When good projects go wrong...

Or, fixing a mistake

A long time ago, I knit Sabrina a baby blanket.  Not just any blanket; an Oregon Ducks log cabin!  So awesome!



Or not so awesome...  I used scraps from my stash.  I thought they were all acrylic.  I really did.  Months later, or even a year later, I noticed some pulling in of one section.  Uh-oh!  Wool.  100% wool. 

Fast forward another 4 years.



I've been thinking about this blanket every time I see it.  It's been washed.  And washed.  And washed.  Every time, I think about cutting the felted section out, picking the stitches up, and re knitting that section.  Really?  I didn't do it. 

Until last night.  Richard was folding clothes and came across the blanket.  The deformed blanket that my daughter loves.  He says, "Can't you fix it?"  and I immediately accepted the challenge.  I picked out a new green, found a darning needle, some extra yarn in a light color and some very sharp scissors. 



2 hours later:



It was late.  I was tired.  I may have snipped a stitch I shouldn't have, so I'll have to fix that as well.  Tonight, I'm going to try to re-knit it.

Sweet Steampunk 16 Party

The first time Keylie made an apperance on my blog, she looked like this:

(she's the bigger one!)

I can't believe she's 16!

For her birthday, my SIL Erin and I threw her a steampunk party!  Thank goodness for Pinterest!  I knew of steampunk (thank you anime and Back to the Future 3), but I had never gotten into it.  We were totally overwhelmed at first.

This was one of my projects:

For the full effect:

I got the ides from several different places, but mainly ruffled streamers from Cupcakes & Cutlery.

Between the two of us we come up with some pretty awesome stuff!  Our Aunt T and cousin Katie seriously helped us pull it all together in the hours leading up to the party.

Here's some more pictures:

I made her a surprise birthday cake, she was trying to be all cutesy... until she saw the inside!

 

 

Close up with my cake pops in the background:

To be continued...

(there is just too many things I want to mention)

ps. I was hoping to be able to pin from the pictures here, but I guess I need to figure that out better.  I got it so I can pin from flickr, but they won't pin while on the blog... (still working on it...)

a post In where I catch up

Let's be honest here.  It's been over a year since my last post.  Well over a year.  Does anybody even read blogs anymore?

I'm finding myself wanting/needing to share some things.  So here I am.  I debated starting all over, new blog, new focus, new everything.  Well, I can't decide on a name.  My most creative idea was "aimee's wonderful crazy" and the one I was going to go with was "a-chan knits & stuff".  Not real original.  Dropping the knit for my name?  Hmmm, that's still my main craft these days.  But I've been doing so much more!  From baking to wreaths to party planning and sewing, oh my!

I suppose we can get reacquainted now.  Sabrina is 5 and just started kindergarten.  I don't know how that happened.  But she adores school. 



Elias is turning 2 on Halloween!  My baby is not a baby anymore!



Coming soon (if I don't forget...):

Keylie's sweet steampunk 16 party
Some knitting projects
My birthday camping trip to Crater Lake that I forced my family to take with me.
50 books in 1 year updates (last year's complete list and this year's read so far list)
Some of my wreath projects

Stay tuned!

Perler bead bowl

Perler bead bowl, originally uploaded by a-chan.

I found this project on Pinterest, where else? It's pretty self explanitory, but the directions were in Dutch so I googled "perler bead bowl" and got a bunch of hits.  The one I kind of followed was this one.  This was easy enough for Sabrina to help me with, but I still had to help get the beads in a single layer.

Some tips I found around the net:

The oven temp does not have be be exactly at 400F.  I did a different batch at 300F and it worked just the same.

Use a butter knife or plastic scraper to get the beads out of the bowl. 

Use any dish that can go in the oven for different shapes and sizes.  I used a small IKEA baking dish for mine, Sabrina used a Pampered Chef small glass measuring bowl.  My second one was a cheap silicone dish in the shape of a heart.     

50 books in 1 year, 6 month update

Well, the year is about half over and I'm over half way there!  Yes, some are easy books, but some are long books, too!  And a lot are ones I've never read before.  I'm loving my Kindle Fire, it makes reading during my pumping breaks super easy.  Plus, if I finish a book while I'm at work or on the train, I always have a back-up loaded just in case.



Every couple of years I go through a Ray Bradbury stage.  I'm thinking of doing it again this year in honor of his death; maybe in October.  I was going to do the same for Arthur C. Clark but I got distrackted with other things (he has been dead for several years). 

I just started Clash of Kings, I hope it doesn't take me the rest of the month to read.  But at least I'm in a good spot in my list.

January
1   Farmer Boy - Laura Ingalls Wilder
2   Little Men - Louisa May Alcott

February
3   Jo's Boys - Louisa May Alcott
4   Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austin
5   A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula Le Guin
6   Northanger Abbey - Jane Austin
7   Tales from Planet Earth - Arthur C. Clark
 
March
8   City of Masks - Mary Hoffman
9   Messenger - Lois Lowry
10 A Larger Universe - Gillaspy, James
11 The Black Pearl - Scott O'Dell
12 A Spell for Chameleon - Piers Anthony
 
April
13 City of Stars - Mary Hoffman
14 Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin
15 Island of the Blue Dolphin - Scott O'Dell
16 Mr. Popper's Penguins -
 
May
17 Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
18 The Borrowers - Mary Norton
19 The Borrowers Afield - Mary Norton
20 City of Flowers - Mary Hoffman
21 The Borrowers Afloat - Mary Norton
22 The Borrowers Aloft - Mary Norton
23 Before I Fall -
24 The Borrowers Avenged - Mary Norton
25 City of Secrets - Mary Hoffman
 
June
26 City of Ships - Mary Hoffman
27 Things Fall Apart -
28 The Plague of Doves - Louise Erdrich

Currently reading: Clash of Kings - George R. R. Martin
Queue: City of Swords - Mary Hoffman (released Aug?)