Artisan Sourdough Bread and Crochet Sandwhiches

Our Random Acts of Kindness experiment has gone really well.  The kids have really enjoyed getting involved, which is great.  Some of our random acts included cheering on the walkers for the Multiple Sclerosis relay, baking treats for shelter animals and our own furry friends, writing get-well-soon letters to the grandfather of one of Oldest's friends, and picking up trash at the nature center while we hiked.   When we started I thought 30 days would be hard to accomplish but now that we are almost to the end of our month long RAK, it seems like it all went pretty quickly.  Hopefully we have developed some "kindness habits" that will stick around for awhile.

I had mentioned in a previous post (although I don't remember which one) that I was knitting and crocheting play food for the kids to use in their toy kitchen.   Well, I finally got around to taking pictures of the sandwiches I made for them.

 

Peanut Butter and Jelly. 

 

 The jelly in the picture came out looking a little blue but in reality it's purple (grape).

Sandwich number 2.

This is the ham, roast beef, cheese, lettuce, tomato and pickle sandwich.

The bread and peanut butter and jelly pattern came from craft frog.  The ham and tomatoes I found on the lion brand website (free membership required).  The roast beef was my own adaptation of the knit ham from lion brand. However, instead of knitting in stockinette, I knitted it in garter stitch.  The lettuce pattern comes from the hook, yarn and needles blog.  The pickles were my own creation.  A simple crochet in the round pattern with single crochet stitches.  It took me a weekend to make and the kids LOVE it.  

I've also been baking more bread.  Making bread and noodles seems to be the majority of my time spent in the kitchen these days.  Recently I tried my hand at artisan sourdough bread.  

I really like the process of making the artisan style loaf, which is totally different than the traditional loaf I usually make.   There were fewer steps with this loaf of bread than the traditional loaves.  No kneading was necessary and it only had to rise once.   I appreciated that fact tremendously.  However, I've learned from this experience that I'm not a big fan of sourdough bread.  I do not like it Sam-I-Am and neither do the kids.  Hubbs thoroughly enjoyed it though.  He ate half the loaf on his own the first day.  He ate the other half the second day.  So for his sake alone, I'll be making it again some time.  For the rest of us, maybe I'll try a rustic white bread next time.  I think the sourdough flavor was just a little too robust for my liking. 

Bracelets

My trips to Wal-mart usually are few and far between and typically consist of me heading straight for the produce section or the pharmacy aisles.  It's not that I don't like Wal-mart, I just don't really have much use for it.  I don't go grocery shopping all that often and when I do I usually go to our local Meijer.  So, the fact that I took a meandering walk through Wal-mart last night was pretty unusual for me but I'm happy I did because I found some really cute buttons and picked up some fairly inexpensive yarn at 2 a.m.   Really can't do that at too many other stores. At least something good came out of these bouts of insomnia.

 So while I was sitting awake looking at my new little baubles I decided to put them to good use and made a crocheted bracelet.  I used a simple pattern of just plain double crochet with a single crochet border, it was 3 in the a.m. by this point after all, intricate patterns were just not feasible accomplishments that early in the morning.

The button really makes the bracelet, I think.  I have several patterns now saved in my Ravelry favorites folder that include more intricate patterns and some knitted patterns.  It's kind of nice to spend a  little time making things that are just for fun every once in awhile.   Time well wasted.  :)

I'm Jumping In

I've decided to go ahead and join the declutter challenge mentioned in my previous post.  If anybody else wants to join in go ahead to Hoof 'n Barrel where I heard about it first or head directly over to the Single Saver blog.  
Around here we have a donation truck that stops by every so often where you can donate items to various causes (veterans, lupus, or the kidney foundation).  You place a bag of items out by your front door, mailbox, garage door or whatever and some time during the scheduled pick up day they come and whisk the bag away leaving you a brand new bag and a thank you  note. Since the goal is to donate 366 items in one year, I'm aiming for 1 item per day.  Which meant that when the truck pulled up to my house this morning I intended to have at least 8 items to give away to the truck.  In my house, 8 items really weren't hard to find and I easily met my goal.  Yay for progress! 

While I'm saving my sanity by clearing some of the clutter in my house I decided to also try to save what's left of my old, worn out furniture and crochet some coasters for the coffee table and end tables.

The picture came out a little dark but I'm to lazy today to try and fix it in photoshop.  You'll just have to imagine it a little brighter.

I had previously thought of buying new coasters until I found out that a set of four, simple, cork coasters cost around $7.50.   Needless to say I was a little appalled by that.  I'm not really a cheapskate or anything but, yeah, there was no way I was going to spend that much money for a few chunks of cork board.  I decided to crochet the coasters instead of simply cutting out cork board circles because I thought it would be a lot prettier and it was a way to use some some of my spare cotton yarn. 

I used regular old Lily Sugar and Cream Cotton yarn in ecru and warm brown.  As I mentioned, I used scrap that I had laying around but I priced them at my local Meijer and brand new they only cost about $1.79 for a 2 oz. skein.  I got 4 coasters and a matching dishcloth out of about 3/4 of a single skein of yarn.  SO, I got all of that for less than $2 and far less than the $7.50 for a new set of store bought coasters.  It pays to make your own.  There are alot of free patterns in the world for crochet coasters so I won't bother typing this one out here.  The basics are just a simple crochet circle to the size you want and then I added a very easy picot edge.  Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy. 

Danaus Plexippus

Otherwise known as the monarch butterfly:

This lovely little male specimen was warming up in the sunshine when we (oldest and I) snapped this picture. 

They visit us pretty much all summer and most of the fall, but not becuase we are good company.   They come for the food.

Specifically, this food.  Butterfly weed.

Another sign of fall...the pumpkin patch.   This was our first batch (we've since added about 30 to the pile) after it had already been pretty well picked over.   For the rest of October, my days will be spent sitting with the pumpkins at the pumpkin stand.  

Which means, I will have some free time between customers to do...

Crochet!  This modest little fellow is Sherman, Oldest's doll and my new model.

He is currently wearing the blue scarf I designed for a Christmas swap...hopefully nobody in that swap has my blogger address.

Also, while sitting at the pumpkin stand, I've been working on finally finishing Middle's sweater, doll clothes for oldest for Christmas, and a really cute fall/Halloween table runner.

And, just to leave you all with a smile, here's a funny little blast from the past.

American Girl Doll Nightgown

My days have not been completely void of crocheting.   I finally finished one of the several projects I've been working on last night.  Oldest wanted a nightgown for her doll so I found a cute pattern at Bizzy Crochet.  

This Christmas the majority of our gifts are going to be handmade gifts so I will be making several more doll clothes, several amigurumi animals, several play food items and hopefully a couple of hats and sweaters over the coming months.   Trying to get all of these things finished should be pretty interesting. 

Free Crochet Pattern

I've been teaching Oldest to crochet and she's finally starting on her very first actual project, a doll blanket, for her baby doll.  We even went out and bought her her own crochet hook (a size N.   Larger hooks are easier for smaller hands to work with).

She's getting slightly annoyed by the flash on my camera.  It's apparently affecting her ability to concentrate.

A bit more aggravated...

And finally, FED UP.  XD

hee hee hee.

In the title of this post I promised a free crochet pattern and I wasn't lying.   This is a pattern for a doll diaper.   You have kids?  They have dolls?  Well, now you can have reusable doll diapers!

This is a modified pattern.  You can find the original here. 

Using a size H hook and worsted weight cotton yarn (if your doll "pees" cotton is best.  If the doll doesn't pee than any worsted weight yarn will do).

Ch. 22

Row 1: DC in 3rd ch. from the hook.   DC in each ch. across.  Ch 2, turn.

Row 2-6: Sk 1st DC.   DC2Tog.  DC in each DC across until last 2 sts.  DC2Tog.  CH. 2, turn.

Row 7-9: Do not skip 1st DC.  DC across.  Ch. 2, turn. 

Row 10-15: dc across, 2 dc in turning chain.  Ch. 2 at the end of each row (except row 15) to turn.

bind off, weave in ends.



add 2 buttons and use holes between dcs as buttonholes.

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy :)

The Dachshund Says Hello!

Oldest snapped this picture of Chandler the other day.  It was so funny that I had to share it.

Life here has been a flurry of doctor's visits.  Youngest developed a rash on our first day of cherry picking.  Initially I just assumed it was heat rash since the temps were in the high 80's that day and the following days when we were out picking. 

But when it was still there about a week later I began to get a little suspicious. 

On Saturday the rash looked like it was getting a little bit worse.  I decided that I would take him in to the doctor on Monday to see if we could figure out what was going on.   An hour later I put him down for his nap and went to work on some of the knitting and crochet projects I have going.   Youngest slept for about an hour and then Oldest got him and brought him out.   At first I thought he had been in some sort of terrible accident.   Both of his eyes were swollen practically shut.   His rash had spread and started to form large hives all over his back, chest, belly, and shoulders and he just generally acted like he didn't feel well.  DH and I decided that he needed to see a doctor before Monday and took him to the urgent care.  

The urgent care promptly refused to see him (too young) and sent us to the ER.  So there we sat for about 3 hours.   The doctors and nurses were very nice and they even gave Youngest a brand new cow shaker toy and referred to him as "their little man".   It was really cute.   The nurses really enjoyed coming into our curtained area and playing with him.   The doctors ran a strep test on him and asked us a bunch of questions about what he had or had not been exposed to etc.   Finally we were told that the strep test was negative and were given the diagnosis of "allergic contact dermatitis".   He was given a prescription for benadryl and the baby version of prednisone and told to follow up with his pediatrician within the next couple of days.

On Sunday the rash looked even worse than it had on Saturday and by this time it had spread to his face and arms and legs.  His back and chest were completely red, they had become one giant hive.  The swelling on his eyes had gone down but he looked like a little leopard boy with all of his spots.   The medicine did seem to help some though, at least for a couple of hours.  But after the meds wore off he was back to his old spotty self.  

By Monday his back and stomach were mostly clear but his eyes were once again swollen and the spots on his face and head were much worse.   The spots on his arms and legs were also worse and he now had spots on his hands and feet.   And he was itchy.   On top of that he had developed a slight fever and his little voice sounded hoarse.

On Tuesday we went in for his doctors appointment.   By this point he looked much better.   He still had several light spots on his arms and legs but the swelling was gone and his face, back and stomach were almost completely clear.   His fever also seemed to have subsided although his voice was still a little hoarse.  The doctor claimed that it must be the result of some food allergy and sent us home with another prescription for benadryl. 

When we got home from the doctor, Gran informed me that the ER had called with Youngest's test results.   This surprised me since I thought we had gotten all of his test results when we were there.   Apparently they called almost as soon as I walked out the door for the doctor's appointment.   I called the number that they had given and talked to one of the nurses that had seen Youngest on Saturday.  Low and behold his rapid strep test had actually grown strep.  It was a positive.  The boy was not suffering from some unknown allergy after all.  He was instead having an allergic reaction to the toxins released by the strep bacteria.   They called in a prescription for amoxicillin (the very antibiotic that both of my older two children are deathly allergic too and DH is moderately allergic too. Needless to say giving this medicine to Youngest makes me a bit nervous and we watch VERY closely as a result). 

So here we sat with little mister contagious walking around getting extra hugs and planting big wet baby kisses on everyone's faces while we were blissfully unaware of the lurking bacterial baddies that were living in his throat.   

Oh well, I'm just glad that they did catch it.  I had strep throat as a child that went undiagnosed too long and I ended up with scarlet fever.  I was in bed for almost 10 days.   It was a miserable experience and one that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemies let alone my own children.   Fortunately for me, once you've had scarlet fever you develop an immunity (usually) and you can't get it again. But that wouldn't have done Youngest any good if they wouldn't have caught the strep to begin with.

Somewhere in the middle of all of this I did manage to finish a 12" crochet square that I am planning to use to make a tote bag that will be used to carry the older two kids' things to their swimming lessons and back. 

The pattern for this square was found on crochet pattern central in the 12" square section.  Unfortunately, for the life of me, I can't remember the name of it but it is there.  So if you are interested in making one you just have to look through the squares patterns until you find it.   There are some beautiful patterns there though, so the hunt should be pretty fun. 

Octopus

I finished Middle's octopus.  I used a pattern out of Tiny Yarn Animals: Amigurumi Friends to Make and Enjoy.   By Tamie Snow.  

I'm about half way through my shirt and should have it done for the graduation.  If I have time I may sew up a skirt to go with it.   But that's a pretty big if. 

I've finally finished all the cleaning that I need done for the party, except for the bathroom.  It's amazing to me how quickly two small children can destroy a clean bathroom.   I finally have some time now to relax, watch some Cheers reruns and do nothing, absolutely nothing.  :)

Fiber Festival

"Mooo"

Today started out pretty busy.  We went out to the farm to feed the cows in the morning.  We weeded in the flower beds and got those mostly cleaned up.   Then I spent much of the afternoon cleaning off the back porch and doing laundry. 

I was really hoping to hit the fiber fest by 3pm.  BUT, we didn't even make it out the door until 4:40pm.   I thought that today's booths were open until 6pm but they actually closed at 5pm.  We got there with 10 minutes to spare. 

I didn't manage to get a chance to pick up any yarn which bummed me out.  BUT, the trip wasn't a total bust.  The kids found some really cute knitted finger puppets.

One is an alpaca and the other is a sheep.  This picture doesn't do them justice. 

I also managed to find a few size 3 and 4 circular knitting needles which our local JOANN's doesn't seem to carry.   I searched for them online but they ranged from $8 to $12.   I found these for under $2 each.   I couldn't believe it!

The fiber festival continues through tomorrow so I just might make my way back there, depending on if I can justify spending more time away from the household chores.  We may even be able to catch some time at the arts and crafts show tomorrow if we head over there.    I'm kind of looking forward to seeing the afghans and such at that so hopefully we'll get to take a little time without cutting too much into our schedule.  

Little Flower Headband

Oldest just got a brand new yellow dress from my MIL which she loves but she had nothing to go with it, including nothing to put in her hair.   So she asked me to make her a headband for it.   This is that headband.

For the headband itself I used the Jordyn's Headband pattern from crochetville.  Except I used a G (6) and I omitted the last row in the pattern to make a slightly skinnier headband.

For the flower, I substituted the one from the original pattern with a flower pattern from Mr. Funky's Super Crochet Wonderful Book and again used the size G hook and the small flower pattern. 

Tomorrow we have big plans to attend the fiber festival in town and the arts and crafts show that is going on at the same time.   Should be fun and exciting.  I'm going to try to remember to take my camera so I can snap some pictures to share later. 

Really we should be getting much needed projects done around the house instead of galavanting off to the fiber festival.   Younger Brother's graduation is in 2 weeks and we still haven't finished painting, still don't have the house straightened up, still don't have the weeds pulled out of the flower beds, still don't have the carpets pulled up yet and the new floors down, still don't have the grill set up, still don't have the charitable stuff taken to the church shelter.  We DO have one of the freezers cleaned out (we were able to find families in need in the area and donated over 100 lbs of farm meat, vegetables and fruit to them which is great but it took awhile) and we were finally able to get the new dishwasher installed, thank you DH and we have finished some of the housework.  So much to do, so little time.  DH only has one weekend off work before the graduation so it looks like we'll be asking friends for help with some of these projects.  

"The real things haven't changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures; and have courage when things go wrong."

-Laura Ingalls Wilder

Crochet Dishcloth

This is the second dishcloth that I made.

The pattern is Crochet Flower Dishcloth from Coats and Clark's website.

That's basically been it for the crafting front around here.   We've all been a bit run down with colds and I've been trying to get the garden planted.  I got a few seedlings in the ground the day before yesterday, only to wake up this morning to a nice, very late, frost.   Soooo, starting over is probably in my very near future.   Oh well, at least gardening is good for the soul. 

Happy Groundhog's Day!

Happy Groundhog's Day!

I decided last night that I would crochet a wrist warmer in honor of the event.

You may be able to tell what outcome I was hoping for by the "springtime-y" colors I used.

And if the colors didn't give it away, the giant spring flower should've.

But, alas, the groundhog has failed me yet again.

So, I made my own groundhog (or ambiguous, egg shaped, brown creature).

You will notice that his shadow is BEHIND him.

Therefore, he can't see it.  Well, that and the fact that his eyes are glued on, as in not real and therefore completely useless.

Spring is on it's way!

The Year in Review

It's time to say goodbye to 2009.  It was a whirlwind year not only for the nation as a whole but for my little family as well.   We experienced new adventures like starting the first day of school, losing our first teeth, potty training, chasing cows, and making self sufficient strides.   We had some sad times. We had some hard times.  We had a lot of happy times. 
Let's take a look at some of the many highlights of this year in pictures...

This year:

We welcomed new arrivals.

We enjoyed lazy summer days.

We reaped the fruits of our labors.

We said goodbye to our two front teeth.

We created.

We tried new things.

We celebrated.

We had fun.

Goodbye 2009

More Pictures

Here is another hooded sweater picture as promised :)

It's just around the corner

It seems to me that this summer has gone by much faster than last summer. Maybe it's because the weather in my part of the world was extremely pleasant this spring and summer. We had very few days above 80 degrees. No extremely hot days that seem to just drag on forever.

It's already a full week into August. August is always a busy month for us, but especially this August. Coming up we have the fair, my birthday, my daughter's birthday, my father's birthday, my daughters kindergarten open house and a few days later, her first day of school. This is also the time of year when I begin making 7x9in squares for Warm Up America. As soon as I'm finished with the first square I'll post it on here.

If you're interested in crocheting some yourself, you can check out some of the patterns and stitch guides right here: http://www.warmupamerica.org/patterns.html

The Afghan from Hell.

I've been crafting since childhood, but only crocheting for about 3 years (give or take). So it came as quite a surprise when my wonderful husband, Joe, came to me with an afghan request. He had an afghan he'd wanted made since he was a kid but no one had ever made it for him. It turns out no one had made it because they couldn't figure out HOW to make it. His Grandmother, who had been crocheting for around 60 years, couldn't figure out how to make it. His aunt also crocheting for over a decade, couldn't figure out how to make it. And now, here he was, standing in front of me with puppy dog eyes thrusting this pattern labeled *extra challenging* (Afghan Extravaganza 1995, Challenger pg. 124) onto my lap. I thought he must be joking, but I tried the pattern on a test run anyways, convinced that I wouldn't get past row 2. Well, I actually did get past row 2 and managed to figure out the pattern entirely. That was my undoing. My husband began searching the local craft stores for the yarn he wanted the very next day. He then decided that the blanket would be just too small if I followed the pattern exactly. So he made it almost twice as wide, which then meant I had to make it even longer, "so it would remain proportional" he argued. As a result, I've been working on this afghan for 2 1/2 months....and I just finished row 13 of 56. That's not including the border. This afghan hates me. But hear this! I will not be defeated! I will finish this afghan and I will do it in time for my hubby's birthday in Sept.! (Maybe).