A Few New Patterns in the Shop and a Visit from Baby Eli

I've been busy working on new patterns and playing with baby Eli the last few weeks.  :)  He came to visit me the other day and he even had a special shirt for the day that said "Off to Auntie's".  He's 3 months old now, and getting cuter every day.  I noticed that he is starting to pay more attention to his surroundings, including the TV.  So when he was here, I found a Barney movie on Netflix and set him in his little chair in front of the TV and let it play  He smiled as soon as he saw Barney and was just mesmerized (well, for about 15 minutes).  I took this photo of him watching Barney and he was so engrossed that he didn't even pay attention to me taking his picture.  I emailed it to his parents who are just "thrilled" with the prospect of lots of Barney music in their future.  LOL  Hopefully, he'll still be allowed to come to my house.  :)


"Wow, that Barney sure has some cool songs!"

And here are the new patterns.  Both are available in my etsy shop

Lazy Daisy Potholder 

Dinnertime! Potholder



Some Mickey Mouse Fun (And Minnie Mouse too!)

I was playing around with some plastic rings the other day and came up with these Mickey and Minnie embellishments.  They can be used as a decorations on a gift, magnets, or even as a Christmas Ornament.  They are very quick and easy to make.

You need 3 plastic rings



Crochet around rings with black yarn (I used worsted weight)

Position the smaller rings like Mickey ears and stitch to larger ring

Add a ribbon & tie into a bow

 And while I was in a Mickey/Minnie mood, I made some Mickey and Minnie keychains. I suggested to my husband that we could use them and have matching his and her keychains.  But he politely declined. LOL  I can't imagine why, I think they are very cute.  :)

Edited to Add:  I've been getting requests on how to make the keychains, so I am adding that information to this post.  :)

The keychains were made based off of my Mr. Mouse coaster pattern, which is a free pattern on my blog and can be found here: http://whiskersandwool.blogspot.com/2011/06/mr-mouse-coaster-free-pattern.html

Instead of using the worsted weight yarn, I followed the pattern using size 10 crochet thread and size 7 steel crochet hook. I made two of the body pieces, then stitched on the buttons (or beads for Minnie). Then I attached them by holding the two pieces together and single crocheting around, lightly stuffing as I went. For the bottom of Minnie's skirt, I stitched a few shell stitches along the bottom while I was attaching the pieces. I then made 4 of the ear pieces and stitched two together for each ear, then stitched them onto the body. And to finish off, I stitched the keychain to the top of the head and added a bow for Minnie.

 

Aspen Leaf Potholder Pattern - New in Shop

I finally got around to writing up the pattern for the Aspen Leaf potholder that I had made my mom for Mother's Day. :) It's available in my etsy shop, and can also can be downloaded instantly thru Ravlery by using the buy now button.
 

A Puzzle Card and a Strawberry Potholder

A while back I bought a puzzle magic punch from Herrschners when they had it clearanced for $5.99.  This punch lets you make a puzzle out of a 4 x 6 picture.  I decided to try it out by making a birthday card for my goddaughter Sarah.  I didn't have a photo to use, but I made up a little card in Word, then sized it to be
4 x 6, and printed it out on cardstock, then put it on a self-adhesive puzzle mat (which came with the punch), and then ran it thru the punch.  It has a little drawer to catch all the pieces.  It was a lot of fun to make, and Sarah loved putting together the puzzle to read her birthday greeting.  :)

I also have a new strawberry potholder in the shop. It seemed like a good design to welcome in summer!  :)
The pattern is listed in my etsy shop



Strawberry Potholder

Misc. Projects.....

Hello! I've been busy working on several different projects lately.  Not all of them were the crafty kind, so I'm branching out a bit.  :)

Project 1: Bookmarks
The first one is crafty, papercrafting to be exact.  I saw this fun tutorial on making page corner bookmarks.  The tutorial was easy to follow, and they worked up quickly.

I made some monster ones for my book-loving little goddaughter, Sarah, who will be celebrating her 6th birthday this weekend. 

I also made a couple of adult ones for the book-loving ME.  :)

Project 2: Fire and Ice Pickles

A few months ago, my husband and I were given a jar of "Fire and Ice Pickles" to try.  And wow, were they good! They're a little bit sweet, and a little bit (or a lot) hot, depending on your preference.  We finished that jar pretty quickly and wanted more.



Fire and Ice Pickles

But you can't buy these in a store, you have to make them yourself.  So I did what I always do, and googled it to find a recipe.  Our first attempt, we followed the recipe exactly, but although you could taste the sweetness, the hot didn't really come thru.  So we experimented and kept gradually adding more of the hot stuff until we got it how we liked it.  Here's the recipe with our adjustments:

Fire and Ice Pickles

2 (32 oz) jars of DILL pickles

4 cups sugar

3 tablespoons hot pepper sauce (we used Louisiana Hot Sauce)

1 - 1/2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes

3 garlic cloves, peeled

A few slices of Jalapeno pepper (we used peppers that came in a jar, and also poured in a tablespoon or so of the juice)

First pour pickles into a strainer in the sink and let them drain.

Then cut pickles into chunks and put in a big bowl

Add the sugar to the pickles, and stir a bit. Then add all the remaining ingredients and stir until everything is mixed together.



Cover the bowl and let sit on the counter for an hour or so, stirring occasionally until the sugar dissolves.

Once the sugar is dissolved, spoon mixture back into the jars they came in, or divide them into smaller canning jars.  Refrigerate for 3-7 days before serving (although we've eaten them earlier than that).  Store in the refrigerator.  Warning!  these are very addictive!  :)

Project 3: Homemade Laundry Detergent

I have seen on a few blogs lately that some people are making their own laundry detergent.  It seemed easy enough, and it was very cheap to make, so I was intrigued enough to give it a try.  I made mine following a recipe I found on this blog. 

You only need 3 ingredients: Borax, Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (not baking soda), and Fels-Naptha soap.  I was able to find the Borax and Super Washing Soda in the laundry aisle at Wal-mart and found the bars of Fels-Naptha soap for $1.29/ea. at my local Ace Hardware.

First you have to grate the bar(s) of Fels-Naptha Soap

Then mix grated soap with the borax and super washing soda following this recipe:

2 parts grated soap

1 part Borax         

1 part Super Washing Soda

Two bars of grated soap = about 3 cups, so I added 1 1/2 cups of each the borax and the super washing soda, mixed together and stored in a container with a lid. I use 2 tablespoons of detergent for a regular load of wash.  I've been using this for the past few weeks and so far it seems to be working just fine, and I love the price.  :)  Maybe with all the money I'm saving, I can buy more yarn.  :)

A Cat Fishing Tale...

Gus and Grace have a little play tunnel with a big opening right in the middle of it.

He thinks I can't see him.  :)

I've found that if I use a certain someone's pet string as the bait, and dangle it into that hole,

I can catch me a big ole Cat Fish!

Works everytime! 

The cat fishin' hole where the Cat Fishies are always biting.  :)

Yet another Pet String game to add to our growing repertoire.   :)



Mother's Day Projects

Hello!  I hope everyone had a very Happy Mother's Day!

Here are a few things that I made for my mom this year:

A handmade Mother's Day Card:

I made this card from a cardmaking kit I had

My mom LOVES Aspen trees, so I made her an aspen leaf potholder

And I made her some Criss-Cross Coasters using this tutorial from Allsorts.  I've made these coasters several times before, and it's a fun and easy pattern.  The fabric is a "Birdie" charm pack from Moda.

I also got a visit from my sweet little Eli (my nephew) this weekend. He brought me an adorable photo collage of pictures taken of him on Easter, where he's posing with his chocolate bunny that I for made him.
He has this expression that he's made since day 1, where he furrows up his little brows at us, like he can't figure out what the heck we're doing.  I love this expression, and it cracks me up everytime he does it, so of course that was my favorite picture taken on Easter.  So my sweet sister made sure to use that one as the main one for my photo collage.  I LOVE IT!! THANKS BECKY!!  :)

 


Close up of the "furrowed brow" look.
He's thinking "Grandpa, WHY do you keep pointing that little black box at me?"