Crayons' photos: our bookshelves, the monkey mob, and Crystal's popcorn hat

Jeanne wanted to know where we put all our books.

Most of the school-related books are on this wallful of bookcases in our downstairs rec room.  This is what you'd call a candid shot, because Mama Squirrel did not attempt to get rid of the leaners or the over-stackers before Crayons took the picture.  You can see more books in the photos of Crayons' doll Crystal.

Mr. Fixit has a small personal bookcase in his workshop, and there are bookcases in the bedrooms.  And a few cookbooks in the kitchen.  But that's about it, except for a few boxes of stored books--our living room upstairs does not have a good spot for bookshelves.  A few years ago, having an excess of time on my hands, I did a rough count, and I think it was about 1600 books.  I cycle them in and out pretty evenly, so I still don't think we have over 2000 total: probably more than the average North American household, but still less than many homeschoolers we know.

Crystal has a new hat to cover up the fact that her back hair is embarrassingly skimpy.  It started out to be a potholder, but the sides kept curving up and it just looked better as a hat.  Mama Squirrel added chain-stitch ties to each side so that it can be tied under the chin or under her hair.  Crayons is making Crystal a red holiday jumper at her Saturday sewing class, so this will finish off her outfit.

A back view--see the popcorn stitch?

I also stitched the monkeys' hands together so that they can hold candy canes.  Much more cheerful, I thought.  People can snip them apart later if they want.

All photos copyright by Crayons, 2011.  All yarns are Red Heart SuperSaver. 

Holiday decorations at the Treehouse...getting started

We haven't actually gotten any boxes of Christmas ornaments out yet...but we always have a few things put away in the hall cupboard, so I pulled those out and mixed them with year-round decorations.

By the front door...I know there's nothing on the tree, but it was a start.

Six little monkeys, sitting in a tree.  I borrowed the tree so you could see how the monkeys turned out...but they're going here and there for gifts.  After we took the picture, I got an even better idea:  each monkey is going to hold a candy cane.

Another view of the table by the front door.

The top of our buffet, just playing around with some teacups and dolls.  (Does it look a bit like Brenda's?)  What it really needs is some greenery, flowers, bows, all that dress-up stuff...but we'll get there.

In which I make a monkey of myself with a ball of yarn

Today I tried out the Red Heart monkey pattern.

It went pretty smoothly and came out about the right size--7 inches.  That's 17.78 cm for the Canadians.

I got to the end and suddenly realized--this monkey doesn't have a tail.

Since that wouldn't do, I added one.  Make a chain the length of desired tail, then single crochet one row into the chains.  It will curl a bit, as single crochet into chains does even when you don't want it to.  Sew to the monkey's...um...tail-hitching place.

On every branch there sat a monkey*

Canadian Living Magazine's holiday issue features lots of gift ideas, including a commercially-produced set of sock monkey tree ornaments. 

We have sock monkey fans in our extended family, so I thought that was a very cute idea.  But maybe a homemade version?

Red Heart came through with a crocheted version.

My holiday-making-quotient just jumped up a couple of notches.

Now I just have to hunt through the yarn box and see what we have that would work.


*Don't recognize that line?  Try this:

Sock monkey puppet

Sneaking in for a minute (from our blogging holiday) to post this. I followed a thread of crochet cotton from The Bonny Glen over to CrochetMe.com, and found a crochet pattern for anyone who ever loved a sock monkey.