pencil bag tutorial – I could see Honor using stacks of these. He always needs to tote his stuff around in a little case.

make your own silly putty

I absolutely have to have this bag. I’m thinking of how I can bribe my mom or Joelene to make it for me.

um and, uh, this tunic too.

just fyi, there are a few things that are on sale at Tangle. :)

Lots is swirling around in my head right now. I’m trying to sort it all out, trying to figure out how to control my life and be happy with everything in it. I’m glad that Christmas is over. It was such an internal struggle for me – trying to figure out how to balance my beliefs with those of my family’s. Trying to get them to accept me as I am. Trying to accept that they can’t.

I wasn’t given much for Christmas this year, but the very best gift that I got was my dad telling me how proud he is of me and my sister.

With that, I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of gift giving. I’m having a hard time understanding the point of loading down kids who are unthankful for what they already have, or gifting a family member that you only see once a year out of obligation. I like the idea of filling a simple card with meaningful words, or making something with your hands as a gift that has a real meaning.

Don’t get me wrong, I love presents, but do I really need more stuff? Am I thankful for what I’m given? Maybe…

I’m thinking a lot about how to control my life. Six people are living in my house and it’s constantly in shambles. (It felt that way when it was just four, too.) I’m wondering what I need to do or what systems I need to implement to keep this place running like a well oiled machine.

I’m wondering where I can find the time to make things beautiful, to create and to appreciate creativity. So much has inspired me lately, but I feel all of that inspiration slipping through my fingers as I search for time, energy and gumption to harness it.

And I’m trying to get my health under control. It seems that for awhile now it’s always been something. Something is always making me feel bad, tired, worn out, sick, lacking energy. I got my tooth fixed and now it’s the antibiotics sucking it out of me… or maybe something else? The blood tests I had Saturday will hopefully reveal answers and hopefully be an easy fix.

Friday I spent the morning at the dentist’s office. I need a crown for a cracked tooth, so the dentist prepared the tooth for the crown and fitted me with a temporary crown until the permanent one could be made. While he was doing all the work, he got really close to the nerve and determined that I would probably need to have a root canal as well. Because, you know, my teeth love me. So I’ve spent the weekend hopped up on drugs.

Today was especially bad, so far I’ve tried darvocet, vicodin and percodan and nothing is killing the pain. I’m not quite sure what to do as the dentist is going out of town for Christmas. I hate this.

So, I’ve managed to take photos of some of the things I’ve been working on lately. And here they are!

The cozy v-neck pullover from Fitted Knits. If it weren’t for the yarn, it’d be much cozier. That llama in the Pastaza, it just pokes through all the layers! But I do love the sweater and I’m thinking I’d like to knit it out of the Blue Sky Alpaca’s worsted handdyes. It would be $$$ but wow, would it be nice.

Fingerless mittens for the kids. I didn’t use a pattern, but just figured my own based on the gauge. Honor’s are made out of some leftover louet gems worsted that I had (but we want to carry it at Tangle next fall) and Eden’s are made out of our new PJ’s yarn. It’s a poly fleece ribbon that is SUPER soft!

Pics of the playroom turned office. It’s usually not quite as cluttered, but Jim had all his music equip and snowboard out from recent use. The floor is painted the same color as the dining room because we had A LOT of extra paint. (And I love the color.)

A baby hat and sweater that I made for our new nephew. I need to get it to him as I hear he’s packing on the pounds! Sweater is the Knitting Pure and simple baby pullover pattern #214 and the hat is a free pattern that you can download from tangle’s website.

Curtains that I sewed for the dining room. If you happen to see similar fabric at Urban Outfitters in the bedspread dept, just don’t go making the connection…

And my new neckwarmer. This is handdyed yarn similar to Colinette Point 5. I knitted a lining (Christina’s idea) out of a super soft acrylic yarn – GGH esprit. I LOVE this neckwarmer.

“So take a new grip with your tired hands and stand firm on your shaky legs. Mark out the straight path for your feet. Then those who follow you, though they are weak and lame, will not stumble and fall but will become strong.”
-Heb. 12. 12 & 13

Monday
Lemon Olive Chicken

Tuesday
Soy/Ginger Chicken with rice (crockpot)

Wednesday
Salmon Cakes

Thursday
Tamales at my Aunts

Weekend
Sausage & Kale soup
Tacos
Skillet potato cake and omelet

“Mom, this bean is Lord of the Beans!”

handmade cloth napkins – I need to make a giant stack of these and stop using so much paper – even if it is recycled. Maybe it would be nice to screen print or fabric paint the napkins too – I want everyone to be different.

How to make gift boxes out of cereal boxes good idea

Hanukkah Crafts for kids

All links via Craftzine.com

Today I woke up to a thick blanket of white, powdery snow outside. This means that I had to shovel all the sidewalks in front of Tangle. (Can I just say that it’s a major pet peeve of mine to have sidewalks shoveled now that I walk to and from work? You’d be surprised how many people don’t.) I let the kids run around outside while I shoveled and everything was going swimmingly until Honor tripped head first into a big pile of snow. Let’s just say, 3 hours later, he’s finally stopped whining about it.

I have to say, though, that snow makes me terribly happy. Here in the desert, we don’t usually get a ton of snow, so each snowfall is a treat. I love it because it covers all the ugly brown. It also provides a great backdrop for photos that would have happened had Honor not nearly died in the snow.