Happy, Merry Solstice Christmas!

hi, hi how's it going?  i am happy and overly excited about the holidays as usual.  :D  like most folks i see a million things i want to do for the holidays and don't start early enough.  this season i am especially excited because we are in our new, cool house!

since i posted a messy picture of the living room here's a cleaned and decorated picture~

as you can see we are still in need of some of some furniture, but man, we love this house!

i did finish our advent calender before the coundown started, woot!  i used felted sweaters hand stitched together.  love the look, but i hardly find much to actually fit in them.    :D  that's okay though, i just sometimes turn it into a little scavenger hunt, with no one more the wiser.

please excuse the bluriness.  when you hand a camera to a 9-year old strange things appear on the screen that 5 self-confident nikon users swear they cannot get off.  until you hand the camera back to the 9-year old who did nothing to it, and voila... weird directions on the screen are gone.  and i don't have time to mess with any photo fixing site, sorry.  

i used this pattern for the mitts.  i like counting down instead of up, easier to answer that question which i get asked daily :).

there has been, and is still, some ornament making going on.  the bird (love!)  is from betz white's book warm fuzzies, and the bottom bell jar ornaments are from here.  my daughter and i are working on the bell jar ornaments and are maniacs about it, we love them so much.  i  got the little trinkets from bake it pretty, and i also picked up small ornaments and grab bags of christmas goodies at the thrift store super cheap.  our christmas thing, besides baking of course, has been ornament making.  here is 2011, 2010 (not ornaments but could be) , 2009 and 2009.

enjoy the merry making and spending time with your loved ones, boy oh boy what a sad few weeks around the states. it is so heartbreaking i am at a loss for words.  may we all count our blessings, no matter how large or small, and be kind to one another.  xoxo

Where we've landed!

Long time, no post!  Life hit some major ups and downs starting last winter,  some times there was so much stress I had a hard time communicating with anyone.

 Let's not dwell on all that though, I am too excited to tell you where we've landed after all of that!  We bought a house!  Not just any old house,  a sweet mid-century modern 2- story in a super family friendly neighborhood within walking distance to some of our friends.  My heart is so full of gratitude for this wonderful gift, and I am so happy to be here and for my family to be here now. 

Here's a little peak into how it looks now, it's actually more organized than it looks.  I literally just finished cleaning and moving out of our rental yesterday around 5 pm, and today...  I am exhausted.  It's been a ride, these last months, and I am so ready for this newest chapter with so many good things yet to come. 

Hello again!

meet the girls

we started last august with 6 -week old baby chicks. after a few months we realized that 2 were roosters. they are no longer with us. bummer, since they had the best names, dottie and freckle. yup, i named them!

we are total newbies with chickens. one thing i never thought would happen is that chicken tv is the best thing ever! seriously, when we can't find a member of the family, generally they will wander back in the house after hanging out with the chickens. when they were smaller and in a smaller space, we would grab lunch and pull up lawn chairs to watch them. i can't explain it.

these 2 are oreo and shadow. don't ask me who is who, the kids somehow have a way to tell them apart, but i can never remember. one of them is super vocal and likes to peck parts of us to see if we are edible. and no, that is not a head board falling apart behind them. yes, our dog wants them.

this is spirit. a neighbor kid named her. he also wears a mood ring.


buttercup, the kid's favorite.



she used to let them hold her a lot, now she's quick and runs. i think she was getting ready to peck the camera lens. aren't they so freakin' cute? my friend mel told me that it's no wonder i enjoy hanging out with the chickens so much. she checked my chinese animal sign and it's a rooster. go figure!

i'm stoked!

saying that dates me. sometimes there is no better word to use. i'm a dork, and i don't care because i am so stoked! i have needed something to store my most frequently used knitting items, not my needles. those are stored in a floral vintage suitcase. look at the lovely companion i found to sit close to my side of the bed...

it's an ottoman covered in vinyl, read: easy to clean. it has a nice comfy top. the insides are white laminate so no snagging of my yarn. oh, happy me.

as a bonus i found another amazing serving dish!

and here's a sneak peak into some vintage barbie that is making it's way into marley's room! barbie of the 70's and i have similiar taste, i wonder if she's a knitter?

i won! i won!

i have been in the crafty blogland for years and years. i have entered tons of giveaways, and have never won. woa bessy, my luck is changing! i just won a book from mmmcrafts!

it's the above papercraft book from kathreen at whipup. i love whipup, and i have kathreen's mini quilt book. i'm so excited, these are her 2 new books. larissa of mmmcrafts has a project in here (the cover project i believe). i am looking forward to exploring the papercraft world with marley, she thinks of this book as another birthday gift. fine by me! thanks so much to larissa for the giveaway! speaking of birthdays...

i need to tell you about this other amazing book . we got sewing school for marley for her 8th birthday, along with her own sewing kit. i found a pink measuring tape, got her kid's purple sewing scissors, cute dotty pins, cute needle threaders, and sewing pins. we were spot on! she loves her kit, and has made about 4 or 5 projects in the book. she cut out the pattern for the needle book, felt bracelt, eye cover and pin cushion. she has already made all of those items, including not 1 but 3 of the eye covers! here is hers and her daddy's...

summer blur

it's hard to believe that summer is passing so quickly. for us in the pacific northwest it may be because we have not really had summer weather. it's a non-summer summer, we're still in our sweat shirts and jeans. we have had a few warm days, but we have not turned on our air conditioning once! i'm not complaining though because i remember how stressful it was to live in temperatures that had heat indexes over 100 like my friends and family have dealt with back east.

we have been having lots of fun!

it started in june when my friend jenn and her fiance came for a visit from north carolina. her fiance actually used to live here (small world!) we all camped at the coast together. my family joined for one night but ended up getting rained on. still it was a blast and great to see them!



the kids and i attended a civil war reenactment on the 4th of july. i actually saw a bald eagle fly over our car on the way there. jasper is a huge history and war buff, especially civil war and wwII. the battle was the battle at bull run, see the ladies getting ready to bring their picnics to watch the battle? it was amazing to feel like you were there. the camps were so awesome to walk around and really feel like you walked up to people living during that time. the people love what they are doing so much and really loved sharing their knowledge. marley got a kick out of the clothes, so they were both so happy.

we followed the women's world cup. the united states ladies rock it! unless you live under a rock (shame) then you know we made it to the final game. i'm not quite sure what happens to me during these world games, but i love them and love the connection to the world. the above is a lego flag with a lego abby wombach and lego hope solo my kids made. they also made a soccer field with players.


marley and i then went to the coast for an all girl camping trip. it was so fun and relaxing. doing the dishes outside watching the waves is not a bad way to do dishes. we loved our camp site and are trying to plan another trip. my friend carolyn is an uberorganizer so it went off without a hitch. thanks carolyn!

i then went from long...

to short. this style is actually easier to keep up with than long for me. the weather here made my long hair frizzy which drove me nuts. i can shower, add a little product and it's super cute with natural wave on the long pieces. i love it!

then there was tackling the huge yard, garden and messy house for more east coast company, yay! chris' friend and his girlfriend came for a kamakaze few days. we blazed around town, visited friends with them, went to the coast and back to silver falls where we made it to 7 of the 10 falls. the best part? the kids did it with no complaining!


while our friends were here there was late night sewing and prepping for this beautiful girl to turn 8! my baby is 8, she is sweet, calm, creative, kind and enthusiastic. we celebrated for 2 days of being lucky enough to share our lives with her. happy birthday my favorite girl!

awaiting baby

no, not me silly!
another surprise baby (the baby's sweet parents did not find out the gender)
who is due to arrive any day now! it's so exciting for all of us. we wear yarn all of us ladies wove around our wrists as we sat beside one another in a big circle. the yarn reminds us throughout our busy days that our mama friend is getting ready to labor, that she could use our sweet thoughts and blessings, some parenting help, a meal or a treat. we shared our blessing and words of love in our big circle. we lit candles, we laughed, we cried, we hugged and shared stories and food. she had some pampering, some gifts and lots of extra love. she was uplifted. all our mama goddesses should be. how i would have loved to have had one before my sweet little ones arrived. it's very soul healing to attend these circles and i feel so happy and touched that i have had the honor to attend several of these since we have moved here.

beautiful blessingways, circles of love.

here's the gift i made my beautiful mama friend...

i love these baby pants, don't they look so comfy?

soft washable wool, elastic waist with an i-cord drawstring, and the legs are slightly flared, love them! i even feel i did an excellent job seeming up the inseam. they are here on ravelry, the yarn is happy feet by plymouth yarn.

please excuse the lighting, we were having some rainy days when i took these.

i realized after knitting several gifts for nonknitters that washing directions are a good thing to pass along. the thought of handknits being ruined in the wash is a don't go there thing.

have you ever noticed the great prints on packaging? i love patterns and keep pieces of packaging that can be made into cards, or gift tags, etc. this is the side of a kleenex box cut with pinking shears. i went into a scrapbooking shop in porltand and found a small notebook of crafty stickers and i have been putting them on whatever with the yarn of the item so the mamas know how to wash them. yay, so cute!

i feel so happy to make gifts with my hands. i feel like i infuse them with my love for the one i am making for. my days and energy are infused in these handmade gifts. if i have made you something, that's how i feel about it. i love doing it. if someone asks how long it takes to make some gifts i have no clue. what if you sold it they sometimes ask, i have no idea. it's my love and time so i feel it's priceless.

i am in such a happy, lovey mood aren't i? the suns been shining , we've been doing lots of fun things with lots of down time and i am feeling like my normal self. i got my hair cut short...weee! more pictures and posts to follow. enjoy this beautiful day