I did it!!!!

I can't believe it. . . I got down to the wire and just on the last day of the month, last day of the year finished it! My office/crafting studio is finally cleaned and organized. (I still have eBay/Amazon stuff to sell, and a file pile to go through for 2005 files but that's normal for the end of every year!)

I'm talking about the fact that all of my yarn and fabrics and other supplies are organized, My floor and sewing table are clean and ready to go for a project, and if someone wanted to come into this room for something I wouldn't be embarrassed! I've conquered the room, and at the end of the month, I won! I'm liking this goal for a month thingie because it's much more attainable to reach success. It doesn't feel like a huge life change, but at the end of the month my goal is a habit after all that work through the month so whether or not I plan to, I continue with my goal. Plus it feels good to do it still. Now I just have to decide what the goal for next month will be?????

My closet with the doors removed. Yarn by type, fabric also by type, wips bins, scrap yarn and scrap fabric bins. . . a collection of stationary and office supplies that I forgot I even had, scrapbooking supplies, my knitting machine, and of course my pink project bag!

My sewing table with my embroidery machine, Sewing machine with it's recycled sweater cover, serger, cone thread and some embroidery and quilting threads, a million notions, some extra canning jars that may store future notions, quilting mat, folding chair and iron.

The other 2 walls are my bookcase and desk, I cleaned them up for the most part too, other than the eBay stuff and file pile mentioned above. I didn't think anyone really wanted to see a bookcase or a desk. . . if you've seen one, you've seen em'all! You'll just have to take my word for it that I've cleaned them!

I would eventually like to clear more and have less clutter in here. I guess as I ebay and file stuff that will happen naturally. I'm just tickled pink that the floor is clear, and that I can access my desk or chair without having to move something first!

I hated the last purse I made

And I really really needed a replacement. But I didn't have $$ to invest in any that I liked. I searched for a while for a deal but I couldn't find one that was worth my $$ so I decided to make my own. I had these batik quilt squares from an eBay auction from almost 2 years ago that I had not used. I wanted to make something spectacular from them but was unsure as to what that might be. I also had some brown mini cordaroy fabric left over from another project. After finding these while searching through my stash I decided I would patchwork the squares and then quilt them. I had so much fun making up the design for my quilting work. I've never done anything like this before and it was really fun. This is the finished product. I'm so much happier with this purse. I don't know who I was trying to fool by having an oversized purse. It just resulted in lots of stuff getting lost and lots of frustration on cold winter days in parkinglots searching for my keys. . . This bag has no pockets I planned it that way! I'm going to be making or buying a purse organizer so it's all good! As it is though all of my stuff fits perfectly so I doubt I would have any problems with anything getting lost. I guess that remains to be seen though.

Christmas Day

Charmie and Mardie were overwhelmed to say the least.  They enjoyed lots of (too much) candy and of course all of their presents.  Their distended cheeks, drooling chins dripping with candy and how they are clutching these presents says it all to me. We had to pry them from their hands to get them to open the rest of their stuff and that continued on with each gift!  This CD and DVD were just stocking stuffers. . . they hadn't gotten to what was under the tree yet, lol.  To only be a child again!

Grandpa and Grandma Ray were with us for this gift exchange.  We later went over to my brother-in-law and sister's home for a Christmas Day meal with their family and gift exchange from my family!  Too bad I didn't have my camera to take pics of that feast and the mele' that ensued when 4 kids were tossing paper and packaging every which way.  This year's celebration of Christ's birth has been filled with family, fun, and fond memories.  It is a true blessing to share this time with each and every family member. 

Christmas Eve Dinner

We had 2 holiday meals this year for Christmas.  This is the first.  At our home.  Everyone is in the picture except for me and Rocky's mom. . . We were both taking pictures.  We had a nice meal of Turkey, Duck and Ham with sides of Sweet Potato Cassarole, Stuffing, Green Bean Cassarole, Rolls, Cranberry Orange Rellish, and Mac-n-cheese.   Yum.  We did the meal potluck style so everyone contributed something.  To me that's really neat because everyone can do something that they are really great at.  Rocky and I decided to not try to undertake a Turducken this year, though we thought about it long and hard. 

Namesakes

Here Charmie sits with Grandpa Charlie and Mardie is held by Grandpa Martin their namesakes. 

Daddy's belts

Both boys love to play with Rocky's belts.  Here they are at the entry to my office.  They can go no further because there's a baby gate preventing them, but they wandered in with the belts and their diapers so I had to get a pic.

With Grandma Manuel

Charmie and Mardie with Grandma.  I try to snag pics like this whenever I get a chance.  It's not often.  Neither boy likes to really be held for any period of time and when they do, they are so quick it's rare that I can get my camera in time before they jump down.  They had just gotten up from nap and needed some snuggle time with Grandma!  I think my mommy would agree it doesn't get ANY better than this!

Stalking. . .

OK, I know that Stocking is the correct spelling but when your 2-1/2 year old is prancing around the house wearing on his head a stocking cap you knitted, his on one leg the Christmas stocking that you just knitted, and on the other his baby's first Christmas stocking all at once and nothing else but his training pants stalking is a pretty good descriptor!  It's even funnier that I came out of the kitchen and found him like this.  All of these items were put away in their respective homes.  He could get to them, but it's not like I had them gathered together or gave him any instruction!

Mardie's stocking

I just finished Mardie's stocking.  I just need to figure out what I'm going to do to personalize them. 

less than an hour hat

After making the stocking I started looking at the patterns I had for my knitting machine.  I found some that I want to try and one of them was this hat.  It took between 30 minutes to an hour.  I'm still learning on my machine.  This is only my 3rd project.  Rocky liked it and wants one.  I want to make one for each of my Ray boys.  I think this one will end up being Mardie's.  Though I intended it for Charmie, and followed the pattern, it's a little smaller than I wanted.  I will make his and Rocky's bigger.  I need to figure out a way to add ear flaps to this one so that I can tie it onto Mardie's head.  That's the only way he'll wear it.

Like some of the other times I've tried to get Charmie to model for me I had difficulty getting him to pose and be still.  Here he's taking a picture of me with his photo ring.  And in the other one he was turning to run away!

Stocking full of inspiration

My crafty friends Jennifer and Christi have inspired me.  Jennifer made a beautiful hand quilted Christmas stocking for her son Mycah and is working on a second one for her daughter Trinity.  She recently started sewing and quilting and I've seen some of the garmets and housewares that she's made and they are awesome.  Especially for someone who just started. 

Likewise my friend Christi has wanted to branch out from recently starting sewing into needlecrafts and has picked up knitting.  I was exposed to crafting as a child so learning the concepts comes easy, but for someone who hasn't been exposed it's so impressive to me when they learn and start making things.  Christi found this tool called a Knifty Knitter that is like a loom for knitting.  She's been making hats and scarves and I think from what I've seen they are really cute. . .

All this creativity reminded me that I've been wanting to break out my knitting machine and get busy but haven't so I decided to search for Christmas stocking patterns and knit one for each of my sons.  They don't have stockings.  Last year they shared the "baby's first" stocking that had been up for each of them, but this is neither of their first Christmas so they needed a real stocking. 

Here's Charmie's, I'm still trying to decide how to personalize it.  I will be working on Mardie's probably tonight if I have the time.  I used wool blend yarn.  The stocking is over 2 feet long.  It will hold plenty of Christmas goodies!

 

The most beautiful serge I ever did see

I have had some problems with my serger. Not that it's broken or anything. Not that I couldn't use it for finishing edges that I didn't want seen, but it was just really making ugly serges. The stitching was really loopy like I took my thread, unwound it from the spool, threw it on the cut edge and used my sewing machine to try to stitch it down. It was so loopy that when I opened the seam it would show the stitches like a set of railroad tracks. I was frustrated and fed up, but not worrying too much about fixing it due to the fact that I wasn't really trying to sew or serge anything important. A mend here and there. . . a hidden seam that was already sewn by my sewing machine and just needed to not ravel.
Well Saturday I got fed up. I mean I had 2 courses at college in tailoring and garment construction. I should be able to serge a pretty seam. I was honestly being lazy about it. I whipped out my little Janome book and turned to the pages describing the incorrect serge seams and how to correct them and lost my ability to read or discern differences. It was like being a preschooler all over again and looking at the screen as the song plays, "which of these things is not like the other, which of these things is not the same. . ." I was lost. After studying it for what seemed like hours and comparing it to my seam and not finding a good match I decided to pick the closest one and try to achieve perfection using that adjustment. I had to serge about 50-100 seams on scraps before I quit and we went to get our Christmas tree. It was not working. It seemed like no matter what I did it was not fixing the problem. I was really disturbed about it now, I mean what's a girl to do when she's done all that she can and the serger is still possessed?
Well in the afternoon my sister came over, and as I was explaining the problem, and showing her my proud pile of serged seams I looked and noticed that one of my threads was completely out of the guide for the lower looper! Hallelujah! In all of my concern over adjustments I neglected to just see if it was threaded properly in the first place.
I realized that the last time I rethreaded I just did a quick job of it and possibly missed some other steps so I retraced them all. . . made sure every tension was threaded through, every guide had yarn in it. etc.
And then voila! I produced as if it were magic the perfect serged seam. I felt like an idiot that it just took a few seconds of being careful to negate a whole morning's worth of work. But I had a beautiful seam!

Our Christmas Tree Tradition

Rocky and I, mostly Rocky due to the fact that this wasn't in my family traditions from the past, but I have to put me too, because we are married and one. . . decided this year to start a new tradition for our family to go and pick our own Christmas tree with the boys. Since this is a new tradition for our family Rocky did the research and found Pinetop Tree Farm off Majolica road in Salisbury. We drove over and took a tractor/hay ride out to the tree groves and after walking around for a while we found this beaut. Our tree. It was the shape and size that we were looking for. It's an Eastern White Pine. It has long needles. This tree has a differnt look from the trees that I've seen as Christmas trees in the past. I'm used to the short needle variety. It's very soft and has a nice pine smell. Rocky and Charmie cut it down together. Then Rocky shook off the excess needles. We brought it home, set it up and dressed it with lights, garland, ornaments both old and new and even some home made cinnamon spice ones. We had a great day!

Pinup girl

Here's a pincushion doll I made tonight. I have no pincushion and really needed one. Though my pins don't roll due to their head shape they are a mess to pick up from a smooth surface. If I make another I'll give her a better skeleton, but she will work for now just fine.

new month new goal

November is over and I did what I set out to do. I have stayed with my cleaning/ simplifying/ decluttering/ organizing plan from the beginning of the month and I have not bought anything that was off limits. When I leave my home and return it's a relief to walk in because everything is in order. I no longer feel overwhelmed with keeping my home presentable. We do the maintaining as we go so it's not any major ordeal when "company" is coming or any other time for that matter. I feel really good about the homemaking part of most of my home. It feels good to have accomplished my goals.
Yet I'm sitting in my office. . . not wanting to really do anything but avoiding the inevitable du duh duah!!!!! It needs to be cleaned. It's the black hole in my home. I have done every room but this one. I have saved it. It's wore than all of the messy rooms that were in my house put together. Not dirty, but definately cluttered, junky, messy, dumped in, you name it, it is. It looks like I rented a wood chipper, took some yarn, fabric, thread, sewing notions, craft supplies, paper, office supplies, cd's, and other stuff, threw it all in while it was pointed to express everything into this one 12x10' room.
When we moved a year ago I vowed that this room wouldn't get into this state. At our previous home I had an office. It became the junk room, the only difference is that I had more stuff, it was from several years, and the rest of my home was cluttered and messy in spots too. I don't know how it gets like this. I'm trying to figure it out. It doesn't have to be this way yet it is.
I'll be cleaning in here this month though. I don't know how long it will take. This room is pretty bad and I can't have the boys in here with me while I work unlike some of the other areas of my home so that will definately slow me down, that or Mardie will get over his separation anxiety really quickly.
I do have a plan, but this is the over whelming type of job that is all nitty gritty where you have to touch everything at least once, and think about it, and review it and make a determination as to whether or not it's going or staying and if it's staying, where will it stay.
I'll be staying on my spending moratorium this month too. But Christmas purchases and storage solutions are game. This is not a change from last month so it should be easy.
Maybe when it's done I can post a pic of the after picture. I don't have a true before. As I drafted this post I cleaned here and there so it's already better than before.

Blue and Curley

This past weekend Rocky and I had to go back to Fayetteville to do some more work to our rental. Rocky got a lot accomplished. I only did a little priming of one room and watched the boys. I couldn't do much more. I was having back problems again. . .
My MIL and FIL happily watched the boys Saturday afternoon for a couple of hours and got their "grand" fix while Rocky worked on the yard and I visited with my bud Jennifer. We were just going to hang out but ultimately we ended up at JoAnn's buying fabric. I wanted doll hair that's made for doll hair but they don't carry it so low and behold while looking at fabrics I saw this really cool fleece fabric that looked like hair! I had to buy it do complete Blue. So of course since it's for Christmas gifts I did! I also found the perfect "hair" for Curley, Blue's older brother.
I finally got around to sitting down around the boys naptime. This morning was spent recovering from our trip where everything that could go wrong short of disaster did! It felt good to sew a little wig and relax.
Curley didn't get started until after dinner. Here's the finished products!

He's wearing some jeans, low rise. If he had a butt crack it would be showing cuz these are really really boy cut jeans! I completed his relaxed look with a Tye Dye Caftan. Curley is a little bit of a hippy! Well looking at Blue's hair and his uber cool hand knit sweater and cap I guess he's a bit of a hippy too! Charmie and Mardie will be receiving them for Chirstmas and possibly some additional outfits if I can get them done.

Knits for Blue

It was much colder here today as you can see from the fact that Blue's cheeks have a rosey quality that they lacked in his debut photo shoot. I decided in light of that weather change that he needed a handknit sweater and hat to keep him warm. He still has no hair so I couldn't just knit the sweater and have him all bald and cold up top while getting his picture taken. I used yarn scraps (Thanks Janet!). The sweater is inspired by a pattern that I am looking at to design a sweater for me. I started on it this evening after dinner and knit a little here and there. It went pretty quickly. The hat is simply 2x2 ribbing with stockinette stitch to obtain the needed height to clear his head. Once again, pretty simple.

I have decided that I have to curb this fetish with making clothes for him or I'll start getting questions as to why my son's doll has such an extensive wardrobe.
None-the-less I have planned a scarf, some jeans, and some slippers/shoes for him and of course in the warmer months he'll need some shorts, t-shirts, sandals. . .maybe Blue will even have his own blog. You never know so stay tuned.

Blue

Well, here's my first attempt at dollmaking since I was 7! Since I haven't named him yet I'll call him Blue for blogging purposes. Either Charmie or Mardie will probably name him as he will be given to one of them. He's made in Waldorf style. I tea stained the cotton for his skin myself earlier today. I had a hard time getting it to go darker. He's very light tan. . . I didn't want to photo him naked so I made him a little fleece hoody set. He wasn't that hard to make at all. Instead of Starbucks today I went and got the cotton fabric and some filling so I've been working on him on and off since around 3pm. I even stopped to cook and eat dinner. Rocky did help with the boys so that I didn't have to worry about them getting into my pins or needles or scissors. I am working on his brother. I've made the head insides but have yet to sew the skin onto him, embroider his face or cut out and sew his arms and body. I think I'm going to take a break though for the rest of the evening. A headache has been plagueing me and it just won't quit!
Blue, chillin' at the pc.

Blue takin' a stretch, man these pants are tight. Blue will have to watch out cuz they're riding up!

Blue's mug shot.

New stuff

OK, the play dough I made for Charmie and Mardie is addictive. I keep subconsciously getting up when I'm surfing on the PC and grabbing a bag of it out of the refrigerator to knead and play with. My keyboard is going to start to smell like flour. . .
I'm going to have to get some grown up clay to play with. I like working it in my hands.
I also am going to try my hand at doll making, stay tuned for updates.

Triangle Purse

I finished my triangle purse. . . well I still need to decide zipper or toggle closure and tack in the supports for the ends. It's weird because it's biased. It has a funky shape. I used Thick and Quick chenille with recycled sari silk, size 10 needles. This is my new bag. It's pretty generously sized so I can still fit lots of gear for me and my boys into it.

My plan is working!

It's only been 2 weeks so I guess it still remains to be seen over the long haul if it's truely working, but so far my efforts to simplify and declutter are working. After the weekend, and having some kind of 24 hour bug no less, my house was tidy and ready to go Monday morning! I cannot believe it because this is unheard of in all of my personal homemaking experiences.
I must continue. I don't want to go back to what it was.

lazy 5 ranch

Our church had an outing to Lazy 5 Ranch, and here are our pictures. I will uploas a few more later.

Playdough

I've wanted to make some playdough for the boys for some time but I didn't have the guts to try. . . too many variables such as: Mardie likes to eat chalk and crayons and sand and paper so playdough was one thing I didn't have to worry about unless I introduced it to him. Charmie sometimes goes wild with his toys and most of our home is carpeted, including our dining room. Playdough and carpet don't mix.
But I got brave. I was home not feeling well and I decided they would like to have something to play with so I mixed up a batch. They loved it!

In a large sauce pan on med mix together the following ingredients until it forms into a ball in the middle of the pan:
4 c. flour
4 c. water
1 c. salt
1/2 c. cream of tartar
4T oil

Remove clump/ball from the pan and put onto a lightly floured surface. Knead together until no longer sticky/tacky. Separate into equal portions and add food coloring or unsweetened Kool-Aid drink mix to reach desired intensityof color, or leave without color if desired. Knead in coloring until well blended and play away!
Playdough can be stored in air tight containers or bags in the refrigerator in-between uses. I love this recipe because it is soft and smooth not grainy feeling in the hands and is slow to dry or crumble unlike most home made dough recipes. And though it's not recommended that it be eaten, it's non-toxic.

French Market Junk Basket

I've started this new initiative to be de-cluttered and have a simpler method of maintaining my home. . .  I've been trying to keep up with my housewifery duties as much as possible on a daily basis, rather than letting my world and all of the junk in it pile up around me.  I've been reading a great book that my mom gave me, and talking to other homemaker moms around me for advice.  My friend Christi told me about how she manages the clutter that she might possibly bring into her house by having a large plastic tote in her garage that she dumps stuff into from trips out and about each time before going inside and clears once a week.  By having this tote she prevents all the "stuff" from cluttering her home, kitchen counter, desk, etc. 
I liked the idea but part of what I resolved to do this month along with simplifying and organizing was not bringing anything, ANYTHING else into my home unless it was a Christmas present, or a consumable.  This really sucks because I always love to shop and buy new things.  Since I had this bright idea and clever resolution (insert sarcasm) I was stuck when I decided I needed a tote. I have some of the same kind of totes that Christi mentioned but I had organized my stuff into them and I didn't have an empty one and my resolution prevented me from buying one.  So I did what any desparate housewife would do and went to my yarn stash and knitted one.  Here's my prefelted version of the French Market tote using this pattern as a template.

I used double stranded worsted light green for the base, my hand painted bulky for the varigated middle portion, then two worsted stands, one a muted rust, the other more a coraly pink for the rest of the sides and start of the handles, and strand each of the same light green as the base mixed with a darker loden green for the top of the handles.  Before felting it measured 19" x 24" and I used the two needle version of the base.  I only took the base 5 rows up the side vs. 10 in the pattern.  I made the sides 8" tall before I formed the handles.  As you can see it's big enough to hold lots of stuff that I might bring in with me from the car. . .   

Here's a picture of it after felting.  It measures 14"x14" for the base and 6" tall on the sides.  If I make another I might change the handles to one strand so that the fabric felts tighter and makes a thinner handle.  By having two strands the entire bag felted some, but remained sturdy and much larger dimensions than the pattern called for.  This was my goal because vs. yarn projects I wanted a basket to catch junk!

 

Starbucks

I'm nak-ing right now so pardon any typos. I have had an enjoyable evening I felt like blogging it now because I won't be online later. I just was given a special much needed gift from my dh.
TIME ALONE.
I went to Starbucks. I know that's so cliche' but I honestly couldn't think of a place that I would rather sit and just be alone.
I read, I knit, I made a phone call without distractions, no one touched me, I didn't have to share my lemon pound cake or my decaf chai, I didn't have to tell anyone "no" or "don't do that" or "be careful of your brother" or anything that I didn't want to say. No one pulled on my yarn, or bent my book pages. I was just me.
Now I'm done nak-ing. I'll knit some more.

Charmie's pumpkin

We are going to a "trunk and treat" at the church that sponsors my MOPS group.  Charmie and Mardie needed treat bags. . . they also need costumes but I haven't been so ambitious to knit those.  I'm working on another one for Mardie but here's Charm's.  I lined it after he found out that I carried the yarn in the back of the intarsia section of the face and that he could pull it and make the face scrunch up!

Here's my first attempt at a bag for Mardie, but after completing the pattern, which didn't give dimensions, I realized that it was WAY too small for him to use other than for an apple and a stick of gum! It will become part of my home decor for this time of year I suppose.