Sending Love with Crochet Hearts

Hello Loves,

I have been hooking slowly but surely on Teagan's baby blanket. Maybe by the end of this week I will have a finished product to share. In the mean time, I am trying to be on top of things with holidays since Lauren is old enough to know what is going on and really enjoys holidays.

Target Valentine's Day Finds! 

Tomorrow is Lauren's Valentine's Day party in the two year old room at her pre-school. Bringing Valentines is optional but since I am on leave with Teagan, I have no excuse for not crafting up some loveliness. Last year I started making soaps with our honey and essential oils so I think we may be giving her teachers, the center director, and front desk gals some soaps with a pretty little heart Valentine. After checking out Pinterest (you know it's my FAV) I thought I should whip up some little crochet hearts.

Well, I was WRONG about the whipping up part. I tried two different patterns and my hearts looked pitiful. I know I am not great at following patterns but I really did follow them this time because I know the shaping of little hearts meant I couldn't miss a stitch or two. After the second failed attempt I decided to just wing it and make my own pattern. After two drafts, I think I have a heart I am happy with.

Crochet Heart, Free Pattern

Just in case you want to make some last minute hearts I wrote it down for you! I used Vanna's Choice yarn with an I/5.50MM hook

All stitches are the USA terms

Crochet Heart Pattern

Ch 4 connect to make a circle

Round 1 All stitches in the circle

Ch 3, 3 dc, 2 tr,  2 sc, 2 tr, 3 dc, sl into chain 3

Round 2

Sc ch 2, sc in same stitch (this is the bottom of the heart), sc in next 3 stitches, 2 hdc in next stitch, 1dc 1tr 2dc next stitch, sl in next two stitches, 2dc 1tr 1dc in next stitch, 2 hdc, sc next 3, sl and fasten off. 

Please note that I made this quickly and may have made mistakes. I made a second heart following the pattern before posting this and it turned out the same, so hopefully it works for you.

Happy Thursday!

xo Susan

End of January

Hello Friends,

I cannot believe we are already at the end of January. My maternity is going by so quickly, but I do feel like I am spending so many valuable days with my little one. I find myself leaving my hook and yarn alone so I could stare at her while she sleeps.

She is a happy little baby!

Due to gazing at my baby girl all day, I have not made a whole lot of progress on finishing up her blanket. I did see how the circles are looking with the white rows to square them off. I accidentally made one row too many in the circle color and didn't want to pull them out after I had already finished several circles so it isn't as clean as the last time I made this blanket. It will do for this one, but next time I will make sure I stop before that row so it can be white.

Circle of Friends, Pink and White Baby Blanket

Are you on Pinterest? That really is probably a dumb question. I am obsessed with Pinterest. You can find my pinterest boards here. Right now I have 12,977 pins. By the time you read this I may be over 13,000. I love finding recipes, patterns, inspiration, etc. I found some lovely crochet hearts that I want to whip up before the end of next week for my two year old for Valentines Day on February 14. Does anyone have a favorite heart pattern?

xo Susan

Premie Crochet Hats

Good Morning!

The cold weather and snow is not something we have here in Southwest Florida but I am thinking of all of our friends and family and those of you our there in blog land who are experiencing the cold and snow. Last post I told you about the early arrival of my friends' baby boy, so I make some soft little hats for him to wear while he is in the hospital.

Preemie Crochet Hat

Quick Preemie Baby Crochet Hat

I put then on my ipad so you can see how teeny they are!

They are located in Colorado Springs, CO so they will have some cold weather for quite a while, I am sure little Ben will be needing plenty of hats. I didn't follow a specific pattern, I used my daughter's new born hat that was given to her in the hospital made by one of the hospital volunteers to gage size and just winged it from there. I made sure they were smaller than the one we were given since Ben is a preemie and I remember the hat being a little too big for my daughter when she was born. I need to trim the pom pom a little to make it even, and I think I will leave the blue hate without a pom pom.

I can write out a pattern if people are interested

Happy Monday!

Susan

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

Baby Girl Blanket in Progress

Greetings friends,

Christmas has come too quickly for me this year. I am a big Christmas person, I LOVE Christmas. I start listening to Christmas music at work in early fall...OK maaaaybe I have also been known to listen to it throughout the year...

Since I went into labor early, I wasn't able to prepare as well as I wanted to, but I am looking forward to having a nice Christmas with our newest addition. Even though Teagan is too little to know what is going on, having her here is extra special, and seeing the love my two year old has for her is even more special. One thing I want to have done before Christmas is Teagan's blank-y. I wanted to make her blanket with purples, but I was really having trouble finding yarn in purples that I liked. You may remember Lauren's blanket has daisies with a pink background, and she carries it around with her everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE!

One of the problems with Lauren's blanket is that I used two different kinds of yarn. The pink and yellow is Stitch 'N Bitch Washable Wool and the white is Vanna's  Choice. The washable wool isn't meant to be washed quite as much as we have to wash her blanket so two years later it isn't the best looking - it felted on the pink parts.

After searching different yarn stores, I decided to use pink and purple colors from Vanna's Choice since it is my go-to yarn.

Right now I have two of the colors complete as I will be making the blanket with 16 circles. Each circle will be finished off into a square with a white border for a 4 by 4 square blanket.

Circle of Friends Pink Circles

I had just enough yarn in one skein to make all four circles!!! The  last time I made this blanket for a boy, I stopped at row 5 with the colored circle and began row 6 in the white square border color. I accidentally did row 6 on my first three circles so I decided to just go with it on all of them.

My two year old fell asleep early tonight so I am finally going to be able to get some crocheting in to end the weekend. So I am off to crochet by the fire and eat some choclate. Tis the season...

Staying Warm by the Fireplace

We do not get a lot of cool/cold days or nights here so when we do, I love snuggling up on the couch with my yarn and hook and a nice little fire. .

xo Susan

Elmo Rocking Chair DIY

Good Morning Lovelies,

When I woke up this morning it was chilly enough that I did not want to get out from under the blanket, which does not happen very many days a year here in southwest Florida. My two year old Lauren was in my face saying "HI" so I couldn't really delay it any longer. But, Lauren was able to sit in her new Elmo rocking chair to eat her breakfast this morning!

I finished the DIY rocking chair project and added Elmo since Lauren is REALLY into Elmo right now. She was super pumped to have Elmo on her little chair.

DIY Rocking Chair Re-Do

I learned that I am not a good spray painter. Well I guess I already knew I wasn't good at spray painting but I continue to keep trying anyways. My problem is even after shaking the can for the amount of time it says on the can, the spray paint still comes out with bumps on it - sort of chunky even.

Luckily, I was able to get it going and make the chair look lovely. I also wasn't going to worry too much about any imperfections because with a toddler using it every day, and another who will follow, the chair is going to get some marks on it. When Lauren decides she isn't into Elmo anymore, I can paint over the Elmo head with Minnie Mouse or whatever new thing she is into at the time.

Here is what I did:
Supplies

• Two cans of Heirloom White Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch from Home Depot . 
• Red with white polka dot ribbon from Michaels (use a 50% off coupon)
• Martha Stewart's Satin All Surface Craft Paint for the Red, Orange, and Black to paint Elmo. I bought this set but I bought it at Michaels using a 50% off coupon, sometimes they even have 55% off coupons. I bought the set of 10 so I have colors for other projects too. The set was only $19.99 at Michaels so with the coupon I paid $9.99 for 10 colors
• Sand paper (optional)

Steps

1. I had to take apart the chair and tighten all the screws. After putting it back together, I wiped it down with Clorox Wipes to get all of the dirt and marks off of it and then let it dry.
2. Sprayed the first coat of spray paint using the Heirloom White paint. You may only need one can if you are a proficient spray painter. (remember, I am NOT)
3. I followed the directions on the can and let it dry before putting on the second coat. 
4. Google searched Elmo and printed off a black and white outline of Elmo's face from Google Images. Like this one. 
5. I put the paper up on a window (I used our sliding door but any window will do) and I traced the image using a sharp pencil.
6. Then I put the paper with the traced side placed where I wanted the image on the rocking chair and traced the lines I could see from my pencil. This will create a faint image of Elmo on the white. 
7. Remove the paper and sketch by hand any of the areas that did not get traced. Note: If you are good at drawing, you can skip steps 5-7 and just draw it free hand on the chair. I am a decent drawer, but I don't like when something looks sort of like Elmo but not really, so I went with tracing some parts. 



Faint Image of Elmo on the back of the chair

8. I also added two bows to the top of the chair to make it girly. I used my hot glue gun to make the bows and secure them to the chair. So far they have not fallen off.
9. Then I started painting. This part is a little annoying since you have to lean over to paint that part of the chair after you already have to lean over the same way to trace the image. Luckily it isn't a lot of painting so your back will not hurt too bad.
   
   
   
   
10. I bought finishing spray but didn't spray it on yet. I am not sure if I will. The paint really looks great and I am glad I bought the 10 color set because this was the second time I used them. 

Finished Elmo Rocking Chair

I was really happy with how it turned out. It is really hard to paint the black lines for outlining Elmo's eyes but if you do not look too closely, I think it came out really well! If you are an experienced painter, that part would probably be very easy for you.

Happy Friday!

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