Sewing Necklaces

Tomorrow is my birthday, and since I am having a serious wardrobe issue (or lack of wardrobe issue?) I felt the need to make myself a new accessory to compliment the rather bland ensemble I have laid out for the special day. Being that I am also poor (the reason for my wardrobe issues) I had to use supplies that I already owned. Luckily this never seems to be much of a problem.

I dug up an old fat quarter from Sandi Henderson's Farmer's Market Collection. I found some wooden balls rolling around in the bottom of one of my art room drawers, and recalled a free pattern Amy Butler had put out a few years back for a fabric necklace. And voila, a necklace was born in about an hour.

It really was that simple. Being that I never like to follow directions, I barely referenced the pattern and just plowed ahead using what I had. The wooden balls were 3/4", so I cut my bias strips at 3" and called it a day. I added balls and knots until it felt right. I debated a double width necklace but it seemed more suggestive of Mardi Gras than stylish crafster, so I went with a long single strand. I whip stitched the ends together (I could have tied a bow, but I'm not into bows) and there you have it.

Hump Day Eye Candy

I finished my 4th pair of socks today!

Yarn: Lion Brand Magic Socks

Needles: 3

Pattern: I used the pattern on the yarn wrapper for the 1st time in my knitting career. It worked out great and will now be my go-to pattern for all socks.

Peep Off

After showing my co-worker this we decided to have a craft challenge based on making a craft out of Peeps. We headed straight to the store to pick up Peeps in every color. We also threw in a 12 pack of plastic eggs. The challenge was to make something out of those items with the craft supplies we had at home... we couldn't buy anything else.

I got home from work that day and immediately got to work. I had a few ideas for a Peep garland. The Peeps were super gooey and very hard (and messy) to get a needle through. Only then did I realize (Emma realized actually) that it would be best to wait for the Peeps to get stale before trying to string them. So I put my craft challenge aside and have yet to pick it back up.... I can't say the same for my co-worker. She came in yesterday with this AWESOME wreath.

She used a foam wreath form, some hot glue and a few toothpicks. I love the colors and it's nice to see this every time I walk into our office. I better get to work with my challenge!!!

In other news... if you actually read our blog become a follower! I'm pretty sure having more than 6 readers would be great motivation for my fellow blogettes (and me).

spring-themed baby shower

Between working on my evil, evil thesis and planning a baby shower for my friend k, I haven't had much time for crafting! Now that the shower is over and since I have already claimed cooking as my creative practice in an earlier post, I figured I'd report in on the crafts and food.

From the very beginning, I pictured a spring theme--with birds and tulips and greens, yellows and whites for colors. It ended up just as I had pictured it.

I had wanted to make stuffed birds as favors using this perfect (and super easy) pattern. In the end, a friend's very crafty mom came through and made ALL of the birds! They were beautiful...

My dad even made a cute display tree for them.

Whenever I have people over, I try to come up with a menu that can be prepped/made ahead of time so I can hang out with guests without having to be dealing with food. I also secretly am not very good at having help in the kitchen, so it's good for me if everything can be done before people arrive!

I went with a chilled pea & buttermilk soup, beef tenderloin with arugula salad, raspberry chicken with baby spinach salad, snap pea and avocado pasta, and a white bean salad (courtesy of pictures & pancakes). H's mom brought a couscous salad with chicken, dried cranberries, pine nuts, chickpeas and other yummy things. Everything was either cooked or cut up and prepped on Saturday, so it all just had to be put together on Sunday before the shower. Besides for making enough food to feed at least 4 times the number of guests we actually had, everything went smoothly! K's mom brought the fixings for delicious bellinis...I had no idea I even liked bellinis!
At the first meeting of the knitting line last week, Stephanie mentioned Baby Shower Bingo. As soon as she mentioned it, I knew I had to have it--I always think the present-opening part is so awkward, and this would give people something to do. I then spent more hours than I care to admit creating the cards...but it was all well worth it--people got very competitive and into it!
I had fun planning and hosting the shower and really enjoyed honoring the mom and baby-to-be!

You Crochet Me Right Round Baby Right Round

Since moving away from my beloved Knitting Triangle I have been very unproductive in the crafting arena. Perhaps it's all of the unpacking, adjusting, and learning that goes along with a new job, but I've been spending my nights horizontal on the futon watching tv. Watching tv is one of my most loathed activities (driving and cooking being two more) but I haven't had the energy to do anything else.

That is until I was inspired by an awesome crochet pattern Steph shared with me, along with a begging note to make her the featured earrings. Crocheted earrings? Sounds awful, but take a look before jumping to judgment:



The pattern called for worsted weight yarn, but of course my complete disdain for being told what to do led me to use bulky yarn. They were huge (that's what she said?) and so I made a second pair in worsted weight yarn. They still looked big so I moved onto something that perhaps was Fingerling weight (I say that as if I know what that means) and those were by far my favorite. Tonight I might try some sock yarn and see what I come up with - needless to say these take me about five minutes a pop because I am a master crocheter. If you have some yarn scraps send them my way and I'll whip you up a pair.

Yo yo ma

I was recently introduced to the addictive art of making yo yos. I promptly gathered all my scraps and recreated this. It's just the first of many necklaces and other projects I hope to create with my newly obtained skill. I am dreaming of all the uses for these little beauties...

In other news our knitting triangle has suffered a great hit... Kristen has left our glorious Bay State for the suburbs of Connecticut. I am hoping she will continue to contribute to the blog... and the remaining members (me and Em) will hold our first meeting of the knitting line tomorrow.

I also have two new knitting projects I hope to get up here soon...

Easter Wreath

I am a chronic early decorator for the holidays. I took out my Easter decorations about two weeks ago. After decorating my apartment it still lacked spring cheer (especially after being covered in hearts) and the one big thing I was missing was a wreath. I contemplated making one out of blown out eggs but after a few disastrous tries last year I decided I needed to take another route.

After an extensive internet search I came upon a silk flower wreath. I've always hated fake flowers but I decided to channel my grandmother's love of decorating with artificial flowers and headed to my local craft to pick up my supplies. And I came upon one realization: fake flowers are really expensive. So I left empty handed. Fast forward to a few days later and a trip to the dollar store and I was well equipped to make the wreath

And I made it for a whopping $6. And it's pretty cool. How can you go wrong with 2 for $1 glitter egg and bunnies? All you need is a foam ring and fake flowers that are on wire stems. Cut the wire stems about 2" and just stick them in as you see fit.