Fall Festival

 Last night we had a Fall Festival at church for R.S.  We had the best homemade rolls and soups and desserts.  Several people set up Fall decorating displays around the room.  It was a fun night.  I met a few new people and had a great time.

I gathered up a some Fall themed crafts and included them in my last minute display.

(Ignore the leaning lampshade!)

Since it seemed like it was going to be fancier than normal I volunteered to bring

chair covers and ties.  It added a lot to the atmosphere of the room.

It's nice to have my chair covers again.  They didn't make it on the moving truck but luckily my husband's aunt was able to bring them out recently along with a few other things that we had to leave behind.  Just as a reminder, they are available to rent for wedding receptions and other special occasions.

{NEW} Crochet Hook & a Dozen Dish Cloths

 Many months ago I was the lucky recipient of this handy little crochet hook from a cousin who lives across the pond.  I was eager to try it out and have been using it for making loads of potholders and dish cloths recently.

A couple trips to Wal-Mart ago I picked up some cotton yarn because I was all out and I missed crocheting dish cloths.  Crazy I know!  I was able to crochet a dozen with just one cone.  As you can kind of see at the top two fit nicely folded in one of those origami boxes that I'm so fond of giving presents in.  So these will turn into 6 lovely presents.  Not sure to give them away for upcoming birthdays or to save them for Christmas.  Guess we'll wait and see.

Paper Pumpkins

Yesterday we went for a walk and ended up at my sister in law's house.  The nieces were wanting to make some sort of craft so we left and raided my craft supplies and then went back to their house for a fun "crafternoon".

One project we made were paper pumpkins.  Right now there are tons of tutorials out there to make your own paper pumpkins.  Here's my version.

Supplies (makes 3 pumpkins)

• 1 piece of 12 x 12 orange paper
• 1 piece of 12 x 12 green paper
• tiny hole punch
• flower hole punch
• paper trimmer
• pair of scissors
• crochet thread or string
• large eye needle

Directions:

Using the paper trimmer cut your orange paper into 1" strips and then cut them in half so they are 6" long.  Next, punch a tiny hole in the end of each strip of paper.






 

Cut an 8" piece of string and double knot it in one end.  Thread string on needle and through one end of 8 strips of orange paper.





 

Gently bend strips in half and thread through the other side as well.

Punch two flowers from the green paper and cut a 1/4" strip of paper.  Use scissors to curl paper (like curling ribbon).  Punch a tiny hole in the end of the paper curl and in each of the green flowers (which will be "leaves").  Thread curly vine and leaves on string and double knot again.









Fan out the orange strips of paper,  arrange leaves and vine, trim excess thread and enjoy!

Easy to make a whole mantle full or create a colorful centerpiece.





Linking up here and at the places on my links page.

baby bear hat

Yesterday when I was making the pumpkin hat I found this pattern on the same site.  It's supposed to be a monkey hat but I made the ears a bit different and am calling it a bear hat.  It took a really long time to make this hat but I shouldn't have been surprised since it was crocheted with a size H hook and the whole thing is sc.  Ugh!  Such a different from the super fast pumpkin hat from yesterday.  I used six strands of yarn for the ties instead of the three that it recommended.  Also I'm not a fan of starting with the "magic loop" so I always crochet a little loop and then use that instead.  And I also don't like crocheting in the round so I join my rounds and end up with a seam.  I don't like using a marker and counting so much.  I made a couple of bear hats before but sold both of them so it's nice to have another one.  I'll save this for the baby.  It'll be a great prop for pictures and also for photos.  I saw one blog where the mom took a picture of the baby with the same bear every week to see how the baby was growing.  It was really cute.  Maybe I'll do something like that with the hat and one of my favorite stuffed bears.  Living in colder weather has made me realize that earflaps are pretty much a necessity.  I'm thinking about adding earflaps to a couple of hats that I often wear.  In AZ I enjoyed having a hat to wear but didn't need the extra protection that ear flaps would offer.  Worked on this in between dishes and laundry this afternoon which reminds me that I need to put the last load in the dryer so I'd better be off to do that.  Just wanted to share my latest creation.

newborn pumpkin hat

My friend is having a baby next month and I'm constantly sending her links to things I think she should make for her newborn.  When I saw her yesterday I asked her if she was going to crochet a pumpkin hat for her baby since he'll be born in Oct.  She said she wouldn't have time since she already has a long list of projects she's working on.  I babysat this afternoon for a bit so I took this project to work on while the kids were napping.  It actually worked up really fast.  This is the pattern I used.  I'd never made a hat quite like this one before.  If I did another one I would make some changes to the top.  Also it looks really small to me.  I'm used to large babies with giant heads but I suppose this might fit a normal size baby.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see when her baby is born if this will fit him.

Another Juice Can Cozie

After I made the first two juice can cozies I made this one.  I didn't have pictures of it to include in the post the other day so it gets a post of its own.  I can hardly wait to make another pitcher of juice so that I'll have another juice can to cover.  So cute!

Frozen Juice Canister Cozies

The inspiration for this project came from a niece who had been using a plastic frozen juice container for a pencil holder.  It had been previously decorated with paper but didn't match her newly redecorated room so she had removed the former decorative elements and it was waiting to be redone.

 I used her favorite color - Orange and crocheted this up similar to the soda can cozies I've made before.

 Of course I had to add a gigantic daisy to spruce it up.  I walked all the way over to her house in the heat to give it to her but they were gone so I messaged her on facebook to come over later and she did.

I had an extra juice container so I made one for her sister as well who just redecorated her room too.  They seemed pretty happy with them.

Great for back to school presents or teacher gifts.

STaCeY

I saw something like this a few months back on etsy and I was so excited to discover that my name could be spelled with elements from the periodic table.  How nerdy huh?  Once we find out if we are having a cowboy or a cowgirl and start brainstorming names I think we should make sure whatever name we pick can be spelled out of the periodic table so I can make a print like this for the baby's room.

Black Flower Hair Clip

So much for my good intentions!  Going back to work and other projects have prevented me from blogging but I have been crafting.  One fun project I made this past week is this giant flower hair clip.  I thought 4" across was a little big but I tried it on and it actually looks great.  It's for a Senior Photo Shoot.  She's going to wear a black sweater so I think this will look great in her hair and stand out nicely against her blond hair.