WIP Wednesday

I've made some good crochet progress over the last week.
I finished my Ruffled scarf; I'll show you pictures of that Friday.
I'm plugging away on my Stash-buster project. Any guesses? Hint: It's not a rug.

I'm halfway done with my Cascade Scarf.

I started my A La Mode Boa Scarf. I'm not sure how many rows it will take to be as thick as I want it to be.

I resurrected a UFO today: my Granny Sampler Afghan.

My friend, Kay, and I made these together during the challenge, then we both bagged them and tucked them away. She's moving to Tennessee in March, so we decided it was now or never to assemble this. We made a little progress today.

I've also been working on the Polka Dot Blanket.

Sorry about the dark pictures; I've been having trouble with getting between too much light and not enough light with my photos. I need to start taking them during the day.
I hope you've made lots of progress on all of your WIPS this week :-)

Dishcloth a Day #16

The Granny Spokes Dishcloth was fun to make today. It's another great pattern from bestfreecrochet.com. It would make a great blanket square too (maybe without the border).

Photo a Day Challenge January 16, 2013

Today's prompt was Two Things. I'm not too happy with this picture; I figured I could find something more interesting to photograph besides my salt and pepper shakers. Oh, well.

Daily Inspiration

Thanks for reading!
Blessings :-)

Two Tuesday

Two Things I'm Grateful For:

1. Our 4H group. There's so much to love about our little club: we're all homeschool moms, we have a good mix of boys and girls of all ages, we do a lot of fun projects and field trips, and we have an awesome leader who is always there for us.

2. My techy husband. I know nothing about electricity; luckily, it's one of Tim's hobbies and passions. So when our 4H kids wanted to build gameboards for the fair, he volunteered to come in and teach the kids how. I don't know who had more fun today, the kids or Tim! 

Two Patterns I Think Are Neat:

1. Tiny one round hearts from Fiber Flux. Great for little bits of yarn lying around. She even gives you a great pattern for a wreath made with these.

2. Amigurumi doughnuts from Lion Brand. Cute and low in calories!

Dishcloth a Day #15

The Lacy Dishcloth from Sugar N Cream is certainly the largest dishcloth I've ever made. It came out to be about 12"x13"! It was fun to make, though; I got to practice the Long Double Crochet stitch.

Photo a Day Challenge January 15, 2013

Today's prompt was Ordinary Moment. That was tough! Watching my hubby fix cars is very ordinary for me so I took a picture of that. I usually stop by the shop where he works once a day to say hi or pick him up for lunch.

Daily Inspiration

The only real failure in life is the failure to try.

Thanks for reading!

Blessings :-)

Mini Monday

Whew! I'm glad the weekend is over! It was great but very busy.

We had our local conference Saturday for the jewelry company I work for.

Some of the new Spring jewelry line

 It was a lot of fun but a very long day; we left the house at 7:30 am and didn't get home until 8 pm. I made my dishcloth and granny square and went to bed.

Sunday, after church, we had to buy parts to make gameboards for 4H. While Hope stayed with a friend for the day, Tim and I went to 3 Radio Shacks to get enough buzzers, light bulbs, battery packs, wire and batteries for 9 boards (that's how many kids we have in our club who are doing gameboards for the fair). After we found everything, we went to Michael's where I bought some cotton yarn. I love it when it's on sale for $1 each! 

Then we went to Ikea for a little while before coming home. I cooked and ate dinner, made my dishcloth, and went to bed.

So, here we are on Monday, and it's been nice and relaxing so far. Hope and I had school this morning. I made my dishcloth and am now working on my Stash-buster Project.

For my Mini Monday project this week, I want to make some scarves.

I have this yarn picked out for a Cascade Scarf from A Little Slice of Life.

This yarn is for a Ruffled Scarf. There's no written pattern, just a YouTube video from Maggie Weldon of Maggie's Crochet.

And this is for an A La Mode Boa Scarf from Crochet Dreamz. With the exception of the Cascade Scarf (which seems to take forever to make), these are quick scarves to crochet, so I should be able to get all three done this week.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and a terrific Monday so far :-)

Dishcloth a Day #12

This is the Citrus Twist Dishcloth from The Good Life. It's a great pattern that works up quickly with a nice texture. Mine came out a little wonky, but I can fix that with a little blocking. I had trouble with the border; I can never seem to "single crochet evenly" down the side of anything. I'm hoping I get better with practice.

Dishcloth a Day #13

I really enjoyed making the Crocodile Scrub N Wipe Dishcloth from bestfreecrochet.com. I had never attempted the Crocodile Stitch before because it looked hard, but I found it to be pretty easy once I understood what "double crochet 4 times up the post of the next double crochet" meant. Blogger flipped my picture (again); the scales are the bottom of the dishcloth. It's meant to be folded in half; the scales do the scrubbing and the single crochets do the wiping. Neat, huh?

Dishcloth a Day #14

The SC 8 Point Round Dishcloth was fun to make today. It's a mini round ripple :-) I would advise using a stitch marker for the first couple rounds; I had a hard time seeing where each round began and ended because the single crochets don't have a lot of height.

Granny Square Saturday

I love the Spring Breeze Afghan Square from Priscilla's Crochet. I'm not sure why it looks crooked in the picture because it didn't come out that way. I made this one late on Saturday when I was really tired, and I wish I'd taken the time to make it multi-color. I think it would look like a flower square with the right color changes.

Photo a Day Challenge January 12, 2013

Saturday's prompt was Surprise. A tough one to capture. I took a picture of our new Spring jewelry catalog. Although it wasn't a surprise that we were getting it, it was a nice surprise to see a person modeling the jewelry on the cover. For all the years I've been a jewelry lady, our catalogs have always just had the jewelry on them.

Photo a Day Challenge January 13, 2013

Yesterday's prompt was Circle. I took a picture of my dinner (oops, cut off the corner; it doesn't look like a round plate anymore!). Yum, spaghetti and meatballs :-) I probably could have found a better picture while we were out and about, but I left my camera and prompt list at home. I have a camera on my phone, but not good Internet access. Live and learn.

Photo a Day Challenge January 14, 2013

Today's prompt is Yellow. This is Hope's cat, Oreo, laying claim to Sugar's yellow and white tug of war toy. (Sugar is Hope's dog.) Good thing Sugar was outside when I took this!

Daily Inspiration

Thanks for reading!

Blessings :-)

Finished Friday

I know you've been waiting on pins and needles to see them: my finished projects! Well, maybe not pins and needles. You might not even be curious. But here they are anyway.

The Have a Heart Shawl:

Stretched out

Front

Back

The Ombre Basket:

Holds my Stash-buster project perfectly

My friends and I took a trip to Hobby Lobby today. We had a great time as always. I amused myself by taking pictures of all the owls I could find.

My favorites:

Of course, I had to bring home a couple. Couldn't leave them all in the store!

I also picked up some yarn, crochet thread, 2" plastic rings, a few scrapbook supplies, embroidery floss labels, and fabric. 

See the rings on the right? I paid $4 for 10 (5 in each package). On the way home, we stopped at a thrift store. I bought these.

Drapery rings! They had little metal clips on them, but they unscrewed really easily. It left a small hole in the ring, but since I'm going to crochet around them it doesn't matter. They're 2" just like the plastic rings, just a little thicker. I got the whole bag (28 inside) for $2!

After we got home, I played a video game with Hope before going to my jewelry show. Now, I'm exhausted and ready for bed. What a day :-)

 Dishcloth a Day #11

Are you getting a crick in your neck from looking at them sideways? Always the dishcloth pictures get flipped. Oh, well. 

This one was a little tricky because I'm not used to the puff stitch, but I like the way it came out. The Purple Puffs Dishcloth pattern can be found on bestfreecrochet.com.

Photo a Day Challenge January 11, 2013

Today's prompt was Water. This is my friend's birdbath. The picture's not so interesting, but the story behind the bird bath is. A few years ago, my brother found a stone birdbath on the side of the road (one of those curb side pick up freebies). He brought it to me to put in my yard. After a couple of months, I found out it was a breeding ground for mosquitoes in summer. I gave it away at a yard sale.

Last year, I went to my friend, Sarah's, house. Sitting in her front yard was the birdbath I had given away at my yard sale! She had gotten it from another yard sale.

When summer came, she realized the mosquito problem and offered it to our friend, Angela. She said something about making it into a planter, but it has water in it now. This bird bath has been all over town!

Daily Inspiration

Personality can open doors,

but only character can keep them open.

-Elmer G. Letterman

Thanks for reading!

Blessings :-)

Greeting Cards

Not much going on today: school, horseback riding, a trip to the park (where I made my dishcloth of the day), and our ladies night out. We tried to make some ornaments but the other girls were frazzled from the week so we didn't finish them. So we just talked and relaxed; that's always good, too.

These are the cards I made at my Stampin Up card class last night:

A thank you card for the Valentine's Day season

Another thank you card; I use a lot of them in my business so I can never have enough

This one's my favorite; lots of chocolate!

Darn Blogger! Anyone know how to fix this problem?

The inside of the chocolate card; it says Friends are the Chocolate Chips of Life.

I hope you're all having a wonderful week so far :-)

Dishcloth a Day #10

I think I might have a new favorite! I loved making this one today, especially the border. It's hard to see (should have taken a picture!) but it twists and weaves together. The Bands of Lace Dishcloth pattern is available from FreePatterns.com.

Photo a Day Challenge January 10, 2013

Today's prompt was 1:00. I had to take a picture of what I was doing between 1 and 2. This is the dashboard of my Camry; I was driving to Hope's horseback riding lesson at that time. Don't worry; I waited until I got there to take the picture! 

Thursday's Tickle

Did you ever wonder where we get such pretty yarn colors?

Thanks for reading!

Blessings :-)

WIP Wednesday

I actually don't have anything to show you :-) I finished the shawl and the basket but haven't taken pictures yet. And I've been busy all day with various things so I haven't done any crocheting except for my dishcloth. I'll have to show you something next week :-)

Dishcloth a Day #9

The White Diamonds Dishcloth is from bestfreecrochet.com. You probably noticed I use a lot of dishcloth patterns from there. They had a Dishcloth a Day Challenge a couple of years ago so it's a great place to get patterns.

I apologize for the bad picture. I should have taken it on a dark surface; you would have been able to see the diamonds better. And I don't know why Blogger flips my photos sometimes.

It's still a cool looking dishcloth.

Photo a Day Challenge January 9, 2013

Today's prompt was Paper. I took a photo of some of the greeting cards I made last year. I'm making more tonight at card class, so I'll be posting more card pics tomorrow.

Daily Inspiration

I should mount this one on my wall in giant letters!

Thanks for reading!
Blessings :-)

Dishcloth and Photo Challenges, New Challenge

Dishcloth a Day #8

The Diagonal Dishcloth is available on Ravelry. It's a quick, fun little washcloth to make that has nice ridges on it for scrubbing.

Photo a Day Challenge January 8, 2013

Today's prompt was the letter T. I had to take a picture of something that starts with T. So I present to you a picture of the Thermometer showing the Temperature. Yes, it says 80 degrees. This was about 2:00 this afternoon. I love January in Florida :-)

Stash-buster Challenge

Well, I've added another challenge to my roster. I'm determined to cut down on some of my yarn stash (if I get anymore, we'll have to move!). So I'm linking up with the Stash-buster Challenge over at Linda's Crafty Corner. At the beginning of the month, I'll show a picture of some yarn stash that needs used up. Towards the end of the month (or sooner if I finish sooner) I'll show what I made with it. This is not to be confused with my Mini Monday projects; those usually require some planning. I'm trying to make the Stash-buster Challenge totally random, a challenge in and of itself for me!
So, this is the first bit of stash I'd like to use up.

I grabbed some blues and some greens in different shades (not very random yet, but give me time). When I finish my Stash-buster project, I'll post a picture of it. Easy peasy :-)

Thanks for reading!
Blessings :-)