Pinterest project- Jan 2013

This was not what I imagined for my first post of 2013. But right now this is what is on my mind. My one new year's resolution thus far is the following. I want to work on completing at least ONE project I've posted to my pinterest boards. The way I see it, I've pinned lots of cool crafts, recipes (which I actually do use), games, etc, etc. But half the time after I pinned them I forget what I pinned. Until I'm trying to look up some other pin and see it again. The whole thing is silly really. So my goal: complete one of those great ideas a month. The whole thing will feel less silly. And pinterest as a whole will hopefully feel like more than a time suck. Although to be honest I'm not on all that much. My time is wasted reading fictional stories, either online, on my kindle or in a physical book. ;)
Anyhoo, for Christmas I used one of my many pins to make a gift for my nephew Josiah. When I saw this pin I immediately thought of my large motor skills, very active nephew. It was perfect. This hopscotch mat looked like something I could easily put together and Josiah would love.

Hopscotch mat for Josiah

 And hopefully it would be good for my sister-in-law, who like me needs ways to direct play in a productive manner while still allowing for those large motor skills to be used. (They are going to run all over the house unless you give them something else to do with their bodies. Sit down games only last so long)
In the end, it really wasn't to difficult. I bought 2 yards of canvas from Walmart and cut it in half. This was great because then I could make one for my boys as well. I cut numbers our of blocks of felt and used the numbers on the second one.

Mat made from extras for my boys. I used fabric pant to draw the boxes 

Using a zigzag stitch I sewed around the edges to hopefully deter unraveling. Unlike the blogger who originally posted the idea, I used fabric paint in addition to felt.

Tic-Tac-Toe outline

 For the back tic-tac-toe game I cut out rectangles and painted x's and o's on them instead of adding felt letters. I also used paint to write the numbers for the dart/bomber game on the back.

Bomber/Dart game

Because there is snow on the ground and I had no desire to dig for rocks, the bomber bags double as both bombers and hopscotch rocks. Josiah seems pleased. And the boys played with it some last night after we exchanged gifts. All and all I too was pretty please with the results. I sadily didn't take any pictures of the tic-tac-toe pieces or the bag I put it all in. It was one I made a few years back, but it was brightly colored and the right size. I wrote hopscotch in fabric paint on the bottom.
 My boys now want me to add a tic-tac-toe game and bomber game to the back of ours. We'll see. For right now thought the hopscotch mat seems enough for them.

On a side note, we have hard wood floors and canvas sides very easily across the floor. While places heavy books on top of the canvas can work it doesn't work well. I have been using the double sided tape from our plastic window coverings used to winterize the house. I have used these sheets for several years now, with the exception of this one (I decided after last year and the cats slashing every single one it was not worth the work). Because the tape is meant for the wood trim around window I figured it would be safe on my floor. So far it has not caused any problems. Of course by the end of day two the fabric decided it does not want to stick anymore and you have to replace the tape. But that's better anyway. If it doesn't stay long on the floor it has less potential of ruining the finishing.

Completed Projects :)

Almost every year, since Mark was in high school, several members of Mark's family and another family from church, along with other family and individuals depending on the year, travel up to Boyne Highlands in northern Michigan for a weekend of skiing and fun. I've had the pleasure of joining in on this awesome weekend now four times. This year being the second year in a row! With us living in Goshen now, and thus the trip easier to manage than when we were in Kansas, Mark and I both hope to continue the family tradition for our boys to grow up in. Last weekend was our Boyne trip. And prior to this trip I had a long list of things I wanted to complete. Really I was very proud of myself. In the two weeks leading up to the trip I got most of what I wanted to do accomplished. And I have to say I'm very pleased with all my efforts. 

Christmas 2009 my creative sister-in-law Rachel gave the boys a felt puppet theater and two felt puppets. She had seen a puppet theater held up by a tension rod in a store and thought "I could do that." We have enjoyed the theater, and enjoy the puppets even more.

Christmas 2009 

This last Christmas (2011) Rachel gave Cai two more puppets, an owl and a dragon, to go along with our frog and bear.

Christmas 2011

 Also this Christmas, Ian was giving The Frog and Toad Treasury. If you have never read Frog and Toad and have small kids you should. They are fun. Both Cai and Ian love the stories. So realizing that we have a frog puppet, I thought wouldn't it be great to have a toad puppet and then they could act out the stories from the books. So I set to work making them a toad puppet.

Toad front and back

 Being that my nephew also loves Frog and Toad, I made him a set as well.

set for Josiah

 Since I was making puppets I made a cat for Aiden cause he loves cats right now

after detailed glued on

. And a tree. Now this once might seem weird, but trust me there is a reason. Ever since Cai got the owl at Christmas the boys have used this puppet only with an odd green one (I think it looks like a green gingerbread man) and sing Owl in the Tree, a song they learned at the library storytime. Watching them I decided that maybe a tree would be fun for them.

owl in the tree says "hoo hoo hoo"

 All three new puppets were met with squeals of joy.

one of the boys took this

And I learned some thing in the process. Most importantly, if you use hot glue to attach any detail pieces, glut them on after you sew the puppet pieces together. You can not machine sew through hot glue. My poor cat puppet had to be hand sewed because I had already hot glued the stripes on. Still it seems to be holding together.

The next thing I wanted to complete before our Boyne trip was a car road made out of old jeans. Rachel had told me about this when I was telling her about all the old jeans I had. When she asked if she could have some, I told her I would be glad to make it. Rach had seen the idea on pinterest.

all our road pieces

 Of course it should be noted that I didn't finish it until the night before we left. Oh well, it was made and the boys all enjoyed it.

 I had meant for it to go home with Rach, but it ended up in our bag. I'll give it to her sometime this week. Since the boys were giving an awesome road area rug from their grandparents for Christmas we don't need the road pieces.

In addition to some new toys, I made several new snacks for our trip. Since Cai can't have peanut butter, I tried soy nut butter in puppy chow. It turned out really good. Sunflower butter (our normal peanut butter substitute) just isn't the same and can sometimes just make a recipe taste odd. But the soy nut butter worked great, no oddness at all.  I made strawberry fudge from a link my mother shared with me. Two ingredients- strawberry icing and white chocolate chips. It turned out ok, really sweet and soft. Not something I would make very often to be sure.

 The snack I'm most excited/proud about was the gluten free goldfish crackers I made.

My sister-in-law Andrea sent me the link to this recipe. I used my own flour mix in place of Bob's Red Mill gluten free all-purpose flour. I also added a teaspoon of xanthan gum. The original recipe come from Chef Chloe. I didn't have a goldfish cutter. But when I was talking to Rachel she said something about using old aluminum pop cans. So that's what I used. I cut a strip out of an old coca-cola can, folded over the top edge so it wouldn't be sharp when I pressed down on it, and shaped it into a fish, Then I used scotch tape to tape it together. Simple.

 The downside to this type of cutter is that after only a few uses it would bend out of shape and I would have to reshape it.

 

Other than that it worked great.  Next time I make these I will add less onion powder and maybe less nutritional yeast. The flavor, while great for me, was alittle much for the kids.

one of the boys took this

The last completed project I want to share is this. I finished my sweater! Yes, the sweater I started last year. Here is the blog where I shared my goal of finishing within the year.  I'm alittle late, but not much. And mostly I'm just so excited to finish it. I don't have a picture of it completed yet. I'll try and take one soon. Next up is socks. We'll see how quickly I get a pair done. I haven't started yet. Spent most of my time up at Boyne reading when I wasn't skiing, playing with kids or playing games with everyone else.
Well that's it. I realize this isn't an update on our family or the kids. But that's what you get today. Boyne and skiing update to come soon. Any fun projects you've completed lately??

October Activities: Halloween Part 1

My confession is this: I've been feeling more than alittle depressed the past month or so. And while I have certainly managed to stay afloat, I would much rather be swimming happily rather than working so hard at keeping my head above water. However despite my crappy moods, I feel that much was accomplished during the month of October. So in an attempt to acknowledge my achievements I'm going to post about our October activities that I lacked energy to post about at the time. And cause it feels right to do so I'm going to work backwards from Halloween.

Halloween Part 1: The costumes

When asked what he wanted to be for Halloween Ian finally decided on The Cat in the Hat. My reaction was Perfect! I can do that, I thought. I then thought it would look really cute if Cai and Aiden went as Thing 1 and Thing 2. So I was off to make costumes.

For Ian I purchased black fleece sweater and pants. After looking everywhere in town, included the Halloween costume store, Mark and I decided to purchase a child's Cat in the Hat hat off Amazon.com. While I had contemplated making him a hat, I'm now very glad we purchased one. I was pressed enough making the other costumes. To finish off the outfit Ian wore my old cat tail from a cat costume that I held on to. It's amazing how much use the black cat ears and tail have gotten over the years.

For Cai and Aiden I decided to sew their costumes.

I bought adult red sweatshirts and created rompers out of them.

First I traced around rompers I had for each boy. Then cut along my lines.

The boys had lots of fun using the sleeves as hats.

I then sewed around the outside, leaving the inner legs separated. I did make a seam on the inner legs to prevent raveling. While I would love an industral snap press, it's just not going to happen right now. (First on my list is a Kitchen Aid). So I found snap pliers at Walmart that make the hammer snaps pretty easy to place.

I couldn't find simple snaps so I used pearl ones, alittle weird looking but they function. Then I panted the circles and writing using fabric pant.

I'm pretty proud of them i must say. They boys had to wear shirts underneath cause the necks were too big, but it worked b/c it was added warmth to keep them warm as we walked outside for trick-or-treating.

Now Thing 1 & 2 have bright blue hair. So for their hair I bought knit hats and blue yarn.

I than spent 3 days sewing loops of blue yarn into those knit hats. I must say I'm very, very, very proud of my work.

Don't be surprised if next years costumes have blue hair cause after all my hard work these wigs are going to get used again ;)

It felt good to create again. Reminding me why I love sewing, knitting and other such crafts. And now that the sewing machine is set again I think it's about time to sew some new wool longies for Aiden. (I did mention that we moved were our office is and thus my machine got moved, didn't I? ) Aiden is growing faster than I would like. What I won't give to keep him in babyhood just alittle longer.

footies and top

So I finished a second pair of footie longies for Aiden. They did not turn out as great as the first. The feet are twisted. But they fit and functionally work. So I'm trying not to complain too much about it. Especially since I don't have the energy to take them apart and figure out how to get them right. I decided that since I now have two pairs I needed a shirt that could be worn with both. Thus allowing me to switch between the two throughout the day. I had this really cute onesie that would look great with both footies. So I decided it would be really easy to convert it into a long sleeve tshirt.I cute off the tapered bottom and sewed a 1/4 inch hem. I was right! It does look great. And fits great. And now Aiden has a great outfit (or two depending on how you look at it) Yay!! Now some might wonder why not use a onesie? Well you can. But you have to snap it outside the pants, which I think looks funny. Sure I do it at night sometimes to keep they from getting cold (we keep the house colder at night). But durning the day it just looks silly to me. Maybe I'm just being ridculous, but I'm ok with that I think. And you can snap it under that pants because then you would be changing tops with every diaper change. Wool longies work as you water proof barrier over your cloth diaper. If you onesie is right on top of the diaper without a water proof barrier it will get soaked along with the diaper. That's alot of laundry and changes. No thank you. Plus not very comfortable for baby. Converting an already owned top made more since than going out to find a new one. Just my opinion. No matter what, I'm pleased with my work and it's outcome so that's what matters. Aiden doesn't seem to mind either. As he is warm, comfy and cute :)

Footie Longies

If I have not expressed my love of wool before, let me do it now. I love wool!! Especially for over cloth diapers. Last Christmas I bought Cai a pair of Woollybottoms footies. I actually found a pair used on DiaperSwapers.com. I love them. Cai wore them all last winter. However, right now they are still too large for Aiden. So today I decided to try and make my own. I used a pair of 6mo pants as my pattern for the pants. And a pair of soft shoes that fit Aiden for as my pattern for the feet. I used the arms of one sweater for the pants and scraps from a solid brown sweater for the feet. I think they turned out beautifully. I'm so excited. And very proud of my work. Now I just need to get working on some more in larger sizes for as he grows. :)

Christmas Stockings

I'm either really late or really early in making our Christmas stockings. Either way I'm just excited to have them together.

I had wanted to make these in time for our '09 Christmas. Having a new baby in Nov really slowed me down. Plus, as I've mentioned, my sewing machine was on the fritz and I just recently got it in to be fixed.

I must admit it feels extremely good to have them cut and sewn together. I'm going to pack them up now and wait later in the year to decorate them. I haven't decided whether to add names or initials to personalize them for each of us.

I'm sure by the time next Christmas rolls around inspiration will strike. And even if it doesn't it's ok. They will be much better than the tiny decorative stockings I used this Christmas. For the pattern I used is a stocking that I found in a box of stuff I pick up from my local Freecycle. I'm so glad I had kept it.

I traced around it on the legs of several pairs of old jeans I had saved for this purpose. Then I sewed them together using a french seam. I like them better with the seam showing. Don't know why. Just thought it looked good.

Aprons for the boys

About a year ago I made this apron for Ian using some fabric I picked up at a local second hand store. I used measurements from this blog post: "How to make a kid -sized chef apron." I had stumbled onto from this wonderful site listing on 52 free apron patterns. Really there are some great patterns. Check it out
Anyway, lately Cai has been wanting to help in the kitchen. When I have the energy to direct him this is great! However, if both boys want to help, one apron was not enough. And the fights were getting out of hand. So having fabric left (I think the original piece was 2 yards), I decided it was time to make another. Using Ian's apron as my guide I wiped up another apron.

Both are two layers. Ian's is the green knit fabric on the front and red canvas left over from the mei tai I made last spring on the back. Cai's is green knit on front and the back was from a yellow t-shirt. :) I also used the yellow t-shirt scraps for the ties and used elastic for the neck strap.

I cut Cai's 2 inches shorter since Ian's was dragging on the floor when he wore it. I think it turned out ok. Cai even seems to like it. Now I just have to remember to get them on the boys when working the in kitchen.

Curtains!!

My sewing machine is fixed!!!! Yeah for repair shops and wonderful husbands who drop things off on their lunch break. We have a Singer repair shop in town. I just was having a hard time getting my machine, kids and self together to drop it off. Oh thank you Mark for doing it for me! Now that it is working properly again, I have a long list of projects I want to do. And yeah for me, one is complete! A curtain for Ian's window was on my to do list for awhile. Before we had an old blanket tacked up with thumb tacks. After we put plastic on our windows for the winter, we decided not to put of the blanket again. Thus pushing me to make a curtain. We took Ian to the local fabric store to pick out fabric. But unfortunately my machine was not working, so the fabric has sat in my dresser for a little over a month. But no more waiting. It's done. And if I do say so, looks good too. I had enough fabric to make two that would then open in the middle. But we decided that since just one fits so nicely over the window to save the fabric. Now I get to figure out what to make with the rest of it. :)

My first recycled wool longies and homemade pants!

I'm so proud of myself I just had to share. For our wedding I was given a sewing machine by Mark's cousin. Very exciting. The problem was I had never successfully used a sewing machine. I tried once in High School but couldn't figure out how to get the bobbin treaded. So this summer, in desperate need of cloth wipes for diapers, I opened the machine and taught myself to sew. With the help of an instructional dvd I was able to sew several cloth wipes but sorta ended there. About a week ago I pull out the machine into the living room and started working on some wool soakers I had cut out this last summer. Success!!! I've now made two soakers; one for Ian and one for Cai. Two longies (wool pants). And two incredibly cute pants made out a thrift store weave shirt. I'm so excited. The soakers and longies are made out of two 100% wool sweaters. The longies are made for the sleeves and I used a pair of pants (one from each boy) as a "pattern." With some help from some instructions found online it turned out to be relatively simple. The soakers are cut from a pattern I found online this last summer. Although I can't for the life of me remember where now. The pants I created using a pair of pants as a guide. These I'm the most proud of, being that they were made with out a real pattern or any instructions other than my own commonsense. The boys are wearing their new pants today. And now I just need to lanolize the wool so they're ready for to use for diaper covers. :)

So wool is my new obsession for diapering. Wool is a wonderful product. It absorbs so much moisture while still feeling warm and dry. Yet it's both breathable and cool in warm weather! We've been using wool at night with Cai for months now. I had knitted a soaker sack before he was born that we used. Plus we have a wool cover that a friend is letting us borrow. We the soaker sack ended up in the diaper wash and then the dryer. It felted and now is so small. And the wool cover still worked, but not for night. Night time diapers are too bulky and it doesn't fit. :( Luckily I had started on knitting another soaker and finished just in time. The soaker was just dry when I realized the sack had been felted. I knit the soaker using Tiny Bird's free pattern which is knit flat. It turned out really nice. But I think my next one I'm going to need to adjust. The butt of the soaker is really big and awkward. Plus the waist is alittle snug despite being suggested for a 12-18mo. I'm now using the Tiny Bird's pattern for longies. Very fun. I'm loving knitting. It's so meditative and yet I feel very productive when I'm done with a project. :) The recycled soakers and longies are very fun to make as well. Just in a different way. At first I felt almost guilty cutting into a perfectly good wool sweater. But now that I finally finished them it feels good to put a sweater that wasn't been worn to good use. Plus I just found a great idea online for the scraps. Another mother used cut her scraps into squares that she was going to make into a blanket! I thought it was perfect. Now I'm on the look out for great wool sweaters to make more soakers and longies.:) If you have any 100% wool you don't want pass it my way! I'll put it to good use.

For the patterns I've been using for knitting visit
http://www.tinybirdsorganics.com/soakers/pattern/
For simple instructions on making longies out of sweater sleeves visit
http://www.cafepress.com/thatskindacool/864331

Ian in his recycled soaker. I don't have any pictures of Cai in any of his soakers yet :(