On My Needles and Nighstand for February

I'm joining up with the Yarn Along at the Small Things blog again, it's such a lovely idea, and I had so much fun last time looking at everyone's contributions, especially my friend and co-author Dora.  As she mentioned last time, we're close friends but we live so far away and the rare times we carve out for phone conversations can be so jam-packed we don't always get around to talking about these everyday things, like what we're reading and knitting.  

Between my ongoing scripture study, fun reading, pre-reading books for the kids, reading with the kids, etc., I usually have close to a dozen books going at once, but this week is a quiet book week.  From the bottom, the green leather cover is my Bible and Book of Mormon combo, always on my nightstand and usually the first thing I open when I wake up.  

Riding the Bus with My Sister is a book I've been reading to the kids, we're almost done.  It's not written for children, and has some adult themes in it, which is why we're reading it aloud, so I can edit as I go.  But it's a well written, honestly reflective true story of one woman's relationship with her sister who has a cognitive disability resulting from a brain injury at or before birth.  I decided to read it to my kids because I felt like it was a great look beyond the stereotypes, a look at two real women trying to work out the terms of their adult relationship, trying to learn how to respect each other.  Even though the one sister's disability is more obvious, they're both carrying baggage, and both dealing with sibling issues we all deal with to some degree or another.  

Langos - Hungarian Fried Bread Recipe

Hungarian Fried Bread or Langos is a yeast bread with mashed, boiled potatoes in it and fried in oil. My Mom and I often grabbed some from a street vendor in Budapest and had it for dinner. It was always delicious and I loved it fresh and hot, with sour cream and cheese on top!  Of course you could ask for it with cinnamon sugar on top....

Tips for Making Your Own Pattern

More and more people make their own patterns from store bought garments today. It is pretty simple, but more importantly it satisfies our crave for DIY. There are many great tutorials on the web on how to draft a pattern from a shirt, shorts or a skirt. Dana from Made cuts apart an older clothing item. I used this method too, when I made a tunic pattern for my youngest. Ashley from Make It and Love It shows us how you can draw around a pair of shorts and our very own Idealeon  blogged about recreating her favorite shirt the same way.

 I have done both. I cut apart an old shirt and drew around clothes that fit well. They both work great, but I am always looking for ways to make things easier. Cutting clothes apart can be tedious. And I may not have anything I want to cut up. Drawing around a store bought item is easy, however some areas are harder to navigate around to copy just right.  I never really liked fiddling around to make sure it lays down just so, with the right seam showing.

So, I started using pins. Put cardboard or foam board underneath the paper you are drawing the pattern on and place pins at short intervals . You can use this trick for marking pocket placement, button holes, armholes etc. Then just connect the holes and you have the perfect copy!

New Technique Learned - Sewing with Elastic Thread!

I am still quite a novice in the sewing department and most of my sewing involves patching the knees of my son's jeans (an arduous and unfortunately never-ending task apparently). But I have this fun, lovely shirt that I bought in Melbourne 5 years ago and the sleeves are just too long and the cuffs too wide to roll up.

I finally had the brainstorm to sew some elastic on the cuffs so that the sleeves wouldn't continually flop down over my hands. I found this great tutorial on sewing with elastic thread in the bobbin and it worked like a charm! The tutorial is from bellajeanboutique and says and shows it all in a quick 3-minute video. What a great solution and easy to do as well!!

Quilt Squares on Felt for Kids

Recently a friend asked me if I would make some quilt shapes with felt on the back to be part of an exhibit at the Children's Museum of Houston.  The exhibit is called "Cum Yah Gullah" and debuts on February 25th.  My kids really LOVE going to this museum!

So, after making the shapes, and put them together in a few designs and thought they could make a really good activity for kids to learn shapes and puzzle-making skills.

Here is how I made them:

Stitch in Color Summer Dress

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Nerf Vest

My 12 year old has a huge arsenal of Nerf guns. He bought  most of them with his own hard earned money. Every other Friday he has a Nerf gun fight with his friends. They divide up the guns, the Nerf darts, they take apart the couch and build bunkers and forts in the halls and the middle of the living room. And they shoot at each other for a few hours. It usually takes me a week to find all the stray darts they failed to pick up.My inconvenience is a small price to pay for the fun and laughter I hear from my room, where I hide out during their battles.

I noticed  that every time we go to Walmart or Target, he wistfully looks at the Nerf Vests.

However, he really did not want to spend his hard earned cash on a vest. 

So, I decided to make one for him. He picked the fabric, and I just rummaged through my stuff and made do with what I had.

I took the easy road wherever I could. Bias tape all around! I used a T-shirt he had to make the pattern. I should have narrowed the shoulders for a true vest, but he told me not to bother.

Spinach Strawberry Salad and Sweetheart Rolls

So I'm clearly just starting to get my act back together from the holidays.  I intended for this post to arrive before Valentine's Day, since it would make such a perfect Valentine lunch.  But I'm a little (or a lot) late.  Aside from a Valentine treat, it would also be a delightful anniversary treat or even a great "I-love-my-girlfriends!" brunch dish.  The salad provides a nice contrast on the plate between the green spinach leaves and the bright strawberries.  It's sweet and tangy, with a bit of crunch.

The best part of this salad is the dressing, though.  (Isn't that always the case?)  Here are the ingredients needed.  I'll list the recipe at the end of the post.

Alphabet Wall

I do have to admit that I have had this on my wall since we did June's Monthly Challenge. But now that I got my ugly round table out of this room (Yippy!), I'm now ready to show it off. Letters D, E, I, L and R were hung as is.  I added a coat of paint to C, F, O, Q, T and Y. And I Mod Podged scrapbook paper to letters A, B, K, N, P, S, V, W. Letters M, U, X and Z were homemade, while letter G was remade, with good reason.

I have to add my experience that I used to make a point to my husband when I came home from Joanns fabric store. I had gone to buy some 1/2 off letters WITH kids in toe. I came home and realized I make bad purchasing choices when my thought process goes something like this, "Do I want my G to be big or...stop poking your sister. Okay, these are half... get off the cart son." and on and on. I came home and took out my purchases and wonder how in the world I would buy such a terrible G. I really should not take kids shopping with me when I need to think ;) Ha ha.

Reversible Bubble Bag- It's Catching!

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Do-It-(for)-You Desk

I'm excited to show off our finished desk. Of course, it wasn't me who build, but I'm still really proud of it. I've been wanting desks for our school room and found this desk at Pottery Barn. I love that you can rearrange the desk to where the cubbies are on the right or left side of the desk. I was really excited to find that Ana White had building plans for this exact desk. Definitely made my husband's job easier. 

Pottery Barn's Bedford Small Desk Set

Our DIY desk.

Off the needles and on my feet!

Remember these from my yarn along post?  They're finished!  I love how they turned out, I love the colors, and they actually fit my feet just right.  I call them my Pippy Longstocking socks, but I could call them my Frankenstein socks, too, because I didn't follow one pattern but took bits from several.  I did them toe up, two at a time on two circular needles.  Two at a time because I am exactly the kind of person who would fall victim to second-sock syndrome.  "I just did that, you mean I have to do the exact same thing all over again?"  I get bored too easily.  Toe up because I can't stand the thought of wasting yarn.  I would agonize over the length of the cuff if I started top down.  Make the cuff too long and you run out of yarn before you reach the toe, make it too short and you have leftover yarn, horrors.  I did save a little yarn for future repairs, but I saved exactly the amount I intended to.  I also like that with two up it's easy to try the socks on as you go.

I used Judy's Magic Cast On for starting the toe, which is marvelous, so easy and completely seamless.  I also followed her instructions for adding stitches until the sock felt like it was a good circumference for my foot.  When I got to the arch in my foot, I added some ribbing on the sole to draw it in and guard against bagginess, inspired by my Smart Wool socks.  Then I followed a free pattern from Knitpicks for turning the heel.  Once those danged heels were turned, I did 2x2 ribbing all the way up for the cuff, because I just like how snugly it fits that way.  I used Jenny's Surprisingly Stretch Bind-Off to bind them off, and it definitely lived up to it's name, you couldn't ask for a nicer, stretchier bind off.  So there, now you know why I called them Frankenstein socks, I couldn't follow a pattern all the way through to save my life.  I've been wearing them as much as I can possibly get away with, and lovingly handwashing them in the sink then hanging them to dry each night.  At this rate I may wear them out more quickly than I knitted them!

Crafty Kids: Make Quidditch Brooms

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Valentine's Day Cards

I pinned this cute Valentine ages ago on Pinterest as a really cute idea. As we were getting ready for a homeschool V-day party I remembered that I wanted to make these cards. 

We took pictures in front of the chalkboard.

Created each card using Picasa.

Printed them at CVS, cut slits and added suckers. 

Was this more work than having the kids sign their names to the cards? Maybe so, but it was a heck of a lot more fun. We have Grandparents near by and instead of a sucker, I think it will work to slide a flower into the slits. 

Crafty Kids: Crochet

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A Really Big Picture

 This was an awesome project that cost me $10 and took me 10 minutes (slightly exaggerated) to complete! 

First I took a picture of S and R out front. I tried to get them both smiling and both looking at the camera. But they were so 

interested in that little bird splashing in a puddle on the driveway. 

HA! I wish. My backup attempt was letting them watch Wonder Pets on the ipad. 

For shame...

I followed Mandy's instructions from her blog. Dora did the same project too: temple wall art. I had printed my picture at Office Depot and Dora did hers at Staples. Office Depot's printer is really old. I saw Dora's and Staple's printed much better. 

Here's the finished product on their bedroom wall. I love going in there and seeing my girl's sweet faces. I have been searching and searching for just right thing for that wall. This goes perfect with the rest of their room. I'd love to get large vinyl lettering 

of "I am a Child of God" to put to the left of the picture. The centering on that wall has to be shifted to the right due to the closet and bedroom doors. 

Valentine's Day Boxes

We just had our homeschool Valentine's party. Loved that it was a week early. My youngest's valentine box "got" to be her stuffed dog's dog house. I realized it would be a bad idea to stick her name above the door, but it made a really easy functional valentine's card box. 

My next child loves to help me and I was terrible. She picks up the paint brush and asks if she could help paint the branches and 

I said no, you have a nice shirt on. I guess I was having too fun reliving my childhood. So, I made sure the next morning before baths I let her paint a squirrel however she wanted to and we put it in the tree. She loved it and was so excited for the party.

Fork, Knife and Spoon

I've had this blank wall in my breakfast room that has been begging to be decorated. I came across this and decided that would be something I could do and like. 

I love working with wood and think it's awesome to be able to complete a project without assistance or supervision. After I drew my utensils I showed my husband that I was ready to use his Dremel. He looks at it and says, you don't want to use dremel, you want to use a jigsaw. Hmmm.

Lucky for me he said that knowing he could  borrow one from a friend. I just set it up on the living room floor and figured out how it use it and cut away.

Notepad of my Daughter a la da Vinci

My daughter Sophie is studying fashion design in Madrid and a recent assignment was to photoshop her own face onto a work of art. She chose the da Vinci painting 'Young Girl in Profile in Renaissance Dress'. I loved how well this turned out that I decided to use this for a notepad to have with me all the time to admire!

Baking Soda Clay Revisited

Some time ago I promised a few commenters that I would look into baking soda equivalents for us folk living in Germany, plus how well the baking soda clay takes to food coloring. I'm happy to report that I've finally done this and with a happy degree of success!

UFOs - UnFinished Objects

We all have UnFinished Objects laying or rather hiding around the house. A knitting project  started a few  months ago still sits on the desk only to be moved around. A stack of fabric all cut out, ready to be sewn into pajamas, shorts, shirts and skirts is getting higher every month. Half strung bracelets and necklaces can be found here and there among beads. Unfinished scrapbook pages piling up.

I am just as guilty as everyone else, although I usually do end up finishing my projects. Even if it takes me a few weeks (months). But, there is one project I started on about 3 years ago that was finally completed only last week. A Family Home Evening board. 3 years ago (or maybe even 4?) I had our boys paint wooden tags. And then I was supposed to paint a simple board and put hooks in it.

Sounds really simple, doesn't it? Well, it should be. But it took me this long to actually make up mind to do it!

 Well, at least it is done. Although I think it may be time to make some new tags...

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Sweetheart Necklaces for my Valentines

I went shopping at a bead shop last week with a coupon- buy one get one free.  If only I didn't know I could get unlimited amounts of strands with this deal I wouldn't have bought so many.  Oh, well.  My little girl was with me and was so very patient that I let her pick out a strand of the most beautiful ones (she liked).  She chose some lavender cut glass hearts.  And so I made a Valentine's Day necklace for each of my girls.  Here are some instructions:

Reversible Bag Revisited With Sewing Tips

OK, I may be a tad bit addicted to making these. Reversibility opened up a whole new world! No more having to decide between favorite fabrics. With the right color combination I can use 2 instead of just one. The first bag was an experiment, I wanted to see if my idea would work. I was  so pleased with the results, that while I was still working on the pattern, I started to make a second bag. And a third.

 I finished Reversible Bag #2 and started working on #3. Unfortunately, my sewing machine started acting funny. My top tension was off no matter what I did. I struggled with it for a few frustrating hours, then  I had to admit to myself that I needed to call the only person I would ever want to tinker with my machine. Thankfully, I was able to drop it off at Melvin's, an elderly gentleman, who is a genius when it comes to sewing (yes, he sews with great skill) and sewing machine repair.  While I was there, I got a lecture from him. Yes, it was a real lecture!

 I am passing along what I can remember, and hopefully others will be able to benefit from it also.

"Are you using the right thread and needles?"

That was the first question Melvin asked me when I told him that my upper tension was not right. {I tried adjusting it, trust me. And got in trouble for that too!}

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