Was I supposed to be Cleaning up?

Oops!

not much is getting done in the studio/workroom cleanup wise but, I’m having fun sewing!

I had a bunch of strips and scraps left over from the doll skirts. I couldn’t throw them out…

They were to bright and cheerful!

I didn’t have enough to make it very big 17 X 20 but it will make a nice doll quilt.

With the strip sizes I was using it ended up a little wonky so I‘m not sure I’ll list it in the Etsy shop but Evie may like it.

Maybe, What do you think?

Finishing the quilting portion now

What did you work on today?

Katie

Technorati Tags: Katidids,sewing,quilting,doll quilt,Etsy,waldorf inspired

Some Mornings

Don’t Go As Planed!

We had a beautiful white world to wake up to

Everything looks so clean and fresh

covering all the winter greys

I’d had a very productive morning around the house.  Decided to run some errands but, first I decided to make a latte for the road and left it brewing while I put my boots on.  This is what I came back to…

Notice something missing?

The mug!

I was off by 4 inches LOL!

Have a great day!

Technorati Tags: Katidids,weather,mishaps

Katie

What a wonderful week

And random thoughts…

We had a great time with family this past week.  We had a house full and I loved every minute of it.  Midnight mass together, up early with the little's for gifts and family breakfast.  Christmas afternoon with Mr.Fix-Its family, supper and a dirty Santa gift exchange.  When the immediate family grows to over 30 it’s the safest way to exchange a gift and have fun without breaking the bank!

The family room is still full of toys, little cars, Legos & baby dolls…The quilt was a hit. 

Isaiah sharing with his mama

and I need to make Evelyn & Hayden each one now or, something similar.

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A few weeks ago I started de-crap-afying cleaning out the basement more & was focusing in the old sewing room area.  I found 4 quilts in various stages & it’s given me the sewing itch again.   Baking through Christmas I realized I’m out of hot pads.  Mine had worn out & I’ve just been using hand towels.  I found a tub full of drapery fabric samples that will be perfect for hot pads.  Yes, the basement is that full I’d lost & forgotten about that big tub.  Shameful I know.  Knitters talk about reaching SABLE “Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy”  It’s time to admit I’ve reached that point in fabric and wool…. I’ve decided to dive back in to sewing and use it up…or attempt to at least.

  I started looking and mentally listing out projects..

Aprons, Mine are rags and Erika has asked for a few which means Evie will want one like her mama.

Hot pads and pot holders

quilts….we need 3-4 bed spread size to replace those wearing out

Curtains….for the guest room

Crib sheets for little Alix

Table runners and napkins for the dining room

Summer dresses for Evelyn and Alix

I have a list of Mama’s asking for little girls skirts in the Etsy Shop

a few baby and doll quilts

Plenty down there to keep me busy for a long while!

What do you have lined up for winter projects?

Katie

Technorati Tags: Katidids,crafting,cleaning out,sewing,using what you have

Last Minute Sewing

 

The photo is a bit off in the colors, those are bright red bandana’s not pink!  Isaiah needed a quilt for his bed but he’s 9 & at that awkward in between age…not the “little boy” anymore but not a teen.  He loves cowboys and trucks so I thought this was a good middle of the road. Especially when you hear….Grandma, will you make me a quilt?

The plan is to add a few bandana throw pillows and a valance also of bandana’s.

I can’t wait to see his face Christmas morning.  I love giving and receiving homemade gifts & this one was so quick and easy.  I picked up the bandana’s at Hobby Lobby when I went to town and used the 40% coupon so the .99 bandana’s were .60 cents each.  I picked up a few blankets at Wally world on sale for about $5.00 and used one of those. It makes a nice mid-weight batting only super tight.  The backing is a nice heavy, red and blue plaid sheet.  With thread I have less than $13.00 invested.

*************************************

With recent changes in the DOT towing laws, Larry had to get a CDL to tow larger trailers from the manufacturer to the dealership. My understanding is its needed anytime he’s in a tow rig with a customer now. Anyway, He took classes part time (he’s towed for years) and tested just fine. But, in order to be sure he was understanding the logs he needs to keep…..(sure I believe that) he’s been offered to tandem drive with the trucking company anytime he wants…..in all his spare time LOL! Well, for us this is the quietest time of the year.   SO,  Tuesday afternoon he was off on a road trip in a semi and back Thursday night. Over 4500 miles and he was grinning from ear to ear like a little kid.   They left KC. right ahead of the snow storm and stayed ahead of it all the way to Louisville. As happy as he still was when he got home…..I think I see many more trips in the near future!

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Most of the gifts are wrapped, the house is half clean..need to get cracking on that.  Rachel, Adam and Hayden will be driving in tomorrow night from South Carolina.  They seem to have settled in well & Hayden is excelling in school.  I think he has 10 children in his class so it’s a 5-1 teaching ratio!  One thing l really like about South Carolina is they do not have “special needs” children.  They have EXCEPTIONAL children!!!! From what Rachel has said that it the total attitude they have encountered.  He was slotted to be in one class but after meeting and talking with him they moved him to a different school & the perfect class.  He’s happier now than I’ve seen him in a long time.  God Bless who ever invented SKYPE.

We hated to see them move from 2 hours away to 8-9 but, it was the right decision

Evie just LOVES her cousin Hayden and was thrilled with the surprise chat. I don’t think her Mama has told her they will be here so it will be fun to hear her yell MY HAYDEN when she sees him tomorrow night!!!

************************************

We’re still in process of trying to buy the house next door.  The owner wants about 30K more than the property appraises.  Once we come to an agreement it will close quick.  We have the funding in place and she wants out by the 9th of …..JANUARY!  Nothing like pushing it to the last  minute.  We have the RV show the last week of January and would love to have Erika moved by mid month.  Tonight, we gave her our final price so, we will see what happens.  Please keep your fingers & toes crossed for us….a prayer or two sure would be appreciated.

Wishing you all a blessed and wonderful Christmas!

Katie

Technorati Tags: Katidids,Christmas,gifts,quilting,family

Still Kickin!

Just moving slower

There seems to be a theme across most of my bloggy friends of bloggers block or apathy..  Not sure what it is.  Could it possibly be we go 150 miles an hour in the spring through summer with the gardens & into fall with canning and food preservation?  Then like balloons we seem to deflate physically and emotionally come winter.  I know with the election and state of the economy we all have higher emotional stress levels we try to bury and it’s seemed to catch up.  I keep thinking I need to post or, that would be a good post…but it seems to take to much energy right now.

So, let me recap the past month or so…

A few highs,

My sun oven came in! I was so excited about it and then rained for a week after arrival, Thanksgiving, family events…it seemed like one thing after another kept me from using it.  This week we should have a few clear-ish days to break it in.

We also picked up a smaller solar panel & inverter.  We have a hand crank emergency radio and a few other things that can be hooked up to it our next power outage. 

We’ve been looking at solar power for the house but again other things have taken priority for a while. When we lived in VA we had solar hot water & I loved it. We had 8-12 children living with us at any given time & NEVER ran out of hot water with laundry, showers and dishes. Right now it’s time and $ to do it. 

My Father in law is recover well.  Early September he started really slowing down, just not feeling well in general & had trouble swallowing.  After a month of Dr’s appointments to find out what was going on, his knee just swelled up…. ballooning, red & painful.The knee he’d had replaced 3-4 years ago.   My brother in law took him to the  VA E.R. out of frustration/worry…  Turns out he had some type of bacterial infection that nearly killed him. They said he would not have made it a week longer.  They immediately admitted him and started a full workup in CCU.  Thankfully/weirdly the infection settled into the pin that connected the knee together.   Surgery to replace the pin and clean the knee out kept him in the hospital for a 10 day period over Thanksgiving.  4 weeks into a 6 week course of IV antibiotics has him feeling nearly himself again. We’ve still no idea how the infection was started.

The odd thing was his knee itself had been fine.  The infection just happened to settle there…what a blessing a replacement knee turned out to be in more ways than one!  He was feeling well enough he attended our company Christmas party Friday night and stayed the entire time.   First outing since September!

The hunters have been hunting with some success.  There are 3 deer in the freezer and we are hoping for 3 more (we supply family meat also) to have a cushion.

We got hit with that flu bug that ran through ours and Erika’s & the kids, then back to us, then back to a few of the kids a second time.  I think that has been the majority of our problem as it leaves you tired and sluggish for weeks….like your get up and go is on vacation LOL!

 

For not having much to say I’ve gotten pretty windy here!  I’ll catch up more next post

Have a wonderful weekend

Katie

Technorati Tags: Katidids,Solar Oven,preserving,family

Are You Ready For A Quick Waldorf Doll Skirt Give Away?

Reposting from Katidids Knits Blog as there may be some followers with little ones or grand-munchkins that would like to enter

And I mean quick!

The drawing will be held Monday evening December 10th

I said quick right?

This still allows me a few days to make & ship to you in time for a extra gift under the Christmas Tree! (Canadian entries are welcome but mail time may be delivered beyond Christmas)

This is my first give away so shout out if I’ve forgotten anything

The give away is for 2 cotton print Waldorf Skirts of your choice from the fabrics shown.

The fabric is shown in 5.5 inch strips to show print size

Choice 1

Choice 2

Choice 3

Choice 4

Choice 5

your entry(s) need to include the 2 fabrics you choose, waist & length measurement you need

How to enter:

Follow the Katidids Knits Blog and let me know

Follow me on Facebook. @KatididsKnits

If you are a prior customer of either on Etsy, Hyena Cart or Facebook, leave me a message in your entry it will count as 2 entries

Share on Facebook…Extra Entry!

Blog about it and send me a link,  Extra Entry!

Tweet about it and send me a link Extra Entry!

Remember, each entry needs to have your fabric choices & the skirt waist and length you need

The drawing will be held Monday evening between 8-9 pm.  The winner will be announced on Facebook and the blog.  The winner will have 24hrs to respond with a mailing address.  If there is no response, I’ll draw again.

Good luck!

Katie

Technorati Tags: Katidids Knits stocking,Giveaway,Waldorf Doll Skirts

Hey! I feel human today!

Can I tell you my husband rocks?

Our house kinda became the sicky house these past few weeks.  When the little’s would get this fever & vomiting virus they would for the most part stay here, away from the other family members who worked in the public.  Fortunately it seem to happened on Fridays when Mr. Fix-it was leaving for hunting…in the end there was not a unwashed sheet, blanket, bedspread or towel in the house.  My poor laundry room reeked of “o”de puke for a few days.  Other than he and I fighting bad colds & living on emergent “c”and thera flu we were fine….and then last week it hit  Mr. Fix It.  He came home not feeling good (which I can count on one hand in 25 yrs. of marriage) ate a tiny bit and passed out in his chair.  Took 3 days for him to feel “right”. 

  I was sliding right along counting my blessings.  Sunday I had a lead ball in my stomach that would not go away and couldn’t eat.  Monday I don’t remember much past noon, just being so tired I couldn’t keep my eyes open.  I’d started supper & had it in the oven, canning turkey stock with a load in the canner. Next I clearly remember is yesterday morning.  He’d finished the stock, and took care of me.

A few things I do remember…running a fever & being cold, bone chilling 5 blankets not enough cold, solving all kinds of world problems, from the economy to pollution, checking on the baby in the middle of the night and kinda freaked out when it was empty till I remembered that was ok…(as our baby is 26 and has babies of her own which is why the playpen was empty).  I woke up yesterday sideways in the bed with half the covers on the floor and the rest in a pile in the middle. 

Yesterday I felt human & puttered around the house but didn’t push it and ate a very light supper eventually.  

Today, I feel wonderful!! I’m hungry… Now I realize how bad I was gradually feeling all last week.  We’re still not sure if this was a virus or the “flu” but, I’ve not been that sick in a long time.

Off to strip my bed again, and clean out all these sickie germs!

Stay healthy out there!

Katie

Technorati Tags: Katidids,flu,sickness

Bye Bye November!

What a crazy month it’s been! I’ve quite a bit to catch up on..

The hunters have been hunting

Isaiah had his first hunting trip this year!

He’s been begging to go for the past 2 years and always has a left behind puppy dog look when the guys leave for the weekend.  He’s helped with butchering since he could walk, helped load and unload gear, helped walk and scout the hunting areas…every step but actually hunting.

Think he looks a tad excited to go? 

Mr. Fix-It was preparing to go after Thanksgiving supper…tossed Isaiah a bag and said here, “you might need this”…(the bag contained thermal coveralls) & you could see those mental wheels were turning by the look on his face. He looked at me and asked what are these for? (hoping… hoping).  I had to tease him more and said well, “you know you needed good snow gear, you’ve outgrown everything”.  Then Mr. Fix-It asked him “where’s your boots?”  He was tossed extra hats, given long johns, gloves, etc…All extra “stuff” he/Mr. Fix-It found in his gear bag.

Poor Isaiah, you could tell he didn’t want to ask to go again.  About the time he was ready to pop grandpa had mercy & said since he seemed to have enough gear of his own he should come with them.  We heard…” really?  Really? REALLY?!?!?!  I get to go? 

I GET TO GO HUNTING!!!!”

Of course he had to try everything on.

  I’ve been watching thrift stores for kid gear and have yet to find anything!  I think boys are much harder on winter gear than girls

Evie was so excited for him but had no idea why LOL!

 

  Uncle Mury played along when he got there, made him go through the list of gear to make sure he was ready.  It was to funny and his reaction was priceless!

The return smile was just as big.

He stayed by grandpa’s side harnessed in to a tree stand acting as spotter (when he didn’t fall asleep LOL!)  He said it was cold out but he was plenty warm & wants to go again….so although there was no deer…

we count the trip as a success.

Technorati Tags: Katidids,hunting,Isaiah,Thanksgiving,family