Reuse

 A long while ago my MJ out grew the use if his receiving blankets. He was a long baby and even though they were on the larger size they were no longer usable. I did how ever keep them because well MJ is the last and I just couldn't bring myself to do it. 

Well my little guy has plenty of jeans and pant but not to many to just lounge around at home. I used to just put him in pj pants but he would freak thinking he's going to bed. So we bought 2 pairs of sweat pants but if he's messy those two are not enough. 

All this to basically say I took one if those sweat pants and made a pattern from them. Then used those flannel receiving blankets to make him lounge pants. I cut out three and sewed two. I still have 4 blanket left but I am going to save those for when he out grows the ones I made

 

Those are the first pair. MJ is always moving. 

Those pictures are the best I can do with my crazy whirlwind of a son

Some Christmas Gifts

Yes I actually was able to make some gifts :)

This cute idea I saw in the internet. 

Paper towel roll cut stuck in a mason jar filled with candy around (in this case m and m's) and hidden inside a surprise. I stuck lotto scratchers in the two I made. 

Add ribbon and a candy cane and ta-da a cute gift for say a bus driver (a really nice one. This year we only have 1 nice one - long story) and say a speech therapist :)

This not great picture is  a hat with tardis blue tardises on it. It's for my stepson's girl friend. She's a doctor who fan too

This is for my friend. I made her a little something. 

It's the embroidery in finished form. A little zippered bag. She's a knitter. We always can use bags like this. And

I made a little peace dove ornament. 

Adventures in baking

Today was a fun day. I baked a bunch and we got a tree and it's all decorated. Granted none of this helped with the huge list of thing I need to make for Christmas. I am so behind it's not funny. Surgery,  being sick, everyone else being sick and all the other craziness that happened I am like 2 months behind. Just gonna do what I can. It's the only thing I can do. 

Anyway today was fun. It all started with making another Kringle (I tweaked the recipe) and I managed a picture of a piece. It's like a cinnamon roll but in different form and much easier to make. 

Okay it's not a great picture but oh so good. I also made pizza/calzone braids and sorry no pictures but very yummy. Lastly I made these cookies called butter horns. It's a tradition in my hubby's family. It was a big to do when we were first married about getting the recipe. The whole certain way to make them and all. Well I mostly made them the traditional way until today. See they are supposed to use walnuts and I didn't have any. What I did have was pecans. Mmmmmm. So being the rebel I am I broke tradition. :)   They were very yummy. Sorry no pics. 

Yeah I guess I have to remember to take food pics :)

ETA: pics   Here are the cookies. Well 2 of them

And can't forget the tree!

 

Well I hoped for an easy day

It didn't happen. 

Today was supposed to be baking (for fun I was going to try a Kringle) tea and knitting. 

Well the Kringle was amazingly yummy and everyone liked it. Tea is well tea but the knitting well it didn't want to behave. 

It's a hat for my sister (another Doctor Who fan) - there's Daleks around the hat. I made the large adult size just to be safe. I finished it wove in all the ends and went to try it on. It fits MJ. How the heck did a large adult instructions turn into a toddler sized hat. Granted MJ has a huge toddler head but come on!!  It fits K perfectly ( he head is smaller then MJs - yes hard to believe but it's true). So I can give it to her for Christmas but then I'll still need something for my sister. 

Some days it sure feels like the stars are aligned against me. 

Embroidery Update

Other side done

I'm using tea dyed linen. Which is good because my little darling knocked it into my tea. I rinsed it off and no stain. Yeah!

Well it's been a while

Let's see. Thanksgiving happened and them all and I mean all of us got the cruddy ick that went around. Pretty nasty ick too. Half of us needed 2 rounds of antibiotics (of course I was one of them).  So basically I got nothing done. So time for catch up. Thing was, I was ahead before Thanksgiving. Oh well. 

Here is some embroidery I finally got to start. It's for my friend who hopefully I'll be seeing before Christmas. After everything is embroidered I am going to turn it into a zippered pouch :). Hopefully all goes easy and well. I am making it up as I go. That seems to be the theme for me of late :). Makes it interesting 

Gift complete

But not given. So no revealing photo. Just a teaser. 

Yeah not much to see. Sorry

I am out of my mind to do this

So we are big Doctor Who fans here. Each has there favorite Doctor. My oldest is the 4th Doctor (played by Tom Baker). The 4th is the one who wore the famous scarf. The scarf was orginally 12 feet long that stretched to 20. It's all garter stitch and I can imagine the weight of 12 feet of scarf would stretch quite a bit. Anyway my son has been begging for The Scarf. So I bought yarn and started. This is all I have done

If I'm lucky it's 15". This is going to be interesting. The color changes help and most are not that long. The problem is I'm knitting it at a tighter gauge so it doesn't stretch to 20 feet so after 20 rows or so my hands are screaming and I have to stop. He's worth it though

You get what you pay for

And that's the problem with free patterns. Now I know pattern writing is hard, I've done it. I check and redo many times. Though sometimes you come across patterns that make no sense what so ever. 

Case in point 

The flat disc on top is supposed to be a hat. 4 times I redid thinking it was me since I haven't crocheted in a long while. Then I checked out other peoples projects. It wasn't me it was the pattern. So I am doing my own thing ( that's what in the bottom half of the picture) and basically using the picture for inspiration. That is what I normally do anyway. It's just been really busy and crazy here so I figured I'll just follow a pattern and relax. So didn't happen. Oh well

Halloween costume making

Just a tease on all the work I put into my kids costumes this year

More tomorrow :)

Not as planned

I went to blog today and I found my Halloween post. It seems something was amiss and it never posted, just saved. Oh well. With Christmas being jammed down our throats already let's reminisce a little. 

Doctor Who and Paw Patrol starring my kiddies

Everyone except Hubby is a fan of the Doctor in our house. 

Here's my oldest dressed as The Doctor (number 11-Matt Smith)

Here is my second oldest as a Weeping Angel. 

Here is my second youngest as the TARDIS in a not great pic (hubby's fault)

And the baby. My little MJ as Marshall from Paw Patrol. 

It was a fun trick or treating. Several adults understood the Doctor Who theme and made my kids night. Especially the last two houses. 

All in all pretty good. All costumes cost around fifty bucks total. Good thing I'm crafty. These days you can't buy 1 okay costume for that price. 

Things that can mess with tension

Knitting while watching a close hockey game. 

Hubby's Islanders vs my Bruins. 

Sadly Boston lost :(

My knitters

So my girls are starting to really get into knitting. Especially my youngest. She finished her second thing she ever knitted. A hat. A freaking hat. She just dove right in the deep end. 

Yes she has a wierd face. We were on a field tripand they gave the kids about ten minutes to eat. So she's half eating in the picture. 

Here's a picture of the two of them from three nights ago working on their hats

They are all growing up so fast :(. I found out that the cut of for pre k is dec 31 so I get to have mj home one more year before school starts for him. Yeah!  I'll have 2!! In high school when he starts pre k. Crazy pants!

So the plan was

To show a finished hat today. I had everything but the horns done. Then put the hat on Mj to check placement and found out he's has a bigger head then I thought. So I undid the too and pulled out all the decreases. I will add a little bit and decrease slower and that should do it. Hopefully. 

Hockey is back!!

Tonight is opening night for hockey. Hockey is my favorite sport (followed by football (though it is having major problems) then baseball). What better way to kick off hockey then with knitting. Slow knitting but still knitting. The lovely sensitive and annoyingly painful scar tissue from my run in with a knife is right where the needle hits my finger. Basically I have to relearn a different motion which is going ok but every so often and especially when I am not looking I hit the spot. 

Anyway a few weeks ago I pulled all the knits out to go through and wash what needed it. Well Mj's hats didn't fit so he needed a new one. It's going to be another Lil devil hat because well it's so him. I am going to make another hat for him so he at least has two. I am using my friends yarn. The color is "Fire Engine" and it is what I would call a perfect red. I am holding it double so I can use size 4 needles because well if I used size 2 I don't think the hat would be done this winter. Yes I am really that slow in knitting -sad face as my D says. I know I will speed up eventually but to see how slow I am know when last winter I would have been done in two nights as opposed to hopefully a week is a little depressing. On the bright side I am knitting finally 

Go Bruins!!

Thirteen and a half months

That's how long I have been running. That's crazy pants!! I always hated running really. Even now. I love how I feel after and it's helping me but it is still hard some days to get my tushie out the door. 

Today I was alone. Mj normally a too early riser slept in so off I went alone and when I run alone my mind drifts. That's how I know it's 13.5 months, over 219 miles (!!!!!!!), over 2.5 minutes faster on average, easier to breathe too and I am 58 pounds lighter. Now of course I have way more muscle so my weight still isn't where the dr wants it but he is happy with the progress. I am down 5 sizes so I guess that says more then the number on the scale.

 I say in all pretty good :)

9 down and I don't want to know how many to go

I started sewing the circles down. It's a by hand thing which honestly I like but as I was putting it away I looked. It took one night to do 9 and that's just a corner. What did I get myself into? What was I thinking making a queen size like this?  Well the good thing about this stuff is there is no deadline. 

I also washed all of that yarn I spun during the Tour de Fleece. 

And there's another knitter in the house

Her first knitting. She learned and kept going until she finished and learned how to bind off :) She already has something lined up. She wants to make a hat and socks. Between the two of them I might just have to lock my stash up

Tis the season

For dodging these

Went running this morning. Just a short run ( time constraints) and discovered the acorns are ready. Only got hit once today.   Acorns are everywhere on all of my run routes. I look at it like an added adventure to running. 

Good news

Well I found some interfacing while I was going through things. Yeah!! So I cut out the rest of the circles and even had a little left over just in case I need more.  For this Christmas quilt I am going more for throw size so I should be ok. 

With the weather changing and my finger healing my thoughts are moving toward wooly things. I washed everything and it's drying. I also found out that Mj will need a new hat. Hence winding up the gorgeous red yarn. Dyed by my friend it is special. 

Non gory picture of my new scar. Healed pretty quick :)

New plan

Well silly me forgot that I used the white fabric in other projects :(. So instead I decided to try this circle quilt with some Christmas fabric scraps I have. 

K is behind me sewing. 

Well that worked out until I ran out of interfacing. :(  So even though I did see today nothing really accomplished. These two project will go on the back burner until there's some extra money around. Tomorrow I am going to go throughout fabric and see if there is something I can start and finish. Fingers crossed. 

Next sewing project

19 colors (reds, oranges, yellows, greens,  blues and purples - Roy G. Biv ) and 6 different sized circles (they are drawn in the squares) will hopefully turn into a quilt big enough for our bed. If not I'll have to get more fabric. This will be definitely a long term since it will require a lot of hand sewing. 

New project started

19 different colors. 6 different sized circles ( they are drawn in the square-ish fabric) hopefully one quilt big enough :)

New cross stitch

My finger is healing but still sore. I actually tried to knit yesterday but the way I knit the needle hits the cut. Could not have been in a better spot. I did however finish this

Minions for MJ. Still needs to be ironed and I have to figure out how to frame it. 

There will be a delay in crafting

I am not going to show any gory details. Tonight while slicing bread for dinner (with a very sharp new bread knife) the knife slipped and my finger was in the way. Bloody mess that took its sweet time to stop bleeding. Of course it's right on the pad of my index finger. Ugh

School starts!!

Many parents are celebrating today :) 

Don't they look happy

I kept bugging them to smile

Better. Wow my two oldest are off to 7th and 8th grade. D will be off to high school next year!!! 

Two down one to go 

And Three Down

A was the last to go to school. Here she is waiting for the bus. A bus that never came - 8th year in a row we had a problem with the bus going to Paumanok. Over a quarter of a billion dollar budget  and they can't get busing right. Pretty sad. Anyway

Yes she's getting tall. Her last year in elementary school. Thank goodness. I can not take this school anymore

The teeny tiny cross stitch.

There you are.  So tiny. ( penny for scale and what used to be a penny and is now a Bear Mountain souvenir)

Here's a regular 14 count with Bear Mountain penny

In both pictures you can slightly see the hoop marks. The same sized hoop was used for both. I believe it is a 6" hoop. 

I love how tiny it is but the thing is well stitching it made me feel my age.  My eyes are not what there were ;)

Not bad for three weeks

Three weeks and I have 4 finished cross stitches. That makes 5 total with 2 being worked on. Pretty cool :). These are what I would consider normal cross stitch(14 count). One that I am working in now is on 28 count (that's 28 stitches per inch). It's so tiny. It's also an ornament hence the small ness

A change

With the RA flare I have had to change things up a little. I can't do much more then a row or two if knitting and I am still trying to figure out why. But I still need my sanity so I spun (a lot) and my hands said that's enough and it hurts to do that now. So onward to something else. Thank goodness my mom taught me a bunch if different crafts when I was young. 

So next up is ..... Cross stitch

I am in my 4th in the past month. Here's a peek

Dr Who inspired. I spent hours surfing etsy and oh boy the patterns out there. Lots of fun ones are lined up. :)