A space for crafts

This will be a multi-part post, the finished results won't be up for a few weeks, but I'm so excited I will be getting a room just for crafts in our new house!

My husband and I will be moving into our first home of our own in a few weeks (its a split-level with 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, good sized kitchen, 2 car garage and a finished basement--just about everything on our wish-list) and we can't be more excited to be homeowners for the first time. We will have an extra bedroom in this house so I'll be able to make the smallest of the three bedrooms into my craft room right now.


Currently I have an armoir in our basement (see photo above) that we found on sale that I keep all my supplies in but anytime I want to work on something I need to bring up my supplies to the dinning room and use that table. I'm so excited to be able to have all my supplies in an area that I can work in. I'll also be able to set up my sewing machine that has sat in a box in my Mom's basement for the past few years (I'm thinking about all the new crafts I can learn with that). I'll be adding photos of the craft space transformation as I get the area done.

Some sites to see craft space ideas, mine will not be a Martha Stewart level room but I'll still be happy with it

Martha Stewart
Country Living
The Nest

Hats...Part 2

This past Saturday was a gloomy, rainy day--the kind of day you just want to lay around and do nothing. I was productive in the morning, I got up and cleaned the house and made french toast for my husband but after that it was some quality time on the couch with my DVR from the past week. It did give me the perfect opportunity to get in a good amount of crochet time (that is one of the things I love about crochet, you can be relaxing on the couch and do it at the same time). I was able to work on my hat pattern to try to get it right. They are starting to come out better and I think I've got my pattern right but I underestimated the size of kids heads. I brought the ones I had made into work to show the friend I had been working on them for and she took them home to try them on her little boy. The one I thought would fit a toddler fit on her 3 month old boy's head, and she said it should be a little longer, I guess I need to make them a little larger.

Here is what my other practice hats look like

Hats

A friend at work is in love with some of the crochet baby hats on Etsy, they are a newsboy style for little boys, and asked me to see if I could make one for her. I've never done a hat before but have worked other patterns in the round so I said I would give it a try. I researched some patterns online to see if I could find one that would work. I ended up combining a few different patterns to try to get what I wanted (see the list of links below that I used for research). I used some scrap yarn that I had in the house for this practice hat. The yarn I had was a thin baby yarn so I used a small size hook, I'm hoping with a different yarn and a slightly bigger hook it will turn out a little larger. The one area I think needs a little work is the bill of the hat, its has a slight ripple to it, I'm not sure if it's the yarn or the stitching. I'm going to try working another one with a slightly thicker yarn and a larger hook to see what happens. Once I get it right I'll post of photo of her little one in the hat.

Patterns I worked with

http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/preemieround.html http://crochetme.com/patterns/simple-newborn-hat-ear-flaps http://www.christinascrochethaven.com/baby_baseball_hat_and_mittens.htm

Bitty Bows

I took some time yesterday to list these new bow sets on Etsy. I love the colors and patterns of all the ribbon I used (there are others not shown in this photo). It seems ribbon is one of the supplies I can't get enough of, I went over the weekend and stocked up on more--I can't resist a sale.

New 4th of July Items!!

I finished some 4th of July hair clips and wreathes over the weekend and got them up on Etsy today. Click here to see the Holiday section of the shop. Enjoy!!

Feeling some stress....

So my first craft show is less than a month away and I am worried about preparing for it and trying to get everything done before we close on the new house (hopefully everything goes alright). I have about a dozen wreaths done and some hair accessories but I have no idea how much to bring. Plus I need to get my display ideas. Since crafting is a great stress relief for me I guess I'll just keep working.

Flowers

My bowl full of crochet flowers

I've been really into making crochet flowers recently. I've come up with all sorts of things to use them for plus its a great way to use leftover yarn. So far I've done hair clips, wreathes and candle rings and trying to think of more ways to use them.

Candle ring made of crochet flowers with pearl centers

Fall wreath made of crochet flowers and felt leaves

My first blog post

This whole starting a blog thing seems kind of overwhelming, just sitting down to write, I guess it will get easier as I go. I will use this to tell a little bit about me. I live in Central Pennsylvania, I am a newlywed and my husband and I just bought our first house. I work full time in an office job so crafting is a great creative outlet for me. I recently booked my first craft fair as well which I'm super excited about (and it happens to fall during our painting and moving).

Currently my two crafting projects have been working on children's hair accessories and wreaths. The wreaths I've been making have been a little different than you average flower wreath. I've been using felt shapes and crochet flowers to decorate them and well as making rag wreaths.