So much has happened in the last almost month since I posted! The girls had their first trip to Disney, they had their Christmas concert, we celebrated Christmas with family, and packed up our minivan and drove the 16 hrs to visit family! I have lots of pictures to share but first I wanted to share this VERY special finished project! Enjoy!
My stocking was completed in time for Christmas!!!!!! I seriously wanted to shout this from the rooftops! I already knew that I would be knitting it on the drive up to OH and I was right! I managed to get all the colorwork done before it got dark and I spent most the overnight drive, that I was awake and not attending to the needs of the others in the car, knitting the stockinette flap. I knit the icord up quickly before meeting Alicia at a knit group on Saturday morning! I was so excited to show it off and to be done with it! It came out lovely! Still needs to be blocked but am too excited not to share it with you all.
Project details Ravelry Project link Pattern: A NEW Family Portrait - A Collection of Three Christmas Stockings
by Dorene Delaney Giordano
Yarn: Cascade Yarns Cascade 220® Sport in white and burgundy Cast on: July 20th, 2014 Finished: December 20th, 2014 Notes: I am so excited to be done with these stockings!I really enjoyed knitting them and so glad I have learned colorwork. I still have some technique refining to do but I will have plenty of practice next year. The yarn worked up nicely for these stockings and I really like the pattern. She does a great job with giving you plenty of details to help you along. This was knit relatively quickly but I took a break from it for a while to finish up other stuff so that is why it looks like I took a LONG time to knit this one.
Here are all the stockings laid out at my husband's grandma's house ready for Santa to fill them!
As I mentioned before, my favorite holidays are Thanksgiving and Christmas. I know most people think that Christmas season shouldn't start until the day after Thanksgiving but I don't quite follow that. I listen to Christmas music all year long if I'm doing something like dishes or cleaning where I need a pick me up. It's my happy place music! And this year for the first time, I have put up our Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving and I am very happy about it. It might just be a new tradition in our house.
Saturday during Ria's nap, Carmen and I decorated the bigger tree! She was so excited about the lights and checked out every ornament! It was so much fun to tell her about each one and show her the ones she made last year for our tree.
After Ria woke up from her nap, I had wrapped two new ornaments for them to open and put on the tree. I don't have close ups but Carmen got Elsa and Ria got Anna from Frozen. Yes, if you notice my stocking is not completed yet! It's in a project bag and about 2/3rds done. I actually decided last night that I was going to put away the hitofude cardigan I've been working on and finish up the stocking first before I go back to knitting on the cardigan. I also have a secret project I'm knitting for the girls that I'm very excited about and will share with you as soon as I'm done! I'm almost 50% done with it.
My step-sister came over after we were done with the tree and helped me and Carmen with some crafts during Ria's nap! I found two pins on pinterest that I wanted to do this year. First was the ornament wreath seen below and pin found here. To make this, we took all the ornaments that I bought at the dollar tree and hot glued the tops to them. Then we strung them on a wire hanger and closed up the wire hanger and hung it up. The burlap garland I made using this pin and hot glued the ornaments on to it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE how this came out and it makes me so happy to see it!
I love how it looks from my kitchen too! I was cooking dinner and was just so happy to see it! I also hung up some new pictures in the corner there too! We are repainting the living room and changing out those curtains in the new year but I couldn't wait any longer to put some stuff up. You can also see my small nativity scene in this picture. I still haven't found a safe place for my willow tree nativity scene but some day it will come back out.
One of the crafts I did last year was this nativity scene that my sister printed and laminated for me! I put magnets on the back and Carmen loved playing with it last year. This year it's been a bit hit too! The pin for that can be found here so you can print your own.
After a busy day of crafting, cleaning, and toddler/child wrangling, I was so happy to sit with some hot cocoa, my knitting, and Love Actually with all the Christmas decorations up! It was so nice to get some time to enjoy it at the end of a busy day!
I hope you enjoyed my Christmas decorations! I have some more ideas but most are going to have to wait until next year. There is one more decoration I have left to finish that is already half way completed and then I'm getting back to knitting and baking!
Happy Christmas Decorating!!!
When do you plan to put up your decorations? Have you already? Any new decorations you have for this year?
{this moment} – A Friday ritual from Soule Mama. A single photo(or several) –
no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special,
extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If
you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your “moment” in the
comments for all to find and see.
Carmen requested to be Elsa like so many other little girls out there! Her Aunt G sewed both of these costumes from this pattern and did an amazing job! Maria was SO excited about getting to be Anna! She loves Frozen like her big sister!
Hope you all have an AMAZING Halloween! Looking forward to spending lots of time with family and trick or treating with our girls!
Two years ago at Christmas time, I realized that if you looked at my house with our Christmas decorations you wouldn't know that I was a Knitter. That prompted me to begin my scheming so that one day when the holiday's came around, knitting would literally throw up all over our home! Each year I plan to knit something new for holiday decorations. The first step in this plan was to knit stockings. I was only able to complete the ones for my daughters last year before Christmas came so this year my goal is to have the Dad and Mom ones completed.
Here are the ones I completed for the girls last year. I used the same pattern and yarn for these as the details below for Special K's but if you want to see the specifics of these you can check out the project pages for Carmen's and Maria's on ravelry. As you can tell, I opted to stray from the typical green and red Christmas colors.
And here is Special K's stocking all ready for this Christmas! After my sister gave him the idea, he wanted Michigan colors as he's a big fan! Ignore the wall design...it is not my favorite but we haven't started redoing the living room since we moved in.
Project details Ravelry Project link Pattern: A NEW Family Portrait - A Collection of Three Christmas Stockings
by Dorene Delaney Giordano
Yarn:Cascade Yarns Cascade 220® Sport Cast on: May 19th, 2014 Finished: July 18, 2014 Notes: I am so happy with how this came out! The stocking for Carmen was my first colorwork and I was so nervous. Color work is actually easier than I had anticipated but it is so potato chipy! That means that I just can't do one row and want to just knit the next line to see where the pattern goes. It's so fun to knit and I can't wait to see them all up and making my house festive.
My only real struggle with these was getting the tension of the floats correct on the sides where the loops of the needles are. I knit these using the magic loop method. I think my tension is still a bit tight although Maria's was knit a little looser as I was more comfortable with it then.
I was so excited to have completed his stocking this weekend that I immediately wound yarn and cast mine on Sunday night! It's not going to count for big points in the Harry Potter Knit/Crochet House Cup but I think I'll have to just live with that. UNLESS I can finish mine in 10 days and then it will be lots of class points.
All in all, I'm so glad I picked this pattern, which is very well written. She has a ton of other similar patterns to choose from so if you want to have different patterns for all your family you can. The last step for all of these will be to line them but I'm waiting until they are all complete before I do that.
Happy Knitting!
What holiday decorations have you knit or crocheted for your house? Are you planning to craft some this year?
{this moment} – A Friday ritual from Soule Mama. A single photo (or several) –
no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special,
extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If
you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your “moment” in the
comments for all to find and see.
Wishing you and yours a very Happy 4th of July! Hope you all had a fantastic day!
We started our day by taking Carmen to see her first movie in a theater Despicable Me 2 and both she and Maria did so well! Carmen loved watching the big screen and stayed in her seat mostly until close to the end when she was getting sleepy and wanted to sit with me. Maria either slept or nursed the whole movie.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing with family. We tried fireworks with Carmen and she did not like them!! Maybe next year.
Hoping you all had a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends! This post is up a day late but I wanted to share our Christmas with you! It was quite busy and FULL of family...just like we like it! This is mainly going to be a photo dump with a bit of words so hope you enjoy!
Saturday night during my nephew's birthday party, we walked around the corner from their house and visited one of our neighbors, who sits outside his very decorated house dressed as Santa! Carmen loved seeing Santa and getting a little gift! She also enjoyed seeing the train and other decorations! This was a BIG hit for her and us! He says he does it every year and sits out there from 6-10 during this time of year! We will have to visit next year too!
Sunday after her nap. we walked across the street and watched Polar Express with her cousin...and then her Auntie!
After Polar Express, CGR helped her cousins, Auntie, and Uncle with decorating their tree! They were a bit late in putting it up but better late than never!
Monday was spent running last minute errands and then heading over to CGR's Papa's house for Christmas Eve dinner. We had a lot of fun and there were crafts for the kids and fishing for the men!
Christmas morning was amazing! I got very few pictures but CGR loved the horsie that Santa brought her! Special K made an excellent breakfast and then we hung out and played until it was time for more family fun! We also sang Happy Birthday to Jesus as a family and blew out a candle and ate cupcakes! CGR is a bigger fan of the icing than the actual cupcake. :)
All dressed up and ready to go, CGR was dressed in her little black dress and ready for party time!
We enjoyed spending the afternoon at my sister's house. We did a White Elephant gift swap and opened presents and ate some yummy lunch! I didn't get a lot of pictures but here are a couple of CGR and me posing...she is just too silly so I joined her!
After a late nap for CGR, we went back to her Papa's house for more gift opening and Christmas celebrating. It was a nice way to end the holiday!
Overall, the Christmas holiday was just right. Watching CGR learn the new traditions, start new family traditions with her and just get lots of time with her, her daddy, and our family was amazing! Three of the new traditions that we started this year that we plan to repeat are as follows: wrapping the books to open each night during advent, getting new Christmas pjs to open Christmas Eve...getting them for Special K and I next year too, and then also singing Happy Birthday to Jesus on Christmas day! Those were my favorite new ones and hope to keep them going!
I have to head back to work for Wed and Thursday but then I'll be off until the 3rd! CGR's Grandma is flying in from OH today and can't wait to spend some time with her! Looking forward to more family time and more holidays!
Wishing you all a VERY Merry Christmas and hope the spirit of Christmas and Jesus, the reason for the season, stay with you all year!
Merry CHRISTmas from the Barknknit Family to yours!
This past week has been busy! Between trying to rest more, saying good bye for now to CGR's "sEE-Pa" aka my dad, and working...I haven't had time to post much! So instead of a this moment post, your getting a catching up post with LOTS of pictures!
Let's begin with Friday night of last week. CGR, some of my family, and I did the Jingle Bell Run aka Jingle Bell Walk because none of us ran it. This is an annual event and it's always a fun time! I wasn't sure I could walk the 3 miles this year as my belly gets tight when I walk and doesn't release until I rest. We brought the wagon for little miss Carmen, who never wanted to get out of it, and that helped a lot! It was so fun to see the lights, people, doggies, and walk with everyone. We had a great time!
Saturday, was spent baking, cleaning, and trying to convince a little girl who had just said bye bye to her bobo(pacifier) that it was time for nap! Then we went to get her very first haircut with the hairdresser that my whole family has been going to for over 15 years! I was really worried about how this would go as on the way there we had quite the little tantrum but as soon as we got there she was ready for us. Once Carmen sat on her daddy's lap and Shawn started cutting her hair she was GREAT!
And then some pictures I got of her new bangs! I was originally hesitant about giving her bangs but I LOVE THEM!! She can see!! Especially since she won't let me put her hair up anymore!
Sunday morning before my family's wafflepalooza, I had to make more cookies for my family holiday cookie exchange. I tried a new recipe and well...first batch I burned and had a hard time forming them. I used this recipe I found on pinterest for caramel chocolate cookies! Special K went fishing with his dad, so I had a little toddler running around as I tried to make the cookies. She saw the flour I seemed to be having a great time playing with so she wanted some of her own! I set her up next to me with her own flour and she had a blast playing with it! She made a huge mess but it was worth every speck of flour on her, the floor, and the pups! She has been asking to do this again so we're already planning more baking with her this weekend!
Sunday night, the family went to dinner and then headed downtown to see the lights! Carmen had to bring the wagon again, which was fine with me as my back can't handle holding her for a long time and she loves her momma. It was great to see her expression when looking at the lights and the horsie!
The sad part of the week was having to say good bye to my dad, who flew back to Panama this week after spending 3 weeks with us. Every morning, Carmen and I would pick him up from my sister's house and we'd drop off Carmen and then my dad and I would go get coffee on my way to work. He borrowed my car. Carmen loved to see her "see-Pa" as she calls him everyday! I'm so glad they got to spend lots of time together. We are going to miss him a lot but he's already planning to come back in May to meet the baby and be here for my nephews' graduations. YAY
And just because I can...a couple extra cute pictures of CGR!
Hope you enjoyed this pretty long picture filled catch up post!
Happy Friday!!!
PS...Don't forget to enter the Giveaway, today is the LAST day!!
With the start of the Advent season this Sunday, I wanted to do something special for Carmen to countdown to CHRIST-mas. Last year, I found a bunch of fun ideas but since we weren't spending the holidays here we didn't do any of them. One of my favorite that stayed with me last year was this pin on pinterest.
I present to you our Advent Countdown to CHRIST-mas!
The general idea behind this is as follows: 1. find 24 books that you already own(I did all the Christmas books we own plus some other cute ones. I also only did 23 since I decided to follow the actual advent calendar that always starts on Sunday so that would be the 2nd of December this year. This works out better for us since we will be celebrating her birthday at her Papa's house the night before.) 2. wrap them up individually 3. put them under your tree or a tree in their room(while she has a little tree in her room, I opted to put them under the bigger tree in the living room since she was sleeping) 4. let them pick a book a night during advent to open and read.
This is right down my budget conscious alleyway! No buying anything but wrapping paper and only real cost is time, which it didn't take very long. My only problem is that we've been really busy this week with family in town and preparing for little Miss Carmen's 2nd birthday party Saturday, so this wrapping session didn't start until late last night and I stayed up WAY later than this pregnancy lady should have. I enjoyed it though. I put some holiday music and plopped down on the floor in front of the tree. It was just too late to add hot cocoa to the mix.
Carmen was SO excited to see the "presents" under the tree. She immediately went over and started naming all the characters on the wrapping paper! Go me for picking out the right wrapping papers for her this year! I had to explain a couple times that we can't open any yet and that we'll start on Sunday. She did carry one or two of the books around the living room a couple times but put them back each time.
Here she is bedhead crazy hair inspecting the books...
And another picture of her later on once we tamed the wild hair and changed her on our way to pick up Grandpa or "EeePa" as she calls him. As her shirt says, she truly is the greatest present ever! She's my little girl, who was due 2 years ago today but just like her stubborn self refused to join us until she was ready 2 days later. I feel so blessed that she chose us to be her parents! Love that silly face!
Happy Crafting and Holiday Season!
What is a tradition(s) your family enjoys during the holidays?
Could not be more Thankful for such a wonderful Thanksgiving week! This is going to be a picture and video heavy post but I'm hoping you enjoy it!
Last week started with my sister from CA and her family, as well as my father from Panama flying in! My dad is still here and will be for a couple more weeks! YAY! It was so great to have my sister and her family in town for the week!
My nephew from CA and Carmen had a blast hanging out...he is 3 and she is turning 2 soon as you all know...so they had their toddler moments of getting used to playing with each other but overall they did so wonderful! Here are some pictures of them together this weekend!
His birthday was Wednesday, so they threw him a fun bounce house birthday bash! It was Carmen's 2nd time in a bounce house and she did so much better than the first. She had so much fun and didn't really want to get out and talked about it for days after!
Thursday aka Thanksgiving was a very fun full day! My sister, who lives across the street was hosting so it was super close to us. My brother-in-law and others set up this big screen in his front yard and we play Just Dance 4 most the night! Carmen and Owen LOVED dancing along!
We even managed to get Kenny out there once! I joined in the fun!
After a very full late night on Thursday, Friday was a day of rest. We did go to Target for a little bit of Black Friday shopping but not until around 10:30 AM so we missed the big rush. Thankfully the tree that we wanted to get that was on super sale was still in stock! We decided, since we are trying to save a lot for all that is coming in the new year, that we wouldn't buy a big tree this year and just go with something reasonably priced. We threw our old fake tree out last year because it hadn't been opened in 3 years and it was time to be replaced. I'm so happy with the tree we got though. It's just perfect for where I wanted to put it this year and also was pre-lit!
One of my favorite things about the holiday season is having a tree up and all the lights and decorations! I love sitting in my living room with some hot cocoa and watching the tree. And you can only imagine that little Miss Carmen is VERY excited about the lights and tree! Every morning she gets very happy when she sees the tree and the lights. We did get her a 2 ft tree to go in her room. For some reason the lights are working but as soon as we get those working then I'll get a picture of it. I have some fun little ideas for the season for her that I will share soon. I found most of them on pinterest. :)
We had a bit of trouble getting the lights outside to work but her daddy with the help of his daddy got them working finally on Sunday and we were all really happy about it! I love how they turned out! As we live in the house longer, I'm sure our outside decorations are going to expand greatly but I'm happy with it for this year.
Back to our weekend timeline...you know how I love tangents. Saturday night, my other sister, who lives just 2+ blocks away from us, hosted a shuffleboard tournament/fish fry. This was another fun night of family activity! Special K always is the one who sets up the tournament and then we play! I haven't been playing the last couple times because usually it lasts too long and little Miss Carmen can't hang that late but she had been a trooper so I played! Special K and my nephew's girlfriend won the tournament and prizes. Check them out with their loot!
Sunday most of us headed to the Florida Aquarium. It was fun watching all the kids interact and check out all the animals. Grandpa had fun showing the kids the animals too! :)
I headed back to work on Monday but my sister and her family didn't leave until Tuesday afternoon. They continued the fun and I got to spend some time in the evenings with them. I'm so thankful they were able to be here for so long and have so much fun! 5 of the sisters all live here but it's rare treat that all 6 of us are together. Here is a picture of my dad and all his daughters.
And then one of my dad and all his grandchildren....he'll have a total of 8 after April and I just realized that with us having a girl, it rounds out his grandchildren to 4 boys and 4 girls! Pretty cool!
Hope you enjoyed this picture heavy recap of the weekend. I had hoped to have more time to post but life just was busy and when it wasn't busy I was trying to rest up. Being pregnant and on the go for days at a time...takes a tole on your body. I'm feeling good but just need a vacation after my vacation! ;)
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