National Air Force Museum

Wright Patt Air Force base is home to the National Air Force Museum. We are lucky enough to live within 30 minutes of the area, so when they were having Family Day (i.e. free admission) I packed the kids in the car for what I hoped to be a wonderful outing for them and me.

Funny thing about planning fun, sometimes it just don't work. With kids so many factors can switch them from happy, smiling little imps to wailing, fussing, children you want to leave with strangers. James was having one of those days. I told him the museum was like that place in the scene of Transformers Revenge of the Fallen where JetFire...



Know what I heard the entire time? "There are no Transformers here!" WAIL WAIL WAIL. Then it was another meltdown when I read the sign that said "This is not a playground. Do not touch." James just spiraled out and just stood there and wailed. It took some negotiations and Jesse promising candy for James to finish walking the first hanger with us. We skipped the other two hangers and opted to walk outside in the memorial garden. Where Jesse lost my phone and James scowled at me that entire time.

Good times. Jon can take them next time they are in need of "educational" outings.

Peace and Betrayed by Autobot!

Thankful Thursday

Thankful for these products that keep me regular:

1. General Foods International Instant Coffee
2. Dark Chocolate: M&M, Hershey's, you pick your weapon
3. Cilantro in Chipotle Rice
4. Sunny D Orange Juice
5. Life cereal

Thankful for these products that do weird things to pee:

1. Flintstones Extra Vitamin C Vitamins
2. Asparagus
3. Sweet Tea
4. Lucky Charms
5. Fenugreek

Our Thanksgiving plans include lunch at
Cracker Barrel
Golden Corral Cracker Barrel with my MIL, FIL, Jon's grandma and grandpa, Jon, me, James and Jesse. MIL broke the news to her other sons on Tuesday, claiming her knees hurt and she wanted to be rested up for our trip to Lake Cumberland this weekend. I know the rest of that story and wish she had shared it. I do know this, if they come to Thanksgiving dinner at Cracker Barrel
Golden Corral Cracker Barrel, I'm going try to get another family picture. Last time I tried I got more than grumblings from two of my BIL's, temperamental adult men that they are.

Here is a picture of the in-law family that I took in July:

The two men still facing the camera are my fit throwing BIL's. They didn't want to play that day. My FIL just looks confused. Five step instructions are not his forte.

A really low key day is expected. I'd like to make a garland and bust out the sewing machine and make a few little things for Jesse's dolls.

Hope everyone has a safe, happy and wonderfully peaceful day!

Peace and Happy Thanksgiving!!!

32 things before I turn 33

Inspired by Whatever

1. Go see Wicked the musical
2. Eat thai
3. Dye 2000 yards of yarn
4. Knit A scarf
5. Learn how to use PhotoShop
6. Sew a Quilt
7. Do a Craft Gathering at my house
8. Create cute packaging for my knit/crochet gifts
9. Send a Surprise Gift
10. Create an Outdoor space on the Patio featuring this
11. Buy pewter buttons and clasp from The Rams Horn
12. Make Vodka pie crust
13. Meet another author
14. Make a sock
15. Make James and Jesse afghans for their Cherry twin beds
16. Print and frame 5 photos for my house. Print and frame family photos for the family wall.
17. Buy handmade soap and crochet soap holders for them
18. Make a knit/crochet calender (buy their calender)
19. Grow my rabbits greens, parsley, turnip greens, kale, etc.
20. Attend Country Living Fair
21. Visit my Grandma
22. Make my Dad an afghan
23. Make my Sister her shawl
24. Make a felted purse
25. Photograph a rainbow, sunset and sunrise
26. Carve a pumpkin, grow my own pumpkins! Who wants to pay 49 cents a pound?
27. Make a new cookie a month
28. Travel to The Gathering
29. Get a puppy (SHSHSHSHSHSH! Don't tell Jon) Funny how preplanning a post works in my favor. It's like I'm making things happen by saying them out loud.
30. Make a craft video
31. Have 10 new blog readers
32. Eat at Chop House to celebrate one great event!

Whew! Now I have 16 months to finish this list. Think I can do it? Are you inspired to make your list?

Peace and Yay for Goals!!!

Green Goals

I'm an environmental profession. My professional life isn't about living green...just safe. In my personal life I have goals of becoming more "green". After reading this blog at Milk and Honey Momma I was inspired to make my list of how to improve our green living at home.

1. Recycle paper and glass. I have a recycling bin for Rumpke, but have never used it.

2. Compost the rabbit droppings onto the garden

3. Use non-toxic, natural cleaners. I currently use bleach, ammonia and Orange-Glow cleaners on the floors and bathrooms. I use vinegar to clean the rabbits kennel, but still clean the floor in the rabbit room with ammonia or bleach once a week.

4. Use bar soap. I'd like to use natural handmade soap, but the cost factor is still bugging me.

5. Find a natural or sulfate-free shampoo and conditioner. Check out that link on why you should use sulfate-free shampoo and a mini-list of those shampoos. I've tried L'oreal Paris sulfate-free shampoo and conditioner and HATED it. After 2 weeks of using it, I could have made a mohawk with my hair, it was that stiff, greasy and bad. I was expecting squeaky clean hair, but got oily ucky hair.

6. Grow a patch of pumpkins.

7. Grow parsley, kale, collard greens and cilantro for the rabbits.

8. Can tomatoes and strawberries. Store potatoes and onions. Freeze corn.

9. Make strawberry wine out of fresh strawberries from the garden.

10. Use the library more for books or buy used books. I have done really well with restricting myself to only buying new books for specific authors. Magazines, I've got one on-line subscription (E-magazine) to a crochet magazine, otherwise I don't usually buy magazines.

11. Rent movies instead of buying them. We will work on this.

12. Use natural yarn. Weed out the acrylic from my stash. It is so hard! Acrylic is cheap and comes in big skeins. I will work on it.

Things I want to do but I'm honest enough with myself to know I'll never do:

1. Take shorter cooler showers. I will relax in the hot tub at the Y and take a short shower at the Y to counterbalance the long, soul healing hot showers and baths I love to take.

2. Use reusable feminine products. I just can't.

3. Reduce the heat in my house. I'm a creature comforts gal. I promise that our next house I will budget in a wood/corn burning unit that will supplement heating the house.

4. Drive a fuel-efficient car. I love my SUV. Jon loves his truck. The truck is in the barn and rarely used. Our third vehicle is a small car that gets great gas mileage. We will always have a 4-wheel drive vehicle. That is the way the cookie crumbles. Name that movie!

Things we are currently doing that I'm proud of:

1. Use energy efficient light bulbs in the entire house.

2. Compost the grass clippings. We push mow our yard.

3. Butcher our own meat.

4. We planted our own garden.

5. Drink water filtered from the fridge.

6. Use an HE washer and energy efficient washer and dryer.

7. Less flushes. Kinda gross, but we pee several times before flushing. Poop gets flushed immediately. The guest bathroom is always clean, so no worries if you come visit. Just make sure you ask for toilet paper before you go in there, I may have forgotten to stock it.

8. Less laundry. We use towels several times before they get tossed in the laundry, unless a butt gets wiped with them. I don't care if you just washed your butt, I'm not wiping my face with that towel. Whoops! Off-tangent. We wear our jeans 2-3 times before we wash them.

What kinda "green" goals do you have in mind for 2010?

Peace and Living Green!

The One for Ella

Julia of The Apron Goddess and Our Simple Life blogs asked me to make her little girl, Ella, a beanie hat. We decided to make it a swap, since I really wanted an apron for Jesse. And boy did she ever come through on Jesse's apron. Check out this blog and the adorable fabric she chose. It's reversible too!

Little did she know that Ella's hat is reversible too!!! I took some liberties with the beanie hat and I hope Julia doesn't mind, but the hat is now a knit/crochet combo with a brim.

Look at that beautiful light spiraling!

Made with Love charm finishes off the hat.

Hope you like it, Julia!!! And Ella too!

The yarn is this yarn I blogged about on my Yarn Porn post. It is a wool handwash with beautiful pink, brown, cream and mint green colors.

Peace and Love Little Girls!!!

The Planning of the Beds

Jon says to me "What do you want the legs to look like?". WHAT?! You're the craftsman, I'm just the woman with the requests! So, I've dutifully put in my time scouring the internet and now I need opinions. James and Jesse are getting new beds for Christmas. James will be 5 (*GASP*) in just a few weeks and Jesse will be 4 in April. Way past time they move out of their cribs. To be completely honest, they've refused the crib for the past 2 months and the toddler bed is squeaky. So, Jesse has been sleeping on a pallet on the floor. Or James sleeps on the pallet and Jesse climbs in the crib. Or they climb in bed with Jon and I. It's musical beds at our house and I need to take control of the situation STAT! Thus my request for new beds for J&J from Jon. He's the man with the woodworking skills and we've got a barn full of sawed lumber from our years of owning a sawmill.

So here are three options...I know which one I'm leaning towards, but you tell me. Any adaptations can be made by Jon. The beds will be twin sized or full sized...I cannot decide. The only fact I'm 100% sure about is that they will be made out of Cherry.

Opinions Please!

Peace and Yay for New Beds!!!

Randomness

Cause I'm not happy with my picture taking these days, I'm gonna do a random blog about my life.

First, a thought I had: My thought of the day that I shared with my sister and now I'm sharing with you is: "It cannot be a pissing contest if the most I can achieve is peeing down my leg."

Secondly: When Jesse gets her mulish expression and is refusing to participate in swim class, stay calm. Here is my mom's conversational tidbit about Jesse and her stubborness:

hypothesis - is that hinny or ginny mulish? these are technical terms for purebred mules. however you also have the jackass which is too mulish to decide if it is horse or mule, or the dumbass spoken of in 2 peter 2:16 jesse may be ginny-mulish, seems to run on your side of the pissed in gene pool at which point the deduction could be made that mules are more sure-footed than horses. confidence maybe? funny thing about cerebral activity, mine is like a pinball machine - thereby - conclusion e=mc2 theory of relativity - you can't pick your relatives so jesse comes by it honestly

Thirdly: The puppy peeing on the floor, eating the furniture, scratching the kids, biting the rabbits and cornering the cats is all a learning lesson. Stay Calm.

And finally: I love my readers. Lurkers are welcome. I'll sniff you out. And stay calm when I find you, cornered readers are my favorite.

The leaves are gone, the dreary rainy weather is here and the highlight of my week is the ticket to New Moon on Friday.

Peace OUT!

The One with the Brim

Jesse is modeling this fun beanie-with-a-brim hat. As I was crocheting this hat I questioned myself because it seemed to boyish, but it was my hope that the purple, yellow, green and cream color yarn I talked about here in my Yarn Porn post, would save it. After completing it, I was happy with how it turned out. It actually reminds me of a hunter or military hat. A little girl with red hair could totally rock this hat!

This is a basic half double crochet beanie with a bill added. The pattern is available for free here (Ravelry link) from Suzanne Steiger on Ravelry.

Peace and More Progress on Christmas Gifts!

The One with FPdc

Pretty hat, isn't it? This is the hat made out of the yarn I talked about here on my Yarn Porn post from last week. The beautiful hot pink, teal, chatereuse green and some cream colors take this divine hat from simple elegance to popping, snowboarding-kinda-girl fun hat. The chatereuse green really pops and adds a whimsy to this little girl's hat. This pattern is available for free here at Rheatheylia.com.



Peace and Making Progress on Christmas gifts!

Bad Mommy Moments

CK from Bad Mommy Moments stopped by and left a comment after I recommend she use arm/wrist warmers for numbers 10, 9 and 8 of her Top 10 Reasons Why Cold Weather Can Bite Me. See crochet/knit have a place even giving advice! I LOVE her blog! She just resonates with me and my trip through mommyhood. Parenting isn't something I talk about too much, but I am a mom. :D I have two kids, James and Jesse. They comprise a large part of my life and happiness. Jon is the other part of the equation. Then a huge family that I love so much and they bring smiles and tears that I couldn't live without.

Anyway, check out CK's blog! It has inspired me to share my one bad mommy moment that I caught on video. If it cracks you up, don't feel guilty! No babies were harmed in the filming of the video.

This is what should have happened:



This is what happened:



Peace and Love those Babies!

Chicken Tetrazzini

YUM! Actually my favorite part of this picture is the pitcher. It was Mary Lou's and I smile every time I use it, remembering her. I'm currently reading two books...again. Queen of Song and Souls by C.L. Wilson and A Loving Scoundrel by Johanna Lindsey. Queen just came out on October 27, 2009. Excellent sci-fi series! Four books have been released and the fifth release date has not been announced. These books bring to life the story of the Fey and their Tairen kin. Ms. Wilson creates a world with beautiful language, magic, good gorgeous people, the evil Mages and brings the conflict to life amid a love story for the ages.

Anyway, back to food. This recipe came out of the Betty Crocker cookbook.

Easy enough recipe and most ingredients are standard in my pantry. Except sherry, maybe next time I'll use vodka...

What is more gorgeous than tenderizing mushrooms and green onions in butter?! Oh my!

Mix it all together and voila! You have a spaghetti casserole! Delicious and easy to make.

For the record, the white sauce seen above is my very first attempt at making white sauce. It was a resounding success! Me and half and half are gonna become best buds.

Peace and Eating Good!

Caramel Balls

8 cups popped corn
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter

Combine sugars, corn syrup, water, vinegar and salt in sauce pan. Heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring frequently, cook until 260 degrees candy thermometer or till small amount of mixture dropped in cold water forms a ball. Reduce heat and stir butter in. Pour over popcorn. Form into balls.

Jon makes this every year for the holidays. He says (He is sitting next to me as I type this, acting like he is the popcorn ball maker king. Well maybe he is king of the popcorn ball making skillz section.) there are several determining factors that will make a difference: how hot the burner gets, someone willing to continuously stir, and a pan big enough that the mixture is no deeper than an inch. Speaking of pans, it is good to use a pan with a handle on both sides for the caramel mixture. He also wanted to add that if you use the cold water test, to get the caramel to a soft ball, not a hard ball. Unless you want hard crack caramel, but we prefer the soft gooey, perfection caramel balls that don't break the teeth, so we use the soft ball measurement.

We use ACT II Butter Lovers microwave popcorn, each bag is 4 cups and we usually double or triple the batch. Pop the popcorn, dump in bowl and then sort out all the kernels, then transfer to large pan/bowl to add the caramel.

Good luck!

Peace and Caramel Goodies!

The Pretty Princess Rules

This is Puppy. She lives with a little girl named Jesse.

Puppy is looking around the backyard for the little girl. "Where is she at?" asks Puppy.

There she is! Jesse is swinging on her swing.

Puppy runs over to Jesse and says, "Come little girl, I have something to show you!"

To which the little girl says, "OH! My momma says to always be prepared. Are you evil or good?"

Come now! Tell the truth! "I am good!" says Puppy.

Jesse says, "This is the sword of truth!" and Puppy yelps, "Truth! I'm good! I promise I'll be a good puppy!"

Puppy promises to chew only her toys, to give kisses not knibbles, to only pee outside and to make friends with the rabbits and cats.

Jesse promises to only give kisses and hugs and not to sit on Puppy.

Peace and Puppy needs a Name!

Rainbow Dress

Isn't this adorable?! Sock yarn isn't just for socks! Toddler clothes are perfect for sock yarn because sock yarn is stretchy, durable and colorful!

The yarn is called Hand dyed sock superwash merino - 170g - 600yds - Rainbow Connection 1. The description on etsy was: The Jackrabbit yarn base is a cushiony, springy superwash merino with lots of twist, available in 4oz and 6oz skeins. This listing is for a 6oz skein immersion dyed August 2009 in a rainbow gradient. Intended as sock yarn but enough for larger projects, this hank will not make a matched pair of socks. The gradient runs in seven equal sections: Red, Orange, Orange/Yellow, Yellow/Green, Green, Blue, Blue/Violet, each section tied off separately and immersion dyed in my usual manner. Machine washable.

I bought this yarn from Light Brown Hare on Etsy.

This pattern is wonderful and on reading it through, I knew I could do it. It is a straight forward knit starting at the neck and working down in one piece. Alas, with two toddlers running around, the yarn sat and sat and sat. Finally, I asked my mom to make the dress for Jesse. She was ecstatic to make it for her and what you see is her creation. I originally thought mom would knit and let the yarn stripe for itself, but she wasn’t happy with it. Claiming “artistic license” she cut the yarn into the color bands and sewed in the ends for each color change.

The hem of the skirt is a three needle bind off using two knitting needles and a crochet hook. Jesse loves the dress.

With the scraps of yarn, star charms and charms that spell JESSE, mom made her an adorable bracelet to match the dress.

Thank you, Mom! You have more yarn on the way...not kidding. :D

Peace and Healing!

Fast Friday!

Raindrops on Roses

Sing it with me! These are a few of my favorite things!



Peace and Love Musicals!

KnitPicks Lace Gloss

Beautiful mountain stream blue color! This is a lace weight yarn that I purchased from KnitPicks. Lace weight, 440 yards, 70% merino wool and 30% silk yarn. Beautiful, light, dreamy, it seemed perfect for what I planned. I had dreams of making this (Ravelry link), a gorgeous crocheted lace shawl designed by Kim Guzman (Internet link). Alas, I hated working with lace. It was tedious and mind-numbingly unproductive for me and my "need to have it done quick." motto. Then Saturday, Halloween, I was inspired. You can see a sneak peek behind the yarn of part of the finished project. It's a gift. I was so happy to figure out what to do with this gorgeous yarn.

Peace and Yay for Inspirations!

Honking Hank! Honk if you Love it!

Finally! Isn't this AMAZING?! This is over 2,000 yards of undyed, one complete skein of Lamb's Pride Bulky yarn. It is a beautiful blank canvas for me to play on. This was purchased from Sheep Shed Studio. Remember them? The awarded me the huge yellow roving for being the 500th member of their Ravelry group? Wonder how much Koolaid I'll have to use to dye this baby? I'm thinking of going with Jacquard dyes, though. But to go that route, I need a bigger cauldron. Can you see me in my front yard, cackling, in my witch's costume during next year's Halloween festivities, dyeing my Honking Hank? Any idea's on how to make a swift big enough for this hank? And just to give you an idea, this is a bulky weight yarn and one skein of bulky weight yarn makes this...so extrapolate that and imagine what can be made with 18 skeins!

Just to give you an idea, this Honking Hank was $32 plus $15 for shipping, so total of $47. If I'd bought each skein individually, it would have been about $8 a skein for a total of $144. This Honking Hank is a steal! AND I get to play with dyeing my own yarn! shshshsh! Don't tell Jon but I bought 50 packs of Koolaid.

Peace and Happy Yarns!

Yarn Porn

The first skein is a hand dyed light pink, brown, cream Peruvian wool, 220 yards worsted weight yarn. This skein of yarn will be used to make a hat for Jesse's bestest friend/cousin who is the same age as her and it will match her jacket.


The second skein is a purple, yellow, green and cream Superwash wool, 220 yards worsted weight yarn. This will be used to make my neice, who is a red-head like Jesse, a hat and fingerless mittens.

The third skein is one I asked TJ to special dye to match my niece's Columbia jacket. Reagan made such a big deal about her hat last year, I wanted to make sure I got a great fun yarn for her hat for this year. TJ did a wonderful job with the teal, hot pink, chatereuse green and cream hand dyeing of this Superwash, 220 yards of worsted weight yarn.

Three skeins of worsted weight yarn purchased from Etsy seller TJT Unraveled. She was wonderful and the yarn turned out gorgeous. Check her out! Each skein was $17 plus $4 shipping, for a total of $55 spent on three gifts for Christmas.

I have one more neice to make a hat/scarf combo for, fortunately or unfortunately she is a teenager, so I'm waiting for inspiration for her gift. Them picky, too cool for school teens...*shakes head* :D

Peace and Happy Yarns!

P.S. Thanks for following me while we went off-roading on different topics! Jon's fun is over with, but he has another project in mind. I will enjoy showing you that process as he works to make it.

The Castle Video