mr. monkeysuit

tick tock

Hey you. I totally finished. How is yours coming on....given the fact that you are five hours ahead I'm guessing your advent calendar might be a day late ;)

ta da.....

Nailed it, methinks. In fact it is even hanging on the wall.
Nothing like a bit of competition to motivate me. I loved making it so much, I am wondering if there is a job out there that involves cutting up small squares of fabric and gluing them to card. Next year I think we should swap one made with each of our favourite fabrics...CUTE! Or wait how about these, so CUTE.
L.C. can't wait to see yours.

ding dong merrily on high

I'm so feelin' the Christmas spirit. It is all cold, cold, cold here and this weekend we are definitely cracking out the Christmas decorations. I can't help it, I just love this holiday more than any other.
I finished a sweater this week for Mr. Floyd.

I used Louisa Harding Kasmir Aran which is really very soft and nice to knit with. I also made Cissie's cardigan with the same yarn (scroll down a couple of posts). It knits up at a nice fat gauge, so if I hadn't missed one of the stripes out of the front of the sweater and didn't notice until about 2 rows from the end thus causing me to rip it all out, it would have been finished quite quickly.

The pattern is from this Debbie Bliss book which I have used and used, there are so many great patterns. In other news, we really had a most wonderful Thanksgiving. Our friends hosted a lovely party and there were so many kids, Floyd and Cissie just loved it. Thanksgiving, is not a holiday we traditionally celebrate but increasingly I really enjoy it. This year was by far our best one. I love that it is a low key event all about family and friends and this year, more than any other, I have so much to be thankful for and it felt good to celebrate that.
Now bring on Christmas, man oh man I have got to get making some of these and if I am super quick about it this too. Oh, and one last thing I am so excited about Bella Dia's new project - Christmas books, * with activities * I can hardly stand it. ding dong!

gettin' ready

Take a deep breath and dive on in. There are a ton of photos in this post but I am so in love with this finished Christmas gift I can't help but put them all in.
I decided to do away with our old dolls house as it was just too fiddly for the kids (too many little bits and pieces for them to manipulate without it all tipping over....frustrating for me, let alone them). Anyway, I had this old Lundby dolls house in the attic (consignment sale $4) and I really thought it was the perfect size. Not too big, not too pokey but it was in a bad way (sorry no before shots). I sawed a hole in the damaged roof for more light and easy access to the people and furniture, then I re-wallpapered, added the best furniture in the world plus the loveliest dollies. I deliberately kept it sparse following the logic of less is more (extra space and sturdy furniture that won't get knocked over as soon as the first little hand goes diving in) and decided if they love it and play with it they can have more furniture for birthdays. And the best thing.....I have one present totally nailed and it isn't even December yet.
Here are the results.

Supplies :
Kathe Kruse dollhouse dolls from Blueberry Forest and Grannys
Furniture from Nova Natural Toys
Wallpaper by Lotta Jansdotter and Black Ink
Art work by Sukie

pink cardigan with brown flower and cute buttons

A cute little pink cardigan (just kind of made up the pattern as I went along - I have to admit to knitting quite a lot of this style).

I got the buttons from Ferdinand a while back and it looks like they don't have them anymore now. Then I made a little brown flower for the side. A lady from my knitting class showed me the pattern. It is so simple and they look so cute. I don't know where she learned to make them but it seems like quite a generic pattern so I am going to share it with you here.

Flowers - Cast on 36 sts. K1, cast off four, repeat until then end where you should have 12 sts left. Break yarn and use that tail to thread through the remain stitches and cinch them all together. So easy and ingenious. I used a couple of french knots in a contrasting yarn in the middle of the flower to fasten it onto the sweater.

This book, Nicky Epstein's Knitted Flowers has definitely gone on my amazon wish list now. (There are a load of pictures from the book here).

I am loving all the amazing tutorials out in blog-land for the upcoming holidays but I have seen so many things online now that I want to make I am beginning to get crafters paralysis.I just can't decided which ones to make first and so I have been sitting here reading The Superficial. Very productive.

smock and apron

A smock for her, (free pdf pattern at Mayfly)

and an apron for him,

Floyd needed an apron for school so of course instead of just going out and buying one I decided to make one. It took a long, long time. But I do like it.

We had our first parent-teacher conference recently and it reminded me that I was so nervous when Floyd started school. All the usual anxieties...will he like it ? will they love him ? will he be happy ? will they teach him the things I want him to learn and not the things I don't ? And I have to say I am utterly relieved to find they do all these wonderful things and more. We are lucky enough to have found a very progressive school with fantastic teachers and the most nurturing, calm, cozy and intellectual stimulating environment. He is so happy there and it feels me with joy. But sometimes when I read blogs like this one and this one I pause and wonder what it would be like to home-school. I honestly don't think it would suit us as a family but I love the idea.

This time of year always sets me to reflect about how we ended up here and how long this chapter of our lives will be. I love it here, I am so happy to be able to be at home with my kids while they are so little. Being here allows me to do that but sometimes I wonder.....

I have moved 27 times in 35 years lived in, lived in 4 countries and 3 continents. Crazy huh ?  I am tired of moving but I am not sure I want to stay here forever either. I wonder if I will always feel a little displaced and if it is possible to have everything you want in one place - family, friends, great job, beautiful location...I am guessing probably not but I wonder how close we can come ?

I must admit to feeling envious of people who have always lived in the same area for most of their lives. There is, I think, a certain sense of security that comes with that...also a lot less moving boxes.

fairytale fabrics quilt

I love, and have so many of, those very cutesy Japanese fairytale fabrics, plus so many other cute conversational prints but sometimes they are hard to place in a project without them taking over. So I decided to dedicate a project to them.

It is larger than a crib quilt but not quite a twin size so lets just call it a throw, shall we ?  It was originally intended for Cissie's room but it has worked its way into the living room as a kind of snuggly. Perfect, because it is getting colder here.

I quilted it in straight rows and concentric squares. You know how much I love them. I wanted to keep it very plain to showcase the fabrics so the alternate squares and rows are in a solid off-white Kona cotton. The colors are definitely more spring than fall, most likely because I started it in the spring.
And here it is in all its glory (dang it is hard to photograph quilts, any tips ?).
I really love it.

dolly

Did you know that I wanted to call Cissie, Dolly ? I did. I love that name, not least of all because of my fondness for the original Dolly. I can't explain it. It just is. But when I mentioned it to my mum, she said, "What like the sheep ?" And honestly it just didn't feel right after that.
Anyway. I made Cissie a dolly. And here she is.

I made her using this pattern, found on eBay. But as you can see I adjusted it a bit here and there.

It was kind of simple, hard....if you know what I mean. The pattern was quite simple really but it was fiddly and very time consuming to make and you will notice poor Dolly has no shoes or hat (they are still waiting in the sewing basket). But the hair. Good lord, the hair. Well you can see she ended up with rather short hair and the thing is like the other great Dolly I think she is going to need a wig. Does anyone have any tips on how to make hair and sew it on ? or know of any tutorials ? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

a few days in Cambridge

We had a great few days in Cambridge, MA over Halloween. It is such a nice place to visit and just hang out. The weather was lovely, we stayed in a hotel right by a very cool playground.   We spent an ordinate amount of time here. In fact we went there everyday at the request of certain little monkey.
I really liked the fact that it felt old there, with a strong sense of history and identity. It also felt very expensive there too.
We took a trip into Boston on our last day and went to the aquarium, which totally totally rocked. It was the best day out I have had in ages. They have the coolest huge tank right in the middle that you walk around in a spiral and then all these great exhibits around the side. There were some amazing jellyfish (pictures later this week) and anemones and Floyd's favorite......the penguins. Could we bring one home please ?
Hope you are all not too sick from the candy !