The Frog and Owl

I got the following goodies for Christmas from my mother-in-law.  Many thanks again. I have been reading the book and dreaming of projects to start for the last couple of months.  I have been looking at the color cards and fondling the yarn.    The yarn is Knit Pick’s Comfy and is so soft.  Even my little guy grabs it and rubs it to his cheek.

I couldn’t resist any longer…I broke into a ball of each color and started crocheting an envelope bag.  Of course I added some other yarn so as not to waste too much of the Comfy.  The yarn is a dream to work   with.  It is soft and individual plies stay together while working.  I find that some soft yarns tend to lose their shape when working with them.  As you can see from my snap shot it has held it’s shape beautifully.  (Sorry the color is a little off because I took the photo is direct sunlight.)  I’m so excited I have to run so I can get back to crocheting.

Martha Stewart is running a craft contest until May 31, 2009.  Submit a photo of anything you have handmade to be entered to win her new Encyclopedia of Crafts.  I entered a couple of times already under my alter ego BeaCreative.   Not to be sacrilegious, but this is the bible of crafting.  My mouth just waters at the thought of winning a free copy.  It is also great fun to see all the things other people are making. 

While visiting Martha Stewart’s site it is well worth it to check out The Crafts Dept. blog.  This is one of my new addictions.  This group of crafters is truly inspirational and always serve up some visually pleasing images. 

I am so excited to announce the release of my newly redesigned Pacifier Keeper as well as a line of bibs made to match!!!

After months of testing in real-life scenarios (i.e., babys with pacifiers), I found that just the single layer of Japanese ribbon lacks the durability to stand up to long-term use. The ribbon would twist up and just not look good.  The addition of a stabilizing layer ensures that the Pacifier Keeper will look better, longer. After all, our motto is “only the best for your little style-setter”.   Feel free to visit my Etsy shop to check them out.  I’ll be updating my shop with new stock during the next couple of days.

One of my dearest friends had a little girl about a year ago.  I am so excited to have a little girl to craft for.  The poor child has had so many handmade presents from me she will probably need therapy when she’s older.  I thought I would share some of the things I’ve made her lately.

The booties I made several months back but I couldn’t remember if I posted a picture of them.  They are a very quick and easy crochet project.  I made some for my little guy from a pattern.  However, the pattern had some hick ups so for this run I just free-formed them.  To my great pleasure they come out fine.

Last month was a milestone birthday. It has been some time since I broke out my card making skills.  However, I was more than satisfied by the results.  Any guesses on how old the little sweetheart turned?

For presents I turned to lionbrand.com which has some great little critters to crochet.  The puppy was made from their free pattern called Patty the Puppy.  If you look at the pattern you can see that my body is slimmer.  I didn’t notice until it was finished so just left it.  I also added a collar made from an edging pattern.  I figured I had to “girly” it up a bit.

The Amigurumi chick and bunny were made from a pattern for egg cozies (I just stuffed them and closed the bottoms).  I thought these would be perfect for little hands to carry around.  My little guy test drove them and didn’t want to give them up.  He finally gave them up when mama promised to make him his very own.  Which reminds me….I had better get on that tonight…

It has been hectic around here and hence my posting has suffered.  We got over the sicks which ate up most of the month of February.  Then the latter part of March was taken up with the flood fight.  We live in the Fargo, North Dakota area which made national news for our flooding.  In fact, our house was in an area that was evacuated due to the Red River Flooding.  We made the decision to stay even with a little one.  I am glad we did because a pipe popped it’s cap and started flooding our basement.  Because we were here we caught it and averted disaster.  Some of our neighbors that left did not fair so well.  The mystery pipe appears to be a link to the storm sewers that dates back to the old days.  Right now the community is breathing easy but bracing ourselves for round two which could be just as high next week.  Keep your fingers crossed.

What does one do to occupy the long nights of staying up to watch the sump pump and flooded streets?  Why, one crafts of course.  I started a pair of socks.  I have only knitted one pair of socks before, so they kept me busy.  I used a pattern that was written for double point needles but used two circular needles – the more complex the better a project, hahaha.  I have just about finished one sock and will probably get to the second sock when the river crests for the second time.