Author: spaleksic

Snowball Fight

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I am going to apologize in advance to those of you that feel buried by the snow.  I miss the snow.  Winter isn’t quite the same without it.  We have the good fortune to live in a part of Canada that only sees snow occasionally. So far this Winter we had snow for 3 hours.  Which was just long enough for the kids to attempt to make snowballs.   I don’t however miss driving in snow, getting into a freezing car, or shoveling.  But I do miss playing in the snow, or at least I miss the opportunity for my kids to play in the snow.  As I was driving on the highway the other day the sun was shining and I was following a car with surfboards strapped to the roof, I came to the conclusion that Winter in Victoria is almost over.  I am not a weather forecaster but the crocuses in my garden are spouting and that seems to me a good indication that spring is on the way.  So it seems that it would be the perfect time to have a snowball fight.  In an attempt to share the fun of snow with my kids I made them a pile of yarn snowballs, and in keeping with the joy of getting up and seeing snow as a kid I placed them outside their bedroom door.  This is the result.

Sorting and Counting

A little organization

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A while back I thought that it would be a great idea to get some cork tiles and stick them to the wall behind my desk.  It wasn’t a good idea, it was actually a really bad idea.  The tiles shed, little bits of cork fell off constantly, and the tiles didn’t stick to the wall very well.  One by one the tiles fell off the wall leaving little sticky squares on the wall and a big mess on the floor.  I had been meaning to replace them for a while and finally got some time to make a cork board.  I scavenged in my own garage for wood and found some plywood the previous owners had left behind. Once it was cut to size (thanks to my husband) I used a glue gun to stick the cork tiles to the plywood.  With a piece of black felt I upholstered the cork tiles.  I have a button obsession so I glued some colourful buttons onto push pins to give my plain cork board a little personality.

Over the holidays we slowly completed a couple of things on our To Do list and it feels great.  We moved into our current house 3 and a half years ago and there are still projects lingering from when we moved in.  My husband just installed the moulding around the bathroom door which has been missing since the week we moved in. After about a year I just got used to looking at guts of the wall and door frame.  I spent far too much time asking little people to keep their hands out of the crack between the wall and the door fearing that they would cut their little hands on something sharp.  These little projects that only take a couple of hours to complete are the ones that linger on in our house.  The light bulbs burnt out in our stair way light fixture years ago, so I can honestly say that it takes more than 2 people and at least 2 years in this house to change a light bulb.  One day we will also have a working plug in the main bathroom, perhaps that one will have to wait until next Christmas.  Until then I am looking forward to a new year and I plan on hanging more family pictures and fewer to do lists on my new cork board.

New Year New Sweater

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sweater 1Last spring I started this sweater for Sasha at his request.  We went shopping for yarn together and he picked this grey blend.  Spring ended, summer started and the sweater wasn’t quite complete.  Every month or so Sasha would ask if his sweater was ready yet and this past weekend I finally finished it.

The pattern was found from Ravelry it is called Tama by Kelly Brooker.  If you are thinking about knitting or crocheting then http://www.ravelry.com is an excellent site to search for patterns.  There are piles of free patterns, patterns for purchase and links to knit/crochet blogs.

On the twelfth day of Christmas…an angel

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angelThis is not a recent craft I made it in 1992 at the ripe old age of 15 for my Nana for Christmas.  She loved Christmas and she loved angels.  At the time I was pretty big into cross stitch.  My intention when I made this for her was to add to her Christmas decorations, her intention was to put it in her living room year round.  When she became an angel this picture was given back to me.  I hang it up every year for Christmas along with the Christmas ball she made for me and the very old but functional carousel ornamotion decoration that has her hand writing on the box.  I remember all of the Christmases we had together and I have some amazing memories of a great woman.  I won’t forget the year she fell in the bushes after a few glasses of wine, or the year she was practicing giving the finger which I caught on film and used as my Christmas card, or the Pistachio torte.  I’m sure she would be terrified to think I remember some of her funnier moments but I remember the good as well.  Have an awesome Christmas and make some great memories with friends and family.  Cherish every moment.

On the eleventh day of Christmas…A scarf

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If you are in need of a last-minute gift this is a quick handmade scarf perfect for a sister, mother, or wife.  I would be so impressed if my husband made me a scarf for Christmas.  All you need for this is a ball of yarn, and a skein of embroidery floss (that’s what a thing of embroidery floss is called which you can get from the dollar store) and about 20 minutes.

I used Patons Cobbles in Chargrey for the one pictured and black embroidery floss.

Thanks to Meaghan Patterson for this craft.

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Picture 1 – Wool and embroidery floss
Picture 2
Picture 2 – start by looping the wool around your legs and tie the end
Picture 3
Picture 3 – continue looping the wool, and occasionally wrap the wool around the scarf to hold it all together, tie the end once all of the wool has been looped around
Picture 4
Picture 4 – Tie the embroidery floss around the section of scarf where the wool is tied
Picture 5
Picture 5 – loop the embroidery floss until it’s all used and tie the ends together. That’s it.
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Picture 6 – me wearing the scarf
Picture 7
Picture 7 – finished scarf

On the ninth day of Christmas…extra seating

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In the spring I made some outdoor poofs to be used on the deck.   When they migrated indoors for the winter the colours didn’t jive with the indoor decor, so I knit one of them a winter coat.  I don’t need any extra seating for the holidays because I am a bit of a chair junkie.  But the kids like the knit poofs and they are slightly more sophisticated than bean bag chairs.  I made this one using Red Heart Grande in Oatmeal which might be my new favorite yarn.  I made up the pattern as I went, and knit 6 squares which I sewed together.  The pattern is a K4, P4 basket weave.

poof detail poof

On the tenth day of Christmas…Elf Shoes

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IMG_20141207_091708A couple of weeks ago before I had decorated the house for Christmas the kids found our stockings lying around and proceeded to wear them as shoes.  They were giggling away as they showed me their elf shoes.  This inspired me to make them some felt elf shoes.  Sasha helped to pick out the colours and worked with me on the design.  Here is the Elf Shoe Pattern that fits toddler shoe sizes 8-12.

Instructions (Can be hand sewn or machine sewn)

  1. Cut out the number of felt pieces required based on the pattern
  2. Pin the soles and sides together, and sew
  3. sew the zig zag trim onto the top of the shoes
  4. Sew on the pom poms
  5. put dots or lines of puff paint on the bottom to stop the little ones from wiping out

On the eighth day of Christmas…a Reindeer

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Watreindeer 1ch out Rudolf Logan’s in town.  Logan is 2 and rarely stands still, most of my recent pictures of him are blurry.  This one is no exception.  I love that this reindeer hat is so simple, and I also love that the pattern was free, thanks to Ashleemarie.com.  Even though he is sporting the hat backwards he’s the cutest reindeer in town and I am only a little biased.

On the seventh day of Christmas…Nuts & Bolts

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When I was a kid there were some traditions surrounding Christmas.  The tree never went up until 2 weeks before Christmas, on Christmas morning breakfast had to be eaten before we got to see what Santa had left, and my parents always made Nuts & Bolts.  My parents would make nuts and bolts in the largest oven safe pan available which usually became home to the 20+ pound turkey days later.  When I first moved out west a package arrived at Christmas with nuts and bolts but since then I have been making my own large batch.  This year I had some help.

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Recipe
3 cups Shreddies
3 cups Multigrain Cherrios
3 cups pretzel sticks or twists
3 cups Cheetios cheese sticks
2 cups mixed nuts
1/2 cup butter
3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
3 tsp onion powder
3 tsp garlic powder
3 tsp paprika

​Preheat oven to 250°F (120°C).  Combine Shreddies, Cheerios, pretzles, Cheetios and nuts in a large roasting pan.

Melt butter.  Mix into butter Worcestershire sauce, onion, garlic and paprika until blended.  Pour butter mixture over cereal mixture and toss gently to coat.

Bake, stirring every 30 minutes, for 2 hours.  Cool completely in pan on a rack.

On the sixth day of Christmas…Gingerbread cookies

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Gingerbread cookies are my favorite type of cookie yet I have never baked them.  For some reason I though that they were difficult to bake.  I was pleasantly surprised that they are not difficult at all and they are a hit with the kids.

I found the recipe here, and made a couple of changes.  I doubled the recipe, added a little more brown sugar to compensate for the super dark molasses I bought (having no idea that there are different ones), swapped the butter for vegetable shortening and added more cinnamon because I love it.  I also added more eggs (5 total) because the dough wasn’t sticking together as well as I would expect.  I let the dough sit for 2 hours as instructed and it rose quite a bit.  It was super easy to work with, and the thicker you roll the dough the squishier the cookies.