2009 Toy Society Christmas Drop

Jack and I dropped two toys for this year's Toy Society Christmas drop. Both were made using Chez Beeper Bebe's tutorial, found here. I made the rabbit last night and it truly comes together in under an hour.





It was fun to have a helper this time though he was nervous about getting caught. When we were tying the toy to Sacajawea's foot, Jack got excited when he saw a policeman turing our way. He just waved to us as he drove by. On the way to the next drop site, we saw a bald eagle sitting high up in a tree looking over the Columbia River. Very cool!



No one saw us place the kitty on the Veterans Memorial. Hopefully, both toys will be found soon.

Goodness!

Look at all the goodness I won from Kathy and Matt at A Good Appetite! Corn relish, zuchini pickles, hot pepper jelly, spiced honey, etc., etc. along with a cute shopping bag and a card with suggestions on what goes best with the canned goods - such a nice touch. You can read about the Thanksgiving giveaway I won here and while you're at it, peruse their blog, plan a menu with the awesome recipes Kathy and Matt come up with and enjoy your own goodness.




One thing I love about their blog is that Kathy and Matt belong to a CSA and their menu planning incorporates what was in their delivery that week. This was our first year joining our local CSA so I often visited their site to get ideas on how to use the items from our weekly delivery. So far, I've made the Peanut Turkey Burgers (raves from the husband on this one) and the Roasted Squash with Sausage and Cheese (delish).

They also canned some items to use when their season ended and, lucky me, they shared some for the giveaway. Thank you Kathy and Matt for such a wonderful gift. We will enjoy every bite!

Beeper Cat

The Toy Society World Wide Christmas drop is this coming weekend. I made a Beddy-Bye Beast from Chez Beeper Bebe's tutorial here using the cashmere scraps I had lying around.



I love how fast it was to whip this up. And how wonderfully soft it is. I hope to make one more before the weekend. Maybe the monkey this time.

Toffee!

IMG_0071
Originally uploaded by dippitydo2000

Lots and lots of toffee. I plan on sending it out to friends and family. It's from the 101 Cookbooks blog. It was easy to make and tastes wonderful - butter, sugar, chocolate and pecans always taste wonderful though, don't they? I have a few more baked goods to make to add to the packages. My goal is to get it done and shipped by Wednesday. Wish me luck!

We had Nick's 6th birthday party this weekend also. I'll try to post pictures of the robot cake and goodies if I get a chance. The holiday is bearing down on me though and I feel I am running out of time to get everything done.

Version 3.0

I finally got back to the sewing machine and made another pair of fingerless gloves. I cut into the black sweater and was able to get 4 pairs out of it - this is the first one. And it has a thumb - yay!



I ordered some of this premium wool felt from here to embellish the remaining pairs. Wow, this felt is sooooo much nicer than the 35% wool/65% rayon from the local craft/sewing store. I am glad I splurged (the felt cost more than the thrifted sweaters!).

Now I need to crank out 3 more pair of black, 3 pair of pink and maybe a couple of ivory before Christmas. I am shirking all my other responsibilites at this point so I think I am going to have to give up the dream of getting it all done.

Brilliant

Two left hands.



Brilliant, huh?

On the plus side, I think I figured out how to add a thumb.

Upcycled, baby!

I hit up Value Village on Saturday and found three cashmere sweaters for a total of $18 and some change. There were a few more but the condition and colors weren't so great. I may have to go back and get them though because I am over the moon with how these fingerless gloves turned out.



Here I am pretending to be a hand model with not so good results (ignore the man hands, please!).



For the ruffled pair, I cut up the front of the sweater into two rectangles and two long strips. I zig-zagged the edges of the long strips and sewed a gathering stich down the center. On the rectangles, I did a little hem were the thumbholes are, sewed the ruffle on, hemmed the bottom and then sewed up the side, leaving the thumbhole open.

The other pair with the buttons was made from the sleeves. I did the thumbholes, bottom hem and side hem as above and just stitched on the decorative buttons.

I still have the back of this purple sweater left and two more sweaters - one black and one ivory with tiny cables. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to work on them this week.

Thanks for reading!

Mr. Funny Bones and Skully

I made a couple of softies for the boys from this tutorial.  It's super easy and, if you buy a 10-pack of socks from Target for $6.99 like I did, it's super cheap! I may make a couple more for the Toy Society.  If so, I'll stuff them a bit more - I think these were a little understuffed and show too many wrinkles around the neck and mouth.  Now I just need to figure out what to do with the 6 other pairs of crew socks......

Get ready for a handmade holiday.

One of my favorite blogs is gearing up for a handmade holiday. Please check it out here!


I've also added a button to the Handmade Gift Guide on the right side of my blog page.

I am planning on making (read: completing!) some handmade gifts this year. I bought a pattern from Ravelry for a super fast and cute gift that I plan to give to the nieces and some friends. For now I am keeping it a secret but I will post some pictures when I have some FOs!

I'm a Slacker

Well, it's obvious that I am a blog slacker. Over 2 months since my first ever blog post.....no pictures to show you what has been going on but if your interested in a few tidbits, keep on reading!

I could have posted about this lemon blueberry buckle I made and told you all (is anyone reading this, anyway?) how absolutely wonderful it was. But I never took a picture of it so I felt like I shouldn't blog about it without a picture. I will say that if you get the chance, you absolutely should make it. It is sweet and tart, moist and dense. Just wonderful.

I also made this awesome apple crumble cake with some granny smith apples a co-worker gave to me that were straight from the orchard. This is another one that you (anyone there?) people should make. Easy, moist, tart and good right out of the oven or at room temp. And I need to give a shout out to Posie and her Sour Cream Apple Pie. I made two or more last fall and wolfed them down. I am not really a pie person but this I loved. Tart (I'm on a tart kick, I guess) and creamy from the apples and sour cream. And super easy to make if you use a store-bought pie crust (like lazy ol' me).

Finally, I got around to making another toy for the Toy Society. I did manage to take pictures of the toy and the drop, as seen below. Hallelujah. The pattern is super quick and fun to make with scraps. I changed the face, as you can see from the original. I thought I wanted something more delicate but I didn't quite get the impact that the other face makes. Oh well, hopefully someone will love it. The toy was dropped in the vegetable garden at the Kennewick Grange Park on the gourd teepee. We're having one of our lovely wind storms, so hopefully the gourd vines will shelter it until someone finds it.

A Couple of Firsts

First blog post and first Toy Society drop!

This little cutie was made using this pattern and some scrap April Cornel Poetry Collection fabric. My favorite part is embroidering the face even though I am a total beginner and all I did was two french knots (need some practice on these!) and a stem stitch.

This scary guy was designed by my 7-year-old son, J, and sewn by me. We used scrap polar fleece and some re-purposed pants for the face. I am really pleased with how it turned out.

We dropped the toys at the Union Grange Park. The little girl was left in the Rose Garden and the Monster made his way to the Children's Garden. We hope they make someone's day!