You see, today I went to the little town of Louisburg Kansas to visit my grandparents. We shared cake and celebrated. Why?  It is their 81st anniversary. No, that is not a typo, I said 81 years.

In 1929 Vern Isenhower, 17  and Verbal Peterson, 16 walked into the local county courthouse in Salem Arkansas and left a short time later as man and wife. Thus their adventure began.

They have many stories to tell of their lifetime together and the struggles they have encountered. No matter the battle, however, they held tight to each other and faced it together.

Today they live in their own home where my grandfather continues to have his daily oatmeal for breakfast and his white beans for dinner, along with a glass of milk.  They watch the Kansas City Royals on television and root for the team no matter their win loss record.

Their family has expanded to include great-great-grandchildren. I am blessed to have the opportunity to take my grandchildren to visit my grandparents. How many people have that honor!

They may not be as spry as they were years ago, but grandpa still has his garden and sells his vegetables at the local farmers market. Christmas Eve celebration still includes 5 generation gathering in their home.Only recently has grandpa allowed someone else to make the turkey.

Watch them together and you will notice they still hold hands.

Happy Anniversary grandpa and grandma. Thank you for the lessons you have taught us of love and commitment.

I’ll share of few of them with you here.

First up, my great niece is a Sponge Bob Square fan (ba-bob to her).  So she got a Sponge Bob purse from a pattern I found at The Crochet Cradle.

The younger  nephews each got stockings with hot wheels cars, and other hot wheel miscellaneous. These were made with Lion Brand homespun yarn and one of their patterns.

Similar stockings for my daughter and her husband, but a John Deere tractor one for grandson!

Several members of the family received these towel toppers accompanied with miscellaneous patterns for dishcloths. I like these toppers because they have a loop that holds a towel making it more useful.

There is more, but as you can see, I’ve been very busy. I’ll post others later.

I wish you all a beary blessed and craft happy new year!

BearyAnn

When we purchased a small stereo unit for our home last month the box was set aside. Good crafters throw nothing away; you never know what you can use in a new project. While watching our grandson play with his Thomas the Tank Engine toys an idea clickety clacked into our minds. We asked Westin what engine he wanted to be and he chose Henry.

Here is how a stereo box went from ready for the trash to a cute Halloween or just to play in costume.  I made several mistakes along the way in making this, I will note a few here but not all of them.

For starters, cover the floor. Westin donned an old t-shirt of mine and got started paining three sides green and the front side black after I used strapping tape to secure the bottom of the box closed and the top flaps open.

I then painted the flap section in the front white and the flaps on the side black. Once dry I stood the box with the bottom side up (from this point on it is the top). I started cutting an opening two inches from 3 sides and 7 inches back.Later I had to cut further back because it was not balanced.  With a picture of Henry in one of his favorite books to use as a guide, we purchased red and orange duct tape.

Orange duct tape across the top and the sides from the black flap top to opposite black flap top. Add red duct tape along the bottom from edge and top of the black flap areas on the sides. Paint the number 3 at the back of the side sections and on the back of the tank.

My husband cut out 7  six inch circles from plywood and also 2 15″ strips. Three circles were painted green and one black. The strips were painted black.   I made a color copy blow up of the face of Henry from the book.  Three wheels are glued on each side using liquid nail and the black rod attached to the wheel using the same.  Glue the face of Henry to the black circle and using liquid nails attach to the front in an appropriate place.     

To make the appearance of coal being pulled in the freight car I sponge painted black on the green on the top of the engine. 

 

 

Straps were added to the opening.

Henry was the hit of the trick or treat fun this Halloween AND will be used for daily fun and play time for months to come.

This scrunchie holder by Priscilla Hewitt was to make. Looking at her I thought the braids may as well be useful so I added clippies to them.  The scrunchie holder is unique in that there is a button which allows you to move the scrunchie you desire to the button to remove it. You don’t need to remove all the scrunchies to get to your favorite.

Then I just made some holders without the doll head:

Each scrunchie was in different scrap yarn I had crocheted around elastic bands.

Now I think I need to let my hair grow long again, give these to the little girls in the family for Christmas  

While my personal opinion is that it is waaay to early to be putting these items on display, it is not to early to have several Christmas knitting and crochet items in progress.

Celebrating these projects and adding more ideas to my ever growing list is the “Twelve Weeks of Christmas” offered up by RedHeart.

Each week a new and ambitious project is published for your holiday craft list.

Week one: Granny’s Noel Throw made with Holiday Yarn.

While working this project, learn to make a “Jacob’s Ladder”.

Check out the pattern at Crafty Christina’s blog.

How to Decorate a Gift With Plastic Straws

from wikiHow – The How to Manual That You Can Edit
This beautiful gift decoration is made from plastic straws and water resistant tape. Unlike ordinary ribbons, this can be reused and it’s also great to decorate floral gifts.

Steps

1. Wrap water resistant tape around a straw. A right-handed person winds in the opposite direction.
2. Finish winding just before the bellows (the accordion-like, bendy part of the straw) and cut the tape.
3. Cut between the windings.
4. Cut the tape in half.
5. Make 2 or 3 more straws.
6. Cut fringe in the other end. (Take care not to cut it off completely.)
7. Curl the fringe with a fingernail.
8. Attach the decoration to the gift.
9. Cut it to fit the size of the gift.

Tips

Variations

• Carefully wind the tape in one direction, so that each stripe is parallel. Also, when cutting, cut carefully in the middle all the way through. Otherwise, when the tape is wound in different directions, it doesn’t split beautifully.

Things You’ll Need

• gift box or bag
• ribbon
• flex straw.
• thin metallic-color tape
• pair of scissors
• adhesive tape

Related wikiHows

• Make Hearts from Plastic Straws
• Make a Flower from Plastic Straws
• Make a Bird out of a Plastic Straw

Sources and Citations

• http://www.geocities.jp/min_pda/ – Original source, shared with permission.
• http://kitchenplasticarts.blogspot.com – Original source, shared with permission.

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Decorate a Gift With Plastic Straws. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

With wit, humor and story telling Stephanie Pearl-McPhee explores the fun and long standing rules of knitting. What if you break those rules?!

 Knitting Rules!: The Yarn Harlot’s Bag of Knitting Tricks

Other books from the author include:

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot’s Guide to the Land of Knitting

At Knit’s End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much

Check out the details at http://pugnotes.blogspot.com/2009/09/sneak-peek-at-go-over-sweater.html

Just Completed:

I created a “Salvation Colors Lapghan” in Knit and in Crochet to use with my Knitting Bible Study this fall.  I now have to write out the patterns.

I started making stocking from Lion Brand Holiday Homespun to fill for the younger family members. One down, seven more to go.

To ADD to my list of projects:

NCIS character Abby doll. She is just adoreable. I am wondering about modifying the clothing, hair and features to make the rest of the team.  The pattern is offered by A-Crochet-Ninja and can be found at http://wists.com/kewlmomma/839ba798539d55c02249786b5e2e3196?offset=0

A cupcake scarf might be enjoyed by my niece.  http://www.craftbits.com/project/scarf-sweet-cupcakes

With everyone “going green” these days perhaps the Tuck Away Tote might make good gifts.

http://www.crochet-world.com/newsletters/talkingcrochet/pages/TCNL3008_patt2.html

One young niece is a Sponge Bob fan, so perhaps this purse ?

http://thecrochetcradle.com/free_purse_pattern_pdf.pdf

Unfinished and in process:

I found an old cabbage patch doll while cleaning out boxes and decided she needs a whole new wardrobe, so I am holding her in my lap and trying to crochet/knit clothing to fit.

I have started several totes and don’t like any of them.

Need to finish more Swifter covers for my Swifter Duster and my Swifter WetJet.

SO………

that is just the beginning. I am trying to organize all the patterns I have printed out to make. So far I have 5 binders filled and another stack ready to add. I guess I need to stop writing for a bit and get busy.