Category Archives: Pictures

Saturdays are my favorite

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Fresh fruit.

Artisan bread rising for Sabbath dinner.

Some good thrifting scores. A casserole dish, perfect for dinners for two.

And I got a ButterBell at The Salvation Army.

I hadn’t ever seen one of these before, but they’re pretty cool. You pack the bell full of butter, and put some water in the bottom of the bowl and it keeps your butter fresh, and soft, because it doesn’t need to be refrigerated.

Probably alot more sanitary than our regular butter on a small plate, sitting out.

Now we’re watching Heroes, chilling out in the apartment. It’s lovely outside, though, we may need to go for another walk!

A DIY and a Giveaway

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So, a combined post- a DIY and a Giveaway. First, I will show my DIY. Ruffly Headband!

You will need:
Scissors
Aprox 1/8th yard of lightweight fabric
A Ribbon
Needle and thread

Cut 10 of the fabric into squares roughly 3 inches across and 10 into roughly 4 inches across. Sizes don’t really matter, really, the rough edges add to it’s charm.

Then fold those squares into quarters:

Trim them round, don’t be afraid to cut off quite a bit of fabric, you don’t want the ruffles too big.

Once you’ve cut them all into rounded quarters they should look something like this:

Then take one of the squares, pinch it up like so:

Then take one of your other squares, and pinch it around the outside of that one:

Then starting somewhere around the center of the ribbon sew it laying flat:

There are about 10 ‘flowers’ on my headband, sew them sort of pointing alternative directions, to give it lot of fullness.

Sew them all on, and tada, a ruffly headband!

So, as the Giveaway, I am giving away the Ruffly Headband shown here.

Two ways to enter:

1. Leave a comment telling me how much you want this cute headband
2. Link it onto your blog you gain yourself another entry BUT make sure to leave A SEPARATE comment telling me you’ve done so, to make sure that you get an extra entry!

The winner will be drawn Wednesday, March 17th, 6:00 pm.

Good luck!

The real update

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Spent the very bumpy plane ride reading a great, well worn book.

So, I got to spend lots of time with my family and quite a bit of time with friends, and definitly got to hang out with my favorite little bud, Ezra. He’s so interactive now, and alot of fun to play with. He also got to sport his new hoodie from Auntie Ali.

And the old man sweater I made him quite a while ago, however, still too big!

Isn’t he the cutest? And it actually snowed for a few minutes while we were there, so Ez got to see some of that white stuff. I don’t think he liked it very much, It was kind of cold.

I am actually going to post a whole new post on the yarn I got this weekend, so stayed tuned. Also doing another giveaway this weekend!

Baby Alpaca

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So I need some help, guys. I bought this baby alpaca yarn on a whim, because of it’s gorgeous color and it’s oh-so-heavenly-softness, but I don’t know what to make out of it.

It’s worsted weight, about 102 yards, so not much.. the only thing I was thinking that I could make that small was either a Martha Neck Scarf, or maybe a hat? But I won’t be needing either of those too much longer, as spring is making its way to the Northwest…

Or maybe I should just stash it away for a fall treat?

But, let’s face it, the at least 75% of the reason I bought this was because it had a cute little baby alpaca (also known as a cria, for those in the know) on the tag.

Ok, so get your brains working and let me know what I should be making!

Lots of things handmade.

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Shalom update:
Done with bodice, 1/2 way through one sleeve. The sleeves are the hardest part to keep going on…you feel like you should be done already! But it’s still fun to work on.

Those crochet flower holders I was thinkin’ about making.. I tried a prototype. Turned out alright, but not quite how I wanted it.

I’ll definitly be making more, though. Hopefully for a wedding coming up this July (yipee!)

Also, been crafting a little for the besties. Although it’s a suprise and they’re not allowed to know what it is yet. But it’s knit and it’s got buttons, which automatically makes it awesome. Wanna see a sneak peak?

I love buttons.

And I decided since I had yarn all over the living room, I’d make it a bit tidier and I ended up really liking the look it made:

Sometimes I feel bad for Paul with all the knitting needles and crochet hooks I accidentally leave on the couch, just waiting for someone to sit on, and yarn trailed around the living room…

Ok. Off to do some other Saturday fun stuff.

Christmas Feasting

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Guess what I got for Christmas!

A Martha Stewart Cast Iron Enamel Casserole dish! In RED! Does my husband know me or what!

And seeing as how I decided to do Christmas dinner for everyone, I got to put it to work that very morning, cooking a delicious roast

Hmm Dinner. Although I forgot to put the stuffing out. Yeesh. (Oh well, more for left overs!!)

Also, one of Paul’s stepmother’s friends made us a quilt! I think technically it was a wedding gift, but we just recieved it yesterday, take a look, it’s amazing. I can’t keep staring at it.

Is that gorgeous or WHAT! I love it!

Christmas Cheer

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It’s very Christmasy over at the Tong residence these days.

I realized that I never really took many pictures of the rest of the decorations, shame on me, for our first Christmas together, too! I’m a terrible wife. At least terrible about documenting anyway, at least it got decorated!

Our teensy tree. It’s super tiny, but we loaded it down with ornaments. We actually spent this evening with P’s parents looking through old boxes or ornaments and trying to figure out which ones were his. We came home with a pretty cute assortment of random old ornaments (Including a glass Energizer Bunny?)

Some Christmassy lighting

I also made another set of snowflakes for an ornament exchange at work

*** Don’t forget, there are still 2 more days to enter into the giveaway if you haven’t still!***

It’s snowing!

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Well, not outside, but it is in my house! Remember those snowflakes I was making last week? Well, I made a few more and decided to do something with them. You can look up crocheted snowflake patterns online, but I thought it might be more fun to just make one up. They were a little too… soft? looking, in my opinion.

Eh, who likes soggy snowflakes?

So I went to the store and picked up some Heavy Duty Laundry Starch and pinned them just so, and really laid it on thick.

Seriously, I doused these suckers with starch. And they are the better for it. Trust me.

A view from the living room into the kitchen

From the kitchen into the living room (don’t mind the pine needles on the carpet, or the pillows/blankets stacked high in the chair… it’s COLD here, we need those blankets it we stop moving!)

I don’t really have any decorations in any other rooms but the living room, so it kind of makes it feel like more of the house is decorated this way.

And by the way, the Shalom Sweater is coming along very nicely.

The hard part is done, now it’s just knitting straight rows and purling straight rows. I am glad that the triple yoke is done.

Tomorrow is our six month anniversary and I can’t even believe it! SIX months we’ve been together here in Moscow.

It’s been an awesome six months, and I can’t wait for the next sixty years.

Merry Christmas!

The First Tong Christmas

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I wasn’t about to let some stupid shoulder injury keep me from decorating for Christmas, so today Paul and I went all out and got the house decorated (and kind of torn apart in the process. We’re purging some of our bigger items and made room for a Christmas tree (although it’s a tiny one)

Even the wheel got some Christmas Lovin’

Our very first Christmas tree!

A few of my favorite ornaments

I also made a few crochet snowflakes, and I’m planning on making a garland to hang between the kitchen and the living room.

I think I am going to block them and starch them so that they hang a bit nicer and not as bunchy. But we’ll see if I get around to it. I only have 3 done so far, but they are pretty quick and easy.

Merry Christmas!