Pinterest

Have you played with Pinterest yet? I'm having fun building my pin boards. You can check them out by clicking here. I'm finding tons of ideas for crafts & recipes especially. From what I hear from my Pinterest friends, the biggest challenge is actually DOING some of those ideas instead of just pinning about them. Well, last weekend, I did my first Pinterest project. It came from a site called craftstylish.com and from this post exactly. Since I now have laminate floors (my Christmas present from Andrew along with new vinyl in the kitchen & bathroom), I'm going to be swiffering a lot more than before. This is a cool way to save a little cash on buying those swiffer sheets. My swiffer cover needs a little bit of tweaking to tighten up the top (I'm not great at decreasing yet), but it turned out OK for my first Pinterest project!

Cool Crochet Tool

Just read about the Sharp Crochet Hook on Maybe Matilda's blog... check it out here. I've always wondered how people get cute crocheted edges on regular fabrics. I'm going to have to try this! Maybe I'll be able to, because Maybe Matilda is having a giveaway of one of those babies. I hope I win!

November Gratitude #25

November 25: Today I'm grateful:

* that I don't live in western Iowa anymore to be around lots of Nebraska fans

* that I get to see our town Christmas lighting ceremony on the square tonight

* that I got a lot of crocheting done this afternoon

* that it's a 4-day weekend

* that the only Black Friday shopping I did was buying some bras online

Crocheting Projects

I follow several crafty blogs online, and I recently wondered why I don't ever post any of my own projects... hmmm... ? So, here's a little taste of the crafty side of me.

When I was in 6th grade, the thing I wanted most for Christmas was for my grandma to teach me how to crochet. When I opened my present from her, inside the box were 2 skeins of yarn, a simple "how to" book for reminders when I left her house, and a crochet hook. One of my favorite pictures of us is on Christmas Eve that year. I'm sitting in her chair with her, and her arms are around me, guiding my moves as she taught me how to crochet.

I've taken breaks from crocheting, but I really picked it up again when my best friend Tracy was pregnant with her first baby. Olivia's "blue bee" (or is it "blue b"... hmm... I guess I've never spelled it out before) is her favorite, though now the poor thing is literally a pile of knotted string. Olivia's in second grade now, but here's a picture of what it looked like when it was new and in one piece:

When Olivia's little sister Elora was born 4 years ago, I started her present. I was determined to make it a little stronger to hold up longer than blue bee had. It was stronger, all right. It basically turned into a crocheted suit of armor, and it only took 4 years for me to complete! I finished it this summer when I was offstage during Time Out of Rhyme... I had put the poor thing aside so many times, I was worried she wasn't going to get it until she graduated! Luckily, it's done, so here's a picture of the finished product:
I'm finishing up my cowl this week for the Crochet-along, so stay tuned for pictures of that too!

The White Trash of Crafty

So, I'm all signed up and ready to go with the crochet-along on Maybe Matilda's site. There are over 100 people signed up, ready to crochet along together. Many of them have listed their websites & blogs, so I clicked on a few. Big mistake. It is very intimidatingly clear that I'm the poor white trash in-law of this super woman group. Holy Cow! These women sew, can, garden, knit, crochet, craft, and cook... while nursing their babies in one arm and feeding their toddlers organic grape juice they've stomped themselves with the other. I, on the other hand, don't have a single curtain up in my house, would rather throw a dish away than be forced to wash it, and haven't seen the entire floor of my garage since I moved into my house (although I can currently see HALF now, and that's a world of improvement... I WILL park in my garage this winter!). How do these women do it? Do they have jobs? Do they have husbands? Do they sleep? Do they plan on continuing to wickedly toy with us before they take us back to their cyborg colony, 12 galaxies over?

It's enough to give a girl a complex. Sheesh.

Crocheting Along with Maybe Matilda

I'm crocheting along!

There certainly is a blog for everything, and I recently found this blog called Maybe Matilda... tons of crocheting! I'm going to crochet along with her & her readers for this project. It's such a fun idea! I'm not really a cowl person (at ALL), but maybe I'll end up loving it... who knows? Otherwise, it will be a good Christmas present. Beware, friends & family! LOL

Anyway, I can't wait to get started. Stay tuned for updates!