Why hello again! I've been missing you, my lovely blog world. Slowly but surely my little guy is letting me have a few minutes to create. (Sorry, had to post the cuteness again!) I do miss the long stretches of work time, but I love the snuggling I get to do with baby softness in my arms. Soon enough he'll be crawling, and climbing, and then walking...and then I'll look back with a smile and wish he was soft and squishy with that lovely baby smell still. *happy sigh* Anywho! In my free moments (haha!) I've been trying to gather things together for a couple of projects. My goal this year is to get enough together to take it to the Farmers Market. Why there? Well, because I have three young children and a deployed husband and trying to take them and all the things I would want to take with me to a trade show in Raleigh, (two hours away), is just not reasonable. Local seems better. It's a small step! But a good one for me. It's not out of reach, and not too stressful to try to attain. Success comes one little step at a time! For us regular people anyway:)

So far this year has been about transitions! First we welcomed our new little guy, and got into a rhythm with him. And now we're working on getting back into another rhythm minus my husband. Just over a week ago now we sent him on deployment which will take him all over the world. He's on ship this time and set to cruise the Mediterranean. The day before they were set to leave their orders were changed and they headed first for humanitarian work in Haiti. I can only imagine how difficult it must be going from training for combat and that mind set, to helping people rebuild their lives. ~~~~ So between all that's gone on I haven't done much in the way of making anything. At least nothing *fun*. Although I did make some felted wool dryer balls, and that was fun! And mindless, which is good because my brain is on a trip!

They are really easy to do. You need about 3 oz.s of wool, wound into a ball. Put it inside old pantyhose, and wash on your washers hottest setting. I did it a couple of times. Then throw it in the dryer and dry. I suppose if you really wanted to, you could use a felting needle to felt them even more. But the washer/dryer worked just fine for me. For scent add a few drops of essential oil. Ta-da! I'll be back again soon to share some more goodness! Have a great weekend!

Great Gray Gracious Jacket :)

Great Gray Gracious Jacket :)
Originally uploaded by Elsita (Elsa Mora)

I was mindlessly viewing pictures this morning and this one struck me. Such a cute jacket. Love the wallpaper. Wish I had those shoes. Her hair is so graceful. I would like some of each. Her other photos are just as lovely!

While I was working on sewing my son's baptismal gown I was in such a hurry to finish it that I didn't really enjoy the process much. But the end result was so satisfying that when I was done I stood back and looked at it and felt like the process went too fast but was well worth the effort! My husbands deployment is swiftly approaching, and so we were in a little bit of a hurry to let him be able to share in this very special family event. As with most of the things I make for my kids, I hope that someday they will appreciate that I made them something special. Right now, at such young ages I know that what they are most interested in is having what they need and want. With age I've come to appreciate more the things that have been handed down to me from my mother and grandmother. I hope for the same for my kids. I keep a box for each of the kids with their name on it and inside I collect special items for them for the future. Each of their baptismal gowns is inside, their baby book, little mementos from their babyhood and early childhood, pictures and drawings. It's fun to look back on the past once you're older. I always loved going through my parents big trunk of family photos and baby items. There are six children in my family so there was always a lot to go through! And lots of "Who's was this?" Someday I hope my kids will enjoy going through their own mementos and laugh (and maybe cringe a little too at their own silliness!) at all the things they will find inside. It's like a lovely time capsule of who they are and how far they've come.

A bit of beauty for my boy. His baptismal gown.

It's a New Year! Lets share, shall we? We're ringing in the new year with a new addition to our family! Matthew was born on December 1st, a week and 2 days after his estimated due date. The two older ones are quite taken with him, as is Daddy. I too have fallen in love with him. It felt like I waited forever to hold him in my arms and when the time came for them to set him in my arms I could do nothing but smile and cry. (The tears, though, were a mixture of being elated over having him in my arms and being ecstatic that I was no longer pregnant!:) It's been a crazy couple of months, but I bet you could have guessed that already since the last time I posted was back in October. From about Thanksgiving till the present there's just been a lot going on with family visiting and the new baby arriving. We're getting used to the new addition, changes in schedules and my having to figure out how to make everything work and flow between nursing and diaper changes. We're getting into a groove, I'm happy to say. Things will change a bit more in the coming months as we send our Marine off on a 7 month tour. I have lots of plans for when my husband is away, with projects I'd like to start and finish on the house, and art projects I'd like to complete. I'm hoping to get started on some of those things soon. The last few months my only art or craft type projects have been cloth diapers. Our little one looks awfully cute in them don't you think? :)Here's to a great start to 2010!

Hello Blogging World and friends! I'm so sorry I've been neglectful of you. With sick kids and (sick) massively preggo me I just haven't even had the energy to do anything other than lay around praying that the time will fly these last few weeks of this pregnancy. My husband has been gone for training (Oh how I love the Marine Corps) so it's been very tiresome for me to have to do everything alone with the kids lately. Sometimes a creative bug hits me though...I found a fun recipe for you to try out for the Fall/Halloween festivities going on. It looks very kid friendly, so grab some little munchkins and head to the kitchen for some homemade Candy Corn! Recipe found via Short Bread. EASY CANDY CORN RECIPE: Ingredients: 4 cups of miniature marshmallows 4 cups powdered sugar 2 tbsp water Yellow and orange food coloring Preparation: Microwave marshmallows on high for 1 minute, until the marshmallows are puffy and expanded. Stir the marshmallows with a rubber spatula until they are melted and smooth. If some marshmallow pieces remain, return to the microwave for 30 seconds, until the marshmallow mixture is entirely smooth and free of lumps. Add the powdered sugar and begin to stir with the spatula. Scrape out onto the prepared work surface. Dust your hands with powdered sugar, and knead the fondant mixture. Once the fondant is a smooth ball, divide it evenly into three balls. Set one ball aside, this will be the white portion of your candy corn. To the other 2 fondant balls add 5 drops of different food coloring to the center of the disc, and fold until all color is incorporated. You end up with three smooth fondant balls, in white, yellow, and orange. To Assemble: Roll the yellow fondant ball into a long worm shape, repeat the process with the orange and the white strips, placing them next to each other when completed. When you finish you should have three long strands of yellow, orange, and white fondant, Once your strips are firmly pressed together, you should be able to start cutting. Cutting them in their present state produces a rounded candy corn. If you prefer a flat candy corn, you can very gently run a rolling pin along the top of the tri-colored fondant strip, to flatten the tops and press them closer together. Use a large, sharp knife to cut triangles out of the fondant strip. Store in an air tight container and ENJOY!