Is the Force With You?

I got a great little present for Christmas that I have been playing with.

Star Wars Crochet patterns!

I have started some of the projects already and I think they turned out super cute! What do you think?

Yoda (so tiny and cute)

 

 

Wicket the Ewok

 

Stormtrooper in the works!

Kids Hats with Bows

Today is all about the hats with bows! Little girls love pretty things. Let's be honest... all girls love pretty things! What's not to love about a cute hat with a cute bow?
I've been making several different colors of hats with a stripe to match the bow.

This cutie has a unique bottom row that adds a cute touch.

This is a lot of hat! It is a kids slouch hat with a cute bow.

 These little hats are perfect for baby and toddlers!

This grey hat is a beautiful neutral color and is so soft!

These soft chocolate brown hats have just a cute white bow to accent the side of the head

.

That's it for now!
Thanks for looking

Animal Travel Cup Cozies

I've been busy making lots of new things for an upcoming bazaar at Butler Creek Elementary School. As always there are lots of things going on this time of year; school conferences, school activities, Thanksgiving plans, and of course holiday bazaars!
I have four different cup cozies I have been working on so far.
Pig, Frog, Bear and Hello Kitty

Instructions for animal cup cozy with ears:

Ch 26, join with sl st to first ch

R1: Sc in same st as joined to, sc rest of sts (26)

R2: Sc all sts (26)

R3: *Sc in next 12 sts, 2 sc in next st… rep from * once more (28)

R4-7: Sc all sts (28)
R8: Sc next 27 sts, sl st into last stitch (28)

R9: slip st in next 8 st, ch 1, Dc in next st, htc, tc, htc in next st, dc in next st, sl st in next 5, ch 1, Dc in next st, htc, tc, htc in next st, dc in next st, sl st to the end, F/O

Bow for Hello Kitty

Use the magic adjustable ring and sc 6 sts into the ring. Sl st to the first sc made.

Ch 3, htc, 2 tc, htc, dc in same spc as sl st. f/o

Sk 3 sts and join yarn in next st. rep for previous side of bow.

If you don't crochet or don't want to deal with making your own, feel free to contact me to buy one from me! I'm selling them at craft bazaars for $5 each. Buying them online would be $5 + shipping.

Getting Geared up for Craft Bazaars

Things are starting to heat up for the craft bazaar season. I have been working hard crocheting cup/mug cozies, wrist warmers, bookmarks and charms.
Some of the cuties I have made for cup cozies are pigs, bears, ninjas, frogs and Hello Kitties. I've also made some regular stuffed animals.
This lion:

And this Hedgehog:

They are turning out super cute and I have plans to make elephants, cats, cows, Mike from Monsters Inc., and lions. Maybe some stripes and polka dots thrown in there with the camouflage cozies.

I am hoping to win the sweepstakes and stock up on more yarn from http://www.favecrafts.com.
If you want to enter too go to http://www.favecrafts.com/sweeps/The-Spectacular-Christmas-Giveaway-Holiday-Gift-Guide-2015


Pretty cool, huh?
I'll keep you posted on more creations as I make them and photograph them.

Blessings on your day!

Almost Better!!!

Almost Better!
That's all I need to say about that.
It's been an awful week of fever, headaches, dizzyness, cough and weakness. But this week, it's back to the grindstone! Back to work, back to play and back to keeping track of my little rugrats!

Although I'm still hanging on to my fun cough I'm able to get back online and get back in the crochet saddle.
I have been reading a ton this last week and I admit my fingers feel a little rusty holding a crochet hook again. I have busted through about 4 good sized books. And most of the book of Deuteronomy in the Bible. To be truthful, I listened to that one because I was even too weak to read on that day.
My books ranged in genera from Sci-Fi, to historical romantic fiction, to 1899 Manhattan upper class scandals to modern day Texas Ranger mystery. I even read a contemporary girl drama book about women finding friendship and leaning on each other during times of difficulty.

With the list I've read this last week it's hard to pinpoint my preferred genera. My DH calls my usual preference of TV shows "murder, death, mysteries". (see CSI, Law & Orders, The Mentalist...) but I'll often be seen watching comedy sitcoms too! I love Frasier, Friends, Dharma & Greg etc.
But when it comes to books many times I'll be seen with an historical drama romance? fiction.
Some of my favorite authors are Francine Rivers, Janette Oke, Margaret Daley, Sue Grafton, John Grisham, Murray Pura, Beverly Lewis, Suzanne Collins, Jean M Auel, Frank Peretti, Danielle Steele, Jane Austin, and I know I'm missing some great ones!

Want to share some of your favorite books or authors? Tell me!

Such a Crazy Start to the Year!

So things have been a little weird this last week.
My dear husband (dh) has been sick for about a week now. He is pretty laid back normally and makes a terrible man-child sick patient. It works best if I leave him alone to munch on crackers by himself and his laptop. I'm not Nurse Rached, from "One Flew Out of the Cukoo's Nest, but I'm no Florence Nightengale either!
As if to make matters worse, my sweet, wonderful kids chose Sunday to play with matches, start a fire and make some nice holes in our new ottoman. It is less than a month old! Oh boy.


And then I saw the dining room table. The kids thought it would be a fun game to throw a fist sized rock at each other and use a little umbrella to block the throws! CRACK!!! Our glass table cover is broken... and good!

So the kids literally spent the day in their bedrooms. My son got all toys taken out of his room, his new Batman sheets were stripped from his bed. All stuffed animals (except one) got evacuated and he took about two naps that day.
My daughter was also punished for participating in this mess. She spent the day in her room and also took two naps. When there's nothing better to do you sleep, I guess!

My dh is still sick but on the mend and though I feel a little unwell,I have not crossed over to actually sick. Let's hope it stays that way.

I think that's all for now.
Tomorrow's another day!

Just Kidding Around

 And Mom and Dad Can Hardly Wait for School to Start Again...

This is my theme song! Two weeks off school seems like a great idea at the beginning but nearing the end of Christmas break it seems a bit excessive! Ha!
The kids had a great time and even though they got pretty restless at the end they were sad to see the break come to an end.

These two cuties were definitely a handful! Now that we are back in the routine of school things have calmed down a bit. But when it comes to my 8 year old daughter who thinks she is already a teenager... oh my goodness!
I have a hard time knowing how to handle a strong-willed opinionated, stubborn daughter!

I have not had any time this "vacation" to work on my crochet but I hope to get started again soon. I need to finish a baby blanket for a friend before I start any other projects. Any suggestions for what I should start next?

But first: this blanket is pretty neat. I am using a new stitch I learned called the "blanket stitch". It ends up looking very cool and a bit different from just a regular double crochet. I'll post a photo when I'm done with a short tutorial!
Until then; have a great day!

Merry Christmas Eve

So here we are on Christmas Eve day.
Going on about 4 hours of sleep but not too tired yet. I'm enjoying listening to Contemporary Christian Music on Pandora, kids playing "nicely". Having consumed a large quantity of coffee this morning I am not too surprised at my energy level. Time to get moving on the rest of the day.


Several hours later; we are all back from running some errands and doing some last minute Christmas shopping! With a dash of hope I put my boy down for a much needed nap and refrain from taking my very much needed nap. I'm counting the hours and minutes until we can put both kids to bed for the night  before I can take their gifts out of the secret hiding place to wrap their presents.
Let the countdown begin!

4.5 hours.....

Elf on the Shelf: Is it all worth it?

At this moment I am laying on the floor of my now clean carpet to share a beautiful, magical tradition that has started in our house.

The Elf on the Shelf.

Now I was told that this would be a great tool for getting naughty children to fall into line as we near a crazy and hectic holiday season. It is my understanding that this cute, little stuffed elf is supposed to "show up" at the beginning of December and stay until Santa comes on Christmas eve... late.
Every night he magically travels to the North Pole to tell Santa all that kids have been doing. Naughty AND nice. Then he comes back and gets in to some mischief or plays till the kids get up. (Of course this means that mom is supposed to move him around to show what he has been doing)


All this to say: Is it WORTH it? I have been moving the creature. I have been playing along with the magic of it. I have been encouraging the kids to be nice and good so the elf can report good things to Santa. BAH! That's what I think. All that work and the kids have maybe even been worse than usual! This is not the bargain I signed up for when I accepted the ugly little guy into my house. He is not keeping his side of the bargain. He is supposed to be dragging his mischievous little butt up to the North Pole to report to Santa. He is supposed to be achieving something other than being ratty, decidedly UNmagical urchin that sucks up all the beauty around him.

Well, that was most unflattering. I just exposed my darker side of the holidays.
All the things I DO enjoy will overshadow this slight slip-up, I hope.
Merry Christmas!

I'm worn all out! But Remembering the Reason

As I sit here in from of my computer screen I contemplate the meaning of life... not really.

What I am really contemplating is going to bed early(ish). As in now. It's almost ten at night and I have another early morning getting two kids going in the same direction and off to school appropriately dressed with shoes on, including socks; clothes on, including underwear; and teeth AND hair brushed! Whew, it's more work than you can imagine making that happen 5 days a week.

I'm looking forward to Christmas Vacation for that very reason. Yes I'm excited to have family over. Yes I'm enjoying the decorations and the holiday treats. But most of all I'm excited to sleep in a bit. Relax in the mornings. Ahhhh, I'm enjoying the idea now.

Life can get so busy with extra holiday ... stuff, that we often can forget the actual reason for the holidays! Faith. Family. Joy. Peace. Good Music. And of course good (great!) food!

I am ready to relax, but I want to remember why I am able to celebrate this awesome, worldwide holiday. I have complete belief that God sent his son, Jesus to be born of a virgin so that he could be the ultimate blood sacrifice needed to fulfill the covenant laid out between God and Abraham. I believe Jesus died on a cross like a common criminal, was buried, rose again 3 days later and ascended to heaven where He waits for me.

I'm going to take time to remember those things every day.

Christmas Preparations and Santa

Christmas is only a week away and I'm not ready for my in-laws to show up! I wish Mary Poppins would show up and snap her fingers for me!
We got up our tree and lights in the windows already and now we just clean and wait. And clean. It's hard with two little ones in the house but hopefully I can get them to help out more than they destroy. Any ideas for that?!
I had my one and only holiday bazaar last weekend and I did well! I sold a lot of my little crocheted guys; my octopi, hedgehogs, bookmarks, fingerless gloves, hats and cards! I even sold a couple picture frames I covered with pretty paper and embellished. Very fun. I'm starting to sell them online again. I'm trying e-bay and a new app I found called Offer Up. It's a bit like Craigslist and it is very easy to post my things. I'll have to keep you posted on how things sell.

What do you do for Christmas and the holidays? Do you go all out to decorate or keep it simple? In town or out? Santa or no? I found a great letter a mom wrote to her kids about the truth about Santa,
Check it out.



Farewell for today. Have fun getting ready to this all too hectic celebration of Jesus' birth. Remember why we celebrate and enjoy!

Crochet Projects

So here’s the thing.
 I have added crocheting to my talents! I have been doing mostly arigurumi animals, a bib, wristwarmers, some hats and a potholder. The potholder turned out, let’s say, wavy? The hats usually are a bit big. But the animals, well, they turn out darn cute! Here are a couple of things I’ve done so far.

Do you have a favorite? Do you crochet too? Where do you get your ideas? -

Iris Folding Technique

Hey there!
So I was cruising around on Pinterest and discovered a technique that I have overlooked! Have you ever tried Iris Folding? I just tried it out and find that I love it! It is a super cute look that is pretty easy to achieve!
There are essentially two ways to go about Iris Folding (also called Quilting).
1. You  take a small rectangle and fold the top two corners into the center to form a triangle
Following a pattern that is laying face up on the table, you tape the triangles to the mask. See photo...

2. You take a long strip of paper and fold it once lengthwise. Following a pattern is optional. I have seen many more that seem to take a masked cutout and taped the strips to the mask.


Some patterns look like this.

The next chance I get I'm going to try a couple more free form patterns. How about you? Have you ever tried Iris Folding? I found this Iris Folding Technique video that shows a nice pumpkin shape being used.

Have fun working on this technique!

Special Order Cards- I'm So Thankful

I love getting special order for cards from friends and acquaintances; or anyone for that matter. I love even more when someone gives me general guidelines like "Make it cute", or "Put a scripture verse on it".
I once got a special order to make five cards for the writers of a great womens bible study on the Psalms. All I had to go on was make it cute, pretty and maybe have a scripture on it.
Okay, sounds easy enough, right? Well, first I have to come up with a design; so I go through my card sketches to get some ideas.

I find a layout I like then dive into my paper stash. What do have? Do I have enough to make 5 cards?
Check out my embellishments. What will work with this design? Again, do I have enough?

Usually I do a sample card to figure out exact measurements for cutting and so forth.

Then I do all the cutting, distressing and stamping.

Finally assemble, put on finishing touches and get the envelopes! Voila, it's done!


I go through the same process with each special order I get to make sure your card creation is unique and special.
I just finished a set of cards for a customer last night.
This is what I came up with. Leave a comment if you like it!

I have a ton of cards I have done for store on Pinterest if you want to check out my "Cards for Stores" board.

Get A Free QR Code For Your Website

I am feeling so trendy! I got a QR code (quick response code)  for my business website. I found a free website that conjures up a QR code for you ad all you need to give is your website. It's pretty slick.
What do you think?



I plan to put this little square of goodness on my business cards, labels and anything else I can think of.

Even though I don't have a smart phone, I wanted to add a QR code to my cards since most people have easy access to a smart phone.

QR codes are popping up everywhere.  I liked the idea of having direct access to my website with a quick scan.

Stay posted to see some of the designs for business cards and labels I come up with!

Keep scrapping!

Christmas Gift Card Holders (or just cash!)

So I was playing around with some different papers and two different styles of card holders. What I came up with is pretty simple. The first card  is patterned after the mens shirt card and displays the gift card on the front, incorporating the card into the design element. The second card is a pretty landscape with a shallow pocket inside to put a gift card or cash too. (cash works for me)
          
I am loving the landscape card! How do you make your cards to hold store gift cards?

Fathers Day Cards 2012

Fathers Day 2012 is coming up quick now! Have you gotten your gifts or cards? How about making one this year? I can be easy or challenging to make a handmade card. Here are some ideas:

Shirt card holder: Aren’t these cute? 

A standard gift card fits right in the pocket and cute buttons add to the illusion of a real shirt! The color combinations are endless and other frills can be added at your discretion. Instead of a gift card you could put a little hankerchief folded into a cute point.
What do you think of the shirt cards?

Next we have the apron cards. This is pretty cute and is great for Dads.

These super cute apron cards are perfect for holding a gift card for Dad. These are all about 4.25×5.5″. They are available at stores here in Gresham, Oregon.

And finally here is a masculine card for any dad.

Mothers Day Cards For Stores

So now that Mother's Day is over and done with I thought I would show y'all the cards I made for local stores!

First: The pink and blue "MOM" paper with coordinating ribbon and inked "happy".  I just loved how these turned out!
Next:

 A pretty glittery "Mom" sentiment and hand cut flowers! Time consuming but I like how they look.
And finally:

 I did a bunch of these cards; no two were exactly alike, different papers. I really love the papers I used for these and the pretty butterflies are always a favorite!

Well, what do you think? I am going into the stores to find out how I did. Lets keep fingers crossed!

Magic Monday Layout- Nelson

Magic Monday Layout is a fun way to feature different layouts that I have made or just fall in love with.
This week is a layout I made with old photos of my grandparents. It's so much fun to look at old photos and work with them! Of course these pictures were taken far before I was born and it gives me a glimpse into life at a different time...



 The little cabin you see of the left page is the old bunkhouse that slept 9 people! They lived in that while they built the cabin up in Sumpter, Oregon. And the baby that my grandpa is holding is of course my mom!
I used a layout from the CTMH book "Imagine". The paper used is from the retired paper "Wings". While this is not my favorite paper pack, I love the almost neutral colors on the backs of the B&T papers and I DO love the butterflies!
Here is a photo of the complete layout:

 

 All that's left is to do some journaling! Oh yeah, I used photo corners for these pictures because they are old and if I want to scan them into my computer it'll be super easy! Happy Scrapping!!!

Magic Monday Layout- A Good Man

Magic Monday Layout is all about new and fun layouts that I see or have created that I love!
This week it's a layout I did featuring my dad. I got some old photos and put them on a great CTMH layout.

I am using some retired CTMH papers for my layout. Because I want to preserve the photos I am using photo corners instead of using adhesive to stick the photos down. Because I used photo corners, I can later scan the photos or make copies!

These old photos are not standard 4x6 photos so I had to improvise some with the layout of the pictures. I will add some journaling and then I will be done! Don't you just love how easy it can be to do a layout?

Hope you enjoyed this post. Leave a comment to let me know your thoughts.

Happy Scrapping!