scarf

Hiya! How are you? I miss this place. Since I've been sick, I've been resting a lot, hydrating, and plowing through my Blurb book projects. I've made a big dent in my projects and I'm feeling 98% better. 

Remember those green, blue, pink, and purple fibers from the snowflake pictures last week? They're from this scarf. Of course, now that I'm looking for them, I see the other colors. But before when I looked at this scarf, I just saw teal. Either way, I love this scarf. It's chunky and warm and honestly, a little bit itchy, but I suffer through it because I love everything else about it.

snow

I've had a mild case of the flu since Sunday. Nothing horrible, but just enough to keep me close to the couch and dampen my ambition for getting anything done. 

But it snowed today. It hasn't snowed in weeks. And by the end of January, I start worrying that each snowfall will be the last of the season. So I got off the couch, dusted off my camera, and set out to catch some snowflakes.

I didn't get anything fantastic. I need to figure out the perfect temperature for capturing pretty snowflake crystals (not clumpy or rod-like crystals). I did find a few hexagonal flakes, which I'd never seen before. Can you see one in the second picture?

I also found that the color of my “teal” scarf is much more complex than it looks. Greens, blues, pinks, and purples. Such gorgeous yarn! I'll have to take a picture of it on sometime so you can see the macro vs. real life difference.

2011 favorites

2011 was a great year.

I can't wait to see what 2012 brings!

  Lilacs and the beginning of Photo Friday

Water glass xylophone

  Lemon cheesecake

Photo found here.

My daughter decided to redecorate her room this year, abolishing the Princesses.

I'm embracing (and excited for!) her future and mourning the end of her babyhood.

Bittersweet, for sure.

Photo from this post.

  

Zig Zag Seuss quilt

 

LEGO organization

Photo from this post.

Peanut butter brownies

  The wedding cake

Watermelon on a stick

Cucumber smoothies

Chocolate peanut butter pretzel balls/bars

Seeing my recipe all over Pinterest was very flattering.

Roasted broccoli and walnuts with pasta

Photo found here.

More on my photography journey here.

Nostalgic (for me) first post with my dslr here.

In February, I purchased my first dslr camera, a Nikon D7000. I haven't put it down since. The camera and learning photography have dominated my 2011. I have much, much more to learn and am loving every minute of my education. Many thanks to my sister-in-law Megan Cieloha and her friend Courtney from Click It Up A Notch (and several of their friends via blogs) for their tremendous help, whether they know they gave it or not.

And many thanks to all of you for reading, commenting, and encouraging me along the way! This blog would be very lonely without you. :)

knitting. in progress.

friendship bracelet obsession

 First of all, do you know how hard it is to take a photo of your wrist with a 50mm lens?

It's really, really hard!

Manual focus helps, but I still looked very funny contorting myself into weird shapes

to get my wrist far enough away from my camera.

The kids and I are slightly obsessed with friendship bracelets lately.

Embroidery floss has been flying around here like feathers from a beaten pillow.

The little guy asked for one in cotton twine, like mine.

I told him we were bracelet buddies.

“That's what they'll call us!”

Sweetpea now has four.

She wanted to have the same number as me.

She made one, her Aunt Britt Britt made one, I made two.

Such a blast from the past. 

I made hundreds of these when I was a kid.

Did you?

twelve on the twelfth

01) I turn 32 today. Most times I'm fine with it. Age is just a number. I really feel 19.
02) But the crow's toes (not full-fledged feet yet) and aching back tell me I am far from my teenage years.
03) A new top and new shoes do wonders for a girl's confidence. Gotta love sassy days.
04) I watched some footage of Japan's quake and tsunami damage last night. Such utter trauma and devastation. I'm hugging Hubs and the kids extra, thankful for how fortunate we are to be safe today.
05) Hubs and I made a plan last night for a meeting place in the event of a similar quake (we're prone to those in the NW, being part of that Pacific ring), assuming cell service is down. Have to plan in advance in case we can't reach each other.
06) Making tiramisu for the first time today. Can't wait.
07) Using whipped cream instead of raw egg yolks. For safety's sake. Though I did come across this the other day, and may try it next time.
08) Bought some new yarn and needles and am planning to make a lacy scarf. Just in time for, um, spring. Yeah.
09) Getting a head start on next winter is a great thing.
10) Wanting to make a hat to match. Any pattern suggestions?
11) Love to watch the birds outside my window. I ♥ birdfeeders.
12) Looking around me right now, I see lots of comfort amidst the clutter. I am embracing my imperfect, loving home. No cleaning today.

Have a happy weekend.

let's hear it for the boy

Rae (of Mady By Rae) and Dana (of MADE) are holding another round of BOY-focused crafting. So many of the things we all sew/craft/create are pretty and girly, and boys are frequently shorted. (But maybe they like it that way? That's another conversation.) For the past few years, Rae and Dana have called this out and held an annual celebration of all things crafty and BOY. 

I'm linking a few of my made-for-boy projects to their BOY Flickr pool, and thought I'd show you what I chose. Let me know if you add any of your projects to their pool. I'd love to see!

 The Toddler/Preschooler "I can do it!" Belt

 My favorite quilt ever—The Baby Blanket Quilt—made from pieces of all our old baby blankets.

 The knit Tiny Baby Football Hat

The green and brown Cut Chenille Baby Blanket quilt

valentine-ing the house

I don't do much decorating for Valentine's day. I do more now than I did pre-kids. I probably didn't do any at all pre-kids. But it's nice to have some transitions between winter holidays and spring. 

I'm so not ready for flowers and spring things yet.

So I brightened up the dining table candles with a collection of white and glass containers.

 I stitched up a quick "LOVE" banner.

(Thanks to Erin for the felt banner inspiration.)

 Really quick. I had all the materials on hand and I think it took me two hours from start to finish.

Hung some melted crayon hearts.

(Again, thanks to Erin)

Photo tutorial here next week.

And tucked these little Target Dollar hearts around.

 (Vase sweaters inspired by Under the Table and Dreaming.)

You know, this is one of my favorite spots in the house, but it is the most difficult spot to photograph.

And worked on Sweetpea's class valentines.

(More on those next week)

Do you decorate for Valentine's day?

tiny baby football hat

Everyone around here is anxiously awaiting the birth of a new nephew (or cousin, for the kids). His mama is definitely ready to meet him. Don't you just love those last weeks of pregnancy? So full of antici. . . pation. Bags are packed, nursery is ready, coming home outfit is selected.

I am honored that the new little one will be warm and snuggly on his ride home from the hospital wearing this football hat, hand-knit by me.

His dad is a big football fan. Big football fan. So when I came across this football hat on Etsy, I knew it would be perfect. It looked easy enough, so I played around with some yarn and used these newborn knit hat directions on The Purl Bee to come up with my own hat.

Sweetpea's doll Janie was kind enough to model the hat for me. Girls can like football, too. Hubs thinks the photos of the doll are a little creepy. I agree, but we don't have any other newborns laying around, and I needed some pictures.

The best part is that I knit this little cutie in just a few hours. Where else? Sitting on the couch watching a movie. Thank you, Netflix, for providing hours of crafty relaxation time. Cra-laxing? It was so easy, I knit another one, slightly larger. To be worn next football season, or in case he has a big head. 

Let's hope the tiny one fits.

red sweater pillow

I've had this sweater sitting in my drawer for years. It's a brilliant red, chunky knit, and I love it...in theory. But it just doesn't look good on me. It accentuates all the wrong areas.

I haven't been able to let it go. Maybe if I lose weight/tone this/tone that, it will look better. But that hasn't happened. I've been thinking for a while about making it into a cozy pillow, only I couldn't bring myself to cut into it. Then last week, my slowly deteriorating orange pillow cover finally bit the dust. I grabbed my scissors.

• I cut the bottom of the sweater just under the arms. 
• I turned it inside out and sewed the freshly cut edge together, to keep it from unraveling.
• I sewed one third of the way in, from each side, on the finished edge side (the former waist/bottom of the sweater).
• I turned it right side out.
• I gently squished the pillow form through the opening (the middle third of the finished edge side).
• I sewed snaps in the open section so I could remove the pillow cover for washing.
• A few snips, a few snaps, and it was done!

As I was snuggling on the couch with my new pillow, soaking up the new Pottery Barn holiday catalog, I saw this:

Image via Pottery Barn

Don't you just love when that happens?

:)

rerun: baby blanket quilt

I originally ran this post in April 2009, when I made the quilt. Back then, I was so happy that I found a way to recycle the old baby blankets. But the other day as I was making Little Mister's bed, I spent several minutes looking at the quilt–feeling the textures, reliving memories worn into those soft blankets. I realized then that I made a keepsake, an heirloom, that we will treasure for years to come, just like the quilt my grandmother made that is on my couch right now. I'm so thankful.

Enjoy, and have a great weekend.

Marisa

  ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My youngest is in that in-between stage–too big for baby blankets, and too small for twin-size blankets. I was contemplating finding a toddler- or throw-size blanket for him, while simultaneously cleaning out several baby blankets from his drawer. Then I realized, "Hey, we're not having any more kids, so why don't I just cut these baby blankets up and make a crib-sized quilt?" So I did. 

I'm a very lazy quilter, so I just did basic squares. I avoided ironing as much as I could, but there's still a ton of ironing in the quilt-making process! (Updated note: do NOT iron fleece with a hot iron. It melts.) I tied it instead of quilting...the best option for someone lazy like me. Also, the yarn is fun to play with when you're falling asleep, as I remember from my childhood quilts (one of which is still used on my couch daily).

It's fun, and a nice way to keep our baby blankets a little longer. The kids love looking for the bear square. I'm very happy with the way it turned out!

Details:

• The baby blankets are a variety of fabrics–fleece of varying weights, jersey, and sweatshirt fleece.
• The backing is cozy flannel.
• I used no batting, due to the thickness of the quilted top.