It's no secret I like letters.  I like writing letters, I like receiving letters.  I have always been in love with paper, in love with the novelty of sending things in the mail, and boy oh boy does getting a special envelope in the post just make my day!  I love the texture, the colors, the formality of having the address just so.  I love the colorful stamps. I love making my own envelopes and stationery, and buying all the fun sets I set eyes on  I love raising that little red flag on the mail box, or slipping it into the big blue postal boxes because I know that will get it there sooner.  I'm in love with the whole idea behind mail and letters, and writing.

I have always been a big pen-palist.  Ever since I can remember really.  I remember my first REAL penpal.  Her name was Sharon.  She lived in va.  My mother went up to visit her friend while her son was in the hospital, and Sharon's family opened up their home to my mom and other friends to stay while being there for their friend.  My mom saw they had a daughter my age and thought maybe we'd make good friends, and encouraged me to call her.  And so I did, "hi, we haven't met, but my mom says we'd make good friends, want to be penpals? " "sure!" She said.  And thus it began.  Our long road of penpals and a great friendship!  We met a few months later at the convention and hit it off splendidly.  And our penpal history lasted for a little over 10 years.  As we grew older, we switched to email, and sometimes we had so much going on in our real world that we'd forget to write, but until the end of her life, my best friend Sharon and I were still penpals.  I still have most of her letters.  I miss her dearly.  Maybe that's one of the reasons why I love writing letters so much.  It gives me that little reminder of a great friend lost.

Over the years, I collected more penpals.  My friends in the congregation were my penpals.  The friends I met in other cities were penpals.  My boyfriend/husband was my penpal.  Wherever I went, I collected penpals.  I wrote letters, and people wrote back.  It was grand!  Along the way, some quit writing and new ones began, letters got lost along the way, but you better believe, if you were my penpal at some point in time, I remember you and our friendship. 

I still have about 60% of the letters I've received.  when I was younger, I stored them in a plastic black brief case.  I felt very top secret and spyish.  Now I keep them in boxes, love notes are in a box inside a box.  Some of them are in a wooden box in my room, some in the basement, most postcards are in an album.  They're all over, and when I see them, they make me happy.

So now I get to the point of my post, I want more penpals!

When I scan the internet. I've become more and more aware of the fact that there are others out there like me.  Ones that would love the idea of writing a letter along with receiving one.  I almost thought about joining a penpal site, but I thought that would be creepy.  So here it is, my wanted ad:

WANTED: Penpal.  Do not worry about not having anything to say, you dont have to be excessively witty or funny.  Just a pal of pen.  These are my requirements though....
1. You must be a servant of Jehovah.
2. You have to be willing to write back.
3. You can't be a dude.  I'm married and the only dude that gets my letters is my hubby.

And that's it!  If you'd be interested in giving it a go, please email me your address and I'll send you a letter.  Oh and if you live over seas,  even awesomer!

Sincerely,
Me 
 
He gave his first Public talk on Sunday and I'm so proud of him!
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Not too happy about how quickly my little family is growing up :( A few more years and this guy will be taller than me...
I didn't get to take a ton of extra pictures but here are a few of some of the friends and family that came to support him.  So thankful for all of the love :)
 
Guess what I learned how to do today?!  Yep, the grand knit purl switch off!  Thanks to a YouTube video that I watched this afternoon, I was able to knit up this little mini baby infinity scarf.

I used my super huge knitting needles for this, and some fun chunky pink wool yarn that I got today at the yarn store.  I doubled up the strand and threw in a white cotton strand as well.  Yep, I was knitting with 3 threads at once.  It took me a little over an hour from start to finish and photographs :)  Knitting for babies is so much faster and cuter than for big people ;-)
Have a Great Weekend!!!
 
Today's creation wasn't entirely made today.  In fact, I started this project over the summer, and my friend Heather helped me do it, while we were at the beach.

I'm not the best knitter out there, but I really wanted to knit a satchel for KennaKats BlaBla bunny, Fleur; that was similar to Emys Bunny Pierre.  I LOVE Blabla's creations, they are adorable! However, they cost an arm and a leg, so I cannot frequent their shop.  Emy's bunny Pierre, came with a cute green satchel that he takes with him on his excursions in the south of France to collect truffles with.  Fleur wanted a purse too!  So I decided knitting a bag wouldn't be too difficult.  However I'm terrible at knit/purl/knit/purl.... Seriously, I can do one knit and switching back and forth just isn't gonna happen for me....hopefully one day soon I'll get to take a knitting class and fine tune my skills a little more... And I really like the style that knit/ purl makes.

So I knitted one line, them passed it to Heather who purled the other side for me.  It didn't take long. And we had a nice strip of knitted purse.  I then began making the strap.  I used a French knitting spool for that part.  However it took for-ev-er!  So I put it aside.  Now that I know how to crochet chains, I decided to whip one up today and added it to the satchel.  Lickety split.  I sewed up my bag and voila! A little satchel for Fleur to use on her excursions with hubby Pierre.  I can't wait till KennaKat gets home and I can give it to her!
Don't they look so cute with their matching satchels?  Hers is bigger cuz she's a girl, girls need to carry along more stuff ;-)

Ok, enough about dolls....

On a brighter note, it seems the babies fever has let up a bit, and it's been a few hours since she had the runs, so hopefully that's over with!  Also, my new favorite Pandora station is Sixpence non the richer - kiss me.  Love that song.  This station plays all my favorite nineties hits! Yay!  I feel so old, the nineties ended 15 years ago.  When did that happen?  Don't answer that, I can do math....

So, ok, that's all for today, ta-ta!

Ps. I did get to grab my free venti 6 pump chai latte with whole milk, hold the water, today!  Because it was free it made it taste that much more Devine! Mmmmm!
 
With the half inch if snow and the two hour delay, along with a teething, highly clingy, feverish baby, this was the extent of my creating on Wednesday.  Well along with multiple servings of hot chocolate, and breakfast lunch and dinner that I prepared for my family.


Once babies fever breaks and she goes back to a more cheerful self, I hope to get to crafting again.  My plans for today don't go beyond teaching my sister a new meal to cook, laundry, studying for the meeting, and getting a house full of people ready and out the door on time.

Oh! And I hope to make it to Starbucks....I got a free drink voucher valid for today only, it's wasteful if I don't use it 😉
 
My crafting for today was of the yarn variety.

I learned how to crochet!! 

I'm not saying I'm good at it yet, but I'm thrilled that I was actually able to make something!  (veeery sloooowly! haha)

People are all about sharing how they do things these days.  Want to learn a new craft?  Check the internet!  I found a YouTube tutorial that teaches beginners like me, how to make this kind of flower.   If you want to give it a try yourself, here's the video Crochet Flower tutorial.

The bigger Flower I turned into a pacifier clip.  The smaller one I think I'll turn into a hair clip.

Another day of crafting?  Check!
 
The kids were playing so well together today, I  slipped away, pulled out my crafts and began painting.

I've been crushing on Geo Prints lately, so thought I'd give making my own a go.

I have a nice stash of canvas bags left over from KennaKat's party (I over-ordered..on purpose!) and wanted to make a bag for KennaKat's teacher who is due in April.  Also left over from the party is a plethora of fabric paints!!

I love this so much I'm not sure if I want to part with it! heehee :)

Emy has been such an awesomely chill baby all week!  I'm so thankful for this!  Hopefully she's reverting back to her previous chill self!  I'm hoping to keep up my craft a little each day plan to keep my inner chill going.  We shall see if these two chill girls can keep it up ;-)
Make SOMETHING each day!--That's my new motto!...well, was my old motto, but somehow it got lost along the way.
 
Working with my hands, and just making something is my destresser, and boy have I needed that lately.  Baby has recently hit my least favorite faze of child development:  Teething those molars and mobile but not fully independent but not wanting help from you, but also super clingy, oh, and irritable!  Fast forward me a few months PLEASE!  Oh and sleeping through the night and taking normal naps during the day aren't happening.  So believe me when I say "I was losing my sanity!"

So striving to gain back some of my identity and Sanity and happiness, I've been trying to find, no, MAKE time for working with my hands.

This is what I've been up to lately...

I've been scoring Pinterest World to help me materialize my ideas.  Pinterest is the perfect place to go if you have an idea but want to see other people's trial and errors before attempting yourself.  I knew I wanted to make a onesie dress for years now, but first I needed a sewing machine, and second, I needed good ideas and bad ideas to compare.

Here's a Pinterest Idea:
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Click on the picture to find this dress on Etsy, the lady has a cute shop of handmade stuff.
So after medling and comparing, and tediousness, this is what I made last night.  It took me about an hour, I didn't measure or really have a whole picture when I started, this just kind of fell together :-)
And it actually fits!  I was worried about a few stitches :-o
Next up were some more onsies to make cute...

This one blogger shared how to make fake collars, and even though I didn't follow her tutorial, I knew i needed one...
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Click on the picture for the full tutorial over at driven by design.
Initially, I made the collar pieces for the dress, but wasn't loving it, so I put them aside.  After adding a bib to this shirt, I thought the collar would be the perfect touch.  I still want to add some cute buttons down the front, but baby was screaming at me so I'll just save that for another day!...Also, sewing on buttons is the devil.  I hate it.  I hate them.  Why do they have to look so cute??
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Yes, this bib is totally crooked! That's what happens when you sew inside of a teeny onesie and have the speed on high...I am not proud of this. But I think the crookedness adds to the 'je ne sais quoi' that is handmade ;)
Now we come to the layered ruffle onesie.  I found this one while I was searching for ideas on something to make for my friend who was having a baby.  I found this and loved it, so I copied it.  When her daughter passed it along to another friend, and she shared a picture with her adorable little squishy wearing it, I kept thinking, "Why haven't I made one for Emy yet?!!" 
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Click on the picture to visit this sellers ebay shop.
Adorable Squishy Evy rocking the one I made back in October 2012.  I could eat her up!  And I'm jealy of her orange sweater!
The one I made for Emy last night, for the ruffles, I used a sleeve scrap from an old tshirt of mine.  I have another sleeve and might use it to make a matching shirt for KennaKat.
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Stinker would not pose for me!
Another project I totally stole from pinterest was this really great tutorial on how to make felt bows.  So I copied and I love!  I tried to trace back to the original post, but couldn't find it.  Here's the link to the tutorial that I used.
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These are so fun to make and I completely copy catted it!
I also knitted a hair bow for her.  I had this idea a while ago and a few months ago, I knitted a ring for my Sister in law who loves rings!  So Friday I sat down and knit this one right up :)
I must admit that I feel like I just walked out of a day spa, working with my hands is that fulfilling and refreshing!  I have a feeling I"m going to be making a lot more stuff in the near future. Ahhhh :)

6!

11/8/2013

2 Comments

 
Let me begin by acknowledging that I should have written this over 2 weeks ago but I'm a procrastinator...
My little girl is 6 years old!  And she is quite thrilled by that fact.  Me however am never happy about the reminders of the advancement of time in relation to my children.
I will save you the sad melancholy of my emotions by omitting my woes and sadness about it all and skip right to the picture show and story...
Dear Beautiful Girl, 
Here you are just born and simply beautiful.  All 9 ib and 3 oz of you!  I was 2 weeks over due with you.  My hips felt like they had been ripped to the other ends of the earth.  I had decided to go all natural with you.  No Epi, no nothing. (I made the same decision with your bother but chickened out at the 6 cm mark and took the epi.)  Well, When I hit the 2 week over mark, they had to induce me.  They gave me pitocin again and it took them 3 attempts to finally break my water.  Labor wasn't that bad and when I started pushing, you were out in about 20 minutes.  All I remember is yelling "OUCH this hurts! GET OUT!!!" and with one huge push there you were....well your head at least, then it was easy going from there.  It was an amazing feeling that I'll never forget.  You were born at 6:30 on the evening of our meeting, we let the brothers know and they announced it, they screwed up your name so badly, it was pretty funny, the brother was from Africa.  Friends kept asking "what did you name that baby?!" haha  I think he also announced your brothers birth, again, another funny name mix up!
Above and Below, you are 3 days old!
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9 months!
Here you are at 1 year old.  Look at those eyes!   To this day, those eyes melt my heart.  It's as if they can pierce into peoples souls.  It's incredibly hard punishing anyone with that face looking back at them....but I did it ;)  You were to this point, my most difficult child.  You weren't bad, in fact you were a complete sweet heart, but you were tough.  Of course, anything is tough when you have a 2 year old running around demanding attention.  So I can' judge fairly, but your early years were not my best.  I was exhausted.  But I loved spending my days playing with you and your brother!  You two were a blast!  And you played incredibly well together.
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2 Years!
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3 years old with her cousin Delani
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4 Years old! Tinkerbellin' it up at Biscuit's fairy party You cut your hair off that summer :-/
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5!
So here you are, 6 years old!  I have really enjoyed this wild and crazy ride!  You are so incredibly sweet and thoughtful!  You're the best big sister Emy could ask for!  And your brother, even though he doesn't want to admit it, really enjoys you.  When you were in my womb and I was imagining the person you were going to be, I had high hopes for you, and you have met and exceeded them beyond belief!  You are sooo creative, the things you can create and make up blow my mind.  Your sweetness is unmatched.  I was hoping for a girly girl and tom-boy package and boy did I get it!  You have always been so fun to dress up and have tea parties with, but you can romp around and get messier than the messiest of them!  You are fun.  Thanks for the ride my sweet girl!  I feel like 6 is the big mark between little kid and medium kid.  You aren't a baby any more and some days that's hard to accept.  But it is quite enjoyable to watch you grow!  I love you my sweet girl!  Enjoy being 6!
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Rocking out to air guitar!
I asked you what you want to be when you grow up and this is what you said "A pioneer and a mommy!"
Where do you want to live?  "With you!"  You want 3 children. 
6 years have flown quickly by, we are best girls, and I hope we always will be.  I love you my sweet girl!
Love,
Mommy :-)
 
Every Fall, the kids' school starts off their long trail of fundraisers with my favorite, the Literary Festival!  Something about the beginning of those crisp cool days that makes you think BOOKS!  This Festival lasts from Thursday-Sunday and is all about gaining books for the classrooms and library.

Friday is always Dress like your favorite literary character day.  Ethylwolfe had a hard time deciding who to dress like, he loooves captain underpants (hahaha) but his teacher said no underwear sightings please.  So he was stumped.  Until he thought about willy wonka.  I've read this to the kids and his teacher just read it to them last quarter.  They spent a lot of time comparing the book with the movie renditions.  So when he thought of Willy Wonka he was determined to get his costume right.  He made a list of his description...
purple tail coat, black top hat, black goatee, grey gloves, green glass pants, black walking stick...
The only differences were the bow tie and the shoes.... His practicality won out on the shoes as he said this morning, "I like to run at recess, I have to wear my sneakers."  And the bow tie we added because there was no description of that so we did what we wanted there.

When he decided on Willy, he was a little hesitant about the jacket.  Where could we buy it?  He didn't think I could do it.  Hmph! Iiii can't do that?! Ha! What kind of hinderance is it that I've only just learned how to use a sewing machine, can hardly use a pattern, and oh wait, they don't have a pattern for the real willy costume.  Well what are those little obsticles when you really want to do something, and no pressure, if it slightly looks like the real deal, when your 8 year old wont really care (hopefully)  So after a lot of thinking and the deadline sneaking upon me I got to work last week on it.

I eyeballed what I thought it should look like as I cut away on the fabric.  In hindsight I should have drawn it out first...or traced a pattern and added to it, or measured...but naaah, who needs that?!?!  In 2 days and roughly 3 hours, I was able to whip up this bad boy.  He was quite pleased and so was I that it was even remotely even haha.
His black cane was a last minute throw together this morning, thanks bad memory!  I took a wooden dowel and wrapped black electrical tape around it.  I had planned to spray paint it but kept forgetting to buy the paint...
His hat hubby and I made a few months ago for a back in time costume for hubby, he went as the monopoly guy :)
We had the grey gloves (but he forgot to wear them) and the bow tie is papa's...I tied it myself...obvious I know! haha need to work on that :)
And the goatee I drew on (as we ran out the door almost late for school!) in eyeliner.  Almost used a sharpie, but oh yeah, we have service in the morning, that would not be fun if it doesn't wash off in time! :)
Fancy Nancy was easy enough, just grab the girliest pieces of clothing you can find and throw them together.  I made her a cat suit the other month and she wanted to wear that, but it screams "homemade" and I couldn't think of a cat that is hot pink with black polka-dots, so we ditched that idea for Fancy Nancy.  
I did want to give her big crazy fancy nancy hair though.  So I twisted it up the night before and took it out this morning.  And sprayed it like crazy with super hold hair spray...that hair is a mess!  She loved it! :-)
So here they are, off to school looking quite awesome.  I shudder to think what they'll look like when they get home and their costumes are falling apart ;-)

So I pat myself on the shoulder for this one.  Job well done'ish for me!  And I did it all while Emy was screaming at me, every stitch of that jacket...