Wrist Warmers *For Me*

That's right I made something for me.  It doesn't happen very often.  I have been wanting to make these for a while. 

To be honest they intimidated me a little.  I don't know why, but they looked more complicated than they are.  Trust me they are not complicated at all.  You don't even have to crochet in the round.  For these you crochet in rows and then sew them together.

I think they took about an hour to make them both. I LOVE them.  You would think living in the south, I wouldn't need them but my hands are always cold. I like to ware them to type. In fact I am wearing them right now.

If you would like to make a pair for your self you can find the free pattern here. I used Lions Brand Vanna's Choice yarn in mustard. Such a quick easy project I think I will be making more.

Thanks for stoppin' by and hangin' out.

Little Girls Sweater Dress ~ Up-cycle

One of the things on my "To Do List" for 2012 is to do more up-cycles.  I thought I was time to uncover and dust off my sewing machine to get started.  About a month ago my MIL gave me two huge garbage sacks full of old clothing.  There were several sweaters among the clothes.  Some of them were in good condition just out of date.

I had been wanting to make sweater dresses for the girls forever.  I just never found the right sweater.  Or didn't want to spend money on a sweater just to try it out.  But for free......, I'll try just about anything.

Here is the sweater we are starting with.  Please ignore the pink balloon in the bottom left corner.  The kiddos were helping me take photos.

After I laid out the sweater I took one of Abba's longer shirts that fits her well and laid that on top.

I didn't want to mark on the sweater so I just used pins to make my "pattern".  I made sure to give myself plenty of seam allowance.  That way if I messed up I had more to work with.  I cut on the outside of the pins.  This way I would only have to put one seam down each side of the dress.  I pinned all the way to the bottom of the sweater so I wouldn't have to hem the dress.

Open the shirt after it is cut and place right sides together.  Then sew up the sides and arms.  I took a 5/8 inch seam.  Hem the sleeves by folding them over twice and doing a top stitch around. Sorry no photos of this step.

After I sewed it all back together.  I trimmed my seam a little so it would lay nicer.  Then I zig-zagg stitched the edge of the seam to help with fraying.  If you have a surger you can can just surge it.

I felt like it needed something so I ruffled some satin ribbon and sewed it on in three swirls.  If you would like to see how I make my ruffles you can check out this post.
For a more detailed tutorial you can check this one out.

Paired some leggings and boots it makes for a cute outfit and one happy girl. Now I need to make one for the baby.

Thanks for stoppin' by and hangin' out.

LINK IT UP THURSDAY #4

Are y'all read for a PAR-TAY?!  I know we are!  We had 81 link ups last week.  Yeehaaw.  How cool is that?  

It would be great if we could get even more this week. 

It is so much fun to look at all you talented, creative people.  Y'all are amazing! 

Before we get to see what you have been up to this week.  We get to see the BELLES of the ball from last week.  Because we had so many link ups last week we get extra features this week. YAY!

Cameron from Cameron Homemade   shared her recipe for the cutest, yummiest looking bread.  I just LOVE home made bread.

Becky at The Barefoot Seamstress has a great tutorial for making this beyond ADORABLE Be Mine Valentine Skirt.  Put with these little cowgirl boots could it get any sweeter.

Deidre from Simply Simplisticated created this Island in her kitchen.  She made it with her OWN two hands.  So impressive!

Heidi from All That Brings Joy made over these kitchen chairs.  They turned out so lovely.

Terri at A Creative Princess made matching rag dolly quilt and bag.  I have never seen a rag bag.  I  think rag quilts are so fun and a matching bag to got with it?!  What little girl wouldn't love that?

Great job Ladies!!  Go ahead and grab yourself a Featured Button!  Face Book Features make sure you get a button too. If you didn't get featured here head over to Terry's and see if she featured you.

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This is a shared link party so if you link it up here it will show up on the fabulous Terry's blog These Peas Taste Funny.  We want to see everything you have to link up! Old projects, new posts, giveaways, esty shops, recipes, crocheting, any and everything.  If you have more than one thing to link up even better.  Here are our very simple rules.

1.  Please keep it family friendly.

2.  Link back to our site or grab a button so others can share in the fun.

3.  Following us would be nice. (but don't feel you have to)

4. Have fun, be inspired.


If you would like an e-mail reminder about the party let us know in the comments.  We will happily add you to the list. 
Grab a button if you need one.

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Are you Ready? Get set! LINK IT UP!!!!

Floor Art

It's raining today. AGAIN.  Not that I am complaining, we need the rain so badly.  To be honest I LOVE the rain.  When it is dark and gray outside, warm and cozy inside.  It is a great time to bake, curl up with a good book, or sit and crochet.
While I LOVE a rainy day.  My boys get a little crazy after a while.  You can only watch so much t.v. before you have lost your mind.  Doing the same puzzles and reading the same books over and over don't do much to help either.
I started thinking back to my days of being a NANNY.  I remembered this simple fun activity. Yarn floor art.  You all know that I have a ton of yarn laying around.  I cut some yarn into different lengths. Making sure to give them different colors and thicknesses of yarn.  And told the boys to "draw" on the floor.

You can make simple shapes.

 

  You can get out buttons and other things to "dress" up your picture.  You can get pretty creative.

The boys thought our cowboy (Woody from Toy Story) was pretty cool. He was their favorite thing we made.

We also made numbers and letters, sorry no photos.

A pretty easy, cheap, fun way to change things up when you can't go outside.

Thanks for stoppin' by and hangin' out.

Instant Gratification

I have been working on baby afghans for some women I know lately.  I love them and enjoy working on them.  While crocheting can be a time consuming craft, it is so rewarding to take some yarn and a simple tool and turn them into something functional and useful.

 Something that can warm a little body and brighten a day.  Of course it's not just crocheting that does this.  There are to many crafts and talents to name them all.  The time and talent that go into creating something for someone is what it truly awesome.

Having said all that, this weekend I found my self wanting a project I knew I could finish quickly.  It was time for some instant gratification.  I was getting a little burnt out on the afghans.  And one, just isn't turning out the way I want it to.  Grrrrrrr.

So, I thought I would make my girls some hair pretties.

Aren't they cute!! So simple and above all quick!!!  I hot glued them all onto barrettes or hair clips so the girls can wear them.

The pattern for the heart is actually a bookmark.  I left the tail off and just made the heart.

The flower can be found here I added a pearl bead with thread and put it on a barrette instead of the headband (like the pattern says to).

The original pattern for the bow can be found here.  I wanted mine smaller so I made one up. 

Are you noticing a theme here.  I don't stick to the pattern.  Sometimes I do.  That's the great thing about crochet you can make it your own.

Little Lotte Lou is getting really rambunctious lately.  So, I tried to take some photos of her with her hair done so pretty but.......

you can't see  her hair or the bow. Oh well,  at least you got to look at a cute baby.

Thanks for stoppin' by and hangin' out.