Fall Fair Fun!

This past weekend Rowan and I attended my hometown fall fair.  It was Rowan's first time at this fair, and his first time on a carousel!

A blog reader asked if I was entering anything in the craft exhibits.  Uhhhh...no?  I couldn't believe I had forgotten about that aspect of the fair!  Especially since I loved to enter my creations as a kid.  I didn't have time to make anything for a specific category, but I managed to scrounge up three items that I could enter.

0 - 3 month sized Big Butt Baby Pants.  I won by default.  There weren't any other entries in the 'boy's pants' category...I'll remember that for next year!

Super Cozy Sweater.  I was sort of surprised with winning second, this sweater was well worn and showed it!  And yes, there was more than two entries.  Boo-yeah!

I entered the mitts too (forgot to photograph the mitts with their sticker before giving them to their owner), and they took home 3rd prize. 

Next year, I'll be sure to get more things submitted.  So fun!  When was the last time you entered your handiwork into a fall fair?

Cafe au Lait Mitts

It's fall!  For me, fall = real apple cider, spiced molasses cookies, and knitting.

Remember this photo from a post in February?

I was knitting a birthday gift for a friend who was overseas for a few months.  Guess what!?  I FINISHED IT!!

Did you do the math?  It's taken me almost 8 friggin' months!  Well, to be perfectly fair, she didn't return until the beginning of May and it would have been sort of pointless to give them to her then.

I found the (FREE!) pattern on Ravelry, but if you don't have an account, it's also here.  The silk and bamboo blend yarn I used made them so luxuriously soft.  Seriously, if you don't say "Ooohhhhh" when you slip them on...there's something wrong with you.

The cross-hatch pattern is quite easy when you get the hang of it.  I will admit that I had to restart the whole mitt once or twice due to a few botched stitches.  There's always a learning curve!

I'm so in love with these fingerless mitts, it was hard letting them go.  Perhaps I'll actually take the time to knit another pair for myself....once my other knitting projects are bound off and finished!

Another Quiet Book Page

One more book page down, three more to go!

There is a 'C' and 'D' page to follow this one, and all of the letters are fastened with snaps.  Or...will be fastened with snaps.  I haven't gotten to the sewing of the snaps yet.  Design credit for the boat goes to Especially For...  I was searching for boat inspirations and just loved theirs!

I really hope my sewing machine gets fixed this week....I could have this all done by the end of the month!

Feather Hair Extensions

I'm friggin' loving this trend right now.  I think it's because I like to wear my hair down a lot these days (YAY for the impending autumn!) and feather hair extensions are more casual than feather fascinators.

I had a bunch of feathers, beads and clips kicking around, I decided to make some.

I bought the bright teal feathers on eBay; aren't they fabulous?! 

I slapped these little sale tags on them, and now they're hanging out in Tango, my favourite fashion boutique in Peterborough.  What does the 'H' stand for?  Handmade? Hair? Sure! 

I made sure to keep one :)

Homemade Baby Cookies

I had an epiphany in the baby food aisle in the grocery store the other day.  As I reached out for a box of organic vanilla baby cookies, like I've done many times before, I had this thought: "Hold up...I don't buy cookies.  I make cookies.  I've always made cookies.  WTF?!?  Why am I not making my own baby cookies?"

So I did.  I used the Baby Cereal Cookie recipe from Wholesome Baby Food.  I'm not sure if it's the baby cereal I used or what, but I found myself adding a LOT of oat flour (about a cup) to make the dough the correct consistency to roll out.

I also only baked them for 15 minutes so they would be soft.  Crunchy cookies = more crumbs. 

Unsurprisingly, they're a big hit with the boy!

Rowan's Thank You Cards

For your viewing pleasure: the little note cards I whipped up to say 'Thank You' to everyone who spoiled him (spoiled him R.O.T.T.E.N.) on his birthday.

I wanted his handiwork to be included on the cards somehow, so I printed out a sheet of 'thank you' in different fonts and sizes onto cardstock and had him scribble away.  Okay....I'll admit that I did a little (uhhh... a LOT)  of scribbling as Rowan's version of 'colouring' is stabbing the paper with a crayon.

"Mummy!! Look at my new cell phone!"

 Now that he's one, I'm starting to feel the stress of having too many toys (I know I'm not alone!) in the house.  His birthday haul was too much for his moderately-sized toy box to handle, so it's been divided up and half of it is living in a storage container for a month or two.  This way, when he gets bored of the current toy box residents, I can swap them out for storage container residents.  This seems like a great plan right?  Yeah it did to me too.  And then I remembered that Christmas is 114 days away.