Arrivederci Cardboard Play House

We will miss you, Up House. You have served us well.

Over three years ago Husband and I constructed a playhouse out of cardboard in our basement [original blog post HERE]. It has weathered three years of the cardboard door swinging open and shut, kids crawling in and out of the windows (no, this was not allowed, but it doesn't mean I didn't catch it happening a time or two...) and the every day wear and tear of getting jostled and bumped into by doll strollers and shopping carts. Ten months ago we moved to our new home. We cut the cardboard into manageable pieces and took it with us, trying to splice it back together in our new basement. But alas, it is finally time to say farewell to our well-loved cardboard house. I am really sad to see it go... but I must say, three years is an impressive lifetime of cardboard fun!

Bunny Parade

I started knitting a few weeks ago. I have a tendency to really jump all-in with things. And I am apparently itching for Spring weather, because I have bunnies on the mind!

The first bunny pattern I used was for the bunny on the right, the one in the yellow dress. The (free) pattern can be found HERE on Ravelry, and the dress pattern can be found HERE.  I loved the dress, but was not satisfied with the bunny.

So I moved onto a quick little project, the small striped bunny. The (free) pattern, "Anything Animals" can be found HERE. This was a really fun pattern which also has pattern details for bear ears or pigtails for the knitted critter to become a plethora of little knit friends.

When that project was complete, I thought I would try my hand at making a pattern for a bunny, which is the big striped bunny in the middle.

Finally, I knitted the Belles and Beaus Knitted Hare pattern for the bunny on the left (pattern HERE). So far, she is my favorite. Not only is she super cute, but the pattern was awesome. The ears, head, body and legs are all knitted together, I didn't need to knit separate parts to sew together at the end. (Even though I sew, I detest hand sewing. I will go out of my way to machine-sew a project to avoid the hand sewing.) The Knitted Hare pattern includes a knitting pattern for the sweater, a sewing pattern for the dress, and a knitting pattern for some miniature carrots for her to carry along. My only criticism of the pattern is that the dress is WAY too big on my bunny. I will need to alter the pattern or make my own in the future.

Now that we are entering Spring, I am getting anxious to start seeds and gardening. Hopefully bunnies of the knitted kind will be the only ones I will contend with this season!

Smart Gardener

Last year, I stumbled upon a little website called SmartGardener.com

At first I was skeptical. I mean... it's free.

I took a shot and signed up.

I can unequivocally state that it was totally worth it. I recommend this website to everyone I have met who is interested in planting a garden. It is simple to use, contains a tremendous library of organic and heirloom varieties of edibles, and... did I already mention that it is FREE?

Here is a short(ish) synopsis of the program.

Step 1: Set Up Your Garden:

My garden was a bit complicated to set up. We live on an acreage now, and we built an 8'-0" deer fence around a 30' x 90' garden. This is not your standard size garden, so it was a tall order to set up the beds we were planning to plant. However, for a normal-sized garden, this would be a simple step of choosing the size of raised beds, in-ground beds and containers you plan on utilizing.

At this stage you input your zip code and note the orientation of your garden (which side faces north).

Step 2: Select Your Plants

Begin browsing the delicious smorgasbord of veggie and herb varieties in their expansive library. The plant list is tailored to what will grow in your climate, which includes a recommended planting time (for indoor seed start, transplant, and outdoor planting times) and an approximate harvest window. There is a tremendous variety of vegetables and herbs. Each variety also has a short description of the flavor and benefits to help determine which would best suit your taste (literally).

Once you have selected all of the vegetables and herbs you want to plant, you click back over to your garden layout.

Step 3: Create Your Smart Garden Plan

The garden plant list will now be populated with all of the plants you have selected in step 2. To create your garden plan, you can simply hit the "Recommend" button. This will generate you a recommended garden layout based upon the orientation of the sun and will maximize your square footage. However, if you want to organize your plants in any specific way, you can drag and drop your selections where you choose and customize your garden.

Your garden is set up to be a grid. Each square of the grid is a square foot. The program sizes the plant 'blocks' according to their recommended planting distances/ mature sizes.

Step 4: Weekly Checklist

Congratulations, you have your garden planned! Smart Gardener has generated a weekly checklist of what needs to be done for every plant in your garden. You can choose to be sent weekly e-mail reminders, and there is a journal section for you to make any notes which will help you in future seasons.

Another benefit of Smart Gardener is that as you add plants to your garden, it generates a shopping list for you. Smart Gardener has partner seed company websites which all carry organic and heirloom variety seeds. Your shopping list automatically moves your chosen seeds 'to cart' and if you want to buy your seed online, you can choose to "buy [seed company] items now." This takes you to the seed company's website... with all your seeds already in the cart. You don't need to manually add the seeds to cart yourself.

Add Ons:

Smart Gardener is free. However, they offer add on packages to expand the use of the website for additional needs. For example, I have added the berry package to my account to allow me to access the berry library and add it to my garden checklist. A few other example add-ons are as follows: Shade, Shapes and Successions. This allows you to even further micro-manage your garden by adding sources of shade (allows you to better plan where shade-tolerant plants reside), shapes to annotate paths, fences, trees and structures adjacent to your garden, and succession plantings.

Each of the add-ons are a one time fee, and vary from $2-$5.

So, take a minute to check it out! The site is well designed, offers helpful tutorials to assist through the set-up phase, and is an extremely helpful tool to start (or keep up with) your garden.

http://www.smartgardener.com/

My Sewing (And Knitting) Story...

I spent a lot of time with my grandparents growing up. My Papa would play checkers, backgammon and chess with me, and I would sit with him at his workbench in the garage and watch him carve. He was a woodcarver. He would visit with me about my day and explain to me what he was carving as his hands moved expertly across the wood. It was always the favorite part of my day.

My Nana would do puzzles with me and I would watch her sew. My Nana was an amazing seamstress. She could sew even the most complex pattern to near perfection. Every stitch was straight, every seam was finished.  She also knitted and crocheted, beautifully. I was always amazed at how nimbly her fingers worked the fabric or yarn as she was making something. 

Despite my interest in the art of sewing, I never really got into sewing when I was younger. I didn't have a machine and even if I did, I wouldn't have even known where to start. There weren't a whole lot of resources for the teenage audience at the time. Not to mention that it took a level of time, perseverance and patience that was overwhelming. 

My freshman year of college my Papa died. It was days before spring break, so I came home and stayed with Nana during that week. During my stay, sitting on the sofa together one evening, I asked her to teach me how to knit. She gave me a large pair of needles and showed me how to cast on, knit stitch and cast off. We practiced, sitting side by side, working the yarn. The rhythm of the needles was so calming. I think it was something we both needed at the time. 

My first knitting project was... unique, to say the least. I wanted to make a scarf. 

... I did not end up with a scarf. 

As a novice knitter, I didn't quite realize that as you cram those rows together on your 13" needle, they will not knit into a tight little 13" scarf (those of you who knit are probably already laughing...). Yes, novice knitters, count your stitches. Those tightly crammed stitches will expand into... well... not a scarf. My little mishap required that I buy a couple extra skeins of yarn (okay, maybe three or four...) and in the end, I created a slightly narrow throw blanket when I finally admitted defeat and cast off. Nana laughed with me when I told her about it, and said she admired my perseverance. I followed that project up with a couple of scarves (that actually looked like scarves) in my first year of college, but as classes got busier I put the knitting needles down to focus on school.

Fast-forward to after I had my daughter. I saw a sewing book, Amy Butler's Little Stitches, and impulsively bought it. I didn't have a sewing machine. I hadn't used one since middle school. But I knew I wanted to sew. 

I came home with my book and pronounced, "I am going to learn to sew!" to my husband. (Much like Gru from 'Despicable Me' walking into the room and pronouncing, "We are going to steal the moon!")

... I should insert here, how blessed I am to have a husband who just shakes his head knowingly, hugs me, and supports my ridiculous "I AM GOING TO  ___[fill in blank with crazy project]___" moments. 

I borrowed a machine and powered my way through the monkey laundry bag (pg 113 in Little Stitches). 

I was hooked. 

At the end of the project, I started researching sewing machines online. I read reviews. I went to every store in town and tested the different machines. I asked Nana about hers. We saved, and finally I bought my machine. I've been sewing ever since.

Last year Nana passed away. It was a very difficult loss for me. I wish I spent more time learning all she had to teach, but I feel so blessed that I was able to have her as long as I did. 

This week I picked up the knitting needles again. Nana knitted afghans for each of her granddaughters, and she gave me the extra yarn left over from mine. It was just a small ball of yarn left from that skein. I knitted a small doll-sized scarf for a doll I will make Little Tomato.

Yesterday I picked up a knitting book. 

Once again, husband gave me the knowing shake of the head as I declared, "I am going to learn to knit!" and began teaching myself to purl, rib and cable knit away...

Creative Slump

I've been in a bit of a creative slump. This time of year gets me so stir crazy. The holiday buzz is over, but it is still months away from spring weather and activity. I just feel like curling up with a book this time of year. It certainly doesn't help that our new puppy has kept me doggedly tired from her 3 am potty breaks!

Speaking of the new puppy... did you know that with some breeds of dogs, their ears can droop while they are teething? Earlier this week, one of Nala's ears began drooping. By the end of the week, both were drooped. Apparently this is not uncommon, but it was quite an odd sight for us. We have nicknamed her "Beaker" because it seems everyone (including me...) makes Beaker-like sound effects when picking her up. Well, that... and she has a Muppet-like quality to her.

Anyhow... while there have been few projects around here, during my January Craft Day I worked on a tutu for a gift. I made a 'Bobbing for Apples' tutu, which I designed a couple of years ago.

The photos below were taken by Laura Benitz Photography of my first 'Bobbing for Apples' tutu.

I have a few projects on the docket for this month, so hopefully I'll be posting some new projects soon! 

Holiday Hiatus

This past month has gone by in a blur, a season of family, friends, and festivities. We hosted and attended many a Christmas party. We had great friends over for the New Year. We were able to really test how efficient our home was built when the power was out for 12 hours during a snowstorm (it did well)... and we got a puppy!

We discussed a second dog for a couple of years.... and I may have periodically trolled Petfinder to see the dogs available in our area... But finally, in December, we stumbled upon a little dog that we just had to take home. She is a Lhasa-Poo (Lhasa Apso/ Poodle) and a little sweetheart. We adopted her from a wonderful rescue in central Nebraska, A Passion for Paws.

She is all puppy, with her snuggles, playful romping, and the evening wake-up call to go outside. I almost forgot how tired you become when you are regularly getting up at 3:00 am! 

So please excuse the holiday hiatus from posts. We are finally getting back into the rhythm of our days, with a new member of the family. :)

Christmas Cookies

The cookie parade started innocently enough. Husband came home with a 'ready-made' tube of cookie dough with the usual groceries. He said that cookies sounded good. Well, they didn't quite measure up to homemade cookies.

So we began with the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies from Allrecipes.com. These are delicious, basic, 'like your mom makes' chocolate chip cookies.

But then I remembered the DOUBLE chocolate cookie recipe from Allrecipes.com which were absolutely amazing the last time I made them... so I had to make those too. The "Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies I" recipe is absolutely addictive. There is a reason I save this recipe for special occasions... they are kind of like your favorite Girl Scout cookies- somehow the box magically goes empty and you are accused of 'not being good at sharing.' The special tip to this recipe is to use 1/2 regular chocolate chips, 1/2 mini chocolate chips. This allows for your usual chocolate chunks in the cookie, but leaves melted chocolaty goodness where the mini chips reside.

Now, the original recipe of the double chocolate chip cookies makes approx. 48 cookies. The beauty of Allrecipes.com is that you can adjust the number of servings and it will adjust your ingredients. However, I looked at the '48 servings,' shrugged my shoulders and said, "Sounds good to me!"

So between the classic and double chocolate chip cookies... lets just say there were a lot of cookies here.

Now, I could have just stopped there and made gift bags with these cookies alone. But, Pinterest can be a dangerous thing. This year I have seen so many fun cookie and treat recipes for the holiday season, I figured that I could just KEEP GOING and make some fun cute cookies to add to the heap. 

So... adding to the above mentioned cookies, I also made:

Reindeer Nutter-Butter Cookies

Snowmen Nutter-Butter Cookies

Chocolate Cherry Christmas Mice

Our kitchen was overflowing with Christmas goodies! Today we began the rounds of dropping off the holiday treats. Hopefully they will enjoy eating them as much as I enjoyed making them.

Have you made any great Christmas treats this season? Please share your favorite Christmas recipes below, I still have three weeks of holiday baking left!

More Dolls

I love the uniqueness of handmade dolls. For Little Tomato's first birthday, her gift from mom & dad was a handmade doll I bought on Etsy. I was not quite as adventurous with my sewing machine at that time.

Last year, I made a small doll for Little Tomato, which was my first attempt at making my own pattern. However, shortly after that project, husband and I were fully immersed in building our home and the sewing machine gathered some dust.

This November, I stumbled upon a new book, "Storybook Toys" by Jill Hamor, which looked like a great resource to learn how to make more complex dolls (my review of the book is here). Thus, this past month, I have been tinkering around with making doll patterns, and have made a couple as gifts for Little Tomato's pen pals. I still have one more to make (hopefully to be delivered by Christmas!), but I thought I'd share the first two which will be en route to their new homes soon!

The Blonde Ballerina:

 The ballerina has velvety soft alpaca yarn hair in a bun, a satin pink leotard, and satin ballet shoes. Her outfit is complete with a dusty pink tutu with a satin wrapped waistband and bow. I think I will make a different pattern for the leotard in the future, as I don't like how the arms attach to the leotard on this one.

 Banjo Bear Jumper:

The first yarn hair doll I made this month was Libby (see post here). Libby was pretty small for a doll, at about 10" tall. This made turning the limbs inside out very difficult and is just an awkward size- too big for a dollhouse, too small to be a huggable doll. After making Libby, I adjusted my pattern to make a larger doll. Since I loved the outfit, I made the new doll in the same banjo-bear jumper, but her features match the little girl who will have her.

I really enjoyed making this outfit in the larger size. It allowed for more detail in the banjo and the shoes. They are moccasins with 'fur' trim. :)

Thankful

Yesterday Little Tomato had her first surgery. It was a minor outpatient procedure, but I was still beyond relieved when she was brought back to the pre/post op room where I was anxiously waiting.

We had the procedure done at the children's hospital. I designed healthcare buildings for 7+ years and I have worked on more than one children's hospital. But it wasn't until yesterday that the gravity of it hit me... children's hospitals are full of really sick kids. As we were leaving, I saw a mother checking in with her child, who was obviously a cancer patient. It broke my heart to see this family and the struggle they are facing. We so often take our health for granted. We so often take the health of our children for granted. During this season of thanksgiving and reflection on the blessings in our lives, I am beyond grateful that my daughter is healthy. I am thankful that we were at the hospital for only a few short hours, and that it is not a regular setting in our lives.  I am thankful for the many wonderful people who make it their life's work to care for the sick. My heart is full of gratitude today. Full of gratitude for something I so often take for granted.

Favorite Christmas Books

I am a major advocate for reading. Even the smell of books is enough to put me in a happy place. 

This, coupled with my addiction to beautifully illustrated children's books, has amassed an impressive library of children's books. Today I am going to kick off the holiday season with my favorite Christmas reads. 

Image Credit: Amazon.com

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, by Susan Wojciechowski. This is my all-time favorite Christmas book. I have linked to the Amazon 1995 print. There is good reason for this. While the new books have a CD, they have done a hatchet-job of the breathtaking illustrations. It is a travesty, as the illustrations make the book extraordinary. You can see the difference against the newer copy here. 

A sad, reclusive woodcarver is visited by a widow and her son. They are new to the town, and she has realized that her family nativity set is gone. She asks the woodcarver to make her a new set before Christmas. He grumpily accepts the job, and is visited the following week by the widow and her son because the boy wants to watch him carve. As the woodcarver works, the boy teaches him about his nativity set- each figure and why it was special. Slowly, as each visit approaches, the woodcarver is softened by the kindness of the widow and the joy of the boy. The illustrations are warm and heartfelt and the story is lyrical and poignant.

Image Credit: ZiggityZoom

The Christmas Magic, by Lauren Thompson. I have to be honest here, I am a complete sucker for anything illustrated by Jon Muth. Not only are the illustrations frame-worthy, but the stories are almost always guaranteed to be spectacular. This is no exception. The story is a sweet and almost poetic narrative of Santa preparing for Christmas. This is not your 'holly, jolly Santa' story, but rather a more wise, kind, and old Santa whom you can imagine hand-carving toys of the past. 

Image Credit: Amazon.com

Great Joy, by Kate DiCamello.  This is a touching story of a little girl, Frances, who shows great compassion and love for others. I can't do justice to the simple, beautiful story by trying to explain it. Check it out. 

Some other great reads for the holiday season: 

How the Grinch Stole Christmas, by Dr. Seuss

A Charlie Brown Christmas, by Charles Schultz

The Jolly Christmas Postman, by Allen Ahlberg

The Polar Express, by Chris Van Allsburg

Please add your favorites below!