a March girl...

Just had to share this beautiful ear warmer my sister, Loral, made for baby. Isn't it adorable? It reminds me of something one of the Little Women would've worn.

Mail's Here!!!

I think I've mentioned before how much I love Mail. Today was a fabulous mail day...clothes from Coldwater Creek and a swap package from the very generous and kind Kiva. She was my partner in a notions swap hosted by Julie over at Red Hen Studios. She and a group of crafty ladies just opened a new store, Collage. Definately worth checking out.

Look at my haul!

Magazines, fabric, button covers, vintage runner (which will work beautifully with some purple candles I have) cute blue button pin and look at all that lace (I'm thinking lace angels for the tree) and notions!

Look at this elastic band!!! How cool is that? I'm going to use it to trim out a terry cloth suit for Baby.

And look at these vintage bunny appliques...definately going to be used this spring.

A heartfelt thank you going out to Kiva for this wonderful package!

Tonight is our Secret Santa party for the ebay design group I belong to...theJills. I have my Margarita bucket ready...although it's a bit cold here today so maybe I'll change it up to Kahlua and hot cocoa. I can't wait to open my present. The kids are excited too...they've been having to look at that box for several days and the suspense is killing them.

Oh, I have nearly all my shopping done! Woo hoo woo hoo. :-) Thanks to a great Toy site Utoypia. They had the best prices I could find on Playmobil plus free shipping for orders over $98. I ordered at 11 p.m. and my package was sent the very next morning. I can't say enough about how pleased I was with their service. Now Target on the other hand, very unsatisfactory service and downright misleading "availability" status. Two items I ordered which were "available" to ship w/in 24 hrs now won't ship until Dec. 29th. Oh and no you can't cancel because we are "preparing to ship that." sheesh.

Tonight my friend Krista and 3 of her rascals are driving up from downstate. I hope the weather holds and the 5 hr drive isn't too rough. I'm really excited to just hang out with her and catch up.

Why you shouldn't (ver.2) ...

crochet with your feet! Crafters warning! (if you are squeamish do NOT scroll down)

The ringing phone woke me this morning. My poor sis, Loral needed a lift to the hospital to remove a crochet hook that was stuck in her pinky toe (OUCH!) Of course the first thing I did was grab my camera. The pic is a bit blurry because we were laughing our butts off. I told her not to crochet with her feet while jumping on the trampoline but she wouldn't listen!

and the winner is....

Pam! Because I'm feeling extra crafty and Baby was screaming..."nudder one, nudder one!" we have a second winner...Natalie!

if you could email your addresses to springbean.missy@yahoo.com I will be sending out your goodies this week! Thanks for commenting everybody. I'm hoping to do a drawing every 50 posts or so.

link to sale items

Here is a link to some of the items I am offering...

http://springbeansales.blogspot.com/

catch up

I hope everybody had a joyous holiday. We had a delicious feast at my mom's. Most of my family was able to be there which was so wonderful.

Yesterday was the "big" craft show and unfortunately it was a total bust. I actually lost $ after you factor in my fee. Argh! Frustrating. Sigh, those are the chances you take. I have about 20 girls holiday dresses I will be listing over on Etsy come Monday. I'll post a link when I get them listed.

We have a couple sickies here today....Ken and d9. Hopefully they'll recover quickly and the rest of us will escape the bug.

Tomorrow Baby will be pulling a name from the hat so if you haven't entered your name you still have time!

50th and a prize!

I have been anxiously anticipating my upcoming 50th post so I could hold a drawing. I just love giving presents. To be "put in the hat" simply leave a comment (if you're shy, just your name will get you entered) on any posts from now until Saturday the 24th. I will throw everybody's name in a hat and Baby will draw the lucky winner. "What will be the prize?" you ask? I promise it'll be lovely and handcrafted.

A sincere thanks to everybody who takes time out of their day to read what's ahappenin' around my little spot on the world.

insomnia

What do you do when you're struck with a particularly bad bout of insomnia??? Do you prepare for the craft show that is less than a week away? clean the house? organize the closets? No no no...you start 3 knitting projects and take up a new hobby!

Since I tackled bread, I thought why not tackle fair isle knitting! I'm pretty pleased with the results...now I want to do picture Intarsia ones...like snails...mushrooms...squirrels

You may have noticed my pictures are different. That is my new hobby. It's called Through the Viewfinder or ttv. Loral showed me a picture made by an awesome Etsy artist Alicia Bock. I just had to try it. I've discovered I need a macro lens though...otherwise the hood that attaches to my Duaflex needs to be 13" That is a tad tough to manage with a heavy dslr.

Here are a few of the shots I've done...

Lunch Abandoned

dollface (poor D9 made this dolly for Baby's bday, stupid dog chewed it up)

A few chrysanthemums...

Okay, no more play time...off to work I go...well maybe just one more round of stitches first. ;-)

mmmm...

Okay, I'm embarrassed to admit that at 35 I haven't made bread from scratch...ever. I can hear all your shocked guffaws. It's true, I'm intimidated by homemade bread. I break out in a sweat thinking about yeast. Loral can whip out 12 loaves while watching t.v. and teaching school. mmmm...yummy. She's awesome.


Well, d9 and I decided to remedy the situation tonight. Yeast doesn't make me nearly so twitchy when my 9 yr old is in charge of it. I can always blame it on her if the bread is bad.


Here d9 is commenting on the stinkiness of yeast...







stir, stir, stir..."what,another cup of flour???"





knead, knead, knead





bake...make sure to turn on the fans and open the windows to avoid setting off smoke detectors!






no time to wait for the butter to soften!





D9 and I had such a great time making bread. We are going to try to do it at least once a week. We used this french bread recipe from Breadworld. Ken was so impressed with us gals. He's taking half a loaf to work to eat with leftover broccoli soup which I also made from scratch. Thanks Krista for that recipe!

in the nick of time...

I finished Baby's dolly with just one day to spare! The yarn hair was rather tedious but oh so worth it. Isn't she just a doll???

Baby named her doll Grace...here they are in the matching dresses with the doll bed I found at a yard sale this summer and refinished.

Aunt Lori made this yummy buttercream frosting cake from scratch...delish! Thanks Lo.

here Baby and Grace sport their new nightgowns sewn up by Aunt Lori. Baby was so in love with Grace she was squishing her face to face and breathing her in.

and here's my man, Ken, working on insanely large wood pile. There's just something about a man in coveralls! He works really hard to make sure we stay warm over the winter. Thanks babe!

3 years

ago tomorrow, the 8th, I awoke from emergency surgery to find this beautiful baby girl to call my own. Oh, how I thanked Him for bringing her safe to us after quite a scare. She had a full head of velvety black hair and round rosy cheeks. She quickly was nicknamed "Slug baby" because she was content (and still is) to sit and snuggle all day. She was such a delightfully good baby. She never felt motivated to walk until she was 16 months old. Yes, 16 months!!! It's hard to believe she is 3! I'm dismayed to think we may need to come up with a new nickname for her other than "Baby" I don't think she'll go for it though...she insists her name is "Baby" She just cackles like we're a bunch of fools when we tell her her real name.

Baby is serious more often than not. Even though her favorite phrase is, "me happy." She's quick to overcome disappointment and anger. She adores babydolls, animals and chocolate in equal measure. She's content to go with the flow and adapts to change quite well. She's is adored by all and loved wholeheartedly. I love you sweet baby girl.

Why you shouldn't....

drink milk from our fridge!

I came across these photos of Jedi while cleaning some space from my laptop. He was about two and a half. I asked him after this milk chugging incident why he wouldn't ask for a glass, his reply, "wanna dwink like a man." Hmm...me thinks I must speak to my man about that!

Notice the dribble of milk!

He was considerate enough to put the cap back on the empty jug and return it to the fridge....just like a man! To this day he will ask to drink it like a man...even though I ALWAYS say no. More old photos to come. ;-)

Dolly

I plan on making most of the gifts we are giving this year. I am starting with Baby's 3rd birthday presents. I am making her a birthday dress, adorable dolly w/ matching dress and redoing a doll bed with coordinating linens.

No Peeking Baby!

I am using a Vogue knit doll pattern. It has the most delightful iron transfer eyes. Here dolly gets some arms...

and some legs with a heart...

dolly is stuffed with love...

and she's nearly done.

I took some photos for a tutorial on her sweet doll bedding that I may write up next week. For some great homemade inspiration check out SewMama's blog!

I took a shot of these gorgeous clouds on Halloween...

Happy Anniversary

It's hard to believe Ken and I are celebrating our 11 year anniversary today...Nov. 2. Ken brought me some sweet flowers after work. We are having a night out tomorrow...good food, a view of Lake Huron and the Mackinaw Bridge and good company. My mom is having the kids overnight for us...thanks Mom!

I bought Ken a PSP for a gift. He wanted one to watch movies etc while hunting in his tree stand. I bought the super cool Darth Vader edition...well around 1 a.m. I went in my sewing room to grab something I needed for the present I'm working on for Baby and this is what I find...

Jedi has stolen away with it and figured out the controls...here he is saying, "just one more webel Mom...just one more webel." I thought he was saying rebel but it was Level. And here I thought the kids were all tucked away snug as bugs in bed. His eyes were little burned out holes...sheesh, what a great mom I am! NOT!

Soooo, the psp will be put on a super high shelf away from Jedi and I will be doing bedtime routine when Ken is super tired himself.

cake AND candy?!?

October 31st is a great day for many reasons...one being Halloween and an excuse to indulge in reese's peanut butter cups, the other being Butch's Birthday! Happy 5th Birthday Buddy. We love you big boy!

the lucky duck got TWO cakes this year, chocolate and vanilla. I think I've mentioned that baking IS my sister's talent!

Here Ken helps Butch open one of the animal callers we bought him...I think this was the extremely annoying squirrel caller. You're so welcome Sis' ;-) I know your eye is already twitching.

We had a fun, if very wet, Halloween. Here are the rascals...D9 is a fire sprite, Baby is Supergirl and Jedi is a pirate.

Argh!

Can anybody say "Nacho Liebre?!?"

Trick or Treating is a rough business...D9 looks like she's been through the ringer

And Super Girl is unmasked...