Simple Rose Tree Necklace

 I bought this pendant several years ago.  

I can't even remember if it was from Michaels, Joann Fabrics or Hobby Lobby.

 Anyhow it just hung around because I could never figure out what to do with it.

Then I bought a black chain.

I was still stuck.  

Should it have red danglies? Green?  Purple? 

Then I realized I didn't have any black jump rings or lobster clasps.  

Gold or silver colors just looked weird.  

So back it went into the bead box for many a moon.

Then I made some earrings that also had black toned metal on them. 

As luck would have it, Michaels sold a pack of black metal findings that included: French hooks, jump rings, crimp beads and lobster clasps.

Bingo!

Inspiration struck and I came up with this:

Simple and sweet.  I can't wait to wear it!

Nature Weaving

We made these nature weavings way back at the end of March, over Spring Break.  

I got the idea from the Blog: In These Hills.

We assembled the looms from sticks in our back yard, and scrap yarn.

Then we went for a walk around the block and wove them into our loom on the spot.

This was harder than it might seem because it was quite cold and we were weaving the items in with our gloves on.  Some of the things, particularly the pine branches, wanted to stick to our gloves instead of staying inside the weaving.

Blockette and I hung them up in the garage over a particularly ugly spot over the door into the basement.

I love that I get to see them everyday.

Summer/Halloween Placemats

I am over the moon!  I finally finished making these four place mats.  I started them over a year ago after I finished this quilt. That quilt (Rigel VII) was a replacement for a quilt my mom had made me back in 1990.

pink front

The quilt my mom made was loved to death.  It was falling apart and shredded in places.  And yet I couldn't bring myself to throw it away.  I knew that there would be some cool way to re-purpose it.

pink back

After much thought, I decided I would recycle it as batting.  It was thin and worn enough that it seemed perfect to use in placemats.

I sewed strips of fabric directly onto the old quilt to make a funky abstract watermelon. Each placemat has it's own color tone (pink, pinkish purple, orange red, and maroon). 

Can you believe all that fabric was in my stash?  A good portion of it was scraps from old projects and scraps from friend's projects as well.

orange red front

After I stitched all the strips to the batting, I lined the back of the placemats with Halloween fabric.  I did this for 2 reasons.  First, at one point I had planned to make a Halloween quilt, so I'd been collecting Halloween fabric for a while.  When I made the placemats I realized that the probability of the quilt getting made was very slim.  Which leads me to the second reason for using that fabric.  If I used Halloween fabric, then I could have placemats for summer and fall!  It's like they'd be double duty placemats.  I loved that idea so, for me changing the use for the fabric from what I had originally intended it for was a great idea.

orange red back

To quilt the layers together I used regular cheapo coats and clark white sewing machine thread, my free motion foot and the supreme slider.  I've had the supreme slider for a while, but this was the first time I worked up the courage to use it.  Now I'm kicking myself for not testing it out sooner.  Basically it's this plastic thing that clings to the sewing surface and makes the fabric move around very smoothly as you are quilting.  It works like a dream.

Usually when I attempt to use the free motion foot my sewing machine acts up.  Not this time!  No problems at all.  I think i was getting some sort of drag from the fabric that was messing up the tension.

pink purple front

I still have a lot to learn about how to get smooth stitches while I am doing free motion quilting.  I can tell which placemats I quilted first, so I must at least be learning and getting a tiny bit better.  The last placemat has very little of that spiderwebing on the curved stitched lines.

pink purple back

The edges should have been done in bias binding.  Frankly, I was just plain lazy and didn't feel like making bias tape, or buying it.  Consequently, a few of the placemats curl up on the rounded part.

maroon front

While making rectangular placemats would have been a lot easier, especially when it came to the binding part, I'm glad I did spend the extra time to make them watermelon shaped.  Our dining room table is oval and the straight edged placemats don't work very well on the rounded ends of the table.  Since these placemats have a straight and rounded edge on them, any placemat can be set at any part of the table. 

maroon back

I wish I would keep forgetting how much I do like trying and learning new things.  My sewing projects would get done so much faster.  I'm stuck in that fear of what if it doesn't turn out, or what if I mess it up.  I should hang a sign up in my craft room that says "Finished is better than perfect," just so I don't forget.

Proof: I love my BOOTS

When I was a punk kid I hated to wear shoes, even in the winter.  I'd run around barefoot if I could get away with it.  And boots?  Forget about it.  If I had to shovel. I'd snag a pair of my mom's.  Boots were just so totally uncool.  Like for sure.  Gag me with a pitchfork.

My uncle use to tease me mercilessly about this.  That's what uncles do.  At least the crazy ones.

What my uncle doesn't realize was that was a LOOOONG time ago.  And I have seen the light.

Look! Seee?????

THREE PAIRS of BOOTS!

And because that isn't enough for my uncle, here they are on my feet:

 These winter boots have kept me warmer than any other pair of winter boots I've ever had.  I love how they have that plastic "rain boot/duck shoe" foot.  They are awesome for cold slushy days. They are also great for "boot shoveling" when people don't shovel their sidewalk by the cross walk.

I'm convinced these are the best fashion boots ever.  They are slouchy and scuffy and don't make my feet look enormous!  I love this color brown so much I want to eat it.  But of course I won't cause my feet were in these boots and that is nasty.

And finally, my newest boot acquisition:  Rain boots a la Walmart clearance.  I bought these because it's too warm for my winter boots and apparently it's monsoon season.  They are so comfy, it's like they were made for me! Plus they have that bright orange on them. Anything that makes me less likely to get run over is always a bonus.

I'm sure that STILL isn't enough for my doubting uncle.  

He'll say that I hired a stunt double.  

I don't think I could pay a stunt double enough money to wear my nasty yoga pants and robe.

I love my boots.

And that's what I have to say about that.

Gray "It's A Wrap" Shawl

I actually made two of these grey "It's a Wrap" Shawls.  I made the one pictured below for myself.  (I'm sure that Blockette will steal it though.)  The shawl in the picture has less rows than the pattern suggests as I wanted a shorter shawl.  Then, using the same yarn, I made a full size shawl for my church's Prayer shawl group.

The smaller shawl used slightly more than one skein of Sensations Sincerely in Char Grey.  The larger shawl used about 1 3/4 skeins.

I did make one small change to the pattern.  On both shawls, instead of a fringe, I made a scalloped edge.  I sort of made them up as I went along using treble crochet stitches.

The pattern for this shawl can be found at Craft Yarn Council.  Personally, I think the shawl they feature on that site looks like an 80's train wreck.  Maybe that's just the model's hair though.

Then I saw the same shawl over at Creative Yarn and I fell in love.  I think the shawl in a solid color looks neato. 

 As I'm still fairly new to crocheting, the directions confused me at first.  I wasn't sure what they wanted me to do.  I did a bit of internet investigating and found this picture on Pinkleo's Flicker account.  It's a great visual of what each of the stitches should look like. Step 13 was super confusing at first.  (They are the top and bottom cream colored rows in the photo.) Seeing the stitches cleared things right up for me as I'm a visual learner.

 I'm really pleased with how these shawls turned out.  I plan on picking up some more of this yarn too as it was great to stitch with as well.  Lucky for me it's on sale at Joann Fabrics!  Woot Woot!

Pictures from Rainstorm on Thurs

We had a huge rainstorm this past Thursday.  This was the biggest flooding of the river that I can remember since we've been living in this town.

Found these pictures here. They were NOT taken by me.  I just wanted to compile a few places that were relevant to our daily lives.

This is the far end of our street.   What we call "The End and Back," not quite to the "End"

This is the street by the golf course that I take to get to important places like the grocery store and Target. Notice the for sale sign is nearly covered.

This is the road to get to Soccer Practice.

This is the road we take to get to church.  The creek has taken over.

Same road from a different angle. The River is at the far end of the photo.

The Park engulfed by the river.

Another shot of the park.

The park taken from the bridge on "main" st.

The park's parking lot.

"Main" St.

Over all things could have been a lot worse, but I think it can be done raining for a while.

Chocolate Syrup

I want some chocolate milk!
I want to drink it now.

-Well, just make some faux quik mix.

But I don't want THAT kind of chocolate milk.  The mix kind has little foamy floaties.  That's great and all, but I want the smooth and rich sort of chocolate milk.

-So go get some chocolate syrup from the store.

 But I'm too lazy to go to the store.  That would require putting on jeans and a bra and that is way too much effort.  Ack!  What's a lazy creamy chocolate milk craver to do?

-Shut up and make this Chocolate syrup from Dough Puncher.

Boom.
Problem solved.  
Go about your daily chocolatified milky day.

Seriously, this syrup took 5 minutes to make.  Much less time than it takes me to go to the grocery store, let alone get dressed. 

The above photo is a half batch.  A half batch is enough to fill one of those 8 oz freezer jam jars.

Chocolate Syrup (full recipe) from Dough puncher
1 c water
1/2 c unsweetened cocoa powder ( I like penzey's cocoa)
2 c sugar
1/4 t vanilla
pinch salt

Mix water, cocoa, and sugar in med pan (a larger pan is better than one you think is just the right size.  This stuff will bubble up.) Over med heat, dissolve cocoa and sugar with whisk. Bring to boil and cook 3 min, watching carefully to make sure it doesn't boil over-- turn down the heat if necessary (You don't want to clean this molten lava off your stovetop.) After 3 min, remove from heat. Add   vanilla and salt.

Store in fridge up to 2 months. It will thicken to similar consistency of store bought syrup as it sets up in refrigerator, if you can wait that long.