Birthday Mittens for Mom

Back in 2012, my Mom asked for a pair of hand-knit mittens for her birthday.  I made these delightfully colorful mittens for her out of Mountain Colors Twizzle in the Hummingbird colorway using the Handful of Berries Mittens pattern by Jocelyn Tunney.

I enjoyed making the mittens, and Mom liked them, but they were just a tad bit to small, so they needed to be replaced this year.  Mom already has some fingerless mitts that I crocheted for her back in 2013 out of Caron Simply Soft Solids in the Grey Heather colorway with the Challenge Mitts pattern by Sharon Maher, so full mittens were in order.

I wanted a pattern with a large size range so I could re-use it for others if I liked it, which I did.  I selected the Waiting for Winter Mittens pattern by Susan B. Anderson, which has been really popular on Ravelry.  For Mom, I made the medium size out of Plymouth Yarn Coffee Beenz that we had purchased together during the Great Rhody Yarn Crawl 2013.  Rhode Island is the perfect size for a yarn crawl, though I will admit we didn't attempt the Block Island location.  

The best part is that my parents came to visit for Thanksgiving, so I was able to hand deliver the mittens and saw them worn as well.  The fit was great this time around.  The mittens actually matched too, I managed to not mess up the row counts for once, so both mittens are the same length in both the hand and the thumb!  I just might actually be getting better at this knitting thing. :)

It's Fall!

Ooh boy, it's been a while.  Autumn has arrived in our little corner of Michigan.  Leaves are changing colors, the weather is cooling off, and we've been getting a whole lot of rain.

Crafting has taken a back seat for us this spring and summer, as a lot of time has been put into our garden.

But there are a few projects that are in the works that we'll share along the way.  Cross-stitching has entered into the realm of craftiness that is our household, and a big project is planned for 2017.

Strips of fabric have been cut and are ready to be assembled for a quilt.

There may be some wooden birthday presents given this fall, and there is a mitten on the needles to be gifted as well.

Updates soon.  Promise!

Lotion bars

We made some lotion bars to give as Christmas presents in 2015, and since they've all made it to their intended recipients, I can share the process with all of you.

I loved making these lotion bars.  We made a few tweaks to our process for the lotion bars we are selling on our Etsy store, but those are mostly process related because these were pretty awesome to begin with.  The cucumber melon scent smells delicious.  Instead of the standard cucumber and green melon (french melon), it's cucumber and watermelon, which has a sweeter scent that's not as quickly recognized but quite obvious once you know what it is.  Anyway, on to the process.

Measure out 8 oz of each of the selected oils, butters, and beeswax.

Put into microwave safe container.

Microwave in 30 second segments, stirring between until you reach an oil consistency that is well combined.

Measure out fragrance oil.

Add to oil/butter/wax mixture.

Pour into molds.  Note: after spooning the oil into two of the molds I gave up and just started pouring from the measuring bowl.

Let sit until room temperature.  Watching lotion bars cool is way better than watching paint dry or water boil.  I highly recommend it.

Place in fridge for 4 hours to set.  Note: After I did this, the ice in the freezer tasted a bit funny, similar to what happens if you have a really potent cut onion in the fridge.  This step isn't necessary unless you need the lotion bars to be usable in a short period of time.  If you do this, just be aware that the fragrance can effect anything that easily picks up other scents or flavors.

Unmold and voila, lotion bars with ingredients we can all pronounce.

Upcoming plans

We know, we've been terrible slackers when it comes to the blog, but we've been working on lots of new items for the shop and we're preparing for our first craft show.

First some details about the craft show.  It's going to be at the Holiday Inn in Big Rapids, MI on March 19th from 10-3.  We're planning on having a large selection of birthday boards, some necklaces, soaps, lotions, lip balms, and maybe a few other types of items.  We'll be accepting cash, MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Discover, and Etsy gift cards.

As we finish making the items, we are adding them to the shop, so if you're interested in an item and don't want to wait or won't be able to attend, they are available for purchase.

Right now we have four of our white birthday boards with dark blue text on the site.  We'll be adding some black with turquoise text, stained wood with burgundy text, and a few campfire orange with black text.

We also have several necklaces available, all handmade by Tammy.

We'll have our Cherry lip balm, Violet Vanilla lotion bars and soap, Plain (unscented and naturally colored) lotion bars and soap, Eucalyptus Spearmint soap, and even some highly requested Fresh Snow soap (don't be fooled by the name, this scent is not a winter specific scent).

We hope to have a good turnout at the craft show, it's the first year for the show so we're not sure how many people will know about it.  

We are planning to be better at maintaining this blog too.  I guess we'll see how that goes.