Monday recap

I've been away longer than I would have liked, it's so irritating how life gets in the way of my hobbies. ;) I've had ONE entirely free day in the past two weeks and I'm sure you can guess how I spent it... crocheting of course! I ended up having to do dull housework on the side, but managed to get quite a bit done anyway.

In my last post I mentioned redecorating my parent's home when we go to dogsit in January... I found this spectacular fabric (someone had made curtains with it) at the flea market. It's such a pretty pink! I think I might try to incorporate it somehow into the living room decor, just haven't figured out how yet. Here is a picture of it draped over our couch.

In person, it's a lot more pink, I really hate the yellow lighting of our apartment as well as the fact that our camera SUCKS. I'm hoping that we'll get a better camera for a wedding present. Or cash to buy one...

Well, back to my lovely Monday; the day started out gray and cold....

But ended up becoming SUNNY! It felt like I hadn't seen the sun in weeks, I felt so energized and happy! 

I spent the morning making my sister a pear, her favorite fruit. I really liked how it turned out, making several of these and displaying them in a bowl would be quite cute. Too bad I only have enough time to make one!

 The pattern for this can be found on this blog: Amigurumi Girl

I love making the snowflakes, pattern found on Attic 24. I am sure I've probably already linked that, but it's just so fun to make. I tried it in a blue for my sister. I hope I can make a few more of these before my mom leaves on Wednesday to stay with her. Fortunately these are simple and fast, so I just might be able to pull it off.

I also made my lovely nephew an owl! I've seen so many owl things lately and have been wanting to make one. I originally planned on making him a dinosaur but with time being short and so many other little gifts to crochet, I decided against it. The pattern for the owl can be found here: Curiouser and Curiouser blog. My wings ended up getting sewed on a bit wonky. Oh well. I don't think he'll notice. Lol! I didn't have safety eyes so I "embroidered" some black circles. I say "embroider" because I have NO IDEA how to do anything related to embroidery. Oh well, I don't think he'll notice that either. It just adds character! =) I also didn't have felt to make the nose, so I made up how to crochet a small triangle. Something to do with dc and a triple chain. I don't remember how I did it, but it wasn't the most perfect triangle either.

Here is the owl waiting for his round body...

And here he is all done!

I've been so in love with the blog Attic 24, I'm sure before long I'll have used all her patterns. They are such beautiful and cute things! Right now I am working on the springtime wreath she has posted, really brilliant idea. I am making a Christmas one and a flower one. You can find the pattern HERE
Here is my progress with them:

Here is the Christmas one. I am going to make some poinsettia for it once I find a good pattern for them.

Here is the base for the flower one. I love the blues and greens! The third round is going to be made with that darker skein in the picture. I think I'll add some purple flowers to it and send it to my godmother in the states. I never ended up making her another purple scarf. Maybe next year...

All that's left for Christmas gifts that are going with my mom to America is the snake for my newest nephew and some more snowflakes. I still need to assemble the cat, shark and mushroom. I really dislike the finishing stage of projects. I hate the sewing bit because it never quite turns out all that great. Of course, practice makes perfect... but it's just a bit of a bummer when everything gets sewed on wrong or completely crooked and then it's back to the beginning.

Thanksgiving was yesterday back home and it's always a bit sad to miss out on such big family holidays. However, my fiance and parents are set on keeping up tradition so we are celebrating on Saturday when I get out of work. We aren't making turkey because it's so expensive and I think it always tastes a bit funky. So I'm making some tasty oven-roasted chicken breast, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole and cornbread apple stuffing. For dessert we're having pumpkin pie! It's a bit of a challenge to bake and cook for my dad now, since he has a special gluten-free diet. Hence the cornbread stuffing. I had to make the pie crust with gluten-free flour (aka wheat starch). It'll be interesting to see how it turns out, I haven't made a pie crust yet with it. Here is a picture of my pie before and after meeting the oven. Can't wait to eat it!

Here is my cornbread cubed and waiting for it's turn to be stuffing. =)

Well, that is my post for today. I hope I can make it back before too long. I really enjoy sharing what I've been up to. Thanks for reading, have a happy weekend!

About to explode!

I'm home all alone and waiting for noon to roll around so I can head out and go to clinical training... when WHAM! Inspiration hits me!!! Ideas, ideas, ideas, motivation to to them! My adrenaline is beating, I am drawing out plans... And sadly, 12 o'clock is almost here. =( But I've gotta share this feeling somehow!!!

My ideas all pertain to redecorating my parent's home. I know this probably sounds quite selfish, but go with me on it! My fiance and I are going to be moving to my parents house for six weeks starting late January to dogsit while they visit my brother and sister in the states. So for SIX WEEKS we are going to have to live in their apartment which is set up in a way that we get annoyed just visiting sometimes; the spaces are full of potential and used completely wrong (in our opinion). SO, what we want to do, it create a craft/sewing studio for my mom out of this little cozy room with a view of the big birch outside instead of leaving it as a very cramped TV/dining/family room. We want to move the TV/dining/family room bit to the large unused "formal" living room, in which my mom has a very uninspiring, very small, very rigged crafting corner, completed by all her crafting goods in ugly blue plastic boxes. I think my mom will definitely love the result when do our redecorating swap-a-roo but my dad...probably not so much. I think he really likes watching TV from less than 2 feet away.

Desired results of it all:

1. I hope to create a space that my mother loves and is inspired by, a place we can be crafting girls together and where she can continue to sew me millions more curtains and pillows.
2. For my dad, we'll create a more comfortable environment and hopefully prevent his vision getting any worse! (lol) 
3. For ourselves, incredible satisfaction that we maximized the potential of the spaces. A place we'll want to visit more often and be more willing to dog sit whenever they want to go somewhere.
4. For myself, I want the satisfaction of seeing the beautiful vision in my head come to fruition and the enjoyment of creating and crafting and finally taking on sewing projects so I finally really do learn!

AAAAARGH! I wish it were Christmas vacation already so I can start doing my ground work! =D

Thanks for reading! I'm off to dream about how lovely a white craft table with decoupaged roses on it would look, as well as how pretty the curtains in the living room will be...

P.S. I must say, I wouldn't have gotten the decorating bug quite as badly if it weren't for all the great blogs I've started following -- I feel like each and every one of those talented crafty women have a lovely inspiring studio with a view! My mom and I certainly deserve one too! =)

Over too soon!

The weekend is sadly almost over, it's 10 pm now and in a mere 8 hours, my alarm clock will ring...?!

I am quite pleased with my lovely 3 day weekend, it was much needed! The house is clean, I've seen some friends, eaten well and spent all day with my parents and my love AND I got to crochet to my heart's content! A weekend can't get much better than that! =)

Here is a picture, of where I am with my impossible gift list.

I didn't get around to finishing anything completely (it's so dull!) except the scarf that's bunched up in the right top corner. But hey, at least I'm off to a good start!

Thanks for reading and hope you have a great week!

Crochet marathon weekend continues...

So I didn't get a chance to post yesterday, but I will make up for it by posting twice today?
We had some friends over around noon yesterday, so the morning whizzed by cleaning and baking a raspberry pie. But when they left, I grabbed my crochet hook and I didn't let go till late at night. Lol!
One of my dearest friends came over in the evening, but while talking and drinking tea and eating chocolate with her, I finished the sister-in-law cowl scarf! I really love that pattern, it's a great quick project that is useful, but best of all you can crochet with your mind elsewhere as well, which means you can have a conversation instead of thinking about which stitch you are on and do you need to decrease and what row was this again?! All there is to it, is making the amount of chains you would like it to be wide, then (dc, ch 2, dc) in the same spot. Repeat till almost at end of row and on "the edge spot", dc, chain 3, turn and then repeat. EASY-PEASY!

 I also finished the Mario mushroom for my brother. Well, I still need to sew the spots on, but I'm saving all that boring finishing stuff for later today. I can't remember if I've linked where I found the pattern, so here it is at Wolfdreamer's blog. I'll post a better close-up picture when the spots are on... In this picture you can also see that brown lump of yarn, that is going to be a kitty for my brother's stepdaughter! I'll try to finish it today as far as I can, but I can't decide whether I want cat eyes or button eyes. If I decide on cat eyes, that means I have to wait till later this week to finish the cat (stuffing, sewing etc) because I have to make a trip to the one and only craft store in this city to buy the one and only cat eyes they sell. Either way, I'll try to post later how far I've gotten with the kitty cat!

Last weekend I made a super flea market find, 4 euros for a retro crochet pillow cover! Man it was gorgeous, it lept out at me and I couldn't say no! Perfect for our (my)  pink and white bedroom and my white white bed! My mom had also by my request made 2 small pillowcases out of the leftover fabric from our curtains. ---> voila! The bedroom ensemble is complete!!!

Always insisting on being in my pictures...

Thanks to the mamadukes!

Last but not least, a funny out-take picture... My cat being her usual mischievous self, I can't even take pictures of my crocheted goods without her trying to steal them!

Thanks for reading, I'll try to post an update later today! =)

My long weekend finally begins!

Hurrah! My long weekend has finally begun! And I've already kept myself busy doing mostly fun things! Happy day, happy day!
I spent my morning running a few errands, but since I came home in the afternoon, I've done mostly nothing but CROCHET!!!! Today's progress:

These are my snowflake ornaments. I intend to still starch+stretch them to shape, probably on Sunday. I'm so in love with them, they turned out so pretty! I got the pattern from the amazing Attic 24 (link HERE). I didn't realize the dc in the pattern was a British dc --> why 2 are bigger and different. I ended up preferring the way it looked with an American dc. And like she says at the beginning of the tutorial, they are addictive! Really fast and fun to make! =)

I made a snowman to complete my Christmas tree ornament set for my mother-in-law. He's missing his button eyes and nose, but I'll probably end up finishing him on Sunday as well. I used the Bernat snowman pattern, he's the little snowman they talk about. The link is HERE but you need to be a member to access the free pattern.

Here is the scarf I'm making for my sister-in-law wrapped around the skein of yarn it shall be crocheted from. I love this green yarn, my mom is knitting me a cowl from it!

More Christmas gifts in the works! Mario mushroom for my brother and a shark for my nephew. The pattern was so hard to understand, I guess it had been translated from German or something... I ended up having to improvise how to make the tail fin and I'm not entirely satisfied with how the dorsal fin turned out either. I tried making the lateral fins but got lost in the pattern and am now completely frustrated. This is the first and last shark I will ever crochet! Grr!

On a better note...
My hubby to be made me a delicious dinner last night: shrimp scampi with white wine! MmmmMmmm! And tonight we had breakfast for dinner in the form of blueberry pancakes and bacon! Love me some greasy bacon!

Thanks for reading, I think I just might post tomorrow too if I can get some more crocheting done! Weekends are the best!!!!!! =)

Manta's sweater!

I've been so BUSY lately that crocheting has taken a back burner and the project list in my head is growing growing growing. I'm looking forward to time to do it all! I'd like to get all the Christmas gift projects I have planned done by December 1st so we'll see what happens... However, I have managed to accomplish making Manta a sweater! She looked cold on a walk a few weeks ago and with more and more mornings becoming frosty I figured now is the time if I am going to make it! I used a pattern from lionbrandyarn.com linked HERE . It was more of guideline though because I thought Manta is smaller than the smallest size (great pattern since it has S, M, L and XL sizes) and I didn't use the yarn they recommended or even the thickness suggested. So it was a bit of a fumble to figure out how to do it but once I did, it was so simple. Just half double chains over and over again. Manta was sweet and cooperative, she let me measure her a million times and she tried it on every step of the way without ever complaining. Man, I love that dog!
The flower pattern is from Attic 24 linked HERE. Also a great pattern but I since I was going for a more simple look I didn't take the pattern to the end. A really great tutorial to follow, like everything else on that blog! =) I chose pink and gray because it seemed like a classic and casual color combo and I had quite a bit of both colors readily available...

 

 

So there it is for today, I'm off and running. Can't wait for more time off!!! 3 day weekend in two weeks, and unless something crazy comes up, I WILL CROCHET ALL 3 DAYS! =)
Thanks for reading!!!