I'm Hooked - Crochet Challange - Long overdue update!

Oh dear, dear, dear! Has it really been that long?
Fear not dear reader I have not been idle! (oh that was a 10 cent sentence!) I've been busy on my projects both crochet related and not. The kiddos are out of school and man, do they take up a lot of time! Plus my Mom and Dad braved the heat, tourists and politicians and came to the DC area for a visit. Add to that a super secret vacation for the family (muah-ha-ha-ha!) and you see why my blogging has been sacrificed. I know that these are really weak excuses but they are all I've got!

On to the update!
Isaac put together a skit for the school talent show this year starring himself as the Swedish Chef from the Muppet Show! He shined if I do say so myself! You can see the video of him hamming it up on stage here.
As a special gift for the performance I designed and created a Swedish Chef Amigurumi. Isaac was very pleased and so am I!
After posting the initial pictures on Facebook I received lots of feedback for other Muppets to try. Miss Piggy has always been a favorite of mine and near and dear to my heart.

I have also made a couple other special gifts and commissions. One is an Emily Tiger based on the book Emily's Tiger. One of my favorites from Barefoot Books!This bride is for a friend and neighbor. If she sees it here....well I guess I should be happy she is reading my blog! :) I am working on a groom. I'll highlight him here soon!I have other ideas percolating in my brain and hopefully I can bring them to Amigurumi life! Watch this space for more crochet creations another kind of challenge!

Organs Should Be Happy

In September 1990 I walked in to my very first college dorm room. A very cute hat was already hanging from the end of one of the beds and I burst out with "Hey, you like hats, too!" OK so I wasn't the smoothest 18 year old around. But my new roomie was fine with that. Her name is Jen (Hey, my name is Jen, too!) and we became very fast, very close friends. We would sit on the floor and color, make midnight runs to the local gas station for snacks and yell out the window to cute boys below.
I think she told me about her diabetes on the first day, its hard to hide with the insulin and stuff. I really didn't care. She accepted me for who I was and I accepted her completely! As her health challenges have evolved over the years I keep her in my mind and heart and prayers.
Of course our lives have changed in other ways and now we are not geographically close at all. But there is this little piece of me that wants to be back on "The Hill" coloring and yelling out the window.
Right now my Jen is in Indianapolis waiting for kidney and pancreas transplants. This process is expensive! And so I am doing my little bit to help. Jen once told me, "Organs should be happy!" So I present to you A Happy Kidney! All proceeds go to Jen and her family. If you can't order one, please share the link with your friends!

I'm Hooked - Challenge Update

So this week I came up with two new designs. But both were pretty easy and simple. Both are now available at my shop on Zibbet.

With out further ado...

The truth is out there.......spooky music please.
Matt brought me a bunch of Lion Brand yarn from Maker Faire. One of the colors was this cool green. Too bright for Yoda, too yellowy for mermaids, it just seemed right for an alien to me.





It's that time of year again. What to do, get, make for the teacher to say "Thank you for not hanging my child out the window by their ankles." I was asking around the neighborhood kids for ideas and more than one suggested the iconic apple for the teacher. And so here is my offering.

Do you have an idea for fun and funky Amigurumi? Leave a comment or send me a message.

Two Book Tuesday (Whoops Wednesday)!! Father's Day Ideas!

Some of you may know that I live in a Geek household. Of course the biggest geek of all is GeekDad Matt! Today I want to highlight books to celebrate the Dads and Geeks in your life!

Geek Dad: Awesomely Geeky Projects and Activities for Dads and Kids to Share
by Ken Denmead (Matt's fellow GeekDad)

I wish my dad had this book when I was a kid. I guess I'll just have to live vicariously through my children! Ken has collected amazing activities to share with kids. These activitiess are unlike any I have ever seen in a book! As a teacher and parent I have collected quite a few of a similar flavor with ideas for experiments, crafts and games. These projects are designed to spark kids imagination and get them really engaged in the process.

Some favorites from the book:
See the World from the Sky: Secure your mini digital video camera and launch it into the sky with the help of some balloons. I can't wait to try this one on our annual trip to the beach!
A Never-Ending Demolition Derby: Combine the awesomeness of RC cars and Legos and then let your kids go wild!
Crocheted Dice Bag of Holding: Come on, you knew I would like that one!

The kid in me loves the ideas and thinks they are coooool! The grown-up Mom in me is really impressed with the ratings for each activity for cost, difficulty, duration and reusability. OK, so obviously this one is great for Geek Moms, too!

My Daddy is a Pretzel
by Baron Baptiste

So once you have run around with your kids, come on inside and get centered with some yoga! This story puts the practice of yoga in the terms of everyday life, giving kids a great visual for every posture. A great story to just curl up and share or to open up on the floor next to your yoga mat.
Combine this with Yoga Pretzels, a deck of cards full of more yoga postures and activities for kids and adults to share.
Or if you would like to take your practice out into the world try the Yoga Planet deck to take care of the earth and people around you!

I'm Hooked -The Challenge!

I have issued myself a challenge! An Amigurumi Challenge! My goal is to come up with and develop a new pattern once a week.

Most of the characters that I make are my own personal designs. I do take existing patterns in books and online and then modify them for my own style and tastes. I am starting to think of myself as an artist. But this is hard. I have never thought of myself as such.

So now your part of the challenge.....

Give me some ideas! I have a few stored up from friends who have made requests and my own noggin has been working overtime!

For today I would like to introduce two new designs:

The Hula Dancer is my own inspiration, I had a lot of bright green yarn a friend had given me and I was thinking about a good use for it! I really like her, and if you have come here via Facebook then you know she has become my profile picture!

The Cat in the Hat was an idea from a lady at my knitting group! She commented that her young grand daughter might like it. I am not quite happy with his face and will need to keep working on it.

So now my friends it is up to you to keep me going with ideas! Leave your comments here or email me directly.

Girls Only Weekend

It is rare for me to have the opportunity to spend an extended period of time with just one of my children. But this weekend, Leah and I had a Girls Only Weekend! Isaac went on a special trip with his grandparents and my GeekDad husband, Matt was in California at Maker Faire!

So we started with making a list of things Leah wanted to do on her special weekend.
Hang out with other girls
Do nails
Eat spaghetti or steak
Eat ice cream
Read

We managed to do all of the things on her list! Although I opted for spaghetti instead of the steak!

In addition we spent alot of time snuggling, chatting and tickling. It was wonderful and magical and I am thankful for this time. She will be so big so soon and then who knows if she'll want to spend this time with her Mom!

Two Books for Tuesday!

I've decided to try something new.... Two Book Tuesday. Each Tuesday I will strive to share two favorite books, one for adults and one for kids. We are big readers in our house. Each day the kids are reading their own books, Hubby and I are reading our own books, and then each night we all get in our jammies and have a reading time. We read aloud from a book we are all interested in. This is my favorite time of day.
With out further delay, on to the books!

One for Grown-ups!
In His Majesty's Service Three Novels of Temeraire by Naomi Novik

I am just eating up this book! It is huge because it includes the first three books in this series, plus a short story as well. Captain William Laurence is serving in the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. Here is where the history takes a twist. In this reality, dragons are a integral part of the war. Manned by aviators who bond with a dragon for life. Laurence quite accidentally bonds with such a beast and names him Temeraire. Together they must leave the Navy to join the Aerial Corps, an all together different culture than the Navy.
The relationship between Laurence and Temeraire is amazing, they are comrades and best friends and so much more. Novik has created the most amazing characters in the dragons. Add to that the attention to detail to history (other than the dragons), military and social culture and it is truly engrossing. If you enjoy historical fiction, fantasy and a combination check it out.


And One for our Kiddos!
The Mouse Hunter by Alex Milway

This is a delightfully adventurous trilogy perfect for a child who can comfortably read a chapter book or sit through the reading of one. In this fanciful world people are obsessed with mice. These are not the mundane vermin of our world. No, in this world there are countless varieties of mice in every shape and size. Rich and privileged individuals collect mice as pets. Others use mice as domesticated help. Children are trained and employed as Mouse Keepers. This is the profession of our heroine, Emiline. Emiline sets out on an adventure of a life time encountering mythical, rare and simply unbelievable ice.
We recently gave the first two books to a good friend of our son and she read them both in a few days time and then began rereading the first one again. The children in the school and neighborhood that have read the book have a mouse hunting team and go on adventures to find mice in the woods.
The last of the trilogy is only available in the UK but we have ordered it! I can't wait to see the look on their faces!

Shhhhhhh! It's a secret!

I've been thinking about secrets alot lately. Why do we have them? Keep them? Tell them?

We've been exploring this theme at church as we prepare to welcome a new minister and confront any old history that the church has swept under the rug. It prompted me to think about family and personal secrets (not that any of mine are big).

In modern society we might keep pregnancies a secret, marital problems, health issues or parenting difficulties. Why? Family and community support are often the biggest pieces of our success in life and yet many people shy away from it. Is it pride? Are we trying to "keep up appearances" for the neighbors?

Recently, I was sitting with an acquaintance and let down my guard enough to tell her "a secret." She replied quite positively that she and her family had encountered something similar. I was floored. We continued to talk and share information. It felt so good!

No, I don't want to walk around divulging every little thing about my life. But I do think maybe we need to open up and let our guards down a bit more often.

And NO, you nosy pokes aren't going to find out my secret du jour......at last not yet.

I'm Hooked: May the Force be with you!

In an attempt to join forces with my geeky husband, I present my latest amigurumi creations:Princess Leia, Chewbacca, and Yoda. Come see them a lots of other new patterns at the Reston Market tomorrow!

A (belated) Mother's Day Poem

I love my children for their differences.

My 9 year old, Isaac is all analysis. How does it work? Why does it work?

Leah, 7 years old, is synthesis through and through! She is the artist and poet.

This morning Leah presented me with a belated Mother's Day gift, an acrostic poem using the word MOTHER.

My love lies on you!
Of All that I know I wouldn't be here!
The thing that we love to do can be done with you!
Here the robins sing to the others!
Eggs are what I'll make on your birthday!
Run with me on Mother's Day!

I'm not sure I "get it" entirely, but I sure do love it and her!

No, Really.....

I have always had a problem getting to bed. Not to sleep mind you. No, my head hits the pillow and I am off to dream land.
I have a habit of being distracted, or lured away by the TV, laundry, computer, crochet projects and of course my favorite books. And so I announce " I am going to bed" to my husband and then proceed to do anything but. So a few minutes later I say "I should really go to bed" and then I don't. Finally I end with " OK! I am really going now! No, really!"
That is exactly the way it has been with this blog. I sit down to write and the kids need help with homework, the cats need to be fed, or the dishes need to be washed. I get distracted and make excuses not to write and yes, someday I will explore this with a licensed professional.
So what is the solution? With sleep, my body will eventually take over and complain loudly that I am not making it a priority. My blog, not so much with the complaining. I must make writing a priority!
And so here we go again! No, really!

Sending Love in a Lunch Bag!

It just feels like I don't get enough time or energy to really tell my kids all the important stuff. We try and there are certain rituals we have that help the family connect as often as possible. One ritual that I have always cherished is sending a little extra love in a child's lunch box!

My mom used to tape stickers to my sandwich or thermos with little notes of encouragement or just love! I have continued that ritual with my kids. I am always looking for cute and unique ways to send a note. Here are a few tricks and products I have found to help me with my mommy job.

• I like to send notes I keep small note cards and thin line sharpies in the kitchen by the lunch supplies so I can quickly jot down a note. I have found awesome small note cards at Michael's in the $1 bins! Some even in the shape of crayons or with the kids individual initials on them!
• During one trip to Michael's I discovered Lunch Box Love cards by Say Please. These little notes have positive messages like "I love spending time with you!" on one side and fun facts like "Your heart beats about 101,000 times a day!" on the other side! With my Sharpie I add "To my sweetie" and "Love, Mommy!" or a little reminder about talent show practice.
• A big favorite has been Lunchology Lunch Bags. Personally I used to groan when my mom sent me with a brown paper bag, especially when I wanted the oh-so-cool Princess Leia Lunch box! But these solve the brown bag boredom in a cool way. Each bag is full of puzzles, fun facts or positive messages. The kids have definitely expressed their love for the bags on rainy and cold days when the school keeps them inside for recess. The puzzles or coloring pictures give them something different to do and are popular with their friends.
• Of course a big way to show love for my kiddos is to make food they want and will eat, not to mention is healthy and helps them keep up their energy throughout the school day. My daughter loves hard boiled eggs (sometimes I draw hearts or faces on the shell) and my son prefers things he can assemble instead of sandwiches. Paying attention to what healthy foods they like and will eat helps them have a positive day at school.

None of these little tricks and treats are hard or take alot of time or effort, trust me I would never put in too much time or effort! But they work well for this family. A honest disclaimer here, too: I do have my kids buy the school lunches at least once a week. The food has gotten alot better!

Blog reboot!

Its like looking in the closet for a pair of shoes and finding a box full of stuff!
So yes I have been a negligent blogger, and I am sorry. But a goal for 2010 (not a resolution...that word is jinxed!) is to do more writing. Some to share my passions, some to vent my frustrations and some just for fun. So keep me honest and on track, comment, facebook, tweet and retweet and spread the word.