Wet Wednesday

   My husband has been on vacation so this will be a short post. We woke up to an awesome storm this morning! Complete with bright red sky one minute and then green the next...I wasn't able to get a picture of the sky itself but I did get a picture of everything red because of the red sky.

   We have a squirrel that hangs around our house, he's been around for a while...at least since before Pea was born. He's not to fond of bad weather, whenever we get bad weather he runs to this little house. 

   Today is WIP Wednesday, I have two blankets in the works. The first one is a corner to corner lapghan made with two different shades of purple and black for my dad for Father's Day.....I still have a long way to go!

   The second blanket I've been working on every now and again for the past 5 months, it's a weather blanket.

   What's a weather blanket you ask? Well I'll tell you. Everyday, around the same time I take note of what the weather is doing in my notebook and then I crochet with the corresponding yarn color I have chosen.

   For clear, sunny days the color is yellow, partly cloudy; light blue, overcast; light gray, drizzles; blue, rain; dark blue, thunderstorms; charcoal, hail/flurries/sleet/snow; white. Yes, I know, I'm a lot behind but I like working on this blanket became I can stop and then easily start it back up.

   I'm also drawing up a graph to make Mars a Pikachu blanket for Christmas, I'm hoping to get it done early because I would like to make one for the other kids as well....hopefully I don't get sick of doing it lol 

It looks cute so far though :)

xxoo

Yarn stash organizer

    Yup. You read that right. Yarn. Stash. Organizer. I found a couple organizers that Dedri, from over at Look at What I Made, made and I thought they were both super cute and knew I had to make one for my stash. I have adapted her organizer slightly....so that I wouldn't have to by a new ink cartridge and more printer paper...that and for some reason my printer hasn't been liking my computer....anyways....Dedri is so awesome she gave me permission to share my adaptation with y'all.

    Now I haven't finished putting my yarn in it...I've really only put my yarn that I got for Mother's Day into it but I wanted to share with y'all anyway. For my organizer, I decided to use a sketchbook and after standing in Wal-mart's scrap booking aisle for what seemed like forever, I decided on using sugar skull duct tape to decorate the outside and got a permanent green (Wasabi) paint marker to use to write on the front of it. Armed with all of these things and my trusty heart hole punch, I set out to make my yarn stash organizer.

   Cut a piece of tape that is about two inches longer then the edges of the book.

   Place the first piece so that it hangs over the top and bottom by an inch and a half and the side by an inch. Cut a one inch slit into the side of the tape, you will be folding the longer piece over onto the inside of the book.

 After folding the longer piece onto the book, cut the shorter pieces so that they are even with the long side of the book and then fold them over as well.





Since I was using a duct tape that had a big design on it I had to make sure the pictures on each piece matched up.

 I did the binding by cutting a half a cm piece,

 and carefully placing next to the paper.

  Cut a the ends into a rectangle small enough to fit into the opening of the binding, fold the end over by a half a cm and then carefully tuck it inside (I used a toothpick to push it in there).

Then continue the previous steps on the other side.

Came out so cute! Don't you agree?! There were other kinds of duct tape and stickers and stuff so you can decorate anyway you want. I did write down a bunch of different sayings/handwritings to figure out what I wanted to write on it. But I'm happy with how it came out.

I put a tally mark under the color so that when I start going thru my stash I can put more tallies so I will know how many skeins I have.

I also used a little bit of Elmer's to glue down the wrapper so I would have the brand and washing info...I think I will be getting some double sided tape in the near future to do this instead. Recap? I love it & I can't wait to add all of my yarn to it!!!
xxoo Crystal

First Friday Find

     These past couple weeks I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with ways to be successful with this blogging thing. You know, being able to blog about things I'm passionate about without overwhelming myself. I mean yes I am a stay at home mom, but I also have to bring our children to school and to ABA everyday during the week. I enjoy sharing, crocheting, cooking and looking over pinterest, so I'm thinking on Fridays I'm going to share something I find during the week that I think is awesome enough to share...hopefully y'all find it awesome too because I've been told I'm easily entertained ;)
      My first Friday find I saw on The Crochet Crowd's facebook page. It's super cute and called a No Fuss Fish, and the creator of it wrote a pattern which can be found at Eden Reborn

(image from edenreborn.com)

       I love it! Fish are my favorite and this may be the cutest fish ever. I can't wait to make this!
I think they would be cute Christmas presents and with a little creativity they can be altered to look like different species of fish :)
       Mother's day is quickly approaching and that brings me to my next Friday Find. I've always wanted a necklace that displays my children's names on it but I wanted to wait until we were sure are family was complete and now that it is, I've found the perfect necklace!

       (Image from tensevendesigns shop on etsy)

     I saw it and fell in love. I think that I would want it with my husband's name, along with mine on the top, then each of our children on the bottom, all separated with hearts. Don't get me wrong I'd be perfectly happy with say sleeping in and breakfast in bed.
     The two youngest littles and I have been a bunch of sickos as of this past week; fever, sniffles, coughing, and other nasty things...you name it, we did it. The older two and I still have it, just the mucus part of it, Cass caught the full affect of it today and he has been giving mommy a run for her money. I don't know about y'all but I hate it when my babies are sick, especially since they don't understand that the medicine your trying to give them and they can't tell you exactly what's ailing them...even more so AA since he's nonverbal. Despite the ickies I was able to finish Pea's dress and it came out lovely, I haven't been able to take pictures of her in it yet (she isn't having mommy's picture taking shenanigans while she's sick) so here's a sneak peek.

    Beautiful isn't it? I love this pattern by Mon Petit Violon, its called the Granny Square Crochet/Fabric dress and you can find it here on Ravelry or on Pinterest by searching "crochet fabric dress"....which also has many more designs that I've pinned...I may have an addiction to yarn...or pinterest....

    I used Hobby Lobby's I love This Cotton in Mulberry with a size F 3.75 mm hook and the fabric I got from Wal-Mart..I can't remember the name of it but I do remember it was 4.44 for (a lot of fours/fors there huh?) a yard and a half. I will put pictures up of her wearing up sometime this week. xx

 

I am in no way affiliated with these websites, blogs or companies ie., etsy shops. I am simply sharing because sharing is caring....

Much Ado About Nothing...randomness

Not to much going on in our household today, for the past week I have been crocheting these little squares. I absolutely love how this one came out, don't you? 

Well today I am turning 8 of these beauties into the bodice part of a dress for my daughter.

I think they will compliment the dress beautifully. We introduced a new feline into our family a few days ago.

Isn't she gorgeous?! We chose the name Minerva for her and as you can tell our first kitty, KitKat, was very unsure about her, but I think they are starting to like each other. I've caught Kitkat being nice to her and she'll start to play with her and then she sees that I'm watching her and goes back to hissing.

Lazy Saturday

    Yesterday I finished these adorably cute flip flops, the green and gray pair I'm going to keep for Cass and give the other two pairs as gifts (everyone I know is having baby boys right now!).

   I love how they came out, think they are so very cute, don't you? If you didn't see the post from a few days ago, I got the pattern from Bethany over at Whistle & Ivy. I love this pattern, it's well written, very easy to do, especially if you are a beginner and, for us visual learners, she has a video too! Because I tend to crochet very tight, I had to use a size I (5.50) hook. I used Hobby Lobby's brand of I Love This Cotton.

 The colors I used for the green & gray pair are Sage (Lot # 166602) & Pewter (Lot #168104),

the blue and khaki, from the other two pairs, are Stonewash (Lot # 164659) and Taupe (Lot # 167547).



 

  This last week our weather has been extremely bad, thunderstorms every day, raining so much at one time that certain areas are having flash floods. I think we've had sunshine maybe once in this past week. I have decided in order to make it seem a little more cheerful, like spring is actually here I'm going to make my daughter a spring dress. I haven't quite decided what pattern I'm going to use for the bodice, but I do know that I'm using this beautiful butterfly fabric that I found at Wal-Mart and some more of the I Love This Cotton in Mulberry (Lot # 564099).

I think it's going to look beautiful together, wouldn't you agree? I can't wait to get started!

xxoo

One ta-dah & two w.i.p. :)

I’ve been a bad blogger the past couple weeks, but can you blame me? Between my school, the littles’ school and other mommy duties I really haven’t had the chance to sit down nor have I had the motivation. 

With the start of the school year comes one of my favorite seasons, fall. I know it’s coming too because a few days ago when I was giving our pooch a walk I noticed some leaves had turned red!

  I love fall! The crisp air, to be able to drink hot drinks and not feel like you are sitting inside an oven and being able to bake without worrying about heating the entire house up. But most of all because of the coming Sabbats and holidays, love them all and very much excited about all the cooking and decorating I will be able to do these upcoming months!

  I finished the littlest of littles 1^st birthday blanket and she loves it! I’m still contemplating putting fabric on the underside but that will be a while from now being that I still have 3 blankets to finish. I thought it came out rather cute with the scalloped edging.

 Her older brother A likes it too, I think because of the holes in it, he gets completely under it and just sits there looking up. Maybe I’ll make him a summer blanket for his birthday next year. I got so close to finishing S’s Christmas blanket but unfortunately I ran out of yarn on the very last square (knew it was gonna happen too but I was in denial), all that’s left on hers (besides finishing the last square) is to join all the squares and to think of an edging….haven’t decided on one yet. I really like how it's turning out so far!

I started working on A’s Christmas blanket 2 days ago I believe and I’ve actually gotten pretty far with it, have 32 little squares made and I have 6 more to finish then I get to make 13 octagons of each of light brown, dark brown and blue. 

I think he’s gonna like it, I know I do!

It is lunch time here, so I must get off and feed the littles.

xxoo

P.S. This is what I'm up to today :) 

Something about nothing

How was everyone’s weekend? 

Mine was especially wonderful because the fiancée was off work. We had a lazy Saturday complete with playing Wii, crocheting, making play-doh and coloring. Dinner was so darn good that night too! The fiancée and I made (leftover) brisket enchiladas (recipe from the May 2013 issue of Rachael Ray magazine) with homemade refried beans, avocado salsa (a delicious recipe that I got from Nikki over at Chef inTraining) and black beans. Everything was soooo good, we stuffed ourselves silly!

Sunday we decided to take the littles to our local water park to cool off. They had a lot of fun running thru all the different squirters and fountains, I even got some good memory worthy photos of them. Afterwards T fired up the pit and BBQ'd a few pork steaks and corn on the cob (which, by the way, he was skeptical about trying because he (and I quote) "only like corn on the cob from Ohio" lol). It all came out wonderful (does that surprise you?)!

 

I had been working non-stop on the blanket for T & I but I ended up running out of yarn yet again, NOT ONCE BUT TWICE and on two different projects at that (I had started a summer blanket for Pea’s 1^st birthday, after I ran out the first time). Luckily though I get to buy yarn on Thursday, yayness! Today is another day, did some cleaning, bout to feed my littles lunch and then I am going to sit down and make myself a hat. I probably won’t wear it for another 3 months because it’s so darn hot here, but I like it and that’s all that matters. Right? I got the inspiration from a hat I saw on Etsy, in LoveFuzz’s shop. I am making it with Vanna’s Choice yarn in Olive and I think I am going to use a J hook, so excited about making it! I think afterwards I may start the fingerless gloves for Christmas presents for the littles.