Yarn along: back of vest

This is the red vest I started last week for my nephew...the back is almost done, not perfectly, but it will be wearable. I'm making it in size 3-6 months using the pattern for "tank top" from The Baby Knits Book by Debbie Bliss.We started from the beginning reading about a chapter a day of Genesis. The creation of the world is so beautifully written...

Two of my favorite things are knitting or crocheting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So...what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading?

Join in the Yarn along!

Start of Great Lent...

Prostration: when one falls to your knees and humbly bows one's head to the ground. ♥ My girls love saying this together every morning and night during Great Lent:

"O Lord and Master of my life, a spirit of idleness, despondency, ambition, and idle talking give me not.
But rather a spirit of chastity, humble-mindedness, patience, and love bestow upon me Thy servant.
Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my failings and not condemn my brother; for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen."

My etsy shop...

I ♥ to bake. So I decided to add some baked goods to my etsy shop (see picture-link to the right)! I plan to add an artisan rosemary bread loaf soon. I will be adding more cards and drawings also.
Here's a goofy picture of the girls and me with red foil covered chocolate lips from Graeter's (scrumptious chocolates made locally...in Dayton, Ohio) in our backyard! I hope you have a wonderful weekend. ♥ ♥ ♥

Yarn along...and Great Lent preparation!

I'm knitting a little vest for my nephew, Theodore. Red wool yarn by Patons.

My 10 year old read the book The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner and read the next 3 books in the series and recommended them to me, so that's what I'm reading right now.
I can't believe my daughter is suggesting books to me!!!

And I've been sewing...very unprofessional, but a star design... Did you notice the polka dot fabric is leftover from the pajama pants I made over the weekend? My 8 year old daughter loves it, so it is for her, a mini quilt for Honey (one of her teddy bears). ♥

I got a card from a friend in the mail yesterday, with this bag of tea inside. Pukka - Three Ginger. Oh, it's so good. I added a bit of honey and milk. As you can see I made another batch of the Lemon Poppyseed cookies.

Anyhow, I hope to get a box of that tea! I'm going to check and see if Whole Foods sells it.

This is the week before Great Lent starts...and this year I participated in a felt swap, each person designed a piece for each day until Pascha. Along with each visual element (which I think I'll sew onto a large piece of fabric like a quilt), there are readings:

GOSPEL READING	EVENT IN LIFE OF CHRIST	SYMBOL
Luke 2:41-52	12 Year Old Jesus in the Temple	#1 temple
Matthew 3:13-17	Baptism of Christ	#2 dove above water
Matthew 4:1-11	Jesus is Tempted by the devil	#3 stones in desert
Luke 5:1-11	Jesus Calls the First Disciples	#4 net with fish
John 2:1-12	First Miracle, Wedding in Cana	#5 water and wine jugs
Mark 2:23-3:5	Jesus and the Sabbath	#6 withered hand
John 1:43-51	Disciples Follow Jesus	#7 disciples/Sunday of Orthodoxy
Matthew 5:1-12	Sermon on the Mount	#8 mountain
Matthew 8:5-13	Jesus Heals Centurian's Servant	#9 centurian
Matthew 131-9	Parable of the Sower	#10 seeds beside/growing in soil w rocks and thorns
Mark 6:14-29	Death of John the Baptist	#11 platter
Matthew 14:22-33	Jesus Walks on Water	#12 feet on water
Mark 1:35-44	Jesus Heals Leper	#13 leper kneeling
Mark 2:1-12	Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man	#14 cot/cot being lowered with ropes
Luke 18:18	Rich Young Man	#15 needle with eye and camel
Mark 13:32-37	Second Coming	#16 alert sign
Matthew 15:22-28	Woman of Canaan	#17 little dogs eating crumbs
Matthew 18:23-35	Unforgiving Servant	#18 prison
Matthew 14:13-21	Jesus Feeds Five Thousand People	#19 loaves and fishes
Luke 1:24-38	Archangel Visits Mary	New Calendar extra symbol A - angel
Mark 2:14-17	Sinners are Welcome: Levi	#20 tax collection box
Mark 8:34-9:1	Jesus' First Prophecy of His Passion	#21 taking up cross/also Adoration of the Holy Cross
John 15:1-9	Jesus Teaches He is True Vine	#22 grapevine with grapes
Mark 5:35-43	Jesus and Jairus's Daughter	#23 girl sleeping in bed
Luke 10:25-37	Parable of Good Samaritan	#24 bandages and oil
Luke 15:1-7	Parable of Lost Sheep	#25 one lost sheep
Luke 7:11-17	Jesus Raises A Widow's Son	#26 open coffin
Mark 7:31-37	Jesus Heals a Deaf Man	#27 ear
Mark 9:17-31	Jesus Heals Mute & Second Prophecy	#28 fire/also Sunday of St. John of the Ladder
Matthew 13:31-32	Parable of the Mustard Seed	#29 mustard seed
Matthew 25:14-30	Parable of the Talents	#30 talent (coins) buried deep in ground
Luke 12:15-21	Foolish Rich Man	#31 full grain barn
Matthew 13:24-30	The Wheat and the Tares	#32 wheat and weeds
Luke 1:24-38	Archangel Visits Mary	Old Calendar extra symbol A - angel
Luke 18:10-14	Pharisee and Tax Collector	#33 megaphone
Mark 8:27-31	Peter's Confession	#34 question mark
Mark 10:32-45	Jesus' Third Prophecy of His Passion	#35 scourge (multi-thong whip)/also St. Mary of Egypt
Matthew 17:1-11	Transfiguration of Our Lord	#36 clothing white as light
John 10:11-15	The Good Shepherd	#37 shepherd's staff
John 9:1-11	Jesus Heals Blind Man	#38 hand with clay touching eyes
Matthew 22:1-14	Parable of Great Feast	#39 invitation
Luke 6:46-49	Jesus Teaches About the House Builders	#40 1 house sinking, 1 house firm foundation
John 11:1-45	Lazarus Saturday	#41 Lazarus with graveclothes
John 12:1-18	Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem	#42 palm branches
Matthew 24:3-35	Barren Fig Tree	#43 barren fig tree
Matthew 24:36-26:2	Parable of Ten Virgins	#44 oil lamp with flame
Matthew 26:6-16	Sinful woman annoints feet	#45 tears on foot
Matthew 26:21-39	Last Supper	#46 chalice
Luke 23:39-43	Crucifixion of Our Lord	#47 three crosses
Matthew 28:1-20	Holy Saturday	#48 tomb/cave with stone
John 1:1-17	The Resurrection of Christ	#49 empty cave or resurrected Christ on white oval

Weekend project: pajama pants

Isn't it frustrating that you can't find 100% cotton flannel pajamas for kids?
Supposedly the 100% polyester is better because it is flame resistant? So... I bought 100% cotton flannel to sew pajama pants for my daughter.Next time, I'm going to use this tutorial: http://lieslmade.wordpress.com/2010/10/06/pj-shorts-tutorial-with-pattern/

And just make the shorts longer...I love that she shows you how to do a French seam!

And the best thing about this weekend...is my newly baptised Godson in my arms! ♥

5x7 Folded Card

Aren't these just such cute cards? Right now, you can get 5 cards FREE (you just pay for shipping) at:

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery

So I designed these, with a photo a friend took of our family at the Old West festival a few months ago...I love how the word "Dream" is written over the top! And when I was done with my order, I saw that there was a link to share it on my blog (when I do that I will get $10 off my next order)!

Dream Sketch 5x7 folded card

Unique party invitations and announcements by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Presidental election coming up...

In November, I hope to vote for the best candidate for president of the United States of America. We all want someone who will help preserve our sweet land of liberty!

So, I'm curious, who are you going to vote for? Who would you like to see in office?

My first quilt...

It's a mini quilt...but could be used as a hotpad I suppose. Why do I always think everything has to have a purpose? It can just be a work of art, right? I am definitely inspired to make another larger quilt.
There's Velvet stepping over it, as I try to snap a photograph. We picked her up yesterday, after having stayed overnight to be spayed. She seems to be back to normal, playing and jumping around. She is now 5 pounds. Shaved belly. And a little incision that is healing up already. We'd gone to the vet last week and it would've cost an additional $150 to have her spayed, but at the UCAN clinic downtown I paid just $35. It really encourages people to spay or neuter their animals when it's affordable.

A little snow...

This morning we awoke to snow...and so took off for French Park a little after 8 o'clock...lucky we homeschool and can do lessons later on! There was no one else out so we let Lusy run free...no leash!!! She loved it. Licked the snow, raced like a wild dog and went into the woods...
Just enough for us to enjoy...to make it really feel like winter.

A few of my favorite homeschool books...

Just 2 that I really want to share with you today: These were given to us with the K12 curriculum for my 5th grader, Hannah. The exercises in these books are very useful, Exercises in English often give sentences that teach you about something, like American history (e.g. Neil Armstrong) that are written incorrectly, where you have to write the correct form of the verb or underline the adjectives. The vocabulary one is nice, because at the beginning of each unit, they give you the words, with their dictionary meaning and an example of it used in a sentence. They are both workbooks, which I'm not fond of in general, but when you need one to help you with basic grammar, these are excellent!

We think of homeschooling on our "own" without a set curriculum...and if we did, these two books are ones that we would purchase!

Extra Yarn, a children's book...

A few days ago we went to a local book shop where the kids made pom poms and then they read aloud this book Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett illustrated by Jon Klassen (I really love the pictures, looks like he rolled paint onto knitted fabric and pressed it on the paper)!They hung up their pom poms on a tree in the bookstore, and some on the trees outside, too. A group of women, who call themselves the Cincinnati Bombshells (they "bomb" the town with their knitted and crocheted colourful beauty...for example, we saw the outdoor statue of Cincinnatus the Roman with leg warmers and a scarf!), came and helped. What an awesome group! They wear blonde wigs, so to remain anonymous. And gave out blonde wigs for the kids to wear. What do you think of Olivia (I thought she was already blonde, but guess she's actually a dirty blonde or light brown hair girl now)?