A family story book

I decided to start writing a book, a scrapbook book, about our family.  I love the fact that I get to stay home with the boys and be here with them while they grow up.  I want to keep those memories too.  The boys are always doing cute and funny things. I want to be able to pull out a book and bring back all those memories.  I know in 20 years when the boys are all grown and leaving for college or doing whatever they decide to do with their lives, I will really be glad that I put together a book of the little things they did.  I got the idea today when my youngest boy Jack found a baby bird. He was so cute with this baby bird.  I know this is not a huge event in his life that I will remember 20 years down the road but it is a little memory that would be nice to remember how sweet and innocent they were.  So my first entry is titled "Jack Bird".  They named the bird Jack Bird.  (I have very creative kids) I don't have the pictures on the page yet.  I have a folder that I have all the pictures that I want to print and when it starts getting full or there is a good sale on prints, I print them out.  So right now I just have the actual page. 

Homemade foaming hand soap

I know foaming hand soap is not that expensive but I found this neat little recipe to make your own foaming hand soap.  I have a ton of Dawn Hand Renewal soap that I got free from having $1 off coupons and then the soap going on sale at CVS for $1 and since we have a dishwasher, we really don't use that much dish soap.  So when I found this recipe I thought PERFECT!  All you need is:

• Liquid soap (I used Dawn Hand Renewal)
• Hot Water
• Empty foaming soap dispenser

Just put about 1 TBSP of liquid soap in the dispenser and fill the rest up with hot water and shake.  Then you have foaming hand soap.  I just made it this morning and it worked out so well.  From what I read, you do not have to keep shaking the bottle to keep it mixed. They say it will just stay mixed.  So we will see!!

Ultrasound pictures are scrap booked!

For some reason when I am pregnant, I cannot sleep at night.  I don't know why. It has been like this with all three pregnancies.  Anyway, so last night I scrap booked the ultrasound pictures!  Now I just need to get Jack's scrapbook finished before the baby is born so that I can keep caught up with all the scrapbooks.  I have most of Jack's finished.  Each kid has their own scrapbook up until about one then I am making a 'family' scrapbook.  I found myself scrap booking the same events twice, once for each boy. So that is why I decided on the family scrapbook.  But their are so many things in the first year, I feel they each need their own.

Good luck hat!

Well that went faster than I expected. Here is the good luck girl hat! I don't really like the flower that much but it will do.  I think I will change the flower if it ends up being a girl.

Burp cloth

So, I was going to make a big blanket with all my leftover yarn but I got to looking at my yarn and they are all different weights so I don't think it would turn out very well. So....I made a burp cloth for my baby that is due in June! We still don't know if it is a boy or a girl but this could be for either on since it is multicolored.  I have some pink baby yarn upstairs so I was thinking about crocheting a little pink hat for good luck next Friday:) That is when we find out what we are having. I am pretty sure it is a boy  though.

Door draft stopper

I haven't been able to sleep at night lately, this happens every time I am pregnant, so I decided to start crocheting at night to make me tired. I have tons of scrap yarn that I need to use up. I found a pattern for a door draft catcher. So I started it last night and here it is! Not the greatest but it works.  I have been meaning to buy one for our front door because the seal around the door is not the greatest. I think I should have used a different yarn so the stitch would have been tighter. And it said to stuff with plastic pellets but I did not have any and since the stitching wasn't as tight I thought it would fall out so I stuffed it with plastic bags.  It does its jobs. It is not the prettiest.  I think my next project is going to be to make a big afghan out of all my leftover yarn. I haven't decided exactly what pattern I am going to do yet. I was thinking about a granny square one. I will be posting as I am working on it!

My first customer!!

I already have my first customer! My sister was telling one of the ladies she works with how she was going to bring in the scarves and hats to sell and she said she wants to buy one for each of her granddaughters! When my sister called to tell me I told her I changed my mind about selling them in the shop but I was just going to sell them as people request them.  So Julie is going to ask her coworker what colors then I will get to work! Didn't think I would sell them this fast! I was afraid I would make like 10 for the shop and not be able to sell them!

Keeping my hobby a hobby

My last post I was so excited about selling my scarves and hats. I think I decided against doing this. It sounded so exciting but then when I really started getting things together, the more I was not as excited to do it. I love crocheting and making things. I am scared that if I start trying to make a lot of stuff to sell then I will get burned out and end up not enjoying making these things. So I think I am going to keep just making stuff for my family and friends. If someone requests one I would be more than happy to make them one and charge a fair price. So pretty much I will only sell on request. So please still feel free to email me or leave me a comment if you see anything on here that you want!

Two exciting things today!

1. My sister told me that she would let her daughter be my 'model' for my etsy pictures of the scarves I am selling. I am very excited about this because my pictures look very lame because I do not have a real person wearing them. I just have it hung over a knob.

2. My sister works at a beauty shop and she told me that she would sell them out of her beauty shop! This is very exciting because I won't have to compete against thousands of other sellers:) I am not good with competition. I was going to have 5 or 6 made up to showcase at the shop then people can either buy the ones that are already made or special order a color they want. I think I am going to sell the hats too. I really don't enjoy making the hats though. They are just a lot harder to make. But I think a lot of people will want matching hats to go with the scarf.  Hopefully they will get easier to make the more I make them.

If anyone is interested in buying a hat or scarf or both just feel free to email me! I am selling them for $20 a piece or if you buy a scarf and a hat it costs $35.

Selling my first item on Etsy!

I decided to TRY selling on Etsy. I put one of the scarves I made on there for $20. I don't know if I set the price too high. It makes me so nervous selling on there because you don't know if people are going to like what you make or hate it. I guess we will see! It only costs .20 cents to list for 4 months so I figured I would leave it on there for 4 months and see if anyone buys it. If I do sell it then I will probably make more to sell, if it doesn't sell then oh well! It would be nice making a little bit extra money doing something I enjoy but if it fails I won't be devastated:)

Christmas is just around the corner

I just realized Christmas is just around the corner.  I decided this year that I wanted to try to make a lot of the Christmas presents just because I think they have more meaning.  This is what I have been working on last night and today.  I have four nieces to make these for.  They are scarves and hats.  So I have four hats and four scarves to make! I have more than four nieces but the other two are a little older and I don't think they would like these:) So I will need to think of something else to make them. I will be posting everything I make as I make them.