Clothes line

We finally put up a clothes line and I love the way the diapers look drying on the line! It definitely takes a few more minutes then just popping them in the dryer but its worth it.

Its been quite awhile since my last post. Right after having the baby we ran off to Indianapolis for a month, so its been pretty hectic. We are finally settling back into a routine at home, although I am having a terrible time figuring out where to fit posting to my blog into that. Anyway here are some of the things we've been up to since coming home:

A silk fort in the backyard

A trip to the farmers market with friends

A visit to my brother's new recording studio.

Making apple prints.

Playing 3 billy goats gruff with silks and blocks.

I've been crafting madly so I'll be back soon with pictures.

Washboard

I finally put our washboard to good use. I found it at a garage sale last year and unfortunatlly it sat in the basement for quite awhile waiting to be cleaned up. Now that it is in good shape K has been using it to scrub our napkins. :)

Updates

Here's an updated picture of my advent calander. I finally was able to get the felt I wanted to make the pockets. I'm about half way done needle felting the numbers on (not shown). I should be right on track to get this done on time. I hope.

Anyway so I'm sure you have all noticed that I've been pretty absent lately. Well that is because we are expecting another baby! yay! So why would that explain my absence? Well I've had pretty horrible nausea that only gets worse by looking at the computer. I'm 15 weeks now and it has not let up a bit, so I mostly only get on the computer for a quick e-mail update. So my updates will probably be spotty and in big clumps until I can get back on my game. This also means that when I am here to update everything will be quite behind. Anyway I have a few more posts for this clump and then hopefully won't be gone for too long. :)

Maker Faire

We went to our first maker faire this weekend. There was so much to see I don't think we even saw half of it. The whole faire is full of inventions, robots, and things to make. K drove a remote control car that scoops up and throws tennis balls. The strange bikes were really fun to see driving around the faire. We also saw a huge mouse trap, a homemade car race, a huge coke/mentos demonstration, and robots playing soccer. I highly recommend the maker faire if it comes your way.

Happy 4th!

For the weekend of the 4th we were very busy! We went to a parade with some family and friends in our hometown. Then we wondered over to their little historical village to listen to music and visit the civil war soldiers . That night we went to Greenfield village to see the Detroit Symphony Orchestra play and see fireworks. On Sunday we spent the day with family swimming and eating. HAPPY 4TH!

Greenfield Village

Making a brass candle stick in the machine area
K talking to a sheep in the farm area
K running past all the old buildings
The candle stick I made. :)

This year for Christmas we received a membership to Henry Ford/Greenfield village. Greenfield Village just opened for the season and we have loved going. The village is set up like a huge old fashioned village with model T cars to ride, a steam engine train (that K loves to ride), an old working farm, a crafts area with people blowing glass, making pottery, weaving, printing, an old downtown, and hundreds of old homes to visit.

Kalan loves to visit the farm animals and ride the train. He talks about that train all the time. :)

Kid Art

We've been doing lots of art around here as a family. K loves to have us all gather around the table and paint together. The sun and light water color are the end result of our masking tape painting. The others are the result of potato and lettuce stamping.


In other news I had some wonderful finds at Salvation Army today! I bought K a little wooden iron, a glass pitcher, a glass bean container, tons of wonderful cotton sweaters to unravel into yarn, two large wooden peg puzzles, a big basket for toys, and a little glass for K.
We also stopped at a natural toys store in the area and found some great clearance items! Some water colors, all natural glue, toy metal bowls, wooden milk jugs, and beaswax tea candles.

Ok I'm off to work on my leprechaun gnome. He is coming along great! Perhaps we'll be ready for his debut tomorrow.

Silk Play

We are all sick here. First K gets Roseolla, then casey gets his appendix out. Then three nights ago K was sick all night with a stomach virus, last night casey and I were up all night with the same virus. Now my poor mother who has been nursing us is sick. What a mess we all are.
Well despite this I have finished the cherries and our little masking tape art project. I'll be back to post on that. Here are some photos though of K playing in our hand dyed silks. I tied them all together across the room and we ran in and out of them playing hide and seek.

appendix

I've been slacking a little here due to a few things. 1. Casey had to get his appendix out on Saturday. He was at work and had to go into emergency to have it removed that night. He's doing fine and I am enjoying him having the week off. 2. K had Roseola. Nothing serious, mostly it just made him crabby and tired. 3. I joined "bit of goodness" craft swap and have been crafting like crazy to get my stuff together to send. I joined a play kitchen swap and am making little aprons and Crocheted Cherries. My friend was in town for the weekend and taught me how to crochet. This is my 3rd attempt to learn and I think it finally sunk in this time. I have a ton more work to do before the deadline, but as soon as something is done I'll post it.
Now I'm off to enjoy some family time and make some Cherries.

Craftbook jackpot.

I went to a local library used book sale and hit the jackpot in crafting books. I found some great crafts from around the world, knitting, kits, fabric games, sewing animals, nature, and more. I really love the knitting pattern for the tools and K is obsessed with hammers and screws right now. Although he calls a hammer a {say the world gan gan with your mouth closed}. Anyway I'm super excited to pick some things to make from these books.

What I'm up to

I haven't had any new posts latley because I've been working on several things and not really finishing anything. C helped me cut a spoon out of wood and I'm going to start carving it next, I've been working on my knitted turtle, I've been trying to learn to crochet, I made a terribly ugly window star, AND I'm going to work on learning some new stitches today. Perhaps by tomorrow I"ll have something finished to post. More likely not till the weekend though.

My etsy shop

Here is a link to my new shop:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/seasonalgnome

Soon here I will make a button to put on my blog and perhaps you nice folks out there can put one on your blog too. :) I'll post it when its ready. For now I'm off to make more gnomes.

Oh on a side note I received a saw and carving tools for Christmas so I can attempt to woodwork. We also have a little wood burner already and yesterday we finally bought a clamp. So pretty soon here I'm going to attempt to make some little animals.

List

Ok hopefully I can delete this post later but it is a reminder on what to post. Let me know if you have a request of something old. Or if I made you something you can send me a pic of it. (hint hint aunt sunny and her inuksuk or however you spell it) (soup and the cow!)

casey's book (take pic)
stuffed animals (witch, goat, monkey)
knitting (turtle)
K's holiday prints

Starting to organize

So I've been making lots of fun things and I thought it would be fun to find a way to organize and perhaps share them with people. I do not plan on "blogging" so much as just posting things that I have made or am making. Ok so here goes...