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!

 

Working....In Progress...

You know, I have no idea where motivation comes from or where mine goes from time to time.  Sometimes, I get these phenomenal ideas, and I throw a lot of energy and time into collecting information (patterns, pictures, etc.) and resources or supplies to create this "Thing", whatever it is, and then, BOOM!  No more motivation. So, I will set those items and my "Do It" list associated with that project to the side with some sketches of what I wanted to accomplish.  Or maybe it's a project that will take lots and lots of small parts to create a whole.  I will get so pumped and really put a lot into getting all the parts made, and once I am done, BOOM!  No more motivation. Suddenly, I have yet another bag of crochet motifs that are stored for whenever my motivation for the project might .resurface

Finishing what I start has never been my strength.  I was never forced to finish what I started when I was young, so I never found the value in it until I was an adult.  Now, I always admire those who stay the course from start to finish. Those who had a plan and saw it all the way through.  On the other hand, however, I have also accepted the fact that I am definitely a carefree individual.  I just have to do what makes me happy, even if that changes from moment to moment.  I am just not the kind of girl who can suffer through difficult moments only to say that, "At least I stuck with my guns and finished what I started".  Yes, I always wonder what sort of person that will make me, when I am old and looking back on my life.  For the record, The Hubs and I make sure our Little Darling finishes every single thing that she starts.  We are both passionate about instilling that trait into our kiddo.

A prime example would be my issue with maintaining a fitness plan.  I am healthy overall...  I mean, I enjoy being active. I could totally stand to lose about 30-50lbs, but hey, who's counting?!  I have never stuck with a specific regimen for more than 3-5 days.  Making it to the 5 day mark warrants a "Happy Dance".

So my goal this morning was to walk 5 miles...  Reasons why I lost motivation:
1.  It was hot.....Super fucking hot.  Each lap seemed to be double the distance and my vagina gut and "under titty" were seating profusely.  I felt unattractive, and that matters when I am working out.

2.  There was an unusual abundance of creeps walking about, some on bikes, some with dogs. My Little Darling was taking a break from walking laps.  Although I could see her, I doubted that if a creep decided to abduct my one and only child that I would be able to catch that person, if I were too far away from her......  Ok.  Maybe I am just crazy, and these were all nice, elderly people who were just taking a stroll from the assisted living program that's right next to my apartment complex.  But still!  I was on high alert.

3. Weird shit was falling from all trees.  There are trees everywhere.  I am highly allergic to all trees and the shit that falls from them, lives in them, IS them...whatever.  Tree = Puffy eyes & Dermatitis.

4.  I can't do simple math, so I thought 12 laps was 4 miles... And then reality hit, and I realized that, not only am I a lazy moron, but I can't count.  Awesome.

5. My Little Darling decided to play behind a huge rock.  I couldn't see her and she couldn't hear me screaming for her.  I ran, which is, like, "Aw hell naw!  Make it stop!  The agony!" for anyone who witnessed.  By the time I found her, or she found me, I collapsed to the ground in tears.  My stomach was in my chest, my knee was to the point of giving out, my eyes were burning from pollen mixed with salty tears, and I was wheezing like someone with emphysema.  All in all, I was fucking DONE.

So I held my kid nice and tight as we walked home, her little 60-pound body supporting my 200-pound, nearly 6 foot body all the way home.  I have never been so terrified!  While caught up in my emotions, I almost (for just the briefest of seconds) thought that I needed to have more children.  I mean, what would I do if something happened to the ONLY ONE I have?!

So yea.  I am a quitter.  And I always have a great story to tell about why I started down one path, quit half way, and hopped on over to a new path.

Relevance??

I have a HUGE give away planned, but it's not complete.  More on that some other day.  I will tell you now, though, that my procrastination was medically induced!

As part of my procrastination, I have been eating lots of pastries:

Don't fret.  I always accompany the pastry with coffee or tea...and a fruit or vegetable to balance things out.  Today, it was blueberries.

And I have also been working on this "side project" for my daughter's room.  Let me just PAUSE and say that I have been trying to remodel/redecorate her bedroom for over a year!  Yes! It has been something like 18 months!  I still haven't even painted a single wall.  I need to get moving before she turns 18 and all my ideas are completely  useless...

To my surprise, I am making lots of progress on this pillow cover.  I am pretty shocked.  I just don't do well with 5,000 small parts.  But I haven't lost any.  I have continued to work on it.  And I have also started to assemble the hexies.  I chose the random assembly rather than the one that fades from one color into another.  I like random.  It's fun.

I am a little less than half way done with enough hexies to cover a small pillow.  I am REALLY excited about the progress I am making.  I have never made a pillow cover before, so this is pretty special.

At this point, I just need to decide if I want to do hexies for the front and back or if I want to cover the back with fabric.  I have some options below...

I haven't decided anything just yet.  Honestly, I have no idea how attach crochet motifs to fabric. LOL.  This is all one big learning process for me.  For example:  If I had known that stitching 500 thousand hexagons would take hours, I would have totally used a pattern or plan to connect them as I was going along.  It's all good.  You Live and you Learn. 

If you are curious about the crochet hearts... I will tell you more about those on another day.  I have a bunch of hearts made, using different patterns. I'll share them all with you as soon as I figure out what to do with them!
 

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!!!

Idea Overload!

Whew! I cannot believe it is already FIFTEEN days into April and I am just now making a post! Goodness gracious! I think that time gets away from me easier than I could ever imagine... Right now, it's noon-ish, and I have attempted "relaxing" all day. Which hasn't worked at all. So now, I am enjoying my "breakfast of champions" = some bread, some cheese, and some carbonated & caffienated beverage. I had a bowl of Crunch Berries for "first breakfast" earlier. I can assure you that I have been quite busy, working on random little projects. This is the first time in my life that I have been completely focused on creating things for My Own Home. I usually am inspired by others. I am always excited to take on the task of creating something that is a form of expression through the viewpoint of another. Working third shift, I am often asleep in the day, and I don't spend much time in my apartment. I have errands to run, driving my Little Darling to school, activities, and whatnot. Well, a few weeks ago, I started to seriously interview and apply for a new job. As much as I love staying up all night, watching movies and working on my projects in the quiet of the night, doing the overnight shift thing is soooooo not working for the Family Life. With that said, I started to stay awake preparing for interviews and sending out more resumes for job opportunities. So here I am, on my laptop, working and working... and suddenly I stop and take a small look. I am ashamed and frightened all at the same time! My apartment is a DISASTER! I don't only mean in regards to disorganization, but I really mean it lacks personality, intrigue, style, design...and COLOR! If my Little Darling hadn't taken markers, crayons, and pencils to nearly all the walls and closets, you wouldn't hardly believe that we have been in this place for TWO years! We have several new furniture pieces and we even finally gave in and found some picture frames, but there is no sign of real "Life" inside! And that is where my little journey begins... Just for a moment here, I would like to A- point out that I made all this happen in about a week's time. Ohh! Go Me! Focused :) And B- This is my dining area, with the table removed. Nothing. Is. There.

Please continue...

First, my Little Darling has gone through great lengths to sabotage her bedroom. Her walls were completely destroyed, and so I painted them, but she fixed that with Sharpies, chalk, and crayons. At one point, her closet was in all right condition. It too, now, is covered in markings and something that I can only possibly make out to be food. She had a toy box, but it broke...most likely from her jumping on, in, and off of it. Now her room is in desperate need of a mother's touch! A "Maternal Intervention".

I am excited to RE-PAINT her room and DECORATE everything anew, and MAKE her some cute little items that will DEFINE her space! I am thinking a rainbow of colors. My Little Darling changes her mind about which color is her preferred favorite on a regular basis. Meaning, everyday, she has a new favorite color and is very passionate about her commitment to that hue. Yes, she is soooooo My Kid, commitment issues and all- hahaha! :) As of right now, I am working on 4 blankets for her. One SUPER large rainbow blanket, which is nearly finished. I am also nearly finished with the Tacky Blanket. Oh! This is such a FUN project! I, for once, didn't care whatsoever about the colors and the layout or the design. I think that is what's kept me so interested in the project and how I am able to finish it so easily! But I'm sad it's almost over... I chose to connect the squares using pink... I will admit that I wish I had a collection of brighter colors. I am so boring! If it looks like MUD, I'm on board. With the exception of pink. I Love Pink. But it doesn't help much when it's surrounded by safari greens, browns, greys, blacks, and off whites. I am working on this, however. The Rainbow Blanket is just me getting warmed up!

The last two blankets are more of sewing projects.... Yes, sewing. But we will get to that later. One is to be a quilt and the other is a simple fleece blanket with some birdie applique. I love birds! Anything that reminds me of spring-- birds, flowers, trees, insects, fish, and rainbows.

EUREKA! And there it is: Spring Paradise, as the theme for my Little Darling's bedroom! *Sigh* I can't wait to start working on things to really get the project going today.

My dining room is coming along, slowly, but ever so surely. My table cloth is nearly large enough to cover the entire table. Can you believe I crocheted another FOUR balls of yarn into this? This whole thing, as it stands is EIGHT balls of cotton yarn. It's kind of exciting to see how much yarn is going into this little table cover...

While I am on break in between jobs, I am going to PAINT! I haven't painted a single thing in 3 years. I hope it turns out well..... I also hope my paints haven't dried up! I have had some of the tubes of paint for about 5-6 years now *** Embarrassed! Either way, I paint very quickly and diligently. This will be the first time I use my easel! The Hubs will be very happy that, after 4 years, I will have finally gotten it a little messy. ...

I found these pictures of eggplants and pears on this organic recipe webpage and this gourmet recipe page. I thought I would buy them fresh and make a shadow box, etc. I don't have money to waste. I wouldn't eat 3-4 eggplants alone. The Hubs was overwhelmed on a trip to Germany when my Opa had him eating eggplant-everything. Even the sauce on home made pizza was "eggplanted". Since then, he won't touch the things. My Little Darling, as of now, "only eats stwah-berries and pasta, Mom". And pears? ...they are just nasty and smell weird! So I will find a way to fuse these images together and work out the shadow details and whatnot...and YES! Finally, my dining room will look like something other than an off white box with a table in it. *Deep Breath. I can't even wait!

I have a slew of other ideas, but I will stop here for now. Get ready for some serious Ta-dah-ing over the next two weeks. I am quite focused equally on all of these projects, and I am surprising myself at my accomplishments. Although, when working on 10 things at once, everything moves sluggishly slow towards completion. But I have to admit, I enjoy every inch along the way. So sorry for this suuuuper long post. I reckon if I posted more often, I wouldn't find myself with so much to say! Have a great weekend!