Girl's Crafts?

Grace got the Bead Weaving Loom Set for Christmas. I think all kids, especially girls, get these sort of sets as gifts. It looks good in principle but it's evil. I thought my potholder loom was complicated back in 1977 but it had nothing on this. Once month after Christmas and she finally decided she wanted to use it.

The box looks innocent enough and she could make all sorts of things from key chains to bracelets to rings.
The problem happens when you open it up. It took me a few days to get through the instructions. I needed a consult from MIT for them. Seriously, enlarge this picture and read them for yourself. The tough part is getting it set up for her. It took a little while and some bad language to get all the fiddily twisty threads in place.
I told her we had to start out with something simple as the first project. It actually got easy at this point as long as the strings didn't get tangled.
She even got to use a sharp needle to thread the beads on. The needles came in a cover saying not to let children use them. Of course the kit said it was good for kids 8 and up and you can't make it without the needle.
Grace is going along pretty good now but soon she'll come to the end and I'll have to figure out how to get it off the loom. Maybe I can convince her to just leave it on and we can hang the whole thing on her wall?

More Favorites

I know I just did a favorites entry a little while ago but I have some new things to add. Plus, I can't think of anything else to write about. We aren't up to much these days because we are snowed in.

I have to thank my friend Heather for helping me discover peppermint candy cane brownies. She sent me the best mix at Christmas time and I loved them. I had a bunch of candy canes left over from Christmas so I decided to try to recreate them. I made some frosted brownies, crushed up the candy and sprinkled it on top. They are not exactly the same but are damn close.
The other day, I decided I really needed a pair of winter boots. I haven't had a real pair since high school. Usually I steal Tim's or wear my old Doc Martens. I headed up to LL Bean with my 30-40% discount in mind. Problem is, by January, most people own boots and the Spring shoes are out. They didn't have anything I liked. On the other hand, I have always wanted a real pair of Wellies. After all, it's not like I go out tramping through the woods in the winter. I basically need them to go to the car and back. I tried on the traditional green ones but didn't like them at all. I ended up with the plaid ones with cable knit fleece liners. I know they are a bit much but they look cute with jeans and now I can slosh through puddles.
My last favorite thing is how much Declan loves Carly. Carly refuses to look at the camera because she hates the flash so I have a hard time getting a good picture. Declan spent the first few weeks we got her terrified and demanding she be sent back. Now, he hugs and kisses her and rolls around on the floor with her. He told me today they are BFF's.

Too Many Scarfs Or Is It Scarves?

So...I had promised a while ago to tell you what I was going to do with this pile of fabric. I made what I was going to make with it last weekend and I really thought I had done an entry about it. I actually remembered writing it but it turns out all I did was take pictures and download them. Anyway, enough about my early onset dementia, I was using the fabric to make infinity scarfs(scarves?).

Two things prompted this. I discovered an Etsy site that sells them and I thought they looked very simple to make. Then, I discovered the after Christmas sale at Joannes Fabric which turned me into a fabric addict. I had a lot of fun in the flannel and fleece sections. I bought too much.
The pile sort of overwhelmed me so it sat on my table for a couple of weeks. Finally, I dragged out my sewing machine, put Jam & Jerusalem season 2 on my laptop and got to work. Basically, you just have to sew a twisted loop together. I folded it in half lengthwise wrong side out and pinned it.
Then you just sew a straight line up the edge. Cut off any extra fabric and turn it right side out.
Here is the part when you twist it. I spread it out on the floor in v shape and flipped one side up.
Last step, just tuck the ends together, pin it and sew it shut. After the first one, I got it down to a rhythm and it only took 20 minutes to make each one.
Declan was my very reluctant model for them. I had to give him a dime to let me take the picture.
He was much happier to show off the necklaces he made from the scraps. He's going to sell them for a lot of money.
Now, I have about 10 new scarfs(scarves?). The sad thing is, I've already been back to the fabric store and now have to make 3 more. I think my next batch will be skinnier ones. I could probably make 2 skinny ones from each piece of fabric. I think I'll find out this weekend.

It Snowed

It snowed today. If you live in New England then you probably know about it.

It snowed so much that I had to get up at 3AM this morning to go into work so we could tell people all about the snow. Like they hadn't noticed it. I exerted my power and closed every school, business, daycare, bingo parlor and bank in the state. I even closed down state government.
They finally let me leave around 2PM after I had closed everything I could. I hadn't been outside since 3AM (when it hadn't started snowing yet). My car was buried by the snow and the snowplow. Luckily, we have a lot of work cars that were being dug out and I pulled the "weak little woman without a shovel" trick and two of our photographers got my car free for me. I came home to a cleared driveway but not a cleared street. Tim and I shoveled some more and I finally made it inside the house.
I wanted to take some pictures of the snow but I didn't want to go outside again so I took pictures through the window. We had almost a foot and a half but the wind was blowing sideways so it's all over the place.
The plows finally started coming and the snow seems to have stopped for the night.
Carly couldn't decide if she liked it or not. She went outside several times and didn't seem to understand that the grass has disappeared until at least March and she was going to have to find some new "special" spots. Plus, she kept snorting snow up her nose. She seemed to like that.

Child Labor

My father gave us this antique sewing machine about 15 years ago. He had an antique store that I used to use to furnish my house. When I was growing up, we had an old sewing machine and I used to play with it all the time.

Ours mostly stays closed with stuff all over the top. I was putting things back in place after the Christmas tree went outside and I noticed how dusty it was. I decided to take it apart and clean it. I guess it's been a long time since I've done that because Declan was amazed to see a sewing machine appear from inside the cabinet.
He examined all of it and figured out how it worked. The machine isn't connected to the foot pedal anymore so he had to manually work it. He has had a bookmark business for a few years and he decided he could use the needle to make some new ones.
He ran some paper through it to make punch hole designs. He was very excited because he's going to charge extra for these. He says they are Braille bookmarks.
Meanwhile, I dug through the drawers to see what was in there. My father gave it to us fully stocked with vintage sewing stuff. I love stuff like this and wish I could find more of it.
I love these "stylish dress buttons" and the fact that these snaps only cost 10 cents. The green book is the instructions to the sewing machine. I have no idea why they call it an "electric sewing machine" when there isn't a plug to be found on it. I once used the directions to try to thread the machine and I will never try that again. This machine from 1905 was more complicated than my laptop.
Declan claimed it was slow and boring to do but he played with that machine for a couple of hours and he only hurt himself once. I told him that 100 years ago using this machine could have been a full time job for the average 7 year old and I doubted they thought it was fun.
Carly also was interested in what was going on. I think she liked the noise of the machine. Maybe we can make her something with it..something small.

Christmas 2011

The Christmas tree has barely been thrown outside and Declan is making plans for Christmas 2011. He asked for some pipe cleaners a few weeks ago and I finally bought them for him yesterday. Problem was, neither of us could remember what he wanted them for in the first place.

There were 100 in the package though so he figured he could come up with something else.
He finally remembered that he wanted them to make candy cane decorations. Since Christmas had passed, he decided to make them to sell for next year. He very industrially sat on the couch and twisted them together.
This is his pile so far. He thinks they will be perfect hung on a tree. He hasn't decided on a price yet but I'll let you know.

Growing Into Her Skin

Carly Dog is now 9 months old. We didn't know what she was going to turn into because she was a mutt but we think she is almost done growing. She's not too big and not too small. She's great with the kids especially Declan who was so scared of dogs before her. The one strange thing is that she has a lot of extra skin still to grow into.

Here she is laying down and she has an extra fold of skin coming out of her back.
She has a lot of skin going on around her face too. She's very stretchy like Elastic-Man.
There's quite a lot going on around her neck too. It's sort of cute because you really only see it when she lies down. She looks perfectly fine standing up. It's just that she spends a lot of time on her side on her bed. I think that's when her latent Shar Pei genes come out.

Post Christmas Shopping

**Here you go Heather....

This year, I managed to avoid the Mall area for the months of November and December. I finally figured out it was a good idea to start a Christmas Club and, coupled with Amazons free shipping, I did most of my shopping online. The after Christmas sales are a whole different story for me. It's a chance for me to buy things that we don't need but at really good prices.

I got all these bulbs for about $2. Of course, our tree is already full of ornaments and we don't need anymore. We don't really use bulbs though so I bought these plus they are shatterproof. Maybe by next Christmas, we'll have finally won the lottery and moved to a new house with huge soaring ceilings and we'll have a taller tree which will fit all these.
An after Christmas must-the 50 cent rolls of paper. I am addicted to buying these. We never have any birthday or baby shower paper but we have plenty of Christmas. I'm going to be getting more this week plus labels.
Some late night online shopping led me to EBay and I ended up buying these topographic maps of Rangeley for myself. They needed frames though and I got these two for 70% off thanks to after Christmas coupons. Now, I just need to get them on the wall. Baby steps.
I bought these pictures last summer but finally got the frames in the same 70% off sale. Now, I just need to find a place for them and get them on the wall. Baby steps again.
I haven't forgotten that I promised to tell what I am making with this fabric. The problem is that I have been having more fun buying the fabric then actually getting around to making them. I discovered that the fabric stores have after Christmas sales too.