Dogs, Dogs, Dogs

Cowboy hat... not quite done yet.

Doggie feet, a dog tag, and a start to a bone.

It's a dog week. In addition to all the dog walking that I've gotten to do this week and a new house sitting gig, I was also working on some doggie themed items for a present.
To do this I had to try out a few new patterns. First up the Cowboy Hat.

Wide Brim Cowboy Hat by Kati D Creations
▪ Pattern Readability - 4.5 Yarn Balls. I only knock it down a half a yarn ball because if your not used to their abbreviations it can get a little mixed up. 

▪ Ease of Pattern - 4.5 Yarn Balls. Again the knock down because of a few rows are tricky if you don't read them right.

▪ Adjustments - 5 Yarn Balls. Other then hook size I love this pattern.

▪ Final Product - 5 Yarn Balls. SUPER cute! In love with this pattern. I believe its for baby photos but change the hook size and you can do anything.

▪ Personal - 5 Yarn Balls. I say again, SUPER CUTE!

▪Overall Score - 4.8 Yarn Balls

Next we come to the Dog tag, which is a modified Bone Applique. 
▪ Pattern Readability -  4.5 Yarn Balls. Needs a stitch key and a hook size but other wise good.

▪ Ease of Pattern - 5 Yarn Balls. Quite simple pattern

▪ Adjustments - 4.5 Yarn Balls. Considering fixing the end pieces a little.

▪ Final Product - 5 Yarn Balls. Adorable for a dog tag or a sweater

▪ Personal - 5 Yarn Balls. I just love them.

▪Overall Score -  4.8 Yarn Balls

Don't have enough of the third pattern done to have an opinion on it. But I'm in love with the other two. The hat is probably my favorite. Its just gonna make the project I have cooking. Speaking of which, I will blog about that project sometime next month.

Hat all done and with the awesome ribbon.

 Not much else happened for my week. I'm just happy I found time to crochet. And hoping to catch up on some sleep too. And hoping to make the next post on time. This week I have some business stuff to get done and inventory to get started on for August. So I'm gonna try to work in a new project along with doing some inventory stuff too, here's hoping anyway.  Have a fun and safe July 4th everyone.

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I just had to try it on... A little small for me

Happy Crafting!

Granny squares and a new car

YAY I got to do some crochet this week. I looked online and found this granny square pattern that actually made sense to me. Thank you Laura Hickman of Baking Outside the Box for this classic granny square. You, my good lady, are going to make some of my up coming projects so much easier. 

This pattern is aces and easy to follow. I have some patterns that call for the granny square and don't give you any directions on making one and the actually pattern I do have for one that looks like this, I just couldn't make sense of. So 5 Yarn Balls for Basic Granny Square (Kiss Granny) by Laura Hickman.

Unfortunately I didn't get around to anything else in the crochet pile. And this was only a test run for the pattern. But I did have other projects this week. My cake undertaking was. . . . interesting to say the least. 

As you've read my birthday was last week and so was one of my sisters. This weekend we had a family birthday party for the both of us (as we do every year). I decided to try something different with the cake. I had gotten the idea on my plane ride home from Arizona to try out making marshmallow fondant. I'd pinned it (a few times) to one of my Pintrest boards and figured lets give it a try. And knowing we both loved Doctor Who (I'm the biggest freaking Whovian), I though of doing a little ice cream sandwich TARDIS covered in the fondant. This idea seemed simple to me, I'm crafty enough for something like this. The kitchen should be mostly if not all finished for this (I had hoped). 

Well folks I was wrong on the simple front. And Friday night I had no clue how wrong I was about the simplicity of this undertaking.  

First change: when doing this again, get some gel food coloring. The other liquid dye gets things too wet and you have to mix in more powdered sugar to this sticky party. 

Second: Lots more cooking spray/butter. When the directions say to coat your hands and anything else with some sort of grease, I suggest y'all listen up and do it. This fun project of just mixing up the fondant is a sticky crazy mess. I might even grease my bow next time. 

Third: Maybe try a tray with powdered sugar in it for kneading next time. It gets pretty messy.

Tip: make sure you have plenty of powdered sugar, you'll need it.

I made the blue first. I had got the regular liquid food coloring not really thinking about it. I used the entire little bottle of blue just to get it that color. And holy wow was this stuff sticky. I mean yeah I know when you heat up marshmallows they go to a gooey mess but I thought after adding a ton of powdered sugar that it wouldn't be so bad. I was wrong. This is a messy undertaking so anyone wanting to do it be prepared. . . I decided to add the yellow to the water I coated the marshmallows in before I microwave them (you can also do the double boiler method but I went the lazy rout). I think it helped make that batch not so wet when I went to mix everything together. Weather thats true or not I'm not sure. But you want to make the marshmallow bit of this fairly dry, so use your water sparingly. And making up the white was supper simple.

Added the blue (bottle) dye and just mixing in the powdered sugar.

Knead, Knead, Knead!

Tried the yellow a little differently

All the pretty colors. I didn't need much. Glad I made so much blue though.

 Next morning rolling it all out. . .  Well first I kneaded it a little more since it had gotten a little stiff over night. It wasn't as bad after it had time to completely cool. And adding cooking spray to my mat/rolling pin eliminated any big sticking issues. 

So the day of the party the fondant had time to chill out over night and was no longer my problem child. I thought I was in the clear. WRONG! First my ice cream sandwiches weren't of an even size to stack them all two by two like I had envisioned. I was a little bummed to say the least. But I moved on from that. Made a smaller tower than I had originally planed, turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It turns out that these ice creams melted fairly quick. So as I tried my first attempt at the TARDIS they were melting and I had to rush the fondant. Grrr. Of course this was a learning experience and I had not given up. I put some more thought into this and got ready for round two. 

1) I first put a small plate in the freezer to chill while I rolled out some more blue and thinner this time. I found that it was a bit thick on my first try.

2) Turn on the fan. . .  it was getting a tad warm in the kitchen, even with the backdoor and windows open.

3) After pulling out my plate and covering it in saran wrap, I layered my little sandwiches with frosting sticking them together on the plate. I poped it back in the freezer for a few minutes to stop any meltyness. 

4) Pull the tower back out and quickly/carefully drape the fondant over it. Stretch and smooth.

5) Quickly get the extra off and get it back in the freezer.

6) After an hour pull it back out and add the details (don't forget the wishing it wasn't deformed when I got it out of the freezer)

Roll out..... take one

Left: My first attempt at the TARDIS . Right: the second and final.

cutting out stars... glad we found the cookie cutter

Ooooo Stars!!

My good TARDIS (I use the term loosely)

As you can see the TARDIS was a pain. Next time I think I'll make it out of rice crispy treats or something like that. Or different ice cream sandwiches and freeze them really, REALLY good. But all in all I call it passable for the cake. I added stars to the sheet cake for something fun and to use the fondant. I still have some left over too. And if you like the taste of pure sugary goodness then this is right up your alley. You can also add flavorings too if you want. And mind you all the running to the freezer was a pain. Our fridge and big freezer are both in the basement. Thankfully you can get to the basement from the kitchen. The fridge is the one appliance that isn't in the kitchen yet. But that is changing this week.

YAY Finished cake.... and my nieces arm. She was interested and hungry.

Well I guess this is a good time to talk about the kitchen. We got tile this week. It makes things look so much bigger. But Beth did a phenomenal job, we all love it to pieces. I'm so happy I chose the charcoal colored grout. It just pops that white subway out so much and makes the stainless look great too.

Tile is up... Oooo Awww

Gout is on, not cleaned up yet. Although it looks kinda cool this way too.

All clean. Looks A-Mazing

I also did some more painting today. Denny finished with the window and I got to prime the new stuff. Pained the base shoe to match the cabinets and painted the door to the basement. I was trying to take an easy day. With all the dogs (Poor Diane possibly broke a rib and needed me this week more than most) and people coming through the house, I haven't had the time to get all the painting done yet. I'm gonna try to find some more time this week. Oh and we got the stove hooked up. . .  WooooHooo!!!

Oooo Pretty.... and too lazy to rotate the picture at this point. Sorry Y'all

New Car!! So this week we traded in my Cirrus and dads Vue and got this lovely (Sexy) Dodge Journey. I really love it even though it is such a switch from my Cirrus. Having a high car is awesome. Although while I was driving it the other day I felt like it had a target painted on it. People kept cutting me off like no other. It was supper weird. Anyway, we are loving the new car and thanks to my brother-in-law for pointing us to the awesome team of his at Enterprise and this car. 

 That is all for this post. I still don't know what I'm working on this week. But I do need to get on some stuff. Wish me luck in working it in. 

Happy fathers day to all the papa's out there. Much love to you gentlemen!

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Happy Crafting!

Happy Birthday to me

So today I turned 25. No big, loved all the happy b-days I've gotten. Got an AWESOME Doctor Who shirt from my mom. I'm a big Whovian and can not wait till the new season starts. I just got a new T.A.R.D.I.S. water bottle when I was in Arizona too. Couldn't pass it by. 

But it'd have to be my car that topped the cake that was today. And by this I mean it decided to die over the weekend. I was doing a house/pet sitting gig and I go to hop in my car this morning and when I went to start it, it did a big, fat, NOTHING. So Happy Birthday to me right. Earlier this evening I called for a tow from AAA and the guy decided to try jumping it and she started for him. I was a bit peeved at this. But got the car home, waited an hour or so before going out and trying it again to see if it was a fluke. She fired right up. Hopefully she works in the morning cuz I've got more dog stuff to do. But we are moving down to one car super soon, in fact dad and I are going to look at some cars this week. She just needs to hold out for the time being.

This is going behind the stove. The rest will be white subway.

That was just a great start to my day. But on a happier note, we have new kitchen floors. They were put it in today, although somewhere along the math line something was dropped and they came up short on what they needed to finish the whole floor today. So another box is gonna be ordered and that will be finished. In other kitchen news, we have counter tops and a working sink. Its so awesome to have all that in. We are ever closer to having a kitchen. The plumber comes back tomorrow to put in the dishwasher and hook up the stove I believe (we have a gas range, hence the plumber). I believe Beth wants to start on the tile work Tuesday. We ordered it on Friday. Its gonna look awesome. We are so freaking close!!

Father of the Bride taking his odd Mini Golf shot.

The end of my Arizona trip was great. Monday we had a fun breakfast with Megan's brother and his family and said goodbye to them. They had a flight back out that after noon. Monday night was super fun. A whole group of us went out to Mini Golf, then sushi for dinner, and ended the night playing Cards Against Humanity. So much freaking fun, we all had dirty mind streaks and some of the best cards to play. Couldn't ask for a better night. 

Tuesday was a big ball of packing in the house. Megan's parents were also getting ready to leave Wednesday as I was. They were packing the car up to drive back to Paradise, California. In the evening I went to a girlfriends house with Meg and while they were sewing belly dance costumes I got to work on some crochet. 

I redid the hood of my Dino Guy. I was missing a stitch or something when I had tried it before. I didn't get much farther than his hood and the start of his head. He is a lot bigger than the picture makes him look in the pattern. 

The start of my Dino Guy

I also worked on figuring out granny squares. I'm gonna look into some other patterns for that. I have a few projects coming up that will need them. One of them is an order form one of my new Arizona friends Jessica. She's awesome, and got in a Christmas order early. Which is good because its a big one.

The flight home was a little bumpier then I would have liked. I also found I don't particularly like the isle seat. I gave up the window I snagged to a kid who was on his first airplane ride. I remember how exciting that was so I didn't mind too much. His excitement and commentary was amusing. His poor mom wanted to get some sleep on the plane but with no luck as he was always trying to get her attention about something. The kid was probably around 9 or so I'm guessing.

Last night at the house. I was packing in his room so Riley got his story out in the living room that night. He was cuddling the dogs as his mom read. I thought this was amusing.

My handsome house mate for the weekend.

 

Like I said I was house/pet sitting this weekend. Look at the handsome 'little' devil I got to hang with. He also has two cat roommates as well. Sasquatch is a great 7 month old Aussie/St. Bernard. Right now he has a broken toe though, so we had to keep play to a minimum. He was disappointed in this. He's a big love bug though.

I played around with granny squares mostly this weekend. But I did fix my new hook bag. If it looks familiar that would be because it was a bridesmaid gift from last weeks post. I decided it would make a perfect hook bag. Better then the one I did have too. But before it could go in the project bag I had to fix the M on it. It was only an iron on and was starting to peel off. Very sad, but I pulled out the needle and thread. Only stuck myself a few times as I sewed it into place. and its working great.
 

This week will entail some painting for the doors in the kitchen and maybe the window (still missing a trim piece). Also going through my inventory and getting a list ready for P.I.R. in August. Possibly working on some of these Christmas/ regular orders. No more vacation for me. And I need to get on my Etsy page and get it back up and running. Just a normal busy week for me. Plus I have mine and Melissa's birthday cake to work on. Family party for us is this weekend. I'm gonna try out marshmallow fondant. Wish me luck. I'm gonna go to bed now before I pass out on the keyboard. 

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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Happy Crafting!

Wedding bells

The beautiful cake. Picture courtesy of Meg's brother.

So my fabulous bestie is now a Mrs. The wedding was just lovely. And all the decorations turned out perfectly. Megan's planning and hard work paid off in a BIG way. We were all a little worried that the rain wouldn't blow out. Rehearsal was interesting will the rain coming and going. But Saturday was the most beautiful day we could all hope for. I couldn't be happier for her and Kyle. It was one big party weekend down here in Arizona with all their family that was able to come in to share this special time with them. 

Congrats Megan & Kyle! I wish you both many more years of happiness and joy in your long journey together.

Morning of: Kyle (in white) and Jon being silly

Morning of: Megan, Jess (maid of honor), and I

Me and Jess all ready.

The lovely bridesmaid bouquet. They had different pins on them, mine is a dragonfly.

The beautiful program fan and the tossing bouquet. I managed to get that one. YAY!!

Megan made up these beautiful bags with goodies in them for us along with picking up these awesome cups.

Like I said rehearsal was a bit on the wet side and when we came back to the house for rehearsal dinner we had to cram into the house instead of being able to eat outside. Thankfully Meg has a sizable living space to fit about 60 or so people. I believe we all had a good time despite the cramped space. 

Megan and a few of her friends were also nice enough to put on a performance for us all as well. The girls put together a beautiful set of belly dancing numbers. They all did two solos and then a group performance from three of the four of them. This was the first time I've gotten to see Megan preform since she started belly dancing years ago. They were all so beautiful and graceful up there.

One of two solos from Amberly.

One of Megan's solos

Group sword number with Megan, Andrea, and Heather.

The last bow.

The groom and his mother.

My mani for the wedding.

Thursday night was girls night. Most of the wedding party, some of Megan's friends, her sister-in-law Sarah, and her mother-in-law Julie went out to get manis and pedis. It was a fun hang out with all the girls. It was my first time getting a manicure. I think it went quite well, I got the gels done. I skipped the pedicure though, I'm not one for people touching my feet.

Sunday after a clean up brunch we hung out with family at the house and took Megan's brother and his family to the train park so the boys could all play. The boys road the carousel and then we all went on a train ride around the park. It was a fun evening for the end of a fabulous weekend.

The engine that could.

The boys at the train park.

Not much in the way of projects this week although I had tried to start something. No chance of finishing it since I needed to start it over to see if it was me or the pattern that has a miss count. But mostly this week was making sure this wedding went off with out a hitch. . . . well other then the intended one. I do wish that I had been able to take more pictures myself. But when you live in the moment and not through a screen you remember the moment better I think. Plus through the wedding craziness I left my phone in the house in my purse. But Meg had a great photographer and there should be more pictures later.

Once I get back home I can get back to projects like normal. I do have to work on inventory for my next swap meet at P.I.R. in August.

Thats all for the week. See y'all next sunday.

As always you guys can find me on Etsy

and don't forget to like me on Facebook

Happy Crafting!

Hello Phoenix!

First off, I'm sorry this post is late. We had a Crazy weekend. It was bachelorette party weekend and the guys had their bachelor party too. So long weekend for all of us, but a fun one. We girls were out till 2am or so Sunday morning. Then met up with the guys for brunch later around noon or so once we found a place that wasn't an hour or more wait for a party of eight. We went to Over Easy which has awesome breakfast food. More about this later in the post. . . .

My joke post about what all I was packing.

Started the week finishing up packing. Had to change up the bag to bags because of a kinda least minute add. No biggie. I get two bags free on South West. Yay! That was all good and getting to the airport that morning, after my brain woke me up two hours before I wanted to be, went well. But at the security check point I was about two or three people away from going through the machines and the power went down from there back into the lobby area. It was more amusing then annoying. But it appeared that South West also had a system issue at the same time. So it was an interesting morning at Portland International Airport. 

My flight was good, bit of a bumpy landing and I got at least half of a VooDoo crocheted on the plane. Met Megan and Kyle at the baggage claim and it felt like it took forever to get the bags out of the plane. And we hit In & Out Burger on the way home. Love me some In & Out, I must go there at least once every time I come down here. Soon it seems that we will be getting one of our own somewhere around Medford, Oregon. Sounds awesome to me!!

So I worked on this earlier in the month and I can finally share it with y'all. This is my wedding present to my amazing friend and her soon to be hubby (Megan & Kyle). She may not have opened it yet but, she has it in the bubble wrap I packed it in for the plane is transparent so I'm sure she's glanced at it. 

The twenty was not what I put in it. It was a marker for what was going in the frame. I didn't like the idea of framed money in my carry-on. So I put it in later. And no black tape either. It looks nicer and cleaner now that its all finished. 

When I was working on it and coming up with ideas for this I did a trip to Michael's and was swimming in ideas. But I like how it came out. I could have gotten crazy with stuff in the frame, but the simplicity of this is awesome. 

I also made my daddy a birthday card before I left. His birthday was Friday. Once the kitchen is done I told him I'd make him cookies or something. He's a little sad all the muffins are gone now from the freezer. I also called him and he seemed to be having a good day so far, although it was only around 10 am.

Along with the card I finished up the Tiny Turtle. And Josh loves it. I was able to finish it and put it into the box for what they were selling for me so he could have it Friday when they packed up the van for Woodburn. 

Speaking of Woodburn,  it seemed to go quite well. Sarah kept sending me updates throughout the day, which I wholeheartedly loved that she did. I might have to have them sell for me more often. 

Thursday and Friday Meg, her mother Gaye, and I worked on wedding stuff. We got a really good amount done and ran some errands as well. We finished backdrop curtains, the guys Lego boutonnieres, cutting tulle and things for the chairs, plus some other stuff. Last night we had a family dinner and worked out lighting for the wedding and other little things in the back yard where its all happening. 

After class was over.

Okay the awesome weekend!! So the theme was wigging out. And at the request of the lovely bride to be, Megan, we did a pole fitness class. Yes Pole Fitness. It was funner then I had thought it would be and I have a new found respect for all pole dancers now. That shit is a WORKOUT! Our legs still hurt today, our arms a little as well. The instructor was amazing she made it super fun and we all got to pick dancer names. I picked Ivy.

After our hour class we all went to get changed before dinner. We went to this awesome little Italian place call Cibo in downtown Phoenix. They converted a house into this restaurant. Awesome food all around. It was quite busy and really loud but we got a big table in the back corner to our selves and it was really nice. Since it was also comi con the same weekend us girls in wigs didn't stand out and kept getting asked what we were cosplaying as. Didn't matter to us though we all still had fun. We went to drinks after dinner and then dancing. Our bride to be was having a blast and thats all that mattered to us. Like I said before we rolled back into our hotel room probably about 2:30 am and pretty much passed out until the next morning.

So her pig tails go down to her knees. I, at one point, ended up wearing them and they are quite heavy.

First shot in her glowing penis shot glass. 

Not sure what I'll have this coming week other than wedding stuff to post about but I'll see about wiping up something from the crochet bag. But no promises, we still have a lot to do around here before Saturday.

Hope you all had as fun a weekend as we did and have a great week. See you next Sunday!!

 

As always you guys can find me on Etsy 

and don't forget to like me on Facebook 

 

Happy Crafting!