7 Months

Well, this project only took me 7 months to complete!Do you ever have a project that you just keep setting aside over and over again? This was that project!

As I was working on minion hat after minion hat last November and December, my own kids kept begging me to make something for them—especially Phaedra. So come January when I had all the Christmas projects behind me, I let her choose what she wanted me to make her. After 6 minion hats (nope, still haven’t blogged them), I was SO relieved when she chose Hello Kitty instead.

I got all the yarn I needed. I got started. And then I reached the point on the hat where it said, “finish off and weave in ends.” I set the hat aside. And it sat. And sat. And sat . . . The crochet part was no problem, but I think I was just too burnt out and sick and tired of weaving in all the little yarn tails on all the little details!

I think the only thing that got me going on it again was the fact that baby #4 is going to make her arrival in just a few months, and I’m feeling the need to do some nesting crafts. I hold to a strict rule that I can’t start another project until one is finished (especially same type of project), so that lit a fire under me to finally force myself to finish Hello Kitty. My poor Phaedra gave up begging me months ago.And now she has to wait for it to actually get cold again to need to wear it (poor girl).

I promise Hello Kitty has a left ear. It’s just hiding behind the bow. I snapped these photos quickly before we hopped in the car to go the library, so I wasn’t paying that much attention to all the details.

I swear I do this every January. I work so hard to get handmade items done for people for Christmas, and I think I can keep the momentum going after the holiday and actually make some stuff for our family/house. So I get all the materials for a project, sometimes I even get started, and then there’s no deadline . . . no pressure . . . and it never gets done! Don’t ask me what ever happened to the fabric storage boxes I was going to make out of the beautiful organic fabric 2 years ago. Just don’t!

I’m extra proud of getting this hat done because I actually completed 2 Hello Kitty hats. I made the first one and decided it was just going to be way too small, so I started over and completed them both. I’m still trying to decide what to do with the extra.

P.S. I found the pattern for the hat HERE.

Announcing . . .

Book Review: Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin

Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin by Liesl Shurtliff
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For a summary of the book, click on the title above (not the blog post title).

I just loved this book! From the very beginning, Liesl Shurtliff showed such great imagination in the telling of Rumpelstiltskin's background. The whole way through, I was thinking to myself that it would make a great family read-aloud if I liked the rest of it as much as I liked what I had already read. And I did!

This book has plenty of adventure without being too scary for younger readers. I was really impressed how the author weaved Rump's past into the story we know of how he ended up. She also used other fairy tale characters or made mention of other stories so Rump's story intertwined with other fairy tales, while keeping the main focus on him.

I think this is a great book for boys and girls alike. Shurtliff keeps you invested and turning pages the whole way through.

I bought it and have started reading it with my kids.

Content: This is a kid-friendly book! The worst words you'll find are "butt" and "idiot." There is some mild peril, and the main violence is when the bad guy hits someone or there is evidence that someone was beaten up.

Have you read it? Tell me what you thought!