Finding Fall Projects

Now that we have our new house I want to decorate it for every season/holiday. Fall is my favorite season to decorate for so I wanted to find some special things to make for our new house. I found a great crochet acorn pattern. The designer made her with a face, I plan on making mine plain in different brown tones and filling mason jars with them. I'm not sure where to put these once completed, maybe on the side tables in the living room or on the window sills.

Link to acorn pattern:

http://www.planetjune.com/blog/free-crochet-patterns/amigurumi-acorn/

Great Crochet Pattern Site

I always look online for new crochet patterns to try, there are so many great ones out there. I've been really into making shapes (like flowers and stars) and using them for clips, wreathes, magnets..... as well as kids hats. I like smaller projects that work up kind of quickly. I found the site Crochet Pattern Central --it's packed full of patterns for just about any project you could think of. It's definitely worth bookmarking.

Blog Makeover

I was thinking my blog needed a little refreshing and I found this great site, Shabby Blogs. They have tons of great backgrounds and extras and they all fit my taste and style, but I was able to find one that somewhat resembled my business card design, I'm trying to tie everything together. Today I was also taking some time to take some new product shots and did a new photo for my blog title as well. I think the blog makeover turned out pretty well.

The Craft Room is Coming Along

One the things I was so excited about when we moved to our new house was that I would get the extra bedroom to use as a craft room. My husband offered to put his office in part of our large finished basement so that I could have the extra room (he is so sweet!). When we moved in we really didn't have any furniture for it, all we has was a super small desk (it's good for laptop work and that's about it, but it looks really cute) and an old book shelve. Since we are really cutting back on spending after the move I knew I wouldn't be getting a work table or anything for it any time soon, so it was just kind of a storage room.

Well, this weekend the room started to come along. My husband was off on Friday so as a surprise he went to salvage and got me a desk. It's a really large size, both deep and wide, so that I have plenty of room to work on it. I was so excited!!! I also got some dowels and curtain supports to make hanging storage for my ribbons. I have a little more organization and work to do in there and it should all be done (photos will come once its complete).

Cutie in a Hat

I sent a hat to a friend of mine for her daughter a few weeks ago, the other night she got a photo of her in it. Just thought I would share.

This hat was made using the basic newsboy pattern I usually do but for the last row I used a larger stitch so that I would be able to weave a ribbon through it. I left the ends long so that she could trim them to the length she wanted and added a loopy bow clip so its extra girly.

Great Crochet Site

I was looking online tonight for some new crochet patters and found some great blogs. I had to share Crochet-Mania. There are several blogs all by a woman named Teresa. She does a great job of not only listing patterns but having YouTube videos for them as well, which is a great help to actually see someone do the stitches rather than just reading it. She has a blog for just several crochet topics, one for flowers, one for instructions......

Here are her links to some of her blogs

Her pattern blog

Her flower blog

A blog for granny squares! These were the first thing I learned to crochet in college and a great stand by for when you need a project. I love making them but hate to sew them all together. My friend Sarah makes them and sews them into scarves so there isn't to much sewing involved in that project.

Another new craft?

One craft I've always wanted to learn/improve on is sewing and quilting. I do have a sewing machine and took a basic sewing class in college but don't consider myself a sewer. I think the biggest project I've completed is a set of pillows for my bed once. Now that we have a new house I would love to be able to sew things for our house (nothing to involved I'm still a beginner I'm thinking curtain and pillow level right now). Once I get the basics down I would love to learn to quilt. I think handmade quilts are so beautiful, plus they are so special since so much work goes into them.

Fall Craft Fairs Are Coming Up

Its almost fall, which is my favorite season. I think its mostly because I love fall decor, the leaves and flowers. I always go nuts decorating my house with fall things. I can't wait to make some fall crafts for our new house this year! But now that fall is coming up there are quite a lot of craft fairs to get ready for. I've been searching for ones to participate in and will hopefully have my line up set soon. I just need to get busy making inventory.

Added some new products, and hats are getting better

I had some down time last night from all the unpacking craziness to work on my Etsy store. I had quite a few items that I had ready to photograph but hadn't hat time, so when I got home from work last night I took advantage of the sun still being out and took a ton of product pictures. I was able to get a lot of them edited and even get a few online. I do have some to retake, they just don't look that good. I would love to improve my photo skills, and get a new camera--I'm not a fan of EasyShare. I'm working on them and hopefully my photos are getting better as I go.

Since we've had most of our things in boxes I've been mainly crocheting instead of my other crafts since it is more portable. That has given me lots of practice on my hat patterns and I'm getting really happy with how they are turning out. I was able to list two on the store last night. I have a special one to send to a friend in Pittsburgh for her daughter too.

These are some of the new clips I've made recently

These are crochet yo-yos accented in the center with a button.

This is a loopy bow made from blue argyle ribbon

This clip is a crochet flower accented in the center with a bead

These are a few of the new hat styles I've done. The one with the pink bow clip is one I'm sending to a friend for her little girl, I hope she likes it.