Little Things I Do

2010-08-19T10:01:00.001-05:00

My first proper attempt at embroidery. Made an 'O' for my best friend's little guy. I think it turned out rather well.. and I can make French knots like a champ now!

Christmas gifts

2009-01-24T23:10:00.002-06:00

I made a few Christmas gifts this year. I somehow managed to not get pictures of everything tho.
I crocheted a few little dudes out of the "Creepy Cute Crochet" book. I really dig the book. It took a little while to figure out a few of the patterns, but as soon as I caught on I was able to really pump these little dudes out.

I made our friend Jason a robot. He was the most difficult pattern, but somehow I managed to make him faster than all the other guys.
I made a couple of Ninjas too. They were a lot of fun.. especially the throwing stars. I had to use embroidery floss for them. I've never worked with such small thread in crochet.. It took a little getting used to.

Finished

2008-11-14T09:57:00.002-06:00

I finished my hat.. It's the "London Beanie" but no stripes. I already have a nice hat with stripes. I made it with an Alpaca/Acrylic mix and it turned out pretty soft and nice. Its a tiny bit long for a beanie.. but it works I think.

Short Update No Pics

2008-11-05T21:14:00.003-06:00

Hello..

I'm still crafting.. but I have no camera :( It broke. I finished the magic scarf! Yay! I'm still working on the snowflake afghan. I'm also making a ton of little crochet dudes from the Creepy, Cute Crochet book. I have a hat in progress for me, I hope I can get it done before Christmas gets here. :)

Updates

2008-09-08T10:38:00.002-05:00

I've been working on a few things. Mainly, getting my house ready to sell. ( You should buy my house) But also! a scarf. The magic scarf for my husband; it's now about 7 feet long. Only another 5 feet to go I believe :). Then I'll start the snowflake afghan. I think it will go fairly quickly. I am much much faster at crocheting than I am knitting. I've decided to make a few Christmas gifts this year, so I'll have to get a jump on them pretty soon too!

Hats and Things

2008-08-12T08:38:00.003-05:00

I finished my hat and was so pleased by the outcome.. I made a second one.

Actually, I finished the first hat and it was way to small for my husband, so I made a second one. Gauge. It's elusive. The second one actually came out much better than the first. I like the color so much that I have about 2 feet of a Magic Scarf started in the same yarn. My husband will have a very warm and toasty head and neck if it ever gets cold again.

In case you were wondering.. I finished my seating area! I don't have any benches or lamps or flowers or anything yet. Just a nice fresh rectangle of cypress mulch and fancy border. I am very happy with the way it turned out. Now if I could only stop being so picky and actually fill it up with things I could start taking pictures. Oh! and using it :/

Not quite hopeless

2008-07-24T14:04:00.003-05:00

So.. I've come to the part of the hat I'm working on where I need to switch to double pointed needles.. of which I have NONE. :/ Yes, I did start a project I wasn't ready for.. so what?
Anyway.. I figured it wouldn't be a big deal to pick up a set from any of the big ass craft stores in town.. I was wrong. So very wrong. I just don't understand it. Huge craft stores and the needle selection is useless.. No problem right? There is one local yarn store; surely they have a standard sized set of double pointed needles.. Well, I'll never know. Their hours of operation are as follows: Only open when I'm at work. Period. So after throwing a small ( read: large ) hissy fit, I decided I would just order them from someone online. So i search around and guess what? My local FABRIC store has a great selection of just what i'm looking for! yup.. the fabric store.. so I'm on my way to buy my needles with a big ol' grin!
I hope to finish the hat tonight. I'll even post a picture or two I"m sure.

Some Things

2008-07-22T22:00:00.003-05:00

that make me happy.

1. Making lists
2. My new bottle of tasty wine.. room temperature and waiting
3. A new Dr. Who episode sitting patiently on the DVR for me
4. Popcorn
5. A half knitted hat that was meant for my husband, but appears to be only big enough for my 2 year old. A good thing for several reasons: a)I don't have enough of the freaking yarn to make it very big. b)I finally started a new knitting project that I may actually finish. c) its an easy knitting project
6. making lists inside of other lists
7. Benedryl. ( tho it seems to not still be working.. must be time for more!)
8. This is my blog and I don't have to follow your dumb grammar rules
9. Fancy new hair-doos.

2008-07-21T12:50:00.001-05:00

Overly optimistic goal of the month: Finish spreading the mulch this week!

It was, in fact, overly optimistic.. It was not achieved. It has been assigned as this weeks overly optimistic goal.

Under the Cover of Darkness

2008-07-15T11:42:00.004-05:00

I'm nearly there.

Finished off the small ugly corner area. I'm in search of the perfect plants/bird bath for it now. I need to take some better pics.. to show off how much nicer and larger the corner looks now :)

I think the big river rocks look pretty good. I'm glad I was finally able to use them for something. Hell of a lot better than their previous use as a giant pile of rocks on the side of my house. ( harboring giant spiders and the like )

On to the main event.

My yard work free time occurs in few minutes between my son giving up and going to bed and the sun giving up and going to bed. So, between 7:45ish and 8:15ish, me and the mosquitoes do a lot of work. If you can see in the dark, I have all of the border done. I removed the top layer of dirt/grass and started spreading my mulch. I've discovered that mulch doesn't go as far as I'd like it to. In fact. It doesn't go very far at all. I have to go back to Home Depot and pick up about 5 more bags to finish.

Overly optimistic goal of the month: Finish spreading the mulch this week!

Walls Are Up

2008-06-30T23:11:00.002-05:00

I have the whole border set in mud.

I finished digging the trenches and placed the last piece of border this very afternoon. It was a gorgeous day to triumph. Left to do: level the area a bit and spread my weed blocker ( damp newspaper ) and mulch.. I CANT wait. I have my fire pit and marshmallows at the ready. Guess at some point I'll need to get a bench or something to sit on.. Since I'm calling it a "seating area" and such.

Progress!

2008-06-20T15:06:00.003-05:00

Made a little bit of progress on my backyard project this week. Digging is exactly as much fun as I thought it would be. I find myself racing home in hopes of squeezing a few minutes in here and there. The area is mostly leveled off and all the big rocks that used to live there were evicted.

I have the front row basically done.. I need to fill in the extra space in the trench and a few of the border pieces need to be leveled out. Tho I don't have it pictured, I have one of the sides just about finished too.
My husband busted his ass and really helped me dig. It would have taken me forever to get as far as I have without him. If I could just convince my paycheck providers that this is character building and it somehow benefits them, I'd take off a whole day and finish up. The pictures don't truly do this "seating area" justice. It's much larger IRL than it looks.

We had some river rocks we got from my dad's farm in Tennessee laying around. So. we decided to throw them in a semi-circle to prettify a neglected corner. I'm going to fill it in with mulch and a bird bath this weekend.

Cupcake break

2008-06-18T12:01:00.000-05:00

Made cupcakes again. The rainbow ones turned out a lot better this time. I reduced the amount of butter the recipe called for. There weren't greasy at all and they were a bit more rainbow-y.
Made some chocolate lava cupcakes too. Cream cheese and chocolate chip filling.. I'm not sure how they tasted.. I didn't actually get a chance to eat one. They sure smelled good :)

Not Much Progress

2008-06-08T20:52:00.003-05:00

I haven't made much progress on the backyard project. Well.. I did take some pictures of the ugly spot I'm covering up and! I have all my border, shovels, and mulch I need. So, at least the money is spent?

The Rain

2008-05-27T20:01:00.000-05:00

mocks me and my shovel.

Martha Stewart I'm Not

2008-05-23T13:19:00.003-05:00

Strive tho, I do.

Growing up, my Mom was one of those Mom's who baked stuff, made us clothes, participated in the PTA, hauled us around to whatever random thing it was we decided to do. I'm more of an oreo buyer, thrift store/clearance rack clothes shopper, professional nerd (read software developer) type of mom.

I made a breakthrough last night! Behold!

Exhibit A: Rainbow cupcakes.
Yup, I made them myself. And, they are actually edible ( unless you ask my husband ). I took them to work today and they disappeared. When you break them open, they are all rainbow-y inside.

Commitment Issues?

2008-05-22T12:37:00.003-05:00

So, instead of finishing any of my projects.. I really want to start another one. This one is completely different.. stop shaking your head at me. I realize that one day I will in fact have to actually start completing projects.. Or do I? The fun part to me, really, is thinking up the project, researching it, buying everything I need and don't need for it, then starting it.. Finishing isn't really necessary for the "fun" aspect. I'll get around to it .. eventually..

The project I want to start you ask? A rock garden seating area in my backyard.. See! I told you it was different. It's OUTSIDE and has high potential of dirt and mud and sunshine! All of which are wonderful things. My backyard is currently an empty canvas where little grass resides and lots and lots of dog-made holes exist. I have the perfect area mapped out and even measured.. Whats stopping me? Too many ideas.. I have about 50 sketches and pictures of kick ass sitting areas.. I need to at least narrow it down to, bench type, plant type and fountain or no fountain. Also. I'm not really sure how one goes about actually "making" the seating area.. I have the basics idea down.. which means I watch the DIY network all the time.. Do I just go out there with my shovel and border and start digging and leveling? no idea.. I think maybe I will.. best to just wing it.. I have a shovel handy and if you don't' like digging holes.. then I question your character. I can't possibly make it worse, right?

::digging::

No, you can't have too many interests

2008-05-12T14:18:00.003-05:00

I don't actually get much time to "craft". Never anything yarn related while Colin is awake. My son loves my yarn a little too much. Mostly he loves to run with it.. my needles bouncing madly behind him. Sooo.. I wanted to do something I could finish quickly, but with a cool outcome. I decided to try my hand at amigurumi. I know the basic crochet stitches, so off I go. I currently have a few rows of a nice brown whale, that will be friends with a blue one.. when I buy more yarn :)

Actually!

2008-05-10T14:03:00.000-05:00

I have been crafting "things". But I have no real progress to show off. I'm furiously working on a knitted tie. "Increasing" is a technique that is for some reason kicking my butt. I think I'm knitting way too tightly and quite possibly have the wrong yarn type/ needle size combo. I only seem to get it right 2 out of 4 times. I paused my tie project to make my husband a birthday card. I much prefer making cards than buying them from the store. This one is an accordian type card.. Looks like an envelope, but folds all the way out. I'm also about a 1/3 of the way done with some "art" to hang on my living room wall. Said wall is about 12"x 11" of empty space with a little ugly tv right in the middle. A bit daunting to say the least. I do have a few pictures of it in the making. I'll post them soon.

Finished

2008-04-09T22:23:00.002-05:00

I finally finished my first full knitting project! I think it turned out pretty well. There are a few mistakes, but nothing that I can't live with.

I've already started my next project. It's a tie for my husband. The thread and needles are much smaller than I've used before. I'm pretty excited.

Progress

2008-03-21T23:38:00.004-05:00

This is my current (read first) knitting project. Its made of cheap Hobby Lobby yarn and will eventually be a purse. The final dimensions are roughly 6"x11".

It's curling up on the sides right now.. but once I get it finished and sew together it will all straighten out. I'm pretty excited about this.. I haven't had to rip any rows out this time (fingers, toes and eyes crossed)

Working, Working

2008-03-18T22:52:00.003-05:00

Don't have any finished projects to post tonight. I'm in the middle of quite a few projects but haven't completed anything in a while. ( Of course if I would stick to just one and finish it before starting another I'd be better off.. but there is no fun in that) I'm about half way done with my first knitted bag and started pinning the pieces of my husbands brown cord hex hat I'm sewing. I have a nice block of MDF cut out and ready for routing. It will become a magnetic knife block; 1/2" thick and 12" long. I'll get some pics up of the projects in progress soon.
Side Note: I found the beginnings of the my very first quilt. I pulled out a bag from the back of the garage tonight and all the fabric and several squares already pieced together were in there. All in a nice little bag. As soon as I have more room in my sewing area I think I'll finish that up.

Woodworking

2008-03-10T13:45:00.003-05:00

My friend Nay gave me some really sweet hand planes. I've looked up how to clean them. Now, I need to get out my "idea notebook" and get started. I have a few ideas for some small practice projects. I'd love to make a huge work bench, but it will need to wait. My workshop (read garage) is a little too cluttered for big projects at the moment. I'm intrigued by the idea of hand tools. The patience and craftsmanship required in woodworking is very high. Hand tools bring another whole level into it.
Bonus points! they don't make loud noises and wake up my son.

Wall Filler

2008-03-07T21:28:00.004-06:00

I made my first decoupage wall hanging thing. We have a couple of very white very empty walls in our living room, so in an effort to fill up some space I got out the glue stick.
Its 24" x 36" and stands out from the wall about an inch.

I used a few pics from different magazines and old greeting cards.

One of These Things Is Not Like The Others

2008-02-27T13:50:00.005-06:00

My craft space is actually more my husband's music/recording studio. I snuck my stuff in one night when he wasn't looking. :) If you took a look around the room, you'd see my attempt at a slow take over.

The mac is mine! Very important part of my craft room. How else would I surf other crafty blogs and waste time?

Painting with my Son

2008-02-25T16:39:00.006-06:00

This weekend I decided to have a little arts and crafts time with my son. I saw a recipe for washable finger paints and thought I'd give it a try. I definitely added way too much corn starch. The paint ended up being just a little too solid. It was pretty gross actually; we went for it anyway. Had such a great time. I will definitely perfect this recipe and try some more colors out next time. I'm glad its all non-toxic because my son decided he needed to taste the "color". I should have expected it tho. We were using spoons as paint brushes :)

Rows, Rows, Rows, Crap

2008-02-24T22:43:00.001-06:00

I really must learn how to just rip out the rows that I have to. Instead of the entire piece.

Knitting

2008-02-21T16:41:00.004-06:00

I have two basic stitches down now.. The knit and purl. So, now that I've basically knitted a zillion rows I'm ready to make "something". My problem is that I have about 75 projects I would love to do. I think I'll start simple and do a small bag or something. What I'd love to start with first, because I'm a glutton for punishment is this.

Guitar Bag

2008-02-20T08:43:00.005-06:00

I love wandering around craftster. There are so many amazingly cool projects and ideas. I came across a Fender Strat guitar bag . I dug the idea, so I thought I'd make it my first real sewing project. It took a little while to get right. I'm very much ignorant of the ways of the Singer and sewing lingo. I used my husband's Jazzmaster as the template and for the color scheme. I need to add the posts on the pickups, but otherwise I'm done with it. There are a few rough spots on it, where my beginner sewing shows. Overall , I'm extremely happy with it. It's a Fender Jazzmaster, which IMHO, is the coolest Fender around. Seriously, Elvis Costello plays them, so that should be enough for you. It is just a little over 8" tall and about 5" wide. I used an old "Guitar Hero" guitar strap and sewed on some buttons to hold it. I intend to take my lessons learned and make another bag. I think I'll add some pockets inside. The next one will be my beloved blond Fender P-bass. Should be a little easier as the body doesn't have nearly as many weird curves.

Paper Flowers

2008-02-18T20:04:00.005-06:00

I made my husband some flowers for Valentine's Day. Not exactly flowers, but he doesn't exactly dig Valentine's Day either. :) They still need a little trim work and some paint, but otherwise.. done.

I got the idea from the blog Hello my name is Heather. So, thanks Heather!
Each "flower" took 20 folded circles. It was fairly simple once I got the template right.

First Post! does it count?

2008-02-17T22:37:00.002-06:00

Thought since my son, husband and dad all have blogs.. I should have one too. I'm an average writer with aspirations of being a slightly above average writer. I'm quite happy to be mostly coherent. I have atrocious spelling that I rarely go back and fix. I will mostly be posting random projects I'm working on.* Now that my son goes to bed at a regular hour, I can spend some time doing *crafty* things. I'm not what one would call artistic.. but maybe.. "hopefully artistic".. Stick around and I promise to try to remember to update this thing.

*I will however post random life "stuff" when I feel like it.. as this is my blog