Pattern Available

This pattern is now available for $0.99 on Ravelry. It is called the Tea Party iPad Cozy. I'm very proud of myself right now!

Nuitrition Tuesday-Gluten Free

So I have a skin disorder called keratosis pilaris (KP) or commonly known as chicken skin. It's Bumpy skin on upper arms and legs. I've been told that it could be because of a gluten intolerance. So I'm going to try a gluten free diet and see if I feel any better and if my skin starts looking any better. This means no wheat, rye or barley. At first I am even going to cut out my Spelt for now and then if I see a difference in myself then I will try adding it back into my diet later and see if I start feeling sluggish again and my skin acting up. So next week I will have a gluten free recipe for you to try at home. 

Until then I would love to hear from anybody else that lives on a gluten free diet.

Itty-Bitty Update.

Ok so I've been a bit destracted the last few days with my first design and I have a few questions for my readers. Remember the yarn that inspired me last week? Well I designed my first design with it and came up with this:

It is a iPad case and it is not quite done. I need your opinion. You see the roses? well I have 2 more that I made. Should I put them on? Maybe on the front in the opposite corner to the top or on the other side of the bag? I haven't sewn in the lining because I needed to take pics of what I did to it. I also wanted to know what you think about the pattern. If I make it available on Ravelry, should I make it free since it is my first pattern or do you guys think that I could charge something small like 30 cents?
I have an idea for another case that you can open like a book. That will be more manly for my hubby. He can't really be seen with this around town.

I have been working on the Baby doll a little. I'm almost done. Just have some weaving in of ends and the braids to make. Then it is the bouncy ball so that I have something quick to finish by the end of the month and then hopefully I will have yarn from one of the sponsors to make more toys and I will whip it up and have another giveaway!

This weekend I did some mowing and edging. It's a lot of work even just doing the front yard. with first mowing, then edging and then sweeping everything up of the sidewalk and driveway. I meant to clean up my flowerbeds but it was too hot and I was already a bit burnt from the sun.
My husband was suppose to fix my trellis this weekend but it didn't happen with company being in town, my in-laws were here, but he did mow the back yard. We have had so much rain this summer that the grass grows super fast. We have to mow every weekend or it gets to the point our mower can't handle. it.
Needless to say I did not get to cleaning up my veggie garden. I need to pull up some of my plants that I don't enjoy and anything that is not producing.

Decluttering My Life Saturdays

Sorry thought this posted Saturday. Instead it saved to my drafts. I had my in-laws here fore a visit this weekend so I didn´t have much time to take care of my blog. Itty-bitty update will post in an hour or so.

Had a busy day today with going out for breakfast with friends and going to the farmer´s market and the coffee shop. 

I did get my 30 min of knitting and I got rid of quite a few things today. I was going to go under my kitchen sink but ended up getting rid of some kids clothing, lots of magazines and un used diapers that M grew out of by putting them in a box and marking it free and putting it on the curb. It was at least 30 pieces of clothing. I was very proud of myself.

My Lucky Day!

I'm sure those of you that have been following me for a while remember me talking about the Classic Elite Yarns knit along at my local yarn store Loops. I was knitting this lovely Firefly Fringe Scarf.  Well I got an e-mail about a week ago saying that I was the winner and that the basket of yarn was on its way in the mail. I was so excited. I started dreaming about all the things I would design with this yarn coming my way. Yesterday, I got an e-mail that the basket was at Loops and that I could come pick it up when ever I was ready. Of course I was ready at the moment when I received the e-mail but my boys were sleeping and I needed to finish Elefante before making a trip to the store. I worked hard on Elefante all of naptime and then the boys needed to eat when they got up and, before I knew it, it was 4:30pm. Hubby comes home at 6 so if I just waited a little longer I could go by myself.
I went to the store after he got home to drop of Elefante and to pick up my prize and this is what I got.

The summer set ribs and cables baby cap pattern
Heron Island pattern book
Accessories book 1
a project bag by Della Q
2 skeins of silky alpaca lace in off white 2416
2 skeins Princess one in gray 3403 and one in a raspberry color 3422
2 skeins summer set one in colorway 2181 and one in white
1 skein Alpaca Sox in dark blue and purple 1820
4 skeins provence  cotton 1 dark blue, 1 white and 2 red
a very pretty button
and the basket it came in

What a great prize!
Thank you Classic Elite Yarns and thank you Loops for hosting the KAL

Itty Bitty Update and Winner of Yarn!

This week I have been knitting my 30 min a day and also putting time into finding sponsors for the toys I don't have yarn for yet. This knitting through the book business is starting to get quite expensive. I've been in luck and have a few sponsors lined up and will tell you who they are when I knit the toys. Some are sponsoring yarn giveaways as well, so stay tuned for that. I'm very excited about this.

I've finished everything but the hat for the baby doll. So this week I made her dress and her bloomers.

I am also knitting the elefante, the free pattern on Susan B Anderson's site, for my LYS because I am teaching a class on how to make it on the 14th of August. Hoping I get a better turn out than last time. This one is made with Alchemy DK fuchsia and plum. It's been a fun quick knit. I just have to attach the legs and make the ears and eyes and it's finished.
Next month I might add a market bag class to the list. I was very inspired by a raveler  to make market bags for x-mas presents this year. Rae Lynne hand dyed yarn is amazing! She is about to open her own etsy shop and I think I just might be one of her first customers to buy this amazing yarn and one of her needle cases.

I also sewed a project bag yesterday. It did turn out a bit long and thin though. But very usable. In it you can see a yarn that I could not resist when I went to my LYS. It's the Plymouth yarn Kudo. I think I will make my first original pattern out of this and I know exactly what it will look like. I'm so excited about it that it is hard not to just start. But I have to be good and finish what I need to finish. If I get far ahead of my itty-bitty toy knitting then I might give it a go.
The trellis in my garden fell down. It was a mess before but now it's a complete mess. I tried one of the banana melons but it was not quite ripe. It sort of tasted like a cucumber. I also harvested some of the Futsu squash and I plan to make up a recipe for them.

We have a winner for the yarn and it is #75 picked by Random.org

Anonymous said...

What a spunky bundle of yarn! vbalogh@verizon.net

Thank you to everyone that took part in this giveaway. I was very happy to see how many people left a comment and even blogged about the giveaway. Hopefully I will get such a good turn out for future giveaways. Looking forward to reading your future comments.

I do have a question for your guys. Do you like having the knitting and the garden stuff in the same post or should I have separate days for this?

Decluttering My Life Saturdays

 

Photo from Flickr

I'm back with my decluttering my life Saturday and I was good this week.  I didn't find a buyer for my stroller but I did get rid of 10 things from my junk drawer. I'm just surprised at the things that my husband or I think of keeping. Things like a cork from a champagne bottle, the glass from around a cheep candle (threw 2 of these away), a plastic zippered bag from a make-up purchase, an old yellow pages book, old ugly nail polish, an ugly nail polish that was given to me, a candle that never stayed lit, and there were 2 other things that I can't remember but I made sure that there were 10.

Next up is going under my sink and getting rid of 10 things that I don't use. If I don't have a whole 10 from there I will go down into my basement and get the rest from there. Anybody with me?

Green Tip Thursday- Quality Over Quantity.

Today I will be talking about having good quality toys for your children in stead of heaps of junk that was played with once or never and then thrown in a corner. It can be hard to talk to family about the toy issue but there are several ways to make toy buying easy and affordable for the family. Making sure that they don't spend money on just some cheep toy just to get something and often they don't even know what they are getting and are just getting something so they have something to bring. They can get together with other family members and get a good quality gift and if that is not an option they can just buy a gift certificate to the place of your preference. I'm sure the family and friends will think you are being a snob but if you explain that you are trying to simplify and make your child's pay area inviting and inspiring then they will understand.

Here are some of the toys that we got from Target a few weeks back and they get plenty of play and some nice wooden puzzles that O got from his Aunt.

Instruments For the boys to play with all packed away in a drum 

Nesting boxes! These are a great teaching tool for counting and letters.

These are great because they are thick enough to stand them up and use them as toys. We also learn the names of the animals and the sounds they make. 

I recently went through the boys toys and got rid of all the things that they don't play with. I'm trying to limit my boys exposure to plastic. 

But the Quality over Quantity goes for everything. Please buy the good stuff so you buy less stuff instead of the cheep stuff and lots of it because it doesn't last.

I hope you've had a lovely week. 

I'll be back to my normal blogging schedule next week. 

Good luck with the Yarn Giveaway!

Itty-Bitty Update and Yarn Giveaway!

Got some knitting done this weekend since my back has been on the frits.

Baby Doll is nearly finished. She just needs some clothes and a glitter in her eyes.  But she is a little cutie pie.

I am making this hat for a charity. It's the Marshmallow Hat from Itty-Bitty Hats 

My Tea Leaf Cardigan is of course knitted on when I am out and about but  I haven't been going very many places and I've maybe knit 3 or 4 rows on it this week. I really need to get on track with my Itty-Bitty Toy
knitting.

It is raining cats and dogs here so you will not get any garden pics this time but I will show you a pic of the watermelon I got from the garden yesterday. It was very yummy.

And because the person that won the yarn during my first giveaway has not contacted me here is a chance to win it again. This is my own hand dyed yarn. It´s a 100 gram skein of merino wool from Knit Picks in fingering weight. I love the color. It just makes me sooooo happy just looking at it. This time if I don't hear from the person that wins the yarn in 2 weeks after the announcement of the winner then I will take it as a sign and I will make it into a citron shawl for myself.

Here are the rules for the giveaway you get 3 entries if you follow the steps.
1) Leave a comment with your e-mail address in it
2) If you are or become a follower then you get a second chance at this giveaway so leave a second comment for your second entry.
3) If you blog about this giveaway and leave a link to it then you can leave another comment with the link to the blog post for your 3rd chance to win this amazing yarn.
4) If I don't get an address from the winner with in 2 weeks then I will use the yarn myself.
5) Will close giveaway on Saturday night so that I can take time to write my itty bitty update and add the winners name in the update.
P.S. I found an amazing giveaway website called GiveawayScout. It has a list of giveaways all over the web. Check them out: http://www.giveawayscout.com/

Decluttering My Life Saturdays

I am Mama Hear Me Roar turned me on to a new blog called You Are What You Keep today and it inspired me. I'm starting a new routine. Saturdays will be used to keep me working on making my house and life the simplest and clean that I can. Both me and my husband tend to hold on to things that are not loved or used and it is taking over our home. I do not want this to become a habit for my sons. I will find 10 things each week to get rid of in some way. They will be either donated, sold, or thrown away. My fav kind of donation is the kind I put on the curb and mark as Free! and someone just comes by and picks it up. I don't have to go anywhere and it gets used by someone that needs it.
By the end of the year I will have gotten rid of 250 things.

On the chopping block this week are:
A tv stand that we don't use anymore
Selling our single stroller on craigslist
finding 5 things that are in our junk drawr to toss
and finding 3 pieces of clothing to toss.

I have a week to do this and will be back next week.

Here are pics of the stroller that we are selling if anybody is interested in it for $100. We bought it 2 years ago for $250 in Iceland. It's a European Graco stroller/pram. It has rubber wheels and great suspension. My oldest loves this stroller but we do not need 2 strollers in the house. It also has a rain cover and mosquito netting and a cover over the lap for super cold days. 

 

Thank you for looking!

Sharing Friday!

It's been an interesting week and it has gone by so quickly. I can't believe it is Friday all ready .
The boys are growing and maturing every day. O has taken a giant leap and peed in the potty a few times for me the last 2 days. The first time he did it again (he started 4 months ago and quit) I literally jumped for joy. I will be so happy when I don't have to wash diapers after 2 kids or spend the crazy amount of money I do on disposables for night time and out of the house use.
M got his first round of shots on Friday and has had issues with vomiting since. He was nice enough to cover me and my husband with vomit in the middle of the night in our bed. You know at that point I was thinking Yay what a fun night. Of course after that he was awake and I needed to get him back down. I didn't want to keep my husband up or wake O up (he still sleeps in our room in his crib) so I took M down to the living room and when he didn't fall asleep with in 15 min I decided to turn on my media center and watch Weeds - Season Four. Nothing like watching a single mom helping the Mexican mob smuggle drugs and people into the US while trying to get your 5 month old to go back to sleep at 3am in the morning. He was out 10 min later so I stopped the drug smuggling mom and went back to bed just to be thrown up on again at 6 in the morning. It was a beautiful day. Especially since I had been sick since 2 days before and hadn't gone to bed til 1 in the morning because of stomach cramps. Anyway bad night.

Now My back is out. I was home alone with my boys when my back gave. O was up in his room napping and I grabbed M and sat down on the couch next to my computer so that I could contact someone to help me. I e-mailed my husband and he left work early to come help me. I'm still stuck on the same couch but I'm not stuck with a 5 month old. Now I'm hoping that I don't have to go to the bathroom any time soon.

On the bright side, I have nothing better to do than knit while I'm stuck here.
I know every mom does this but I just marvel at my boys' beauty and how amazing they are.