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!

A Couple of Fall Cards

I honestly cannot remember exactly where I first saw the digi images I am using in these cards. Could have been a blog post or it could have been Pinterest (in passing). Regardless, I was smitten and pretty quickly headed over to Sassy Cheryl’s Digis shop to pick these images up. I also added her blog to my reader.  I sure had fun coloring Sassy Sally!

   

Isn’t she adorable? I colored the images using Prismacolor and Koh-i-Noor pencils and odorless mineral spirits. The paper is Simple Stories Harvest Lane. They sure have the perfect fall feel. I inked the background using distress inks from Tim Holtz. The top one uses Tumbled Glass and the bottom one uses Wild Honey.

Enjoy and thanks so much for stopping by today!

Birthday Cards

I thought I’d share the birthday cards I made for the gifts I gave on Sunday.

My friend and her daughter have their birthdays 5 days apart, so for now they celebrate together.

For our Hello Kitty loving girl, her mom loaned me her Hello Kitty Sizzix die.

The pattern paper is Sweet Nectar from K & Co. As you can see I added some Martha Stewart glitter. The sentiment is from CTMH.  

You may or may not remember the Angry Bird cupcake holder I made for a friend’s birthday back in September.  Well, our Hello Kitty friend is his sister and when she saw his Angry Bird cupcake holder, she wondered why she never got something like that. Well, that comment was noted and remembered and this is my finagled Hello Kitty-ish version of the cupcake holder (from the Sweet Tooth Boxes Cricut cartridge). I reduced the size by an inch or so. Inside we put a package of pink Tic Tacs (which were found by Jessica at the checkout counter. She has always had eagle eyes. Hee, hee.  Our friend seemed very happy with her own personal kitty. Yay!

And for her mom? I was inspired by a card made by my friend Barb here at The Buzz. In fact, I am the very, very lucky recipient of the card she shared in that post. It’s even better looking in person, I must say!

Anyway, Barb has been so kind and sweet to answer my many questions recently and with her  tips I was able to complete this card:

I learned how she adds the ink (Tim Holtz distress ink) to the image before taking it out of the Nestability. The ink I used is Antique Linen, I believe. And you can certainly tell that I spritzed the card with Shimmer (maybe I overdid it just a tad?  Nah…) The image is from Meljen Designs and is colored with Prismacolor and Koh-i-Noor pencils and odorless mineral spirits. The paper is from DCWV matstack, Autumn Splendor from last year. It’s the paper stack, not the cardstock stack.

Here’s another angle where you can see the glitter I added better. You can find the image here at Meljen’s Designs. They are so fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Few More Crochet Hats…

Jessica’s teacher told me that her son loves the owl hat I made for him. I guess he has, up to now, refused to wear any hats, but once he got the owl hat, he wears it all the time. Yay! She asked if I’d be willing  to make a couple more. Of course, I said yes.

Here’s the second owl hat…

I just changed the accent color and when I braided the tails, I grouped all of the same color together.

For the next hat, I kind of wanted to try a different style altogether and I hoped it would work out okay with her son. What do you think? Would a 2 year old like to wear something like this?? LOL

I just couldn’t resist this hat. I got the pattern from the same gal who shared the owl pattern. You can find it here. She says she hasn’t tested the pattern except on her own kids, but I went ahead and tried it anyway. I didn’t have any issues and it fit Jessica okay, so it should be fine (I made it the same size I made the owl hat). I got the yarn at Michaels. It’s the one she recommended and it sure is soft.  And thankfully, I had plenty of black buttons in my stash.

The teacher was in a meeting when I brought the hats to give to her today, so I just left them on her desk with a note. It’s nice to leave a happy surprise.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you are having a great day.

Crocheting Behind the Scenes…for Birthdays

I kind of dropped off the radar again for a bit. I’ve been crafty, but haven’t been able to share what I’ve been making because they were gifts and I didn’t want to spoil the surprise. But, yesterday, the gifts were given to their recipients, so sharing is what I aim to do! Be warned this is a long photo heavy post.

First up, one of our little friends loves Hello Kitty. Although this year, it appears that Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) of Disney Princess fame is carving out a niche in our friend’s heart. But Hello Kitty is still a love. Whew…because there was still a good chance she would like this little purse I crocheted…

It is so hard to photograph white, sorry. But, I think you get the idea. I found the pattern here. This was actually crocheted well over a month ago (yay, I was ahead of the game and not crocheting at the last minute). I liked the bit of gingham for the lining. Jessica picked out a little Princess cell phone lip gloss to tuck into the purse, thereby acknowledging both loves of her friend.  Our friend seemed very happy with her little purse.

Actually I was ahead of the game for all the projects I’m sharing today…yes there’s more…LOL

Next up…the recipient of the next items has an affinity for owls. And this year, more than any other, it seems that owls have exploded on the scene. Not just owls, really, really cute owls.

I was wandering Michaels one day, (if memory serves, the same day I got the book for Jessica’s doll dress that I knitted for her birthday) and I impulsively picked up one of those booklets they have in the yarn section that promotes the yarn behind the booklet. In this case, I came across this booklet and thumbed through the pages, not expecting anything at all. And I flipped past this next project and I was smitten…

Oh my goodness, it’s a Christmas tree ornament and it’s knitted! I guess I can knit a little bit.  I am really tickled with the end result of this little impulse buy. I love the eyes and lo and behold, I found those wooden looking buttons….in my stash. Don’tcha just love it when that happens?? There are other projects in this booklet that might find their way on my hooks/needles. I’ll share if that happens.

And finally, I have been SO itching to share this last gift. Yes, my friend got totally spoiled because of the plethora of really cute owl items out there this year. I just couldn’t help myself. See if you agree that I couldn’t resist this pattern when I came across it on Pinterest…

Isn’t this neat? As I said I found the idea on Pinterest and that led to the purchase of the pattern here. You have to check out this crafter’s Etsy page! My goodness, such cuteness!

I was initially drawn by the owl blanket/afghan, but didn’t think I would have time to get that made. But this tote sucked me in, big time! I substituted the yarn though. The pattern calls for 100% cotton yarn, which I don’t have in my stash anymore and there were 16 colors…sorry, too many for me to pick up for a project, so I went through my yarn and had enough Super Saver type yarns for the owls. I did pick up the brown (Michaels Loops and Threads brand) and found a pretty turquoise color at the second hand store-love the serendipity of that one.

Again, this was crocheted well ahead of time and about 2 weeks ago I went to Joann’s to find a fabric for the lining. Not having made something like this before I asked the gal at the fabric cut counter for help and she immediately told me to look for this owl fabric in the nursery section of fabric. Nursery section? What a great idea for decor for a nursery. I was so pleased at how perfectly it fit with the tote.  And the gal who helped me so loved the tote, I took her email address and sent her the information on where to get the pattern. Love sharing like that!

So, for weeks now I have been itching to share these projects with you. And I’ve also been resisting other owl items I’ve seen every where I go. And now I finally have. Hope you enjoy!

Thanks for reading if you got this far.

On this Veteran’s Day weekend I salute those in uniform who fight for our freedoms. You deserve all the honors coming your way. Thank you for your service and sacrifices on our behalf.

 

Hope you have a wonderful start to your week! Thanks so much for stopping by.