crochet rug

I crocheted my first rug.  I LOVE it.  It's so pretty!!!  I can guarantee this is not the last rug I will be making.

A Week Full Of Gifts

 Things around my house have been busy lately.  Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week and I enjoy making a small gift to give each day during that week.  This year we had Madi's teacher and 3 Middle School teachers for Ben to make things for.  To kick off the week we gave these M&M filled jars.

 On Tuesday we gave decorated Starbucks treats followed up on Wednesday with juiced up Hershey Kisses.

 Thursday we gave a healthier treat...an apple.  For Friday a yummy orange creamsicle cookies all tagged and bagged but I don't have a photo.

I would like to know who chose to have Nurse's Week the same week as Teacher's Week?  Madi has the sweetest nurses that help her with her Diabetes during school hours.  So I made them each a bag of "scabs and pus".

California

For the last six weeks Madi's whole 4th grade class has been working on reports about the great state of California. Tomorrow is the big day for the kiddos...all the reports are due. We as a family have learned all about California while helping Madi with her report. This afternoon Madi and I made oatmeal cookies filled with plump California raisins in them, for her whole class to enjoy tomorrow. I printed out lots of little California state flags to attach to each cookie for a great California effect. This was lots of fun!!!!

Basketballs....

We are taking snack to tomorrow's basketball game. So I made the yummiest iced sugar cookies...my Grandma Kiehl's recipe. I juiced them up by sliding the cookies into clear bags and stapled basketball ribbon to them. Ben and Madi are so excited to share these tomorrow.
The 4 little feet that I made...they are getting big.

My First Afghan...

Finally it's done...my first afghan. I have been crocheting this since Thanksgiving. Boy is it a lot of work! It's big, close to a single bed size but not quite. It's heavy. It's cream with a dark plum in colors. I am in love with it. I just finished it this morning but already to start another...hmm, what colors/pattern?

B is for baby, boy....

My brother and his wife have a new baby boy so I thought he could use a set of cute bibs. Before becoming a full-time mother, my sister-in-law taught 1st grade, so I thought she would really enjoy the Dr. Seuss fabric.

I love Dr. Seuss!!! I have yards and yards of Dr. Seuss fabric too. I found this at the fabric market in Dongdaemun, Korea this past summer. It was so cheap, at least a quarter of the price it is in the quilting stores here in America, so when I saw it I knew it was a steal and bought TONS of it. Glad I did.

Winter

My WINTER dinning room. I love how simple and easy to keep clean it is.

Remember my big beautiful pine cones I picked up at Lake Tahoe over Thanksgiving. I love them so much I think they may stay out all year.

Steve got me this HUGE picture of New York City. NYC is our favorite city in the world...over Vancouver, Canada, Tokyo, Paris... I just love this picture of the city with the clouds and the colors. It's on the Brooklyn Bridge and you can see the Empire State....it was only 18 months ago when my family went to the top.

I moved my subway art into our family room. It's one of my favorite things too.

Another new kitchen towel. It's just a cheap flour sack towel with pretty fabric sewn to the end and I did a cute running stitch for extra cuteness. I started another on last night I hope to finish today. I want to make a pretty stack for my kitchen.

"My Room"

Yes, I have my own room and I love it. It's full of all my favorite stuff and even complete with an HD flat screen...I can spend all day in here. My room is also home to the PS3 so often times the rest of the fam keeps me company. It's a regular thing to have the kids ask me to go in the craft room with them...they like me to craft and watch them play at the same time.

This fun print is what welcomes you when you enter my room.

We have only been stationed here 4 months but I sure feel like it's home sweet home.

My Polish Cheese Lady

Isn't she a beauty? I absolutely love her to death. So when I found a stitchery pattern to make I thought it would be so fun to make a pretty towel for my kitchen.

I have TONS of polish pottery. It's all I bake in. It's the best and so beautiful.

My first trip to Poland: was back in April 2003. It was right after the Shock And Awe we had on Iraq. We were living in Germany. My husband was an Air Force Weather Forecaster attached to the Army's 1st Armored Division...who was among the first to drive from Kuwait to Baghdad. 1 week before Steve left he said if I wanted to go to Poland I better just go because the military had no idea how long they would be in Iraq. Steve was on a waiting list to ship to Kuwait...it took way over a week to to send everyone. So at lunch that day I mentioned I wanted to go to my neighbor and she said "lets go!" We made plans to leave that night or the next morning around 3 am. Well we were having so much fun that evening making our lists of what we wanted to get and picking up lists from a few of the girls around us that at 10 pm we were wound up and didn't think we could get to sleep. So we decided to shower and leave. OMG...my neighbor didn't want to drive but said we could take her van. I still laugh. I jumped in her Japanese made van with the steering wheel on the right. Now I lived in Japan and knew I could easily get back in the swing of driving like that but the kicker was the roads, German roads are like USA roads you drive on the right. So I drove around the block 3 times to get a feel for the crazy ride and then we hit the autobahn. So after being up all day taking care of my two babies all day I drive ALL the way to Poland in a Japanese van on the autobahn. We were so delirious by the time we got there. But boy did we shop!!!! We filled that van up! After shopping all day we started feeling sick. To top it off we got lost...they had closed the main road to get back to the border so we had to drive through neighborhoods. It is 3rd world and people were herding their goats. We were almost out of gas. We found a gas stationed with 10 or more cars in line. It was a gas station that looked like something in the ghetto in the 1950's with only 1 pump. The locals were starring at us. I remember I felt so sick and was so hungry. After crossing back into Germany we stopped in the town of Dresden to eat at McDonald's. We did make it home before dark that next night. Steve was so nice and had some food waiting for me so I could eat and he carried in all my boxes of pottery and tucked me into bed.

This little lady makes me happy so she is serving as my centerpiece.

A Few Favorites From 2011

Happy New Year!

We are excited for tonight! 2011 have been very exciting. We were on the go. We lived in 3 different houses...4 months in Megatrium, 4 months in Epyonghansasong and 4 months here in this house in CA. Hopefully we will only live in 1 house in 2012. Wishing for a GREAT 2012.

Merry Winter

Yes, I have started switching over Christmas to Winter/Snowmen/January. Every year at this time I usually make tons of crafts...the kids are out of school and we spend a lot of time at home. This year is no different, I have been decorating and crafting and watching movies and having a great time with my family.

I made myself this new mitten...it's cutest ever.

Floating candles...my new FAVORITE. Every late afternoon I turn them on to make the house look and feel so pretty.

It's Been Wonderful

Our whole weekend has been so nice. I made these festive Christmas pillowcases for the kids. I love how they enjoy things like this. The Christmas pillowcases made them sleep super good Christmas Eve.

We made peppermint bark, molasses/gingerbread boys and 2 other kinds of cookies but these M&M cookies were our favorite. I just used the recipe off the back of the bag of the mini M&M's.

Ben is one lucky little boy. He got his own laptop and NBA tickets for Christmas. It's the Kings opener tonight against the Lakers. Ben got 4 tickets...so look for us on TV.

Yummy Frosty

One pan down two to go. We are taking these to all our Christmas parties. I found the idea on Pinterest. Even the middle schoolers get a Christmas party on Friday...I am so excited. I was afraid when Ben started middle school this fun stuff might be over but his teachers said "Bring it on!"

Christmas Crafts

I love sweetwater. They have a style that is me. Every year I order a few of their 12 Days of Christmas projects. I did order a couple this year and love them. The other day I made this sign with Harmon on it...I dig anything with and H or Harmon on it.

This weekend I made the most beautiful dishtowel. It has a Christmas theme so next on my list is one just like but one I can leave out throughout the year. The towel is so gorgeous I can only use for display.

I have the sweetest kids! They enjoy doing some of my craziest fun things with me. The other night we decorated some oranges with whole cloves and they loved it...both of the kids did. I use to make these as a kid.

My kitchen carried the smell of cloves this whole week. MMM!

I have never cared for the color purple very much. My daughter will choose the color purple for anything and everything. I am such a nice mom I agreed to let her pick the colors of paint she wanted in her bedroom and of course she chose 2 shades of purple. But when Steve's mom was here she got me started crocheting granny squares. On my own accord I fell for a perfect dark plum yarn and a cream to go with it. I am beginning to create quite a stack of squares.

It's Beginning To Look Alot Like Christmas

My house feels so warm and cozy all dressed up for Christmas.

When we were over at Lake Tahoe over Thanksgiving the main thing I wanted to get was the beautiful HUGE pine cones they have all over the place. I put these in my German dough bowl but still have more...any ideas on what I could do or make with them? I LOVE them.

We have this balcony that over looks in to the living room, that is how I took the picture above this one.

Madi's Christmas shirt. I just cut 3 triangles and stacked them...EASY! Of course we got some red & aqua in there but check out the gingerbread trunk.

My favorite Christmas pillow I made all the way back in 1999...I dated it. I need to do that more often. I like looking at my things and remembering what was going on in my life then.

It's All In The Packaging!

A few years ago my friend amber picked up these same cute bags from Target for $1. I loved what she did with them. So when I saw them after Christmas for 90% off I picked up 20 of them for $2! I made some little gift bags filled with divine smelling peppermint soap accompanied with one of my crocheted wash clothes.

For this years wrapping paper theme I picked out red, cream and grey. They look so pretty to me...

...but Madi has thrown a wrench in the whole thing. She found these hip Justin Bieber Christmas tags. She asked me to get them to use on her gifts. I did and I even got the purple wrapping paper to go with them. As long as she is happy it's okay.