I'm a Fairy, I'm a Bee

 Since Evie's been into dressing up more lately, I decided to make her a fairy skirt to wear with her wings. I got inspiration from two blogs that I love (Happy Together and Samster Mommy) and created something that's sort of a mix of the two. I used a scrap of fabric I found in the remnants box for £1, bells from the charity shop and some ribbon that's been floating around our house for years now. I think the silver might even be left over from my wedding 7 years ago!

 As you can see, Evie loved it. She didn't want Canaan to be left out and kept asking if I made him a fairy skirt.

 Instead, we decided to make him a bee and pulled out Evie's Halloween costume.

They had so much fun flying around the house...

...and then decided to get just a little crazy by becoming 

a monkey fairy and a lion-bee.

Valentine's Crafts

Here are some of the festive hearts that Evie's made with a little help from me. Two of her favorite things to do lately are cutting and gluing. We love the glue stick and scissors from Nanny, as well as the heart mobile kit she sent us in a special Valentine package. We were able to use the extra parts from the kit to make a second mobile. We glued on sequins that I found for 50p at a charity shop the day before. Perfect! Evie's Daddy even got a little influenced by the hearts and helped her do a bit of cutting and gluing today.

Military Bias Dress

I've decided to release my creative energy again. I began crocheting a sweater for Evie, but it's a slow process because most evenings I'm just too sleepy to pick up the yarn and count stitches. So, I was surfing the net one day and came upon my new favorite crafty blog. There are quite a few tutorials on making clothes for little girls and I decided to make her this super cute dress. I started about a week or so ago when the kids went down for a nap (at the same time!). Their nap lasted a blissful and unusual three hours. I was able to make the dress pattern, cut out the fabric and sew the pockets! I'd planned on the whole thing taking me a few weeks to complete, but was very inspired after getting so much done at once. I finished it over the next few days. However, I only worked on it during nap time, so when I tried the almost finished product on Evie, it was a bit snug. No worries, just more work. I had to let out the side seams and get creative with making the neck line large enough to fit over her head. Eventually, it all worked and Evie loves it...especially the pockets!

Super Blanket

I finished this blanket for "Super." It was super easy and super fun and the super colors remind me of the ocean. I hope that "Super" thinks it's super! It was also super cute to watch Evangelyn help DaDa recycle yesterday.

My First Sewing Project

Here's the result of my first attempt at making something with my new ancient sewing machine. It just took a few adjustments to the tension to get a good straight stitch and then a very smooth process to the finished product, a cute little skirt for my baby.

Isn't she fierce...
watch out ANTM cycle 46!

bamboo, bugs, and batteries

Pray for our car.

The baby's due in 5 days and yesterday our car wouldn't start. This is our new used car that we bought about a month ago so we could have a 4-door. We think and have been told that it probably just needs a new battery, which we're getting tomorrow. Let's just hope that is all it needs. At least we haven't sold our old BMW, yet. If I do go into labour, we'll have transportation. It'll just take us longer to get to the hospital since the BMW likes to stall at most stops.

I thought I'd post some pics of the baby's half-room.

She's going to share it with Chris cause it's his "closet." They don't build many houses with closets here in England and use wardrobes instead. We tried having my wardrobe and Chris's in our bedroom, but it felt like the walls were falling in on us, so he and the baby will share. We figure that a baby doesn't really need a whole room anyway. I had fun a few weeks ago finding images of bugs and bamboo to make into stencils, and we decorated the baby's crib bumper. It was quite a process, but very satisfying.

Here's a fun one...
Chris's egg turned into an egg-man this morning.

Finished!

May 23...

We finished our mysterious puzzle...but still have no idea where it came from. The starred center is where my parents' house is located.

I'm Puzzled

Yesterday, I checked my mail box after work and found a package. I was excited, since my birthday's coming up and thought that perhaps it was my first birthday gift. As soon as I opened it, I became very puzzled. It was a puzzle. I haven't put together a puzzle since I was in elementary school. Who would give me a puzzle? I have no idea because there was no sender's name, no return address other than that of the puzzle company. Weird. Even weirder, this puzzle is not just any ordinary puzzle, but a very special one. It is a puzzle of San Clemente with my parents' house, where I lived most of my life, in the center. Now, that means whoever sent it must know me and know very specifically where I am from and where I am now.

Puzzle 1: fit the cardboard pieces together
Puzzle 2: find out who sent the anonymous puzzle

She'd better be a girl...

I'm not totally convinced by the 85% chance that we were given, but I had to make something, so she'd better be a girl! I searched online through what were probably thousands of patterns before I chose a few to make. The first are finished. The Angel Wing Newborn Pinafore was so easy and fast to make, and I really love how it turned out. The booties weren't nearly as quick. I think I started them about 5 times. The first one I finished was too big, so I switched to a smaller hook. The size came out better, but when I made the second bootie of the pair it was a little larger and I realized I had left out a row from the first, so I made it again. After all the trial and error, they were actually really easy! Now I just have to wait another 4 months to see how cute they'll look on my baby girl.

Happy Spring!

Bunny Bread! A tradition that my family's had since I was about 7 or 8 years old. Thanks to my sis's 50 email reminders, we didn't forget to make it this year. Chris has only had a few years practice, so one of his bunnies lost it's tail. However, he REALLY impressed me with his own unique design of a bunny.

Latest Creations

I've been on a yarn binge lately. As soon as I finish one thing, I have to start another. My fingers cannot stay still. First, I finally finished knitting my green hat that I started almost a year ago. The original hat was my first ever knitted item. It's also the one I lost in London one of the first times I wore it. My second effort turned out a little short, so I added a few rows of crochet to the edge. I will not lose this one. Next, I made a stocking for my mother-in-law to match some that her mother made for her years ago. Then a brown hat for my dorm's "Dirty Santa" gift exchange. It's not like it sounds, though. It's only dirty because you can steal other people. My latest is a funny-looking hat that I might take apart. The pattern was much cuter than my final product, but at least it was fun to make! I had to get a little creative with the brim cause it initially kept flopping down over my eyes.

Independence Day

Washington, D.C.
Fireworks
Collage by Jessica

Another Cute Little Doggie

I've just finished my third little doggie and was a bit lazy with this one. Another friend had a baby around Easter. She had seen the last little doggie I made and mentioned it every time I saw her during the last few months of her pregnancy. When I found out she had a girl, I decided to see what a variegated doggie with a pink nose and paws would look like. I also added a bow to make her look a little more feminine. Like I said before, I got a little lazy and there are quite a few flaws in this one, but I won't reveal the unfixed mistakes. I was just looking at the original link for the pattern and realized that my doggie looks completely different than the pattern creator's. Oh, well. She's still a cute little doggie.

Hats!

Two more hats are finished!

The first is my second knitted hat, and I was pretty impressed with the finished product, even though it looks a little imperfect in the photo. The most important thing is that Chris loved it! He wore it almost every night when we were in Bulgaria. The second is for a girl in my dorm who had been asking me to make her a hat for months. I had planned to crochet on the plane to Bulgaria, hoping to finish before we arrived. I hadn't planned very well, though, because I ran out of yarn before the hat was complete. I tried it on and it somewhat resembled a yarmulke. So, it sat and waited in my suitcase for one week and then another two in my house until I finally had a chance to get to the yarn store. Then it was finished in no time and Adrianna loved it!

Wasn't meant to be...

After crocheting for a year and feeling pretty good about my progress, I acquired a desire to knit. So, during the Christmas holiday, I spent a day with my mom and sister. My mom showed us the basic stitches and we all went to work on the same hat. Of course, my mom finished first, my sis second, and I finally just finished last week. I was so proud of my first knit project and got lots of compliments when I wore it Wednesday and again on Friday.

Well, Friday night my husband and I went to London to see "The Rocky Horror Show" and it was awesome! The show was out late, so we spent the night and ran some errands the next day all around town. In the morning, I was a bit chilly, so I wore my hat. Soon it became a little too warm. I put my hat in my bag. About three hours later, I was cold again, so I reached in my bag to get my hat and IT WASN'T THERE! It was lost and I had no idea where. We had been from Holborn to Oxford to Piccadilly and Leicester Square. There was no possible way I could retrace my steps. I just hope my hat was picked up by someone who will use and appreciate it.

Finally Finished!

So, my friend just had a baby boy. I'd been working on this baby blanket for about a month and finally finished two days ago! Stitching for 6 hours on the drive back from Lyme Regis (found some awesome fossils there!) definitely helped me along. However, I do prefer the double-quick blanket I made in December as it took less than 1/2 the time. Learn by experience...

Of course, a blanket wasn't enough and I had seen a ton of adorable amigurumi lately. I decided to make this mini-dog to give with the blanket. I actually had more fun making the dog...the satisfaction in completion came much quicker!

Now, I'm taking a break from yarn for a time - my finger is too sore from too much stitching!