Ack!! What happened?!?

I just wrote a blog post earlier today, I know I did. I took pictures for it and everything. Except it's not here. How confusing! I guess I'll try re-writing it.

I have 3 important birthdays coming up in the next couple weeks so I've been looking for some inspiration for what to make these women who are important to me. Now since I know at least one of the 3 reads here, I can't say exactly what I've been contemplating. But I did see a baby blanket the other day done in something called the popcorn stitch that really caught my eye. Well, I don't need a baby blanket, but I love popcorn and I love trying new things! Last night while my husband and daughter went to hang out with friends, I stayed home with our very sleepy 3yo. After he fell asleep, I decided to try the popcorn stitch and see what I could do with it. I must say that I am having fun with it. It's a pretty rhythmic pattern of single, double, double, skip 2 that I find myself sing-songing 1, 2, 3; 1, 2, 3; 1, 2, 3...over and over while I'm going along.

I also joined the etsybloggers.com team. It looks like a great group! I'm learning things about blog carnivals and mini-Mondays. I think it's going to be a lot of fun to be a part of, so look our for etsyblogger themed posts!

I've got a hook and I'm not afraid to use it!

Actually it feels good to get back to my crochet projects that were ignored last week. I made a cute little banana for a custom food order and I just finished an ice cream cone for another order. I went with a blue-ish varigated yarn that almost looks like Superman Ice Cream! I liked it so much that I decided to start making a doll purse from it too. I really need to make a trip to Hobby Lobby for some more fun fur for purse trim so I can finish up the purses that I've got started.

This weekend two of the elephants found new homes. At the birthday party I was showing my friends all my creations and one of my best friends who loves and collects elephants claimed one, then her daughter found one that she liked so they went to a good home. I also got ideas for what to give the almost teenagers for their upcoming birthdays.

I've been bad...

...a bad blogger that is. Not only have we been birthday party planning, decluttering, and joining homeschool groups, my son has been sick this week. It's been a strange progression from whining and clinging, to fever, feeling better only to get sick and then going back to whining and clinging and finally seeming to be better. So today is the big joint birthday party for both kids and then I'll be back. I've got a stockpile of toys to list on etsy, a couple custom orders that need some finishing touches, a sample kit to make and send off and a few new ideas too. Keep checking back!

Ack! So life got in the way...

...and the elephants haven't been listed yet.

We've had a really busy week. My baby turned 3 which was surprisingly hard for me. I'm still in denial in fact. Then my big kid turns 8 in just a few days. Where does the time go? How did my babies get so big?

We've had fun too with old friends and family traditions. On Wednesday we went to our favorite petting farm to meet an old co-worker/friend of mine and her family. I haven't seen her since her oldest was a baby (he's now 5!). She moved out of state and we lost track of each other. Then this winter, there she was on another friend's facebook page and here we are back together again.

The family tradition is the small town summer parade that my parents took my brother and I too when we were kids. The past couple years I've taken my kids and they love it just as much as I did. My son loved all the classic cars and firetrucks. My daughter thought the cheerleaders were pretty interesting.

Even thought I haven't gotten the elephants listed, I've been working away on projects. A friend sent me a huge box of yarn all the way from Washington! Inside was a yarn that she wanted me to make her daughter a doll purse from for her toddler's favorite doll. It's red, yellow, and white. I even had some red fun fur to trim it with and used red for the other accents (the cradle hood and blanket and purse straps. It is so cute! I have been using pastels for the purses, but the bold colors of this one really make it unique. I've got enough of this yarn to make another, so look for it in the shop sometime soon!

Up tomorrow, Elephants!

The psychedelic pachyderms are going up for sale tomorrow. Don't know if I'll get all 5 up or not. They will be $7 each or all 5 for $30! I think they'd be great party favors for a circus or jungle theme party. They are perfect for kids (and adults) of all ages!

Listing Playfood Today!

Even though I got only 1 vote here, I got more votes on my personal facebook page and playfood
won!

Today this set will be up for sale on etsy!

Happy Monday!

I know not many people feel that way about Monday's, but I woke up to a gorgeous sun-shiny day which always lifts my spirits!

I'm going to be adding some new things to the shop today! You won't want to miss out!

I already added a custom playfood order.

Trying to decide what to add next...

...a playfood veggie set

...the elephants...

...a beach/market bag...

hmmm...leave a comment and let me know what you'd like to see next in the shop! I'll list the one with the most votes tonight!

Friday Night Food and Fun!

We had a great time at the family picnic. Everyone loved the blueberry bars and ice cream. Yum! This is all I got to bring home. Looks like a good excuse to make more.

I forgot to add to my original post about the recipe, that I leave out the lemon zest and add a bit of cinnamon instead. I do add a splash of lemon juice to the blueberries though, so they aren't really lemony at all.

I also took my toys and bags to show my aunts, uncles, and cousins what I've been working on. They all seemed impressed with them and thought I should do art fairs. I really have no experience with art fairs other than shopping. Do any of you do them? Any tips for a 1st timer?

The Cookbook Challenge -- With or without a cookbook

I love cookbooks. I love a challenge. So when a group of friends of mine decided to do a cookbook blog challenge I was all for it. We were supposed to pick a cookbook, choose how many new recipes a week we were going to try and then pick how long we would do it for. It sounded like just what I needed. I have quite a few cookbooks that are underutilized and a personal blog that is often neglected. The problem is I hate playing favorites. I just couldn't commit to one cookbook for any extended period of time. That's when I decided to do it my way.



My version of the challenge -- try one new recipe each week and blog about it. I've been in a cooking rut lately foodwise and I'm looking forward to trying new things.



This week it was Blueberry Crumb Bars from Tracey's Culinary Adventures that I found on Tastespotting. Besides being super easy to make they are delish! My husband who doesn't usually like fruity things even liked them. My toddler gobbled them up too. I would have taken a picture, but they were gone before I got a chance to! No fears though, I'm making another batch to take to a family picnic. Maybe I'll get a pic before they disappear again.

I decided to make home-made ice cream too! I've been wanting to try vegan coconut milk ice creams and I thought vanilla would go nicely with the blueberry bars.

I started with 1 can coconut milk, 1/2 can soy milk, vanilla and sugar. The vanilla and sugar you have to add to taste. Add more than you think you should because when it's frozen it will be less sweet. I was kind of surprised how much I added. (Then again I was using home brewed vanilla extract so it may not have been as strong as store bought.) I've got it chilling in the ice cream machine now. I hope the finished product is as good as the base tasted!

...and the prize is...

...a $5 gift certificate to a local handmade candy shop! Yum!!! Also got tons of good deals at the Amish grocery store. Stuffed one full shelf in our upright freezer with food! Got $70 worth of food for $14! Love it!

I'm a prize winner!

All of the libraries around here have summer reading programs for the kids. We've travelled all over to different libraries to see all sorts of neat things. Some of the highlights are a steel drum band, birds of prey from a wildlife rescue center and an open session with clay and a real potter. Tonight we are planning to go to family night with a storyteller/chalk artist. My super artsy daughter will love it. My go, go, go toddler, eh, who knows. I'm hoping the story is exciting enough to keep his attention.

The cool thing is that some of the libraries are also having programs for adults. At our favorite library adults can fill out a slip for each book they read and then each week a winner is randomly picked from the entries. This week it was me!! We're leaving in a few minutes for our weekly trip to drop off and pick up our stuff. When we get there I'll get to draw a business card and see what prize I win!

I started another custom order of playfood today! It's so much fun making things when I know they are going straight to somebody to love and play with.

Moved the Blog!

Don't know why I didn't think of it before but I've decided to set the shop up with it's own email address and new blog associated with that email. Baby steps, lol!

Here are some of the newest toys I've been working on! These are all quick snapshots so the color is off on a lot of them. I need to get some better pictures to post, but I'm too excited to wait for the perfect pictures.

Custom baby cradle purse. I've made four of these for small friends this summer for their birthdays and all of the girls have loved them. This one is going to a friend out west. I've made lots of different colors. This was the first made with cotton yarn instead of acrylic and it turned out really cute!

The tiny baby is included and it's the perfect size for little hands. I've also thought about making babies to match, but so far I'm just using these cute little ones.

I started out using a pattern for these, but I've made quite a few changes to "fix" things that I thought should be different.

This is a custom playfood order for a friend of mine. I made her daughter a veggie set for her birthday and she asked if I could make more foods for her girls for Christmas. I'm having sooo much fun making up new things for them. I don't have a pattern for any of these foods, I just kind of make it up as I go. If I don't like how it looks, I tear it out and start over.

I've made a few of the veggie sets so far. I gave one away for a birthday present and I've got two more that I'm going to be putting up on etsy soon. I'm also taking custom orders for playfood.

The set includes a grocery sack (both this long handled style market bag and a shorter two handled grocery sack version), a tomato, carrot, corn on the cob, and a green bean.

These little airplanes are great for toddlers and preschoolers. I made one for my son and a friend's little boy who are both almost 3 and both boys love to play with them. This airplane will be up for sale on etsy soon.

What do you do with several small balls of multi-color scrap yarn? It took me a while to figure out the answer to that question. My mother in law knits mittens to give to school children who don't have any. She ends up with a ball of leftover yarn that is useless to her so she gave me a bag full of the balls. One day it just hit me, I could make assorted elephant parts, then pull out one peice at a time and make these patchwork pachyderms. They ended up being adorable! I think they'd make party favors at a jungle or circus themed birthday party. These are going up on etsy too as soon as I get some better pictures of them.

I've got a lot of other projects hanging around as ufos (un-finished objects). I can't wait to share them all with you!