Today...

...will be spent like this.

Here's hoping the big people in the house avoid it.

Supper

What do you see?

Sweetness

They're always so sweet when they are sleeping! Since he's still sleeping this morning, I declare this an 'awww' moment of motherhood. Forgive my veering off crafts for this.

I just came across this picture looking for a Christmas doily that I wanted to post.

...never did find a picture of that doily. I'm afraid that I gave it as a gift before remembering to take a picture. =(  So you just get this wrong-time-of-year photo instead.

Packer Headbands for Toddlers

My dear sister-in-law asked me to make some Packer headbands for my little niece's birthday coming up. They are far from Wisconsin, so they love to show their Packer pride whenever they can.

Once again, I was so excited to see what she thought of them that I forgot to take pictures first. Good thing she snapped one for me before she shared some with friends and family!

They sure are fun to make for little girls, even if they don't actually last long on the head... ;-)

Peeps and Kewpees

Today our family went to see this special Peeps exhibit at the Art Museum because Rachel had a submission. It was so much fun! While most of the displays used actual (unnaturally fluorescent) marshmallow bunny and chick Peeps, I loved that Rachel's wasn't going to decompose anytime soon. (I voted for you, Rachel!!)

Photo stolen from Rachel's blog - Pretty in Peep

After that, we walked around downtown a little bit, then stopped for lunch at Kewpee's. The boys had burgers and their homemade root beer, and I had some chili. Yum! While we were eating, I noticed a few dolls in their wall of Kewpee Dolls had little crocheted outfits on them. I didn't figure that hubby would be willing to take a picture for me, so I just asked the family sitting there if I could take a picture over their heads. They were very sweet and understanding.

Little bright ruffly dress!

On the first shelf are some little crocheted pilgrim outfits, and on the second shelf there are some smaller ruffly dresses!

After that, I realized that there was another section that had a Mrs. Claus and a cute orange dress on another doll, but I'd already used up my bravery of interrupting other peoples' lunches, so I'll have to save those for another (less busy) day. =)

Necklace and Earrings

More Crafty Sisters Teamwork ahead:

My darling sister made the necklace for me (aww!), and I made the earrings by sort of following Rachel's tutorial here. (I didn't make them into a ring like Rachel did--the two sides just dangle freely, and I used a different earring hook that had to be thread onto the jump ring right along with the beads. Tedious! But they were on sale, so I went for it.)

Now I realize that the only-showing-the-smile-and-not-the-whole-face thing is pretty creepy, but here's the sad fact: I had a headache that day. I could force myself to smile for the camera anyway, but somehow my eyes turned into creepy-wide-open look. I suspect it had something to do with the flash. So I've spared you from being creeped out for the rest of the day.

Octopus

Here's another little Christmas gift I made. This one was for our precious niece.

Too bad there isn't any perspective in this photo! It's such a cute and tiny little octopus!

That reminds me... I still haven't posted a picture of her blanket. Maybe this week. =)

Candy Cane Masterpiece

This Candy Cane Set was created with Size 11 Seed Beads. It takes a very long time to thread everything. I had a dickens of a time the first night I started because my hands were very dry, and I couldn't manipulate the beads for anything! Grrr. It quickly became much easier by the next couple days.

Materials:
Size 30 Crochet Thread
Twisted Wire Needle
Size 11/0 Seed Beads (a tube of each color was plenty for us, surprisingly enough)
Size 12 Crochet Hook
Clasp

For peace of mind, it's best to start by making the bracelet. That way you can just keep going with whatever is left for the necklace. In our case, we were pretty sure we thread more than necessary, so the necklace would just be longer. This is better than having to take off any extra beads because a bracelet is getting too big.

All this boring talk. All you want to see is the finished product! Here they are:

(The bracelet is spread out so it will fit nicely on the display.)

What do you think? I'm pretty sure she was pleased with it. She kept saying, "I was just going to thread a bunch of beads and twist them together!"

Later she added the little charm:

Once again, if you want to try this, it's easiest to start with a larger bead for your first project. And let me know how it turns out!

Sisterly Creativity and Crafts

During Christmas, we traveled south to visit with my sister and her family. What a blast!

My sister is the truly creative and crafty one. It's rather sickening. Anyone else have that in your family? The one member that so effortlessly creates masterpieces? Well, the beauty I find in it is that it allows me to try to steal adapt some of her projects and ideas. =D

To make a hilariously long and crafty week summed up, here's what happened. She pulled out some tiny beads and mentioned that she wanted to make a candy cane necklace. She was going to thread them all and then twist them together. I suggested crocheting it like the necklace I made for her last year. Her response: "You MADE that?" Ha ha!! She never knew and had never worn it. We got lots of laughs out of this.

Our projects for the week were quickly determined. We ran out to Hobby Lobby, picked up some Size 30 Crochet Thread, additional beads, and Twisted Wire Needles for threading all those tiny Size 11 beads. Since we knew it would take a while to thread all the tiny beads, we picked up some Size 6 beads for the 'in the meantime' project.

First project completed:

A beautiful Christmas Necklace!

And to add to the disgustingness of her creativity and natural talent, my sister, the non-crocheter, picked this up SO fast, she's already made several of her own and for friends!

So, I'm telling you, try it! You'll love it.

(The Candy Cane Masterpiece will be posted soon...)

This was SO much more fun than working on all the orders for headbands. I had plenty of time to finish those after we got back home.

Knock, Knock...

We recently endured this gem of a Knock Knock Joke.

Son: Knock, knock.
Dad: Who's there?
Son: Banana.
Dad: Banana who?
Son: Knock, knock.
Dad: Who's there?
Son: Banana.
Dad: Banana who?
Son: Knock, knock.
Dad: Who's there?
Son: Banana.
Dad: Banana who?
Son: Knock, knock.
Dad: Who's there?
Son: Banana. Orange. Aren't you glad I didn't say "Banana" again?

Source

It's all in the delivery. Wow. =D

What will 2012 hold?

Last year I did a 'look-ahead' to the New Year rather than looking back over the past year. I thought I'd do that again, except at first glance, it doesn't seem to be as loaded as 2011 already was by this time!

So what's ahead?

Our 11th Anniversary. I love him dearly.

Soon to be followed by hubby's birthday! I'll still love him dearly...

Trying all kinds of new foods.
Training for and attending a mission trip to a new destination with junior high students.
Planning and implementing a whole new Mystery Dinner for high school students.
Camping trips.
7th birthday (ok, that took a long time to be able to type that. ...excuse me while I go vomit)
Finish 1st Grade and begin 2nd Grade.

What happened in 2011 that I didn't expect? Mouth surgery. Let's hope that never happens again. A new niece! I'm all for that happening again!

I decided to type all this up before looking back at last year's list. Now it's time to go see how they compare.

Happy New Year!

I have a niece!

My new baby niece was born last night!!! Yay!!

I would love to show you a picture of the blanket and headband that I made for her, but somehow hubby or I took the pictures and erased them before they made it to the computer. =(

We'll have to see if the new mama can take a quick pic with the beautiful baby sometime!

On that note, her blanket was made with the very special Great Great Grandma Ginny stitch. I'll be posting about that once I have some pictures.

A New Stitch

Back in April, I showed you a very special afghan that was crocheted for my hubby by his great-grandmother when he was just a boy.

He told me that his mom had asked him for his favorite colors knowing that Great-Grandma would be using them to crochet him a blanket. When he said blue and black, she tried to talk him out of it. =) It's perfect and great for any boy, right?!

A while back, we put it on our boy's bed for him to use. One day, he decided to pull off a bunch of the tassels. I was heartbroken to have to break the news to hubby, but also a little intimidated to be the one to have to fix the beautiful work of this dear and wonderful lady. Tassels fixed, it now stays out of his room.

For years, I've looked at this afghan, and I've admired the stitches on it. It looks very simple but sturdy and warm. I've never been able to figure out how she did it. I'm certainly not a pro-crocheter, but I would (humbly) say I know a few things about some different stitches. This one had me flummoxed.

This weekend, we were camping, and my mother-in-law gave us an extra blanket. It was another gorgeous light blue and white one made by Great-Grandma. I commented on how much I love her afghans but haven't figured out the stitch yet. She told me, "Yeah, I wish I remember how she did it! All I know is it's called a broomstick stitch."

OK, duh. Why did I never ask her if she knew the name of the stitch?!

Have any of you ever done the Broomstick Stitch? Was it used a lot in those years or was it just a special stitch Great-Grandma happened to like? Anyway, I guess I'm off to check the internet to hopefully learn a new stitch! I'll keep you posted with what I find. I have a long way to go if I'm ever going to be as great as she was!

EDIT: Everything I've found so far is definitely not the same stitch... Any advice? Should I take a macro pic?

Life-long Love and Lighthouse

That's a lot of "L" today.

I love my family!

And we were at the Lighthouse when this picture was taken.

(This still counts for a crafting blog since that's the beret I made for myself and the hat I made for hubby, right? And I do love to crochet...) ;-)

Interesting Inheritance Items

I'm using the term "inheritance" very loosely here because it fits the letter "I" for the day, but I haven't really inherited anything, they're just on loan. Let's call it poetic license!

Way back (ALL the way to last fall!! eons ago, really) when I started attempting my Bead Crochet projects, I knew I would need a smaller hook. I picked one up when they were on sale, but I could tell it wasn't going to be small enough. That's when I remembered that my mom had a bunch of tiny hooks that belonged to my great-grandmother. I asked if I could borrow something for a little while, and she kindly gave me a little pouch.

What a bunch of treasures inside!

Little scissors, to be expected. Hmmm...wonder what that key fit? Is it still around?

Very intricate crochet hooks. They range from size 3 (at the bottom) to size 14 (at the top). I'm not sure if you can see how tiny that guy is, but I can't even imagine working with thread that small! 12 is the smallest size hook I've used so far. Aren't those carved ones beautiful? We didn't grow up with a lot of antiques around our house, so it's pretty exciting for me to use something that used to be in my great-grandmother's hands.

A tatting tool. She was apparently very good at it. Emily, is that what it's called or does it have an official name? There's even still thread on it. It's faintly possible that it was from my grandmother, but I doubt it. I'm pretty sure that she didn't do any tatting. My mom hasn't. So I'm pretty sure that was from Great-Grandma. The two items under/next to it are a mystery to me. My mom wondered if the bottom one was something for rugs?

Here's the little pouch that held everything. I don't even want to snap it closed anymore because the fabric is getting weak around it. I'm afraid I'll end up ripping it one of these days. At the bottom was another mystery to me until my mom looked it up one day. They really do go together, even though the metals don't look like they would. The brighter silver piece says The "Wristlet" Crochet Ball Holder.

This is how it works:

You put your ball of thread on the bottom part then hook it onto the bracelet part. It keeps your ball of thread right with you as you're crocheting! Once I figured it out, I really wished some of my thread spools fit on there. =) Isn't that fascinating?! Has anyone else seen/used these and I'm just now catching up?

Also included (though not pictured) was a tiny ID bracelet from when my big brother was born! I wonder how that got in there?

Do you have any treasures from previous crafters in your family? I'd love to hear about them!

Chicago Style Pizza

With permission, I swiped this tutorial that hubby posted on our family blog a while back. After Em told us about her delicious visit to Giordano's, I figured I'd share this fairly simple recipe to make your own Chicago Style Deep Dish Stuffed Pizza at home!

Want to make yourself some awesome pizza?  Follow along carefully (or not) and you’ll soon know how to make Chicago-Style stuffed pizza.  Of course, this is my method, and you’ll find there are lots of methods for doing this style of pizza.

First, you need to get yourself some ingredients.    Yup, my method is not “pick up the phone and call Edwardo’s”.   Here you have the ingredients for 2 kinds of pizza.  I made a sausage, mushroom, and onion pizza and a pepperoni, onion, and green pepper pizza.  If red and yellow bell peppers are priced well, they are a great option, too!


First step: Prepare the ingredients.  I like to have all the veggies chopped and meat cooked (if needed), before I start on the dough.  You can cook your onions and bell peppers if you want a softer veggie in your pizza or throw them in raw if you like a little bite and some fresh taste.



Bob Evan’s Italian Sausage and red onion.  Mmmmmm….look at the steam…can you smell it?


Pizza sauce?  Make your own!  I like to use tomato sauce (Contadina has the best flavor for pizza, in my opinion, but we had the good old Food Club in the house) and season it how you like.


This time I picked Paul Prudhomme’s Magic seasoning.   It really is a good blend for pizza.  It has some brown sugar in it, so it sweetens the sauce a little bit.


Some mood music is always nice.  This day we got “goofy toddler thinks he’s Jimmy Hendrix”.


Here’s my shortcut.  I’m sure anyone from Chicago name Gino would not approve, so please don’t tell on me.  I have found that the frozen pizza dough from the grocery store works really well.  You’ll need two dough-balls for each pizza.  Roll one out large enough to sit down in the pan and overlap the side a little bit.  The second needs to be just a little larger than the top of your pan to be able to lay it on top of all of the ingredients.  This is definitely a “pizza pie”!


Dough #1 is done and filled with a layer of mozzarella cheese, then your ingredients, then a little more cheese on top.  The pan I use is a Pampered Chef deep-dish baking stone.  Make sure to rub a thin layer of olive oil on the pan for easy removal when it’s done baking.  Most restaurants use a metal deep-dish pizza pan.


Lay the second dough on top, roll the edges of both doughs together, and coat the edge of the dough with olive oil.


The sauce goes on top!  Yes, you heard me right.  Keep that sauce out of the inside and cover the top with it.  I like to garnish mine with the diced green onion.


Stick it in a 425 degree oven for about 20 minutes, and voila!   That’s one perfectly baked Chicago Style stuffed pizza.
 

(Mindy back now) Well, I guess this constitutes being a guest-poster! I'll make sure he puts it on his resume ...that I hope we won't have to use for a long time.

A few ideas for variations for you:
We've used our bread maker for the pizza dough a couple of times. This works well if you plan ahead for the time it will take to rise properly (in our machine, about 1 hour 40 minutes total).
We have also found that we like Dei Fratelli Presto! Pizza Sauce as a pre-made substitute. It has very good flavors and seasoning.
Garnish the top with a couple sliced black olives instead of green onions to differentiate between which ingredients you've used in which pizza.

I really hope you try it. It was a little intimidating the first time around, but it is definitely worth it! And practice makes perfect, right? Yum...

Happy Anniversary!

Today marks 10 years of wedded bliss to the most wonderful man I know.

One year when our son was pretty small, we told him it was our anniversary. He kept telling us, "Happy New Nursery!" What a sweetie.

A post where I babble a lot

Some days you're pulled many directions, and some days they all converge.

Going back before Christmas, we spent all day, every day for almost 2 weeks at my in-laws' house. We still slept at home, but it was a chunk of time where we were not really "home" to catch up on anything.

It was such a BLAST! At any given point, there were over 20 people hanging out eating amazing food, playing games, doing kid crafts (I'll post that later), playing in the snow, watching movies, shopping (lots!), etc.

 In the process of all that fun, we also had some generous sick germs. Blech. I'm at the end of it, and I'm NOT throwing up (yet), so you won't hear me complaining. It could have been SO much worse. It just makes catching up on sleep a little difficult after all the activities.

In other news:
Earlier in the month, I had noticed that I was having a tooth/gums problem that just wouldn't go away. I called the dentist on Friday and scheduled an appointment for today.

I'll spare you that picture. You're welcome.

Last night, I had a great laugh at my idiocy when I realized that I didn't have a vehicle today to get to that appointment! Lovely and brilliant. =P  8:00 this morning, I put in a desperate call for my mom to save me. Thankfully, she was able to pop out of work for a few minutes to help me out.

Unfortunately, the dentist looked at my mouth and knew right away what the problem would be (but not without a little uncomfortable prodding first *shudder*). Here's a card for a periodontist for them to do a tissue graft from the roof of your mouth (I can barely type this right now...) to the spot on your gums that is pulling away. Why do I suddenly feel 180 years old? All this to process on my overtired brain?!

However, I notoriously look for the good in things, and this is no exception. What a blessing that they can take care of this for me before it actually causes tooth pain or damage! I'm dreading the fact that I have to wait so long to go in for this, but I'm resting in 3 things. 1. God is good. 2. The mouth is the fastest healing part of your body. 3. This will be a short term pain for long term health. I like being prepared.

The only downside is the wait. Oi. There is too much happening between now and then, and I'm anxious for it to be off my mind.

Upside: I guess if I have some recuperation time where I can't talk or eat much, then I'll have some serious crafting time on my hands, and I'll be on the road to fitting nicely into that gorgeous dress in March after all this BAD (read: amazingly, incredibly, sinfully delicious) Christmas food I've been eating.

Anyone ever have this procedure done? Is it the worst thing I'll ever experience?

OK, now that I've gotten that off my mind, hopefully I'll stop worrying about it.

What will 2011 hold?

It's the New Year! I can't decide if I'm excited by the potential or regretting all I left unfinished in 2010...

So what is ahead for us?
Our wedding anniversary is in 5 days. What a blessing!
We'll have a really cold winter retreat with the youth group. 

Hubby's birthday is soon. He likes birthdays!

There's a family wedding coming up.
(can't show you pictures of that yet, but her dress is GORGEOUS! ooh, and her shoes...???!!!!!! perfection.)

We'll be preparing for and going on a mission trip with junior high students.
We need to start planning and implementing a Mystery Dinner event for high school students.
Our son will finish kindergarten, turn 6 years old, and start 1st grade...yikes.

...and we might try to travel to Texas sometime this year.

What is ahead for you? We wish you all a very Happy New Year!

Last Bead Crochet Necklace to show for a little while

Phew! I finished the last one today. This will be for my brother's girlfriend.

The colors were picked out by a 5-year-old boy... hmmm...hope she shares his tastes. =)

All that's left is one more headband and a couple flowers, and everything to make for Christmas is complete! Yay!

If you want to try your hand at Crocheting with Beads, you can find my tutorial here. Send me pictures of how it turns out! I'd love to see it.