We are wearin' our Green!

I made some shamrocks this morning from this shamrock pattern and this four leaf clover pattern. Must say I liked the Shamrocks best, easy and cute!

K made hers into a head band.


So I made a head band too.

The extras are for K's sleep over tonight. Corned beef with cabbage, carrots and potatoes, Irish soda bread, and Pizza Minis! Fun! Fun! Fun!

K's first paper pieced quilt square! Go K!

Two more star blocks ready to mail! The green one is K's very first quilt square! *clapping and cheering*

She made it with just a bit of supervision; she picked the material, sewed all the seams but the first one, trimmed the seams herself, and pulled off the paper (she loved that part!). I helped her learn to cut the pieces to size and pin them in place. Neither one of us are really good at judging the placement of the material before we sew, and I had to rip out three seams for various reasons on mine.

These should go in the mail to hermione_jean today. Can't wait to see the finished Quilt!

Tiny Lil' Weasly Sweater.

I'm taking down my Christmas tree today and I found the tiny Weasley sweater I made for K this past Christmas.

I borrowed Charmed Knits from the library and followed the pattern. It wasn't hard and turned out really well.

Yes, I said my Christmas tree is coming down today, March 12Th. Oh Honey, this is nothing. (Imagine a thick southern accent.) One year we just took all the Christmas ornaments off and put on painted eggs and felt bunnies and such. It looked real nice Easter Morning.

It's not that we really like Christmas or anything,.... it's just that,... well,... it's Miss. Kitty. You've seen Miss. Kitty. She loves that tree so much, we just haven't the heart to take it down. She waits all year, well the 8 or so months it isn't up, for us to put it up, and then she crawls under and stays there till the last branch comes down. Only comes out to eat and chase dust bunnies. I think at this moment y'all can imagine the dust bunnies around the Christmas tree, now can't ya'? Oh yeah. And yes, now and then we do turn the lights on in March. Looks real pretty.

This year I'm taking it down a bit ahead of schedule. My friends and neighbors will be so surprised, and should stop giggling and pointing.

K can only play instruments bigger than she is.

K outgrew her first bass. It only took 6 months and I suspect it has more to do with future growth than anything. She moved up from an eighth to a quarter size and I can't stop laughing.

I love how you can only see her feet from the back. No, she can't carry it by herself. She's quite strong actually, but not that strong. Her father and I are full time roadies, transporting "Big Baby" with care to her many practices and lessons. I really don't mind, my upper body strength is now the best it's been in years.

She also plays piano. She can't carry that either.

Well,... it's not half bad really.

I'm not a quilter, and certainly not a paper piecer, but I managed to make a star block for the Bushfire Quilt Project. I read about the project on Ofenjen's HP Paper Piecing and although I am not good at this at all, I gave it a shot.

I used the Galaxy Star pattern by Moira McSpadden , because it looked easy, and it was. You can barely tell bits aren't lined up. And, as it's only my third block ever, I'm rather proud of it actually.

I'll be emailing the wonderful and oh so very generous hermione-jean to get her info and send it in asap. Thank you so much for volunteering to put the whole thing together hermione-jean! You are the best!

Valentines Day! Hearts for My Sweeties!

For Valentine's Day I made K and Mr. Man each an arigurumi heart. I found the pattern on Pepika. She has two free patterns, the heart keychain and a cute little chick ( she's my next project!,) some adorable patterns for sale and a crash course on amigurumi. Very nice site.

The crochet heart pattern calls for a size 1 hook and red cotton yarn. Not having a size 1 hook, I grabbed my size 4 hook and Red Heart yarn and dove in.

I'm planning a garland of them for the mantle next year in bright colors. Thinkin' I might need to start now.

Elephant?... No... Rat?... No...???

Supposed to be a mouse. Really.

I found the pattern at The Crochet Works and I liked it because the bodies looked like eggs, and Easter is coming, and I'm in an eggy mood. But the nose is just a bit long and the arms are not quite to my liking.

I really still like the basic idea and I'm inspired by hp5freak and her idea to make all her Easter eggs crochet egg cozy eggs. (She's made an entire cornucopia of crochets fruits and veggies. So cute!) I've got lots of time this week when I'll be driving and sitting. Might try to make a few changes, see what I come up with.

Facepalm or Headpalm, your choice.

I was just looking back through my old posts and realised, much to my shock and surprise, that blogger doesn't always tell me when I have a new comment! Bugger! A few weeks ago I noticed I had a comment, but no email notification. Thought it was a fluke and went on with life. Now I see it's happened a few times.

I found two comments from dear Pren that she left almost a year ago. I had no idea. I'm so sorry! I love comments and would have gleefully answered at the time if I'd seen them.

As a matter of fact, I'll answer them now.

Here's the first post

And pren said...
YOU made our logo!? that is so cool i don't know where he heck i thought it came from but it is totally perfect. is that how you got your winner of the HPC craft challenge button or was that for some other crafty endeavor?
March 13, 2008 7:21 PM

Yup, that was me! And that's how I got my button. It's still weird seeing it on HPC. And I still want to redo it. The "a" in Harry is just not right and the "e" in Potter should be fatter. Finishing a project is always the hardest part for me. Mr. Man has had step in and stop me on more than one occasion, bless 'em.

Here's the second post:

And pren said...
ha!omg that pic is so cute and hilarious. you guys are funny. how come you never show your little girls little face? just curious. i noticed you took it out in her robe pix too. oh and did you get all into hp first or did she? i dragged my mom into it but now shes gung ho.
March 13, 2008 7:16 PM

Witness protection program. ;)

Just for safety reasons really. And she really likes that she looks like she's regenerating, so it's fun now. Rest assured she is cute as a bug. I on the other had am not. I don't scare children on the street or anything, but the camera is not my friend and I try not to aggravate it by getting in front of it too often.

And I got into HP just like your mom. K loved it more than anything for a long time, and she needed robes and a wand and a scarf and a tiny Skele-Gro Bottle and a Potter Puppet Pal Pysanky.

Well, maybe she didn't need the pysanky, but by that point I was hooked and there was no stopping me. Or her. :)

There. Better late than never.

*scurries off to check there aren't any more*

Just a bit of Tab inspired fun!

Not the soda, the lovely lady and needlework artist Tab from Enjoying Life's Journey. Many months ago she posted a picture of a fried egg dishcloth she had made for a swap. It was so cute, it has just kept bouncing in the back of my head begging me to get to it.

So I did.




That's Toby the Turtle modeling. I love cheap old pottery. Especially the chipped and cracked variety. I find I'm much less likely to drop the prebroken ones.

All you need is a yellow scrubbie and some white cotton yarn.

Tab posted her directions in her comments and her way is much better and gives a much better result than mine. She made hers in neat rows of sc and made her bumps by going from sc, to hdc, to dc, to tc and back. You know, the way someone who knows what they are doing would do it.

Alas, I am a one stitch pony, so I used only sc and reversed back and forth where I wanted it to bulge and then continuing on. After the bumps were made I increased over the bumps and decreased here and there in the dips.

No idea how it will work in the sink. I'll let you know in a week or so.

That's my girl.

K's new favorite saying: She will admit that only most boys are stupid. The rest are pretty cool.

Paper mache + Plumbing = The Good, The Bad and The Really Cute!

So, K had a school project: Coke bottle biography. She had to read a biography, and then take a 2 liter coke bottle and a Styrofoam ball and create make the person "as realistic as possible." (We live in the south, so coke bottle refers to any 2 liter soda bottle. :) She also had to write a report and present it to the class. She loves jazz, so she picked Louis Armstrong.

So K, being K, and me, being me, we were excited!

Now, when it comes to school projects, and actually a lot of things, I help, but I do not do. Just ask K. Her science teacher took her aside on the first day of class and told her she was not allowed to ask her Dad or Mom for help, we being science types. Her reply "Oh don't worry. My Mom never helps me with school stuff. It is so annoying." That is not completely true. I help, I just don't give answers or do work for her. And more than once, a teacher has told me K earned a better grade on a project because it was obvious she did the work and not her parents.

So without further ado, The King of Jazz, Sachmo himself,... Mister Louis Armstrong!

Cute as a coke bottle can be!

Just a note, never, never, never, never EVER, dispose of paper mache paste by pouring it down the sink. Never. Really. Trust me.

And the plumbing is fixed, thank you for asking. Well of course I own my own pipe snake. Doesn't everyone?

I'm thinkin' yeah, it's a bad thing.

Is it a bad thing if you flush the toilet and the kitchen sink fills with water?





Oh yeah. It's a bad thing.

SNOW!!!!!!