Baby Shower Gifts

I had several babies to celebrate in January!! The pattern for the sweater came from Debbie Bliss' book "Essential Baby" I didn't use cashmerino, instead I went to HL and got the "I Love This Yarn" cotton in pink and brown.

The crate has hanging folders for each year of baby Maddie's life through 12th gradeto hold all of those art projects and mementos. Thanks for the idea from Becca of Blue Cricket Design.

My first attempt at digital collage

So I haven't shown many pictures of my house. I have never done the collage like so many of you have so I thought I would give it a try. We are sick here...bronchitis, double ear infections...ugh! Lots of couch time...glad I took these pictures a couple of weeks ago cuz you KNOW my house doesn't look this neat today!

Wet Mittens and Boots Solution

Ya see, I live up here in WI and this is what it looks like at my house right now...Our house was built in 1858. It is one of the older homes in our city. We had the maple floors redone a few years ago and they are one of my favorite features in the house so I try to take good care of them.
So I think I have shown this to you before but it was in the summer and you weren't thinking about mittens, gloves, and boots. I would love to say that this was my idea, but no, Martha thought of it first. To keep our wet stuff off of the hardwood floors I put out this boot tray with river rocks I bought at the dollar store.
The rocks drain the water off of the boots.

The shoe tree is great for the mittens. Set on a radiator they dry them quickly. Since I am a private music teacher I have MANY families in and out of my house daily. These solutions really save my hardwood floors. See my holiday decorating remnants. Don't worry, I am not one of those who keeps their tree up until March. I just haven't made it to the foyer yet. It was the first week back in school: I will get there...

Tis the Season to Knit!

I wish I could do this as often as the rest of you out here in blogland. It was a busy December filled with directing concerts, family gatherings, sledding and snow removal. One of the ONLY things I love about January is that I have more time to knit, sew, create and read. Here is my latest project. I plan to line these with fleece I got from the remnant bin at Wally. I used Bernat's free felted knit mittens. The pattern called for Lana but the yarn has been discontinued. I used some yarn from Knit Picks.