New Years Changes.

Instead of resolutions, which I always seem not to accomplish. I decided to make CHANGES to my life for 2010.
I read this article on a blog recently "Zen Habits". You can find it in my favorite blogs bar on the right side of this page.
So here ya go, I am personally going to follow this myself so that the changes I make will be permanent.

6 Changes

Choose 6 habits for 2010. I'll help you form them.
Read more. Free ebook soon. Also read: The Power of Less.

December 15, 2009

The 6 Changes Method

So how does the 6 Changes method work?

It’s simple:

1. Pick 6 habits for 2010.
2. Pick 1 of the 6 habits to start with.
3. Commit as publicly as possible to creating this new habit in 2 months.
4. Break the habit into 8 baby steps, starting with a ridiculously easy step. Example: if you want to floss, the first step is just to get out a piece of floss at the same time each night.
5. Choose a trigger for your habit - something already in your routine that will immediately precede the habit. Examples: eating breakfast, brushing your teeth, showering, waking up, arriving at the office, leaving the office, getting home in the evening.
6. Do the 1st, really easy baby step for one week, right after the trigger. Post your progress publicly. (Read more.)
7. Each week, move on to a slightly harder step. You’ll want to progress faster, but don’t. You’re building a new habit. Repeat this until you’ve done 8 weeks.
8. You now have a new habit! Commit to Habit No. 2 and repeat the process.

I go more into this method in the free ebook - you’ll be able to download it soon.

For more on successful habit change technique, as well as ways to simplify your life and become more effective, check out my book, The Power of Less.

New hat patterns in my etsy shop!

I've been really busy and having fun writing up patterns to sell in my etsy shop. The two newest are the radical helmet hat & the fun like totally bomber hat.
The bomber hat is done in 4 pieces, the main hat, then the ear flaps and front flaps are done in separate and sewed on. You could also use felted sweaters for the flaps, I am planning on doing this in the next week, and will post pictures when I'm done.

If you are interested in purchasing these patterns please go to my ETSY shop, (Click on etsy to go to my shop).

Two new crochet patterns in my etsy shop!

I've been really busy today making up two of my most favorite patterns. I'm just really getting into putting my patterns to paper, and it's not as hard as I always thought it would be! So I wrote up 2 new patterns today, one for a coffee cup cuff (as shown above), and the other for a rockin' ski beanie.
The cuff is very simple to make, and looks so nice with a little bit of a bubble effect to it, along with a little lacy. The button hole is very easy to make, and I had a blast making these and using up all my vintage buttons that I have gotten throughout the years. You can really make them in different themes depending on the colors of yarn and the buttons you use.

A Fast and Easy rockin' ski beanie.

My 14 year old kept asking me to make him a rockin' beanie, so I finally had him show me what it was. Basically the kids are taking old ski hats and not folding up the bottom, which leaves it long on the crown. I decided to make up a beanie pattern, and then make it longer to look like a rockin' hat. My son loves it because it's cool lookin', and keeps his noggin nice and warm under his ski helmet.

If you are interested, both patterns have been put up in my etsy shop, and on ravelry.

Gluten Free Disney Coconut bars & Homemade Cocoa Mix.

I have been wanting to make homemade cocoa mix for awhile, so I made one up from Martha Stewart's website. Not sure if I like it yet, It for sure needs something else, more sugar? not sure.

Anyway, click HERE to get the recipe from Martha's site.



Today was my holiday baking day. I only got through 3/4 of it before I pooped out. Tomorrow will be gluten free cookies day.
I did change one of our favorite recipes to make it gluten free thou.... So here it is.

Disney's Chocolate Coconut Bars
3 c. GF Gingersnap cookie crumbs.
2/3 C. Butter, melted
1/2 C. Sugar
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
4 1/2 C. Sweetened Flaked Coconut
1/2 C. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 c. Pecans, chopped
2 cans sweetened condensed milk
Red & Green Jimmies or Sprinkles

Preheat over to 325. Line 13 x 9 pan with foil, enough to overhang sides, coat with pam. Combine crumbs, butter, sugar, & cinnamon. Press onto bottom of pan.

Combine coconut, chips & pecans. spread evenly over crumbs mix, pour milk over coconut mixture, sprinkle with jimmies.

Bake 30 minutes, or until light brown. Cool. Use foil to lift from pan.

The Golden Snitch Ornament

I was searching on Ravelry today for what to do with all this cotton yarn that I have. Until today I have only made different dishcloths with it. This is getting kinda boring.
Behold, I found the perfect little project to work up while watching a harry potter movie today. And what's great is that we have an ornament of Harry catching the golden snitch.
So I got to work making my snitch with some sparkle bernant handicraft for the wings, and yellow peaches and cream for the ball. If you are interested in making one of these very simple ornaments to go http://www.innerchildcrochet.com/patterns/the_golden_snitch.php. While your there, make sure you check out some of her other patterns.

New Pattern... Bomber Hat!

I have been going crazy, trying to make a bomber hat from several different patterns. I finally threw up my hands and wrote my own.
Very simple, and the lining pieces are made separate, and then sewn on using a blanket stitch. I'm thinking about making a full lining to see how it would turn out. For sure not something I really want to do because it will take more than one night, so it doesn't fall under my... "Instant Gratification" terms for crochet projects, but I guess you need to step outside the box every once in awhile.
I have posted this pattern in my Ravelry & Etsy Shops.

Well, now that I spent the day writing a new pattern, tomorrow it's clean the house day, and make Christmas goodies day! I'm already tired just thinking about it!

Recycled sweater ornaments

Hey Everyone,
Not very much longer
until Christmas huh? This is a great, and very fast ornament or last minute gift topper you can make for all your friends. I made Stockings, Gloves, Stars & Hearts. I also have Gingerbread Men and Trees ready to make tomorrow.

I have been racking my brain on what kind of ornament to make for an exchange my MIL is having next week. It's also a cookie/candy exchange, but that was the easy part for me.

So today I started searching around the internet and found the coolest idea from DOLLAR STORE CRAFTS.
I decided to make her 10 second ornament project, and the great part about it? I had everything I needed here at home, wooo hooo, no extra money was spent! CLICK HERE to get her instructions on how to make these ornaments.
She has you use lots of different materials to wrap your ornaments with, but I have tons of felted sweaters on hand, I decided to use them instead. I think they really turned out good. Let me know what you think. The more the pattern on the sweater, the neater they turned out.


COZY AT HOME NEWS!!!!!!
I was playing around on Flickr today, and decided to make a cozy at home group for projects that I have featured on my blog. If any of you have made any of the crochet patterns, or other crafts I have had on my blog, please join this group and add pictures. I am so excited to see what you all have been doing. Please follow this link if your interested.... http://www.flickr.com/groups/1285623@N20/

Rockin' Crochet Fingerless Gloves Pattern

I'm so excited to have written my latest crochet pattern. Here is a little blip that I wrote about it in my etsy shop.... Click on the picture of my gloves above to go to my etsy shop.

Rockin' Crochet Fingerless Gloves...

The look or knit, and the speed of crochet. These gloves work up super fast, and are totally fun to make.
Make a pair tonight to give as a last minute Christmas gift. Fingerless gloves are all the rage right now, especially with the teens. This pattern is worked in medium worsted weight yarn. I used classic shades by universal, just because I love they way the stripes come out perfectly. But I suggest you use any nice, medium worsted weight you can find. Fisherman's wool, Vanna's choice, encore, or lamb's pride would be awesome for these, Red Heart does not work well for these. Just remember to hand wash and dry flat if using wool.

The beauty of this pattern? You can totally make it your own. Change colors at the thumb hole, or wherever you wish. Have fun with these, make them in rockin' colors and color combos.

New etsy shop.

I started a new etsy shop called Mountain Paper Treats. My first love is scrapbooking, with crochet a close second. So I decided to start a shop with something that really brings me a lot of pleasure.
I haven't filled it with very much so far, but I am working on it. I'm hoping to do more work on it over the next couple of days. So please check it out off and on.

Team hats.....

I have been having so much fun making hats that I decided to make some team hats... Here is a Seahawk beanie that I made for one of us! I have put some up on etsy, it would be so nice to actually sell some. I might make scarfs to match. I also put up a couple other hats as well that are different, pretty colors.

If you want to check out my etsy shop go to.... Cozy at home accessories.

I've been making hats!

I've been working on hats for all this kids this Christmas! I love this pattern, it is one of my favorites.... Go to Double Double crochet hat pattern to get it. I have made just plain beanies with it, and I have also made some earflaps. My fave is the alpaca in the middle. It's so soft, and I love the color. I have been dying to go and get more of this yarn at my local yarn shop (something olde something new), but keep looking at allllllll of the yarn that I have on hand and it just doesn't make sense to go buy more. I have two more hats to make for presents for my friends kids, and then it's on to something new, like valentine themed hats and scarfs, or who knows!

Back to nature snowman ornament

Here is my newest creation. I just put these sweet pine cone snowmen in my etsy shop.
Please go check them out and let me know what you think!

Acorn Pots

WOW, it's been a long time since my last blog post. Hopefully my hectic life will calm down now and I will be able to crochet and craft more.
These cute little acorn pots were so easy, and fun to make. I saw the pattern in my Sept/Oct issue of Crochet Today, and I'm just getting around to making them. I have to tell you I was a little scared to make them, thinking that they would be a lot harder than they were. Each acorn took me about an hour to make, and I'm planning on making more today out of different autumn colored yarn. These little pots were made with Brown sheep worsted weight wool yarn, but I think I will make more from vanna's choice and some other yarns I have in my stash.

A fun new crochet book

Pop Goes Crochet by: Vickie Howell.
What a cool crochet book! All the patterns are named after different pop culture icons. I have a feeling that this book will be riddled with different colored post it tabs, some patterns are over my head as of yet, but there are a lot that I plan on making soon.

It seems like lately I have been collecting crochet books, online patterns, and yarn, and have done very little crocheting. My goal this week is to get a list going as to what I am making for who for Christmas.

Reusable Lunch Containers

What an awesome idea for reusing milk jugs & juice cartons. I will have to make some of these for us, and I was just thinking, you could also use these for storage of office supplies, craft supplies, you name it!
Go to Family Fun to get the pattern for these great resuable containers!

Gluten Free Bagels

I am just cooking up a storm today. Besides the pancakes, and these yummy bagels, I also have a loaf of gluten free bread baking in the bread maker! I guess that's what the nasty, rainy weather does to me, makes me want to cook.

I have been wanting to make this recipe off of Pamela's bread mix bag, and finally got around to doing it today. Here is the recipe if you would like to try it, we can't wait to cut into these tomorrow morning for breakfast!

Gluten Free Bagels

1 bag Pamela's Bread Mix
1 Yeast Packet (enclosed in bread mix)
1 1/3 cups warm water
1/4 cup oil
1 egg white

Makes Approximately 6 to 7 bagels

1. Combine dry mix, yeast, oil & water (egg white is used to brush bagels before baking)
2. Mix on medium for 3 minutes (I just mixed in until the ingredients were mixed up, then I kneaded for about 2 minutes).
3. Use 1/2 cup of dough for each bagel. Oil hands and place on greased baking sheet, in the form of a bagel. Don't worry about the hole just yet, we will get to that later.
4. Let rise for 1 hour, then poke hole in the center of each bagel
5. In boiling water, boil bagels for 25 seconds.
6. Remove with a slotted spoon and place on greased baking sheet. Brush with egg white, and top with seeds of your choice or sea salt.
7. Bake in preheated 400 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

Yummy Gluten Free Pancakes!

We love having pancakes and waffles on the weekends. I have a tried and true basic waffle recipe that came in the cookbook with our waffle maker, so light and fluffy, they always turn out yummy. So when my son and I had to become gluten free the first thing we thought of was, no more of those yummy waffles! After several trials with using alternative flours and such for the recipe, and trying ready made mixes, I finally have our favorite waffle recipe perfect, and gluten free. This morning I decided to try it as pancakes, and of course they turned out fluffy and awesome. So here is my recipe, hope you enjoy it.

Gluten Free Waffles Or Pancakes

2 C. Gluten Free Mama's Almond Blend
2 TBSP Cane Sugar
1 TBSP Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
1/8 tsp Zanthan Gum
1 3/4 C. Milk
1/3 C. Oil
2 Eggs

Combine Almond Blend, sugar, baking powder, salt, and zanthan gum in bowl, set aside.
In separate bowl, combine milk, oil & eggs. Gradually add milk mixture to dry ingredients. Stir until just blended.
Bake in waffle maker, or spoon onto med high griddle for pancakes. If making pancakes, flip when bubbles start to form on top.

Julie Fox
coziathome.blogspot.com
foxmom1971@gmail.com

Great gifts for girlfriends

I love getting up early on the weekend. The teenager and hubby are still asleep, and I get to enjoy my coffee and read some really awesome blogs.
This morning I was reading "A Journey to a Simple Happy Life" and came across her post on "Great gifts for girlfriends."
So I was thinking, and decided to make up my favorites that I love to get and give....

1. A crocheted coffee cup cozy with a starbucks gift card inside. My Mom gave me this idea, she knitted some really pretty cozies, and then felted them. She said that she thought it would be great to stick a gift card inside. I love to personalize the cozy in my friends favorite colors too, and crochet relaxes me.

2. Fingerless gloves. It gets pretty cold here in North Idaho, and a lot of my friends are walkers. So I started making fingerless gloves for them to use when they are walking, so far they have been a big hit.

3. Hat and scarf set in our High School colors. Almost all of my friends have kids the same age as I do, and they are all going into high school this year. So I have started making hat and scarf sets, for the ones that wear them that is, in our school colors of red & white.

4. Books. I love books, and if I find one that I truly love, I always end up buying it for my closest friends. It's hard to give books to everyone, but I have 3 close friends that read and enjoy the same books I do. This year I am going to add a crocheted bookmark to their books.

5. I love to scrapbook, so I also love making 6 x 6 albums to give to my friends. Sometimes I will put pictures in them of all of us together, and sometimes I just leave them blank for them to add their own pictures. If they have recently went on a vacation, or their kids play sports, I usually do a themed album for them. This is a pretty cheap gift if you use a paper bag album, then all you maybe need is $5 to $10 in supplies to finish it. I have so many supplies I could start my own store, so I usually only make these if I have everything I need.

So there you have it, my top five favorite gifts to give my girlfriends. If you have any ideas, or you have a favorite not on the list, please share it with me!

Upromise Coupons and Deals

Upromise Coupons and Deals

Shared via AddThis

Great Article in Real Simple, and a crocheted beanie for the new freshman!

I thought I would start out with a picture of the beanie I just made for our son. He will be a freshman this year, and wanted a red beaning for school. Their colors are red and white, so I'm sure I will make another one in those colors! This was a very simple pattern that I found on Ravelry. It's a cotton skull cap, or makes a great chemo cap as well. Go to: yarnsandmusings For this awesome pattern! On this particular beanie I didn't do the crab stitch, but I have made these in the past and the crab stitch makes it so cool! I'm thinking that since I have SOOOO much Sugar & Cream and also Peaches & Cream yarn, I will make some as chemo caps to take to our local Cancer services.

O.K. So now onto this great article! I am way behind on reading my magazines, have no idea how that happened, maybe because my life has been so hectic this last month! More on that later. So last night I figured that I had better organize my magazines and start reading all the august issues, since I was already getting Septembers! I found this great article in Real Simple titled "10 ways to enjoy doing nothing". I was so excited to see it! 10 ways to do nothing, and enjoy it? That is so for me right now! Tom Hodgkinson has devoted his career to the art of being idle, I so love this idea, don't you? So here are a few of the ten ideas he has for having idle time...

1. Banish guilt.. He mentions that the great monks in the middle ages spent a lot of time just praying and chanting all day. He says not to feel guilty about just lolling around.

2. This one I really liked... Choose the right role models. He tells us that most of the great poets were idlers. To name a few, Oscar Wilde, Walt Whitman, Keats. For therapy, he says to carry around some works of Keats to look at from time to time. Keats wrote of "Evenings steep'd in honied indolence", doesn't that just sound like heaven?! He also mentions that Wordsworth is also a good poet to check out. "Read a few lines, then stare out the window and ponder their meaning", that sounds like some awesome idle time to me!

3. Take a nap, and he's not talking a "Power Nap", He's talking a real nap! When I can, I actually do this, power naps just make me more tired, why try to sleep for just 15 minutes?

4. Gaze at the clouds or lay in the backyard and do nothing. He mentions that this is great way to take a break from "doing". Listen to the birds and smell the different smells of summer.

So, I thought of another thing to do, crochet! If you can just crochet something so simple that you don't really need to think about it, isn't that idle time as well?

I think today I am going to take him up on some of his idle time ideas, I'm sure I will feel a world of less stress if I just take a few minutes to think about "nothing".

HELP! We have TONS of ripe bananas!

I have a ton of organic bananas that are too ripe to eat now. We had been eating bananas like crazy, so I bought more than I usually do, so of course then we stopped eating them so much!
I peeled them and put them in the freezer, but am now wondering what to do with them. We have 2 gallon ziploc bags in the freezer full of bananas, and we are really sick of smoothies. I just got done using 2 of them for banana cupcakes using the yellow Betty Crocker gluten free cake mix, but need more gluten free ideas.

SO, your challenge, if you choose to except it, is to send me some awesome ideas for using up these bananas. Thanks so much!


On the crochet front, I am still struggling with trying to find a project that gets me excited to crochet again. Not sure if I'm going through crochet pattern overload or what, but I really want to break out of this slump. I did make some boobie beer cozies for my hubby and his friends, that was fun, but don't want to post the picture being it is more of adult content. I found the idea on Ravelry, but made the pattern up on my own to make it without a bottom, this also made it easier and faster to make. Let me know if you want to see a picture, I'm thinking of making another one, less racy, and sell the pattern on etsy. I have some other ideas for different themed cozies, so we'll see what I can come up with and not get frustrated and quit before I begin! lol.

Thanks so much to everyone for reading my blog. I really want to be posting every day about all the cool things to make my home and yours cozy, so keep coming back to see what's new.

Eating Mindfully is very frugal!!!

I was reading beliefnet.com this morning, and found this post about eating mindfully for your mental and physical health. My first thought was, wow, what a great way to be frugal too, like killing 2 birds with 1 stone!

Eat Mindfully

I have found that the key component to adhering to a proper eating plan and getting in exercise is: planning. I know, not very exciting. But it works! If I have meals planned ahead, then I am less likely to mindlessly nosh. It also helps to have meals prepared ahead--to the extent possible. Also, regular meals tends to reduce the temptation to stray from eating plan. This takes some time to do, but if you are wanting to improve your overall health, it's worth the time to do this.

Latte Cozy by Lion Brand

I just got done making this Latte Cozy by lion brand. This was such a fun and fast project! I used lion brand wool prints instead of the Vanna's choice, which I liked better because of the fun stripes it made. If you would like to make one of these cute latte cozy's please go here.

Yeah, I'm crocheting again!

This cute dishcloth was on lion brands website. I used Peaches and cream, and also some sugar and cream to make my version of this dishcloth. I am hoping to make more of these in the next few days, all different colors.

Cute Little Tommy Tiger!

I just found the cutest tiger crochet pattern on Lion Brand! Tommy Tiger<-Click there if you want to make him. I can't find the vanna's choice orange/white yarn anywhere in town, so I am going to try to make him with orange/cream/white peaches and cream yarn. Of course I will post the pictures when I'm done with him. Isn't he so cute?! There is also a Tammy Tiger made with a different vanna's choice color combo.

Menu, Great deals, New Paper Treat & Crochet!

Hey All! Above is a new little tag album that I just made in a beach theme today. I have been really itching to get crafting both with paper and yarn lately, so I started with the paper today. I am planning on putting this little tag album up on my artfire page for sale. On a great note, I sold one of my beginner crochet choker kits! I am so excited that I sold this kit, and hope that this is just the beginning on sales.

On a crochet note, I was very excited when I saw the new Mary Janes Farm magazine in my mail box today, and imagine how thrilled I was when I saw 2 crochet patterns in Mary Janes Farm, one for a upcycled market bag, and also an easy slipper pattern! If you haven't checked out this magazine please do so, it is so awesome, I'm totally hooked on it, and keep all of my issues to reference back to. You can check out Mary Janes website at www.maryjanesfarm.com.

Menu, Menu, Menu,
I have decided to just make up a list of dinner ideas of things I have on hand, instead of having every night scheduled. This doesn't seem to work when we are so busy, and never know what the weather might do. So here is my list of dinner meal ideas.....
1. London Broil on the bbq
2. Homemade pizza
3. BBQ Burgers
4. Drunk Chicken on the BBQ
5. Breakfast for dinner, pancakes, waffles, or something to that effect.
6. BBQ Catfish
7. Steak Tacos from leftover London Broil.

I also have a list of goodies for us and our fury kid Chelsea....
1. Chocolate Mayo Cake
2. Peanut Butter Cookies, Gluten Free, to use for S'mores instead of grahams.
3. Tuna Pasta Salad, with GF Shells
4. Cheesy Dog Biscuits
5. Gluten Free Mama's Scones
6. Gluten Free Muffins
7. Ranch Hummus.


And the Great Deals of the day!

I spent a total of $23.99 for the week on groceries at Wal-mart! I did do a lot of stocking up on dressing (8 cents each!), Mayo (75 cents off), and bbq sauce (50 cents off). This doesn't include the beer, but I'm thinking we have more than enough for this weekend.

1. GV unsalted butter 2/$3
2. GV 1% Milk 2 @ $1.59
3. GV Hamburger & Hotdog buns 1 each at .79 (these are for the hubby, so they last a long time. I just keep a couple out at a time, and keep the rest of the bag in the freezer.
4. GV Light Sour Cream $1.06
5. Peaches 1.35 lbs @ .95 per pound $1.28
6. Organic Salad mix, Big package.. $4.68
7. GV Freezer bags 2.48 (Had to finally throw away some bags again that I had been re-using, bummer! I hate buying zip loc bags.)
8. Red Grapes .98 lb, 2.14 lbs $2.10
9. 3 Kraft Dressing $1.58 -$1.50 coupon .8 cents each
10. Kraft Mayo $2.50 -.75 cent coupon, $1.75
11. Kraft BBQ Sauce .98 cents - 50 cent coupon, .48 cents!

Grand Total???? $23.99! Yeah!!!! I love getting good deals, and especially 8 cent dressing. I am hoping to find more $1.50 dressing coupons, really want to stock up to 19 bottles, have 6 so far.

Stay tuned for some new beanies, am hoping to get motivated to make some new beanies in some fun yarns!

New By the sea chokers!

Well I just updated my etsy store with a few of my new seashell chokers. Check them out and let me know what you think! I really want to get my etsy store off the ground, now that I am at home again, I want to be able to sell my creations to help with the little things that come up here and there. So please check out my store from time to time, I am going to really be trying to fill it full over the next few months.

A Reuse for an old metal t.v. tray!

I found this really cool idea in country living magazine this month. They used an old, metal, t.v. tray as a message center. I happened to have one lying around, but it had a very crazy print on it, like the old 70's prints that were so popular, in the 70's! :)
So, I found a can of navy blue spray paint, and some red and white acrylic paints, and TA DA! My very own, original americana message center that goes with my livingroom decor. I also used an old stamp set I had from Stampin' Up to make the design on it. I tried a stencil first, but it just didn't look good. Here is a picture of the "Message center" before I have things on it and up on the wall....

Wish I would have thought about taking some pics before I started, but I was so excited about this project that I started it without thinking about before pictures!

What to make? What to make? Maybe Drew can help!

Well, it's been almost 2 months since I did any crocheting, and really want to get back into the swing of things. I picked out some different projects, but just can't seem to get myself motivated to pick up the hook and yarn yet. I did pick out some cute flip flop coasters to make by Drew Emborsky, Here is the link to the pattern: Flip Flop Coasters. I was also thinking about making some pet snugglies and toys as well. I really should be thinking about starting my Christmas gifts, I always seem to wait until the last minute, and then not get them done.
So, the jury is still out as to if I am just in the summer mode of playing, or am at a crochet road block! Anyone else ever been in this position? Would love some feed back on how to get out of this crochet/scrapbook/stamping/crafting slump that I'm in!

My Mommy's Easter Scarf

I didn't want to post this until after Easter, so that I was sure my Mom wouldn't see her Easter present!
I made this scarf from the one skein scarf pattern in the book "Stitch 'n' Bitch, the Happy Hooker". I used Ashford Tekapo for the yarn, I still have another skein of this so I might just have to make another one! The pictures were taken on my phone, so they aren't real great, and do not do the scarf justice. My Mom loved it and even wore it while she was here!

The first day at the ocean and it's windy and cold! On the way here I started this nice and warm scarf in anticipation of the cold weather. I had this fun excellent yarn, but not sure what to do with it. So I combined the excellent yarn with a skein of jiffy to make a very warm scarf. I'm really happy with the results!

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required.

Big Stash Giveaway at While They Play!

Head on over to While They Play to see what a great giveaway she is doing. Not to mention all the awesome patterns and crochet blog entries she has! While they play is one of my favorite blogs, so please check it out!

We are off to the Oregon Coast tomorrow, so I will be blogging from my phone! I have a TON of crochet projects that I am taking, I plan on making a new hat and scarf set on the way tomorrow! So check back during the week for blog postings from the Ocean!

Look at these two treat addicts! You would think I was making treats or something! I went to my new favorite yarn store today and found lots of skeins of seconds yarn really cheap, now to find patterns for it. We are headed to the Oregon Coast for spring break, so I'm going through yarn and patterns to take. I think one of them is going to be the fuzzy boot slippers from Crochet today jan/feb '09. Even though Spring is suppose to be here, it's still really cold!

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

Merino Fingerless Gloves

I just got done making these very warm merino wool fingerless gloves from my friends 50th birthday! She does a lot of walking in the morning, so it's pretty cold until about June here, and then it gets cold in the morning again in September. She loved these, I was so happy! They are nice and soft and warm, but not itchy, so that's great!

The shell is finished!

Not sure how I like it, but am excited to get my first clothing item done! I was hoping that it would look a little better on me, but oh well. This was the speed shell pattern from lion brand, it was very fast and very easy. I used Merino Frappe yarn, and it only took about 1 1/2 balls to make it, so I know have 2 1/2 left. I think this yarn will make awesome fingerless gloves, nice and warm!

New crochet project! Speed hook shell

I found the coolest pattern for a shell on lion brand's website.. Here is the pattern link "Speed Hook Shell".
This is the first panel, I'm making it out of Merino Frappe by Crystal Palace Yarns in a very light lavender. Basically you make 2 panels and then sew together at the shoulders and up the sides. I'm hoping to have this done tomorrow so I can start on a shrug made with Homespun. So stay tuned for the finished shell, hopefully tomorrow!

Blue and White Stripe Hat Pattern

Here is the website where you can get the Blue & White striped hat pattern!
yarnandmusings

Enjoy, it is a very easy and awesome pattern!

A couple new hats!

I've been busy making hats again! The brown hat is made out of wool ease thick and quick, and the pattern is the family of beanies pattern from lion brand. The blue striped hat is made out of sugar & cream stripes from my Mom's stash! I found the pattern on ravelry when I was looking for ideas to use the sugar and cream. We will be going to the coast in about a week, so I'm all set for warm and cold weather on those bad hair days at the ocean! LOL!

Scooter's Dog Cookies

This is an awesome dog cookie recipe that I got out of a back issue of Mary Jane's Farm magazine. It makes a lot of cookies, and they take the dogs a while to eat, so they last a long time.

Scooter's Dog Cookies

3 1/2 c whole wheat flour
3 c Rolled Oats
1/2 c water
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 c broth, any variety

1. Preheat oven to 325.
2. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl
3. Drop by TBSP onto greased cookie sheet. Flatten cookie with the back of a spoon dipped in water.
4. Bake for 50 minutes.
5. Cool on wire rack. Store in airtight container.

Makes 5 dozen cookies (I was able to get almost 7 dozen out of this recipe!)

The Felted bag, completed.

Well, I finished up my bag today. Then I did the felting....

This is how it turned out. My washer is a front loader, so it's really hard to felt in it I guess. I'm thinking this will be my one and only felted project. Here is another picure of the finished product...

So if anyone has any ideas how to get this bag to look more felted please let me know.

WIP! My First Felted Bag

I am making my very first bag & felted project!

This pattern came out of the book Chicks with Sticks, guide to crochet, and it's called the laguna felted bag. I am about 75% done with it, hopefully I will have it felted and done by the weekend, or at the latest by the end of the weekend. I used all Lamb's pride worsted weight in Sable, Cranberry Swirl, and the handles are going to be Oatmeal. I can't wait to show all of you when I'm finished!

New yarn!!!

I have lived here for over 18 years, and had no idea that we had the most awesome yarn store! Above is one of each of the new skeins that I bought today. The moda dea I can't wait to make socks out of!!!



I also finally made myself a long, skinny scarf! I used Nashua wooly stripes, in rolling thunder. I basically just did a chain of 125, and then single crocheted for, I think it was 6 rows, basically until I ran out of yarn! I had about a skein and a half. I love the way it turned out, and can't wait to wear it!