DIY Hat from an old sweater

Karl had a FANTASTIC sweater that he put in the Goodwill pile this summer.  It is a wool/cotton blend and was just too warm for him.  Here he is wearing it a few years ago with Phae (chubby, cute baby Phae).



Luckily it takes us a good year to get things to goodwill!  I recently decided I couldn't waste this sweater and decided it would make the perfect hat.  I figured I could make them for the whole family... turns out Karl and I both have big heads, so I could only make 1 adult hat from the part of the sweater with the colors Karl liked.  Had this been an all over pattern, I could easily have gotten 2 hats out of it.  Anyway, after making Karl's I realized the sleeve fit Kasen perfectly.  Here they are in their new hats:



Cute huh?  Don't let that girl fool you - she is THRILLED momma makes her wear re-purposed sweaters as hats.  Wait... this is her normal face.  She did nicely turn her head so you could see the back.  She is actually a better model looking away from the camera.



The baby hat was definitely the easiest one and honestly pretty darn cute.  How did I do it?  Basically, once the sleeve was cut in half (where it would fit over her head with the shoulder part flopping to the back), I just sewed the top of the sleeve hole to the bottom of the sleeve hole.  You can see it better here:



This shape naturally gave these cute "ears".  I used a needle to weave some floss through the bottom of the ears and cinched them (for a boy I probably would have tied on the inside and cut off the extra).  A little fabric glue on each knot finished it off. 



I added some trim from the bottom of the sweater, but only to match Karl's.  Honestly it would easier and just as cute simply hemmed.  So fast.  Literally the baby hat took 10 minutes.  This one was made from a men's medium sweater (will probably fit 9 months maybe up to 18 months - depends on stretchiness of sweater).  I will probably zigzag stitch the seams if I decide to wash it - a serger would have been AWESOME for this. 

Thanksgiving

While the days leading up to Thanksgiving were pretty snowy - Thanksgiving day was actually quite nice.  Karl was in charge of the turkey.  Her he is showing off his electric knife AND his funny t-shirt.  I thought it fit the occasion nicely (the shirt says "eat more meat"    get it?  they're veggies....).


As always, Sterling is willing to help in any way he can...


My good friend Sara has sent us some fantastic baby gear and this bib was one of the scores.  She has been using it for quite some time, but I made sure it was clean today.


This shirt was a gift from her Grandma.  The shirt says "Everyone is Thankful for ME".  YES, her shirt is SOAKED with drool, but don't those teeth look cute... that is if you can look past the spit...
(Nice fire in the background huh?)


Our friends brought their brand new baby - Lucas.  Here he is in all his newborn glory.  He was born on Oct 19th and Kasen can't wait till they can play.  They will be best buddies for sure.


My younger brother came up from Portland which was wonderful.  He has a gruff exterior, but is the only person to willingly let Kasen touch their computer (*softie*).  Can you tell how thrilled she is?  Her body was shaking... I am not kidding.


She then showed Paul WHY she never gets to touch the electronics.

Snow-pocalypse 2010

Snow in Seattle is pretty, but a tad inconvenient.  No one knows how to deal with it, we have very little snow equipment (it never snows after all) and there are hills everywhere.  BIG ones.  Anyway, as someone who sticks pretty close to home these days - this snow-pocalypse was deemed pretty.  The snow started late morning on Monday (yes after most students had left for school - most schools shipped them back home around noon).  Here is the beginnings of the storm:



It continued to snow almost all day on Monday.  Here is our front porch on Tuesday after the snow fall was over.



We guessed at least 2 inches.  It has been COLD since then, we still have a lot of it still around.  Hopefully it will warm up soon.  Since the roads have been so bad, Karl worked at home both Monday and Tuesday.  Here Kasen and Karl are in the living room with the snow as a backdrop.  Definitely not a usual Seattle scene.

Kasen's first beer... kinda

Before you call DCS - no beer crossed the lips of our child.... I don't think anyway... no, definitely not.

At the end of our fabulous trip to Florida last month, we stayed in Orlando for a night.  We were flying out the next morning at 8am, so we just stayed at a hotel near the airport.  The hotel was pretty forgettable, but dinner was not.  We went to the Bauern-Stube which was AMAZING.  Seriously, it reminded us of our local bar Prost.  They had REAL German beers on tap.  When the waitress welcomed us and began to explain each German beer, it took Karl a moment to say "we're familiar" - I think because he was so verklempt.

This place was unbelievable. Completely a shock since it was so full of charm and uniqueness (not really Orlando's style).  The decor was fantastic.  Every inch of wall space was full of German-esque knickknacks (always loved that word).  I tried to take a photo, but it was too dark inside.  I settled for one of Kasen that showed our table.

Are you wondering when Kasen had her beer?  It's coming.  Both Karl and I ordered German beers with excitement. I got a Weiss beer in one of the  traditional tall glasses. After a fantastic meal (with SPAETZLE), we (OK I) ordered dessert. Our waitress brought the dessert and when she put it down, she accidentally knocked my beer glass - stupid, tall, wonderful beer.  Do you already know where this is going? Yeah, the beer knocked over onto Kasen. That poor waitress - I have never seen someone apologize more and all I was thinking... what a great story to tell Kasen one day. In fact, I laughed even the next day when I unpacked her little dress that smelled like a brewery.

Hmmm.... wonder if all parents remember their infant's first beer? All the good ones I suppose.

Laughing in the face of danger

We have called Kasen our "little morose baby" since she was born.  Her natural expression is a look of skepticism mixed with melancholy.  On an infant?  It is pretty funny.  Look at her posing in Halloween costume #1 (there were 3 - OF COURSE).  Although...  what flower would be smiling in October in Seattle?  Maybe she is more of a method artist.....



However, as she has gotten older it has gotten easier to at least coax a smile and even (*gasp*) a laugh out of her. While we were in Florida visiting Kasen's great Grandpa (and his lovely wife Priscilla), Karl illustrated her laugh. The easiest way to get her to "perform" this is by... growling a her.  A little weird but the deeper the growl, the better.  Add a pawing motion and she is in baby-hysterics. I don't know why, but it is pretty cute.  Priscilla smartly said we should get it on video so we did...

Cousins

One of the advantages to moving to Seattle was being close to my family (at least some family).  This means Kasen gets to hang out with her cousin quite a bit.  My niece's favorite thing is to "hold baby Kasen".  She has even been know to finish dinner in order to:



Kasen is getting a bit big for her to "hold". They also both have skeleton pajamas ("jammies" in our house). Both sets have bones that glow in the dark. Once they are "charged up", dance parties ensue... OK so Kasen's dancing is me waving her back and forth.  Then they rest...