Sign up for my free giveaway, you know you want to! And a free recipe, because I am a giver

I hate to admit it, but I have become addicted to coffee. I never wanted to be and told myself I never would, but as I have repeatedly learned the hard way, never say never. 

Oh sweet nectar of life, at last I found you...

Dammit, kid, making me stay up all hours of the night knitting or playing video games or crocheting my vast zombie army instead of sleeping and then waking me up early expecting a diaper change and breakfast. What is up with that?

So tired...

Anyway, I know a lot of my friends and family enjoy coffee too (and may not need it to function as much as I do but just like the taste, or maybe they do need it to wake up because their cat kept them up all night trying to get their invisible mouse friend out of their owner's underpants, I don't know, that's what my cat does sometimes) so I decided to make some coffee/tea syrup for them for Christmas. Because that's what nice people do.

I found the recipe here, but what I did was put 2 1/2 cups of water, 2 cups of white sugar and 3/4 cup of brown sugar in a pot. Instead of adding 4 tbls of vanilla extract to it after it cools, I put a vanilla bean (sliced open) into the pot with the water and sugars and boiled them for at least 10 minutes, until the sugars have melted and it becomes all syrupy.

One of them I put in homemade caramel while it was still hot so the caramel would melt. Then when it is cooled down, put it in a container and decorate as you wish. Ta da! Easy.

My kid was so well behaved yesterday, I thought he had been taken over by aliens. But I didn't complain. I constantly thanked him for being such a good boy as he looked at me as if to say, "Okay Mom, I get it. Now get out of my way so I can throw this pancake on the floor. PANCAKE! What? I don't feel the need to explain my art to you," (That last part is what I hope he is thinking instead of "Let's see how big of a mess I can make before Mom gets REALLY mad" ).
He helped me make chocolate chip cookies yesterday, and by "helped me" I mean he sat quietly on the couch and played with his puzzles and Nick Jr. apps on my iPad. His reward for being such a good boy.

He is conducting very important business

I have been baking like mad for two days. I think there is something wrong with me. Or something very right.

One of these days I will get my act together and do holiday sales, but right now I have too much to get done. Instead I have decided to do a giveaway for the holiday season.
Unfortunately I have had more than one person commission me to make them something and then totally flake out on me by NEVER contacting me again, even after I send them very nice messages asking them to please purchase the items I have painstakingly made for them with love.
But it's a win for you! Woo hoo! Because I have decided to give them away to my wonderful readers. Because I love you.
The item up for grabs is this adorable pink voodoo doll pin cushion that a woman asked me to make her (she specified pink because she hates red, apparently) and I can only assume she fell victim to a cougar attack or something because who wouldn't want this cutey?

Win me!

So all you have to do is just post a comment on this blog-post by January 15th and I will use a random number generator to pick the winner! I will announce the winner on January 16th.
Comment today and win! Yay!
Anyway, I better get back to work finishing up all the presents I am trying to get done by Christmas.
Hope you all have a very happy holiday!
-Cori

I'm alive, I swear (warning: photo heavy)

Wow, I am a bad, bad blogger. This blog post is WAY overdue. Sorry! I am going to have to post this very late at night since this is the only time I ever have to get on the internet.

A lot has happened since I last posted. I'll start from the beginning.

First, unfortunately, we lost our dear sweet kitty Jack.

 

Jack has had problems since day one and is extremely fortunate to have found Jess. I really don't know who else would have put up with him. Don't get me wrong, he was very sweet and a cozy cuddler who would always sit in one of our laps and we loved him to pieces. It's just his bladder and allergy problems got out of control and we finally had to face the fact that he was miserable and probably uncomfortable 99.9 % of the time. We loved him and didn't want him to suffer anymore. We will always cherish the 10 years we got to spend with him. R.I.P. my sweet pain in the ass. We love you.

As promised, here are some photos from our Halloween. The theme this year was Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It blows my mind that some people have never seen this movie. It's one of my favorites!

Here we have my sweet little Legendary Black Beast of Aaaarrrggghhh!

 Here is Jesse setting up the Knights of Ni!

 Here's a close up of the Knights of Ni!

 Even closer...

 Ni!

 We made sure to bring them a shrubbery.

Here is our Bridge of Death. It was very perilous.

 We had to have a Black Knight, of course.

 I think the highlight of our Halloween was that Jesse had a running loop of bits from the movie playing for the Knights of Ni and the Black Knight and as a jogger ran by the Black Knight, he said, "Oh, oh, I see! Running away, eh? You yellow bastards! Come back here and take what's coming to you! I'll bite your legs off!" The jogger was heard laughing as he ran away. Love it :)

Here is our Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog .

 Scary, right? Jesse rigged him up so we pushed a button and he jumped up at you.

Here is the bridge keeper.

 Bridge of Death again at night.

 Our yard wouldn't be complete without a grail...

(Bad, naughty Zoot)

 Our Halloween party wouldn't be even half as good if it weren't for these wonderful people.

 Not only do they always come up with great costumes every year, Sir Robin and his minstrels (a.k.a. Jesse's brother Tyler and his cousins Drew and Kate) make the best homemade donuts for us all. I love them so much.

Here I am (she's a witch!) and Jess.

We had a blast and hope Sam did too, even though he had no clue what was going on. I think we picked a great first Halloween costume. I wanted something other than a peanut or any of the other overly used infant costumes. 

I think I have his (and my) costume(s) picked out for next year already.

Also, I would like to add how amazing my husband is. We were under the impression that this year wouldn't be up to our usual Halloween yard standards since we couldn't spend much money this year and didn't have a whole lot of time, but somehow Jesse pulled it off. And it turned out amazing. Drew and I were pretty skeptical when Jess told us about his Bridge of Death idea, but when he started building it I was just blown away. Not to mention envious of his ingenuity and creativity. I am thoroughly convinced he can do anything. If only he could get a job that utilized these skills...

Thanksgiving was pretty low key, although we had two or three of them and I ended up getting the stomach flu and was only able to eat a small portion of mashed potatoes :(

Christmas was pretty fun, despite the usual hurried-traveling-to-each-house-thing and Sam missing his afternoon nap. He did very well and I am proud of him. I must say, Christmas on my side of the family is definitely more fun with a little one to celebrate with.

Gus even got in the spirit.

Unfortunately we are now a one-income family since, if I were to get a job, I would only be working to pay for a babysitter or daycare and therefore I would rather stay home and raise my son myself. I make a little money here and there through my Etsy shop, but not enough. And Jesse makes just enough for us to keep our house. Usually. Sigh. Needless to say, I was having a very hard time buying Christmas presents since the only things I buy anymore are baby food and gas for my car. And since I don't bring in the money, I feel super guilty buying myself anything anymore.

So, I ended up making a majority of the presents I gave out. It took forever and I was working like a mad woman.

Here's what I made for my sister-in-law.

 I used the images from this book. 

My Mom asked for potholders since she burned hers. I made her this.

The other side.

 And this.

 The other side.

I found the pattern for these here.

I made my Aunt a dishcloth and dishtowel.

 And potholders.

Whew! I feel very tired but, strangely enough, very satisfied. Handmade gifts are the best :)

I even had time to make a cherry pie for my friend's birthday and a pecan pie and pear pie with gruyere baked into the crust for Christmas (I was channeling my inner Chuck. How dare they cancel Pushing Daisies after only two seasons), with the help of my wonderful husband who kept the little one busy so I could bake, and also wrapped all the presents for me. I don't know what I would do without him.

Now I plan to get down to business and start designing patterns to sell in my shop. I am really trying hard to bring in more money for my family, and really hope to make my little home business a lucrative business. It would be my dream job!

We'll see how that goes with an eight-month old...

I am dreadfully unorganized so that means I might go awhile without blogging or leaving my house. Don't worry, if that happens it just means I am being productive! Or that Sam is keeping my extra busy.

 This one is a little blurry, but still cute. He loves his ugly doll.

Times may be tough, tougher than I have ever experienced before, but my babies make it all worth it. Especially when I wake up to things like this.

Oh, and I am excited because my cousin got me this book for Christmas:

Holy crap I want to make EVERYTHING in this book!! And I plan on it, assuming I can find the time (and the yarn). Why do all these books always suggest the most expensive yarn??? And you always need like fifty skeins of it too. How do these people afford it? I'm just hoping I can find yarn in my own stash that will work.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday and a wonderful (and safe) New Years Eve! I will leave you with our family Christmas card (if only we could have gotten the dog and cat in there).

Fa la la la braaaaaaaains!

As the Christmas season comes upon us yet again, I am overwhelmed with things I planned on getting done but ran out of time and didn't. Nothing new there.
But I did manage to get a tree skirt made!

 I posted the pattern on Etsy but had a lot of requests for me to sell the actual tree skirt. Maybe next year.
Unfortunately, the tree skirt will cost a pretty penny because I used chunky wool and a lot of it.
I also made a zombie Santa:

He sold pretty fast. If I get a chance before Christmas, I'll have to make another one.
In need of a stocking stuffer? How about a zombie head key chain?

I plan on making a bunch of these guys since they don't take me long. And I have a bunch of key chain parts to use up. So if anyone is interested, check out my Etsy store.
I am excited that I now know a secret and can make a bunch of stuff I couldn't before. Let me explain.
My husband and I went to the doctor today and found out that we are having a baby boy. So now I can knit and crochet a bunch of baby boy stuff. I was kind of hoping for a girl because there are too many boys on my husband's side of the family (he has two brothers and two nephews), but that's okay because we like boys too :) I just have to resist the urge to put him in pink ruffled baby bloomers...
If anyone wants to know, no we don't have any names yet because boy names are really hard to think of for us, but once we decide we will probably keep that a secret. It just keeps us from second guessing ourselves in case others don't like the name.
I am due April 22nd and we haven't gotten anything done. Doh! Oh well. At least we can pick out baby stuff now.
So, that's my update for now. Keep checking the store for new zombie head key chains!
Have a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Autumn goodies and early Christmas goodies

It definitely has been feeling like Autumn around here. I've been enjoying my husband's ginger pumpkin bisque.

 

This is the third day in a row that I've been eating it and it is still just as yummy as ever.

I've been knitting up a tiny garden of pumpkins:

 

I have no idea what I am going to do with them but they are adorable.

I have also been perusing my favorite blogs to get inspiration. One of them is called A Beautiful Mess by Elsie Larson (formerly Elsie Flannigan) and found a cute tutorial for garlands. 

The one that caught my eye was the pom-pom garland. I just happened to have four different sized pom-pom makers and decided to make a garland for our window. Here's my version:

 Unfortunately, the pictures aren't that great but you get the idea.

I am trying trying to get some Christmas stuff made before December despite the nagging feeling that Christmas needs to wait until after Thanksgiving. But it's ok because people need time if they are going to make their Christmas decorations ;)

Anyway, I made a Christmas tree skirt!

 It's almost like a granny square blanket.

I am thinking of posting the pattern for sale on Etsy. 

When I actually get our Christmas decorations up, I will take pictures. I am making a home made Christmas this year, meaning all our decorations (except for lights of course) are handmade.

I have a very cute helper to help me get all this stuff done:

I think he might need some handmade decorations himself ;) I'll get right on that.

Anyway, I have more Christmas ideas in the making and will try to get them out as soon as possible. I am, however, going to visit my Mom's side of the family in Arizona next week and am considering closing the store just for a short while, but I'm not sure yet. I just know I am not going to be able to send out anything until the 28th of November.

Before you robbers out there get any funny ideas, my husband is not going with me to Arizona so he will be there to protect my house. As so will my ferocious guard dog, Gus (see picture above) and my security system, of course.

I hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving! I am thankful for my wonderful readers, my friends and family, the chance to try and be my own boss and for the special gift that's coming to us next year (sorry, it's a surprise) ;)

If you can, leave me a note and let me know what you think about the tree skirt! Thanks everyone! 

Happy Holidays!

Making Christmas...and Halloween...and cousin zombie

Hello there!
What's new?
I haven't had much time lately to work. Last Saturday we were invited to seven different events. We only made it to two and a half :P
My Dad has had to undergo a couple of surgeries the last couple of weeks and since I am out of work right now, I have been helping my Mom keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't try to drive or anything. He's doing good, though. He's healing up nicely.
I am getting Halloween/Christmas fever. I have been thinking of wonderful things to make for Christmas decorations and plan on making and selling a tree skirt pattern.
These were on my Etsy email this morning:

Lord Mock's 3x3 Votive Candle Goddess Pentagram Holder


Zombies Love Brains Necklace


Never Trust the Living

For my friends who just had a baby:

Fall Pumpkin Bib

I am the first one to admit that I am a giant nerd. As if I needed more proof, I ordered this shirt today:


Hogwarts Alumni
I am very excited :)

This book looks pretty interesting:


The Beaded Edge
Assuming you like to crochet and do bead work. Of course I have no need for it at the moment.

Well, my aunt Janine has commissioned me for a very special gift for my cousin for his birthday and since I'm pretty sure he doesn't read this blog, I feel safe saying that it's a custom zombie of himself. I have the head done and should probably finish him up today so I will say adieu for now. Have a great Wednesday!
Loves,
Cori