Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

Olympics & Cat Toy.

We just watched the Olympic gold metal game for men’s hockey, USA v. Canada. Canada won 3 to 2 in overtime, but what a game! These Olympics were so much fun, I am going to miss them.


So here is one of the things I *recently* made: a felt mouse. He was the initial test run for an idea I had, which was to make a mouse for each child in my daughter’s preschool class to let them take home after reading Santa Mouse. But, as per usual, that thing took me forever to make, and so I gave it to our cat Romeo. And he looooooooves it. Really, he can take or leave most toys, but for whatever reason, he’ll attack this thing and carry it around by the tail like it was a real mouse.

Back on Track.

I can’t believe the whole month of January went by without one blog entry... guess I’ll have to make up for it this month!

Here is a list of things I’ve been working on:

• yellow knitted summer bag from the book One Ball Knits Purses
• knitted hat from a pattern found at knittinghelp.com
• felt mouse for my cat from this blog

For some reason the knitting seems to be more appealing than the sewing these days. Maybe because of the chilly Chicago weather. And knitting is so much more portable.

Well, off to bed — and tomorrow (or within the week) I’ll get some photos of the above.

The Gingerbread House & Romeo.

Last week, I bought this pre-fab gingerbread house. The girls were in no mood to wait for the frosting to harden, so there is no way they would have tolerated the waiting time required to bake a gingerbread house from scratch.


And here is Romeo, thinking that the Nativity scene is really quite comfortable, thank you very much.

Clothespin Dolls.

Christmas gifts for my 3yo’s preschool teachers!

Nativity Idea. New Moon.

Earlier today, the girls and I decided to make some clay. The last time we made clay (about a year ago) it was really gritty and coarse from the huge amount of salt, and I wanted something more smooth. After much internetting magic I tracked down this recipe which looked pretty encouraging. As I write this, the clay is drying, and seems to be cracking a bit, but is certainly more smooth. My 3yo made various Christmas shapes from cookie cutters, and my 5yo and I tried our hands at Nativity scenes. My figures are inspired by Russian nesting dolls – I plan to paint them, hopefully in detail, so I’m crossing my fingers that the clay holds up well.

Posting this sketch reminds me... I have the Twelve Dancing Princess mural almost finished. Just 3 more princesses and a little more background...

Oh! And this weekend, we have secured a babysitter!

Wooooooohooooooo!

Canvas Knitting Tote.

After having a bag with a velcro closure that kept grabbing the yarn of my knitting projects, I decided to make a tote bag so that when I run out the door, I know my latest project is in there and ready to rock. I had some leftover canvas from 10 years ago that I had used to make an oil painting that I later sold at a garage sale, which is now hanging in some boutique (and when I say boutique, I mean a totally weird alley store with lots of incense and mood lighting) gallery in Hartford. It took three days of flip-flopping over how to decorate the canvas, and I decided to stamp it with circles using sparkling silver fabric paint. For me the result is a little underwhelming, but c’est la vie. The bag suits it’s purpose!

Oh! And here are the girls from Halloween: