Flower/Diamond Afghan

A while back Walmart had a bunch of yarn on clearance, including some Caron Simply soft, which is my favorite for making afghans.  It was such a good price I couldnt pass it up.  So I picked up several skiens of of it in Plum Wine.  At the time I had no plans for it, figured I would just keep it on hand for when an opportunity for its use presented itself. 

I find myself frequently getting bored when I am working on projects and keep find the best way for projects to keep my attention is to switch between a few projects at a time.  While working on the previously posted baby girl blanket, I decided to make use of the Caron Simply Soft yarn I picked up at Walmart.  I pulled out "Birthstone Afghans" which I had bought a while back and had yet to make anythign from and settled on the April 'Dimond' pattern.

I really liked the alternation pattering of the flower/diamonds and the checkered look.

The pattern called fror a fringe to be put on the blanket, but after completing the body I couldnt decide if I really wanted to add the fringe.  I asked the hubby and he stated it needed the fringe.  So as much as I HATE doing fringes, I went ahead and added the fringe.  

After all was said and done, I think it turned out quite nicely.  Another satisfying project completed.

Sometime in the up coming week I hope to get this listed for sale on my etsy site.  Hopefully it will find a good home.

Crochet Double Ruffle Baby Girl Blanket

I came across this beautiful baby girl blanket in the book Best of Terry Kimbrough Baby Afghans, which can be bought from Amazon.com.

As beautiful as this blanket was it took a lot more work then I had anticipated.  The body of the blanket was easy enough to make, it consistent of alternating single and double crochet stiches.  The difficult and time consuming part, was the double ruffled edge. 

The first step was the pink ruffle underneath.  This ruffle was made up of single stiches and half double stiches. 

Then came the top white outter ruffle.  This was created using single stiches and chains.  It was a bit tricky as the base stiches of the white ruffle had to be worked around the half double stiches form the pink ruffle.  The center white ruffle was also made up of single stiches and chains.  These were worked around the half double stiches from the pink ruffle as well. 

After completing the white ruffle it was time to add the pink trim in the middle of the two white ruffles.  This was again made using single stiches and chains and also had to be worked around the half double stiches of the pink ruffle.

At this point, the blanket was not quite finished.  I still needed to add the ribbon trim.  Unfortunately, I left the blanket unfinished for while despite having bought the ribbon I needed for the project.  Im not very good about finishing projects.  ;-)

It got to the point where the project needed to be completed in order to make it to its destination in time.  So, I added the ribbon, taking my time with the corner bows.

Finally complete!  Im going to have such a hard time parting with it.  Its so beautiful.  I love it!



Tropical Cropical in Oxford, MI

My aunt and cousin invited me to join them at an all day crop event a few weeks ago.  They had gone a few years prior and having had a good time wanted to go again and figured I would enjoy it as well.  It was put on through their local community recreation center and was held at the senior center in Oxford, MI.

The sign up cost was $60 and if you were one of the first 20 people to sign up you received a "tushy cushy".  Because of everything going on in my life I did not decide until the last minute that I was going to go.  Even though I signed up on the last day, I still received the tushy cushy and come to find out, there were only about a dozen or so people signed up for the event.

A picture of my tushy cushy.

Now some of you might ask, "What did you get for your $60?"  Well, I received a letter in the mail after signing up that stated everyone would receive:

• 6' table
• access to electricity
• a chair
• trash bag
• bag FULL of goodies
• lunch, dinner, and an evening snack
• coffee, iced tea, two liters of pop, and water

We were also informed that there would be raffles and handouts through out the day.  Also, if we wanted to bring a snack to share, we could, and this would earn us an extra raffle ticket.

Later on via email, we were informed that there would be a massage therapist on hand for massages, at $1 a minute.  However, this email went to my aunt and she didnt check her email before the event.  So we arrived unprepared for this.  The email also let us know that cricut machines and cartridges would be available for our use.  But not knowing this I carted my machine along.  Ah well.  No harm done.

The event was on a Saturday and ran from 9am to 9pm, though you were allowed to arrive at 8am to begin setting up all your supplies.  Since it was a bit of a drive for me to go to the event, I went the night before and stay at my aunts house with my cousin.  After staying up pretty late, we awoke around 7:30am and made to the hall by 8:30am.  When we arrived there were already about half a dozen woman there with their tables set up.

The tables were set up together in groups of four, so my cousin, aunt, and I all got to sit together, along with some other random lady.  She was kind of quite and kept to herself.  We took our time, got set up, and jumped right into our projects.

I brought my camera along with me, though I didnt take many pictures.  I wish I had though to take more. 

Here is my cousi posing for a picture.

My aunt browsing some idea books.

My cousin hard at work.

My aunt hard at work.

The crop turned out to be a lot of fun.  We receieved a large reusable tote bag full of goodies.  Im not going to go through and name everything, but here is a picture.

We also received extra little handouts throughout the day that I threw in the bag as well.

Since it had been so long since I scrapbooked, this was the first time that I was able to use my Scrap 'n Easel, which I wont on line and you can get more details about in my previous post here

Scrap 'N Easel

There was a creative memories consultant there whom we could purchase supplies from.  The massage therapist came around 2pm, and luckily I had $20 cash on me, I almost never have cash.  So I got myself a 20 minute massage.  I am ashamed to admit, it was my first professional massage, and boy did it feel good.

When we arrived they had breakfast foods set out, muffins, fruit, bagels, juice, and coffee.  For lunch we had sandwiches and chips, with pie for dessert.  Dinner was pizze, breadstick, and salad, with a late night snack of sundaes.

Raffle drawings took place throughout the day.  Most of the raffle prizes were items donated by local community shops, some were scrapbook related, but most were note.  My cousin won the first prize and she walked away with a really cute purse.  Because we had such a small group almost everyone received three prizes.  I ended up with a movie night bucket, which consisted of a popcorn tub, popcorn, box of candy, two bottle of pop, and two movies.  I also got a bottle of sprakling lemondae, and a pack of scrapbooking pages from creative memories.

All in all we had a really good time and it was well worth the $60 we paid for the day. 

Though I have to admit it wasnt necessarily a very productive day.  At the end of the day I had 2 complete 2 page layouts for my wedding day scrapbook.

Looking forward to going again next year.  In the mean time I think we will be going to a cropping event at St. Joes in Oxford, as well as the cropping weekend held at Frankenmuth.

Refinished China Cabinet

Its been about two and a half years since my husband and I got married.  Despite people telling me I would never use fine china, I went ahead and registered for a 12 piece set any way.  I figured now was the time to do it, since I would obviously never go out and buy myself a fine china set.  Luckily for us we received most of the china set we registered for.  Unfortunately at the time we got married we lived in an apartment and had no where to put it.  So the beautiful pieces of china that I registered for remained in their boxes. 

About a year after we got married we bought our first house.  Even though the house was twice as large as our apartment, we still had no where to put the fine china.  I desperately wanted a china cabinet in order to display all these wonderful looking dished, but as fate would have it, the money was never in the budget.  So after a while I started checking Craig's list hoping to find a cabinet that I would love, would look good in out kitchen, and was affordable. 

After weeks of checking I finally found one.  I excitedly emailed the seller to ask if it was still available.  He assured me it was.  When I replied to try and arrange dates to purchase it, he failed to respond.   He also removed the listing from Craigs list.  I was bummed to say the least.

It was back to square one.  After spending several more weeks looking at Craig's list I came across a china cabinet that was definately in my budget ($50), style wise I loved it, but it definately did not go with our kitchen.  However, I decided for $50 it would be worth it to purchase and see if I could paint it.  The seller and I emailed back and forth regarding the cabinet and arranging a pick up time.  At one point during this email communication she indicated I needed to bring $75 cash with me, as that was the only form of payment she was willing to accept.  I became confused and pointed out that ad listed the item at $50 and not $75.  She stated it was a mistake, and she was asking $75 for the cabinet.  I almost walked away.  But after not getting a response from me, she stated she would accept $50, if I promised to come by and get the cabinet at the arranged date (she had been stood up a few times before on the sale of this cabinet).

That following Sunday my husband and I made the 40 minute drive to go and pick up the cabinet.  Luckily there were no issues with the sellers when we picked up the cabinet and a few hours later we had it safely in our house. 

As I mentioned, I was not happy with the color of the cabinet, so I made arrangements with my mother in law to come out one day and help me paint it.  Because of the finish on the cabinet we were hopeful that we wouldnt have to do any sanding before painting.  We ended up getting some Behr paint and primer in one.  I cant remember which color it was, but it was bright white color, with a glossy sheen to it.  After taping off all the glass it took us two coats.

I forgot to get a full on before picture, but here is a picture of my mother in law taping off the glass.

My mother in law hard at work.

The cabinet after we finished with the white paint.

Because my dishes are mostly white with a silver and blue/grey trim, we decided to paint the inside of the cabinet a blue grey color in order to help the plates stand out more.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of that step.

The cabinet paining took us all day.  My mother in law left around 10pm that night.  The next day I headed out to get some spray paint to refinish the hardware.  Having never done something like this I picked up both a primer and a nickle color spary paint. 

The hardward after being primed.

Once again, I forogt to take a picture of them once they were spray painted nickle.  But here is a picture of them on the newly painted cabinet.

Finally, the finished cabinet with allt he dishes inside.

We have since replaced the eye sore read candles you see in there now.

On a side note, when we were unpacking all of our dishes to put in the cabinet, we came to find out the 4, 5 piece place setting box we received was the wrong pattern.  I contacted the company and explained the whole situation and how the china was given to us two years ago and they were willing to work with us and exchanged the set for the correct one.  I couldnt be happier with the company or my finished china cabinet!

Crochet Clover Earrings

Back when I was younger I really got into making friendship bracelets, which resulted in my having a huge box of string.  This box has been handing around for years without being touched.  I finally discovered a project to use the string, as well as those teeny tiny crochet hooks, which I have also never touched. 

This set of clover earrings is my first attempt at crocheting something so small and I think they turned out rather well.  The clover themselves are a little over two inches big and the entire earring from top to bottom measures about three inches.

I hope to start making some other style crochet earrings soon.

This set of clover earrings is available in my etsy store.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/77553802/green-crochet-clover-earrings







Crochet Beach Bag

I crocheted this beach bag using Bernet 100% cotton yarnand added wodden beads to the drawstrings.  This bag is large enough to fit everything you could possibly need or want to take with you to the beach.  It easily fits your beach towel, flip flops, a book, sun tan lotion, a snack, sun glass, you name it, it will fit.

Once you've got your bag all loaded up, tie the drawstrings in a nice little bow and you are ready to hang it over your shoulder and off to the beach you go!

The pattern for this bag can be found in

This item is available in my etsy shop.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/77477895/crochet-beach-totebag?ref=v1_other_2

Crochet Laundry Bag

This bag was made from Bernet 100% cotton yarn and accented with pink and purple buttons.  I used this pattern (http://www.coatsandclark.com/NR/rdonlyres/A5426861-C099-4D70-9CEF-3122FE726688/103972/WR1796.pdf) as a base for my design, but tweaked it a bit.  The stretchy design allows for it to be filled with a full load of dirty laundry!  Im pretty excited about this item.  I wish I knew some girls going off to college in the fall, as this would make a great gift!

This item is available for sale in my etsy shop.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/77464438/hand-crocheted-laundry-bagtote?ref=v1_other_2



Mini-Messanger Bag

I finally had time to get some projects completed!  My husband is out of town for the weekend so I have some time on my hands.  I made a trip to both Michael's and JoAnn's today to pick up the needed supplies to finish several projects. 

Mini-Messanger Bag

This is a joint effort project with my cousin, for my cousin.  The idea came when we were at JoAnn's one day and she was looking into buying a plain jane bag and I asked her what she wanted with one of those.  She said she was looking for something to put her mini laptop in.  I told her I could create a way cuter bag then that.  And so the mini-messanger bag idea was born.  She bought all the supplies and choose the stitch she liked out of one of my many crochet books.  I created the crocheted bag.  She sewed on the applique and created the lining which she sewed in the bag.  All in all I think it turned out quite cute.  I maye have to consider creating some more to be sold in my etsy store. 

I added "D" rings to the body of the bag and clips to the strap, so that the strap can be removed and the "case" can be put inside another bag if desired.  This was done at my cousin's request and I think it works well.

And here is my cousin modeling the final product.



I've been MIA

This post is long over due.  Its been a month since I last posted!!  Things have been somewhat crazy at home with a lot going on.  But summertime tends to do that.  I currently have several projects in the works including: a lap top tote bag, a beach bag, and a baby blanket.  I hope to be wrapping all of them up very soon.  Once I do I will be sure to post some pictures. 

In the mean time though, I leave tonight for a 7 day cruise to Bermuda!  We will be leaving at 6pm and driving all night to New York.  When we get there we plan on checking out Time Square.  We load up on the boat and noon and will be gone until the following Sunday.  I can't wait to see the pink beaches!

Hope to be sharing more projects with you all soon!