'Tis the Season for Hats!

It's that time again.  Whatever that means...Winter, Holidays, Christmas, College Hoops, Football...Anyway, that means HATS!  As I've said before, I love hats.  They are so fun and easily customizable.  Here are some of the hats in my shop.  As always you can choose your size, color, and it's always free shipping.

Basketball and Football Hats - Share your passion with your little bundle of joy.

Football Hat

Cute Elf Hat - choose your color




Santa hat - baby to adult sizes

Pink Football Hat

Pink Basketball Hat

Now your little girl can cheer for her favorite sport too!

Alicia

Tunisian Lace Infinity Scarf

 

Yarn:  Bulky weight – 5

            Approx 100 g

            (Yarn shown in picture is Elle Rae Latte)

Hook:  Tunisian hook size N

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­___________________________________________________________

Row 1:  ch 12, pull up lp in 2^nd ch from hook and in each ch across.  Do not turn, work lps off hook.

Row 2:  sk 1^st vertical bar, (pull up lp in next 2 vertical bars at the same time, yo) across to last vertical bar, pull up lp in last vertical br, work lps off hook. 

Row 3:  sk 1^st vertical bar, pull up lp in next vertical bar, (pull up lp in next ch sp, pull up lp in next vertical bar) across, work lps off hook. 

Repeat rows 2-3 until scarf is desired length.

Join to opposite end with a sc in both ends in each st across.  Fasten off.

 

Our House is a Very Very Very Fine House....

Ok, I did it!  I took the leap.  I bought a house!  That's my excuse for not blogging in so long.  I have been having fun arranging things how I like it and planting a garden!  I think I may have gotten a little overexcited about the garden though and tried to plant too much in too little space.  Everything is so big and I am constantly trying to trim and coax leaves away from other plants so everyone can share the sunlight and water.  Maybe it is the plants who are overexcited? 

Squash, squashing my cucumbers.

I have learned in the last month that summer squash and yellow squash really have no regard whatsoever for the happiness of cucumbers.  They don't think twice of growing all over them just because the cucumbers took a little longer to figure out what they were in dirt for.  I have also learned that peas really love to climb and if you don't give them something to climb on early enough, they will just wrap their little viney fingers around everything and strangle them. 



Yes, this is one tomato plant.

So many other lessons.  Next year, I will plant my yellow boy tomato in a big 'ole barrel pot all by himself.  He just can't play nice. My poor peppers are being knocked all around.

Oh, and one other important one....when you buy cheap seeds, what is pictured on the front of the package, is not always what is in the package.  I currently have some sort of salad mix in my garden that I just really don't like.  It is quite spicy and chewy.  Thank goodness Elvis, the guinea pig, likes it and he can just eat his fill.  I won't be replanting it next year. 


Roma tomatoes.  That's why they are funny looking...I think.



My cherry tree!

I also thoughtfully thinned my neighbors raspberries and took some for myself.  (She said I could.  I'm not in the habit of sneaking into neighbors back yards and digging up their plants for myself!)  I also planted blackberries and blueberries.  They are beautiful though I won't have fruit until hopefully next summer. 






Cherries!

Oh, and I have strawberries!  Yay strawberries!  And two cherry trees.  I was hoping, of course, that they were Flathead cherries, since I am right here, but I believe they are pie cherries of some sort.  That's fine too.  I will definitely use them!  So much fun!  So glad I have summers off! 



Ogre and Monster Hats - Hats and More Hats!

I love making hats.  They are so much fun and work up pretty quickly.  I finally got the ribbon picked out for four more cloche style hats. 

I got a ton of ribbon a few weeks ago using sales and coupons for Michaels and Joann.  Thank goodness they are accepting competitor coupons now. 

I really like the patterned ribbon for hats.  It just gives a little more....something.  I don't know but I like it!

These lovelies are now in my Etsy store!

This morning I finished my first Monster and Ogre baby hats.  They turned out so, so cute!  I wish I had a baby to wear the Ogre hat!  For now I have to settle for this (not so cute) doll.  Thanks Pam for letting me borrow him though.  He does make a better model than my balloons.  His head is a little smaller than newborn though so I end up having to roll up a bunch of the hats.  It works out pretty well though.   

I had seen pictures of the ogre hats from Dayna from On Distant Shores (http://daynasigl.blogspot.com) but her hat was knitted.  So I made up my own pattern in crochet. 
As for the Monster hat, I was inspired by Emily at The Boy Trifecta (http://www.theboytrifecta.com). but again kind of did my own thing following the pictures.  I'm finding that maybe I don't have the patience to follow patterns specifically.  I like to just create as I go.  Thank you ladies for the inspiration!

March Madness - Basketball Hats

If I had a sport, it would probably be basketball.  I like the movement.  Those guys are really working hard.  I like the excitement of the scoring.  It's not like soccer where 2-1 can be a high scoring game.  It's not like football where they play for 10 seconds then talk about it for the next 20 minutes.  And it's not like baseball where it's basically one guy against a whole team and then a different guy against the whole team again.  Basketball is fun to watch.  I don't watch so much since Jordan left the Bulls (has anyone else really moved like that guy?) but I'll still check it out sometimes if I catch it.


So in honor of March Madness coming up, I decided to show my support for the sport.  Basketball baby hats!  Now your little one can root for the sport along with you.  Aren't they cute?!

They are for sale now in my Etsy shop.  They are basically a knit hat with embroidered back stitching for the lines.   Check them out!

And Now For Something Completely Different.....Recycled Pop Top Necklace

A crocheted pop top necklace!  This was so much fun to make.  Once I finally got enough pop tabs - I had to ask around at work.  Someone generously donated these to me!  50 pop tabs went into making this fun necklace.  Recycling at its best! The finished project is definitely classier than you would expect from the sum of its parts!  I wore it to work a couple of times and I get a ton of compliments.  The kids are really interested in trying it too.  I guess I'm going to have to teach them to crochet!

Queen of Sunflowers Shawl

So I finished this shawl and finally got it sent off today.  It is headed to Sweden!  Yay, I'm international!  Anyway, I really love the way it turned out.  It was really simple and this time I added a scallop border to kind of pull it all together. 










This is the second shawl I have made in this pattern but I do prefer the yellow and brown one. I'm glad it was suggested to me! I hope to get the pattern written up and maybe post it for sale on Etsy. 

Rest in Peace my Friend

Remy the Rat passed away early this morning.  He was just short of his third birthday.  He was a happy little guy who enjoyed human company and the occasional spat with his big sister, Gypsy.  He was healthy right up until his death, and passed in his sleep.  Rest in peace my friend. 

Remy as a baby.  He had the sweetest little face. 

Remy looks like a drowned rat....literally.

Poor Remy.  He is getting really old.  He's almost three years old.  He's getting really clumsy and his back feet don't work really well for him.  I need to clip his toenails now and because he is so clumsy, he can't clean himself as well as he used to. 











He gets a bath now periodically when he starts to look scruffy.  He doesn't like it but he tolerates it.  What he really likes is the cuddling afterwards and the toweling off.  He looks so fluffy afterwards.  When he is dry, he begs for treats, eats them, then takes a nap....such a rough life.  My poor boy.  He's so sweet. 

Look at that face!