Baby Blanket

I have spent almost all day crocheting today. All but a couple hours to eat and blog/browse a bit. In addition to the rasta hat and cabled cowl, I just completed the baby blanket too! Now all I need to do is iron it and possibly weave some ribbon through those open stitches (haven't decided about that yet). Whatcha think?

I had it laid out, went to grab the camera, and Izzie assumed it was for her to lay on

I find it a little difficult to read the words unless you're right up close to it. I was kind of disappointed about that. Any suggestions?

If I make this again, I'll use a bolder color. Learning is often by trial and error though right?

Sunday Project #2

For my second completed project of the day I've made a cabled cowl. Just in time for.... summer!?!? lol It will have to sit in my closet for a while but I couldn't resist giving it a try. It was one of those patterns that just lured me in. I think it will look wonderful under my peacoat (for the month of cold winter that we get).

It only took about 3 hours tops to make from start to finish. Really quick!

Back to the baby blanket...

My Weekend

Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson and now Billy Mays too? What is going on with the world right now? So many celebrity deaths in one week...

Yesterday we enjoyed a beautiful day at the beach! Its been really hot here this weekend, but the beach was a good 20+ degrees cooler - love that! We discovered an awesome spot, and although it required a bit

of a hike down some scary rocks, it was worth it! There were lots of other dogs there off leash so Izzie got to run and play. She doesn't care for the water much though. I will say that with the jeep (without the top on) driving there is half

the fun!

Today is a lazy day of crochet and watching instant Netflix movies. I am currently watching Encino Man (can you belive I've never seen it before?!?) and just finished my colorful Rasta hat!!!

I am almost done with the "Bundle of Joy" baby blanket. I am blocking the center part right now and then just have to add some extra rows to make the two pieces fit together better.

Boojiboo Flirty Apron GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Absoultely adorable aprons!! Keeping my fingers crossed!!

Boojiboo Flirty Apron GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Baby Blanket

I started this baby blanket on Friday. It is SO pretty and works up really quickly! I haven't put that much time into it this weekend (with all the gardening we did) and I'm almost done with the outer portion already! The inside will have "Bundle of Joy" written in white. Then I'm going to weave a white ribbon through those open stitches in the center. I just love the way the hearts look! This is the first time I'm following a graph pattern and its surprisingly easier than I thought. Sorry the photo quality isn't that great. I took it with my cell phone because I was just so eager to post this. It's actually a really pretty pink color. Happy Monday!

Update w/ Lots of pix

Haven't posted in a few days so here is a general update. Brandon and I have been working hard in our garden all weekend. I am obsessed with fruit and loved having fruit trees when I was a kid, so we went to the nursery yesterday and got some! Our little jeep was loaded with goodies!

We already have beautiful orange & grapefruit trees:

which came with the house as well as a peach tree (which we haven't gotten any ripe fruit from yet). So in addition to those we bout a Santa Rosa plum tree

(the ones with the red centers - yum!), apricot and lime.

And just a few flowers to put in between them for color:

We're still planning to put some more flowers and then some of those rubber wood chips down to keep the weeds out. Its not a drastic change, but definitely an improvement in our blank-slate of a yard:

I can't wait to get grass in there!

I also decided to start some herbs & vegetable plants from seeds:

(Oregano, Cilatro, Basil, Tomato, Zucchini & Peppers) Hope they take off!

Here is a look at the front yard which we worked on last weekend.

The hydrangea's are blooming!

Some pretty petunias =-D

Amidst all the gardening I finished my star blankie!

Gave it to Jamie at her shower yesterday and she seemed to love it!

I realized I only have less than two weeks to complete another baby blanket for a shower in July! Where has the time gone?!? I started it the other night and it already looks awesome! I'll share some pictures as soon as there is more progress.

Hope you all are having a wonderful & relaxing Sunday. Happy Father's day to all the dad's out there! Mine is in Montreal visiting family this week which is why we celebrated last weekend.

Until next time, Ciao!

Feeling crafty

I went by Joann's today to get some velcro and they were having a sale! yay! While browsing the store I remembered seeing this post from grosgrain where they made some adorable vintage flower earings, so I decided to make some! I also bought a stamp & markers and made some cute cards to put them on (and some extras to attach to my crochet items). I don't plan on selling these earings in my store since they're not crochet (nor were they my idea), but I'm going to use them as gifts and a way to promote my etsy shop. I think they turned out really cute. I want to go by the store again tomorrow and get more buttons!

I kept a pair of the red ones for myself (don't mind my messy hair):

I also just added some pictures of the ipod cozy to my previous post if anyone is interested.

Have a great night all!

I wish I were a morning person =-D

If only I didn't struggle to get out of bed in the morning, every morning! When I need to get up for work, I sleep right through my alarm. But on weekends, when I have the opportunity to sleep in - I'm up at 8! go figure!

Anyways, last night I went to the gym for an hour! I really miss exercising, but it's really hard to find the motivation to go. After I got back my dog was so hyper! So, I rode my bike and had her on the leash so she could get out some of her extra energy. Worked like a charm! Honestly, I'm pretty sore today. I'm still going to push myself to take a class tonight though.

After dinner I was all set and ready to finish the star blanket and block it. I sat on the couch, poured my tea, picked the channel, and pulled it out of my purse to get started. Buuuuut..... I couldn't find my hook!! I left it on my desk at work =-( It will have to wait until tomorrow night.

With my newly found free time I worked on a small project. I made my first felted item - an iphone cozy. I just improvised the design and it fits great! It didn't felt up as much as I'd hoped though. Any suggestions for next time?

Here's how I made it:

Just improvised the design.

25 Sc stitches around and around, without joining, until it covered the phone (and then some for room for shrinkage). The strap over the top is 5 Sc wide.

The button is just decorative, there is a velcro closure for quick and easy access to the phone.

Before Felting:

After:

While the cozy was in the washing machine I started on a rasta colored beret with the noro yarn! I decided not to do that particular beret that I linked in my previous post. The yarn is pretty thick & I didn't think it would display the pattern very well. Instead, I started this one. It will be a lot thicker than the one pictured, and hopefully extra slouchy too. It's looking great so far... but I'm running out of yarn and its only halfway complete!! ack! I'm going to have to find some more, it's just too fun and funky to frog at this point!

I'm really excited about a couple Ravelry groups I joined recently. One is for a lengthwise travelling scarf & by the end of the round robin rotation everyone will have a completed scarf! The other one I joined is a block exchange. Everyone breaks off into small groups of 12 and decides on a color scheme. Then, everyone makes 12 large granny squares and sends one to everyone in the group (keeping one for themselves). It will be an eclectic afghan when completed with some knitted and some crocheted squares! I've seen a few pictures and they look beautiful once complete! Lastly, the everlasting tea box! Right now it's in the Netherlands and will be coming to CA soon! Call me a nerd, but I'm totally excited for these swaps!

Have a great day everyone!

Relaxing Weekend

This weekend was productive, yet very relaxing at the same time. We had a couple of guys working in the yard all weekend. They dug trenches and put in drain pipes from the backyard all the way down to the front curb. They pulled out all the yucky wood chips and prepped the yard for new sod. I planted some pretty petunias out in the front too. I'm hoping that the backyard will be full of new grass and fruit trees within a month! **fingers crossed!**

I'm almost done with my star blankie, 2 more rows to go! I'll post a picture as soon as it's complete. I guess I will need to block it? (whatever that means?) I'm going to have to look into that....

On Sunday we had my dad, his gf and her boys over for an early father's day lunch. I made pizza and pasta! yummo! It was really nice to see them all - I don't get to enough. After they left I watched a few movies, & drank some tea while I worked on the blankie.

I've been eagerly waiting the completion of this blanket. I've decided not to start another project until it's complete since the baby shower is on Saturday. But, when it IS done - I'm going to play with my new colorful Noro yarn (pictured in my last post)!! I've been browsing Ravelry all weekend in search for the perfect thing to make. I'm really digging this sling bag, but I don't think there is quite enough yarn for it. So, I'm thinking I'll make this slouch beret. What do you think? Do you have any other suggestions for what to make with it?

Happy Monday!

Lookie Lookie!

I got a swap package in the mail today from Brie! Yay for beautiful yarn! Oh the possibilities!!

Thanks! I love them all!!

Dancey Dance

So You Think You Can Dance... oh how I love this show! It really makes me miss my dancing days though. I identified myself as a "dancer" for so long that its really hard for me to make the transformation from it being my life, to just a fun form of exercise. I used to compete & perform all the time, now I only have time for a few community college classes. Well, such is life I guess.

This season's show seems like it's going to be really good. There are so many talented dancers! Makes me want to get off the couch and take a class =D

These were my favorite pieces from last night: Melissa and Ade & Evan and Randi

Another gloomy day

Here is my progress on the star blanket after working on it last night. Its true, mine doesn't seem as pointy as others. I was having issues with the round-joining side which may be the reason for the somewhat lopsided-ness (the left point). I don't think its THAT noticeable though, do you? I really don't want to frog it...

So I've been looking into buying a new camera. The one I have, I've had since high school and the pictures are starting to turn out blurry, plus it doesn't really show the true colors of things. I think I've decided on the Canon SD960 and will go to the store today and purchase it =-D

Happy Hump Day!

Cuppy Cakes!

Work has been very busy lately with a co-worker out sick and the weather has been really gloomy! Soooo, Kelly and I decided to brighten up the day with some cheerful cupcakes!! We may have been in over our heads a bit, it was really hard to make the petals! But in the end we had a few really cute ones, and then put sprinkles on all the rest =D

This was just our practice night. We plan to make some really fun shark ones on Saturday morning for a friend who is coming home from 3 month stay in Argentina.

Have a great evening all!

Oh and here is the progress on my star blankie -

Pasta Pictures!

As I promised, here are the pictures from Sunday when I sent the afternoon in the kitchen:

Blanched tomatoes

Meaty Sauce - I brown the meat in a pan first and then have it cook the rest of the way in the sauce. Makes the meat so tender! There are beef ribs, spicy Italian sausage, and home made meat balls cooking in there. (I pull them out before pouring sauce over pasta and serve the meat on a separate plate). I had two big pots full!

Rolling out the dough - gotta love the Kitchen Aid!

Half the dough was made into spaghetti that we ate for dinner (and lunch the past 2 days)

And the other half became ravioli!

YUM!

Izzie slept in front of the sink and kept me company the whole time =-D

I also forgot to mention that I had won this cute little button from one of phat fiber's giveaways! I got it in the mail on Saturday!

More baking endeavors coming soon!

Where did the weekend go?

So, its Monday, back to the grind. As you can see from that picture of my cubicle, I'm enjoying some earl grey tea and smelling some beautiful fresh cut roses while working this morning. Looking back on the weekend, I realize how it just flew by!

Friday night we finally got around to seeing Star Trek! If you haven't seen it yet - go! It was fantastic! I am a little bit of a sci-fi geek, but I wasn't ever really into the Star Trek series. You definitely don't need to be a trekie fan to enjoy the movie. It also helps that the two leading men are such babes! =-D After the movie we stopped by at our friend Mikes house for his Bday party. He and his gf just got engaged the night before too.

On Saturday I completed another brown and tan striped beanie (the one for Bob) and then went to my friend Kelly's house. She and I just relaxed, hung out, and watched YES man! It was hilarious!!! After that I went by Macys to return a few shirts that I got for my birthday. They had some great sales! For the price of the 3 shirts I returned I got: 2 shirts, 1 pair of jeans, and a long gypsy-like skirt and still had a few dollars left over. Such a bargain =-D That evening we went to my cousin Alysia's grad party. She loved the purple slouch hat!

I feel like I got a lot done on Sunday! In the morning we took Izzie to the dog park and stopped at the grocery store on the way back. We had bought some beautiful fresh tomatoes at the farmers markets so made my famous tomato sauce with them! I was feeling ambitious and make such a HUGE amount of sauce and pasta from scratch. I made a big batch of dough and split it in half. One half I used to make spaghetti and the other half I used to make ravioli. The filling was ricotta cheese, spinach, egg(as the binder) & pepper. I split the ravioli into bags & froze them for a quick weeknight meal. For dinner last night we had some of the homemade spaghetti - yum! There is something about homemade pasta that makes it taste so much better than store bought. It's so much lighter and doesn't sit as heavy in your tummy afterwards. I took lots of pictures and will post them soon.

After spending my afternoon in the kitchen I hung out with the guys while they played ping pong in the garage - and I crocheted! My husband was making fun of me because I was sitting in our oh-so-comfy rocking chair and had the dog asleep in my lap while crocheting. LOL I guess I can't really blame him for that. I made this funky striped rasta hat as requested by Brie for a private swap we're doing. Hope you like it!

Happy Monday!