Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia!

Made some Chia Caterpillars with the O'Mamas and their kiddies today, to finish off our caterpillar theme. The kiddies will be able to spray water their chia pets and see them grow. We had planned to finalize the theme with a butterfly release next week, but it looks like all our larvae succumbed before they could complete their metamorphosis. Oh well. Maybe next time.

Mother's Day Squash Books

I made these uber cute "squash" books for the mommas as their Mother's Day gift. Even though I wanted to spend more time on them (naptimes only last for so long), and I didn't have all the materials - I like how they came out. Thanks to one of my crafty friends who showed me where to get instructions (you're awesome Gabriel!), I was able to give the moms a handmade gift they would appreciate. What mother wouldn't love a brag book full of their babe's pictures?

Fabric is talking to me now

This pink and cocoa fabric screamed my name when I saw it and I was immediately inspired for my next quilt. I may even attempt a different pattern and will toy around with machine quilting, instead of hand-tying (but not on this gorgeous Michael Miller stuff!). No room for mistakes here. LOL.

Funky Sock Monkey Quilt

Here it is - my first handmade quilt! I love it.



Dimensions came out to be 54" x 54" with a thin cotton batting. Since I'm a novice quilter, I hand-tied it with perle cotton, but after seeing the beautiful machine quilted job my mentor did on her quilt, I reeeeaaaally want to learn that soon. It's hard to see the detail in these photos, but the brown background fabric is that of the actual brown socks used to make sock monkeys. So cute.



Sophia here trying to assist. Making sure measurements are correct I suppose. She really liked her quilt. I think she was taken by all the colors.

Sock Monkeys!

I just love Sock Monkeys and I was able to get my hands on this cutesy Moda Sock Monkey fabric. What's it for? A quilt! I'm currently working on a quilt with a group of mommies in my SAHM playgroup. I'm hoping to have it finished within a few days. I'll plan to snap a few pics of the quilts my friends are working on too. The fabric choices they have these days. Oh, so fun! One of the moms talked about how fabric *talks* to her. Now I know what she means. Stay tuned for the results...

My Stitch 'N Bitch Tea Party

Knitting and tea parties? What could be more fun? Am I all grannied out or what! I've always enjoyed entertaining and I recently found a new love for tea parties after I hosted one for my cousin Yvonne's birthday party. There's just something appealing about getting out the fine china, silver flatware, linens, and antique tea pot and dressing the table up with candles and flowers. So I decided to host a Stitch 'N Bitch Tea Party at my casa on a Saturday afternoon. We enjoyed tea sandwiches, scones with lemon curd, and lemon Madeleines.

Whoever said I'd never put the antique Grosvenor tea set my Grandmother gave me to good use? ;)

I Stitch 'N Bitch

Huh? What's Stitch 'N Bitch?

In the crazy transformation of hobbies I've decide to try lately - knitting is now one of them. A sect of the SAHM group I belong to discovered the world of knitting, and so we've created a new group solely for knitters, and a local Stitch 'N Bitch was born. And I'm now an official Stitch 'N Bitcher! Wahoo!

The name refers to informal groups ("circles") of knitters who get together on a weekly or monthly basis in cafes or bars to knit and socialize and these groups have exploded all over the nation. No longer just for grannies, knitting has become hip to the younger crowd and going away is the negative social stigma that knitting has attached to it and bringing more recognition to the hip, creative and edgy sides of the craft.

I would have never, ever, EVER thought I'd want to pick up the needles and actually WANT to knit something, but alas, I did - and I finished. And I'm hooked. Ok, so my first project was the standard beginner project - the scarf - and I'm not certain it can even be called that because it's not very long, so I suppose I can call it a long swatch of knitted yarn. This baby took a while to crank out. It has many, many, MANY imperfections and even had an episode of tangled yarn, but I'm proud to say - I didn't give up.

I'm very surprised at how therapuetic knitting can actually be. You can do it anywhere, anytime and is a good remedy for that nervous energy I tend to get from time to time. I'm proud to be part of the new knitting movement!

Here's a photo of my "scarf"

And below is the yummy yarn I'm using to just play around and experiment with. Trying to learn the *Continental Way* of knitting (I was taught the English way) and also trying to learn how to Purl, which I've been unsuccessful at both. I'm hosting a Stitch 'N Bitch Tea Party at my house this weekend, so perhaps some more seasoned knitters can help me get my Knit On!