Quilt squares attempt

With my injured thumb, I've been severely limited on what I can do craft wise this weekend. It's painful to knit, I popped the blister trying to embroider, so I thought I'd give these quilt squares a try. I found the tutorial at ibbybeequilts.blogspot.com. I swear someday I'll figure out how to do the whole link thing. Anyhow, she has a great page and easy tutorials. These squares are really fun and easy to make.

Justa little FYI for ya. I found out that Step 2 toys are made in the USA. This is wonderful. Now I will be able to get the slide and teeter totter for the baby for Christmas- hooray! By the way thank you so much to everyone in bloglandia for the support and encouraging words regarding my Made in China Free Christmas!

I am thankful for my thumbs

My camera is on the fritz, so no new pics for a while. However, here is an applique I did not too long ago on a little girls jean skirt. She's got a shell button in her hand. I love how the lines in the material for her hair make it look all chunky and textured.

The other day while using the glue gun on my sons party favors I gave myself a nasty 2nd degree burn on my left thumb. It's horrible. The entire pad of my left thumb is now one huge nasty blister that keeps oozing painfully. This is making it difficult to knit, do embroidery, make bread, get the baby dressed, wash my hair, etc... I am thankful for my thumbs and that I have them to do the daily things I need. I can't wait until it's working properly again!

American girl dolls

Apparently American girl dolls are not made in America. How much sense does that make? I have to say that I'm not surprised. I found this out after calling the customer service # today. They do this to keep prices low and competitive. I'm sorry, but to me 90$ for a doll is not "low" and "competitive". I love the doll we got our daughter last year, but it looks like we'll be making the outfits for her this year!

Birthday stuff

My oldest sons birthda is this week. Here are a couple of pics from his past birthdays. Last year we did pirates. I made this pirate cake. For favors I painted treasure chests. We did a treasure hunt. Along the way all the kids got little goodies to put into their treasure chests.
The year before that we had a cowboy party. I made a Woody and Jessie cake with clouds on it like the ones in Toy Story. For party favors that year I decided all 11 guests needed a handstitched stick pony pencil and a customized notebook to go with it. It was super cheap to do and all the kids loved it. This year we're having a space party in 2 dys. I have no idea what kind of cake to do. However we are having very cute party favors. I'm making flannel boards and pictures to go on them. We just need to figure out what games we'll be playing, what we're doing for the cake and wrap the presents, then we'll be good to go. I can get this all done by Tuesday, right?

Knitted Babes

How cute are these? One of my bestest pals got this book for me a couple of months ago for my birthday. I have a couple of hats I need to finish up and then I'll get working on this. My favorite is the surfer chick with the red hair. I love her outfits. I think her little swim cap with the red flowers on it is super cute!

In the works!

Here's a project I am in the middle of. It's a huge piece that I just finished embroidering. I'm working on turning it into a mini quilt for a special someones late birthday present. I'll post more pics when it's done.

I am going to do the China free Christmas. I decided it for sure last night. Yesterday I went to a store looking for a present for my sons 5th birthday last night. Every single thing that I picked out was MIC. After going through that, I am determined to prove that you can have a holiday and live in a world without being dependant on China. This is going to be difficult, but I'm sure it can be done. Now I just need to figure out how to find a slide and a teeter totter for my baby. Maybe I'll have to think of something different, I don't know yet. I would really love to hear any ideas from blogland, or if you're doing something similar, I would really like to know how things are going for you.

By the way, Super Wonderful day for Moki who just had her baby last night. I am so happy for you! I can't believe that I've never met half of your children!

Cute fuzziness

Wow! 2 posts in 2 days, maybe I'll try and do one every day this week, wouldn't that be exciting!

I was checking out ebay a few weeks ago for a pon pom maker. You know sometimes how you get the itch to find something that you just HAVE to have? Well I found this one. I had to get it if nothing else for the story behind it. The listing said that it was from Japan after WWII. A soldier was stationed there and bought it for his sweetie back home. I was so impressed that a soldier actually knew the love of his life well enough to know that he should get her a pon pom maker. I don't even think my husband would know what one is! Even if the story was made up, it still sold me on it and thank goodness I won it. It has 4 different sizes. 1 inch all the way up to 4 inches. The one pictured is the 4 inch. It took a lot of yarn, but I think it would be fun to make 10 or so for a scarf for my daughter for Christmas.

China Free Christmas

SO, I think I am one of the worst bloggers ever! It's funny because I have a running dialogue in my head all day long of things to post, but I have a hard time doing it. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that my camera sucks and I don't like posting my crappy pictures. Anyhow, after not having written anything for awhile, I've got a lot to talk about... maybe, we'll see when the baby starts to cry!
I had this epiphany last night. We need to have a China free Christmas. I don't know exactly how to do it, but I'd like very much this year to have a Christmas without anything having a made in China label. The more research I do on this the more strongly I feel about it. I think I can sum it up one way by comparing it to people who have to work on Sundays.
We don't go anywhere and buy things on Sundays because I really think people should be allowed to stay home with their families and be able to worship how they choose. However, because there are people who do choose to do shopping or whatever on Sundays, there will always be someone who needs to be behind the cash register to help those people.
I would not want my children to be working in horrendous working conditions for pennies an hour, so why support a system that thrives on that?
I know that not everything that comes out of China is bad or made under wretched conditions. But today when I was cleaning out the toy boxes and closets, all the cheap crap that needed to be thrown away all had that same label on it.
I'm thinking if we have a Made in China Free Christmas, the gifts would be more creative and better quality. The one thing that's really getting to me right now if I decide to do this, is that I had planned on getting each of the kids a CD player. When was the last time you saw any electronics that weren't MIC? There's a lot of things I need to consider, but I really think this is the right thing to do. I'll keep you informed.

Non pocket pita bread

I swear someday we really will get a new camera. Here is a picture of the yummy pitas I made the other night. They were absolutely wonderful, just flawed. I rolled them out way too thin, so they weren't able to get puffy enough to make a pocket. And, I didn't put enough flour down, so they stuck to the counter when I tried to take them off to bake them. But, I have a good recipe, and I know how to make them better, since I tried and messed up. Now I can pass this info on to you, and you can make pitas for your family, because really, who doesn't want to make their own pita bread?

1 1/4 C warm water 1 tsp salt

1 tbsp yeast 3 cups flour

1 tbsp sugar corn meal

Mix all together and knead for a few min. Form into a long roll about the size of a french loaf. Cut lengthwise in half. Cut each lengthwise piece into about 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a thin circle ( I would probably do about 1/4 inch). Put onto a well floured counter. Let rise 45 minutes. Spray baking sheets with cooking spray and sprinkle with corn meal. Bake at 425 for 3-4 min, or until lightly browned.

Even though mine did not make pockets, they were still very tasty warmed up with a little butter and honey. Think of a thick tortilla. If you make them let me know what you think!

Happy Baking