The Travel Itinerary

This is very subject to change.

You never know when a great find will appear beside the road or inspiration will strike and take us off on a tangent to unplanned destinations.
Here's the plan -

Quilts-

String quilt from filminthefridge.com

 Nothing says cozy like a quilt. And what is a gypsy wagon, but a big quilt of color and pattern rolling along the road.  There will be quilts. Lots of lovely, modern, colorful quilts. Often they will be the decorating touch point for the room.

Vintage -

Anthropology

I am a sucker for all things vintage - Clothing, linens, nick-knacks, furniture. I may leave them as is, I may turn them into something new. I may make new look vintage.

Accessories-

I will make my own and peruse the web for the fabulous and lovely things that all the talented bloggers out there create. You will see the successes in all there glory  - and the failures - as bad and embarrassing as they will most certainly be.

Power Tools-

Since we have no money for this transformation, I have big plans to build stuff. My to-build list at Ana-White.com is a mile long. 
Gypsy wagons are covered in beautifully carved and painted wood. I doubt I'll do much carving, but painting - You better believe it!

Fashion-

Alabama Chanin

 I am planning on sewing a bunch for myself. Every self-respecting gypsy needs an eclectic wardrobe that reflects her personal style. I usually just sew for the kiddos, and I'll keep doing that, but I am planning to sew more for myself as well.
My hubby gave me Alabama Chanin Studio Style for Christmas
(ok, in the spirit of full disclosure - I went to the store and put it on hold, then went back to the store and bought it myself then I wrapped it myself and put his name on the tag).
I am beyond inspired by her and I hope to make some things from the book. I am even planning on hand-sewing them.
If I did all my clothing that way though, I'd be blogging naked and that's not a pretty picture.
My sewing machine will be running overtime to make sure I stay appropriately covered.

Random Road Stops-
I love making little toys and fanciful creations out of felt, fabric, and whatever I have on hand to entertain my little ones or just fill my space with lovelies.

The Road Bumps Ahead-
I am only a fair sewist (sewer? seamstress?) and knitter.
My overall crafting skills are rank amateur.
I have crafting ADD and tend to get bored with projects before I finish them. (this is where the motivation for this blog comes in! If there is someone watching me and holding me accountable more will get done!)
I will definitely be learning as I go. You can sit back and laugh as this happens. It's ok, I can't hear you. Besides it will drown out my cursing.
My camera is a sad little excuse for a thing (it's a Kodak -'nuff said!).
I have three little ones who are enormous time-hogs, two bigger ones who still need mom, and a husband who works rotating shifts as a Police Officer.
I do not have a housekeeper, a nanny or even a regular sitter, or a cook -those are my jobs- and it is exhausting most days just getting to bedtime.

On the other hand, I love a spontaneous adventure - so pack light and leave plenty of room for the great stuff we'll make along the way. Let's get on the road!

Caravaning through 2011

Over the past few years my life has been very transitory.  I always seemed to be moving and everything was temporary. I never let myself decorate or personalize a space because it wasn't our permanent home. Over the past year it really hit me that keeping everything in temporary mode was affecting me and everyone around me. Although we are still renting I have decided to go ahead and treat this as our "real" home. We may move this year, we may be here another two years. Only time will tell.

I always imagined myself a gypsy of sorts with all my moving about. It seemed romantic and glamorous. In reality, it really kind of sucked. I loved the places we were in, but I craved my own place. I guess that's why gypsies always have such fabulous wagons. They need some place to have as there own, even when everything else is changing.

For the next year I am crafting our own gypsy wagon. A fabulous space we can call our own and take with us when we leave, as I attempt to focus my love for reading crafting and decorating blogs and magazines into a casual, cozy, hand-crafted, family-friendly space to call home.

My budget is non-existent. I will be thrifting, finding, begging, borrowing, repurposing, refurbishing and making it myself. Call me crazy now - I might not hear you from the padded room later in the year.

Along for the ride is my very tolerant husband, Officer Jeffrey, my lovely, creative and opinionated older daughters - Gabe and Maddie, my three wild little ones, Amelie, Lilia (aka MoMo) and Thomas James and our two kitties - Cosmo (aka Jesus Cat) and Rosie (aka Yarn Ninja).

Hopefully you will join me as well.
We gypsies are not solitary creatures. We travel in a caravan of like-minded, creative, free-spirits. So if you are up for it, hitch up your own wagon and join me on the journey ahead. I love a good chat around the fire at night ,I will certainly have time to fill on the road and I can always  use companions in the workroom to make everything more fun.

Cozy Stitched Yarn Cards

Sometime in November I joined the Handmade Holiday Card Swap run by Vane over at Brooklyn Bride. We were sent the addresses of 5 (or 6 if you include Vane) people from all over the US and the world to exchange cards with.
All cards had to be handmade. I wanted to make something that included my love of yarn and sewing. This is what I came up with.

I am really happy with how they turned out, even if they didn't turn out exactly the way I envisioned. I had never tried freehand embroidery with the sewing machine and it was a bit experimental but I am happy with it. I also made a scarf that used the same technique. I'll post it with a mini tutorial tomorrow.

Stocking Finished!

When I was unpacking the Christmas Decorations I realized Little Guy's stocking was emblazoned with "Baby's First Christmas".  Hmmm... Don't think I can get away with that one for a second year... As much as making stockings always seems like a good idea, (I love looking at all the beautiful stocking patterns out there!) the reality was, it wasn't on my agenda.  But, since my Little Guy couldn't get through Christmas without a stocking, I buckled down and started to search and plan. This is what I came up with,

I knew I wanted a knitted stocking. It's what I had when I was little (until some voracious moths ate most of it) and just says "Christmas Stocking" to me. I used this free pattern that I found on Ravelry.  It can also be found on this page if you don't belong to Ravelry.
All of the yarn is from my stash and some of it was a bit challenging! I love the color of the gray yarn that I used for the main part of the stocking, it reminds me of a sock monkey,(which is why I just had to use red for the trim!) but it is very rough and a bit stiff. I have a bunch of it left, but I definitely won't be using it for anything to wear!
This project went really quickly which was good. I've been in a total funk and I have had to force myself to do anything at all. Even getting out decorations has been a challenge. My girls will use their store-bought stockings again this year I think. I did feel good to get this done though and I really love it!

What"s Happenin'

After my little guy spilled the dregs of my coffee on my keyboard my space bar ceased to function all together and pressing my Enter key put my computer into standby mode and the pressing the Backspace key shut the entire thing down. I searched for hours for a solution.
My husband woke up, looked at it for about a minute, unplugged the keyboard and headed to Office Depot.
My poor keyboard was killed by a few errant dribbles of coffee! Impossible!
30 minutes later I have a shiny new Keyboard that cost $9 and works beautifully and the "E" key is still entirely visible even!
So now I can type again. It's weird though, getting used to a new keyboard. This is one of those fancy ergonomic numbers and my fingers are not fancy ergonomic numbers. They are incompetent-don't-know-how-to-type-like-every-other-adult-in-the-free-world numbers and they are having issues with our shiny new friend.
Other than that, I am trying to get some projects done for Christmas, I am working on a stocking for Little Guy. Momo's felt donuts are cut out, and I am trying to recreate bark out of felt for the "logs" in Princess' felt campfire set. I am making I-Spy mug rugs for teacher gifts and I joined a card swap to help get me back in a creating and creative mode and I have a great idea for those, if I can pull it off! (If only I had one of those dandy Silhouette machines!)
Plus, I really want to make one of these for my dad who is getting ready to retire -

Julie from Joy's Hope guest blogging at Infarrantly Creative

(Oh, and I just may have to do a "test run" and make one for myself! Isn't it the greatest?!)

A give-away that would make my family light up like the tree!

This is such an over-the-top fabulous giveaway you really should check it out!
(I know my husband would die if I surprised him with this win!)

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

TodaysMama (link to: http://bit.ly/tmwishlist) and GameStop  (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What is your holiday wish for your family?
I want everyone to be happy and safe. I want to remember the fun and the giving and not concentrate so much on the receiving. I want my little ones to enjoy the magic of the season with songs and crafts and baking and car rides to see lights and visits to Santa.
2. What is your Christmas morning tradition?
The kids are not allowed to even look in the room where the tree is until mom or dad has checked to be sure Santa has come. (it extends the excitement and helps the over-excited 3am early birds get back in bed and to sleep again quickly!)
3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be? 
A family vacation in Hawaii with a stop at Disneyland on the way. That, or a fully decked out Honda Odyssey.
4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money?
We take car rides to look at Christmas light displays in our area. We decorate with pictures and crafts the kids have created. We dance and sing to Christmas songs on Pandora or the radio. We read Christmas stories all snuggled in bed.
5. What games did you play with your family growing up?
Monopoly, Clue, Sorry, Uno, Boggle, Battleship
6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood?
Kids are not allowed to peek out at the tree until Mom or Dad has checked to see if Santa has come. Tracking Santa on Christmas Eve.
7. Where would you go for a Christmas-away-from-home trip? 
Hawaii would be my choice, but the kids would probably choose Disney
8. Check out GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year?
Playstation Eye (and all necessary connectors), EyePet game, DSi
To enter, link to your Mama’s Holiday Wish List post using the Mister Linky box below.
BUT WAIT. Did you think we were done? Oh, you must not know us at all.
We have another stockpile of gifts from GameStop that you can enter to win with our extra entry options.

• Runner Up #1 will receive a XBox 360 250 GB with Kinect and a $250 GameStop gift card.
• Runner Up #2 will receive a Nintendo Red DSi XL Bundle and a $250 GameStop gift card.
• Runner Up #3 will receive a Nintendo Red Wii Bundle and a $250 GameStop gift card.

Extra Entry Options include:

• “Like” Gamestop on Facebook
• Follow @gamestop on Twitter
• Head back to the tippy-top of this post and hit that “Retweet” button.

The deadline to post your meme and comment is Friday, December 10th (same deadline applies for extra entry methods).
* For an example of a Mama’s Holiday Wish List entry post CLICK HERE.

Contemporary Kids

A little while ago I discovered that the Contemporary Museum here in town has a free program called Wednesday Morning Play Date for kiddos age 3-5 on the first Wednesday of the month from 10 - 11:30am, perfect for my girls.
I had never been to the museum, but I was really excited to check it out. (I am a museum kind of girl!) So onto the calendar it went. I figured we could try it out and see how it went.
To sum it up - the program is great! The museum staff is warm, friendly, welcoming and they really seem psyched that the kids are there and the projects are unusual and stretch your child's creativity and lead their art exploration in new directions.
The programs are led by local artists who link their work to the work being displayed at the museum.
For the first program the kids viewed photos by Elad Lassry, one of the featured artists at the museum. The work is color saturated and very intimate in it's scale (not subject matter! LOL). The visiting artist specialized in found-object art so she had the kids create little stories within brightly colored boxes and photographed them.
The girls had a huge number of little things to choose from to create a story diorama inside the wine crate. It was fun to see what they chose and how they put it together. The crates were available in various colors and sizes.(surprise, surprise, my girls both wanted PINK - only because there was no yellow for Momo )
After they created their scene the artist took a Polaroid of it (the girls LOVED the instant film! (Shake-a shake-a) After the film developed  the kids created a collage frame for their photo.
When we finished the collage frames we went upstairs for storytime. The storyteller was INCREDIBLE!!!! Honestly, I would go just for her she is that good! (I'll have to get her name, but I know she's with the St. Louis Public Library)
Oh, and I didn't even mention the snacks- a full spread from Companion bakery with beverages! Can you say YUM! (and follow that with "What diet?)
Oh, and you leave with project pages to use with your kids later!
Oh yes and it is all FREE!
So if you have kids who love to create and explore art in new ways definitely join us because we will be there!