Knit Devotion

My son will be so happy. Captain Jack Sparrow will be back for another Pirates movie. Have I mentioned my son LOVES Captain Jack Sparrow. We found out yesterday that Johnny will be back in a 4th installment of Pirates. Can’t wait. Should be good. Also he will be in another Tim Burton movie. Alice in Wonderland, He will be no other than the Mad Hatter. This will be fantastic and creepy and completely odd. I love it. Tim Burton is my kind of man! He’s just a bit weird and crazy. He hasn’t done a project that I haven’t loved. So with that I bid you a

Yo ho, me harties, Yo ho!

I can’t believe it…Halloween is almost here. It’s my favorite time of year!!! I love the changing of the leaves, the cooler weather (yeah right not here in FL), the carnivals, the pumpkins, the smell of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, etc., the hot apple cider, etc. I could go on for days. And of course, Halloween and all the costumes, and the candy and the spooking. It’s so much fun. My kids are of the age now where trick or treating is a lot of fun. I love making them costumes and dressing them up. I just wish it was cooler here so I could really make them some good ones. I remember my favorite costume was my Sylvester the cat. It was complete with a stuffed head just like a mascot for a sports team. I still have pics of it. I will have to dig up and scan them. It was great. I couldn’t do that here..my kids would pass out from heat exhaustion before they walked out of the door. It’s still in the 90′s here.

To get into the spirit I designed this shirt, pants and skirt. What better way to start the season than with a skull and black and white stripes. The skirt is “bat” net. I couldn’t help but grab some while I was at the cloth store the other night. I was drooling over the Halloween fabric and the costumes and the decorations and the skulls and the tombstones…well, you get the picture. When I came across this fabric, hidden behind some boring fabric. And on that note..my group, Cafemom Etsy Team, is having a sale during the month of October. The different stores are having different sales. Just go to Etsy and search for CEM for cafemom. The code is “moms rock” . Put this code in the convo when you order and your discount will be calculated for you. Here’s the ad:

Cafemom Etsy Moms Pre-Holiday Sale
Starting October 1st and lasting until October 31st the talented Cafemom Etsy Moms are having a Pre-Holiday Sale! Each store is offering a great pre-holiday promotion. Be sure to check out all of the shops to see what each talented Cafemom Etsy Mom has to offer!
To get your Pre-Holiday Sale discount use the Code “Moms Rock” in the notes to seller, to receive discounts.

Get shopping and support “Handmade Items”. They are made with love and care from people not machines.

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I have an awesome friend. Well, let me clarify that….I have many awesome friends but I think all my awesome friends would also agree with me that this friend is truly awesome. Among her most recent, although long time coming, accomplishments is her graduation. She is now a Dr… not medical mind you, but her doctorate in computer science. I could tell you some of her other accomplishments but they are too long to list. She is also a mother to 7 kids, some teenagers and 3 that are almost 6 years old. She has her hands full with that to say the least. She works full time plus some. I just wanted to say to her
CONGRATS KRISTAL!!!! YOU DESERVE IT!!!!

We spent this Saturday with her family and had a blast (as usual) Sat by the pool, relaxed, got sunburned, ate, drank, talked, and chased our kids. Sounds like we were on the boat!!! Actually we talked about that too….mostly wishing we were on the boat again. Not too long for her. She’s going to Australia with Royal Caribbean! We are SOOOOO JEALOUS! Maybe next time.

So Kristal, have fun in Australia with nothing hanging over your head except the sunshine or the beautiful blue water. Bask in the glow of your accomplishments! We salute you! Good job! Way to go! and all the other sayings that go along with it!

I had made and dyed these pants before the cruise. I had laid off making the shirt because I was trying to get ready for the cruise. The fabric is a beautiful Asian Toille in Robin’s Egg blue with a brown background. I love this shirt. It’s a smaller version of my gathered nursing shirt. I put banded cuffs on the sleeves and kept the elastic in the bottom.

I decided to I decided to try dying a pair of pants in this variegated style. Jordan had a pair like this before and I loved them. I got the dye to match perfectly with the shirt. That’s a OOAK pair of pants. I know I will get close the next time. But these are perfect. I just think the pair looks so cute together. A very relaxed style.

As for my model. I told her to go crazy and do a different pose. This is what she gave me. Very creative if you ask me. But of course I am biased.

I joined a couple of Etsy Groups hoping to get my name out there more, CafeMoms and Breastfeeding. I thought those two would be good since I am doing nursing shirts, mama and kids clothing. My next project is going to be laptop bags and a special project for my Day of the Dead Swap spoilee!!!! I am still in the design stage but I almost have everything worked out in my head. I am going to try to put it to paper and maybe fabric tomorrow. I am so excited. If it turns out it will be a cool thing. Wow, I almost spoiled it there, just in case she’s reading this.

Later

That was a whirlwind tour! Disney cruise on the Wonder. A 3 day cruise but we packed a weeks worth of activities into those 3 days. It was well worth it. The cruise goes to Nassau then to Disney’s private island Castaway Cay where the Pirates of the Caribbean movies were filmed. What a beautiful place. We really didn’t know if we were going to have a good time or not. Hurricane Hannah ( yeah Disney cruise with Hannah (Montana) as a Hurricane) was beating down our door. It turned out perfect. The weather was beautiful. We were right behind the storm so it sucked all the humidity out of the sky. We had hot but not humid days and nights. The first night on the boat we had to go through Hannah. The boat rocked but it was a peaceful sleep that night. Like mama rocking her baby. haha (Rocka-ma-baby..the name of my etsy store) You can actually feel the rock on this boat where as the Freedom Class on Royal Caribbean you can’t feel the rock.

Here’s some pics from the cruise. Tyler is a Pirates maniac. And a Captain Jack Fan. He told the Real Captain of the ship that his favorite captain was Captain Jack Sparrow! Not a great way to make brownie points with the captain. We had a chance to meet Captain Jack twice. The second time Jack remembered Tyler. It was a nice surprise. The first time Tyler offered Jack his pirate bandanna. It was cute.

We had a great time just us adults on Castaway Cay. We dropped the kids off at the excellent kids play area (you could actually drop your kids off at 9am and pick them up at midnight) and went to the adult beach. Peace and quiet floating on a sea of what I call Caribbean Blue. You can only get this color of water here. It’s beautiful. Needless to say, if you have kids this is the cruise for you. It’s a little more expensive but it’s worth it. Now to recover from the cruise
and back to work.

Why can’t we stay on the boat.

Later

I have been absent lately. I have a lot going on. The monster girl is in school 1st grade. She’s a talker like her mom and has already been in trouble. Like note home trouble. Pay back is hell right? She did make it to her 6th birthday without getting sent to her room indefinitely. As most of the girls her age she’s into Hannah Montana. This is the cake I designed and made for her, Hannah’s guitar. The little Hannah pics are actually lip gloss rings! and the bigger pics are tambourines. There was a fight over the rings and tambourines. The funny thing is some of the boys wanted them also. The party was at a place called rebounderz. It is a blast. You get to jump in a room full of trampolines. On the floor and walls (see the pic). Bouncing off the walls is a little more difficult than it seems. Some of the tramps are angled more than others which makes it easier but it’s still not easy.
But the kids really had fun! You find out that you have muscles that you haven’t used in a long time or totally forgot that you had. Especially in your back. What a great workout.

Other than that I have been volunteering at school. I am heading a couple of committees so I have to get stuff together for our events plus help with others. I also have been picked to be a room mom for my daughter’s class. I hope this all settles down in the next coming weeks. Plus the first week of school Tropical Storm Fay dropped so much water on us that she brought us out of our 3 year drought. So the kids lost 3 days of school. Everything has been moved back and rescheduled and redone. What a mess. But we are back on track now. Hopefully.

Later