Alexia Jean Designs

I want to give a big shout out to my friend Lexi at Alexia Jean Designs - she and I had a dress swap for our two year olds - I made a Summerlin for her daughter, and she designed this chic pillowcase dress for my Lucy!

I'm happy that it's plenty big enough for Lucy to wear next year, since we're hitting fall and the end of cute sundresses here in Ohio!

Check out Lexi's site (linked above) - she has all sorts of gorgeous sewn items for babies and kids - the designs and quality are both fantastic :) I wish I had her eye for patterns - she can pair prints like nobody's business!

Thanks Lexi! You're awesome!

The Three Years Dress

I can't believe I'm getting 3 years out of this dress! I knit it when Lucy was 8 months old, and here she is, 3 months shy of 3 years old, and she's wearing it today! Woohoo!




Pretty exciting (to me, anyway). All too often, it feels like I spend as much time making the garment as they spend wearing it before it's outgrown.

Toby is begging for a sweater, and I'd love to oblige him, but I have Christmas knitting yet to do
as well as slippers for the family (our new house floors are COLD in the morning!). I hope I have time to add in a sweater for him, because, well, as long as he's asking, I want to do it for him! I know the day will come when he's no longer asking for these things, and the though alone makes me so sad.

I haven't been as busy on the wheel lately. For one, I want to use up some of my handmade yarn before spinning more - if I don't use it, I don't know what I need to adjust. And getting new things into the knitting queue is...interesting...as you can see from above! Next weekend is the wool festival at Young's Dairy (YUM!) and I will be looking for something new to try there. I love branching out! I bought some silk caps online last week and am looking forward to spinning them. The only problem is I have no idea how much yardage I will get out of them!

The 3 Years Dress

I made this dress for Lucy when she was just a bitty thing - here's her modeling it at 8 months -

She wore it again last year as a long top, and yesterday I pulled it out when I was sorting through summer/fall clothes. This morning she tried it on and -

voila!
Woot woot! 3 years in a handmade outfit! I can't believe it's been so versatile!

We are loving the cooler weather. The kids are snuggled up on the couch with blankets, as it is a little chilly in here right now, but it feels fantastic to me! I have had 3 orders for new slippers in the last 2 weeks though - Curtis's have holes, Lucy doesn't have a pair yet, and I gotta admit, I might make a pair for myself - our hard floors are COLD of a morning! Luckily I made Toby's over the summer, so his are good to go.

We still have hummingbirds - for how much longer, I don't know. It seems we have lost a few over the last week or so. We still have one quite regular, and once in a while I see a second one hanging around, so I'm not sure how much longer we'll be seeing the little guys. I will miss them!

My goal for the next couple weeks is to start making some Halloween decor for the house/ outside. We have hardly any Halloween decorations, and I'd prefer to make rather thana buy. So we'll have to see what the kid and I come up with!

Yum, Octoberfest!

I should have taken my camera, but alas, did not.

We went to the Vandalia Octoberfest last night. The kids LOVED the polka music! Toby was asking me about the funny piano...when I explained that it was an accordion, he replied, "But it has a piano on it!" That it does, son. :) There were a few craft booths, but most importantly, the food.

Yum.

Curtis had a giant brat and sauerkraut. I had a delicious cabbage roll. The kids had hot dogs (eyeroll) and German pretzles...mmmmm.

And of course there was some good beer (for me and Curtis, not the kids).

There is just something toe-tapping about listening to accordions sing while you eat. Live bands are even better!

Oops, gotta go check the windows - it's RAINING (for once!)

Cooler Weather is Crafting Weather!

So I have several projects going on of late. I finally made my Owls sweater, and it's beautiful, but I haven't taken pics yet - need the hubby to get the camera on me! I love it, and will probably make more :)

Since finishing it, I've started two hats as part of a Knit Along (KAL). Here are in progress pics for both Toby's and my hat...the finished version will have a bill on the front and buttons.


I stumbled across another find this week - a $25 wheel in Cincy!
Isn't she beautiful? She's from Germany, and from what I (and another tiny wheel owner) can tell, it's a working wheel marketed to tourists? She's awful tiny, but spins just fine and I think the two of us will get along splendidly.

Here are some of my recent handspuns -
(The dark one of the bottom is what I'm making my hat out of)

This is a doll I made for a 2 year old's birthday. I'm very taken with her!
A close up of a handspun -

My Apologies!

I have completely neglected the blog of late...my bad! With fall setting in though, I think i will have a little more time at the computer. And while I don't expect to catch up on the missed months, I will start with that's going on of late...

Toby started soccer last month and seems to enjoy it. He's playing at the Rec center...and there are a LOT of kids in the lollipop league! He's on the Cheetahs and it's making Saturday mornings a lot of fun...even if that fun does start at 8:30!


Go Number 6!!!

Last month we also went down to the Newport Aquarium. Here's a pic of the kids with the Ohio River in the background, and Cincy on the other side -
Toby started school this week - he really seems to love his preschool. His teachers are so nice and the kids seem like a really good group.
It's a new schedule for us - school starts at 12:30 and pickup is at 3, so what is usually naptime at our house is suddenly the busiest part of the day. Lucy is having a rough adjustment as well - skipping naps! Argh! Of course, yesterday when we didn't have preschool she napped like a champ.

This weekend is the Octoberfest here in Vandalia, so we're planning to take the kids. I think it looks like a lot of fun, and Curtis is a big fan of all foods German, so I think we'll have a good time.

Toby is watching his favorite show right now - How It's Made, on the Science Channel. He LOVES the show. It's too cute watching him! Both he and Lucy have taken to drawing and coloring a LOT lately...and you can tell in how improved their pictures are! It warms a mother's heart...especially one who loved drawing so much when she was a child! (I like to think I'm still an artist at heart... I mean, come on, I make YARN!)