#1 reason to study your spelling words.

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Winner is: Cindi —> email me @ kim (@) mommyknows (dot) com.

Me: Georgia! Your new bunny is finished. YAAAYYY ….

Georgia: I. Don’t. Like. Rabbits! I only like small dogs.

This is true … and I know this (I happen to prefer bunnies) so … if you happen to like my bunny, leave a comment. I’ll randomly pick a winner soon and ship this poor little unwanted bunny to YOU!

Bunny is about 18” long and a mixture of 100% wool / cashmere / lambs wool sweaters that I felted and chopped up. She is stuffed with some kind of Eco-filling (could find wool). She’s a bit odd in the dimensions department—> I didn’t have a pattern and just made her up.

I actually bought a sewing machine. The thought of sewing up the bunny by hand, was just too much for me. A little bit of felt food is one thing, but the whole bunny … YUCK! It was my first time EVER using a sewing machine, just getting it threaded was a challenge … then sewing through the 1/8” felt was something else. Regardless, she is done! I ripped out all the stitches on the arms and legs and re-sewed them with the machine. The head is all hand-sewn (MESSY); I didn’t think I’d make the turns on the ears using the machine. Remember your first driving lesson? Well I kind of sew a lot like that … lots of jerking, stalling and swerving.

MK xo
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Psst—> the photos SUCK! Winter darkness is upon us, and along with it, my ability and drive to take photos has disappeared. Expect 6 months of BLUR!

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Winner is: Jaime—> email me @ kim (@) mommyknows (dot) com.

After Georgia put Sunlight dish soap in the fish tank, and KILLED the fish.

I was more than happy to drop her off at school.

She was upset, and has told me several times that, she is, “sorry for killing the fish”. Truthfully, I think that she was more concerned about my anger than the dead fish (I’ve have repeatedly cautioned her to stay out of the fish tank). She did ask me where the fish went (I flushed it while she was doing time out on her bed). Thinking I’d freak her out, I told her, “I’m going to fry it up and make you eat it for supper”. Without missing a beat, she informed me “It’s not enough, I’m a BIG eater”. It’s true … she is a big eater and it was a really small fish (2”).

She’s like Dennis the Menace the female version. Any naughty kids in your life?

All comments and back-links for this post will be entered to win a $10 Starbucks Gift Card (includes shipping and handling) in my ‘Have a Coffee on Me’ Contest. If you comment and blog about the contest you’ll receive two entries (too easy). I have a whole ‘schwack’ of Gift Cards to give away, so make sure and come back often for a chance to ‘have a coffee on me’.

MK xo
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I forgot to pick the ‘have a coffee on me’ winners for the last few posts.

I’ve done that now—> so make sure to go back and check if you are a WINNER.

I’m making a ‘softie’ (my kids call them stuffies) from my recycled (or is that upcycled?) wool sweaters. I’m sort of stumped. I can’t decide how to make the body (I’m just making it up as I go along) AND whether make it in the same wool/cashmere as the head and limbs or use a different color, so it looks sort of like clothing. I might have to go searching for more sweaters, all of the colors I have just don’t look quite right. I pretty much have to stick with felt as it doesn’t fray and I don’t have a machine. Any ideas—> links please.

The BIG red nose … hmmm … might change that too.

I’ve also decided that I need a sewing machine. That will mean that I will also need lessons. Sewing everything by hand is a bit much. My stitches are not neat enough and it looks kind of tacky.

OMGAWD I’m a tacky crafter. Someone rescue me!

Be back when he/she is finished.

All comments and back-links for this post will be entered to win a $10 Starbucks Gift Card (includes shipping and handling) in my ‘Have a Coffee on Me’ Contest. If you comment and blog about the contest you’ll receive two entries (too easy). I have a whole ‘schwack’ of Gift Cards to give away, so make sure and come back often for a chance to ‘have a coffee on me’.

MK xo
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Monday the whole family (plus the dog), my aunt and uncle, cousin, wife and 2 mini cousins packed up and headed to a local pumpkin patch. The kids had a great time, BUT it was COLD. It feels like winter here.

Already dry chapped winter skin is making an appearance. My hands hurt with cold all afternoon. It got me thinking about felt (remember I found felt last spring), and how even though I am the NON-crafty sort, the one who said, “craft schmafts“, I was desperate to turn old Salvation Army wool sweaters into mitts and slippers for the kids.

Did you know you can ‘felt’ old wool sweaters by washing in hot water and rinsing in cold? Make sure you add soap :)

Here are a few of the sweaters that I felted. I think this batch went through 2 cycles in the machine. These started out as adult larges and are now about a kids size 4 (I know because they fit Georgia).

Once felted, I cut the sweaters up into usable pieces. Mostly this means cutting out the seams.

I decided to make Sam a pair first. Mostly because he was the only one who DIDN’T care about color, design etc. It was nice to be able to do whatever I wanted. He wasn’t bothered in the the least to get the dark gray lambs wool. I traced his hand, added a 5 mm – 1 cm seam allowance and then cut out two templates.

I pinned the paper templates to the fabric and then cut out the fabric. I did two layers at a time … mostly because I am lazy like that. Also note, that you can use the ribbing of the sweater waistband as the wrist area for the mittens if you cut them as above.

I then turned them inside out and sewed them together. I sewed these by hand, because I don’t own a sewing machine, and have no clue how. No worries though … hand stitching works just fine.

Woohoo—> one down and one to go.

Once the two mitts were sewn, I used other recycled felt pieces, buttons etc. to add a cute design. I think these turned out sufficiently boyish.

I am working on some Chihuahua mittens for Georgia (her newest obsession). Lizzy has now decided she wants ‘girl’ Skulls. Then I am going to get started on some felt booties.

Do you have any projects on the go?

All comments and back-links for this post will be entered to win a $10 Starbucks Gift Card (includes shipping and handling) in my ‘Have a Coffee on Me’ Contest. If you comment and blog about the contest you’ll receive two entries (too easy). I have a whole ‘schwack’ of Gift Cards to give away, so make sure and come back often for a chance to ‘have a coffee on me’.

MK xo
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