. Then, Don came home and took Katie's bed apart, and installed it in Madison's room. While he was occupied elsewhere, I rearranged the furniture. That room now houses a twin bed, a twin bed that pulls out to a king size, a dresser/changing table, stand alone wardrobe, bookcase, and chair. Miraculously, it all fits in with room to spare, and there are no bits of furniture near the railing, which is VERY important!

That left Katie without a bed, which she was strangely ok with. She talked briefly about sharing a room with Maddie, and was quite upbeat about having given up her bed. Then, we mentioned that we bought her a set of bunk beds, which quite changed her tune! Don assembled them in the bedroom, not without some difficulty! That room is home to all 3 girls, and so now includes 2 sets of bunk beds, 3 dressers, 3 hampers, and LOTS of little girl clothes, shoes, toys, etc. But, Don made it work, because that's the kind of guy he is!

I resisted writing a post about this until now, because I didn't want to push our luck. Jinx the whole idea of Madison in a "big girl" bed, if you will. On the first night, I sat in her room with her, but out of sight. She was asleep within 15 minutes, and didn't get out of bed once! Yay!! Then, 2 am rolled around. I could hear her, pulling on the baby gate that blocks off her room. GROAN! I went in and laid down with her, and was asleep again before she was. But, she didn't get out of bed again, and did fall asleep. We've had no problems with her at all since, and even nap times go smoothly. Hooray, I guess she was ready!

And now, here are the pictures of the new arrangements:

Maddie, in her new bed, on the first night.

Maddie, after I rearranged her a little bit. She began to stir, so I beat a hasty retreat!

Katie, in her new top bunk.

The empty bunk, which Maddie will move into eventually.

Abby in the top bunk, Emma in the bottom.

So you can see, we have a ridiculous amount of beds and beddings in our house!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T13:10:00.000-08:00

Wow, I've been away for a long time! I've had the best intentions....every week, the item "write new blog" appears on my "to do" list, but this holiday season appears to have really knocked my best intentions all out of whack!

We've had a busy last couple of weeks. Some of the our family activities, in no particular order, include kindergarten class parties (4 of them in one week, not counting the winter carnival!), performing for the MOPS group, attending the church Advent Night, a cookie baking/swapping party with friends, the twins' birthday party, bringing home the class "pet" (each twin), visiting Santa, traveling to see family, 2 ravioli days, and Christmas, with all that entails. Whew! Here is a kind of a photo journal synposis of the last month:

Abby and Fleegle, the class "pet", enjoying hot chocolate. (Each kid in class brings the stuffed animal home for a weekend, then writes a journal page about what they did.)

Emma and Fleegle, the very next week, at the school Winterfest carnival.

Katie, performing at the MOPS Christmas party.

Abby and Emma, with turning six!

Our Santa picture, after a long wait in line. Maddie hadn't had a nap either...no wonder she's not happy!

All four kindergarten classes, performing at the school Christmas concert. Fortunately, it was just kindergarten, or we might still be there.

Katie and Abby, decorating gingerbread cookies for the first time. Lots of fun, and less mess than I thought it would be.

Sprinkling "reindeer food" on the front lawn, Christmas Eve night.

Brianna and Brittany, hanging their stockings "by the chimney with care."

The quietest moment of our entire Christmas Day...waiting to go downstairs to see what Santa brought.

Learning to roller skate...thanks Santa!

Maddie, enjoying our movie day.

Various shots of ravioli day, as captured by the girls. Top to bottom: Tori and Abby, Tori rolling pasta dough, and Sydney, cutting ravioli.

My hope is that as you look back on 2010, you have many memories to cherish, and that looking forward to 2011, you will make many more.

From our family to yours, a very Happy New Year!

Let them eat cake....

2010-11-10T17:51:00.000-08:00

...and pies, cookies, brownies...

We've had so many yummy treats around here lately! Mostly desserts, but a few really good appetizers too! I'm deliberately not posting any pictures today. Sorry, but I just can't do that to you. Because you would see how good these things look, you'd really start wanting some, you won't have anything in the house, it'll be too late (cold, rainy, fill in the blank here) to go to the store, and you'll hate me. So, in the interest of our friendship, no pictures. (Plus, I forgot to take any, I was too busy with my fork.)

A few weeks ago, I was looking for a yummy treat to make, and picked up my latest cookbook, "Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3" by Todd Wilbur. I think I have every cookbook in this series, and we really enjoy them. This guy's a wiz! Anyway, I came across the recipe for his version of Cracker Barrel's Double Fudge Coca Cola cake. We don't have Cracker Barrel's here, but I've eaten at a few, and really enjoyed them. I had never, however, tasted this cake, and it sounded intriguing. Coca Cola? In cake?? Really???? Well, in a freak coincidence, I did have some Coke in the house, which I usually don't, so we gave it a try. All I have to say is that this is, by far, the BEST CAKE I'VE EVER TASTED! Because this is a new book on the market, I don't feel right posting the recipe, but I really recommend you find a copy of this book and try it. You won't be sorry! Oh, and you might want to make extra frosting. A double batch. Frost the cake with half, and put the other half in a container in the refridgerator. You know, just for late night chocolate emergencies. (C'mon, you know what I'm talking about!)

Next up, bite size pumpkin pies. At our Bible study last week, we all brought things to snack on. I had some pie crusts, and some canned pumpkin, and didn't want to half to fiddle with serving utensils and such. So, I got out my mini muffin pan and a cookie cutter. I rolled the piecrust a little thinner, then cut out circles, fitting them into the muffin pan. I followed the recipe on the back of the pumpkin can, filled the little crusts, and baked them until they were set. They were wonderful....just the thing for a dessert buffet. Of course, I had too much filling, and extra pie dough. So, the ladies at Bible study got the mini pies, Don and the kids got some made in regular sized muffin tins, AND I have a pumpkin pie in the freezer for another night. Love when things like that work out!

The senior high youth group at a "Formal Backwards Progressive Dinner" this past Sunday night, and I was asked to contribute. What a fun idea! The kids met at the first house for the dessert course. The next house had the Main Course, then they went to a third house for the Side Dish. At the fourth house, they had soup and salad, then met back at the church for the appetizer course. That's where I came in. Since Don and Katie were down in southern California for the weekend, I had a part foods night for myself and the other kids, and started cooking early. I opened my current favorite cookbook, "Pioneer Woman Cooks" by Ree Drummond and got busy. First up was the Hot Artichoke Dip...one batch for home, one batch for the church kids. Wow, was that good! Our local grocery store carries a similar dip, in two versions, one plain and one with jalapenos, and this was very good. I'll definitely be making it again...for Thanksgiving, as a matter of fact. A double batch...one plain, one with jalapenos. and I bet there won't be much leftover, either. I also made potato skins from this cookbook, which I've done before, and love. Fifteen JUMBO russet potatoes. These potatos were huge...we're talking each one a meal for two, seriously. But, since I was making some for home and some for church, it worked. I made 120 potato skin appetizers, and there were none left. What does that tell you?

Tonight is another Bible study, and I'm bringing Hot Milk Cake, which I discovered a few years ago, in a cookbook my Mom purged from her shelf called "America's Best Lodge Recipes". This recipe was contributed by the Wikle Lodge in Bryson City, North Carolina, and is wonderful. This cookbook was printed in 2004, so I'm going to go ahead and share the recipe with you.

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups four
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup butter or margarine (I use butter)
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar until creamy. Add flour and baking powder, and mix well. In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring butter and milk to a boil. Add hot milk mixture to flour mixture and stir until well combined. Blend in vanilla. Pour into a greased and floured tube pan. Bake for 45 minutes.

Try it. I promise you won't be sorry!

I was feeling guilty about making a treat for the ladies in the Bible study, so I got out the Magic Brownie Pan and made a batch of brownies for the kids. Before putting them in the oven, I raided the Trick or Treat candy, and sprinkled M&Ms on top. They were thrilled. I'm leaving them with 12 perfectly cut brownies...I'm sure they won't even notice that I'm gone.

Add the above treats to the seasonal sugar cookies, bowls of candy, and cold weather comfort food, and I'm sure you'll come to only one conclusion...

These days, I'm wearing my "comfortable" pants.

Until next time, enjoy the treats of the season!

P.S.: If you want the recipes for anything I've shared here, email me and I'll send them to you!

Halloween at our House

2010-11-02T14:39:00.000-07:00

Wow, can you believe that it's November already? I would've posted this yesterday, but I was too busy un-decorating to sit at the computer. My Halloween decorations are totally taken down, and packed away until next year. Well, except for 14 jack-o-laterns. They get flipped around, and stay out for another month as pumpkins. (The girls were astounded when I performed this bit of "magic". At least they gave good performances!) Why the rush, you ask? It is only slightly over 3 weeks until Thanksgiving, and I really want to enjoy my fall decorations for as long as possible, before pulling out the Christmas stuff!

Here are some of the things that kept us busy in the last few weeks:

Here is a project that the girls and I did this year. A friend had these on her front porch, and Katie loved them, so we came home and raided our recycling bin. They are milk jugs, with holes cut in the back, and drawn on with Sharpie:

Katie and her creations.

Abby, Emma, and Katie each made two. We weighted them with rocks, moved them to the porch, and stuffed them with white Christmas lights. They looked so cute! Here is the whole group:

Cute, easy, fun, and CHEAP! All the hallmarks of a good craft.

Abby and Emma had their first costume parade and class party last Friday. I was scheduled to help with the party, and Mrs. B. said that Katie could join in the fun. First of all, Brianna, Brittany, and Maddie came with us to watch the parade. After dropping them off at home, Katie and I went back, and spent the whole day at kindergarten.

Maddie Mouse, watching the parade.

Super Girl Katie at the parade.

The kindergarten class actually had their learning centers to start the day, and Katie was feeling a little left out. I gave her the camera, and had her take some pictures. Here are a few of the better shots:

Emma, decorating a cupcake and a cookie.

Abby, making a pinata bag.

And the one and ONLY picture of me in my costume. Out of focus, but documentation nonetheless!

There were a few learning stations where Katie was able to participate. She got to decorate a cookie and a brownie, make a bat, make a Halloween necklace, and play Halloween bingo.

Here's Katie, playing Halloween bingo. Emma is on her other side.

After centers came recess time. All three girls ran around like crazy with their friends. I did manage to corral them all long enough to take a picture.

Then, of course, was party time! Picture 26 kids, all at their tables, eating plates of pure sugar and drinking juice. Halloween music played nonstop, and there was plenty of chattering. LOTS of fun. Katie got to sit next to Emma, and they fixed a plate of goodies for her too. And since that wasn't enough, they also got to break a pinata, with each kid in class getting 3 swings at the pumpkin. Apparently, the pinata didn't hold enough candy, so the teacher gave each mom a bag of candy to sprinkle on the floor for the kids to pick up. At dismissal time, 3 of the kids handed out treat bags to the entire class. We hardly needed to go trick or treating!

Saturday found Brittany and the 3 kids carving pumpkins.

And on Sunday, Don helped Maddie with her pumpkin:

Sunday night, of course, was trick or treating. Each year, we seem to go a little further around the neighborhood. This year, we were out for about an hour, and each of the 4 kids got plenty of candy. Here is a group shot of them before we went out:

And here is the one shot I took of them out and about:

Hope your Halloween was fun! Talk to you again soon!

Bag mania!

2010-10-22T11:15:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, I get a little tunnel visioned, and, well, fixated (although Don likes to call it obsessed) with an idea or project. Recently, it was bags. Tote bags, purses, wallets, purse organizers...they all fit into that category. It started with the tote bag I made for my mom for her birthday. I also made one for myself:

Next, using 100% wool yarn that I had leftover from other projects, I found a bag pattern that I just had to try:

This bag is made up of 10 hexagons and 4 diamonds, all knited in one piece, then felted. As I wanted to use up some yarn in my stash, I used EVERY color I had, in various combinations. No 2 hexagons are alike. My kids promptly christened this the ugly purse. It was felted, then I lined it, added closures and handled, and was pleased with the results. So pleased, that I.....

...had to make a wallet and cell phone case to coordinate with it.

Next came a felted mini messenger bag for my grandmother's birthday. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of it, as I was afraid that I would forget and post it before her birthday. I did, however make one for my mom as well. My grandmother's was purple, and my mom's was black. Although you can't really see the detail in this picture, the flap has a cable pattern on it. Both were fully lined, with an interior pocket.

Next came this fun little bag. I really liked the shape of it, and couldn't resist. It was a really quick knit, and is also felted and fully lined.

This was another quick knit, and I thought it would be good for those quick little outings, when you don't really need a big purse:

I'm not much for beads and buttons usually, but when I saw that heart bead, I thought it would be the perfect compliment to the yarn.

And finally, I found a pattern for this bag. The pattern came in 3 sizes, and I chose to make the medium one, which did not turn out to be as large as I thought. I may have to make the bigger one eventually, but this will be big enough for smaller projects, or quick outings. There is a braided cable on the front that extends into the handles.

This bag is also lined, but I added a covered cardboard bottom and some pockets, to give it some stability and to help keep it organized. I'm really happy with how it turned out!

The crazy thing is that I'm not the kind of person that changes purses with regularity, but I think I will have to start, with so many cute options now.

The even crazier part is .... I still have an awful lot of wool yarn!

P.S. Remember the charity fundraising gift basket I made for my mother-in-law? I found out that it sold for $75 at silent auction!