The End of the Third Annual Flats and Hand Washing Challenge

"I am taking part in the Third Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry. For 7 days I will be using only flat cloth diapers and handwashing them in an effort to prove that cloth diapering can be affordable and accessible to all. You can learn more about the rules and why this challenge was started by visiting the announcement post. This year there are over 400 participants from all over the world!"

Unfortunately I didn't make it to the end of this year's challenge. I completed 5 days. Last year I finished the challenge and continued to hand wash for an additional 2 weeks and continued using flats for another 2 months. I know that I could do it if I had to but fortunately I don't have to.
This challenge has made me seriously consider getting rid of a lot of my stash and sticking to flats if there is ever a baby #2 in my life.
Congratulations to everyone that did complete the challenge. It isn't an easy task.
And now without further ado. The winner of the wool longies is.....
Mommytoreanne!

I also have this crocheted soaker up for sale in my Etsy shop.

Rag Bag

I can not sew to save my life. LOL. Actually let me rephrase that. I can not sew using my sewing machine. For whatever reason anytime I try to use my sewing machine something goes wrong. A needle breaks, the thread jams.. something always happens that makes me just give up. I dream of really learning how to sew and making beautiful garments but for now I am sticking to quick and easy projects like this rag bag.  Actually it is meant to be a grocery bag caddy but I mostly use reusable bags and really needed a home for all of my rags.  I love this fabric. I had it in my stash for a while now and am so happy that I finally got some use out of it.  It is a heavy black and white toile.

I had taken an online sewing class where I learned how to make a French seam, which I used for the long side of my rag bag. That is actually the only part that was done on my machine. After that my machine was acting up so I just hand sewed the elasticized ends and the strap. The strap is a little wonky but overall I like how it came out.

This week I am linking up with CrunchyCatholicMomma's Stash Bash and NaturalSuburbia's Creative Friday and

The Country Homemaker Hop

Destashing for Girls

So as some of you may know I have been really trying to cut back my yarn stash. I have been doing a pretty good job so far. Let's just say I can now close my yarn drawer. :) This week I crossed two more projects off of my queue. Yay!!
Last year I found this gorgeous alpaca wool blend yarn for $1.99 a skein. What a bargain. I cleaned them out and now was stuck with 6 skeins of purple yarn that I still had not used until now. I do hope to have a little girl one day Inshallah. So with wishful thinking I picked out two projects that could really be used at anytime of year.
Project #1 Modeled by Miss. Panda Bear was the Shell Stitch Pixie Bonnet from Crochetlatte.com

Project #2 was Bev's Newborn Shirt/Vest from Bevscountrycottage.com

This week I am linking up to Frontier Dreams' KCCO, CrunchyCatholicMomma's Stash Bash, and NaturalSuburbia's Creative Friday.

Travel Size Playscapes

I have been on a major destash mission lately. I searched ravelry for small projects that would help me use up some of my scrap yarn.  In my searches I stumbled across the cutest project to make for my son. It is a travel size playscape.

Can you guess what's in the bag?

Keep Guessing...

Quack Quack. Two little ducks swimming in the pond. But these aren't any ordinary ducks. They are little finger puppets.

This is such a fun toy. My son is really having a great time playing with his ducks. I plan to use this little playscape for story telling. It will be perfect for telling the story of the Ugly Duckling.
The pattern is called Duck Pond Playset and can be found here.

The following day I was inspired to modify this pattern to make a portable racetrack for my son's cars. I had seen a pattern for a racetrack rug on ravelry but thought that this would be more manageable. So here is my creative juice baby lol.

It came out just how I had imagined. I do wish the track was a bit wider though.
I used stash gray yarn for the track and white for the drawstring.
My changes from the original Duck Pond Playset pattern are as follows:
Follow pattern up to round 10 substituting green for blue and black or gray for green.
Round 10: Ch 1. *2 sc in nest st. sc in next 8 sts. Repeat from * sl st. at end of round to connect round. 60 st. total
Round 11: Same as original pattern's round 10
Round 12: Ch. 1. sc in each stitch around.
Round 13: Change to green yarn. Chain 2. Dc in each st. around. sl st in first st in round. Finish off.

Drawstring done in white: ch 80. Add a matchbox car.

This week I am linking up with Craft-o-maniac.com's Monday Link Party Frontier Dreams' KCCO, CrunchyCatholicMomma's Stash Bash, and NaturalSuburbia's Creative Friday.

Needle Holder

Finally I have something to hold all of my crochet needles. It's been a long time coming. 6 or 7 years ago my mom had started sewing one for me. The furthest she got on that project was cutting out the fabric. Then about 2 years ago I put this pattern in my queue on Ravelry. Well finally it is done!
I used all stash yarn and a vintage "diamond" button that was from my grandmother's button box. As a child from the depression my grandma never wasted anything. She hoarded buttons and all sorts of things. She would cut them off any old or even donated thing she had. I inherited her lovely box of buttons and cherish it so much.

                                         The pattern is called Kluster and is from Berrococ.

                                                        And here it is all rolled up.

I really should have felted this a little more. I only sent it through the wash once. I am nervous that some of the smaller hooks might fall out so for now I am keeping the little hooks in my crochet bag. I do love how this project came it. I am even happier to be making a dent in my stash and to be crossing off projects from my ever expanding queue.

I am linking up with Naturalsuburbia's Creative Friday and Crunchycatholicmomma's Stash Bash this week.

What a Day!

Today was such a busy day. I was fasting and intentionally made myself busy so I wouldn't notice my hunger. It worked. Today was my husband's cousin's birthday. I made her a big feast. We had a homemade Boston Market dinner. Chicken, spinach, corn, mashed potatoes, Mac N' cheese. It was all so good! I made her a beautiful chocolate tiered cake with vanilla frosting. Yum!

Ozlem with her Birthday Cake

I have been craving pumpkin cheesecake for a couple of days now. Today was my cheat day from my diet so why not make one. I used a butternut squash from my garden. It was so yummy. I am going to freeze the leftovers for next week's cheat meal lol.

"Pumpkin" cheesecake

As with anytime I cook a squash I had to roast the seeds for my husband. He absolutely loved them. We were down to our last quart of yogurt and running out would be a *catastrophe*. So I heated up the milk. When I remembered to check on it the milk was kind of cold. Lets see if the yogurt sets or not. That is one bad thing about multitasking.
Yesterday we defrosted our chest freezer to make room for meat in the hopes of doing a Qurbani. Inshallah. When I was consolidating everything I found some ground turkey, roasted tomatoes (from my garden last year), and onions. I threw all of that into the crock pot with some pinto beans. I will be having chili for lunch tomorrow!
I made a double batch of laundry soap today and ended up with 5 gallons! I won't have to worry about running out anytime soon.
After dinner in a panic to get everything ready for Eid I took on some of the projects I had planned. I dyed 3 play silks to give BB as a present for Eid. They came out ok for my first attempt. I am hoping to do some more colors tomorrow.

Playsilk in dye bath

While we were waiting for the dye to set me and BB got to cross off another project from my list. I had been wanting to make a replica of the Kaaba to use as a teaching tool and as a decoration for Eid. Last week I got a box already to paper mâché. We paper mâchéd it tonight and I am hoping to have BB paint it tomorrow.

BB gettin'  dirty with some paper mache.

Wow that was a lot. I am tired! It is amazing how much I can get done when I actually put my mind to it and focus! Tomorrow I have another busy day ahead of me. I think I might need a nap first.

Felt Pumpkin Tutorial

This is a tutorial for a needle felted pumpkin perfect for your autumn nature table.

You will need:
barbed felting needle
orange or white wool roving for pumpkin
green or brown wool roving for stem
orange thread
sewing needle
felting pad

1) Take some orange roving and roll it up like a jelly roll.

2) Take your needle and felt slightly just to hold it together. Pull the sides up slightly and felt them to the top to form more of a ball shape.

3) Start Felting.  Poke the wool with your needle until it is relatively firm and round.

4) Optional: I like to add a second layer of roving just to make the finished product look smoother.  Roll ball of wool in a thin layer of roving.

5) Repeat steps 1-3.

6) Thread a sewing needle with orange thread. Insert it into the center of the pumpkin from top to bottom.

7) Bring thread around and insert needle into the same place on the bottom.  Pull slightly.  Repeat all around.

See how it makes a ridged look.

8) Tie and cut remaining thread.

9)Take a small amount of green roving for the stem.  Roll it like a jelly roll and felt the top and sides while leaving the bottom of the stem unfelted.

10) Place stem on the center of the pumpkin.  Attach the stem by felting the bottom of the stem (the part that was left unfelted) to the pumpkin.  Felt until it seems securely connected.

I forgot to get a picture of the stem till is was almost attached to the pumpkin but, you can kind of see the unfelted part here.

11) Optional: Needle felt slightly along the thread to make the ridges more defined.

Tah-Dah! A beautiful felted pumpkin!

Needle felted pumpkin and gnome. 

I am donating the pumpkin from this tutorial and this little needle felted gnome for my local  Attachment Parenting International chapter's fall fundraiser this weekend.

Baby Crochet

My dear friend Sherise had her little girl yesterday. I whipped up a cute little hat and pair of booties to send her. I was having a hard time deciding what to make since most of my yarn is boy colors and the only girlie colors I had were in wool or alpaca. They live in Georgia where it is hot most of the time so wool wouldn't do. And I couldn't just go out and buy some more yarn since this is a no spend month for me.
So I looked through some patterns I had and came across an adorable hat pattern that actually made blue look feminine. Luckily I had all of the yarn I needed in my stash. For the booties I ended up using more gender neutral colors (green and yellow) that matched the flower on the hat. Everything came out so cute! I love little crochets for little girls!

Felt Birthday Crown

I am linking up to Tricia's Stash Bash and Frontier Dreams Keep Calm Craft On.
I have been preparing for BB's second birthday! I can not believe he is going to be 2!! Craziness!!
I just love the idea of a special birthday crown and have seen quite a few in the blogosphere.  I rummaged through my stash and found the yellowy gold piece of felt that I had made. I realized that it would make the perfect crown.
                                              
I needed extra length so I cut the square in half and sewed the two pieces together to make one long strip of felt. My impatience got the best of me and I ended up cutting the crown design free hand, with no pattern late at night with the dullest scissors ever.  So it is perfectly imperfect which I love.


I ironed and blocked the felt to help flatten it out.

I wanted to add some of the same elements that are going to be in his birthday candle ring.  I needle felted a tree and mini toadstool onto the sides of the crown with a big "2" front and center.  I used all stash roving that I had left over from a wool knotting class I took last year.

 

I added a little hill to the bottom of the toadstool so it wasn't floating in mid air. I added dots of color to the tips of each point and all around the body of the crown. I wanted to keep it simple. I love love love how this came out.  It is so cute! I have already started planning next years crown. 



 

Finished B-day Crown

 

My First Attempt at Wet Felting

I have been kind of obsessed with wool lately.  I just love how it can transform into so many things. Wool can be very magical. I would love to try my hand at spinning one day but for now I decided to try a little felting. I have a couple of projects planned with sheets of felt and the polyester stuff won't do.
I had some BFL (Blue Faced Leicester) roving in my stash. I planned on only using the yellow but after layering small tufts of wool, there were still some thin spots. I filled in the holes with some of the lovely robins egg blue roving. I used a rattan blind to full the felt but I have read that bubble wrap works just as well.

 BFL roving from my stash .

 After 20 minutes of rolling and lots and lots of hot soapy water here is the finished piece of felt!!

Ta-Dah!!

It really is amazing how something so soft and fluffy can tun into something so strong and flat.  For my first attempt I am really pleased with how it came out. I can't wait to make more!
I have a very special project in the works using this felt. It's top secret!