Yum yum yum yummy yum yum!!

The recipe for these cookies can be found here . Made these last night and they were surprisingly good! I had watched the Martha Stewart show the other day when she made these and decided to try it out. No, none of us in this house have to worry about gluten or flour or anything like that, but the cookies looked so darn good I just wanted to try them. Glad I did!! After you're done drooling over the photo...go to the recipe and make it! :)

Also...International Craft Swap!

Spreading the word here :D This sounds like a great idea to me!

Yarn Can

If you've been looking for a way to keep your yarn from rolling away from you while you work with it, or want to keep it inside of something while you're not using it... here is one solution. Empty canisters (like coffee cans or oatmeal containers...anything like that with a lid) work perfectly once they are cleaned out.

To make a hole in the center of the lid for your yarn to come through (and not have it getting shredded) simply poke a small hole with a nail or pin, then use a flame underneath for *a few seconds only*. It will melt the plastic very quickly and help make the hole bigger and have a smooth edge that won't cut up your yarn.



For my canister in the pictures, I wanted to hide the old label. All I did was wrap yarn around and around from the bottom up to the top, using a little bit of glue at the beginning and end to hold it in place. Make sure to leave an edge at the top without yarn so your lid can still fit back on. :)

Bright Owl (crochet)

Now is it just me or does it look like it's had too much caffeine? Oh well, that's what I get for making things in middle of the night without much lighting!

This was requested because someone in this house was jealous about the blue owl I made for someone else in this house. (see the blue one in the page banner at the top?) Her only specifics were "purple and pink!" and of course I don't have the pattern from the blue owl anymore (was a library book already turned back in) so I just decided to make it up. I've done a few of the little owl-type toys so I already had the basic idea how to do it.

Anyway here it is :) And she's happy with it, so that's all that matters!

Donuts and a Gnome (crochet)

This is what a messy work area looks like...hahaha You can see the start of my gnome there laying on his non-existent-yet face.



And here he is all complete! I didn't have a pattern to make him, I just kinda made it up as I went. It was basically like making a long stocking hat but on a much smaller scale. He is stuffed with fiber fill and made with 100% cotton yarn.



How about a couple of donuts? These are calorie-free :D :D



Want coffee with that? :D (Sorry I drank half of it already...)

Cute Java pair (crochet)

I'm very happy with how these little java mugs turned out :D :D I mashed 4 or 5 pattern ideas together to make them and now I just need to remember exactly what I did and write it down! haha This particular pair is going up in my Etsy shop hopefully by this weekend. I decided to sell them as a pair since they are so cute together. There will also be more photos so keep checking back to see when they're up! :)

Peek-A-Boo Snail in a Pear (crochet)

This is Phillipe the Snail and his little home, the Pear. I made them for one of my nieces who is having a birthday in a couple days. :) I hope she likes them!! The pear is perfect for storing any little trinkets she might like to put in it and then of course Phillipe. :D

Crocheted using 100% cotton yarn and mostly single-crochet stitches.

Panda Hat (crochet)

Now that her birthday is past, I can post this! I made this panda hat without a pattern for one of my bestest friends' birthday. She LOVES pandas and has been asking if I thought I would be able to make one of these, so I thought I'd give it a shot. This photo isn't really doing it much justice either because the head is a little squished in so the face look disproportioned...please tell me I'm not the only one who ever squished a Barbie head to see what the face did..??? Yeah...kids do the strangest things. Moving on...

I've got to get photos done still for the latest projects to go up on Etsy, but hopefully by this weekend I should have a whole new batch of goodies to put on there. If you are stopping by for the first time here, thank you for visiting! Don't forget to 'follow' if you'd like- I'd love to see who out there actually reads this and is interested in what I have to say/show hahaha :D Happy Weekend, everybody!

Headbands with Embellishments (crochet)

Sometimes I finish up crafty projects and don't have any ideas of what to create/make next. That is what happened to me yesterday. I'd finished making a friend's birthday gift and couldn't decide what was next. So I went looking through some books for inspiration and found the big flower and thought about making a headband to put it on. So the one above is the finished thing, followed by another one with a big flower. :)

Then with Valentine's Day right around the corner, I thought maybe a headband with a heart would be cute. The pattern for the heart was a little bit tricky for me to figure out at first, but after a couple tries at the start...I got it and it made sense. :) I love these projects because they are fairly quick to do and you can usually get one completed in one sitting. I would love to make some to put in my Etsy shop and these two will probably also go up in there eventually. :)

Amigurumi Ninja (crochet)

Here's hoping that my S-I-L doesn't see this anytime soon :P I made this little ninja guy for her birthday that is coming up in a couple of weeks. It's standing next to a pop can to show his size.

The pattern to make him comes from a book called "Creepy Cute Crochet" by Christen Haden and it is all amigurumi. I've checked it out from the library at least 5 times now...I think it might go on my *must own* list of books. :D The same book also has patterns to make Nosferatu, Medusa, Ghouls, Zombies, Robots, etc. I recommend it if anyone wants to try something other than the typical animals you see everywhere.

Those owls and a long green hat

Finished up another long stocking hat last night and used about 1 1/2 skeins of yarn with shades of green. The swirly/circle designs that came out in it were pretty nifty considering I didn't choose for it to do that. :D

The owls from a post several weeks ago- well, they turned into barrettes this morning! I traced around the outside edge and cut out felt to sew onto the backsides. Then attached a couple of alligator clips to them and voila! A cute barrette! :) I had been thinking over what to do with them and decided they were too small for what I wanted, but perfect for these.

Off to another project! :)

Pinwheel Barrettes

I made some pinwheel barrettes today for a customer on Etsy who wanted specific colors. I like doing these- they are pretty quick and look so cute on! I have several others up for sale also in other colors. :)

In other news today...One of the kids was playing with a toy fishing pole and I asked "Do you know what you catch with a fishing pole?" The answer was "Yes... water!". :D hahahaha I love kids' answers to questions. (she is only 4, so I was impressed).

A tip !!

When I was working on this cupcake scarf and at the point of trying to attach all of the teeny tiny pompoms for sprinkles...I came up with an idea I thought I'd share. Instead of using your fingers to dip the item into glue (or ruining your good tweezers and gunking them all up)- use a hairpin! You can barely see it in the photo sitting on the paper near the q-tip, but I have a hairpin there. It was perfect for picking up the pompoms and dipping in glue, then placing it on the cupcake.

The best part is they are dirt cheap...like 100 in a pack for $1 and you can just throw it out when you are done! You could use these for all kinds of "tweezer" activities involving glue or placing small stuff. :)

Colorful Corkscrew-Edge Scarf (crochet)

Well if you can believe it, we actually had a dry couple of hours here today and somewhat warm, too! At least it wasn't in the 30's. This pretty scarf took roughly 15 hours to complete and an entire skein of super soft, a little fuzzy, rainbow yarn from one of those HUGE rolls. It is going up on Etsy where there will be more photos if you'd like to see. :) I like the final result of how this turned out!

Rockin' Pink and Black LONG stocking hat :D (crochet)

Wooohooo look at that! Hehe I used magic to get it to stay up like that >.> Not really...it's got a wrapping paper tube stuck inside and I put that over the top of my paper towel holder (the kind that sits upright on your counter). :D

This hat I finished last night in the wee hours of the morning but I was so tired I ended up not doing the pompom until just a little bit ago. So now that it's on it, here is the photo! Taken from my phone, so it's not the best...I will have better ones later on when I list this for Etsy. Most likely tomorrow or this weekend it will go up on there. :) I need to make sure to get one of someone wearing it so it shows how long it hangs down.!

p.s. we can all agree to ignore the laundry basket in the background, right? :P

New design

Today I thought would be a nice day for a little change-up on here and so I'm going to test out this new design and see what I think in a couple of days. It is difficult to get a color to read on that isn't tough on the eyes. Let me know what you think of this one :D

the BEST caramel popcorn ever!! recipe here :)

Every time I make this, it reminds me of going to the Lloyd Center Mall in Portland, OR as a kid to get caramel popcorn after ice-skating or getting it to take in to the theater. The entire house smells like a candy kitchen and it is very difficult to wait to eat it! :D I thought I'd share the recipe on this snowy day.


THE BEST CARAMEL POPCORN EVER!!

1 CUP BUTTER
2 CUPS BROWN SUGAR
1/2 CUP CORN SYRUP
1 TSP. SALT
1/2 TSP. BAKING SODA
1 TSP. VANILLA
1 CUP WORTH OF POPCORN KERNELS- POPPED

1) Preheat oven to 250* Place popcorn in a very *large bowl.
2) In saucepan: melt butter; add sugar, syrup and salt. Bring to a boil stirring constantly. Boil withOUT stirring for 4 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla (this may spatter a bit if you don't take it off the heat) and then the baking soda.
3) Pour in a thin stream over the popped-corn in the bowl and stir it up with a wooden spoon to coat all the corn. The syrup is extremely hot so be careful here!
4) Place the coated popcorn onto shallow baking sheets and bake at 250* for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes while it's baking. Remove from oven and allow it to cool completely before breaking into pieces.


You can store this in an air-tight container (I use the big Cambro container you see in the pics) or ziplock baggies. The amount this makes filled my Cambro plus one gallon ziplock. Plus we ate some. :D

*I use a rather large bowl to mix mine in, but as a tip if you don't have a huge bowl like that, you can put your popped corn into a paper grocery bag and pour the caramel over it in that, then fold the top down and shake it like crazy to coat it before pouring it onto the baking pans.

Cupcake Beanie (crochet)

What better way to keep your head warm than with a cupcake hat?? :D Finally found the pompoms I was searching for and got them put on...now it's complete. :) I'm going to list this up on Etsy and there will be more photos there. *love* cupcakes!!!

Another Carrot Scarf :P (crochet)

Yay finished!! It's pretty much identical to the one I made for my sister and posted a while back, but a slightly different orange and green color. I would say to make this takes just under 1 skein of the orange...assuming you are using a "regular" skein such as Carron super soft or red heart super saver. Whatever yardage those come with. The green portion is not much at all...waaay less than a skein. :D The pattern (credit where it's due here!) is Twinkie Chan. Gosh I love that book. :D

Cupcake Scarf (crochet)

Loving this scarf!!! I almost want to just keep it for myself :P I have hunted high and low for teeny pompom sprinkles and so far am not having luck. I will try once again this weekend because that's all that I am missing from this being completed. And I think (even after all the time and effort putting them on) that the eyes are going to have to come back off because the hubby informed me that it made the cherries look like noses. And this isn't a Rudolph scarf!!! lol :P The pattern is from the Twinkie Chan crochet book (check it out at bookstores online).

Child's Kitchen Towel Set (crochet)

Last night I made these 3 pieces up for one of my nieces for her play kitchen. Her little kitchen is done up in pinks and plaids and my sister wanted a towel, potholder and sponge to add in. This is going up on my Etsy as a cutom listing in a little bit here, but anyone interested in something similar can always contact me. :)

Little Owls and some Scrap

Hmmm..well the photos are a little darker than I'd hoped they would be on here, but that's alright. The owls are an idea I had (and am still in the progress of working) but I thought I'd show a sneak-peek.

Ever wonder what you can do to use up the ends of your yarn skeins and scraps? This is what I'm currently doing with mine ^^^^ Making a *scrap crap lap blanket*. How's that for a title? :D Just from projects over the last 3 months or so, I've had enough left overs to make this one so far. It's roughly 2 1/2 feet by 3 feet and growing. At the rate I'm going, I could cover my whole house this year :D hahaha