Over a dozen time for a break.

I know taking a break now is not a good idea for me. I sew faster and better if I keep making things over and over. I cut out 5 diapers, added elastic, and serged all around them in record time this time (5 in a row goes fast). BUT I am getting tired of doing the same thing over and over. I can't make wipes today because I don't see any fabric in my box that I think will work well. I was running to the store yesterday to get some but my car broke so now I am stuck at home with no car. I know sherpa would work nice for wipes but I am cheap and I don't want to use any of my diaper fabric up for wipes yet. If I had 4 dozen diapers made I would think about it but 15 diapers with lots more to make yet is keeping me from using any of my diaper fabric. I think I might make something just for fun tonight. Either a bag for myself, toys for the children, or maybe I will see what fiber I have in my fiber box and spin some wool. I would like to try and knit or crochet something for the baby. I will let you all know what I came up with. Maybe I will fall asleep and not make anything. I guess I should start to think about some diaper covers. Hmmm..... I can make them with pull, procare, wool, recycled clothing. So many fun choices! I haven't made a diaper cover in umm.... Close to a year. I guess as long as I stay excited over making fun things I will keep making them. Maybe I will be ready for the baby before the birth.

Picture of my 5 natural sherpa diapers.

15 happy diapers. Just waiting on snaps.

End of my white sherpa fitted diapers!

I was up late sewing last night. I now have 10 fitted diapers done. I would have made a few more but that is all I could get out of the fabric I had out. I am now out of white sherpa. I still have a good amount of fabric to keep sewing with. I just need to bring another piece down from my fabric box. I will be starting with the natural sherpa I have next. I am only going to make up a few more before I take a little break from diapers. I think I will make some wipes or baby carriers next then go back to diapers. Can you see how much better I am sewing? My tabs are looking better. NOT perfect but a lot better than my first few. I am starting to like this machine. We are slowly becoming friends. LOL! I have to say in all the time I have owned my Huskylock we haven't been very nice to each other. I am so happy I am finally figuring this thing out and becoming friend with my machine. I felt that I wasted a lot of my hubby's money because I couldn't figure out how to work it. I know they are not the best looking diapers but I am so happy with how much I have improved!


They are so tiny, soft, and fluffy!

Sewing progress.

I now have 7 fitted diapers sewn. I am a bit worried because I don't have marks showing my snap placement. I hope I can get them marked OK when I get some tiny snaps. I guess if I can't I can just add some hook and loop on them. Once I get 1 dozen done I am going to take a break and make some cloth wipes. I am sewing a LOT better on corners with my using this machine I hope to get even better with making a stack of baby wipes. I feel 7 diapers is a wonderful amount of progress to make in a very short time. I am not very good at sewing so this is a huge step for me!

I started my diapers

I just realized that I am in my 3rd trimester already! WOW! This pregnancy is flying by! I think a lot of the reason it is going by so fast is because of my just turned 2 year old daughter. She is fast, active, loves to climb, loves to explore, and keeps me going all day long. I don't have much time to sit and think about the baby on the way. Now that I know I am getting to the end of this pregnancy I know I need to get going with things. I am not due until Sept. but I have a lot to do so I better get working on it all now.

I made a fitted diaper. I made it to resemble a kissaluvs fitted diaper. My first try was UGLY! I walked away and tried again a few hours later and that one turned out a lot better. I need to put snaps on it yet. I don't have any tiny snaps for a newborn diaper. Once I get the snaps I will have 1 newborn diaper done. I will only have 5-6 dozen more to sew up. LOL! I think I can do a dozen a week without cutting into much of my day. I can cut them out when my children are playing nice together and I can sew them up fast when hubby is reading stories to the children at night. That is my plan anyway. I will let you all know how it works out. I hope to learn how to sew around corners with my serger soon. My diaper tabs are a bit ugly to look at. They have loose loops in spots. I think the diaper is usable so I am happy.

My diaper is on the left a Kissaluvs diaper on the right. they look close in size to me.

Picture of the inside.
Shot of the back. I can't remember my children being this small! I am starting to get very excited about the birth of this baby. The red spot is just a fuzzy (tiny piece of thread).

BTW I know 6 dozen newborn diapers sounds like a LOT of diapers! I want to have enough for 2 days. I will wash them every day but I will need time for them to line dry and I want to have some for my daughter to use with her dolls. When my children are babies they seem to wet a LOT (more than other babies)! My daughter was using 3 dozen a day until she was well over a year old. I know sometimes a baby is born large and doesn't get to use NB diapers at all. That will be OK with me. I will give all my newborn diapers to my 2 year old for her dolls. When I was 2 years old my mom gave birth to my sister. I got a new doll (baby alive). When my Mom gave my sister bath I gave one to my dolly. When my Mom changed my sisters diaper I changed my dolls diaper. I hope if I do this kind of thing my 2 year old will adjust well to the new baby (not get jealous) and give me the time I need to care for the new baby.

Finding time to blog.

Getting to a computer that is inside a house when you spend most of your days outside with the children is hard. I wish we had money to buy a laptop that would be a huge help in getting to the computer. I am going to try to give myself a bit of computer time each morning before I take the children outside. I don't know how this will work but I am going to try. I haven't done a lot of sewing. I plan to take my sewing machine out on my porch this week and sew. I am thinking if I do that I can watch the children and sew at the same time. My pregnancy seems to be going well. I am still feeling sick a lot. Food smells bother me. BUT!!! I have a lot more energy with this pregnancy. I am so thankful for that. My daughter just turned 2 and she is FAST! I feel a lot of my day is spent chasing after her.

A friend and I got together and tie-dyed hemp baby wraps. I saw this one and thought making one sounded like fun. It was fun. This is a picture of mine laying in my yard.

This is a picture of my daughter in it. I have to wear her on my back most of the time because my stomach is getting very large so front carries get harder to do every day. I am around 30 weeks along in my pregnancy. I don't know the exact number so that is give or take a week or two. I have been so busy I haven't had a lot of time to think about and enjoy this pregnancy. I heard that stretchy wraps work wonderful for little babies so I will try this with the baby this fall.


I have done a few other things sewing, spinning, and knitting but not enough to be ready for the baby. I hope taking my sewing machine out on my porch will help me get done all I need to do yet. I will try harder to post updates. I am going to try and talk DH into a laptop. I doubt it will work because he likes the computer in a small room in our house (away from the children). He can go into the room and use the computer. It is a lot harder for me because I have to keep a close eye on the children and my youngest likes to find things to get into. She is always climbing and exploring. I hope to have a stack of cute tiny baby diapers to show you all by the end of the week.

I'm back!

Sorry I have been gone so long! I haven't had much computer time. I was busy with some small projects. They are almost all done (I have to mail out several of them this week). I have 2 to finish up and then I hope to sneak in some free time to make some things for my family. I have a LONG list of things I need to do before I deliver this baby in Sept. I want to make up a ton of cloth diapers for this baby, baby slings, Mei Tais, baby pouch, doll pouch, baby wipes, wet bags, bibs, wash cloths, baby blankets, and I would love to learn to knit enough to make something for this baby. Anyway, I thought I should get back to posting on this blog. I am also going to post some of the simple things I make for my children to keep them busy. I will try to do at least one thing a week. I now feel like I have to get this done because I wrote it down and shared it with others. I hope this helps keep me on track. I don't want to be up all night the day before I have this baby making diapers! I would LOVE to not put ANY disposable diapers on this child ever! I should be able to do it! I clothed diapered both my children from around 1 week old. I could have done it from birth but both times I read over and over how that would be more work than a new mom can do. Looking back I know I could have done it! I know I need to have enough diapers to do it! I hope to get it all done. I will be happy if I get 5 or 6 dozen NB diapers done 5 or 6 dozen smalls some fitteds some AIO or pockets, diaper covers, a baby carrier, 6 dozen wipes and a wet bag done in time. I will post my progress weekly. My son will be done with school soon and I hope to have a bit more free time in my day. I hope that my 2 children will play nice together and I can do some sewing early in the day right now I teach my son from 7 AM -1 PM Mon-Fri. I hope when he finishes his classes I can sneak some of that time for sewing. I have to finish up a small project for a friend now and I hope to have some time to start sewing later in the day. It is going to snow again today so my hubby has my car again. I haven't had my car much at all this winter (hubby has had it for over 4 months now). I hope to get a lot done today. If I do get some of it done I will post again later in the day.

March in like a Lion

First I should tell you all why I haven't posted on this blog in so long. I haven't had much time to sew or do crafts. I am pregnant again and I have had a lot of morning sickness over the last month or two. I am going to try to add something on this blog every week. I hope my family gives me free time to do this.

I am going to share a lion costume I made up for my children I am happy I took pictures as I created it because I am happy with how it turned out. My children are not thrilled with it but maybe in a few days it will look more like fun.

Materials
3 sheets of tan felt (I used a large piece of felt about the same size) for hood and ears.

2 sheets of darker felt for the mane and center of ear.

Velcro dots.

I am sorry to say that I wasn't exact in my measuring so you might need a bit more of felt than I wrote. To be honest I didn't think it would turn out. I made it up as I went along.


I had some felt in a box of fabric. One is tan and the other is shades of brown. They are not my first pick for lion colors but because I already had them I decided to use them.

This is the tan hood folded in half. It is about an inch wider and longer than a small felt sheet. It turned out VERY large (fits me and I still have extra room). I think 2 felt sheets would work just as well. I rounded the one end so the back of the head wouldn't have a huge point.

I stitched up around the rounded edge ONLY the back to form a hood.This is the hood turned right side out. It is open at the bottom and front.

For ears I thought circles would work best. I reached for the first circle shape I could find. I used the large end (top) of the cup for the outside of the ear and the small end (bottom of cup) to make the inside of the ear. I left a tab at the bottom of the cream felt to attach the ear. Cut 2 outsides and 2 insides.
This shows my pencil marks and how I cut it. I left a bit of a tab at the bottom.

This shows the small circles on the inside.


To attach the ear I folded the ear in half lining up the flat bottoms. I then folded the flat part under about 1 cm. This makes the ear stand up.

I stitched it on just a inch or so to attach it to the hood. If you look in the picture above my finger is holding the spot I stitched.


One ear done!

This is how I lined the second one up so it was even on both sides.

This is the hood open with ears standing up.


The mane is just a strip of felt about 3 inches wide. I did use 2 strips but it would have worked with just one.

I cut fringe to make the mane and attached it to the hood. I left 1inch from the end ONLY because I thought I was going to need elastic to pull it around the face but I didn't need elastic in the end so this inch isn't needed!

Another picture of it.

I then turned the edge of the fringe under (stitching to the inside the hood) and it popped into a lion! I was very happy! Many of my ideas don't turn out.

This is a side view.
I added Velcro dots to close the hood.


This is my son NOT happy about having to put on the silly lion costume!

This is a picture showing how half of the hood is about the size of a felt sheet.

If this is hard to understand feel free to email me at schoolnsuch@aol.com

I hope to make a few more and I will try to remember to draw a pattern out for you to print out. I can't promise when I will get that done I am always short on time.

More baby legs

More baby leg warmers. I am not feeling well so I haven't done any sewing, painting, spinning, or knitting. This is some baby legs I made a few weeks ago. This pair was made the same as the ones I posted last time. I just cut off toes and serged the end.



This set I made the way I found online a long time ago. I was making them all like this or I would use FOE on the ends. It is still quick to make them but the socks with toes only takes seconds to make and this way takes a few minutes. LOL!

Lazy mom's leg warmers (baby legs)

I like making baby legs. I think they are fast and fun. I still don't know how to work my serger well so doing tiny things like baby legg warmers is how I practice on it. I was in Walmart before Christmas and I saw a bunch of toe socks. They had cute winter patterns on them. I noticed that they are flat they have no heal. I started thinking about how much easier they would be to make baby legs with. I bought a few pair and I have decided that it will be hard for me to find an easier way of making them than this!

I took 1 pair of toe socks and I cut off the toes.



Some color from the toes was still on them. I used that as my guide to serge along. I think you could use a zigzag stitch on a sewing machine.

That is it! That is all I did!

This is them on her. She is climbing up the back of the sofa. She is a climber. We don't let her do it but that doesn't stop her from trying over and over again.

Another fiber gift

This is NEAT. I am sorry that I couldn't get a nice picture of it. It is so much nicer than it looks in the picture. I need to learn how to take pictures of fiber! This is 6 OZ of wool with BLUE JEAN COTTON! So neat! She cut up jeans and put it in herself! My son is amazed with this he loves looking at it. He asked if I could cut up his jeans and put them in wool. I had to tell him that I am still very new to spinning I think it will be years before I will have the skill and knowledge to do things like that. I have to admit I am afraid to try spinning this. I am afraid I am going to mess something up. The White wool is 6 OZ of Superwash. I have never tried to spin super wash so this will also be new for me. THANK YOU SO MUCH Cena Brown! You are very kind! I hope to sneak in spinning time this week! I feel that I am so behind on everything I might not get to spin wool for another week! I hope things slow down in my house SOON!

Mittens and Mercy

First I want to say I am behind in everything once again! We did some remodeling on our house (still isn't done) it messed up our schedule. Then we went on a small vacation so my son says. I call it a long but very nice trip. Anyway, I will try to get caught up in the next few days. I want to write first about today or I will forget about it.

MITTENS!

My naughty kitten has lost his mittens and he began to cry. Oh Mommy dear I fear my mittens I have lost! and then he cried some more.... I forgot it was winter... AND CRIED More..... It in Jan 10 and we didn't have ANY snow until the tiny bit we got last night. I will not be able to find my gloves before it melts away if I have to look any longer!

Hmmmm.... The Mommy in me thought.... Than you shall have no pie????? I don't know? It is Jan 10 and he does have a point! It was 60 degrees last week. My solution was to offer our yearly Mom made mittens. The mittens that he always snubs his nose at because they are not gloves with fingers and moans his unhappy thank you mom just loud enough to show SOME respect. The same mittens that every year he becomes VERY thankful for when he can't find his new gloves or they are still wet from playing outside earlier that day. Only I called them mercy Mittens today. When we got him new gloves this season he was told he needed to put his gloves away so when we got snow he would have them. My son doesn't like mittens ever so he was disappointed he couldn't find his gloves but the thought of having a pair of mittens to be able to play in the tiny amount of snow sounded WONDERFUL to him today! I enjoyed seeing his eyes perk up when I said I would make him some mittens. I told him how I do expect him to take care of his gloves and when he finds them he MUST put them away. I also told him that I would give mercy. Shhhhh PLEASE don't tell him how many pairs of gloves I misplaced when I was his age! LOL! I am walking that fine line of trying to teach my child responsibility but at the same time remember what 6 year old children do because they are still children. The hardest thing is when I have to take a look back to how careless I was as a child. My Mom always understood and I think I must have got about 20 pairs of mercy mittens a season! I DREAM of being as patient and understanding as my Mom was but that is a HARD thing to do. I will keep trying. Anyway this is my mercy mittens! I guess when he finds his gloves I will bake the pie. LOL! The mittens are not beautiful or perfect but if you can turn on a sewing machine and put the thread in you can make them in about 10 minutes time. They kept his hands warm and helped him create a wonderful childhood memory of playing in snow that he has wanted to play in for months now.

Place hand with fingers open some on some fleece fabric. It doesn't take much fabric. Then just traced around it.


Cut out 4 layers 2 for right hand 2 for left. Stitch around them using a zigzag VERY QUICK.


Turn them so the seam is on the inside. In past years if I made them smaller than expected he did wear them with the stitching on the outside. LOL! This year I used my hand so he has LOTS of room. I added some FOE elastic around the bottom so they wouldn't fall off.



One not so perfect set of mittens but one new and very precious memory made for him to have forever. I doubt he will remember the gloves when he is grown but he might remember the year he had to wait until Jan 10th to play in the snow and how exciting it was.

A little more catching up!

My washer broke 2 days before Christmas! We have been living almost a year without a dryer. My first thought was OH NO! I am NOT going to try to wash all our clothes in the tub!!! I QUICKLY rethought that! Over and over again in the last 2 years I have said or thought "I will not do that or live like that" OR "I need or have to have that" I have found out the hard way many times that when it comes to it I WILL LIVE WITHOUT! I CAN LIVE WITHOUT AND I DON'T NEED OR HAVE TO HAVE IT! I quickly said to my husband that I didn't WANT to try to wash all our clothes in the tub. HE quickly replied you are NOT going to have to worry about that I will take care of it. He has a bonus coming in March (we don't like to count our chickens before they hatch but this one time we will) He put on credit a NEW WASHER AND DRYER! We will have the money to pay them off before we have to make payments so it will be OK. We didn't want to use credit at all but this one time we decided to do it. My husband is such a wonderful man! I am so lucky to have him! He had them delivered the next day! I got to wash and dry clothes on Christmas. I know that is something that many people wouldn't want to do on a holiday but I was so excited about having them it was FUN. I think my family was confused by some of it..... I know my hubby understood but other family members didn't seem to understand why I was so much more excited over fiber to spin than a new dryer. I am happy to have them and Christmas was so nice having people over WITHOUT 4 loads of clothes hanging to dry from my ceiling (yes this is a real picture of how things have been in our house over the last year). I liked the money I was saving on electric not using a dryer. I didn't like all the clothes being covered with lint, all wrinkly, and towels that felt like sandpaper. LOL! I am so happy to now have my new appliances! I am still going to try and hang clothes often. I will use the dryer to remove the lint and fluff our towels. Hmmmm.... Maybe if people are coming over I will use it so people don't have to see our laundry hanging.

My poor hubby! Christmas eve we stayed up until about 2:30 wrapping gifts and such. My children both got sick that lasted for about 2 weeks in early December then my husband got very sick a few days before that and the doctor said he had the flu. I was so worried that his Christmas would be ruined! He wasn't sick on Christmas I was so Happy! OH! back to my story... We fell way behind with holiday plans because of everyone being sick. We had lots to do the night before Christmas. Rob and I worked on getting everything wrapped and under the tree. At 2:30 we went off to bed. At 2:35 the phone rang. He answered the phone it was the security company calling. They said that a alarm was set off at my husbands work and they needed someone to meet the police at the store. My hubby had to go! I was so afraid that he was going to fall asleep driving I couldn't sleep. I got up and went down to lay on the couch. I would close my eyes and then get the thought of my poor hubby falling asleep driving I would get up in a panic. This would happen over and over until he got home. He got home at around 5 am. I then fell asleep on the couch because I was so tired I couldn't get up to go upstairs. My hubby went upstairs to bed. At around 7 am his family came. We all got up (only 2 hours of sleep) and Christmas started. It was a very long day. It was wonderful but I think a little more sleep would have been nice. We all had a happy day. I was to tired to worry or get upset with anything. LOL! I got to do laundry, spin a little yarn, enjoy my children and my very tired hubby.

Knitting try #2

First let me say that I have been trying to get caught up on this blog but blogger is giving me a hard time signing in and when I do get signed in my pictures don't always load! UUUGGH!



This is another attempt at knitting! The flat part near the bottom is knit and purl but then I caught myself wrapping the needle wrong direction again so I the bumpy part about is just knit rows that is why the look like that. I feel a lot better with this bib. I don't think I have any 1/2 rows this time. My last one I sat down several times and when I started again I would knit back to the beginning without ever getting to the end of the row. That caused my bib to have that odd shape. I didn't add any stitches that I have noticed this time. Last time I would forget to take my stitch off the needle and I would add another. This is another reason my first bib had an ODD shape. I feel that I am getting much better with the knit stitch and I have started to wrap the yarn counter clockwise out of habit I no longer have to think when I am doing it so I am going to try to finish this up with all knit and purl rows. I will add a picture of my progress as I get time. I hope this blogger page starts working better for me. I don't get much computer time so I get upset wasting the time I have trying to sign in to a site. KWIM?

Christmas dreams!

I have wanted to share this story with everyone but I haven't been able to find the right words. A lady I have never met sent me the best gift I could ever get for Christmas. I am so touched! I keep crying because I am so touched by what she has done! I am so sorry that I can't come up with words to express how truly thankful I am! I thought that the words would come to me but all I can do is cry and say Thank You! I feel bad that I can't even get a good picture of all this lovely stuff! It is the most beautiful stuff I have ever seen! I am so sad that my camera couldn't capture the beauty of this stuff. It is so BEAUTIFUL!
It is...
2.2 lb Llama- Chocolate brown.
2 oz. Mohair/ rayon/bamboo etc.- pink
2.5 oz corridale- blue
2.5 oz corridale green
1 oz mixed wool- grey
11 oz ?- white.

It covered our table! I had to stand on a chair to take the pictures!
The fiber I have had in the past to spin I didn't even know what kind it was! LOL! This is better than any dream I have ever had! This is the kind of feeling you get when you have a baby. You know that joy when the doctor puts your new baby in your arms. That is the only way I can think of to describe it! PLEASE DON'T think that I love fiber more than my children. It isn't that but it is the joyful tears of true happiness that touched from deep inside feeling you get. KWIM?

I love spinning wool because I dream of being a wife of noble character. I think my husband should have a proverbs 31 wife. I feel that I often fall so short it seems like an impossible goal to reach. BUT when I am spinning yarn I think to myself. In her hand she hold the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers. I feel like I am a step closer to the woman my husband deserves!

This lady has brought me joy, she has given me such a wonderful gift. She has made me feel like a better person, a better wife, and even closer to the Lord. She gives in secret not wanting her name given. Her asking that reminds me of something I try to do but sometimes fail it is Matthew 6:3 Do not let your left hand know what your right is doing so that your giving may be a secret.

I don't know what else to say! I am very grateful! She is a wonderful person. I hope to remember this feeling the rest of my life. I hope someday I am able to find ways to touch others like this! I don't think she will ever know how wonderful this is and how wonderful she is for doning such a thing!

I do feel that I am a grateful person most of the time for everything I have and all that others have done for me BUT I haven't ever been given so much from a complete stranger like this. I just can't find the words to describe this! I hope you all can kind of tell what I am trying to say. I feel so bad I can't find words to show how I feel. Below are pictures of it all. I am so sorry my pictures don't show how beautiful this all is!

Knitting?

Am I knitting? I guess it depends on who you ask! My Mom gave me this learn to knit kit for Christmas. I decided to give it a try. I got it out and started reading. I then even took the time to look at some free how to knit videos online. I knew it must be the right day to learn to knit because when I typed in Google.com on the google search page I saw 2 kangaroos knitting! I felt ready to knit!!


This is the picture of my first day of knitting. I was SO HAPPY! I felt so good about having yarn on my knitting needles. Day 2 I went right back to it. I kept at it off and on that day until I had knitted enough to make a small bib. I put a button on and I was VERY HAPPY! I couldn't wait to go visit my knitting friends the next day. I could see that I made LOTS of mistakes but I was just so happy to have something I made with my knitting needles! I didn't care about my mistakes!


The next day I ran off to visit with my knitting friends. I was so excited I picked up the little bib but forgot to grab two bags of stuff I wanted to take with me (both bags I had right on my kitchen table next to my new bib). I got to see the beautiful things they both made with yarn (I dream of having the talent they both have) I was so EXCITED to show my new creation. I knew it couldn't compare to the BEAUTIFUL stuff they both make but I was still excited about my first try. I pulled out my lopsided, cheap yarn, ugly color, peculiar creation. I said to them that I only know one stitch the knit I haven't learned how to pearl yet. They both got a rather confused look and said that what I did looked like a pearl stitch. It was NOT a knit stitch. WOW! I was really confused!!!! I then watched Vicky sit and knit. I was amazed at how smooth her fingers moved working the yarn. Her yarn was worked in a MUCH different way than I was doing.(LOL) I hurried home trying to keep that picture of what she was doing fresh in my head. After several hours I think I might have figured it out!!!!! I think I was wrapping my yarn clockwise not counter clockwise. I know I was putting my needle in the stitch the right way so I think I MUST have been wrapping wrong. I plan to try again later today. I hope I have it all figured out right. If not I will laugh and try again! I will post my "New ODD CREATION" LOL! I expect to have LOTS of ODD creations before I get the hang of this!

OH! My 6 year old son was watching me knit. He looked like he was studying what I was doing. I was expecting him to ask if I would teach him. Insead this is what he said... You know Mom, if you could tap the sticks together faster you would make a good old lady! He thought was giving me a complement (pep talk of sorts)! LOL! I hope he gets better at complements before he is old enough to date!

Financial NEWS and THANKS!

I am so grateful for all the advice and support people have given me in handling our finances! I feel that often people don't like to talk about how they view spending. I am so happy to hear that others have and are having some of the same struggles as we have had. I don't want everyone to be in a financial jam at all I am just happy to know I am not alone. KWIM? I am very happy for all the advice people have shared! Rob and I have stuck to our values and God did bless us in return. I want to thank the person who wrote me telling me that Oprah wasn't my only tool to use to guide us in making our financial decisions (I like the idea of having a Christian based one to look at) so THANKS! I hope to get a free minute to thank her personally but I can't find her message right now in my email.


NOW! This is going to sound CRAZY!!! I am very thankful for the hard times my husband and I have had over this last year!!! I know this sounds nuts but in my next 10-20 post I think you might see why! I am so happy that we didn't turn to credit cards when things got tight this time! I am so happy that I made the choice to "live without" many things I said I would NEVER live without! I feel that I am such a better person now for it! I think living in the US in this time many people don't know what it is like to live without (I was one of them). From living using credit cards and such I never had to "want" for anything. For me I now "see" that I was so use to having I didn't know what it felt like to be "deep down completely grateful the of tears of joy" feeling! I am happy I ran out of needles and thread and had to see that they are things that we buy with hard earned money! I always took them for granted. Make-up ummm.... not a necessity! I once thought it was. $40 a week food budget CAN be done but it is HARD to do! Koolaid to color yarn isn't free. I found that having to plan to get some kool-aid in our tight budget to color my yarn made the experience so much more enjoyable! For me having all the stuff we bought with credit cards made me numb and kept me from appreciating things. Living without has shown me how to truly enjoy stuff when I get it! I hope that I am able to keep this lesson I have learned in my head for the rest of my life!

My hubby got a promotion and a raise around Thanksgiving time. I am so proud of him! That isn't all our news! He wasn't allowed to be promoted again for 6 months (company policy) BUT! They told him to put in for another promotion and HE GOT IT!!! A few days before Christmas!! I am so proud of my husband! I love him so much! I am thankful that the Lord is helping us so much right now! At the same time my heart goes out to people who have had the same financial struggles raising a family and they haven't been blessed with things like 2 promotions in just a few weeks time. If you are in that situation and would like some extra prayers PLEASE just email me and let me know! I will be happy to pray for you and your family!

SO MUCH TO SHARE!

So much has been going on in the last 2 months. I am going to have to try to make 2 quick post a day until I get all caught up. I have thanks to give for financial advice. News about my husbands job promotion. My spinning wheel adventures. Last minute Christmas gift for my son. A wonderful Christmas surprise from a person I have never met. Dress up for my Daughter. Our Christmas Eve adventure. Learning to knit. Tons of painting, spinning, fiber, sewing, knitting, and joy to share with all. I will do my best to get it all caught up as quick as I can. Computer time is always limited for me. My children are young so I can't sit and type much. Sometimes it is days before I can get to the computer. I hope all the new toys my children have been blessed with keep them busy for the next few days so I can sneak in some blogging time. I think if I keep all my post as short as possible I might be able to get a few done a day. Only time will tell! I hope you all have enjoyed your holidays! In our house we celebrate Christmas (we are Christians) I had the BEST Christmas in my entire life!!! I will write more about all my little ups and downs over the last 2 months soon. Right now my daughter is calling for me. I hope to get back online when the children go to bed tonight!

BABE SPINNING WHEEL

">
My WONDERFUL DH gave me a spinning wheel for Christmas!!!! I know it isn't Christmas yet but I couldn't leave it in the box! Anyone who knows me knows what a HUGE deal this is! I have been spinning for a year now on a drop spindle. I LOVE spinning! I have been dreaming of someday having a wheel but I didn't think that would happen for a few years yet. Money has been tight in our house. My DH had to do a lot of careful planning to swing a wheel for me.

I wanted the Babe wheel. WHY? Well 1st I am a thrifty person. I don't like to spend a lot of money on things unless I know it is what we need. I have been wondering what if I don't like spinning on a wheel? What if I can't learn to use a wheel? What if something breaks in our house (car, major appliance, or such) and the repairs cost a lot and because of a spinning wheel we can't afford to fix it. What if's like that kept me from wanting a nice wooden spinning wheel. I live WAY out in the country. I can't go to a shop and take spinning lessons. I knew that if I ever got a wheel it would have to be something I could learn on my own.

I LOVE this wheel!!!!! I am in heaven!!! I feel like a child who pictured something in her dreams and all the sudden it became REAL! First when I opened the box I was all excited!!! THEN came the instructions....... I must say that this is the DOWN side of getting a Babe wheel! The instructions I felt are POORLY written!!! The illustration is AWLFUL! GOOD side is that it is such a simple wheel that even for me (a person who has NEVER used a wheel) It could be put together. My WONDERFUL DH did help me put it together. It was quick (could have been quicker if we had better instructions and pictures.

This is something a spinner will find funny! I don't know how to knit yet. I have a sweater machine that knits for me. I can knit in minutes on this machine what takes my MIL days to do. I thought that going from my spindle to a wheel would be the same. BOY was I wrong! I can spin faster on the wheel but not at the speed I pictured! SO if someone is thinking about getting a wheel and you think you are going to spin up HUGE amounts of yarn in a few minutes time..... Ummmm... I don't think you will do that. If you use a dropspindle and you would like to save the time you spend winding on you will be able to do that once you get your wheel spinning.

This wheel is EASY to pick up and move! My 1 year old is in love with yarn. When I need to leave the room she will walk over to the wheel and start undoing my yarn. This Babe wheel is so small and light I can pick it up and put it in a place my DD can't get to. If I had a wooden wheel I know it wouldn't be that easy to do such a thing! I like that this wheel doesn't have a lot of parts and that I will be able to teach my children how to spin on it and not be afraid that they will do harm to it.

Looking back now I think if I had a chance to pick out a wheel again I "might" have went with the cheapest of the Babe wheels. I can treadle with one foot on my double treadle without a problem. I wouldn't have minded white PVC pipe. The Pinkie Wheel for $150 looks like the best bargin! I thought that Fiber Starter - Double Treadle looked a bit nicer and I thought that a double treadle might be easier to do. It cost
$226 so it was a lot higher in price. I didn't know that a single treadle could get going by giving the wheel a bit of a turn with your hand. I am VERY happy with the wheel I got. The black looks nicer in my opinion. The double treadle was easy to get going. I do feel that I "could" have been happy with the pinkie wheel and that would have cost less money.

If you want to look at the babe wheels you can find them at www.babesfibergarden.com



(above) This is my first yarn on my wheel. I have to say that I am VERY surprised that it looks like my first yarn on the spindle. I guess I thought that with my year of experience on the spindle that my first yarn on a wheel would look more even. LOL! I didn't ply it I am not sure what to do with it. LOL! (Below) is a picture of my 3 bobbins done after I made the yarn above. I didn't ply the stuff in the above picture.


This is my 2 spools of yarn I have finished 2 ply. I must admit that I LOVE the uneven look yet at the same time I want to spin more even yarn.


This is the single I have left over because my spools didn't have the same amout of yarn on them.



I will get online later to read email and post some more pictures of my wheel for anyone who is wondering what kind of things I was confused with. Right now my children are taking a nap and my new wheel is calling my name!