Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Outdoor Crochet & A Reconstruction Project

One of my favorite things to do in the not-to-hot, not-to-cold weather is to sit outside with the kiddos on a blanket and do some hand stitching, like crochet or embroidery.   Mallory has become quite the crochet assistant and can amuse herself for a long time with a ball of cotton yarn!  And Spencer loves to ride his scooter up and down the sidewalk.  There is something about a quilt, some yarn, my kids, and the outdoors that makes me feel very peaceful.




Speaking of crochet, here is the second hat I've crocheted for Mallory.  I'm really happy with it, but I've since swapped out the flower for a pink one.  It's a little big, but I figure she will grow into it!










Here is a dress/shirt I recently made for Mallory.  In a former life it existed as one of my comfy sweatshirts.  I loosely based the pattern off another dress, and then just sort of free handed the pattern from there.  My one mistake was making the front and back pieces identical.  Next time I will cut the front piece so that the neck scoops a little bit more.  I used an old pair of pink corduroy baby pants to make the applique circle.  I think it all turned out very cute! 





I have more reconstruction projects to tackle, if only I could find the time/energy! I will hopefully be back to share an adorable black & pink tweed style skirt for Mallory soon!

Nanny's Educational Zoo

Last week the kiddos & I met up with our Mom's group for a trip to Nanny's Educational Zoo!  Nanny was awesome - her zoo is an animal rescue for all types of animals.  She had a pony that had spent 17 years walking kids around in a circle at the state fair : (  It makes me cringe to think of how many pony rides Spencer has gone on!  We saw lots of animals, including goats, turkeys, a donkey (who actually hee hawed very loudly!), a raccoon, and bunny rabbits.  But by far my favorite were the baby squirrels.  I guess Nanny gets about 250 baby squirrels every spring.  When people begin to trim their trees they find squirrel nests - who knew??  So they bring them to Nanny, who bottle feeds them until they are big enough to release - cool, huh?  Here is Spencer holding the baby squirrel - he doesn't look impressed in this picture, but I promise that he loved it!

























Mallory's first (and probably only!) pony ride.  She was diggin' it!
 


























Spencer with the goats!












Saturday, January 9, 2010

So what do you do with a sweater you bought at Salvation Army, that was supposed to be a dress, but then was ruined by over zealous cutting?  Make a hat, of course!  And living in Florida, we can never have too many hats.

I happened upon this pom pom hat tutorial from kojodesigns and got to work.  I just free handed the general shape on the sweater and made my own pom poms a la 5th grade crafting.  I managed to complete it during the latest 45 minute nap from the world's worst napper!  Go Mommy!

P.S. Feel free to share any tried and true tips for getting the 45 minute napper to sleep longer!


Posted by Picasa

Thursday, January 7, 2010

I :heart: crochet!

So after many attempts and half finished projects, I finally manged to crochet something wearable!  And when it is worn by the most adorable baby girl in the world, it's even more satisfying!  I purchased this pattern on Etsy:  http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=38062370

And here is my finished product:




































Now that I'm looking at the two side by side, the bottom of mine looks like it is turned up more than the original - not sure why.   Hmmm...

I just purchased another hat pattern and am crocheting it now.  I better hurry, as hat weather will only last for another few weeks here in Florida!

I took Little Man and Miss Mam to Salvation Army yesterday - they have 50% off clothing on Wednesdays.  I bought some clothing to try to reconstruct into perfect little dresses and skirts for Mallory.  I've already ruined and scrapped one piece.  Oops.  Hopefully I will have better luck with the rest!

Monday, January 4, 2010

Let's dust this thing off, shall we?

The Christmas hoopla is (thankfully) over and we can get back to a semi-normal life around here.  That is, after I take down the Christmas decorations!  On a happy note, my Christmas cards finally went out in the mail today, just in time ; )

I haven't had much time for sewing or crafting around here, but I was able to whip up a red corduroy skirt for Miss Mam to match the sweater I purchased at Gymboree:



It's nice to be able to make a matching skirt for your child when the stores are all out because you waited until 3 days before Christmas to buy her an outfit!  And it's even nicer when you happen to have a yard of matching fabric at home that you bought for another project that you never got around to making.  Sometimes it's good to procrastinate - in doing so I saved myself a trip to JoAnn's!

I've been teaching myself to crochet with the help of a few library books - I will post a picture of my first completed project later on!  Happy Monday!