Open Flower Scarf

During our trip west last month, my mom saw a scarf of my aunts that she wanted replicated. Today when I was at JoAnne's, the bear cub fell in love with a skein of yarn. She carried around like a stuffed animal and rubbed it against her face and hugged it through the whole store. Since it was obviously going home with us, I figured that I should go ahead and make my mom's scarf from the yarn. My aunt doesn't remember where she got the scarf and I googled a bit trying to find the pattern, but since I never found one even remotely similar I went ahead and made one.

This isn't a final version as I can see a number of areas for improvement, but it is quite similar. My aunt's version could also be used as a belt and my version here could only be used as a belt for someone size 4 or smaller. I used a size I hook and I think if I make it again I would use a size G. I also think that I would try to find something to stabilize the center better (though a version that I unraveled that had open spaces in the petals of the flower held its shape better). My mom suggested the rubbers rings that are used to seal canning jars. Also, there were 21 strings of chains instead of my 11 chains.

Eddie Cap Done

I finished the Eddie Cap. I was going to make the nerdlet one, but when she saw the thicker fabric I chose, she said no. I got my mom's head measurement hoping that it is close enough to my older sister's so that she could have it if she wanted. It is telling that when the nerdlet saw how cute it was turning out she tried to reclaim it.

Here is Q modeling it.

I really like this pattern quite a bit and will likely use it again at some point.

Thursday Fun

I have the privilege of picking up my niece, the drama princess, on Thursdays after school. Most Thursdays I try to have something fun to do. We've made cupcakes and muffins and brownies and done various crafts, but I've decided to switch to cookies at least until Christmas. Today, we made snowman cookies.

My niece isn't encouraged to do a lot of free form creative things often and was trying to impose rules on the nerlet's cookie making. I explained that they both could make cookies however they wanted with the number of eyes or mouth pieces that they wanted to without anyone telling them how it should be done and after the drama princess thought about it, she decided to go wild. Here are the final cookies.

I think they did a great job, don't you. These were actually the last ones done by my niece and I'm so proud of her for going outside of her comfort zone.

Conscientious Parents

Today I'm grateful for parents that are conscientious of how sending a sick child to school, day care, or therapy can infect other children. I'm so thankful for those parents that cancel plans in order to keep other children safe. I try very hard not to let my girls pass on what they have and I'm appreciative when others do the same.

I still didn't get the Eddie Cap made because it takes a lot longer to wrap 24 books than I thought. Last year I asked for Christmas/Holiday traditions to start with my little ones because I didn't really grow up with any to pass on. The one I decided to try this year is to wrap 24 appropriate seasonal books and the girls I and will unwrap one each day until Christmas. One of the books is actually a coloring book which I figure we can color together. I was also planning to mix in some seasonal videos to watch, but I never got around to acquiring any. Most of the books I wrapped were books we already had or books that were on clearance after last Christmas. The nerdlet helped me wrap the gifts and had a lot of fun pulling pieces of tape for me.

The New Roof

Here is what the roof looked like when we discovered the hole in it.

And here is the new roof.

I can't wait to see what it looks like when the solar panels go up, hopefully next week.

I was going to make this today. I pulled out the quilting cotton that I used for my sister's quilt last year, but it turned out to be too thin. My husband has the perfect fabric for this in one of his few long sleeve shirts, but I doubt he'll donate it to my project. If I can find the time tomorrow, I'm planning on trying it again. My friend on facebook is doing a craft a day until Christmas and I'm going to do my best to follow along (at least the good ones).

Today was a very good day. I'm feeling grateful for so many things, particularly my wonderful family. I'm so very blessed. I'm especially grateful today for the DSASA (Down Syndrome Association of San Antonio). We have Kindermusik on Tuesdays for about half the months of the year, which is wonderful for all my girls and also for the mothers of the kids, too. The teacher of the class is a very patient woman (with the kids and the parents) and we had our last class of this year today. I know my girls will miss going until the classes resume next year and I'm so thankful for having the opportunity to go to these sessions.

New Roof

A short while back, our favorite neighbor's tree knock a big chunk of our roof off (and his own). Our insurance came and looked at it and said that we needed a new roof, not just that section. Q and I discussed it and decided that we would get bids for the new roof and also for solar panels. Since there are a number of rebates (including a large one from the city electric company) and we got some decent bids, we are replacing the roof with a metal roof and having the solar panels installed. Today they started the work and it looks like the roof will be finished tomorrow and I'm very grateful that the roof is being done so quickly. I don't know how long it will take to add the solar panels, but I'm hoping that those will go up quickly as well.

On a side note, to those considering a home equity loan, it is a very long drawn out process and if I had known what it was going to entail, we would have just refinanced the house which would have been a little more paperwork but better overall.

BurdaStyle Magazine 12-2011

I really like this months Burda. I got it a few days ago, but I only got the chance to go through it today.

First, here are the technical drawings.

I recently learned that not all the versions of the magazine come with the pictorial style overview, so I'm going to post those, too.

I really like 107 and I think it would be fairly flattering on me.

I also really like 103 and 105, though I do wonder if I would like it as much without the really cool texture of the fabric they used (I'm trying to not purchase fabric for anything but use stuff from my huge fabric collection).

The only children's pattern I'm interested in is 144. I think the nerdlet would love it, but I'm afraid if I made her a version of this painter's smock that she would insist upon wearing it everywhere.

Normally, I stay away from anything that has any bias at all, but as the skirt part of 123 that is cut on the bias isn't as all near any curves, I'm wondering if it would work better. I also like this style as a top.

I would make a dicky to cover the cleavage of dress 106B, but I like the style a lot.

I'm not sure that I would make any of the dog items, but I'm glad to see them. If my sister sewed, she would definitely make this for her chiweenie (sp?). She wanted him to be Sherlock Holmes for Halloween and this would have been the perfect pattern.

Finally, the preview for next month. The plus size preview is in the upper right corner and I'm eager to see it. I think the produce costumes are hilarious, but they may someday serve me useful in a school play.