Knitting Santa Hats

I've been knitting A LOT lately. Not the traditional knitting with knitting needles... but with the knitting looms. I think I've blogged about them in the past.

In the last couple weeks I've knitted...
7 scarves
6 regular baby hats
6 "Santa" hats

I know. Crazy! But, they're fun to make and really, really easy to do. Even all 3 of my girls have been knitting stuff lately too. Plus, this was something I could easily do when Cam was in the hospital last week. I'd take my knitting stuff when I'd go visit him.

So, I thought I'd post some pictures of the Santa hats I've been making. I'm making them for everyone in my family... all 4 kids and Cam and myself. Some of my kids have already been wearing them to school. But, the reason I was making them, aside from being so cute!, is because I thought it would be super fun for all of us to wearing matching Santa hats on Christmas eve.

I know. You're looking at those and thinking you want to make some too!
If so, here's a link that will show you how to change colors, etc. for the Santa hat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9270DUjvDPw

Ruffle Scarf

Remember me saying, just a day or two ago, how much I enjoy finding new things to make on Pinterest?? Well, I made something else I found on there.... A Ruffle Scarf.

Let me first say, this was the most incredibly easy, quick scarf to make.

• It requires NO SEWING. Doesn't that sound good??
• And it took me only a 1/2 hour to make it from start to finish.
• And it cost me nothing. I used an old shirt that was in my closet (in fact, this particular shirt belonged to my brother and when he passed away, I brought it home. Now when I wear it, I can think of Scott). Even if you don't have a shirt to cut up, this project will still be pretty cheap even if you have to go buy a new shirt. Or next time there's the clothing and housewares giveaway... look for some shirts!
  

Want to have a look?

Ha ha. I'm totally not going to take a full picture of me today. I look like crap today. Besides, this picture is only to show you my new scarf, right?

Cute. Isn't it? I think it would be a great Christmas present for someone.
If you're interested, here's how you make it..... Click here for tutorial video

A Cake For Marley

Several months ago, my friend, Megan, showed me a picture of a cake that she said she would love to make for her baby's blessing. It was so cute. You think I can find a picture of that original cake?? Nope. I searched for a bit, but I knew I could remember how it was and we could make it look fairly close.
So, last week I helped Megan make her cake. I baked it for her, but I had Megan do all the decorating herself. I think she did a fabulous job!! Here's some pictures of her cake...



In fact, I loved the way this cake turned out, I'd like to make another one like it one day. I especially loved how the inside matched the outside... with the gradual colors. Something totally new for me. I don't think I've ever colored my cake batter, but I might have to do that more often. So fun.
Thanks Megan for spending an afternoon with me and letting me help you make such a lovely cake for Marley.

Christmas Wreath

Pinterest.

I'm loving it.

I saw a quote not that long ago.... something along the lines of....
"Thank you Pinterest for helping me feel creative even though I've really just been sitting at my computer for the last 3 hours."
And while many people probably feel that is so true (and I'll admit, sometimes me too), I don't want it to be just that. Just looking and not doing. That just wouldn't be right. Not when there's so many great tutorials out there. So many things I'd like to make now and yet days ago, I never imagined the kind of lovely things that are out there, just waiting for me to discover them.

So, I'm happy to say that I've done a lot of the things I've pinned. Most I've been happy with, and some have been real disappointments.

Want to know what all I've tried??
A tree mural
Jack-o-lantern in a jar
Halloween toilet decor ... eyes and hands peeking out from under the lid
glowing bubbles (this was a total flop!)
A marshmellow shooter
Cheese and Bacon Potatoe Rounds
Mandarin Orange candle
Different ways to tie scarves
And a few other tutorials that I didn't necessarily pin, but looked at and tried...
Not bad. There's a lot more that I have plans to try.

So, here's one other that can be added to my list too
Ornament Christmas wreath.

My sister, Fern, and I both pinned this one and so today we got together to each make one. All our supplies we bought at the dollar store. The total cost to make it ended up being around $10-$12. I think we're both super happy with how they turned out. I think they would make a fantastic Christmas present for someone.
So easy to make them all look so different Different colors, different bows. I made mine with all the same sized balls. Fern made hers with a variety of sizes and some bells too.

Have a look at our finished wreaths....


If you want to know how we made them... here's a link to the picture tutorial we used.
http://www.everythingfab.com/2010/12/holiday-inspiration-ornament-wreath-diy.html


I want to know what kind of things you've tried and enjoyed that you found on Pinterest. Let me know!

Oh, and next on the list of to-do will be new scarf made from an old shirt (shhhh... I'm going to be cutting up one of Cam's, so don't tell him!) . Completely no sewing, so I hope it turns out.

Calgary Temple Progress - November 13, 2011

It's been a while since I've blogged about the progress on the Calgary Temple. I know a lot of you are not as fortunate as we are, to be able to see the progress on a weekly basis.

So, today I had my purse with me at church (and I always carry a small camera in it), so I decided we'd take a little walk and take some pictures before it gets any colder and starts snowing.

This week, some of the scaffolding has come down, so now we can get a better look of how the outside of the temple will look. There's some nice detailing on the top of the stones, but the camera in my purse doesn't have the strongest zoom.

Anyways, here's a little look at some of the pictures we took today....

Halloween 2011 - A little late, I know

So, I'm a little behind on my blogging. There were so many other things I was going to blog about and I just never got around to it. Things like.... going to my first concert (I know, shocking that I've never been before) with my girls. We saw Selena Gomez. It was so much fun. But, it's long passed... I should get over that I didn't blog it. But at least I've told you about it now. Okay, moving along....


So, I'm finally getting around to telling you about Halloween.
I love Halloween. In fact, my whole family loves Halloween.

First off... Pumpkin carving. I think this might have been the first time we've had enough pumpkins that everyone got to carve their own. Even Matthew. He drew his face and then used the little carving knife. He even carved his pumpkin on both sides cause he was having so much fun. I love to see how they all turned out.



My sister, Fern, hosted a Halloween Party. We went and had a great time. Lots of great food and fun games. Thanks Fern for hosting. Here's a few pictures from her party.

(2 of my sisters and I)

(my parents, the Aussies... and Dad with his creepy mask. Ha!)

Halloween night....
Abigail dressed up as Princess Leah
Emily dressed up as a witch
Elora dressed up as a vampire
Matthew dressed up as Darth Vader (he in fact had two costumes that day... he dressed up as a pirate for school cause we were unsure about masks)
And lastly, for dinner on Halloween night...... a meatloaf hand on a plate of mashed potatoes. Sorry, it's not the best picture. All I can say is, it was almost too creepy to want to eat. (and FYI, the idea's not original, I saw it online)

Out and About Geocaching

Well, with the weather being so nice this past month, I've been able to get a lot of geocaching done. I was looking today and I've found 46 caches so far in the month of October. Wow. (though, there's a lot of other geocachers out there that found that many in just one day this month)

Last weekend was the Calgary Cache & Release event (CCAR). It's a 24 hour marathon starting Saturday at noon and ending Sunday at noon. This is the second time we've participated, though we only go out on Saturday, and even then it's sporadic with all our other activities. There was a lot of drama on Facebook leading up to the event. A lot of not nice things were said and some of it was directed at me. I wouldn't have done anything differently... it was other geocachers who had their noses bent out of shape with the release of "non-judged" caches (one of which was mine). Anyways, it wasn't pretty and I felt quite hurt. Some of the people I used to look up to because of their amazing geocaches, are now people I don't care for as individuals. So disappointing. But, despite all the hoopla... Cam and I had a great time during the event and found 17 caches on the Saturday and even met a few new geocachers out on the trail.

I've found some fun caches. I even took some pictures to show you (some from the CCAR event and some others)....This one was pretty cool. It involved magnets on top that caused the cache to drop out the bottom.
An interesting teepee that some kids had built beside a geocache. See, sometimes the kids do have fun when I drag them out.


The Halloween themed cache was one of the best ones I've seen in a long time. It was complete with a lot of screaming sound effects and flashing lights. What really made this cache impressive was how to open it... which I'm not going to tell you here... you'll just have to see for yourself. Want to know which cache this is... just ask.


A FTF (First to find) cache for me. I've only found three before. Most geocachers race to be the first to find a new cache. During a CAR event is the best time to get at least one. This particular cache was nice enough to have a FTF prize... a Tim Horton's gift certificate. Sweet.


Me and Matthew found Thumper on the side of the road in Bearspaw. Matthew liked this cache.


Some caches make me think... "What the heck?" Actually, this one made me giggle at the silliness of it all.


Any guess where this cache might be hiding. I've seen quite a few of these, so it was a real quick find.


See anything in there Emily?? It's not the cache, but maybe it'll tell us where to go.


Night time caching is always an adventure. Searching in the dark is so much harder. Thankfully this last one was an easy find and thankfully it had a good clue as to where the log book was hiding.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Anyone interested in going geocaching with me?? I'm always looking for someone to come with me, especially during the day.