Musings on craft, motherhood and life in general

Meet Ava

2011-07-29T09:50:00.006-04:00

This beautiful doll is my second attempt at making a Waldorf style doll. The first one came out OK and sure is cute but there were definitely some mistakes. After consulting with a professional Waldorf doll maker, I had a better outcome for this doll. She was named after a special little girl who who fell in love with her. When that little girl is old enough, she will get one of her very own! I can't wait to make it.

This doll, our Ava, was made for my little girl who snuggles up with her every night. The dolly is allowed to have a modeling job on the side when my little one is at camp or school but otherwise, Mommy needs to keep her hands off. My daughter may only be 5 but she is sure of what she wants!

If you are interested in making a Waldorf style doll, I encourage you to try. It does take some doing and there is definitely a learning curve but the reward is a great big smile on your child's face. I made my first doll with a kit from Weir Dolls and my second with materials from that site but a slightly different method.

1) I rolled the head like a snowball instead of stuffing it like a pillow as the directions called for.

2) I machine sewed more on the second than the first.

3) I found some beautiful yarn at a local yarn shop for the hair on the second instead of using worsted wool.

4) I crocheted a cap for the head, hand sewed it on and then attached the individual strands of hair to the cap by doubling them and looping them around the crocheted stitches. I like this version of hair the best because it can be styled in many ways, oh and I like to learn new crochet techniques as I am more of a knitter than a crocheter.

Waldorf Dolls, Sweaters and Shoe tying

2011-04-19T14:21:00.006-04:00

I have recently discovered Waldorf dolls through my friend who owns Millie’s Dollhouse. She makes the cutest dolls and they sell quickly! I love them to distraction and can’t wait until I can purchase one. In fact, I love them so much that I have been inspired to knit all sorts of things for these dolls, starting with cardigans. I have had so much fun playing with patterns and yarn and, oh, the choices!! I’ve always loved sock yarn, I but I’ve never really felt pulled to knit socks. There is nothing wrong with knitting socks, I just haven’t felt the need to. Perhaps it is because I have this sneaking suspicion that if I start, I’ll never stop. So, what to do with all of this gorgeous yarn? You see where this is going don’t you? Yes, I knit these little jewels of “sock” yarn, 100% merino wool to be specific. I love the colors, the fiber and I am so inspired. There is nothing better on a rainy day (and there are plenty at this time of year) than a cup of tea and turning some beautiful yarn into something cute! Can you tell that I’m really enjoying this new venture? I have even found a wonderful community on facebook that is dedicated to all things Waldorf called Gals and Dolls. I could spent hours reading posts and checking out the Etsy stores of doll makers and other knitters. In fact, I have.

My daughter is loving this new venture too because her dolls get all of the prototype sweaters, skirts, headbands and purses. Let’s just say that some of the patterns coming out of my head work better than others. She is also enjoying that fact that more dolls will be coming into the house. I’ve told her that she can play, gently, with the new dolls but that they will need to be “working” dolls from time to time when Mommy needs a model for a photo shoot. She seems alright with this arrangement since most of my photo shoots are while she is at school and not playing with her toys anyway.

So what does all of this have to do with shoe tying? Yesterday I blocked out a whole afternoon to teach my daughter to tie her shoes because I thought that, even though she loves velcro shoes, she should know how to tie shoes with kindergarten fast approaching. It turns out that if you teach your child to knit and then to tie her shoes the shoe tying lesson takes all of three minutes. We had all kinds of time yesterday afternoon for fun stuff!

Hats all around

2010-09-24T17:03:00.006-04:00

This summer has brought a lot of travel and even more knitting. For some reason a large amount of the knitting has been hats. Hats for munchkins that is. Who can blame me though, they are so CUTE!

The bear hat is the result of a friend asking for one for her little man but never finding a pattern she loved. When it doubt, make your own pattern. It came out well I'd say.

I call August to December "birthday season" as it seems we are at a birthday party nearly every week for the entire 5 months. With all of these cuties as inspiration, the hats very nearly made themselves. I particularly love the striped photo prop hat, I can't wait to see the pictures of the little guy.

When fall finally arrives in our neck of the woods, the kids around here are going to be warm, toasty, and cute!

Summertime!

2010-06-01T22:17:00.008-04:00

Whether the calendar agrees with me or not, I declare it summer. These are my reasons why.

1) School is out in my neck of the woods.

2) My neighborhood pool is open.

3) The Farmers' Markets are open.

4) Caprese salad with ingredients from aforementioned Farmers' Market. Summer's lovely simplicity in a bowl. Yum!

5) It hit 90 degrees this week.

6) It has stopped raining daily.

7) It is strawberry picking time.

8) All of the people in my knitting group are doing open work or lace instead of blankets because "dear, it is just too hot." I am knitting cute little hats for the same reason. Watch for a blue one soon.

9) The summer concerts have started.

What makes it summer for you?

My New Ride

2010-05-27T16:37:00.003-04:00

It has been a wild ride for the last few months but we are now moved into the house and mostly settled. (No pictures of the house until the lawn is installed, the downfall of moving in February.) There were hassles with the build and the move but it was worth it. We have wonderful neighbors and friends close by. I am also, finally, back to knitting and filling my Etsy store check out the new stuff and the gorgeous pictures. I can't take credit for the vast majority of the outdoor pictures, by the way, those were taken by my dear friend Jolene. Check out her photography blog here. I told you she was talented now didn't I?

With all of these changes has come another. I've gotten a new ride. Cool huh?

My daughter and I have taken to riding to the local parks in the mornings before it gets too hot. She loves the trailer, I love the exercise and we're saving quite a bit of gas. We are lucky to live in a place with so may parks and nature trails available. We plan to explore them all this summer. I hope that you and yours find some nearby and do the same. I'd love to hear how your adventures go!

Progress

2010-01-11T16:13:00.006-05:00

More work has been done on the house and the much awaited bannisters are in! Munchkin may now tour the house freely. No closing date yet but we are getting close. I'm so ready to live out of drawers and cupboards instead of boxes and to have some semblance of order. Sure our house is clean and gorgeous for showings but papers have a way of disappearing when I have to keep putting them somewhere "safe."

I'm now also dabbling in bead work for my Etsy store. I currently have 2 sets of prayer beads for sale in my store and more to come very soon. This is something I stumbled across a few years ago and shared with the women at my church recently. They are fun and thought provoking to make and they are peaceful things to have in your life. I've very excited about these and even if no one buys them, I hope to spread the word about them and encourage more people to make their own to use in their own prayers.

In addition to the prayer beads, I've been knitting like crazy, especially for Christmas. In 10 days I knit 6 scarves and a purse. They came out wonderfully but unfortunately there are no pictures since I gave them all away before photographing them. Rookie mistake.

Home building - Quite an adventure

2009-12-01T16:50:00.005-05:00

As I mentioned in my last post, we are building a new home. Something we never thought we would do, but we are enjoying it nonetheless. Pretty huh? They tell me the dirt piles will be gone by spring and then maybe we'll have some plants too. If everything goes well, we should be in the new home by mid-January.

My child is mostly thrilled about the move because we know a lot of families who live very near the new place and now they are only a bike ride away instead of a 10 minute car ride. We enjoy wandering through the new construction even with the dust everywhere just to see the changes. There are some things about the house tours that make me a little nervous though. Remember the child I mentioned, well this is what the hallway just outside the playroom.

Terrifying isn't it? Soon there will be a railing, but right now, nervous nellie mommy! Never have I been so appreciative of trim carpenters! Wish us luck. Now back to knitting.

Busier Bee

2009-11-29T20:45:00.005-05:00

Since May lots has happened. We've decided to build a house which should be finished in the next month or so. We've been to Canada, Michigan, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Florida where we visited Grandma, Grandpa and Mickey! We've been strawberry picking, apple picking and gardening. We've gone on our first field trip, attended the Symphony on the Prairie and worked hard to make VBS fun for all. We've attended summer camp and met Elmo and all his pals. We've learned that you can make your our Yeti just by vacuuming brand new carpet. We've gotten one year older and helped a dear friend launch her photography business. She is seriously talented and, if you are local, you should consider having photograph your family.

http://jolenejohnstonphotography.blogspot.com/

I've started to sell items at a local store, Gallery 116 in Fishers, IN. http://www.gallery116.com/

And most exciting of all, I now have a NIECE! She is gorgeous, of course, and since she lives about 900 miles away for now I'm visiting her via webcam. This auntie thing is great, cute kids and I'm not the one they are throwing up on, usually.

I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and thus far a calm holiday season.

Enjoy your adventures, I certainly enjoy mine.

Busy Bee

2009-05-24T21:00:00.004-04:00

I have been a busy bee. We put in a new garden. Yesterday grass today this. The plants are mainly those from my April 22 post. Obviously there are more plants to add and mulch to lay down but after moving more than 2,000 pounds of sod, topsoil, compost and hay we decided to call it a day. It is a three day weekend after all.

I've also bought out half of JoAnn's kids crafts section. They are having a great sale and I have a 3 year old constantly home until preschool starts again next fall. She loves little craft kits, stickers, etc. All told, including the bins, this was under $100. Not a bad price for a few months of sanity.

I've also been working on items for my Etsy shop and,

potentially, a local shop that sells handcrafted items. I'll reveal the name if they like my stuff. My latest creation is a lovely light purple summer shawl. I like it so much that I don't want to list it but I will tomorrow. There is more yarn out there and goodness knows I have plenty of needles.

Good night my lovelies. That's all I have for now.

What Is A Gratitude Envelope Anyway?

2009-05-06T14:54:00.006-04:00

If you have checked out my Etsy store lately you have likely seen sets of gratitude envelopes for sale. The idea came to me while thinking of gifts to give to my family last Christmas/birthday season. Ours is not a huge family, currently 8 adults and 1 munchkin but of those 9 people, 6 of us have birthdays in the first three months of the year. Birthday presents are distributed at Christmas as well since we live hundreds of miles apart. Being a stay-at-home mom, I wanted gifts that would be fairly inexpensive to make but would mean something. The answer was gratitude envelopes.

I knit a different envelope for each person using different colors of yarn. Everyone wrote something special to the other family members and we all walked away with a collection of thoughts from our dearest, if not so nearest (geographically that is). My envelope and the lovely thoughts it holds now rests on a shelf above my desk. Whenever I miss my family, I read through the cards and know that I am loved.

Currently, I have sets of 4 envelopes on my website with sets of 8 coming soon. I welcome custom orders, after all the original set was custom made.

Earth Day and My Budget Driven Greenness

2009-04-22T21:50:00.008-04:00

I remember going to an Earth Day celebration when I was a child. It was part carnival, part crafts fair, and part information extravaganza. It was my first encounter with Earth Day actually and apparently it left an impression. I'm sure the organizers would be thrilled to know that since the fair was 20 some years ago and I am writing about it today.

With that said, I would not consider myself extremely eco-minded, green or "granola" as some of my friends put it. I do what works for me, what saves me money and what I believe will give my child a good idea of how to treat the planet and those around her. Since I am a stay-at-home mom, budget is very important to me. I need to keep in mind that we as a family are working with less money than we were a few years ago. It is still pretty easy to "go green". So how do I do this on a budget?

1) I use white bar towels in the kitchen instead of paper towels. They are just white cotton that wash easily. I have 20 of them or so and I wash them about once a week. They cost about $20. I used to go through a roll of paper towels a day, each roll runs about 75 cents to $1 depending on the brand. Now I go through a roll every week or so for the really nasty stuff that I do want to throw out.

2) I have reusable shopping bags that I take everywhere with me, they stay in the car. I've brought maybe 20 plastic shopping bags into the house in the last year. The shopping bags cost $1 each at Meijer or Target (I have some of each) I even have some small ones that I can keep in my purse for smaller purchases. This was about an $8 investment and a few stores in the area give a discount for each bag you reuse.

3) I bring my cooler with me to the grocery store (it lives in the car too) and I put my cold items in there when I am done. No I don't live in the boonies, in fact it takes 4 minutes to get to the store and that is only if I have to wait for the lights. I do this because it means that anytime of year I can do all of my errands at once without having to worry that my groceries will go bad. Believe me, it gets VERY hot here in the summer and I've never had anything go bad. I save a lot of gas this way.

4) We use florescent bulbs in most of our lights. This happened over the years, sort of by accident. We bought a couple of six packs of bulbs at Costco, with a coupon I think, and when the old incandescent bulbs burn out, this is what we have on hand. You've heard that they use lots less energy so they also put off a lot less heat, and I pay less for air conditioning. Did I mention that it gets hot here in the summer?

5) I manage my air conditioning. I turn it off overnight, unless it is going to be really hot, and I don't turn it on again until about 2 p.m. most days in the summer.

6) We grow our own veggies. We have a pretty small yard but there is space for a vegetable garden and we have pots on the deck for herbs and whatnot. We'll spend $50 this year on seeds, compost (yes we are working on our own composting but we don't have enough for what we need yet), plants, etc. and grow most of the produce we need. The pictures were taken today as we started some seeds to get a jump on the garden. My daughter thinks that gardening in general is great fun so I always have a willing helper.

7) We pick our own berries, etc. Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, green beans, and apples are all for sale at u-pick prices within 20 minutes of our home. We go early in the day, usually around 9 a.m. pick for an hour, which is really as long as my daughter thinks it is fun, and then we come home and process them. This is not as scary as it sounds. Usually all it means is cleaning and freezing what ever we picked. We're still working on the green beans I picked last summer. I make freezer jam out of some of the berries, this couldn't be easier. Just use the recipes that come in the Sure-Jell pectin packets and freeze them in the Ball freezer jars. We're still working on the jam I made last summer too. One batch makes 8 jars and takes one hour. Have you priced organic strawberry jam lately? Trust me, it is worth your time.

8) Hit the Farmer's Market. The veggies we don't grow or pick, we buy locally from some very nice people. Our Farmer's Market is about 2 miles from our house and we make a trip each Saturday during the summer. The prices are better than the grocery store and we get great produce, meat, eggs, dairy products, even honey. All this at our dinky little small town market, I'd bet the larger markets are even better.

9) The library is your friend. We go to the library once a week. My daughter gets to pick 10 books and 2 movies. She is thrilled and so am I. It's free and it is a good way to teach her about sharing and recycling. Besides, when she is done with these items, they go back the library instead of sitting on the shelf for 3 months until she is interested again.

I hope this was helpful. It sounds like a lot but really it is just a few wise purchases and a couple hours a week during the summer. You're going to be outside anyway, why not save some money and be nice to the earth?

Hope

2009-04-15T16:37:00.008-04:00

It is about 45 degrees here right now and I've had to have the heat on in the house more often in the last 30 days than not. I believe that spring is coming though. I found a little bit of proof right outside my front window today. I LOVE this tree, it produces the most gorgeous flowers in the spring and then provides great shade the rest of the summer.

Despite everything going on these days and the uncertainty that surrounds us all, I am still rather hopeful. Perhaps it is the friends with whom I surround myself, perhaps it is the fact that Easter just passed, perhaps it is because my daughter has been well behaved for the last few days. Or perhaps it is because I listed my first set of gratitude envelopes on Etsy. The whole idea was a labor of love. See them here and be sure to read the description! Whatever it is that has me feeling hopeful, I'll take it. I think that we all need a little hope these days to get through what life throws at us.

Here's hoping that you find something to be grateful for each day, even if it is just the buds on the tree outside your living room window.

Introduction

2009-04-05T14:31:00.003-04:00

Alright, so I finally did it. I've been saying I would start a blog for some time now and a stormy Sunday afternoon seems as good a time as any. So why do you care what I think? Well, maybe you don't and that is fine with me, to each his own. If you do care to follow my musings I can promise missteps, hilarity and every so often a hint of genius if you look very closely.

I'm a mom to a beautiful, talented, smart 3 and half year old girl. Yes I'm biased and I'm proud of it. I am also an avid knitter, budding online boutique owner and traveler. Well at least at heart on that last one. I'm a transplant from the Northeast to the Midwest and after nearly a decade of being out in the "big flat states" as I call them, I'm finding that I like it more than I ever imagined I would.

As the title of this blog suggests I will deal mainly with crafty pursuits, the strange job of mothering and whatever else strikes my fancy. Join me won't you?