New crochet projects

The item on the left is a chapstick holder. It has a loop on top so you can attach it to your keychain. The item on the right can be used to wrap a gift card for a present or as a mini wallet. It will hold atleast 12 or so cards and a bit of money. Perfect when you are on the go and just want to take a few things with you. I also use one to store some of my cards that I don't always take with me everywhere I go.

BABY Blocks

I found these BABY stickers in a $1 bin at Michaels a few months back and had to have them. At first I was going to individually frame them in these adorable little white square frames that I saw at the Dollar Tree but I resisted spending more $ on the project. Finally I realized that they fit perfectly on the little white blocks I already had. I was going to sand the edges and seal the blocks first but due to time constraints I just attached the stickers directly onto the painted blocks. They are the perfect stickers - layered, glittered and have foam stickers on the back for added dimension. Of course I had to tie the whole thing up in a leftover pink ribbon from my wedding and voila! In just a couple of minutes I had a very cute baby shower decoration to display on my end table and since I've hosted 3 baby girl showers in the last year I'll pack these up with the rest of my baby decorations for the next baby shower I host.

CTR blocks for Activity Days

We made these blocks last week for Activity Days. The girls really enjoyed the project and did a great job. They all chose different colors to personalize their blocks so they all turned out different. I'm so lucky to be able to work with such a great group of girls.
If you missed my earlier post when I made a sample they are super easy to make. The blocks were pre-painted white since I didn't think we'd have time to let them dry since we only have an hour. The background paper is precut circles and squares and the letters are paper too. We used mod podge to attach them. So fun!

Headband & Interchangeable Flowers

Everyone loves the flowers from the hats but soon it will start warming up and it will be too cold for hats so I was given this idea so we can keep wearing blooms all year. The flowers can be pinned onto the headband or worn as a brooch or fastened in your hair. I love the bright colors in this cute set.

Potholders & Dishcloths

My future sister-in-law registered for a set of black dishes and white dishes so for her bridal shower so I sent her these two black pot holders and 4 black & white dishcloths to match her future dishes. Honestly, they are the best potholders and dishcloths money can't buy. They take a lot of time to make but are such good quality that they are totally worth it. I don't know what I'd do without mine.
I'm teaching a couple friends how to crochet tomorrow night and I'll start them off on a hotpad. It's a good starting point for beginners.

Ric Rac burp cloth/changing pad

I'm out of all the girl blanket and burp cloth sets I made but I still had this cute blanket in my stash. I figured it's probably nice to get something not pink every once in a while. I wanted to give something with it of course and had one cloth diaper left so this morning I sewed some ric rac across the seams. Maybe everyone else does this too but when I thought of it I thought it was pretty smart - I melt the ends of the ric rac with a lighter so it doesn't unravel. I usually melt one end and then start sewing and then when I start getting to the other end I cut it off at the right length and melt the other end. Just don't wait until your almost at the end though. Probably not a good idea to use a lighter that close to your sewing machine. Of course I wouldn't recommend letting your children do this but I have found that this is way better than using any sort of fray check and it's fun too.
The decorated cloth diaper can be a burp cloth or a changing pad. I absolutely love ric rac and can't get enough of it. Luckily I happened across a store that was clearing out some packages for 25 cents each so of course I bought all that they had in stock. It will be fun to use up on sewing projects for the next bit.

Custom Dog Sweater

Lastnight, as I was leaving Josh's cousin's birthday party, another cousin who is in town for the weekend asked me about the possibility of making a sweater for their 6 week old puppy. I was intrigued by the challenge so I searched around and stayed up late and came up with this.

I decided that it was too boring and need to be spruced up a bit so this morning I crocheted a black edge around all the openings and added a flower. I think it is greatly improved.

Now I just need to try it on the puppy. Even though the sweater only measures 6 1/2" long and is about 10" around I'm not sure it's going to fit but atleast now I know what I am doing and can take some measurements of the dog and make another one if I need to. Even though I'm not a pet person at all it was kind of fun to make this so I'm sure if there's enough interest I'll be making more.
Update: Delivered the sweater and it fits! So cute! Now I'm anxious to make another one.

HOME love is spoken here

I know I already posted a picture of this board along with some others a few months ago when I made them but I wanted to show you what I finally did with this one. Unfortunately, all the walls in the house I rent are painted white so it wasn't really going to work to just hang this on one of the walls. Luckily, I realized that the curtains in the front entry match the colors in this sign. Since I had already nailed a sawtooth hanger on the back of the board all I had to do was track down a piece of ribbon (which I found in exactly the right length), slip the ribbon through the hanger and tie a bow around the curtain rod. Then I cut a "v" in the ends of the ribbon and tada - cute decoration in the front entry. Love it!

Custom Heart Hairclip

I was asked to crochet a heart to be used as a hairclip. After a few attempts at altering a pattern this is what I came up with.I sewed it onto my last alligator clip leftover from all the flower hairclips I made at Christmas.

I have several requests for making flower hairclips so I guess that's the project I need to work on next.

Valentine's Day Boutique

I'm so excited about my Valentine's Day Boutique tonight at my home from 6-8 pm. Some of the items available will be:

Partylite candles and holders (many gift wrapped in sets)
Cookie Lee jewelry for women & girls with free gift boxes
Crocheted Hats, Scarves & Baby Booties
Little Quilts Quilt Kits
Tote bags
Hair pretties
Upcycled Clothing
Cupcake pincushions
Notecards
Notepads
Crocheted edge baby burp cloths
Origami roses
and more!

Each guest will receive a free gift and enjoy delicious goodies.

Custom Order Pink Uggs

After I posted the picture of the other uggs I was asked to make a pair of pink uggs for my friend's daughter. I just finished them up. Josh keeps asking where his pair is. I have a little bit of experience adjusting patterns for different sizes but I don't think I'm skilled enough to adjust this pattern from 6 months to a men's size 10. Sorry honey!

Remember

Before Christmas I went to Ikea and searched through the "as is" section of IKEA and found some awesome boards (they are actually returned cabinet doors and drawer fronts. I went once with my cousin and then I couldn't get it out of my head so I begged Josh to go with me again and we made an outing of it. I hung up this board above my door and put a sticky on it with the word "Remember" on it. Lastnight I finally got around to ordering the vinyl and I made it today. I love it so much. I can't stop staring at it. There are so many meanings behind the word too. One is that everytime I leave the house I always forget something and am always coming back in to retrieve another item. But of course the most significant meaning is that the word "Remember" appears in the scriptures so many times. If we really "remembered" it would keep us out of a lot of trouble. I'm so glad to have this sign up above my front door to keep me in constant remembrance. Thanks Jen for the incredible vinyl!

CTR blocks

When we first doing vinyl my friend had her huband cut up this board that she had and we sanded the blocks and painted them white but then we ended up switching over to using 2x4s so these blocks were left undone. I was thinking about them the other day and came up with this idea. The paper squares and letters are precut from paper. I have stacks of them. I love how it turned out. They will be great to use for baptism gifts and will make a great project for my Activity Day girls.

wear your heart on your hat

I crocheted this heart the other day and didn't know what to do with it so I sewed it onto a hat I'd already made. Thought it turned out really cute!

L o v e

These were mostly made by my friend. We were supposed to work on this project together but due to her kids being ill I didn't go over and help much. All I actually did was apply the vinyl letters which is the fun part. She's kind of obsessed with making them and has plans for many other projects throughout the coming year. She made J O Y blocks for Christmas and they were super cute.

I have them all wrapped up in gift bags I had on hand and I made these Valentine's cards on Sunday evening. I found these heart cards in my box of Valentine decorations. I found cute Mary Englebreit images from an old page a day calendar and matted them with cardstock and glued them on the cards with a glue stick. Now I just need to get them all delivered so my friends can display them for a bit before the big day is here!

baby "uggs"

I crocheted these yesterday and think that they are absolutely adorable. I can't wait to make another pair in pink of course. I have a pair of fake uggs that I got a year ago for Christmas and love wearing them on chilly days. Supposedly they are size 12 - 18 mths so now I've just got to track one down to try them on and see how they work.

Custom Cell Phone Case

Made this yesterday to fit my friend's slide phone. It's just a bit smaller than my phone. It'll be her birthday present.

Mom & Daughter Cloche Sets

I already had two adult sizes crocheted and got an order for two children hats to match. It's a bit of a challenge to figure out how to adjust the size of the hat for different ages but they ended up in the recommended ranges on a chart I have so I think they will fit.
I gave away a couple of mother/daughter sets for Christmas but unfortunately didn't get pictures of them but I love how they turned out.