mama urchin

So, 2007 was a pretty good year on the crafting front. There are 84 photos in my Finished - 2007 set on flickr. Even I’m a little impressed by that. I’m particularly happy with how many new things I learned in 2007. Let’s review, shall we?

First, in knitting, thanks to Larissa I learned to knit socks. All in all I finished six pairs of socks plus two pairs of baby booties this year. Ten sweaters came off the needles and while all but one were child sized I’m still very happy about that. I made my first Elizabeth Zimmerman sweater and my first colorworked yoke sweater both for urchin number two. Katrina didn’t get quite as many sweaters but she was definitely the main beneficiary of my newfound sewing skills…

I think 2007 might just be remembered as the year I learned to sew. Wow, I’m so happy I finally conquered my fear. There have been a lot of pajamas and quite a few dresses. I even made my sister a bag. I also made my first quilt in 2007 and my second, third, fourth, and fifth as well. They were all doll quilts but I have full-sized quilt love for them all.

There was plenty of food in 2007 although not too much of it made it onto the blog. I’m glad that some jam made into some of your homes though. Lots of paper stuff happened as well including garlands, folders, and altered bottles. And let’s not forget the altered tin for Father’s Day — one of my favorite projects from the whole year.

We played games, we gave gifts, we swapped, we had two great birthday parties, and took about a million photos. So 2008 has some big shoes to fill. What do I have planned? Knitting wise I’d like to make more socks using a variety of techniques. I’d like to conquer a lace project and I am going to knit a sweater for Papa. At the sewing machine I want to continue to improve my garment-making skills and conquer my fear of knits. I also want to make a bed-sized quilt top — I’ll probably send it out to be quilted. I want to tell you more about some of the great food we’re eating and I really want to try to compost less of our CSA share each week. Thank you guys for being such a great inspiration to me, and not just when it comes to being crafty. Your talent in knitting, sewing, mommy-ing — making in all regards — inspires me everyday. And that you take the time to tell me you enjoy what I make is really wonderful to me. Ready or not 2008, here we come.

We have a hysterical home-video from about 20 years ago when my mom made a batch of fudge and put it in cute teddybear bags for each of us kids. My sister, about eight years at the time, opened her bag and in the squeaky voice she had at the time says Mmmm, fudge! It’s one of those collective family memories — thanks to the video — that we all still recall these many years later. Here’s the recipe:

Microwave Fudge
In a large microwave-safe bowl mix 1/4 lb butter, 2 c. sugar, and 1 small can of evaporated milk. Cover with waxed paper and heat for 15 minutes on high, stirring once half way through.

Remove from the microwave, stir and add 1 tsp. vanilla, 12 oz. nestle morsels (the flavor of these determines the flavor of the fudge), and 7 oz. marshmallow whip. Stir to combine fully.

Pour into buttered pan (we use a 9×9) and refrigerate.

The fudge sets up really fast so you should be able to enjoy it a few hours after putting it in the refrigerator. It makes great gifts, like these two bags headed off to Tristan’s teachers at Mother’s Day Out.

Amidst the turkey a certain someone in our house turned two. Really, it’s just hard to believe. My niece — who is five years old — said Soon Tristan will be a tid [kid] and I can’t believe she’s right. Boy the time just flies by. So, a train party happened to celebrate.

Here’s the cake:

Papa gets all credit for the cake and the roundhouse. Thanks Jennifer — no blog — for the great roundhouse idea.

Here’s a view of the table:

I had trouble figuring out what would be “train food” so we just went with Tristan’s favorites. I made the tablecloth from some fabric with vintage train tickets on it and bordered with a black/gray calico.

This is the awesome engine that Papa and his dad, Opa, made:

I told them to make an engine to pull the wagon and left the house. When I came back this is what they had done. It was so much better than I ever thought it could be. We converted the wagon into a coal car and I made some coal — beanbags — and we made a game of tossing the coal into the coal car. It was a big hit, even with the older siblings. The little ones liked to drive the engine too. The tracks are just black electrical tape on the carpet — thanks to Anina for that idea.

And lastly, here’s our little engineer blowing out the candles:

He was especially fond of the skittle wheels although he did seem to like the cake too. He’s been singing Happy Birthday for over a week now and trying to blow out any flame he sees — including those in the fireplace. He got some great gifts too but I’ll save those for another day.

It always seems like at the beginning of November I feel like I’m on my bike at the top of a big hill and then all of sudden — whooosh I’m rushing down at some ungodly speed and I can’t find the brakes. Does anybody else feel like that? I woke up this morning and it’s started for me, I’m whooshing. This year should be less stressful than last year — no holiday weddings — but there sure is a lot to do before we close the chapter on 2007.

We’re really trying to give homemade and handmade this year and I’ve been getting heart palpitations thinking about the list of things to be made. I originally made a list in my moleskin from Abby but then a rubber-stamping friend helped me make this. Its just a normal white folder folded back on itself and in half again to make an accordion. We decorated it with paper and added an envelope and a few sheets of trimmed card stock. Since these photos my lists have been added and there sure is a lot to be done. Somehow, having a list makes it seem more manageable though. If it’s a pretty list like this, all the better.

I know Halloween isn’t a traditionally garland-laden season but for some reason we’ve been feeling garland-y around here. The first one is on the mantle in the family room and is from mailorder #4 from Amy. I want to try to make a stiff spider web from black crochet thread to put behind that little Boo! hanging down there on the right. Any ideas?

Garland #2 was made with Katie. She helped me stamp all those little guys on white paper and punch out the scallop-y colored things to put them on. We added googley eyes to the ones that had eyes that seemed big enough. I cut around the stamped images — a circle punch would make this much easier — and then we glued them onto the colored scallop pieces. Both this garland and the first one are strung together on black crochet thread. The individual pieces are just taped to the thread.

The last garland is the best, if you ask me. I love how cute this turned out. Really, really, love it. I just drew the pumpkin, star, and bat freehand. The spider is a circle. You are welcome to print and use my pattern pieces. The pumpkin, star, and bat were made by pinning the pattern to two pieces of felt and then sewing around the pattern with the machine, you could do this by hand too. Then you cut around your stitches trying to keep the allowance even. For the pumpkin I just stuck a little piece of brown felt between the two layers of orange where I wanted the stem to be before I started sewing. Make the stem longer than you think — you can always trim it later, just don’t trim it off when you’re trimming around the pumpkin shape. The ribs on the pumpkin were sewn on the machine too.

The spider is made in a similar fashion. Put a black piece of felt and whatever you want his underside to be made of — ours has a purple check underside — right sides together with the circle pattern on top. Cut eight black pieces for legs — once again longer than you think — and put them in between the layers with the legs extending into the middle. The felt pieces stick to each other so this helps keep the legs where you want them. Then, starting near a leg, sew around the circle making sure you catch all eight legs and leaving a small space to turn the spider right side out. I stuffed him with a little polyfil and then machine-sewed around the whole thing to secure the hole shut.

The yo-yos were made using a circle slightly bigger than the spider pattern. If you wanted your garland to be longer you could make bigger yo-yos — trace a cd or a bowl for a pattern –or just more yo-yos. My garland has 16, four each of four fabrics. To hang it I just attached a tab from a soda can to each end a-la Calamity Kim. The spider is hanging off the tab on the star. If you make one let me know so I can check it out! We already have a Thanksgiving garland in the works too. We’ll share that in the beginning of November.

While giving away the farm last week I was still crafting and now I have a bit of a backlog of things to show you. First up is these thank you gifts for the two young adults who were Katrina’s choir teachers this year. Mr. Justin is a high school senior who Katie was alternately petrified of and totally in love with. The turn to love seemed to coincide with the appearance of a beard Justin grew for a part in a play. Who knew my four-year-old had a thing for facial hair? The clipboard was the gift for him. I’m a little afraid that it wasn’t masculine enough but he can take the ribbon off if he finds it to girly.

For Miss Jamie I made an altered folder. This started as a cheap white folder from the office supply store which I re-folded into an accordion. I used patterned paper and card-stock to embellish it. The J on the front and the two hearts were pre-cut chipboard shapes I covered with patterned paper but I just used them since I had them. I’ve also done something similar to this with a piece of cardboard I cut into whatever shape I wanted. It’s tied together with twill tape.

Do you guys remember back in February when it was my bloggy birthday? You may not have realized but I held off announcing a winner, trying to avoid the ridiculous delay of my previous blog giveaway. I did pick a winner — two in fact — and I picked them twice. Back in early March I thought I’d just remember them for the few days it took to get the gifts together but a few weeks later I couldn’t recall who it was I picked and since I was going to finish up the gifts that weekend I picked again. This time I wrote the names down. Now if I could just find that paper. This time it’s for real. The gifts are just about ready, I’m taking a photo and announcing the winners….. The random integer generator has selected Sarah and Shin. I’ll be emailing you guys to get your addresses but let’s get on to what they’ve won:

More altered frappuccino bottles. These are filled with mostly vintage crafty goodies. We’ve got buttons, trim, bits, and twine. The twine is from the new Martha Stewart: Crafts collection at Michael’s, everything else is vintage. It seems to me that no matter your craft — collage, knitting, sewing — you should be able to use this stuff. I hope Sarah and Shin find these to be fun and useful and I apologize for the beyond ridiculous delay.

In an effort to redeem my good blogger name I have a few more things to give away this week. Nothing too exciting — stuff like duplicate craft/cooking magazines, yarn I won’t use, and homemade jam. So check back later and I promise to send everything by Saturday. I don’t think my reputation could take another delay.

These are the invitations for Katrina’s upcoming birthday party. Last year she had a Dora birthday party. I was less than enthused with the theme. This year we convinced Katie to go with something a little more, well, fun for everyone. We offered all kinds of ideas and she picked a gardening party. The inside of the invitation reads:

Katrina, Katrina, Planting Verbena,
How does your garden grow?
With birthday treats and tasty sweets
And lots of friends all in a row.

Then of course we included the party details. Now we just need to hope for a sunshiny day.

Today is Papa’s birthday and yesterday to celebrate we got a flooded basement. Well, it was only partially flooded but all of Papa’s rooms — office, woodshop, theatre — were at least somewhat flooded. The worst was the theatre which is still under construction but has carpet — very waterlogged carpet. Actually, it’s not waterlogged anymore, I got a good workout using the steam cleaner to suck it up. Now we have all kinds of fans and de-humidifiers going down there.

So back to the birthday. While I was sucking up gross water from the carpet and Stefan was having a total freak-out I was thinking Boy, I’m glad I got Papa a good birthday gift. The kids and I gave him a new camera but it won’t actually be available until April/May. I decided that maybe Katie and I could make him a camera out of cardboard and wrap it so he would at least have something to open. A quick search led me to a pattern for a very cool pinhole camera that was published in 1979 in Czechoslovakia. This is not a project to attempt with an almost four-year-old. The cutting and putting together requires some serious fine motor skills but was really fun and now he has a new low-tech toy to keep him occupied until the new high-tech one arrives. Now, we just need to find some film…