Set up shop!

After much hemming and hawing, I went ahead and set up an etsy shop for my crocheted wares!  There's only one style of hat listed right now, but there are several more to come!  Check it out!

Crotchety Crocheting

For some reason, I've been in kind of a funk for the past few weeks.  Don't know what it is!  At first, I was convinced I was pregnant, but two boxes of HPTs tell me otherwise.  (Let's be honest, it'll take more than that to change my mind!)  Anywho, I decided to start crocheting again as it's one of the things that helps me release tension and stress.  I'm so glad I did because I've been able to complete a few projects and being able to admire my work always makes me feel better.

What was my favorite project, you ask?  Well, the adorable winter hat I made for the Bot!

It was so easy and I got to learn two new stitches!!  I got the pattern off of Ravelry (my new favorite internet pattern source).  And just tweaked it a bit to suit my tastes.  It's a Japanese pattern so I had to find this other awesome website after I realized that Japanese peeps use diagrams for their patterns instead of writing it out.

I've been toying around with the idea of opening an Etsy shop for quite some time now, but I don't want to have to pay to list things that might not get sold, haha.  Instead, I've decided to sell my wares over at The Bean & The Bot (named after my boys-my muses!).  It's still in it's very beginning stages, but if you want a piece of this, you can certainly find out how to get some there!

RED DOOR!

I've been wanting to paint my boring white door since we moved in over a year ago and finally I went on a DYI rampage the other week and got it done!  While I was at it, I started a mural in my master bedroom (since I can't afford the wall stencils/vinyl design I wanted).  Check it out!

I also built that canopy for our anniversary.  Now I just need to get awesome bedding and better furniture.  *Sigh*  someday!

Heirloom in the making!

Have you ever used felt to make stuff?  It had never crossed my mind and honestly I can't imagine why not because it's so well suited to the way I like to make things!  (i.e.  quickly and easily.  Ooh!  and cheap!) 

Well, thanks to the internet and all you other crafty pants out there, I have now added felt crafts to my repotoire!

The Bot has been having a hard time sitting still during sacrament meeting at church these days and I've had it in my mind to make him a "quiet book" for some time now.  I had one when I was a wee lass and I loved it!  The one I had was all sewed and embroidered and I haven't quite mastered the whole sewing thing yet.  Also, it takes too long and is too expensive (at least if I did what I had in mind it would have been).

Enter felt!

I died and went to Hobby Lobby the other day and while I was there, I picked up a few different colors so I could try it out.  While the boys took their nap this afternoon, I sat down at my craft station (a.k.a kitchen table) and gave it a go!

First, I had to figure out what exactly I wanted this quiet book to look like. I think an ABC theme would be fun :)

You may notice a few "interesting" things on my idea sheet.  Keep in mind that it's a work in progress and I'm a very "interesting" person.  :)  I should run my ideas by you to see what you think.  Getting a feel for the general public should come in handy as I'm sure there will be several people in my ward who will at some point catch a glimpse of the book and I need to know if people are going to think I'm on crack.

So here's a run down of what's going in the book as of right now.  I tried to use things that Rowan sees all the time or really likes:

A- detachable apple on a branch

B- basketball with hoop and net

C- cow with grass to eat

D- dinosaur and volcano (but I had a better idea that I forgot)

E- indian elephant with palm trees

F- freeze pop (in a freezer that opens)

G- goldfish (in a bowl)

H- house (our house-with little felt versions of us!)

I- ice cream (with detachable scoops of ice cream)

J- Jack-o-lantern (pumpkin pocket with different face shapes inside)

K- kangaroo w/ joey filled tummy pouch

L- lightbulb (any fun ideas for this one? Rowan looooves lights)

M- mullet :)

N- noodles

O- orangutan (I saw some fur at Hobby Lobby and I put it back because I didn't think I'd need it.  Didn't think I'd need it?!  Who do I think I am!?)

P- prison, haha. with a little removable guy in stripes behind bars and a ball and chain

Q- quail (with real feathers--but like...not that I plucked from a real quail or anything)

R- rocket (with that sparkly string stuff to simulate fire from the rocket bum)

S- sunrise (he'll be able to pull the sun up from behind a desert horizon with little cacti)

T- toilet w/plunger and liftable lid (if you've seen all of my videos on my other blog, you'll know why this makes sense.  I have no explanation for "P is for prison" other than that a tiny felt felon in a tiny felt cell looks really cute in my head)

U- umbrella (plastic umbrella with sequins for rain)

V- vacuum (again, if you know my son, you'll get this)

W- wheels (movable wheels on an old-school bicycle)

X- x-ray (the hubs is an x-ray tech) i'll have a felt guy and a little x-ray paper that'll go over his abdomen or something

Y- yodeler (because I felt like it

Z- zipper (there will be a zipper in the middle of the page and a big letter 'z' will be inside it

Here's what I have so far.  I'm going to have to go get a bunch more stuff now that I've decided what I'm going to do.

I still need to do some sewing and gluing and stitching on these things (you may have noticed the cow is missing the rest of his face).  I'm so excited to finish it!!  I keep telling myself that it's worth whatever time and money I invest in it because once it's finished it'll be a family heirloom that we can pass to each kiddo.  Although, I might have to make a girly one if Buck ever produces a female heir!

Sillhouette Giveaway at V & Co.!!

Ok, I know I'm probably not going to win (and one of you will because of this post, lol) but I thought you should know that there's a giveaway goin' on over at V & Co. and you should pretty much go check it out!  Chances are you'll want to enter into the giveaway for yourself after you get a look at what's up for grabs. (Sillhouette craft machine, say what!?!)

Also, if after having seen this DIYer's dream machine, you don't win it and thus feel compelled to purchase one, I will understand completely any desire you might have to send it over to me as I'm sure you've thought to yourself in the past while perusing my blog- "Hmm...her projects would be a million times more awesome if she had some sort of mechanical assistance..."

Good luck to all!  (But to me especially.)

;)

FLDSMDFR Pinata

My son's second birthday was on the 12th and we'll be throwing his party this weekend!  His favorite movie right now is Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (coincidentally, it's also MY favorite movie right now) so that'll be the theme!  I had so much fun coming up with different decoration, game, and food ideas.  Sadly, due to our budget, certain ideas will not come to fruition :(  (i.e. homemade nacho cheese fountain, mokey thought translators for the babies to wear, etc.)

I was, however, able to make Flint Lockwood's Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator into a pinata for the event!  I looked everywhere for those little gummy krabby patties so that when it gets busted open little hamburgers would come out.  But, I couldn't find them anywhere!

Anyway, the cunstruction went surprisingly quickly.  I drew up some plans:

Cut out my various pieces:

Taped them together with packing tape:

Cut some tissue paper into strips and glued them on:

                                         

                                         

Then, I put on all of the embellishments!

                                          

                                          

Tada!

I also made a banner with his name on it and today I'm making a "Pin the Chicken on Brent" game.  Instead of a regular style cake, I'm going to make little cheeseburger shaped cakes for everyone.  That should be a blogworthy occasion as I've never attempted any fancy cake shaping before....  Stay tuned!

Sew Easy!

I recently took up sewing.  There are so many things I want to make that would only be possible once that skill were accquired!  So far, I've only completed two (literally) small projects and they were really just for practice.  My first project ended up being a lot more difficult than I had anticipated but, this second project was just as easy as it looked in my head!

A friend of mine just had a baby girl at the beginning of last month so I made her (the baby) a dress!

I found the fabric at Wal*Mart a little while ago for $1.00 a yard!!  The fabric was way too busy to use for any big projects, but it was PERFECT for this!

All I did was:

-cut a big rectangle

-hemmed the two longer edges

-sewed a thin elastic strip across the top to create a shirring effect (you could do 3 or 4 rows if you wanted it to look smocked)

-sewed up the side to make a tube

-cut two thick strips of fabric for the shoulder straps and tapered them in at the edges

-hemmed them

-sewed an elastic strip under what would be the inside edge of each strap to make them ruffle

-sewed the straps on

...and that was it!  Still...I thought it needed a little something extra.  So I whipped up a few crocheted flowers and attatched them with a needle and thread, and voila!

(My sweet baby boy was quite the generous little model.)  (And that's my mom-say hi mom!)

Sorry I never remember to take pictures during the sewing process, partially because it's always a spur of the moment activity and partially because I make things up as I go along.  But that's what I like about sewing!  You can just do what feels good and have fun playing around!

And that's what I encourage y'all to do! Do some freestyle creating!  And if you come up with something you want to share, go ahead and link me to it!

Have fun makin' stuff :)

P.S.  this project probably cost me less than $0.50 to make.  Say what?!