What a piece of junk!

My daughter wanted her own "personal traveler" for doing exchanges at letterboxing gathers, so I carved her favorite ship for her. The template I used is in the upper left. The stamped images are in silver and blue. The orange piece is the actual stamp.

Unfortunately we didn't get to go to the December gather, but it's ready for the next one.

Halloween costumes!

It was a Star Wars Halloween at our house. My daughter was the beautiful Princess Leia. My son was a jawa - he was exactly the right height.

Inspiration for the costumes came from http://www.jedi-academy.com/costume_tips.html.

Princess Leia wore a white turtleneck shirt, a white graduation gown, and a belt made from white vinyl with mirrored stickers for detail. The pink hiking boots were necessary due to the pouring rain outside.

The Jawa wore a black hooded sweatshirt and sweat pants for a bottom layer. His cloak and hood were made out of brown polarfleece. There was a visor sewn inside the hood made from a strip of plastic canvas used by old ladies to make tissue box covers. The belt was military surplus found in his father's stash. Although it was far from authentic, the polyester fleece held up to the rain better than a cotton one would.

Here's a close-up of The Hair. The pattern for the cap came from here. The all-important buns were found here. She wore the hat around the house for days!!

Snuggly & warm, and the shrug is nice, too

My daughter is always chilly in church, so I offered to make a shrug for her. This was made with Lion brand Jiffy yarn, found on clearance at Michael's craft store. She really likes it, and I'm rather proud that I made something pretty and useful.



The pattern for the shrug came from a search of online patterns. The one I used can be found here.

Passing it along

Tonight I finished a shrug I made for my daughter. Pictures will coming after vacation.

After watching me work on it over the past few weeks, my daughter wanted to try crochet for herself. I found a small ball of red yarn and a rather fat hook (K, I believe). Together we worked on making a chain. By the end, I was holding the chain and yarn while she worked the hook. Since fine motor control is a challenge for her, I was so happy to watch her crochet and get excited about making something for herself. Yay her!!!

Housekeeping tip

If you spot dust and dirt on your ceiling fan, turn it on. It's much harder to notice on a moving object.

Dum dum dummm... dum dee dum, dum dee dum

Father's Day is Sunday.

The kids have caught our Star Wars obsession. When asked what they wanted to give their father, they replied Star Wars Legos. He has enough of those, thankyouverymuch. We compromised, combining that obsession with our newer one of letterboxing. It took me two tries to get this, but I'm happy with the results. I don't know if he'll plant this in a box or keep it for himself, but I hope he'll like it.

Top picture is the inspiration, from TheForce.net. Stamp is on the lower right, made out of PZ Cut. Stamped image is on the lower left (duh).

(psst... don't say anything about this to my husband!)

My first scarf!

I want to make myself a wrap. The pattern I found called for Lion Brand Homespun yarn. My coworkers cursed the yarn, saying it was tough to use, but kindly they gave me some of their leftovers to try it out. I scaled down the wrap design to make a scarf. It's soft and warm and earmarked for Made By Hand. I'm reluctant to give it up, but I have several scarves made by my mom and don't really need another.

What have I learned from crochet projects so far? I love patterns that don't require any thought. Double crochet, chain, double crochet, chain... hit the end, turn, and repeat. Some day I'll do patterns that require counting, but for now I like the mindless repetition.