Monday, April 11, 2011

Chalkboard Backdrop

I also do a little photography on the side Mommy Creations Photography and love to find new ideas to jazz up indoor portraits. So, for my sons 6 month pictures I decided to make a Chalkboard backdrop.
I went to the local hardware store and picked up a 3 feet by 4 feet board. Mine happened to be whiteboard material on one side. So I took it home and painted the opposite side with chalkboard paint.
It was that easy just a couple of coats of paint and I had a double sided photo backdrop.
I use it to write stats on so I can remember how big he was and specific milestones he had reached. I also used it for the backdrop of my crocheted bracelets found here and I used the white side as a backdrop here.

Linking here

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Easter Bunny Egg Hat

I know I promised more of the Dora party details, but we are a little Dora out over here so we will let birthday party jitters die down a little and turn our gears to Easter with this cute little egg hat.
This little hat is my own pattern and came as a result of me stressing over another project. I use crocheting as a stress reliever. And today it was much needed. So I decided to take a break from the day and finish up another Easter project I had been working on over the weekend. It was an aurigumi bunny and was not turning out how I wanted and I didn't like the pattern much and couldn't find a pattern that I liked any better so I thought hey maybe I could make my own pattern. Well in short a large project is not where I should of started my pattern making career. Trying to create my own pattern with an attention needing 9 month old getting tangled in my yarn was not the stress relief I wanted so I switch to a small easy project that I could practice my pattern making skills and finish in the amount of time it took my baby to finish his lunch. And that is how the Easter bunny egg hat was born.
As I was taking pictures the egg was a little wobbly and I said to myself I wish I had some cute egg holders. So I made my own out of an empty egg carton that I just so happened to have on hand since I was using the last egg to try my little hat on. I just cut 2 wells from the egg carton glued the bottoms together and painted adding a little ribbon in the middle.

Now back to the egg hat (lucky you get a 2 for in today's post). This really took me minutes to create and it is really simple. So here is the pattern for all of you to try out. I used a size G hook and regular worst weight yarn.

Base
with white ch 2.
Rnd 1: Work 6 sc in first chain.
Rnd 2: Work 2 sc in each sc around – 12 sc.
Rnd 3: *2 sc in next sc, sc in next sc; repeat from * around – 18 sc.
Rnd 4: *2 sc in next sc, sc in each of next 2 sc; repeat from * around – 24 sc.
Rnd 5-8: Sc in each sc around.

Ears (make 2)
with pink ch 5
sc in 2nd at from hook and in each of the next 3 st
fasten off switch to white yarn.
sc up one side in next 3 st
2 dc, ch, tc in next stitch (you will now be at the top of your ear and will start going down the other side of your pink strip)
tc, ch, 2 dc in next st
sc in next 3 st
fasten off attach ears to hat base

easy enough right? I hope that makes sense if not feel free to ask me questions.
dc=double crochet
tc=triple crochet


Oh wait I said I didn't have an egg holder. Like I said I was using my last egg which was not hard boiled and my curios daughter started to play with it when I wasn't looking and cracked it so I headed to my basement to see if I had a plastic egg for her to play with and found this cute little holder that my mom sent me and thought I should include it so I don't get a comment from my mother that I do indeed have an egg holder.

So go on relieve a little stress and whip up a few little egg hats to put on your Easter eggs.

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Sunday, March 6, 2011

Dora Adventures

I have been missing all week I know. My husband was gone interviewing for jobs which is exciting except that means no break for me while he is gone. It is also March which means I am officially in birthday planning mode for my little girl. I did realize that it would be so soon that she would have her own opinion about her birthday party. And since she loves everything Dora (and Diego) we are having a Dora Adventure birthday party. I have it all planned out and spend my week designing party invitations and a pattern for Dora backpacks. The Dora backpack will have to wait a little I wasn't to impressed with my first attempt so we will try again, but here is what I came up with for the invitations.
(party details blocked out for reasons I'm sure you understand)
What do you think? I had so many ideas running around in my head that it stated getting complicated and messy so I simplified it down and got this. I added the "presents not needed" because she does not need anymore toys and things and we are in the process of getting rid of things since we will be moving. Is this the best way to say this. I don't want them to think they can't bring a present if they really want to, but they most definitely do not need to. Any advice would be good. I also think I am going to offer this to people for a small fee (only because it needs to be personalized) if anyone is interested.

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Sunday, February 27, 2011

Giveaway winner

Ok so this is only like 2 weeks late, but I am finally announcing the giveaway winner. The lucky winner of a $35 gift card to CSN stores is lucky number 6.

Carol W. said...

I'm a GFC follower. I'd like a Bosu Balance Trainer.



Congrats Carol I will email you your gift.

You may have noticed I am only one away from 100 fans on facebook. I am planning a big giveaway for all my facebook fans and blog followers. What would you all like to see as a giveaway?

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Chocolate Withdrawals

I think I am going through post Valentines Day chocolate withdrawals. I ate my whole box of chocolates in 2 days not to mention my husband bought 2 big bags of kit kats last weekend that I helped eat. I was out of it today. I was so tired that as soon as I put the baby down for a nap I fell asleep on the couch watching TV with my daughter (both morning and afternoon naps) my daughter watched way too much TV today. Anyways I blame it all on the chocolate. It reminded me of this I {heart} Chocolate dress I made last year after Valentines day.
I never blogged about it so I guess now is as good of time as any. This dress was made from a clearance t-shirt and 2 skirts from walmart. Both the t-shirt and skirts were to big for my daughter so I cut them down to her size then attached the skirt to the bottom of the t-shirt withthe brown skirt longer than the striped skirt giving it a layered look.

It is the perfect dress for my chocolate loving daughter and she still wears it now. Its all knit material giving it a stretch so it has grown with her over the year.
I made a simple bow in cordinating brown and red ribbon that can be clipped on a head band.
or a hat. So look out for clearance clothes as you do your shopping you never know what you can find, even if they aren't the right size. I paid only a dollar for each piece making this dress $3 and about 30 mins. So heres to coming out of the chocolate coma and getting on with my life.

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Monday, February 14, 2011

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Happy Valentines day to you all. I LOVE valentines. I always have even when I was single. Not that I need a special day to show those around me how much I love them, but its nice to have an excuse to make my loved ones feel extra special. Plus I don't mind the excuse to eat lots of chocolate. I know you must all be sick of my crocheting projects with this pink yarn, but I had to share one more with you. Yesterday morning I was browsing around the log world and came across a blog called Easy. I like easy project so I looked around and found this pattern for a puffy heart so I tried it out and it was easy and super cute.
Once I had my cute little heart I didn't know what to do with it, so I attached a simple crochet chain to each side of the heart and made a cute little necklace that my daughter wore to church yesterday (but I forgot to take a picture :() If you still need something special for a special person in your life and you know how to single crochet you can whip up one of these in about 15+ min.

Friday, February 11, 2011

More Crocheting: Bow-ties and Headbands

Warning: There is some serious cuteness about to be revealed
If you saw my post a couple of days ago you know I have been into crocheting lately. It has been a great stress reliever you should try it. I moved on from the hearts (but I am sure I will go back to them soon) and I moved on to bows. These are even easier than the hearts all you need to know is the basic single crochet and you can make this adorable bow-tie.
I love it and I love my little man. I get to kiss those cheeks everyday.
For the bow-tie I did 8 rows of single crochet and each row is 18 stitches long. After your last row continue sc around the whole square. The middle piece is 2 rows of 10 stitches. I wrapped the smaller piece around the middle of the bigger piece and tied it in the back. I attached it to a clip and clipped it to his shirt, although it wasn't long before it ended up in his mouth.
Then I made a headband for my daughter. For the band I made a chain that would fit exactly around her head. Then I join the chain, chained 2and half double crochet all the way around (you could also just single crochet around a couple of times).
I made the bow the same way as the bow-tie but slightly smaller and I didn't make a center piece. I decided instead to put the bow on the headband and wrap the yarn around them both several times. I like this look a little better for the hair bow.
Now my kids have their accessories for Valentines day. Cute right?

If none of this makes sense you may want to checkout this tutorial at Happy Together, she does pretty much the same thing that I did.

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