I could just dye (everyday)

Avocado pits make pink dye.

Isn't that insane?!

 Its the most beautiful blush color, too.

I have gotten every single person I know to save their seeds for me and I have dyed almost every piece of white yarn that I own.

The first bit I saved, but the big ball of yarn I used to make this weaving.

 I am not a professional weaver and I dont have anything new to bring to the weaving community, but I love trying to figure out what techniques and yarn and colors I like.

 These are very basic ways to weave, but like I said with knitting- I want to be a yes person.  Just like the knitting, I kept seeing these beautiful things from people all over the internet and then my friend Rachel started doing it, and I knew I had to try.  I don't want be afraid of failing or looking like an amateur. Who cares?! (I mean, I do, but I know I won't learn unless I try).  I know I am not so talented that I can make up my own stuff, but I can use my hands to make things from patterns- or just at least try out different techniques.  I have enough yarn to knit a sweater to wrap the world in, so I may as well try.

 The white one is the first one I did that I hung up.  It is a mess. I  am going to take it down so I can (you guessed it) dye it with the avocados that I have now because everyone's bringing me theirs!!  Hopefully I can make something with more skill and that stays together when I take it off the loom.

I used these little ones to try out some colors and techniques and learned the hard way that you can not cut yarn that is connected in the back...

Sawyer wanted to try a little, but so far I haven't conned any of my kids into using my yarn to knit or weave.  Surely it will come soon.  I just know they will love it.

Tried gradients here.  I am so far from mastering it.  I saw a beautiful one that the colors molded together like a sunset and it made me want to try again.  

And Jeff.  He just is so curious and so great. He totally gets into what I am doing and it is just the best.  (I definitely do not return the favor, sorry jeff.) I started putting the pits in the boiling water and showed him how the colors get darker and by the time I wanted to put the yarn in, he had a tripod set up and the idea to make a time lapse video.  Love him.

IMG_8942 from kristen barstad on Vimeo.

It just SOAKS UP THE COLOR! I mean its amazing! The water goes from pink to basically clear after the yarn soaks it up! It just blows me away.  I love it so much.  Its so easy and I used this tutorial.  GO do it yall.  Its so fun.  

Rainbow Knits

I am just obsessed with spoonflower.

It is so easy and so much fun.
You can make ANYTHING YOU WANT!  And whatever you think you may want to make but cant actually make, someone has made it and you can buy it.  And then they send you sweet messages saying thanks for buying their homemade fabrics.  It is the best feeling in the world when people buy yours or when you get to buy something that someone has made.  Can't say enough good things about it.  They also have wallpaper and wrapping paper options of your work. SO much fun.  I stay up wayyyy too late until my eyes glaze over making things that I then have to delete the next morning because I see them in the light of day and they are rough.  I am not an artist by any means.  I am merely crafty; the stepsister of artist that no one wants to own up to having.
But, some do pass in the early light of day, and then those I order a little swatch or fat quarter of.  I try and make them into something and see how it looks.  Some are better than others, obviously, and some look better once they are actually sewn into something.  It can be hard to tell online, but its so exciting to get in the mail.  And a fat quarter makes baby leggings or hats or headbands. 

I have been making baby blankets, lately, and trying all different ways to do them.
I made this one for Dylan and I dont know.  I wanted the scale to be big and for it to strong and simple.  It is a little bit BIG, so I think I am going to make one with his name a little smaller.  That way if I make pants and stuff for him you could actually read his name.
I did this one like a quilt without the quilting.  I sewed the binding on the inside of two fabrics and then flipped it over so there are not any seems.  Then I just left the fabric free. Hopefully it won't get all wound up and separated.

For my cousins babies Reef and Hilary, I made Hilary's with her name on it and I just ordered one for Reef with this awesome reef pattern.  I thought it was just so perfect for him.
Their blankets I just cut out and left them.  They dont have any binding or sewing around the edges.  They are knit so they shouldn't fray and I think it looks cute simple.


For my cousin's baby Bexar, he and his sister and brother are named after counties in Texas so I highlighted the counties they are named after.

For Bexar's I just bound the edge of the single piece of fabric and it is rough up close.  I am so thankful they love me because it is not any kind of perfect.  Luckily he is the sweetest, happiest, best baby in all of the entire world and he let me off easy.  He gave me that big grin of his to let me know he knows I meant well, though it may be hard to tell in the actual construction.
I am also working on tags for when I send them.  I am thinking of calling them Rainbow Knits since I just mostly use knit fabrics.  That way I can also use them for if I actually knit something too.  (I guess it will be confusing if I make something out of cotton or linen.  Cross that bridge when we get there.)

I think I like the white one? Thats what I am leaning toward.
I have done more for friends and other cousins but I never took a pic.  I'm so mad.  I want to document stuff, but I have gotten so bad at it.
I have made a few things for Shea bean too- mostly tights.

 I am not super great at sleeves or neck lines...

As is visible in this garment.
Oh well.  I am going to keep practicing.  Someday I will make a sweatshirt that the first thing people say is "Did you make that??" because it looks obviously homemade. Someone will say, "Where did you BUY that?"  Clearly not in the near future, but a girl can dream.  Lets just say I'm not ready for my project runway debut justtttt yet.

Chicken Logo

I have been working on a logo for our eggs once the chickens started laying, and I feel like I have narrowed it down.

We are calling our chicken farm the Rainbow Roost.

We are supposed to be getting around an egg a day per chicken, so we should have tons to give away. So far we only have one chicken laying, but she lays one everyday.

And then crows or screams (or whatever a chicken does) so loud to tell me that she laid one.

Here are a few ideas I started with:

Then, we narrowed it down to these:

Then,  Jeff said we should try some color:

And we both liked it in color.
I still like black and white and feel like there will be a place for that, but I do like the color too.
I also made an extended label that could lay out over an entire carton.

Overall, I am pretty excited.
If we use the plastic cartons we will use this, but if we do paper we will print them off with just the rainbow roost circle or I want to make some that wrap all the way around.
I cant wait to actually see them on cartons!

Craft Room Curtains

I have had the idea of hanging curtains in my craft room for a long time.  I had even bought the curtains that were now long time residents of the floor in said craft room.  I had full intentions of moving in that direction, but things just kept coming up....

So, when my friend mary came in town for a short visit and wanted to meet up at ikea to shop around and she told me that she had the same exact vision of curtains for her kids rooms,  I got inspired to actually do it.   

Long drawn out way to say that I procrastinate, but I have finally completed a task (yea!).

My craft room is a huge work in progress (and by work in progress I mean, a place where there is little to no organization and I am working at a snails pace to improve that.  and obviously curtains that are solely for looks is moving in the right direction...), so I can only show you the curtains that aren't actually completely done, but thats clearly irrelevant.

This was the easiest curtain making process known to man.
I bought Ikea curtains. Then I cut them into fourths.  I cut off the little things that they had at the top to hang with and just used the hem to slip through the curtain rods.  Then I hemmed the pieces that didnt have a hem so they could slide onto the rods.  Then I added some tassels or bobbles or pom poms (I dont know what they are actually called) to the edges with one stitch.
I didnt even hem the bottoms, so dont look too close.

and wah lah!
My mother in law got the fabulous light fixtures downtown and the tables are old science tables from a classroom (with gum underneath and all).  (And we do have two computers, one is just really old.  You just cant tell in the picture)

Maybe next I will actually organize something in here.

The Playhouse

A dream come true for any little kid. (or grown adult like myself) 

Bob's dad designed and built a playhouse for each cousin. How crazy and awesome is that?! Way before Christmas, one of the cousins asked Pappy if he could make her a playhouse for Christmas. He said "YES!" without even thinking twice about it. So operation playhouse began. My girls had no clue that any of it was going on and I never said a word to them. On Christmas day, Pappy took all the cousins out back and showed them the progress of the playhouses and told them they would soon be in their backyards. My girls were overwhelmed with joy! 

The only downside to our playhouse is that we are about 3 hours away, while the other cousins were all in the same town. Pappy didn't let that get in the way though. He drove down and started putting the girls dream house together. Adam came over and helped get the big pieces in place. It was a little bit more difficult than expected but they kept going late into the night. Pappy had to drive back home so he could make it to church the next morning but he came back a few weeks later to continue the work. 

Bob worked on it any break he had from work.

They realized that the door was put on backwards so they didn't finis putting the door knob on or anything until Billy could come back and help flip it around. We used a rake for a few months to hold the door shut.
The playhouse saw it's first snow,

had it's first of many lunches,

and even got it's first coat of paint from McKenna.
 

I tackled the outside paint one week. The sides and back still need a second and maybe third coat...

Billy came over one day and they got the door flipped around the right way and installed some windows. Adding some fun curtains is still on my to-do list.

Bob the Builder!

The floor was a little whelped and splittery from rain so I painted a deck paint on it to seal it all together. I love how it turned out. You can walk on it barefoot and everything. I decide to paint my own rug on and I am love with it! I drew it out with chalk first and then just painted it on with acrylic paints. 

McKenna loves bringing her baby doll stuff out there and pretending it's her own little house.

Pappy got a life size fireplace printed off on this thick plastic and I hung it on the wall. Every house needs a family portrait hung above the mantel. I had this picture blown up at Staples and then I just covered it with packing tape so it would hold up outside. (it doesn't look bubbly like in this pic)

I still have a lot more work to do but it is coming along. The ceiling might be one of those things that never gets done. Part of it was originally blue and I should have just left it. I thought it would look cool with a gray stain so I started that then I decided to just paint it all white and then soon realized I didn't have the neck power to do it. Also should have done the ceiling first...

We love it so much and can't wait for the weather to cool down so we can play it in all day!
You're the best Pappy!

Summer Dares 2014

While  jeff and I were busy watching tv or doing something mundane, Avery and our old neighbors, Mazzy and Jaden, came up with the idea to have summer dares this summer.  I think she has about 40 in all.  I immediately, in true go big or go home fashion, grabbed her idea and ran with it.
I LOVE IT.
I think I got over involved and she wishes I would just let her be and do her own dares, but what kind of mom would I be if I let her do that??? Encouraging and pushing her to be her own person, maybe, but I am a leech, at the very least, and I cant pass on clinging to a good idea.  

Her first dare was for everyone to sleep downstairs and so we made a pallet and made it happen.

It was a huge hit!
They actually slept the whole night and when we woke up and went downstairs, we found them watching reruns of America Ninja Warrior.  Obviously.
Since then we have done a few dares and we have had so much fun.  Sometimes they are ones she has written down and sometimes we make up new ones.

1. We played charades 2. Jeff fed a reed deer with his mouth. He is insane. 3. Sawyer jumped in the pool with her clothes on 4. Ben caught a fish 5. Ben, Sawyer and I dyed our hair pink with koolaid.  Once avery saw us doing it, she get less interested in it.  Having her mom do it has already made things less cool to her and she is only in second grade.  Poor aves.  I just get excited.  Luckily ben and sass were up for it and had pink hair for a while.  Bens didnt actually take very well because I kept trying to dip his hair into the kool aid while it was hot.  Clearly I had never heard of mixing it with conditioner and painting it on.  I think that would have been better all around.
I have been putting them on instagram and hashtagging #summerdares2014, so if you are on instagram and want to play along, hashtag some of your dares and I will show them off over here. We'll keep you posted on all the things that get accomplished in the name of a dare.  I cant wait to see what all we dare to do!

Verevka

My cousin Heather's roommate Nataliya just opened up an etsy shop with her beautiful hand made necklaces! 

She is a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with my cousin (who does all the gorgeous modeling). Her necklaces are all hand woven with handmade beads or pieces of copper.  They are all so beautiful, I cant decide which one I want to buy for myself.
So excited to get my hands on these before you go and get super famous Nataliya!