christmas goodies!

so i'm lame. the only thing i took a picture of was the bag.  the rest i have pictures of, however, some of them are not the actual gifts given so forgive me. i'm exhausted. 

first off, the bag.  or the provence summer string bag, if you will.  i fell in love with this the second i found it.  yet, i found it after i had started other gifts for people. those projects were quickly scrapped as i worked on 4 of these babies: 

isn't that lovely?  i made this green one, a red one, a blue one, and a purple one. it was a labor of love really. soooooo tired...now i have to make one for me!!!  

headwraps for the nieces.  green for kassy, turquoise for kaitlyn, blue for kailee, and orange for ellie.  

and for my most favorite cousins, bath sets that included a face scrubbie and a bath poofie.  these may look small, but i must say that the poofie takes more time than it looks like it should. 

now what i don't have pictures of are the beanies that i made for my nephews.  red/black/and white for sack, black/white for caleb, and hot pink for josh. yes, he requested hot pink.  in fact, all the nieces and nephews got to choose the color of their gift.  i must admit, the hot pink hat was my personal favorite. it turned out awesome. i'll have to get a picture as soon as i can. 

my very favorite gift though, was for my dear brother in law.  it wasn't even crocheted, but it was awesome. i made him a nice picture frame. with a picture of me in it.  i just wanted to make sure he remembers how much he loves me. :)

in fact, is has THIS picture in it: 

now he'll never forget how awesome i am. never never never. 

holy crap i'm so tired!  now what to make next? i have a couple gifts left to finish and mail, but then i'm DONE!

a snuggie? pillows with swear words?  a new lampshade? move onto valentine's day? 

it's a christmas miracle!

no really, i'm not kidding.  as i get older, i'm getting better at finishing what i start (with regards to crocheting that is), so when i come across a project that i haven't finished, it bugs me a little more than it used to.

i started this kick-ass-ghan when i was 14.  yes, you heard me folks, when i was 14 years old. i'm 31 now.  so 17 years ago, my mom and i ventured out and bought i'm guessing 18 skeins of cheap yarn so i could make an afghan.

mom has an afghan that we all still use.  she made it when we lived in the apartment that flooded out (that's a great story so you should ask me about it sometime), so round abouts 1st grade for me.  she did hers with 3 strands. it's been washed so many times that it's practically felted even though it's not even made out of wool.  it's the heaviest, warmest blanket ever.  i wanted one of those.  although, i'm guessing we were strapped for cash because mine only uses 2 strands.

as i was getting out my christmas decorations over the holidays, i came face to face with it again. it's been packed away ever so carefully, waiting for me to pull my head out and finish it.

i must say, that i was a tad embarrassed when i pulled it out of the plastic and realized that it has been nearly finished all this time. there were only 2 skeins of yarn left, which were for the fringe.

i added 3 rows. 3. 3 rows until it was finished. sometimes i wonder about myself.

i then had to remind myself how to make the fringe. apparently, this takes a genius because i was stuck for a minute and was about to google it when it came to me.

it's mauve.  i make fun of mauve.  however, it was 1993 so you're really going to have to cut me some slack. my room was pink.  oh, and sage green.  pink and sage green.  lovely.

that said, i do think that it looks awesome with my grey walls and white bedding.

congrats me!! 

christmas crafting

i often have the sudden urge to glue and mod podge.  wackiness will then ensue: 

i think it turned out quite adorable. i took it to work because my office is so very very bare.  

this next one was from a long time ago.  i got the idea reading craft blogs.  apparently christmas is all about wreaths and advent calendars.  not that it wasn't before, i just didn't pay any attention.  this is a reindeer from my super saturday days.  i stained it and then put this lame blank wreath around it's neck. that worked for about 20 years.   then i decided to to this: 

isn't that so cute?  just some yarn and a few beads i had layin' around.  i don't know why i had these ginormous beads but they sure came in handy.  

runnin' low on the dude ideas....

mans, it's so much fun to make stuff for girls. frilly, lacy, and fun.

and then there's the dudes. what do you crochet for a dude? besides a blanket, beanie, and/or a scarf?

on my quest to find dude gifts, i've come across several that i think are so awesome that i just had to share.

exhibit a: the poncho. or "mancho" as i like to call it....

doesn't he look so excited to be wearing his homemade gift? he's brooding and handsome. 

dapper, if you will. 

exhibit b:  the super looooooong scarf. 

jeesh, this dude has got it all. long scarf (that doesn't look the least bit girly, if you ask me), chick on his arm.  he's livin' the dream is what he's doin'.

exhibit c:  the dude sweater.

i can't speak for anyone else,  but i know that when i receive homemade clothing, i LOVE it when it looks homemade.  just sayin'. 

exhibit d:  (these are my personal favorites) oxford slippers. 

you know what would be rad? if i crocheted a matching smoking jacket.  i'm kind of not kidding.  and then i'll give it wrapped up so pretty to a dude in my life and pretend like i'm serious:

"what? you don't like it? i worked really hard on that."

and just for fun.....

doesn't get much better than this folks. 

i kid, i kid.

i know that each of these projects took a lot of thought and effort. but the whole point of this is to make something that is not lame.

i want something awesome.  i want something snappy (if you know that movie reference, then you too are awesome). 

help me crochet nerds!



lightin' the night yo's!

before i tell you all about the 'light the night' project, just a small taste of what kinds of conversations happen between shannon and i when we get excited. like, super duper, crap in your pants, excited.

basically, it goes down something like this:

kami: (or shannon, depending on who found the cuteness): check this out!
shannon: oh my I LOVE THEM ALL!
kami: I know right? I gasped out loud. You could do a bunch of *insert rambling of incoherent ideas here*…..
shannon: holy CRAP! Now I gasped out loud! I think I'm going to faint.
kami: easy as pie.
shannon: Mother effing trucker, it's genius!
kami: I'm going to die.
shannon: like magic! Oh my gosh that would be so cute I can hardly stand it.
kami: I think my blood pressure just went up.

and so on and so forth. all the great ideas happen like this, and then it's like the creativity spews out. i say spew because sometimes we don't think before trying a project and it turns out to not be such a great idea. like my picture frame crochet cozy. i'm still not pleased with it. and we have yet to find a willing participant who will let us try out the testicle receptacle. although, if you're interested...please let us know....

back to spewing cuteness. i saw a post on somewhere (i sure can't remember) by a young lady who spelled out words with yarn on some baskets and then used them to organize stuff.

it. is. darling. it's so cute, and so easy. however, i'm too cheap to buy the good thick yarn so i had to come up with a different idea. and had to come up with a project in which i needed to write words out of yarn.... i can't believe i just said that.

this is where 'light the night' comes into play. my cute sister headed up the annual 'light the night' event in sugarhouse park this year. if you haven't checked it out, it's a super cool event.

i wanted to come up with a cool (homemade=cheap) gift for her to put in her office to commemorate the event, and to let her know that all her hard work didn't go unnoticed.

so i got to thinking. what does this event entail? walking....donating money....balloons....BALLOONS!

and then i had an epiphany. i wondered if anyone had ever crocheted a balloon. of course, i knew someone had to, and they did! i found this super easy pattern here and got to work.



now, isn't that the cutest thing you've ever seen? i originally did a white, gold, and red balloon but the piece of wood that i picked up didn't accommodate all three. so red it was, because that's light the nights' main color. i decided i wanted the balloon's tail to spell out "light the night."

i wonder how many times i can say "light the night" int his post? someone count for me.

after several attempts, this is what i came up with. it's the first writing-words-in-yarn attempt for me, and from far away, it kind of looks like a pre-schooler wrote it, but if you look up close, you can see the cool texture (the "rope" is just a single crocheted chain) and of course, the adorable balloon. with a bow. everything looks cuter with a bow.

can you tell i'm in love with the balloon?

here's a close up in case you couldn't tell:

This Post Is Brought To You By....

Camera phones! When nothing, but the best will do! (Except that it has to because your real camera's batteries died)

We now rejoin Shannon in the midst of her dilemma...

*wimper*...*sniff*....*panicked shifty eyes***

*whine*But I'm soooo close..... *wringing hands*

   *SOB* BOOOOOOHooooHooooHoooHooo

This is quite possibly the saddest day ever. No..more..cotton. This empty shell of ice-cream-cone-crave-inducing cardboard used to be this thing of beauty:

The Sugar 'n Cream 1 lb Cone. (in white though)

My latest obsession. Everything I make lately has a little SnC in it somewhere. And the cone teases you by making it feel like it will be there forever. Then, when you're 2/3 of the way through making the back of one helluva cute pillow, it's gone. Just like that! And here I thought it would be there for me through thick and thin. Through wonky washclothes and lovely textured flower pillows alike. Yet I find myself here, alone longing for its natural cotton absorbency to soak up my salty tears.

Lucky for me I have a little something goin' on the side. *wink wink* *elbow nudge* I got all of the supplies to start my coworker's American Flag afghan and I'm extra excited. I showed her the colors I picked out (duh, I know red white and blue. I'm talking about shades) and have her blessing, so I'm off! Maybe a little space from my SnC obssession will do me some good. I might have been getting a tad codependant.

Oh! Did I ever show you these adorable little guys?

Cute huh? I made these guys nearer to the beginning of October and they've been keeping me company at work. Those little faces just make my day. They're so cute, in fact, that I'm having trouble taking them home and packing them away. It feels so wrong. I do have plans to make a crazy adorable little gobbler so I might let these guys hang around until the new bird is in town. We shall see.....

what to make next....

on november 1st, i started to panic. on november 1st, i was left with exactly 55 days until christmas. so, i got out my trusty notebook and made a list of all the people that i'd like to make gifts for.

but then, i saw this again:



this is a cb2 pouf. that's code for darling.

and all of a sudden, i've forgotten about all the gifts i have to make and am trying to figure out how to make myself one of these. in my world, i can't be spendin' that kind of dough on things that one might consider to be frivolous. plus, do you know how much yarn $80 would buy? a lot. a lot of glorious, magnificent yarn.....

yarn for me to make more presents you see! so many projects, so little time. this one sadly may have to wait until after the holidays, along with my snuggie.

don't judge.

saving up my projects!

Ok, I'm moving on Saturday. So this is what my couch looks like:

 

But I thought I would treat you all to what I've been making!! I made candy corn for my bowl, a couple of pumpkins and 5 monsters! Oh and a hat!

That flower is a bit large, but I LOVE it! The brim needs work too. Yay! hat season!

funny thing about being a crafter, is that you want to go home and craft rather than do anything else. i love seeing the piles of poofies slowly build....and then get smaller when i sell some of them. it's awesome. my favorite is when shannon and i go to our homes and then send pictures of what we're making all night long. yes yes, we're cool. i know.

this last venture, was a little outside of my comfort zone. shannon gets busy with the sewing and the gluing and the computer and all that hoopla. i'm jealous of her energy. me? i'm like, hook and yarn. i'm good.

i have had these white boards since i found out i was getting a new job. my plan was to (amazingly) hang them in my new office. yeah....that didn't happen. because you see, after moving around so much in my last job, i've become a little bit afraid of commitment. if i have to get outta there quick, i don't want a whole bunch to move.

sorry, tangent.

white boards. i tried to sell them at a yard sale. no one wanted 'em so i took that as a sign and decided to crochet a border for them.

let's just say, it's a good thing i have 3. the first one looks a little special to me. good thing i have extras! i also added some flowers to the magnets.



and now on to the yard sale! i made about $60 bucks. not too shabby, and thanks to shannon for letting me use the killer display board she made the the awareness ribbons.

headbands and scrubbies!


hair clips for sale!


cute kaitlyn modeling her turquoise flower clip:


the tiny flower bobby pin:

Busy as a Bee

Hey there, it's Shannon here! Kami is way faster at crocheting than I am so she does like 5 posts to my 1 but never, fear, I'm keeping busy. Stick with me folks and you'll see a world of cuteness that will amaze you! Are you ready for the longest crochet post ever? Great! Here we go....

Exhibit A:

It's getting close to Halloween. I'm not sure if you realized. There are some fun chicks at my job who LOVE Halloween and really get into the spirit of things. Last year they started a tradition of decorating mini pumpkins. So I was sitting there thinking about what to do to my pumpkin and it dawned on me *ding* Cinderella's coach. So that night I got all excited and got to work. I had to get some wire from teh store, but I already had everything else so it was nice and cheap. Here's my "blank canvas":

Mini things are so stinkin' cute eh? so I took one of these bad boys home and primed it with white primer. Then I spray painted it silver. Then I got to work with my wire and needle nosed pliers. (FYI: Be careful or wear gloves or something. I was bending away and next thing I knew, there was blood on my hands, arms, etc. etc. Please don't die making this project. It's cute but it's not worth it)

I was using a picture from the Disney movie as inspiration. I bent the wire into two sections like this one for the wheels. Then I took straight bits and wired them together. Then I sealed all the edges with hot glue. Because I'm obssessed.



Then I did a simple crochet around the whole frame with white acrylic yarn. Kind of like you see on your grandma's hangers. I made a little corkscrew out of the wire to twist around the stem and glued it into place as well. It's cute as it is no? But still a little too plain. I wanted a tad more bling. So it morphed into this and here it is on display at work.

I did some cute little flowers and tied them onto the frame. Then I made a big leaf and tied it onto the pumpkin. Now I can't stop staring at when I should be working!

*I'm linking this to any party I can find that's Halloween related so if this is the project you came to see, you can stop here. OR you can continue to see more crazy cute crochet! (see the bottom of the post for linky parties)*

 Have I mentioned how annoying it is that blogger saves every 1 minute and jumps around in the post while I'm trying to type and move pictures? Ok, moving on.

Exhibit B:

Another Cozy!!! This guy is going to go into my car for car wash coins. Fun stuff eh?

Best part about it? You can put things IN it.

See?

Exhibit C:
Baby Hair Dealies!
I whipped these bad boys up for a friend from work. She's going to a baby shower and wanted to throw together some little onesie cupcakes. For the "frosting" on top I made hair accessories that they can use forever!

These three are clips

And this one is a precious little headband

I even glued some felt onto the clippies to protect little soft heads.

I probably drove Jeff crazy making these because I really started venturing into "make it up" territory. I took some basic flower patterns I found online and played with them until they came out in a way I thought was cute. I hope the mom to be likes them as much as I do! Come to think of it, you could really clip them to anything (bags, etc.) as a great little accessory.

Exhibit D:

Ok, let's round this thing out with one of my favorite projects I've ever made. I love this pillow! I loved it since I saw the picture of it and I loved it even more when Kami found the pattern on Ravelry. It was super easy and came together so fast!

I decided recently to do my room in white with various shades of blue and a touch of chocolate brown. This pillow fits right in!

I made the insert with an old pillow case that had a rip in it. I cut out the corner and sewed up one of the unfinished ends. Then I stuffed it and sewed up the other cut end. EASY! Stuff it in the two crochet panels, sew those together and Voila!

So that finishes up the crochet spectacular for the day! I'm going to link this HUGE post up to:

The CSI Project's Halloween Extravaganza Challenge

Polly Want A Crafter's Monday Link Party

Just A Girl's Show and Share Party

Remodelaholic's Remodelaholics Anonymous Party

scrubbies and poofies and something else, oh my!

ahhh, 2 posts in one day!!!

so, i'll be honest. it's friday night. i'm at home crocheting with my cat. but i have a good excuse. i'm in the midst of a headache hangover, one i'm hoping is gong by tomorrow because i am helping with my sister's yard sale. how many alka seltzers does it take to feel better? because the 4 i've had in the last 8 hours just aren't working. boo.

oh well. guess i better make something. and after a 4 hour nap this afternoon, i'm not going back to bed any time soon.

i decided to finish the bath poofies and face scrubbies.

the face scrubbie. these are AWESOME. if i don't say so myself. and not just because i made them, but because they make your skin feel very nice. you should give them a shot.



here's the front of a bath poofie. every time i say poofie, it makes me smile. anyways, this is a one sided poofie, with a face scrubbie sewn onto the back of it. you have the best of both worlds!!! yeah, i know, i'm pretty smart.



here's a side view of the the full poofie. it's two of the flowers sewn together, with a strap attached.