weekend project

The ladies of the "crochet club" (yes, we're dorks) and I have been trying to learn how to crochet a hat. This is especially difficult since we do not know the crochet lingo or how to read a pattern. No worries, that is what youtube and ehow are for! However, after three attempts to make a hat from a tutorial Bonita found on youtube (I did everything right, but the hat was clearly made to fit an elephant not a human), I decided to make my own hybrid from the crochet stitch I learned on the tutorial and from counting the number of stitches on a crocheted hat that I already own. Fortunately, this hat did turn out because after crocheting the same hat three times and each time unraveling what I had done, I was ready to give up and just buy a hat and say I had done it. Luckily, there is an easy to follow tutorial for making the crochet flower that adorns the hat: slinky crochet flower. I did not have to repeatedly rework the flower....thank goodness!

I'm smiling because I am glad it is over. I think I will finish the scarf and pot holder that I started prior to making this hat...I could use a simpler project!

mom is spooky crafty!

Check out these cute Halloween cake plates that my mother made. You just take a black or Halloween-inspired plate (like the ones she found at Target), score a candle stick for a bargain at a yard sale and glue them together with some E6000. She even added some spiders for fun.

The spider web plate was my favorite and I was able to take it home with me, but not before she filled it with fresh baked cookies. Spooky and yummy!

craft update

Brannon and I just returned from a very relaxing, and much deserved (if I may say so myself) trip to the beach courtesy of my awesome in-laws. It was nice to sleep in and not have to get up and go sand something or hear nail guns and air compressors! We played some frisbee, ate a LOT of seafood, did some Christmas shopping and I spent some time crafting. I sat on the beach and crocheted potholders for our family members that flooded. I also completed a soft and cuddly crocheted scarf (see the green one below).

I also crocheted the gray scarf and made a ruffly scarf from flannel-I will be making another soon and will include instructions on how to make the ruffly scarf.

Prior to going on vacation. I completed some long overdue embroidery projects. My mother and three other ladies cook dinner for the youth group at White Bluff Church of Christ on Wednesday evenings during the school year. A local grocer donated black aprons to the ladies and I put their names on them for some pizazz.

I also embroidered a Built NY neoprene lunch bag that I scored at Wal-Mart for $4. I was just curious to see if my machine could even sew through something that thick and to see if my hoop would hold it. It was a challenge to hoop and I had to obsessively hover over my machine to repeat stitches for full coverage. So, even though I may not ever want to do it again, at least I know if I wanted to, I could.

Hope to post some more projects soon since my vacation continues with a day off from work on Monday-thanks to good ole Columbus for sailing that ocean blue!