O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum

The girls get a Christmas tree all their own this year.  I cut it out of felt and they are able to move the ornaments around all they want.  I got the idea from a friend and it is so much fun for them. 

 

I bought a 3' x 3' square of green felt at Michael's and cut the bottom triangle out.  Then, with the two leftover triangle scraps, I made the top half of the tree.  It is held on the wall with double sided tape, which works well as long as little fingers don't try to tug it off.  And when that happens smoothing it back down and sometimes a little more tape fixes the problem.  And my friend tells me from experience that after the first week, they stop trying to pull it off the wall.

 

I started off simple with the ornaments because I wasn't sure how well they would stick to the tree.  The balls are just made from bright colored felt and when you press it against the felt tree, it stays put pretty well.   I was thinking of decorating the balls with glitter, but keeping them plain so far has worked out well.  The girls get to practice their colors with them.  For Miss D every ball is blue and occasionally purple or orange when she feels like changing things up. 

 

Miss T doesn't usually say the colors but she shows a ball to me over and over again so I repeat what color it is.  It is neat to watch them learn.  

 



For the family Christmas tree, I will get one of those little rosemary trees for our table.  We'll be able to use the rosemary for cooking and if I take good care of it (my track record is not great but there is always the hope it can stay alive) we can use it again next year.  We'll save getting a big tree with breakable ornaments until the munchkins are older. 

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving seemed to come amazingly fast this year.  It just flew by.  We celebrated a day late because of my husband's work schedule but it was a nice dinner just the same.  I was worried that I'd spend a lot of time in the kitchen and be tired and stressed about it.  But for some reason this year it was relatively easy to prep and cook everything.

  

The girls loved just about everything except the green beans were a little too crunchy for them.  D loved the mashed potato, sweet potato and pumpkin dish and kept asking for more.  I cooked it in the slow cooker and it was so easy and laid back to do and tasted great. 

We needed something to eat for lunch on the day we cooked so Kevin made our usually pumpkin fried rice dish early in the day.  He added a few more vegetables and some Chinese sausage to round out the dish as a meal and it still tasted delicious as a Thanksgiving side dish. 

We brined the turkey for two days this year because that was how it worked out between shopping for it and lack of fridge space.  It was juicy and tender but not more so than other years that we've done it for only 24 hours.  The turkey had a lot of extra fat on it, so next year we are thinking of trying a free-range bird instead.  I made the orange cranberry relish a day in advance so the flavors would get a chance to really blend.  Next year though I should do two bags of cranberries.  There is just never enough to last through all of the turkey leftovers.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went and got our Christmas picture taken so I can get going on hopefully sending out all of the Christmas cards on time this year.  We really only had one smile the whole photo shoot from my serious little girls.  Miss T picked a good picture to do it in though.

Today is the day we traditionally start putting out Christmas decorations.  I'm thinking of at least switching out the fall wreath but I probably won't do much more until December.  

Blankets

The girls have new blankets for the winter! It was my first time making the no sew fleece blanket.  They were quick and very easy to do.  They are pretty warm and toasty too. 

 

 

Found two adorable, girly monkey prints at Joann Fabrics and backed them with pink fleece. 

 

 

The girls point at the blankets and make monkey sounds, silly monkeys.  Now they just have to learn to stay under the blanket at night so I don't worry about them being too cold in the middle of the night.

 

 

With the corner scraps I made little pouches.  Going to fill them with rice to heat in the microwave and warm our hands.  They would also be great bean bags for throwing games.

Here is the belated picture of our Halloween pumpkins.  The left pumpkin is D's foot and the right pumpkin is T's foot.  The girls helped me scrape the pumpkins out and chewed on some of the seeds while they were at it. 

 

 

Birds of a Feather #2

The costumes were basically finished on time for Halloween.  Although I didn't have time to make the felt shoe covers I had envisioned or fix the mistake I made on one of D's wings, the costumes still turned out really cute.

 

 

These are pieces of D's owl coming together.  I used two strips of the tan material for the wings and tied them with brown, tan and off-white tulle like a tutu.  I spaced the tulle loosely though so it wouldn't be too puffy.  I cut the owl feathers from felt.  I hot glued the pieces together and then stitched the spine of the feather in using the stem stitch and 4 strands of embroidery floss.

 

 

  I wanted the wings to be removable because we would be in and out of the car seat.  I attached the wings to her shoulders using snaps and around her arms with tan hair ties.  And this is where I made a mistake, although you can't really tell that one wing is backwards. 

 

T's peacock turned out lovely, and was easier than D's since I copied it from someone's tutorial (see first costume post) except for the hood.  The blue material was also easier to work with than the tan for some strange reason.  The ball point needle thread would not loop correctly on the bobbin thread with the tan material. I had to switch back to the standard needle which made the whole process frustrating. 

 

 

To avoid more problems on the sewing machine, I hemmed both skirts by hand.  I probably should have made the skirts shorter but didn't not want to risk making a huge mistake when cutting it again. 

   

T wore black tights and D off-white and both wore bright pink shoes when we were out of the house unfortunately. I will just have to edit my memory to include the felt shoe covers that were never made.  At least inside they were just in their tights so the pictures look okay.

 
I was afraid that they would try to pull bits and pieces off of themselves and each other and not keep their hoods up.  But they actually liked wearing the costumes.  D did chase T around a little, giggling and pulling her tail, but the tutu held up well.  Anytime either of their hoods would fall back, D would cry in protest and try to set it to rights again. 

We went to the library for knitting and quilting to show off their costumes and on Monday at knitting they were joined by their buddy dressed as a little green alien.  I would have liked to take them over to a couple of the neighbors' houses for Halloween but Kevin didn't get back until late.  Trying to manage both of them and the steep drive way was not happening this year.  Next year will be fun though.

Pumpkin Patch

Saturday we went to a local pumpkin patch at Bobrook Farms.  Not only was it the girls' first pumpkin patch but it was a first for Kevin and me as well.  We went early, as soon as it opened, because of the girls' nap schedule and I am so glad we did.  Most of the time there was only two other families there which made it nice because there was plenty of room for the girls to explore without getting overwhelmed by crowds.   Before we left, bus loads of kids started coming in from church groups and more families appeared so I'm glad we had a chance to have a more relaxed and quiet experience.

 

Look how big they are getting.  Two and a half feet tall!  T's shirt says, "Give me candy or owl scare you" and D's says, "I'm bootiful" with a ghost on it.  They make such adorable Halloween shirts these days. 

 

The girls had a good time wandering around the pumpkin patch.  They got pretty dirty too, which I would have expected if I had really thought about it.  I mean, it is a farm--not one of those lot pumpkin patches in the city where the pumpkins are trucked in and displayed.  I had to do a load of laundry yesterday for all of our clothes and spent the beginning of nap time wiping mud and straw off shoes and boots. 

The girls enjoy their pumpkins.  We picked out two small ones and brought them home.   T likes them but D absolutely loves them.  D gives them hugs and kisses and cries when she has to leave them.  She picks them up and carrying them around the playroom one at a time and sets them on the couch.  They are pretty heavy too, about 3 lbs; so she is getting quite a workout. 

They liked the big pumpkins too but we already had one at home from the farmer's market.  So we left all the big pumpkins at the pumpkin patch.  Ours is sitting out on the stairs in front of the house and the girls can see it from their playroom window.  They say bye to it as we back out the driveway when we head somewhere.  It is adorable. 

 

Momma with her little pumpkins and a nice big pumpkin. 

 

The drought this year killed the corn maze but there was still a sunflower maze.  It was beautiful.  The girls got to watch the honey bees collecting pollen.  It is their first time seeing a real live bee.  When we read about bees in their books, I always do the buzzing noise and then 'sting' them (tickle them).  So its nice for them to be able to associate it with something real, although they will be shocked the first time they are actually stung . . . it's not a fun tickle, that's for sure. 

 

 

Dadda and his girls surrounded by a field of sunflowers.

 

We also got to play in a corn pit and go on a hayride.  The girls were really unsteady in the corn pit, so they mostly just stood in place and picked up handfuls of corn and then eventually fell on their bottoms.  The hayride was a nice ride past the berry bushes that we picked blueberries from this May, and more pumpkins and fields and farm equipment and scarecrows.

 

We had a great morning at the pumpkin patch.  It'll be a lot of fun next year, when they can run around more. 

 

 

Fall Knitting Projects

I have been knitting when I can and have gotten a few projects done over the past few weeks.  The girls are slowly learning not to grab at Momma's yarn and needles so I can get some knitting done while I watch them which is helpful.  Some are gifts, others are for the girls and hopefully soon I'll get to knit something for me. 

 

 

I knitted three basic wash cloths out of cotton yarn for my cousin who just had a baby girl.  I got two and a half washcloths out of one ball of yarn.  I just loved the colors on it for a baby girl: Peaches and Cream Azalea.  I finished the incomplete washcloth with a yellow, green, white of the same brand of yarn.  Wrap them in each other like a rose petals and the odd color washcloth becomes a leaf.  A friend had knitted a few of them for my girls last year and they are great for bath time.

 

 

My nephew turns TWO the day after tomorrow.  Hard to believe it; he's such a big boy.  Since his birthday is in October, I wanted to knit him something he could use for Halloween.  I got the pattern from Jean Adel's book of Knitted Critters.  Some of them are so adorable.  But the sizing seems too small.  It is supposed to be for a three year old and yet it fits the girls just fine.  So I hope Holden will be able to get some use out of it before he gets too big. 

 

I did alter the mittens.  In the pattern the mittens have ears and a stripe which I thought looked silly.  Instead I knitted up a plain mitten and I glued felt paws on with a glue gun.  It turned out adorable.  We'll see if he'll actually wear them though.  You never know how much they will cooperate.

 

 

 

For my mother's birthday, I knitted her a scarf out of a lace weight mohair/ silk blend yarn.  It turned out beautiful and is such a nice deep purple color.  I love how this yarn looks but it is such a pain to work with.  Beautiful but so frustrating.  I have a couple more balls in a deep red that I want to knit up for me, but I need a break from it for awhile.





 

Colder days are here and my babies need protection from the chill.  So I set to work on these basic roll brim hats to keep their noggins warm.  I used Lion Brand's Amazing yarn which is really pretty with its changing colors. 

 



 

I ran out of the ball of yarn I was using called Pink Sand so I switched over to Vineyard to finish off the hat that Tess is modelling.  It looks a little odd but still nice so I'm leaving it.  

 

 

And then there are pumpkin and acorn squash seeds.  I did not knit them, or eat them while knitting since the oil would make a mess, but I did bake them and enjoy them so much. Thought I'd throw them in here.

 

Happy fall and happy crafting!

October is Here

Even with the slightly cooler days of September, it really doesn't feel like fall until October.   That's really when you start to notice that some trees are starting to change their leaves.  I can see one of our oak trees out the bedroom window and one branch has begun to change.  It makes me smile every time I glance out an see it. 

We have had some cooler days.  The girls and I have been wearing socks in the house during the mornings and evenings.  And I've started drinking tea in the mornings again.  I miss tea during the long hot summer months when it is too warm outside to enjoy it. 

October 1st is also when I allow myself to put up fall decorations, although I cheated this year.  I saw that the neighbors across the street had put up their decorations the last Saturday of September and since Kevin was home to keep an eye on the girls, I followed suit.

I'm excited to take the girls to their first pumpkin patch in a couple weeks.