Crafting On

The act of creating, in one form or another, preserves my sanity amongst the chaos of life. This explains why I always have more than one project going at a time as well as why my housework tends to fall behind. I enjoy seeing what others are working on and keeping calm with, too. What are you creating? What is keeping you going? Snap a picture or two, post it on your blog, on Instagram #craftingon and/or Flickr and then share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.



I volunteered to do a test knit last week, you know, because I don't have enough going on right now. Ha! Okay, I really did it because it is the cutest little pattern and I just couldn't resist. I already had the yarn on hand so that somewhat justifies it, right? The pattern is by Naturkinder out of Germany and you can see my Ravelry progress here. But seriously, after I finish this I need to buckle down and finish those Christmas gifts so I can move on to knitting for the upcoming shop.

What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Crafting On

Sunday

C in her Bulle from Christmas 2015 Matchy-matchy boys

Hello, hello! Boy, was last week quite troublesome! My sweet little baby boy had a mystery illness with a four day long high fever, giving his Mama many sleepless nights. My other children have had high fevers as babies at one point or another too but nothing like this. Nothing that would keep me up all night on pins and needles, praying and watching them breathe. I am happy to say that as of Sunday night he seems to be on the mend. I feel like I can exhale and maybe even catch up on some of that lost sleep now (Dare I say maybe even finally get a shower?!).

That dear baby boy of mine is really starting to enter into the phase of endless play. It is so much fun to watch him seek out his big brother to play with him each day and then try to dictate how they play. Right now it seems it has to be Baby F's way or no way. Thankfully L is very patient with him and willing to play how he wants to. I honestly think L is just grateful for the time with him. He always wanted a brother to play with and now it is finally starting to happen. Something else that is making L very happy right now is seeing his baby brother growing into some of his old shark clothing. He especially loves that they have matching shark sweatshirts at the moment. Do you remember when L was tiny enough to wear that smaller one?! Oh goodness!!

Oh, and those photos of my C! We were at the park the other day and I happened to have my camera on me. I realized that I never took photos of her Bulle I knit her for Christmas 2015 (yep, it still fits) so I snagged a couple before she took off to play. I can't believe it took me so long! I don't think I have documented the Bulle I knit K that same year either. Geesh. I guess I could blame my pregnancy with Baby F for that fail.

p.s. - Do me a favor and please ignore the life sucking messy clutter, in the photos above, that is this tiny temporary house, okay?

p.p.s. - Last minute Halloween projects can be found here.

Sunday

Crafting On

The act of creating, in one form or another, preserves my sanity amongst the chaos of life. This explains why I always have more than one project going at a time as well as why my housework tends to fall behind. I enjoy seeing what others are working on and keeping calm with, too. What are you creating? What is keeping you going? Snap a picture or two, post it on your blog, on Instagram #craftingon and/or Flickr and then share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.



The endless rain as of late has had me feeling a bit blue (hence no blog post yesterday - I really didn't have anything to say). I tend to take less photos when I am feeling this way (well, that and it is just hard to get a good shot with no sunlight) so I didn't snap a photo of my current WIP. Instead I am sharing a gift I made for dear Bracken on his birthday at L's request - a little knit dolphin.
I have a feeling I will be knitting more of these dolphins in the near future, judging by the way Baby F kept grabbing this one as I tried to photograph it.

What are you working on? Happy creating!

*Sorry I forgot to add the widget!!! Here it is:*

An InLinkz Link-up

Crafting On

Crafting On {& an Autumn Leaves Mobile Tutorial}

The act of creating, in one form or another, preserves my sanity amongst the chaos of life. This explains why I always have more than one project going at a time as well as why my housework tends to fall behind. I enjoy seeing what others are working on and keeping calm with, too. What are you creating? What is keeping you going? Snap a picture or two, post it on your blog, on Instagram #craftingon and/or Flickr and then share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.


Hello, hello! For this week's crafting on I thought I would share a little project the children and I made on Monday - an autumn leaves wall hanging/mobile. It was super easy to make and very inexpensive (especially since we already had all the supplies on hand). I am sure you can figure it out by looking at the photos but I thought I would share this simple tutorial just in case.

What you will need:

- a somewhat straight stick sturdy enough to hold the weight of the beeswaxed leaves
- a collection of beeswaxed leaves*
- string, thread, hemp cord or soft jute cord (we had the soft jute cord on hand and used that.)

Step one: Tie one end of a single piece of jute cord (at a length of your preference) to one end of the stick with a square knot. Take the other end of the cord and tie it to the other end of the stick in the same manner.

Step two: Lay out your leaves underneath the stick. Move them around until you find a pattern that is pleasing. I tried to make mine hang as if they were falling from the trees above.

Step three: Cut a piece of jute cord for each leaf at the length that you have them placed plus 1 - 2" for your square knots. Tie you leaf onto one end of the cord and then tie the other end of the cord onto the stick in the place you reserved for it. Repeat until you have all of your leaves tied on. Trim any lose ends and hang it up. If you hang it on your wall away from indirect sunlight it may very well last all of autumn and then some.

Enjoy!

*You can find my original tutorial for dipping leaves in beeswax here and examples of what to do with your leaves here, here and here (I know I have more but that was all I could find).

ETA - I have all the items used listed in my Amazon shop here. (affiliate link).


What are you working on? Happy creating!

p.s. - I would love to see any autumn leaves wall hangings/mobiles you create! Please share them here or on Instagram. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Crafting On {& an Autumn Leaves Mobile Tutorial}

Birthday Week: Part Two

It almost looks like he is pouting in this pic but he is actually looking at the sharks swimming below him

Flock and Fiber Festival Surprise


As I mentioned last week, I wanted to share the last bit from K's birthday week/Purple Grandma's visit. Much to Little L's delight we went to the local aquarium. He is planning to be the next Jacques Cousteau, you know. His special hammerhead shark Lavender came along, too. The aquarium was awesome. We could make a homeschool field trip out of it one of these days. There was so much to learn. I think everyone had fun. However, when we got to the shark tank I was a bit surprised by Little L's reaction or should I say lack thereof. I could tell he was happy to see sharks in real life but I think I expected a little something more, I mean we all know of his shark obsession, right?! It wasn't until about halfway through our time at the aquarium that it dawned on me that he was just drained and overwhelmed, you can see it in his sweet face in the pictures. My children, like me, are homebodies (and most on the introvert side as well) so our week of going out every day just exhausted us and left us all (myself included) not at our best. We were very grateful for all our experiences but just wishing we could have somehow spread them out a bit more. Of course, that wasn't really possible. Someone should make a book on vacationing for introverts. I know I'd buy it. 😂

K also had a very special surprise at the annual Flock and Fiber Festival. Her very best friends from Portland (the very same ones we saw for my birthday in August) came to see her and celebrate her birthday. Kevin and I were both in on the surprise this time but I couldn't believe all they did. They even brought a cake! She was beside herself with joy - she loves them all so (as do the rest of us). I am guessing this was one of her favorite birthdays yet (only behind the two joint birthday parties with the same friends at the pumpkin patch in Portland). It was her very own birthday party in with the sheep and woolly goodness.

Speaking of woolly, we also met up with my friend Taryn of Wooly Moss Roots and her family there. They had a booth set up, which was amazing by the way, and we had been planning to get together and let our boys play as soon as we knew we'd be back in Oregon for the event. Oh my, those boys of ours. They go months, even years without seeing one another (they write - actually draw pictures, in between) yet they act like they were just together the day before. Such a sweet friendship they have. I think the same goes for Taryn and I. What blessings friends are!!

Unfortunately, we got the event later in the day than we intended so we didn't get as much time with our friends as we had wanted but we are still grateful for the time we did have. I am sure you can imagine that it was hard for all of us to leave, but we all know we will see each other again soon.

And just because this picture is too funny not to share:

Birthday Week: Part Two

Crafting On

The act of creating, in one form or another, preserves my sanity amongst the chaos of life. This explains why I always have more than one project going at a time as well as why my housework tends to fall behind. I enjoy seeing what others are working on and keeping calm with, too. What are you creating? What is keeping you going? Snap a picture or two, post it on your blog, on Instagram #craftingon and/or Flickr and then share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.

Apparently I am on a blue kick. I didn't even think about it until I glanced back at my most recent projects. Ha! You might want to put a call in to Cast On Anonymous for me. I didn't finish that sweater for Baby F yet but I did manage to cast on some booties for him as well as this sweater for C. I have so much I want to do for my children for Christmas that I just can't seem to focus on one thing at a time.

This sweater is the Sunday Sweater by my dear friend Ginny. I haven't knit one since testing it back when my girls were so much smaller *sob*. I forgot just how much I enjoy this pattern. I am even using Ginny's stitch markers on it. Maybe next time I'll use her yarn, too.

Thank you for your thoughts about the Etsy shop on yesterday's post. Please keep them coming! Right now I am trying to figure out if it would be feasible before the Christmas season with all I have planned to make my own kiddos. Eeeek, that sounds so horrible, doesn't it? They may only be receiving knitting from us this year though.

What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Crafting On

May I pick your brain?

EEK! That post title sounds a bit eerie but I promise it is nothing of the sort. I intended to post the rest of K's birthday week today but instead felt the need to pick your brains a bit. I have been toying with the idea of opening an Etsy shop of my hand knits for years. Our recent move and current situation has me reevaluating this idea. The thing is, I am uncertain of what I should offer. Baby things? Hats? I have no clue. Make and then list or knit on demand? I know there are important details I need to learn like patterns that do not allow you to sell items knit from them, etc. Then, there is the issue of five cats in 700 sq ft. Cat fur seems to get on everything - can that be stopped? I would love to hear what you think!

Pictured above (because I couldn't do a post with out photos) - recently finished knits for friends. Top two photos are mellowshorts for Baby Morgan (buttons by WoolyMossRoots), third photo is the bonnet for a baby rose and last photo is another mimipixie for Nicole's baby girl.

May I pick your brain?

Crafting On

The act of creating, in one form or another, preserves my sanity amongst the chaos of life. This explains why I always have more than one project going at a time as well as why my housework tends to fall behind. I enjoy seeing what others are working on and keeping calm with, too. What are you creating? What is keeping you going? Snap a picture or two, post it on your blog, on Instagram #craftingon and/or Flickr and then share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.


I'm taking a break from all the baby knitting to focus on my own baby for a bit. Well, and then there is Christmas I have to think about. Oh boy! The project above will hopefully turn into a cute little sweater, that is if I can get my math and the patterns correct. I am knitting the Fisherman's Pullover pattern but omitting the garter panel on the front so that I can incorporate an adorable reindeer colorwork chart I found (I read bad reviews on the sweater it went with).

What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Crafting On

K's Birthday (and her apple doughnut recipe)

Hey there! I am still here, slowly crawling out of the hole of sickness and exhaustion. Apologies in advance for a scatterbrained post. That cold that Baby F had ended up making its rounds and we all came down with it minus Little L. We even got poor Purple Grandma sick, who came all the way out here from PA. We did quite a bit of celebrating the whole week of K's twelfth birthday (TWELVE!! Let's take a moment to acknowledge how old my baby is. 😲 My how she has grown.), including meeting up with some dear friends at Flock and Fiber, but for now I thought I would share just a few photographs.

  I am sad to say that all of our birthday supplies (including K's birthday crown, the birthday ring and our other traditions) are in storage as I never expected to be in this house for so long. Talk about total mama guilt. Thankfully K was understanding and I was able to pull off some of our other birthday traditions like her homemade apple doughnuts with hot apple cider for breakfast (recipe to follow). She requested zucchini lasagna for lunch, play time at the local park and her usual pumpkin soup for dinner. We had plans to go to the ocean, too, but it rained a lot that day (and would you believe all our rain gear is also in storage?!). However, we did make up for it later in the week, but more on those adventures later.

I have been asked by a few people on IG about our traditional homemade apple doughnuts so I thought I would share the recipe here. I found it online many, many years ago and unfortunately no longer have the source. If anyone happens to recognize it and knows where it is from please do let me know.

K's Birthday Apple Doughnuts

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups AP flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar (we have substituted maple syrup for this in the past)
3 tablespoons coconut oil (or margarine)
1 egg equivalent (we use 1 tablespoon ground flax seed mixed in 2 tablespoons water)
1/4 cup apple cider
1/4 cup almond milk
1 grated apple (peeled first)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
oil for frying


Directions:

In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. In your mixer, cream together sugar and butter and then beat in the egg replacer. Add the apple cider, almond milk and vanilla to the creamed mixture and beat all together. Add the dry mixture into the creamed mixture and beat until smooth. Gently stir the apple into the batter.
Cover and chill the dough for one hour.
Place half the dough on a floured board and knead lightly. Roll out to about 1/2" thick. Cut with a doughnut cutter if you have one. We use the 3 - 4" canning jar lids to cut ours out and then just cut a hole in the middle with a knife. Heat the oil in a wok or skillet to about 375 degrees. Fry the dough for 1 - 2 minutes on each side, until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Allow to cool and eat plain or dip them in confectioners sugar.  Serve with hot apple cider with cinnamon sticks as straws. Enjoy!


p.s. -
I usually get quite a few questions about her gifts so I thought I would do a run down here of what she received from us and extended family members.You'll notice a theme of Narnia/C.S. Lewis and books.

- Courage Dear Heart shirt and jean skirt (I had to get the woman's size!)
- A Family Guide to Narnia: Biblical Truths in C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia
- Companion to Narnia
- Childhood Chronicles Before Narnia: Boxen (She loves writing stories so this seemed very appropriate)
- This lion pattern along with yarn and knitting needles
- St. Therese/Sts. Louis and Zelie Bracelet 
- Father Brown Readers 
- The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings set 

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K's Birthday (and her apple doughnut recipe)