I love holidays and decorating for them. I don't really have anything for the 4th of July so I checked on Pinterest to see what I could find and I came upon this pin.
As you know, I love to crochet, so I always have plenty of yarn around the house. I got the wreath form at Hobby Lobby and used a 40% off coupon and bought a sheet of sparkly white felt for the stars. I used a stencil I had to trace the stars onto the felt and then used fabric glue to attach them to the wreath.
The Verdict: Pin-Worthy
It's as easy as wrapping the yarn around the form! There's really no specific skill involved. If you're a little scared of crafting this would be a great one to try out.
Here's how mine turned out!
I liked the bigger stars better than the smaller ones. I even gave a couple as gifts and they loved them!
This HAS to be one of my FAVORITE designs ever! I came up with this crocheted super-hero doll when some friends were having a baby boy and decorating his room with a super-hero theme. Once I started work on it my little girl was begging for one of her own. :) One thing I love the most is that you can customize it to match your child. Hair color and style, letter on the chest, and the child's favorite colors make it extra-special. If you like it you can check it out over at Dani Girls Designs. Let me know what you think of it!
Hello, friends! I recently added a new item in my crochet shop that I LOVE! It's a crochet bow tie/headband. It works either way! Check it out over at Dani Girls Designs!
I LOVE HALLOWEEN!!!! I love the colors, costumes, candy, creepiness, but most of all...the decorations!!! I'm so excited about my mantel this year!
Ta-da!
Mom, Reagan and I went to the Reelfoot Craft Fair a couple of weeks ago and I saw these awesome Halloween apothecary bottles. They were $10 a piece. No thanks. But I took a good look at them and figured I could come up with something similar. Here are some of my results.
Aren't they awesome!?!?!? (And how cool is that skull I got at Big Lots?)
I used bottles and jars my mom and I already had laying around our houses. The covered bottles were made by using some old cut up t-shirts of Justin's. I brewed them in some tea to dirty them up, then wrapped them around the bottles using decoupage glue to hold it on. I covered the tops as well and then wrapped some jute gardening twine I had around them. The colored liquids are just water and food coloring. The moon dust is sugar and iridescent glitter. The only things I had to buy for the bottles were the spiders and gummy eyeballs that filled the jars and some green food coloring. The super awesome labels came from Love Manor. The labels are available here. You can download them from their flickr stream and print them on your own printer. How awesome is that?
I also made the wreath with a sign I already had and a wreath form and floral mesh I bought at the craft fair.
I love my mantle so much!!! I'm really excited at how well it turned out. I wanted it to be spooky, but not too scary. I do have a two year old after all. :) What do you think?
Well, I said Reagan had been teething pretty easily with these two teeth and now I regret it. She has had a horrible day. She was crying and cranky for most of it. I put her to bed early and used the time to make some more bows for her.
I know the navy may seem random, but it was made for a specific outfit. :)
In one of her non-crying moments she was playing in her room and when I went to check on her she was doing this.
I guess she's gonna start climbing everything. Uh-oh. She also likes to step up on the side of her activity jumper.
Day 21 of 30 days of music is a song you listen to when you're happy. I don't necessarily listen to this everytime I feel happy or only when I feel happy, but I think it's a happy song. How can you not smile when listening to it?
I know I didn't post yesterday's 30 days of music but I promise I'll get to it. Yesterday Mom, Reagan, and I went to Tuscaloosa to do a little shopping. We were in search of sleepers for Reagan. She's still too skinny for 12 month stuff but she's too long for her 9 month sleepers. She couldn't straighten her legs out in them anymore. We ended up getting some decent deals at The Children's Place. I'd never shopped there before because I had assumed it was expensive like Gymboree. They were having a really good sale so we got several things. Later we came home and watched Twilight and New Moon. Mom is reading the books and had finished the first two so I got her caught up on the movies. We were up late watching them which is why I didn't post last night. This afternoon we worked on some bows for Reagan. Earlier this week Mom bought her this outfit.
So I made this bow to go with it.
Mom also had made Reagan a dress and made this bow to go with it. I don't have a pic of the dress because it's in Reagan's room and she's sleeping.
I thought we did pretty good for our first shot at making bows! I really had a lot of fun doing it and it was pretty easy for me to figure out. We used tutorials to learn the different techniques. This is something I think I could really get into. Who knows, maybe I could sell some.
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So yesterday's 30 days of music song was a song that reminds you of somewhere. The place is a random spot on the highway between the interstate and Demopolis. You see, Justin accepted the position here in February of his second year in preaching school. We would drive down every other weekend. Making the drive that often can get pretty boring. Plus that section of road is exceptionally dull. Every time, to have some fun, I would play this song and force Justin to sing one part and I would take the other. :) Sometimes I still play it on that stretch if I have it with me. I at least think about this song most of the time we drive on that road. It's fun song that makes me smile...and now think about that boring highway.
If I Had $1,000,000 by Barenaked Ladies
(sorry about the random video but most of the live ones had poor sound quality)
Todays song for 30 days of music is a song that reminds you of an event. A while back Wicked (the musical about who the wicked witch from the Wizard of Oz really was) was on tour and came to Birmingham. I informed Justin that I would be buying us tickets with my birthday money and we would be going to see it. He whined a little, like most men do about musicals, but still went willingly. :) Once we walked in and he saw the huge stage and set and the live orchestra he got a little more excited. He had no idea how amazing these productions were. Anywho, I was pregnant at the time and Reagan danced around in my belly the whole time. During this song in particular she moved around A LOT. Who can blame her, it is the best song in the musical. Marcie Dodd, the girl playing Elphaba (the wicked witch) was amazing. Any of Marcie Dodd singing on youtube are not good quality because they were done by people trying to hide their camera and record illegally at shows. I'm giving you the Glee version. The kids on this show can SING! It's a shorter version.
This is the version from the original cast recordings from the musical.
When I was in college, I asked my grandmother to teach me how to crochet. Ever since then I have loved doing it. It's become the hobby I spend the most time doing. Even when I don't have someone specific in mind to make something for I will make scarves with left over yarn, just to have something to crochet. My first few attempts at projects did not go so well. As a matter of fact, I never did finish my first one. I would work on it for weeks then rip the whole thing out over and over. Eventually, I didn't even want what I was working on anymore so I decided I should just move on to another project. The next project was a blanket for Justin. I honestly think I worked on it for over two years. I finished it, but in the end it was a little odd and not so pretty. I like to think I've improved since then. :) Here are some of the projects I've done in the past.
I made this for my bff from high school, Tristan, when she got married.
This one was for Justin's sister Keila when she got married.
Blanket I made for Reagan.
Scarf I made with leftovers.
Another scarf from leftovers.
My current project. I'm making a blanket for Justin's sister Meeka for her wedding present. (Don't worry, she already knows. When we gave Keilahers, Meeka said she wanted one and I told her she had to get engaged first. She requested pink and brown.)
In case you can't tell, I love to do blocks. I get my block patterns from 200 Crochet Blocks by Jan Eaton. Occasionally I make a few changes to them, like taking off rounds to make it smaller. The book also has really clear, easy to follow instructions on the different types of stitches.
Justin says I should make blankets from the blocks and sell them. I would love to do that, but it usually takes a good deal of yarn and a lot of time (around 1 hour per block). I don't know that anyone would be willing to pay the amount it would take to cover the yarn and enough to make it worth my while. Plus, having a baby means I wouldn't be able to guarantee when it would get done. I'm lucky if I can do one square a day. I usually try to take the hour from 4pm to 5pm to watch Gilmore Girls and crochet. It doesn't always work out, but it's always nice when it does.
Thursday we had a visit from some good friends that we haven't seen since we left Memphis. Kyle and KelleeGilpin (and, yes, Kyle is the son of THE Eddie Gilpin ;) ) came to Demopolis while they were in Tuscaloosa visiting family. We went out to eat and hung out for a while. It was so good to see them! I miss having all my "preacher wife" friends near me! I really think they are the only ones that completely understand what my life is like because they are living it too. I hope we get to see them again soon!
Over the past week I have been working on Christmas wreaths for my front doors. I finally got them done. This was my first attempt at bows and I thought they turned out pretty well. My mom taught me how to make them when she was down last weekend. She is really good at making them.
This week Reagan also learned a new trick! She found her feet! It seems like she's learning something new every day. She's also been chewing on stuff a lot. A toy, my hand, it doesn't matter, whatever's in front of her is going to get chewed on! :) She's also started drooling. Does this mean the teething is coming soon? I don't look forward to that!
Here is my sweet girl in one of her outfits from my Gran Gran. We took this some time after church services today. She's such a happy baby! Unless she's tired then it's a whole other story...not even three months yet and already fighting sleep!
