Appreciation and Gratitude

Last Thursday was the first day of spring. I love spring with longer days and warmer weather but this year 'normal spring' is very, very late. I was disappointed at the start of this week when the weather continued cold. The snow and ice refused to melt. I decided to make the best of the situation and spend my evenings inside working on my goal to reduce clutter.

I cleaned out kitchen drawers, my closet, the linen closet upstairs, the spare room closet in the basement, the spare room and spare room closet upstairs, the linen closet in the bathroom and the large walk-in storage closet in the basement. After 13+ years of accumulating stuff in our current house, there are a lot of spaces that need attention. I am quite pleased with my progress so far. 

I have been reading blogs on simple living, minimalism and general clutter control. There are quite a few and I find them inspiring. So far I am thoroughly enjoying the process. Well OK, some of the process is a bit stressful and it is a lot of work, but I'm absolutely loving the results. I've been making regular trips to Good Will on my way to work and have plans to post a few items on Kijiji. It's turning out to be so much fun.

I also cleared my crochet clutter out of the family room and moved to a corner of our bedroom. Now that we have a new and improved internet provider TekSavvy and the router is more central, I can work here with perfect reception. This is a great spot to work and Sadie loves it too.

Yesterday, I spent the morning enjoying crochet with cappuccino in my new crochet corner. I have been working on a bear in between clutter-clearing sessions this week. This morning I was able to finish the bear. I followed a pattern called Big Honey Bear posted by Yellow, Pink and Sparkly. The only changes I made involved working in the round instead of joining each row and I made the legs 31 rows instead of 37. Actually I did 37 rows to start and realized they looked too long as they were much longer than the arms. I think it must be a typo in the pattern.

Since I can't knit a sweater, I decided instead to crochet a dress for my bear. I am using the dress pattern for Monica Mouse also posted by Yellow, Pink and Sparkly but increasing the size to fit this larger bear. I am happy to be exercising my creative side in this way and will be sure to show you a photo of the dress when it is done. For now I will just share a photo of Sweetie Bear. She is made with Bernat Softee Baby yarn using hook size 3.25 mm. The colour I used is called "Little Mouse" which is light tan. Although it looks grey in this photo, it really is light tan. I used a light weight wool blend in medium brown for the bottom of her feet and black worsted weight yarn for her nose, mouth and eyes. Isn't she sweet?

Just as I was finishing Sweetie Bear, our neighbour stopped by to return cross country skis borrowed for the winter. She also brought a beautiful bunch of purple tulips to thank me for the loan. It was totally unexpected and not necessary but I must confess I love the flowers. I put them in a lime green vase in our bathroom below "The Toucan" painted a few years ago by our son. I think the flowers are beautiful and add a much appreciated hint of spring to our house.

After arranging the flowers, I decided it was time to head outside for my first bike ride in London this year. I rode in Boulder, CO over March Break in shorts and a jersey but it has been much too cold and slippery for me to even attempt riding here. Today it was +2 C (feeling like -5 C with a 25 km/hr north wind) but it was sunny and the roads looked relatively clear. I rode a 35 km loop west of the city and thoroughly enjoyed it. By the time I got home my back and neck were tight but I was happy. I had booked a massage for 3 p.m. which took care of all my aches and pains. I just love sun, fresh air and exercise.

Our neighbour returned from a hike with her dog at the same time I got back from my ride. She said Ziggy had brought home a 'surprise'. He jumped out of the back of their vehicle with this in his mouth. He was very proud of his treat from Komoka Conservation Area. Our neighbour said she was waffling between being grossed out and fascinated. Our son was definitely fascinated and took a couple photos.

Would it be macabre to make a 'foot in mouth' comment? I included both photos because the first one shows Ziggy clearly pleased with his 'treat' and the second shows our smiling son. I'm really pleased with the way his teeth look. After about 3.5 years, he finally got his braces off this week. Our son is so happy with his nice straight teeth that he is constantly smiling. I love it.

I want to share a few more photos of my spring decorating and take your mind off the gruesome images above. I removed the colourful crochet stars from the wreath in our dining room and added a bunny plus a couple little pom-poms. I think it needs more colour in crochet so I will work on that once I finish the dress for Sweetie Bear.

I replaced the pine cones and crochet white pumpkins with balls of yarn, pink fluffy bunny, crochet chicks in shells and crochet eggs. This bowl sits on our dining room table.

This little table sits in our front hall. The bunny was made by our daughter when she was in high school and I just love the way it turned out. The doily was a $1 purchase at a charity shop downtown and I made the crochet eggs.

I removed the colourful crochet snowflake garland from our fireplace and added a colourful crochet shamrock garland for spring. I followed this pattern for the shamrock garland and used Bernat Handicrafter Cotton yarn in four different bright colours (white, hot pink, lime green, aqua blue) to make the shamrocks. The joining string combined all these colours in a rainbow effect. I think it adds a nice bit of fun to our fireplace.

The weather is finally improving and I can feel spring in the air. I think I'll pack my biking bag and anticipate riding to work tomorrow. Now that my son has his driver's license I no longer feel obligated to drive him to school. In fact, he would be all too happy for me to ride so he can take the car. Lucky for him, I much prefer biking as long as the roads are clear and the weather is decent. 

Appreciation and gratitude sum up my feelings for the week and especially for this weekend. 

meo my Shutterfly

This week I have been busy putting together a Shutterfly book for our new granddaughter. I love writing and assembling these books on-line then getting a proper hard cover book as a keepsake. I especially like writing personalized stories with our family in mind. It makes me so happy to record childhood memories in this way for our grandchildren.

The other cool thing about these stories is that I do not think of them in advance. This is the fourth book I've written since my grandson was born just over 3 years ago. Each book idea just "popped" into my head and was written and completed within a week. I love that they practically write themselves and produce such fun little treasures. 

I already talked about the making of Boyington Bear and Buddies - Book 3 in this post. It showcased a selection of Amigurumi I had made for our grandson. I wrote it as a children's storybook and really had fun with the whole process.

The first two books were called Mavid Logan Boyington (book 1) and Mavid Is (book 2). Book 1 was a labour of love for our new grandson. I wrote a long, rhyming story starting with the news of our daughter's pregnancy through the birth and first few weeks with her new baby. It told the story of how Mavid came to be. I loved writing this story going into great detail ensuring everything rhymed. I also enjoyed going through all our photos picking out just the right ones to illustrate the story. 

The first story also had a LOT of text since I wanted to include ALL the details surrounding the arrival of our daughter's first child and our much anticipated first grandchild. When I decided to create a book, I researched a few different websites and ended up choosing Shutterfly. It was a perfect choice providing a variety of options with plenty of flexibility for adding text. Just to compare, a standard photo book with Shutterfly is 20 pages but this book was 57 pages with many of the pages being just text. The text no longer displays on the shared link which is not a problem as very few people have the patience to read the whole thing anyway. Even so I am happy to have done it and wouldn't change a thing. 

I decided the rest of the books should be more photo focused.  I have kept the text relatively short but continue to incorporate rhyming. I love playing with words and rhyming is just so much fun.  I think the books are visually appealing and a great way to celebrate our growing family. 

This fourth book is called Evie Sweet Evie and is all about our new granddaughter and our love for her. The title describes her temperament perfectly. Although we live ~2,200 km away, I am completely happy to have two wonderful grandchildren. I'm sure my daughter and I can continue to combine our talents; her photography (see Sweet Maple Photography) and my writing to produce a whole series of personalized books for her children. I can hardly wait to see what other books we create. 

Until then I think I will get back to another one of my favourite creative outlets ... crochet. I am ready to start another bear and will be sure to take a photo to share when it is done.

Sweet Evie Sweater

I started a sweater for our granddaughter the week before we left for Boulder and brought it along to finish. I used a free pattern called The Eloise Baby Sweater by blogger Moogly. I usually do not like to crochet any kind of clothing as I think knitting works much better but this pattern caught my eye and looked like something I could manage. 

My daughter liked the look of it without sleeves so I decided to leave it sleeveless.  I used Bernat Satin yarn for the two accent colours; light sage and goldenrod. The base colour is Bernat Softee Baby in flannel (light grey).  Since I selected a lighter weight yarn than the pattern suggested, I used a 4 mm hook and followed the instructions for 12 months sizing. It fits our little granddaughter perfectly and she is about 9 1/2 lbs.

After seeing this photo, I decided to call it our Sweet Evie Sweater, doesn't it look cute on her? Our granddaughter is 3 weeks old today and absolutely adorable in my humble opinion. I'm thoroughly enjoying our daily cuddles while we visit this week.

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Baby Stuff & More

Only one more week until we're in Boulder. I can hardly wait to meet my granddaughter and see my little grandson again.  My daughter sent some lovely photos but it's the hugs and cuddles I'm so looking forward to while we're there. 

Granddaughter and Grandson - Can't wait to cuddle.

Today I finished a nice assortment of baby headbands. There are 13 in total varying in size from 14" to 16".  The on-line sizing chart suggested 12" for newborn, 13" for 3-6 months and 14" for 6-12 months.  Luckily I checked with my daughter before cutting the elastic as this baby started out with a 14" head. I also made a simple banner to be used as a photo prop. I toyed with the idea of adding crochet flowers but decided simple was better. 

Crochet headbands (4 total)

Assorted elastic headbands (8) and simple banner (sage and grey)

Elastic headband with layered crochet flower

We went shopping recently and bought a few girly baby clothes. We've also been collecting a nice pile of gifts to take. I have a pink snowsuit from a friend at work, something from GG and other GG and a gift from our neighbour. I brought the large suitcase upstairs today and it's already half filled. There is still plenty of room for my clothes so no worries.

Dress with 2 pair of tights

Dresses - so cute

Onesies - 2 different sizes

Sports shirt for our grandson

Snowsuit from friend - never worn

Gifts from GG and Other GG for both kiddies

Gift from our neighbour - Wonder what it is?

This week I also decided to reduce clutter in the house. I read a few 'simple living' blogs to get motivated and started with clothes. I had collected a couple bags of clothes over the winter and with one more sweep of my closet and my son's closet ended up with three big garbage bags full of items for Goodwill. It felt great to get them out of the house. 

I then decided to go through my book cabinet and get rid of books I do not plan to read again. I had four boxes full of books, one box full of paper for recycling plus another box of old text books. Today we took the books to two different used bookstores. The Book Addict and Basically Books went through the boxes, selected what they wanted and paid in cash. At the end of the day, I was down 2 1/2 boxes of books and up $66 cash. In case you're wondering, they give 10% of the cover price listed on the books.

Book Purging Party

There are many, many more books in our library. I plan to go through them and visit a couple other book shops in town before donating the rest at either Goodwill or Value Village. The text books are good for recycling only. We were told to remove the covers and put 'guts' out with our weekly paper collection. My husband is now on board with getting rid of book clutter, although I did have to pry him away from looking at Basically Books. He almost bought a used book on car repair until I reminded him we were there to purge not acquire.

The last thing we cleared out today was an old TV from our son's room. It had been unplugged and piled in our spare room for months. Staples recycles electronics so that's where we dropped it off today. I think there are more electronics in the house that should be gotten rid of but I'll leave those for another day. I am very happy with the progress I've made this week. In fact it feels so wonderful that I'm totally motivated to keep at it. 

Old TV - finally gone

Now I just have to come up with my next crochet project. There are so many options, it's tough to pick just one. 

Awesome Amigurumi

I think Amigurumi is Awesome. As I mentioned in my first post, my daughter suggested I make crochet toys. I was reluctant until I found a Paddington Bear pattern posted by blogger Yellow, Pink and Sparkly here. As it turned out, this bear was just the start. I soon discovered the world of amigurumi.

1. amigurumi

   Web definitions

   1. Amigurumi is how Japanese call the trend of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures. The word is derived from a combination of the Japanese words ami, meaning crocheted or knitted, and nuigurumi, meaning stuffed doll. ...

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amigurumi

After the first Paddington Bear, I altered the pattern to work in the round following the amigurumi style which omits the seam created by "joining" each round. I made a few bears before I found a cute free bunny pattern here.  The first bunny I made was grey. I called him Dudley and mailed him to California along with a yellow hat made from Paddington Bear's pattern and 6 crochet Easter eggs. I found an Easter egg tutorial by Greedy for Colour here. Dudley's hat doubled as a basket for the eggs. He was a big hit with our grandson who was 1 1/2 years old at the time. 'Hide and seek' for eggs became a popular game.    

Dudley Bunny

After making the bear and then the bunny, I found all sorts of free animal patterns I was eager to try. Before long, I had completed a bunch of Awesome Amigurumi for our grandson. Check out the photos below. The caption provides a link to each individual pattern.

Boyington Bear

Buttercup Bear

Tootsie Bear

Tiny Bear

Bonnie Bunny & Benny Bunny

Curious George

Baby Elephant

Mouse

Spike the Dragon

Alby the Baby Snow Dragon

I finished all these toys then decided to write a story for our grandson featuring each one. I wrote the story then my husband and I spent a lovely summer afternoon in my parent's garden getting just the right photos to illustrate the book. It was a lot of fun to make and even more fun to see our grandson's face when our visit brought his 'book' to life.

I have used some of the book photos in this post but here is a link to the book if you would like to take a look. There were four copies printed: 1 for our grandson, 1 for us and 1 for each of our parents. 

I have to confess I missed one typo on the front cover. I credited my husband for the photography but mistakenly called him "Gandad" instead of "Grandad". I truly did not see it until my daughter pointed it out. Oh well, I corrected the on-line version. Our grandson did call my husband Gandad before he could say Grandad properly. He used to call me 'Mimi' but now says Grammeo very clearly and I love to hear him call me that.

Baby Headbands & Yarn Shopping

This morning after my morning cappuccino, I started working on a crochet baby headband. I wanted it to be stretchy and stay put so I decided to incorporate a hair elastic into the design. My daughter prefers headbands that are on the 'skinny' side without huge embellishments. I really like the way this one turned out so will make more in a variety of colours. 

Baby Headband

Instructions to make baby headband (14" to 15" circumference):

Band - Bernat Satin in White
Flower - Bernat Softee Baby in Flannel
Hook size - 3.25 mm
Button (from my stash)
Hair Elastic

Attach yarn with a slip stitch (ss) to a hair elastic
Chain 1 and single crochet (sc) around to cover the elastic 
Chain 40 and attach with ss to sc on opposite side of elastic being careful to not twist the chain loop (increase number of chains for larger finished size)
Chain 1, turn and sc into back bump of chain stitches until back at the beginning sc
Join with a ss to beginning sc on hair elastic and finish off leaving long tail ends
Weave in tail ends under sc around the hair elastic and join sides at middle of elastic to form a figure 8 (this will be used to attach the flower and button)

I made the flower following a free pattern from blogger Crochet With Raymond here. I used just one colour for the flower since I planned to cover the middle with a big, bright button. Doesn't it look cute on the teddy bear? I think it will look adorable on our granddaughter as well.

Fits 14"-15" comfortably

Following a productive morning of crochet and cappuccino, my husband and I decided to head to the gym to get some much needed exercise. On the way, we stopped at the local Len's Mill Store to pick up a couple things. As usual, I got carried away in the yarn department. I LoVe shopping for yarn. Check out my purchases in the photo below. I ended up buying 12 balls in assorted colours and 5 yards of 5 different decorative elastics. I have so many creative crochet projects in my head, I can hardly wait to get started. 

Yarn shopping LoVe

But first I want to finish a few more headbands. It's so much fun having a new baby to decorate. I'll make a couple more like the one I made this morning then I'd like to make a few using this lovely decorative elastic. Since I have 5 different kinds, I can make a nice selection in different sizes. I think my daughter will love them. I know I'm excited to see how they turn out. I plan to crochet a variety of flowers and I'm certain they will be super cute. I've got a little less than 2 weeks before we leave which should be plenty of time. I'll be sure to post some photos once they are finished. 

Variety of decorative elastics  for Baby Headbands

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Baby News & Photo Props

Since I got back from Boulder over a week ago, I've been busy making baby photo props for my daughter's photography business. My main motivation is to get cute photos of our grandchildren but also provide items that might work for clients. 

I decided to start with a doily. The pattern is free and can be found here. Doilies like the one shown below can be draped over a baby posing bean bag and layered with coloured blankets for a cute photo. I made this one with Bernat Handicrafter Cotton yarn in off-white using a 5 mm hook. It measures 22" across so should work well for babies. 

Baby Prop 'Doily'

I've also made some cute hats and a diaper cover. The hat pattern can be found here from blogger Repeat Crafter Me. I used the base of her puppy hat pattern with ear flaps and braids but did not add the face or puppy ears. The teal hat with orange trim was made using Bernat Satin in "light sage" and "goldenrod". I used a 5 mm hook and the pattern instructions for size 0-3 months. The grey hat was made using Bernat Softee Baby yarn in "flannel" and a 4.5 mm hook. Bernat Softee Baby is a lighter yarn, so I followed the pattern instructions for size 3-6 months and the hats ended up about the same size. 

Baby Hats (side view)

The larger orange hat shown below was made using Bernat Satin in "goldenrod" and using the pattern instructions for size Toddler/Preschool. I'm hoping my daughter can use these hats in a Little Sister/Big Brother photo. I chose these colours to match the logo on her website Sweet Maple Photography.

Little Sister and Big Brother Hats

Baby Hat and Diaper Cover

To match the grey and white hat, I made a cute diaper cover following a free pattern provided by blogger Annoo's Crochet World here. I altered the pattern slightly by omitting the ruffle and adding a white trim with a grey tie. 

Instructions for the white trim
Row 1: chain 1, single crochet (sc) in each sc and each chain space around, join with a slip stitch
Row 2: chain 3 (counts as first half double crochet (hdc) and chain 1), skip 1 sc, *hdc + chain 1, skip 1 sc **, repeat * to ** around and join with a slip stitch to second chain
Row 3: chain 1, sc around and join with invisible join

Instructions for grey tie
Chain 108
Row 1: sc in back bump of each chain stitch (see here for explanation)
Weave grey tie through holes created by row 2 of the white trim
Add a white/grey fringe to each end of the grey tie to match the fringe on the hat braids

I made these items while waiting for news of our grandchild's birth which took patience as the baby was overdue by a week. I am happy to say she arrived Tuesday, February 18 at 5:04 p.m. Boulder time weighing 8 lbs 11 oz and 21.5" long. My daughter sent me a cell phone snapshot showing her new baby wearing the little owl hat I made last summer. My daughter will be posting proper photos on her website soon so I won't share any baby pics. Although I will tell you, I think she is beautiful and looks just like her Mom.

My 50th Birthday in July - showing off a little hat for our 'granddaughter'

I remember I made this hat (pattern by Repeat Crafter Me found here) and announced to our family I thought our daughter was pregnant and having a girl. I think they all thought I was joking. Turns out I was right about the pregnancy AND right about her having a girl. I'm so looking forward to visiting again in March and finally meeting this little one.

I can hardly wait to see my daughter's first photo shoot with this baby. I better get busy and make some more "props". I think a headband with flowers should be next on the list.