back at it...

Hello little blog.

I didn't miss you at all during my break.

It was nice actually.

But I've been doing a lot around the house, getting ready for school, getting organized.

We've started eating Paleo and I'm cooking and baking in a whole new way.

We're trying new things, switching things up, moving into a new phase of life and parenting.

 And I thought, "you know, I love reading other people's blogs and get so many good ideas from them, am inspired by them, encouraged by them...maybe everything we're doing and trying could be that for someone else out there."

plus, I take more photos of my kids when I'm blogging and I've been really bad about that lately.

So here we are. 

blogging again.

Here's the direction the blog is headed...

Paleo cooking.

I'd like to share what we're making and how we like it.

 

This will be some divine fudgesicles to enjoy on this hot day

recipe found here

Chocolate is not strickly speaking paleo but we did use dark chocolate which is a little better right? 

And it's summer! Gotta have something cold and sweet. 

photos of family.

This adorable child is the newest nephew of mine.

I haven't met him in person yet but I'm already in love.

 p.s. isn't he perfect!? 

p.p.s. I have the most beautiful nieces and nephews.

my kids are pretty awesome as well. :)

Homeschooling

I painted the school room orange.

I love it.

hoping it will encourage extra enthusiasm for learning!

p.s. plenty more photos to come, will do a whole school room tour post once I finish with all my grand plans! 

Yes,

 of course I'm still knitting

 and yes there will be plenty of photos in the near future.

This is a wee cardigan in process for the above pictured adorable nephew.

 

So that's roughly what you can expect posts to be about...

oh, I will most certainly share home decor photos as I work on projects around the house.

The school room photo kind of covers that category but there will also be actual posts on what we're doing and learning in school.

 

Till next time then.

  

Baby knits...

 I gifted both my sisters the promise of knitted baby sweaters at their showers. 

They each got to choose from two patterns I'd chosen and by happy circumstance each chose differently. 

Which meant I got to knit both patterns! 

Something I really wanted to do so I was quite pleased. 

Emily chose the Genevieve sweater and do to the fairy tale quality the design possesses I picked out a lovely shade of red Maliabrigo worsted yarn. 

It's the colorway Ravelry Red actually which is fun.

 This pattern is quite adorable but I found parts of it a little irritating to knit. I'm not one to mind seaming so the construction of it didn't scare me away. However, joining the waistband to the bodice proved to be harder than I would have guessed. 

Namely hard to make the stitches blend in and look nice, but  I did eventually manage it.

 In any case the final product was worth it. 

Erin chose the Cabled Yoke Jacket

A very well written pattern with brilliant construction.

 I chose a lovely turquoise shade of Malabrigo that's incredibly difficult to photograph,

the colorway is Emerald.

 It was fun choosing buttons to go with each jacket once they were finished.

 I'm planning to make a much larger version of this jacket for my daughter Gwen.

 I also decided that since there was more than enough yarn left over I'd make some booties.

Both babies in question live out in Colorado where it does actually get cold in the winter unlike here in sunny Southern California.

(something I'm not fond of whatsoever!)

As you can see I have a finished pair in red and only one in Turquoise but the second one should be finished up soon, it's a quick little knit.

And lastly, I'm in the process of knitting a baby gift for a friend as well as a collection of small baby beanies for the same sweet nieces receiving the above knits.

So look forward to some more knitting posts soon!

A baby shower....and a baby!

 A couple months ago I helped host a baby shower for my sister Emily and niece on the way, Willow.

I was in charge of decor while Robin, Emily's mother-in-law, took care of the food and hosted it in her home.

 I made this frame into a chalkboard as a gift for baby Willow's room and figured it may as well be used at the shower since it's so pretty!

 This is our craft table, if you can see that small yellow book with pink binding...it's an A,B,C themed baby book for Willow, all the guests got to pick a letter and make their own page. 

It turned out SO cute, even the grandpas, uncles and daddy to be took part.

 Here's one of the lovely tables, we had three and each center piece was slightly different. 

I had fun making those little yarn balls, even more so because Emily got to have some for the nursery and I now have several looking cute around my living room! :)

 The gift table....she got some wonderful gifts, useful, functional and of course tons of adorable baby girl clothes! the ribbon chandelier looks only half as cute here as it is in person...

I'll have to get Em to send me some pictures of the nursery all finished and see if she can take a better one. :)

 Robin made these up for the favors, they turned out so darling! 

What baby shower is complete without pictures of mom and dad when they were sweet babies?

it's a must!

We also had the kisses there where you could guess the number for a prize.

 Tons of food! Seriously delicious, decadent, and oh so tasty food.

this only shows about half of it.

I ate too much.

So good!

 a few guests of the shower...all family actually! hehe only shot I got of the gift opening though.

I was in charge of the thank you list.

 The Lilley girls!

I love this picture!

And lastly, after the shower my mom came home with me and we whipped up this adorable bedding from materials chosen by Emily for baby Willows crib.

There's 3 sheets

A bed skirt

the pillow

1 large blanket for the crib or some nice tummy time on the floor 

and 2 small blankets for car seat and stroller use.(more portable)

it just turned out so cheerful and lovely I had to share.

and last but most certainly not least!

Here she is...in all her new baby sweetness...

Willow Blue Mooney

born July 16th

6lbs 8oz  19"

I'm in love and can't wait to meet her and hold her.

Sadly, here I sit in California and they out in Colorado....

Why did you guys move away again?

knitting update...

I've been doing quite a bit of knitting these days, despite our nasty fall heatwave.

Thing is they've all been gifts so I haven't been able to post about them yet.

However one gift has been gifted and received so I may now share it here!
I made these for little Levi Ingram, the first born of my dear childhood friend Janelle.

I used the Placket Neck Sweater pattern by Joelle Hoverson,

And a free baby beanie pattern from Ravelry.

This was a fun project because I got to learn some new things. I'd never used Moss stitch before for instance, and it's also my first Raglan sweater so I got to learn how to do that.

Also, as the title suggests, it's a placket neck sweater so I learned how to do that as well!
I am pleased with how it turned out and will definitely make some more of these over the years.
Next up, the Hamster beans.

 This was a quick and adorable little project. I'll likely be making many more.
Gwen's requested a solid pink one.

 after knitting up the body you sew on the eyes, stuff it and close it up.
Then you knit up the ears and a few simple knots form the feet and tail.

After just and hour you have a sweet little hamster bean ready to play with! The kids were thrilled. And I am now hooked on making small toys, lol, the obsessions never end!
Now I just have to control myself and not share all the other things I've been making till they've been given to their recipients! : )

Feeling Fallish...

Look who's in Kindergarten...

Not much to say, as I felt the pictures speak for themselves,
we have an adorably handsome son whose passion is to be silly and make you laugh.
What a blessing he is to our lives!
Our first week of school has gone great so far, (only one day left)
He's loving it, I'm loving it and that's a good thing.
More to come as we do projects and some school room photos as well...

knitting...

I picked up my needles again recently and finished up my first pair of socks!

Then while waiting for yarn to come in for another project I whipped up this beanie for Gabriel.

The pattern was free, I used up some stash yarn, super easy and super fast.
Seriously, one afternoon of knitting.

He'd asked me to make a new one since the one I did last year is too small now.
Too bad he has to put it away for a few months now, we've been having quite the heat wave lately. Anyway...that's what my needles have been up to of late.