New Home, New Card

My son recently moved into his own place.  He had been sharing a house with 2 other fellows, but the landlord decided to sell the house, and unfortunately, the guys weren't part of the deal.

So now he has a basement suite, and I took this opportunity to make a "New Home" card.  I used a stamp set, "Pixie Lane" from Unity stamp company, and coloured it with Copics.  The die cut swirl is from Memory Box Dies, as are the leaves.  The tag is a Quikutz die.  I'm not sure what the paper is..... some scraps I had around. 

Which brings me to my next problem:  Scraps of Paper.  I hate to throw out the little bits of paper I have left over from projects, because 1) Paper is not cheap 2) Paper is seasonal, and once it's gone, it's gone, and you can't guarantee you'll be able to find it again.  (Once I was going to order some papers not available in local stores anymore from a well known company, and the total was going to be like $10, but the shipping was going to be about $50.  What?) 3) I don't like cutting up a big piece of paper to get a small square, like I have here.

So I end up keeping all these itty-bitty bits of paper, withe the idea that I may just need them one day.  You and I both know that day will likely never come, unless of course I get rid of them, and then I'll want them again.  I need an organization system.....

FLOWER UPDATE:  I continue to crochet little flowers.  It is very soothing.  Plus, I just bought a new book, "100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet", which has a multitude of lovely little blossoms in it.  I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with all those flowers....

Until next time....

More Crochet Flowers!

 Here is my problem.  I like making these little flowers, now I know HOW to crochet them.  In different sizes.  And colours.  I have already gone out and bought 2 more balls of cotton to make more.  What am I going to do with them all?

These 2 are gracing a pair of slippers I made earlier this year.  (I have enough yarn to make at least 3 more pairs of slippers.)  I must say, I do like them made from crochet cotton, with a smaller hook. 

I was thinking if I made them from finer cotton and with a smaller hook I may be able to add them to scrapbooking projects (lumpy ones, anyway!)  And if the cotton was white, could I spray them with Glimmer Mist?

In the meantime, I'll just keep crocheting away, adding little flowers here and there, to whatever needs brightening up.  They'd be cute as centres on granny squares too.  (oh-oh, another project!)

Until next time.....



Lesley Makes "Molly Makes" Crochet Brooch in 2 Days!

It seemed like a good idea at the time.  I saw a "Molly Makes" magazine with a crochet flower brooch included, the evening before the crop.  "Hmmm,", I thought, "that might be fun to take to the crop and make...."

So it came to the crop with me, and after the first disastrous attempt, I realized something was very wrong. 
Attempt #2 - worse that the first
Attempt #3 - okay, I give up.  For today, anyway.

Once home, I got on the Internet to try and figure out what went so terribly wrong.  Well, for starters, there was a tiny error in the pattern.  But even that was not enough to explain the crazy results I had come up with (one attempt, I think it was #2, looked like a fan.  Def. not right).

Then I turned to YouTube, where you can learn to do just about anything.  I was amazed to see a video of someone making this flower!  However, there was no sound, no instruction, and if I could crochet that fast, I'd be making about one flower in 5 minutes.

Over to Google, where I discovered someone had kindly written out the pattern in my-speak on their blog, and had photos to go with it!  So there I was, in front of the computer, with the magazine instructions, the YouTube video, and the blog.  And strict instructions for the family not to talk to me until I had this thing figured out.

After several attempts and bad words, I finished a flower.  The pink yarn that came with pattern was, by this time, quite frayed and fuzzy looking, so I went out and bought some purple cotton to make a "finished" version.  I decided it needed a centre, and so added a bead. 

This little brooch is now on it's way to England, as a gift for my son's girlfriend.  I had to include a custom's slip, explaining what was in the envelope and how much it cost.  I'm sure the post office people hear all kinds of things, and that's why they just gave me a blank stare when I tried to describe what I was mailing.

Until next time.....

P.S.  I did manage to finish my Mexico mini-book at the crop, despite my crochet shenanigans (is that even a word?)