Turning Point

As a move to simplify, I am merging blogs so there will be more posts of everyday life here.

This last week Emily turned three! We had fun celebrating it over two days as a family.

She wanted a rainbow cake with purple frosting and the girls helped with the decorating.  I should have taken a picture of the inside which had layers of every color of the rainbow...I'm sure you can imagine it.

Here are some of her favorites:

• Favorite color: pink, which she wears just about everyday except on Sunday when she wears her favorite purple dress.
• Favorite food: just about anything, but especially loves fried rice and meatballs or just meat.
• Favorite activity: puzzles.  She starts to gather up all the pieces once she decides she can finish the puzzle on her own. Playing picnics is a close second.

New milestones:

• Is fully potty trained day and night and I couldn't be happier since this is hands down my least favorite parenting task up until now.
• Loves to say prayers.  It took a little bit of coaxing at first but now she loves to say them all by herself and of course now she and Hannah fight over who is going to say it.
• Knows her ABCs and lots of numbers.  It's hard to believe that she has 2 more years until school... 

Melt my heart moments:

• She usually thanks the cook of the meal, "Mama (or Papa), thanks for the delicious food!" 
• When she tries to contain all her love for her sister and says, "Baby Sarah I love you, I touch your neck!"
• When she and Hannah are getting along, which seems less frequent these days.  Why must siblings fight, compete, tease, etc. ?

We love you Emily!

Valentine

This is our first year making valentines for a little valentine party the girls and I are going to. I wanted to avoid attaching sugar as much as possible, since I already know there will be a lot of that around.

The hearts were made using the super simple Love Hearts crochet pattern, and they have a magnet attached to the back.

Originally I was going to reuse some used canning lids, since the message would make more sense, but decided against it since they sort of have sharp edges and all the paper stuff was too much work.

Crafting Craziness

Pausing in the crafting craziness to show off a little of what is going on around here...I hope I don't spoil the surprise for the recipients :)

Some pretty flowers for some pretty girls:

Pear pin cushions:

And a whole lot of knitting going on...

Simple Striped Baby Hat

Have you ever tried to knit a simple baby hat and wanted to add stripes? I've tried several times and always wondered how to get the stripes to line up better...and then I happened to see a video describing how easy it can be to make jogless stripes (hooray)!

So, here's my first try at it and it's barely noticeable (I think).

Crochet Flower Embellishment

It appears harvesting and preserving vegetables from our garden has practically eaten up all of my extra time! I'll try to take pictures of all the pretty jars we made...

Before I do that, I wanted to post the instructions on making that flower embellishment that I made for the Starling Handbag, just in case there is someone out there who might like to make one too.

Makes a 4.5" diameter flower

Materials

Worsted weight yarn

Size G crochet hook

Instructions

Make a magic ring with 16 sc. (here's a good video to learn to make a magic ring)

Round 1: ch 7, sl st 6 down the chain, sl st in same as beginning of chain,

[sl st, sc, ch 7, sl st 6 down the chain, sl st in same as sc before chain] 7 times (8 petals total).

Round 2: sl st, [sc, sc, sc, hdc, hdc, hdc, hdc 3, hdc, hdc, hdc, sc, sc, sc, sk 1, sl st, sk 1] 7 times.

sc, sc, sc, hdc, hdc, hdc, hdc 3, hdc, hdc, hdc, sc, sc, sc, sk 1, sl st, fasten off.

Now attach a button, yo-yo, or fabric scrap or any combination of those to the center....and now go embellish away!

Starling Handbag

I love the Starling Handbag from Futuregirl. I finally got my act together and made the medium version.

This was a great pattern. It was easy to follow, and I especially love that it's seamless. I added a simple flower embellishment, which is a modified version of the floppy flower pattern.

This bag is perfect for anything. At the moment it's being used by my four year old, who packs it full with all her coloring supplies. So, I guess I'm off to whip up another one for me!

Simple Gift

For some reason we tend to under celebrate birthdays once we reach a certain age, and I find that unacceptable! As mothers who wants to make our own special meal and cake? Going out might not always be an option. We often even buy our own gifts or defer it to the last big purchase. This is sad, and I think it should end!

Having just under celebrated my own birthday, I wanted to make a little something for a friend who was having a birthday to hopefully brighten her day...nothing fancy, a sewn version of this fabulous flower by Vanessa of V and Co. as a wearable pin and homemade cinnamon pancake mix in a lovely homemade drawstring bag.

Birthdays, regardless of the number, should always be celebrated. How do you celebrate birthdays without "breaking the bank"?