Back in Business!

Alas, my poor little blog's been sadly neglected again, this time because of being in a state of perpetual transition all summer--moving back and forth between places, packing up one on the weekend, spending the week in another, moving everything to a totally different third place at the end of the summer. The joys of being a military girlfriend. :)

Thankfully, internet has been blissfully restored to me! Lacking anything better, here's a peek at what I was up to while I was in internet hiatus and unemployed in September.

Tada!! I made these from empty and cleaned jars (pickles, tomato sauce, etc...) and some scrapbooking paper. I buy a lot of things in bulk, and instead of storing my stuff in plastic bags that can be torn and are difficult to store, I put my stuff in jars.

I ran into a little difficulty when I realized it was almost impossible to tell the cornstarch, baking soda and baking powder apart without opening them up and feeling them. So I made pretty labels! They were super easy to make, and are covered with packing tape so I can wipe them clean if they get dirty. If I need to change the labels, I can just peel them off. I save the bags in a safe place and reuse them when I need to purchase more stuff.

I've also been doing a fair bit of crafting. Here is Dora the Fail Cat posing it up beside the black eyed susan flower and start of a stem I was making for my bouquet (it's not finished,  but I'll share when it is!)

I'm almost through making the hexagons for my hexie granny blanket. I'm so excited! I have all 240 I planned to make, and though I may need a few more to even things up, it's near to finished! You can see all my hexies hiding in the basket under my yarn balls, beside my ones in progress there.
They look so cool all together!

See? And naturally, Dora needs to be on top of everything. It's a scientific fact that cats need to be on top of things. Bizarre compulsion they have. :)
The blanket will be a little bit fatter than it seems in the picture, hence needing the extra few hexies.
Oooohhh, how I am dreading the task of stitching all those hexies together. Next time, it's definitely join-as-you-go.

This is just some additional proof that cats need to be on top of everything. I don't have my things spread out here, so she's settled for being on top of my crochet hook case (you can just see the black and white checks peeking out from under her belly)...

I have a little plan for something forming,  but I am not quite ready to spill the beans, so I think I'll keep it to myself just a bit longer...

Thanks for reading! :3

New stuff!

After making the adorable apple cozy last posted, I decided to try and work one up that wouldn't have the large hole in the side (my bag is a dangerous place!)

Here's what I came up with!

The cupcake ribbon was a gift from Julie, and it happened to fit perfectly into my treble crochets!

To make it, I followed the same instructions as for the first apple cozy (it's on Ravelry as a free download, if you're interested!), just basically a small hat shape, except that I didn't leave the space, I just continued working around (not in a spiral, I would join and chain up every round). Once I got to a size I liked, I worked a row of trebles (to fit a ribbon in) and then a row of single crochet followed by a bit of a border. The whole thing is worked in single crochet, with the exception of the very start and the end. It didn't take very long to make at all!

When I went to visit Julie, she also gave me some new books! The book above is one of them. Apparently there's a metric version as well (not "yards"), but it looks identical other than the system of measurement used. The book is adorable! It has the cutest ideas, all to be made with a yard of fabric or less, and even includes the pattern pieces and instructions so clear even a beginner could dive in! I positively love the little lunchbag featured on the cover.

And the "Wash Me!" bag featured on the back. There's also oodles of adorable patterns for children, from aprons that turn into art totes to little smocks. Tons of purses, too, naturally!

I also splurged a little while back (perhaps during a fit of self-pity spawned book shopping?) and got myself two absolutely beautiful books. While the flower book requires fairly specific colours of yarns to recreate the flowers featured inside, the Crochet Motifs book is amazing. Beautiful full colour photos, super detailed instructions and even beginner tips and different joining techniques explained clearly in the front. And the colours they use! The book is so inspiring to look through, just a whole book of eye candy! Yum yum yum!!

I also decided to make something pretty for my hair, and the headband above is the result. I couldn't tell you how I made the leaf at the end, I basically tinkered until I had something resembling a small leaf. The end of the "vine" (behind the flower) is actually a small loop where the leaf fits through to attach the ends for the headband. The little loop is hidden, so you only see the flower and the little leaf. I made it just a touch too big for my head, so I have to secure it with a bobby pin, but it still looks adorable. It could also probably work as a necklace, if you made the vine part shorter!

Finally, when cleaning my room, I found a ton of small change. I decided I needed somewhere to put it, and so I opted to turn an old alfredo jar that I had cleaned and saved (my sister is always complaining that our kitchen is full of empty jars, because I reuse them as holding containers for my bulk barn purchases that can fit) into a spot for my random change! I decided to call it the Rainy Day Fund, because it will be nice to save the money for something special. :)

Hope that everyone is doing well and enjoying the beautiful summery weather we're finally getting again!

Awesome website!

I've been tinkering for the past couple days on Ravelry, an online knitting and crocheting community where people can post patterns (both for free and to purchase), projects, ideas or just chat in the forums. I'm absolutely smitten with some of the ideas and the creative energy of the site. There's some wonderful free patterns, and some great groups where you can share ideas and inspiration.
I'm absolutely smitten!

I followed a pattern from Theresa Grant to make my own little apple cozy, which will hopefully prevent some of the bruising my apples seem to inevitably suffer when rolling about in my bag. From the "test run" today, it seems to work! I am in the process of designing one that doesn't have the large side opening, for maximum apple protection. I'll see how it goes :)

Everything and anything!

Ahh, the procrastinator's curse--having to catch up on all the things that were put off!

The little seeds featured in my last post are now fairly decent sprouts, I can't wait for them to start flowering!

I also tore out my front "garden"--for years I have seen the apartment that I now live in and thought "That place looks so seedy! Can you say 'crack house'?" The front was FULL of weeds. Weeds up to your waist. Horrible dead vines full of spiders. There probably was a witch living in there somewhere, or ought to have been. So, with the help of my boyfriend, we ripped all those weeds and vines out and discovered that, once upon a time, someone took the time to make it a nice garden. The rocks from the rock border were still there, so we recreated it. Then I planted most of the seeds I had in the garden, with my sunflowers right beside the big ugle telephone pole in the middle, so there's something for them to lean on. It looks much better, and not so much like a "crack house".

For Mother's Day, my mom came up here to our place. It was a nice girls' weekend, with my two sisters and my mom! We hit the Farmers' Market, which is finally starting to heat up with the warmer weather, and got some beautiful family pictures done. Besides getting the pictures, I also made her some presents: crocheted washcloths, a button bracelet with matching earrings and a bookmark.

For some reason my blog won't accept any pictures of the washcloths and bookmark, though, so the bracelet is going to have to do.

Thanks for reading, and hope all the moms out there had a great mother's day!

Every cloud waters a flower

I've been feeling down this week.
Really down.
Just sort of tired and moody and blue. I don't really want to do anything except moon around the house.
So I thought I needed a little cheering up...and maybe something to look forward to.
So I got flower seeds! :)

I am pretty broke...but these were pretty cheap at the dollar store and so I decided to give them a shot. A flower is a flower in my world. Right now, just looking at the little packets makes me smile. Unfortunately I only have one free flower pot right now, so I had to choose. It was tough! In the end, the snapdragons won out. Let's face it, any flower that you can make bite you is pretty awesome. :)

I planted them in the little pot, now I just have to wait until I start seeing some life!

Just a little burn

So, yesterday the pot I use to boil water for tea in decided it hated me. So, since it lacks the verbal capacity to communicate its dislike, it just decided to heat up its handle to scalding temperatures, wounding my unwary flesh when I went to grab it.

Dramatic retelling aside, I burnt my hand yesterday. And--for some unknown reason--I do not own an aloe plant or even a bottle of aloe gel. So, with the advice of my cupcake-obsessed friend Julie and some internet scouring, I came up with this:

1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon (or therabouts) of vitamin e oil
A few drops of peppermint essential oil

I know! Sounds sticky.
After cooling my hand in water for some time, I put my concoction on the burnt parts and wrapped my hand up in a rag. I left it all day, and reapplied at night before bed. Today my hand feels great, even though there are still very obvious marks from the burn.
While I don't reccommend this for an all-over sunburn (since slathering oneself in honey sounds like some silly college prank), it worked really nicely for a small contact burn.
Hopefully this will come in handy for someone else someday :)

The little things

I just got finished the academic part of my teacher's college career and have a little bit of time on my hands for a change! It's also spring time, and the melting snow and daffodils I have in my window are making me feel a little bit brighter than I have in a while. Lately I have just been appreciating the little things in my world...the bright colours, delightful smells, appealing textures that surround me and make me get that warm glowy feeling.
Probably from this I finally decided to tackle the task of making cushion covers for my plushy but somewhat atrocious couch cushions. This is only the second time I have attempted to do anything quilted, and I think that I did pretty well...overall, the look of my cushions just makes me smile now :)

I made one for the second cushion after I realized how much I adored the first one...Now I love them both. The back is overlapped material like a pillow sham with buttons to close...

I think they just look glorious, sitting on the couch together like that...and of course they just look marvelous with the crocheted throw Julie made me!

Another thing that made me smile lately was the success of my ginger snap cookies--the first time I have ever made them!

Don't they just look marvelous?! And the whole house smelled wonderful when they were baking. They even tasted great! It was definitely the best success I have ever had with baking. I think even Martha would be jealous of my amazing cookies. The recipe was from here, if you're interested in making some of your own!

Today I also made sugar cookies. These didn't turn out near as well...they're sort of odd looking, but they taste great and that's really all that matters. I was impressed with how my royal icing turned out, though!

Hopefully I'll have some more adventures in making things before I have to go back to being busy all the time...