I'm Thankful

Yay!  My autumn/Thanksgiving banner is finally done! I'm so pleased.

Here are some close up shots of the individual letters-

Finally, some scrapbook pages!

  This is from our trip in May to Mammoth Lakes over Memorial Day weekend. We were so shocked to see so much snow!  Todd and the kids skied!  It was a great weekend.

This spread is missing the journaling and title but here it is anyway.  I'll finish that tomorrow.  I used Michelle Coleman's Summer Soiree, Glimmer paper (Fancy Pants Designs). Blue Lagoon and Charcoal Color Box Chalk, and a nice buttery yellow page of Bazzill paper.

Scarves!

Like I mentioned the other day, I am crocheting up a storm.  Here are two that are in progress. 

The checkerboard pattern is done using a Front post double crochet (Fpdc) and Back post double crochet (Bpdc).  I had to use the dummies website to learn those stitches! 

For some reason, this picture distorts the color of it.  The blurry image below shows the color the best.

The fluffy lavendar scarf is made by doing the following:
Row 1:
chaining 27, sc in the second chain, *chain 6, skip 6 chains, sc in next 2 chain, and then repeat.
Row 2:
Ch 1, sc in first 2 sc, *ch 6, sc in next 2 sc, rep from * across, turn

Repeat row 2 to desired length. Fasten off.  This is from Ruthie's Crocheted Accessories. 
My daughter is moving to Northern California and wants more, more, more!  :)  

Blog name

I am crocheting so much I'm beginning to wonder if I mis-named my blog.  Perhaps I should have called it Craft-a-palooza.  :) 
I am working on a bunch of scarves.  Jess and I went to the movies yesterday, "Eat, Pray, Love," and saw these perpetual scarves (basically a scarf that has the ends whip-stitched together so there is not end. I'll post pictures tomorrow of my progress.  I learned a new pattern and stitch.  So cool!
Be patient.  I'll post more tomorrow. 

Baby Blanket looks more like a toddler blanket

 

Well, I finally finished a baby gift for my friend Paola. She told me in the spring that she was expecting a baby and that their decor would be soft peach, yellow, green, and pink.  I found the perfect, silky soft yarn by Bernat called Bamboo Naturals.  It turned out really pretty but it is waaaay too big for a baby.  Oops!  I didn't adjust my starting length for the new larger ergonomic crochet hook that I bought to ease the hand pain.  Chalk it up to being more attentive to details in the future and that size matters (insert naughty laugh here).  ;)  Miracle of miracles, I'm done a week early!  

 

Bind-It-All Fun!

I had a ton of fun making some cute little notebooks for my friends yesterday!  It was so easy to use, I can see that there are a ton of uses for this tool!  It is amazing what some cereal boxes and pretty paper and a bit of ribbon can evolve into!  I used Sei paper from a class I took a few years ago and some pretty tulle and ribbon.  I wish I had more time to jazz these up- I ran out of time and just put one little bit of ribbon. I wanted to make some embellishments too but time was critical. 
Here are a few of them:

 I think they turned out pretty cute! 

Flippin Recipes

I was busy last week--I finally finished my cousin's wedding present-- a cute recipe holder. When I went to CKC in Riverside I took a class from the good folks from Lickety Split Scrapbooking and couldn't bear to part with it. I had intended to make it for my cousin but instead bought a second kit so I could have one too!  :)  It is too dang cute!
Check these pics out!  The clear acrylic holder is from Clearly Scrap- the kit came with a 6x6, but I think an 8x8 would be great too! I used my Crop-o-dile to punch the holes-- I have the Big Bite and used it for the first kit but found that the handheld crop-o-dile worked better. 
After finishing this and the recipe books, I've come to the conclusion that I might be an ink-aholic.  I ink every edge!  These pics don't show it but seriously, I might have a problem with it... :) 
I'm definitely going to make more of these, but I do recommend making a counterweight so that it won't tip over once you load it with recipes (I loaded my cousin's with the family recipes I collected for my daughters' recipe books)-- I just took some leftover scrap fabric (from the darling aprons I made for the girls) and sewed a pouch and placed a bag of navy beans in there.  It keeps the recipe flipper from tipping.  :)

More Recipe book pictures

Here are a few more pictures of the recipe books I made for my girls-

Welcome!

I can't figure out why I'm starting a new thing-- this blog-- but I'm inspired by Okie Ladybug (aka: Shirley). She posted today and I just got the itch to act on her post. So, welcome to my new blog!
I am hoping that this blog will keep me moving creatively and prevent stagnation.

Here's my latest creation! It is a two volume recipe book set for my daughters. I originally started out and planned to make one book for each with family recipes, but it got too full so I split the book into two parts- one for desserts and the other includes everything else.

I used DCWV's Nana's Kitchen stack, my cricut, the In My Kitchen cartridge for the dessert book cover and some embellishments in the main book. Bazzill paper in complementary colors helped round out the project supplies.