Halloween

Good day! It's so nice that it's finally November. October was a good month but for some reason I'm glad it's over. Halloween was amazing! I hope you all had a great one too. We didn't go trick or treating on Halloween but I have a short little picture show to explain our Halloween events, yes there were many. The week before Halloween I finally started on her costume. I made a Yoshi hat and Yoshi body with a tail. I traced a pair of her pajamas on the green fleece and then sewed a white belly on one of the pieces and a zipper on the other piece and sewed the two pieces together. I made the tail detachable with velcro, and the same with the saddle.

Friday, the 28th, Daddy, Little A, and I went to the play group that our Parents as Teachers throws twice a month. She loved it! She loved all the kids and the toys, she really loved her costume too. All the kids were dressed up too. It was a blast!

Her tail cracked me up. E was the one that suggested I should probably make it detachable and it was a good thing he recommended it. It really helped with the whole car seat situation.

Friday night my mom and I took her to the Spooktacular downtown. The city blocked off the whole street and all the businesses passed out candy. Little A learned really fast that if she held up her bucket and said "treat" someone would put some candy in there.

My sister told me it looked like I was holding a real Yoshi's hand. If Yoshis were real.

All the kids knew she was supposed to be Yoshi and all the adults commented on how cute of a dinosaur she was. BUT! Most people did know she was a girl, as she's gotten older she rarely gets mistaken for a boy anymore.

Saturday, E took us to the Trick or Treat at the Barn at the Ag Hall of Fame. They have this little set up with old farm houses, school house, blacksmith shop, hatchery, and train depot complete with a mini train that circles the town. I didn't get any pictures except the one where she's hugging the Chick-fil-a cow. She hugged him like eight different times. She loved that cow.

Sunday, we had a bonfire at my in-laws'. Little A got dressed up again an we got this picture with her new baby cousin, older cousin, and nana. This was also the only picture I took there. Papa took the girls on a tractor ride in the small trailer and Daddy took Little A on a big tractor ride. I had to stand behind E on the hitch and hold her hand while she sat on his lap. She wouldn't go otherwise.

Monday was nice and relaxing really. Until 5 o'clock. Little A took a two hour nap and instead of getting the rest of our costumes put together, I took it easy. It was a double edges sword. I relaxed because I needed it but that time could have been spent finishing the costumes so come 5 pm I wouldn't have to rush arous getting things done.

It ended up working just fine though. The costumes were a hit with all the trick or treaters and Little A had fun running down to greet all the treaters with "hey guys!" and showing them the direction to the candy. She did really well when we would chase her as she wondered away with some other family and drug her back to the driveway. Our front door is hard to get to because of the stairs and we would have to sit by the door to avoid stairways inside. It's always easier to just sit in the garage.

The mustaches were my favorite part of our costumes. They were just cut out black fleece secured to our faces with double sided tape. E's was the best though.

It was a great Halloween! Little A got a bath and we threw her in bed, popped some popcorn and watched Day of the Dead. Love zombie movies! But I'm glad it's over. I never knew having a kid would make holidays so much more busy. I wonder what it'll be like with two in tow...

Well, the big granny (king size) has come out of storage. How does something get so stinky in storage? It's washed and on our bed now. So snuggly. I made this for E for Christmas '09, he had no idea it was coming!

But all other crafty has come to a trickle. Almost a stand still really. It's so cold outside today that it makes me want to hurry and finish our anniversary quilt so we have a new blankie to snuggle under. That'll probably be next in my list to complete. How cool would it be to have done by next week so I can show you?! One can dream...

20 days until we find out the Great Secret this little baby is keeping.

Until next time!

Granny Square Tutorial

This is for my mom, Tracey, who is teaching herself to crochet. I'm so proud of her! The granny square has been around for years, and came to be a pattern around the great depression. There are many variations of granny squares and a lot of people do their grannies differently, this is just how I do mine:

1) Slip knot your yarn and place it on your hook. Chain (ch) 4. Slip stitch (Sl St) into the fourth ch from hook to form a circle. Ch 3, counts as first Dc.

2) Work two double crochet (Dc) into the circle, ch 2. 3 Dc, ch 2, three more times for four Dc clusters. Sl St into the top of the ch 3 to finish the round. Fasten off yarn.

3) Attach your second color in any corner, but still with the right side facing you. Ch 3, counts as your first Dc. Dc two more into the same corner. Ch 2, Dc three more into same corner.

Ch 1, three Dc in next corner, ch 2, three Dc in same corner. Repeat to end. Sl St in top ch of the first ch 3, fasten off.

This is what your's should look like at this point.

4) Join your next color in any corner. Ch 3, counts as first Dc, work two Dc, ch 2, 3 Dc in same corner, ch 1.

Work 3 Dc in the next space, ch 1. Repeat three more times and Sl St into the top of the ch 3 at the beginning and fasten off.

5) Join your next color into any corner with a ch 3, counts as first Dc, work two more Dc, ch 2, work three Dc in same corner, ch 1, work three Dc in next space, ch 1, three Dc, ch 1. Repeat to end, Sl St in the top of the ch 3. Fasten off.

6) Join black, your last row, into any corner, ch 3, counts as first Dc. Work 2 Dc into same corner, ch 2, 3 Dc, ch 1, 3 Dc, ch 1, 3 Dc, ch 1, 3 Dc, ch 1. Work corners with ch 2 and straight sides with ch 1.
Repeat steps 1-5 to make any number if squares you'd like. Then to join as you go, you'll use the alternate step 6) for all other squares to, well, join as you go.

Alternate
6) Join black yarn into any corner, ch 3, counts as first Dc, work two more Dc into corner. Ch 1, insert hook into the corner of your previously finished square.

Yarn over, pull through into a Sl St. Finish corner as you normally would. Instead of ch 1 you'll insert your hook into the next ch space of the previous square and Sl St in place of the ch 1. Continue to next corner. Once you've reached the corner, ch 1, then Sl St through the previous square's corner and finish the square as you normally would.

This will join the squares together so you won't have to sew them together when each one is completed, therefore, saving you time and energy! (Trust me on that one!) Make sure to "join" whenever a square is going to touch another one. I hope this is helpful to you and please, please let me know of you have any questions! Happy Hooking!

Until next time!

Crochet Goodies + Easter Stories

Easter was pretty good this year. E had to work but my dad and brother came out to keep little A and I busy until he did get home, then we went to E's parents for dinner.



E took little A on a tractor ride that she loves last year but this year wasn't so sure. She didn't cry just fussed like she didn't know what was going on, and we told her we were going bu-bye. She looked around and said, "bu-bye" in a said little voice as if she was really saying, "can I leave this place for something better?" The tractor ride didn't last very long, E was disappointed, but there is always next time!


The dress that almost wasn't... I waited until the night before Easter to wash little A's dress, because I was worried about washing it anyway. I had good reason to worry. The seams in the skirt of the dress fell out! The fabric frayed and unraveled (which I didn't sew to closely to the edges) and parts of the arm holes came undone (only two spots were I did sew to closely to the edges). I was understandably upset, it made my stomach tighten up and tears well up in my eyes. I wasn't altogether upset because the dress had fallen apart, I was upset because if I couldn't fix the dress little A didn't have a back up dress to wear because I didn't buy one! If I couldn't fix it she wouldn't have a dress to wear for Easter! But thank goodness, I was able to fix everything! And of course, she was adorable in it.



Oh, here it what I made for all the littles in my life! I made 5 of these babies. Of course, I was so excited to give them away I didt get pictures of all of them. *Sigh* I seem to be doing that a lot lately. But they were so much fun to make and that much more fun to give away. The two in the picture are Mario and Luigi, both belong to little A.


The other day I got a wild hair, or is it hare? Anyway, I'm working on that hexagon blanket (I'll post a link as soon as I can/have permission) and it's a join-as-you-go process, meaning you join the pieces together as you're working on them instead of piecing them together when every piece is finished.


I thought to myself when I first saw this method how lazy and unprofessional it was. Boy was I wrong! Big time! It's so much fun and it looks better in a way, I think, plus I was able to finally do something with all the granny squares I had made and wasn't doing anything with because I dreaded the sewing together.


Look how beautiful it is! I'm so happy I found the join as you go! This is actually the first traditional granny square anything I've done. It's only a little afghan but I'm so in love with the whole granny experience now that I want to so everything granny! But I must fulfill my other crafty obligations before I get to play around.


Look how big they're getting! No buds on the sunflower but it as the basil smell amazing!

But anyway, next week I'm going to have more crafty goodies to show to you! And I'm thinking of a crafty give away because I'm nearing 200 views on my blog. Yes, yes! I'll have to think of something fantastical that you'll enjoy.

Until next time!

Feet and Stashes

So this is my fourth time writing this blog post. The first three times were on Blogger+, which is a completely worthless app for the iPhone! It works great, in theory, but if you actually want to use it to post your blog don't hold your breath! Because you'll die! But besides that, it was a pretty good week. I got new summer socks! I'm a HUGE fan of socks, E gets me new socks for Christmas every year and they're probably my favorite present. But I did lose track of my days and thought I was a week ahead. I was pretty glad to get that week back.


The other day I went to Hobby Lobby, one of my favorite places, and stocked up on some fabrics for a new project. I can't tell you anything about my newest project because it's a secret, a present for my niece for her birthday. I don't quite know how E feels about another crafty stash hanging around the house, I think he has a mental block about the whole thing. He gets the garage for all of his goodies and I get, well I get the whole house, save the kitchen and upstairs living room.


I'm working on a few projects that I can't reveal yet because I don't want the persons they're intended for to see them. So I supplemented a picture of little A laying on Tonka's dog bed with her quilt and my pillow. The one project is for a friend of mine for her baby shower and the other is for my brother for Christmas '10. He's a patient guy, but I promise it's worth the wait! My favorite part about gifting home/handmade gifts is the reaction of the person receiving the gift. I made E a huge granny square afghan for our bedroom in our favorite colors and he got teary eyed when he opened it. Don't tell him I told you!


There it is! For your viewing pleasure. It's extra large and fits perfect on our king size bed.


Another thing I'm super excited for is the change of weather. When it changes so do my shoes. Summer is flip-flops or no shoes if I can help it, fall is chucks until about November-ish because my feet get so cold, winter I wear my boots, and once the weather starts turning spring like I switch back to my chucks. This particular pair has been a work in progress for about two years now. Those of you who wear or have worn chucks know they take a little time to be exactly what you hoped they would be.

Well, that's about it for now. Next week I'll try to have a reveal of something to treat your eyes, and next Saturday is little A's first birthday party, so wish me luck!