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 finished and gifted the Padre Pio mitts to our priest for Father's day. They look funny blocking but they came out rather nicely!

What are you working on? Happy creating!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Crafting On

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.

We baked some sourdough bread, knit a washcloth and made a beeswax ornament as a thank you gift to our dear neighbors that plowed our field for us over the weekend.


What are you working on? Happy creating!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Crafting On

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 finished C's birthday shawl and dress for her birthday! The shawl pattern is called Holden (C picked it out herself) and the dress is the Washi dress pattern. I sewed her the smallest size and changed the neckline as well as added length. The next one I make will have more length added (the extra 2" wasn't enough) and I still want to tweak the neckline a bit more.


And remember these?

They are Katydid eggs!

What are you working on? Happy creating!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Crafting On

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.

Finally finished adding the perfect Wooly Moss Roots buttons to the cardigan I knit Baby F over the summer. Now he can wear it out in this perfect autumn weather.
What are you working on? Happy creating!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Crafting On

The big 14th birthday promise

Somebody hold me... My oldest is 14! 😲 How do these years go by so quickly?! K is blossoming into the most loving, and nurturing young woman. Who knew when she was my little spitfire that she would be discerning becoming a nun once she finishes school.

 She has been looking forward to this specific birthday ever since she was 4 years old. For reasons we can no longer remember, Kevin told her then that he would let her drive on her 14th birthday. Every year she would remind him of his promise and every year it seemed like 14 was a lifetime away...yet here we are. Kevin kept his promise and the two of them spent a good chunk of the day in a mall parking lot driving our van and they ended with a special father daughter coffee date. Later on we had the family of her closest friend (a family we all love and are close to, actually) come over for some delicious sugar free, gluten free, dairy free, egg free chocolate cake. I promise it was incredible! They brought her the sweetest rose plant which was really quite the perfect surprise. She had told me nearly a year ago she wanted roses on her 14th birthday in honor of St. Terese. I love when things work out like that.

This year she requested that I knit her a gold shawl instead of our traditional birthday sweater. I had her pick the pattern herself because I wanted to make sure she would really like it. Knitting for teenagers is different than knitting for toddlers who have no opinion on what they wear. Ha,ha. Thankfully she still loves my knitted gifts. She chose the Afterglow shawl.  I made a couple of modifications to make it the way she wanted. My rav notes on it are here.  Shawl pin is of course by our favorite makers - Wooly Moss Roots.

Okay, I need a minute again. My baby is so grown up! 😭 I am not ready for this!! Wasn't she 4 just yesterday?! Days like this remind me of how grateful I am for our birthday ring tradition. I can look at all the ornaments we carefully chose each year to represent our child's growth or interest and instantly be brought back to that year of their life. It rather eases the pain of their growing. This year's ornament was supposed to be a car but I somehow forgot to order it 😵 so one of L's train ornaments is temporarily in its place. Oops. Oh well. It will be there for her next birthday along with all the memories of this one.

**You know your daughter loves you when she will wear her birthday crown for you...then she goes to put it on and it doesn't fit. D'oh! Guess I need to loosen the elastic. Her head has grown since I made it when she was just 2 years old!

The big 14th birthday promise

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.

Teeny-tiny booties for a friend's winter baby. 😍 This pattern is still my favorite.

What are you working on? Happy creating!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Crafting On

Chunky Pumpkin Knitting Pattern Release! (Crafting On)

After nearly a year's wait I finally finished up my Chunky Pumpkin knitting pattern. I am so excited to share it with all of you! This life sized knit has been such a joy to create. My children and I are loving having a house full of them (I kid you not, they are addicting to make!)

Pumpkins are one of my most favorite things about Autumn but sadly the don’t last the whole season through. This life-sized cozy chunky knit pumpkin will stay with you indefinitely bringing autumn’s splendor into your home. They also make great play pumpkins for children.
This pattern knits up fast allowing you to fill your home with their coziness within days. You can easily adjust the size of your pumpkin by using smaller needles, knitting in less height and/or lighter weight yarn. You could even needle felt a Jack O’ Lantern face on to it for Halloween. The possibilities are endless!

I hope you enjoy my Chunky Pumpkin Knitting Pattern!


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.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Chunky Pumpkin Knitting Pattern Release! (Crafting On)

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.



My latest project flew off my needles so fast that I didn't even get to document it. I started them on Saturday and had them done by Monday. They are some sweet little slippers. The sole and pattern were gifted to me many years ago by one of you lovely readers! They may have been originally intended for either Baby C or L. I have had them for so long but would constantly misplace either the soles or the pattern so I never got the chance to make them. Well, I guess the stars aligned last week because I found both the soles and the pattern and they actually fit Baby F right now.  He saw me working on them and said, “Oh Mama! You’re making me pumpkin spice slippers?” Where he got the pumpkin spice part from. I do not know but that is what they shall forever be known as.

What are you working on? Happy creating!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Crafting On

Here and there (and some knitting inbetween)

Our last few weeks in photos.

Belated birthday bouncy house fun for the boys

Ash Wednesday (I missed getting a photo of K. She was already in her co-op class)

The sun is coming back!

L was here

A new favorite park

I took my girls to their first concert. What an incredible experience it was! My first concert was New Kids On The Block - I am so glad their first concert was with a band that uplifts and feeds the soul.


Lastly, The gifts I knit for L for his 8th birthday. I don't think I shared them here.
A rhino at his request (rav notes here) and a megalodon shark tooth fairy pillow (rav notes here).


I hope to be back in this space this or next week with a spring book list.

Here and there (and some knitting inbetween)

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 am working on a requested birthday gift for L at the moment but have no photographic evidence of it (this rhino pattern). Instead I thought I would finally share photos of the play food I knit for Baby F over the summer. As you can see it is already well loved!

What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Crafting On

Wild and Three

*singing along to his birthday song* C made these sweet Baby F and fox beeswax figures!
My sweet, spitfire baby boy is three!!  How does time fly by so? It feels like forever since I was last pregnant yet I can still remember it so well. I can still remember all his little kicks and hiccups and then I can remember when they stopped. I can remember going into labor and having that gut feeling something was wrong. I can remember my midwife's words of how he wouldn't have made it if we waited even a moment longer to get to her and the weight of my very tiny 5 pound baby in my arms. Oh my sweet baby boy. He was an answered prayer and his life is truly a miracle. I am forever blessed for knowing him and love him more than I could ever put into words.

He is the most demanding, energetic and strong willed of all my children, but I feel like that is because he had to be such a strong fighter at the beginning of his life. He wants the world to know he is here and not someone to be forgotten. I love his strength and tenacity. All of these traits that might be challenging at times to parent will serve him well as he grows into an adult. Especially when you couple them with his enormous compassionate heart, his ability to love in any situation and his little gentlemanly manners. Not to mention his love for cuddling and giving hugs and kisses every moment of the day. Goodness, I am the lucky one!

I apologize for the rather horrible photos. It was so dark the morning of his birthday. We stayed home and kept it low key because we just really needed some down time as a family. Of course, everything was fox related. It reminded me a lot of his first birthday. I honestly don't remember much of his second birthday, as sad as that sounds. I think I have tried to erase most of that year in Oregon from my mind.  He even wore the same pants I made for him on his first birthday. Would you believe I made them so big that he can still fit into them at age three?!

He mostly received clothes from us. I couldn't really think of anything fun and exciting to give him. I guess that is what happens when one's birthday is exactly one month after Christmas. His Nana and Grandpa made up for it though with a new book and a John Deere toy to play with on his farm mat I made him. Oh let's not even talk about the 10 year in the making farm mat. I shed a few tears after I took it out of the washing machine (purposely felting it as per the pattern) and it came out super felted and literally half the size it was. All the beautiful detail is now gone but you know what? He still loved it and that is all that matters. C made him a sweet set of beeswax figures seen above (goodness how I love them) and Kevin's Dad (!!) sent him some tinker toys that he and L instantly built things with. Lastly (and perhaps the most uncommon gift to give a three year) he got his own peace lily plant. Our church is filled with peace lilies and every Sunday Baby F is always admiring them. It seemed like the perfect gift for him and he loved it. He tells everyone all about "my plant". He might be a crazy plant boy in the making - like mother like son I suppose? 😂

Wild and Three