Crocheting and sewing for Christmas

Have I blogged about how much I love to crochet? If I haven't I really should. I really love it. It's relaxing, it's easy, it's fun. I love shopping for yarn; I love the way it feels. Okay, you get it. For Christmas gifts this year I crocheted A LOT. I made hats and bath-scrubbies for all of my children, plus my niece and nephews. I found a bunch of free patterns on Pinterest and through google searches.

This was my first ever character hat. Hello Kitty for my favorite niece (she's my only niece). Pattern found here: Hello Kitty Free Crochet Hat Pattern

August has been asking for a sock monkey hat for a long time. She loves sock monkey's and has about 15 of them. Along with her hat, I made Emily and Julia, Perry the Platypus hats.

The sock monkey hat pattern can be found here: at Crochet in Color. I used her pattern with a very large hook to modify it to fit August's head. I can't find where the Perry the Platypus pattern was from. But a simple google search can yield many free patterns. 

I saw these awesome book slings in the Family Fun magazine a while back. I saw them again on Pinterest and decided to make them for Emily and Julia. They always have a ton of books in their beds, these were perfect to hang on the wall next to them. They were also very simple to make. Link here at Penny Carnival .

Kiley and Haley both got slouchy hats, which I regret to say I can't find the link for the pattern.

One of my favorite projects were these monster bath-scrubbies. If found the free pattern at Ravelry.

 I found a skein of really cool Red Heart camouflage yarn, and made each of my 3 wonderful nephews a hat. Apparently I only took one photo of the camo hats. Ha! I guess I need to be better at photographing my work. This was for my youngest nephew who is almost 2. I used the pattern from the sock monkey hat and omitted the ear flaps. I used a smaller hook so that it would be baby size.

The other two hats, not shown were just basic skull beanies for boys/teens with no pom-pom. They are camo with orange stripes in the middle.

These are flower coasters. I made several sets of these in different colors. I even sold a set! Yay me. That was my first homemade sale. This pattern I found on Pinterest and it's linked here at Mollie Makes. I used Patons yarn. I would love to find it in similar colors as the pattern pictures, but so far I can only find blue, white, purple, black and gray.

Making gifts really saved a lot of money. It does take a lot of time. I started 3 1/2 months before Christmas to get it all done. I get really bad carpal tunnel, not the best thing for someone who enjoys crocheting as much as I do. I have to do it in small doses.

 Happy New Year.

~Kimmie

Turtle Power!

I have been crocheting for about two years. My grandmother taught me when I was younger and then I forgot how. I re-taught myself with a book and good ole' You Tube. I've been mostly making dishcloths (which I love), scarves and an afghan here and there (I have two half done). Most recently I've discovered the Amigurumi animals. There are so many I want to make. I have done a few now, and they are just way too cute.

I just made these Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I found the pattern on Pinterest linked to here. I altered the original pattern a bit to fit the way I wanted it to look. I used her arm instructions for my turtles legs and then following the style of those legs I made smaller ones for the arms.

Aren't they fun??

Heroes in a Half-Shell

I have a bunch of other fun crochet projects I'm working on for gifts for this year. I'll be sharing as I finish. 

Is that the school bell, again?

Julia, Kiley, August and Emily

We started back to school, yesterday, the 10th. I still can't wrap my mind around starting school so early, but I don't get to choose. Fortunately for us homeschoolers it doesn't make too much of a difference. We can do school anywhere.

I stayed up very late the night before making four of the girls a schultuete for their first day.  My husband's mother is from Germany and I want to incorporate some of that culture into my children's lives. I had more elaborate plans for these originally, but my procrastination wouldn't allow for that. There really are some amazing ones out there on the internet. The girls were thrilled with them, so that makes me happy. Traditionally, in Germany, the schultueten are given to 6-year-old children starting first grade, but I had to make them for the older girls as well, since they had never had one. 

My mother-in-law on her first day of school. Isn't she just darling? 

All set up for the morning surprise.

First day of 9th Grade

Kiley's first day of high school

Julia's first day of first grade

Emily's first day of first grade

August's first day of high school

Juila and Emily, holding their first day of Kindergarten photo. They've grown so much!

Opening the goodies

Who could resist?

Christmas Countdown

Christmas is coming.....

I made each of the girls an advent calendar this year. These were fun to make, the girls are enjoying them each morning.I filled them with candy, cute ornaments and little prizes like chap stick, Christmas erasers etc. 

Haley's was the first. Hers is made with cardboard favor boxes glued together in a pyramid. I used my large hole punch and some Christmassy scrapbook paper to make the circles and then sticker numbers for the dates. I decided to mix up the dates on the calendars to give he girls a little extra challenge in finding their prize each day. 

 Emily is next. For hers I wrapped two paper grocery bags in Christmas wrapping paper. I glued little red and green paper bags on the front and added velvety red bows from the dollar store. I had to hole punch the top and bottom of each piece and connect them with ribbon. 

For Kiley's I had planned on making paper tree cones and having them sit up with prizes underneath each one. I ended up stringing some twine and using clothespins to string the cones up on our wall instead. I used the pattern from Family Fun Magazine. 

I modified their largest cone and made it bigger. Their large wasn't large enough for me.  Their small ones were also too small for what I needed them for so I didn't use that size. 

Julia's calendar is the only loose laying one. I made hers from toilet paper rolls. I cut scrapbook paper to the size of a toilet paper roll, glued it on and folded in the sides to make pillow boxes. I added a ribbon to tie them shut and of course each has a date so she can find her prize. 

Finally, August. Hers is very simple and not what I was originally intending to do, but it turned out great in spite of that. I added pretty paper to brown lunch bags  and clothes pinned them to ribbon hung on our stairs. 


The house looks really cute with the calendars as extra decorations. I look forward to doing this again for them next year. 


Also on our craft list....


The girls put together a Gingerbread house. We picked one up while shopping at Trader Joe's the other day. I really liked this kit, it didn't have pre-made yucky icing, instead it has you mix your own royal icing. The gingerbread pieces appear to be real and the candies are all dye and chemical free. 

Sorry it's a little blurry, I've been using my phone to take pictures. 

And lastly, I made some ornaments this year. I found this super cute tutorial on a craft blog I was looking at. These glitter mittens were so very easy and turned out so adorable. I used some of my great-grandmothers vintage buttons. 

We have a lot to do still to get ready for Christmas. I'm hosting Christmas Eve at our home this year. I'm both excited and nervous. 

Merry Christmas and God Bless You!

Pillowcases finished

For the last 3 days I've spent a lot of time stuck in my bedroom sewing gifts for my children as well as nieces and nephews.

I am making pillowcases and homemade play dough for my niece and nephews this year. I used a pattern from the One Million Pillowcase challenge - I used this easy roll up pattern.

Coin Purses

I made the cutest little coin purses for Mother's Day this year; they were so easy to make. I'm planning on doing a tutorial soon. I had found a couple of DIY instructions and changed it to fit my own preferences. Here are a couple of pictures of the ones I made.  

Crafts for Little Girls: Fun with Paper Dolls

I love free and easy projects for kids. I like toys and activities that spark their imaginations and urge them to explore their creativity. My mother introduced me to printable paper dolls awhile ago. I bought a ream of card stock and printed sheets of paper dolls and their clothes, I attached a pair of child scissors and gave these as a gift to the little girls at our church. These are fabulous to bring in the car in a folder.  I remember having paper dolls as a child and I really liked them. There are so many free printables online. Here are some and their links.

Marilee's Paper Dolls II

Betsy McCall Paper Dolls

Making Friends

Caitlin's Paper Dolls
Printable Paper Dolls
Money Saving Mom
My previous post
Ann of Paper Doll Land
Karen's Whimsy
Pre-Victorian Brides

Happy Cutting

And the Sewing Continues...

I've been sewing this week. I really love it and wish I had more time to do it. Today I sewed a new nursing cover. Here is the link Nursing Cover Roll-Up.

Dessert and Cake Plates Tutorial

Sweetie Pie: Dessert and Cake Plates Tutorial: "This tutorial is for this lovely two tiered pedestal dessert plate and cake plates. This project is so easy it's almost embarrassing. ..."

Rolling Right Along - Colored Pencil - Crayon Roll...

Making Christmas and birthday gifts has been my goal this year. Here is one easy gift I am making and the directions on how to make it.

Sweetie Pie: Rolling Right Along - Colored Pencil - Crayon Roll...:

Thanksgiving Decorations: Stuffed fabric pumpkins

I made some decorations for Thanksgiving this year. Here is the post link to my craft blog.

Sweetie Pie: Thanksgiving Decorations: Stuffed fabric pumpkins:

Here Fishy Fishy Fishy!

This is the fishing game I made for my friends little boy. The post is linked below to my craft blog.

Sweetie Pie: Here Fishy Fishy Fishy!

Golf Towels for my Dad

My dads birthday just passed. It was nice to spend the day with him and the family. I'm always puzzled about what to get him for his birthday. My sisters and I usually resolve to buying him yet another golf shirt or peanut brittle. Since I've been in a sewing and crafting mood lately I wanted to make him something special instead of the usual gift.

I found a fantastic tutorial for golf towels on Junie Moon's blog. This is such a nice golf towel, it's double layered and has a pocket sewn in for cleaning balls or club heads. I found some other patterns for golf towels but these were by far the nicest.

I purchased way too much fabric. I was way off on my calculations. I bought a yard of each fabric, and probably only needed a half yard for each. I made two towels and had enough left over to make two more. Adam said he would like a towel for his golf bag so at least I didn't waste the chenille.

Here is my version of Junie's golf towels.

 

I used chenille fabric instead of terry. I chose a cotton print fabric for the other side. It has playing cards printed on it. If you know my dad, you know he loves playing cards and golf. The gift ties two hobbies into one. These came out super nice. I was impressed with the quality compared to the ones they sell at the store. It cost about $10 to make both towels. I borrowed the grommet tool.

October Updates

We have had a lot going on and I have been away from blogging. I'm always coming up with blogs to write in my head but when I get ready to write them down I forget what it was I wanted to say. Here are some quick updates about what we have been and are doing. Now that I am not on Facebook, I'm hoping my family will find it easy enough to pop on over here to see what's going on.

House/Moving: We have moved into our temporary home. We had to move out of our other house because it sold. Everyone had a really hard time saying goodbye. We spent the last 6 1/2 years of our lives calling that little place home. For the little girls, that has been there only home. They took moving the hardest. It was unreal the day we moved all of our stuff out. It didn't seem like it was really happening. I know God has another plan for us, but saying goodbye to the home that held so many memories was difficult. It was a nice place to live, the neighbors were all wonderful. The kids were able to play outside with a bunch of other kids anytime without worry. Still, we really had a hard time living in such cramped quarters.

Our new temporary place is  a small place that belongs to a family at our church.  They were gracious enough to allow us to move in and "house sit" for a very little monthly.  They are planning on selling it right away, but offered it to us for as long as it takes us to find and buy a new home. It is SUCH a blessing. We are still able to save money while we are staying here. If we were renting a house we wouldn't be able to save. Renting here right now is more expensive than the mortgage payment on home.  We did lose a bedroom, but gained a bathroom. We only had 1 bathroom before and now there are two. This has been like a dream. It's funny though the kids still line up outside the bathroom door and wait. They have to be reminded there is another bathroom, they're not used to it yet. We have managed to make it very cozy, and comfy. We continue to go out every week and search for a home to buy. We did put an offer in on one house, but it was not accepted. That was a bummer for sure. Last night we saw a couple we liked, and hopefully will get a chance to see some more this week.

I am working on a Moving blog post, about my new moving system. It proved to be such a help and made it a lot easier. I'm so excited to share. I'm hoping to have that up later this week.

 Julia and Emily: Julia was the most excited to move at first so I was surprised when she had the hardest time. On the Monday after we moved, she was very upset and had a breakdown when Adam tried to leave for work that morning. He made arrangements to take the day off and he stayed home with her. I had a lot of running around to do with the older girls that day, so he was able to spend a lot of alone time with her. It was exactly what she needed. The next day she was back to her normal self and was okay when Adam left for work. The sweet little baby girl needed her Daddy. Whoever says kids don't need full time dads are doing serious injustice to their children. Everyday I see my children needing their daddy. Each day when he gets home he has a bunch of happy jumping screaming little girls to greet him at the door. Julia is very sensitive to attention from her dad. She wants  it and she needs it. He is so amazing with them, he loves giving his girls attention. He always tells them that he's going to love them so much that they wont need to run out looking for some stupid boy to love them. They will be protected and loved and able to wait for the man God has for them. It makes my heart melt to see him love them so much.

Emily has surprised us a lot with how well she is recognizing words and facts. I have not yet taught them to read. Most of it is intimidation on my part. They are very sharp little girls and I'm sure can pick it up quickly. So far I have an Abeka phonics book that I picked up at a rummage sale and we are working on short vowels. We are also doing sight words. Emily is a firecracker. She is a riot. She thinks she knows so much and likes to try to argue with me about things which she doesn't know. She LOVES learning and is very good at memorizing. When she needs to be taught about something she did wrong, I show her in the Bible what she did and what it says about it. She can retain the scriptures amazingly well. She also enjoys helping me cook and sew. I am embroidering some flour sack kitchen towels and she is right there next to me pulling the needle up and learning how to do stitches. She's very patient and eager to learn.

August and Kiley: They will be turning 12 next month, where does the time go? They are such wonderful young ladies. So sweet and loving. They have big hearts for God and are such a blessing to Adam and me. They are now in the 3rd month of 7th grade and doing very well. We are settling into homeschooling and loving every minute of it. We pulled out of public school last year to homeschool and haven't looked back since. For two weeks following my surgery and the moving, we didn't get much school work done. I was pretty stressed about it. We meet with an Education Specialist at our Charter School ever 20 days. They check the work, and ask if we need anything. They purchase supplies and text books if we need it. During our meeting with her last week I was worried she thought we did too little. The opposite was true actually. She was impressed with the quality of their work and how thorough they were. She said that she was surprised they do so much. I was so relieved. They do take a lot of different classes. In the 4H alone they are taking 11 different projects, along with the normal school subjects, and music lessons.

They are both in their 5th year of playing soccer. I was a soccer player as a kid and so I just automatically signed them up. They enjoy playing the sport. This year Kiley has been the goalie, while this is heart wrenching for me to watch those girls kick balls hard and fast at my child, she is really good at it. She is a phenomenal goalie. August has been the teams center halfback. This is a tiring position, but since she is very skilled and VERY fast she does well at this position. I don't know if I've seen too many children run as fast as she can, she almost like a bolt of lightning. When she was in public school she was the 2nd fastest in the whole school. Only 1 boy was faster than her. The soccer keeps them busier. It is only for a few months a year and then we don't play any more sports.

I am nearly 4 weeks (tomorrow) post surgery. At first the recovery seemed horrible but it has gotten a lot better. I still am not feeling 100% but each day it gets better. They give 4-6 weeks for recovery  so I'm still within that time frame. We did our move during the 2nd week of recovery. This was good and bad. The good was that I didn't have to lift any boxes or move one thing. I was able to sit on my little bar stool and direct traffic. The bad was I wasn't able to lift any boxes or move anything. This sort of made it difficult to unpack. The older girls were a big help though and we are pretty much all unpacked. We are not unpacking everything since we will be moving again in the next few months.

I have discovered a love for embroidery. I have been doing 30's style bonnet girls (like the one in the link) on the edge of flour sack cloths to use for dishtowels. Each of the girls picked out a girl for me to embroider so I also embroiders that girls name onto the towel. I'm trying to find a website who has a good bulk deal. I originally got them for the airplane to Tennessee and am really enjoying them. I'll take some pictures soon.

Me: My most recent change has been deactivating my Facebook account. I really have in the past enjoyed Facebook. I like being able to see photos and updates about loved ones who live far away, as well as old friends from school. I'm taking an indefinite break. I found myself constantly checking it from my phone and sitting down on the computer during the day. I would sit down to do something else on the computer and end  up on Facebook for an  hour. It has gotten out of hand. Sometimes it's best not to know as much about your family members. Facebook can get very personal. This was my only connection to some people and I hope they aren't offended by my hasty deletion of my account. Hopefully they will remember my blog and come here. This morning when I woke up I reached for my phone to check my FB, and I realized I had a problem. It's not okay when it's the first thing on your mind in the morning. So for now, I'm giving it up. I am not setting a time frame but as time passes I'm sure I will no longer have a desire to go on there. It has been such a time waster lately.

I'm getting ready to start gathering all of my handmade projects for Christmas. We are on a very tight budget this year, since we are buying a house so I am going to make a lot of the gifts for others. I wanted to make the book slings in the Family Fun magazine. I have also been wanting to make the little girls duvet covers out of vintage sheets or fabric, but I'm having such a hard time finding something I like. This will most likely wait until their 5th birthday. I was thinking of making all of the girls pillowcases with embroidery. So much to do so little time. I absolutely love vintage or Victorian style fabrics and linens. I wish I could decorate my whole house in a vintage style, but that would get pretty expensive.

I also just joined Swagbucks.com, and I'm still trying to figure it out. If anyone has any tips, I would love some help.

Adam: We finally have him back in the evenings now. For a couple of months he was building 2 bathrooms at our Pators house and he would be there all night after he finished at his regular job. It was hard not having him around most nights for dinner and the like. He was really missing the time with the family. A lot of the time he has side jobs after work and I know he is exhausted. He works so hard to take care of us. His birthday is this month and I'm still not sure what I'm supposed to get him. I'm going to bake his favorite dessert and cook a yummy dinner for him. He doesn't really care too much about gifts so I think just the family being around will be nice. We celebrated with his family over the weekend, and that was nice.

His mom is from Germany and I have been meaning to ask her about German type traditions. I would like to incorporate that into the kids lives. I should try out some German dishes maybe? She had a very nice family gathering for Adam and his brothers birthdays. The dates are close together so we did them at once. His parents are such wonderful people. I lucked out in the in-law department. They were there all day the day we moved helping and moving and working. They come out every weekend to watch the kids sports. I love having family all around. I feel sad for those who don't have that.
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I'm hoping to be able to blog more now that I am not spending so much time doing time wasting things online. I'm hoping to be able to spend my morning alone time to blog a couple of days a week.

Homemade Anniversary/Wedding Gift Frame

I saw this darling wedding gift heart frame on Etsy for a sale price of $49 plus shipping. YIKES! It's very nice. I would like one for myself, but never would I pay $50 for it. She also had a larger one for $100. AS soon as I saw it I knew I could make it myself. So I did.....

Today is my Pastor and his wonderful wife's 19th anniversary. I bought a 10x10 white shadow box for $8.99. It had a black background so I covered it with white textured paper for scrap booking. I used a heart shaped paper punch and punched flowers in magazines. I printed each of their first initials and their wedding date and punched those out. The hearts are all folded in half and glued down on one side so that the other side sticks up. It was quite a bit of work to get them evenly in the center and even with each other, but otherwise it was a simple cheap gift and it's beautiful. I think I'll be making one of these for Adam and myself.

Mrs. Pastor LOVED it. I was too excited to wait to see them at church so I drove it over to her today.