Pretty Cool Little Town

One of the thing I really like about where I live is that it has a lot of fun opportunities for kids. Our local library has lots of learning and creating programs. One of the gymnastics studios is open to the public for two hours on Mondays and Fridays at a very reasonable price. There are fun and fabulous seasonal festivals and parades and the community center has some really awesome programs and classes. My oldest two just finished their first round of swim lessons there. Which I found to be well taught and reasonably sized and they truly loved, (and can not wait for more.)

As I mentioned previously, this week has been Spring Break. Which does not really mean much to a homeschooling family, except that there are definitely some places to avoid, if you do not like crowds. It also means that the community center really ups their game, with camps and extra programs for kids. This whole week they have been showing movies for free. Yesterday's movie was "Big Hero 6". A movie that we all love as a family and I thought they would enjoy on the big screen. They definitely did, even the baby, until he fell asleep. It was the perfect outing for a soggy day. All in all it has been a very nice "Spring Break."

Many blessings this fine, "Spring" night.--Kate

Sweet Brothers

The relationship between these two is so special. I hope that they will always be best friends.

Many blessings this fine, lovely night.--Kate

Newest Restaurant in Town is Called "Red"

Thursday was a long, strange day, but it had the sweetest ending. My husband and I got to try out a new restaurant. It was not quite a date night as baby was at the table with us. The dining was casual, the seats were small, the menu was limited and the wait staff/owners were clearly trying their best, but could have used a bit more experience. At one point my husband had to go to the kitchen with them to wash a few plates and work the microwave. Boy were they cute though, and the effort was not missed by us. The menu was hand lettered and surprisingly easy to read. The decorations were hand crafted, and thankfully stayed put during the entire meal.

Though it was a bit rough around the edges, the entire meal was well thought out. There were complimentary chips and salsa waiting on our table when we arrived. The baby had toys to play with in his clever seat/corral and we had a nice selection of books and other reading material brought to our table while we waited for our meal. There were three entree options, spaghetti, pizza and sandwiches with a variety of vegetable sides and ice cream for dessert. We were offered "whatever was in the refrigerator" to drink, which actually boasted a fairly good selection. Once all the meals were warmed and brought to the table the wait staff/owners joined us for the meal, which gave it a really cozy "at home" feel. Sadly my husband and I did have to bus our own table and I did get roped into scooping the ice cream, but I can honestly say that it was one of my favorite meals. Hands down a wonderful evening, good food and charming company. I would highly recommend "Red" to anyone who loves their servers a bit short (and inexperienced), their meals to be leftovers and the intentions to be truly heartfelt.

 

 

Many blessings this fine, flavorful day.--Kate

One thing you must understand about my daughter, she spends much of her time dreaming up elegant events, moving musicals, touching theater and champion community celebrations. All of which "must" happen at the very last minute. In the last year alone, we have delivered Valentines to the block, had a lemonade/snack stand, had a Christmas concert (with Grammy and my sisters family), had a band concert, pulled all the dining room chairs together for a fashion show/dance performance, had a wedding for our two cats, (including outfits and photographers,) and so much more that I can not even remember right now. This girl keeps my life interesting.

Lego Love

We are a big time Lego loving family. I am not ashamed to admit I am living a second childhood in my love for the Lego Friends series. I am constantly amazed at the creativity and variety that exists with Lego sets.

My daughter has been into Lego since Christmas three years ago.  Her brother was not to be left out though. While she was looking for animal Friends sets he was collecting the Chima animal warrior sets. Then my girl moved on to the animal rescue sets and son number one collected some Star Wars. Now my girl is really into the puppy sets and her brother is so excited about the super heroes. Can you see a theme with my girl. She is totally a big hearted, animal loving, (perhaps one day veterinarian) girl. I do joke a bit, because she loves all the friends sets and is now also getting into the DC girls sets too. It does seem like my boy though is a source of constant variety.

These newest sets they pick out and purchased themselves, with money earned from chores and special tasks. I find they hold a little more value when they are responsible for earning enough money to buy their desired treats.

Anyone else out there a Lego Fan? What are your favorite builds?

Many blessings this fine, engineering night.--Kate

Can You See Me Now?

We have found the best place to get haircuts. I know that this can be a challenging experience for some. For the first few years of haircuts with the kids I just did them myself. I also have been cutting my own hair for the last 10 or so years. Then just about a year ago we discovered that one of the moms at my daughter's dance school is an instructor at The Beauty Institute. Most of the girls in my daughter's dances got their hair and make-up done there for their pictures and again for the recital. Then this past summer my oldest boy and I went there to get our haircut.

We love this place. It is inexpensive haircuts done by students. Now remember my hair styling needs are not super exacting, considering I was cutting my hair for so long. They do a really great job though. They are fantastic with the kids. With my curly hair they are always grateful for the practice and equally glad that I am not super concerned about the results. Though they truly do a wonderful cut. My daughter does not get much cut, though she would rather be adventurous, because of needing to put her hair up for dance. Every time she goes she still gets the full treatment, hair washed, cut and styled. She really knows how to get the most for the money. It does not hurt that they think she is quite cute.

So here they are, the before and after of the haircuts for the big kids.

Many blessings this fine and hairy day.--Kate

Thought the baby did not get a haircut he is super cute so here are a few of him.

 

Little Sweater

The day after Christmas, when my girl chose to keep her broken doll, we picked out a pattern to make Olivia a new outfit. It has been a cold snowy winter and Olivia came to us dressed ready for summer. So my girl and I both thought she may like something warm to wear. I found this clever Simplicity pattern that includes a link for knit and crochet patterns too. Sewing, knit and crochet projects in one pattern? It is like it was made just for me.

My girl decided she wanted me to make the crochet sweater for Olivia. Then she dove into my huge yarn stash to find which yarn she wanted me to use. This sweater pattern was probably an intermediate skill level, but thankfully required very little seaming to be done. It was worked from the waist up to the orange/brown rows in connected rounds. Then I work up the front and back panels separately and seamed it at the shoulders. Then I reattached the yarn at the arm holes and constructed the sleeves from the shoulder to the wrist in the connected rounds again. It was finished with a decorative stitch at the neck and waist.

 

Now Olivia has a lovely crochet sweater to keep her warm. We just need to get her some pants.

Many blessings this fine day.--Kate

How to Knit A Christmas Ball Ornament.

I have shared my love of yarn and my love for patterns in past posts. So it should be no surprise to learn that I am often on the look out for new stitches to learn and new designs to make. Quite often I try to find ways to use up some of my yarn stash. This past fall the motivation came again to see if I could get a few more skeins out of my stash. I thought it was also a great chance to learn some new knitting skills. Specifically some new cable stitches. In my search on the Internet I discovered this great site for knit and crochet video tutorials called New Stitch a Day. The video project was created by a man and most of the videos are done by him as well. Which, let's be honest, is awesome. I soon discovered that besides the videos for new stitches he also makes video classes.

At Christmas they offered a free class, "Christmas Ball Ornaments" at their site Yarn Craft Academy and I could not pass it up. The video tutorial walked you through the whole process. It took just over 2 hours and it taught how to change colors and how to make a design. I did not have to use those skills this time, but now I have this awesome ornament.

Of course since I was using stash yarn, I did not exactly have what was recommended. I chose one of my Noro yarns, which was thicker then what they used, but I love how it turned out. This is a pattern that you knit flat and then seam up around a 3 inch Styrofoam ball. I had to use a 4 inch ball, but since it is such a cool, yet dark, self striping yarn I think it will be easier to see in the tree in the larger size. I have enough yarn left to do a second ornament.

Many blessings this ornamental evening.--Kate

P.S. I also bought a package of the yarn they recommended for the project. Once I get one worked up in that I will post an update.

First Day Back

A Happy New Year's greeting to you. It has been a very long time but here is my very good reason why.

It is my hope to write more often, (but not everyday as I had been,) when I have a new project to share or a fun event to write about.

Many blessings to you this first night of the year-Kate.

Finding New Craft Projects with My Girl.

I adore that my daughter has obviously inherited the creating gene. We have a little to much fun going out to the local craft stores to find new projects to make. It is amazing what all is out there and it is fun to see some of my old favorites come back. Like those weaving looms that use the vibrant stretchy nylon bands.

One of the fun new to us crafting supplies that we found for my daughters Birthday was Washi tape. It is basically colorful, slightly translucent, masking tape. Which means that it is an easily removable product. My original intent in buying the tape was for my girl to make her own stickers. (There was a book that we found that was for that very thing, but when I went back to buy the book it was gone.) I figured I did not really need the book, we could figure it out on our own.

So I spent the day looking up what all you can do with Washi tape and now I have a brain filled with ideas, plans and soon to be tried projects. I love the easy access to thousands of creative ideas. I love living in a world populated with so much creativity and creation.

 Today though was a foray into the Washi sticker making arena. It was easy and so much fun. I drew some simple designs onto waxed paper and then my girl laid strips of tape down so that they covered the design and also overlapped a little bit. Then I cut them out. She is becoming quite skilled with scissors, but this was still a little to detailed for her to manage. Then we just had to remove the waxed paper and put our sticker in the place of our choosing. Tonight that place was on the cover of my laptop.

 She had a lot of fun and already has ideas for new designs and new locations for the colorful, cute stickers.

Many blessings to you on this fine night.--Kate

PaperBack Swap and the Local Used Bookstore.

I find that I am actually having a bit of trouble focusing myself this evening. My plan was to share my favorite place to find new books and pass along old, but I am torn and can not honestly decide between two such places. So I will share them both with you.

The first, PaperBack Swap, I discovered about 8 years ago. It is an online book swapping community. It works on a point system, basically it is a book for a book, any book hardback, paperback, adult, child, 500 pages or 40 pages. *Except audio book those are two points. It is not always the best place to go if you want a book quickly. Books are only available if someone has the book to swap so you have to wait until someone posts it. Then even if it is available you still have to wait for the mail and these are mostly shipped "Media Mail," which means slowest route possible. If you have the patience though it is a wonderful place to find books that are otherwise very hard to get your hands on.

Up until a month ago the only cost was for the sender to ship the book to the person who requested it, but after being around for 10 years they have decided they need to charge a small fee (.50cents) to the person making the request. I have been happily using PaperBack Swap for long enough that I am willing to stick through this new change and hope for the best. This honestly has created a little niggle of worry and has diminished my favor a wee bit and that is why I have added a second favorite location, the local used bookstore.

My parents introduced me to the wonders of the used book store when I was still quite young. As I mentioned yesterday there was one near the college I attended in Seattle that added greatly to my collection. Every city I have lived in I have looked for a local used book store. That, to me, was as necessary as finding the nearest grocery store and bank.

The first used book store I found was a nightmare. The inventory was quite sparse, 2/3 of which was romance novels. the prices were ridiculous and the owner was horrid. The second, was much to austere, again the prices to high and it was hard to figure out where I wanted to look. The third shop though was exactly what I was looking for. It was like finding a really comfortable old chair and a warm mug of cocoa. It was a small, bright, narrow aisled, charming, tall bookcases with more books in boxes and in piles on the floor, shop. It even has that wonderful old, worn and loved book smell. The proprietor is also eccentric and lovely. The official name of the store is "Browsers Uncommon Books.", but immediately after my first visit I affectionately call it "Little Man Book Store" because of the charming owner. When I enter this shop I come with no preconceived plans. I just look aisle by aisle, shelf by shelf and many times box and pile by box and pile. I am never disappointed and I always find something to bring home with me.

I would love to hear about your favorite places to find books.

Many blessings to you on this fine night.--Kate

P.S. Here are a few of my favorite Used Book Store finds.

Birthday Party Eve

I know that it is a little bit crazy to say that one of my favorite things is the night before the Birthday party of my kids, but I love it. Even though it is filled with house cleaning, present wrapping, gift bag stuffing and cake making. The anticipation of the excitement my child will feel the next day is just so intoxicating.

Right now as I write this I am elbow deep in "Frozen's" Elsa swag, I can smell the birthday cake baking, I have a small pile of dishes to wash up, I am writing a note to my husband to pick up an Elsa gift bag so I can put all of my girl's wrapped gifts into it and I am excited. I can not wait to participate in my daughter's excitement and plans for her big day.

This event has already been a few months in the making, (at least for my daughter,) and I do not think either of us can believe that the day is almost here.

Yea! Cake is done.

Many blessing to you this fine Birthday eve.--Kate

P.S. Expect more wonder-filled details of the big event tomorrow.

Rainbow Loom

One of my favorite things is learning a new craft. I think I mentioned that there is nothing I will not try. On one of our frequent trips to the local craft store my daughter discovered the rubber band bracelet loom. She is as big a fan of art and craft making as I am and she loves jewelry. So this product definitely caught her eye. It was also on a special feature sale which caught mine.

 

We bought it before all the chaos began so unfortunately it sat for a while. Finally this week I pulled it out thinking it would be a great way to involve my daughter for an hour or so. Little did I know that it would keep her engrossed for the whole day and 15 bracelets would be the result. These will be the thank you gifts for her "Frozen" Birthday party. This of course was her idea.

So once again we have a new crafting hit on our hands. (All we need, another crafter filling up the house. Okay to be honest I completely love it.)

Many blessings to you this fine and fun night.--Kate

Piles of Patterns

I would describe myself as an unabashed collector. Most of my collections fall in the craft category, but I also enjoy books, pretty baubles, music, shoes, bees, angels, elephants and information. At this point my collections have not reached hoarder status, (at least not in the house.)

I am sure that I will share about many of my collections in future posts, but today's favorite is patterns. I love patterns, especially vintage patterns. I can not pass by a pattern box or bin at a garage sale or thrift store. I usually come home with a fist full of free patterns from the local craft and fabric stores. I am even a member of a few online sites that have patterns you can download. When I was working for a manufacturing company I also designed a fair number of patterns myself. That was my favorite part of the job.

The majority of my patterns are for knit and crochet projects. There are just so many pretty patterns and such a wide variety of items that can be made. I believe that part of the reason that my "to do" pile is so big is because I keep finding new patterns that I want to try.

Maybe someday there will be patterns that I design that will be out there for others to fall in love with and add to their own pattern collections.

Many blessings to you on this fine night.--Kate

Handmade Valentines

So this is the first of, what will probably be, many years making our own Valentine's Day cards as a family. I even managed to get Rob involved, even though he does not like this holiday. It was not smooth sailing but we still managed to have moments of fun. My usually arty girl seemed to have a mental block when it came time to help with them. Thank goodness she has been drawing page after page of hearts for the last two weeks. My boy got into the process about as much as he ever does. Creation is not his forte, he is enjoying destruction much more these days.

As soon as I brought out my art supplies though I had two sets of bright eyes. Most particularly when they spied the paint and glue. Who doesn't love the sticky, icky stuff best though? After a few moments of chaos and one scary water spill that threatened a few computers, we achieved some beautiful and creative projects.

 I will have more to share with you tomorrow after we put our Valentine's cards into action seeing if we can spread a few hearts full of love in our community.

Many blessings to you this fine Valentine's Day Eve.--Kate

The Joy of Felting

It has been good for me to set challenges to try to complete old projects and use up my cascading piles of art and craft supplies. It has motivated me to resurrect techniques that I have long ago set aside. This has brought with it some wonderful firsts and some new favorites.

It is a wonder it took me so long to try my hand at felting. I love yarn, I love trying new techniques, but somehow this one just seemed like to much work. Which is ironic considering I have had a few unintentional felting experiences. The first was a favorite pretty pink cardigan I inherited from a friend in high school, the second was a nice pair of socks. So clearly felting is not difficult to master if you can manage to do it with no more thought then it takes to wash a load of laundry.

So finally I took the plunge (literally, into the sink,) and gave hand felting a try. I had a blast and ended up with some really vibrant, dense and soft fabric.

The biggest thing to remember with felting (or fulling) is that it only works with animal fibers. Also lighter colors take longer. Once you have your knitted project worked up there are just a few simple steps to take you from the open airy fabric to a lovely thick, tight felt. There are three key components to felting: temperature, water and agitation.

You need hot water to felt, but in hand felting it is also important that it is not so hot as to cause you damage. When I worked up my squares I chose to use the kitchen sink and I mixed the hot tap water with about a quart of water I boiled on the stove. For the first few minutes I kept my hands out and just agitated the water (washing machine style) with a wooden spoon. Oh and don't forget to add the soap. I just used some liquid dish soap.

The first thing you notice after pushing the fabric around for a while is that it actually starts to stretch out and get bigger. Do not panic the hot water first relaxes the fibers before they tighten and close.

As soon as the water cooled enough that I could put my hands in without scalding them I increase the agitation by rubbing the fibers between my hands.

The whole process was lots of swirling, splashing, squishing and scrubbing. It was hot, wet and tons of fun. I also found that it was a fairly quick process, even though many of the articles I read made it seem like it would take a long time.

When the project is felted you have to rinse out the soap and wring out the water. I did my rinse with cold, then used old white kitchen towel and rolled up the felted work and squeezed out the water.

Once the fabric was only damp to the touch, I laid them out on dry towels and worked on straightening out the edges. I used straight pins to hold them. This is called blocking. By morning they were dry and ready to be turned into my Felted Needle Book.

I enjoyed this technique so much I am sure that you will be seeing more hand felted projects in the future.

Many blessings to you on this very fine but rainy day.--Kate