Barbara's Creative Projects
Mina and I have been having a lot of fun with the story of the Three Billie Goats Gruff. I found a picture book at Barnes & Nobles. We like to act the story. We can use My Little Ponies or other toy animals for the goats. But I wanted a better troll — so I crocheted one:
“Who’s that tramping on MY bridge?”
Mina loves Lalaloopsie dolls. She already has two “little sisters” and will be getting another “big sister” and a “big brother” for her birthday on Saturday.
On a trip to Daison I picked up some crochet thread and cotton. I made a dress for each of Mina’s “buddies”:
Trina is making her new dolls clothes – much more sophisticated that what I would make. Mina tried so hard to make the new pajamas fit on her buddy. I finally helped by putting some tiny hair elastics on her arms and legs so they would stay on. Mina particularly like the “party dress.” I think the fact that it is a long dress is what made it a party dress. When the new clothes disappeared overnight the poor girl was heartbroken. So I decided to make her ‘little sisters’ new party dresses. I used scraps from Trina’s makings to hand sew the first one. I decided that, for me, crocheting was much easier.
I hope Mina has as much fun playing as I had making!
I have a sweet tooth. I also want to eat healthfully. So I’ve been making cookies, brownies, etc with more wholesome ingredients. I avoid using white sugar and use maple syrup and honey to sweeten things. Recently I read that avocados can be substituted for butter. I had to try it. I started with the oatmeal recipe in More With Less cookbook (pg ). My cookies turned out somewhat green, but they tasted really good (I used chocolate chips instead of raisins).
Then my friend, Marjorie, pinned a recipe for Breakfast Cookies. I wanted to try them. I didn’t have ripe bananas or pecans; I did have two avocados, a ripe mango and walnuts and almonds. I reasoned that avocados have a lot of fat in them, so I didn’t add the coconut oil. So this is the recipe I tried:
Preheat oven to 350. Combine all ingredients well. Press 2 T of mixture into a 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter onto a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. (I dropped onto a no-stick cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until fragrant and golden. Cool on pan. Yield about 15 cookies (or about 44 dropped cookies — I’d rather eat two small cookies than one large one.)
Warning: these are not very sweet cookies, but they are nicely crunchy.
For the last two weeks or so my IP address was blocked from the server that hosts this site. That meant that I could access my site from any network except my own. But today I am unblocked! I can now post freely again.
It started with a walk on the beach with my husband in 1985. A very sparkly stone caught my eye. I picked it up.
Less than a year later Volker was dead. I kept the stone close, a reminder of happier times. At some point in time, I don’t remember which summer, but I’m certain it was at Miller Lake, I decided to crochet a little bag for the stone so that I could wear as a pendant.
But that wasn’t the only cool stone I had. So I keep on crocheting little bags. I gave many of them away.
Then I got my first iPod. I love listening to audiobooks, but not all my clothes have convenient pockets. So I decided to crochet a little bag for my iPod nano, that, as it is so light, I could wear it around my neck. Of course, one colour would never do. I have many. 🙂
And that isn’t the only thing I might want to put into a pocket. What do you do when you walk the dog and want to take your cell phone, but don’t want to carry a bag? I, of course, crochet another bag. The wonder of it is that it is custom sized. When I get a new phone, I make new bag; the old one is bound to come in handy sometime. Some I make with a long strap to wear over a shoulder and some without the strap, just to protect it in my purse.
And speaking of walking the dog, I found those hard plastic poop-bag holder very annoying and rather heavy when clipped to the leash. A little crocheted bag — I like to use elasticized yarn — is so much better! It even hooks nicely onto a cellphone bag.
Ah, but the bags keep getting bigger. Can you have too many bags?
Really, there is a crocheted bag for every purpose!