Sunday, January 30, 2011

Glove Elephants

Found this idea at this blog and thought I could make something similar for my girls.  We made a couple of them last week - only took about 15-20 mins with kid help.  Probably wouldn't take as long with out
;-)





Here's what we did:

Materials List

1 cheap stretch glove per elephant
Small ish piece of fleece (or felt) cut into heart shape with the bottom tip cut off
bunch of dried beans to "stuff"
Crochet cotton or thread of similar color to glove for stitching closed
Embroidery thread or Crochet cotton of contrasting color for eyes/mouth

Take 1 cheap stretch glove (we got ours at JoAnns for $1 a pair) and turn the cuff inside.  Fill to the top with dried beans being sure to stuff beans well down into the fingers and thumb.  The thumb will become the trunk; the fingers, the legs.

Once you have the elephant all stuffed to your liking, stitch the opening closed using the blanket stitch and a doubled thread.  I started at the trunk end and went toward the back so that the extra thread at the end (I used crochet cotton) could be poked out the back, tripled back on itself and knotted at both ends to form the tail.

Take some more crochet cotton and stitch on the ears at the top edge where you sewed the body closed.  I just used a regular "in and out" running stitch.

Next use some contrasting embroidery thread or crochet cotton to make some French knot eyes.  I used about 4 French knots per eye just going back and forth between each eye inside to make them.

Lastly, I took the 4 legs and stitched two to one side and two to the other side of the elephant on the bottom.  Took index and ring finger to one side and middle and pinky to the other.  Makes them sit better.

That's it, you're done - now go play with your bean-y elephant.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

New Craft - Temari Balls

Between Christmas and New Years I attended a dance camp down in Berea, Kentucky.  While I didn't dance much, I did take a craft class that intrigued me.  I learned how to make Temari Balls.  This little embroidered ball from Japan is beautiful and the patterns seem pretty endless.  I made two at camp and have made 3 more since coming home - I've now started my 6th.

Here are some pictures of what I've made so far.





In Progress
















Monday, January 17, 2011

CSA Farm Share

So, we just joined a CSA the first of the year.  We just picked up our first share at Portage River Farms on Saturday.  Lots of greens this time of year.  We're hoping it's a great fit for us.

This week we got:

Spinach
Mizspoona
Broccoli Rabe
Romaine

Looking forward to a great salad or two as we were told that greens this time of year (because of the cold) are better raw than cooked.  Sweeter once the cold hits them :-)

So far we've had one huge lovely salad and looking forward to a few more this week.  Kids are learning to eat salad - other than the "good bits" out of the lettuce ;-)

I know they're looking for more people to join their CSA family, if anyone in my area is interested...  More posts as we get further into this whole thing.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Dinner Tonight - Creamy Pesto Pasta

Ok, again with the no pictures - we ate it all!  But here it goes - quick easy fast dinner.

Boil 1/2 lb noodles (the 3 girls here ate 1/2 lb no problem, if there were more of us we'd have to up the recipe).  Drain noodles and melt in 4 oz (half a brick) of cream cheese.  1/2 cup of spinach pesto (I just pureed up some baby spinach and olive oil, S&P in my new food processor - thanks mom!) and grate in some fresh parmesan cheese.

Yummy!!  And pretty green!