This, That, and a Winner!

This week has been great so far.  I know it is only Tuesday, but every "good day" is such a blessing, why not celebrate it?

I have just been really thankful for the small things this week because I have been having terrible migraines.  When you don't feel your best, it's easy to be negative and whiney.  I am actually the opposite.  When I don't feel well, I really try to focus on good and beauty and fun.

I have found the most delight in the random places this week...

I found these beautiful organic yellow/orange beets while grocery shopping.  I have only just begun to cook and eat beets.  I never thought to eat them before, and then one day, I had them at a friend's house.  They were soooooooo good.  Unfortunately, they are also really high in sugar.  We don't eat them often, but these were so pretty, organic, and on sale!  I just *had* to!  I know, I am a HUGE FOODIE!  I love beautiful food almost as much as I love tasty food.

 

I also went and did my walking at a neighborhood this week for the first time.  Usually, when I walk for the day, I go to either a near by track or a local park.  That way I know exactly how far I have walked.  Well, yesterday was the first time I have gone out to walk in about a week and I wanted to ease my way back into it.  I just went for an early morning stroll through a neighborhood.

 

The neighborhoods closest to where I live don't take gardening as seriously as other parts of town, but I was still able to find some moments, where nature was beautiful.  I needed that walk in the morning to reset my mind.

 

I am glad that I went out today again for walking.  I still have a terrible headache, and just when I was about to give up and go inside, I got a phone call from a friend, *M*.  Thanks to him, I was able to walk an additional mile and a half without realizing!!!  LOL.  That's always wonderful :-)  Talking to someone is fun and exciting and so I was able to walk faster and for longer, without even noticing.  I need someone to call me every day!

 

Luckily, I got back inside in time because this is what it looks like right now...

 

 

My garden could really use some rain, so I am not complaining at all about the showers we have gotten today.  It makes a for a beautiful sky :-)

 

It also means that I will be stuck indoors getting some work done on my little project for my friend's baby boy...

 

 

I have finished another two rows.  I was beginning to get a bit discouraged because I ran out of the brown I was using and then I found out the colors isn't made anymore.  I hate it when that happens!  That has happened to two other colors that I was so in love with!  And it happened the other two times in the middle of a project as well.

 

I have another, darker brown, that I will use.  I am happy with the results, so I will keep going.  I am hoping to be done by this weekend, with a couple of other small matching items to accompany this blanket!  I really can't wait to be done and to show you.  I am really excited for EVERYTHING that will be in this package actually.... but you will have to wait a little while, won't you?

 

Something you will NOT have to wait for is the WINNER of my first Giveaway.

 

 

I found a random number generator in the app store, and here is the winner, #2...

 

 

Congrats to Shea :-) You will be getting all this in the mail, coming your way Friday!!!

 

 

I hope you enjoy your goodies, Beautiful.

 

As of right now, I have about 4-5 more giveaways planned out and several items are in the makes for those.  Stay tuned. My next give away will be in about 2 weeks or so, as I am planning to FINALLY open my personal shop and I want to do a nice-sized give away for that.

 

Until then, stay tuned!

 

Thanks so much for reading, and I wanted to give SPECIAL thank yous to these ladies.  Your comments warm my heart, and give me something to look forward to, whenever I blog :-)  Check out BrokeGirlMakeup and Loving Crochet

 

 

 Until next time... Keep Smiling and Keep searching for Beauty in everyday happenings!

 

I "HEART" Pinterest !

How is everyone this Happy Tuesday?  Everything is getting back to normal in this household.  This past weekend, The Hubs and our Little Darling went to a family reunion out of town.  Kiki is with her family on vacation for the next two weeks, leaving me all alone.  I wish I could complain, but it was the most terrific time!  I love getting an entire weekend to myself, after spending months and months drowning in domestic daily tasks.  I will share my weekend with you some other day.

Today is all about crochet hearts! I am so excited to announce that today is MY FIRST GIVEAWAY!  Yay!!!  I have been wanting to host a giveaway for....  Uhm.... Only about the past THREE YEARS!  I am so happy that the moment is finally here, where I have had the time to complete all the items and present them.

About a month ago, I was doing a small post and I showed this picture...

I shared this with the promise that I would come back and share more about the crochet hearts.

Today is that day!  I made those hearts quickly above to take a break from the hexagons....which were to take a break from sewing....which was to take a break from crochet....  Suddenly, I am beginning to finally understand exactly why it took me three years to finally make a Giveaway post!

How about this, Bri, maybe you should just Finish What You Start?  LOL!  I am happy that I was able to practice making more crochet hearts this past weekend, but what happened was I completely didn't know what to do with all of them when I was finished.



Mini Crochet Heart// Felt Cloud: my own pattern// Tags: from stationery booklet// Envelopes:  my own template

I practiced making three of each heart until I felt fairly confident with the end results.  And also until I memorized each pattern.  I started with a really simple, one round heart and then progressed into something more difficult.


Crochet Butterfly // Crochet Heart // Felt flower: my own pattern // Felt Cloud:  my own pattern

Crochet Heart // Crochet Rosette // Crochet Collar // Felt Cloud: my own pattern

 Things were actually going so well with the crochet hearts that I chose to try my luck with crochet butterflies, which were similar in pattern to the hearts and even a crochet collar.  I have been seeing them everywhere lately, and I thought to myself, "This can't be too hard to make".  When I zoomed in on several pictures, I could tell that it was extremely similar to the pattern used for making the rosettes.  I am always so intimidate to make new things from patterns.  I just never seem to understand how to read them, and it makes me completely crazy!  I got lucky to find a "new" pattern that uses an "old" favorite technique :-)  And so I made, not only this one, but THREE crochet collars.  I even sort of created my own pattern to make some the way *I* want them to look.  Again, that will get its own post later too.  I love the collars I made and I really can't wait to show them off.

All of the crochet items in this post are found on my Pinterest Board, which you can check out and/or follow.

Now, I have a pile of cute things that I have made, and in my extreme excitement over being able to read, understand, and Complete these patterns, I want to GIVE THIS ALL AWAY!

So, without further ado, here are all the giveaway items:

1- crochet collar (adult/teenager sized), 1- crochet rosette, 9- crochet hearts, 2- crochet butterflies, 3- felt flowers, 4- gift tags, 4- envelopes, 3- embellished felt cloud magnets.

The Rules:

1- You MUST comment on this initial blog post here, and tell me what you would do with any of the items you win... make a bunting? decorate clothing? create some hair pins?

2- You MUST follow my blog.

3- You MUST share this giveaway somewhere: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Your Blog... Pick your social media poison.  Please leave me a link to your share in the comments, so that I can count the entry. 

4- If you want extra entries......  You will get an additional entry per share on a social media. 
((Example: Sara comments here and shares a link to this post on her blog (1).  Then she also shares on her FB timeline, her IG page, and on Twitter--  That is 4 entries for Sara total.))

Please leave an email address so that I can contact you, in the event that you win.

The Winner will be chosen next Monday, June 23, 2014.

I look forward to this giveaway and I am super excited because I actually have many more giveaways to do before this year is over, so watch out!!!  I will be spoiling people, and I couldn't be happier! 

Good Luck !

 

Lost & Found

I have been impossibly lazy today...  I mean, there has to be a special sort of crime offense related to how lazy I have been.  I wish I could chuck it up to not getting to bed on time last night, but I have insomnia.  I am a functioning insomniac.  I wish I could chuck it up to the episode of craptastic weather we've had here.  Actually, that's what I am going with!!  I have a sinus headache and my whole face, ears, nose, and throat are all throbbing.  Not even to the same beat.  Just random pulses.  Because of this, I have spent most of the day in bed, only getting up to hug my Little Darling, check on her, and feed her. 

I have had a busy weekend.  We were blessed with some lovely weather this weekend.  Can I just take a small moment to acknowledge something about myself?  I realize that, when I am getting into a new project, I HYPER FOCUS!  I mean, I don't want to eat, drink, sleep.  I don't want anyone to talk to me, so I am extremely bitchy for no reason other than to deter people from wanting to come around.  I am like a rabid squirrel, all cute and minding my own nutty/craft business until someone tries to pet me, and then my razor sharp, disease ridden teeth come out and I go cray-cray.

Fortunately, The Hubs adores me, even in my "crazy artist" mode that I go into.  There really is someone for everyone, I tell ya!  He risked his life to break me away from my latest projects and made me go for a walk. We walked for about 2 hours, pushing Kiki in a stroller, as our Little Darling ran around, picking flowers.

It was fun, and honestly, my brain needed the break.

These are some of our findings on our impromptu nature walk.  I found this scrapbook paper in my huge pile of papers.  Thousands of sheets, to be honest.  This is my favorite set.  I can't seem to bring myself to make anything out this cardstock, so it's usually just featured as the background in photos.  I would never say that I hoard things, but I know that I am the hardest core of hardcore paper collectors.  I *heart* Paper.

These flowers and branches we found were everything this weekend!  Such beauty!  I love the beginning of spring.  I seem to forget, every single year, that all this beauty and nature exists.  Do you ever feel that way?  I think I forgot about all of this especially this year because our winter was extra long! 

Sorry about the over-exposure in the photos.  As I have mentioned so many times, I live in a cave, with terrible lighting.  However, I am really excited to announce that I have PHOTO EQUIPMENT!  WOOT WOOT!!!!  I have been waiting to buy lights, backdrops, a tripod, and photo editing equipment for YEARS!  And now, I have........ Such a scary realization!  However, my true anxiety and apprehension lies in trying to figure out how to work everything!  I am a "tech-tard", so if you hear a wild, waling sound in your city, just know that it's me, BumbleBri, screaming out of frustration.

This weekend didn't just bring loads of photography equipment, I also got CLOTH NAPKINS!

The quick story behind the cloth napkins:  My friend *S* and I were shooting the shit one afternoon and we both agreed that we are too poor to be throwing money away in the form of paper towels.  So we talked about buying kitchen towels and rags in place of drying our hands and cleaning with paper towels.  Then, *S* tells me of her plan to buy cloth napkins, which I honestly had never thought of.  So I took her glorious idea and used a $50 gift card to Bed Bath and Beyond that I won at a real estate event hosted by some other friends last year.  I managed to score 50 cloth napkins and still have enough money on the gift card to pay the taxes and shipping + handling. 

SCORE! Ker-CHING! 

Yea, I did a cheer and a series of old school dances from the '90s (running man, sprinkler, cabbage patch)  I also have a stack of 20 spring colored napkins (pink, lime, sky blue, bright yellow) in addition to the autumn colored ones.  I love warm, autumn colors, but I know my Little Darling loves *All Pink Everything*.

If you are a mama on a budget, this is the BEST investment.  Nothing bothers me more than literally throwing away money!  If anyone is ever interested, I might (MIGHT!) post a tutorial on how to make your own cloth napkins.  It's reasonably easy and before I remembered the gift card, I planned to just sew my own stash.  Hoo-ray for saving money AND the environment  😉

... So yes, I am well aware of the fact that it has been a while since I have posted about projects.  I have been working on so many different things!  But, for today, I will show something that I lost a long time ago.

About 3 years ago, I worked on what might have been the ugliest crochet project I planned on giving away. 

Uhm, needless to say, I changed my mind about giving this to anyone because it's ugly.

So I am taking this apart, what's left of it, and combining the yarn from this project with a huge bag of miscellaneous yarn scraps and making this

Simple granny hexagons.  I don't think I will have enough scraps to turn this into a blanket, but I can certainly make my very first pillow cover.  I am so nervous about it.  I have no clue about how to turn this into a pillow cover, but I suspect by this time next week, I will have figured it out!

This is what I have so far...  So let's see what happens in the next week or two.  Who knows, making pillow covers might be my next obsession.  As if I need yet ANOTHER ONE!  Ha!

Happy Tuesday to you!!!