2013 Crochet Calendar

The new 2013 Crochet Calendar is out and one of my patterns made it!

Last summer I was thrilled to be asked if I would like to submit my Easter Marshmallow Bunnies for consideration for the 2013 Crochet Calendar.  I entered my submission and didn't hear whether it had been accepted or not, but a few weeks ago I received a package in the mail and in it was a copy of the calendar.   And I was very excited to see my little Easter Marshmallow Bunnies featured on the weekend page for March 29th, 30th and 31st!   I'm also having a great time looking at all the great projects and trying to decide what to make first.  :)

***Edited to Add***
Calendars are available here at Amazon.com

Rain!!!.....and a Few Finished Projects!

Thank God for rain! An email went around our community the other day urging everyone to pray for rain. We prayed, and that evening it rained, and then it rained all night, and it continued to rain until late morning the next day. So I am thanking God for the rain! We sure needed it. I stood on my front porch when it was raining very steadily to try and catch a picture of it. But the rain just didn't really show up in the photo. You can see though, that our grass is so fried that it is about the same color of the mulch around the bushes in front.

The first project I have to share is actually a project completed by my husband.  I kept seeing kiddie carwashes on Pinterest, which are made using pcv pipe and I thought they were very cool.  I knew my little nephew Eli would love it, so I made a mental note to ask my husband to make one sometime.  Then I saw a step by step tutorial on The Scrap Shoppe Blog, and I knew the time had come.  She did a great job putting together this tutorial and actually suggests inserting misters in the drilled holes, and that way the water just mists out instead of squirting out.  Very cool!  So I printed out all the information for hubby and he put it together.  We invited Eli to come and try it out, and you can see he was a very happy camper.  This kid seriously loves getting wet, he even loves baths!  :)

You can't really see the water very well, because it's misty.  :)

We even caught a Rainbow!

Our niece and her husband are expecting a baby girl in Sept.  I am going to the baby shower this weekend and made a newsboy beanie cap and a pair of matching shoes.  These were seriously fun to make!  The newsboy cap is a pattern by Jocelyn Sass, who is one of my all time  favorite crochet designers.  I love her patterns and this one was just wonderful, and so easy to follow.  You can find the pattern in her etsy shop.

The shoes were made using the pattern "Double Strap Booties" from this etsy shop.  This was a very quick and fun project and I love how they turned out.  I just happened to have in my button stash, exactly 2 large daisy buttons and 4 small daisy buttons, so it worked out perfectly.  :)  And it was a lot of fun to make some baby girl things, I haven't gotten to do that in a while. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Flower Ring Decoration - Free Pattern

Click Here to Get Pattern PDF

This heat wave seems like it will never end!  It's been so hot lately that I haven't felt like doing much crafting.  Mostly I have been hanging out, reading on my Kindle Fire (my favorite possession!) and churning out slushies on my margarita machine (another favorite possession)  :).

But I did manage to blow the dust off the crochet hook long enough to make up some flower ring decorations/ornaments.  Last fall when I did the "Ringing in Christmas" ornament series (links to those patterns can be found on the sidebar of the blog), I received some requests to design ring decoration for other seasons of the year. 

Flowers are stitched around a 2" plastic ring.  They can be strung together to make a bunting, or connected vertically to make a wall hanging. 

Finished size of each flower is 4" across.

Hope everyone is staying cool!  :)

Patriotic Bunting - Free Pattern

I love the 4th of July holiday and have been looking for red, white and blue decorations.  We had bought some large buntings to hang on the outside of the house, and I liked them so much I wanted to create some smaller crochet ones for the inside. 

These work up really quick  Make up as many as you need, then use ribbon to tie together at the corners to connect the pieces.  Each piece is 7 1/2" wide x 3 1/2" high.

Click here to download the pattern

A Few Finished Projects

I've been working on several projects lately, and here are a few of the finished ones. I still have a few more on the hook (and needles).  :) 

Eli and I did our first craft project together.  We used fingerpaints and made a handprint picture for his mommy for Mother's Day.  Big suprise, he really likes using fingerpaints!  It was a very messy project, so we were lucky to have Grandma on hand to help, because it took our four hands to keep up with his two hands.  It was worth it though, because his mommy loved it!  :)

I made a pair of Turkish Bed Socks from a pattern purchased off of Ravelry.  I gave this pair as a gift, but I liked them so much that I have another pair on the needles for me.  :)

These deer hats have been very popular with my husband's family, and I keep getting requests for them.  I think so far I've made about 10 of them.  I have never made so many of one thing before, and hopefully this is it for a while.  :)  It's a basic hat pattern and uses a free chart on Ravelry called Fornicating Deer. 

And I had to throw in this picture of Olivia that I took the other day.  She was so conked out, and the way she was sleeping just made me laugh.  I believe she must have wore herself out from all the mischief she had been in.  Being ornery all day long can be exhausting work!  :)

Simple Stripes Coasters - Free Pattern

Happy Saturday Everyone!

The other day I was working up a batch of my Simple Stripes Dishcloths and it occurred to me that a smaller version of these might make a nice coaster.  They are thick and absorbent, which makes them great for all those cold summer drinks.

This is a very quick and easy project and a great way to use up all those leftover scraps.

Each coaster takes 15 yards of white and 4 yards for the stripe color.

Finished size is 4 1/4" x 4 1/4"

Click here to get the pattern pdf

4 coasters together look like 1 dishcloth  :)

Monkey Onesie Baby Blanket - New Pattern In Shop

Since little Eli is such a monkey fan, I designed this monkey onesie baby blanket with him in mind. :)

The blanket is made of 4 blocks that are made by working color changes to stitch the onesie design into the block. The monkey face and other appliques are made separately and stitched to the onesies.
The onesie blocks are stitched in single crochet, and the borders use half double crochet and double crochet.

Blanket can be made for a boy or a girl. The boy blanket includes a star applique in addition to the monkey face, and the girl blanket includes a flower applique.

Finished size is 33” wide x 35” tall
.
Blanket is made with Red Heart worsted weight acrylic yarn, and uses the following colors and amounts:
Cafe Latte - 11 oz.
Light Blue or Baby Pink - 6.5 oz.
Soft White - 3.5 oz.

Pattern is $4.25 and is available in my etsy shop