Back to life...

I've spent most of the past week in considerable pain with an abscessed tooth.  I really haven't done anything that didn't have to be done.  I get to have a root canal at the end of the month... in a tooth that I have already had a root canal in.  There are 3 roots in that particular tooth and I don't know if he just did one or two last time, but there is definitely at least one he didn't.  It seems like ages before he can do it, so I am crossing my fingers that the antibiotics keep this at bay until then.

I'm a geek, so I was googling "tooth 14" to see how many roots it had and I found this page that showed what emotions and other body systems were "linked" to each tooth.  Like astrology in your mouth.  I didn't peruse any of my other teeth, but I thought it was really interesting the emotions that are linked to this particular tooth and how it was fitting that it was the one hurting.  I think it's a part of the holistic medicine concepts.  I don't know if I really subscribe to all of that, but I do find it very intriguing.

Anyway.

I obviously haven't been very crafty.  I finished my baby sock  monkey pattern and didn't touch a hook until last night.  Despite the other things I need to be doing, I started a Tooth Fairy amigurumi.  I planned on making this months ago... for our dental hygienist.  My kids love going to the dentist and she's the main reason why, so I wanted to make her something.  Our first couple of dental experiences with Olivia and a pediatric dental office were less than stellar (a room of 6 or so dental chairs filled with screaming children.... Olivia was terrified), so I just want to show her some appreciation for turning that around.  And who knows?  Maybe I'll rack up some Karma points and either get an earlier appointment for my root canal or, at the least, my tooth will be fine until then.  I'm just so nervous it will flare up again....

I'm just glad to be feeling like a human being again.  =)

You're his cheeseburger, his precious cheeseburger...

Tell me you know that song?  It's the best Veggie Tales song ever.  In fact, I can't believe I haven't taught Isabelle to sing it yet.  I'm a failure as a mother.



I just realized I never shared Isabelle's cheeseburger that was supposed to be a pillow but wasn't.  I didn't get it finished for her birthday party.  I didn't even get it finished in time to give it to her on her birthday, but I did finish it on her birthday, so that has to count for something.

Here you go... all Instagrammed and everything...





I'm just impressed that I figured out how to get Instagram photos onto Flickr.  I've been geeking out over Instagram for a couple of weeks.  Yes, I know... I'm way behind.  I didn't know I could get it on my Droid.

Anyway, in case you were wondering, I used this pattern from Nerdigurmi.  It's free and you don't have to sew all the components together... it's all one continuous piece.  I didn't put a face on it.  =(  And I got in trouble for forgetting to put the sesame seeds on it.  For shame!

Coming soon....

I've had a request to shrink my Sock Monkey beanie to baby-size and that's what I'm working on right now.  I should have it finished in the next day or two.  I'll post it up here in case anyone else was wanting to make an itty bitty version.


In addition, I'm going to try to work out a Sock Monkey diaper cover.  When I went looking at Sock Monkey diaper covers, I was kind of baffled that I couldn't find any that actually looked like a Sock Monkey butt.  I saw a few with tails, but none with the sock heel design.  So I'm going to try to work that out.  I may not be able to make it work, but I'll be so excited if I can.


Aaaand... I was asked by the Mother's Day Out director to make a lab coat for her little boy's Mad Scientist party next month.  I could not find one little lab coat pattern, but I think I have it figured out.  I might post a little tutorial explaining what I do when I'm finished.  


This is what I like best... figuring out new things.  I have been thinking about the whole flea market plan and I am just so afraid that I'll be unhappy making up an inventory, even if it sells well.  I think maybe these requests are a sign that if I want to try to make some money with my crochet/sewing skills that patterns are going to be the way.  For now.  I am going to set a goal to have at least one pattern other than the Sock Monkey things by the end of May.  Any suggestions on what I should create?  I have several ideas.  As usual.


So that's what's going on over here.  I can't believe it's already May.  And Mother's Day is less than 2 weeks away.  Good grief.  School's out in less than 4 weeks.  Crazy. 


All right... back to work...

Impromptu Family Fun Day

I was looking at my pictures on the wall the other day and realized the most recent pictures of the girls are over a year old.  That's just sad.  I decided with Mother's Day coming up that I needed to get on the ball and get the family some new pictures, because I'm pretty sure most of them didn't get copies of the last batch. 

I didn't order any school photos this year because I didn't like any of them.  You would think out of two sets for each of the three girls, there would have been at least one.... but nope.  

I asked the girls where we should go take pictures and they informed me they wanted to go to "the city."  Meaning downtown by the river.  I knew I'd need Bill to help with the kiddie wrangling, so we waited until today.  The girls were super hyper this morning, so I was pretty sure it would be a disaster, but I got some I really liked.



The first thing I saw after we got there was this wall under an overpass with all these hand-painted tiles.  I though it would be a fun backdrop.



Livi had a little bit of makeup on today... she gets terrible circles under her eyes when she's tired and/or has allergies going on and they were awful today. Then, of course, I had to pretend to put some on the other two jealous ones...



Those three were the first three pictures of the day and they were all so much better than the school photos.  Most definitely going on the wall.  =)

By some miracle, I also got a really good shot of all three of them, which hardly ever happens.



Olivia looks so grown.  Now that her hair is getting long, I try to braid it before bed to prevent a huge tangled mess for my husband to work out in the morning.  And now that she's discovered that braids leave her hair all crimped, she asks for more and more braids to make it "curly." 

There is a small little wildlife museum of sorts downtown that my husband has been dying to go to and it just never worked out until today.  The girls absolutely loved it.



She pretty much stayed by the fish the whole time.



I really need to get to work on making some new and longer skirts.



We did a lot of exploring.  They didn't like being under the overpass very much.  Too many strange noises.

When we first arrived, we passed by the hills that the girls went rolling down last year and saw a family sliding down the hills on cardboard boxes.  Bill had promised the girls that they could play on the hills before we left, so after exploring, we headed back that way.  We got back to the hills and noticed the family had left their broken boxes on the hill, and we were really irritated that they just left their trash there like that.  Then we realized that the scraps were plenty big enough for the girls to use, so then we were pretty excited that they could slide instead of roll.



They had a blast!  After getting way too hot running up and down the hill in the sun, we got popsicles and drinks and headed home.

Love it when a day just comes together better than expected.  =)

3KCBWDAY7 - Crafting Balance

Crafting Balance 
Are you a knitter or a crocheter, or are you a bit of both? If you are monogamous in your yarn-based crafting, is it because you do not enjoy the other craft or have you simply never given yourself the push to learn it? Is it because the items that you best enjoy crafting are more suited to the needles or the hook? Do you plan on ever trying to take up and fully learn the other craft? If you are equally comfortable knitting as you are crocheting, how do you balance both crafts? Do you always have projects of each on the go, or do you go through periods of favouring one over the other? How did you come to learn and love your craft(s)?

 I am definitely a hooker.  Now, I'm not one of those people who think one is better than the other.  I do know how to knit.  I taught myself how to shortly after I finally got the hang of crochet.  My sister, not realizing that I didn't knit (some people don't know there's a difference between crochet and knit), bought me this book:

Source: barnesandnoble.com via loves2experiment on Pinterest

There was the cutest mermaid costume in the book and I took on the task of knitting all three of my girls mermaid costumes for Halloween that year.  Insanity, I tell you.

Not the best picture to showcase my work, but you get the idea.

Honestly, other than a scarf, that's all the knitting I've done.  I have tried a few other projects, but just never finish them.  Knitting doesn't feel as natural to me and I'm slow.  Yes, I realize the speed comes with practice, but I'm not a very patient person.

And, this is just my own personal thing... I can't keep up with needles.  My kids don't mess with my crochet hooks, but those knitting needles are irresistible.  When I started those mermaid costumes, I swear I started the first one 4 times because Zoe kept pulling the needles out.  I can leave my crochet projects out and if the hook disappears, I might loose a stitch or two.  But knitting... that has to be put up if I so much as leave the room.  I got better at putting the needles back in without losing much of my work, but it's still a pain.  Plus, they make good swords for my tomboys and we just don't need any eyeballs impaled on needles.


I do want to try more knitting projects.  I love trying new techniques and just expanding my knowledge so it does tempt me.  The girls are getting older and less likely to disturb my work.  The day is coming, but until then I'll be pretty monogamous to my hooks.

3KCBWDAY7

Laundry Day

Saturday is traditionally Laundry Day around here.  Despite my best efforts to remember to try to keep it up during the week, I almost never do.  So I get up, drink my coffee and begin my routine.  I sort everything into piles in the hall and just keep a steady stream of washing, drying, folding, and putting away.  We're talking a minimum of 8 loads.  Usually more like 10.

I noticed something today about our clothes.  I separate the girls clothes from our clothes because I need to get them washed and put away before they go to bed, so there was a big pile of adult clothes at the very end of the hall.  It was almost entirely navy, gray, and denim.  I really need to branch out and get more color in at least my wardrobe.  Honestly.  It was almost depressing.

Anyway, I tried a couple new things today that I thought were worth sharing, so here you go...

I've made my own laundry soap off and on for a couple of  years.  Since I am bad about not thinking ahead, I sometimes run out of the homemade stuff and it takes a day or so to set up, so I end up buying some.  I hadn't made any in a while because I was just tired of messing with the bucket.  I had run across a pin for a concentrated recipe and decided to give it a whirl.

Source: thewhitesilkpurse.blogspot.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

(I wish my laundry cabinet was so lovely and neat)

I halved the recipe, because I only had one bar of soap and figured it would just be a trial run anyway.  You only use a little more than 3 cups of water for a half batch, compared to a huge bucket full. 

In case you don't go check it out, here's the synopsis (for the half batch):  1 bar of Fels Naptha melted into 3 cups of water, add 1 cup each of washing soda and Borax.  Pour into two quart containers.  Let them sit overnight, dump it in the blender, whip it up and put back into the containers.  Use about 1 Tbsp per load.

I almost didn't blend mine, because I had shaken it a few times before it really set up, so it wasn't separated or anything.  I'm glad I did, simply because it is just so fluffy and that makes me happy.  I know, that's silly.  But it's not like there's much to enjoy about laundry and if fluffy soap makes me happy, it's worth the effort.

I used it all day.  The first load, I forgot fabric softener, so there wasn't that added scent when I pulled the clothes out.  They smelled really fresh though.  Then I had my load of socks and undies.  I hate washing the girls socks... I don't know what they get into, but they just are filthy.  I wash them with bleach usually, but didn't today.  I swear that they were brighter and cleaner looking with just this laundry soap than they were last week with commercial soap and bleach.  No lie.  I was impressed.

And these two quarts will last me months.  They don't take up any more space than a small bottle of Purex and will last much, much longer.  I already had the washing soda and Borax on hand, and the soap was $1.  You can't beat that with a stick.

My second tip is this:

Source: onegoodthingbyjillee.com via Cristi on Pinterest

I cleaned my washer.

My husband is a mechanic.  So, his uniforms are usually disgusting.  He refuses to use the cleaning service at work (he says they don't get them clean and they take too long) so it all goes in my washer.  It makes the washer really nasty.  Like I'm not going to show you a before picture, it was so gross.

Sidenote:  If you happen to wonder how the new soap did on his disgusting uniforms, I have to admit that I use extra stuff for his uniforms... Purple Power, to be exact.  (Per my husband's request and, yes, I was concerned about if it would hurt the washer or the uniforms, but it doesn't seem to)  They seem to be as clean as usual.  I might try it without the Purple Power, just to see... since it did so well on the socks.  Another sidenote:  there is a Pin going around about a no-grate laundry soap that uses dish soap.... he specifically requested I not use it again on his uniforms... it doesn't clean as well.  Just so you know.

Back to cleaning the washer.... I finished my laundry up earlier than usual, despite having visitors today (yay for human interaction outside of work or family!), so I decided I had to do it.  I followed the directions and I'm kind of shocked at how much better it looks.  Now that I know how to do it properly, I'll keep on top of it better. It recommends that you should clean it twice a year, but with the uniform washing going on here, it will most likely need to be done more often.

So there you go, things to made my Laundry Day a little better =)  Now if I could just figure out where to find some mid-size hangers for my kids' clothes.  The baby ones are too small and the adult ones are too big....

3KCBWDAY6 - Improving Your Skillset

Improving Your Skillset
How far down the road to learning your craft do you believe yourself to be? Are you comfortable with what you know or are you always striving to learn new skills and add to your knowledge base? Take a look at a few knitting or crochet books and have a look at some of the skills mentioned in the patterns. Can you start your amigurumi pieces with a magic circle, have you ever tried double knitting, how's your intarsia? If you are feeling brave, make a list of some of the skills which you have not yet tried but would like to have a go at, and perhaps even set yourself a deadline of when you'd like to have tried them by.

Despite the fact that I've only been crocheting about 2 years, I honestly feel like I'm a fairly advanced crocheter.  I've definitely worked patterns classified as such.  I love learning new things and challenging myself, so once I got hooked I jumped in with both feet.  If I see a pattern with stitches I've never tried or that looks really complicated, I get excited. 

I picked up the language of crochet pretty quickly.  When I first picked up a pattern, I was just baffled by the abbreviations and terminology.  Charts are still a bit tricky for me, I prefer my directions written out.  With amigurumi, unless there is something unique about a row, all I need is the stitch count for that row.  I've condensed a pattern written out over several pages to just half a page before ;).

I am able to improvise my own patterns and figure out some patterns just looking at the finished product.  I've written and shared a few of my own patterns, and I hope to do more - possibly to sell. 

There are several techniques I haven't tried yet, such as Tunisian crochet, that I would like to try eventually.  Right now I want to get more into overlay crochet.  I'm finishing up a few projects and I think my next project will be something from this book:

Source: amazon.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

As for knitting, I'd say I'm an adventurous beginner.  I'd like to try another knitting project before the year is over.  Time is key, though.... there is just so much I want to try but not nearly enough time to do it all.

3KCBWDAY6