Valentine's Day... is a month away!

This week has flown by.  The first week back at work always does.  Even though it moved quickly, it ended up being a wonderful week.  I hope yours was the same!

Sadly, the only day I had to take pictures was today... and it was rather gloomy.  Luckily my friend Holly Briscoe is super talented and made sure my pictures weren't too terrible to put up.  (Thank you, Holly!)

First I wanted to share with you one of the gifts I am giving to my mother-in-law on her birthday in a few weeks.  Of course, the pattern is totally from Attic24.  I hope she likes it! 

A little flower pin!  What do you think?

I haven't just been making gifts for my mother in law; I had a few orders on etsy, too!

I had an order for a koala hat!

And an order of flowers!

...but what I have been wanting to show you the most is what I thought up for Valentine's Day.  Little coffee cozies!  I bought one at a shop in Grand Marais, Minnesota that sold handmade goods, but it's a little big.  I thought maybe I could crochet a little cotton one.  Then I remembered that I had bought some nice wool felt a bit back in a few colors.  A heart!  I could use my DMC floss and stich a little heart on my cotton cozy!  That would be too plain!  Oh!  I know what I could do...

Do you see the secret? 

It's a little pocket!  I made the wool heart so you can tuck a little note inside.  So many things you can say!  The possibilities are endless.  I could give it to a friend and tell her she's awesome...  I could give it to someone who is having a hard time and give them a word of encouragement...  I keep coming up with so many reasons to give it to someone. 

Anyway, if you're interested in purchasing any of them, you can right here.  I've made a few others, but I am going to wait to put them up, as I want to make a few more variations.

Next week, I promise to show you some of those blocks I said I would work on.  Remember one of my crafty resolutions?  One crochet block a week?  Well, I have made zero.  So I am going to get started on that right now. 

Please let me know your thoughts, suggestions, opinions in the comments below or on my linked post on facebook...  I love all your feedback.  Have a wonderful week!  Until next time...

Resolutions

Well... Happy New Year!

I've always liked new beginnings. Maybe it's one of the (many) reasons I became a teacher. I've always enjoyed the idea of change, of starting fresh. There's always this wonderful feeling that you can now tackle something you've put on the back-burner for quite some time.

With that being said, I've decided to start a blog for my crafty adventures. I find that facebook is too limiting – in words and in photos. Although I am not naïve enough to think that reading a blog (of any sort, regardless of subject) is for everyone. I'm a little hesitant doing this only because I know if someone has a status update on facebook any longer than 3 sentences, I'm out. I thought I would just give this a shot and see where it takes me. Why not? It's a new year... I'm trying something new. 

Beautiful sunrise from my couch. Even Fronk, my dog, loves it!

For this first entry, I thought I would start out with resolutions. Most people have picked theirs for 2013 and I am no different. I'm going to stick to some crafty ones for this blog. If I say them to you, then I will be more likely to keep them, correct? Well, here goes:

1. Do one “granny” crochet block a week. More than one a week is fine, but for now, let's keep it reasonable. (I know some of you are laughing at me right now because of the word 'reasonable' in that sentence, right?) And of course I will be updating my progress on ravelry (username: tacodiscos) and on this blog. In the end, I plan to practice some joining techniques, and if they're up to the right standards, donate some of them to Project Linus.
2. Make stuff for myself. I know this may sound selfish, but I am always crocheting and crafting, and for some reason I don't usually do any crafts for myself. I don't know why... it just happens that way. I already made a scarf for myself over winter break... and I love it. Although, I think I should have made it a tad bit wider. Oh well. Everything is a learning experience.
3. Clean my craft room. Doesn't every crafter have this same thought? I clean it, I mess it up. I clean it, I mess it up. It doesn't stay clean. Maybe that's a better resolution: Keep the craft room clean. Boy, that would make my husband happy, too.
4. Go on a yarn diet. I have accumulated so many skeins of yarn, I can fill about 12 of those little cubes you can buy to store stuff in. You know, the fabric ones that everyone is into. For those of you that don't know what I am talking about, how about I just say that I have over 50 skeins... easily. Probably close to 100. I watched an episode of Hoarders and it freaked me out, so it's time to start limiting myself on those little yarny purchases and using up what I have.
5. Write one full pattern by the end of the year, have it tested, and put it up in my etsy shop. People often ask for my patterns... and I just don't have any of them written down. They're upstairs - in my head. I'll probably do a giveaway of it when it's complete.
6. Speaking of giveaways, I am going to promise to do one a month. I like giving back to those of you that find interest in what I do. Let's do that right now... shall we?

See this little guy? Well, I fell in love with the idea of him from Mollie over at Wild Olive. I read her blog quite often, and I love her ideas and her work. Full disclosure: I am not getting paid to tell you this, promote her, etc, etc.  I just love her work, and so I made this little guy:

You can find the tutorial right here.

Why did I make him? Because I wanted to... not because I had anything in mind as to who it would go to or what I would do with it. Then I realized that I bet someone out there would like to own him. So in honor of my first crafty blog post, I'm giving him away for free - shipping and all. How can you win him? Here's how:

1. Please post as a comment on this blog or as a comment on my facebook page under my linked post.
2. Win another entry, if you share my post on facebook on your own wall.
3. But wait! There's more! Share one of your resolutions (crafty or otherwise) for the new year in your comment on my blog/on facebook, and win another entry.

I know not everyone is going to be on facebook reading this today, so I am going to keep the little free giveaway open until Sunday, January 6^th. I hope to hear from all of you and I can't wait to send this little tree to someone soon!

I leave you with one of my favorite shots of the season. Goodbye 2012, Hello 2013!  Happy New Year!