mother's day monster

I really have the best mom that a girl could ask for! She's taught me so much and given me even more. She is also the one responsible for my blue eyes, my soft skin and my hard work ethic. AND she taught me how to sew. I can remember being a little girl making clay beads and friendship bracelets and every christmas she helped me make a holiday ornament for my family members. My mom has always encouraged me to be crafty and to try new things and to do what made me happy, no matter what others thought. Soooo - when mother's day comes around each year I feel the need to do something extra special for such a wonderful mother!

Something you should know about my mom is that she is really just a big kid at heart. She has countless craft books that are full of little stuffed animals and little things I call useless, but that she loves! She also has a book (one of her favorites) called Knitted Monsters. Even though she doesn't know how to knit, she still has this book. So I went to that and knitted up a monster just for her!

His name is Hugo..

My little helper! Sleeping right on my project, as usual!

I really enjoyed making Hugo for my mom. I knew she'd love him the minute she saw him. It was a super easy pattern and the construction was fairly simple. I made some small changes to the pattern but made him work just the same.

come on - how cute is that belly button?!

Instant best friends!

I love you Momma!!

edward photo of the day

edward helping me with the laundry. and by helping me with laundry i mean laying on all the piles of clean clothes i just recently folded. but come on - look at that face, who's going to make him move?

not me - that's for sure :-)

what i've been working on...

oh hi there! wow I know it's been FOORR-EV-ERR (you know the voice from the sandlot?) since I've been on my blog. i've been so busy that I lost track of it.. BUT I am determined to get back on track and update more often again. I have so many exciting projects and things to show you!!

so I always have like 8 projects on my knitting needles and it's no different right now, but I am currently teaching a class so i've been really focused on one project instead of 5 at a time.

Tinder, a beautiful sweater pattern by my favorite, Brooklyn Tweed, is what i'm working on now.

here is my back piece, finished! I always like to start with the biggest piece so now it's done and I just have all the smaller pieces to finish.

it has a nice 4 1/2 inches of ribbing before starting the pattern.

the main stitch for the sweater is a waffle stitch...pretty isn't it?!

and here is my first sleeve!

So you can see I have a lot left to go but it's knitting up really quickly and it's actually pretty fun. changing the stitch so often keeps me interested. also because I'm teaching this class, that's keeping me going so I can stay with what I want my students to have done.

I'll update again soon when it gets closer to being finished!

Hope you had a nice monday!

tiny stocking garland

Everyone knows that I love a tiny version of something… So, it shouldn’t be a shock to know that I fell in love with this tiny stocking garland project the minute I saw it on Martha’s website. I love to browse her website any chance I can and I came across this project with instructions and a template!

I made mine slightly different, she has you sew around and then trim the outside seams but I just made mine by putting right sides together, sewing around the edge and turning them right side out. I hung them on a chunky piece of yarn I had and used tiny clothes pins to hang them.

(please excuse the mess that's on our shelves!)

So cute right?! And really easy. I just used a bunch of my green, red and white scraps.

Check out the whole thing at martha’s website here. Happy decorating!

our first tree!

The weekend is here! And Evan has agreed to go cut down our very first Christmas tree together this Sunday. I can hardly contain my excitement. I am looking forward to starting traditions with us and I hope this will become one! We are going to put up some christmas lights on the house also and I am going to make up a few big bows to hang in the windows. It's going to be a fun-filled Christmas weekend and I can't wait! What are your plans?! Do you already have your tree up for the holidays?

Funny story for you... I was home for Thanksgiving at my Dad's house and I walked into our front room and their tree was up and looking beautiful! I was quite impressed with them until I looked at my Dad who was laughing out loud... Apparently, they had never taken their tree down from last year! Oh my.. ha ha

I hope we'll find a bigger tree than Charlie's...but how cute is it? :-) Happy Weekend!!

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas...

Well, it is that time of year again....my most favorite time of year! I love decorating and getting ready for the holidays. This year is extra exciting because now that I have a house I have a huge space to decorate.

 

I have always loved wreaths! I love them in all shapes and sizes, all colors and textures, made with any materials. I guess they just feel warm and cozy to me when I see a beautiful wreath hanging on a door or in a home somewhere. So - this year I decided I wanted to make my own! I found a few inspirational pictures and headed to Michael's with one of my good friends Brittany. I picked out a bunch of different berries and branches, got some wire and just a plain brown base for my wreath. At first I was trying to wire everything on but soon discovered that my hot glue gun was the way to go! What do you think?!

I really love it and I was so happy it turned out just about exactly how I wanted it to. Lucky for me there was already a nail in the fireplace, a perfect spot to hang my wreath!

 

Of course I wanted to share some of the awesome wreaths I found as my inspiration. Enjoy and Happy December 1st everyone!

i love those dark berries!

left over yarn wreath?! how cool!

love all the fruit on these.

i love this color palette!

simple and sweet

i love this scene! i'd love these in my house.

more berries...can you see a theme here?

both of these beauties from martha

gorgeous!

i love the grey and this beautiful door too! ha

pretty snowflakes

wall of wreaths!

i love fall!

Fall is most definitely my favorite time of year! i love the crisp weather, i love apple cider, i love the leaves falling, i love sweaters, i love the colors, i just love fall! i have been on a fall loving etsy shopping spree and I want to share my favorite fall finds with you! I hope you'll love them all as much as I do.

handmade velvet pumpkins

more handmade pumpkins!

this is so cute! a pumpkin pie recipe card framed...i'd like to hang this in my kitchen!

i think this wooden "bake" would also look nice in my kitchen!

i really love riding my bike in this lovely weather!

how cute is this felt pumpkin pie slice?!

caramel apple stamp!

you all know how much i love inedible jewelry - and of course they have fall items now!

such amazing detail - i love these caramel apples!

isn't this wreath amazing?! i love the black berries in there and the beautiful fall colors!!

lace and fall colors - i love nothing more!

pumpkin colored twine

the most beautiful hand dyed yarn!

i have a special place in my heart for vw bugs - and i love this old orange bug photo with those pumpkins in the background!

I've convinced Evan to go pumpkin picking with me today so we are off to the orchard! i'm so excited to paint and carve my pumpkins later tonight!! happy fall everyone!