Surprise

About a week after Christmas,

my husband surprised me

with cabinets for my sewing/crafting area.
I feel like a professional crafter now.

I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful

having my craft area organized is.

It enables me to get projects done faster

because everything runs more efficient.

I love, love, love my new craft area

and am busy making Christmas gifts for next year:)

Thanks to my wonderful husband for being

the man I adore.

 

 



Finally...

Well, all of these events have been long awaited. 

On April 12th, my oldest lost his first tooth.

He was very brave as I pulled it out.

This sweater was a promise I made to my little princess.

I started it a long time ago and feels like it's take forever to finish...

it did take 9 skeins of yarn!

I wanted to make sure she would be able to wear it next year so I made it long enough

so she can get a couple of years out of it.

It should be a little shorter, but I'm thinking come fall it will be perfect.

And here is my loot from my pampered chef party that I hosted.

Thanks to all those who purchased(The consultant said it was one of her biggest shows)

I have already put almost all of my products to use and overly pleased with them all!

My most exciting purchase is this skillet.

I just want to stare at it...

maybe it's just me, but the food tastes better that comes out of it:)

Our Trip to Green Bay

Well, the kids and I headed to Green Bay this last weekend

to help get the house ready for Papa's recovery from hip surgery.

Despite the driving conditions, the trip went fairly well.

Car rides are always a little stressful with three kids especially when Dad isn't there.

I think we stopped for a few more potty breaks

 than we would have if Dad was in the truck.

 We had such a great time though and we happy to come and help.

And of course, we had to go sledding.

I don't know who had more fun...

the kids or Nana and me.

There was one time that I was laughing so hard I was crying.

It's so neat taking your kids to a place that you enjoyed so much as a kid...

I know I spent hours on the hill in front of my parents house.

And it helped get some of that energy out from all the "treats" Nana was dishing out.

P.S. Nana, next time no ice cream before 12:00pm!

That's the last time I take a shower with Nana downstairs with the kids without Papa.

Papa's hip was a little sore so he had to lay down, but had a buddy with him the whole time.

My big girl couldn't get enough of Papa!

Well, so much for rest. Papa became an indoor jungle gym.

We had a great time back in Green Bay

and hope to have helped a little in getting the recovery set.

Since the trip, Papa had a successful hip surgery and is recovering well.

Please continue to keep him in your prayers, thank you.

This picture is unrelated to the trip to Green Bay.  

I made this cake for my knitting night that I host at my house.

It's called Cafe Latte Turtle Cake.

Oh, how I love knitting night! 

A Visit and a Surprise

Well, we were happy to host my husband's grandmother

for a couple of days last week.

She is an expert knitter and crocheter.

While we visited during the day,

I knit and she crocheted.

Of course, we did that between games of go fish, puzzles, and books.

I managed to complete my big girls sweater.

I was very happy with how it turned out despite the more difficult directions

for a beginner like myself.

When I told her I had a surprise for her on the table in the morning...

her response was, "pizza?"

Although, it wasn't edible, it was the next best thing.

She wore it to mass on Sunday and loves playing with the big buttons.

Trying to get a two year old to stand in certain positions to take a picture

isn't always the easiest so excuse the pictures. 

  

I made the sweater jacket a tad big so she can wear it for at least a year or more.

The visit was a hit and so was the sweater.

What a great week!

A Productive Day

Well, it's two thirty and I feel pretty accomplished already today.

The girls and I started our morning off by doing applesauce.

 I didn't have to scrub any of the apples today...my little princess washed them all.

We broke out the Pampered Chef apple peeler-corer-slicer today.

All it needed was a little adjustment to fit the apples and the whole process went really quick.

I'm so thankful for my great new tool...thanks Dad and Mom.

My little girl stayed right by my side the whole time to catch any scraps:)

I'm happy with my applesauce yield and think I'm actually done canning for the year.

Since it was already hot in the kitchen, I turned on the oven

and decided granola had to be made.

Of course, I usually don't turn on the oven for just one thing

 so I whipped up a batch of pizza dough for lunch.

And last, but certainly, not least, I worked on my little girls vest.

The most advanced thing I've knitted so far. 

I'm now at the really difficult part...sleeves and the hood.

I'll keep you posted and how the process is going.

Well, I'm thinking some caffeine may be in order for the afternoon. 

Enjoy the rest of your day.

Yarn Along

I'm joining Ginny today for the yarn along.

I found some of the cook books recommended in the Seed Savers Exchange Catalog at my local library so I thought I'd check them out.

The Roasted Vegetable by Andrea Chesman looks great and I'm looking forward to trying the roasted artichokes.  This has a chart in the beginning of the book for people like me who want a quick go to guide for how long and at what temp to roast all the vegetables I could think of to roast.  Lost Recipes by Marion Cunningham is a really great book with mostly real food recipes.

I've been really pleased with the few recipes I've tried out so far. 

The scarf I'm making is called the "boyfriend basket weave scarf."

This is a fast scarf and I did adjust the width by half as requested by my hubby, which sped things up even more.  I started this on Friday night should be done by this Friday. A fun little project that doesn't require much thinking, which is great for a busy week.



All the way from Peru

My eldest sister just got back from a trip to Peru and we got a package of goodies.

These boots were handmade and are really comfortable.

So comfortable in fact, that I wore them on my stops around town that day to test them out.

They proved to be great new boots.

Thank you Jessica, I love them.

And for the kids...they love there new hats.

We were worried that these wouldn't fit or would be too big,

but as you can see, they fit perfect.

Yarn Along

I'm joining Ginny at Small Things this week for our weekly yarn along. 

It seems that I have been busy doing sewing and knitting projects recently. 

One of the reasons for this,

was probably due to a mad rush to get all of my homemade Christmas projects done in time.

I'm hoping that I can get a jump on that this year.

Here are the finished apple hats that I made for the older two kids, since my baby

received a red apple hat from a girlfriend who also gave me the pattern.

This is my last completed project for my little princess' birthday coming up at the end of this month.

If you can't tell, I knit her a pair of leg warmers (the pattern is from Ginny)and a scarf to match.

What am I reading?

My seed savers catalog that came today!

Planning my garden, definitely warms me in the winter and makes me so happy.

Now, what to plant? There are too many delicious choices!

Yarn Along

I'm joining Ginny at Small Things for the yarn along this week.

Here are my Christmas gifts still not completed yet for my oldest and my little princess, which I told them I would try to accomplish before fall so they could have them for apple picking(I guess that didn't happen).  They will turn into apple hats with a stem and a leaf (My idea: my oldest can be the granny smith and my little princess can be the golden delicious) This is my first attempt making a hat and using double-pointed needles, it's going well so far.  I had to adjust the pattern that I used due to size differences. 

I'm reading "the Naturally Clean Home" by Karyn Siedel-Maier and making a list of supplies to get after the holiday season.  I can't wait to start putting this into action.