In His Grip

Christmas Stocking Challenge -- Post 3

I have finished the knitting portion of my Christmas stocking.  You can read about how this challenge started here then post 1 and post 2.  Wow, this has to be the most challenging knitting project that I have ever attempted.  But with the help of the ladies at the Knit Wit store, and the great notes that were taken by Barb, I has able to turn the heel and make the gussets as well as do the decreases for the toe.  Yeah!

 

 

 

Now I just need to sew the seam down the back, finish up the top edge, and put Paula's name on the Santa side of the top cuff.  Then there is the blocking that will need to be done as well.

This is my first sock ever, I am not sure that it really counts as it is very large compared to the socks I have half completed to the point of turning the heel.   I cannot wait to do all of the finishing work and show off the completed project and the challenge conquered.

Christmas Lighting in Gardner

Last night marks the fourth year running for Indian Creek Community Church, Gardner handing out free hot chocolate at the Mayor's Christmas tree lighting.  This is one of the events each year that I just love.  Not only is it the marking of the beginning of the Christmas season, but if you want a midwest, small town Christmas event, you cannot go wrong here.  Bubba Starling, the local star athlete pulled the switch to light the tree, Santa arrived on the fire truck, and fireworks are just a few things that you can always look forward to at Christmas in the Park.  The elementary children sing Christmas songs and one of the high school's ensemble groups are dress in old fashion costumes and singing Christmas carols.  This whole event is very Norman Rockwell-ish.  Commemorative ornaments are handed out by Santa and this is the newest one to add to my "Christmas in the Park" collection.  

Not only do we hand out hot chocolate on a cold night, but we add the extra touch of offering a little squirt of whipped cream too, yummy!

Our table this year was right up near Santa's workshop so we were able to give out more hot chocolate than ever before.  In my estimation, we passed out over 420 cups of hot chocolate.  This is the first time we actually ran out, so I am thinking next year we need to come with at least two more five gallon containers full.  Sometimes serving our community in such a simple way is just stinking fun!  Heres wishing your Christmas season will start out with this much delight.

Santa's Boots Makeover

In January of this year as I was browsing through our local Goodwill store I found these cute Santa boots for 99 cents.  I loved the way that they are so short and chubby and knew that I could find a great use for them in Christmas decorating in the future.  Forgetting about my purchase earlier in the year I was so excited to find these as I unpacked my Christmas decorations.  Although they are cute just as they are, I figured a little bit of pink and sparkle were just the thing to make them fabulous.  

Finding this pink spray paint in my studio, I figured it was just the right color for the transformation.  The boots are about the size of a flower pot and knew that they would fit in perfectly with the pink theme on the front porch as bases for my little trees that were going out there.

I used Mod Podge to paint around the sole of the boot as well as the cuff and then sprinkled with bright pink glitter.  I use Martha Stewart brand, there are a lot of colors to choose from including several hues of pink.  

We filled the boots with sand to make them heavy enough to withstand the strong winter Kansas winds and then placed the plaster paris based Christmas trees down into the boots.  There we have it a perfect pink tree stand.  

There are three silver painted Christmas trees on my front porch this year, thanks to Grandma Sturman for remembering me when I said you never want to get rid of a Christmas tree.  Last year I experimented with spray painting Christmas trees and have found that the metallic silver paint gives a you a vintage look that I just love.  You have got to try it.

 

I am participating in the following link ups:  Between Naps on the Porch, The DIY Showoff,Boogiboard Cottage, Its So Very Cheri, Sew Chatty, Dittle Dattle, Sew Can Do, Keeping It Simple, Skip to My Lou, Coastal Charm, Ladybug Blessings, Today's Creative Blog,Sugar and Dots, My Girlish Whims, The Thrifty Home, Blue Cricket Design, Sew Woodsy, The Tablescaper, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Making the World Cuter,Itsy Bitsy Paper, So Much Ado, One Tough Mother, Sweet Peas and Bumblebees, Handy Man, Crafting Woman, Women Who Do It All, Seven Thrity-three, Someday Crafts, Tea Rose Home. Lil' Luna, Momma Hen Scoop, Sugar and Dots, {Primp}, Sommewhat Simple, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Tales From Bloggeritaville, Gluesticks, Momnivore's Dilemma, Beyond the Picket Fence, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Simply Sweet Home,Truly Lovely, Finding Fabulous, The Shabby Nest, Someday Crafts, Passionately Artistic, Goodbye city, Hello suburbs, Handy Man, Crafty Woman, Make it Great Monday,Vintage Gwen, Sew Country Chick

 

 

 

Three Word Thursday

Filled with joy . . . 

Christmas Stocking Challenge -- Post 2

I am two weeks into this Christmas stocking challenge.  You can read about how and why this challenge started here and here.  I have completed the design.  Big woo hoo's, going on here.  I got to this point last Sunday and have not yet sat down long enough to attempt the heel turning.  I have got to think that it has got to be easier than having all those bobbins hanging off your work.  The gals at Knit Wit will be where I go to get the help that I need.  The actual next step is to slip 18 stitches from both ends and place on a double pointed needle.  Seriously, slip stitches OFF my needles?  What if I drop them and they are not able to be recovered.  This step is freaking me out.  Needless to say, I am just so excited about my accomplishment so far that I just may keep it here.  Nah, just kidding, I will achieve my goal and beat this pattern.

Isn't Santa cute.  I was a bit worried about the tone on tone thing and not being able to see him well enough, but he is smiling through just fine.

I am not real happy with my skills on the tree. Carrying the yarn across the back was a bit of a challenge for me and it pulls a bit in places, but for my first try not too bad.   Hopefully, by my next update I will have tackled the turning of the heel.  

Chewy Chocolate Chip Snickers Cookies

These are the best cookies ever.  While I was looking at Pinterest the other day I found this great cookie recipe.  Beings as chocolate chip cookies are my all time favorite cookies and Snickers are my favorite candy bar, how could I go wrong.  What I like best about Pinterest is that it is all pictures until you want the info.  You just simply click on the picture and it takes you to the website responsible for the "pin".  My clicking took me to Bakers Royale where I found this scrumptious recipe as well as great pictures of step by step instructions.  One thing that was new to me in the recipe is browning butter.  Wow, I love butter anyway, but cook it a bit and it is simply heavenly and you really do taste the difference in the finished product.  Go on over and check out more of Bakers Royale recipes.  Naomi the author of the site rocks when in comes to baking let alone the photos she takes.  This is the picture of her cookies.  

Here is the picture of my cookies.  There is just something about style when it comes to taking food pictures that I just don't have.  Besides, I did not do the optional sprinkling crumbled up Snickers on top of my cookies either.  And who has a dishcloth that is that clean anyway, really?  This site has become a "go-to" when I get the itch to bake something up.  

Christmas Stocking Challenge -- Post 1

The challenge of the Christmas stocking is officially on.  I have been making good progress.  As you can see I have decided to make the stockings that Ryan and Paula have at their house in a tone on tone white.  This choice, although it is turning out awesome, may not have been such a good one for my first attempt at this stocking making thing.  The colors are so close that I really have to pay attention to which bobbin I am using.  But I am sure this will make doing a stocking in the traditional red and green easy pesy, right?  I am not at the point of saying this is easy, it is still quite the challenge and I have not even got to the turning of the heal.

If you look really closely, I am just a couple of rows into the Santa face.  I was not sure how much the white Angora would show up next to the winter white, but am really liking the very subtle contrast. 

This is the Christmas tree and I am using the white Angora as the details in the tree.  

Here is Paula's name.  I kind of cheated here as I used a duplicate stitch after the cuff part of the stocking was completed rather than have all of those bobbins hanging off each letter.  

I will continue to keep you updated as to my progress, but so far so good.  The wonderful gals at the yarn store here in town, Knit Wit, have assured me if I run into a snag they will be happy to help. 

Fireplace Cabinets Before & After

There has been a dream of mine to update and warm up our family room for quite a while now.  I did not want to change out everything as I really like what I have in there, I just wanted to warm the place up a bit.  This past weekend with my Mom's help, oh yeah, she pretty much painted the whole thing, I finally made my change.  Here is the before and after pictures of the transformation.  I am amazed how big a difference a little bit of paint can make.  And literally, I used, or I should say, Mom used only a quart of paint.

This is how the fireplace looked when we moved in.  Now, don't judge me because of all of the clutter, afterall, we had "just" moved in.  With the help of my Dad, my husband and he were able to build the cabinets and shelves just as I had seen them in a model home just a couple of miles away.  I have been very happy with the way the fireplace looked as well as the extra storage, but it was ready for a bit of an update.

Enter, 72 year old Mom who has always been a ball of energy and willing to do just about anything to be helpful around me and my sisters' homes.  Say, "painting project" and she's on it.

Everyone tells me I am like my mother, boy, I hope so.  Look at that flexibility and balance.  That's what I am going for when I am her age.

Sometimes I wish that we did not have to decorate around a TV.  Oh who am I kidding, all the time I wish I did not have to decorate around a TV, but at least they are getting smaller from front to back and can now fit on a shelf.  

I keep walking into my family room and just looking at the fireplace and love, love, loving it.  Thanks, Mom, for your willingness to be my personal assistant and get these projects done for me.  

Now that I have got this project done, I am ready to take fall down and move on into Christmas, yeah!

DIY Sweater Boot Toppers

I am really liking the boot topper leg warmers that I keep seeing around the internet and in the latest Fall fashion magazines.  There have been several out there on Pinterest as well and I think they can make a plain pair of boots into a WOW pair of boots.  A couple of weeks ago I was going through my closet and was getting rid of those things that I have not worn in the past year or have worn way too much and came across two different sweaters that I like but are just too worn out to wear any more and thought that the sleeves would make cute leg warmers.

I started out by cutting off the sleeves just under the arm.  

Then I surgered aroung the raw edge.  If you don't have a surger, I would run a zig-zag stitch along the raw edge.  

Picking out buttons out of my collection, I sewed them to hold the cuff in place.  So very easy and a great way to jazy up some boots.

I made two pair in less than an hour and now I have my newest favorite Fall accessories.  

I am participating in the following link ups:  Between Naps on the Porch, The DIY Showoff,Boogiboard Cottage, Its So Very Cheri, Sew Chatty, Dittle Dattle, Sew Can Do, Keeping It Simple, Skip to My Lou, Coastal Charm, Ladybug Blessings, Today's Creative Blog,Sugar and Dots, My Girlish Whims, The Thrifty Home, Blue Cricket Design, Sew Woodsy, The Tablescaper, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Making the World Cuter,Itsy Bitsy Paper, So Much Ado, One Tough Mother, Sweet Peas and Bumblebees, Handy Man, Crafting Woman, Women Who Do It All, Seven Thrity-three, Someday Crafts, Tea Rose Home. Lil' Luna, Momma Hen Scoop, Sugar and Dots, {Primp}, Sommewhat Simple, Fireflies and Jellybeans, Tales From Bloggeritaville, Gluesticks, Momnivore's Dilemma, Beyond the Picket Fence, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Simply Sweet Home,Truly Lovely, Finding Fabulous, The Shabby Nest, Someday Crafts, Passionately Artistic, Goodbye city, Hello suburbs, Handy Man, Crafty Woman, Make it Great Monday, Vintage Gwen, Sew Country Chick

Three Word Thursday

You anchor me . . .

 

My Christmas Stocking Challenge

These are the Christmas stockings that starting hanging on our mantel 29 years.  Ryan's was made by one of my husband's best friend's mom, Barb.  I remember the box coming in the mail and being so excited that someone would take the time to make such a special stocking for our baby.  We proudly hung it from a shelf in our first home as there was no fireplace.  When Lindsey was born, again I received a box in the mail that contained her stocking as well.  Since the birth of Ryan, Barb had lost her battle with cancer but her sister took up the tradition of making a stocking for our babies and then made one for Anna two years later.   Hanging these stockings have been part of our holiday tradition and one that my kids still look for every Christmas season.  The stockings have Santa on one side and the Christmas tree on the other.  If you look closely at Anna's, Santa has a couple of moth holes that I have been meaning to fix for a couple of years.

Now that we have a new member in our family since Ryan's wedding, I was thinking I needed to make a stocking for Paula too.  I started searching the internet and books for patterns that would be similar or maybe the same one, but no luck, so I contacted, Barb's son to see if by chance they had a copy of the pattern for the famous Christmas stocking.  He said they did and would bring me a copy of it.  

First of all the copy right on the pattern is 1948 and looks very complicated for my self-taught knitting self, but call me crazy, I am going to try.  As I have found in the past with knitting, you just start and work one row at a time and try not to freak out by looking ahead.  

What was really crazy about the pattern was the pages and pages of Barb's hand writen notes that she took on the pattern as well as a page of all of the names of the folks that have been a recipient of one of the precious stockings.  There are 163 names listed as well as the hand drawn graphs of each name.  Wow, I think I really just might be crazy to think that I would even attempt to knit like Barb.  But this is my holiday challenge of the year.  I will keep you updated as to my progress and we will see how this goes.  Today I am headed to my local yarn store, Knit-Wit, to pick up my supplies.   I might not get finished this year, but I am determined to do this.  

Trunk or Treat Celebration

Once again, Indian Creek Community Church, Gardner held our annual Truck or Treat event.  This year we wanted to make a change to have our event the night before Halloween so that we could be in our neighborhoods on Halloween night.  The last couple of years the Indian Creekers' doors have been dark because we were doing Trunk or Treat.  In order to serve our community and be present on Halloween night we decided that October 30th was the night.  We were not sure at the time of the decision to make this change how it would affect the turn out.  Well I am here to tell you that we had more folks this year than ever before.  There were 300 in the first 30 minutes and we served 770 children total.  This number does not include all of the adults that came to escort thier kiddos.  I just counted only trick or treat bags.  At one point, I was not sure that the candy would hold out, but it did and boy doggies was I glad about that.  I was not sure how it would go over if we had to turn people away.  This is one of the most enjoyable events that our church puts on. 

We had to do some coaxing to get Mom to dress up, but I think she makes a great kitty.

You gotta have friends that come out each year to make sure our event is a success.  Thanks guys, if I can't be at the same church at least we can serve together.  

Jeff dressed up as a suburban guy passing out candy at a truck or treat event.  Wow, how original.