Happy Thanksgiving!

How was your holiday? Did you go full turkey or settle for something less insane? Luckily, since Chris' family celebrated Thanksgiving this past weekend I had like half of the dinner already done and in the fridge. I spent the most money I've ever spent in my life on cheese to make a super fancy Martha Stewart Mac & Cheese that was delicious and made an absolute ton of food. I had also made some quick green beans and an apple pie so today I just had to throw together a pecan pie, mashed potatoes, a Stouffers breaded chicken breast and some biscuits. It took about an hour and a half so that wasn't so bad.


I was sort of on a baking streak today. This morning I whipped up some banana nut muffins since I had a few bananas turning a horrible shade of black on the kitchen counter anyway. I also made cornbread muffins from scratch for the first time and I actually really liked them. I've always used the mixes before and they come out so disgustingly dry. This time they were light and fluffy and pretty damn tasty if I may say so.


I've also been doing some crafting and some Christmas planning. I've got my list together and the time line is possible but really tight. The list is only five items so that's already a massive improvement over previous years when I tried making 50 Christmas ornaments to go into all of our Christmas cards or had a list of 25 gifts to knit that included friends I hadn't seen in years and kids of friends and friends of friends. So this year we have:


1. Scarf for my sister

2. Matching gloves to go with scarf for my sister (if anything needs to be cut it will be this)

3. Surprise gift for Maddy (it's kind of ambitious so there's a chance you'll get it sometime in January)

4. Hobbes for Chris

5. Knit Elephant for Chris' niece

See, how reasonable does that list look? Super reasonable! The wildcard is that I didn't want to use the Lion Brand yarn that I can get cheap and already have a lot of and the local yarn shop barely carries any lower priced yarn. They're more high end so I ordered the yarn online from Knit Picks. Their yarn is affordable, machine washable and, in reviews, is supposed to be super soft. I placed the order yesterday but I just have to cross my fingers that they'll get it out on Monday and I'll, hopefully, get it in around the end of next week so that I can jump into the work. On an unexpected high note though I've already finished the scarf! It's a very simple crochet scarf that I saw on Ravelry. I started it last night and finished a few hours ago. Here's a terrible photo from my phone. I'll have to take a better one tomorrow.




Well, it's wicked late and I have to be at work at 8:30am so it's definitely time for bed. I've got my fingers crossed that it'll be totally dead tomorrow and I can zone out all day. I was told that it was dead last year and everyone watched a movie on someones computer. Although I am notorious for falling asleep during movies and I don't really want to inflict my snoring and drooling on my co-workers.

One thing that I'm so thankful for is your friendship. Happy Thanksgiving!

Hiking in South Florida

Here is just a recap as to what I've been up to this month.

Earlier this month, our cub scout pack had a pack meeting where the boys receive any patches and belt loops they have earned.  This is always exciting for my cookie, but this meeting was way, way, way more exciting!  He finally earned his hiking stick.  He had to complete 6 hikes in order to receive it and finally that great day had arrived.  Now, we need to sand it and then stain it to his liking.  And any other hikes completed will earn him pins and accessories for his stick.  Needless to say, I'm a very proud momma.  Not only did he earn his hiking stick, but he is the youngest scout in the pack to do so!

WAY TO GO BOOGIE BOO!

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Soon after, our cub scout pack did a pre-hike on Key Biscayne.  This is a good hike to get the boys ready to do the Old Cutler Hike that is 12.6 miles.  It also is a great opportunity for them to learn about our native plants here in South Florida.

Beautiful Key Biscayne

Some of the plants we came across during the hike were the Sable Palm (state tree),  Poison Wood (more poisonous than Poison Ivy I've heard), Sea Grapes and the Palmetto Palm.  Lately, I've been very lazy when it comes to taking pictures.  I promise to be good and take pictures of the trees mentioned next time we do this hike.  

Boog obviously brought along his hiking stick.  I mean what 8 year old boy that has worked as hard as he has, hiking over 40 miles in just 6 hikes, wouldn't bring his well deserved hiking stick?  Even if the only mountain we have here in South Florida is Mount Trashmore. :)  However, as excited as he was, I was certain he wouldn't make it past the first 10 minutes with the stick.  So, I was pleasantly surprised that he didn't ask me to carry it for him until almost the end.  As you can see from the first picture, it is a big stick that he still has to grow into.  :)  

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The picture below was taken during the Old Cutler Hike last weekend.  As mentioned before, it totals 12.6 miles, starting at Bayside in downtown Miami and ending at the old Parrot Jungle in Pinecrest.  We almost didn't participate since it was pouring down rain at 6:45 that morning.  I don't know about you but I wasn't looking forward to hiking over 12 miles in wet clothes and sneakers.  But at 7am the rain stopped and we decided to take a chance and go for it.  We did have a chase car so if the weather got too bad, we could always hop in the dry car.  

Walking by the water in Coconut Grove

Its hard to tell in the picture above, but it ended up being an absolutely gorgeous day!  Which meant there was no need to seek refuge in the chase car.  But if we are talking honestly, as much as I hate getting caught in the rain, I started to wish for some around mile 8.  Boy were my feet hurting!!!!  Anyway, we persevered and completed the hike (sans the hiking stick) in 6 hours and with a feeling of great accomplishment.  This is our second year participating in the hike.  woo hoo!!!!

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Well that is pretty much what we have been up to recently... leaving very little energy left to do anything crafty unfortunately.  Here's to hoping I can squeeze in some quality time with my sewing machine this weekend.

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Wait, before I check out, I'd like to ask for your help with something.  My friend's mom gave me a ziplock full of old spools.  I know...she's awesome right?!  I just love them and am dying to do something with them.  I've googled it to see what others have come up with and the only thing I somewhat liked was to frame them and hang them on the wall.  I mainly liked the idea because hanging them on the wall would allow me to appreciate them whenever I want, but I'm not sold on it either.  If you know of any other ways to display/use these cool spools let me know.  Thanks!

Maddy =)

Still in progress

Just sitting here working on this scarf while waiting for my son to get out of class. I should have been done a long time ago but I kind of stopped counting (shhhh...don't tell anyone) and had to take a bunch of rows out and start over. I'm hoping to finish it before 2012. Sheesh!

Here is a pic.

Monkeys for a Good Cause!

I'm shocked that I was able to whip out a pirate monkey and a superhero monkey in just about a week! A co-worker let me know last week that she was pulling together an auction and dinner to raise money for her father's medical bills. She mentioned that she and her husband were planning to walk around the local shops and see if they could get some donations to auction off. 

I volunteered my limited crafting skills since I knew I couldn't afford to donate money and I went with my tried and true monkeys. They're a guaranteed crowd pleaser and I figured that they would appeal to people looking for cute Christmas gifts. This was the first time that I used the safety eyes that I got at Mary Jo's.  I've always used buttons before since they were the only thing I could find in New York. I was a little thrown with having to put the eyes on before I sewed the head to the body since the safety eyes have backing pieces that go on the inside. I'm so used to those details being the very last bit which allowed me to fuss and fidget with them more.

Sorry for the terrible camera phone photos but I snapped them quickly before running into work. 

Coming Soon: the Elvis monkey that I've been working on for about six months. I'm only a leg and a pompadour away from finishing him up.

Finally Finished Pumpkins

After way too long I finally finished all of the pumpkins that I was working on. They were finished up just a few days after Halloween so I guess that still counts as timely. The large pumpkin has eight or nine different velcro faces to change out. While I definitely wish that I'd been able to finish these sooner I'm really happy with how they came out.

I'm thinking about sending the second largest one to Alex as part of his crazy belated birthday present. I've had a stack of stuff to send to him sitting on a bookshelf for about a month. I also realized today that I've only got a month and a half until Christmas and I haven't even bought the supplies I would need to make the ridiculous amount of stuff that I want to make. Yikes. I'm going to sit down today and make a list of what I want to make and then cut that list in half to maybe resemble what I'll have time to actually make. Have you started your Christmas crafting? Maybe next year will be the year that we finally make a list in January and make something each month so that come Christmas we're swimming with finished stuff to give and totally stress free. Just thinking of it sounds so nice and so totally impossible.

Handmade gifts and stuff

It is an absolutely beautiful day here in South Miami.  The temperature is a cool 68 degrees with a nice breeze which makes it feel even cooler.  Unfortunately, Boogie Boo and I are a bit under the weather.  We were actually supposed to be camping with our Cub Scout Pack in Lakeland for the Wings 'n Things big event, but since the temps were supposed to be in the 40's up there and I was feeling too achy to pack up the truck with all our gear, I made the executive decision to stay home.  Although I know it was the right decision, I can't help but feel bummed about missing out on all the fun.  Well, there is always next month's campout at Oleta River State Park in North Miami.  Hopefully it will warm back up for that one.  Cook isn't into riding bike trails all that much so we will probably spend our free time at their beach.  But for now, we will have to settle for relaxing on the sofa watching Rio and Despicable Me.

Can you believe November is here already???  I can't!  It seems like yesterday was the beginning of summer vacation and I was telling Jeanne how I wanted to start on my handmade Christmas gifts.  Mind you, I had the same idea for last Christmas and only ended up making 1 gift.  Okay, so how many have I completed for this Christmas?  One.  Yep, you heard me right.  One.  But I'm not worried in the slightest.  If I stay focused, I may be able to......ugh, who am I kidding?  I have 24 23 gifts to make by Christmas Eve.  I think what I need to do is revise my list.  There is no way, I can make all of these gifts, especially when 1/2 are quilts.  Ay mama!   Yes, I'm going to have to revise THE LIST! 

Okay, off to breakfast with Boog and the girls.  Don't worry.  I am taking gift #2 with me.  Its a crochet scarf that I can work on while we are waiting to be seated.  I hope you have a wonderful Saturday.

Maddy =)

Pumpkin Faces in the Works

I've made some progress on the pumpkin faces. I totally love the big, angry mouth on this one. Since taking these photos I did finish the stems on all three of them and got the felt faces glued down on two of them. I'm hoping to finish these up and get the pumpkin with the Velcro, interchangeable faces done this week. Craft Blog is having an Halloween Contest so I'd like to enter that into it. The stuff on their blog blows me away so I doubt that I'll win anything but it would be pretty exciting to get something finished and entered. Maddy, you should totally enter the Gohan costume that you made!!

The tiniest pumpkin is only about 3 inches wide and maybe 2 inches tall and I think it may be my favorite. I carried it around in the pocket of my hoodie the other day just because I could.

I'm also making this strange little bat. The eyes are felt ones from Michael's and right now it just has a paper template for a mouth but it's going to be cut from white felt.  It has little black felt ears and black felt wings. For some reason I really liked the sad bat face. I tried making it a happy bat but it just wasn't nearly as cute to me.

Now that Halloween is almost past it's that stressful time when I have to sit down and think about Christmas. I've got a couple of ideas floating around for things to make but I need to get it all written out and face the truth of whether or not I have time to make all the things that I want to make.

Adorable Halloween Pillow Covers

I just saw these awesome pillows over at Craft Blog and had to share them. They are soooo cute! Plus there's a full on instructional on how to make them. I love the mix of cotton and felt for the designs and the bright, fun colors. Maddy, you have to teach me how to sew!! I would totally make these, especially that owl.

More Introductions

Hi, I'm Maddy, the sister-n-law. =) I'm so happy that Jeanne started this blog. Until now, we had only talked about it. Thanks Jeanne for getting us going.

Okay, so I guess I should tell you a little bit about myself. Not an easy task apparently. Who knew that my stage fright would transfer over into blog world. Well it appears that it has, but I’m going to work through it and hopefully along with accomplishing some projects, keeping in touch with the SIL and making some friends, I will get better at public speaking/blogging. Besides having stage and blog fright, I’m also a rambler and procrastinator. All these qualities just add to my bubbly personality don’t you think? Well maybe not. It probably depends on whom you ask.

Lets see. What else? I have an 8 year old son (usually referred to as My Cookie, Boogs, Boogie Woogie, Boo – nicknames are endless so try to keep up) who is the apple of my eye. When I’m not working, I’m involved in my cookie’s extremely active cub scout pack, training to do my first 5k, hanging out with my friends and thinking about more projects that I want to do and usually don’t get around to. I’m a procrastinator, remember?

My dear friends, Silvia and Sally, taught me how to quilt and my other dear friend, youtube, taught me how to crochet. I have yet to crochet anything more than a few scarves but I’m optimistic that I will eventually figure out how to do this baby sweater that I’m currently working on. Not only do I want to be a better quilter and crocheter, there are so many more things that I want to learn how to do. What is the very next thing on my list to learn? Mosaic stepping stones!!! Wendy, one of my bestest friends, has promised to teach me. She has even added mosaics to the walls inside her house! I just love her work and can’t wait to learn. I also love home remodeling shows/blogs and I love to watch cooking shows. If only I loved to cook, too, because i definitely love to eat.

Well I guess I should probably stop there for now. I mean why would I tell you what a Twilight Series and Vampire Diaries fan I am on my first post EVER? That is definitely 2^nd post material.

Maddy =)

Pumpkins in Progress

 

A few years ago I made a housewarming present for some family who moved into their new home in October.  Since I love Halloween I crocheted a pumpkin and gave it a variety of interchangeable faces.  I loved the project so much that I made another one for a friends' birthday the following year.  I've thought about the project a lot since I first made it and have always wanted to make another for myself and so I finally sat down to make one and ended up making four.  I started with the largest one and then once I'd finished I thought it might be cute to make a smaller one with a fixed face instead of the velcro faces.  And then when that was done I thought it would be cute if it were even smaller and then when that one was done it happened again and I made the fourth punpkin and now I don't think I can get any smaller than that.  I just need to add stems and faces and get these little guys set up around the house.

www.flickr.com

I'm also trying to make some little bats to go along with these so I've got one of those in progress but there's no photos because it's not very photogenic right now.  It's just a stuffed black ball.  I found some cool felt eyes at Michael's that I'm going to add and maybe some little white felt fangs and then some large felt wings attached to the back.

Ideally, I'd like to start making stuff like this for my Etsy shop but it's so hard to find time.  Anyone have any advice on how to work a crafting business in with a full-time job?

Unfinished Objects

Well, now that I've introduced myself I figure I should pull out some of the stuff that I've been working on.  I've been caught up these past few months with a new home, a new job and all in a new state so my works in progress have been stuck in progress longer than I'm proud of.  I love making toys so first up is my little Elvis monkey.  I've really enjoyed adapting this monkey pattern from Ana Paola Rimoli's Seriously Cute Crochet into a Pirate and a Superhero and now Elvis.  I'm not sure why these things all seem cuter as monkeys but they totally do.

www.flickr.com

My second unfinished object is this cute pair of socks.  It's only my third pair ever and my first that's not just a plain vanilla sock.  The pattern is Kai Mei from Cookie A's fantastic Sock Innovation.  I've only got the toe left on the first sock but I know that there's a mythical second sock hump that's hard to get past.  Hopefully, I'll finish these soon since it's getting chilly and a nice pair of socks would be useful right about now.

Lastly, I've got some fabric that I just purchased from Mary Jo's in Charlotte.  Coming from Brooklyn where space is a premium and the craft/fabric shops are the size of a studio apartment this place was insane.  It's the size of a warehouse with just fabric.  There was an overwhelming amount of options especially for someone like me with no clue what to look for.  I will say though that they had the best selection of toy eyes I've ever seen.  I think I bought one of everything in every color and size.  I've been reading Casey's Elegant Musings and she started a sew along recently for a circle skirt.  It seems like a good, simple project to cut my teeth on so the red fabric is intended for that.  I would like for the paisley fabric to become an A-line skirt.  I love the soft creams and oranges in it and it was the first fabric to catch my eye in Mary Jo's.  The orange fabric is a wool blend and I have no idea what to do with it.  I was thinking it might work for another skirt but I really don't know.   I bought two yards and it's about 60" wide so any ideas?