Sweet Apple for the Teacher

Hi! I'm back again. LOL I finished up an apple for the teacher. I will be making a second one so the girls can give them to their teachers later this week.

I simply thought it too cute to resist. For those of you who are wondering how I am getting these things done. First of all, they are small projects and I can crochet them up pretty quickly. Second of all...you don't want to see the state of my house these days! LOL This is the last week of school before winter break, so once I get through this week, I can focus on keeping up with the house again. (yea, right...I'm having way more fun making these critters) It helps that I have a fairly tolerant family. The girls are loving playing with the goodies I'm making, and my hubby? Well, he just shakes his head in bewilderment. LOL

I have to give a weather report. I know you most likely don't care, but I think it's impressive. On Saturday our temps were in the upper 60s, which is pretty wild for December. On Sunday, however, we didn't get above zero! I heard it was -15 at the airport (official weather station) as a high! Yep, that's quite a shock to the system. This morning I heard we got as low as -19. When I took Amy to school it was -9 according the to gauge in the van. When I took Jess a bit later, it was 0. Picking them up it was 2! I got a phone call from the school district saying that they are having problems with the busses because of the temps. I guess they were going to be running late to get kids home. We are to watch in the morning to see if there is even school tomorrow!

Then as I was waiting to pick the girls up outside the kindergarten, parents were telling me that there was NO heat in the kindergarten wing today! Oh my goodness! Jessica said she was fine. I guess they moved them to other parts of the building. What is sad is this is the newly constructed wing (built the year Amy was in kindergarten). I wouldn't have expected the heat not to work on that end of the school. I also heard one of the busses was stuck on a main street for two hours due to road conditions.

Pretty wild, huh?

That's it for now! Thanks for stopping by. I hope I am not boring you with these projects.

Jeanne

Marshmallow Snowman

.

Happy Monday to you!

Here's a cute idea I found here on the wonderful world-wide web. There is no picture on the web, but here's my version. I'm going to help the Jessica's class (and hopefully, Amy's when I hear back from her teacher) make these on Friday. I've copied and pasted what you'll need below the picture. The only things I added were mini chocolate chips for the eyes, Kissables for the nose, (though maybe mini ones would have been better) and the plate to put it on. I got regular frosting and put a spoonful in a baggie with the corner snipped off. You use the frosting to attach the pieces. The "snow" at the bottom is leftover frosting with some sprinkles.The scarf is pull apart Twizzlers that I picked up at Target (only because Walmart was out).

 

Marshmallow Snowman

Need:
Three large marshmallows
Tube of white icing with small tip
Miniature M&M's
Red skinny licorice
1 toothpick
1 pretzel stick
1 Hershey kiss

Directions:
Place three marshmallows together with icing and toothpicks. Count out M&M's (your choice of number). Add dots of icing to glue on candy. Break the pretzel stick in half for arms. The kiss becomes the hat and wrap the licorice around neck for scarf

 

I think it will be lots of fun for the kids to make, don't you?

Thanks for stopping by. Tomorrow, I will hopefully be able to post another cute project we will be making for Brownies and Daisies this week.

Have a great day. Stay warm if you are in a cold climate. It was -9 when I took Amy to school this morning...BRRRRRRRRRRRR

Jeanne

More Seriously Cute Crocheted Critters...

Happy Sunday to you! We have been bone-chillingly cold today, but that's okay, I spent a goodly portion of the day crocheting. I think we were close to 50 yesterday and today the high was in the teens. We also got about 2-3 inches of snow. Brrrr.

I finished the penguin yesterday, but just took his picture. I'm calling him Pingu, after the funny character on Sprout(kids' channel that we get via Directv. My girls think their friend will really like him.

He's about the same size as the doggie I made, which I incorrectly said was about 7 inches long. I actually measured him and he is really 9 inches long (I crochet a little bigger than the pattern calls for, but with these critters, I don't think it much matters).

I was able to find the size of eyes that I needed yesterday when I went to that craft store. But, I had the head of this guy finished on Thursday, so he's got the smaller eyes. I have plenty of eyes and suspect there will be more cuteness to come. These are surprisingly addictive to create!

And, per Jessica's request, I give you Cheepy, her little chick, complete with the egg she arrived in.

 

The egg measures 3 1/2 inches and Cheepy measures 2 1/2 inches. I have a feeling before long, we'll have a "clutch" of chicks as both girls have taken turns playing with her this afternoon. Oh and she fits quite nicely in an egg carton.

 

 

That's about it from here for now. I'm still working on other projects and will share as I complete them.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you have a great start to your week!

Jeanne

PS-Kathi, if you are reading this...I sent you and email yesterday and am not sure if you've been super busy like me, or if it got plunked in your junk mail. I'd love an answer to the question I asked in it. Thanks!

Finished Poncho and Neckwarmer!

I decided last night would be the night  to finish up the poncho and neckwarmer. Two more gifts done! Yea, me!

I thought Jessica should have a turn modeling the poncho (since she is patiently waiting for Mommy to make hers).

It's not the best photo, but you can definitely see the colors I chose for this one. I used just the variegated yarn for the fringe and I think that was a good choice. I cut the yarn for Amy's fringe individually and that's partly why I was taking so long to do the fringe for this one. I realized though, that wrapping the yarn around a DVD movie case (width-wise) would net the perfect length after cutting the hanks in half. That cut down the amount of time needed to get that fringe cut. Why I didn't think of it while doing Amy's I have no idea!

Both girls wanted to show off the neckwarmer, so enjoy my little models:

  You can see how long this project is this way. It is sized for an adult of course. But aw heck, aren't they cute?

 

 

I feel pretty good that I am making some progress on my projects.

I've got lots of things I want to get done today, so I'll close for now. I'll be back if I manage to complete anything worth sharing.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a great day!

Jeanne

Seriously Cute Crochet Project!

Happy Friday! I hope this finds you doing well, staying healthy and having fun preparing for the upcoming holidays. I know I've been quiet again. That's the one thing with doing all these knitting/crocheting projects...I'm sure you don't want a play by play of how much I've gotten done in a day, so I have to wait until I have finished something. I'm still working on the fringe for the poncho, but getting closer to being done. I'm even almost done with the neckwarmer (just a round and a half left, plus the bind off). But I DID start and finish this crocheted dog...ummmm...yesterday! And I giggled and grinned just about the whole time I was creating it. The girls enjoyed helping me stuff it, too.

I can't remember if I mentioned that I wanted to do this type of project for the kids that we hang out with after school each day. It's called Amigurumi, which is Japanese for crocheted stuffed doll. I've picked up three books with patterns for these types of projects. The one I am using for now is called Amigurumi World~Seriously Cute Crochet by Ana Paula Rimoli. You can find it at Michaels (for sure) and Hobby Lobby (I only saw the one copy at the one by my house).  I hadn't seen it at HL until this week and used a coupon to get it.

Okay enough talk, here you go. It was kind of hard to photograph, so I hope you can tell how cute this thing is...

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I used Red Heart Super Saver Worsted Weight yarn. He measures about 7 inches long and it's all single crochet. My only semi-complaint is I was supposed to use 9mm eyes and I could only find 6mm locally, which one would think isn't too far off in size, but he might have been even cuter with the right size eyes! LOL I'm planning on hitting that craft store I recently found on Saturday because I know they sell the eyes there. These are safety eyes that you snap on with a disc on the back, so they won't come off.

Maybe I'm the only one (along with my girls) that thinks this is so very cute. And that's okay. I'm working on a penguin right now. Amy has requested an octopus and Jessica would like an egg with a chick in it. Walmart sells this yarn for a great price and I keep buying up different colors. Too bad my fingers can't work faster...

I had to stop my projects for a bit today as I volunteered to go in to the school and help with some parties that a couple of classes earned. The school has a fundraiser every month or so, where we are invited to go to Chick-Fil-A (fast food restaurant) to eat dinner. A portion of the proceeds from that night's sales goes back to the school. The girls love going as do I (because I don't have to cook). Well, they  have contests to see which class has the most students in attendance. Apparently last month both Jessica's and Amy's class tied! So they each got a party as a thank you. Jessica's class chose chicken nuggets and lemonade and Amy's class chose sundaes. I went in to help the Chick-Fil-A representative get the food out to the kids. It was fun! All the kids enjoyed their treat!

Okay, that's it for now. I'll be back when I finish another project to share. In the meantime I hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Jeanne

All Better-Whew!

Just thought I'd pop in here to say that Jessica was much improved by mid afternoon on Sunday and has kept everything down since then. She went to school yesterday and did just fine, so I think we are in the clear. Whew.

Thanks for all the well wishes for her. I really appreciate them.

I meant to write yesterday to tell you, but the day got away from me. One of my brothers' wives is in ICU at a hospital in CA. She had a bad reaction to diverticulitis that required surgery to correct. During surgery she aspirated into her lungs and has pneumonia. To complicate these serious issues, she also has Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis. Every day sees a tiny improvement, but it's going to take a while. Add to that, another brother just had surgery on his back. I think he said on L2-L5. He has a narrow spinal canal and tissue had built up in it. He also had two bulging discs. So, in his words, they roto-rootered the canal and filed down the discs. Thankfully, he didn't need rods or screws, so the recovery, while painful, will take less time than it could have had taken.

So, in addition to my projects, and Jessica, I've been just a tad distracted. But it sounds like everyone is on the road to recovery. Yea!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jeanne

Long Night...

This is a first for us. Jessica has been up all night, just about, with an upset tummy. She seems fine other than not being able to keep anything down. I'm not sure what it is as we all had the same dinner last night and she ate it all with gusto. She was fine when she went to bed, but then around 11 or so she got sick again and again and again. I apparently slept through the first part, but woke up around 1am to find her in the bathroom. I told Steve I'd stay up with her and so I have. She's been a real trooper and isn't freaking out about the actual act of throwing up (which I admire, because I don't do so well with that). She likes me to rub her back as it comforts her. I've got her parked on the couch with kid shows on the tv and she's finally dozing. Very strange and as I said, we've not had a situation like this before. I'm sure she'll be fine and we'll muddle through. I'm just not sure if I will make it into my corner today.

Send some healing vibes our way if you are of a mind to. Thanks!

Jeanne