Back to School

Well, another school year has started.  That would explain my absence from blogging the past couple of weeks.  I think my body and mind are finally adjusting to the change in schedule and the chaos that back to school brings.  I'm not enjoying the 5:00 wake up time, but don't have much choice.  I miss staying up late and sleeping until 6:30, then enjoying my cup of coffee before the kiddos wake up.  And, I miss my kids!  As much work as they are, they are a lot of fun too.  I think I might actually enjoy being a stay-at-home mom now.  Never thought those words would come out of my mouth.

Back to School night is tonight at my school.  It is usually uneventful for me because no one typically comes in the library.  This year is going to be different.  Because I'm attempting National Boards this year I suggested incorporating technology sessions for our parents this year.  Big mistake!  We had to rework the schedule for the night which some teachers are happy about, some not so much.  The biggest change is that now I will be presenting to groups of parents about our new grading/communication system of which I really don't have much to do with.  I've played around with it, and know my presentation will go well, but I'm still nervous.

Me and my grand ideas!

Bias Tape Adventure

Yesterday I posted a YouTube video that showed how to make bias tape.  I LOVE YouTube.  I have learned so much by watching videos on it.  I taught myself how to crochet by watching YouTube videos.  I also learned how to etch glass by watching YouTube.  If you ever want to know how to do something, look on YouTube. 

I do have to say that I had to watch the bias tape video several times before I figured out the pinning of the tube.  I thought she kept saying tooth so I thought the fabric should resemble the shape of a tooth.  Those of you who know me should not be surprised by this.  Anyway...when I finally figured out she was saying tube I got it!  Next time I need to watch how I cut it because my bias tape was not the most even in terms of measurement.  It was supposed to be two inches wide and ranged from 2 1/4" to 1 1/2" in places.

I used it on a pillowcase dress for Sydney.  I'll try to get pictures of it tomorrow to post.  If I decide to make another one I will not make it as wide because it kind of looks like she is wearing a paper bag.  Oh well, live and learn.

Making Your Own Bias Tape

I found this great video that shows how to make your own bias tape.  It worked great!

Back to School

This is my last week of summer vacation.  I go back to work on Monday.  This summer seems to have lasted longer than others, yet I'm still not ready to go back.  This school year is looking to be one of the hardest, most work intensive ones yet.  I'm going to work on my National Board Certification.  I'm still not sure why I decided it was necessary to devote 200-300 hours of my life for this, but it looks like I am.  Three other library media specialists in my district are doing it as well as a CA teacher in my building.  So if I'm going to do it, this is the year to do it.  I just have to keep reminding myself that it is only one year of my life.  We will see how I feel in April when it's all over!

In an effort to prepare of back to school I started thinking of what I wanted on my main bulletin board this year for the first day back.  I was trying to think of something new and came across an idea using owls.  Owls are "the hot thing" right now when it comes to decorating.  Pottery Barn Kids is full of them.  I came up with the slogan "Whooo's looking for a new book?" and thought I would use owls for the decoration.  Carson Delossa actually has many owl bulletin board sets, so I loaded all 3 kids up in the mini-van and headed out to US Toy yesterday.  Now, if you've never been to US Toy before you have no idea what taking 3 little kids there is like.  It's full of tons of crafty, teachery stuff as well as every little toy trinket you can think of .  This place is bigger than a football field.  My girls were in heaven.  I did preface the visit by telling them we were not buying anything for them.  The last thing they need is another string of beads or anything else for dress up. 

After walking through the entire store 3 times we found none of the owls we were looking for.  They had some owl stuff, but not what I was wanting.  I did find some cool letters that I can use at some point during the year:

At least I got out of there without spending more than $20.00 which is unheard of for me.  That's one good thing about not being a regular classroom teacher anymore, I save a lot of money on classroom decoration crap!

I decided I could make my own owls using my scrapbook paper so went to searching online for ideas.  I came across this:

Exactly what I was wanting.  After cropping, resizing, etc. on the computer I decided this was way more work than I wanted to spend on a bulletin board.  So...I started searching cricut cartridges online.  I might was well put my cricut to use!  And, I found this:

PERFECT!!!  and only $14.99.  Ordered it online and should have it by next week, just in time!

I think we can call yesterday a success!

Final Craft Room Plans

Here they are:

And here is what the empty space looks like:

Not the best picture, but the it's hard to get around stuff down there right now.



And the Cabinets Have Been Ordered!

We just got back from Home Depot and the craft room cabinets have been ordered and paid for.  They had a great sale going on right now so we saved about $2000.00 which is awesome!  I have really good 3-D pictures of the finished plans that I will upload tomorrow.  I'm so excited!!!!  We still have to figure out countertops, probably Corian or some other solid surface, and floors, probably some sort of wood or wood laminate.  It's hard to believe I'm actually going to get my craft room!

I worked on a pillow case dress for Sydney today.  Casey's lack of taking a nap and my lack of knowing how to make my own bias tape put a stall to that project.  Looking at the directions I found on-line I didn't realize I was going to have to make my own bias tape out of a small scrap of fabric.  This is proving to be a little bit more difficult than I thought it would be.  Hopefully I will have some time tomorrow to figure out how to do it and the dress will be done.  Pictures to follow soon!

I'm Addicted!

There are many things in my life that I am addicted to.  Chocolate (especially dark), almonds, Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory, reading blogs, my kids and Pinterest.  I know that I'm not alone in my addiction!  I love it!  I could spend hours every day just pinning away.  The only down part of Pinterest is that I never seem to have the time to do any of the projects I pin.  Actually, I have the time, just not the resources and the the thought of taking 3 kids ages 6, 4, and 1 to Hobby Lobby, Joanns, Walmart, Home Depot or any store in general to get what I need to complete a project absolutely does not appeal to me.  My brain works better with quiet and quiet simply does not exist in my life right now.  In fact, it's 4:30 and I've just put my 1 year old back down for his nap.  He already "took" one, but I'm not sure he actually slept the hour and a half he was in his crib.  He is crabby!!!  My 6 and 4 year old were just sent to their rooms because all they've done for the past hour is argue about what they want and don't want to play with in the toy room.  Mama's had enough noise!  So, here I sit quietly writing my post of the day and pinning away on Pinterest!  If you haven't tried it, you must.  Maybe you will get addicted like me!

Craft Room Plans

It's hard to believe that the long dreamed about craft room is about to become a reality.  All the walls are studded (is that the right term???) in and lights are installed.  Next is the outlets and light switches, insulation, then the drywall.  Of course the rest of the basement needs all the same stuff so it will still be quite a while before the craft room is done, but at least it's becoming a reality. 

We met with the kitchen designer at The Home Depot to design the craft room cabinets.  What originally was going to be pieced together cabinets and things I found here and there is now going to be installed Martha Stewart cabinetry!!!  It's a small room, but will have a lot of cabinets and little cubbies for storage.  We are using Martha Stewart Maidstone cabinets in picket fence white.  They look like this:

The hardware on the cabinets will be different and they will be white, but this gives you a general idea of what they will look like. 

Here are the plans we've come up with:

This is the view looking down.  We are adding a refrigerator and sink to the craft room so it will be somewhat like a kitchen as well.  Good for resale (God forbid we decide to move now that I finally have a craft room!).  Plus the extra refrigerator is so needed right now and every craft room needs a sink!

Sorry this one is sideways.  Can't figure out how to rotate it, and don't have the time to do it right now anyway!

This is the work area I will have to put my sewing machines on when I'm sewing or to spread out when I'm doing my scrapbooking.  The corner cabinet is an appliance garage which will be perfect for storing my sewing machine and serger when I'm not using them.

The little cubbies next to the fridge will be great for paper and little crafty things!



So, those are the plans.  Sorry if they are a little difficult to look at.  My scanner is giving me problems right now so I took them outside in the sun and wind to take pictures of them with my camera. It's the best I could come up with right now.  I never claimed to be a photographer among my many talents!

Here We Go Again!

So, fast forward 6 months.  Obviously not much posting has been going on here.  I tend to have the best of intentions but they always fall short.  I think I'm a want-to-be blogger, but it just doesn't seem to work for me.  So, here we go again.  I have obviously finished the bag I originally started blogging about:

Not the best picture, but you get the idea.  It actually turned out very cute!  I've used it quite a bit.  If I ever make another one I think I would make the handle a little shorter.  It's a little long and gets twisted up pretty easily.

I've also made this quick and easy cowl.  It's just a simple knit one, pearl one over and over on big needles, my favorite.  I love things that are knit on big needles.  They go fast!!!!  I think I might have ADD because my attention span is soooo SHORT!!!  Anyway here's the cowl:

So the picture is sideways and I can't figure out how to rotate it, but you get the idea.  I'm not sure I'm a cowl person, but this was super fast and easy so if I don't like it's no big deal.  I also used random yarn I had around the house so it didn't cost me anything.

I've also made the girls several dresses.  Here is a picture of them on Father's day wearing two of them:

I bought the fabric at Hobby Lobby.  The patterns are McCalls patterns.  They turned out super cute!  Riley has one identical to Sydney's as well. 

I've recently come across Matilda Jane and love her clothes, but not her prices. I'm good at recreating on my own or using patterns so I can save myself money.  Ethical, probably not, but it saves me money and it's something I love to do.  Besides, after viewing Matilda Jane's video mocking their customers I'm not sure I will ever buy anything from them anyway.  Not a very professional company from what I've seen and read on their Facebook page. 

Here's a skirt that I'm making for Riley based off of one of their designs with my own little twist:

I know, horrible picture with the sun coming through the blinds, but I was too lazy to move it.  Anyway, it's not finished so no biggie.

I've recently started Casey's Christmas stocking.  I figure he will be two this Christmas and all of my kids have had their stockings by the time they are two.  It's a counted cross stitch.  I'm not far enough along to take a picture, but at least it's started.

That's some of what I've been up to recently.  What about you?  What are you crafting up right now? 

By the way,  the basement finishing has begun and the craft room has been designed.  I'll post pictures of the designs soon!  I'm way super excited!!!!

Slow Going

It's been slow going lately on the Hobo Bag. My 14 month old has decided it is oh so much fun to crawl around on the kitchen table. He has yet to figure out that mommy is going to win this battle. I have knit about 2 more inches on the bag and discovered that the slant of the pattern has changed to the other direction. That was not supposed to happen! However, I am not going to go back and rip out what I have done and fix it. I think it will add a new dimension to the bag. My own little stamp on it.

Not Much Knitting Going On

That's right. Not much knitting going on the past couple of nights. Too much going on with the kids. I hope to get back to it tonight!

Hobo Bag in Progress

Over Christmas break I was in Manhattan, Kansas and visited Wildflower Knits, the local yarn shop there. She has great yarns and even writes many of her own patterns. I'm in the middle of making a poncho that Kennita (the owner) designed, but have taken a break from it to work on a couple of other projects. I tend to do this quite often. Start something, then move onto another project. I think I have 3 projects in the works right now. That is one of my goals for this year, to finish up all my projects in progress. Anyway...when I started the poncho I had a very hard time getting the pattern down. The way she wrote the directions was somewhat confusing to me, and having 3 little kids running around asking me questions at the same time I was trying to figure it out was not helping. I finally got the pattern figured out and made great progress on the poncho. I would guess I am about 75% complete with it. It will probably be the project I finish next.







So, last weekend I started this hobo bag pattern:

I purchase it as a kit at Wildflower Knits. It came complete with the pattern and all the yarn you need to complete the project. I wouldn't say it's been difficult, but it hasn't been the easiest things I've done either. I still find the patterns that Kennita Tully writes a little difficult to follow. When she says to increase one stitch at the beginning of the next row I would like for her to explain how she did it when she made the bag. Also, one of the yarns that came in the box keeps breaking. I finally switched to a different yarn, but am wondering if my bag is going to stay together or slowly unravel. I'm about 3 inches down the body of the bag so far. The body is knit using the turkish stitch which I have never done before, but find it very easy. It's a quick knit so far. More pictures of the bag in progress to follow!

Jenny

A New Adventure

It's the beginning of a new year again. I am continually amazed at all the great blogs that are out there on any and all topics you can ever think of. I look at a variety of craft blogs daily and have always wanted to become a dedicated blogger. So, I'm trying again. This is my new blog dedicated to all my knitting adventures. I am hoping my posts will be regular instead of few and far between. We will see. This is something I truly enjoy and hope to make a part of my life at least once a week, if not more.