New crafts and gifts for friends

Lots of things have been going on over @ our house. And I was finally able to get some silver yarn to finish up a hat for a friends little girl. :) Late Christmas presents anyone? I also was able to finish a size medium set of fingerless gloves that I am going to post on the etsy shop. I haven't been crocheting allot lately because there has been so much cleaning to do around the house. Its absolutely crazy!

Today has been a morning of scooby doo and my crochet hooks and some really lovely coffee.

My animal child and my real child decided they have taken an interest in my yarn today. And my little one refuses to take off his hoodie for me to wash it since he got food on it @ breakfast. Silly boy. 

For once the fingerless gloves I'm making are for me! Lols. I keep on doing these really lovely pairs and then went to a store a few weeks ago and picked out a yarn I really loved to do my own in. But I'm making the part for the thumb longer as I think I like it better that way. ;) Even though in the picture my fingers look super short and chubby, lols. And on finishing the first one, my animal child decided to go after my crochet hook. 

Silly girl! I hope everyone is having a fantastic Sunday!

Learning

The last few weeks have been a learning experience for both little one and I. Mr. Love and I have realized that we need a little more learning reinforcement hands on. So I made flash cards and you wouldn't believe how much little one enjoys doing his letters and colors with me!

To make them I just used the craft room basics and it was my first project ever using the cricut craft room. So I learned a few things as well.

This was my first time melding things on my cricut and I realized how much fun it was and how nice it was too.  I also did the alphabet that I have yet to take pictures of yet but I did it in ironman colors and little one is very happy about that as well. I like that I have started to use my cricut in ways that just fits all of our life. And had lots of fun doing it too!

We have lots of snow here in Pennsylvania right now and I am loving it, I can't wait to take little one out sledding since we didn't get any snow till January. I love it, it looks so pretty. :)

New years and SnOw!

New years was calm. Lol. As you can see. A glass of wine, a movie, bon bons, and the cat. A good new year, Mr. Love went out of his way to have time to snuggle me. Definitely better than last year by far. In which I was alone and had no kitten and Mr love was very far away traveling. Little one was (and still is) sick with a cold.

Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time making new fingerless gloves (sold at our etsy on the right) and I think I'm going to make little crocheted hearts to go with these ones and call them sweetheart sets. :)

It snowed quite a bit today, so after it took a break I finally brought my fairy garden in. I hadn't before because it had been 40-50's outside and had no reason to. But sadly I did today and made her a snowman. She's waving goodbye to the nice weather...

Really hoping we have enough snow tomorrow for little one to go sledding, I know he would really adore that this year. Last year he was skiddish, and the year before he cried. But my adventurous little toddler hopefully will enjoy it greatly this year.

Goodbye 2011

As I finish off this year, I'll do what all the hip moms are doing, lols. Here are my favorites of 2011.

I like my photo collages, nothing better than remembering the really fine moments that I've had with my little one. I can't say we went to the beach this year, or did really cool museums, but we were together,  and that is all that matters.

While my bogging is slow now, my family has lost a very wonderful person. Though we continue to tear for her, she has filled all of our hearts with so much love. And she will always be loved and remembered.

I hope that everyone has a happy and safe new years.Cheers to the next one being even more fab.

Extra measures

I find myself awake at 3:00 am and think, well if I have to be awake I can catch up on things.

Lately I have discovered that I need to take extra measures against the cat and my precious Christmas tree. I do love them both so, but the cat thinks that the tree is made for climbing. And as she is getting healthy and growing well when she tries to climb a branch or two they bend under her weight. And, mind you, I have no idea how because the wire is very thick! But I also knew that I had two very nice still in the box strings of soft white lights.

 Once, somewhere, I had read that cats do not like the sound of aluminum foil. So we will see how long this lasts.

And hopefully now we will have our nice tree, and a less irritated me. 

I don't think she looks that bugged by it. She is pretty happy on her throne. :)

Getting ready for Thanksgiving

Allot has been happening lately. Lil one was very very sick with a bad viral that we either got while we were out eating or shopping. Today though I got allot done for the first time in two weeks. I did laundry, swept the carpets and watched cartoons. And tonight I made my first successful pie crust and some really terrific dough for rolls.

As you can see it looks great! I had to break down a couple recipes to get what I wanted. And I also made it so that there was only enough for one crust.

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening
5 to 8 tablespoons of really cold water

Adding the flour, then the salt, mix with a fork Next add in the shortening and start with around 5 tablespoons of cold water. To get this mixed in properly I know that there are a few different ways to do it and all successful. But even though I have all of those extra tools I used my fork to press the chunks of shortening to the side of the bowl with the flour and did this over and over again till I could tell it was together well.

Put down wax paper on your rolling space and gather your dough in your hands and make it into a ball. Place the ball onto the wax paper and flatten it slightly. Put another piece of wax paper on top and roll to your specified size.

I would love to tell you how I got this in the pie pan and cut the extra off and pressed the sides but I'm afraid you'd roll off your chair with laughter. You'd be better to google it than follow my example. - But once it was pressed down and looking pretty I wrapped it up with saran wrap and put it in the fridge. **Let it settle for two hours or overnight. (Otherwise it will shrink when baking). Not the best I'm sure, but pretty good.

Lol, you can tell I took these on my cell. This dough for rolls was made from the recipe here and if you've made dough before you know when you've got a good or bad mix on how it feels when you make it. This dough is amazing. I can't wait to make it into rolls in the morning! Usually I don't follow instructions for recipes to the T, but I followed this one and I am very happy on how it turned out. I will say that I used two more cups of flour, but all of my bread or roll recipes that I have done I have had to add extra. I think its my house. :)

 I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Our Indian summer

For a couple days this week Pennsylvania had a nice Indian summer going on. My little one was so happy that he was able to wear shorts. We also got to play outside and do more leaf clean up.

He played in the yard while I got to work on a new project. I learned how to do a cable like stitch with crochet.

I found out how to do it from this book I ordered on amazon. I love the ideas it gives me. I have a slight problem with being able to follow patterns. I switch everything around because I don't like to follow the directions down to every stitch. So I started some fingerless gloves with some of what I had learned from reading in the book. I finished them this morning but I don't think that I will be selling them on the etsy. I think they are too chunky. Though the yarn is described as a 4 I think its a 5.

Oh, you read that all the way through? Lol! Yes, my cousin and I have an etsy which I have included a widget to on the right of this page  --> --> --> Take a peek. :)