Welcome back!

Many a moon has passed since I've spent much time here, and its time to dust off the keyboard and get back to it!  As one might guess, as my baby turned into a toddler, more of my time has been spent running around after him and keeping him entertained than keeping my blog on track. I'm hoping to start to get back to a more regular schedule of crocheting, crafting & writing, and am going to jump right in with my first crochet sale in a few years.  I'll be at the Mother Knows Best shopping event on Saturday, April 28 from 10 am to 4 pm pm at the Mayfield Inn & Suites in Edmonton.  Please check out my photos of some of the items that will be available by clicking here!  If you are interested in any items but are unable to attend the sale, please contact me and we can discuss our options! Thank you. :)

Someday I have to do this with my kid :)

A cute video I found on the net...

Get with the times!

So a few days ago while Harry and I were out for a walk, I came upon some chalk drawings on the sidewalk.  Not what you'd expect to see children drawing on the sidewalk...it wasn't hopscotch, it wasn't people or flowers or animals or anything of that sort...it was...

technology!

Is it funny or scary? A little of both maybe? lol

Just a little chit chat.

I finally finished off the last crochet project I was working on and have only one work in progress craft...the felt name banner for Harry, which I still haven't finished it off.  I'm itching to craft, to sew and crochet and see what wonderful little things I can make.  But.

I feel like I'm failing.  Not at crafting.  At everything I guess.  My house is a disaster.  I don't want to start crafting while it's in the state it is, because that will just add more mess.  Being a mom is definitely keeping me on my toes, and Harry's not even crawling yet...once that boy starts getting more mobile I'll really be in for it! 

His morning naps are usually short, if they happen at all, lately.  He's such a busy little guy that between feeding him, entertaining him, and trying to get him to nap, it seems all I usually have time for are those little essentials...washing bottles, making forumla, throwing in some laundry here and there.  But it feels like nothing else gets done. 

After lunch if the weather is nice we usually go for a walk for an hour or so.  It seems like a lot of days I spend the rest of the afternoon trying to get him to nap.  No matter how tired he may be, he just fights sleep!  I've tried putting him in the crib and letting him cry himself to sleep, waiting a few minutes before going in, then a few minutes more...but all that did was make him more upset and lose a little trust in me.  So I rock him, I sing to him, I try to play him out, and eventually he nods off.  If I'm tired, sometimes I'll lay down and sleep with him, and other times I'll just keep him on my lap and do some reading or surfing.  There lays my first problem, I guess...I need to put him down so I can do other things.  The problem with that, however, is that he's more likely to have a short nap, then wake up and be grumpy all afternoon, if I've put him down.  If I've held him, he's more likely to have a long solid nap and be a happier little camper. 

After his supper, playtime with daddy, and his bath, off my boys go for bedtime, while I get back to whatever baby chores remain for the night.  By the time I'm done, I don't want to do anything else, especially cleaning.  I just want to sit and surf, or do crossword puzzles, or work on editing my large stash of photos.  And that's usually what I do.  And so the cleaning never gets done.  Poor daddy has been coming home from work late for weeks, so by the time it's baby's bedtime, he's ready to sleep too.  So I sit in my disarray, feeling like a failure because I can't do it all by myself, but unwilling to accept help because I don't want anyone else to see my disorganization.  And so ends another night.

More craftiness!

I have recently fallen in love with felt.  I love making little hand-stitched projects with it.  Alas I have been unable to find real wool felt locally, and have yet to buy any online, so these again are made with the eco-felt I have a large stash of.  I got the idea from Made by Rae and have been wanting to make these for my nieces and my son for ages!  Originally they were going to be for Christmas, but I didn't even get to the point of taking the felt out of the bag I brought it home in.  Then they were going to be Valentine's gifts, but again, ran out of time.  This time they were going to be for Easter, and I got 3 of them done!  Yay!  I decided I wanted to add embellishment, so they took a lot longer. 

Check out Rae's tutorial by clicking the link above, or read on for a quick rundown on how I made mine.

To make them I selected a font I liked, in a size I wanted (I made them big enough so that I could fit 2 letters on 1 page horizontally...I ended up using Cooper Std with the font size at 505, and in an outline style), printed them and cut out the letters, then traced them onto the felt with one of those disappearing fabric markers, then snip snip snip, cut out 2 of each letter.

After I cut out the letters, I sat down (at my parents', so someone else could keep an eye on Harry while I worked on them), made up the embellishments, cut them out and stitched them on with embroidery thread.  Then I spent a few nights sewing and stuffing the letters, then stringing them up on fishing line.  I used a blanket stitch to sew them together and matching thread.  I have Harry's done to the point of the sewing and stuffing, which I will hopefully get to soon.

I love the way they turned out, and everyone was very impressed when the girls opened them as part of their Easter treats.  As I was halfway through, I had a thought that would be quite a time-saver...rather than stuffing them, they'd look just as cute slapped onto a nice board and hung on the wall...I suppose I'll debate which way to finish Harry's now!