A different pace

Toddlers worlds move at a different pace than the rest of us. I had the pleasure of spending part of the day with my nephew and I had forgotten how hanging out with a toddler really slows you down. My own children have long past the phase where they are happy just meandering through the day. They have things to do and people to see. It was nice to hang out with someone is thrilled to visit the chickens two or three times.
We walked to the library and then went outside to the park. It had been a long time since I had pushed someone in a swing and I remember what a chore is was to have a toddler who wanted to be pushed in the swing for hours at a time. I also remember how relieved I was when my girls learned how to pump for themselves. Now looking back on it I really can't remember why it was such a chore!?! Funny how that works. I mean how could pushing that smiling face (see adorable baby photo below) be a chore. Ah well, we won't ask his mother to answer that question.

Mad about

Lena had been studying France. She built a really cool French castle, alas camera trouble prevented me from getting any pictures of that. One thing that she and I did do that we were able to get pictures of was making Madelines. I really enjoyed making them and I wish that I could give out taste test over the blog because they were so good. They were not that hard to make, but the real key is a well greased and floured pan. The pan we used was new and the first batch stuck a bit, but still tasted really good.

book making

Yesterday Lena and I made some books. I have never really made a proper book before so we used a book making kit that we got at Yarn, Paper, Scissors in Burlingame. Lena made a lovely accordion book for her sister birthday and I made a couple because, well, we were making a mess anyway. We were not able to get very many shots of the process because our camera is trying to die. I think cause the camera to lose the will to live because I mentioned my desire for an SLR. Lena did manage to capture a few shots before the camera got to cranky so here they are.


In case you are interested the kit that I used can be found here.

like I need a hole in my head!

I need a new hobby.....
I knit. I sew. I make all sorts of things. I love to hike and read. Let us also not forget gardening and composting. That really is enough to keep one person busy, at least is should be but.....
Long story short I have been on the fence about spinning my own yarn for some time, but I realized that I have enough to do until I saw Lisa's post about her new spinning wheel. Another battle of self control lost. Here is the photographic evidence. This can't lead to anything good.

Star Child

I have a three more gift photos to post from last month.

This is a cute little Waldorf doll that I made as a gift. I have made dolls before, but this time I needle felted the wool stuffing for the head before I made the head. It made for a very firm and sturdy doll head.
Here is a close up of his little face.

Last but not least is some actual gift knitting. The photo above is of a pair of chunky gloves that I made for my brother. I really like the green and orange combo. The photo below is of a pair of thick and woolly socks that I made in a simple toe-up fashion.

Pimp my pillows

Here are more pictures of gifts that I made last year. I only have a picture of this pear pillow. I somehow managed not to get a picture of his mate the apple pillow. I used my serger to make pillow covers then I appliqued felt on to the cover with embroidery floss. HMMM looks like hubby was playing Wii (Tiger Woods golf most likely) while I was trying to do my photo shoot.
This next set of pillows I have to give some design credit to my hubby. He said they should have birds sitting on branches. As you can see I ran with that design. In real life the fabric is really a deep purple corduroy.


In this picture you can see the backside of the pillow is a rather wild batik. Of course all the felt patterns were of my own devising.

new look

I decided to go for a new look on my blog. I just wanted to give credit where credit is due. I did not make that teapot, although I do use it on a regular basis (in fact I am using it as I type this). It was made by a very talented potter in Montara California named Nancy Quickert.

My handmade holidays

Since I took the handmade pledge I thought I should fess up about how well I did. With the exception of my kids all but two of the gifts that our family gave this year were homemade. It did get a little dicey at the end but I made it to the finish line and that is what counts. I did not post pictures of the gift as I was making them because I did not want to spoil the surprise in case any of my recipients happened to take a peek at my blog so over the next few days I will show you some of the things that I made.....Here is an Amy Butler Chelsea bag that I made. I was pretty pleased how it turned out although I am sure that I could do better now that I have one under my belt. I am still getting used to sewing with peltex.

This is a bag that I made from Lotta Jansdotter's book Simple Sewing. The inside is made from an Amy Butler Fabric and the outside is brown corduroy. I added peltex to the bag as an after thought even thought the pattern did not call for it. The bag just looked so lifeless that I sewed a box out of peltex and slipped it in then stay stitched around the top to secure the peltex to the bag.

Today is a good day

I don't know what it says about me, but the reason today is a good day is that my washing machine is fixed. Last week my lovely teenager tried to murder my hard working Kenmore washing machine. Her method was really quite simple: 1 throw all her clothes in the washing machine, 2 shut the door, 3 start the washer and 4 ignore all the horrible sound that the washer made. The one thing that she had neglected to do was make sure all the clothes were securely in the machine when she started it. I turns out that front-loaders (did you expect this tree-hugger to have any other kind of washer!) don't like it when you run them with bits of clothes stuck between the door and the gasket. It does bad things...... like say..... pull the gasket off the washer. Anyhow we have been with out a washer since then, but now we are back in action.

I am so happy that my washing machine is fix that I don't mind that I had to wait around the house for four hours waiting for the repair man.I thought about posting a picture of the load of clean laundry to celebrate, but in all honesty what I washed was dog towels (the towels that are so shabby that humans refuse to use, but that dogs don't seem to mind) and they are not very photogenic. I don't know what is worse that I had dirty dog towels in front of my washer for over a week or that they were the first thing that I chose to wash.

Slowing down

I have been away from my blog for too long. Why is it so hard to jump back into something after a long break.... Anyhow I am back and I have a long over due thank you to make to Homemade and Handspun. She sent me some wonderful soaps that she made along with a great wooden mold so that I can make my own soaps. Soap making is something I have not really attempted, but it would be great to try. I promise to document my attempt at soap making here on this blog no matter what the outcome maybe. Okay that's it for today, but now that I have stopped pretending that I don't have a blog I should be posting again real soon.