Getting Ready for the Holidays

We have a new item in our shop, our latest handknit Nativity set. We try to make at least one Nativity a year. They are very time consuming and intricate work. This set includes two pieces of cotton fabric to help with your holiday decorating. One piece resembles rocky ground and the other is quite dark with small sparkly stars scattered all over it.





Each piece of cloth left unfinished so that you can cut or drape it to fit your space. In the first photo, I stacked up empty cereal boxes in different heights before draping the fabric so that I have different levels on which to place the dolls.

This set includes Mary, who is holding the baby Jesus in her arms. Joseph is holding a lantern. The Angel is carrying a heart. The Shepherd has a crook and one sheep. The three Kings are carrying their own special gifts.

Eco-Friendly Amigurumi

Meet Mr Froggy!

Mr. Froggy is a small amigurumi critter. He's a little quirky, but that's what makes him special.

Mr. Froggy is always in a happy mood--gosh, he just makes you smile.Mr. Froggy is soft and huggable, and small enough to hide away in a backpack or bag.

He's a perfect friend to sit on your desk at work. Your coworkers will be so busy laughing with Mr. Froggy that they'll forget why they came over to pester you.

Aha! It's that froggy charm!

Froggy is knit with an eco-cotton blend that is made from 75% recycled cotton. His face has been hand embroidered. He is stuffed with 100% bamboo fiberfill.

You can see Mr. Froggie and lots of other handmade goodies at my Etsy shop, Peanut and Tommy.

Eco Friendly Cleaning for your Home

Here is our latest fun idea! Magic Scrubbers made from Cafe Kitchen yarn by Daruma.

Cafe Kitchen is a fluffy, 100% acrylic yarn that has been blended with positive silver ions, which makes it more resistant to mildew and bacteria than regular acrylic yarn. The acrylic yarn holds it's shape well and scrubs like a breeze.

The Japanese call these scrubbies "Magic Scrubbers." They use them to clean without detergent in the kitchen and bath.

Do they work? You'll have to try one to find out!

Check our our Etsy shop, Peanut and Tommy, to see more of these cute little scrubbies.

Eco-Friendly Knitting

I've been branching out with my knitting, and I'm making a serious effort to use upcycled or organic yarn for my knitting projects.

This week, I'm going to feature some of the eco-friendly items for sale in my handmade shop at Etsy.

This is a handknit caterpillar, who is made with organic cotton yarn with natural colors. No dyes, pesticides, herbicides or other agri-chemicals were used to grow or color the yarn.

In addition, he has been stuffed with all new fiberfill made from bamboo, which is a sustainable resource. Bamboo fiberfill is naturally antibacterial. It makes a soft, yet firmly stuffed critter.

My Latest Project--The Story of Me

I've been a scrapbooker for quite a while now. I've got a ton of albums packed full of stories about the kids, about our trips, about many of the adventures that go on in the life of our family. However, when you look though many of my albums, there is one person missing....me! Since I am usually the photographer as well as the historian, the stories are from my point of view, but rarely about ME.

So to challenge myself, I've just begun a new online scrapbooking class over at Big Picture Scrapbooking. The class is called "The Challenge of Me" and it's taught by veteran scrapbooker Lisa Day. The goal of the class is to create a scrapook about myself. The class began today, so I'm just getting started, but I'm really excited about the idea of featuring myself for a change.

My youngest daughter just graduated from high school; this fall both of our girls will be away at college. Taking this class is a way for me to close the book on the mom I've been for the last 20 years and open the book on this next stage of my life.

Stay tuned...I will post updates along the way!

My Favorite Place

Every summer we pile the kids in the car and take off for a couple of weeks of beachy bliss on a small island off the Jersey shore. It's a quiet place, no boardwalk and not much to do...which is just how we like it. We spend a lot of time on the beach, reading, swimming, just doing beachy things.

The kids aren't small anymore, my youngest graduates from high school next week, the oldest is in college, but they still look foward to the relaxation and renewal that comes from our beach time.

This year's beach week is coming soon. Yahoo!!

Operation Gratitude

I'm a member of the Etsy CreateCrochet Team. The team is organizing a "knit a scarf" project for Operation Gratitude.

Operation Gratitude seeks to lift morale and put smiles on faces of our service men and women by sending care packages addressed to individual Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines deployed overseas.

Operation Gratitude care packages contain food, hygiene products, entertainment items and personal letters of appreciation, all wrapped with good wishes of love and support. Check out their website here for more information.

If you would like to knit a scarf for Operation Gratitude, you can check out their website and mail the scarf straight to them, or contact the CreateCrochet Team leader in her Etsy shop here. There is no set pattern you must follow. The scarf should be 5-7 inches in width only, and no more then 50 inches long. Subtle colors are preferred -- maybe go with greens,blacks, tans, browns, maybe a little blue, white -- stuff similar to military uniform colors. All yarns are accepted, but go for something soft.

Cable Knit Tote Bag

My mom is really into knitting tote bags lately, and we have several in the shop. I especially love the cable knit bags--they're perfect to carry a magazine or two, your planner or spiral notebook, a pen and your wallet and keys. Each one is lined in a matching cotton fabric, with inside pockets for added organization.

Great for a summer day, just grab it and go! Check out our shop here to see all our bags and other knitted lovelies.

A Franciscan Travel Blessing

This is one of my favorite quotes. I love the message. I used it on the last page of one of my daughter's high school scrapbooks, but it would be great for a graduation card too.

~~~

May God bless you with discomfort
at easy answers, half truths and superficial relationships
so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger
at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
so that you will work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed
for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war,
so that you will reach out your hand to comfort them
and change their pain into joy.

May God bless you with the foolishness
to believe that you can make a difference in this world,
so that you will do the things that others tell you cannot be done.

My Etsy Shop

I started a little shop on Etsy in the summer of 2008. The shop really wasn't for me, it was more for my mom. She just LOVES to knit toys, and spends hours crafting the cutest little lovely stuffed plushies. She would sell her toys at a local craft fair to earn money to donate to a favorite charity.

I helped her out at a fair one summer day, and was shocked at the prices she was putting on her little friends--basically, she was charging people for the yarn and stuffing. A real crime, considering the hours of labor that went into each little plushie. The day of the fair was unbearably hot and humid, and by the time it was over, we were completely wiped out. And for all that work, she had probaby cleared $50.

I had been trolling around Etsy for a while then, and I talked mom into opening a little shop to sell her toys. Peanut and Tommy was born! We had so much fun getting the shop set up that I started making things to sell--knitted and crocheted toys, scarves, you name it. Most of our items are one of a kind, and you never know what we'll come up with next!

The name of our shop comes from a series of stories my dad created when my brothers and I were little. Peanut and Tommy were two little boys who had a lot of adventures and a lot of fun. Mom is thrilled that the shop honors my dad, who was always so supportive of mom and the toys she knits.

Starting a blog

The dashboard is set up, the space is organized. All kinds of little empty boxes sit on the screen in front of me, waiting to be filled. I need to dig out some words; fill the text box, complete the sidebars....hopefully there will be followers in the blank empty space that sits there now.

I clear out some time in my day to WRITE THE BLOG. I go to the desk, all business. NOW I am going to write the blog! It's time to get going....gotta put something in that empty space.

And the computer just sits in front of me, blank page glowing softly.

Guess I'll start the blog tomorrow.