Life in Color Photo – Page 78 – Celebrating crafts, kids and the everyday through photographs.

Corners of my home – The phone Cabinet

I've never participated in Corners of My Home before, but today I had that moment of walking by this cabinet like to every day and suddenly I just saw it. I saw it in it's poor neglected, unchanged state and realized that was what I was meant to work on today. Forget about the wonderful project I finally did finish up tonight (and will share with you tomorrow, along with a giveaway). Forget about all the other things I needed to do, this was what I wanted to do.

This cabinet was super dusty and stale really, from the construction. I don't know if you remember but they had to redo that arch to include additional support. I let things collect in here:

Namely so much mail that I can't close this up. Now I have it paired down to the things I need, including a little leather dish with teething tablets, a small tape measure, rubber bands, etc. I also have an old silver toast holder that has things like my dry cleaner pick up slip (that I forgot about, oops, I could have picked that up over a week ago). Plus I have a little ceramic box that hold an assortment of postcards from my collection for quick notes. Above that shelf:

A replica princess phone. So retro, so suspenseful, who could be on the other line? With out caller ID you'll never know until you pick it up! No, seriously, I love this phone. I love having a land line, and I love pulling the cord out really far and sitting on the big chair and having a long conversations with far away friends.

Above the phone a few more fun things. Some chalk letters with my (maiden) initials. Old camera parts and a funny metal toy horse that I just had to have from an estate sale.

Finally some pictures of Tuesday (the house is lacking in pictures of her)! This one, and one of my other favorites is below it, Tuesday wrapped in one of the blankets I knit her. The map frame is something that my friends and I used to do in high school. Buy the cheapest ugliest frames and cover them. I was reminded of it when I changed out the picture. The frame was like a cardboard/plastic mix underneath. Pretty much everything I owned while going to school was decoupaged, right Erin? The little picture is Ceara and I a dozen years ago getting ready for a dance.

The top shelf has some of my favorite things. An old globe bank, a funny ape figurine I picked out while Sciarrino and I were thrifting and the place lost power so I was shopping by the light of my phone. A picture of Bj at Wall Drug. A very clever picture frame from Coach I got while driving cross country with a friend at an outlet. I love it because what ever you put in you can see both sides of and it doesn't hurt the item at all, little magnets in the corner hold the two pieces of acrylic together. I've never been able to find another one like it. In it I have a vintage postcard.

A cool old fan sits behind two little reminders of my art school days. A pig from my pig photo project sits on top of a small piece of a larger instillation from a friend.

Now when I make the many trips through the living room into the kitchen (and down to the lower level) I get to pass by this loveliness, so maybe it was necessary after all (and there are a few more pictures on my flickr).

All this organizing/decorating made me what to go through my magazine stash. I pull out what I like and file it all away, I'll have to show you some of the things I have saved some day. I came across this magazine I had been saving because I didn't want to cut into it.

One of my readers sent it to me from Australia, I can't remember who, but I love it. Anyone interested in a little magazine swap, just me and you? I get lots and I can supplement (who doesn't love an opportunity to browse all the magazines in the bookshop?). I'm thinking a straight across trade for a bundle of idea mags? Home decorating, crafting, gardening, something like that? Anyone (not in north america) interested?

Knitting Answers

I was able to upload more pictures to my ravelry page for the knit in the last post. While there I posted an updated picture of my thrive sweater:

From these handspun singles. I am loving the progress, and it should be ready to go for a nice comfy pullover this fall.

I get the feeling some people think I'm clever in the knitting department, and I don't really think I am. I do knit quickly, and can read a pattern well, but I rarely deviate from them. When my gauge is off I usually just cheat and go up or down a size, bad Amber. I've recently answered some emails from beginner knitters, and Carmen commenting on the advice I gave her reminded me that I should post here what I've told others.

*Side note: I've been meaning to say that I now answer comments in the comments section. I changed it to be like a big thread, I like it and I hope you do too! So please feel free to ask me anything and I'll chat with you down there.

The main questions I get are, "What baby or easy projects to do you recommend?" and, "What knitting books do you recommend?"

First of all I do not recommend that you start with a scarf. If you must do a little stockinette (see my thrive example above, one side is all knit, the other all purl), do a little dish cloth. It will be a lot quicker, and if you make mistakes you still have something you will use. First things first go, quick, run, and sign up for Ravlery. I link to it a lot because that is where I organize all my knitting. It is a totally free site with lots of great features, like pattern searches (and links to free patterns), yarn indexes, and places to organize your stash (if you are so inclined). Plus forums where lovely knitters will answer your questions likity split.

Now that you've done that I can direct you to some of those quick and easy patterns I love so much. I don't think many of you will be surprised with my favorite beginner pattern:

The tri-peak hat is a crowd pleaser (and a free download(, and you can make it in any type of yarn. I've done it in very light fingering sock yarn to bulky handspun, and it always looks great. No decreases, no purling. Not that those things are hard, but it's nice to have a go to gift hat to show off new knitting skills. Use Ravely's wonderful search engine (you can specify a pattern be free if you like) to find more great projects. Here is one I want to try and get done for Tuesday this winter.

As far as knitting books go you can see all of them I have on my Ravlery library page. I have a lot of books, they are great inspiration and I have made lots of things out of them. But if you are just starting out save yourself the headache and get the Vogue Knitting Book first. This will take the mystery out of a SSK, and help you read all the wonderful patterns in other books. There are no patterns for finished garments in this book, though if you read through the whole thing and did swatches you could probably make one. I used this a lot in the beginning (my mom had an older version, if you find one at a used bookstore pick it up, a few things have changed, but it should still be relevant), and I use it a lot now.

I was just going to do a super quick post about the hourglass sweater progress, but I could talk about knitting for hours! Any other questions? Maybe why am I talking about knitting in the heat of summer? Ask away!

If I could pull this off I would

I love my newest finished knit for Tutu. I brought it as vacation knitting to Alaska and it was just the perfect thing, so easy. Also I got extra knitting time spending time in a car. And since it is still light enough to knit at eleven o'clock at night there that helped a lot!

It's knit in the round (after the opening you see there at the top right) and is so quick and easy. I made this in the 6 month size, but longer I think, as Tuesday is quite skinny. I'm planning on this being a dress for the fall, and then more of tunic/top for the spring. It's big on her now:

Hmm, maybe if I made it again I would figure out how to make smaller arm holes too. I'm not that great at pattern modification. I did finally do my own crochet edging.

Just around the opening and for the button hole, but still! My mother-in-law was here and gave me a little refresher. But she held the yarn differently than Paula showed me, so I'm going to have to figure out what works for me, I'm still really awkward with the hook. I love garter stitch, and purl ridges have that same springy feel and look:

One of my favorite easy most mindless (in a good way) knits ever.

It has the added bonus of taking exactly one skein of Medium Weight Socks That Rock. I am freaking out because I have a lot of skeins of this yarn, and many are only one per colorway. This was fine when a whole sweater took only one skein, but that is not going to be the case this winter! I'm going to have to figure out color-work, or do some striping, or something. Or I might just make a dozen of these. Here's the Ravelry link, but I don't have pictures up yet. My flickr uploader isn't working and I'm too tired to try and fix it.

Tasty

Wow, thanks for all the great links and comments. I wish I had more time to explore them this season, but I will have to save some for next season. When I woke up this morning half of the plums I had cleaned were already splitting in their over ripe state. I panicked and went with the easiest thing I could find: a little water in the pan, get it boiling, stick in the plums and cook for 5-10 minutes. Then skin (the skins just pulled right off – and they kind of are like fruit leather, yum, I ate a lot), pit and puree.

I got a lot, it was great. I also saved the juice from the pan, it seemed too good to waste. Ideas on what to do with this part? I'm a little afraid to use it too generously, I mean isn't plum juice basically prune juice? And doesn't that, well, you know.

My friend's mom emailed me with her process and she uses one of these juice cooker things, intriguing, I might have to get one for next year (well, I'll definitely add it to my look for while thrifting list). I think the puree is a bit strong for Tuesday so I'll add it to banana and my homemade rice cereal for now. We (Emilie and I) gave her a little straight up, her reaction was pretty funny.

I also had to take care of another baby feeding issue. Miss Slippery Pants slides all around the old wooden high chair we use. She's skinny and can slip right under. Of course I never leave her alone in it, but I knew Bj would be working late tonight and I wouldn't have the extra hand to help me steady her. I came up with a strap contraption I think works pretty well.

I needed it to fit now and later, and to be sturdy and easy to clean. I used a four inch strip of cotton fabric cut on the bias (how many times am I going to cut the ends wrong to join and make a long strip? I always forget the right way to do this on the first try – you lay them perpendicular, and sew on the diagonal). I folded the edges towards the middle and then backed it with some sturdy grosgrain, sewing it all together on the edges:

I love grosgrain, it's the work horse of ribbons. I made a loop out of the piece that goes under the crotch and put a double seam in to have a place for the ties to cross in the back:

I'll either pull those stitches out to lengthen or use the next loop when she grows. After ends are crossed pull snug and tie:

It's no 5-point harness, but if you are sitting with baby I think it will do the trick nicely. Plus when we take the tray off and pull her right up to the table it will still work to keep her from slipping. I know she likes it because before tonight she was gripping the arms of the chair while we fed her, you know, basically hanging on for her life.

I have clever friends

Carmen and I always pine that we can not craft together as we live so far apart. She has sent me things she's made and I've made her things and sent them, so I know she is being crafty. Just not with me, boo! While I was at her house she showed me this awesome outfit she made Chloe out of one of her husband's old tee shirts. Of course I snatched it up and said, "I must squeeze Tuesday into this so I can blog about it!"

Is this not adorable?!?! It is a concert tee so check out the back:

The pattern is McCall's 8574 Um, I had Carmen tell me, and wrote it down and everything but now it is lost, boo. Carmen please comment with the pattern number when you get a chance! Carmen made me a couple of these out of plain knit (what the pattern calls for) and then she must have taken a genius pill because she came up with this! Or maybe that's what happens when you're in Alaska and you don't have the crafty resources. Anyway she's clever and I love this.

In completely unrelated news I need plum advice! I went to hang up Tutu's diapers and realized that we have a plum tree! I had forgotten about it when it was being crammed out of our yard by a cedar that we had cut down earlier this year (two were growing too close together with the plum and they were all going to die, I don't take tree cutting lightly). We all went out and picked a bunch tonight. I cleaned them, and now they are sitting on my counter:

only I put tea towels over them. I don't even know how to store them, I just took my best guess. I'm not sure what these type are either, but they are freaking awesome and taste like candy. I want to try and make some baby food for Tutu and freeze it, maybe a plum jam, or a plum sauce on a pork chop (mmm). Ideas, advice? I wish I would have figured this out earlier, they are ripe like, yesterday. And some are bruised, as you can see, from tossing them into the bowls (there are not a lot of low branches). Please give me some advice ASAP! I will send you big kisses!

Sweet Sundays

Today was a lovely day, much lovelier than the night that proceeded it. Let's just say me cutting out diet coke + giving Tuesday some solids does not make her sleep better, but much much worse. I knew the solids and sleep thing was a myth, as our doctor told us, but now I really know that to be true. But on to Sunday (the Sunday that started at 8:30 and not 2:30).

Bj's parents were in town for a wedding so we thought we'd show them just how much Tutu loves the ocean and drove to the coast to have lunch and go to the beach. Tuesday got to participate in a favorite family activity for the first time:

Feet pictures! We were only at the beach for a few short hours, but it was still fun. The ride home seemed long to poor Tutu. After lots of milky at home I took her out back for an impromtu photo shoot. When you spend all season growing a nice field in your own backyard you might as well use it, right?

I couldn't get her to look at the camera, but that's alright because I got lots of shots of her cute little bits that I know will grow so fast.

There is a little bit of new hair there.

Then I let Tuesday pull me in for some baby kisses:

Awe my sweet little sparkly pants, how I love thee.

In the swing of things

When we took the train ride to Seward we had most of the day to hang out in the town before heading back to Anchorage. Seward is a small town but lucky for us they had an awesome new park. I saw a mom pushing a baby in a swing and I hadn't even thought that Tuesday would be old enough for that. But she is very strong now so I thought I'd try it and see how she liked it.

So she tolorated it. Just kidding she freaking went nuts on this thing!

It was so much fun getting her to giggle. Carmen had the idea to put a blanket behind her and I had a big one so that worked for padding our skinny girl. I think out of all the pictures from the trip at least a third are of our time in the park. It was so wonderful, sunny and not too hot (leading to a little papa head burning, oops!). Plus seeing our girl this happy was so much fun.

Her little squeals are the best.

Then this last week I went to a mom's group for the first time up at this cute little park I didn't even know existed before and Donna had this idea:

That is Tuesday and William in the same swing. I think she said she saw someone doing it at another park. Oh the cuteness. In one of the videos of the Alaska swing adventure you can here Bj saying, "Well, looks like I'm going to have to put a swing in the backyard." I think so!

Old and Unwanted

This morning I left the little peanut with Bj and Sarah and I went out thrifting. Unfortunately there were not many great sales, and no estate sales, boo! Fortunately I can scrounge (and so can Sarah), so we found some fun things. I didn't get anything on my looking list, but that is more of a guideline, not hard and fast get/don't get.

After all how would I have know to get these rulers? I have a good idea for them too…

Or this set of curtains and pillow. The woman who sold them to me nearly wept, they were her son's bedroom set. Indestructible she said. Copyright 1977, so they've been around a while. They are in pretty good condition so I think I'm going to try selling them on etsy, I've only ever bought on there before.

This is my favorite thing from the day, a handknit sweater. Yes, it's in acrylic, but I don't think it's ever been worn. I can hardly stand for a handknit to go so unloved. And at a dollar I figure I could doll up Tuesday in it. I also got her a few other things, a pair of pants with turnips, some polka dot socks, and a thermal shirt that looks slim fitting and oh so cute. I may get the girl a lot of clothes but at least most are hand me downs and good deals (with a few splurges thrown in).

After thrifting Sarah and I hung out with Tuesday and were crafty. Tutu was a little more fussy than crafty, teething maybe? – Update just got finished with over an hour trying to get poor little Tuesday back to sleep. Hope it sticks this time. Here are Sarah's blocks:

She also worked on a pillow case, yeah for pillow cases! My progress:

Okay not much, and one of those blocks I made up in Alaska (we did friendship blocks for the girls, similar but not exactly the same). I hope this weekend is super chill so I can get more work/play stuff done. And maybe a little exercise?

Alaska

I have a few separate posts planned about our trip, but first a pictorial overview.

Kenai Lake (good thing you posted the name of it on your blog Carmen!)

Carmen and I on kayaks, first time, I loved it!

Carmen and Chloe, me and Tutu.

Early morning train ride, sunglasses for the sunrise (it was really early).

Amazing views from the train.

Us in Seward (destination of the train that day).

Papas and babies!

It was a long adventure day:

Beautiful Chloe:

Trying to get a joint shot:

"Chloe you have ears!"

"Chloe you are so tasty!"

"Why can't I eat Chloe?"

And for the grand finale:

The reason we had to lower the crib when we got home – Sparkly Pants what are you doing?!?!

4 years and 3 months later…

I finally got a badge for my shop put up on my blog (oh and when did I first blog about it? Back in the blogging stone ages). And I didn't even do it, Bj did because HE IS THE BEST. He even made it extra cool so roll your mouse on over there and check it out. I have a lot of things I've been working on for The Ribbon Jar, including lots of new ribbon I need to add to the site, projects to upload to the gallery, and new special collections I'm planning.

I'm also working on a nice long post about our trip up to Alaska. It was wonderful, and last time we went I did not do it justice on the blog. I tend to be good about my crafty endeavors and everyday life, but fall short on reporting about the big adventures. I like to just live them, maybe I'll do a photo wrap up, I took lots!