Christmas Gifts

Today was the last day of school for Jessica, so we got to give her teacher her gift. And Amy got to give her friend her gift as well.

I wanted to make her a lion (the school’s masc0t) and found a new pattern to use.

The mane is removable! So cute. I found the pattern here on Etsy from this shop. It was a hit with her teacher. Yay!

And remember the owl hats? Well, this blogger shared a penguin hat pattern as well. Oh my…Amy’s friend adores penguins and lime green. She was thrilled! Yay! You can find the pattern here on Repeat Crafter Me.

These were fun to make and give. But there always seems to be something on my crochet hook, so hopefully soon I’ll have more to share.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Have a wonderful weekend and if I don’t make it back before Tuesday, have a wonderful holiday!

Elf Hat and a Dragon

I don’t know why my blog yesterday posted twice. Sorry about that.

This week is Spirit Week at the middle school and Amy is happily participating. Today is crazy hat day and for once, my kids have a sort of crazy hat to wear! I picked up a couple of these silly hats at the second hand store last weekend. Who knew they’d be such a hit with the girls?

Sorry about the evil red eye that Amy is sporting. She was giggly, promise.

Last night was her Girl Scout troop’s holiday potluck and Secret Santa gift exchange. The little gal whom Amy gave to loves dragons. So, naturally I went on a search to find a dragon pattern to crochet. And found a pretty darn cute one!

Amy even tried her hand at crocheting a teensy bit and made the belly patch! Yay. I don’t think crochet is her first love, though. That’s okay. I first learned when I was young like her and didn’t really get into it until a few years ago. I only dabbled before then.

Anyway, this adorable dragon pattern is by Amy Gaines and you can find it in her Etsy shop here.  The gal who received this just loved it. Yay! *Ü*

We got a couple of inches of snow today and it’s pretty cold, so it’s starting to feel more like Christmas. The weather forecasters are teasing us and saying we might get some more snow on Christmas Eve into Christmas. That’d be pretty cool, but I’m not gonna hold my breath.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Let’s hope I don’t double post again. LOL

It’s a Christmas Card!

The one and only card I’ve managed to make this holiday season, no matter that I bought supplies to make cards. Oh my! LOL Why is it I always think I will have more time than I actually have to complete projects? I guess I am a positive thinker. ;)

I colored this sweet image called Stocking Goodies from Whimsie Doodles with colored pencils and odorless mineral spirits. Isn’t she just precious? I love the sentiment as well, which says, “May your stocking overflow with goodies.” I would have kept the sentiment only I tried to sponge the background and messed up. The piece actually ended up in the trash until yesterday when I realized I could “fussy” cut out the image and still use it. (Slaps forehead with palm). I pretty much cased this card on the Whimsie Doodles blog. My papers are from Martha Stewart’s holiday matstack and Recollections Jolly Holiday stack.  I pop dotted the image as well. The numbers are cut on my Cricut, using the Storybook cartridge.

I honestly tried to make a couple of other cards, but it didn’t go so well. I am so very rusty at stamping anymore. It’s almost like I don’t know how to stamp now. So sad. I didn’t have time to color up another image, unfortunately. And my Cricut was giving me fits by not cutting really well. Let’s just say any other crafting yesterday was an exercise in frustration. LOL

What’s been keeping me busy? I have been sewing  some doll clothes for the girls for Christmas. Well, for the dolls the girls have(and will get very soon), more specifically.I don’t have a dedicated space to sew, so I have to pull all my supplies out to the living room and set up shop, then put it all away when I’m done and before the girls get home from school. I’ve also been crocheting, still. More? Again? I am also working on a knitting project when I can.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I know I’ve been a sporadic blogger and I really do appreciate your visits!

It’s a Christmas Card!

The one and only card I’ve managed to make this holiday season, no matter that I bought supplies to make cards. Oh my! LOL Why is it I always think I will have more time than I actually have to complete projects? I guess I am a positive thinker. ;)

I colored this sweet image called Stocking Goodies from Whimsie Doodles with colored pencils and odorless mineral spirits. Isn’t she just precious? I love the sentiment as well, which says, “May your stocking overflow with goodies.” I would have kept the sentiment only I tried to sponge the background and messed up. The piece actually ended up in the trash until yesterday when I realized I could “fussy” cut out the image and still use it. (Slaps forehead with palm). I pretty much cased this card on the Whimsie Doodles blog. My papers are from Martha Stewart’s holiday matstack and Recollections Jolly Holiday stack.  I pop dotted the image as well. The numbers are cut on my Cricut, using the Storybook cartridge.

I honestly tried to make a couple of other cards, but it didn’t go so well. I am so very rusty at stamping anymore. It’s almost like I don’t know how to stamp now. So sad. I didn’t have time to color up another image, unfortunately. And my Cricut was giving me fits by not cutting really well. Let’s just say any other crafting yesterday was an exercise in frustration. LOL

What’s been keeping me busy? I have been sewing  some doll clothes for the girls for Christmas. Well, for the dolls the girls have(and will get very soon), more specifically.I don’t have a dedicated space to sew, so I have to pull all my supplies out to the living room and set up shop, then put it all away when I’m done and before the girls get home from school. I’ve also been crocheting, still. More? Again? I am also working on a knitting project when I can.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I know I’ve been a sporadic blogger and I really do appreciate your visits!

What Can It Be? Revealed

Thanks for the guesses you shared. I know I didn’t really give any hints to help, but I really couldn’t think of any that wouldn’t give it away.

As a little backstory as to why I made this hat. We do a gift exchange with members of Steve’s family and the gal I’m giving to is Steve’s niece who is pregnant with her first child…a boy. She wanted gifts from her baby registry. When we went shopping we noticed she chose things with a monkey theme. Amy told me I should make a monkey hat like the owl hat and so I have…

I used the sock monkey pattern from Repeat Crafter Me for the basic hat and ears (only I used two colors in the ears). The eyes are modified eyes from the Owl hat pattern. I used half double crochets instead of double crochets. And the mouth? Well, that’s me just playing around til I got the shape I thought worked. All in all, I think it came out kind of cute.

I initially did a Google search for monkey hat patterns and this one really inspired the colors. Isn’t that the most adorable baby?? I guess Sock Monkey hats are pretty popular as many of that type came up. I’m not a big  fan of that type of monkey though.

Anyway, it was a fun, fast, little project. And now Jessica would be most happy if I got back to work on a project I was making for her and from which I have gotten completely sidetracked.  Oops.

Oh, we braved the bitter cold(18 degrees and falling) last night to go to the annual Winter Fest in the next city over from us. We went for the first time last year and wanted to see it again. Aside from the frigid temperatures, we had a good time. We thought this ice sculpture was pretty dang cool and thought I’d share. Pictures are from my phone…

The gal said each reindeer took two hours and it was about 4 hours to make the sleigh. Pretty impressive, if you ask me!

We saw all the prettily lit up trees and stood by several huge bonfires to warm up. We even watched an outdoor puppet show and sang Christmas Carols! And we got those neat 3-D looking glasses where when you look through them at lights a holographic image shows up. This year the image was snowmen. And if you tilt your head from side to side, it looks like they are dancing. *Ü*

Thanks so much for stopping by. Hope your week is off to a great start!

What Can It Be?

Right after I finished crocheting the Holiday Cables Throw I shared, I immediately started crocheting a new project. It’s a hat as you can see, but what will the final result be? I thought it might be fun to see what kind of animal guesses you come up with. It’s just for fun and I’ll share when I finish it up. It’s not an exotic animal or anything, but not one I’ve seen as often as the owl hats.

Thanks for stopping by and playing along.

Got Completely Sidetracked by a Crochet Project…

I just finished it, so now I can share. *Ü*

I was shopping in Hobby Lobby one day just a few weeks ago and was checking out the magazines. I flipped over one of the crochet issues and saw a picture that just had me smitten from the second I laid eyes on it. It was a crochet project from Red Heart and the textures I saw made me giddy. I saw the pattern was free, so I wrote down the pattern number, finished up at Hobby Lobby, went home, looked up the pattern, downloaded it (it was free) and noted the number of skeins of yarn I needed. I went back out, to Michaels this time where the yarn was on sale,  scooped up the yarn, purchased it, went home and immediately got started. That’s how hard I fell for this project! And I’ve been pretty much working on it in my free time since then. And I just snipped the last piece of yarn just a few minutes ago, so I quickly snapped some photos to share.

 

Thanks to Jessica, my sweet model, who literally just woke up a little bit ago and was very willing to snuggle under the throw. She has already told me she is going to steal this whenever she can because it’s so soft! LOL  I used Red Heart Soft yarn in Really Red. And it wasn’t until after I got started that I realized I misread the yarn I was supposed to use, but no matter, I love the feel and the texture of this yarn, so it was a happy mistake.

You can find the pattern on the Red Heart website. It’s LW3152. And if you click here, you should go straight to the page where you can download the pattern.

Honestly, the stitches you use to create the patterns are not difficult. The designer uses traditional stitches in unique ways (I feel). If you can do a chain, slip stitch, single crochet, double crochet and triple crochet, you can create this throw. You may need a little help, like I did, with the Barker Celtic Weave stitch, but the designer of the pattern, Bonnie Barker, has posted an excellent video on how to create the stitch. Honestly, it’s triple crochets. It’s just how you place them that makes the fabulous texture!

Speaking of the designer, Bonnie Barker, she has a website that you can find here. She also has a pattern book out that has patterns for creating Aran Afghans. I think I will be looking into buying it.  I just adore the texture she has created in these patterns. She is also very helpful. I noticed there was an error in the pattern and ended up contacting her. She was quick to respond and  indicated some errors were edited into the pattern and immediately shared the correct information I needed to complete the stitch/pattern. I really appreciated her help

I know these pictures aren’t the best, but I couldn’t wait to share and let you know what’s kept me busy these past few weeks.

Thanks for stopping by!