Crochet Heart Garland

What's that? You say Valentines Day is fast approaching and you need something cute to decorate with?

How about a Crocheted Heart Garland?



Now, I wish I could claim this cool heart pattern as my own... but I can't. Instead I will gladly direct you to the pattern which you can find at Cocoa Cream's blog. It's called the American Folk-Art Style Heart Motif.

I sewed them down to some felt to give them stability and used some really cute scrapbooking brads from Making Memories to the brown ribbon. I love how they turned out! I wish I had more of the yarn I used (Soy Wool Stripes) because these would have made the cutest scarf!

Stitch Marker Insanity!

Last year I made stitch markers to sell at Madrona. My  friend Ialiuxh (Lollipop Cabin) is an indie dyer and has a booth. She graciously lets me set up a little display. This year I am super excited because well... my packaging rocks! I love it. More than love. I'm over the moon about it!

It's very tongue in cheek. It's a little sassy. But best of all the packaging is 100% reusable. Right down to the tags they are on. Have I mentioned how pleased I am with it? I am. You wanna see?

And yes, the red and turqoise blue. I can't get enough of it.

The tag is hand stamped with this cute bird.

It just all makes me smile!

And in case you were wondering... this is what my counter (aka staging area) looks like...

Such pretty things for the knitters! (If you don't knit... I can direct you to several resources!)

WIP Wednesday and a Finished Item!

I'm trying to be more consistent with documenting my knitting and crocheting projects. On the needles right now is a pretty cabled wrap that is two sided. Yep, TWO sided cabling. Sounds a lot harder than it is. Trust me. The only bummer is that this is a BIG project. There is no way I'm going to finish it by the end of the month. But you know, that's ok.

The pattern is called the Every Way Wrap and it's from the Fall 2009 Interweave Knits magazine.  The yarn is a delicious Punta Yarns Merisoft Space Dyed. I love it.

I did get something finished this month! The Traveling Woman scarf for my mother in law is DONE. And I suck at blocking. LOL.

See... this is a classic example of poor blocking. And probably the fact that I should have used bigger needles to bind off with. But it looks ok when your wearing so... eh. 

A close up of the edging. LOVE that part. 

How Many Pots???

This my friends is what my stove looks like when I make pasta at my house. A pot for the green beans, a pot for the gluten free pasta, a pot for the regular pasta and a pot for the sauce.

Have I mentioned how much I hate to hand wash dishes? Well, I do. So therefore the above doesn't happen often. Much to the dismay of my pasta loving children.

Recipe- Fruit Glazed Chicken with Mashed (Not a) Turnip and Potatoes

Ok. I will admit it. I've never eaten a turnip before (well, at least to my knowlege). That's got to be weird, right? How does one go thirty years with never having eaten a turnip? So I bought one. And then I was stumped. Just how does one eat a turnip? Well, apparently you can mash it. And if you mash it with potatoes it's very good. Not sure my kids were impressed but I thought it was rather tasty.

ETA- Well, come to find out folks what I made was a PARSNIP. And not a turnip. I'm still a turnip virgin. ROFL.

And yes this is a picture of my dinner. And yes I did already take a bite. I was really hungry. When I'm really hungry I tend to either be incredibly snarky or I forget to take pictures. I would guess that I was somewhere inbetween those two last night. Oh, and taking dinner shots in the Pac NW and having them look good is... nigh on impossible. But I digress. Here's how I made my dinner last night. It was super easy.

You need potatoes and a turnip...

I'm nearing the end of my food supply so it's regular old bakers. Peel, cube and throw into a pot. Cover with some COLD water and boil until tender. Here's an action shot...

At the same time as all this is going on you need to get your chicken in the oven. Start by lining your broiling pan with foil and preheating your oven to 350 degrees. Then you need to make a rub. I used 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.

Stir it up and rub on your chicken... I used one whole chicken cut into pieces. But this would work for chicken breasts as well.

Put your chicken in the oven and bake for 25 or so minutes until done through. Melt in a saucepan over medium low heat about 1/4 cup of your favorite jam. I prefer blackberry but you know... the plum might have been good as well. (All our jam is 100% local grown and homemade!) I was going to take a shot of this but blackberry jam in a black saucepan... it didn't work.

Glaze your chicken using a brush... mmmm looking good already!

Now the fun part... back in the oven it goes! This time about 4" under the broiler and for about 5 minutes. While that's cooking you can mash your potatoes and turnip.

I mashed mine with about 1 tbsp of brown sugar, 1/2 stick of vegan butter and 1/4 cup of Almond milk. If your not on a gluten/dairy free diet feel free to substitute with the real stuff. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Remove the chicken from the oven and let rest for about five minutes. You should always let your meat rest before cutting it. Serve with your mashed potatoes and turnip and a side of beans.

I will not lie... my kids... eh... well... hmmm...

BUT I LIKED IT!

Recipe- Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts

A few months ago I had the pleasure of attending an open house wedding reception for a good friends daughter. Served at the reception where these delightful appetizers of water chestnuts wrapped in bacon. Here's the thing. I love bacon. I especially love things wrapped in bacon. I think I must have eaten at least 20 that night.


Fast forward to yesterday. A bunch of ladies where getting together to celebrate the January birthdays. I was asked to bring some finger foods. So I whipped up a batch of these...




... they are sinfully delicious. And you can't eat just one. You can't. Unless you don't like bacon. In which case you are weird. And if you think you don't like water chestnuts... well, you might change your mind after trying these! The secret? You have to marinate those water chestnuts!

Here's the Recipe. Enjoy!


Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts

1 pound bacon
2 or 3 8oz cans of Water Chestnuts, drained (winco has them super cheap)
1/4 cup worchester
3 Tlpsp Brown Sugar
2 Tlbsp Water
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/8th teas. ground ginger
1/2 teas. chili oil (optional)

1. In a bowl combine everything but the bacon. Cover w/ plastic wrap and put it in the fridge to marinate for at least two hours. I stirred it a few times. This could also be done in a ziploc bag.

2. After your done marinating the water chestnuts the fun begins! Cut your bacon slab into thirds. Wrap 3-4 slices in a bacon piece and secure with a tooth pick.

3. Using a broiling pan (or the good old trick of a cooling rack over a foil lined cookie sheet) place them under the broiler in your oven until the bacon is cooked. Roughly 10 minutes.

Serve and Enjoy!

ps. If you read this before... I forgot to list brown sugar. That's what happens when you have kids. You forget things. Sometimes important things. Like brown sugar.

Tutorial- Zipper Flower and Feather Hairclip

So I realize that I'm a tad bit late in the game with this whole zipper flower thing but I had these feathers hanging around that I really wanted to play with. And some tulle. And a button. And a ribbon bow. See...?? What does one do with all this?

Why one gets out ones glue gun of course! And some felt and an alligator clip.

Cut your zipper in 2 1/2" lengths and glue the overlapped ends together.

I didn't like how you can see through it and that it didn't lay flat(ish)... see what I mean?

So I folded over that back bit and glued it down like this:

It makes the front of the flower petal look better as well.

Now it's time to glue the petals to the button in a flower shape. One petal had a little too much glue. Oh well.

Glue a ribbon bow to the front of the button to hide the button holes. You could be done here and call it good and attach it to your hair clip. But then what would you do with that tulle? And the FEATHERS!

Get your felt and cut out a piece. I thought an oval would be nice. It doesn't really matter what shape since you won't see it. Oh, and it's about an inch or so big. Yep, I'm super technical today!

Take your tulle and fold the edges in towards the middle.

I forgot to take a pic of the next step but here you would see a picture of me glueing the ends of the tulle into the middle of the felt piece.

Now glue the feathers on. Space them out and overlap them a bit. Trim the ends so they don't poke out.

Glue the zipper flower over the ends to hide them. Then glue the whole thing to your alligator clip or a headband. Wear and enjoy. I love it!

Yes, I'm wearing it right now. In my pj's. So what. It's pretty.

Knitting: A work in Progress

I'm not much of a shawl person, but the current trend in knitting are these smaller shawlettes. You get all the joy of knitting a lace shawl but a more modern size. Wear it as a shawl or wear it as a scarf. Or wear it backwards like a bandana. I'm telling you the shawlette is a perfect accessory. Currently I'm working a pattern called Traveling Woman in a delightful sockweight yarn by Alina Shea. I'm really loving both the pattern and the yarn.

It's a much quicker knit then I thought it was going to be. I'm hoping to finish it by tomorrow. It will only have taken me a week if that's the case! And that's with making stitch markers and doing the whole mom thing.

In the ball the yarn looks like a purplish grey mass. But once you start knitting it you can really see the color variations. You just don't see that pink in the ball. LOVE it!

The Ornament Tradition

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is getting a new ornament for each family member every year. This year I got the kids these ones... note the bulldog. (The youngest was nicknamed this his second week of life and it's stuck around.) I'm a bit bummed I didn't get any other pictures of these before I took Christmas down. But oh well.

I mark each ornament with their name or initial and the year it was received.

I also do one for James and I. Because I love ornaments. And this is how I control the after Christmas clearance decor shopping that I would do if I didn't already pay full price for 5 new ornaments. I'm already up to a gazillion boxes of Christmas decor.

Then when the holidays are over all the ornaments are removed from the tree and separated into their own boxes. Each of the kids has a little box with their name on it. This way each year they can put THEIR ornament on the tree. And one day should they move out of our house they will have ornaments for their first Christmas tree.



Yes, it's probably one of my better ideas!

A Modern Heirloom Baby Blanket

Sometimes crochet can be downright... well, ugly. I'm not going to lie. For most people the word crochet conjours up mental images of old afghans done in horrendous colors. Like orange and brown. (But this color combination is very much ok if you happen to be a Oregon State Beavers fan. Not ok otherwise. Trust me.)

But this baby blanket. It's pretty. It's soft. It's very feminine and I really hope that it's appreciated. Because I love it.



For those of you who are pattern and yarn nerds this is a Terry Kimbrough pattern. When I first looked through the book I was skeptical. All of the blankets are made in that horrid boucle baby acrylic. Not a pleasant thing. Plus, for "baby" yarn it's not soft. So if you are a knitter/crocheter and you need to use some acrylic (which unless your making it for yourself or another like minded fiber nerd it most definately should be acrylic) you really need to try Jo-Anns Sensations Cuddle. It's soft and not shiny. The lable says it's perfect for baby and kids. And it is! I loved working with it. And I have huge sensory issues. I give this yarn 5 stars. It's great.

Here it is all laid out. The blanket is the perfect size. Not too small and not too big. I love the colors. I'm really liking the two of them together and it just gives the blanket that special something. Much better than if it was all the same color.

The ribbon adds a feminine touch. That and I love bows.

The Obligatory New Years Post

I still can't believe it is 2011. I'm pretty sure 2010 was the fastest year known to man. It seemed to just fly by. I made a lot of personal changes the last half of the year so I don't really feel the need to have any new resolutions to make. Just a continuation of them.

But mostly I want to strive for a little less procrastination and a whole lot more consistency. I feel like we have some good things going for us. Now to be a little more consistent with them. Here are some changes that have been made in the past few months...

Budgeting and working on getting OUT OF DEBT!!
Blogging
Reorganizing the House
Give Gabe Piano Lessons
Work with Aidyn to possibly test her into Kindergarten in the fall (her birthday is Sept. 12th)
Setting and keeping a schedule that works for our family.
Updating and filling the Etsy store
Scripture Study

It's a big list and sometimes I wonder if I'm going through some sort of mid-life crises. But it's probably because I just want a better way of life for our little family. I don't know what it is, but I feel it's really important this year that I get these things working well. Maybe then life won't be as chaotic as last year! (Because it was non-stop crazy with THREE kids, a craft blog, the HPKCHC, church, J's insane work schedule... you get the picture.)