Remberance Days are here.

Buy your own poppy in my shop.

I know everyone is happy for the three day weekend. And all about parties and camping and hanging out at the beach and having a good time. But please take a moment or two to remember why we are all able to do these things. Not to harsh anyone's mellow but this wasn't a holiday meant for big parties and super sales. Its to remember all the soldiers who have fought for us over the years. So just take a moment out of your fun to remember. Maybe wear a poppy to show that you do remember and respect all of those men and women. 

Enough of that crazy seriousness of an opener. . . . . 

Crunch week for me. As y'all know I leave this Wednesday for my Arizona trip. Yay! And it's been getting stuff together and squared away before I leave. I feel like I have a long list of stuff to do and its not getting any shorted. At least that was the feeling until yesterday.
 

Dress pants, Jeans, Swimsuit top, Bunny. Down in my basement work area.

 

 

So happy I got to the alteration pile this week. Doing the pants went super well and pretty fast, other than the pair I made into capris. That took a bit longer to make sure the bottoms weren't wacky. And the swimsuit top took its time too. To make it look right I did that one by hand along with fixing a pair of dads pants and a bunny. I'm so glad that my dress pants came out so well after taking them in. I've only done jeans up to this point so I was a little scared of screwing those up. I don't have much need to wear them these days but I'd like to be able to on the fly if I need to. Which wasn't really possible before. Plus I wanted to take a pair or two with me. You never know whats gonna go on when you travel.
 

Happily, yesterday I got everything done for Woodburn. It's a relief to have that all done and out of the way. Printed up new order book pages to show off my stuff and price lists as well. Downside to all this printing. . . My printer needs ink badly now. Like I had to redo a few pages of my order book because the ink made it all faded and stripy. But I fixed that with a trip to costco this morning. Now I just have to install the new ink. And its WAY cheaper to do the refill then buying new cartridges. Saved a ton, which is awesome.

I know you're all probably sick of the kitchen talk but this will be my last post of it till its finished I think. I'll miss anymore progress that happens while I'm gone, so thats at least two whole posts that won't have kitchen talk. But for now. . . .  We have hardware on the cabinets!!!! And it looks so great. I think we picked the perfect pulls. They just make it look more kitchen like. We also had the electrician in this week. You know what that means. . . . LIGHTS!! Its awesome to have so much light in there now. Plus the hood for the stove was put in and the under cabinet lights were put up as well. No power to those yet because they need to switch a few things out once the back splash is put up. There was a mix up when the order was written out and it will get fixed after tile. So those guys will be back after the subway tile is put in, which will look awesome. We had the counter top guys come in and make up a template this week as well. Those will be installed a few days before I get home. So exciting!! And Denny also fixed the windows. We don't have to prop them open anymore. You guys don't get how awesome that is, but its really amazing, trust me. 

Getting closer and closer to a functioning kitchen. Oh and we finally pulled the sink out of its box and the damn thing is HUGE! Counter top guy needed it to do his thing.

I just really wish the stove was hooked up at this point. I want to bake so bad and dad would like other options for dinner other then doing it on the grill. (Meg I might have to steal your kitchen and bake us all some goodies while I'm down there. BAKING DAY. . . I think yes.)

Since I finished my sewing projects and everything for Woodburn, I got to work on the Tiny Turtle for my soon to be brother-in-law. I finished putting the VW on the shell last night and finished the whole shell/body piece. I'm glad it came out so well. I never know sometimes if something will work until I try it out. So this may be done for him before I leave. Wooo!

So thats kinda the run down on my week. You'll get to see a project I couldn't post about yet next week and a little on my trip. Maybe something crocheted as well? Back to packing for me or some chill time. We'll see. Until next Sunday folks.

As always you guys can find me on Etsy
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Happy Crafting!

Finally a pic of (some) the Octopus' with their new yarn eyes. I really like this better then the button eyes I had done.

Crazy week

This week was not what I had planned. And it felt like I didn't do anything all week, that was until I really thought about it. Yes, I got nothing I had planed on done, but that doesn't mean it was a wasted week. Things happened and some stuff got done, others didn't. Although it still kinda feels like it was wasted. . . 

So I didn't get to my alteration pile or at least not just yet, maybe I'll work on it a little tonight or work on it tomorrow. But I am getting to it this week. I have things in that pile I plan to pack. I did get to finish up all the painting, well all but the windows, but that has to get the ropes in it fixed first (1910 house, our windows are on a pulley system). So YAY. We ordered our counter tops on Friday, flooring was ordered this week too, all the cabinets are finished up (they just need pulls put on), painting is fairly done, and electrical comes tomorrow. We got a step closer to a finished kitchen this week. We've even put things away in the cabinets. So exciting to do some of that.

The lazy Susan is huge

This one is petty big too

Yesterday my sister and her man came over and we did up mom's flower tub. Let me explain that. So last year we (us kids: my two older sisters, soon to be brother in law, and myself) finally put the old claw foot tub from the bathroom to use and painted it up to put flowers in for our mom for mothers day. This was the plan for the tub since we remodeled the bathroom like five years ago. My sisters gift to mom this year was getting and planting new flowers for her. So they got a scoop of soil from some place, hauled it in their trailer out to the house and we filled the tub (pictured above), two flower boxes, one big pot, and two raised garden beds my dad just built for some veggies, plus a few wheelbarrows of extra. All of it taking the whole scoop. That's a lot of dirt. We got down and dirty moving the soil and then planting the flowers. Woooo! But it was fun to hang out. My daddy didn't raise no prissy pants, we don't mind a little dirt and hard work. All three of us girls are fairly tomboy-ish, and clean up good too.

Raised beds ready for some plants

I also had some dog walks to do. Loved doing that! Plus we just got a new client at Fairy Dogmother with three of the most adogable French Bulldogs and I got to hang out with them for two afternoons in a row. Couple of days seeing to doggies and getting outside all very good. On Monday I stated, or rather tried, to get my own dogs going on walks every day this week too. I missed a few days, but they seem to like it. Nascar hears "Wanna go for a walk?" and can't contain herself. She'd run out the gate to go if you let her. Lugnut isn't a fan of getting on his harness but is more than happy to pull on the leash once you get it on. I'm trying to get him to be a better walker. I started by lashing both the leashes together so he could walk more like Nascar. She doesn't pull, unless she sees a squirrel anyway. He's just supper excitable and wants to go after anything. But we are working on it. At the very least they seem to like getting out of the big yard and seeing the neighbor hood.

In crochet news I (with moms assistance) sold one of my Yoshi's. So the purple one is finding its new home. One of moms coworkers saw the turtle I made her and wanted to see more. She loved the Yoshi mom brought and bought it the next day. So he's off to make someone happy.
I also started on the turtle my sister (the one mentioned in the flower bit) asked me to make. Its for the soon to be brother in law to go in his bug. Its about half way there. She asked for a VW symbol on it which is taking a little time. Once he's finished I'll post pictures.

This week I've got to knock out my To Do list. So I'll post what I can next Sunday. No promises it will be anything that good, but I'll try to drum up something. This week is all about getting ready to leave and just about nothing else, unless it involves the kitchen.
Soon, I promise, I'll be back on normal project post guys. Things just started to get crazy for me and I lost my grip on the weekly project. At least I still manage a post every week. So there is still hope for me.
In the mean time send in some project suggestions. I'd like to know what you guys are interested in seeing.

As always you guys can find me on Etsy 
and don't forget to like me on Facebook 

Happy Crafting!

Happy Mothers Day Hot Mommas!

Happy Mothers day to every mom out there. I hope you had a love filled day and you are all amazing women to me. 

First set in.

Woo hoo! Our cabinets came in on Monday. I also got most of the kitchen painted on Sunday night. Worked till about 8 pm I think,  then there wasn't enough light to do any more (we had taken the light fixture down by then) and I was out of gas anyway so it worked out.

Pantry and new cabinets for next to the stove.

YAY uppers. The fridge goes under that one half cabinet that is sticking out so far.

The guys took all the draws and fronts.

All ready for paint.

Monday brought in most of the cabinets. All the lowers were here and almost all installed. And it was the final night of the stove. Which was fine, we have a BBQ. Tuesday the guys got all of the cabinets in and took all the cabinet fronts and draws back to the shop to get painted. Painting started Wednesday with minor issues to start. Communication is very important guys. But we got things sorted.

I believe this is only the primer, but the paint color is really close to this. Almost spot on actually.

Wednesday also took me to the dmv. Had to get my license renewed before my Arizona trip at the end of the month. They were really nice down there and not all that busy. They recently moved their offices too. Much bigger lobby then in the old building, and slightly better parking. Should get it in the mail this week.
As of Friday the cabinets were all painted. Yay. Hopefully the painter is satisfied on Monday and we can get all the drawers and shelve and doors put on/in. And he can come and touch up my paint since he was using a sprayer and got it on some of the ceiling and walls I had painted. Don't worry he already said he would fix it. Electrical also comes at the beginning of the week.

 

Book case on the other side of the fridge by the back door.

 

 

 

I didn't work much on crocheting. Still tired and over seeing kitchen stuff. I did work on something I won't be posting about till the end of the month. Can't spoil the surprise.

But I did do some drawing:

So I got this water bottle for Christmas and it had Jack Skellington from 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' printed on it. I say had because it started to scratch off after only a few months. It got to the point I couldn't stand it any more and peeled it all of with artist tape. Easy peezy. So instead of leaving it see-through black plastic, I'm going to do up a design myself. Not sure how its gonna look but I'm gonna try. So this is what I've go so far. GIANT work in progress, but it is something. I'm still bummed that it was coming off in the first place.

  

So I didn't get around to these but I did stuff the car I had done up a few weeks ago. Not really sure how I like it. I know it still needs wheels and junk, but this is how far it got before I passed out really and never got back to it.

Side view.

Front

Back

 

Nothing super special about it and I don't think I'll get back to this pattern till after my trip. 

Speaking of, my awesome trip is only a few weeks away. Crazy how it sneaks up on you and I have a lot to get ready before I head out. So the next few posts might not be super exciting. Packing and getting stuff ready for my sisters to sell for me, plus over seeing the kitchen as well. Not to mention anything else that pops up between now and when I leave. But its all good.

Next weeks project might just be doing some alterations to more pants and a swim suit top. I tried on all my dress pants today and Holy Wow. I might have little need to wear them much but I wouldn't go out in them right now with them being so baggy. And the Swim suit top is just not working for the girls, it may not have ever really worked much but I really want to fix it now. Plus I have more jeans to take in and a pair to make into capris, high waters are not cute. Glad to be taking off the weight but it makes cloths more difficult then they were. And I hate shopping for cloths as it is so its good to try my hand at alterations. YAY for the old sewing machine my mom has. 

Anyway I'll try to do something more interesting then that but I'm not sure. We'll see where this week takes me I guess.

As always you guys can find me on Etsy 

and don't forget to like me on Facebook

Happy Crafting!

(side note: the lay out of this post was getting on my nerves, so if it looks a bit funny I'm sorry. I gave up making the pix and text line up right after a while. They just wanted to do their own thing.)

Movin and Groovin

Crazy week here. As of Thursday work on the kitchen has officially started. . . YAY! But before that this week it was where to put the last of our kitchen stuff so we can use it or find it fairly easily. A few days to get it all sorted and to organize how we will function without a kitchen. The guys did leave the stove hooked up for us for the time being. (Thanks Denny.) You never realize how much junk you have until you have to completely clean out a room. But we are more than happy for this to finally be stated. Our dining room has been housing our new appliances for far too long. We'd like our house back and frankly so would the dogs. Nascar isn't a fan of all the banging that's been going on but sticking close to one of us seems to make her feel better. She'll have to get used to it for a little while. As for Lugnut, he just has to show everyone who's the boss and barks at the guys when they need to go out to their truck (at lest for the few trips before settling down). Demo took the day and only a few pieces were a pain to get out. Apparently everything was nailed in, no screws used in this 80's remodel. LOL. I did prep work for the painting Friday. Spic and Span is awesome, cut through the grossness of above the stove pretty easily. We also picked up paint and the rebuilding center took (most) of the old cabinets away. Yay! Took longer for me to prime than I had planed, but I had other things taking up my time. So Saturday and today was priming and a little later I'll get some paint color on the walls. I want to get as much as I can done since our cabinets are coming tomorrow. So the ceiling is the big part I want to get done. 

Primed and ready for everything else.

 

This weekend I also had another house/dog sitting gig. Woo. They were my other things, but its cool they were awesome and life moves forward.  Two gray hounds this time. And they are stinking cute too. Great pair of pups and I'm sure they are happy to see their mom and dad tonight. 

Kearney and Leah. Flash made their eyes all demon like.

So this weeks project was a time out stool. Cute little heart stool that the mom had spray painted a nice lavender. She gave me free rein over the design. So I kept it pretty simple, nothing crazy or too intricate. I decided to try out my cursive on this. I'm not very good at it, haven't been told to write in it since the fifth grade (mostly). Dying art cursive is. But I think it turned out good. It's not like I was writing a paper or something. Like I said I kept it simple, with the crazy week and not being home it was nice to have a quick paint project. I had fun with it anyway.

Better shot of the hourglass.

Right Side

Left Side

I also tried my hand at the tiny cars. Something I could take with me house sitting. Loving my project bag I got for Christmas by the way, best thing in the world. Thank you Kanthack's! But I didn't get around to finishing it. Way too tired by the time I got time to work with it. Plus I didn't have my poli-fil. So I'll write up about it next Sunday. I'll be able to focus better on the pattern this week, hopefully. 

 Which leads me into next weeks project. I think I'll stick with Tiny Cars pattern. Probably won't be anything else with it but who knows. 

Lugnut and Nascar. They found a good spot when the guys
were making a bunch of noise and I was out of the room.

 

As always you guys can find me on Etsy 
and don't forget to like me on Facebook 

Happy Crafting!

Green Hair For The Win!... Oh and HATS

Yes my hair is now an awesome green. Thanks again Carson. Loving it so much.  And my scalp doesn't look like Fun-Dip anymore. YAY!! Super glad my hair came out so well. It was dyed black with teal ends last (say mid December). So bleaching it out was interesting because not all the black went light. For a short time, until it was dried after washing the bleach out, my hair was a bit orange. Not an attractive color. And we decided that my hair is the spawn of Satan when it comes to becoming tangled. Most days I don't leave my hair down because the smallest movement/breeze will cause it to be tangled to hell. It sucks let me tell you. So I usually braid it or something. But after drying it, combing it,  and putting in the greens and blues, it came out AWESOME!! Couldn't be happier.

Along with my new due I got to hang out with some awesome pups the last few days. Stanley and Stella are a great pair. I hung out with them while their owners were on a little trip for a few days. Stanley is a big old goof that likes to play fetch and bite trees. Yes you read that right, he bites trees. And Stella is a big old sweetie pie who loves to cuddle. These guys are great on walks as well, which is good since they're apartment dogs. Walks are a must. We were fortunate enough to not have to walk in any of the heavy rain. Some sprinkles yes, but we missed most of the rain this weekend.

Stanley & Stella. We were glad it had stopped raining.

So down to the project of the week. I decided on the Rainbow Slouch. I was gonna add in the Tiny Cars too but allergies, or at least what I hope are allergies have been kicking my butt since Thursday. I've never suffered from allergies in the past with the exception of the last few years. Its weird but things change I guess. . . . Okay back to the hats. I managed to get out two if these. I did the gray one first and decided to follow the pattern exactly. Although I believe there was a typo on the last few rows. But since there are plenty of pictures on this one I figured out what they meant. I used my Red Heart Wool yarn for these, all but the green though. I oddly didn't have a green in that yarn. So from the top of the hat we have a deep purple, Tropical Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, and Pink. I tried this one on and it was a bit tight for my head (which is why there are no pics of it on). But its a very cute hat none the less. The black one I kinda made for myself, again using the Red Heart Wool. I added an extra row and did a fun mix on the colors. I'm loving this hat right now. It made walking Stanley and Stella a little warmer, once I got it finished of course. With being under the weather I had low energy and everything was taking like twice as long to do it. 

T.A.R.D.I.S. Phone!!

This project is gonna get a big fat 5 Yarn Balls Rating. 

▪ Pattern Readability -  Well written if not redundant once the rounds become the same up the bulk of the hat.
 

▪ Ease of Pattern - Simple beginner stitches, and an explanation of how they even achieved an intermediate stitch.
 

▪ Adjustments - None needed other then a typo. Easy to change up to the colors you want. I changed the hook for the second one I made because I have tight stitches.
 

▪ Final Product - Fun and Awesome hat!
 

▪ Personal - Loving the look and ease of this pattern. Will be making these again.
 

▪Overall Score -  5 Fabulous Yarn Balls!! 

 

Thankfully this weeks project is all picked out. My eldest sister came to me with something. Her friend bought a Time Out stool for her little girls this past week and they asked if I could jazz it up for them. So I get to do some painting this week! I think I might even sketch something out for it first as well. Plus I might hammer out some Tiny cars as well. We'll see. 

Hopefully I'll feel better soon. Oooo and the kitchen is finally gonna get started this week. This last Wednesday mom and I got to see how the cabinets were coming. They looked great, only the shell of whats gonna be in the kitchen but its supper exciting to see it. Demo is supposed to start like Wednesday/Thursday and I'll probably be painting this weekend. WooooooHoooooo!!

See you all next Sunday. . . 

As always you guys can find me on Etsy  (I promise I'll be updating the shop soon.)

and don't forget to like me on Facebook 

Happy Crafting!

Tiny Turtles!

So this week after looking for patterns and finding a new batch, I landed on the Tiny Striped Turtles. And holy cow these guys are super adorable. I found this through Pintrest and after finding it I was seeing the pattern everywhere, it was crazy. These little guys work up supper fast and are crazy easy to make. I just love them so darn much. Everyone seems too actually. I did a few stripped ones and then a couple of them with multicolored yarn. and they aren't complicated in the least to put together, which is so nice. I want to make one with a top hat, monocle, and mustache. It would be too adorable for words I think.

RATING!. . . Super simple this week guys.

▪ Pattern Readability - 5 Yarn Balls. Nothing confusing with these little guys.
 

▪ Ease of Pattern - 5 Yarn Balls. Simple stitches, great for the beginner.
 

▪ Adjustments - 5 Yarn Balls. Nothing needs to be changed. You can add a little something the the bottom of the shell though if you want to make it flair out though.
 

▪ Final Product - 5 Yarn Balls. Who doesn't love some Tiny Freaking Turtles!
 

▪ Personal - 5 Yarn Balls. LOVE!!!!
 

▪Overall Score -  5 Yarn Balls.Perfect score for these little ones.

In Pieces.... oh no!

My mom loved them so much she just had to have one for her desk at work. So she picked out the colors and this guy is gonna be her desk buddy starting tomorrow.

Tiny Turtle Tushies!!

Like I said I found a ton of patterns this week. I was kind of addicted to looking for new shit to make. So I pinned and bookmarked dozens on Pintrest and Ravelry. I printed just shy of 2 dozen of them. My printer is probably wondering what is wrong with me using it so much. But I found some pretty good stuff. Like lovey blankets with part of a stuffed animal on it, an awesome Rainbow slouch, Daleks!, other little monsters along with a cell phone case among other awesome geek things to boot. So many patterns, so little time. 

Along with pattern hunting I helped my dad replace our broken down double gate. That was fun. . . I guess. Needed to be done (like 10 years ago), but with the guys coming to do the kitchen soon it REALLY needed to get done. I also got a bee in my bonnet and washed both the cars yesterday, plus vacuumed out my own. Who knew doing all that could make you so darn tired. I was whipped but happy to get it done.

 

And then I got to watch the season opener of Orphan Black!!! Thats right the clone club is back in action. So freaking happy!! I can't wait to watch all of this season and so happy they brought it back. I love my BBC America shows.

 

I think the one of the best parts of my week would be today. I spent the day with my siblings. We went out to lunch, hung out around the mall all before going to see Furious 7. We've seen the last few Fast & Furious movies together. It was awesome! Tons of action, cars (obviously), some tears, and an ending we weren't expecting. But it was a great flic. If you haven't seen it I say spend the money and go. I won't spoil any of it for you but it is so great and fits all the pieces together with this franchise.

This week. . .  For starters I'm getting my hair dyed again on Thursday. My good friend Carson is awesome for doing it for me. She is a Rock Star! But as for project, now that I have all these new patterns I'm not totally sure. My first thought was to do this tiny car pattern I found. But now its between that, the rainbow slouch, and one of the two Ogie Boogie's I found. So come around next Sunday to find out what I choose. Or let me know in the comments which sounds better to you.

As always you guys can find me on Etsy 

and don't forget to like me on Facebook
 

Happy Crafting! 

This is the first little guy I made and I took this to share with Facebook. I could not contain the cute to myself on this one.