Zen Bean Bags

 And the Indiana Jones hat I made last year for gardening... it fits her now :)

 

We made 'zen beanbags' today - which was an idea I had a long time ago and made for her but didn't really post much about.  The old ones are kind of gone, and I thought it was time for a new set, and some photographs for the KnitOwl Toys and Crafts book, which I am working on again.   The fabric is something I painted the other day with textile medium and acrylic paint using cardstock as a resist stencil.  The other fabric is an old piece of clothing we have used for several things in the past.

 Stacking beanbags in proportional sizes.

They brought out the little scientist in her, she was comparing weights and measuring distances (with help) and talking about the different sizes meant we needed different amounts, which would be heavier or lighter.  She compared the small one to a strawberry, and the big one was a pancake.  I let her help with sewing up the closure on the smallest one, and she paid good attention to how it was done and the steps.  We used a funnel piece of paper to fill the beans into the two larger ones.

 I also took a coffee can and covered it with construction paper on the outside after thoroughly washing and drying the inside.  We are using it as a goal bucket.  She really really likes the 'stacking game', though.

I made 'bracers of craftiness' last night as Mark is calling them - simple sport yarn wrist cuffs to keep my arms a little warmer.  They kind of match the yellow drawstring pants I've been meaning to make for almost a year and finally got myself to cut out and start.  It really took thirty five minutes to cut it out and get them ready for finishing.  I don't know why I waited so long... really need to just 'get up and do' a bit more... been having trouble with that the past year and especially with the cold this winter.  I've been keeping a notebook again to write down the things I want to do so I actually get myself to work on things when there is time to be used - like the book - and other things as well.

The 'bracers of craftiness', which actually do help keep my hands warmer when I'm working at knitting, sewing and typing.

It was such a nice day out, several of us could barely keep our feet on the ground...

And those are some awfully big rabbits around here, too!

Picking daffodils with Grandma

A bona fide puddlehound.. just kidding, this is Minerva, the catahoula bluetick coonhound cross

 

and her older sister, Sweetie

a few dried flowers surviving in a shadow with the last of the snow

Wool Lingerie

I made my own pattern using measurements.  Size 5 knitting needles and Palette wool knitting yarn.   Knit in two pieces and then used a size E crochet hook to do edging reinforcement on the front edges.  Now that I have the sizing down, I could knit the shoulder straps in one piece lengths (instead of two, as shown) and add a closure on the 'next one'.  It took a little more than half of a full ball of Palette.

Mark had dared me to knit wool lingerie, and we've been iced in since the storm, so I tried this.  If I had continued knitting down and around with a circular needle it would have been a very nice tank top.

Very warm wool, and it took maybe about three hours (for me) to knit  I had started it last night and finished sewing up the tails and edges this afternoon.

and I wasn't the only one who wanted to be warm....

He said I should post the picture because he wasn't worried about showing through it like I was ;)

Sledding and Cupcakes

Vanilla cupcakes
---------------------
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup plus a splash of milk
1 tsp vanilla

Soften butter, cream butter and sugar, beat in eggs, add flour (mixed well with dry bits), alternate with milk, beat well stir in vanilla at the very end.  put in cupcake papers or ice cream cones (and rack) and bake at 375 degrees F for 18 (25) minutes.  Add chocolate chips if wanted, frost with sprinkles if wanted.

Esme says: 'Who turned out the lights?'

 

Coming back from a crash landing

 

I don't want to hit at the bottom again!

Here we go

Slow down!

 Minerva puppy is growing up!

and so is Esme :)  She really enjoyed the cupcake cones - they turned out great!

I also updated my medicine bag (dream bag) last night for the first time in a while.  While the snow was falling outside it seemed to be the right time.  I used some mica, turquoise and shells and repaired some of what was already in there and had broken a bit on the shells over the years.  I still am thinking about adding some malachite, as well...

Simplicity 8717 red and white and black

It is 'red and white and black day' at school tomorrow for Dr. Seuss.  We have black pants but nothing red and white for a shirt.  I bought this fat quarter at a small local business, Mockingbird Threadworks of Huntingdon, TN and hope to just barely squeeze the front facing and both sleeves out of it.  I have had this white striped red fabric for a while and it should do up nicely with the other fabric and still not be 'too' busy. 

 

The sleeves turned out great, but I had to do more to the bottom than the original pattern had to make it work.  I just didn't have enough width left in either the stripe, the fat quarter or anything else except the 'first villages' red, white and black fabric - which was so busy.  It did end up getting used though, as the back of the front facing and all of the back bottom facing (see last picture).

 

All four of the catahoula hounds had to get in on the act.
This is my favorite picture in a while!

 She is ready for Cat in the Hat day, tomorrow, at school.

Making the bottom edge match up was the hardest thing I've done in a while.

There was no leeway, as the front edge was already done and I had to use a little origami, tack it, then sew it in place.

Esme bits

Yesterday she had this idea she was going to glue her plastic farm animals into a box and take it to school.  I vetoed the plastic animals, and told her she could draw animals and I would help her cut them out and glue them onto the box.  She refused, at first, to draw anything - saying it was too hard.  Finally, after much sulking and staring at the tv, she tried several times to draw a cow.  She was messing up almost on purpose it seemed - frustrated about this head being too big, or that neck being too long, or that smudge between those legs meaning it was all ruined etc...  She fussed and fraggled about it for a while.. and then we had dinner and I insisted she come back to it and try again.  She did, and completed with a nice job.  We glued it on to the box and put it in her bag for the morning.

At the beginning of this week she had told me the dentist at school said to brush morning and night, so you do not stink in the morning and the 'sugar bugs' don't eat your teeth at night.  So, Monday and Tuesday were not trouble - she brushed her teeth, and was fairly happy about doing so... but she didn't get to make the farm drawing before school because of all the time she took brushing her teeth... so the glamour wore off.  Today it was a sulky fight to get her to hold to her word she would brush all week.  But, she did it.  We'll see how this goes.  It would be great if she could get in the habit of doing both - it was so hard to get her into the habit of brushing at night but that finally sunk in.

She has been taking on a lot more responsibility these past few months -- bringing her lunchbox home and putting it where it goes, homework then play, taking her bath and washing her hair almost every single night (which it is down to her waist so it is a task), packing her own lunch with minimal help, brushing her teeth night (and morning, now, we hope), putting her lunch in her backpack in the morning when it is time to go... it is a lot for her, but it is good to see her capabilities develop.  She even has been trying, without success, to tie her own shoes.

Last night we introduced her to Algodoo, a physics/mechanics free program.  She picked up on things right away - here and there, drawing circles and gears and bars and chains, liquifying to play with water, adding motors to make things turn, cutting items with the knife and making lasers that cut things in motion.  She made a 'stomach' with a chain and water and used a laser to make it 'throw everything up'.  Ha.  She said cutting the piece of ice that floated in the water was just like ice cubes in the lemonade.  The really cool thing is once we showed her something she remembered how to do it almost perfectly, would restart the scene from scratch and do it herself to have it all done her way, and was having such a good time she didn't want to stop.

knit

 I thought well this is a knitting blog - and I have been knitting but haven't shown too much of it lately.  The scarf on the left was made several years ago from fine weight wool Palette yarn (Knitpicks).  I have worn it a lot since then.. even though I never really planned to use it when I made it.  Started in one in this soft yarn - not keeping to any specific pattern, sort of 3 garter stitch edge and a mixture of checkers and ribs that evens itself out to the odd 40 stitches I chose.  It is the soft texture and the versatility of it that will matter in the end, not if I kept the pattern for three rows or five.

This is the striped blanket I started after Christmas.  I hadn't picked it up for a while, but put the green and red parts on it lately, and am planning to repeat from the earlier red with those colors again.  It will be full to queen size when it is finished, basing that off the width of our air mattress.  Mark says eventually there will be so many blankets on the bed he won't be able to breathe... well, it is always nice to have a pretty backup item.  The brown and blue blanket (throw size, used as backdrop first picture) I made several years ago is used daily as a shawl, and the queen size striped and Esme's twin sized pink/blue stripe are in daily use. 

bit

knitting, playing Minecraft, watching my cat attempt to fall off the sewing machine... there are other things I could have done today but I did put the tomato seeds in the pots and made a cottage cheese and cucumber salad for lunch.. and we got dog food at the co op so that was a trip out we won't have to make tomorrow.

 spice jelly beans and a grey scarf started

Minion on the sewing machine

I hope when Esme gets home in a few minutes we will make a bird feeder worthy of photos...
We made simple milk jug bird feeders from this basic idea at Thrifty Fun.  We put one outside the front door and one outside the downstairs window and filled each with a little cracked corn.

chemistry and rutabagas

I was playing with my chemistry ideas after doing some modules at Khan Academy, seeking out textbooks on the info that has been going round and round in my brain, and while waiting for our new toaster oven to work its slow magic on a rutabaga from the store.  Nice afternoon :)

This is a methane molecule.  I hope to do ethane and propane and make it a three piece set.

busy day

The patchy patchwork quilt that was begun last year ... or maybe the year before?  It is coming along stripe by stripe I keep changing the pattern so there is no pressure to 'match'... and all the bits and pieces of fabric get used up this way.

It does appear my brain nodes are coming back online.  I prepared a few pots for starting tomato seeds, today.  We bought a toaster oven, and made grilled cheese sandwiches. I plan to cook a couple of little yellow summer squash I bought at the store.  Esme's camouflage fabric for her camo clothing came in the mail, and it is in the wash now.  We walked to the lake with Grandma, and pushed Esme on the swing..  She is in the bath, right now.  I've been cutting pieces out here and there for the yellowish stripe you see above.. inspired by the modern flying geese quilt I saw at Red Pepper Quilts.  I may be ready to start sewing it together tonight after Esme goes to bed.

 

Workshop toys from KnitOwl Toys
They will be going out in the mail tomorrow.

Brain nodes and rubber bands

Esme has discovered rubber bands... I need to get her a box.

This is the 'Mooer', it is like a telescope, but you moo into it.

The crayons are for extra super power.

I'm starting to get my 'brain nodes' open and flowing again.  I don't want to just fall into bed at night.  It must be getting towards Spring, and some of the worry channels I've kept the past years just *might* be reassigned...not sure about that one, but I think it might have some truth in it.  I feel I've always reserved a piece of my brain for 'when it hits the fan up North', and as that happened a week or so ago, and is winding down... still lost and angry a bit but also there is a relief at the same time.  I dreamt of seedlings the night before last, and that is a good dream.  I emptied all the trash out of the seed box... lovingly sorted things, planned what we have for making seedling trays, ordered a new package of a certain tomato.  I do need to buy some more zinnia seeds, for the butterflies.  I have a workshop project to finish tomorrow and mail off.  Tonight I have work and then a Common Core meeting at Esme's school I am planning to attend.

science

 making a 'bridge' and diagramming the parts

This was her own idea of a project, and I did help get the hair ties all the way around all three of them - as that was a dexterity issue and she had tried a few times.  The plan was all hers,and we discussed ways to get the pencils in there without using glue, which was her idea and I said was too messy.

She spent the next half hour assembling similar little bits and bobs with lots of items on her desk until it was time for bed.  Mark says she is just about ready to have a family Knex night.  I've seen her digging in her Legos more, too - trying to make things and working out how they go together better.

honeybee pattern

I was asked to work this up a few weeks ago, made design drawings, but had not begun the construction phase until yesterday.  I was feeling physically better from the flu that hit us over the weekend... and needed to take my mind off Sunday's other events and the echoing thoughts about not going to the funeral tomorrow on Thursday.

I think it turned out quite cute.

Changes would be to narrow the neck, enlarge the wings, and Esme says the legs are in the wrong order but that will be a difficult thing to change.