Where is Spring??

We have been so cold here in Idaho, and the snow storm yesterday made me think that Spring is never going to get here! We have been fighting colds and flu constantly since November, and really need some sun and warm weather to kill all the yucky crud going around.

Yesterday was clean the craft room day, and once I was done I decided to maybe make some of the spring things that have been sitting there waiting for me.

I made this cute garland with a package of corrigated letters I picked up at Tuesday Mornings for .99 cents. I used my set of bic mark it's to decorate them, just coloring in the stripes in different spring colors. I also had bought some little spools of ribbon at hobby lobby for .50 cents and decided to only use it on a few of the letters. The clothes pins I bought at Michaels in the dollar section, and actually had all the letters attached to the rope, but they were way too heavy. so I decided to just use 3 of them and use them for the flowers. The rest of the flowers I attached with the glue gun. I actually used some little paper clip accents that I have had in with my brads for years to attach the letters.
Pretty fast, cheap & easy project.

CROCHET NEWS:
I'm taking a break from writing and selling patterns to work on some things for me and family members. I am finally working on a very simple afghan for my hubby and I. I have just started, and already can't wait until it's finished! I'm not sure if I just haven't found the right pattern or what, but it just isn't very much fun. So you might be seeing a post of trying a different pattern here soon.

Dollar Days at Lettering Delights!!

I love Dollar Days! There are so many things you can do with Lettering Delights graphics!
Click on my banner on the side of this page to go and get some awesome deals for making cards, tags, scrapbook pages and more! And stay tuned for some fun ideas I hopefully will be making today.

My Frogged Bag!

The other day, I decided to go through my stash and, *gasp*, give away some yarn. I have so many one skeins of yarn that I will never use, and figured my friend, and new crocheter, could go through it and use some for hats and such.
As I was going through this yarn I found a bag that I had frogged clear back in October. I was making it for our trip to Vegas, and had gotten to a point in the pattern that I just couldn't wrap my brain around. So I had thrown it in the chunky yarn tote and forgotten about it. What's funny is recently I have been really wanting to make myself a new bag, but just couldn't find the right pattern. When I found this *frogged* bag, I decided to make lemonade out of lemons, so I made a long strap in single crochet to attach to what I had finished on my bag.

I also did something that I have never done, and used something that I am actually scared of, lol! I made a liner for this bag out of a bit of fabric that I had bought from Wal-marts clearance section a long long time ago, using my sewing machine, *another gasp*. It's not the prettiest thing in the world, but works. I also have one of those kangaroo pouches that lets you can transfer things from purse to purse, so I didn't even need to sew in any pockets, which is a good thing!

Overall, I love the way it turned out. And I am so proud of myself for 1. making something work that I had given up on, and 2. stepping out of my comfort zone and making something with my sewing machine. If you would like to see what pattern I used, yarn and such go HERE to Ravelry and check it out.

Oma Slippers... Fun Crochet Slipper Pattern

I was searching around on ravelry one night, and came across this cute pattern for Oma Slippers. I tried 3 different slippers in my STUPID state one day, and just couldn't get them to work... Dumb me I was missing a whole part of the pattern, DUH! So the next day I started all over again with huge success!
The pair above was made with Universal Classic Shades that I bought here in Sandpoint at Something Olde Something New in Fosters Crossing. I also made a pair for my sweet Mommy in law that has been super sick with a bad cold lately. Those I made with Universal classic chunky.
Go to RAVELRY to see all the info on these, and go to ETSY if you would like to purchase this awesome pattern!
I'll put more pictures up as I make them. I'm onto my third pair now, one for a friends with very cold feet, then a pair for my Mom (shhhhh, it's a secret), and finally a pair for me in fun spring colors. Maybe if my slippers are spring themed, spring will get here soon right?

Baked Oatmeal

I know I have posted this before, but it's been so popular I decided to post again.
It's a snow day here in Idaho, with bitter cold, and a blizzard warning. So I decided to make our favorite Baked Oatmeal for breakfast... (I'm digging the picture I took with my phone using the retro camera app for android.)
So here is the recipe, I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Baked Oatmeal....

3 cups rolled oats (use gluten free if you have an allergy)
1 cup brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup of one of the following... dried cranberries, raisins, walnuts, chopped apple, banana, or blueberries

Preheat oven to 350
In a large bowl, mix together oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder and salt.
Beat in milk, eggs , melted butter, and vanilla extract. Stir in fruit or nuts of choice if you want, you can also leave this out all together.
Spread into a 8x8 pan, greased.
Bake for 40 min.

Comes out really yummy and filling! This morning I didn't put any fruit in it and just added a handful of blueberries on it. My son likes to mix in a spoon of natural peanut butter.

Our Valentines

I should have posted this on Valentines Day, but I have been so down in the dumps I just don't want to do anything. I haven't even worked on my purse, all I want to do is sit and stare into space!

So, we did have a good Valentines day. The day before we went out to eat with friends, that was a lot of fun, and my son's now ex girlfriend (another long story) gave him this really cool candy bouquet.....

I think this would be a fun gift for a birthday, or really cute with all Easter candy for the older kids from the Easter Bunny.

I decided that this year I was going to make goodies for my 2 boys...

For my son I made gluten free devil's food cupcakes with strawberry frosting. I used the gluten free cake mix and frosting by betty crocker. This mix is so awesome, you can never tell they are gluten free! He was totally excited about that.

For the Hubby I made his favorite.....

Popcorn cake! This is actually a Christmas thing, and the recipe is from his step mom. I actually have changed it a little because He really likes it when it's gooey....

Popcorn Cake...

1 stick of butter (you can use margarine, but why eat something that is so close to plastic?, yuck!)
6 cups popcorn or so ( I use one of the microwaveable bowls so basically it's a full bowl, or if you use an air popper it would be a full bowl of that.
1 package of the big marshmallows. For vday I used the jet puff strawberry hearts they came out with, and Christmas I used the vanilla snowman, it gave it a different flavor for each holiday.
1 package of hoilday m&m's
about a cup, or more of gum drops. I used those gummy hearts for this one.
1 cup of peanuts if you want to, I didn't use them for this one, and the hubby actually liked it better.

Melt butter in big microwaveable bowl. add marshmallows and cook two minutes at a time until melted. Add rest of ingredients and spread in a greased 11x13 pan. Put in the fridge for about an hour to set up. Make sure you keep covered!


Since I am trying to watch my sugar intake and other things I eat, since I haven't been feeling up to par, My hubby got me this cute flower arrangement in a hersey's kiss candy dish...

I love it when you get things you can reuse!



So that's about it on Valentines day. Hopefully I will get more in the craft/crochet mode soon and will have a finished bag and other things to show you!

Third Times A Charm???

I've been working on making this spiral bag out of crocheted gifts (love this book by the way!)

I have actually made this bag before, but it came out a little small for me...

I was looking on Ravelry to see what other yarns have been used to make it a success. I decided to try using Sugar n' Cream.

The first bag I started I realized I wouldn't have enough of the color I started with, and they didn't have any more at the local yarn shops. So I started a second one...

Well after a couple hanks being so knotted that I was pulling my hair out, I quit using the better cotton and went back to sugar n cream. I really didn't want to go and spend money on colors I didn't have, so to my stash I went. I found more than enough natural with pastel flecks, a nice pink, a soft pink and cream stripes, and a good old cream. So here is the bag so far, with the nice fleck done, starting on the pink......

Yesterday at the yarn shop stitch n' bitch I got the rest of the pink done and I'm now on to the pink and cream stripes....

I'm hoping to have this done by the end of the weekend. But I do need to take a break and finish a red hat for my teenager valentine. I have made him so many hats lately He's probably gonna say "Mom, another hat?" But he's wearing them, so I figure he can never have too many.

Felted Crocheted Coasters

I was searching around this morning and found this really cool idea and pattern on wee folk art. You can find the patter HERE. I think instead of doing the weaving in of different colors, I am going to use a multi colored wool yarn that I have in my stash. Of course I will post my finished project and list the yarn I used. I'm really excited about this one, I've been wanting to make coasters, and I love felting!

Valentines day decor

I have been having so much fun making things for valentines day. Here are some of the fun things I've made from ideas I've found online....

Here is my vday tree. I found a package of wood heart shapes at wal-mart for $1.97, had some valentines day paper and stickers that matched that I thought would make cute hearts. All I did was trace around the hearts, cut them out, adhered them to the wood hearts with mod podge, sanded the edges, and then mod podged the whole heart. They turned out really cute! And for the tree I used an old vase I had, some spanish moss, and some twigs that I had bought at the craft store. I was thinking about just going and cutting twigs in the woods, but really wanted them to last. My plan is to make a tree for every holiday or season using these branches and vase.

Here is a close up of the hearts. 

Here is another mod podge project. I bought this plain red mailbox in the dollar section at target. I used the same valentines day paper and stickers to decorate it. Now I wish that I would have bought some more.

This one was fun! I used my cricut to cut out the hearts and letters using my sure cuts a lot program and some lettering delights dingbats. I'm really loving sure cuts a lot and the cricut.

I'm loving this picture.. keep calm and love on. I put it next to a collage of pictures of my sweetie and I in Vegas for Sema this year. I think I will keep this picture out next to the collage all year long. All I did was search keep calm in the graphics section of google and found the print.

And here is the finished product, everything put together for a fun valentines day mantel.

What to wear.. Red Heart & Double Stitch Twins Patterns

I'm a huge fan of the Double Stitch Twins, and the new patterns they have up on Red Heart are so cool! This Multi-Wear Poncho is really neat, I wish I was more of a poncho wearin' girl. If you are, you can find the pattern HERE

Now here's one that I would love to make, and might just do it! Webby Sundress or Skirt. This will be one that I will maybe make after I get my summer clothes out, and see what fun sundress might be just a little bit more fun with this over it. Then it's a matter of yarn shopping for the right colors... OH NO! Pattern for this cute dress... right HERE

Here is one I have all printed out and ready to make, just need to figure out what colors I want use. When I saw this pattern I new that it would be something I would love to wear, and making it might bring some spring/summer to this very dreary winter! If you would like to make this fun camo corset you can find it HERE.

Here is another one that looks like it would be super fun to make and wear. I'm hoping that after the corset I will be in the mood to make this cute little Happy Days Halter. HERE is the pattern.

And, of course I have to end this blog post with a very cool Flapper Hat! I love the button that they used, and I am just going to HAVE to make this one. The pattern is HERE if you are interested.


So, I'm sure you know where I'm headed with this. These are the projects I've picked out that we might possibly want to do as a CAL. So please comment on which patterns you would like to do as a CAL, or if you want to do all of them that would be totally awesome too.
I need to get out of the easy peasy patterns that I love to make, and make somethings that I see on sites or in books and say... "woah, that is so cute, I need to make that!"

But, the first one that I am going to make has nothing to do with what to wear, it's for my new ipad that my loving hubby gave me for my birthday and christmas this year......

I have on hand the pink camo and a plain pink for the heart. If you would like to make one with me please go HERE and get the pattern. It would be kinda fun to post in the comments what colors you are using. I will make sure the Flickr group is working so we can all post pictures of our projects.

Alice Cullen Loom a Long

My friend Kimmie and I are going to start making these tomorrow at the yarn shop.....

 

I'm so excited!!!