After a lovely little cold and some house cleaning, I finally feel like I'm myself again.  For some reason, I feel the need to catch up on some past stuff before I can move on to the new year and future plans.  I forgot a few things that I made for Christmas.  The pictures were still on my camera until this morning.  My siblings and I have a gift giving rotation.  Last year, I tried to finish a quilt that one of my sisters had started.  The top is finished, but I haven't finished quilting it yet.  Maybe by the time the rotation goes around to me having her again?

This year I took another go at finishing an unfinished project for another sister.  Several years ago, she had started working on a wool saddle blanket, like this one.  I knew she had stowed it away in her attic, so sometime in October, I snuck into her house and swiped it.  Sort of.  Actually, I broke a shelf while trying to hoist myself into her unfinished attic access door.  It took some stealthy gluing and sweater rearranging to cover my tracks as well as a more flexible and tall husband to finally get up there and hand down the project.

I also made her some sheep potholders from old sweaters.  I originally planned on making a pillow, like some of these, but I just didn't have it in me.

I found a picture of the ninja suit, which was an even bigger hit than I expected.  Too bad we left the pants at Granny's house.

And here's the football cake that he requested.  The kid didn't pick a theme, unless it was just "BOY".  He wanted a dress-up party with a football cake at a bouncy house place.  So that's what we did.

We've been enjoying this July January weather.  Yes, that is my husband wearing a t-shirt outside in January.  We actually got outside to do the fall clean-up that didn't happen in the fall because winter was here then.

My husband and I celebrated our 8th anniversary.  "Celebrated" gives the impression that we did something special.  We cleaned the bedroom.  It really needed it since that was the dumping place for all Christmas projects and supplies.  He also brought me some flowers and a sweet card, once again proving that we have completely switched places on the card giving spectrum.  I guess "special" is all relative.  He also called me into the office and surprised me by playing 'our song' and dancing with me right there.  That was special to me.

I have a few other things on my mind too, such as trying to figure out why the salt is sabotaging my baking.  Is it possible for salt to be saltier than it should be?  Everything is coming out too salty, no matter how much I cut the salt back.  Maybe I have a little kitchen elf "helping" me...

I'm also needing to go through my pantry and figure out what I need more of, and how much has been used, but I'll probably never get around to that, so don't hold your breath.

4th of July project

Well, actually I've been working on this for a while now, but finally finished it last night.  It's a patriotic grocery bag!

 I have bought cloth grocery bags before, but they are all gone.  Maybe my sister stole them.  Anyway, I finally got so sick and tired of all the plastic bags cluttering up my pantry.  I gather them and stuff them into one bag, but I never actually get them to the recycle bin.  True, we use some of the plastic grocery bags for garbage bags, but we still have way more than we need.  So, I decided to make a few cloth bags and do my part to keep all those plastic bags out of the garbage.

 It's huge!  That is the biggest box of Kix that there is, with a jumbo bag of pancake mix and a few other things thrown in for good measure.

My favorite part is the pocket to hold keys or a grocery list, or a wallet, or change.  I have another bag in the making right now and I will hopefully finish it while the baby is napping.  Here's hoping for a good nap!

Since I'm showing off projects, I'll go ahead and share that I finished that saddle blanket.  Here it is without the saddle.  (and a very cute puppy coming out of the barn.)

 And a few shots with a saddle.  (It's my little man's saddle, but he can't reach the stirrups yet, so that's why there's an extra pair.)

 The blanket is basically square, so it can go either way.  I can't decide which way I prefer it.  Vertical stripes, or horizontal stripes?

What do you think?

Cowgirl Crafts: sewing elastic into a hat

I'm here!  Mostly, anyway.  Even though it's not officially summer yet, things are already crazy.  It feels like I'm busy all day, but I don't have much to write about.  I'm busy with a whole lot of nothing, I guess.

June means cow work.  We gather and ship our cows home from their winter residence and then a few weeks later, we brand the calves.  My past few absences have been for the shipping, and next Saturday will be the branding.  It's a big day and takes a lot of preparation, so I'll be heading back to the ranch for most of next week to assist with food prep.  My little man is excited to once again take part in the big gather before the branding, which will take place on Friday this year.

In preparation for our big weekend, I've been working fast and furious on a few projects that I had hoped to finish a long time ago.  I've finished one, the other... might not get finished in time.  We'll see. I've been spending every spare minute working on them, which is why I haven't been blogging much lately.  My computer time has turned into work time. 

My first project was making some hats fit the girls.  I found these great hats at the second hand store, but they were just a bit too big.  I tried fixing a string to hold it on, (called a stampede string) but those Wyoming winds are just too powerful.  My little man's hat has fit his head for several years because of some elastic sewn into it.  I decided to try to replicate that in the girls' hats.

I bought some 1 1/2" sports elastic and began the process of trying to estimate how much stretch it needed to have.  It became extremely difficult after the kids went to bed.  Plus, I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing.  This seems to be an over-arching theme to my projects.  The first one seemed to turn out well, but the baby won't leave it on long enough to see if it will stay on.  That's confusing, I know.  The plan is for her to grow into it and for it to grow with her.

I had the elastic pulled too tight for the dancing girl's head the first few times I sewed it, but I think this time I got it right.  Sewing a piece of elastic into a palm leaf hat is not all that easy.  You can't pin it in place and I couldn't sew it together on the machine, so here's what I did... just in case you find yourself needing to stitch elastic into a hat...

Find the "middle" of the elastic ring by folding it in half and marking it somehow.  Then fold it in half again to get the sides.  Mark as best you can the front, back and side points on the hat and make some quick stitches to hold the elastic in place.  I added four more of these around the hat.  Then, start sewing the elastic down to the hat.  Of course I ran out of thread when I only had an inch left to sew, but that's the way things go around here.

All done!  It's not beautiful, but it will keep the hat on her head and the sun off her nose.

My other project is also cowboy related.  It's a saddle blanket.  For those who don't speak cowboy, the saddle blanket goes between the horse and the saddle.  It keeps the horse's back from rubbing or getting pinched by the saddle.  A wool saddle blanket, or saddle pad is something that works well for the job and this type is particularly good.  It is made by weaving wool roving into a latch hook rug canvas.  The wool forms to the horse's back and felts in that shape.  Once it has felted, not much can destroy it.  Except pack-rats.  I made one of these for my husband years ago and some pack rats moved in and decided to eat the canvas.  They left the wool alone, but the blanket fell apart.  I was hoping to have this one done before the branding, but it just might not make it.  Hard to work on with the little one playing in the wool roving.  Hopefully it will look good when it's all finished... if I ever finish it...  I have several other projects that I want to work on, but I have to finish this one first.

My addiction

I have a problem... maybe it's an addiction.   My husband is thinking about an intervention and I may need it.  See, I buy wool sweaters with the idea that I will re-purpose them into other things, like these baby slippers or these Easter eggs.   Every time I am at the second hand store, I wander over to the sweater rack and come away with a sweater that I just love.  I get it home and try it on and decide to wear it a while and it ends up in my closet.  I now have enough sweaters to wear a different one every day of the week at least. 

The sweaters on the right are the ones that I don't wear because they are too small or have holes in them.  The sweaters on the left are the ones that I bought with the intention of felting and re-purposing, but have somehow ended up in my closet.  This doesn't include the sweaters that I already owned before I became addicted.  I've got a few of those too.

When I first started this wool re-purposing habit, I fearlessly felted and hacked into two sweaters.  I did really well for a while, until my daughter begged me not to cut up one little sweater.  It's on the top of the pile on the right.  Every time I pull it out, she begs me not to cut it, so I hide it for a bit longer.  It would have been perfect for more Easter eggs, but oh, well.  I have continued to use wool from those first sweaters to make more slippers for the baby, but I just haven't been able to do anything with the other sweaters yet.

To try to break this habit, I decided that I can't buy any more sweaters unless I have a specific project in mind for it.  Today, I bought a white sweater vest that I don't like at all, but I have a plan for it!  My husband doesn't really believe me.  He's sure it will end up in the closet with the others, but I'll show him.  I'm on my way to put it into the washer right this minute.  It will become a sheep pillow for my sister.  Her birthday is coming up and I have her name for Christmas, so that's my excuse.  Hold my hand, I'm going to cut up a sweater without putting it on.

Easter feaster

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter.  We did.  There was some egg dying and some cookie making and two very excited kids while we got ready for bed Saturday night.  My kids are used to doing egg hunts inside because it's usually too cold to go outside, but not this year.  We didn't tell them it would be outside though, so they spent the morning searching all over the house and were very worried that the Easter bunny hadn't come.  We finally told them where to look and headed out to the yard. 

Sunday afternoon, we enjoyed a feast, as my son likes to say whenever I remember to fix a side dish.  Leg of lamb, hot potato salad, deviled eggs (since the baby threw a few hard boiled eggs when she found them) and pickled beets.  As I sat whining about how full I was, I couldn't help but think about family holiday traditions.  Growing up, I always knew what to expect for each holiday and good food was always to be expected.

My family generally had lamb for Memorial Day, as we spent it with the grandparents who raised sheep.  Thanksgiving was always at great aunt Allene's house-on my Mom's side of the family.  Christmas Eve with Dad's parents, then Christmas afternoon we went to the other grandparent's.  Easter was always at my mom's mom's house and it was always ham.  I associate ham with Easter because of that.  Now that we've all gotten older, and most of the hostesses have passed on, those traditions have died too.  And since there was no ham to be found in my freezer, we started a new tradition... lamb.  Okay, I don't know if it'll be a tradition, but it sure was good.  Not as good as how my grandma used to fix it, but I think I'm improving.

I was inspired by Resweater to make these little eggs.  I used scraps from my baby slippers project, so the kids thought they were slippers the entire time.  I wanted to make more from another sweater, but I just didn't get to it.  Maybe next year I'll make some more.  They sure are cute.

More projects

I realized yesterday that my baby is turning 1 next week.  I can't believe how fast this year went.  I then remembered that I had planned to make her some cloth blocks for Christmas, but when that got too busy,  I decided to put it off until her birthday.  And then I promptly forgot until yesterday.  I spent last evening and today putting these together.

I was a little worried about how they would turn out with all the different patterns and colors, but I think they ended up pretty cute.  I was worried about them being too small, so I made them big.  Really big considering they're for a baby.  Too big maybe...so I added the ribbon for something to get a hold of.

A few weeks ago, I brought a gray sweater home from the second hand store.  It had a very big turtle neck on it that my husband decided would make at perfect beanie.  So, he cut it off.

Now we just have to figure out how to finish the top of the hat.  Gather it up?  Fold it and stitch?  He can't decide, so this project is on hold.


A few days ago I had a craving for some craisins, you know, raisins, but from cranberries instead of grapes.  Then I remembered that I had some cranberries in the freezer.  I bought them around Thanksgiving time without any idea of what to do with them, so they ended up in the freezer.  I had cranberries, and I have a dehydrator... maybe I could make myself some craisins? 

The instructions I had said to blanch the berries, then freeze them and then dehydrate.  Since these were already frozen, I just blanched and dried.  I expected them to shrivel up while drying, but they didn't.  Unfortunately I just kept drying, thinking they would eventually shrivel up.  Instead, I have dried out berry shells with almost nothing inside.  Maybe I can rehydrate them a bit... probably not.  I kept them just in case I think of something to do with cranberry crumbles.  They do look pretty in a jar though though.  Maybe next year I'll get it right.

More giveaways!

Lately, I've been on a sweater kick.  I made these slippers for the baby from a sweater.  My sister made me some cool mittens.  I'm still working on that dang hat, but I really want to make a cute little sweater dress for my girls.  I see them around and I had a silly thought about knitting one when I remembered that there are always cool sweaters sitting on the rack at the second hand store.  So, I took myself to the shop and commenced flipping through sweater after sweater.  I didn't find any that I liked.  Nothing I would dress a little girl in anyway.  I did come home with two sweaters.  But today, I found the sweater that I want.


Can't you see a cute little girl just learning to walk, stumbling around in a little dress that looks kind of like this?  And it just so happens that the person selling it is having a give away.  Resweater has tons of sweaters to choose from.   I just love the idea of reusing old wool sweaters.  She blogs about all her wool resweater projects in case anyone is interested in trying something out, but not sure what to make.

Also, Amy, over at Homestead Revival is hosting a soap giveaway.  Personally, I would pick the honey oatmeal variety if I win.

And finally, Frugal Granola is hosting a giveaway at a bed and breakfast in Washington, so if that sounds like your cup of tea, head on over there.

Sagebrush Country Fiber Arts Revival

That's where I was Saturday. My sister has long been into wool and spinning and making things, so when I mentioned my interest in learning the whole process, she was very excited to share her supplies and tools for this event.

It was so fun to see all the ladies with their spinning wheels and the yarns they dyed and spun themselves.


My husband loved these colors. We watched her spin this basket of roving into thread.


Alpaca fibers. The lady at this booth was so helpful and nice.


She taught me to use these wicked combs to get the fibers somewhat workable. Yes they are sharp and yes I did make myself bleed a little.


Then she showed me how to use a drop spindle. It's a bit more time consuming than using a foot powered wheel, but with my little ones, and our general lack of space, this is ideal for spinning. I can easily put it up and away when I'm not using it.

I can't believe I left without a picture of a spinning wheel or a loom. I wanted to learn to use a spinning wheel, but I just didn't have the time and I wouldn't be able to apply the knowledge right now anyway. That still has to be a future goal.