Christmas Joy

Happy Post Holidays!

We had a great holiday season in my house. My two year old was so excited for her grandparents to visit (my parents) and she didn't really get the whole Santa thing but was all wound up as if she did. Her joy and happiness made this holiday season so much better!

Christmas 2014

My little reindeer

Time just passes much too quickly.
I cannot believe my littlest one is 8 weeks old already.I was not able to get her blanket complete to put under the Christmas tree as a present, but I only have one more circle left to crochet, which will be completed today!

Circle of Friends Purples and Pinks

Circle of Friends, 16 circles, Baby Blanket

I wish I had a lighter pink color in there but the light pink color for Vanna's Choice was lighter than I wanted to go. I think this will look great and Teagan will love it just as much as my two year old loves her.

My next project I have to get moving on as soon as this is done is another baby blanket for my friends who were expecting. Their bundle of joy arrived yesterday, very early at 32 weeks. I am going to whip up some little tiny hats to send in the mean time because I know the nurses will make sure his little head is nice and warm.

Happy Hooking!

xo Susan

Christmas Cards Ordered!

Greetings!

I finally ordered our Christmas cards this morning. See, I did get our family photos taking in October so I could have the digital images back and design and order our cards so I would have them ready to go in the beginning of December. Baby girl #2 was due December 12. Her sister was three days late, so I was not going to hold out and hope for family of four photos because it just wouldn't be feasible to get them in time to send out before Christmas.

A month ago I designed three different cards and wanted to run them by my hubby to see which one he liked the best. Time slipped away and I missed the 50% off promo, which I knew would be back before Christmas. I had a feeling as soon as I ordered them, the next day the 50% off promo would run again so I waited. While I was waiting our beautiful baby was born. I couldn't order our cards without including our perfect little new pumpkin.

Granny Square Baby Blanket with Newborn

Well, I was reminded this morning that today is the last day for 50% off and so I finally took a few photos of Teagan to add to the card. Her official new born photo shoot is later this week. Above is a photo of her with a large granny square I made while pregnant with my older daughter. You see, the day before Teagan was born I started her baby blanket. It is still in progress.

I made a baby blanket a few years ago using the circle of friends pattern and really liked it. After pondering for months about the pattern I would use for Teagan's blanket, I decided to use Circle of Friends.

Circle of Friends for Baby Blanket

Circle of Friends Baby Blanket in the making

I am still deciding on the exact colors to use. I am not sure if the yellow will make it in there. Luckily, I have a friend with a baby on the way that I can use the yellow circle for if I decide not to use yellow in Teagan's. I am using Vanna's Choice yarn by Lion Brand. Since my crochet hiatus, I see that Vanna's Baby line is almost non-existent, many of the colors are now part of the regular Vanna's Choice. I am going to check A.C. Moore sometime this week to see if I can get some more of the old Vanna Baby colors.

Happy Hooking!

xo Susan

Crochet Candy Cane Scarf, Christmas Cookies, and Christmas Flowers

Happy Wednesday!

Today was my first official day of break since all grades were due and submitted online by noon yesterday. My list of things to do while off is increasing like clean out closets, go through cabinets, etc., etc. but I will not be doing anything until I finish my mom's candy cane scarf. 

Right now the scarf is over halfway done. I am doing double crochet clusters of threes, 13 clusters across (wide). Two rows of each color at a time. I was thinking it may be a little too wide but my mom thought it was the perfect width, so it will be perfect for her.

I also started some Christmas cookies, which usually I make much earlier. Better late than never? I usually like to make a variety and give tins of cookies to some friends around town. The first batch were peanut butter blossoms. A peanut butter cookie ball and a Hershey's chocolate kiss on top.
These ones are made with Bisquick instead of flour and are DELICIOUS!

My only problem is the cookie part cracks when I put the kiss on top. Does anyone know why this happens? Are they too dry? They are nice and moist though, and taste delicious.

And, here is a Christmas bouquet I picked picked up at the grocery store (Publix). I thought they were great to remind me Christmas is coming and I need to finish those cookies up ASAP (as soon as possible).  As Christmas becomes only 3 days away tomorrow, I need to finish the rest of the cookies and frost some cookie cut outs.

I hope your holiday preparations are coming along nicely and you are able to find joy in the season. Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate it!
xoxo Susan

Santa's Hat Workshop

Hello Friends,

My living room has turned into Santa's hat making workshop - well, crochet hat making workshop. I had several orders from my Etsy shop to fill and get mailed out before Christmas. So, I've been squeezing in an extra minutes I have to get these orders filled and sent out.

Some owls in pink and blue, a spiderman, a yellow bear, and some pom pom hats. The pom pom hats are very easy to make and do not require attaching of eyes like the owls or spiderman white "eye" area. I made the pink version several months ago and made my first blue one for an order.

 I used Vanna's Choice holding together a strand of Colonial Blue and Light Dusty Blue with an N/10mm hook. The hat is a quicker make, then you just make the two pom poms using both colors together and attach!

The next thing I want to show you is a stocking I made when I was around 10-12 years old. We had some yarn with red, green, and white in it - probably Red Heart Super Saver, and I made this all on my own without a pattern. I was very clever back then, I can't tell where the first chain was made or how I went about making this one. When I was in Buffalo I found it in my parent's basement and knew I needed to bring it down to my own home in Florida.

When I first moved to Florida almost 6 years ago, I was a poor doctoral student (well not super poor but you know what I mean) and I wanted to have a stocking for J but did not want to purchase one. I had some red yarn (again - Red Heart Super Saver, I used to think this was good yarn to use for crochet) and whipped up this stocking. I used Bernat's yarn for the "lace" on the trim.

I think it looks pretty good hanging considering it was a quick whip up for J's Christmas stocking.

Well, I am not going to start a career making stockings, but I have all of my hat orders complete and they were all sent off to the post office today. Now I just have to finish the rest of my Christmas cards. I did all of J's side of the cards and sent them off today. I just have to finish my list of friends and family.

Here is our Christmas tree decorated. I try to make it look a little different each year, so this year I added the white ribbon with gold trimmings on it to go with the red. Our tree is tall and thin which is perfect for the place we put it. I think the ribbons help make it look a little "fatter". Now I just have to find the rest of my ornaments - I am just not as organized this year as I usually am.

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you are having a fabulous week. I've been seeing a lot of baking and Christmas decorating on the blogs. I love seeing how each person is celebrating their holiday season through crochet, crafts, and yummy goodies. We all have many similarities and unique differences. :)

xoxo Susan

P.S. Do you like my new layout for Christmas? I have been trying to change the background for a couple weeks and was finally able to do it using html code instead of uploading a photo/graphic. Now I need to keep up on it so we aren't looking at Christmas all the time!