Yes, yes. I feel I haven’t been posting much lately. It’s true. I have quite a backlog of images. I sent this book out who knows how long ago and I’m just now posting about it.
It is always sad to send the albums I make away. I want to keep them all, they are so beautiful. I can image my kids looking through them in 10 years. “Who the heck are these people?” It’s very good (for everyone) that I send the albums to their rightful owners.

I love this paper and am so happy with how the cover turned out.

Just a couple of my favorite pages in the album. I really like the images to take up the whole page… and more.

I busted out this tree and name plate after looking at a stamped bag from Fancy Tiger for several months. It is so cute and I thought “I could do something like that”. I’ve always wanted personalized bags, but couldn’t see purchasing printed bags or even stickers with my name on them.
Once I ran out of bags to print I kept thinking of what else needed some printing. I decided the backs of the watercolor paper I mount my prints on could use some pretty. Pictured is my latest order all dressed up and ready to go! My client even ordered 2 sets of the mini brag book. I’m sure her family will love her for it.

Our crab apple trees have finally bloomed. I mean to say, bloomed for the first time in the 3 years we have lived here. It’s sad we have missed this beautiful display each year because of late freezes. I think the first spring we arrived the trees bloomed (we didn’t live in this house). But coming from lush Maryland this high desert spring couldn’t compare with the one we had left behind. Our yard is quite beautiful in its spring glory.
Some new developments in the Smith home. Zed is walking and Ezra finally decided to play with the counting game I made him for Christmas.

We haven’t been making too many gifts this year. I think that means we haven’t had too many parties. Actually, we missed two while in Cali/France. Sad… for the kids. Zach is always happy to miss a party.
A month or two ago, Ezra was invited to a train party. He and India helped me sew this little train mat. Yes, I said sew… can you believe I sewed something? Since we were pressed for time, as these things always go, there was a lot of hot glue used.
India made the design, I cut it out and added flowers, and Ezra pressed the foot peddle. I think Ezra liked that… it seemed very close to driving a car. The gift also included a small Thomas which lights up and talks. Both mat and train were a big hit.

I keep returning to this awesome yarn/craft store on Broadway here in Denver. It’s called Fancy Tiger. The yarn and fabric and other odds and ends they sell there are the best and the folks who work there are always fun to talk with. So I bought a whole bag full of yarn all for myself sometime after my birthday. But my birthday is in November, which is so close to Christmas that I had to justify some of my purchase by making a few things for my family. So I knitted two of these cowls. The cowl pictured was sent to my step mom and the deep purple with green buttons (not pictured) I kept for myself. I found the pattern here, through Ravelry this great knitting and crocheting community.

I made these for my sister who is always complaining that So Cal is cold. Well, I gave her a gift that expresses just how cold I think So Cal is… only cold enough for fingerless gloves. So there! Cold in California, HA!

Every year at church we have what is called Super Saturday. Basically a few hours on a Saturday in late Nov. early Dec. where we make stuff. Last year I learned to knit. This year I was somehow wrangled into teaching how to etch glass. I had never etched glass in my life. But how hard could it be? I etched metal plates in my college intaglio print class 11 years ago. How different could it be? Oh, it was much easier. No acid baths in trays, no need to wear gloves or be under a fan (although a well ventilated room is a must) and we used contact paper to make the stencils. The hardest part was laying the stencil on the curved glass ornaments I had bought. The contact paper just didn’t want to bend the way I wanted it to. I made these plates for my mom. One of each of the kids’ profiles. I figured she could use a few extra plates. Since they are etched, they can be used without fear of rubbing off the decoration.

PS. The fingerless gloves were researched but no one pattern used, it was a mix of several. Also, the part around the fingers I knitted both white and green yarns at the same time. I saw someone using 2 strands at once while at India’s cello recital, of all places. One glove might be larger than the other… I will confess to nothing!

Back in November I searched for different homemade gift ideas for India’s school Holiday Gift Fair. I ended up with a ton of cool ideas for the school (some of which were used) and some major inspiration to have a homemade Christmas this year. Basically that meant we gave handmade gifts to our extended family. Some year we’ll only give handmade in our home too.
India decided we should make a doll. I was pretty skeptical but after a Google image search we found this tutorial. It actually looked do-able. I asked her to draw up a design and I would get the materials. I think she turned out beautifully.

We also made a few scarves using the old freezer paper technique. I read the tutorial later and realized they suggested using contact paper on the fleece. Ya, the freezer paper didn’t stay on once the kids began painting. Oh well.
India again came up with the patterns, which were inspired by the lollipop tree song. Ezra painted the green one (his very favorite color) and India painted the red scarf. These were given to a cousin and the kids’ teachers.

I had found this really cool necklace on this very cool blog, Pretty Ditty. I thought these would be perfect for a few of the girls.

There are a couple of other gifts that still need to make it out into the mail. I blame Lulu and their slow Christmas service. But I am still slacking and have a few more stitches to get through before I package everything up. Once they are received, I’ll share them here!

This year I found a really cool game, story dice, online here on etsy and here at The Small Object site. This was perfect for my second grader.

A thin Micron pen (what I used on these) will bleed a little but not as much as a thin Sharpie.
The Small Object set has a page to write the story down. I thought this was a great idea. They also put each picture on the top of the page with the word below to help with spelling. We can all use help with spelling.

Because we have nothing else to make (haha) I decided we should participate in this year’s Crafty Crow ornament exchange. If you have children who love to create, this blog is chock full of ideas and projects that little hands can do well.
This year’s theme was fairy tails… without any Disney look-a-likes (which I’m very relieved about). India and I worked on these Monday night. They originally were going to be the gingerbread house from Hansel and Gretal, but the ‘houses’ looked more like bridges (“we should make a castle and this could be the draw bridge” as if!). The bridges quickly transformed into fences and our character became the fairy with leaf wings and glitter all over. She paints the glitter, don’t you know. That’s her job.
So here is one thing we have made this season that I can show you!

Here we are.  All Hallows Eve.  This is what we were for the night:

The “Other Mother” from Coraline. Last minute costume.  I freaked out a couple of kids (and Zach), but the rest I think didn’t know what the heck I was.

Spiderman… this was the day before Halloween for the school’s trick-or-treat.  He decided not to paint his face tonight, it itched too much.

India’s creation… Future Girl.

Baby bat.

Lanterns made for the JP lantern parade about 4 years ago.  We need to make more and try to weather proof them too.  I would love to have this to be our Halloween Tree (which is a great Ray Bradbury children’s novelette).

Who’d ever thought that the rumors were true? Ever since we’ve celebrated Halloween here in Denver we’ve heard that typically All Hallows Eve had snow. Trick-or-Treating was done in snow boots. Well, this year we have finally experienced a white Halloween. I think we will use the sled as transportation from house to house.
Last week Ezra convinced me that his teacher said he could wear his costume. So 5 minutes from when we’d be out the door we scrambled to get his costume on… and face painted… and picture taken before things got smudged. Once we arrived to school, he was the lone super hero. No costumes. I did have a memory of someone telling me he could wear his costume. The next day we headed to the library and guess what? Costumes! Yep, that’s who told me that. I need a calendar implant for my brain.  Do they make that??

Uncle Noah is here while Zach is in Australia.  Pumpkin carving was a blast for Ez.  India could do without all the slime and seeds.  Although she did try one of the salted pumpkin seeds I roasted last night.  She shied away from the sweet ones.  She’s not into cinnamon.  Ez called his pumpkin guts “My experiment” and was sad when he caught me sifting through the goo to get to the seeds.  I told him our compost could be his experiment now.  That we’ll add a few apple cores from lunch to it.  He accepted that.

Relishing the goo.

Zed is basically crawling.  He’s been pushing up for about a month now.  When I say up, I mean up.  Downward dog style.  If you don’t know what that looks like, then do some yoga- would ya?  Cute pjs from our friends, just in time for Halloween!

Pumpkin seeds and snow.  Everyone should try it.

Well, if you ever decide to open your home for a home tour to benefit a school or something, just know that craziness may ensue. As with the Smith household, there were a few crazy moments. Walls painted, juniper bushes uprooted, bathroom redone. Then there’s the cleaning. Oh, the cleaning. What a big pain.
But really, I think it was all worth it. The school raised $3000!

This is the tile around our tub now. I wish I had taken a before photo. Oh. My. Gosh. it was soooo bad. The tub surround was lovingly called a tiger eye pattern by Anson. The floor was a mix of ceramic tile in a stucco color along with particle board and ugly brown linoleum in patches; some places in layers 10-20 thick to fill in holes around the edges of the floor. The sink was made of the same tiger eye material and the cabinet was rotting and just disgusting. This is what it looks like now. The cabinet Anson made for the tour is a mock-up in birch. Lovely, but I will wait for the final product before I photograph it.

This piece lived in the bathroom and hung horizontally over the sink.  It is original to the home, unlike the other lovely (yuck) pieces that we gutted from that room.  The problem is, we would like to have a towel bar over the toilet, which keeping this piece on the wall wouldn’t allow.  So I got the idea to make it into this.  Anson put in the shelves and I painted it up.  I think it looks very nice in India’s room and fits perfectly next to her closet.

Painting this wall in I’s room may have caused some contention in our home.  It wasn’t on the list.  But I got it done and I think it is perfect.

I thought maybe I would send out a birth announcement for Zed… and maybe I still will. If I do send out a card I probably shouldn’t show it here on the blog until after they are sent. But it has been over a month now and still nothing out in the mail. Just this photograph burning a hole in my project folder.

I made about 16 of the card pictured below to use as thank yous for shower gifts and meals. I then started printing on some old colored note cards that came in a little metal box I picked up at the Goodwill. Some are yellow, some are blue. As I was printing, I kept justifying the time I was spending by thinking they would be his own personal stationary… for an infant?? and a boy?? He probably will never use stationary. I just couldn’t justify printing 100 to send to friends and family as an announcement.

I should make a few more, and actually use the floundering postal system to send out a card and photo of our new little man. But another part of me says “Why bother?” I’ve got the blog, email, and should probably save a tree or two… The cards are made on note cards from the Goodwill. They could even be called vintage note cards.
I think what I’ll do is compromise. I’ll send cards to those I don’t think read my blog. So if you are a stalker, and never comment, you may receive one.

These were printed on a nice, $2.50 per 20×30″ sheet of hot pressed printmaking paper. I think it’s Arches… not Arches 99, which is my favorite. For my books and cards, a smooth paper with just the right amount of texture is perfect. It’s gotta feel good. For a book, the feel is essential.

Whenever I make cards I make them odd sizes. That means I never have an envelope to fit the cards. Typically they will fit in a business envelope but are too short. This is the solution I came up with a few years ago, in Baltimore. First I cut the ends off the envelopes. Next I glue a piece of one of my many handmade papers (from my ever growing collection, thank goodness we live nowhere near a Paper Source) to close off the cut edge. I did this as a solution to a quick, inexpensive 4×6″ print packaging for the prints I had made from the Halloween party I photographed. For those I even pasted on a business card.

This time ’round, I decided that took too long. So rather than cutting the end off, I just stuffed them and folded the excess over and licked them down. No extra paper, no glue; hardly any extra time. It worked like a charm. Why hadn’t I thought of that earlier??

On to the next project I never posted. This was made just a day or two after Earth Day. I’m a bit behind on things lately- go fig. In any case, Zed has worn this onesie several times, but it wasn’t until last week that I actually photographed him in it. Just so you know, this is appropriate everyday in our home. Don’t you know? every day is Earth Day.

One more project.
We were getting ready for our neighbor’s birthday party. While searching the aisles of Michaels I found what I had looked for a year ago when I made a memory game. At that time all I could find were flat circles, but I really wanted blocks. Well, they were staring at me and I couldn’t help but buy them and try to figure something out for our neighbor. I figured a memory game might be too young for her.

Talking with my other neighbor (who received the memory game last year) about finding the blocks she asked if I would make it a multi-sided memory game. Hummm. Good idea. That’s when I thought of making a multi-sided puzzle.

I asked India what her friend likes. She said Barbie. Humm, not making something that looks like a Barbie toy. But Barbie is all about fashion. So I found the iconic fashion photograph by Richard Avedon. You know the one. Taken in the late 50′s early 60′s, the model in a white dress with black gloves surrounded by elephants. So elegant.

We also decided that our neighbor really likes Zed and her new dog. The photo of Zed was easy. I had to sneak over to take a photo of her dog. The last image was of a pink flower. India helped make the box beautiful with all my many paper scraps.

We have been trying to have a quiet time every afternoon. Just before we left for Virginia, Ezra asked if he could play with India during quiet time (often she has been at camp while we nap). I said no, but he was so sad and asked so nicely that I decided it was ok… if they remained quiet.
A little over an hour later I came downstairs and this is what I found. A couple of super heros! being nice and quiet.

India had made a Spiderman mask along with gloves and web-shooters (the paper bags around his wrists).
She called herself “Future Girl” and dressed up in her purple Mexican dress and eye mask.
I am glad they decided to be creative rather than argue or wrestle. Ezra is becoming a good playmate for India as he matures.

We wanted to host India’s party away from home this year. With an infant in the house, we felt this would be easier for everyone. Zach was afraid I would try to make too many things if we had it at home. He knows me too well.

After listing a few places India decided Mini Golf would be the most fun. Instead of making things for the house, India and I made the invites. She drew a picture and I carved it in a block, then we used tempura paint to print them. I haven’t done that before, I have always used Speedball ink. The paint gave more texture to the prints… it was a bit more difficult to get the image readable. I did most of the inking and printing to keep the brush strokes to a minimum.

We didn’t use the back print since someone might not be able to read the info, oh and we changed the time.

India had decided she wanted Crunch Bar ice cream Popsicles for the party. Things couldn’t get much easier! But Zach’s mom convinced us that we needed some sort of cake for the birthday girl. I guess you’ve got to blow out candles at your party, right. So with her help I made some cupcakes. With the leftover batter I made golf balls for the tops with the tiny muffin pan I bought years ago and have NEVER used. It finally came in handy!

It was so windy that day we couldn’t light the candles. I tried for about a second and realized it wasn’t going to happen. Thankfully India was willing to pretend to blow out the candles. Ha! There was singing too, of course. We didn’t have to throw out all the traditions. She was actually sung to twice. Once by her party guests and a second time by all the Lacrosse players at the park that day. The park was filled with them! I have never seen that park so crowded. Some of the teenage girls thought it was so cute that India was having a party there and they decided to sing to her.

Ezra wanted a pink ball, not the white one. HA! I think it was because he knew I covered it with pink sugar.

A few cupcakes were devoured, but most were hardly eaten. They were good, I promise. I even made the butter cream frosting. The kids were ready to get golfing already. No photos of that, though. I had to nurse baby Zed so I passed the camera to Zach and only 2 or 3 images were taken the rest of the day.

The kids all had a blast and I’m glad India was able to have a party this year. Phew.

Eyes open and content to be. Gotta love it.


This is the blanket I knitted for him. I actually knitted it twice. The first go it was super wide and skinny. I would have rolled him up in it and it still wouldn’t have covered his toes. I think I had 180 stitches across and gave up trying to make it square, so bound it off and ended up with a shawl. But I wanted a blanket. That’s what I get for not using a pattern.
I began again, casting on about 80 stitches the second go ’round. I knitted the even rows and purled the odd until about 70 rows. Now it’s the perfect size and oh so soft.

I’ve been doing a lot of crazy things to get ready for this baby.  Mostly I’ve been trying to get the house organized… in spurts that has left the place a mess.  Who’s going to clean that up?  I have also been doing quite a bit of volunteer work, which always adds to the chaos.  The other thing I have been doing a lot of is knitting… as the title of this post says.

Ezra adopted my first creation as his own.  I wanted to wear this scarf to the park on St. Patrick’s Day since it was a bit chilly in the morn’.  Once I put it on, Ezra said “Hey, that’s mine!”  So he got it, mostly to convince him to be photographed.

I had combed his hair (I’ve discovered the benefits of water and a fine toothed comb to get out the knots) and he had chosen to wear his boots with his shorts, which didn’t leave much room for his legs to show.  It was a funny look and I wanted to capture it.  It wasn’t until he put the scarf on (“I want it to cover my mooouth”) that he agreed to a photograph.

My second project is for baby X.  He will need a few hats.  My friend Heather and I made a trip to this super cute yarn shop called Knitty Cat south of here.  After the owner, Ann, helped Heather figure out which combination of patterns she should use, she gave us tips on which yarn to choose.  We were then left to find the best colors for the job.  I really wanted to make something too and I since I have no idea what I’m doing when it come to knitting, I decided we could each make the hat.  Heather thought that was a good idea and reminded me that this babe will need a few things that are just his.

This is how the little hat has turned out.  A few mistakes, but nothing earth shattering.  I figure the mistakes will make it obvious that someone, rather than a machine, made this hat.

I guess I should finish this project, but I’ve already moved onto a blanket.  I need to give these little needles back the Heather.  It’s just so tedious getting the tail knitted.  Tonight, I’ll do it tonight.

Over the past few months we have made quite a few more of these freezer paper shirts.  They are quite easy and pretty fun to make with the kids.  I have even hosted a shirt making demo/party and taught a few home schooled kids how to make these shirts.

These images are from the demo at my house in December.  It was very hot working in that room.  I sometimes wish for curtains on these windows… but only when entertaining in the day.

That was a great day and it is always nice when everyone is happy with what they created.  I think the most fun is peeling off the stencil to reveal the finished product.

This next shirt was the one that I probably learned the most on.

I learned that the background color cannot be painted too dark, or it will bubble if I try to iron on another stencil.  So we painted the figures first and made masks for them so we could paint the red over Leah and C3PO.  In any case this shirt was a huge hit and the girl who received it was wearing it the last time we saw her.

This was our next venture.  If you notice, the yellow of the toilet is not painted solidly.  I think we painted the blue of the water last, so could make it a solid layer.

Below are a few images of the reaction this shirt got:

He had to put this shirt on immediately.  Was it the toilet or the cape that made him so excited?  Who knows.  All I know is that he was ecstatic to receive clothing.  Ha!

We had fun putting this one together.  This was India’s first sunset to paint.  It was also our first attempt to fade the color… if I added water to the paint would I have achieved a smoother gradation?  We’ll have to try that next time.  This shirt was for a tiny baby who’s father is Indian.  I can’t wait until he’s big enough to wear it!

We all got hats from Grandma this Christmas.  Not just any hats, either.  She knitted a hat for all her kids and their spouces and their children.  The whole family got hats… Hummm, I wonder if the if Jennifer and Jay got hats.  They live in Arizona where it is too hot for anything like a stocking cap to be worn, ever.

Anyway, to say “Thank you” and as a birthday gift I took photographs of the kids in their hats and made a nice storyboard wall hanging for Grandma.  When the box came, I think it took her only a minute before she called to let me know how much she likes it.  Of course I had to get one too.  It is hanging in my office, which I am slowly trying to fill up with images.

Now keep in mind, not every gift this year was handmade. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t make “Little Big Planet” or that double light saber (which Ez had prayed for all year). But I figured we could make gifts for our extended family members. So we did.
I had high hopes of binding a journal or album for my sister in law to help her chronicle their stay in France. But someone took all my time and I couldn’t stitch another stitch. This someone was a little girl made of felt and stuffed with fuzz. We didn’t name her, but India designed her dress and drew her face. We used the tutorial here. Since I was all stitched out, I decided painting on the face was the only way to go. I think she turned out lovely.

I made these super cute necklaces for two my nieces. I found the how-to here. I couldn’t make the rosettes quite right so left them plain. Still a big hit… with India at least. We’ll see if the girls liked them when we visit in Feb.

India designed these scarfs and both kids painted them for their teachers.

There are one or two more gifts that I made. Give me a week or two to make sure they have been received then I’ll post them here.

So we figured out a gift for the birthday boy on Saturday. I think it was a great success.
He really liked the shirt India made. Go figure. I thought he would pass right over that!
Here’s what we came up with.

A make-your-own robot set inspired by this one… which is way cooler. You gotta start somewhere, right?

A shirt designed and painted by India. Have you ever done a freezer paper shirt? That’s what we did. We had about 4 stencils made from the paper. It turned out pretty cool, if I do say so myself.

With a joint baby shower and a birthday party on Saturday, I was able to get back into our tradition of making gifts. I felt a baby book would be nice to give the expectant moms and I saw this memory game here.
Another birthday this coming Saturday. No ideas. A boy turning 8… hum. Can I find anything beyond the plastic yuck in the stores? We’ll see.

Exterior of each. One for a boy, one for a girl. I know, both are a bit feminine. What can ya do?

One of the interior pages. I finally bought one of those stamps that are like the librarian date stamps. This has the entire alphabet and I think about 15 letters across. Awesome.

I have so much paper that I knew this would be a great project.

The card India made for the birthday girl who was turning 3. A picture of the girl and her big brother… who is appropriately small for her special day.

India was invited to a birthday party for a boy. What to make him came up in conversation. I wasn’t quite sure, but I thought a terrarium might work. Just so long as we didn’t mention putting an animal inside this tank, for the parents’ sake.
I must say this gift was the largest and heaviest at the party. Have you ever given the largest present. It is sort of a strange feeling. Almost like we were trumping the grandparents… which I hope we didn’t. I think their gifts came on his actual birthday.
Once he pulled off the wrapping all the kids crowded around it. They ooooo-d and ahhhh-d (i’m making up how that is spelled. It’s allowed, I read it in a bookmaking book… for kids. hmmmm) for quite awhile.
Then India dropped the bomb. She let him know that he could put a fish in there. I had to remind her that we weren’t going to bring up that idea.
Whenever we give a homemade gift I always wonder if it is played with. I wonder if he will dig through this dirt like he does in his backyard. Maybe in the winter months. Who knows.

India’s filling it up with little dinosaurs and we hung a fly, butterfly and dragonfly from the ceiling of the tank. Yes, that is a real tree… hopefully it lives long enough. We also put in a little Hot Wheels car. If only to give him an idea of what to do with this mammoth of a gift.

I felt like this gift needed to come with instructions. I hope it is faring well and that it will have a long a prosperous life.

So India and I saw the cutest headbands in J.Crew.  Of course they were $15 and I couldn’t see spending that much on a headband.  Go figure.  I figured Indi and I could make them ourselves.  So we did… I did.  We took the flowers apart together but I had to sew the flowers to the band.

This week has been filled with all sorts of outdoor activities, just what would be expected for Earth Day week. Yesterday we visited the Botanic Garden and saw all the new growth, daffodils, tulips and even a gardener tagging the plants in the kitchen garden. I had a little chat with him and he gave me some good ideas of what to plant in my garden. He said to take green onions, just the root part, and plant them in the soil. Within a week we should have new growth. Sounds like this would be worth trying.
Monday afternoon a friend came to play. While the kids played outside I began pruning our crab-apple tree. While I was high in the branches the girls began to sort the fallen limbs into usable, blossom, and fix-it piles. Each pile getting ready for the fort they wanted to build. Here is what they came up with… with only a little help from me:

If you look carefully you can see our bent apple tree under the tepee, right between the girls. This is what is holding up the branches.

Ezra got into the action too. All the kids tried and tried to knock it down. The wind was blowing strongly too. I even tried to blow it down, as the big bad wolf of course. It isn’t going anywhere.

Luckily I can still bind without it. But my gosh! I think I just had the thing a few weeks ago… or was that in Baltimore? Too many moves. No more!