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!