Learning to Knit

I have wanted to learn to knit for a long time. I have vague memories of my grandmother (I think) teaching me how to knit when I was a kid. I never kept at it, though. Well, my mom knits (but refuses to follow a pattern or do anything other than straight kniting) and I knew when I visited her last week I was going to have her teach me how to knit. Well, she tried, but I wasn't gettin' it :(. My friend Jaana (pronounced Yawna) came to visit 2 days before I came home and gave me more detailed lessons! By the time I got off the plane in LA, I had knit this:

Yes. That's right, after a 5hr flight I had only knit this small section. In all fairness, I'm not very speedy as this was my first project, and I was trying to entertain my adorable 3 yr old who refused to sleep during that 5hr flight and of course, I was using size 6 needles. While I like the look of tightly knitted projects, it was going a little too slow for me. I needed to feel like I was accomplishing more in my new crafty endeavour. So, I got some Patons Melody Yarn, and used my size 17 needles that I confiscated from my mom, and whipped up this "blanket" for Taylor's baby (one of Taylor's many babies).

The reason I call it a "blanket" is because it's much more like a scarf. See, given I didn't have any guidance on this project, I had no idea how much it would stretch out and I intended to make a large square. Um. No. That's not what I ended up with at all. I ended up knitting a long rectangle measuring about 6"x40". The 40" side is what was on my needles! Ah, well. Taylor still says it's a "blanket" and it actually works out quite well for swaddling her baby, Sally.

After sitting with Mommy for a few hrs and watching me knit, Taylor was eager to give it a try, herself. I had guided her in doing a couple of stitches in the blanket. So, when I was all done, I gave her some scrap yarn and the needles. Still a little young, but the interest is there :) .

Special thanks to my mom and Jaana for teaching me another craft to add to my addictions!

Apologies for the grainy pics. I dont' know what's wrong with my camera!

Anyone have any favorite tips, sites, blogs for a new knitter? I know at least 2 of my followers knit!

Discovering Nature at Grammie's House

Get out of the desert and into the woods!

One of the things I miss since moving from Canada to the desert, is the abundance of forests and shaded hiking trails (not that I was much of a hiker when I lived in Canada, but I digress). The climate, vegitation and wildlife in the area of Canada where my mom lives is completely different than the naturally sandy desert covered in man-made landscape where I live now. The first day we spent at my mom's, Taylor and my 9 yr old niece were in the backyard, catching frogs in the pond, chasing butterflies and throwing bread in the yard in hopes of luring the chipmunks.

The pictures below were taken on a hike we went on on Monday. The trail is in a hiking area less than a mile from my mom's house. Enjoy the pics...we're sure enjoying our trip.

Little feet on the trail...

Picking up stones to skip stones in the stream...

Discovering snails...

Feeling a mossy rock...

I can't wait to show you where we're going on Friday! This was a beautiful hike but is nothing compared to what we'll see on Friday!

Drawing Pad Portofolio with Crayon holder

Here's another thing to keep Taylor busy on our trip. This project has been on my to-do list ever since I decided I wanted to learn how to sew. To make this project I followed this tutorial. In case you haven't noticed yet, I absolutely LOVE the blog Skip to my Lou. She has really creative projects with clear, easy to follow tutorials. In her original idea, the portfolio holds pencil crayons. I wanted Taylor's portfolio to hold crayons, so I compared this tutorial with her Crayon Roll tutorial and sure enough, the individual slots are the same size so it can hold either pencils or crayons.

I love how it turned out!!!

Edited to add the links because I was too busy multitasking when I wrote this I forgot to add the links!

Super Simple Sticker Book Tutorial

This truly is a super simple project and if you're a friend of mine with a kiddo of sticker loving age, then chances are, you're little one will be getting one of these from me for Christmas!

To make this Super Simple Sticker Book you need:

1 6x6 photo album (I bought mine in 2 pks from Target for $1 - in the dollar aisle - about a yr ago -- I'm sure you can find these at the dollar store)
multiple sheets of 12x12 cardstock (My album had 10 pages so I needed 5 sheets of cardstock)
Another sheet of cardstock to make your die-cut letters or alphabet stickers or pre-cut letters for the title of your book
Mod Podge
Ribbon for embellishment and anything else your heart desires to use as embellishments
Sticker sheets (of course!)

The process is soooo easy!

Cut your 12x12 cardstock into quarters (in case your mathematically challenged, each 12x12 sheet will give you 4 6x6 pieces of cardstock)

Slip a piece of 6x6 cardstock into each page protector in your album.

Cut another piece of cardstock to 3x6 (or maybe a little longer depending on the size of your cover). Use a small paint brush to apply a thin strip of Mod Podge to 3 sides of this piece of cardstock. Stick this piece of cardstock to the inside of the front cover to create a pocket.

Slip sticker sheets into the front pocket. Add your title to the front of your book (adhere your letters with Mod Podge for durability) and tie a ribbon around the spine of the book. Give the book to your favorite child! The child can then stick the stickers to the page protectors and remove them, then restick them, or they can remove the cardstock and stick the stickers to the cardstock. Either way, this is a fun easy gift that will give a sticker loving child, hours of fun!


*I made this book because Taylor and I are taking a 5 hr flight next Saturday to visit Grammie for a week. I've put together a special bag of new toys/activities for her to keep her busy on the plane. So stay tuned because I'll be posting about these goodies all week long!

Extend the Life of Your Cricut Cutting Mat

I'm not that great at replacing the protective layer of plastic on my Cricut cutting mat when I'm done using it. And, after I used my Cricut for LOTS of cutting in preparing for Taylor's birthday party, my cutting mat had lost it's stickiness. Rather than buying a new pack of cutting mats regularly (at $10 for a 2 pack, the cost can add up!), I figured there's got to be an alternative. I discovered this handy tip and thought I'd share it with all of you!

You need the supplies shown above:

Cricut Cutting Mat (obviously ;) )
Aleen's Tack it Over & Over
Scraper (from your Cricut tool kit. If you don't have the tool kit, you can use anything that will scrape the coating away without damaging the cutting surface - a plastic ruler would probably work just as well)
a Foam brush
a small amount of water
a small container and popsicle stick for mixing

Note: Teflon Spray or WD40 will also be helpful.


Step 1 - Use your scraper to scrape your cutting mat completely clean. This task is made easier but spraying a light coat of Teflon spray onto the cutting mat to prep it for scraping. The spray helps break down the adhesive on the mat.


Next, grab your Aleene's Tack it Over & Over. This is a temporary adhesive and I actually had it in my stash because I un-mounted all my rubber stamps awhile ago to use them on acrylic blocks. I coated the back of the stamps with the Tack it Over & Over adhesive.


Pour a very small amount of Tack it Over & Over into your mixing container.



Pour a little water into your mixing container (it should probably be about 3 parts adhesive to 1 part water). You can adjust it as you go along.


Use your foam brush to coat your cutting mat with your glue/water mixture. The mixture will bead up but just reapply. Once the mat is thoroughly coated, let dry for several minutes until it's dry to the touch but tacky.

Your mat is ready to use! And here's one final picture to show you how perfectly the paper sticks to the mat, but lifts off easily, too!

I like to store the unused glue/water mixture in a small container for future use.

I hope you find this helpful!!! And the best part of this is: the money you save by not buying new mats, you can use to buy more Cricut Cartridges! :)

A Get Well Gift for Myself!

I've been sick all week with a nasty cold. Headache, body aches, nasal congestion, coughing, and hoarseness that seemed like it would never end. Given I'm a hospice social worker, I couldn't exactly see patients as sick as I was. So I was out sick for half the week. Hence the fact I was able to do so much crafting! (I'm still playing catch up in posting all my projects!). As sick as I've been, I'm not one to lay in bed all day, so crafting kept me quiet and didn't take much energy. My dear friend, Jen, made me a rice therapy bag for Christmas. It has been well used. I seemed to have misplaced it though and I finally decided I just needed to make my own, so Friday morning, I sat my achy sick body down at my sewing machine and made the rice bag shown above. Then I popped it in the microwave for 2 minutes and headed to bed for a nap! Later, I made the pocket tissue pack holder using this tutorial.

I think it would be a great little gift pack to package a rice bag, pocket tissue holder, a mug, tea bags and cough drops into a gift bag and give to a friend who's feeling under the weather. You could also add a cozy blanket and a can of Chicken Soup, or even some dry soup mix made from scratch...what a nice little comfort pack!

Oh, and these little things were definitely comforting to me, I finally feel human again!

What makes you feel better when you're feeling under the weather?

More pics -- as promised...

I finally got the little monkey to agree to a mini photo shoot in her newest T-shirt dress. So, as promised, here are the pics. Most of the other pics I took are not so great. I swear getting this girl to stand still or actually look at the camera is one of my greatest challenges! She's always on the go and while I love candid shots in motion, I usually snap a shot of her heel as she runs away...not exactly the candid shot I'm going for...

This is the back of the dress. I don't think these loops do the pattern justice because I just snipped some fabric and sewed it together, I didn't follow the measurements, for this one!