I'm excited!

A few months ago, I found this blog - no big dill.   I don't think I can really express how utterly and completely inspiring this woman is.  She has FIVE girls.  I have people blown away that I can deal with three and she has FIVE.  And she's not in a straight jacket!  Her kids are gorgeous, she sews, she takes amazing pictures... I really am in awe of her. 

In March, she's having a whole month of children's book-themed projects and I am stoked. 

BTW... I'm thinking of just keeping up with one blog and it's not this one.  I'll still be getting all crafty and stuff, you just will have to wade through the personal junk too =) 

Silly project =)

This is my daughter's hat for their 100th day of school hat parade.  100 pompoms.  It was so much fun to make.

I have a hat that I made my father for his birthday that I'll have to show off later and I'm making another had for my brother-in-law's birthday.  Both are totally my own designs... I haven't seen anything just like them before.  So I'm kind of proud of them.  =)  My hubby's birthday is next week and I should make him something, but I'm totally clueless.  He won't wear a hat.  I'll figure something out I'm sure.

I also have a very, very busy week planned next week.  In April, I am participating in the American Heart Association's Start! Heart Walk.  My sister and I went to the team kick-off yesterday and they were giving us fundraising tips and I had a light bulb go off. I'm going to make some Valentine/heart themed stuff and sell it for donations.  All the proceeds will go towards the walk.  If I sell it for $10, $10 goes to the Heart Association.  I'm pretty excited about it.  I have a few ideas of what I'll make.  I'll have to be an obnoxious promoter if I'm going to sell it, but I feel much more comfortable being pushy when I'm begging for donations and people get something in return.  I mean... it's a win/win for the buyer - they help out a cause that EVERYONE should care about (you do have a heart, right?) and they get a handmade something or other out of it.  I found a hat pattern that I want to make to sell, but the designer specifically put on her site that she doesn't allow people to sell items made with the pattern.  I've emailed her to see if she'll make an exception in this case.  I think I'll make a couple fingerless gloves, some keychains... things I can whip up pretty quickly.  If it goes well, I'll continue it and possibly come up with some Easter themed stuff.  But needless to say, I need to get this stuff made in the next week so I have time to sell it. 

Stay tuned ;)

Well, I did it, but...

 

I figured out the top of my Doughboy/chef's hat.  I just need to finish up the brim.  The problem is that it's way too small for my Daddy's huge noggin.  He really does have a big ol' head.  ;)  

So, I think I'll finish it up as is and give it to my kids.  And make something else for my Daddy because I don't think he'd actually ever wear it anyway.  Maybe I'll stencil a shirt for him.  With a big "39" on it, since that's what he always says his age is.  And maybe a boring old earflap hat.  He'd wear that. 

Going cross-eyed

My Daddy's birthday is coming up.  He'll be the big 64.  Old man.  ;)  I've been thinking of different things I can make him.  My go-to item is a hat.  They're quick, they're pretty simple.  But what kind of hat?  The first thing that popped into my head was the Pillsbury Doughboy.  I wish I could give you a really good explanation for that, but I really can't.  I know he has at least one Doughboy shirt that we've given him, but why... I don't remember.  I couldn't find a pattern for a crocheted Doughboy hat or chef's hat, so I kept thinking.  I thought of just a basic earflap beanie, but that seems so boring.  Why does it have to be a novelty hat?  I don't know.  I guess that's my thing.  

I texted my sister and asked her for a suggestion.  Her suggestion?  Pillsbury Doughboy.

So... what to do?

Come up with my own pattern.  Heaven help me.

I doubt even a professional crocheter would have a clue what this means

 

I was confusing myself, so I made myself a little chart.  I really can't tell you if it will work yet or not.  Hopefully, finger's (and eyes) crossed, it will look vaguely like this little poppin' fresh dude's hat.  Key word:  vaguely.  If I can figure it out, maybe I can make a mini one and then figure out how to make an amigurumi Doughboy.  THAT would be awesome.  

Whatcha doin'?

I have been working diligently on my afghan.  I have the first 6 sections out of 10 finished.  Which would sound like I'm halfway finished, but the sections get bigger as you go.  It's kind of put together like a log cabin quilt square (not that you can tell when it's done... it looks totally random).  Here's what we have so far:

I just noticed how one side is so dark and one side is so light....

I have a goal this year to make one Christmas-y thing a month.  This past Christmas I had huge aspirations to make all sorts of things and there just wasn't time.  So I'm going to work on it all year this year.  This month I am making Zoe's Christmas stocking.  We've always had cheap store-bought stockings.  So generic.  So ugly.  I picked out a pretty ambitious pattern for Zoe's stocking.  It's ambitious for two reasons... I've never used circular knitting needles and I've never felted before.  I started it.  I ripped it out.  I started it, got farther, noticed it was twisted, had to rip it out.  I put it away.  Last night, I finally got it back out and.... I am about 6 rows in.  Yay!  

I even have a pretty bling-y stitch marker 

 

I think one of the reasons I picked it was that when I looked at other people's projects on ravelry, a couple of people had actually been able to fit their entire small child in the stocking before they felted it.  I just have to try that.  I know... my inspiration for things is really odd most of the time.  Who picks a pattern just to see if they can fit a 3 year old in a sock?

 

And finally, a freezer paper stenciled shirt:

 

"Gerontology" = the study of aging

 

My sister-in-law majored in gerontology in college.  She really does love helping out the elderly and mentioned, jokingly, that she needed this shirt.  I had everything but the shirt, and plain tshirts are just a few bucks, so I picked one up and made this for her last night.    I haven't said anything to her about it, so it will be a surprise.  

So that's what I've been up to.  I need to concentrate on the stocking so I can finish it this month.  I have some cute pink and brown fabric and I have a dress idea cooking in my head.  I'm never at a loss for things to do...  usually have way too much going on =)

What's in the bag?

I normally have two yarn projects going at a time, sometimes more.  It keeps me from getting bored if it's a big project and I have two fairly big ones going on right now. 

My first bag contains the body, head and arm of a jester.  He's for the girls.  I have to work on him when the girls are asleep or Olivia runs off with the appendage-less thing to play with him.  The pattern is by the same lady who made the Dotje doll that I just realized I never posted about.  Here she is:

She was a gift for my boss

I love this woman's patterns.  Just too cute.  

My other bag contains about 1/3 of an afghan that I'm working on.  

Babette Blanket in black and white - I have more done than this now

I am not a huge fan of granny squares.  But I like how this one uses different sizes.  The original pattern is in colors... LOTS of colors.  I loved how it looked, but I thought it would be less expensive (and yes, yarn gets expensive when you're buying 14 different colors, even the cheap stuff) I decided to just use black, white, and two shades of gray.  I used a random stripe generator to come up with what the squares would look like. I'm not as thrilled with it as I want to be.  But I intend to see it through to the end and I'll find another afghan to work on that I will love.  The girls love blankets so I'm sure if nothing else, one of them will claim it.   Well, not Zoe.  Linus is faithful to her purple fuzzy blanket.

Yesterday, I did knock out something different.  I had been meaning to make a birthday gift for a friend and coworker and kept forgetting until yesterday.  Her birthday is Friday and she's off, so I needed something quick to bring to work today.  I've been wanting to make some wrist warmers and figured if I knew anyone who would like them, she'd be the one.  The pattern was ridiculously easy and quick.  I would say if I could have sat down and worked continuously that I would have had them finished in an hour.  But I rarely have that luxury.  It still didn't take that long and it was easy enough to do it and help Olivia with her reading.

They're cuter on her ;)

I love wrist warmers and fingerless gloves, but they're really not me.  Mainly because I have the hottest hands you've ever felt.  If my palms are cold, you better check to make sure I even have a pulse.

So that's what is in the bag at the moment.  I'll probably be finished with the jester before too long.  The blanket will take much longer.  I can only make so many granny squares a day before my brain shuts down.

Pay It Forward

If you are on facebook, you've probably seen people post the "Pay It Forward" status where you promise to send something handmade to 5 people if they do the same.  I saw it quite a few times, thinking that I really didn't have the time to do something like that.  But then I decided that doing something for someone shouldn't be something I wait to have time to do.  It should be something I make time to do.  So I posted it.  My spots filled up pretty quickly...

My brother-in-law, Lee
My cousin, Amanda
My dear, dear friend Robbie
Brittany
Christy


I'm mostly listing these out because I will forget if it's not somewhere handy.  =)  And trust me, writing stuff down isn't handy for me.  Paper mysteriously disappears around here almost instantly.

I don't know Brittany and Christy extremely well, so this will take more thought than the others.  I don't want to just throw any ol' thing at them just because.  I would feel guilty.  Seriously, I would.


After thinking about it, I realized this was just up my alley.  I prefer to make things with people in mind.  When I was going to have a booth at the Flea Market, that was one of my biggest obstacles.  So this should be fun.  And who knows... maybe when I'm done with these 5, maybe I'll surprise a few people =)

Snow Day!

I work outside of the home.  It's necessary for us, unfortunately.  Lately I have had some serious burn-out at my job.  Any reasonable reason to take off, I'm most likely going to take off.  I just had an entire week of vacation the last week of December, and I'm already wanting more.  So I was super excited when it snowed last night and I got to stay home today =)

You know what that means?

Wet, soggy clothes

And big, huge smiles =)

Dodos don't like the cold

But everyone likes teeny tiny snowmen =)

Yesterday I was thinking about Valentine's Day.  And I had this idea for a hat pop into my head.  I'm unable to concentrate on much of anything when I get an idea until it's actually made, so last night and today I worked on making my Sweetheart Cinch hat.

Doesn't she look like a piece of candy?  I could eat her up.

We have Hugs and Kisses on the side

Good thing the picture quality kind of sucks or you might ask me what all the purple is on her eyes

And pretty dangling hearts

I really need to start using my good camera for this.

And now that the hat has been born, I can go find something else to distract me from house cleaning or other "productive" stuff.  

My first impression...

My sister and brother-in-law recently purchased a fancy-schmancy new TV and offered their old TV to us for the girls, along with an entertainment center.  Normally, I'm opposed to multiple TVs in the house, but the girls fight over the TV and Bill fights with them over the TV, and while I couldn't care less about the TV itself, I'm tired of the fighting.  So the girls now have a TV in the playroom. 

We've had this set up in their room not even a week.  And they have lost privileges to the playroom TWICE because they will move the entertainment center... TV and all.  It's dangerous.  And kind of freaky that little girls are that strong, but that's not the point.  I think we're going to have to put the TV up on a cabinet that they can't move just for safety's sake.  

When I went to pick up the TV and entertainment center from my sister, I had not seen the entertainment center.  The moment my brother-in-law brought it out, my first thought was "wow, I could turn that into a play kitchen so easily!"  I guess I have serious craft-brain.  Hubby wanted the TV on the entertainment center, so I just forgot about my idea. 

However.... now that the TV must be moved, the entertainment center is free.  And I can make it into whatever I want =)  Mwahahaha!



Ignore the dirty floor.  I swear I swept in there Monday.  Can't you see it though?  The short side on the left would be the stove/oven and the taller side would be the fridge.  I'd need a few peices of wood and some hinges, some paint and a few other touches and VOILA!  A play kitchen.  Then I'd have an excuse to make some felt food and whatnot. 

Yeah, I'm kind of excited about it.  My creativity is in full gear this week, making it hard to concentrate on anything else. 

Sometimes I just crack myself up!

Sometimes I just crack myself up!
Originally uploaded by Silvertears1275

I follow Inner Hooker on facebook. She has some of the most adorable crochet patterns around and they're very well written (I've come across some pretty crappy patterns...). She recently changed her profile pic and when I looked at it, it said "My Mom's a Hooker. You should be too." I thought it was so cute that I had to put it on a shirt for the girls.

I was pretty obsessed with this all day. I couldn't wait to get it done. So much so that I smudged it a little bit =( Oh well... I guess I'll have to make another one =)

It's freezer paper stenciled with silver and black metallic fabric paint. I don't think I've used actual fabric paint before when I've stenciled. It was a lot of fun... I need to stencil more often.

More Birthday Pictures

 Little Miss Dodo the 3-year-old!  She loved her party hat, even if I did get the strap all jacked up and it wouldn't stay on her head.  I found the elastic I should have used after the party.  Of course.  ;)

 This is her in her sock monkey hat.  (And yes, she is in pajamas... she insisted, as did one of her sisters) It's not that she didn't like the hat... she did.  She just didn't want to have to put it on and take a picture.  My kids have attitude.  A lot of it.

 First of all, now you know that I am no cake decorator.  Normally I would have at least taken the cake out of the pan, but I either a) put the cake carrier somewhere and forgot where it was, or b) let my sister borrow it and forgot to ask for it back.  But anyway.  The bag on the right... the green and pink "Zoe" bag... I made that.  I love making these felt bags.  I think I'll make some up for my Zibbet shop.  The only part I don't like is where the straps are attached, but I think I'm going to sew some buttons on.  Maybe.  It just needs something.

 

And, lastly, My Dodo with her dodo.  She seemed to like it, but it was quickly taken over by her oldest sister.  She's called it a chicken and a peacock and refuses to believe there is something called a dodo and she runs around going "Ca-caw! Ca-caw!" with it.  Whatever.  As long as they are happy, right? =)

My baby is almost 3

It's hard to believe... my sweet little Dodo is going to be 3 on Friday.  But, if you ask her, she will tell you that she's 5 and will be turning 10 on Friday.  She's so funny. 

She has been asking for earrings for about a month now.  I don't remember her sisters ever requesting anything for their birthdays at 3, but this is what she wants.  I've explained to her that she will have to have her ears pierced and that it hurts, but she does not care.  Her older sisters have their ears pierced and she wants earrings, too.  I got Olivia's ears pierced the first time she had her hair all cut off (yes, this is a recurring theme in our house... with all three of them)... she was 2.  Bill took Izzy to get hers when she was about 2 also.  He swears he will never again participate in that ever again.  I'm not too thrilled about it myself.  That's why Zoe doesn't have pierced ears yet.  I'm kind of dreading it.

She also asked for a sock monkey hat when I was making my nephew's Christmas present.  That I can handle.  =)  I didn't want to make the same hat I've made a dozen times now.  I thought she needed something special.  This is what I came up with:

Now, what I wanted to make for her was a stuffed Dodo.  I found this pattern one day and have been dying to make it.  When I started it, the first thing I noticed was how small it is.  It is so tiny.  It took me no time at all to finish it and I can't wait to give it to her.

Finally, I ran across this pattern the other day and decided Zoe also needed a party hat.  I don't have a picture of it just yet, but it's black and white striped with pink polka dots, trim, and pom pom.  And a pink "3".  =)  Hopefully she won't be too disappointed that it doesn't have a "10" on it.  ;)  It's a great (and free) pattern, by the way.  It has two layers of crochet with plastic canvas (and I was just shocked that I actually had plastic canvas on hand) in between, so it is very sturdy.  If I hadn't put the "3" on it, she could use it year after year.  I'm sure I'll be making more.

I'm so excited for her to get all the goodies I made for her.  Not so excited about the ear piercing...  Maybe hugging her little dodo will make the pain more bearable.

Some Christmas sewing

Earlier in the Christmas season, I had huge plans to make most of our Christmas gifts.  Sisters-in-law, nieces and nephews, kids...  I was a bit too ambitious in my planning.  I wanted to make some amigurumi dolls for the girls, but there just was not enough time.  I hated not giving them anything handmade, though.  Not that they care, really.  But I do.  Over the past few weeks, I've found some really pretty non-traditional bandannas and snatched them up to sew into dresses.  Tonight I finally got around to sewing together 3 dresses.  I have a few more to sew up, but they can wait until after Christmas.  I don't have enough to give each one 2 dresses and heaven knows we don't want that kind of drama, so I just did one each.

 I've had these bandannas for months, actually.  It's not a color I normally go for (it's more peachy in person), but I think the girls will like it.  It doesn't matter who gets which dress, because all three wear the same clothes.

 The thing with bandannas is that they usually aren't cut very precisely.  Especially these.  Because of the nature of the dress, it's not normally an issue, so I'm hoping the fact that these were WAY  off doesn't effect how the dress hangs.

I think this one is my favorite.  I didn't even realize it was the same pattern as the other one, because I bought them at different stores at different times.  I like the color better on this one. 

I think they'll look so cute on the girls with some turtlenecks, leggings, and their new boots Santa is bringing.

Merry Christmas!!

Felt Coal Bag

My sister showed me the cutest bag about a week ago... a little black felt gift bag embroidered with the word "coal."  My first thought was "I have to have that bag!"  Then I thought, "I can totally make that bag!"  I wanted to put my husband's Christmas gift in it, but the bag my sister had was a little too small.  So I decided to give it a try...  and I'll show you how to do it, too.  Bear with me.  I'm not all that experienced with tutorials.

You will need 4 - 9x12 inch sheets of felt, or if you buy it off a bolt you can just cut it to size.  The sheets were the perfect size for me.  When I bought mine, they were 4/$1.  (I think my sister paid $3 for her small bag, so I got out cheaper, too!)

 

You will leave two of the felt sheets whole.  Cut one felt sheet in half length-wise so you have 2 - 4.5x12 inch pieces.

The fourth sheet will be the bottom and straps.  The bottom should be 9x4.5 inches and the straps were 9x1.5 inches (cut 2)

So, to review...
(2) 9 x 12 inch pieces (I'll call them front and back)
(2) 4.5 x 12 inch pieces (I'll call them sides)
(1) 4.5 x 9 inch piece (the bottom)
(2) 1.5 x 9 inch pieces  (straps)

Now, there aren't any construction pictures, because it's black felt and black thread, and you really can't see anything.  So hopefully I can describe it adequately.  It is really simple.

Match up the front to a side and sew together with a 1/4 in seam allowance.  Stop about 1/2 in from the bottom of the bag.  This will help you sew the bottom on.  Then match up the side to the back, the back to the other side, and finally the side to the front.  You will have a square tube.

If you are like me, your felt will creep a little.  You can even up the bottom of the bag if it's kind of wonky. 

Take your bottom piece and line it up with the front, with the bottom piece inside the tube.  Start 1/4 inch from the side and sew until 1/4 inch from the other side.  Line the bottom up with one of the sides and sew all the way across minus 1/4 inch from the back, and do the same for the back.  Your final side you can sew all the way across.  You will have this:

Now, like the original bag, I am leaving it with the seams on the outside.  But if you were making this for something else, you could totally clip your corners and turn it inside out for a smoother look.  You might have to press it a little for crisp edges.

Next, pin your straps on, about 2 inches in from the sides... or where ever it looks best to you.  Sew them in place.  You can do this however you like... I just sewed back and forth across the strap.

Voila!  You have a bag.  It was really quick and simple.  You could do this in any color felt and embellish it any way you want.  Use contrasting thread, or whipstitch the edges.  Sew on appliques.  Go nutty.   I embroidered the word "COAL" on mine (but it will be stuffed with The Muppet Show Seasons 1-3 on DVD because my husband has been a very good boy this year and he loves The Muppets).  I free-handed it, and it's kind of sloppy-looking, but I guess a coal bag would be, huh?

Here is how mine turned out:

 

Christmas Card!

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Muriel's throw

For the past few years, I have taken an ornament from the Be A Santa To A Senior tree at Walgreens. It's a great charity that is kind of like the Angel Tree, only it benefits elderly people in nursing homes who may not have family to provide things for them. Most of the requests are for basic items like socks, sweats, lotion... it's heartbreaking in a way. This year, I took Muriel's ornament. She requested lotion, perfume, a stuffed animal, and a lap throw. I decided to make her stuffed animal and her lap throw.

The pattern I used is the One Skein Throw, which is only one skein if you are using a Red Heart one pound skein. Most skeins of yarn are between 5-7 oz. And since I think Red Heart yarn feels terrible, I went with another brand. It took just a little over 2 skeins. I could have almost finished the main part of the blanket with 2. I almost shortened it by a row and did the border in brown, but I decided it wouldn't look that great. The throw is smaller than I thought it would be.... more the size of a baby blanket. Izzy thought it was a perfect size for her to take to bed, which I vetoed pretty fast. It took me just about a week to finish it, but it wouldn't have taken that long if I hadn't been working on other projects at the same time.

I really hope she enjoys it and that it's big enough to keep her lap warm (because it's not big enough to keep much else warm).

Woo Pig Sooie

razorback hat
Originally uploaded by Silvertears1275

One of my coworkers has a birthday on Monday. And she is a huge Razorback fan. I've been kicking around the idea of some kind of Razorback hat for her, but wasn't really sure what I wanted to do. Today, inspiration hit. It really had nothing to do with their win today. In all honesty, if it weren't for all my facebook friends posting about it, I wouldn't know anything about it. I'm just not a sports fan at all. Nothing against the Hogs...

I debated on 2D versus 3D and finally decided to give 3D a try. I think it's just too cute. The snout is a little crooked, but I don't think I paid much attention to it, so it's probably a miracle that it's not way off.

I'll probably make another one for my friends' girlfriend... her birthday is later in the week. And I'm sure I'll have some friends and family who will want one, but it'll have to wait until after Christmas. I have too much going on to get bogged down in Hog hats.

Hubby asked if I was going to add eyes or ears, but I think I like it just like it is.

Hello Old Friend

I haven't sewn in quite a while... until tonight. I want to get some good pictures of the girls on Friday to use for Christmas cards and I am just bored with their clothes. The budget just doesn't allow me to go clothes shopping any old time I want, so I brainstormed for a while over what I could make. I have plenty of fabric in my stash, but not quite enough of anything for a whole dress. Then I found some white tshirts on clearance for $2 the other day and decided to build on that. I did some blog browsing and found this tutorial. Perfect. I had to make some adjustments for the older two, but it wasn't rocket science.

So I unearthed my buddy from underneath the junk on my sewing table and got to work. This is Zoe's.  I want to check out how it looks on her before sewing up the other two.  I don't absolutely love sewing ruffles.  I will make some headbands to go with them.  And they'll be just too cute =)

Getting away with myself...

I have about a million ideas running around in my head.  More than I can possibly complete, I'm sure.

So... let's see...

Already started projects:

• Crocheted blanket for Muriel (my Be A Santa To A Senior lady)
• Crocheted bear for Muriel (I'm always drawn to the ones that want toys...)
• Knit skirt (no deadline there)

Things I would like to make:

• Handmade gift for Secret Santa
• Crochet snowflake garland
• Yarn-based ornaments of some kind or another
• A wreath
• Dresses for the girls (by the end of the week so I can get Christmas card pictures)
• A crocheted doll for each of the girls for Christmas

I think that's all the stuff I want to make by Christmas or before.  I also have a new set of double pointed needles I'm dying to try out, simply because I have never used dpns before.  And every day I think of something else I have to talk myself out of just because I don't have the time. And I'm sure I've forgotten something here.  I swear I have crafty ADD.

You'll be disappointed =)

This post is mainly for me... I found some things I want to make the girls for Christmas and I'm not at home to bookmark them, so I'm putting them here.

Felt Playhouse

Pretty Felt Dolls

That's all for now.