Let's hear it for my boys! (More on crafting for Christmas....late!)

Last Wednesday I was on my way to Charleston for what was (HOPEFULLY) Micah's final surgery on his little club foot. The doctor told us that our surgery would be scheduled for mid-morning since we live 2 hour away...but...we had to be there at 6:30.  That's 6:30 AM.  I don't know about you, but for me, 6:30 isn't mid-morning, and getting up at 3:30 am is definitely not mid-morning either!  We both survived though, and Micah is doing so well.  He's such a little trooper.  Here he is in his new, stream-lined cast.  He is determined to walk in it, since he's been forced to crawl for the last 6 weeks.

Now on to the reason for this post....
Most of the reason why I was late on every other Christmas present this year, is that I was busy making some Christmas surprises for my little guys.  I make a lot of crafty goodies for our friends and family, but I usually run out of time when it comes to my boys.  This year, I scoured my craft books for ideas and decided on these.

Fist up was a pattern from Amy Karol's super adorable book, Bend-the-Rules Sewing.  Jesse and Micah love puppets and performing, so I made the cute puppet theater.  There weren't a lot of pictures, but the instructions were clear.  The fabric and adorable fringe were thrifted finds, and I had the tension rod, so really the only things I purchased were the dowels.

Go ahead...you can ooooh and ahhhhhh if you want.

TA DA!

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

My little character!

Even puppets need to stop performing for a snack break.

I also made each boy a little house using this awesome tutorial.  I made Jesse a little woodland house for trolls and gnomes.  I found this cute set of critters on amazon (which isn't for sale any more), and added a couple of felt leaves for those little guys to sleep on and under.  I changed the closure a bit, by adding a small flap and velcro, rather than the buttons and bands.

 And for the Bean, he got a barn complete with little pond for his animals to take "dinks" (a.k.a. drinks).  By the way, I LOVE these Plan Toys farm animals!  They are the perfect size for toddler hands, the wood is sustainable, the dyes are non-toxic, and the sheep can be shorn by removing his cute little wool sweater.

Besides drinking, Micah's animals like jumping in and out of the barn.

I also made the boys stockings.

Merry Christmas!

And, I helped Jesse make a lion puppet for Micah, which he loved!  I made up the pattern as we made it and hot-glued the face and hands.  Jesse was so proud of it!

ROAR!

Pumpkin butter!!!

Have I mentioned how much I love pumpkin?!  And pumpkin butter has to be one of the best pumpkin-y things I've ever tasted!  YUM!!!

As of Friday, I was still trying to decide what I wanted to can this weekend, and then Jared brought home a bunch of little pie pumpkins that his work wasn't going to use for an art project.  We started processing the pumpkins after going to to the pumpkin patch on Saturday afternoon.  It was a family affair.

I've never made pumpkin pulp before.  Every time I've baked anything pumpkin, I've used the canned stuff.  So, Jesse helped scoop 1/2 of a pumpkin, and Micah just wanted to hold and sniff a pumpkin half, and take little licks of the inside when he thought we weren't looking.  (I don't think that he was too impressed with the taste. ha ha!)  Jared gutted the rest of the pumpkins.  We cut the pumpkins into chunks and lined them up on 2 large jelly roll pans.

We covered them with foil, then baked them at 375 degrees for just shy of 2 hours, and scooped out the pulp.  We blended the pulp until smooth using a hand blender.  Then, I looked for at a couple of recipes and tweaked one a bit to come up with my own (because I'm a rebel like that!).  16 hours in a crock pot, and a bit of canning, and we've got....

Pumpkin Butter (in a crock pot)
Ingredients:
9 pie pumpkins, cooked, pulp removed, and blended until smooth (see above) ***

Juice from 5 small lemons

2 Tbsp vanilla extract

1 cup apple cider

4 cups sugar

2 Tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp ground cloves

Directions:
Place half of the pumpkin pulp into a large crock pot with all of the other ingredients.  Make sure you have at least 2 inches of room at the top of the crock pot.  Blend with a hand blender until smooth.  Place the lid on top, but do not seal or close tightly.  You want the steam to escape.  Cook the pumpkin on high for 5-6 hours or until the pulp has halved in volume.  You can stir the pulp, but it's not necessary.  I let mine cook overnight.  Add the rest of the pulp, and continue to cook the pumpkin until it's thick and dark brownish-orange - approximately 5 more hours.  Use a hand blender to smooth out the mixture once more.

The USDA says that pumpkin cannot be safely canned because the acidity of pumpkins varies so much...so spoon hot pumpkin butter into jars that have been run through a dishwasher with "heated dry" or boiled in a pot of water for 10 minutes.  You want to have the pumpkin butter about the same temperature as the jars.  Top with lids.  Let jars cool on a towel-lined counter top.  Store pumpkin butter in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks.  Makes approximately 12 pints of pumpkin butter.

There's not much that I wouldn't eat this yummy pumpkin-y goodness on.  So far, we've tried it on crackers, pretzels, apples slices, pumpkin pancakes, bagels with cream cheese...but I'm thinking that it would be pretty amazing on a cheesecake, or on muffins, or how about chocolate chip banana bread?  YUMMY!!!!  Happy canning!!!

***If making your own pumpkin pulp seems like too much work (it is a bit labor-intensive), you can always substitute a couple of cans of already prepared pumpkin pulp.  Just make sure it's not pumpkin pie filling.

When we got home....

Camping was a blast, but the best part was coming home to have not one, but two packages for ME on our front porch.  I hardly ever get mail that isn't a bill, and I never get packages aside from my birthday.... and yet, there they were...

Package #1 was from my Mom.  I grew up on a sheep farm, and my very talented Mom has always used the wool from our sheep to spin, dye, and knit.  (We were the only weirdos in town that had a bunch of dead-headed flowers in the yard from from cutting the flowers off to use as dye.)  Later on, my sisters, Mom and I used the wool for needle felting.  But, it's difficult to make a living off of a product that is 100% hand-made.  For the first time ever, Mom decided that the most recent harvest of wool was to be processed and made into yarn.  She still dyes the yarn by hand, but at least she's sparing the flowers this time.  Let me just tell you that it's the most gorgeous yarn you've ever seen, and I am the overjoyed owner of 3 skeins of it - natural white, gray, and hand-dyed blue.  (I am practically giddy!!!!)

Gorgeous, right?!

The second package was from my Mother-in-law, and inside of it was two dozen Weck canning jars!  (Again, giddy!)  I love making jam and "putting up" peaches every year, but the last 2 years I've been a bit busy (on bed rest with Bean, and then chasing after my one-year-old).  I am afraid that I might have missed the best produce of the Summer, but these jars are nothing short of inspiring!  Their vintage/modern shape, all-glass lids, and little rubber gaskets, have me practically chomping at the bit to can SOMETHING!!!  Aren't they pretty?!

Yes.  I am a big dork, and the first thing I did was take them out of the box, line them up, and admire them. 

Like I said, I'm a dork.  

So, this weekend, on top of FINALLY finishing the mountain of post-camping laundry, I am on a quest to find the perfect knitting project for my new yarn, and something to put up.  Any suggestions?!

Oh, and if you want a bit of this awesome yarn for yourself, just contact my Mom via her etsy site.  She should be posting some yarn soon!

Charlotte's a MOMMY!

It was my freshman year of college....

12 hours away from home, in a basement dorm room, with 3 other girls I didn't know, placed together by the college.  It was one of the craziest years of my life.  And the strangest part of it all, was Charlotte.  Charlotte was one of my 3 roommates, and she was definitely peculiar.  Oh, the stories I could tell!  OK...I'll just tell a couple...

We went to a very conservative Christian college, and here is this girl, who would run to the shower naked, using her towel as a cape, shouting, "SUPER CHARLOTTE!"  She used to prank call this poor boy, Bob, every time she got a cold because she sounded like a crazy old man, but she called it her "sexy voice."  And she had this stuffed Ernie (you know...like Bert and Ernie) doll that would suspiciously start singing at 3:00 am.  (((Needless to say, Ernie had some surgery to remove his batteries pretty early in the semester!)))  HAHAHA!  I can laugh about it now, but really, we could barely stand each other then.

I don't know how it happened, but after we left school, we became pretty close, talking on the phone a couple times a month.  She was a single, wild-child radio DJ, professing her undying love for every musician she met (HA!), while I was busy getting married, becoming a nurse, and having kids.  But, despite our differences, and her crazy radio DJ lifestyle, big moves to California, Arkansas, then Florida, we have kept in touch.  And this girl who used to drive me crazy, became one of my dearest friends!

Then, in just two short years, Charlotte lost her job, moved back home, broke up with her boyfriend, reconnected with her high school sweetheart, went back to school, got married, bought a house, and got pregnant.  (I told you...she's crazy!  HA!)  She didn't want to know the sex of the baby, so she called the baby "Wilbur" from Charlotte's Web, and decorated the nursery with pages from the book, and black white, and baby blue.  And in late July, Charlotte and her husband, Justin, welcomed Andrew into their family.

So, I knew that I needed to make Andrew (a.k.a. Wilbur) some piggy love for his nursery.  I scoured the web for a cute piggy picture that I could embroider, and found the cutest little piglet drawn by illustrator,  Aaron Zenz.  (Check out his newest book - Chuckling Duckling.  It's so cute!)

Welcome to the world, Andrew!!!!

(((P.S.  Thanks to Aaron Zenz for allowing me to borrow his sketch to make this gift for my sweet friend!)))

Thanks, Megan....giveaway extended

Hello friends!  My sister, Megan, in all of her vast wisdom, suggested that since it was a holiday weekend, and that people were out having fun, and not hanging around reading blogs and surfing the internet, that I should extend the giveaway for a couple more days.

OK, Megan, I'll give it a couple more days.  I was just really excited to set up my shop, that maybe I made the giveaway deadline a little too short.  How about Friday?  Would that suit you, smarty-pants Megan!?  :o)  OK, then Friday it is!

Just leave a message on this or any post this week (just one please) with your email address so that I can get a hold of you if you win and I'll randomly draw a name by noon on Friday.  So, come on, folks!  Leave a comment for a chance to win some lovely hanging acorns and three Fall leaves...and make Megan happy!

Oh, and since you're back from your long weekend, and you'll need something to do during your long work day, please check out my shop, too.  :o)  Thanks!

Felting, sewing, and a shop update (in the very near future!)

I've been a busy little bee around here lately - sewing and felting deep into the night (and sometimes morning) hours, and when the Bean is napping.  Here are some of the things I've made in the last couple of weeks...

A cute little bib tucked inside....

a little diaper cake for a special little girl,

a fabric beach ball using this tutorial for a much-overdue birthday gift, 

bibs for the shop (modeled by the cutest one-year-old in the planet), 

some wool felted owls, leaves, pumpkins, and mushrooms, for my etsy shop, 

(((the pumpkins)))

and a couple of handfulls of  felted acorns for display, and some for hanging.

Which brings me to a little announcement....SHOP UPDATE THIS MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 5TH!  WOOOOOO HOOOOOO!

Finally finished!

I started making the cutest quilt for Micah a couple of weeks before he was born, using this tutorial.  I was so excited to make something for my little man using the awesome 30's reproduction fabric my Mom got me from here, but I could only work on it for a couple minutes at a time because of the whole bed rest thing.  And then, baby came, and we had doctors appointments, and I went back to work, and I Jesse needed a lot of time with Mommy...and no crafting of any sort happened around here for a loooooong time!

1-month-old, casted Micah on his unfinished quilt top

So it sat around in my "to finish" bin for over a year.  And then, after a trip home to NJ, and some help from my very crafty Mom, and sister, I finally finished Micah's baby quilt.  WOO HOO!

Pinning the quilt top to the batting and back

And here it is!

Jess likes it too

such a sweet boy!

MADE

It has been a looooooooong time since I have made anything.  In fact, I think the last time I had the opportunity to sit down and finish a project, I was on bed rest...almost 6 months ago.  I don't know how all of these new moms have time to make things, and blog about them,  and take care of their newborns.  Maybe they don't also have full-time jobs.  Maybe they have nannies.  Maybe they are super women....or aliens....I just don't know.  But for me, necessity bred some creativity a couple of months ago when Micah needed a warm, winter hat and I couldn't find one anywhere.  (Sometimes I feel like living in Hilton Head is like living in a third-world country when it comes to finding things for kids.... especially winter clothes.  There are very few resources here for little ones living in this retirement community.)  So, I searched the internet and found this pattern for free via Soule Mama.  If you can knit, pearl, and sew a seam, you can make this adorable hat.  The way this shapes itself is so cool!  I used some inexpensive poly-blend worsted-weight yarn that someone gave me, and knit this up in a couple of evenings.  This little hat is warm, soft, and oh-so-cute on my little man's crooked head.  He is a cute little (drooling) model isn't he?

Father's Day Present

Oooo.... It's been a long time since I've posted anything here.  I have been so tired lately, and I'm really ready to have this little baby so I can start feeling like a real person again!  Bed rest continues, as well as meds and monitoring, and not sleeping, and having to pee all night long....  But it will all be worth it when we get to meet our little boy!  We just can't wait!!!

While sitting at the dinner table a couple of weeks ago, Jared made a comment about the adorable shape of Jesse's head.  I thought this was a funny thing to say, but it sparked an idea for a Father's Day present.  And here it is (with a little tutorial in case you want to make one for the Daddy in your life):

1.  Get squirmy 4-year-old boy to hold still for a picture in profile.

There.  That's better.

2.  Assemble your supplies:

     *  Printer with paper

     *  Scissors

     *  Scraps of fabric for the profile (I chose black.) and background (red with polka dots)

     *  Iron-on adhesive (I used HeatnBond Lite)

     *  Frame or cards for the finished product

3.  Print out paper copies of profile, and cut around the profile, keeping all the detail you can intact.  (Micah's picture was a little easier to procure since I already had his profile from an early ultrasound.)

3.  Iron adhesive on silhouette fabric using manufacturer's instructions.

4.  Lay the picture on the adhesive's paper lining and trace around it.  (Right after I traced this, I realized I wanted him to face right, so I retraced the profile the opposite way and didn't get a new picture - sorry!)  Cut out carefully.

5.  Measure the size of your background fabric to fit the frame.  I used the mat as a guide and added an inch around each side.

 

6.  Lay the silhouette on the background fabric.  Peel off paper backing from iron-on adhesive, and iron on to background fabric using manufacturer's instructions.

7.  Place silhouette in frame or card.  Simple, sweet Father's Day gift - done!  

P.S.  I chose a card for Micah's profile because it was from a very early ultrasound, and I wanted to make a framed version of his profile when he comes out.  Oh!  And Jared just loves that we now have a permanent record of the adorable shape of Jesse's little noggin!  I also got Jared this book and it's absolutely perfect for my geek husband with (soon to be) two fun, curious little boys.  Check it out if you get a chance!

A Wonderful Day

I have been stuck inside for almost 3 weeks now on bedrest.  My hospital room had a window, but 3/4 of the window was covered by an air conditioning unit, only allowing me to see a tiny patch of sky.  And although my house has tons of windows, I still feel like I haven't seen the sun in forever!  Now this might not seem bad to you, but I love being outdoors in the spring and summer - working in my garden, kayaking in the river, taking Jesse to the pool or beach, picking strawberries for jam, and riding bikes down to the "historic" part of town to go to the farmer's market or occasional festival.  (I'll be doing all of those things next year, by the way!!!)  So, in order to keep me from going completely crazy from cabin fever, I went outside today!  Don't worry!  I sat very still with my pelvis tilted back so that I could still rest, and I only stayed out for half an hour....and it was nothing short of glorious to bask in the sun and watch my adorable 4-year-old play in his new "gingeraffe" kiddie pool that he received for his birthday from his Grandpa and Gigi.

Then Jared came outside with two packages.  One box was for Jesse, and it contained two books - Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, and Leonardo the Terrible Monster (belated birthday presents from Aunt Megan and Uncle Justin).  He was so ecstatic, that we had to read them right away while he sat in his pool.

And to make the day even better, the other package was for me!!!  My mother-in-law, Jean (otherwise know as Gigi), sent me a book I have been wanting VERY BADLY since its release a couple of weeks ago, Anna Maria Horner's newest book, Handmade Beginnings : 24 Sewing Projects to Welcome Baby.  

I REALLY wanted this book, but since funds are super tight, I felt so guilty buying it.  I have entered every giveaway available to win it (see below for more chances to win), but have been unlucky thus far....until today!!!  (Thanks Jean!!!  You made my day!!!)

Blog Giveaways for Anna Maria Horner's New Book:

May 16    The Purl Bee

May 18    All Buttoned Up

May 19    Alabama Chanin Journal

May 20    Homemade by Jill

May 21    True Up

May 22    Oh, Fransson!

May 23    Prudent Baby

May 24    Sew Liberated

May 25    Handmade by Alissa

May 26    Hazelnuts

May 27    Petite Purls

Giveaways.  Sunshine.  Kiddie pool.  New books.  Micah staying put for another day.  What a wonderful day!!!!