Goodbye Knitsational

This is my last post at this blog. No, I am not moving to another blog host, again. But, instead, I am closing Knitsational altogether. I have been weighing this in my mind for quite awhile and have decided that I really want to change it completely. I have been feeling blocked in by Knitsational, the name, the brand I have been building. I know, I know, it's all in my mind but I need to feel good about it in my mind. You see, there is so much of me that I feel abit hesitant to share yet I want to share. So, I have given my shop, my blog, myself? abit of a make-over and now I want to share my new home with you. This Cosy Life I really hope to be able to shake off the restraints that, I myself, have placed on my blog and be able to share more of myself with you. This is important to me. Opening myself up. I will share more on this later. I do hope you will join me in my new place. My new page starts with a homepage and links will direct you to my blog and new shop. I have removed to Followers widget there but still invite you to follow. You can Subscribe or if you have a Blogger account you can, of course, cut and paste the URL into the Add box in you Reading List. I will be posting there next. I am going to have a little giveaway to kick things off. I have also marked down everything left in my Knitsational shop.

Someone's Having a Giveaway

Molly over at Whimsy House is having a fabulous giveaway over on her blog to celebrate her first year selling in her Etsy shop. She makes the cutest accessories from felt and vintage findings.




So hop on over to her blog for 5, yes 5! chances to win.

Do You Realize That Easter......

is only about a week and a half away?! This came as a shock to this morning. It always kinda sneaks up on me. But, fortunately there are so many great projects over on the Sew, Mama, Sew blog for a lovely, handmade Easter. Like these fabric eggs.

We can't go near the real thing as Kaiya is sooo allergic and I hate those crappy plastic ones. I'll definately be making some of these. They come from Retro Mama's blog. And a couple of these from Molly Chicken.

How cute!
This morning I made a new game for the girls, got the idea from here, who got it from here. And now you, gentle reader are finding it here!
A sweet little Montessori inspired button learning game. The girls love matching the colorful felt squares and trying to work the buttons through. I decided to make a little bag to keep the pieces in.

I just cut a rectangle from another piece of felt and sewed up the sides. Then I cut five holes on each side, cut 2 pieces of ribbon (enough to go all the way around and have have extra for the handle). I then threaded one through each hole, ends coming out of the same side and did the same for the other except they came out the opposite side. Tie the ends and pull closed. Took just a couple of extra minutes. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!

Amigurumi Love

We had a lovely, lazy weekend here. Yes, I needed to paint/clean the house. But, instead, I chose to make my little ones some new toys and try my hand at amigurumi. The itch came after these patterns showed up in my inbox. They are egg cozies but I chose to stuff them and finish off the bottom.

After them I was "hooked", (pun intended) and went searching for more sweet little critters to work up. how could I resist this guy?!

I found these on the Lion's Brand site, and they have so many more I can't wait to make.
Now I'm off to do something productive. Happy Monday!

What I'm Loving Today

I am so excited to see this! Kaiya just loves this book and I love reading it to her (I think I may even love reading it more than she does). And the trailer looks amazing. I can't wait!


And this play tent tutorial over on the Sew, Mama, Sew blog.
How fun!

And last but not least, this sweet little game from Mama Roots. Which, I am wishing I had right now. We've been stuck in the house for the past couple of days. Rain, rain, go away......

Happy Thursday, everyone!

Paying it Forward-Handmade Style!

I got this from Alisa. What a sweet idea! Here's how it works; the first three people to leave me a comment on this post, will recieve an item, handmade by me, in the mail within the next three months. One day, out of the blue. What could be better than that?
Only catch is, you must post this on your own blog (which means you do need to have a blog to participate)and give three items yourself. And don't forget to leave me your mailing address, you can contact me by email (in my profile).

Getting Our Hands Dirty

I had abit of help in the garden today.

We've had a streak of excellent weather and the girls are just eating it up. If only I could convince them not to drench my poor flowers. Oh, and we have puppies!

Show and Tell Sunday

This is my new favortite website. I found it the other day while I was searching for a tutorial for making Waldorf inspired dolls. It has so much; how to make different types of slings, dolls, wooden toys, clothes, food!

I am scared to use any type of saw but I think that even I could make these.

I am on a mission to de-plastic my house, right down to (gasp!) the kids toys. Replacing them with with as much handmade as they can possibly stand. I hate plastic toys and like most idealistic new moms, wanted none of it for my kids. Then came birthdays and Christmas and quick trips to the $ stores and now we have plastic coming out the whazoo. Well, I'm not so new new anymore, but I think (or would like to think) that perhaps it's better I got that out of my system. I only wished I would have before we amassed so much junk. Now we are paring down and looking for quality and made with love, not to mention natural materials.

Now the hard part, convincing my girls to "trade in" their plastics......

Why go plastic free?
No More Junk Toys: Rethinking Children's Gifts
Toxic Toy Story
Life Without Plastic

Everyday Fancy

There is never a bad time for shiny red shoes. Even when playing in the dirt with one's cousin.
Here's hoping you have a fun and fancy weekend!

Hello Again

I went to the grocery store late this afternoon. When I got back I was greeted by the sweet scent of wild onions. The girls had been running around outside with Tait while I was gone and had apparently been pulling them up in the yard (hmmmm...perhaps time to break out the mower?). I love this little sign of spring. The trees have already begun to bloom and I started planting the garden last weekend.


Perfect days for going to the park with our new group.


I've started a little spring knitting project as well.

A cotton cardigan, with raglan sleeves, of course. Is there really any other way to go? Who knows, I may even keep this this little ditty for myself.

Snow, Yes, Snow

Yesterday we got a piddeling amount of snow in the afternoon. Zoe chose to stay inside with me but Tait took Kaiya about for just a few minutes. Then, later in the evening it really started coming down good and we woke up to a nice amount to play in. (The yard is so up and down, I won't give you a quote on the inches.)Now, I have been thinking all season that the girls really need some nice, new woolen mittens but, honestly, I didn't think we were going to be getting any real amount of snow at all this year. So, here is the snow and no mittens, because, of course, I want some nice woolen mittens, not icky acrylic, store-bought mittens. And this brings me to this morning, knitting two little pairs of mittens just as fast as my hands would go, as the little ladies were so eager to get outside. Whew! My hands are tired. But they are the proud owners of new woolen mittens, lovingly (and speedily) knit by their mother. Blue for Kaiya (her favorite color), and red for Zoe.
And off we went, sliding and stomping through the snow. And here in NC snow means no school and no work so it was so nice to have hubby home to play with us.

Show and Tell Sunday

Happy Sunday, everyone! This weekend I saw the documentary from Ricki Lake (yes, the talk show host) and director Abby Epstein, 'The Business of Being Born'. This was such a beautiful film, if you are expecting or have any interest in natural birth I highly recommend you watch it. It explores natural and homebirths and the devastating turns that are occuring in "traditional" hospital births. I talked about it a little more in depth on my Natural Family Living blog.

This films does show actual births and can get a little graphic, if this type of thing bothers you. To me it doesn't. I watched it with Kaiya, who is almost 4 and she loved watching the birth scenes. I think it is so important that our daughters see women birthing naturally and without fear as opposed to the way childbirth is typically depicted on mainstream television and movies.
Btw, I know you can tell where my head has been lately. You may not know this about me but natural childbirth and parenting is something I am quite passionate about. But, I promise we will get back to crafting next week.

North Carolina Natural Family Living

I wanted to share my latest project with you. No yarn, fabric or paper involved here. This is a very special project. I have been a stay-at-home mommy for almost four years now. Raising my children in a way that comes more naturally to me than the standard model of child "rearing". And while we have the support of our families we struggle to find like-minded families to interact with, in our area. So, rather than wait for someone us to reach out to us, I have begun to reach myself.

Thus is born North Carolina Natural Family Living. Now, I know most of my readers are not in my area. If you are, we would to have you join us. Otherwise, I did want to share my new blog through the site. All about, well, obviously, natural family living.

I ♥ Mary Englebreit

I was so sad to hear that Mary Englebreit's Home Companion is no longer being published. You can go here to learn why. Such an inspiring magazine and a real visual feast. But one of my favorite things about ME mag was the free paper dolls in every issue. I pulled them all out of my back issues and stored them, not knowing exactly what I would do with them. But I was recently inspired (I can't remember what caused the lightening bolt) to cut them all out and display as the art they are.

How sweet is that?! Here's more waiting to be cut.

Show and Tell Sunday

Some paper dolls for you today.

I really love paper dolls, though I have never liked to play with them. I've just always thought they were so charming just they way they are. I found these sweethearts at Kiddio. I also offer up for Sunday's show and tell these lovely coloring pages FREE! from Mary Engelbreit's online shop. That is, if you are a ME fanatic like me. She has other freebies there, as well. And tomorrow I will show you how I have combined my love of Mary and paper dolls. Til then....!

I Almost Forgot

My little flawed frames. I don't know where my head is today. Hubby let me sleep in til almost noon, as Zoe is still letting me get very little sleep. And now I am having a lazy day, mostly knitting and snuggling. Wait, I have no pic for the day. Hold on....

And....

A sweet cotton hat in the same stitch as these. I really don't know why it has not occured to me til now to use it in a hat. And I'm beginning to think warm weather thoughts (though, I'm trying real hard not to)so I thought it must be a nice soft cotton.
Anywho, my little flawed frames have found two new homes; Angie and ismoyo! Thank you everyone for all the frame love. I have all but one up in the shop, now.
Have a happy weekend, all!

Perfect!!

I am so pleased with how these turned out! The zigzag was exactly what they needed.




And I got a little carried away and made these, too.


I'll get these and probably more, listed in the shop in the next few days. But, if you would like either of the flawed pieces you are still quite welcome to comment in the last post. That will be open until this Saturday.

Not Quite Right

I have had the idea for these brewing in my head for a couple of weeks, so I was so eager to get started on them after I finished up Zoe's birthday stuff. I really love making them but I am not quite satisfied with them yet. I think I may try a zigzag stitch over the raw edges. With these I have treated the edges with Fray Check, but I am thinking that closing up the edges may keep the fabric from moving around so much as I sew around the outside.



The fabric is backed with a heavy Pellon interfacing and an extra piece is sewn onto the back to slip your photo into. I really dig them but I think I'll work on them some more today til I get them just right. But, this leaves me with these two flawed pieces. So, if you would like to give one of them a home leave me a coment on this post and I would love to send one to you. I will draw two names this Saturday. That would be..........the 21st. And these are so light I'll send them anywhere. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some success to show you.

TTFN!

My Baby is 2! or The Dresses

So, as you can see, I made the doll a matching dress. Though, apparently it's not nearly as fascinating as those JujyFruits.

She's not been sleeping well,though, and that means I'm sleeping next to none. I guess she must be working on the last of her baby teeth. But, I'm exhausted so I think I'll take a little nap, now that hubby is home.

Show and Tell Sunday/Zoe's Birthday

Today, my sweet Zoe Gail turned 2. I always hear other mothers say how it feels like "only yesterday" they were itty bitty babies or still kicking aroud inside them. Not the case with Zoe. It feels like she has always been with us. I can barely recall life without her. My Zoe has a very strong personality. I already knew who she was going to be while she was still inside of me. I felt her first kicks when I was about 13 weeks along. But within that month, her kicks became so strong and forceful I felt that I must have been farther along than we thought. So much that my midwife decided to do the home visit (my girls were both born at home) a few weeks early, just in case. As it turned out, I actually went 15 days over my due date. But, we knew from then that a little hurricane was entering our lives. She was born hard and fast the day after Valentine's Day. She could not even wait for her bag of waters to rupture and was born in the caul. And she has definately not failed to live up to her reputation. She never stops, never gives up, and is just about the sweetest little devil I have ever known.

And she wanted to show off her new big girls panties. We started training her just a few days ago.

I have more pics to share but I will get to them tomorrow. For now, though, I did want to share a couple of thrifty finds I picked up a couple of days ago.