Things I love right now

Like, right this second. Because the things I love change often.

My sunflowers in a mason jar

We are trying to sell our house. This means a lot of things. It means most of our stuff (including our vases) are in storage right now. It also means that our realtor said to make our house more "welcoming." What's more welcoming than fresh flowers? Of course, I didn't remember that we had no vases until I got home with these beautiful, happy sunflowers. No worries. I had an empty mason jar in the cabinet, so I cut the stems short and made a sweet little bouquet that's not overpowering. Don't they look like they're saying, "Hi! Buy our house at the price we listed it at!" I felt so much like Martha Stewart when I did this, except without the insider trading stuff.

Mockingjay

Dude. I've told you already to read Hunger Games and Catching Fire. Now you have another book to read. I can't even talk about it without spoiling, but I will say that it is FANTASTIC and your life is LESS because you haven't read these books. Seriously, I would say they're on the same level as Harry Potter. Yeah, I just went there. They are in no way comparable in storyline, but in a beautifully crafted story they are running in the same race. Read them.

Blanket

One of my dear friends is having her first baby, a little girl. I started crocheting this sweet melon blanket for her last week and it is almost finished. I can't wait to give it to her!



What are you loving right now?

Christmas Projects

So I did some major crafting (I just typed "mammory" instead of major. Freudian slip much?) this week. So much that I might be able to add some stuff to my "to make" list for Christmas. See, we're going on vacation in a month and that makes me nervous that I'll lose my momentum. We're also getting ready to put our house on the market and I'm thinking a move is really going to make me lose my momentum. So I dug in and really worked on projects this past week and now I'm bored because I don't have anything left to right now. Here are a couple of the projects I worked on. Both are for M and I love them a lot.

The first is a crocheted purse that turns into a baby cradle (cute, right?!). I got the pattern here:

http://www.geocities.com/crotiques/origcradle.htm

Then I changed it up because she doesn't have a doll the size of an ant. So I made it a little bigger and a little uglier, but I still like it so shut it.



With the baby I got for $1 at Wal-Mart. It fits perfectly! SCORE!



If you're a beginning crocheter, don't be intimidated by this pattern. It is actually very easy. It is mostly single and double crochet rounds and I was able to finish it really quickly. I made it from yarn scraps that I had so total cost =$1 for the doll.

My second craft was a little more complex, but again, don't be intimidated by it because it is easy to do, just time consuming. M has this problem with her crayons. She hates for them to be in a box. When we color we have to take 20 minutes to lay them all out side by side on the table so she can see them all and none of them are touching (thanks, Hubs, for passing your anal retentive tendencies on). So I thought she might like something that keeps her crayons in that layout all the time. A long time ago I made a needle roll for my crochet hooks. It's just a flat piece of fabric with pockets sewn in to hold your needles. So I thought, "Why not do that with crayons?" The result was this:




The crayons roll up into a neat little bundle that fits in her craft drawer. They're always organized, always laying side by side, and never touching. She will be in heaven. You can use actual fabric to make your crayon roll like I did, or you can use felt. Here is a link to a tutorial that gives you the basic instructions to making a crayon roll. The roll I made holds 96 crayons, but you can make it hold as many as you please. Once you get the hang of it, this craft is really simple. If you can sew a semi-straight line, you can make a crayon roll. :)

http://www.skiptomylou.org/2008/08/06/felt-crayon-roll/

Remember those cheap boxes of crayons I bought? I used half of them to fill her crayon roll. I used discount fabric to make the roll, and ribbon I already had on hand. Project cost = $3.25.

The first of these posts are going to center around actual gifts, as it's a little too early to start on my decorations (I like to use real greenery), but I'll soon get into things that look more Christmas-y. Today and tomorrow I'll be working on a gift for the grandparents and the elusive melty crayons that Kelly asked about. ;) I'll post as soon as I'm done with them.

Oh, and I set up a gmail account if anyone has any questions about the things I'm making. It's allkindsofcreative AT gmail.com. Feel free to e-mail me with any questions and I'll do my darndest to answer them. Happy crafting!

Nonsense post

I have been making amigurumi lately. Here are all of the ones I've made. The big penguin looks mad, but he has a really bad attitude. We've been working on that lately.



Hubs is gonna be soooooo mad when he finds out I accidentally spray-painted the lawn again. So I made him this to soften him up a little bit. It's his favorite Death by Chocolate Ganache cake. I can't even be in the same room with it without getting fat. Adult Onset Diabetes? Check.



And check out this massive bruise on my leg! I wish I could say that I got it from doing something awesome like cage fighting or falling down the stairs on my unicycle, but unfortunately I got it from being the normal spazz that I am and stumbling into a doorjamb.




Okay, nonsense aside. I am really sad that LOST is gone until next year. BOO! Anyway, I've decided that I'm going to *try* to do a character analysis every week or so. I may miss some weeks because we are taking some awesome vacations this summer and fall (can you say Disney World? Jealous?). Anyway, I'll try to do it weekly or at least biweekly. This week's won't be up until late tonight or tomorrow, though. I will take suggestions for characters if you want to leave them in the comments. I'm going to start with Shannon.

Amigurumi

So this is my first attempt at amigurumi. Don't be hatin on him because for one I didn't use a pattern, I just made the fool up. And second, M happens to think he's the bomb and she's already named him "Hooey."



For those of you (Hubs) who can't tell (Hubs), it's an owl. (Duh, Hubs).

Back to the land of the living!

I've been pain med free for 24 hours now! I'm still really sore, but I made it to the gym today and was able to run a mile before I had to stop. I still can't bear weight on it. I can pick up M because I have to, but otherwise I don't lift anything because it hurts. I can walk without a gimp now, though, so woo hoo!

I haven't been able to make much in the past week because it's dangerous to sew while you're impaired. But here are some pictures from the past couple of days.

Hubs was excited because I felt well enough to cook last night. I made some awesome vegetable soup!



Hubs bought me flowers to make me feel better. Awwww.



A hat I've been crocheting. It looks wonky because I tried to flatten it out for the picture. I'll probably finish it tonight. I'll publish a picture when I'm done.



We went to a flea market (love flea markets! Would marry them if they were people) and I found this awesome old camera for $5



And I found this teapot with Edinburgh Castle on it. Since Edinburgh is only my most favorite place in the world, Hubs bought it for me. What a sweetie!



And M's mixing it up. Now we're being subjected to a naked Mulan.



Oh yeah, LOST update tonight!