felted treasures

My friend Sarah sent me some big bags of beautiful wool roving last summer.  I was so excited when they came, but then we moved and moved and moved and painted and painted and painted and unpacked (do you see where this is going?) and well, I didn't get much felting done.  But I am happy to report that I did find some time before the holidays to whip out some little goodies.

This little robin was sent back to Sarah as a thank-you and she turned it into a Christmas ornament!  How clever!

And this trio of little balls was made for baby Harvey (well, he shares them with Gesso...).  Fun fact: did you know that you can felt with your incredibly fluffy puppy fur?  It's true!  So the insides of these balls are made of Gesso hair (maybe that's why he likes them so much??).

And because I was pregnant, I forgot to take a photo of the best one of all.  I felted a tiny green vw bus to send off in an xmas package, and shoot, it was cool.  But it got wrapped up and sent away before I remembered to take a picture of it.  Ah well.

snapshots

Greetings from the hibernation cave!  Things here are busy and good.  Here are some snapshots from lately:

The paperwhites bloomed.  It was real pretty.

My mom came for ten days and made pots of soup, spicy salsa, and homemade icecream.  Oh, and nobigdeal, she knit up these colorful balls for baby Harvey (he has almost mastered juggling with them! JOKING you guys!  he's just a baby).

Our 2012 yearbook is here.  

This little sweetie turned one month old!  Goodness.

Still trying to come to terms with it being 'winter'.  It is green and always feels like march.

Busted out the valentine garland I made last year.

This is my favorite fence post.  Ya know, if I have to pick just one....

And then the paperwhites died.  Oh sad.

dear mom,

thanks for the socks! we love them!

I get asked quite often if I knit, and my answer is that I don't knit, I get knitted for.  It works out great that counting stitches doesn't sound like my idea of a good time, but that I have a mom who has knitting needles for hands.  Seriously, this little mister has been royally spoiled with knitted goods, which I need to get around to sharing (once I figure out this whole typing with one hand skill...).

Happy February! 

sweet home :: a baby room

psst--thanks for all the sweet comments about our newest addition!  You guys are great.

I snapped all these pictures a few weeks before baby Harvey arrived and it looks so clean and empty in these photos!  This is my very very favorite room in our house.  It gets wonderful light and it's full of all the happiest things I had. We spent very little money 'decorating' this room, most of the things I already had on hand (I even combined leftover paint from our bedroom and the dinning room to paint the walls).  Is that alarming to anyone else?  That I have enough stuff to, well, stuff our four bedroom house??

  Anyhoo, on with the tour!

I've posted about those painted lanterns already, and the amazing 1930's classroom map was a generous gift from a friend (I know!).  If Harvey doesn't win the geography bee I'm going to be a little disappointed....

Instead of a changing table, we picked up a bookcase from ikea, turned it on it's side, and installed some drawer inserts (side note story: I am super bad at obeying instructions (too lazy? or, ahem, creative?) and while Evan was assembling all the furniture he begged me not to help, but I insisted, claiming I could build a simple set of drawers!  And then he went to screw them in and wouldn't ya know it, I built them upside down.... haha ).  I'm thinking this will be more functional then a changing table or dresser, as we have lots of storage for clothes in the closet, and this can be where the toys live.

I purchased these three Story People prints with my hard earned pocket money when I was working as a maid in Jackson Hole one summer.  I love love love them.

and a shot of the puppet corner.

So I guess that pretty much covers it!

welcome, welcome

Harvey Evan

born Wednesday, January 9th (right on his due date, what a champ!)
7 lb. 13 oz.
21 inches long

He is perfect and sweet and we are completely in love with all of this.  Oh my stars, what a wonderful few days it's been!

hello 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

my 2013 new years resolution is to have a baby.

and soon please.

fabric buckets

Umm... nesting is kind of insane.  Our house has never been so clean and organized, I mean, I even scrubbed the not-very-dirty-to-begin-with baseboards.  That has never happened before!  But aside from all the deep cleaning and closet re-organizing that's been taking place,  there has also a bit of a sewing frenzy going on. 

 Enter the fabric bucket:

Or three fabric buckets (because if one is good, three is better?).  

I made these buckets based loosely on this tutorial (I added some height and then figured out an easier way to sew in the lining).  I tried three different types of interfacing:  from the left I used a SUPER heavy pellon one, which I thought was too stiff.  For the middle one I used a medium-weight fusible interfacing that was just perfect (it wasn't too stiff to fold the top edge over, which I liked), and the last one had no interfacing at all.  And it's a little slouchy for my taste.  So long story short, I would recommend using a medium-weight interfacing.

I used up fabric from my stash for the outside and some old curtains from our Billings house for the linings (Maria von Trapp, anyone?).  Can I get a hooray for free projects?

Hooray!

merry christmas!

wishing you all things merry and bright!
xoxo

decembering

 

 

 

 

 

a little spot of sun

We moved the blue chair out of the family room to accommodate the Christmas tree (we talked about getting a real one this year, but when push came to shove we just put up the little fake guy again....mostly I'm afraid of what Gesso would do if there was a real live tree in the house).

And we like it in it's new spot so much that it might end up living there forever.  This exciting new development led to me deciding that there needed to be a new pillow for mr. blue chair (remember that I have a problem?).

So on a particularly gloomy afternoon I cut out a million yellow circles and sewed them round and round onto a pillow.

 

And then the next day the sun came out!  I know!

Evan was out of town the day that I made it and the first thing he observed when he saw it was that it looked a little like Big Bird's butt.  Which, you know, it totally does.  So now I like it just a little bit less.

(it was supposed to be a dahlia...)

boxwood wreathing

(this is a boxwood wreath)

I am normally not a very patient maker/crafter, but this project forced me to follow steps and really take my time.  I started it a month ago and just finished hanging my last wreath this afternoon!  That kind of patience is really unheard of around here, so I'm thinking it was good practice?  Patience practice?  Sure.

While I was researching for this project, I had a hard time finding a thorough tutorial--most sites just sort of glazed over the steps and made it seem like no big deal.  And I mean, it wasn't a really big deal, but I like to have pictures and clear instructions.  So I made sure to take lots of pictures for you.  You're welcome!

Step one: trim your boxwood bush with your garden shears.  Optional: puppy supervision.

Step two: using a hammer, smash the ends of your branches.  This helps the vegetable glycerin absorb with greater ease.  

Step three: patiently wait while your bottle of vegetable glycerin arrives from amazon and mix up one part glycerin to two parts water in a bucket.

Step four: Add some green food coloring to the glycerin mixture so the leaves will keep their shiny green luster.

Step five:  submerge branches in bucket and wait 2.5 weeks for your branch pieces to soak in the glycerin/color (this step prevents the branches from drying out and turning brown).

 

 Step six:  channel your inner martha stewart and lay pieces of boxwood on your wreath while securing them with floral wire.   I made one large wreath and seven smaller wreaths and my fingers are still kind of mad at me.  But it was worth it!

I hung them in all of our big windows downstairs and I'd like to think they are so festive they make up for our lack of christmas lights (Evan has some unresolved issues with christmas lights....).

I'm not a fan of artificial wreaths and fresh wreaths can be kind of an expensive habit (they need to be replaced every year), so I'm hoping these little wreaths will last for a few years to come (they should?  I'll keep you posted.).