Handmade Xmas: Cold Knights Toque and Battle beard

This started out as a novelty hat I wanted to knit.  Thought it would be really cute to knit up a simple spangenhelm for Trevor.  And then I thought to myself - what's better than a scarf?  A beard!  But doesn't he already *have* a beard?  Yes....but.....a beard WARMER!  a beard-shaped sort of attachment for his hat!  Wouldn't that be cool?  (this is the conversation in my head.)

I freehanded the basic toque and knit a seperate t-shaped piece in seed stitch to sew on top to form the spangen-part.  the beard was knit in chunky wool on big needles, nothing fancy.  moustache was knit seperately and sewn on.

I used a crochet-hook (prolly improperly, but I couldn't bring myself to google 'how to crochet' again) to do the edges of the beard so it wouldn't roll and would hold its shape better.  the beard attaches to two buttons sewn into the upper chin-straps of the hat.  tadaa!

Here she is, my precious.  modelled by me.

breaking points

i miss people so damned much.  since K was born (and since the subsequent shameful decline of my habitat and resultant lack of company) my world has shrunk down to a size that....well, small enough to blend in and hide amongst all the shattered goldfish crackers on my floors.
at first i liked it.  i like creating an insular little unit, snuggling up in that group.  i love my family, what else do i need?

but then it stopped being about laziness, or choice, exactly, and the hermitting continued.  couldn't keep the house in anything resembling non-frathouse condition.  couldn't keep the kids quiet or properly entertained.  couldn't shower.  didn't know where all my pants went.  it got so i'd even *refuse* the opportunities i had to leave the house.  you know how your world can narrow and narrow until the idea of an open world, full of other stuff, becomes a little terrifying?  that was me.  that *is* me.  i'm just trying to fight it.

so i'm cleaning the house and inviting people over.  and if the house messes itself back up or never really gets clean i am NOT uninviting them.  i will have people here, in my space, and either i'll clean it up so i'm not embarassed or i'll just deal with it and stop letting the state of my floors dictate whether i can have friends.
i can't get out and about that much right now, ok.  but people could be coming to us.  i've just been stopping them.

Handmade Xmas: KidCalendar (cheat)

So we have a tradition since the first child was born.  We make calendars for the grandparents, full of photos of the kid(s) and give them as gifts.  By 'make' I mean that we assemble them online and print them through staples.  It's not quite as homespun as I'd like, but I feel like the gift counts as handmade because a) i took and edited the photos b) all creative decisions were made by me and c) I MADE THE CHILDREN. 

If you were really super make-your-won-soap crafty, you could actually cut and paste a calendar together, and it would really count as handmade.  But I've got more than one of these to make, and we never print off photos.

I'll throw some thumbnails of the calendar pix up, or post a photo of the calendar itself once they're picked up.  (I'm currently agonizing over the selection of the *last* photo.)

handmade xmas plans

This year I'm really going to do it.  I am going to make EVERY gift that I give.  (Trevor will be buying all of his, so the kids will still get some funky manufactured toys, no fear....I am not damning the 2 year old to a granolababy existence, not yet.  :)

Anyway, this spawned a pinterest board: http://pinterest.com/batmanmommy/handmade-xmas-gift-ideas/ - this is where i've been tossing all ideas that look suitably easy/cool/cheap (rockin' the no-income mommy, represent!) and like something that someone on my list would like.

I currently have 131 'pins' on the board - only a few duplicates (when one tutorial was better or two techniques were both good, etc.)  I probably have 10 people, tops, to make gifts for.  and yet I keep searching for ideas.  Pinterest is a bit addictive.  (but that's a tangent for another post.)

Anyway, this year I say NO to consumerism, and YES to my inner compulsive crafter.  I'll document the gifts I make here, since no one I know reads this blog. 

To the Craftmobile!

Cuteness tsunami

i grumble a lot, but my children are two tiny suns.  i am snowed under by giant waves of love for K as she rambles the house, comes to me for hugs when she's giddy, eats her little cheesy penguins. 

and X - every day i see him smile and recognize my face and feel like we're getting to know each other, and i love him a bit more each day.  i can see a year down the road when he is the adorable creature K is, and how much i'll love him then, and it boggles the mind.  that there can be that much.  that i can have that much.

Love is a runaway downhill snowball.  and i wouldn't have it any other way.

About the name....

Why "third floor submarine?" you may be wondering.  (or not, but it's my blog so...suck it. :P)

Life with the babies has narrowed my life.  as a SAHM (or, as a i prefer, a *true* human resources professional) things have conspired to shrink most of my life down to the walls of my apartment.  we're a self-contained system.  like a submarine.  and there's no real escape, without a lot of planning and trouble.  like a submarine.

also, i live on the 3rd floor.

Sorry.....

in the great Canadian tradition, i will start this blog with some in-advance apologies:

1.  i apologize to your eyeballs.  i made the colour-selections while very sleepy, with "Yellow submarine" looping through my head.
or...you're welcome?

2.  i apologize to your fourth-grade language arts teacher.  i have an english degree myself, and so feel his/her projected pain when you see me not capitalizing properly and littering the place up with mixed metaphors and broken sentences.  i have a strong personal philosophy regarding the flexibility of language that explains this intentional laziness, and you can ask me if you really want to know.

3.  i apologize to your sensitivities.  i'm @ my most offensive when i don't even know it, and am pretty offensive sometimes when i do.  i try to be kind, and do no harm, but i can be loud and cynical and you might not like my sense of humour. 

now i'm done apologizing.  KABLAM!