Welcome 2014!

So it's been more than awhile since I have posted.  I have just been so very busy.  I'm a high-school Math teacher and the fall is just crazy.  I also have all my craft shows during that time, too.  But enough with the excuses!  I have time to post now, so here we go!

First, I see I did not update everyone on my participation in scrappyblanket.com.  I was able to work with the lovely Rachele (BabyLoveBrandKids - Now CypressTextiles) on a site devoted to scrap blankets.  Of course... we both got busy and...  We're putting it on hold for now.  However, we have quite a few things up, and it's still a neat site to see other's work.

Secondly, I was featured on another talented artist's blog:  Spincushions.  I've been following Shelley on Instagram, and when I saw she was doing a tutorial on joining, I had to let her know about my favorite one!  The tight join!  You can see that post here.  Stop by and say hello to Shelley!

Even though I have been absent from the blog, I have certainly been crocheting away!  I would love to show you all a few highlights of what I have been up to...

Let's first start with the Wooden Button hat.  I bought all my buttons from Pymatuning Crafts.  

Great customer service.  I highly recommend them.  

I used to workout with Mary and Jamie.
Since they (as well as Mary's family) are so beautiful, I asked them to show off their hats!

Of course I worked on many, many cowls.  I just have a few pictured here...

I made a cute little hedgehog for my coworker.  She is sewing me a bag in exchange!  

I can't wait to see it...and hopefully show all of you!

By the way, I nabbed that pattern from a great etsy seller:  oneandtwocompany

I've also been into tag-making, too.  I don't know why... but it's small and fun!  

Finally, I made quite a few blankets...  

I think there may be some I am missing since it's been so long since I have talked with all of you.. but here are a few:

This one was made for my friend Jamie.
You can find the pattern from Nittybits here.
You can learn the continuous join-as-you-go from Rachele here.

This was just a traditional granny square made of scraps for my friend's mother.
It was also my first time using the continuous join-as-you-go method.

Again, Nittybits came up with the pattern of this blanket.  You can find it here.
I learned the pom pom border from Robin at Once Upon a Pink Moon here.
And because I love it so much, this is also the continuous join-as-you-go method.

This green and blue blanket was purchased by my friend Carrie.
It's called the Gumball and the pattern can be purchased from BabyLoveBrandKids/CypressTextiles here.
I really enjoyed doing the reverse single crochet on this blanket!

This little baby blanket was made up of some of my leftover yellows... Doesn't it make you happy?
If you're interested in the pattern, you can again find it at BabyLoveBrandKids/CypressTextiles here.
The edging was simply a hdc around with a fpdc, bpdc for a few rows.

Well, it's probably up to negative 5 degrees outside now that it's almost 1 PM here...  Hello Polar Vortex of 2014.  So I should shove off and finish up all my tasks I want to get knocked out on this cold day that I have off from school.  I hope that wherever you are that it's much warmer there!

Until next time, enjoy this goofy picture of me.  My friend Andrea... her daughter found a way to use my yarn scraps.  She's such a clever kid!

YARN NERD!

Spring Break!

I hope your spring break was an amazing one!  I was able to head out to an awesome spot in Indiana to celebrate my anniversary, I was able to sleep a bit more than I had in the past... and I also was able to create to my heart's content!  I have been very busy...  Let me get to the show and tell!

First I made a pig hat for a co-worker...

Interested in one of your own?  You can get it here!

Then Easter was on the way. I made egg cozies for each person who would be at dinner.  I didn't get a good photo of them beforehand, though.  This is all I got:

I also decided to take some extra fabric I had and stitch up easter bags instead of buying plastic ones.  This was one of the two I made for my nephews:

I even managed to make a little bunny stuffed animal on my sewing machine, too!

While the machine was out, I decided to try something I had been toying with in the back of my mind for a while now.  The banner I have in the works for future craft shows!

As spring break went on...  my coffee consumption increased.  This inspired me to create quite a few coffee cozies!  I made so many, I am only going to put up a few pictures here:

Interested in a coffee sleeve!?  You can find a plethora of them here in my shop!

I am going to be posting more throughout the week...  not all of them are up yet.

The last two that you see above have fabric flowers attached.  I was able to make some and attach them to some hats, too!

And finally...  I made a couple of fabric flower pins, too!  Good news:  They are part of a 

GIVEAWAY!

You have a few ways to win/earn entries:

1. Comment on this post
2. Comment on this wall update on facebook
3. Share the wall update on facebook - and let me know you did!
4. Like the wall update on facebook

I will select a random entry next weekend and send it out in the mail.  The winner will be able to choose which pin they would like.  


WHEW!  I think that's it for now...  I hope you enjoyed all the pictures, and I want to thank all of you for keeping me going when it comes to creating!  Taking a little break has helped me quite a bit, and I plan to do it sporadically throughout the year.  Welcome to April!

Slowly, but surely...

This week has been a little slower than usual for me.  I had just as many orders, but I had a bit more free time, too.  Let's get right into what I whipped up!

First, I had a good time sending out a few St. Patrick's Day Hat orders!  Since it's three weeks away, I am going to extend the sale offer for this week, too!  So here goes:

St. Patrick's Day Hat Sale!

Order by Saturday, March 2nd for an introductory pre-sale price of 

$12

and that includes shipping! 

You can order it with and without ear flaps, with or without ear flap braids...  whatever you'd like!

 

 

I also had a few baby bootie orders...

 Interested in purchasing some?

You can order them here in any color you would like!

 

And because the week was a little slower than usual, I was able to start working on a cuddly, soft baby blanket...

Of course, I have to give credit where it's due.
This etsy shop is amazing and I love and admire all the work that Rachele puts out.  Such talent!

Finally, I was looking at my pile of yarn ends that I had and I wondered what I could do with them...  In the past I have tried to use it as stuffing, but it just makes things lumpy.  Then I remembered someone saying that they put theirs outside and the birds will make nests out of them.  YES!  Perfect idea!  I found this link and went to the store and purchased a small suet holder.  I'm on my way to giving the birdies in my neighborhood a little nest-pizzaz this spring and summer.

   I wonder how long it will take for me to fill this small one? 

 

I am hoping for another wonderful week.  I have a three day weekend coming up, so I will have much needed time to keep making a few more of these guys (which I will have a pre-sale on starting next week!)...

  What do you think?  Would any of you be interested in this pre-sale?

Also, credit goes to Kandice for all her fine pattern-work!

  

So here's to hoping you have a wonderful week filled with friends, family and fun.  Stay warm and until next week...

 

Hello, February.

What a busy week.  I am so very excited to show you what I was up to! Let's get right to it!

Some cute little baby booties!

Two mouse hats - for a pair of siblings.

I wish I could have seen them being worn.  I am sure the two kids were adorable!

I also had an order for a piggy hat!

Two cowl orders this week!  Here is one of them in pink...

...And I was so excited to get a custom order for a cowl made of fleece yarn.  Yummy softness!

And lastly...  the star of the week.  I know I showed it on my facebook earlier this week, but I have to show it again!

One of my proudest moments...  the Rainbow Boxy Cowl!  It was a custom order and it forced me to be creative.  I enjoyed every minute of it and I think it came out great!  It took a lot of time to create and plan, but I enjoyed the process. 


I just want to thank all of you out there for all the love and support - especially over the last month with starting the new blog.  Since it's almost Valentine's Day, I wanted to give you a special offer! 

Free shipping on all Heart Hat orders!

You must place your order by this Thursday, February 7th, please!

With that, I leave you with a picture I took this weekend of the beautiful snowfall.  Nothing makes me happier than when it snows on the weekend so I can fully enjoy it.  I'm on my way to continue doing that right now:  Looking out of the window at the fresh snow fall down with a cup of coffee and my hook and yarn.  Until next week...

Goodbye, January...

I hope your week has been warm.  It was very cold here this week... but on a good note, we finally got a small amount of snow.  I love snow.  I wish it snowed everyday in winter.  It always looks so peaceful and beautiful when everything is covered in the white glitter-like stuff.  These last two winters have been sparse on the snow.  Maybe it's payback after that crazy blizzard we had a few years back.

Speaking of the cold, I have pictures (made beautiful by Holly Briscoe) of the cowls I took to DreamScapes that will keep you nice and warm! 

What do you think?

In addition to taking my new pieces to the shop, I had a few orders. 

 Some cute little flowers! 

 Valentine's Day heart hat!

The one that stood out the most was a custom order.  It's a boxy cowl and I had a blast making it!  I want one for myself now!  I plan to show you the pictures next week.  It will be available for special order.  Here is a sneak peak...  See it on the bottom among the blue and pink cowls?

 Speaking of cowls, don't forget that until Feb 1st (only a few days left!), I am running a coupon code in my shop:

At checkout on etsy, use coupon code:

COWLSALE to get 20% off your cowl/scarf! 

Lastly, the moment many of you have been waiting for...  the winner of my handmade coffee cozy!

And the winner is...

Tony Melissa M! 

Thank you to everyone that shared and liked my posts on Facebook!  I am always so flattered when people enjoy my work...  and I can't wait for the next giveaway!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Until next time!  Happy February!  (Have you planned your Valentine's Day yet?)

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...