Crooked Moon Mama

Yarn Along - Never-ending Overalls

2012-02-29T08:34:00.000-08:00

Joining Ginny for her Yarn Along! KNITTING: Overalls!! These overalls will be finished...I promise you. I have been working on these (on and off) since last November. The plan was to make them for Baby C for Christmas. Check out the pattern at The Purl Bee. Aren't they adorable? I bought this lovely Euroflax linen yarn and started knitting and guess what? I hate it! The linen is so

Dehydrator Diaries - Jamberry!

2012-02-20T20:38:00.000-08:00

**I am truly missing my time in Blogland lately...I'm working on something, kinda small, but kinda taking up a lot of my time. I hope to share it in this space soon, but until then my posts may be more sporadic!** This Dehydrator Diaries post is inspired by one of our favorite children's books, Jamberry! Here in Southern CA strawberry season has begun, yay! Even our own backyard

Yarn Along - Finally!

2012-02-15T09:13:00.000-08:00

After like a year, I am finally joining Ginny with her Yarn Along! I kept meaning to...but, you know...Actually this is the first ever joining or linking I've ever done!I really love the idea of sharing what I've been knitting and reading...it can open up such wonderful dialogue! KNITTING:I am working on a scarf for my Mother-in-Law as a birthday gift. I am using Manos Maxima yarn in the

Crooked Sidewalk Paint

2012-02-08T21:59:00.000-08:00

So we were having one of those days...you know...the kind where the kids needed an activity, STAT, or someone was going to go crazy...mostly likely me. I recalled seeing on Pinterest a recipe for sidewalk paint. I looked it up and decided to make it happen. The original recipe called for food coloring...um, no. We don't have food coloring in our house usually and I certainly wasn't in the mood

Winter Nature Table Swap

2012-02-03T21:00:00.000-08:00

Here's another post about a swap, but I figure it's fun to see all the crafty Bits Of Goodness, right? This was the Winter Nature Table swap... Felt snow-woman by Barb D. Needle felted campfire by Sandra. Wooden polar bear by Rhonda Felt deer by April. Felted rock with embroidered accents by "unknown". I was still in my beeswax candle craze...so I made these for the swap. 100 pure local

Simple Rainbow Skirt

2012-02-01T07:40:00.000-08:00

Follow the rainbow to the tutorial! I was asked to do a guest post over at Homespun Waldorf for their Winter Carnival. They asked me to write something for their "To Make" series. I had been meaning to make one of these skirts for E, so that was a great push to get it done. I love how blogging can be such a help in finishing all of those little "to makes" I have floating around my head.

Tangerine Dreams

2012-01-30T20:49:00.000-08:00

We've been getting a lot of tangerines lately in our CSA boxes, but last week we got 137. Yup.137.My kids go through tangerines like peanuts, but I started worrying that we wouldn't be able to go through them fast enough, so I thought I'd do another 32 Avocados in 3 Days type of post. Silly me. The whole house looked like this and really by day 3 we were down to only 30 or so. Sad that the

A Mud-Winter Day

2012-01-28T20:41:00.000-08:00

Southern CA is known for it's great weather, but these last few days have been exceptional! We had a bit of rain Monday to wash all the crap smog away, then it quickly warmed up to the high 70's and even into the low 80's! A bit odd when our circle time in the morning consists of snowflake songs and winter verses...but whatever! We were in the midst of changing our sand box into an herb

Save Your Seeds, Save Yourselves

2012-01-20T22:29:00.000-08:00

Seed saving is quickly becoming popular again. Monsanto is scaring even the smallest urban farmers into the practice of saving their seeds! That's a whole different post altogether, but if you're interested here's some links: Lords Of The Harvest Food Inc. Stolen Harvest Millions Against Monsanto Last year we took part in an online seed saving exchange that Lisa over at Earthmama hosted. I

New Year, New CSA

2012-01-18T22:04:00.000-08:00

That's right folks...I am doing another CSA post. You can see past ones here: 1 2 3 4 5 ...and probably a few more somewhere. I am excited to tell you about the Green Lab, Urban Farm! I have known about this place for a while, but let me tell you I have recently fallen in love with it! I went to check it out a few months ago, and we are hooked. It's a great little neighborhood farm that

Toothpaste Troubleshooting

2012-01-14T21:23:00.000-08:00

I'm truly glad so many of you liked the toothpaste post! We've been using it for a while now and we'll never go back to the store bought stuff. My gums are healthier, my teeth are whiter and it's one more thing that I can easily make for myself. Do jump in and try it! I got a phone call from a friend who was all excited to make the toothpaste: Friend: "I made the toothpaste today." Me: "

Baths and Babies

2012-01-10T22:00:00.000-08:00

I participated in two Bits of Goodness swaps last month and I always love sharing what we get in our return packages. First up is the Baby Swap. Since I love babies, and I love gnome hats...that's what I made! I had some gorgeous Rowan bulky wool and some Bolero wool, so these knit up quickly... I made the hostess a small aviator bonnet since she was due with her baby soon. These caps fit

Make your own (kid's) toothpaste

2012-01-08T21:42:00.000-08:00

**Read toothpaste troubleshooting!** Wow! I didn't mean to take that long of a blogging break... I hope you all had a joyous holiday. Ours was mellow and sweet. Looking forward to what 2012 will bring. This will definitely be a year full of change... On to the toothpaste! I got into a FB discussion on toothpaste and a few friends asked for the recipe for our homemade toothpaste. It's

Winter

2011-12-22T09:29:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a lovely Winter Solstice yesterday. Today is officially the first day of Winter! To celebrate I put up a new header/banner (what's the appropriate term here?). I am not very savvy with Photoshop, and it definitely didn't do what I wanted it to do, but I still like the way it turned out. How do you guys make your headers? I just used an old version of Photoshop and

Nutcracker Pictorial

2011-12-19T22:00:00.000-08:00

Long Beach Ballet'sThe Nutcracker2011~Angel~ "I was so excited, but so nervous...the fog from the fog machine went up my nose and I wanted to go home. Then the music started and I had fun. I just danced. When's the next one?" ~ F, age 6.

Dehydrator Diaries - Partridge in a Pear Tree

2011-12-15T22:03:00.000-08:00

We had a whole bunch of pears ripening on the counter, so we put them to good use this week in the dehydrator. We made pear kale chips and pear roll-ups. The pear kale chips turned out pretty good, but they are missing something. Baby C didn't care...she loved them. Look at that rad hair going on! I blended 5 or so ripe pears with about 2 cups of soaked cashews, 2 tbs of honey and a pinch

A Little Advent House

2011-12-13T22:27:00.000-08:00

After seeing all these amazing advent ideas floating around Blogland I got all focused on doing something new. But the day after Thanksgiving when I pulled out our old Advent house I just smiled and knew I needed nothing else. 1st & 2nd 3rd & 4th Even with its ripped off / broken doors and it's bumps and bruises...it holds a lot of memories. We got this house 7 years ago for F's first

Bugs, Birds and Bees Swap

2011-12-07T23:07:00.000-08:00

Oh, that's right! Now I remember why I stopped blogging in November of last year....because the end of the year is CRAZY busy, huh? Well, I am here so I guess I am making time for it. Actually we just got back from a lovely trip to Prescott AZ to visit my 90 year old grandfather. It was his first time meeting Baby C and we hope to be back soon! The big girls got to play in the snow a bit and

First words

2011-12-02T21:08:00.000-08:00

Thank you for all the Birthday wishes for E, she had a lovely day!Since I'm on a roll with these family posts here's another. C's language is booming right now. New words every day, and they all bring a smile to my face. I really love the 18 month old phase. Before I forget her original first words from a few months ago I wanted to document them here, because let's face it...her baby book

A Man's Best Friend?

2011-11-29T20:46:00.000-08:00

I think Savage, our poodle, is a Mom's best friend instead. He eats crumbs off the floor.He's potty-trained.He lets the children chase him.He barks and warns me if something is wrong.He patiently waits to be the last one fed.He comes when I call...usually.He loves me unconditionally. I love you too Savage.Happy 8th birthday buddy.

FOUR

2011-11-28T21:45:00.000-08:00

FOUR Whoa! When did this... turn into this? Oh E, how do I love thee? I couldn't possibly count all the ways... You know what my very favorite thing in the whole wide world is?Cuddling you.You are so soft, so sweet, so scrumptiously squishy.Your cuddles bring warmth to my soul.I hope you cuddle with me forever.Please? Thank you for bringing sunshine, love and light into my life. I love

Handmade Holidays 2011

2011-11-25T22:48:00.000-08:00

The photos in this post are of me and the girls making homemade apple cider vinegar. This has been on my to-do list for a while and a friend of mine mentioned it the other day, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I'll post on it again after it's ready, in a few months. Here's the tutorial I read and bookmarked...fyi. Any of you make this before? I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving! I am

DIY Liquid Laundry Soap

2011-11-22T19:35:00.000-08:00

Girls made a tower while waiting for me to get the camera... So, I used to make my own laundry soap powder. Loved it. But...it didn't love me back. It would cake up in the washer and not dissolve properly. Probably my fault since I can't be bothered to sort the whites from the darks (bad housewife...I know) and therefore only wash on the cold cycle. We also have fairly hard water here which

Knitted Tin Can

2011-11-20T18:48:00.000-08:00

A semi wordless tutorial. Items needed:An old fingerless glove that you knit for your daughter, but she refuses to wear because it's acrylic and itchy, even though you warned her of that when she was begging for it at the yarn store (you have one of those, right?) an old tin can scissors hot glue gun something cute to put in it (I used my colored pencil collection) Now I am not mad that

Homemade Bread #4 - Cafe Gratitude's Onion Bread

2011-11-18T22:04:00.000-08:00

Baby C stirring it up... OK, we made it to day number 5 and I am so happy it's a raw bread! I've been wanting to make the onion bread from Cafe Gratitude's I Am Gratefulcookbookfor a while, but I was a bit afraid. I make raw crackers all the time, but the other recipes I've tried for raw bread were...um...not so good. Going into the D... If you can get past the slightly irritating names for