Grr I don't know why Photobucket is refusing to save my pictures right. If you click on the giant pictures below then right click, under properties it shows them being much smaller. Like 280x200 something. BUT if you check properties on the posts below, then are like 680x800. So frusterating.

Swap Package and Knitpicks Order

We FINALLY got the car registration all set, and got our shiny new blue sticker! After being at the DMV for an hour (which actually is not bad) I came home to TWO packages on my doorstep.

First was my Christmas Ornament swap package from Craftster! ehinders made me a really cool box with some gorgeous ribbon on the side, a red ornament that is embellished with winter themes and sayings, and a reindeer pez dispenser!

I also received my yarn from Knitpicks! It is exactly the color I had hoped for, so I'm glad it all worked out.

Hopefully I can start on the bolero today, but I have a few more things to finish up for the Mini Christmas swap...I really want to be done with that before I start ANY new project, including Christmas presents. I have most of my "To Do List" for Christmas already, and I do have most of the supplies already.

I also put up the Snowboarder girl pattern for sale on Etsy and Ravelry :)

Thanksgiving, Ami Snowgirl and Ultrasound

Two days ago was our 19 week ultrasound...and it's a boy!! It was so cool to see the heart pumping, the spine, the fingers...everything. We're going to make copies and send pictures to everyone in Christmas cards, but I also took a picture of the ultrasound picture to email to people :)

It's a little fuzzy, but pretty good I think for being a picture of a picture.



Good thing I never gave away that starghan I made!

After the ultrasound we went out to lunch/early dinner with my parents at Red Robin, and they gave us a little bib and some cute socks that have a picture of a puppy on them....and it looks like our dog Misty :). We went into the WalMart right across the street after Red Robins, and I bought us an artificial Christmas tree! It was between the 4 foot prelit tree for $25, or the skinny6 foot tree for $20. I ended up going with the 6 footer because it really didn't look that big,I think it's a perfect size. I'll probably set it up on Monday, and that will still give me plenty of time to see if I need more ornaments or anything. For the garland, I'm going to crochet a long skinny scarf and just wrap that around.

Craig and I were planning on just spending Thanksgiving together, and then going to my parents house on Sunday for another Thanksgiving. Craig said he'd make a turkey on Thursday, I'm making the super easy sweet potato's (mmm my favorite), Stove Top Cranberry stuffing with added orange zest, and a pumpkin cheesecake. I'm at least going to *attempt* a pumpkin cheesecake, since I bought the premade cheesecake filling and I'm not sure if I can just mix the pumpkin straight in or what.

Now Craig is saying there is a *slight* chance we might still be able to go to his family's house down in L.A., if he can finish all of his clients today then his work said he could have Friday and Saturday off. BUT one client is being stubborn and only wants services on Saturday, so we'll see if he was able to do it today.

I finally finished my snowboarder girl! I ended up giving a bonus sled pattern, since the first snowboard I made was a bit to big, and Craig said it looked like a sled. Ahaha good idea :)
I'll have the pattern up for sale today as soon as I find our copy of Adobe PDF maker, there is a lot of instructional pictures in the pattern, so to PDF is to big for all the free PDF makers that I've seen.







LOL Lynelle (the hooker from the movie Borat) is on the radio this morning and she's hilarious.

Handmade Christmas Trees

It's still November, but already I'm in a Christmas mood. I even put on some Christmas music the other day while I was cleaning! Don't tell Craig though, he hates it haha.

I've been meaning to make these for *years*, but I just always got caught up in Christmas giftmaking that I never had much time for decorations. Since I have PLENTY of time on my hands these days, I decided to just sit down and do them. They were super fast, maybe a half hour each..tops.I think some other colors might be fun, like a white tree with aqua and magenta accents. They are also pretty cheap to make so I definitely could make more.

I put them up on Etsy, but I have to say that I would not be to sad if they don't sell :)

This white one might look kind of sparse as far as decor goes, but the yarn is just so soft and fuzzy with a hint of sheen...that it really didn't need much added decoration.



The green one is probably my favorite, I might even make another one just because it looks so Christmasy to me :)



See that glittery Noel decoration? I just bought that for $2.50 in the $1 (haha yeah doesn't make sense) section at Target! I love all things glittery. I think that would also be easy to replicate with the wooden letters at Michaels and some glitter.



Craig has off both Saturday and Sunday this weekend, so I'm going to try and talk him into running to the store to buy a fake tree. I was going to get one yesterday at Wal-Mart, but they were kinda heavy and I always hate asking for help. They had a 4 1/2 foot one that I think would be perfect, and small enough to store in our apartment until next year :)

I've also finished 1 small item for my Mini Christmas swap partner, and I think she'll love it. Her tastes seem completely different from mine, but that's good....it gets me to think outside my normal crafty ways :)

I'm not sure if blogger is a good place for me, it ALWAYS cuts off half of my pictures...or it takes me forever to find the right size. They really need to widen the space where you post, even if just a little bit.

Turkey!

I was up at 5:30 am this morning with Craig, I just couldn't fall back to sleep. I had to be up by 6:30 anyway to take the car into the shop....and I was supposed to wait there.

All. Freaking. Day.

Luckily the guy at the shop took pity on me, and drove me home....I was less then 10 minutes away anyway. I had brought this pattern with me to the shop hoping to keep myself busy, so I thought I'd still do it. The turkey pattern is from Bittersweet Blog.It was pretty easy, and took me about 3 hours, but that was stopping for a quick lunch, email checks etc.

I'm having a lot of problems with photobucket and blogger, so hopefully this picture doesn't look distorted like they have been. You can always check my pictures out on Flickr though!

I was going to start on some stuff for a new Christmas swap I'm in, but I think I need a little nap first :)

Starting the Short and Sweet Bolero

So far in my crochet, I've pretty much just stuck to do amigurumi's, cozies, scarfs, and hats.Today I've finally decided to start a project that I've been wanting to do for forever, the Short and Sweet Bolero in the book The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller. I've never made anything like it, but I thought I'd give it a try. Here are some Flickr photos so you can see what I'm talking about.

I went over to the super slow site (sorry but it is sloooow) Knitpicks and picked up their Shine Sport Yarn in the color "Harbor". I think in person it will be more blue then this swatch, at least from what I've seen.

I swear, picking out colors is the hardest part! The pattern calls for 100% mercerized cotton yarn, but I've seen some great FO's using this yarn.Besides, it's only $2.95 a skein, so if it doesn't work...it's a great practice one!

I'm still putting the finishing touches on my Ami snowboarder, and I need to make another ami beer bottle since I only wrote down half the pattern; before I put the patterns up for sale.
I've also got some more ideas for patterns (and Christmas presents!), but I need to just sit and focus on ONE project at a time...I swear I have crochet ADD ;)

Rum Bottle Pattern

Woohoo I have my first pattern for sale on Ravelry! It's super easy, and shouldn't take very long at all. I'm going to go make a white one (coconut rum!) with a pink flower, I think that would be cute and tropical :)






I'm going to make another beer bottle before I offer the pattern up, just to double check it.

Beer and Sasquatch!

These patterns are almost compete, along with the PDF. I'm also making a little snowboarder girl, so when that is finished I will post a picture and get the pattern up :)

Ami Sasquatch

I've been working on an ami bigfoot pattern, and so far I have this.



The torso is to long I think, and I'm not sure if I like the way his big feet looks. I will probably tweak the pattern a bit more before I offer it up for sale.

Or I was thinking leaving the pattern the way it is, and just creating a baby sasquatch to go along with him :)

Ami Rum Bottle Pattern

I'm finally getting things set up for my patterns! I've got my first PDF file completely finished and ready to go. All I'm waiting for is to get approved on Ravelry to start selling my patterns, and for Etsy all I have to do is make a banner for my shop.

I've got a few more patterns done, but I need to take more photos and turn them into PDF's, but here is the rum bottle that is completely finished.

Christmas Ornament Swap

I signed up for a Christmas Ornament Swap over on Craftster, and I was done within a week. I guess that's what happens when you aren't currently working ;)

I'll put bigger pictures up on Flickr when my partner receives her package.








We didin't really have any specifications, except for it to be Christmas related. So I crochet a retro Christmas ornament with Roxycraft's awesome pattern. The pattern calls for it to be crochet in the round, but I did it in a spiral...it's just an easier technique for me. I used Caron Simply Soft in a Cranberry color, and Patons Divine Brilliant in the sparkly silver. They were out of the sparkly red, but the cranberry yarn had a sheen...so it worked. It looks much more vibrant in person, I had JUST gotten my new camera that day...so I was still figuring it out :)





I got the santa ornament idea from her wists, there was a beautiful handpainted santa face with a white fluffy feather perfectly glued on top. Well I cannot paint that good heh, so I got those rub-on faces at Michaels and just used that. In place of the feather I just glued some white fluffy yarn. It is a little crooked, but it's still cute :)



The embroiderd ornament is just a little snowman with the words "Let it Snow" above him. Super easy and it only took maybe an hour.



At Michaels I found some Candy Cane Pop Rocks which I thought were pretty cool, and a little tube of holiday M&M mini's. The Hello Kitty Christmas stickers are from the $1 section at Target, and the take out box I stuffed with packing peanuts for the santa ornament.

My swap partner should be receiving her package any day now, so I hope she doesn't find this post first! :)

Since I'm crazy and love crafting, today I signed up for another Christmas swap!

New Blog

I've decided to move my blog over from Livejournal....I've had that blog since 2003, so it's time for something new :)