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

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.

Well, well, well, what do you know - I am finally completing the knitted farmyard I started 10 years ago. I had to redo 6 of 12 squares to make them all the same size as well as to update with more aesthetically pleasing neutral colors (instead of the bright ones I originally had). I am about halfway done sewing it up. The plan is to give it to baby F next week for his birthday.

What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

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.

Do you ever feel like a project you are working on is doomed? Ha. I have come to the conclusion that this one surely is. I finally mustered the motivation to complete the farmyard play mat that I started 10 years ago for C. Six of the squares are good but six more need to be re-knit. I started on the first one only to discover about halfway through that I didn't have enough yarn. I am wondering if this is a sign that I should just give up? Then again my boys were playing with the squares as soon as I pulled them out so perhaps I should persevere.

What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

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 am truly sorry that I have been so MIA. I keep thinking things are going to slow down a bit and I'll be able to get back to my usual posting rhythm but it seems with every step I take towards that goal, I take another step or two back. Right now keeping up with the Crafting On posts seems nothing short of a miracle. Alas, I know it will all smooth out soon. I hope you will all bear with me and know that I will be back in the space regularly soon!

In knitting news - I am still working on Baby F's seaside romper. I am nearly finished but realized I would almost definitely need another skein of yarn. Would you believe I threw away the tags for this yarn before the move? So of course I have no way of figuring out the colorway now. I posted on ravelry with no response and even contacted the manufacturer. I am sad to say they were of no help. They just told me that it was from one of their older lines. I knew that already. sigh Oh well. Any guesses from you guys? It is Blue Sky Fibers organic cotton in worsted weight. The blue is almost like a royal blue. It is the yarn my MIL found in her thrift store in PA.

What are you working on? Happy creating!
p.s. - I took my knitting outside to photograph since it was such a grey sky day and then it starting raining (hence, the rain drops in the photo). Oh Oregon, I should have known better!

An InLinkz Link-up

Crafting On

Keep Calm Craft 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 i on your blog, on Instagram #craftingon and/or Flickr and then share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.

Welcome to the great rip-out of 2016. This frogging really should have happened years ago but only now do I feel I can muster the strength to go through with it. This knitted farmyard playmat was started back in March 2008 when I was pregnant with C and actually when I first started this blog. You can see my really old and goofy posts about it here. I was just learning how to knit then and joined a group of eleven other women in making these playmats for our children. We each had one square we had to knit and then we traded them all when we were finished so that we would all have one of each. We seemed to have different measurements though and our squares were all quite different in size. I tried sewing them all together but it just wasn't working out so there it sat on a shelf or in a box moving from house to house for the past eight years. As I sat at my desk pondering Christmas gifts for the children I spotted it out of the corner of my eye. Wouldn't it be nice, I thought, if I could finally get that project finished and gift it to Baby F for Christmas? Well, that thought was all I needed because now I am ripping it all out one square at a time and hoping to have it finished in time. If not, Baby F's birthday is a month after Christmas.

What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

Look who's knitting now!!

Yep, that's right! My 3 year old K is knitting!! My Waldorf teacher friend showed her, and taught me how to teach her.

Into the lake,
pull out the snake

That's the verse we use when she does it. She loves it! C took a nap the other day and K and I sat on the couch with some hot cocoa, me knitting my project (longies for C) and K knitting hers.

I finished K's hat. The mittens are done too but no pic yet. Every time she puts this on she sings " I'm a little gnome"



Some yummy yarn that arrived at my doorstep the other day:



The farmyard is still on hold but here's some pics I found on my computer from a couple weeks ago:











I wanted to say thank you to everyone,too for your kind words and stories about the stray dogs. You made my day and really helped me with this. Thank you!! <3 <3 I mean it!

Look who's knitting now!!

Getting Knitty with it...

C and K playing together the other morning. I can't wait til they are able to play together a lot of the time. It's so sweet to watch.
Not the best pic b/c I was in between the playstand but I knew if I moved they would stop playing. That's our fat cat Midnight in the cozy corner in the background. Last time we weighed him he was at 17lbs!!!

I am still avoiding finishing the knitted farmyard. I'm just so frustrated with it right now so I'm settling my mind with other projects. You saw the hat and mittens for C and I just finished a hat for K and an working on the mittens. Pics of that to be posted later :)

I had a custom order from a wonderful mama in C's due date club. This little lamb is her baby's Christmas present. I feel honored to have the opportunity to make this lamb for him.


I decided C needed a sweater to match the one I made for K (for her birthday) It's a little big on her but that's perfect for her to grow into this winter.


C also outgrew her booties so I knitted her another pair but altered the pattern to make them bigger. This yarn is my favorite I LOVE the pink/orange color combo. It's by Three Irish Girls and the color way is 'Fiona' which also happens to be the name of K's best friend!


I didn't make this autumn fairy but I had to share it. She looks so sweet hanging from an oak tree branch above our nature table.

Getting Knitty with it...

More farmyard fun

Knitting is coming along rather well in the final stages of putting our farmyard together. The girls can not resist playing with it while I am knitting it! It's cracking me up b/c I am literally at one end of the playmat knitting it together and the girls are at the other end touching it,playing with toys on it,rolling on it.... LOL
I think this will be a hit with both of them once it's all done.

C being a roly poly and playing with a squirrel on it.


K playing with a horse in the hayfield.

A happy squirrel on the pebble road

This really made me laugh. A random car driving on the farm!

More farmyard fun

Anyone know? (and knitted farmyard progress)

Where to find these old Ostheimer knights? We really don't care for the newer versions as much but LOVE these ones. I have been searching forever and can't find them anywhere so I thought I'd try putting out my own want ad, tee hee. Aren't they gorgeous? *drool* I will be forever in your debt if you find some for me!!

Our Internet hasn't been working for some reason the past week and 1/2 or so but now seems to be back in order...we'll see. I should be back to posting regularly now.



The knitted farmyard swap is finally at it's last stage. I mailed out the 1st batch of squares and the next and final batch goes out Monday. Then we can all get to work on putting them all together and making paths between our squares,then adding embellishments if we desire and felting it. woo hooo!!!!!

Just for the fun of it here's some more Ostheimer pics. They are such beautiful toys I find myself taking pictures of them quite often.

Anyone know? (and knitted farmyard progress)

Lazy Morning

1st off, can you believe it? I'm knitting again!! woo hoo!! I finally finished knitting and embellishing all my squares for the knitted farmyard play mat on Saturday,our lazy day as you'll see a pic of below. Now I just have to wait on the other 11 mamas to finish theirs so we can trade and knit them all together! So now I have started on a soaker for E. It's the Pea patch pattern by my friend Michelle (blog is in my list). I'm knitting it in 'Fiona' by Three Irish Girls.

Our garden is flourishing now. Here's some peppers I picked the day my family arrived.



This Saturday morning was one of those mornings I have been dreaming of for years now! We all were in the living room and E fell asleep in her hammock.


My knitting I worked on, finishing up the squares while everyone slept.


K playing with her dollhouse by herself.She was having a blast. And being oh so quiet to not wake anyone up.


Daddy and Nara fell asleep on the couch together.


It only lasted about an hour but it was heavenly.



I'm still editing my post for the family trip! Will be up soon I swear!

Lazy Morning