Crazy Cat Lady But First...Yarn P0rn

I spend a lot of time being grateful I got married. If it hadn't been for the Businessman, I would still be living in an apartment somewhere, single, surrounded by dozens of stray cats I had adopted. I am resoundingly a cat person.

I'm sure the Businessman is grateful I came into his life too.

I find other people's cat stories akin to children's first word stories. They are no doubt endearing to the people directly involved, but are rather ridiculous to the rest of us. On that note, I'm changing it up and starting with

What I Made:

and follow with the cute kitty story so you can stop reading before you gag. I'm thoughtful that way.

It's not terribly creative, but I made a ridiculous impulse purchase. Look what I found:



It's sock yarn. Limited edition. Hard to find. The knitters among you will see the potential immediately. Non knitters, here's your clue: The color is called 1776.

Enough with the yarn p0rn. Here's my cat:



I just realized this pic is also a glimpse into my life: Threads magazine? Check. Overly large knitting basket? Check. Nail polish? WTF?

Can you tell where under the deck the bird's nest is? There is no way he can reach it so I'm letting him have a little torture fun. I was worried his smell would scare away the birds, but then I noticed the nest is nothing less than a well-structured hairball. I should know, I've been cleaning up the feline-manufactured kind all month.

Mini Desert Garden

Summer is making an effort to appear in these parts. For the first time in several years, I have been drawn to the plant nursuries. I don't know why I lost my gardening mojo. Probably the babies. And the snakes. And the worms. But it's back and while I wait for the Businessman to build the retaining walls that will comprise my vegetable patches, I decided to fill some planters.

What I Made:

Many years ago, Martha Stewart had a succulent wreath in her magazine. My mom and I decided to recreate it. We did a decent job too, considering there were only about five succulents available in our area, three of them being hens and chicks.

Anyway, a local nursury had a huge selection of succulents (they do well here being practically a desert), and I was reminded of the wreath. Then I saw some displays in the cactus area and thought "I can make that for less then $60.00."



And I did.

I do want to try the succulent wreath again.

Monster Truck Party Invites

You know how kids are. For the last 48 months, Yummy has been planning his birthday party. He had a deadline to decide on a theme. As soon as he said "Monster Trucks!" he started planning next year's party, 13 months away.

Which leaves me two weeks to plan a Monster Truck Party.

I've booked a picnic area and made invitations. I didn't think I would need to make invites--I figured Monster Trucks would be everywhere--but I hunted in two party stores and decided to stop wasting time and went to the craft store.

What I We Made:



ETA: Click here to learn how to make these. Thanks for stopping by.

Monster Truck invitations. Yummy found the truck stickers and I found the cards, envelopes, scrapbook paper and sandpaper. Yummy ripped, I glued, Yummy stickered, I wrote. Then I realized all this blogging has destroyed the tiny bit of legibility my handwriting used to have so I used my printer, then ripped and glued some more.

The best part was running lego tires through paint and then driving them on the envelopes to make tracks.

I think they're darned cute. Better than anything the party store could sell.

Of course next year there will be a whole wall of Monster Truck party stuff and Yummy will want an underwater space monkey theme.

Mug Shot

Look at what I got for Mother's day:



A mug with my new logo, and assurance that it was a bottomless pit of caffeine for the day.

Perfect! They love me and they enjoy watching me shake like a chihuahua!

What I Made:

Since my oldest kiddo got to go to Moab last week, I spent the time making sure my youngest never had the chance to feel left out. Even if that meant making an amigurumi tortoise he saw while I was clicking around on Ravelry.


Click pic for Ravelry Link

I've never felt drawn to the amigurumi craze. I've always thought the stuff was cute, but I don't have much desire to surround myself with tiny, crocheted, stuffed animals. However, Vish is happy and it uses up scraps of yarn (I'm down to less than 26 miles of yarn now).

Plus, it must be entertaining to watch my jittery hands wrangle a crochet hook.

Happy Mother's Day

Genes are funny. I've inherited all sorts of great stuff from my mom.

• Inability to grow my fingernails past the tips of my fingers.
• Completely random fainting spells.
• A debilitating fear of snakes.
• Big feet
• A mindset that lets me know I can make just about anything I want.

My mother is the main reason I create. While I have bested her in power tools and knitting, she still holds the titles in sewing, cake decorating, and overall brainstorming. I have never heard her say "I wish I could make something like that..."

Thanks mom, for supporting the yarn/fabric/craft store industry until I was old enough to take over...and for always telling me "We could make that." I love you.

I know you won't mind the picture since you stopped aging about 20 years ago.

I'm sure I'll inherit that too.

More Wedding Corsetry

Okay. It's driving me crazy. My camera is in another state and my archives are dwindling. But I'll suck it up and find something to entertain you in the meantime.

What I Made:

I may have mentioned my corset feti$h previously. I just love them and my waistline can only be improved by cinching it in.


Click pic for Ravelry link

I made this for a friend's wedding last Fall. I used a technique called Tunisian Crochet, which is sort of a crochet/knitting hybrid. It makes a sturdy fabric (which you need for a corset) but still has some stretch (which you need to breathe properly).

This yarn (Blue Heron Rayon Metallic) color is called "Aubergine" but you have to use willpower, bright sunlight and beer before you can see the deep purple I was aiming for. Ordering online does have drawbacks. Regardless, it's still one of my favorite yarns and it's the second time I've used it for a project.

I wore this with brown slacks and a brown tuxedo shirt, which gave it the effect of a sexy cummerbund. I also spent ten minutes lacing the ribbons perfectly then, which I failed to do for this photo shoot. It was one of my more successful Trophy Wife outfits.

Laced Corset by Jennifer Hansen, VK Holiday 2004

Tucking In Loose Ends

The Businessman has kidnapped my oldest child and is in Moab. This leaves me free of school obligations so I am taking my youngest and heading for the mountains. It also means I have no camera and can't put up a pic of the cute turtle I made today for Vish. You'll just have to wait.

In other news, I got a clean bill of health from the dentist. Little do they know any mom would give her teeth (and a couple grand) for the opportunity to recline for an hour with anesthesia.

Oh, CDB, have a happy birthday. I'll try to call on Friday, but I may not have cell phone reception.

Boo Boo Bunny Tutorial

When I discovered I was going to have a baby boy, I bought three boxes of bandaids. When I discovered I was having a second boy I mapped out five different routes to the ER. Well...first I cried, then I called everyone I knew and cried, then I started mapping. I'm fortunate that I haven't had to use any of my ER routes (yet) but I have had to pull out Boo-Boo Bunny a few times. Usually for grown men (I know he ended up having a broken rib, it was still funny).

You will need a washcloth and a hair elastic/rubber band/ribbon/string. I can always find hairbands around my home (except when I want them for my hair) but maybe you're more the kitchen twine type.



Lay your washcloth out and fold it into a triangle.



Starting from the corner, roll the cloth up toward the long edge.



Fold the tube in half and squeeze it tightly together. Then fold the ears up over the tushie, or tushie up over the ears.



You'll need to squeeze tightly here. Wrap your hairband around snugly to form the neck of the bunny.



Fluff up the little ears and he's ready to go.



To use: Either you have a screaming child right now and you just need to plunk the bunny in some ice water and let him hop (gently!) onto the boo-boo. Or, you anticipated this sort of thing and weeks ago you wet the bunny down and stuffed him in a bag in the freezer for emergencies.

Mine lives next to the popsicles--the other standard emergency medical supply.

Why I Use Cutesy Nicknames

A recent question posted on a blog asked 'What is your biggest pet peeve about other blogs?'

There were a few obvious answers: Music atomatically playing (ugh!), too much advertising, light text on a dark background, etc.

But one popped-up that I am guilty of: Cutesy names for family members. Several blogs I read hide identities with nicknames. And that's exactly why I use nicknames--to protect the identity of my family. I'm not deluded into thinking you couldn't track me if you really tried, but my kids are still young and my job is to protect them.

Not wanting to be guilty of smarming potential readers away from my blog, I discussed this with the Busi...er...my husband. He sort of grimaced and stammered and I started to get worried.

"I like my nickname."

So the family wins. At least until the boys are teenagers and hope I never acknowledge them in public, much less online.

And for those of you who do have 'grandma blogs'--blogs intended to keep extended family in the know about first words and first steps--you really need to consider making your blog 'invite only'--especially if you have birth announcements with full names and dates.

What I Made:

Coming later today: A boo-boo bunny tutorial.

A Bit Of Wisdom, From Me To You

Stupid people don't learn from their mistakes.

Smart people do learn from their mistakes.

Wise people learn from other's mistakes.

When your child doesn't close his car door properly, and you don't notice for two days, you will need to jump start your car.

By some miracle, your husband will notice this before he leaves for work.

When another miracle happens, and your husband has a brand-new set of jumper cables, neither of you will know how to use them.

When your husband follows the clearly written directions on the jumper cables (which you read to him), the car still won't start.

When your husband grabs the instructions from you so he can read them and follow the directions properly, the car still won't start.

When you read and follow the directions, the car starts.

When you pull the car out of the garage so it can run a few minutes without asphyxiating anyone, and you step out of the car into the driveway in your really short pajamas, no less than two neighbors will see you.

And greet you.

What I (Should Have) Made:

Pajama bottoms. I'll get right on that.

Linen and Lace

It was the year I discovered linen.

Before that, my summer wardrobe consisted primarily of cotton in its various forms. Then I bought a pair of linen pants. To this day, summer cannot start unless I have a new pair of linen pants.

It's lightweight, breathable, absorbent, and it gets softer and softer with every wash.

And gradually I wondered if there were such a thing as linen yarn. This was before the knitting boom and the Internet was still new and I had to hunt a few minutes but I found some linen yarn and a pretty pattern and purchased both (That was still when you sent your credit card info via email. *shudder*).

The goods arrived and it was then I realized the pattern required size 0, 32" and 16" needles. It took me three years to find those and when I finally cast on I realized linen was a pain in the a$$ to knit with. Especially on size 0s (about the diameter of the lead in a #2 pencil). I gave up on that pattern.

For seven years, I have been trying to make something with this yarn. Every year I find a pattern, and every year the yarn refuses.

This year I found a crochet pattern.

What I Made:



(Click pic for the ravelry link.)

After owning 2600 yards (about 1.5 miles) of this yarn for *mumbles* years I have finally conquered it. It's a little boudoir for my taste but it doesn't emphasize any of the bad parts of my body and enhances the right parts so I really need to get over the boudoir thing.

And I need to learn to pronounce boudoir.



Lace Crochet Coat by Kristin Omdahl. Vogue Knitting Spring 2009.

Project One

Do you have projects around your home that you want to do? What's holding you back?

Time? Money? Skill?

What if you couldn't do it because you were working two jobs as a single parent? Or you lost your job? Or you were bound to a wheelchair? Or you were simply overwhelmed?

That's what Project One is about. Today 1300 volunteers are going to 100 homes and schools around Northern Colorado to help. We will be painting, laying tile, doing yard work, cleaning gutters and building wheelchair ramps. Carpenters, plumbers, electricians, children, mothers, and businessmen are all uniting to help just a little bit.

1300 little bits add up.

The Businessman and I, as well as our kiddos, are doing our part.

What I Made:

A difference.

And maybe a few coffee runs.

But definitely a difference.

Green and Garlic Soup

This morning I woke up to one of those beautiful, drizzly mornings my six years in Seattle genetically modified me to love and realized I had the faint foreshadowing of a cold. This isn't the most tragic thing to happen to me but the combination of a cold and cold rain may prove disasterous to tomorrow's plans, which I'll discuss tomorrow.

What I Made:

The vegan podcast I listen too put out a video of a green and garlic soup a few months ago. I've probably made about 25 batches of the stuff since then. It's warm, low calorie, super-nutritious and...

Vicious (my 3yo) eats it like it's chocolate frosted sugar bombs. Seriously, the kids gets a big spoonful of soupy greens and slurps them like spaghetti. We call it our leaf soup and act like it's a big secret.

Anyway, it's like a vegetarian chicken soup and hopefully it will work it's magic on my mental facilities.

So go visit the site, watch the video, and pretend I spent the day maintaining my mom-of-the-year status and didn't let the kids watch movies all afternoon.

It's Amazing What A Brooch Can Do

Sometimes my projects just don't work. I don't mind terribly (unless I'm under a deadline) because failure is part of my the creative process. Besides, if I were perfect my intimidation level would rise and I have few enough friends as it is.

What I Made:

I had an idea in mind for yet another wedding (I'm at that age, Sorry.) and I had everything but the top. In my mind I just needed something simple. I found some fabric at Joanne's in exactly the right color (though synthetic) and used Butterick B4132.



A lovely cowl-necked top. It fits nicely and looks fine on me, but the cowl was battling too much with the jacket I wanted to wear. The jacket won, but I still have a nice little top for those two or three times a year I need to look more trophy wife and less mom.

I also learned this little trick from Carrie Bradshaw (Sex In The City for those of you who live under the same anti-cable rock I do--I Netflixed the series).

If you have a cute little pin of some kind:



You can change up the neckline and add a bit of interest. I'm usually not into asymmetrical apparel, but sometimes the cowl feels like too much fabric to just let it flop around. This tames it nicely.

I just grabbed a silk flower for this shot (my usual pin being in a future What I Made), but it looks so lovely on Violet she may not return it.

A Light Spring Meal

What I Made:

A sun worshiper I am not.

It was a warm sunny day in my neighborhood and riffing Cuban fare just felt right. It also indicates that I was too hot to actually get any other sort of creative mojo going. It was smart of me to decide anything I cooked qualifies as What I Made.



Fried plantains with toasted coconut. Black and garbanzo beans with red peppers, lime, cumin and orange juice (OJ and black beans sounds weird but is really tasty). Rice with lime and cilantro. Mango, tangerine and blackberries. Someone from Cuba may poo poo my food, but my heart was in the right place.

It looked a lot yummier than my photography would have you think.

How Not To Be A Trophy Wife

This week I have a plethora of inspiration chasing me down and tackling me. It causes me to have the attention span of granola and a complete lack of focus.

The point? I keep browsing my archives for What I Made because I can't work on any one project long enough to actually complete it. Which means I'll have a week where I will finish so many projects that I won't be able to post fast enough.

What I Made:

I had a wedding to go to and nothing to wear. Coincidentally, one of the fabric stores in the area was closing and had some great fabric deals.



This cotton/rayon blend was hiding out in the home decor section. I find lots of fabrics there that would make perfectly lovely clothing.

I used McCalls M5314 thinking it combined with the fabric would make a darling, contemporary June Cleaver type dress.



It did make a cute little dress. Can't you just picture the pearls? This pattern was surprisingly easy to assemble and took me about four hours plus the movie time I spent cutting the fabric.

Unfortunately, when I wear this dress it enhances the fact I have no waistline and I feel like an elephant; something I avoid when playing trophy-wife at a wedding. I can't wear it. If I ever find my waistline, the dress will be too big for me.

It's probably a 12-14-16 if you think you can pull it off. It's a wrap dress (like a couture bathrobe) so there's some flexibility in the sizing. Just make sure you have a waist.

New Look

Do you like my new header?

A friend of mine designed it and captured my personality beautifully. Even the Businessman is impressed by how perfectly it worked out.

Kerrie Robertson Illustration is my personal illustrator. Check out her blog and website.

I can't wait to bug her for more graphics. Hee.

What I Made:

I actually had to fiddle with the Xhtml for this blog. Kerrie would have gladly adjusted the image for me but it's something I need to learn anyway. My brain is now so fried I'll be surprised if I'm able to make toast.

Daring Bakers-April

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

I think all basic cheesecake tastes the same. It never stops me from devouring a whole recipe mind you, but I've never really had one that stood out in my mind as truly exceptional.

Knowing I would consume the entire cake, I immediately decided this concoction would go straight to my knitting group. Not that 3 bricks of cream cheese and a cup of heavy cream don't sound light but...



The recipe went together easily. The only variation was using gingersnaps rather than graham crackers for the crust. I love gingersnaps.



I wasn't able to chill it in the fridge before serving. This caused the cake to have a fluffy mousse-like texture.

As I did the car swap that heralds Boy's Night Out/Mom's Knitting Night the Businessman eyed the cheescake wistfully and hoped some would come home. But even he had to admit the odds of this dessert surviving an evening among women were slim. The ladies enjoyed it and it was a small group so I managed to bring home a quarter of the pan...of which the Businessman may have gotten a sliver--after it chilled in the fridge.

He declared it the best cheesecake he ever had. I thought it tasted like cheesecake. But the recipe is straightforward so I'll keep it in my bag of tricks.

Handknit Headband Giveaway

Remember when I made headwrap out of Noro and promised I would knit up the rest of the yarn into a giveaway?

What I Made:

A headband. The yarn is mostly cotton and silk with some wool and nylon. The cotton makes it very soft to the touch and the wool and nylon add a little elasticity. This headband would be good to hold your hair floomers (doesn't everyone get those?) back for light exercise or it could warm your ears on a mildly chilly day.



The cable is on both sides of the band so there is no wrong side (in the interest of full disclosure I made two errors in the cable so technically there is a wrong side).



I hate posting pics of myself, so we'll pretend this rubbermaid/scrap fabric is actually a lovely headform.



It goes to one of you. Simply post a comment telling me about something you created. Links are appreciated but not required.

1. Only one comment per entrant
2. US residents only
3. Procreation (i.e. I made two children) doesn't count.

Post by Friday, May 1st. Winner will be selected at random on Saturday.

F-Bomb

I say F-Bomb. Not the crasser word that F-bomb represents, I literally say F-Bomb.

For instance, when the businessman woke up last Saturday, itching to do a small project like try to seal of a couple mouse holes. After an hour of loud thumping I made my way down to the basement, turned the corner and hysterically shrieked:

"What the F-bomb are you doing to My Sewing Room?"

And he mumbled something about camping gear and dead mice.

Then I saw he tossed some of his possibly mouse carcass infected gear on my sewing table that has a huge pile of silk lying on it.

"Are you F-Bomb kidding me?"

See how well it works as a swear word?

What I Made:

I made him go to the hardware store and get shelves and evicted his nasty campgear from My Sewing Room. Now that closet is reserved for seasonal decorations. He's pretty sure there were no mice in the sleeping bags. Because, as a mouse, a nice soft fluffy sleeping bag is the last place I would make a nest.

Someday I'll tell you about Airquote Favors.