Baby hats finished!

Some of you might have noticed my on-line absence the last few days. I have been busy with holiday preparations and still crazily crafting away. I finished making the dozen baby hats to donate and will have them in the mail today or tomorrow. I am still packaging a few more items for shipping so as soon as they are boxed up I will go to the post office. I shipped two other boxes out yesterday and was surprised at how short the line was.
While I was out I picked up the batting for the quilt I am making. I asked for advice on which batting to use from a quilting group on Ravelry and it was suggested to me to use polyester. I really wanted to try wool but since is my first quilt I decided to give the polyester a try. I need to give my kitchen floor a good mopping because it looks like that will be my new large flat work surface since I found a new home for the desk. Clearing out clutter feels so good. I am clearing out closets too, a little bit at a time. The theory behind this for me is, clear your space, clear your mind. I can’t think of a better way to prepare for the New Year.
Here is my mini tower of twelve baby hats. Have a great day!

An eventful weekend!

Yesterday was a gluten free baking extravaganza in my kitchen! We were headed to a Christmas dinner with friends and I wanted to make some holiday goodies to bring to help celebrate. I dug my Christmas tree cookie cutters out and wanted to make one to take with us. I haven’t made one in probably fifteen years but I still keep these cookie cutters. Only problem was I couldn’t find the booklet that goes with them! I also have a package of shaped cookie cutters from Wilton’s Christmas Collection from 1992. Wilton’s website offers an updated version of their cookie recipe you can find here. The recipe I used came off the old box and is slightly different from the one in the link. I find that when cooking with Gluten Free Flour you have to make a few adjustments. I did not use the almond extract but I might try that next time. I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free all purpose flour combined with Xanthan Gum. I found that the cookies came out better if I lowered the cooking temperature a bit, but it is possible that my oven runs hot. The consistency of the dough made it a little tricky to figure out how to get the cut dough from the table to the cookie baking sheet. Sometimes I used a spatula (even two)to move them onto the baking sheet. Some of them I pieced together within the cookie cutter directly on a cool baking sheet. My tree did not look like the one on the Wilton site. It had more of a Dr. Seuss feel. I made lime squares too using the same Gluten Free flour. The lime squares call for powdered sugar which contains cornstarch. I wasn’t sure if there was gluten in cornstarch so this is what I found if you are curious.
Here are some pics…as you can see I frosted the tree with butter-cream frosting and candies.

Today I was surprised to get an email asking if the free desk was still available. I responded yes and they were more than eager to come get it straight away! So now I will have to find another large flat surface to finish my quilt but I am very grateful that the desk found a new home.

Crazy Crafting Fool!

It is December 10th and I am a crazy crafting fool! I have WIP( works in progress) projects taking over my kitchen, living room and garage! Ha Ha! Move over Santa! Thankfully my husband likes seeing the progress I make so he indulges my craftiness! Yes craftiness, not messiness. Here is my most recently finished project.

I first found the pattern on Ravelry. The pattern is called Jiji by Anne Gee White. I knew I recognized this cat as the one from Kiki’s Delivery Service. I loved the cat in that animation! Thank you so much for sharing your pattern for free via Ravelry. I deviated just a tad from your original pattern but I am very happy with the results.
Okay, back to crafting!

Pizza Night

Saturday provided me with ample hours of quilt making. I have outgrown the kitchen table and needed to go work on the desk in my garage that I am trying to give away. Maybe that is why I have not found a new home for it yet, I am using it to work on my quilt project! The desk measures 3ftx6ft and I have 14 inches draping down over each end.

Dinner. Saturday night is pizza night, well at least this Saturday was. Above are some pics of the gluten free pizza crusts I made from Bob’s Red Mill Whole Grain Pizza Crust which is a wheat free, gluten free, and dairy free product. I made a pesto from scratch and also used a jar of red sauce. Topping included nutritional yeast, black olives, pine nuts and my personal favorite…carrots. Yes that is correct I LOVE carrots on my pizza!

To make a quilt….

I got this idea in my head that I wanted to make Varuna a Halloween themed quilt for Christmas. I participate in an on-line forum for Random Acts of Kindness. People in the group can post a wishlist or just respond to someone’s wishlist. I had requested scraps or fat quarters of Halloween fabrics or any scraps that I might be able to use in my quilt. I received a great assortment of fabrics.
With NaNOWriMo over and my word goal met I am working on holiday gifts for the remainder of the month. I cleared the kitchen table and spread out all the fabrics that I had generously received and the few that I had purchased. I ironed them all then began the painstaking task of trying to figure out how I was going to approach this quilt. I have started several quilts in the past but just realized today that I have never actually finished a full quilt! I thought for awhile about how I wanted to make this piece. Did I want to follow a pattern? Did I want to created a repeat design? Did I want to make a crazy quilt? I’ll be honest I have always had a fascination with crazy quilts. I would love to assemble a quilt from velvet, corduroy, lace satins and all types of materials but I was staring at a table full of 99.2% cotton material that quilters normally use. So I decided to just cut up a few pieces and begin to sew. Half of the material is in irregular shapes already as what I had asked for were just scrapes of materials that people might have leftover from their projects. You know the kind of scrap too good to toss even though you probably will never use it again? Well people were generous and shared these with me as well as some fat quarters. So I took out my scissors and began to cut. I stopped. Then I found another pair of scissors and began to cut again. I stopped again. Hmmm, I found out all my scissors are shot, but that did not deter me. I used the best pair of what I could find in the house and though my fabric edges are choppy, no one will see those when the quilt is finished. So if you see my jaggedly cut edges, I really can cut…..the scissors are just not sharp. Here are a few pictures. I am unable to make the image files smaller at the moment so be forewarned if you click on them they will take a minute or so to load.

December…pausing for a deep breath and some mild reflections…

December first is here. WOW, where has this year gone? After achieving my NaNoWriMo writing goal I began to think about the Resolutions I made at the beginning of this year. I am happy to say that I have kept with my blogging goal. I feel that if you are going to blog, then you really need to do it, even if some of the posts are short in length. I personally find it disappointing when someone starts a blog and then doesn’t update it. I’ll go back a few times to check but after that my desire to check it wanes. So that being said, I have done my best to update with posts on the average of once a week. With only 4 weeks left in this year, I am confident I can maintain the rest of this year and uphold my own resolution. I am a little bit behind on my goal of my twelve new born hats but I will be returning to that this week and am confident I can meet that goal as well. In truth, the hats work up fairly quickly. I have already donated some of the hats I did make this year to several different charities. I promised a very special lady a dozen hats for the New Born ward at her hospital so I plan on making twelve hats before the end of the month to send to her.

What has currently been on my hook, aka crochet project, started off to be a rug but has since evolved into the beginnings of a market bag. A girl can change her mind you know! My Mom sent me the crochet hook I am using for the project. The hook actually lights up and you can practically crochet in the dark! Thanks Mom, it works great!
Here is a picture of the bag in process.

FREECYCLE…
Yesterday being the last day of the month I decide to list a bunch of items on my local Freecycle group. I posted a dozen or so items and the experience has been very interesting. I love the idea of keeping usable items out of the landfill. Sometimes you have an item that you just no longer have a use for but you hang onto it because it is too good to just throw away. I found I had one of those piles. So I took several hours taking measurements, writing descriptions, taking pictures and submitting my “OFFERS”. I probably did not need to take that long but this was my first time posting so many items at once and I wanted to make sure to do it right and make less work for the volunteer moderators that check each listing.
Our Mod had sent out a message suggesting that perhaps we(the group) could find some items that were no longer needed(or wanted) and maybe they could make someone’s holiday season a little brighter. I took that to heart as I began my clearing out process. I know I have more to clear out but I made the first step in what I believe makes a difference in this world. I met several nice people in the process. I heard from single moms, families, individuals, and some of the recently laid-off population. They touched my life and I am grateful. Grateful for what I have and also grateful for what I can share.
Have you thought about what you can do to make a difference? Sometimes what we perceive as the littlest thing, or no big deal, might make a huge difference in the life of someone else. I know this has been true in my life. Thank you to those of you that have touched my life.

Tick Tock went the NaNoWriMo clock…

Glance to right of your screen, behold the brilliance that is the widget of a NaNoWriMO WINNER! That winner would be me, as tonight I completed the goal of 50,000 words in 30 days. **Round of applause** I still have more to write on my novel but I made the word goal and am feeling very happy at this moment in time. Thought I would share the love

Here is the badge again….

Tick Tock

With the deadline lingering over my head I am fastidiously writing and typing away to meet the 50,000 word goal for the NaNoWriMo challenge. I am currently at 39,000 words. The sun is shining through the window and warming my back as I type. I feel like I am being hugged by the sky.
Virtual hugs gladly accepted too.

NaNoWriMo countdown continues.

I have just passed the half way mark on the goal of 50,000 words. Only another 25,000 to go. I can do it! I know I can

Please cheer me on! It helps!!!!

The NaNoWriMo countdown is on…

I just updated a widget for NaNoWriMo on my blog page. You will find it on the right hand side of this page. This will give my current word count. The last day is November 30th, so as you can see I still have a way to go. I am still confident that I can do this goal. I can do it! I know there are plenty of others doing this event as well so if you drop by here, let me know. As sleep seems to be eluding me at the moment I am typing away and valiantly making my attempt to reach the finish line. Feel free to cheer me on!!! Encouragement always welcome!