"Some Stuff We've Made Recently"

I'm stealing that line from my brother, Abram. He sent the family an email a few weeks ago with that subject line. The email contained no text, just 3 photos: the stairs he had built, the jack-o-lanterns they had carved, and then an ultra-sound photo of the baby he and Raena are expecting! The email came at night, when I happened to be in Iowa at Mom's. When she discovered it at 11:30pm, after I'd gone to bed, it warranted a "Heather!! You have to come up here!" shout-whisper down the stairs. Oh joy, a new baby in the family!


But back to me. Here's some stuff I've made! Here's one of my best creations ever, opening gifts this morning for her 3rd birthday.

And here's one of my other best creations ever, reading the note and music lyrics she wrote for her sister's birthday.

LOVE  those girls!


Brynn celebrated her birthday at her Day Out program today, and I sent cookie treats for her to share. All the kids loved them...except Brynn. :P I even made one for her with hardly any frosting, but her teacher said she wouldn't try it.

For preschool tomorrow, I have already made a second batch of cookies to take. Maybe they will have better luck getting her to eat her special cookie!

For her birthday party on Saturday, I was going to decorate sugar cookies with m&m's, but I think we'd better just go for chocolate chip or plain sugar cookies, which I know she will eat. (I have stuck the round cookies I was going to frost for the party in the freezer. I will pull them out and decorate them Sunday morning for Rowan's piano recital!)


We had a really nice time in Wichita for Thanksgiving, and I must say, it was our easiest Brynn-visit yet! She was up for a couple hours the first night with a cough, but after that we all slept great. We were able to blockade the front living room off limits, and keep her contained to the family room/kitchen/ sun room, which meant I could actually SIT for periods of time, and not constantly hover over her to make sure she wasn't going to break something. I got WAY more knitting done than I thought I would - woo hoo!  I finished 4 more snowflake ornaments on the drive there, and 4 on the way back. (More on that later.) So while we were there, I got to work on my new green "Summer Wind" cowl. I was a couple inches into it already, and finished that puppy Saturday night!!  It is now blocking, and I can't wait for it to dry so that I can wear it.

It is a long loop (can't tell because it's blocking flat), which I can wrap around my neck twice for extra warm yumminess. Here's a closeup of the pattern (although the color is truer in the first picture):

Back to the snowflake ornaments. In my last post, I was ready to spray starch those sparkly dudes to get them stiff. Totally did not work. They are as limp as ever, even after several coats of starch and ironing. So, the next step is to concoct a mixture of Elmer's and water, dip the snowflakes in, and then pin them into shape to dry. I'll attempt that messy process one of these mornings while Brynn is at school!


And I'm having another dilemma. Remember the second Honeycomb cowl I've been working on? It's almost done, and I just don't know about it. I think I will keep the first one I made, which means I should give this one away...but I'm thinking it would look much better as a longer infinity scarf that can be doubled over. Hrrmmmm...what to do. Need to table that.


But since I need something to knit, I've planned a new project and bought the yarn for it this morning at Knit Wit. Wonderful, delicious Rowan "Lima" blend - can't wait to use it! I won't say what it's for...Christmas secrets and all. ;)

Speaking of Christmas secrets, there may be a lot of hinting and very few pictures over the next few weeks. Oh, crafting will be happening, people. Crafting will be happening!

Oh Where, Oh Where did November go...

Oh who am I kidding. Every year it's like this! One minute it's Rowan's birthday in early October and the next minute we're baking pies for Thanksgiving. Sadly, my blog time has suffered, but sometimes you just have to be living your life and not recording it!


Today, my house smells deliciously of banana bread. Which. I. Will. Not. Eat. I've been ripening the bananas all week so that we can take yummy bread with us to Wichita for the weekend. Love, love my Williams Sonoma gold mini bread pans, and need to remember to ask for a big gold bread pan for Christmas!

To stay away from the bread, I have been sticking to the craft room since Brynn fell asleep (which I wasn't sure was going to happen today - she was pretty chatty for 10 minutes or so, and I heard some definite crib jumping going on.) I unpinned the 8 snowflake ornaments I blocked over the weekend, and now need to figure out the best way to starch spray them to make them stiffen up. I decided to make these ornaments for my 14 Brownies as a holiday gift, so I need to have them done by the 14th for our final meeting of the year. 8 down, 6 to go! I chose a silver and gold yarn that has a sparkly thread running through, to add a bit of pizazz. Hope the girls like them, and hope they don't fight over who gets silver vs. gold!

I've gone a teeeny bit cowl crazy this fall. Hee hee! A previous post boasts my pale beige honeycomb cowl, but since I bought a second skein of yarn in a brown I decided to knit a second honeycomb. Don't know if I will keep both, give them away, or what. I'm actually wearing the finished one now, since it's COLD in here. (Brad likes it brisk, and since he's home today I can't fiddle with the thermostat!)

Using the same delish yarn, but in a dark mottled green (look at me! straying from my usual colorchoice of neutral or orange/brown!) I started a 3rd cowl after seeing my mom's finished one. Nice, easy lace pattern - and this one is made thinner but twice as long so you can wrap it around more than once.

I finally bought a winter coat (overdue by several years) in a dark grey, so pretty much every fun scarf/cowl I make will go with it. Yay for versatility!

Last night Rowan broke out her "herb kit" and did a little bit of stencil painting on the side. She's very excited to plant the herbs, but I convinced her to wait until after we get back from Wichita so we can care for them properly. The little pots and tray will fit perfectly on the narrow kitchen windowsill I have, so hopefully the little guys will sprout and grow for us!

Tomorrow and Wednesday, I'll be doing laundry and packing, and making 2 pies. I'm making my first pumpkin pie from scratch this year (thank you Jen!) and can't wait to try it! Also, Rowan requested we make a lemon meringue pie. Haven't decided whether to go with a regular pie crust or a graham crust...what to do, what to do. 


Alrighty, time to go pop those breads out of their pans and wrap them up. And it would behoove me to start in on the next batch of snowflake ornaments too. Off to craft I go!