This week flew by!!! I was hoping to get some time in to get some photos done and get a few new products up on my Etsy store but that didn't happen. We've been so busy trying to get things set up at the new house I just didn't have time. I did make another hat this week in the evenings when we finally got to sit down and relax (sorry no photo, one will come soon). With all this time away from crafting I have so many ideas floating around in my head that I want to make


Since I have no crafts to share I'm sharing this website. It's full of crafty ideas and inspiration. Its definitly worth taking some time to look at.
http://www.oneprettything.com/

The big move.....and then back to normal

My husband and I are finally moving into our new house this weekend!

We closed on June 30th but have taken most of the month to get some work done on the house before we moved into it. We started out just thinking we would do some painted on the inside and fix up the yard for now but we ended up also getting new carpet and re-doing the kitchen. I'm so glad we decided to do this now rather then wait a few months after we moved in. I think its much easier this way, not having to pack up our stuff again for the work crews.

Since we have been doing so much work on the house I haven't been able to give my crafts and store much attention. My husband and I are both so excited to get moved into the new house this weekend so that we can get things back to normal and back to our routines. During this moving/remodeling process we really found that we like our routine.

Even though we've been so busy I have had a little time to crochet. I've finally got the hat pattern down and have made a few this month. I just completed one last night for a friend's little boy. I'm hoping once we get the new house unpacked to get some photos done and get them online.

This is the hat I completed for her little one. Now he just had to try it on to see if it fits!

My First Craft Fair

Today was my first craft fair. I was really stressed about it and could not sleep on Friday night because I was actually a little nervous. It didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. It was over Arts Fest weekend so I think that took away a lot of people who may have visited this one. It was a great place to connect with other vendors and great networking opportunities, plus I sold a few things so it wasn't a total loss for the day.

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.