{Kindle Freebie} Make the Moments Count

I've only read through the first half, but I wanted to write a quick post about Make the Moments Count - 121 Adventurous, Unique and Affordable Family and Kids Activities while it's still available as a free Kindle download.  Based on what I've read so far, this is a great resource. I've read lots of lists of "things to do with the kids," but I've been a mom for long enough that most of the ideas are familiar ones. This book includes a lot of suggestions I hadn't seen before, along with a few really boring ones that are on all of the other lists, and a few that just boggle my mind. Why on Earth would anyone want to rent a chicken?   (And, at $250 for a few months, how does that qualify as affordable?)  There are a couple of minor editing issues and ads for the author's other books tucked in between the chapters, but the useful information makes those easy to overlook.

Kindle prices change quickly, so remember to check before you click the purchase button.

Another Little Finish

I've mentioned how I feel about red and white quilts, right? 

This one was a quick little project to take my mind off of things. It measures about 10 1/2" square and uses the same snowball and nine patch combination as Full Blown Quilt Lust, except this time they're not set on point and there's a border of half snowball blocks.  

For more finishes, check out  Sew Much Ado, Finish it Up Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?,  , and Freedom Fridays, Wonderful at Home, and Inspired Friday.

Between Pinterest and my own stash and those hot iron transfers I found in Mom's tole painting stuff, I'm having all kind of fun. It won't be hard to come up with enough neat designs to stitch up an entire quilt's worth. I'm not claiming that the stitching will be easy, but this little gal worked up quickly. 

Can anyone tell what she's actually doing? I'd guess it's something to do with spinning, but I can't quite work out the logistics.

I'm linking up with Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

I've been waiting since September for this place to open --

You know that uncanny radar that some little kids have when it comes to the Golden Arches? I'm that way about this orange sign. When we do drive by one on our travels it's always too early in the morning, or too late at night, or we're in a hurry to get from Point A to Point B. If by some miracle it is the middle of the afternoon and we've got some extra time on our hands, it's Sunday.

So I'm just a little bit thrilled to have one within 30 miles of the house, in a direction I head at least twice a week.  The Albany, Oregon store opened this week and Teenage Daughter and I blissfully drooled our way through almost every single aisle.

I don't know if I was happier to see the yarn selection or the selection of  Sizzix quilting dies... or the dollhouse section....or the exact cross-stitch kits that I've been swooning over online...

Despite all of that, I didn't add any yarn or fabric to my stash this week. I brought home a new frame for my embroidery because the cheap round hoop I've been using was driving me nuts and a package of floss in pale colors that will be perfect for the Garden Party Quilt.  Teenage Daughter bought a paintbrush for her nail art. We will be back and I'm sure we'll both be adding to our stashes, but for this week it was enough fun to just look.

Weekly Stash Report 

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 4 3/4 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 40 1/2 yards
Net Added for 2014: 35 3/4  yards

Yarn Used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 2575 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 1500 yards
Net Used for 2014: 1075 yards

I'm linking up to Patchwork Times.

{Guest Post} Why I've Fallen in Love With Pixel People

Today I'm happy to have a guest post by author Amanda Lee (who is also Gayle Trent, author of the Myrtle Crumb mysteries.) She's hopping to promote Thread End, the latest in her series of Embroidery Mysteries set on the Oregon coast -- you can get the entire schedule on her blog.


Between the embroidery theme and the setting, which is just a couple of hours down the highway from here, I don't know how I've managed to miss these. I jumped in with Thread End, which is the seventh book in the series. It's an intriguing mystery with some vicarious stitching and fiber shopping along the way.  Even though I haven't read the earlier books, I was able to figure out who was who and what was gong on. Of course I wound up wanting to know more about the  characters and picked up the first book in the series when I was in town earlier this week.

Now here's Gayle/Amanda --

WHY I’VE FALLEN IN LOVE WITH PIXEL PEOPLE

Do you know what I’m talking about when I mention “pixel people” or pixel cross-stitch? It’s an easy and cute way of cross-stitching that allows you to work quickly. It’s not that I don’t like traditional cross-stitch anymore, but I fell in love with pixel people over the holidays.

Let me back up a little. This is my boy/girl twins’ senior year of high school. Naturally, I want this year to be a year of BESTS! The BEST CHRISTMAS EVER had to include hand-stitched gifts from Mom…something to remember me by.

I know I’m not going to die the instant they graduate (at least, I hope not because that would be so traumatic for them and I’m doing everything I can to make the year GOOD…plus I have the party to take care of), but this year has been terribly hard for me. Once these two fly from the nest, I’m left with a bunch of downy feathers and fervent hopes that I did the right things.

Sorry for the detour; I simply wanted to lay a little groundwork for you.

By the time I reached the realization that I absolutely had to include hand-stitched gifts to my children, it was already Thanksgiving. I didn’t have time to do anything too elaborate. And then a friend posted the Marvel characters she’d been cross-stitching on Facebook. My daughter loves the Avengers. I immediately messaged my friend to see where she’d found the patterns. She told me, and I went to the site, ordered the download, and printed off the pdf. I could easily make a bookmark for my daughter featuring the Avengers. Yay!

But what about my son? If you search for “pixel cross stitch” on Etsy.com, you will find all kinds of adorable patterns. I found casts of characters from movies and TV shows: Scooby Doo, Monty Python, Star Wars, Sherlock, and then…there it was…It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. My son and I watch that show when we need something completely inappropriate to make us laugh. He doesn’t read as much as my daughter does, so I framed his pixel people.

So if you’re unfamiliar with pixel cross-stitch but want to do something quick, easy, adorable, and fun, check it out.  It’s great for when you’re pressed for time. I was able to get each of those projects done in a weekend.


Happy stitching! (And happy reading too!)

Bio:
Amanda Lee (a/k/a Gayle Trent) lives in Virginia with her family, which includes her own “Angus” who is not an Irish wolfhound but a Great Pyrenees who provides plenty of inspiration for the character of Mr. O’Ruff.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {6/6/14}

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

Socks!

They're self striping Regia something-or-other. Toe up, short row heel, six inches of k2p2 ribbing...

I think my biggest triumph with these is how that red stripe divides and goes across the top and bottom of both heels and comes together in the front. I couldn't have made that happen the same way on both socks if I'd been trying, but it's a nice coincidence.

For more finishes, check out I Gotta Try That, Sew Much Ado, Finish it Up Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?,  Pinworthy Projects, and Freedom Fridays, Wonderful at Home, and Inspired Friday.

{Yarn Along} The French House

I'm starting a brand new pair of socks. The yarn is Opal and, I think, I got it at an estate sale for a dollar. I know there was a dollar skein that I picked up a few years back and there's no way that I paid the $18.50 on the price tag of this skein....so by process of elimination, I suppose this is the one. 

I'm excited to see what the yarn does. That shade of yellow on the toe is so pretty and summery...but I'm not sure what the orange and blue are going to look like.

The French House: An American Family, a Ruined Maison, and the Village That Restored Them All

Here's the book's description from Amazon:
When Francophiles Don and Mindy Wallace received an offer for a house on a tiny French island, they jumped at the chance, buying it almost sight unseen. What they found when they arrived was a building in ruin, and it wasn't long before their lives resembled it. Plagued by emergency repairs, a stock market crash, and very exasperated French neighbors, the Wallace's could have accepted their fate. Instead, they embraced it. The French House is the delightfully amusing and picturesque memoir about a family who seized life, rose from the rubble, and built themselves a home away from home.

I've been devouring memoirs lately, especially the ones set in other countries, and I'm always drawn to anything about old houses in need of repair. I really expected to love this book, but it was slow reading. The story is mostly about how the Wallaces manage to pay for the repairs that their French dream house so desperately need and how much time passes between visits to the island. Maybe if I'd started the book with more knowledge about French culture and architecture I would have enjoyed it more.

or more fun projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis.




Disclosure - The publisher provided me with an ARC.

A Handy Appliance That Will Scramble an Egg While it's Still Inside its Shell...

Otherwise known as a trouser sock from the Dollar Tree.

I've got boys who love Weird Al songs -- particularly Nature Trail to Hell and anything else that will publicly embarrass their mother. And Mr. Popeil. So when I was browsing through a book from the library and found instructions for scrambling eggs in the shell, I was pretty sure we'd have to try it. The instructions we sort of used are from Instructables.

Basically, you put an egg in a stocking leg and spin it until the contents are all mixed up. It's not quite as dangerous as it sounds -- after a good half hour of spinning, my two youngest boys only managed to break one egg when the spinning sock got too close to the spinner's shoulder. The socks are so tightly woven that there was almost no leaking. After that, the project moved out onto the lawn.

Once the eggs are thoroughly scrambled, you boil them.

Our results were uneven. My egg (on the right) didn't scramble at all, possibly because I didn't get much of a turn before the boys were ready to try for themselves. Quinn's second egg (on the left) was strangely frothy. Leif's egg (on the bottom) was absolutely perfect, but hard to peel. Which might be due to my utter lack of  egg peeling skills.

Because I skimmed through the instructions in the book instead of going to the website and reading the full version, I missed the step where you  use a flashlight to check if the eggs are actually scrambled or not. My boys spun until they got bored and hoped for the best. If Quinn hadn't broken his first egg, I think it would've turned out golden, too.

The whole thing led to happy boys and a discussion of The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg, which my boys didn't know, and the goose from Jack and the Beanstalk, and centrifugal force and how after Mom rinses egg goop out of the sock for a second try, water droplets will fly out and spatter the boy who's spinning it.   It also turns out that the Ronco Egg Scrambler is a real thing, which kind of boggles my mind.

I've Started

This little girl is from one of those Aunt Martha's sets I got at Walmart. I think this might be the first time I've actually used a hot iron transfer, and I was surprised at how dark and heavy the lines are. Someone reassure me that the floss will still cover then when I'm working with lighter colors!  

I'm linking up to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

Someone Might Need That Someday

I love coming from a family of pack rats. We save things, sometimes things that no one has any real use for at the moment or in the forseeable future. And sometimes that pays off Big Time!

Mom and I were talking about those hot iron transfers that I've got tucked away in the sewing room. It's not that they're lost because the room is such a mess (even though it is), it's that I have
no memory at all of which drawer I might have put them in and no time to go dig around.

My mother is much more organized than I am, and she's still got all of her tole-painting patterns from the 70s in a cabinet sorted into envelopes by subject.

She told me that there were some hot iron transfers, but the first thing I saw when I opened and envelope was this ship in a bottle. I am so having that on my quilt. The boat above it is a line drawing of the one my parents owned when I was little. Mom blew it up from a photograph and made an oil painting. I'm not sure if that fits my quilt or not, but I'm definiteley going to do something with it. Embroidered wall hanging? 

And look at the owl! Talk about vintage!

That's all before I even got to the transfers. I found that exact same spinning wheel on Pinterest last week -- now I won't have to trace it. And the lady with the treadle sewing machine. She's part of a days of the week towel set and they are some of the prettiest images I've stumbled across so far. On Sunday she's standing in front of a stained glass window with an open hymnal in her hands.

I'm swooning over these and I haven't even gone through them all yet. My thought is that I'll stitch a few then dig some more.

Weekly Stash Report 

The new Hobby Lobby is going to open this week and I fully intend to go shopping. I've had birthday money tucked in my purse for months.

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 4 3/4 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 40 1/2 yards
Net Added for 2014: 35 3/4  yards

Yarn Used this Week: 400 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 2575 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 1500 yards
Net Used for 2014: 1075 yards

I'm linking this post to Patchwork Times.

Little One-Yard Wonders

I'm a big fan of the One-Skein Wonders and One-Yard Wonders series of books from Storey Publishing. The latest book, Little One-Yard Wonders: Irresistible Clothes, Toys, and Accessories You Can Make for Babies and Kids, is no exception.

The projects are varied and include some some surprisingly complex clothing. Detailed instructions for each project include cutting layouts and everything else you'll need to figure them out.

If my own boys were just a tiny bit younger, I'd be making a pair of Secret Monster Overalls. They've got a hidden tail and claws! I don't know if I'd have been motivated enough to sew my kids their own underwear, but after trying to find some without cartoon characters that my boys had never heard of, I can definitely see the appeal.

The Frannie Fox Hot & Cold Pack is beyond adorable.  I think I want one for myself.

Indoor hopscotch? I want that, too.

This collection would be a great way for an ambitious mama to tackle some new skills, like smocking and clothing construction. I'm thinking a shower gift for a crafty mama.... Or it would be a fantastic resource for someone who likes to make handmade gifts. The projects span a wide range of ages and interests. 

Disclosure -- the publisher provided me with an electronic review copy. 

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {5/30/14}

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

Diversions for the Sick

Look what jumped off the shelf at me as I was walking past the Friends of the Library bookstore last week -- 

I'm fascinated by old books that deal with homemaking and parenting.  If I find an inexpensive one, it comes home with me. And this one seems particularly relevant these days, even if the suggestions are somewhat less than practical.

You can prop up the head of the mattress by putting a chair upside down between the springs and headboard. (I don't know if I'd be more worried about what that was doing to the mattress, or the chair, or the bed!)

Elevate the bedclothes with a barrel hoop cut in two (because we've all got those lying around, with no other plans for them!) and support the feet with a board and ropes tied to the headboard.

"The patient's room should be the brightest, best ventilated, and quietest room in the house. It should be free of useless furniture, but should not seem drab or bare."  The little book doesn't offer any guidance as far as what "the attendant" is supposed to do with the rest of the family...except for scheduling them to take turns reading out loud to the patient. After, of course, glancing through the reading material first to make sure that unpleasant subjects are avoided. 

I've been on bed rest. I can't imagine how miserable it would have been in the days before television. Because you can only read and knit for so many hours a day...and no one brought me any crepe paper to twist and weave with -- thank goodness!

This post is linked to Vintage Thingie Thursday, Thriftasaurus, Share Your Cup, Ivy and Elephants, We Call it Olde, Savvy Southern Style, Thrifter Maker Fixer.

{Yarn Along} The Murder Pit

What's black and white and red all over and really, really boring? 

I was convinced that this is the most predictable and boring self-striping sock yarn ever. Right up to the point where I laid them out to take the picture and realized that the socks look like my two skeins were from different dye lots.

Not much I can do about it at this point except finish the second sock. At least I'm using up old stash, right?

When I decided to read The Murder Pit by Jeff Shelby, it was because the heroine, Daisy Savage, finds a corpse in the coal chute of her hundred-year-old home. Old houses with bodies hidden in the walls, as long as they're the fictional kind, always intrigue me. I didn't realize until I got into the book that Daisy is a homeschooling mom of four. She's not a detective, even if she did do a unit study on forensics with her kids a while back, but she's being snubbed by the members of their local homeschooling co-op because no one wants their kids in her classes. Everyone in town knows that she dated the victim before marrying her husband and most of her neighbors seem to think there was a lot more to that one date and that she must've had something to do with his presence in her house.

I was glad to see that there's a second book in the series coming soon, because I can't wait to read more about Daisy and her family.

For more fun projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis.  And in case you're interested in The Boy Who Could See Demons, one of the books I was gushing about last summer, it's currently $1.99 for the Kindle Edition.




Disclosure - The publisher provided me with an ARC.

It Fits!

A few months ago, Teenage Daughter requested a Weasley Sweater, in Slytherin colors, with an S. I'd already made one for her brother a few years back, so it should have been an easy request. 

Seven years is a long time when it comes to knitting, long enough to  completely forget whatever modifications I'd made to the original pattern. If there's a charted pattern for a letter S in the right size and font out there, I couldn't find it, so I wound up making my own with graph paper...

I don't know why it looks like it's upside down. I didn't flip my homemade chart, but I was modifying it as I went and something happened somewhere along the way. It's less obvious that I completely forgot the neck shaping on the front because I was so distracted by the Intarsia.

Weasley sweaters are supposed to be a little wonky, right?

For more finishes, check out I Gotta Try That, Sew Much Ado, Finish it Up Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?,  Pinworthy Projects, and Freedom Fridays, Wonderful at Home, and Inspired Friday.

The Lovebirds

A few weeks ago, we lost all but one of our ten chickens. Over the course of a day or two, our little flock went from ten to three. A couple of days later, we were down to one lone barred rock hen. It has to have been a predator, but beyond that we don't know for sure what happened.

I couldn't figure out what to do with the hen, except to keep feeding her and hope she was happy enough. She's abandoned the coop and spends her nights in a tree.  

One lone chicken just seemed so sad.  I was still trying to decide what to do about her when she showed up by the front porch with a new friend. She found herself a rooster -- and one that's the same breed. It's so cute to watch them wander around together. 

I was hoping he'd stay, or that she'd follow him back wherever he came from. We finally got a chance to talk to the closest neighbor. He is their rooster and the two of them apparently spend their early mornings across the road and the rest of the time wandering around on our place looking adorable.

(And the neighbor has been dispatching a slew of chicken eating critters on his side of the road. He's lost more birds lately than we have. I'm hoping that included whatever got our chickens and rooster.)

Embroidered Daydreams

Ever since I found that Garden Party Quilt pattern, I've had vintage embroidery transfers on the brain. I know there's a big zip lock bag full of them in the sewing room, but I have no clue where I put them. Some are from Grandma. And some are from a box of ancient Workbasket magazines I got dirt cheap at a yard sale almost a decade ago. I remember going through the badly damaged issues and pulling out the baby patterns I wanted to knit and saving all of the transfer sheets because those shouldn't be thrown away....so does that mean I've got one bag of them up there, or two?

And where did I tuck them? At the time, I had no intention of doing any embroidery any time soon, so they went into a safe corner. Those safe corners are really hard to find ten years later. Teenage Daughter went up last week to look for something and I asked her to check the drawers in the steamer trunk while she was at it. She didn't find my plastic bag, but she did find four or five unopened envelopes of really old transfers that I swear I've never seen before. Because my sewing room sometimes works like that.

Until I have time to get up there and dig around, at least Walmart still sells Aunt Martha's transfers, and they're dirt cheap.

Weekly Stash Report 

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 4 3/4 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 40 1/2 yards
Net Added for 2014: 35 3/4  yards

Yarn Used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 2175 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 1500 yards
Net Used for 2014: 675 yards

I'm linking up to Patchwork Times.

Free Mystery for Kindle -- Deadly Arrangements

I've had the first book in the Cozy Flower Shop mystery series on my Kindle for months, long enough that the second book, Deadly Arrangements, is now  available -- and it's free, at least for today!

From Amazon:

All florist Quincy McKay wants is success in business, a happy family and the perfect romance with Alex Cooper, the hottest cop in the state. Not necessarily in that order, of course. Is that so much to ask?

The trouble is, between Alex’s job and planning weddings, it’s getting harder and harder for Quincy and Alex to find any time to themselves. Every time the flames of passion ignite between them, someone or something shows up to fizzle the fire, including her meddling mother, her formerly absent father and even Elma, the handsiest waitress in the West.

Wedded bliss is contagious in small town Hillside. Should be great news for Quincy, except that one groom is missing and another is the prime suspect. Hard for a florist to make a living that way, and even harder for her to stay out of the investigation, especially when the suspect is her sidekick, K.C.’s fiancé.

Just when she thinks nothing else could go wrong, a ghost from Alex’s past comes back to haunt them both, which could keep them apart forever, if someone doesn’t kill Quincy first. She’s stumbled into the clues to solve the case of the missing groom and finds a corpse as well, proving that planning a wedding can literally be murder.

Remember that Amazon prices can change without warning, so check the price before you click that order button. There was some confusion with my Fifty Shades of Greyhound giveaway and a winner was announced early. The giveaway is still open until June 4, so click over to the post and leave a comment if you want to enter.

Proof That I Can Knit Sweaters!

When I posted about the accidentally ugly sweaters back in December, my plan was to quickly follow up that post with another one that proved I actually do know what I'm doing. These are my favorites of the sweaters I've knit for my kids.

I was never, ever, not in a million years going to knit a giant Intarsia animal on anything...until I saw this pattern for Farm Freshin a book. I learned Intarsia just so I could make this sweater.

 

Chaos is probably one of the crazier things I've ever knit. The pattern has you roll a die and, based on what number you get, you twist your cables to the left or to the right.

Sunshine Pullover isn't anything amazing, but it fit! (Yes, those are chickens on the porch. No, I have no idea what my son is holding in his hand.) 

Alex's Briar Rose Raglan started out as a pattern from Knitty, then I made the decision to knit it in the round and add the picot bind-off, which Alex still refers to as "those macaroni things." She never did like this sweater, but this post is about projects that I'm happy with. 

We both liked that Aqua Acrylic cardigan I made for her. The yarn was originally supposed to be something for the boys, but I reserve the right to change my mind at any point after purchasing it. 

It's an H! is the one really good sweater I've made for Heath. Intaria H's are far easier than Intarsia chickens. And both of those are easier than charting the "S" I needed for my daughter's Weasley Sweater. 

It's been a long time since I finished a sweater, good or ugly. I don't know why I was so skittish about working on the new one for Alex, since it's a clone of the one I made for Heath (except for that "S" -- and I'm done with that part.)

Do you lose your nerve when it comes to something you haven't done in a while?