Make a Bead Embroidery Pendant class

After a bit of a hiatus, I'm teaching bead embroidery classes again! The first one I'm offering will be on Sunday, June 5, 2016, at Reframe Creative Reuse Center, 10230 W. 26th Ave. Unit 5, Lakewood, Colorado, 80215 from 1-5 pm. The cost of the class is $50 and includes a bead embroidery kit (size 15 or size 11 Japanese seed beads depending on your preference) and all the supplies needed to complete the pendant (chain is not included). You can make a pendant like the one shown here or design your own. Sign up by calling Reframe (303) 233-3506 or emailing me at amy@amyclarkemoore.com.
If you're interested, but live too far away to attend--I offer you this tutorial. Also, I can work with shops and guilds in your area to offer classes closer to you--contact me at amy@amyclarkemoore.com.

Making wrapping paper from children's drawings

Sew pictures together using the zig zag feature on your sewing machine.

I have a hard time throwing things away--especially the drawing that my daughters make. They are amazing! I love them! But, I've filled three bins with drawings and at this rate, we'll need additional space if we're going to keep them all. So, I've started figuring out ways to reuse them (here's another way, Making Gift Bags).

You can also make envelopes by folding paper and sewing it closed on one end.

Making wrapping paper out of the drawings is super easy. The hard part is getting your children to agree to let their artwork be used in this way. We went through the bin together to choose pieces that could be used as wrapping paper. I explained that this was a great way to share their art with people they love and also recycle.

To make wrapping paper out of children's drawings (or any paper you want to recycle, for that matter)--set up your sewing machine for a zig zag stitch and thread it with the thread color of your choice. As the paper gets bigger, roll it up so that it will fit through the sewing machine. Trim your threads (or not, depending on the look you're going for), and then wrap presents.

You could use glue instead of sewing the pictures together, but I found the glue a little harder to work with--also it doesn't fold as easily as the stitched seams.

Vote on buttons

Pocket for my Ginny's Cardigan from the Unofficial Harry Potter Knits.

Nearly finished cardigan with the owl buttons.

A bit of background: I started spinning this yarn in July of 2012 on my Lendrum spinning wheel using the fast flyer to make a fine, thin yarn. I finished spinning the 8 oz of dyed Polwarth that I had purchased from Wildhare on Etsy during Spinzilla 2013. I plied it shortly after Spinzilla and started knitting Ginny's Cardigan from the Unofficial Harry Potter Knits 2013 on December 6, 2013.
On May 15, 2014, I had finished the cardigan through the yoke, buttonbands, pockets, and buttonbands. However, when I tried it on, I saw that the buttonbands needed more stitches per row to lay flat and that I had an uneven number of stitches on either side of the pattern on the back--making it skew to one side. I decided to frog it back to the beginning of the yoke to fix those mistakes. I still need to decide what buttons to use when I finish it--I have a number of great options. Maybe you can help me decide. I first thought it would be the owl buttons all the way (it is an owl cardigan afterall!), but I really am having a hard time deciding now that I've laid the buttons on the cloth. The owl buttons are a bit heavy (in weight and color).

The contenders: 

Vote on buttons in the comments!

1. Iris buttons from https://www.etsy.com/shop/RobertWGilmore.
2. Vine buttons purchased at Shuttles Spindles and Skeins, Boulder, CO.
3. Three crane buttons from https://www.etsy.com/shop/RobertWGilmore.
4. Owl buttons purchased at Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins, Boulder, CO (no longer being made, sadly).
5. Snail buttons from https://www.etsy.com/shop/RobertWGilmore.
6. Green leaf buttons purchased at Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins, Boulder, CO.

Photo ornament advent calendar

This felt tree with pockets was a gift--but it would be pretty easy to make if you're handy with a sewing machine.

Our advent calendar with ornaments ready to hang.

We made ornaments using polymer clay and photos.

Each year we add family and friends to our tree. Since we have a miniature tree, we make tiny ornaments.
I've posted about it here and here.  This is fun and easy--but takes a few days (mostly because I only get a couple hours out of a day to work on projects--but also because the glaze needs time to dry). And of course, most of my spinning and knitting projects take years--so this is fast in the context of what I normally am working on.

Materials:
Digital photos
MS Publisher (or a similar photo editing program that allows you to group photos on one page and crop and size them to the size you need, then print to a printer with photo quality paper)
Scissors
Sharpie
Cookie cutter in the size and shape you want for your ornaments
Polymer clay in a selection of colors
Oven or toaster oven 
Non-food cookie sheet
Rolling pin or pasta maker for polymer clay
Wire for earring posts
Wire cutters
Needle nose pliers
Sculpey glaze
Paint brush

Steps: 
1. I use a template I made in MS Publisher to make the tiny photos of our family and friends. I print it on my Sony photo printer, and cut out the photos.
2. We use small cookie cutters to get the star shape--I trace the cookie cutter around the photo to make sure that the photo will fit on the ornament.  I trace the shape with a sharpie, then cut out the photo.
3. With a rolling pin or pasta maker to make thin sheets of polymer clay, cut out the ornaments with the cookie cutter.
4. Insert a wire with a loop in the top for hanging the ornament--this can be an earring post, cut it to the length needed. It should be imbedded inside the polymer clay for at least half the length of the ornament so that it will stay in.
5. Press the photos into the clay and cook them at a low heat following the directions on your polymer clay package. I cook mine for 15 minutes at 275 degrees.
6. Allow to cool.
7. Paint the ornament with sculpey glaze allowing it to dry on each side thoroughly before turning over to do the next side. This part of the process takes a couple of days--it takes some time for the glaze to dry all the way.
8. With the wire trimmed from the earring post and the needle nose pliers, make a small ornament hanger.
9. Hang on your tree.

Bidding for Good

I've donated a few items for a good cause--Compass Montessori in Golden, Colorado is a charter public school (pre-K through 12th grade) with a learning farm and a vibrant fiber arts program where they are teaching the kids to spin, knit, weave, felt, dye, crochet, and sew as part of the daily curriculum. The school is hosting an auction--many people have donated many wonderful things to help raise money for the school.
You have a chance to bid on: Two Apples --a bead embroidery piece.
I also put together a few gift baskets:
Jane Austen Knits Gift Basket
Spinning Gift Basket
Beaded Embellishment Gift Basket

I'm also knitting up a scarf from the yarn the kids spun from one of the alpacas on the farm and dyed with indigo--as soon as I finish it, I'll upload it to the bidding for good site.

More words, glorious words

When Hannah was 21 months old, I made a list of words that she was saying. Something triggered the memory and today I went back and looked at it --and thought I'd do the same for Sarah.

All done!, all gone, Amy (mi-mi), baa (sheep), baby, ball, banana, beep (microwave), Ben, belly, birdie, boobies, bottle, Bri, bye-bye, cake (Happy!), cat (Meow!), cookie (tootie), cry, Daddy, dirty, Dog (woof, woof), down, duck (quack), eye, Granddad (Gan-dad), Grandma (Gaa-ma), go, Hannah, hat, hello (he-woo: said into a phone), hi!, hot, huh? (means—what?), juice, Julia (says Daddy-a), Kelly (Ke-wee), kiss (tiss), knee, mama, mine!, mommie (means "I want it!"), more (mo), night night (nigh nigh--means sleep and bed), no!, nose, one (counts: one, two, three), open, outside, owie (means band-aid and hurt), pee, please (pease), pocket, poopie (means underwear as well as bottom), shoe, shoes, swing (means slide and park), teeth, toast, that, three, two, uh oh, up, wow, yay!, yeah.
She also has lots of phrases that are all run together:
There you go (der-you-go), Here we are (ear-we-are--she says this when we arrive some where she recognizes), All done, all gone, I want it (uhwan-tit), There it is (der-it-is), There he/she is (when she sees someone she recognizes), I want to swing (uwan-ta-wing), I want juice (uwan-juuuuu).

More new words as of 8-1-2011: Duckie, knee, Sarah, why?, Happy Birthday (sounds like Happy Doo-day!).

A visit from the Grinch

So, this morning as I was pulling out of the driveway to take Hannah to school, I noticed a hole in the ground where before lived a sweet little dwarf pine tree.

Here's the hole, and here's one of the remaining trees that the missing tree looks like. It appears that the Grinch visited us in the middle of the night.


Here's the trail of dirt left as the tree was yanked from the ground and pulled through my garden and into the street.

The strange noises that invaded my dreams last night, but didn't wake me up, now make sense.

Somewhere, there is someone using our little pine tree as their Christmas tree. It is hard to imagine the joy that they'll get out of this--it makes me sad for them. They must be pretty desperate people to commit a crime to decorate their house for the holidays--what a lot to risk for something that they'll most likely discard, rather than plant (even though they ripped it out by the roots).
I'm also thinking that this was premeditated. They had to have scouted out the neighborhood, selected the tree they wanted, and then arrived with a truck, a chain and a shovel.
I'm actually thankful that I didn't wake up enough to really comprehend what was going on. We might have run outside in our pajamas to try to stop it. At the very least we would have lost sleep and been cold, and it is possible that we could have been hurt.

So what started out as a sad moment, disappointed in the poor choices of a fellow human(as Hannah put it, "They made a really bad choice, didn't they mama?"), got me thinking about what I'm thankful for. I found myself humming the Welcome Christmas song from the end of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas . . . welcome, welcome fahoo ramus, welcome, welcome dahoo damus, Christmas Day is in our grasp, as long as we have hands to clasp. . .


I'm thankful for my sweet husband who took this in stride. I'm thankful for my daughters who bring me so much joy every day. We've been having fun making gingerbread men and decorating our house for Christmas.

Hannah has been going through her toys and selecting gifts for her cousins--things she thinks they'll really love. She wrapped this gift very lovingly for Sarah.

Sarah delights in the lights and loves to show me all the things that she finds.
I'm thankful for the roof over our heads, the food on our table, the jobs that sustain us, the loving family that surrounds us. I hope that the little tree does provide some peace and joy for a family who must not have much.

Winter weaving

Someone said something at SOAR that rang true for me (actually I imagine lots of things were said at SOAR that rang true for me, this one I happened to hear). Denny said that her common response to the remark "Oh, I just don't have the time to do that," while she's spinning or knitting in public is, "We all have the same amount of time."

It's so true. It is just how we use it. I do like sleeping, but sometimes, getting something done feels so good.

Amid the toys and the wonderful chaos of work and children that is my life, I made some time this weekend to warp my loom and start weaving some scarves. This is a delicate 2-ply wool handpainted yarn that I won as a door prize in 1996, I think. I've been using it here and there, and this weekend I used a big chunk of it!

Hannah helped me wind the warp onto the loom. Sarah wanted to help and sat on my lap as I wove.

Hair!

So when Hannah was nearly two years old, I finally cut her hair. It was after she pushed it out of her eyes in frustration exclaiming, "hair!" I didn't wait quite so long to cut Sarah's hair.

Zap

Hannah is sitting here next to me, watching a movie while I do a bit of work online. She just told me that her feet are feeling zappy--and then she held them up to her ears to see if she could hear the zapping. I think that they fell asleep, and the zapping is the tingling sensation. I never wondered before if you could hear it. Made me laugh.

Also, this week I kept finding little pieces of toilet paper by the toilet. I kept picking them up and throwing them away. Then Hannah saw me doing it and she was distraught. Apparently, she's been leaving these little bits of paper for the mice (no, we don't have any--neither pets nor infestations). I don't know what she thought the mice were doing with the paper.

Spring Snow

Our beautiful spring shower turned into a beautiful spring snow. Hannah (home from school today because a cold) and I put on our coats and boots and stomped around in it for a second when we went to pick up the mail and I took some photos.

Sarah's getting big--she'll be 7 months old in two days.

What Joy Is This?

Life is good. My babies are growing up so quickly. The New Year has started. I had time to spin and knit while off from work the week between Christmas and New Years--and (more importantly) the energy to do it!

Here's Hannah on Christmas morning.

Here's Sarah--smiley girl--happily cooing while Hannah and I made gingerbread men on Christmas Eve.

In our very urban neighborhood as we arrived home from Christmas Eve services late at night, we saw two red foxes paused on an embankment covered with snow--it was pure magic.

Welcome Sarah Helen Moore

I keep thinking I'm going to have time to write this post--and here it is a week after Sarah was born and it is still sitting in the draft folder. Sorry for the delay--but you know--new baby=no sleep and choices like, should I eat or shower today? Today I chose eating instead of showering. It was a good decision.

So! Sarah! She's beautiful. She was born at 8:55 am on Friday September 25th via C-section. I had to have a C-section because of multiple previous surgeries--the doctors feared I'd have a lot of scar tissue that would cause problems. When they got in there they discovered that it was fine, in fact there was very minimal scaring. They did joke about installing a zipper, though.

I'd like to avoid any more surgeries if I can--this one was eventful because the spinal didn't take properly and when they started to cut me open, I could feel it--it was very strange. It wasn't like the last time, where I could feel my body moving, but really couldn't feel any sensations below my chest. This time, while it wasn't painful, I could feel instruments moving against my skin, my skin relaxing as it fell open, and things being moved around inside. It was very, very uncomfortable. They decided that they had to put me under completely. I was very sad because it meant that I couldn't see Sarah right away--but there was nothing to be done about it. I was tensing my abdominal muscles and it was making it hard for the surgeon to do her work. They said it went very smoothly once they put me under.

Sarah weighed 8 lbs, 6 oz at birth, measured 20 1/2 inches long and has a 14-inch head. She has a head of dark hair (that her sister Hannah can't stop touching), and blue eyes that will most likely change to hazel like Hannah's when she's a bit older. She has a powerful cry--at times I worry about our ear drums. Fortunately, she doesn't cry much.


We have had an issue with weight loss this week--sadly hers, not mine. She's lost 16% of her birth weight (she got as low as 7 lbs, and is now back up to 7lbs, 3 oz) and that is cause for concern. She looks healthy--so one theory is that she gained superficial weight right before the surgery because they loaded me up with fluids (3 bags full). But we still need to work on getting her body weight up. My milk is slow coming in--so I'm working closely with a lactation nurse at the hospital (she's absolutely wonderful) who is helping me increase my milk supply and also we're supplementing with formula until I'm producing enough milk to feed Sarah adequately. It is hard work--this mommy business!



I've decided not to attend SOAR this year because of the risk of traveling with a very small baby during such a bad flu season. I'm very sorry and will very much miss seeing everyone. I'll look forward to hearing the stories and seeing photos.

I'll post more photos and stories soon.

This is it!

We're headed to the hospital today for a C-section at 7:30 am. Can't wait to set eyes on our little baby Sarah!
Here's a photo of me and Hannah in the girl's newly redecorated room. The Raggedy Ann Curtains are from my childhood--my mom made them for the room my sister and I shared in Ann Arbor, Michigan when we lived in married student housing while my parents went to school at the University of Michigan. We're standing right next to where the built in desk used to be. It was a good decision to remove the desk--there is a lot more room in the room and more flexibility for arranging all the furniture.



I finished the blanket for Lindsay--but haven't taken photos of it. I'll do that and get them posted.
Okay--gotta go! I'll let you know how it all goes.

Nose, roof, and deconstruction, oh my!

Hannah's nose is all better (here she is a few days after the accident, and here she is two weeks later)--in fact we found out later it didn't actually break--only because her nose hasn't fully matured yet--so there really aren't bones to break. I'm still having dreams about Hannah getting hurt, though. Last night I dreamed that we were hanging pictures and a really big framed painting fell down and grazed her nose. I thank our lucky stars that this is our biggest trauma since she was born (that was traumatic).

We have a new roof since the July 21st hailstorm. My garden is still a pale shade of what it was before the storm, but it will be fine next year and I'll actually be able to bend down and do work in it--which I'm not able to do right now.


And now we're deconstructing Hannah's room--well, Kelly is, that is. Here he is taking out the built in desk that was taking up too much room and not allowing for enough flexibility in the room.

We're getting the room ready for Hannah's sister--due September 27th. Here's her pudgy, little face. I'm looking forward to meeting her.
That's what's going on with us right now. I'm working on finishing the blanket for my sister's baby--it is nearly done and I haven't been able to do much beading this summer because the pregnancy has been difficult and I've had to spend a lot more time than I like lying down. I suppose that's to be expected when you're forty(!) and having a baby! Anyway--there will be plenty of time for beading later and I'm so looking forward to welcoming little Sarah to our family.

Hannah's broken nose

We had an exciting night last night—and not the kind you want. Hannah and I did our normal nighttime routine, pjs, brush teeth, and read two books in bed with me and we both fell asleep. Kelly usually comes up a little bit later and takes Hannah back to her bed. At about 10 pm, Hannah who was asleep in the middle of the bed next to me, suddenly turned and pitched off the bed face first in an acrobatic move we can only imagine. She landed face first on the hardwood floor. I can’t remember how I got by her side, but I woke up pretty quickly and even saw her feet going over the side of the bed. Kelly came rushing upstairs to see what the commotion was, almost falling himself in his hurry and stocking feet. I lifted Hannah off the floor—she was crying instantly-- and I saw that both her lips were bleeding, right after that her nose started bleeding.

Kelly took her to the bathroom while I went to get ice. By the time I got back upstairs, it was clear that her nose was probably broken (it was swollen to twice its normal size and an odd shape). Kelly called the doctor, I tried to get ice on her nose (we were never successful with the ice or icepacks, though eventually we were able to put a wet wash cloth on her nose)—and held her while we waited for the on-call service at the doctor’s office to call us back. It seemed like an eternity, but it was only ten minutes, and they told us to take her to the ER.

Hannah did a good job of calming down (our brave little girl) as much as possible (as did I and Kelly—we both had our moments of needing to pull it together). She cried the whole time, but was not hysterical.

At the ER, the thing that she did not like the most was when they tried to take her pulse and oxygen with the little thing that goes on your finger. She did like the bracelet they put on her arm for identification (and didn’t want to take it off when we got home). After that, she did a good job of letting them look at her lips and throat and nose, and in her eyes to make sure she didn’t have concussion. We had the option for a CAT scan, but they said it would only be if we wanted to do cosmetic surgery in the future and wouldn’t change her care for the night—and it would expose her to a lot of radiation—so we opted out of the CAT scan.

They gave her Tylenol with codeine and Motrin to help her sleep and reduce the swelling. We got home a little after midnight. On the drive home, she was a bit loopy from the medication and talking and talking about all the strange things she was seeing driving home at midnight. She slept well. Both Kelly and I got up several times to check on her and I had nightmares all night about Hannah getting injured.

She woke up cheerful and ready to tell everyone the story of the adventure from the night before. She helped me get the blood out of her pjs with hydrogen peroxide this morning. The swelling has gone down but, I expect she’ll have two black eyes soon. We’ll see how her nose heals—the doctor at the ER said that we’d have to wait for the swelling to go down to determine if it was broken (he thought it would be three days or so). Little kids don’t have a lot of cartilage in their noses, so with luck, it’ll be fine.

We'll revise our bed time routine--even though I think this was a freak accident as she's never fallen out of bed before and mostly sleeps in one spot all night long--I don't want to take the chance of it happening again.

Shredded garden

Last night we had an intense hail storm. So, here are the before photos of my garden shot on July 10th.







And here are photos from 6:30 am this morning--several hours after the 11 pm storm last night.







I'm sure some of the garden will bounce back--but there is a lot that won't be back this season. I held Hannah during the storm--it was so intense and I worried that the hail was going to break our windows, it was blasting our house so hard. The power was out for two hours, but everything else seems to be okay--no big branches in the yard or power lines down as far as I can tell. After it was over she told me that she never wanted it to hail like that again. We have leaves plastered to the second story window, and the trees are stripped of their leaves. I have a feeling it is not going to be so nice and cool in our house for the rest of the summer. I'm sad to see my garden so decimated, but I know that it will bounce back eventually.

I'm still here--really

I didn't mean to disappear on you like that--sorry! This spring just got so busy--too busy to post updates. Thanks to nearly daily rain for what seems like months--my garden is glorious--the iris are just finishing up and the lilies are starting in (none are blooming yet, but they promise to, soon). Daily rain--that's just not a phrase we utter much in Colorado--and certainly not with the words months. I guess it is further evidence of global warming--disturbing as that is--it sure has been nice.

For those of you who participated in my brother's auction to raise money for his film, Id and Emma--thank you! The editing is going well--here is a trailer.

Hannah turned four--can you believe it? I can't. On her birthday, I went into her room to wake her up and she was still groggy, but said, "Momma! I've got a surprise for you!" And I said, "Oh! What is it?" And she stuck her feet out from under her covers and said, "Look, my foots is bigger!"