Little House in the Valley

We've been listening to a LOT of Little House on the Prairie lately, thanks to a recent bunny trail I followed on the web which led me to free* downloads of all the Laura books, read by Cherry Jones.

We're up to By the Shores of Silver Lake and I am so glad I gave the boys Wild West and Powhatan Indian Toobs (link is to a friend's amazon affiliate link...if you search toobs a bunch will come up) in their Easter baskets because they are getting a lot of use!   We have been studying early American history in school, so these books and related activities are a great accompaniment...as long as I pause every now and then to explain some of the prejudices that I never noticed were there the first time I read the books as a child!

 Maybe it's the stash busting urge I get every spring, maybe it's inspired by this recent artwork by my youngest, but I've been doing a little bit of prairie-inspired work myself. 

 I snapped this picture last week as I was eating my breakfast and my oldest was practicing his cursive handwriting (with a sheet inside a page protector and a dry erase marker instead of slate) and "Laura" playing on itunes  in the background.  I'm about 10 rows further along now.  I hope I have enough motivation and fabric to make a rug large enough for our school room, but we'll see.

 *I really hope I'm not going to get nailed for criminal activity....

Attention stylish people: help!

so here's the deal.  I took the arms off a huge 100% wool sweater the other day so that the body could become a Christmas pillow.  It was cold, and I'm me, so I stuck the arms on my legs for safekeeping.  Happened to walk past a mirror and think, "hmm....any chance that would work in public?"  I decided to rip the top back a few inches and add ribbing (you can't see from the picture, but it gaps a lot in the back), and now I'm having second thoughts on whether or not I'd be allowed in public with sweaters on my legs.  so...help!  what do you think?

Should I
1) knit more ribbing so they're over my knees and try to figure out what footwear to put with my now stylishly warm legs?
2) bind off, do the same thing on the other one, and never.leave.the.house. with them on? (but of course wear them in the house all winter long because they are SO warm)
3) rip it all apart and make normal wool socks instead
4) something else?
5) ps: no those aren't the needles I stabbed myself in the chin with...and you don't know what I'm talking about, pretend I never mentioned it.

too big for my britches

 so... I got dolled up Thanksgiving weekend to have dinner with my inlaws.  "new" skinny jeans, "new" cowgirl boots...and I don't remember the rest of the outfit because I was that happy about the first two items.  well.  Before we even started eating I ripped the seat of my pants open!  Either I needed bigger pants (ahem.) or this was a classic case of the most comfy pants are probably also threadbare. 

 Now, some people have moms that baked cookies with them in grade school, and now they make great cookies.  Those of you who know me know I tend to put weird things like applesauce in my cookies, so that tells you how much training I've had in *that* department ;-p  However, my mom didn't leave me totally lacking in the skills department.  After years of watching her repair work jeans for my brothers and dad, I like to think that when the need arises I can mend a rip almost as well as she can.  And, Mom, if you are thinking of this as a challenge, I have a pile of boy jeans in the mending basket just waiting for your competitive fingers.)

I'd show you the inside, but apparently Max is enjoying the morning sun.

Fall in adjectives

 crunchy

 rare*

tenacious

crusty

nourishing

tart

cozy

*October sabbatical

I knit socks in my spare time

 ...which might explain why this particular pair took me about 6 months.  They go quite nicely with my mother's day moccasins though, don't you think?

a circle scarf for me

I have been trying to decide on the perfect use for this little bit of turquoise and orange flowered fabric for about 3 years.  It was a gift from my grandmother's fabric stash, so I knew that it had to be something special!

Inspiration struck this morning when I realized it was already sewn into a tube. I lined it with another piece from Grandma's stash (this one a brown with some lace detail) and a little bit of sparkly ribbon, and left the edges to fray a little. Perfect.

ps: you can see the colors for the house a little better here.  I hope one day to get rid of that icky faux brick, but that may have to wait until we're rich enough for hardieboard.

to hold my pots

My Granny is a spectacular quilter.  Every color is perfect, every stitch tiny.  She hand quilted beautiful wedding quilt for me using squares first pieced by her own mother that has been on our bed for most of the past 8 (!) years and I bet it will last at least another 100.  I think of her often when I am in the sewing room, but my skills don't even come close to hers.  Yet still I create, and it makes me happy.

On the phone recently Granny agreed with me that sometimes "done" and "useful" is better than "beautiful" or "perfect."  I think she was just being nice, but I'll take it!  So, on the day after her birthday (oops), I thought it only fitting to make a little quilt.  A.K.A. potholder.  It looks better (more square) in person, but I will be the first to admit it is a FAR cry from perfect.  But the colors (mostly from a bag of pre-cut strips from my cousin, thanks Amy!) are great and with a layer of batting and a layer of felted wool in the middle, it will be quite useful.  Also, it quickly satisfied a crafting urge that struck once I realized all three boys were playing happily in 3 different corners of the house AND might very well stay that way for at least 20 minutes. 

Happy birthday Granny!  Maybe next time you visit I can get a few more pointers from the perfectionist =)

up to lately

not much computer time happening around here.  Instead, we've:

=)

Call me "Old Fashioned" if you will...

...but there is something about skirts, front porches, and sock darning that makes me smile.  A purring kitty never hurt either ;-p

What I'm wearing: skirt from a free clothes place (!), shirt rescued from a college student who destined it for the trash, bracelet from my mom's cousin Susie (btw, if you see this, I LOVE it and am reminding the H every month that I want matching dangly earrings for my birthday!), newly repaired favorite watch, wedding ring. 

St. Patrick's Day in the Morning

 Daddy graciously informed the boys that since they were about 1/8 Irish, they only had 3 hours to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  Which lit a fire under me to get school going.  We all wore as much green as we could find (too bad you can't see my necklace, it's jadeite and very pretty and was a birthday present a couple of years ago) and I raided the bookshelf.  Might need to flesh out our selections at the library later on today!

In the Bins:
1) St. Patrick's Day in the Morning was read, and Clever Tom and the Leprechaun will be read later.  We talked about St. Patrick and why  he is important, and where Ireland is on the map.
2) Boy #1 did some shamrock math. The alligator and tank escaped destruction for the day because they happened to be green ;-p  I also wrote numbers 0-15 on the backs of the shamrocks and had him line them up in the correct order.  We counted down from 15 to 0 and the resident Saint (ha) was pretty impressed with himself.

3) both boys drew a leprechaun using shape stencils and their own imaginations.  #1 wrote the word on his own, #2 practiced tracing and we talked about "starting dots" for letters. again.
4) boy #2 used an activity first prepared by my very own mother for her first class a few (haha) years ago.  Sorting pickes into their approprate "jar."  Good thing laminate was around, or these would be falling apart by now!

5) Not pictured are their journals, where they taped a 3 leaf clover and narrated back to me the story about St. Patrick using a shamrock to illustrate the trinity.  #1 also sounded out the word "clfr" all by himself before I could spell it for him.  Yay!

6) boy#3's favorite part of the day was going outside, which is where I am writing this post right now!  Hello, wireless router, nice to meet you.  I'd like to say I had a green snack all prepared to go with the theme, but alas, it's just date pieces (my mom calls them turds) and pretzels.  Please note the adorable jersey lined wool cap.  There is a matching diaper cover, but it's under all the other layers of green so you'll just have to imagine the cuteness.

And now there is way too much sun out here to stay on the computer any longer.  hooray Spring!

rub-a-dub dub, three boys in a tub

and who do you think they be?

...and while they were in the tub I altered a pair of jammie pants into FOOTIE jammie pants for the oldest boy. Yes, I am that crazy talented. Thanks goes to my hubby for paying attention to the kiddos and to my mom for supplying the practically vintage feet fabric.

ps: does anyone care about homeschooling updates? I have a ton of pics but at this point they might be gratuitous. Yes, kind of like posting about the boys just so I can brag about mad altering skilz is gratuitous. The alternative is bathroom reno updates because we're diverse like that. lmk.

What I Wore Wednesday

I LOVE this plaid wool skirt and was impressed with myself for sort of following a pattern/tutorial to make it. The gores are not all the same size because I was running out of fabric, but it is symmetrical and the colors are so great for winter. And, I always did want to be a librarian so it's OK if by the end of the day my glasses are a little low on my nose and my hair is in a bun. At least I have cute boots instead of the flats I was originally going to go with...pic courtesy the 5yo, and I also love it, crooked and all. Here's a close-up of our blurry smiling faces:
I'm pretty sure Puxatawny Phil was wrong, it sure looks like the beginnings of spring out there to me!

rip. pull. stab. hook. tug. slip. repeat.

because of *course* I need another hobby. For the record, this is the tutorial swagbucks told me to use, and I cannot WAIT to finish my yellow and white patchwork duvet cover so I can make matching bedside rugs exactly like the ones in the tute. I've had a discarded jean pile for a couple of years (yeah years) with this project in mind. It took me all of 2 tv shows to dispatch of that pile, and as you can see this is not a very big rug yet! Anyone want to donate to the cause?

Been awhile...

I couldn't even remember my password! Rather than trying to recap everything that's happened in our lives since March, I think I'll just jump right in with today and see who even notices that I've posted. Too bad, because there are about 500 pictures on my camera you'll probably never see... eh well, such is life.

P and C are ridiculously happy about the (little bit of) snow we've had this winter. To celebrate, I made white playdough with glitter this morning. My table has never been so festive, and I'm pretty sure there will be sparkle in our food for the rest of the season.

While they created in the dining room, I was in the kitchen working on a couple of stocking stuffers: popsicle stick puzzles. C especially has become VERY interested in our puzzles lately, so I have a feeling he'll appreciate these. And yes, the snowman is sitting in the grass. What can I say, it's been that kind of winter. Anyone have ideas of how to package these? I'll probably make little drawstring bags eventually, but for now they're probably getting rubberbanded. Oh, and for those of you who haven't seen B lately, here is the little booger: He's fully in that funny toddler stage of wearing coats in the house, carrying kittens upside down, and generally causing a nuisance inspiring laughs and cuddles every minute or two.

Today I wore a skirt

*because two days ago I didn't have to wear a coat outside.
*because I have a wonderful husband who takes care of the boys so that I can have time to craft.
*because I happened to find the perfect shade of turquoise binding in my Grandma's stash to go with this tablecloth skirt.
*because it matches my pretty necklace.
*and because it makes me feel just a little bit more girly in this house full of super boys.

baby blue eyes (and why I rarely make time to exercise)

a few notes:
1)the quilt that my mom's cousin Susie asked about is in the background here. When I finish repairing it, I'll post a better pic.
2)I LOVE these hats. so quick to make (3 pieces plus binding and only 4 lines of stitching) and really do an amazing job of keeping boy3's head warm in this old house.
3)the boys thought perhaps I needed a little extra resistance while doing crunches recently. you can see how well that is working out for me.
4)I'm really going to miss my camera until we can get to a repair shop. It was knocked off a shelf (not by me, surprisingly) and the threads on the lens were snapped off, rendering the entire camera useless. Anyone know if this means I have to replace the entire lens?

sometimes I knit

my first two boys rarely wore socks. (or clothes, for that matter)...boy3 is rarely out of them. These ones used up almost all of the same skein used to knit socks for both older boys. I think I have just enough to do one more pair a little bigger if I stripe it with something else, but we'll see. Turns out most of the baby clothing I have is red, white, and blue, so these have gotten a lot of use already. The best part about this pattern? They stay on! and as a special bonus, baby socks take mere hours to complete! just my kind of knitting: fast and practical.
and yes, that is a prefold he's wearing, with little else. some things stay the same no matter where we live ;-p

sweet pea pilot cap and some "leftovers" socks

Sweet Pea Pilot Cap tutorial from meg, socks are all the yarn that was left after making a pair of socks for my MIL and another for Tonka. Baby boy #3's stash has officially begun to accumulate! A few more items have been finished (baby stuff takes much less time, thinking, and materials than adult things!), but I need to take a shower, and dumpster pics took forever to load this morning (which is why this post is not about them).

Grandma's tulips and a tank tute review

1. DSC_0113, 2. DSC_0089, 3. DSC_0101, 4. DSC_0096

Ok, here goes.  Number one, I think my mother should give me the blog, because her "compose new post" options are much cooler than my own.  Number two, my H shot all of these pics, and they're SOOC with no flash.  I really like my camera.  Number three, yes we're down to only 2 ducklings, out of a baker's dozen of eggs that we started with.  boo.  Number 4, check out the green cami! Again, the tute is from Trina, and I didn't change a thing.  The way she explains how to do the ribbing is great, and I now have a few more useable camis where once sat shirts I never wore.  Thanks, Trina!

up to lately

(pics that didn't make it onto the blog yet) If you ask nicely, I might consider more words about particular pics.

1. DSC_0059, 2. puzza with yaeger, 3. duck eggs, 4. monkey's dedication, 5. vroom, 6. comparing gashes, 7. CA great grandparents, 8. NY great grandma, 9. schoolwork, 10. mowing, 11. balance bike, 12. fireman, 13. book reading, 14. superhero, 15. denise and erin's socks '09, 16. striped tank (+baby belly)

ps on the striped cami: I made it! tutorial here (part 1) and here (part 2).