So much to say, so little time to write

It’s been busy in my neck of the woods, but busy in a creative way. Recently, the muse has called me to sew, which I guess is obvious with the amount of posts I’ve done about them lately. I did so much, that I felt led to start another site that focuses solely on my love of hand crafting.

But, other areas of my life should be written about… such as winterizing the honeybee hives (they’re doing well)  and my continued adventures with ferments, cooking and soap making. I’ll be sure to write about them soon.

This Thanksgiving holiday, I received a lot of rest. My body was telling me it needed that and I took heed and listened.  The dress, that I’m sewing for my daughter is coming along well. I’m hoping to be completed everything within the next few days. Once finished, I’ll be sure to post a picture here.

Happy Thanksgiving 2014

thanksgiving

It’s been a super lazy day for my daughter and me. Early this morning, we did go to the grocery store so that I could purchase a few items to make a proper Thanksgiving meal.

I thought we at least had chicken breast in the freezer, but last evening confirmed that wasn’t the case and so off to the store we went.  My daughter wanted turkey for her Thanksgiving dinner, but since we didn’t see any turkey breasts in our field of vision while strolling through the poultry section she was more than happy to settle for chicken breasts. I’ll have to post pictures of her little feast.

My daughter also loves stuffing so that accompanied her meal along with greens and a chocolate cake. Everything, with the exception of the chocolate cake was home made. Most of the thanksgiving feast will be packed away in glass single serving containers and tucked away in the freezer. This way, on days when I’m tired and don’t feel like preparing a meal I can easily reach for something that’s already been prepared.

You know something? My daughter is already looking forward to having her Thanksgiving feast at school. Her Zojirushi lunch jars are still doing an excellent job of keeping her food nice and hot. What’s a Zojirushi lunch jar? Check out these posts, I’ve written about them quite often. I love them a lot!

Now, we are being super lazy and watching The Lorax on the Amazon Fire TV. We really love this device. I’ll be sure to write a detailed review about it soon.

So long friend…

Angel the Guinea Pig_1 10.04.14

 

Yesterday Angel, my daughters guinea pig, passed away.

Daughter with Angel the Guinea Pig

 

She lived a long time. My daughter had her since she was in first grade. She’s in the sixth grade now. Angel was an older piggie when we brought her in to our home. No one wanted her, but I fell in love with the moment I saw her sweet little face.

AngelnGracie_2.1.5.14_
Pals! Angel our teddybear guinea pig and Gracie our lionhead rabbit

 

She was one happy guinea pig since she “chirped” a lot. They tend to do that when they are happy. She would also frequently waddle to you and give you nose nudges (her way of showing affection) and burrow under my neck if I was stretched out on the floor. Of course she would let out how pitched squeaks, if she thought you weren’t paying enough attention to her.  As if we could ignore her for long! Silly girl…

Angel & Gracie_1
Friends Furrever

 

It’ll be interesting to see how Gracie, our lionhead bunny adjusts, those two  were pals.

 

Guinea pig-Angel playing in shredded paper
Angel in her beloved box of shredded paper

 

My daughter is doing better, still sad… but as with anything, in time her heart won’t ache as much.

Farewell sweet Angel! You will be missed…

Brewing and crafting

During my down time, which I don’t seem to have much of, but I’m not complaining… I’ve been squeezing in a few moments to do some hand crafting.

Water Kefir Soda 11.13.14
Kombucha and kefir soda

I have been making some hand crafted items and of course I’ve been staying on top of my ferments; kombucha, water kefir soda and fermented vegetables.

 

Embroidered Bag_ICL 1 11.20.14

Oh… I finished that little embroidered bag that I made for my daughter. I decided not to purchase ribbon and chose to crochet a cord for her. See?

Embroidered Bag_ICL 2 11.20.14

I liked it so much, that I decided to make another. Can you see the difference? It’s nothing major. With this bag, I do believe I’ll knit an icord. It appears that my daughter likes it to and has asked to swap bags. She’s already has placed the first bag into her book bag.

 

 

Another site…

In addition to the site that I set up for my daughter (she’s quite thrilled that she has her own paid domain I might add) I created another site where I’ll have detailed posts about my various hand crafted projects.

A site dedicated to my handcrafted adventures is something that I’ve thought about doing for years, but I held off since I really didn’t want to add another writing site to my “to do” list. However, recently I thought it was high time I get on with it and so yesterday, I finally made the move. I carefully selected the domain name and housed it under the same hosting provider as Celebrate Life.

Choosing a name that wasn’t taken, was a challenge. You see… the first two that I wanted were already taken. However, I must say that I do like the name that I have now. It’s short and sweet and clearly describes my handcrafted obsession.

In time, I’m sure I’ll write about it here, but until then I’m having fun creating a few posts and looking forward to challenge myself to visit old handcrafted techniques or even try something new.

What’s really neat, is the new domain has already been indexed by Google! How cool is that?

Sewing adventures: One gown and several bags…

Tiana frog princess
Tiana – The Princess and the Frog

The holidays are swiftly approaching, aren’t they?

Like many schools, my daughter’s Lutheran school puts on a Christmas program each year. This year, I’m going a bit elaborate with her gown. It’s a Christmas musical. She’s especially thrilled since she and her best friend have been paired up to be dance partners. The fancy footwork deserves an exquisite dress, don’t you think?

And so the hunt begins for the “perfect” fabric. The perfect is all me, of course the fabric will feature at least some of the colors that my daughter loves (dusty rose, lime green, sherbert orange and lilac) but aside from that, she really doesn’t care about the fabric. I can’t take too long, since December will be here before I blink. I want the outfit complete well in advance.

Besides the gown, I’m making items for her classmates. A few years ago I made crocheted bookmarks and yes, most of those classmates are still there. They think of me as the “crafty mom.” This year, I told my daughter that I’d have little bags for her homeroom classmates at her Lutheran school. I’m thinking I’ll sew the bags. This is the first year that they’ve split their homeroom class by gender. Their actual classes are still a mixture of both.

I’d originally planned on having the bags ready by the Thanksgiving holidays, but I’ve extended that deadline until Christmas and while I think I can easily do this by Thanksgiving holiday. I decided to hold off on the big gift for her classmates until the Christmas holidays.

I believe I’ll start on the embroidered design some time this weekend. If I do, I’ll be sure to post a few samples here.