Easy Rapunzel Ponytail!

Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder ready to go!

Naomi had been going back and forth on what she wanted to be for Halloween...  From Jasmin to Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), to finally Rapunzel.  But where can you find an appropriately long wig on short notice (i.e. 10pm the night before it's needed)?  Frankly, if necessity is the mother of invention, then procrastination is surely the father.

Starting to attach:  Make a ponytail.

The night before Naomi's Halloween party, Dave and I were discussing what to do about her costume.  I was putting the finishing touches on a shawl that included instructions for making a twisted cord, and he started asking what colors of yarn I had on hand.  A strange question for him to ask, but after a few minutes, I started to see where he was going.  If we made enough of these long twisted cords in the right color, they could be attached to Naomi's hair for a non-tangling, extra-long, Rapunzel-like ponytail!

Place on top of ponytail.

Once the yellow yarn was hunted down, we started measuring, cutting, and twisting.  The way we went about making this really requires two people, but we're thinking the process could be sped up and simplified.  If/when we get around to trying our other approach, I'll make sure to re-post.  :)


So, without further ado, our take on a Rapunzel ponytail:


Supplies Needed
- Scissors
- 12-ft tape measure
- 440ft (147y / 134m) of yellow acrylic yarn

Getting ready to attach the elastic.

- Drill (optional)
- 2 hair elastics


Will Make
- 6 twisted cords that when put together make a 12-cord pony tail approx. 2.5ft long


Instructions
- Measure 6 strands of yarn 144in (12ft) long.

Attached!

- With you and your partner holding the strands together at each end and standing far apart, both of you twist right until the cord is tightly wound.

Optional Method:
If you have a drill, feed one end of the cord into the drill.  One person operates the drill and the other holds the end until the cord is tightly wound.

- Put the ends together while holding the middle and allow the cord to twist.

Next step, make it extra secure.

- Knot the end.

- Repeat this process 5 more times.

- Place all 6 cords together and tie in the middle with a matching piece of yarn approx. 1ft long.  You now have a Rapunzel ponytail with 12-cords.

If you are particular like me, arrange the cords so that each end of the ponytail will have three knotted ends and three non-knotted ends.  Or take it one step further and have knots on both ends of each cord.

Wrap extra yarn around...

To Attach
- Make a ponytail and secure tightly with an elastic.

- Place your Rapunzel ponytail on top of this ponytail, with 6 cords laying on each side and the knot of the yarn used to tie it together at the base of the ponytail (by the head).

- Take the 2 middle cords closest to the hair in the ponytail and hold them tightly together WITH the ponytail.  Secure them tightly together by using a non-slip elastic.

Tie in a bow.

- Take each side of the strand of yarn used to secure the middle of the Rapunzel ponytail, and wrap around the base of the ponytail in the hair several times and tie in an easily untied bow.  This just further secures the Rapunzel ponytail to the hair.

Voila!  You have just created your very own Rapunzel and she is sure to be a big hit at whatever Halloween function she attends.  And the best part about this "wig" is that it won't get "Tangled".  :)


To Unattach
Untie the bow in the yarn and unwrap.
Carefully cut the elastic that is securing the Rapunzel ponytail to the hair.

Perfect!

Thou Shalt Not Pinch!

Message received!

I recently bought these really cheap overnight pullups on sale and upon opening the package discovered they had...  *GASP*... no pictures on them!  No beautiful princesses, no cuddly teddy-bears, no Nickelodeon characters to jazz up our bedtime ritual.  I was hoping this would go unnoticed, but alas, it didn't.  Naomi of course wondered why the pullups were "plain".  We decided it would be fun to draw our own pictures on the pullups, so each night we make a fun new design with washable markers on these frugal bedtime underwear.  All was going swimmingly well, and I thought myself quite clever until tonight when she put on her pullup and turned around.  Daddy and Naomi had left me a not-so-subtle message.  (Insert sheepish face here)

One Hat, Two Ways, In a Flash!

So, here I am again, needing to be distracted from life and it's many W.O.E.'s (there is an inside joke there that will be explained in a future post, I'm sure).

Thing was kind enough to model.  :)

I crocheted two hats recently, both from the same cloche pattern found on the Lion Brand website (side note: you will need to create an account to view this pattern, but if you are into needle crafts, this site has a TON of really great, frequently reviewed, FREE patterns).



The first hat I tweaked to make it slouchy.  I increased each round until the hat was wider than it needed to be and added length until it was longer than it needed to be.  I finished the pattern as written with the exception of decreasing on the first few rows of the band to make it snug.  I also used a different flower pattern...  (Keep reading for those details.)


The second hat was for my niece's birthday, and she is pictured here, cute as a button, showing off her new hat.  This one was made pretty true to the pattern, but also with a different flower.  Here is the flower pattern that I used (the first of five available, called The Pink Sunflower) for both hats, which is on a blog called The Sunroom.  The pattern includes fabulous instructions for creating five funky flowers that all start with the same basic center.  I just love these unique flowers, AND they were super easy to make!

 
The first hat took a bit longer and was completed over the course of several days, but my niece's hat was started and finished in a single afternoon!  I found both of these patterns on an awesome website called Ravelry, which I've mentioned in previous posts.  You create a free account, and then you can track your projects (complete with pictures!), store details of your yarn stash, and search for thousands of knit and crochet patterns, many of which are FREE!

Well, that's it for now.  I'm keeping busy, staying distracted, and creating a multitude of hand-made items in the process.  Oh, and trying to eat less.  ;)

How Does Your Garden Grow?

A friend of mine has a very read-worthy blog called Laundry on the Line.  She's a school teacher by day, but her free time is devoted to creative exploits of all types.  Thus, she blogs about everything, or just about!  Her creative talents lend themselves to gardening, cooking, scrapbooking, and sewing, to name just a few.


She recently started a new series on her blog entitled How Does Your Garden Grow, which will be full of all sorts of handy gardening tips for those of us who are tired of putting in a ton of work with little know-how and yielding unpredictable results!  She's going to take us on her gardening journey for this year's growing season (May-October).  I'm especially excited because she's going to include posts on herb gardens, which is what I'm most interested in.  Store bought fresh herbs are pricey and are hard to keep fresh once you get them home.

Check out this multi-faceted blog and you'll be glad you did.  Happy gardening everyone!

By Special Request...

Bazinga!

A lovely woman, who shall remain nameless, was kind enough to request a photo of me in my new hat.  I sort of shun the whole "taking a picture of one's self and posting it on the internet", but as many fellow busy women will relate, sometimes finding someone to actually take a picture of you is darn near impossible!  Plus add into the equation the necessary time to put on makeup, do hair, and not be in pajamas, and it's that much more difficult.
But then comes a thoughtful, delightfully complementary request and my heart goes all mushy...  So here it is.  Me with enough makeup on to not look like I just rolled-out of bed, hair that is clean, if not exactly done, and "not" pajamas.  Oh, and the most important part, the hat!
This also seems like an opportune chance to thank those of you who have been reading...  This started as something for my family, and has broadened to include many new and existing friends.  Days are so busy and fly by, and I appreciate the time you take to share in these diversions.  :)

One Round-Trip Drive to Boston = 2 Hats + 3 Coffee Cozies

The house is quiet, and I'm trying not to eat.  There must be millions who relate to that simple compulsion.  And so I write...

I recently drove to and from Boston with some friends to see Hillsong United.  I have always loved road trips, but these days I don't "sit" very well.  Life has left me with too much to ponder, and pondering can take me to places I don't always want to go.  Reading in the car usually results in a sore tummy, but what else can be done while chit-chatting away on a long drive?  You guessed it...  CROCHET!  Yes, my new-found obsession is the perfect way to pass the time, keeping my hands and mind sufficiently occupied.

The "right" side of Dave's hat.

I chose two simple patterns so that I could still participate in lively conversation.  I had promised Dave (my dear hubby) a hat quite a while ago, and this was the perfect time to fulfill that promise.  He wasn't keen on the hat pattern I made for my brother Sean for his birthday, even without the pom-pom, so I chose a simple single-crochet pattern instead.  I decided to only crochet through the back-loops, which made the hat reversible with two really neat sides to choose from.  If Dave didn't like one side (which he didn't), he could wear the other!

The "wrong" side of Dave's hat, and also his favorite.

I wasn't sure how long it would take to make Dave's hat, but using Lion Brand Thick & Quick yarn and a size N hook, his hat was done by the time we drove out of Bangor!  I was so glad I had brought that second pattern and additional yarn because....  I got to make MYSELF a hat.  My first ever "for me" item!  I can't tell you how excited I was.  I have a few purchased knit items, and since I have started knitting myself, I am often asked if I made them.  Now I'll be able to proudly say YES!

The pattern I used is the same one I made for Sean, but this time I chose to spiral the ribbing, the effect of which is just too cool for words and also added a distinctly feminine touch.  I finished off my hat with a few rows of single-crochet, and voila!  My new hat.  :)

My Hat!

At this point, we were on the drive home, but were by no means home yet.  And I had a bit of yarn left over.  Hmmmmmm.....  I hadn't brought any other patterns, and there really wasn't that much yarn.  What could be done?  Boston Road Trip Coffee Cozies!  Of course we had a coffee cup in the car, so I just fiddled around a bit until I had made the first prototype.  Follow that up with two more, and I'd say that was one very productive road trip.  And we still had driving time left!

Road trips provide an excellent opportunity for self-discovery, but let's face it.  There's only so much we really want to know about ourselves.  So the moral of this road trip story is to bring your hook, and LOTS of yarn!  You'll be glad you did.

Pantry Raid: Last Minute Pork Chops

I think I might have a hoarding gene somewhere in my mix of DNA because nothing comforts me like a well-stocked pantry.  The fridge is perpetually half empty, but ol' Mother Hubbard's cupboard is almost always well stocked.  This is a good thing because that is where most of our last minute supper's come from.  Or maybe they have to come from there for lack of groceries...  A recurring household theme, either way.

Last night's supper was certainly no exception.  The fridge was frightfully empty, and the pantry (*GASP*) was not much better.  Dave had picked up pork chops when he was out the day before, so they had to get eaten up.  The usual accompaniments (i.e. potatoes, rice, frozen veggies, etc....) were missing in action, so what's a girl to do?  My mom used to make THE BEST pork chops by cooking them all day with lots of onions and cream of mushroom soup in the crock pot.  On a very lucky day, we'd have them with egg noodles, but usually we ate them with veggies and rice.  Well, cream of mushroom soup, check.  Everything else, nope, nope, and nope.  Plus I didn't have all day.

After some deep digging through the cupboards (or cabinets, as my builder hubby would insist they are), I came up with something pretty decent.  Naomi ate it without complaining (hurray!) and Dave was suitably impressed.  Success!

Enjoy our latest pantry raid.  It wasn't the first, and certainly won't be the last.  Let's just hope that next time the pantry is more sufficiently stocked!

Last Minute Pork Chops

5 small pork chops
4 small onions
1 cup dried mushrooms, rehydrated
water from re-hydrating the mushrooms
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup acini di pepe pasta (the pasta found in Italian Wedding Soup, Dave's fave)
3 green onions
3 cups baby spinach

Slice onions and saute on medium heat in a large pot with olive oil until slightly translucent.  Season pork chops with salt and pepper.  Move onions to one side of the pot, and add pork chops, browning lightly on both sides.  Drain the water from the mushrooms into the pot.  Chop the mushrooms and also add to the pot.  Add the cream of mushroom soup, plus a little more than one can of water.  Stir well and bring to a boil.  Add the pasta and stir well.  Continue to cook with the lid on, stirring frequently.  When the pasta is nearly cooked, add the baby spinach and the chopped green onions.  Check and adjust seasoning if needed.

Serve this one pot wonder immediately and enjoy!

Cupcakes Anyone? YES PLEASE!

Patiently waiting...

Many companies are now offering contests based on "liking" their Facebook page, and Saint John Cupcake Salon took this idea one step further.  When I saw a chance to win a dozen delicious gourmet cupcakes, I just couldn't pass up the chance!  And let's be honest... who doesn't "like" a cupcake?  The owner, Jacqueline Schroeter, wanted to know what we the people like the very most about cupcakes, and all I had to do to enter the contest was to say as much on the Discussion board of the company fan page.  So easy!!!

The bad news is that I didn't win a dozen cupcakes.  But the GOOD news is that I won a surprise consolation prize of a half dozen cupcakes, and they couldn't have come at a better time.  It's no secret to those who know me that I eat my feelings, and suffice it to say that there were some feelings that these delectable cupcakes deeply touched.  :)

There were three white cupcakes, and three chocolate, and it was very difficult to share them.  The white cupcake had a beautifully dense texture, like a pound cake but softer and more moist.  They were frosted in a cool two-tone butter-cream that was silky smooth, not too sweet, and had a certain je-ne-sais-quoi that left me pondering what the secret ingredient might be.  The chocolate cupcakes had chocolate chips peaking out of the top and had a surprise filling of CHEESECAKE!  'Nuff said.  They were perfectly chocolaty and sophisticated enough that I didn't feel too guilty while eating them.

This picture took great restraint to get...  so yummy!

Saint John Cupcake Salon is a local business that will satisfy all of your cakely culinary desires.  Check out their Facebook fan page for lots of beautiful pictures, or email the owner about your upcoming event!

BEST Homemade Bits & Bites

I'm not a fan of store-bought Bits & Bites.  I should on all accounts love those handy little snacks.  Salty, crunchy carbs?!  They are all the things that I love, and I should find them delicious.  I don't know why, but I just don't.

Take One:  Everyone say CHEESE!

A few weeks ago my friend Angela sent us a homemade treat, and of course I was excited!  I was a little less excited when I found out it was Bits & Bites, but I still really appreciated the gesture, and I knew Dave and Naomi would devour them in no time.  I just don't like Bits & Bites.  Even still, Angela had made them, and I wanted to try them just to see what they were like.  Well, let me tell you, that was an "aha" moment even Oprah would have been proud of.  There was no Bits & Bites about it....  It was more like Lots & Mouthfuls.  I honestly couldn't shovel these into my face fast enough!  To give you some perspective, even the pretzels tasted good.  In case you missed that, EVEN THE PRETZELS TASTED GOOD!

Angela was gracious enough to share the recipe, so here it is.  She's unsure of the original source but a friend of hers gave her the recipe years ago.  If you don't like store bought Bits & Bites, or heck, even if you do, TRY THESE!  They are sure to blow your snack-lovin-mind.

Take Two:  Everyone say BITS & BITES!

Lots & Mouthfuls...  er, I mean, Bits & Bites

In a large roasting pan, mix together:

1 box of mini Ritz
1 box of Cheese Nips
4 cups of Shreddies
4 cups of pretzels

In a measuring cup, mix together:

1/2 cup of canola oil
2 tsp of dried dill weed
1 pkg of Clubhouse brand Ranch Dressing mix

Pour wet mixture over dry mixture and stir well.
Bake at 250 for 10 minutes.  Stir then bake for another 10 minutes.


I cannot even begin to describe how delicious these are hot from the oven, so be sure to try some as soon as they are done.  When we made ours, we used Goldfish crackers, mini Ritz, Crispix cereal, and straight pretzels, but the possibilities are endless.  Angela even suggested making a really huge, extra-yummy, crazy batch by doubling the wet mixture, and also doubling the dry mixture, but using eight different snacks instead of just four.  I am definitely going to try that next time.  Enjoy!

The Name's Bond. Baby Bond.

How do you solve the problem of a stylin' baby Bond who enjoys his formula shaken, not stirred, but can't hold his applesauce-tini?  Take him out in a bib that's as sophisticated as he is and has just the right amount of pomp for any circumstance.

I wrote in an earlier post about how hand-knit and crocheted items have a natural tendency to look girly, so when making anything for a boy, especially a baby boy, it's important to make the items as boyish as possible.  It's every mother's nightmare for someone to come up to their handsome baby boy and say "What a beautiful baby girl!".  I take no chances when making baby boy items, and these bibs are no exception.

The foundation is just the basic single crochet bib I made for Alicia, minus the ruffle, of course.  I searched high and low for just the right thing to applique onto this boy version, and hit the jackpot when I found this necktie applique pattern.  The bow-tie and buttons were a natural choice to create a super cute and very masculine set.  The bow-tie is just a glorified rectangle, and for the buttons I used the cherry from this cupcake applique pattern, sewn on just like, you guessed it, a button!

Small "p" Published... Thank you "Best Health" Magazine!

I say small "p" published because it's a tiny little blurb, about two paragraphs or so, plus a picture of me printed in the "Your Best Advice" section of the March/April 2011 issue of Best Health Magazine.  But still, my words, in actual print, in a media that people pay money for!  Well, no, I didn't get paid, but still!  My words, in print!

You see, this is not one of my every day occurrences, and thus this small dabble in the world of printed word has turned me into a bit of a geek.  And now that I'm "blogging" about the experience, I suppose that would make me a mega-geek.

I had been contacted weeks ago by the magazine editor about this random tip I submitted through their website, which just tickled me pink, but for some reason, after a few email exchanges, I just assumed they had decided not to print the tip.  Then, out of the blue, a family friend sent my sister Kelly an email about seeing my tip and picture in her copy of the magazine, so of course I did what anyone else in the same situation would have done...  I went out and bought copies for me, my mom, and both of my sisters.  :)

Best Health Magazine prints tips from readers from all over Canada in every issue, so head to their website, and share your best advice.  Who knows?  Maybe you'll also be small "p" published someday!

Not a Forever Pom-Pom? We'll Have to Wait and See

Sean's birthday is on Monday and he's turning the big 3-0, so we decided to have a family whoop-di-do for him Saturday night.  We ate our faces off and had a great time eating Chinese food, two kinds of cake, and of course, opening presents.

I've always thought that knit and crocheted items naturally look more girly, so when trying to think of something to make for my 6'5" brother, I really had to scour the internet for something he would actually wear.  I made him a cool tuque using this pattern for a Reversible Strands Hat that I found on Ravelry.  The hat is reversible with one side being ribbed and the other side being flat.


I changed the pattern slightly because I wanted to use Lion Brand's Wool-Ease Thick & Quick yarn, which is super-bulky.  I crocheted his hat using a 10mm hook, started with 8 double-crochet, and did two extra partial rounds of increases (if you'd like to know exactly what I did, feel free to message me).

The pom-pom was Dave's idea and done strictly as a joke.  I originally told Dave that while I thought it would be hilarious, I didn't want to do it because, knowing Sean, he would leave the pom-pom on.  So when Sean opened his present and saw the massive pom-pom, I made sure to tell him "This is NOT a forever pom-pom.  Just so you know, I didn't attach it to stay on forever.  Let's take a picture and then we can cut it off."  And Sean's answer, predictably, "No way!  That thing's never coming off."

He went to see our cousin play basketball later that night, so if you don't believe that he would wear the tuque out in public with the pom-pom, check out this picture Kelly sent me live from the game.  My poor Nanny sitting behind him actually couldn't see the game through the pom-pom!


Who knows how long a purposely poorly attached pom-pom will stay attached to a hat, but I have a feeling it will be longer than a well-attached pom-pom would.  Murphy's Law gets me every time!
Happy Birthday Sean!  xo

Daddy's Little Peach, and the Apple of His Eye

Our kids have all been "spitter" babies, and thus we have gone through our fair share of bibs.  Trust me on this, bibs are not all created equal.  My sister-in-law Krista made two beautiful bibs for Naomi that we use even now for Miss Alicia.  I love the shape and size and they are super absorbent.  I wanted to recreate these bibs so we could have more of them, but they are sewn, and I am a horrible seamstress.  I scoured the internet for weeks trying to find a suitable knit or crochet pattern without any luck, so I came up with this very simple single-crochet bib with a girly double-crochet ruffle in the general size and shape of the ones that Krista had made.  Dave is always calling Alicia his "little peach" and he really wanted the bib to have a peach on it, but I couldn't find a pattern for that either, so I made one up (the stem and leaf were done from this pattern I found for an apple coaster, but using a 6mm hook).  It came out looking exactly like an apple, and of course I know it's red, but it was scrap yarn and for some reason I thought it might look like that deep blush a really ripe peach has.  Oops!  Anyway, who will even notice a bib when Alicia is wearing it?!  Such a cutie-pie, and she was gracious enough to pose for a photo.  :)

Who Gets a Blog for Their Birthday?

So here is Jill's actual birthday present.  It's a shawl that I knit based on a Lion Brand pattern called the Shawl of Gratitude.

This simple pattern creates a fabric with two distinctly different but equally beautiful sides, and the name of the pattern could not have been more appropriate.  I really am so grateful to have Jill as not only my sister, but also my friend.

The yarn is Bernat Cottontots in Sweet Cream.  Jill is on the taller side, so I made this quite a bit longer than the pattern called for...  It's actually taller than I am!  I kept asking Dave what he thought, "Is it long enough NOW?".  I just kept going until I got his stamp of approval.  I think at the end of it, he might have been just toying with me to see how long I would keep knitting.  :)

Thanks to Jill for taking this picture for me.  MWAH!

A Very Good Place to Start...

Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start...  I can't say it any better than the problematic Maria did in "The Sound of Music".  Every blog starts with an idea, and this one came from my sister.  It's her birthday, and she was determined that I should have a blog that documents my bouts of creative escapism.  I say "escapism", if that even is a word, because that's exactly what it is.  Escaping.  We all have things going on in our lives that are all too real, and sometimes it's nice to step back, flake out, and pretend as though life is normal, or maybe not even happening at all.  Like a real life "pause" button.  Yes, that's it.  A "pause" button.  Of course, anyone with children knows that "pause" does not exist between the hours of 7am - 7pm.  Ok, more like 6am - 8pm.  Ok, more like anytime when they aren't sleeping.  Children have this beautiful ability to keep us going, like tiny little precious motors installed into the very core of our being.  My children and my husband are my life, but they all go to sleep long before I do.  So what does a sorta-kinda obsessive-compulsive insomniac with a hint of ADD do when her motors are all sleeping?  The answer is simple.  Keep busy.  I know that sounds crazy.  Keep busy does not equal pause, right?  Well, if my mind is so busy that it can't contemplate reality, that is a beautiful kind of pause.  When my family is awake, that happens organically.  But while the kids are sleeping, I occupy my somewhat dysfunctional mind by doing needle-crafts, cooking, baking, exercising, watching tv, and sometimes various combinations of the above.  Yes, the laundry sometimes creeps in there, and (bleck!) house work, but no one wants to read about that.  I think.  Well, I wouldn't want to read about that and I'm pretty sure my sister doesn't either, so I won't write about it.
I already gave my sister her birthday present, but presents are always better in multiples, so here it is.  Present #2.  Happy Birthday Sis!  xo