4th Annual NICU Charity Challenge

Sunset Crochet has announce the 4th Annual NICO Charity Challenge! This is a challenge that I took part in last year and I have signed up this year as well!

12 Hats. 12 Days. Are you ready?

They are challenging you to make 12 hats for the sweet little NICU patients during the 12 days of Christmas. I personally haven’t had a baby in the NICU, but my youngest received a knitted hat from a stranger when we were leaving the hospital. I can still remember how I felt that day (almost 3 years ago now) getting something so sweet for my little baby. Knowing that a perfect stranger took the time to make the hats for little people that she would probably never meet. It brought me such joy and happiness. I can only imagine how much more a family feels those emotions knowing that a complete stranger put the time into something for their littlest family member.

So, please sign up for this great challenge and spread some Holiday cheer this season! 20 different designers have come together to design different preemie hats for this years challenge. When signing up for the challenge you will receive these patterns through your email. You can use all of the patterns, one of the patterns or maybe a combination of a couple of them. That is totally up to you! When you are done with your hats please make sure that you share a photo of them with Sunset Crochet (either by email: bonnie@sunsetcrochet.com or by facebook) before you drop them off at your local NICU.  She will post them to her blog as well as her facebook page for everyone to see.

Please click the image below to take you to her page so you can get more info about the challenge, see the beautiful hat designs and most importantly sign up!

 

 

24 Hour Giveaway from Sweet Potato 3 Patterns!

Christine over at Sweet Potato 3 Patterns just announced this morning, that she is having a 24 hour Giveaway! She will be picking 5 winners in about 10 hours! So, make sure that you go and enter her give away. The 5 winners that get drawn will get to pick up to $15 in patterns from her shop! Just imagine what kind of cute things you could get! I know there are a bunch that I don’t have that are on my “to get” list!

Be sure to click the image below to take you to the contest! Then come back and tell me what patterns are on y our “to get” list! Good luck everyone!

Why is your poop blue!? Oh yeah, you ate a blue crayon…. ugh!

Yup, you read it right. Little Miss S eats crayons. She is four months away from turning 3… and yet she still eats crayons. It doesn’t happen while you are watching her or when her sister is sitting down coloring with her. Instead she takes a crayon and sneaks away to eat it. Then she comes over to me yelling “Mommy, Mommy, Look!” while sticking out her tongue. Then I tell her how she can get really sick eating crayons and put her in time out. You can then go ahead an repeat this process in a couple of days.

Lately, she been picking blue crayons which have in turn made her poop some very interesting colors. Today she decided to switch it up a bit and ate an orange crayon. Fantastic! Can’t wait to see if this one effects her bowl movements in any way, shape or form.

I am sure that there are other people out there that are having this problem… or at least I hope. I definitely don’t want to think that she has some weird kind of crayon eating fetish. Miss S doesn’t really eat the WHOLE crayon… just chews on the end of it enough to get a good amount of little itty bitty crayon pieces all over her tongue, teeth, face, neck, hands and whatever else she decides to rub them on.

I really hope that she figures out that crayons are made for coloring on paper and not on the inside of her tummy. I’m really not a big fan of trying to scrape all the little bits out of her mouth. I’m sure Miss M would like it too, since she has really taken a liking to drawing and writing.

Pattern Test for Petal Knits – 01

Well, I am very happy to announce that I have tested a knitting pattern and it came out great! I have been working on teaching myself to knit for some time now and I just couldn’t get it figured out… I volunteered to do this pattern test so that I was forced to learn how to knit faster.

With the help of Melody’s Makings’ – How to Knit series, I was able to cast on, knit and purl. And let me tell you how much I love how she shows you how to cast on! Since she uses a crochet hook to cast on, I totally got that down the first time that I tried. The knit stitch was easy for me to get as well, but the purl stitch was a little bit of a pain. It took awhile to really get that one going. But I kept plugging at it and I figured it out.

I wont lie, it was challenging for me to hold two knitting needles instead of one crochet hook. That will probably take me awhile before I feel more fluid with holding and working with them. It’s part of the fun right?!

I was super happy with the pattern from Petal Knits. It was really easy for a green knitter like me to follow along and read through. She has a bunch of super cute patterns that I just can’t wait to buy and try out!

My Caleb Bonnet looks a little different then the one that she shows in her pattern. I had a hard time figuring out what stitch I left off with… she has you do a stockinette stitch which is a knit row followed by a purled row, then repeating until the end of your project. My mistakes are the ridges that you see down the side of the bonnet. I do have to say they are a happy mistake though… some how I managed to evenly space them out.

I totally did not mean to do that on purpose but it worked out very well.

I can’t wait until I can start my next knitted project!

You can find the pattern for the Caleb Bonnet by following these links!

Etsy: www.etsy.com/shop/PETALKNITS

Craftsy: http://www.craftsy.com/user/pattern/store/173911

Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/designers/tracie-taggart

 

Make sure to check her out on Facebook too!

 

Blizzcon 2014

Earlier this year, I went to San Diego Comic Con and shared my adventure with you. This time, I bring you Blizzcon! For anyone that doesn’t know what Blizzcon is… it’s the big annual Blizzard Entertainment Convention! This is the second one that I have gotten the chance to go to since moving the Southern California. It’s by far one of my favorite things to do and geek out about.

I love Blizzard’s games (especially Diablo 3) and I was very happy to hear about their new game coming out next year… Overwatch. This game is a first-person shooter, which in my mind, was the only type of game that they were missing. In my late teens to late-twenties I played nothing but first-person shooter games. Counter Strike and Day of Defeat were my late night obsessions. Guess that was better then going out and partying all the time like other people my age. hahaha

After Blizzard announced Overwatch, they unveiled their latest sculpture over by the Store. It’s an awesome piece of the games character named Tracer. (It was a little hard to get a perfect shot of this piece since it was on a rotating pedestal. So, please look past the slight blur.)

You can see the awesome trailers for Overwatch here:

Overwatch Cinematic Trailer  |  Overwatch Game Play Trailer

Anyways, back to Blizzcon…. I wasn’t able to go for opening day because Miss M had to go to school. But, I was there for the second/last day. Because I went on the second day, I wasn’t able to really see a lot of the cool costumes because the costume contest was on Friday. I still have a few good ones to share with you though. Plus, if you wanted to see all of the people that participated at Blizzcon, you can check out this link:

Blizzcon 2014 – Cosplay/Costume Contest

I did spend most of my time there, over by the Artists’ Stage… I love being able to see the Blizzard artists doing their magic. I highly suggest that you all go and watch some of the panels if you ever get the chance to go to Blizzcon.

After I got my fill of the Artists’ Stage, I floated around so I could grab some photos of the new products, the massive sculptures and to just soak in all of the awesome things Blizzcon had to offer.

I of course left the best (in my point of view) and newest large scale sculpture for last! This one was created my Steve Wangs’ crew for this years Blizzcon.

The Azeroth Choppers were on display, I never watched any of the episodes of the builds personally, but they were pretty cool to see in person. If you want to check out the process of how these jaw dropping bikes were made please head over to the website: Azeroth Choppers

Unfortunately, all of the Blizzard product that I wanted to get at Blizzcon was sold out by the time I got over there on Saturday. They have a pretty cute new plushie that will eventually make it’s home in my house.

I didn’t even attempt to take part in any of the game playing… the lines to do that were a little too long when all I had to do was go home and play it on my computer. I would have liked to try out the Overwatch, but I am sure you can guess that the line was SUPER long for that one.

One other thing that I wasn’t able to do while I was there, was check out the Warcraft Movie Trailer… again the line was long to see it and it would have been cool to see it at Blizzcon but I will just wait until it is out to the public.

I ended up leaving around 4 o’clock because I had to pick up the girls. The whole family had dinner and then watched the closing Metallica concert on the Live Stream. They put on a pretty good concert and the girls loved it. When Metallica finished playing their set and went off stage the crowd started chanting “One More Song!” I thought it was pretty funny that the girls started chatting along with them. When Metallica came back out both of them started screaming and then moshing in front of my computer when Metallica started playing again! It was a pretty awesome way to end Blizzcon!

Beach Sand Capsules

Living in Southern California, we go to a lot of beaches. I thought that it would be a cute idea to come up with a way to show which beaches that our family has played at. It took awhile to find the right kind of glass containers that I wanted to use to hold the sand. I didn’t want them to be too big but at the same time I wanted the to be big enough to hold shells that we find at the beach as well. That way the containers will be different and have their own personality to them.

When I was out with some friends we checked out The World Market. It was my first time in there… let me just tell you it’s a dangerous place! So many nice things in that store! Any who… while I was in there I just happen to come across these cute little glass spice containers. As you can see they fit everything perfectly! You can find them here: Stainless Steel Lidded Spice Jars

I just happen to have some sand from a new beach that we visited recently so, I will show you all how I put it all together!

The first thing I did was get some clear labels, from any store that has an office section, and wrote the name of the beach on it. I wanted to do this first so that I didn’t have to worry about left over sand getting stuck to the sticky side of the label.

Next you will want to take the lid off the container (mind had a plastic shaker top that I also had to remove, yours might not have them depending on what you decide to use).

Now you are ready to pour in your beach sand that you collected. I would suggest letting the sand dry because it’s easier to work with that way. You could try to add it in when it’s wet but I can’t guarantee that the sand will stay wet.

When you have the amount of sand that you want in your container (I’ll be getting more sand to add to mine when I go to that beach again… I’m not really happy with the amount of sand in it right now) you can add any shells, sea glass or anything else that you found on the beach and want to save).

The only thing that is left is to put the lid on and slap the label on!

Now I just have to collect some sand from the other beaches that we have gone to so we have the full set!

Daylight Savings Time = 1hr of Extra Sleep…. Not if your a parent of young kids!

Every year around the same time I start hearing people talk about that extra hour of sleep that they were going to get. At one time in my life I used to look forward to that hour of sleep also… But then comes the time when you have kids. They don’t seem to understand the concept of changing the clocks back an hour. So, for me… I dread it. Putting the clocks back for me, does not mean getting an extra hour of sleep. It’s losing an hour of sleep for at least a week while my kids adjust slowly to the idea that the time is not the time that they think it is. (Which reminds me, I have to teach them how to read a clock!)

You can try what ever you want to get them to stay in their beds longer then they usually do. But no matter what it never seems to make a difference. This year I put the kids to bed 1.5 hours later the night of. In the morning they woke up at 7 (according to the turned back clock). I was like awesome! I am triumphant (this year at least)!

Then comes the next day… I put them to bed at their regular time of 8pm since Miss M has school this morning. I set my alarm clock for 6:30am hoping to get a nice shower in before having to wake the kids up for school. Wonderful plan it was… until the girls woke me up at 6:15am. They didn’t understand that it was 6:15am in the morning… to their little personal alarm clocks in their little bodies it was 7:15am! Ugh… Guess it didn’t matter if I was triumphant yesterday…

I lost a nice hot shower to wake me up this chilly morning, all because of that dreaded Daylight Savings Time! I know that I am not alone either.

What are your tricks/tips on getting your kids used to the time changes?

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

Halloween happens to be my favorite Holiday of the year! This even happens to be my favorite season! I love the crisp cool air at night, the cooler temps (if 75 degrees can be considered cool) and the beautiful fall colors, which you don’t see much of around here in SoCal. But where I grew up there was rolling hills of color as the trees went through their color changes. Oh what a beautiful site!

This month, the girls and I have been very busy with trips to Disneyland to visit their Halloween area and Haunted Mansion all done up in Nightmare Before Christmas. Of course we have been checking out the various pumpkin patches all around too. Oh, and who could forget trips to Rita’s Italian Ice for a nice Pumpkin Pie Ice and Starbucks for Pumpkin Spice Lattes! Mmmm so good…. I love anything with Pumpkin flavoring!

First off we LOVE going to Disneyland with all the pumpkins everywhere, but one of the best parts is going to the Halloween area! Mickey and his friends walk around while dressed up in their Halloween outfits, they have a little Halloween parade and show for the kids too. Most of the time we go there to Conjure up a Villain (We have only gotten Cruella DeVille and Jafar this year, bummer). Miss M likes doing that so much that she volunteered to do the conjuring! It was so cute seeing her up there while waving the magic wand around. She was so excited when Cruella came out (I was a little bummed since it was the 3rd time we saw her at that point). But it was for the experience more then anything.

The pumpkin patches are always great! We’ve been to a few of them before but they are just so fun. The first one that we went to was the Irvine Park Railroad. I personally think this one is kind of pricey but since we went with friends I put that aside. The girls had tons of fun in the hay maze, haunted house and with all the cut outs.

Miss M had a field trip with her Pre-School this month at the Tanaka Farms. It was a lot of fun, we’ve gone there for Strawberry picking and Watermelon picking. But this was our first Pumpkin picking tour that we did. I paid to have Miss S participate too. They had tons of fun petting the animals, picking veggies (4 carrots, 4 green beans, 4 radishes and 4 onions each) and then picking their pumpkins! Miss M picked a fun white pumpkin and Miss S picked a super cute little orange pumpkin.

The next one that we went to is one of our favorites, The Great Park. In previous years they had it on one Saturday before Halloween. But since they are developing that area they made it every Saturday of the month! This I thought was awesome because it seemed to cut down on the amount of people that participated (you had to per-register for the event). While the kids had fun walking around trick-or-treating, doing crafts and playing games, Mr F and I felt a little disappointing by how they had the pumpkins laid out. Instead of having them in their growing rows they had them all bunched up into rectangular rows. Kind of took the whole pumpkin patch feel away from it. It order to participate in the trick-or-treating and pumpkin patch each kid had to bring in 5 non-perishable foods for the food bank. This of course is an awesome deal!

The last Halloween event that we did was Santa Ana’s Boo at the Zoo. We have done this for a few years now. The girls love being able to see the porcupine awake and walking around at night. Unfortunately, he wasn’t out this year so the girls were a little disappointed by that. But they did get to take a try at milking a cow in the dairy barn. It was a fake cow, but still they get the idea of how to do it. We were a little disappointed by the lack of stuff that this year had (they are doing a lot of new builds and renovations so I can see why they would cut down on the stuff this year) but the girls did get a cute little Wreck-it Ralph stuffed animal on the way out. She is one of the racers from Sugar Rush… and she smells like grapes! MMMmmm

Miss M’s pre-school class took place on Halloween so they had a cute little Halloween party with all the kids dressed up in their costumes. To start the party off the kids walked to the corner of the street and tried to get the cars that drove by to honk. It was so cute seeing them all walking around in their costumes. The parents all brought in treats, snacks and drinks for the kids to much on. Even little Miss S got to have some!

Now we are finally to Trick-or-Treating! We had some friends come over to go around our neighborhood with us. Our neighborhood is mostly older families so there isn’t that many kids that go around. So, when our crew came around people were very excited! Since the parents were dressed up to, we even got candy! Right when we started to head back to my house it started to sprinkle! That is a very rare thing down here in SoCal… I was happy that it was raining but why couldn’t it have come on another night! One night when we are actually doing something, it decides to come. Lucky for us though it was only sprinkling… it didn’t start down pouring until around 1 o’clock in the morning.

We had a very fun filled October as you can see! Hope yours was just as good! Feel free to share your Halloween costumes with me, I would love to see them!