Finding My Inspiration for Crochet Again

Well, well...  It is now late into the evening!  I hope everyone is having a Great Weekend.  I know we all are.  Today has been about eating and organizing more than anything.

This morning, we ate at a great breakfast/brunch spot called Wild Eggs.  It was so delicious.  It's somewhat expensive for breakfast, and I never order anything healthy, so we don't go often.  For lunch, we just worked through it and opted for an early dinner instead.  Dinner was sushi and hibachi grill at Fuji Japanese Steakhouse.  Sooooooo Gooooood!  I love sushi and it is a family owned business.  We know everyone there and they have known my Little Darling since she was a toddler.  I love ethnic food, but more than that, I love family owned restaurants.  Owners take so much more pride in the work they do and you can *feel* the sense of family when you go there.  We have a family owned spot for all of our favorite sorts of foods:  Family owned Persian place, Chinese place, Indian place, Mexican place, and now we have recently added a Vietnamese place to the list as well.  If I could just get a family owned Italian place, I might be completely to the moon in Food Bliss Heaven!

I have also been paying more attention to my balcony container garden.  It has been very hot here, with so little rain.  I have been out every evening to water the plants.  Soon, I saw this:

All of the tomato plants have grown ABOVE the little gate that we made.  In the last garden we planted, birds and a lot of squirrels broke the branches on all the tomatoes.  They didn't eat the fruits, they wanted the tomato branches and the leaves.  I was so upset!  We tried everything we could, but, in the end, the squirrels won. All of our tomatoes were thrown to the ground and all the branches were eaten.  This year, we came up with a great plan!  This cage...  This year, the tomatoes grew so large!  I have never gotten them to grow so big and SO many tomatoes!!!

These are the best tomatoes I have EVER tasted.  And I grew them myself!  Now, if I could just get them all to turn red at the same time :-)  This is from two days.  Right now, we have about 20 more green cherry tomatoes, waiting to ripen. I can't wait!  I can taste a summer salad already!

I have also be getting so busy with crochet!  I can't even keep up!! I have so many projects in my mind right now.  I am trying to sketch them out, make voice recordings, and maybe even create a few motifs so that I have an example of what I am trying to do.  Well, let me tell you, even with doing ALL of that, I am still unable to record all of my ideas.  Oh Man!!  I am so grateful to be inspired right now. I have taken quite a break from crochet because I couldn't think of anything to do.  I was bored with it. 

Now, I have a new purpose.  The main inspiration I have right now is GIFT GIVING!

So the other day, I look at my calendar and I come to the realization that my friend's baby shower is in just a few weeks!  I have not even thought about what to do for a gift!  I had some ideas, but then I changed my mind...and I had more ideas, but then she mentioned colors that would not fit.  And then I lost my inspiration and motivation.  Well, thank God I am ready to rock and roll with my Hook again because I finally came up with this design here.  My dear friend *A* is having a baby boy.

I am almost certain that *A* does not read my blog, so I feel comfortable showing this project here.  Sometimes, knowing that people aren't reading your blog makes it easier to really just document what you have going on creatively, rather than worrying about keeping secrets.  I love it.  And I love this little project here.  It's part of a set that I am doing for her Little Mister.

Making Grannies is easy and fast and fun.  But I don't want this to be "just another granny blanket", so I have something special planned for it to make it just a little more interesting!!!  But THAT will have to wait for some other day.  I don't want to give everything away all at one time...

I just love seeing the process of a Granny Square grow from one round to the next :-)

Since I will have to get this in the mail within the next 10 days, this project and everything else that is in the package to my friend *A* are my Priority!  There are some other things in the making as well.  I will be showing those other projects throughout the week! That way, if I completely lose my mind with all these ideas, then I can at least have my blog to remind me of the projects I have planned.  Hahaha!

Also!!!  If you have not entered my Giveaway and you are considering it, Please feel free to enter the Giveaway here.  Just leave a comment on the post, and I will be drawing a winner on Monday!

Have a Wonderful Weekend!

Spring CRAFTS

Oh, Heeeeey!!!  Is it me, or has it been forever since I have made a serious craft post?  I know, you are thinking, "Walking through your neighborhood is awesome.  I love trees, nature, bushes... but when can I see what you are working on?  What are you making?"  I understand fully.  I went through a dry spell that lasted about two weeks.  I didn't know what to do. 

I couldn't think of what to make and when I came up with ideas, I didn't know HOW to make it.  So then I went to Pinterest.  Oh goodness!  Pinterest is the Holy Land of Procrastinating, Bullshit, and complete Wasted Time. In the past week or so, I must have made 400 new pins, gotten 100+ new followers, and found hoards of ideas.  But did I make any of the awesome things I found?  Uh, no.  Not really.  Not at first!

Thankfully, I snapped out of it and went back to doing WHAT MAKES ME HAPPY!  I love to be creative. I can pour a day's worth of drama, confusion, exhaustion, disappointment, and unregulated energy into a project.... or projects.

So without further ado, this is what I have been making. Wait!! Please be advised that this is photo-heavy.  If your PC is old, rickety, and slow, come back when you have time for the pictures to load.  If you are impatient and not craft-passionate, you may not want to continue because you will get bored.  If you are extremely craft-passionate, RUN AWAY because this post is loaded with pictures AND links to the tutorials so you can make these things too. BOOM!  That just happened!  Have fun......

I found these bunnies here on Pinterest.  The link to the picture does not work, so there was no pattern.  I put a piece of tracing paper up to the computer screen and used that as a guide.  These are magnets for my Little Darling and Kiki to play with for Easter.  But I forgot that I made them, so they're just getting them today. Ha!  Still cute.  Still loads of fun.  And it gave me a great idea for some games to make in the future.

I saw this awesome tutorial on how to make lace crowns here on Pinterest.  The link is to a great tutorial in a blog, and it's so easy to follow!  So I decided to have a go.  I have to make some adjustments, but it was a quick and fun project.  I will likely make more for my Little Darling and Kiki to play dress up.

 

I beaded the flowers in the middle.  That's my first time trying to "bead" anything.  I'm content with the way it turned out.  As for adhering all the other bling and whatnot: HOT GLUUUEEE!!!  Yes.  Glue.  My Little Darling was such a Pretty Princess in her crown today.

 

I have been completely obsessed with making flowers!!  I found several tutorials on Pinterest.  I will share them one by one, I guess.  The flowers on the crown can be found in this tutorial here. Straight forward.  Easy.  I made the shape of the petal on a scrap piece of paper and it worked fine :-)

I made these for my Little Darling's Easter headband, which turned out AMAZING!  I was really happy with it, considering I had never made a cloth flower before.

The tutorial for the large flower can be found here. The smaller one was just a ribbon that I made into a flower and put an embellishment on. That was purely instinctual.  I had no idea it wouldn't look crazy. 

These are some flowers that I made from this tutorial. They are so easy!  I am going to try my hand at making my own buttons so that I have something to put in the centers of these flowers, so stay tuned for that.  Then, I am putting them on headbands. My Little Darling loves to accessorize with headbands!

And what would life be if I weren't HOOKING??  So, you know I had to try my hand at making a a crochet flower.  This tutorial was so easy.  The yellow flower is the first I made.  I used a fine, baby yarn and an H-8 hook.  I didn't realize that 39 petals would be that huuuuge! It's almost as big as my hand.  I have big man-hands!  The purple one is made with 24 petals and an H-8 hook, but the yarn isn't as fine.  It's not quite worsted weight, but heading in that direction.  The green one is 24 petals, G-7 hook and fine baby yarn.  That was so much information.  I just want to give you an idea of what to expect when you begin to create a flower that looks reasonably small from the pictures in the tutorials. 

As you can see, the flower lies better with more petals.  I am going to try this again this weekend with different hooks and yarns.  It's such  an easy pattern and really quick to make!

I have several other flower tutorials on my board.  I am not sure how it works, when you follow someone on Pinterest, but I think this is the link to my Pinterest profile.  You can follow the crafts board here with some flowers and other fun Makes. Flowers can also be found on my "Hair", and "Crochet Ideas" boards.  I know.  Spread out, but once you learn to make one, the concept is the same for all the projects.  Cut a circle, fold it, sew it.   Or you can just stop by to see what you might like and repin at your leisure.  I hope everyone gets out and tries at least one of these projects!  I love to see different spins on the same ideas, personally.

And what about a blanket??  Yea!  I got one of those going too!  Hahahaha!

I started this two years ago.  I made a handful of squares, with the plan of turning it into a twin-sized quilt for my Little Darling's bed.  I quickly realized that building a blanket that large out of these 4 inch squares wasn't something I would be able to do.  Last spring, I picked the project back up and started again, making more squares with plans to make a baby blanket for a friend.  I got distracted and forgot about it.  In the past few weeks, I have finished all the squares I need for a cute baby blanket.  I need to assemble it and throw a boarder on there.  Wish me luck!  I am in the home stretch.  Just need to cross the finish line.  Do you ever do that?  Start something, lose interest, repurpose, lose interest, finish it?! Now, I have NO purpose for finishing this blanket, other than it's full of spring colors and it brings me happiness to have all this color in my life.

In keeping with the Spring Spirit, I made some spring envies for my pen pals.  Ok, I LOVE LOVE LOVE snail mail!  I love it!  There is nothing better than getting a hand written note in the mail from someone far away.  It makes me feel special and loved.  I love meeting new people and sharing with them.  I also really get tired of seeing bills all the time.  Like, I get it, I owe you all money!  Jeez! 

If you ever find yourself wanting a template for an envelop, leave me a comment.  I have several templates that I can scan and email to you.  And if you want me to MAKE some for you, leave me a comment :-)  I just might!

And lastly, I just have to add an update on my adventure with transitioning from paper towels to cloth napkins.

Our spring colored set came in about two weeks ago.  I LOVE THEM!  First, I was disappointed about the grey, but then I looked outside this morning.  Although it's a perfectly sunshiney spring day right now, this morning it was gloomy and grey.  So I guess this napkin fits!

The transition has been simple.  I haven't bought paper towels in a month.  We have kitchen towels and rags for cleaning.  We have these for eating and small table spills during dinner.  We saved money and helped the environment.  And it was all so easy to do!!!  I highly recommend it!

Well, I have to get some dinner cooked.  I hope everyone has had a great week and has something fun planned for the weekend.  I love being lazy on the weekends, personally!  Let's find out just how lazy I can be!

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!!!

Little Boy Blue

Good Afternoon!?  How's life these days?  For me, it's going...  rather well, for the most part.  In my city, around this time of year, we experience all four seasons in one week.  Sometimes this will happen once or twice and then we transition into the new season.  Sometimes, the "all for seasons in a week" trend will go on for weeks.  For example, we had 3 days of snow, then 40s, 50s, 70s, and snow again.  That was just the past week... Needless to say my joints are achy and my sinuses are killing me.  But what's a girl to do, right?  My Little Darling happens to feel just fine.  Energetic as ever, which means, aside from the occasional nap to get my bearings, I need to be up and at'em, working full throttle to take care of her.  Funny how stay at home moms find this sort of superhuman strength to preserve through any ailment when it means taking good care of her babies.

So I am almost done with all the color combos for this granny square quilt pattern... and then I will stop boring you to death, I promise!!!  OK, that's silly.  I might still be a little boring, but that can't be helped!  This is a combination of colors I like to refer to as "Little Boy Blue".  I think it fits.  I am obsessed right now with making things for little boys!  They are such a mystery to me, since I am raising a little girl.

My next quilt will be featuring these colors/yarns above.  The squares will be outlined in a brown.  I am on the hunt for some interesting borders for boy items.

Right now, I am considering baking something...  I can bake almost any sort of fruit-related pastry!  Apple cakes, Lemon cheesecake, Raspberry bars, Banana bread...  So today, I figured I would share a recipe with you...  I've never done this before, so it may be the worst recipe you have ever tried to use, but I need to live a little and step up to the challenge of sharing more food adventures, since that is a passion of mine.  In the spirit of this Little Boy Blue blanket, I will share my recipe for BLUEBERRY MUFFINS! 

Ingredients:
3/4 c each  - whole wheat flour & all purpose flour
1/4c - wheat germ
2 1/2 tsp - baking powder
1/2 tsp - salt

2/3 c - sugar
4 tbs - oil
3 tbs - butter (melted)
1/4c - lemon juice
2 eggs

2tsp - lemon zest
1 1/2 c - fresh blueberries

(Optional - streusel topping)
1/3 c - whole wheat flour
2tbs each - wheat germ & brown sugar
2 tbs - diced, cold butter
2/3 c - chopped walnuts

Prepare the batter:
1. Preheat oven to 375F
2. Prep your muffin tin with liners, or grease thoroughly
3. Whisk together your first 5 ingredients in a large bowl and set aside

4.  Beat the butter, oil & sugar until well mixed with a hand-held electric mixer
5. Add the eggs, lemon zest, & lemon juice; mix well

6.  Stir in the dry ingredients, mixing by hand thoroughly
7.  Add the blueberries and carefully mix by hand

When you are finished with all that mixing, your batter should look something like this:

Notice, I didn't smash any blueberries.  I feel that they maintain so much more flavor when they're not smashed prior to baking.

8.  Divide into your baking cups

9.  THIS IS OPTIONAL:  Prepare the streusel topping:

Mix all the optional ingredients together.

Use a pastry cutter to further break down the walnuts and to blend in the butter better.  If you don't bake as much as I do or if you don't hoard rarely utilized kitchen items, then just use a FORK!  It works about the same :-)

Sprinkle this mix evenly amongst the muffins and bake for about 20-25 minutes , or until a toothpick is inserted in the center and comes out clean.

.....  Because I am a Foodie, and I like to play dress up, sometimes I even play with my food....

My finished muffin in a handmade cupcake holder/decoration and some blueberry acai berry tea.  But this is just playing...  When I am ready to eat these babies for breakfast or for a mid day snack, it looks like this:

NOM!! NOM!! NOM!!

Yes, I have made myself hungry and crave sweets...  I'm about to raid my pantry and see what I can throw together for a dessert tonight.  It's going DOWN!

Happy Monday 💋 💋 💋

The Good, The Bad, The Unnecessary!

Well, I am going to have to take a break from crochet.  My wrist is killing me.  This happened before, and I stopped for about a week or two and then everything was fine.  I am not entirely sure what I did to myself, but it's pretty painful to continue right now.  No worries.  I have plenty of projects that need to be pieced together and I am also going to dip back into other venues of artistic expression.... I also love drawing, making collages, making jewelry and making things from paper.  Sadly, crochet is the funnest and easiest out of all of those, but the good news is that I won't be left without some way to be creative.

**Major sad face** I was literally smack in the middle of a project for my daughter's room too!

In other news, I have been really getting into the idea of granny squares in fashion.  I think that it's really hard to make a granny square look chic.  I mean, grannies are great for blankets, scarves, hats, cushions, purses and maybe even house shoes.  However, when you have made a dress out of grannies...it's usually scary!  Not chic.  Not sleek.  Just a clumpy, colorful, itchy-looking hot mess!

So check this out.  This is some recent research that I have done on how true-blue designers have tackled the question of how to translate a granny square into something anyone with even a modicum of fashion sense would bother wearing. 

I found this. It's from the 2002 Fall/Winter collection by D&G (Dolce & Gabbana)

This is the warmest, chunkiest, but also still very chic granny square shall ever!  I love the tennis shoes. I also love that this would look cute if I were wearing a dress and wanted to go on an early-autumn walk with my family.

Then there are these sexy looks from Christopher Kane (F/W 2011 collection) I have absolutely no clue how he did some of these things, but I love them so much!  I am a huge fan of pencil skirts.  I have some hips, so it's a good look for me!  I don't know how he made the v-neck swearer, but I love the black pants and the trench. 

I do know that he used a granny square PRINT on leather!  Smart, sleek, sexy....expensive.  Both expensive looking and ...in cost! LOL.  If only I had an unlimited budget!  If only I were a more skilled crocheter!  I would super-LOVE to figure out how to make these some of these items.  I also really love the drape of it.  I hate the chunky-itchy look for crochet apparel.  I think you have to find the right (likely also expensive) yarn in order to get it to flow right.

Now, let's take a small look at the bad..........disclaimer:  Everyone has different ideas on style.  This is just my opinion and personal preference.  And I think these looks are a little questionable fashion-wise.....

These are from the Paul Smith F/W 2010 collection.  I don't know what to think of the .... granny square sash?  I just think the whole ensemble is terrible.  The weird colored skirt, the beige corset, the arm warmers, and then the chunky sash-thing just took it to a whole other level of "Oh No!"  I think the dress could be kind of cute.  I have seen some really cute knitted chunky dresses.  I just don't think that all the random colored grannies look all that great.  They look chunky and tacky to me.

And now....for the UNNECESSARY!  I have seen these pictures in sooooo many blogs and everyone is really excited about them.  Dude, I just don't know about this at all! 

House of Holland F/W 2011 collection was a super BUST in my eyes!  I am not excited about any of these uber-tacky looks, but I especially would ban the chunky hideous scarf thing from my wardrobe!  I am actually convinced that it's really a blanket that was rolled into a scarf and then secured by a belt.  NO NO NO NO NO!!!!  I am very curious, however, if these are all tiny crochet granny squares shaped into ensembles, or if this is a print onto some other fabric.  Either way- this is a scary attempt to bring back the gaudy retro hot mess ensembles made from crochet squares.  To me, if you can't update/upgrade a retro look and make it modern and sexy, just leave it in the past!

Yes, I do realize that I am a little blunt in delivery when it comes to my opinions, but I am not closed minded by any means.  If you read this post and disagree, TELL ME!!!  I so very much would love to hear what others like in regards to fashion.  Were you inspired by the tacky color option?  Do you like the "idea" of the House of Holland collection, but you want to challenge yourself to improve the looks?  Are you bored with the Christopher Kane collection?  Do you think he should have taken more risks with colors?

For me, I am inspired by D&G and by Christopher Kane.  I like very sleek and simple clothes.  I like interesting, but not over-the-top accessories.  I am very reserved with my colors when it comes to clothing and when it comes to most of my crochet projects. I am venturing out in the project world and trying to add more color to things, but you won't catch me rolling up a blanket and wearing it as a scarf any time soon!

All images are from www.style.com

High Fashion...Right? -- Part Deux!

Sorry I have been missing!  I guess I don't even have to say anything about my terrible internet issues anymore.  At this point, I am guessing that it's assumed- if you don't hear from me for a while, it's because I had no way to make a post.

As far as "work" goes, I am still finishing about 3 projects.  Every time I get near the end, I start working on something completely new.  I started working on a give-away that I have been thinking about doing for at least 5 months.  Almost finished, hit a wall, and then started my autumn color's blanket.  Finished that, and then I needed to connect it, but got bored, and went on to something for my daughter.  My entire apartment is so blank, bland, plain, boring.  I want to make it more of a HOME.  I also want to start with my daughter's room :)  So I started a giant granny blanket for her bed.  I stopped working on it because my wrist was killing me (yikes!) and I started to decorate paper and work on jewelry!  Ha!  Sadly, that is how my crazy brain works.  I am only interested in projects for short spurts of time...and then ON TO THE NEXT ONE!

But this post is about something I found in Elle Magazine October 2011.

Yes, this is Gwyneth Paltrow.  You are probably thinking:  Doth my eyes deceive me?  NO!  NO, your eyes are perfectly fine.  She is so totally rockin' a Granny Square Sweater (for $1100, mind you)  I love it!!!  I know that grannies were in high fashion back in the 70s or something... but I have to be honest...al of those ensembles looks like a hot ass mess!  For serious, you couldn't pay me to purchase or wear any of those colorful and uncomfortable looking granny square crocheted items!  For me, the important thing is that it looks CHIC and elegant.  I don't want to see someone wearing a woolly, frumpy, hot mess of a granny square.  I love this sleek wool sweater.  Love-Love it, to be exact. 

Just more proof that hookers can really get somewhere.  I would never attempt to make a sweater, but if you think you might, or could, I would sure love to hear about it!!!

Too-da-loo!

Welcome Back, Autumn!

This morning, my daughter and I went on our daily stroll to the local bakery to satisfy my unhealthy sugar cookie habit.  I have to say that I am going to be ending that relationship with pastries today!  I'm getting out of hand, hahahaha :)
The thing is that when we stepped out to start walking, it was already chilly! Then it dawned on me that August (and summer) is nearly over!  I can't believe it happened so fast. Now, it's on to the next season already!

Fall Colors

When I moved to Kentucky, it was during a year of El Nino.  In February, we got 80 degree weather and my first summer here was well into the 100s Fahrenheit.  It was awesome!  Where I lived in Germany at the time never got that hot, and winter was winter only until about August.  And then it was all over by the end of September.  And for year and years, these super hot, humid summers would start around mid-April and last all the way until about November.  In October, it would get cold in the mornings, but by the afternoon it was back into the 70s/80s and sunny.  I remember sitting under a tree, studying with some friends outside on a blanket shortly before finals...in NOVEMBER!  It was a warm, sunny day.  Over the past few years, however, it's been really cold here.  This past winter was much harsher than before.  It started getting cold in September, and by October, there wasn't any sun the afternoon to warm things up.  So, for the first time in ages, since I have lived here, the winter went from roughly October until April :(  My birthday is the end of March.  It was 80 degrees at the beginning of that week, and literally snowing by the end of that week...

Autumn Tree Leaf

I love the Fall Season.  I am excited it's on the horizon and I hope this year, it sticks around a bit longer before Winter freezes everything over.  What is it about Autumn?  It's the smell of the leaves.  It's the changing of the leaves.  I love the browns, oranges, magentas, reds, yellows.  I love pumpkins!  I love when all the leaves fall to the ground.  I walk the streets, specifically to hear the crunch underneath my shoes.  I love the foods that come around in Fall.  Apples, Pumpkins, Squash...and, for some crazy reason, Pineapples are really fresh here in the Fall.  I love that everyone slows down as weather slowly gets colder and the days get shorter.  I love that the family meals increase and that everything that everyone is doing is in order to prepare for Christmas.  It's a wonderful time of year!

So I started this new project as an Ode to Fall :)   I love it!  I love fall colors :)  In fact, I love a warm color palette in general.

 

I have to confessions about this new project: (1)  I am doing this instead of the other blanket I was working on. 

BOO! HISS!!!!  Ugly Blanket Disaster!!!  LOL :)  I will rectify this mistake and redeem myself later!

I had a funky feeling about it, and I wasn't all that excited about it, while working on it.  I need to learn to trust my instincts because when I made a post about that blanket and the other one I am working on simultaneously, no one else liked the pink one either.  No one was mean (THANK GOD!) but everyone was very clear that they liked the "OTHER" one and the "DAISYS" was cute.. hahahaha!  I know what that really means, and it's all good because I feel the same way.  So this new blanket with Autumn colors is going to be the replacement for the hideous pink one.  And I will work on this blanket and the daisys blanket simultaneously.

(2)  This color scheme is totally inspired by the yarn that I used for my giveaway project.  *sigh.  It's 90% finished, but I have a problem with getting riiiiiiiight to the end of something and then becoming completely disinterested in it.  SO!!!  I just need to put the finishing touches on the giveaway project, take pictures and post it.  I am giving myself until Friday to buckle down and finish it!!!

The other thing this reminds me of is a beautiful sunset.  I am obsessed with nature and the sky... I used to spend hours taking pictures of trees and the sky during different times of day/night...  This isn't my photo, but it matches my colors, right?

Rhode Island Shore

Crimson sunset

I am so excited about this project that I made 36 squares in less than 24 hours!  (eep!)  I want to make this a little bigger than the other blankets I have finished, so I think I need....72 or 80 squares total. I also haven't made any serious decisions about the background or the color that will be connecting the squares.  All I know is... I love Fall.  I love the Summer Sunset.  And I love my new project!