mama urchin

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Feeling Inspired and Catching Up

Published December 3, 2010 Fiber Crafts , Knitting , This & That Leave a Comment

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. We’ve been busy in the urchin house these last weeks and Thanksgiving day was a welcome calm. But here’s December and I am feeling so inspired to make this the merriest of Christmases. I have some things planned for this joyful month but I feel like that can’t start until we do some catching up, so here’s what we’ve been up to:

Tristan turned 5. Five! I can hardly believe it. He’s gotten taller, thinner, and very few traces of the baby he was are left. I can get all weepy just thinking about it.

Katie was the cutest gingersnap to ever grace the stage. Just a few weeks ago the choreographers asked if she could be in four performances instead of the planned two and she did incredibly well with the added commitment. That girl loves to dance. I’m sad that photo up there is blurry but it really is indicative of the weekend, an enormous ballet blur.

My newest niece was christened last Sunday. Seeing your baby brother as a father is really a remarkable thing. He is head-over-heels in love with that baby girl. I knit that bonnet — twice! but more on that later — so her little wet head wouldn’t get cold.

Lots of other things happened since we’ve chatted last but those are the highlights. So what have you guys been up to?

In Thanksgiving

Published November 25, 2010 This & That 3 Comments

For the beauty of the earth,

For the beauty of the skies,

For the love which from our birth

Over and around us lies,

Lord of all, to thee we raise

This our hymn of grateful praise.

Wishing you a day when your blessings are too great to be counted.

Hoodie

Published November 5, 2010 Fiber Crafts , Gifts , In the Mailbox , Sewing 2 Comments

Back in October Tristan went to a party for his friend Mallory that happens to be the youngest of three girls. Katie is friends with the older girls so we know the family fairly well and I knew that they did not need any more toys. In the past we’ve given them craft and baking sets but I wasn’t inspired with a new idea this time. So, we decided to make her something she could wear.

One morning at school dropoff we asked Mallory what her favorite color was, blue and also green, so that’s what we went with. I used the pattern Scrapbook Jeans and a Sweatshirt from Pink Fig Patterns. Tristan went with me to the fabric store and helped pick all of the fabrics, I had the blue and green Amy Butler to start with in my stash. The dot — a really great one — and the plain turquoise fabrics are from Georgia by Pat Sloan. I used a blue velour for the inside of the hood so it would be nice and soft. The whole thing came together in just a few hours so I’m thinking of more fun combinations including a ballet themed one for Katie to wear backstage at the Nutcracker. Wouldn’t that be so fun?

Recent Favorites

Published November 4, 2010 Through The Lens Leave a Comment

1. two hundred ninety seven, 2. repetition, 3. big trees, 4. the first one, 5. Underneath, 6. heather brought flowers, 7. Tomato tradition., 8. wasp nest, 9. red cross quilt, 10. Untitled, 11. Untitled, 12. nesting?, 13. the girls room, 14. Silverado, 15. Drip, 16. Untitled, 17. Untitled, 18. therapy, 19. july 31, 20. july 31st, 21. Crab!, 22. our garlic, 23. rudee inlet sunset, 24. a monday picnic, 25. {film.790}, 26. Pantry 09, 27. Landscape through water, 28. sweet summertime, 29. spider legs, 30. fruit stripe, 31. fiber optic plant, 32. 156.SWOON, 33. multiples, 34. Tokyo Subway Map Mini Quilt, 35. 30 May, 36. chive bouquet

Halloween

Published November 3, 2010 Fiber Crafts , Sewing 2 Comments

We had a lovely halloween, did you? Papa’s parents and sister were here and it was so fun for them to get to enjoy this fun silly holiday and all the traditions with us. Saturday morning everyone carved pumpkins while I went to the farmers market. On Sunday afternoon they experienced the frantic making and last-minute engineering involved in costume development — this year was actually quite calm. Sunday evening they witnessed the annual Halloween group portrait — what started as a group of three tiny trick-or-treaters has expanded to a group of six — and partook of the annual doughnuts and cider before heading out to the neighborhood.

I actually made three costumes this year since Katie devised a plan involving a bat costume for her and my nephew. Those two were easy enough though, we used an umbrella split in two for their wings and I sewed two-sided velcro straps to the wrist and upper arms. Their ears were sewn onto “ninja” hat/mask things I picked up at the party store. The worst part was finding the black sweatpants and sweatshirts.

Tristan decided back in the summer that he would be a Jawa — from Star Wars — this year so the main part of his costume was a hooded cape — Simplicity 5512 — in imitation brown suede. He wore two of Stefan’s belts criss-crossed on his torso, black gloves, and another ninja mask, this time backwards. the finishing touch was yellow lensed sunglasses. We tried all different things to give him glowing eyes — see last-minute engineering above — but the sunglasses were the best thing we came up with that still allowed him to see where he was walking.

Halloween costumes are fun but I must admit, I’m always a little glad when I don’t have to think about them again until next year. If you’d like to take a trip down memory lane here are the costumes from previous years:

Hiking the Appalachian Trail or How I Spent My Columbus Day Weekend

Published October 17, 2010 This & That 3 Comments

We spent last weekend camping in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We had perfect weather and perfect company. It was a really fabulous weekend. I had my doubts about four days in the wilderness without showers or hot water but it turned out to be relaxing and so much fun.

One of the highlights, and there were many, was spending some time hiking on the Appalachian Trail. For those unfamiliar, the Appalachian Trail runs along the mountains of the eastern coast of the US from Georgia to Maine. We walked for a very short time along the ridgeline that separates Tennessee from North Carolina near the top of Clingman’s Dome. We had driven our cars up the 6000+ feet and only walked the last half-mile or so to the summit, thru-hikers walk the whole way up. We picked up the AT on our way down from the top and it was so beautiful and peaceful compared to the paved tourist-filled path from the parking lot. It reminded me to always be on the lookout for the road less traveled.

Welcome October

Published October 1, 2010 This & That 4 Comments

Right on cue mother nature gave us some Autumn weather today. I’m wearing corduroy pants and leaves crunched under my feet on the walk home from school this afternoon. I love October. So what have I been up to in the last month? Well, the urchins returned to school, my sister-in-law gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Tristan started soccer, and Katie was asked to be in a local production of the Nutcracker Ballet. We’ve been busy. September kicked my butt.

But October is going to be different. I think we’ve gotten a grip on the schedule. We’re going camping with some of our favorite people. We have family coming to visit, and pumpkins to carve. We’ll be picking apples and making applesauce. The canning pot will spend more time on the high shelf in the pantry than on the stove. 31 of my favorite days of the year, starting now.

Birthday Gifts

Published August 27, 2010 Fiber Crafts , Gifts , In the Mailbox , Sewing 5 Comments

Last weekend we celebrated my niece Gabrielle’s eighth birthday — eight! — and as in years before I made her some clothes. My sister is super-sweet and usually Gabrielle wears the outfit I make her for the first day of school. Talk about pressure! So, this year in discussing with my sister what to make we decided on something with blue, since that is Gabby’s favorite color, and something that has a skirt. My sister loves anything Asian — including her husband — and I remembered a kimono top from an old Ottobre and a plan was hatched.

The blue embroidered cotton was from my mother-in-law, I think she picked it up on a trip to Asia, and the brown is a batik from my local fabric store. The kimono top — #12 from Ottobbre 4/2008 — is fully lined and has a hidden ribbon closure — with butterfly beads — and flower buttons. The skirt is just gathered with a contrast yoke and pockets. I didn’t use a pattern just traced around Katie’s hand for the pocket shape/size.

And for the fun gift from the urchins Gabrielle received two new outfits for her American Girl doll. The dress coordinates with the kimono outfit and the other outfit is just a fun summer outfit. Both were based on a simplicity pattern I got sometime when patterns were a dollar. For doll clothes you just really need a basic pattern and you can change it to suit your needs. In this case the top for the shorts is the bodice of the dress and instead of a skirt I used a pre-gathered bit of eyelet lace. The shorts are literally shortened pants.

Christmas Sweater

Published August 18, 2010 Fiber Crafts , Knitting 3 Comments

A couple of weeks ago I started thinking about which sweaters I am going to knit for the urchins for Christmas this year. I’m thinking Boys Can Wear Pink and Sourpatch, coincidentally both from Petite Purls. But I realized that poor Tristan’s sweater from last Christmas was never finished. Bad Mama. So, I decided that before I could start this year’s sweaters I really needed to finish last year’s. I’m so glad I did because my boy wanted to wear it all day even thought temps were in the 90s.

The pattern is SK8R from Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines and knitted in Rowan Denim. I got six balls of it as a free gift for being a Rowan subscriber a few years ago and bought one more from another knitter on Ravelry. Well, I hadn’t quite finished the second sleeve and ran out of yarn! I put in a plea for anyone with the right dye-lot on the Rowan group and someone who also received it as a free gift sent me the extra skein that I needed. Thank goodness for Ravelry. After sewing all the pieces together I washed the sweater in hot water and dried it in the dryer. It shrunk up nicely and is still a bit big on my size 5 boy — the pattern calls this a size 4-6 — so I think he should get a couple of years out of it. Click through to the project page if you want more details.

An Apricot of a Weekend

Published August 2, 2010 Cooking , In the Kitchen 6 Comments

Happy Monday morning friends. I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. I spent a lot of mine putting by a bushel of apricots. There are a lot of apricots in a bushel, I never realized. Actually, this is the first year we’ve found apricots locally so I must admit I got a little overenthusiastic buying a whole bushel. Next year, a half bushel. It’s that time of year, when the canning pot is constantly bubbling, so if you can’t find me here you can always check over on my canning blog.

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