Itty Bitty outfits

Here are my finished Itty Bitty Baby outfits!  I made the knitted beach set because it looked the easiest of the patterns in the book!  Thank goodness they are little, because I didn't feel too much pain when I had to take out so much while I was re-learning how to knit!  I'm quite proud of the set!

The reindeer outfit has been something I've wanted to make all year.  I have 3 Itty Bitty babies, and now I have 3 Christmas and winter outfits.  I have an elf, a snowman and now a reindeer.  So cute!

Tidbits

Just a couple of days ago I BEAT my time to turn 10 on the Y trail!  The time was exactly 24 minutes 40 seconds, 40 seconds faster than my old record. Yeah!  My time today was 25:10, so even though it wasn't a record, it was my second best!  It shows I'm getting stronger!

I've made a couple of recipes I found on Pinterest this week: Salsa Chicken, which is going to be served often around here;  Cream of Something Soup Mix, of which I made up some to use in the Salsa Chicken. For that recipe it turned out great.  I still need to try it for a recipe that isn't so spicy and can hide the flavor of the soup. 

I am just a few snaps away from being finished with 2 new outfits for my Itty Bitty Babies.  One is a crocheted Reindeer outfit, and the other is a knitted swim set.  This was my first knitting in over a decade, and it turned out pretty good!

Pictures of my new outfits will be on the next post! (Hopefully!)

Under the sink

Long, long ago I purchased some cute little basket shelves that go under the sink, and the normally stationary part of the cupboard would be made into a tilting drawer.  It gave me just a little more space, and although they had their flaws, I was glad I had them.

A few years ago we remodeled our kitchen, and we had the cupboards made to go all the way up to the counter.  I kept my cute little basket shelves and mounted them inside the cupboard at the top.

The old under sink basket shelve.

The main flaw in these shelves is the height. When it's mounted in a tilting narrow cupboard it would need to be that short so it doesn't hit the cupboard frame.  But now, it's just a pain.  Sponges and sink stoppers fall out when I shut the door.  Only things like scrub brushes will consistently stay in.  But I stayed with them, because I had nothing better.  Until now.

A while back I purchase some little organizing baskets to put my flatware in.  I bought these at the dollar store, so they were a deal.  The height of the new basket is almost twice the usable height of the old basket.

 I wanted to use the same screws that I already had in my cupboard, so I traced the holes from the old basket unto the new, drilled some holes and cut in between them to make the right shape, sanded the rough edges and installed!

The sponges and sink stoppers are not falling out in these!

I also have been wanting to install a short towel rod under the sink, and also one to put on my laundry cabinet.  So I went to the home improvement store to buy a few towel rods, thinking the cheap chrome ones would be a few dollars each.  I was wrong.  The cheap chrome ones are about $8 each, and the shortest they had in stock were 24", which was twice as long as I needed.

So after I looked at every place in the store where they would have towel rods, I went over to the "organization" isle.  They had some very cute paper towel holders- too expensive and too bulky.  They had nothing what I was looking for.  BUT they had stemware holders, $3 each.  Hmmmmm.  That could work!   I bought a few, then went home and searched online.  I found just the things I was looking for online, but they were all more expensive than my $3 stemware holder. 

 Here's the new inside of my under the sink cupboard door!  One for each door will be perfect for my needs.

Finished!

Pinterest

A couple of weeks ago I decided to join Pinterest.  I was very confused at first, but after a few days I began to understand how it worked.  And I 'unfollowed' about 40 people I had started 'following' on the first day.  I had not realized what it was I was really doing on the first day!

Anyway, Pinterest is an online bulletin board that you share with your followers, and you can follow others' Pinterest boards, too.  I have 8 "boards" at this time:  Fun Stuff for Baby; Stuff I've Made; Clever Ideas; Crochet Stuff; Family History; Household Hints, Recipes to Try; Recipes I've Tried.  The types of boards I tend to follow deal with recipes or household hints. 

I've learned a lot of fun things through Pinterest and made several new recipes.  My favorite new recipe is for "goldfish crackers."   http://pinterest.com/pin/527413806331145268/   Oh my, they were so good!  John said I shouldn't make them again until New Year's Eve, because he's afraid of how bad they are for us and how many we'd eat!  But really, they're not too bad for us, except the amount of fat, because it has so much cheese.  We may gain weight if I made them all the time!

My homemade paper tablets.  Aren't they cute?

I've made little tablets with covers made from fruit snacks, crackers and tissue boxes.  I've "polished" my silverware using a non-toxic recipe.  I love my homemade dryer sheets.  Lots and lots of fun ideas!

Now that I have found Pinterest I have to learn how to control myself wanting to look through what everyone else has pinned all the time.  I'm going to have to put a time limit on myself, because it's just too fun and I have other things that need to be done, too! :-) 

It's now Fall, and I wondered how many times this year I had hiked the Y.  Since I collected a rock every time I went hiking, dated it and put it in a jar, I could tell!

From counting my rocks I knew that I went to the Y 24 times, including today.  Went to other places 4 times.  Those included the "big hikes" we took on a couple of occasions that took many hours.  I collected 3 rocks each time we went on a big hike, taking a rock from each main trail. 

The first time I hiked the Y (not including the times decades ago!), it took me 45 minutes and my legs were shaking when I got back down to the car.  My knees always hurt coming back down, too, for many months.  Now I can make it to Turn 10 in less than 30 minutes (my record is 25 minutes 20 seconds) and my legs don't shake and my knees don't hurt anymore coming down!  Yeah!

My jar of hiking rocks.

All the rocks spread out, according to date.  January's rock is on the far left, September's rocks are on the right.

Riley's Christmas Stocking

I decided it was time to write a new post.  I haven't been very diligent in this matter!  We went on our Australian vacation in July, which was wonderful!  I only posted almost 600 pictures in Facebook!  I now can climb to turn 10 on the Y trail in 25 1/2 minutes!  I finished Riley's Christmas stocking!

The stocking was a true labor of love.  The kit supposedly included everything "needed" except a small amount of batting.  The white felt was unacceptable, and I had to double it to make it acceptable.  The white felt was supposed to be the backing, which would have been unacceptable even if it wasn't see through.  Who gives a child a white stocking?  It would never have looked nice after the first 5 minutes of him using it. Then I ran out of some of the sequins.  The company sent more sequins, I used the backing of the stocking to double up the white pieces, I used a red and green plaid (doubled and interfaced) for the back, used fuzzy felt for the stocking topper, and used a ribbon instead of felt for the hanger.  The back and the front were sewn right sides together, then flipped and machine top-stitched.  This stocking is made to last a long, long time!

Here's my village!  Isn't it adorable!