A Mile in My Shoes

Sew Cozy

I love my technology as much as the next girl, but I prefer my environment to be a bit warmer and softer.  Computers and Televisions always look so cold and lifeless.  Which they are, so I shouldn't be surprised, should I?  It'd be nice if they offered keyboards and speakers in warm earth tones, wouldn't it?  It would help a little, but you can't change the fact that they are made of plastic, glass and metel (I did happen across one wooden tv, by hannspree.  Pretty cool.  They also offer a plush line of TVs for kids)( but I digress...back to my $1.50 fix....)

I knew my friend Martha would have a solution.  In Martha's latest Blueprint magazine there is an article detailing the renovation of a teeny tiny apartment.  What caught my eye (and several others in blogland) was the TV Cozy.  I love it.  A slipcover for Monitors and TVs.

It softens it up and makes it blend in with it's surroundings.  What's not to love about that?  Not to mention another excuse to sew and craft. 

The fabric is from IKEA, a few weeks ago they had this canvas stuff on sale for $3 a yard.  I was thinking of using felt and embroidery to imitate my favorite tea cozy, but it was too much.  So I opted for subtle embroidery instead.  I like it.

Now I want to make speaker, mouse, and keyboard cozies. 

It's hard to know where to draw the line sometimes, isn't it?

Busy, busy, busy....

I will start out with Actual Knitting Content!  (I know, can you believe it???)













I have a class that I'm leading for Bahr Creek come the end of October on Cottage Creation's Wonderful Wallaby sweater, so when I was at the shop last week, I picked up some yarn so I could make a class example!  I'm using Cascade's Pastaza - 50% Llama, 50% Wool.  What a fun pattern! I did the pouch, and I almost have the body up to the end of the pouch.  I have to recheck my gauger though, it's supposed to be a size 4 kids.  I have my doubts.  It seems a tad smaller.  It's fit Harrison, but he is a bit smaller than the average 4 yr old. 

I'm using my Knitpicks Options needles on this one, and I have to say I am very impressed.  I would have to say Addi's are definitely nicer, but Options being an interchangeable set makes up for the tiny bit it lacks.  The join is smooth.  They only came unscrewed once while I was knitting.  The cord is nice and flexible.  I love the pointier tips, it makes knitting while watching TV much easier.  On the down side, the join and cord itself are not as nice as Addis, and I wonder at what point would they wear out, if at all.  Regardless, I'd like a set for Christmas (hint hint!  Tim, are you still reading this?  Those of you that know Tim, feel free to point him in this direction....)













The other knit project I've been working on is this baby sweater for my niece, Alicia.  My sister called yesterday, and said it would be nice to have a little sweater for her now that it's cooling down.  So what did I do?  I cast on within the hour. I googled "free pattern great baby sweater blog" (tried to narrow my search a little) and found this pattern referenced.  I love it!  Knitting Pure & Simple makes great patterns, and I couldn't believe this one was free! It'll be easy to adjust for different weight yarns too. Alicia is getting soooo big!  And cute!  Just look at this face!

On the embroidery front, I made this set of towels for an auction/fund raiser at our church.  It's basically a week in the life of my kitchen:
Monday-Pan's on fire

Tuesday-Blender spits stuff everywhere

Wednesday-Veggies go bad

Thursday-Another spill (grape juice of course)

Friday-Give up and Order out!

I used patterns from Sublime Stitching.  Speaking of which, I pre-ordered my book, and it came already!  There are sooooo many patterns I want to make!  I love it!  I think it's the most inexpensive hobby I've ever picked up! 

Iris has started a new hobby.  Ballet!  Well, she's been obsessed since she was 2 yrs old, but this is her first official class (I know, I'm a terrible mother, I should have started her sooner....)

But here she is, isn't she adorable?  I heard her giggling through the studio door the entire half hour of class.  She was thrilled!

 

Harrison has a new hobby too-potty training.  He's doing great.  We've enrolled him in P.U. (Potty University, pun intended)  He's doing great.  I think he knows we are absolutely serious this time.  I hope to start adding clothes bit by bit this week (he does much better without them, but I'd like to leave the house at some point again....) We found the ultimate motivator.  M&Ms weren't it, nor Jelly Bellies, nor Bob the Builder toys.  Nope, this boy wants Goldfish Crackers!  So we bought a box bigger than his head, and we're doing great!

Homeschooling is going well, though my family thinks I'm nuts.  Sometimes I get a little sick of swimming against the flow.  I quit my toilet seat job too, that was done Sunday.  They're not happy about that either....  But you know what?  It's our life, and we are doing what we think is best for our family.  All others are entitled to their opinions, as long as they remember we are also entitled to ours.  I'm thrilled with our lives right now.  I really feel like this is the "sweet spot" of life, and I'm not going to miss a single minute of it if I don't have to.

I just can't get enough of this!

I. Can't. Stop. Embroidering.

I am having way too much fun embroidering my dish-towels.  I bought two packs of flour sack dish towels at T*rget for $4.99 for a five-pack.  $1 a towel.  I can embroider all four corners.  With thread and patterns I already have.  Priceless.

We attended our county fair on Monday.  I love our fair.  It's been basically the same since I was a child.  For all the things that have changed in my life, my city, the fair has remained the same.  I love it.  The kids love it too. 













Here they are with our favorite cow.  Harrison is eating his first ice cream of the day.


And the little airplane ride, looking at them, can't you almost feel the wind in your hair?

We saw cows, chickens, turkeys, ducks, sheep, pigs, goats, guinea pigs, pigeons, horses, and more.  One animal I wasn't planning on running into was a camel.  This is heaven for Iris.  She L-O-V-E-S camels.  It all started when we watched The Story of the Weeping Camel.  (My kids love documentaries.)  It's entirely in Mongolian with English subtitles and the story is about a camel mother that rejects her baby and what the nomadic herders go through to resolve the issue.  It's a wonderful comparison of the differences between western and eastern thinking, not to mention a beautiful story.

Anyway... shortly after we saw it, I think Iris was three years old, we were at the zoo spending a lot of time in front of the camel exhibit.  One of the zoo volunteers asked us if we had any questions and Iris looked up at him with her big blue eyes and very matter-of-factly asked him "How much does a camel cost?"  He chuckled and said he wasn't sure, no one had ever asked him that before.  "Would you like to buy one?"  "Yes" "Where will you keep it?"  "In the garage."  She obviously had been thinking about it for a while (grin). 

After meeting these very polite gentle giants, I think I want one too.  They were incredibly sweet with her.  Of course, she was shoveling apples and carrots into their mouths, but I'd like to think Iris has a "camel whisperer" way about her.




That night we had 'smores at a friend's home.






Tonight I will be knitting.  Tomorrow night as well.  This weekend too.  There will be a plethora of knitting related posts in the near future.  Seriously.  A plethora.

More Stress = More Crafting

The amount of crafting that happens in this house is directly proportionate to the level of stress I am experiencing.  It happens to everyone, right?  I think it's a law of physics....

So anyway, my friend Georgie gave me this a while back while cleaning out her stuff.

For fun, add a needle, some iron-ons from Sublime Stitches & an embroidery hoop, and you get these:
The patterns were purchased with the intent of embroidering some of Iris' t-shirts this summer, but we didn't get around to it. So now we have two fun tea-towels.  (What is a tea towel? What would one use a tea towel for?  Is it really used for tea, or is it just a fancy way of saying "dish-drying rag"?)

And what stress might I be soothing with a sharp needle and some colorful string?  We have decided to home-school Iris for kindergarten.  I'm excited, but a little scared, and a tad stressed because of the lack of planning that went into this decision. (I usually research decisions to death, and spend a lot of time looking at it from all angles.)  It's been in the back of our minds for a while, and we were great at ignoring/squelching the idea.  It was even harder because I knew my family would think we were nuts.  What it came down to is "what is best for Iris?"  Tim and I really believe that homeschooling right now is best for her.   This year.  We'll take it one year at a time.  Iris' opinion of homeschooling can go either way.   Today she found out her friend Lydia is also home-schooled, so she's very pro-homeschooling.  She was also pretty excited to find out our first field trip (with our church's homeschooling group) will be to the Little Farmer, her favorite apple/pumpkin farm.

So that's what's new with us, what's new with you?