Dean's Tractor & Bus Felt Book Progress

"Kids grow out of things so fast, they'll be on to the next toy before you know it," my parents said to me a few months ago. I was telling them how much I loved that Dean couldn't be separated from "Tractor" and "Bus"."Enjoy it while it lasts," they said. Dean had spent so many months unable to be separated from Tractor and Bus, I didn't think he'd out grow them. I still have my all time favorite doll, so I expect my son to have inherited the same devotion to his toys. Is that crazy of me to think?

Over the last little while he's become interested in other toys, like Thomas the Train and construction vehicles. He still plays with Tractor and Bus but his attention is divided with other toys. It hurts my little-mama-heart to see him growing up and playing with other toys. That's such a silly thing to say, but it's true. Why can't he just stay my little guy and need Tractor and Bus for everything forever?

If you follow me on Instagram you've seen pictures of the felt book popping up. It's slow going and very tedious. Definitely taking longer than I'd like. I really really really don't want Dean to have outgrown it by the time I finish it. More than likely he won't because he still plays with the one Auntie Kinner made him.

After weeks and weeks on working on it, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm currently working on the last page, then I'll stitch all the pages together and bind it. Looking forward to spending time tonight working on it and I might be able to finish it by this weekend. The anticipation gives my heart palpitations!

Confessions & Obsessions

There have been a few things that I have been thinking on a lot lately that I feel like sharing. Maybe it'll help me get over some of it, get you hyped about some of it, and the rest we'll just laugh at together. When I hopped onto Blogger this morning I was so happy to see that Jess from Jeans and a Tiara posted a post similar to this one yesterday. So I'm not the only one here who's got something she wants to get off her chest. ;D


First off... this baby. I love him. I'm obsessed with him. I want to spend every waking hour with him. And then during all the sleeping hours we'll snuggle. I might have mentioned this in my last post. He's just so great! He spent this morning not nursing but looking at me and laughing and talking. Gah! Love it! Being a mom is so awesome!

I've been spending my spare time the last few days making custom t shirts for myself, using freezer paper and soft fabric paint. It's so much fun and so easy! I've made three so far.


I'm still figuring things out: like how to to position them well (so far they are great attention-getters for my boobs)(which I'm totally "meh" about because my boobs are lopsided right now thanks to the baby), how thick I should make the stencils, and getting them on straight (so far their all slightly slanted one way or the other). It's a lot of fun and I'm enjoying thrifting shirts to make personal ones. The first and third shirts are inspired by my favorite Japanese wrestler, Shinsuke Nakamura. The second shirt is the Final Fantasy XI town in-game my character is from.


This is a face I've been making a lot to myself lately because of my unending desire for Cheetos and homemade crispy chocolate chip cookies. I want to eat them. All of them. Not necessarily together. But I'm weak and I can't just have one. I want them all. Then there's the new drink at Starbuck's I'm hooked on~ ice coffee w/soy and the dark caramel sauce. Seriously, just hook an IV up to me please and keep that stuff coming!

A couple days ago I kinda spammed my feed with pictures and a video from the movie Austenland. As if I wasn't already a huge fan of Jane Austen, and anything (and everything!) JA related, this movie made me even more so. My Tumblr feed is flooded with all things Austenland, but mostly of Mr. Nobley. Colin Firth is amazing and all, but JJ Feild takes the cake. Easily.


Seriously. Cake. He's got it all. Hmm? What is that you just said, little voice inside my head?

*ahem* Well anyways. If you don't like swooning definitely don't go check my Tumblr feed. I might have spent way too long just now liking, reposting, and saving a bajillion pictures and gifs.

Now the little voice inside my head is telling me to stop wasting time and get back to work. Boo. Ok we'll pick this up another day.

Happy Wednesday friends!!

Dreams of Yarn

It's slow progress on the Sideways Braided Shrug... I had to unravel a few inches because I was watching a show and not paying attention to what I was knitting lol. So even though this pic was taken over a week ago, it's still about this size. I'm about to change to size 19 needles so it will start getting big quick here soon.


Speaking of size 19's! I found the most amazing yarn at Michael's the other day that is thick & chunky and p e r f e c t for the 19's. This Red Heart Vivid in Coral is going to be mine soon. It's either going to be knit into this


Lace Afghan

or


Newborn Baby Blanket
It's going to be amazing and super comfy and snuggly and perfect!

Some other items I want to knit~

Marshmellow Fluff


Bold Stripes Wrap


Baby Chevron Legwarmers


Baby Fur Topped Booties


Blue Sand Cardigan


Retro Flying Helmet


Ahhh so many fun patterns to knit and just not enough time. My heart just flutters when I look at these patterns and when I think about knitting my own. *^_^*

Do you have any projects lined up to work on or any that you're dreaming of doing?

Works In Progress

My husband made the comment the other day about how happy I've been lately. Part of it is the holiday season, baby, and us celebrating out 12 year anniversary, but the main reason he thinks this is because I have been crafting a lot lately. Doing all that knitting, opening up my Etsy shop, and making lots of holiday treats has really been a good thing for me, he says. This just gives all the happys. *^______^*

I wanted to show you just some of the stuff I have been working on this week.



This is a second draft for a hat design I'm working on. I might release this one or I might make the hat and sell it on the shop. We'll see how this turns out. My hair stylist had this super cute white garter stitch hat on and I am just pinning for one of my own so hopefully this works out.


This is a modified version of the Sharo cowl knit in chunky yarn. Once I'm finished with it I'll be posting it in the shop. It's a really pretty cream color that this camera didn't pick up super well.



A scarf I finished the other day that'll be up on the shop soon. It's hard to tell in the picture, but this is two different colors of yarn~ one is a light vanilla color and the other is a super light linen color. They're super pretty together I think.



Just some of the pretzel mess goodness I made the other day. There are also a two bags of pretzel rods that were decorated also.




Aaron and I tag teamed my dinner bento tonight. He made me a peanut butter & strawberry sandwich and sweetly arranged my berries, while I sauteed some green beans in olive oil, miso paste, and red pepper flakes. There's also a tiny bite of a Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bar in there for dessert.

Today I picked up some really pretty blue and lavender yarns today that I'm super excited to knit with. Once I finish up with these I'll be working on some more cowls. Maybe a hat too. AH! I just had a GREAT idea for another new hat design. Must hurry up with these projects!!

Well I have only eaten half of my dinner in the hour it's taken me to write this post so I'm going to go eat. Have a great night everyone! ♥

NEW PATTERN ALERT: MINA COWL

Here is my latest knitted cowl pattern: Mina.


It's a two toned cowl mixed with multiple textures to create a fun and unique (and snuggly) look. It's knit flat, on straight needles, then sewn together to create the cowl.




You can check the pattern out here, here, or here. Let me know what you think!

The Winners Are...

Alrighty everyone! Who's ready for the winner's of my knitting kit giveaway?!

GRAND PRIZE ~ Beth Retro!!
Congratulation Beth! I'm super excited to send you this package, I'm sure you will enjoy it!!

First Runner Up ~ Hannah Kay!

Second Runner Up ~ Chandra!!
Winners, please email me your addresses so I can get your prizes shipped out asap.

Thank you EVERYONE for entering my giveaway. You are so awesome! I had so much fun with this, I would like to do another one in the near future. It probably won't be knitting related but it will be pretty cool. d^____^b

Have a great Wednesday friends! ♥♥♥

CUTIE Magazines Tutorials #2

It's universally known that I am really easily distracted. This morning I should have gotten myself out of bed, but I noticed Rinoa was sticking out from under the blankets so we had some cuddle time. What should have taken me 15-20 minutes to put away the stack on NES games has taken me a lot longer because I ran across Shutterbean's blog and became instantly obsessed with some of her recipes. (Tomato Butter! .:. Spicy Zucchini Fritatta! .:. Basil Infused Oil! Oh my!) There's a few other things but I'm distracting myself from my post...

At first, I thought that this look was no big deal. Once I started doing the eye shadow and realized this was super different. The color on the eyelid was darker than what I'm used to, and it also does a cat's eye going down, not up! The cool thing is is that it doesn't make your eyes look droopy. At least I don't think so.

It's subtle, but can you notice the downward cat's eye? Subtly is one of the things I've noticed about how a lot (I'll be as bold as to say most) Japanese gals go about their makeup. That's probably one reason why they tend to be thought of as always being beautiful. I've noticed that blush is typically the only makeup they go "heavy" on.

Here is my attempt at this look. Since my skin is dry, I didn't add as much blush because I don't have any cream blush atm. Kinda wish I had some though.

(Confession: I'm not wearing any eyeliner. None. Crazy!)

Start out with the EYES, do your foundation/powder routine like normal. Focusing on the 8 pictures on the far left:

1. Use a light pink eyeshadow, A, and apply under your eyes and in the inner corner of your eyes.
2. Apply a taupe eyeshadow, B, to your eyelid.
3. With a skinny applicator or brush, lightly line the outer third of your upper lashes with brownish/dark taupe color, C.
4. Apply C to the bottom third of your outer lashes making an outward and slightly downward angle cat eye. Start by making a small cat eye if you are unsure of how it will turn out. It's easier to add more make up than take it off. Keep it fairly subtle so your eyes don't look like they're drooping.
5. & 6. Curl your upper and lower lashes with a curler. Personally, I skip this part.
7. Apply mascara, F, the eye areas where you have the brown eyeshadow.
8. Apply fake eyelashes if you so desire. Also something I skipped.

The two bottom right pictures are for applying brow mascara. We'll leave that part out for now.

The right two pictures are for the CHEEKS. To be honest, I've never seen blush applied this way. But since this is so different from my norm I was eager to try it.

1. Using a very light pink blush and/or eyeshadow, D, apply along your upper cheekbone area.
2. With a bit darker pink blush, E, apply in a sideways v shape with the bottom pointed towards your nose. To be honest, I'm not sure sure what this is supposed to accomplish, but it didn't look bad so I'm just going with it. Maybe to make your cheeks look round?

Now for LIPS. Since I'm not a huge gloss fan, I only used one type of gloss instead of two- I applied a light pink lipstick and topped it with sheer pink gloss. In the picture above, she applied a light pink gloss with a sheer gloss on top, making sure not to get any gloss in the V of her upper lip.

We've Been Trotting For A Year!

I have news! Big hews! KnittedFot Trot and been up for a year! I missed the one year anniversary last month... oops! Well let's make up for that shall we?! How about we do it with a giveaway!

Grand prize: A knitting kit to make your own Ellie Beanie! This includes knitting needles, two skeins of Vanna White yarn, cute scissors and measuring tape I picked up in Tokyo, a vintage crochet hook, and a holder for all this cute stuff!

Two runner's up will get: knitting needles, measuring tape, and cute scissors from Tokyo.

The excitement is so much~ I vlogged! I'm so awkward... xD


To win, enter one or all of the following ways:

Way #1: Follow KnittedFox Trot with Google Friend Connect and leave a comment saying you did that. If you already follow KFT, leave a comment saying so.

Way #2: Follow me on Twitter and let me know here saying you did that.

Way #3: Retweet my giveaway tweet and let me know here.

If you do all three of these that's three entries for you to win! No pressure to do them all, but props if you do. d^____________^b All entries will be put into a hat and drawn by either Aaron or Rinoa (although it will probably be Aaron) on Sept 8th.

Thank you to all my readers for the last year of laughs, hugs, emails, packages, notes, and fun! ♥♥♥♥♥

CUTIE Magazine Makeup and Hair Tutorials

CUTIE magazine makes me feel saucy.

It gives me a shoulders-back-chin-up-I'm-glowing-with-confidence feeling. A Pchhh!I can rock that look as good (if not better) than that model feeling. A "Yeah, you can sign me up to be the 10th member of GIRLS GENERATION. No worries."

Haha ok so I'm being totally silly, but I'm honest when I say this magazine gives me confidence. It gives me means to recreate looks that I think are super cute everyday. I don't have to have a makeup artist to make me look as good as the gals in magazines. CUTIE tells you everything from which brands, shades, and techniques to make you look and feel your best based on your facial structure and tones. How is that not just so cool?!

Forgive the low quality pictures. My real camera died seconds after I turned it on, so my trusty iPod had to do all the heavy lifting... I'll be more prepared in the future, k?

There were so many makeup and hair tutorials in this issue I wanted to try a bunch of them out and show you guys what I thought. This look immediately grabbed my attention because it's similar to my "every day" makeup look. The way the dark eye shadow and blush are applied are a bit different. It's a subtle difference, but it turned out pretty cute. For future CUTIE makeup trials, I plan on doing ones that are a lot different from my norm.

While I know you can follow picture directions, here's written ones just for clarification. Please note that I can't read Japanese very well (kanji, not at all) so this is just my interpretation. If someone knows better than I, I am eager to learn, so feel free to let me know. :D

So starting with the EYES, going from the right of the page and going left, focusing on just the nine far right pictures:

Start out with a clean and moisturized face.
1. With A (light pink eye shadow) apply under the entire under-eye area.
2. Apply A over your entire eye lid.
3. Using either a skinny brush or the skinny part of an applicator (or the tip of a clean finger, which is what I did), apply B (a dark brown eye shadow) just in the lower outer corner, maybe 1/3rd of the way across.
4. Using the same skinny brush, apply B across your entire eyelid, making sure to keep the line pretty skinny.
5. (Optional step) Curl your lashes with an eyelash curler. I don't use them but I know gals who swear by them.
6. With C very lightly line your under eye along the outer 1/3rd of your eye, just like the eye shadow.
7. Line across your upper eyelid with C. (I didn't do this because eyeliner across my entire eye isn't very flattering, so I just did my outer corner).
8. Coat your upper lashes with mascara D.

For the CHEEKS, from the two upper left pictures:
Please check out this post for where to apply blush to your cheeks depending on your facial structure. About 2/3rd of the way down you'll see a diagram that is a great help.
1. Apply E to the appropriate places on your cheeks.
2. Apply F to your outermost parts of your cheekbones, blending lightly up towards your temples.

As for LIPS, I didn't have a close enough color gloss to what they used, so I just used a pale pink gloss (G) and skipped the clear coat.

Everyone loves a good top-knot right? I mean, I totally do! They're so easy, super quick, and fun! Especially if you add a cute hair accessory like a Mini Sunbow. :3

For the TOPKNOT starting from right to left again:
1. Gather and secure your hair high up on your head.
2. Twist your hair.
3. Wrap it around in a slightly loose bun.
4. Secure with bobby pins.
5. Lightly pull on random strands of hair. This gives the bun a more full and playful look. We're not going for a tight ballerina's bun. Give your bun some texture!
6. Secure with more bobby pins.
7. Fluff a little more and spray with finishing spray.

Hope you guys liked this post. I know it's long, but I hope it was informative. Is there sometime I could focus more/less on? Any thoughts? Requests? I do have a nicely sized backlog of these magazines so if there's a hair style you want to know how to do, I can see if I can find it. d^___^b

Happy Thursday friends!!

Best Of ~ For Realz!

Monday is for making faces.

Faces for happiness, gratefulness, goofiness, and silliness. There are more reasons to make faces, but these are the reasons for mine today.

All these reasons should shine through my face each day. All my happiness. All my gratefulness. My wish is that everyone would be able to see my silliness and goofiness and know just how happy and grateful I am.

Sometimes I let things get in between me and my wish. Sometimes I let my stubbornness get the best of me. Which is such a dumb thing to do. Why should I do that?! Why would I do that?

I am so happy and grateful for what I have in my life. Every single person and thing I have in my life is a blessing. I never have the words I want to express just how happy and appreciative of my life. Until the day I find those words, I'm going to keep trotting and bumbling along.

This is where a good segue should go. Something about how I "bumbled" around my blog and found more detailed stat tracking for my blog. These new details showed me that I was wrong on that "Best Of" post I did the other day. Not just wrong but 100% wrong. When I wrote that post I was looking at the stats for that day, not all time. Oops.

So, for realz this time~ here are the best of all time posts here on KnittedFox Trot (aka the posts with the most traffic).

.:. I Need a New Toothbrush
.:. Beige/Blue/Silver Eye Shadow Tutorial
.:. Fashion Friday v6 + New Ami Cowl
.:. What Are You Doing New Years, New Years Eve?
.:. New Pattern ~ Sunbow
.:. New Pattern ~ Ellie Beanie
.:. Intarsia Knitting
.:. New Pattern ~ Three Color Bunting
.:. An Upcycled Rug Story
.:. Terrarium Tutorial

Happy Monday everyone! Don't let anything get between you and your happy shine, ok!? ♥

New Pattern Alert ~ Mini Bunting Pattern

So, funny story. I knitted up, photographed, and wrote up the patterns for the Tri-colored Bunting, the Ellie beanie, and this Mini Bunting all at the same time. For some reason, I lost the pattern for the Mini Bunting. And by "lost" I mean, I looked right past the folder EVERY TIME I WENT LOOKING FOR IT. Amazingly, it was right where I left it, in my "pattern" folder, next to the other two patterns. Weird!

Thank goodness I found it so I can now release the pattern to you! Yay!!

You can grab the PDF here, here, or here. Enjoy!

Embroidery Pattern ~ Bag End

I'll just come right out and say it: I'm in love with embroidery. Seriously, it is such a lovely craft! The beautiful colors of floss, all the lovely fabrics to stitch on, the different types of hoops. I love them all.

A little while ago I did a post about my embroidery adventures, but the fun hasn't stopped there and I would like to take this time to show you my latest endeavor~ an embroidery pattern. It's based off the project I made for my Dad:

Here is Bag End:

I tweaked the pattern just a little bit because I was on a roll drawing. The little lines under his eyes are blushing cheeks. I felt that my Bilbo's face was lacking a bit and I think this would really add to it. *^_^*

Feel free to snag your own copy of the file Here.

I hope everyone is have a super duper great week so far!!!!

P.S. BIG thank you's to Aaron and my sister, Kindra, for helping me this file. Taking a picture from pencil to a sharp .png file wasn't easy for me.