New Growth

Just last spring, we bought some bare-root fruit trees for our backyard.

A pecan tree, mandarin orange, lime and a pink-lady apple tree. 

We know it was going to take a long time to grow but at around $20 a piece, they are more cost effective than buying full-sized trees.

They look like we are trying to grow broomsticks, but we are optimistic.

Just this December, we noticed our little tree has some little apples growing on it! Yeay!

Go little tree!

 Since we need the little tree to grow tall instead of growing crab-apples, we had to remove the apples. Sorry little guy.

They at least tasted like apples...sour apples, but apples.

Maybe in a few years, we will have full-sized apples for our future children to pick!

Blessing Bag

Last fall, I found a link on Pinterest about blessing bags and thought that they would be a great idea.

We are always trying to find small ways to give back and to help people out. We are always wary of giving out money to people on the street since we don't know what they will spend that money on. 

With the blessing bags, we are giving them things that they need including some food.

We started with a gallon sized Ziploc bag and started cramming as much stuff in as possible.

Our bag has the following items: water bottle, deodorant, shampoo, soap bar, antibacterial, razor, brush/mirror, hand-wipes, neosporin, toothbrush, pain reliever, toothpaste, band-aids, crackers, granola bar, gum, beanie, socks and a $5 McDonald's gift card.

We handed out our first bag just last week to a man on an off-ramp in Stanton. We made sure to explain that there was a gift card and food in the bag when we handed it to him. 

He seemed grateful.

It does make your heart feel good to help someone out, even in a small way.

Fill your bag with whatever you think is best. Included in our bag was a note card with contact information for a few local shelters and places for food, training, etc. 

One can only hope that we at least made that man's evening a little bit better.

Little Crochet Buddies

In my last post, I told you about a great website that had a free pattern for these little crocheted bears. 

We gave out alot of these bears for Christmas. The simple ball shapes are great for creating lots of different characters other than the brown bear, koala and panda that they show on the website.

Look! We made a polar bear! 

I know, ingenious...

Then we had a friend challenge us with this image he found online.

http://pinterest.com/pin/104497653825549612/

Two days later...Tada! Meet mister chickadee!

My husband found a great pattern for crocheted snowflakes. He whipped three out within a few hours! He is so good.

They are great as coasters or ornaments.

For Movember, my husband wanted to do his part and made up his own design for crocheted mustaches. I have tried to get him to write down the pattern but he is always so busy.

These work great as pins. Take a look at our Lil' Shop of Crafts to purchase one.