December Recap 1: Finished Christmas Knits

A Drop-Stitch Scarf for my sister, Ann, knit in Nurturing Threads Wicked Rainbow yarn.



A swing top dress I designed & named The Violet-Elizabeth Dress, based on two other patterns. This was made for my friend's daughter, Alena. She just turned two, so I had Ella try it on for size. I used Classic Elite organic cotton & merino wool blend yarn for it.



I also made Hudson Hats for each of my kids.
Aidan's is made out of Mosaic Moon cestari wool in the Woodland in Spring colorway.

Sean's is made out of Retro Baby gaia organic bulky wool in the Rumple colorway.

Eleanor's is made out of Nurturing Threads aria organic merino wool in the Enchanted Lotus colorway.



I made a manly waffle-knit hat for Doug with inexpensive acrylic-wool blend Plymouth Encore yarn.


And, lastly, I made two more doll dresses for Ella's babies. I need to sew buttons on one and the other one I designed the pattern for so I will list that separately. Phew! My needles were hot in December! :)

Belated Holiday Wishes!

Poor, poor, neglected blog! December was a whirlwind as I tried my best to do as much as I could in as short of time as I could. I had lots of knitting projects I wanted to get finished, we took the kids to get photos done for Christmas, and then we took a 7 day trip to Florida over Christmas week.

Today, the boys should be back in school, but instead they are home due to illness. All three kids have a respiratory illness and had to start antibiotics. I was hoping to use their napping/tv vegging time to blog a bit. I will try to break these down into sensible posts, but beware there will be more photos than text as I have a lapful of kiddo right now! :)

Two Special Visitors

The kids got to see two very special people this weekend, Santa and my older sister, Ann. Ann and her husband, Blake, came out for a weekend visit from Wisconsin. They narrowly missed blizzard weather to spend some time with us. It's been bitterly cold and crazy windy all weekend, but I suppose that's still better than a blizzard!

We take the kids to visit Santa in his little glass house in the park every year. Sean rushed right in to go first and just loved on Santa!

Aidan went next, and I caught this coy smile when Santa said, "Have you been a little naughty this year?"

Ella wasn't willing to snuggle up to a stranger, so she let Daddy sit near him. :)

We drove halfway to my parents house to meet up with the family. I thought a lunch together and some playtime at the mall would give us a chance to catch up, but the mall was busy and the two littles took off in opposite directions every second they could. Did get to take a few pics while waiting for our food.

Mom (aka Nana) and her first-born, Ann.

Ann with Aidan and cousin Adam (my sister, Tanya's son.)

And then Sean took this one of Ann, too cute!


I wish we could get out to Wisconsin to visit them sometime, but not in the winter! :)

Wordless Wednesday: School Christmas Concert

(Video of Sean "singing")

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Salt Dough Ornaments

I decided it might be best this year to make a toddler-friendly tree in hopes of avoiding broken glass ornaments. The kids and I spent a couple of days working on a batch of Salt Dough Ornaments to use this year. I wanted to venture from the usual ribbons and orbs, and instead bought inexpensive strands of beads and some glittery snowflakes to accent our homemade treasures. The kids really loved each step of the process.

Cutting out the dough

Painting the ornaments



Decorating the tree

And enjoying the finished result!




Classic Salt Dough Ornament Recipe

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 cup water

Directions:
1. Mix salt and flour.
2. Add in half the water, then gradually add the remaining water.
3. Knead until the dough is smooth, this can take up to 10 minutes.
4. For flat dough ornaments roll out the dough on baking paper
Or be creative and make odd shapes and wreaths (takes longer to bake)

Create:
Use cookie cutters, cut-out templates, or just use your hands.
Dust dough with flour and begin to add details to the ornaments with a toothpick, popsicle stick, and knife.

Don't Forget:
Use a straw to make a hole so you can hang the ornament.

Baking: Time varies based on thickness of ornament
Temperature: 325 degrees
Time: 1 1/2 hours - or until dry

Decorate: Let cool before you begin
Paint with acrylic paints
Glue on beads, buttons, or any fun accessory

Preservation: Making them last a long time
Coat with acrylic varnish when everything is dry

*** Color Variations ***
- Substitute coffee for water - great for gingerbread people
- Add food coloring to make dough a unique color - white, blue, red, etc...

Wordless Wednesday: Bedtime

2 More Dolls Dressed!

Finished up another knit doll outfit last night, so I thought I'd update progress again.

This outfit was made using the yarn leftover from my Hudson Hat giveaway. I barely had enough to get it done! The pattern I had for this set was terrible, in fact is was missing directions for the sleeves and pants. Plus the calculations were off in several places, requiring me to rip out (aka "frog") sections a few times until I reworked the pattern. Backtracking caused me to take a week to finish it, but the end result works out. Now Dolly has a cashmere sweater set. :)


Speaking of that yarn, Cindy posted really fun photos of Johnny in his hat on her blog. What a sweetie!

I also knit a dress for Ella's Cabbage Patch doll. This was another pattern that I had to make some changes to in order for it to turn out right. Plus I had to learn how to crochet a hem, so it was neat to learn a new skill.


One more doll outfit left to make, but first I need to finish up a scarf I am working on for another person. I also hope to get Hudson Hats made for my three kids by Christmas. I think it might be a close call this year.