Thinking of Spring

This has been the most bizarre winter I can ever remember!  As I type this at almost 4 o'clock it is 54 degrees outside.  That is just so weird to have such warm weather here.  It seems almost strange to think of Spring as just around the corner when it feels like Winter hasn't even really started yet.  But Spring isn't too far off at all so it is time to start making plans for the new planting season.  We had some great success last year with some of our plants like the broccoli and others just didn't do as well like our peppers.  I'm quite anxious to get the seed catalogs opened and start getting the kids idea of what they would like to grow and of course EAT! this coming summer.  Hopefully we can add some new foods and buy a little less at the stores than we did last year.

Happy Year of the Dragon!

 Every year the kids and I celebrate Chinese New Year.  Not because we have any Asian heritage but because this time of the year we need something to brighten up the dark days.  Our celebrations started in 2006 when Jeff spent three months out of town and the kids and I were completely lonely and stir crazy. 

If you haven't ever celebrated Chinese New Year it isn't too late the true celebration lasts about 15 days.  Here is a link to the Wikipedia information.  This is one of my favorite websites to use for our yearly crafts.  Molly and Jack got really lucky this year because I found Ni Hao Kai-lan crafts on clearance at Micheal's. 

What do you celebrate that maybe others don't? 

New Baby

Okay I'm not having a baby but my brother and sister-in-law had a baby earlier this month.  He is just the cutest little nugget ever!  Well most babies are though aren't they?  As the auntie I made him a set of mitts and a hat.  I so with that I had known how to knit before my babies were born, although Jeff did point out that before our babies were born we wouldn't have been able to afford the yarn or the needles anyway!  He is totally right to.  At least now I can do cute stuff for other peoples babies. Well and a few things for my not so little ones :)

Update on the laundry soap

 (a cute photo that has nothing to do with this post)

     I was looking back at some of our older posts and saw that we have been making our own laundry soap for over a year now!  I can't believe how natural it has become to just do it ourselves (okay by that I mean Jeff makes it and I use it).  I think that I've only bought two small containers of commercial laundry soap since we started using our own.  We still have some of the Borax left but after nine months we did have to buy more Washing Soda.  It is unbelievable that the supplies have lasted so long because believe me we do a lot of laundry here it seems.  The whole family has been so happy with the way the soap cleans everything and it doesn't leave that overpowering laundry soap smell like most commercial kinds do.  We even have several of our friends making there own soap now too!  Jeff's next project is to make a second batch so we always have one in use and one on hand just so that we don't have that 'oh my gosh I'm out of soap and I have to get this washed now!' thing going on.  If you didn't see our first post about it you can check it out here.  Let me know if you make your own and if you do anything different I'm always up to trying something new.

Felted Nesting Bowls

Free Pattern: Felted Nesting Bowls

     I need a little bit of a brain break. All the Christmas knitting got finished in time even a last minute day before gift. I want to try something a little fun just because. When going through my yarn stash I have a few colors were there isn't much left over so I found these adorable felted bowls and decided that I had to try them. They are so quick to knit up and the felting helps cover up any minor oops that you might make. This pattern is free and if you are so inclined it is a great way to use up some of your very small left over scraps.
     I love the red of this bowl so much, it is actually made of the left over yarn from my Harry Potter knitting.  We are saving change in it to buy ourselves a clothes line.  The kids are enjoying watching the money accumulate and have each asked for their own change bowl :)