Top 12 Posts of 2013.

The top 12 most popular posts from this year.

I’m tired. The Littlest Bear hasn’t been sleeping well lately. I know it’ll pass, but I’m feeling a little zombie-like. I wanted to round up the most popular posts from the year.

12.  DIY Couch Pillows (this is my favorite project!)

Packaging Update for Flower Headbands

I love making flower headbands. I’ve come up with a new way to package them. I think they look a lot neater this way.
My headbands are available at this lovely boutique and also by custom order (monkeyseemail@gmail.com). Headbands feature felt flowers, crocheted flowers, and fabric flowers.

That’s all for today. Thanks for reading my blog.

The Christmas Card I Should Have Sent…

I had great ideas about Christmas cards this year. We actually purchased a new camera so we could take better pictures. And the pictures are better. But the poses...and the photographer...still the same!

I've gotten so many beautiful cards from friends this year that I couldn't help considering bucking the tradition of sending the prettiest, perfectly styled family and send the funniest card.



Nothing says ‘Merry Christmas’ like a scrunched up newborn face and two less-than-enthusiastic kids.

I actually had a whole list of outtakes from attempted Christmas photo shoots to share, but I decided they might embarrass all my boys someday. (So I'll just share them with relatives instead!)

I still don’t have my [actual] cards. Maybe after Christmas I'll get them sent out.

I guess I should have started earlier. But this is the card I thought I should have sent. Maybe I'll write a Christmas letter that I should have sent and share it here, too.

Pumpkin Pie Filling Muffins

I bought two large cans of pumpkin pie filling around Thanksgiving. I was supposed to buy plain canned pumpkin. Oops. I decided to find a pumpkin muffin recipe to make using the filling.
I couldn’t find one that called for pumpkin pie filling. They all required plain canned pumpkin. So I had to adapt a recipe to use the pumpkin pie filling.

Maybe you bought the wrong canned pumpkin product, too? Try these muffins. They’re really good.

DIY Fold Over Elastic Hair Ties

I wanted to make a simple gift for some friends and both of my sisters-in-law. I have had some fold over elastic in my stash of craft and sewing supplies for awhile and it has not been easy to sew with (I’ve had several project FAILS!) But I just love the stuff and wanted to use it for something…so I decided to use it for simple hair ties.

Etsy Shop Update!

I've finally updated my Etsy shop.
I'll have a few new bags to list in the spring, but this winter will primarily feature crocheted hats.

I'm busy right now but I have started taking custom orders again!
Email me at monkeyseemail@gmail.com if you see a style you'd like to request.

CSA Mystery Vegetable Answer.

Did you see my post on our CSA experience yesterday?

What is this?



Well, I won’t keep you in suspense any longer.

The Cons of CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)

We joined a CSA this year.

Have you heard of a CSA? CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It means you pay money to a farm at the beginning of a growing season and each week you receive produce (your share) from that farm and/or surrounding farms.

I liked the idea of getting locally grown, in-season food. I thought it would be fun to try new recipes and new vegetables. The quality of vegetables and fruits was great.

However. It was not cheap. So I didn’t want any of it to go to waste.

But some of it did. There are apparently some foods I just don’t like. In fact, no one in our family likes them.
Case in point: Beets.

I tried cooking them numerous ways. The final way was trying to make ‘beet fries’. I won’t even bother linking to a recipe so you can try it. They just are not worth making. I ate some of them. But they did not taste like fries.