Since it is micro fleece, I didn’t need to finish the edge!  I really like how it came out.

My other project is for my husband.  When we were first dating and engaged, we used to write love notes to each other.  Life has gotten busy, and we don’t do that as much. This is a notebook just for writing to each other.  The outside fabric is a scrap of  cabin themed fabric.  We were married in the mountains in Wyoming and our house has a cabin theme in the living room.

The inside is a fishing/map theme.  Zack is really into fishing, and he loves old maps and such.  I think he will really like it!

From January 2011 Pictures

1. I got to hang out with Lo today.  He needed new shoes, so we went shopping together.  We talked about school, his friends, how farts are made, and what he wants to be when he grows up. The typical stuff with a 6 year old boy!  He is a great kid!  He loves crafts with a passion!  He has been making woven pot holders, melty bead animals, and all kinds of cards.  He helped me pick out embroidery thread colors today. He begged me to let him sew with me.  I am going to get him a scrap piece of fabric and teach him some basic stitches.

From January 2011 Pictures

2. Wy says the funniest things.  He can’t say “fingers”. He says, “Sing-gers”.  Sometimes they are “singers”.  It makes me giggle. He calls marshmallows “smushmallows”.  He calls fistbumps “piss-pumps” (we have been working on that).  Besides his unique pronunciation, he just lives in his imagination.  He makes me laugh all the time. In the picture above, he is eating his fourth piece of pizza.  If he could, he would eat pizza for every meal!

3. I am really loving the Cables and Twists pattern.  We have a lady in our knitting group who is very ill.  We are making a prayer shawl for her.  Each member of our group is making a 8 1/2 x 11 rectangle.  I decided to use this pattern with a larger needle.  It is almost the perfect size.  It is a clever pattern. It looks a lot more complicated that it really is.

4. I am also loving embroidery. I have a ganglion cyst on my wrist. It is bothering me for the last two days (I had it surgically removed several years ago. It comes back from time to time, but it doesn’t hit the nerve like it did before). I have not been able to knit or crochet (leaving my square only as done as you see in the picture).  Since I can’t do that, I decided to make a sampler.  I am doing the Spring Sampler from the motifs book I got.  I have only done one color (DMC 907 for those who may wonder).  I am learning all kinds of things (chain stitch, stem stitch, and lazy daisy stitch…all learned yesterday)!  I am just using a scrap piece of linen. I doubt I will do anything with it.  Maybe I will frame it.  Mostly, I just want to be able to practice without having to worry about perfection.

5. My husband is the best. Right now, he is learning how to write Android Apps.  Why would he do that?  Because I want an app that helps me keep track of what colors of embroidery floss I have.  There isn’t anything out there, so he is figuring out how to make me what I want!  That is love!

I have a pretty great life!

2. My Christmas tree and outside decorations are still up.

3. Last night I took down the inside decorations.

4. My plan was to take down the tree last night, but discovered that my cats have been peeing all around the base of the tree.

5. I spent the evening cleaning up cat pee.

6. The cats are not sick (they were at the vet last month). They just don’t like Christmas trees. They did this last year.  We thought they wouldn’t this year because last year’s tree was real and this year’s was artificial.  Our vet had suggested the real tree may have confused them and made them think they were outside.  I don’t think so.  The artificial tree didn’t matter apparently.  They are just grinchy.

7. If anyone would like two adult cats who have a tendency to pee on the carpet anytime they get pissed off (pun intended), please let me know.

8. I realize the above won’t really entice anyone to request my cats, but I believe in truth in advertising!

Here is a new puppy for my boys!  It is a baby washcloth that I embroidered!  I am reteaching myself embroidery. When I was small, I did a ton of cross-stitch.  In high school, my mom taught me a bit of traditional hand embroidery. I did a single project and stopped.  Now I am re-learning!

I have been using the videos that Wendy Gratz.  She also has some really great sewing videos!  I also got myself Doodle Stitching and Doodle Stitching: the Motif Collection.  The little dog is from the motif book.  Between the videos and the clear instructions in the book, I found that I picked it back up pretty easily. I need some practice, but I love how the puppy turned out.  My boys are excited to take a bath and use him!  I will say this, using a baby washcloth is not the best idea for a first project. The terry cloth did not like having thread pulled through it.  Many of the loops caught and then left strings.  I think I should have started on some linen or cotton.  It would have been easier (especially learning a split stitch for the first time).  Despite the snags, I still like the little washcloth. I am now looking around my house for things to embroider!

The only modification I made is that I left off the ribbon to tie it.  I didn’t feel it was necessary and didn’t have a ribbon that I liked with it!

This Friday’s favorite thing is a wonderful handmade soap.  I bought this soap on Etsy from Haldecraft.  Haldecraft is a store run by Lorena from Hanks.  I have bought Lorena’s soap before.  I always gave it as a gift or included in swap packages.  Everyone who received it raved about it.  I kept buying more planning to keep it, but it always went to someone else.  Then, she posted on her blog some of her new items.  Those included the soaps in the picture. The firetruck shape caught my eye.  Wy loves firetrucks.  When I clicked on it, the scent name made it something I couldn’t pass on. The scent is “Monkey Farts” (I shudder to think about what kind of searches this blog post will come up under now).  My boys are obsessed with “bathroom humor”.  Monkey farts doesn’t sound appealing, but it is very fruity (banana, strawberry, etc).

I ordered this soap on Sunday (late). It was mailed on Monday, and I got it on Tuesday (really fast shipping…yay!!). The boys took a bath with it that night (and have begged for baths every night since…some nights we have to settle for washing our hands with the soap). They love the shape, the smell, and the fact that they can use the word “fart” repeatedly without getting scolded!

I love that this soap is soft and gentle on my boys’ skin (and maybe mine, but I will not confess to having used firetruck soap in the shower).  I also love that it smells so good. My whole bathroom smells like Monkey Farts (I can’t help myself…my boys are a bad influence)!  I have smelled other scents that Lorena offers, and this is a universal trait. They all smell good! The other thing that makes this soap my favorite thing is that it makes bathtime fun (and even washing their hands).  My boys want to be clean (actually, they want to smell like monkey farts so that they can say that to everyone)!

Since I love this soap so much, I am going to be ordering more for myself (maybe chocolate scented soap…yum)!!

Of course, this is the time when everyone makes all kinds of lifestyle changes and resolutions about weight loss. I promised myself that I wouldn’t do that this year.  That being said, I have made two health related changes.

I have quit soda (again). I had quit soda back at the end of September (not caffeine…I still drink tea and eat chocolate). I stopped having headaches (even hormone induced migraines stopped).  I started drinking it again during the holidays, and I also started to battle headaches again.  So, I have quit drinking soda.  I mostly drink water and tea (I am in the South, so my tea of choice is usually sweet tea).

The other change that I have made is to get a pedometer. I used to always wear one. I am much more active when I wear a pedometer. I have a private competition with myself to up the total number of steps I take everyday.  Without one, I have no motivation to move more.  My old pedometer gave up on me about a year ago. I have been meaning to replace it. I finally did.  I got this one.  My favorite thing is that I can put it in my pocket and it is accurate!  I cannot tell you how much I love that!  It doesn’t have to be on my waistband. That makes me happy.  It is small and very thin, so you can’t tell when I am wearing it with my dress clothes. So, I will be moving and walking more.  I am thinking about doing something fun like Webwalking USA (although I wish there was a nice web version of this similar to the Eowyn Challenge or Walking with Attitude, I am not into Lord of the Rings enough for the first and I don’t want to pay for the second).  So today, my pedometer is my favorite thing!

I have reached a Wee Block milestone: 75 blocks!  It is very exciting!  It is getting harder to take photos of the whole blanket.  It was neglected for a long time, but has been charming me lately. I love that it is instant gratification, and means new yarns each time I pick it up.

So, now for the little update on a few of the blocks.  First up is a really big block. It is made out of the leftover yarn from the scarf I made for my niece Shay.  The yarn is Zitron Trekking (XXL).

Next is a yarn that I got in a swap.  The green “camo” yarn.  In one of the Flat Rate Box Swaps, I got a neat project bag crocheted out of this yarn.  The extra was included in the box.  I had to make a square with it.

The pink and grey yarn is the next special block.  I used it to make a scarf for Aliesha.  The yarn is Spritely Goods Sylph in the Arizona Ironwood colorway.  I loved the scarf, so knitting the block was a fun chance to relive it a bit!

The last picture has two special blocks.  The brightly colored block under the purple block is from the scarf I made for my niece Delani.  I dyed the yarn with Easter Egg dye.  The purple block is also special.  Why?  It is the 75th block!!  I have no idea what yarn this is. It came from a swap on the Blankie Mania board.
Now that I have my pretty jar, I have been picking up this blankie more.  The pretty yarn in the jar is just too tempting to resist!!  There will be more updates with that jar there to constantly tempt me to knit a block!

2. I want to do more scrapbooking. One of my big holiday plans is a 2011 scrapbook for my mom and mother in law.  In the January/February 2005 Simple Scrapbooks magazine, there was a “Scrapbook 200 photos tonight!” article.  The idea is that you use a “two-up photo album” (an album that holds 200 4×6 photos).  I loved the idea and bought two albums back in 2005. I also cut 400 4×6 pieces of coordinating cardstock.  Then, I put it away. All I have to do is print out photos, attach them to the cardstock, embellish, and do some quick journaling. My plan is to do two identical albums and to do a few pages each month.

3. Each year I have a goal to learn something new.  This year, there are two things that I want to learn. The first is that I want to learn to really use my serger. I have used it a few times for very simple stuff.  I know that it will do a lot more than I have ever used it for in the past. I got a book called Ready, Set, Serge.  I plan to make some of the things from the book (and put them in my future gifts basket).  I am really excited to do a rolled hem. One of my Christmas gifts next year will be cloth napkin sets!

4. The second thing I want to learn to do is make soap.  I don’t really have a plan on this one, but I will soon.  I would like to make soap for gifts next year too.

5. This is the cookie jar I bought for $3 today. I put my very small sock yarn balls in the jar.  These are for my sock yarn blankie!  These are only the ones that have not been put into the blankie yet.  After I use a ball, I put it in a bin. Later, they will be put back into this jar to be used again (just not too close to the first block).  One of my goals is to work on this blankie more consistently!  I really think the jar looks beautiful. It will be a nice reminder to work on it.

6. I also want to finish some unfinished projects.  My February Lady Sweater needs one sleeve.  I need to assemble Logan’s blankie from 2009. I need to finish Wyatt’s block borders and then assemble his.  Neither will take me long, but I just need to buckle down!

7. I want to start an Etsy shop. I am working on getting all of the legal stuff in order. I am hoping to announce more and launch in early this year!

8. My last crafting goal is to blog regularly.  I think this is self-explanatory. I love blogging, but I don’t do it as regularly as I would like.

I also have some personal goals. The first is to get pregnant. I know this seems a bit weird, but we have been trying for about a year. I had an ectopic back in March. Since then, no luck. I really want another baby (my last).  The second is to go through Operation World as a family.  We have “family church” every night. We read a bible story and pray as a family.  We are really excited about a more guided prayer experience as a family.  My last personal goal is to keep my house up.  We have been doing a pretty good job.  I want to keep that going.

Well, that seems like quite enough for one year!  Happy New Year to you!!

1. Bathroom humor is naturally funny to the males of our species. They don’t have to be taught that it is funny.  They just find it funny. This also starts very, very young (and as far as I can tell from being married, it never ends).  Boys just find anything bathroom related hilarious.

2. The ability to quote whole sections of movies after only seeing them one time while at the same time not being able to remember the second step of a series of instructions that men have…that also starts very young.  It is natural and ingrained.   It is also something they never outgrow!

3. Just because you have boys doesn’t mean that you don’t get to do all the fun crafty stuff with your kids.  Boys love crafts too. Everyone told me that it was sad that I had boys because I wouldn’t get to share my hobbies. They were wrong.  Lo is a very crafty kid.  He got a potholder loom for Christmas!  I am not sure which one of us is more excited about it (maybe me, but probably him)!

4. Boys like handmade things (at least until they are 6).  Logan asked me to make him a teddy bear for his birthday.  Here they are!

I made him from this pattern.  I used a remnant of polar fleece that Logan found at Jo-Ann’s.  I was worried that he looked too babyish, but Lo really loves him.

5. 6 year olds are big boys (especially in public…in private, they might still be little kids sometimes)!

6. 6 years go by really, really fast.  Unbelievably fast.