a look back at december {or the post with all the collages}

 december arrived and so did the snow! {our camera battery was temporarily lost in the move so lots of these are phone pics- sorry!} this picture was taken between snows on our back porch. it might be cold, but it really is beautiful! i love having seasons & if we're going to have a cold season i'm so glad there's snow.

 i decorated for Christmas the first weekend in december and we made the sad choice not to cut down a real tree. up here in the woods we're surrounded by potential Christmas trees. we could go outside, walk 100 yards and cut down a tree. we were planning on going out to HoneyRock to cut one down, but the more i thought about it, the more i realized that we should just put up our little fake one from my childhood {it was the tree my mom gave me for all the ornaments i made once there were too many to fit on our big tree!}. we were only going to be home for 2 1/2 weeks in december and then we'd be gone for 2 weeks. i was afraid we'd come home to a burned down house or a giant pile of needles and neither of those sounded very appealing. so up went the little tree, which turned out to be perfect! 

{maybe a little too perfect...it's still up}

one of my favorite things to decorate this year has been ornaments. since we just used our little tree i had lots of ornaments left over so i put them everywhere! every glass container i own was filled with colorful glass and i loved it!

 

i made another wreath. actually i made 3 more wreaths in december. but i made another yarn wreath! {check out a great tutorial here by danielle} i figured this one would be able to stay up all winter. it just feels so cozy! right now it's hanging on our bedroom door but will probably move to the entry to replace the crazy ornament wreath that's there now {told you...Christmas is still up in our house!}

i also made a few new headband & clip designs that were meant for the shop for the Christmas season but they all ended up being sold to people here or being given as gifts before i could ever photograph or list them! a few will be remade and might show up as winter {subtract the red} or valentines {subtract the green} designs soon!

also new in the shop have been these lovely cabochon earrings. i recently found a new supplier that i love and have been buying these little flowers by the dozens. i made myself a bunch of earrings/bobby pins/rings first to see what i liked best and they will slowly start showing up in the shop! 

a few are already listed, including my favorite the mustard & teal dahlia ring. i wear one all the time! 

the snow makes me either want to play outside or cuddle up inside with a good project. i've been crocheting a TON but i don't have many pictures of the final products. something i did complete and photograph {but failed to mail! sorry to the mamas who are getting these if they don't fit your babies when they finally arrive!} were these appliqued onesies. didn't they turn out cute?! 

i didn't take process photos since it was near midnight when i made these but it wasn't difficult! i just picked a font i loved and printed out giant letters (backwards. print them backwards). i traced the letters onto some wonder under which i then fused to the fabric. once it was fused i cut out the designs, peeled off the backing and iron the fabric to the onesie. easy peasy until this point. 

the next step is to stitch down the edges to insure the letters won't come off after being washed many times. my sewing machine and the onesies got in a fight and the sewing machine won. next time i will conquer this little problem, but in the mean time i hand stitched a running stitch around the edges. done and done.

that's a wrap on december. except, of course, for Christmas and MAUI which will get their own posts. then we're caught up to real life here in january!coming up tomorrow will be my it's in the bag post as part of ashley's blog crawl. head over and check out today's blogger in my group, alycia at the curious pug and then come back tomorrow to find out what's in my bag! {or purse. i still call it a purse. weird?}

until then i leave you with this...

a recap, part 2: the move and beyond

so moving day arrived and we weren't quite ready! turns out we acquired a lot of stuff in the past 2 years and we needed a bigger truck. {this is what happens when parents call & request you remove all your belongings from their attic!} brandon spent a frantic few hours packing and repacking and creating space out of nothing and i decided what we could part with. i made a pile on the curb that included some furniture along with random stuff from the house. i went back inside to clean for a few minutes, and when i came out i discovered that my stuff in the pile on the curb had been replaced with hubby's fishing pole, golf clubs and baseball bat bag. unacceptable! sweet hubby was trying to save my junk by giving up his things. i made a few phone calls and found someone to come fetch the important things and store them until we could bring them home! after the madness of packing up our little house ended we were off!

usually when we drive maddie gets buckled into the backseat {otherwise she tries to ride in my lap} but on this trip every inch of the car was full. my little fuzz was such a trooper! she made it six hours in this tiny space! 

we arrived safely in wisconsin and were greeted by a whole group of people ready to help us move in. it was such a blessing to have help right away and they had also stocked our pantry and fridge! yet another sign of God's provision throughout this move! we began unpacking and settling in to our new rental house. it took maddie over a week to feel comfortable here. for the first few days she wouldn't sit or lay down or look out the window- she just followed me everywhere i went! eventually she got comfortable and realized that there were all kinds of exciting things to see if she looked out the window! 

maddie has just spotted a deer in the yard!

brandon's parents sent a half a semi-load of stuff to us. it included most of the toys hubby owned as a child, lots of toilet paper & paper towels, a giant case of shaving cream, a box of baking supplies {really the shipment could have been its own post but the camera was m.i.a. at the time!} and this beauty of a table! sorry for the ick photo- we have bad light after about 3 pm.  this dining room table seats 8 without any leaves {there are 3!} and used to sit in hubby's grandparents house. i love that it was theirs and i love that it's huge! 

the table arrived just in time because we hosted our first thanksgiving! my parents and sister {and sadie} came up for the weekend. it was wonderful to have visitors and only mildly stressful to cook thanksgiving dinner for the first time. we all survived the weekend and still loved each other in the end! 

included on the menu was this cranberry apple pie that i found on bake at 350. it really was as delicious as bridget promised it would be!

the weather turned cold. really cold. and i had the constant urge {still do} to create something warm with yarn. one of those projects was this tiny hat for a friend's baby. it's so rewarding to start with some yarn and end with something someone can wear! more crochet projects coming soon!

part ii was longer than expected so i'll finish with part iii {december} tomorrow!

a recap, part 1

now that you have the long story of how we got to the woods, 

here's a quick recap of what we've been doing since october!

all summer i worked with a sweet customer to create a one of a kind belt for her niece's wedding. the wedding was in october. it was so fun to be a part of someone's wedding day and create something just as the bride envisioned it! 

{i'm working on getting digital photos of the bride on her wedding day, dress, belt & all!}

then hubby and sister bear celebrated their birthdays! he's 27 & she's 23. 

my little sister is all grown up! 

every year for b's birthday {and only for his birthday} i make The Cake. it's delicious. and could kill you! the cake is pretty harmless, but the frosting has 6 sticks of butter, 9 eggs and a bag of chocolate chips.

UNREAL.

even though i should have been packing up my craft supplies {and not making new things} i tried my hand at the yarn wrapped wreaths that are popping up on blogs all over! this was my first one and i've made 2 more since!

{sorry! late night cell phone picture}

on october 13 we celebrated 3 wonderful years of marriage 

{it was also the 5 year anniversary of our first date!}

we put aside packing for a night & went out to dinner at ivy, a new restaurant in downtown wheaton that hubby's baseball team had given us a gift certificate to. it was delicious and we really enjoyed getting to walk somewhere for a date, knowing that wouldn't be possible in the woods.

just as we were getting ready to move, our little camry decided it wasn't up for living in the woods and died. once and for all. it had a good, long life and in the end was towed away by victory auto wreckers.

yes. the victory auto wreckers. 

if you grew up in chicago you can probably recite this commercial. 

wonderful and ridiculous and still on tv today!! 

the door didn't fall off our car and the guy didn't hand us fanned out $20s but it was still a wonderful way for the little car to go!

as moving day approached and the house started to clear out, maddie wasn't quite sure what to do with herself. one day i found her curled up in the pile of bedding that was waiting to be packed.  the furniture was already on the truck and she had no place else to hide! 

{she was wearing her giants collar for the playoffs...it worked!} 

part ii: the move and beyond coming tomorrow!

thrift store find

i was at a local thrift store with my best friend the other day and i kept wishing i had my camera with me (even my phone was dead). i found a number of old reader's digest books that i wanted to turn into purses (and use the pages for some fabulous wall decorations), she found an adorable yellow shower curtain and then we saw this: 

there was a set of 3 of them. one round. two square. one orange. one purple. one green. i have never seen anything like this before and i was so intrigued! it's clearly a trivet made with vast amounts of looped yarn, but how?! 

i had no cash so my wonderful fat lady friend (a story for another time) bought me this little gem so i could figure out how to make it.

i haven't had the heart to rip it apart just yet but as soon as i figure it out i'll post the how-to. anyone seen a trivet like this before? thoughts or insights on how to do it?

there's a new yarn in town

i was on one of my weekly (or biweekly) trips to joann fabrics when i saw a new endcap of yarn that made my heart skip! the author of the wonderful book that taught me to crochet has created a new line of yarn. all natural. clever names. gorgeous colors. peruvian sheep's wool. alpaca. bamboo. oh the wonder of it all! i bought one of each type and brought them home to find out what these yarns are made of. 

the colors alone are enough to make you swoon! 

first the facts: 

$4.99/skein. 

the alpaca is a 3 oz/132 yard skein. 

wool & bamboo are both 3.5 oz skeins. 

wool is 155 yards, bamboo is 177 yards. 

all three are medium weight yarns. 

the alpaca calls for an I-9 crochet hook while the bamboo & wool suggest a size K-10 1/2.

so i pulled out my hook (size G) - which is smaller than they suggest but it's my favorite- and crocheted a little swatch of each type of yarn using my new favorite: seed stitch. i use a variation that repeats single crochet and a chain in the first row. in the next row you sc into the chain and so on. i love the stitch because it's fairly closed and yet still soft and stretchy unlike a full swatch of single crochet.

so....the swatches all turned out about the same size. and they're purty. take a look (sorry about the sun coming through the blinds...a professional photographer i am not!)

 

so here's the verdict: 

third place- alpaca love (shown here in "fern").

this yarn is actually only 20% alpaca- with the other 80% being wool. that makes it lighter than a yarn with more alpaca but also scratchier. it feels a bit like a polyester yarn with more fiber to it. i liked it but it's not as cozy as i was hoping for alpaca.

second place- full o' sheep (shown here in "meadow")

this is 100% peruvian wool and my favorite color out of ALL the stitch nation yarns. for a 100% wool yarn i'm impressed by its softness, but it's still a bit scratchy. i also love the look of this yarn in its skein and wouldn't mind just looking at it all pretty in its wrapper- but once i started using it the yarn got fairly fuzzy. this would be an issue if anything needed to be pulled out and redone (which i do often)

first place- bamboo ewe (shown here in "mermaid")

this fabulous yarn is 55% viscose from bamboo and 45% wool making it the perfect blend of warmth and cuddly softness. it still has a bit of scratch to it, but i would definitely wear it up against my skin. no fuzzing issues either. this was the smallest of the swatches- which could be my inability to keep the tension the same. i have since purchased "sprout" and i'm hoping to get "mercury" as soon as i have another 50% off coupon ($2.50 for all natural yarn is wonderful!). then i shall make something wonderful. not sure what yet.

so there you have it. one new yarn brand. three new yarns. all wonderful. one winner. great idea debbie stoller!