Sophia Mittens by Half

Actually, it is a little more than by half. The second mitten is almost half done itself. Things got a little crazy and absolutely no progress was made (which I find understandable for once), but with the weather getting colder and a promise to a sweet cousin yet unfulfilled I figured I had better get my hands a moving. Not to mention that I may have already promised my best friend a pair too.... and I lost one of my own mittens last year so now I need another for myself.... No matter how many projects I want to start, I just can't seem to escape mittens!!

The thing that made me smile the most today was this, though:

Photo copyright © 2012 Posie: Rosy Little Things.

I made one of her kits last year and had so much fun with it that I think I am going to make it a yearly tradition! I hope to get my mom and my sister in on it too. I am excited for it to come in the mail, but then the hard part starts: I refuse to start any Christmas crafting until after Thanksgiving!

~Alison

Dad.

On September 9, 2012 my dad took his life. Despite being surrounded by a huge family who loved and cared for him deeply, we were unable to help him fight the internal battles he was having with himself daily, or alleviate the huge amount of pain he was living in and had been living for a majority of his life.

Despite being hurt by the fact that he left us, my love for my father is strong, enduring, and unending. I know that many people claim that they have the best father, but I truly believe that I in fact, have the best father who has ever graced God's green earth. He loved us and took care of use and always put us first until the very end.

There is always going to be a hole in my heart from his loss, but I will strive daily to fill it with love for him, the rest of my family, and by living the live I know he would want me to live.

My cousin spoke to me about memorializing him, not necessarily with a stone with his name carved in it, but by continuing on the little traditions he always had, like making "chicken legs" out of drink straw wrappers, and many other things.

I always used to speak to my dad about how I wished I could have one of those "cool crafty blogs that everyone went to and was inspired by." I thought it was so cool how someone could, for example, come up with a cool ornament idea that everyone would love, and would in turn inspire a new idea and then a new idea, etc. I always wanted to be a part of something so creative like that. The feeling of community that craft blogs seem to have is truly inspiring! But I always let my own fear hold me back, and I think it even stunted my creativity a bit.

But my dad always praised anything I made, wither it was silly looking, a complete failure, or not. He was always there to cut wood or metal or PVC for whatever half-cocked idea I had floating around in my head.

So from this day forth I am going to spend less time looking at all the other amazing things that other people are making, and start trying to make some amazing things of my own and live the life my dad wanted me to live. This blog and all the silly, crazy, or even awesome things I come up with, will be my memorial to him. Plus it will be a space to show off how awesome of a dad I have when I get to talk about him :)

Growing a Green Tumb

To start, my gardening skills are a bit spotty. Sometimes stuff grows, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it is growing and looks great! Then I get home from work and it doesn't look so great anymore and I am left scratching my head.

This year I began planting indoor herbs early. Last year was a good year, but this year? Not so much. Maybe I am doing something wrong? Maybe it is too cold for the warmth loving basil? Maybe the new planters I bought to make my room look nicer are too small???? I have no idea, truly.







So I am trying again. This time I am adding Earthworm Castings for fertilizer. A family friend recently bought a business that produces this stuff, which is, basically, worm poop. But it is like black gold when it comes to gardening. My mom recently started using it and her plants look great. My mom and I actually work there on the weekends. Since it is a family friend and they just started, I work for fertilizer, rather than money! It is a lot of hard work but even more fun. So here is hoping the worm poop works!





I also am trying a grow light for the seeds. Hopefully it will produce stronger plants, since I read that plants will grow tall and spindly if they have to reach for a light.

So hopefully my basil will start to grow! I like growing stuff from seeds because it is cheaper and I feel so very accomplished when they grow. But if worse comes to worst, I will have to by a started plant when they start showing up at the gardening stores.

To make myself feel better about this whole thing, I bought two Ivy plants that will hopefully grow! The guy at the store told me they were non-toxic to cats, but, surprise surprise, when I checked the ASPCA website, they were listed as toxic. Story of my life. Oh well, it has been two days and he hasn't even noticed them.