Friday, February 8, 2013

Tea, cookie, memory

Last night, we went to dinner with my in-laws.  Since this was a new restaurant with mostly untried foods for Em and Ro, we deemed it an adventure night where everyone tries one bite of everything before determining if they don't like it.  My boys can be picky or adventurous depending on their moods, so I wanted to set the right tone from the start and they were game.

The restaurant was quiet as we chose to eat early, so the boys enjoyed relaxing and looking around at the decorations and giant fish tank while the adults got to sit and visit.  As each course arrived, we talked about what this and that were and tried to compare it to something else Em and Ro have already enjoyed.  Chicken and steak on skewers with peanut sauce and sliced cucumbers, glass noodles rolled up into "mini burritos" that you can dip in sweet oil, soup like mommy's kinda sorta with baby bok choi.  It was great fun watching them try things and critique and ask for seconds on some things, passing on others.  They shared their own dishes with each other and declared "we have to come back here again" to my delight.


When our waitress brought out cookies, I was surprised to see them and immediately overcome with a memory of my great grandmother.  I remember being about 8 or so, sitting in a new restaurant and watching Gramma dunk her cookie into her oolong tea-- dunking it within seconds of it falling apart in the tiny tea cup.  I think she had wanted the cookie to soak up as much tea as possible before popping it in her mouth.  I showed Ro the same move with my own tea and I couldn't stop smiling thinking about my Gramma Birdie.  It's funny how those tiny memories can bubble to the surface and are now melded into a new memory of my great grandma and the great great grandchild she's never met.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Sumptuously Slow Saturday


I love Saturdays!  The piles of laundry from the week are slowly disappearing in between rows of crochet and banjo melodies.  Our puppy is napping as usual in between interruptions from Em and Ro who run back and forth excitedly from the garden to the house to the tree-house with pencils and paper and grand schemes for planting fruits and flowers in just a few weeks time.  I sit, mostly unmoving and enjoying the life this house and family leads... with no appointments or places to be, it is turning out to be a sumptuously slow Saturday and that's just super with me!

Happy Weekend!

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Easing back in

Happy 2013!

I know, it's been a while... quite a while.  Only 9 posts in 2012!  I guess that kind of can sum up the craziness that was twenty twelve.  Not all of it was bad.  But wowie was it nuts.

So, I'm easing my way into 2013.  In many aspects in life and on here as well.


This is a skein of Malabrigo Twist in Tender.  I have a ball winder and a swift that could make quick work of turning the skein into a pretty useable cake, but my boys wanted to soak up the sunshine, so I brought the skein outside with me instead and wound it by hand.  Watching Em and Ro run and laugh outside, I had time to think about the yarn and the hat pattern it plans to become.  I focused on the soft twist of and changes of color in the yarn.  I'm easing back into it all and I hope you'll ease back in with me.

Happy Saturday!
Hettie

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Googly Eye Skull Tutorial


If any of you follow my Pinterest boards, you may have seen my pin of the very very cool Googly Eye Skeleton.  Well, it was just too cool to leave as a pin on my Halloween board, I had to make one!

First, I found the photo that I think inspired the original googly eye creation and printed that out.  At my local hobby store, I grabbed several packets of adhesive googly eyes in various sizes and large black construction paper.

Using a sharp pencil (or pen), I traced around the skull printout, pressing hard to make an imprint onto the construction paper below.  From there, I laid out small, medium, large and xlarge googly eyes, shaping the outline and details like the sockets, jawline and teeth as I went along using the photo to refer back to.  One note of warning, getting the googly eyes off of the adhesive backing took a toll on my thin nails-- don't do this project with a pretty new manicure.  This video shows how I did it.  No music, but it's fun to watch!



When I was done, I put my googly eyed skull in a frame I had on hand.  Take care not to smoosh the googly eyes against the glass when securing the frame backing.  The whole project cost about $18 -- mostly for googly eyes.  How many times can I type those two words in one tutorial?!

In the rush of the season, I did not get many "done" photos, but here is one of the skull in the background of a photo I took of my zombie husband so you can see the size I made... just to the left of his reaching arm.



Happy Halloween!!

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Handmade Halloween in Progress

Happy Saturday Everyone!

We've been busy here prepping for Halloween (see YouTube timelapse video) and I wanted to show you a few pics of what we have been working on.  I plan to have a tutorial up for several of these.

Glittery black spiders for the cemetery

The new gateway to the cemetery.  If you look closely you can see that it is ripped down 2x4s, plastic finnials and plastic plumbers pipes.  Cheap, effective and fun to craft!

Glittery green spiders for the front door.

Tierra Rejada pumpkin picking

Silhouettes of the boys... fun and easy to make!
Detail on the Jack the Ripper tombstone
 
Zombie clothes in progress.

That's it for now!  I hope you are all having a spooky Saturday!!

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Setting up the Cemetery

My hubby had fun doing a little time-lapse video of the setup of our front yard cemetery and I thought you might all enjoy it.  Everything you see was made by us over the past fourteen years.  We still have the extras and the fragile items to add (i.e. fog, feathered crows, pumpkins, cobwebs) so it will get a bit more elaborate as Halloween comes closer.

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