Wordless Wednesday - Beach Fun

Teacher Appreciation

It's the time of year to say thanks for the wonderful teachers! Fortunately, Miss O has been very lucky with the teachers she has had so far in her school career.  I so hope this continues.  Anyway, she has two teachers this year plus an absolutely amazing reading tutor.  In three months her confidence in her reading has sky rocketed and she's jumped up a grade level.  So, as a way of saying thanks, Miss O designed - and picked out all the materials - her a purse and I made it.

I'm happy to say her reading tutor loved her bag.  And, as it turns out, she's getting married and this exact yellow and green are her wedding colors! How cool is that?

So, one teacher appreciation gift done, two to go!

A Bright Square

I am in the process of making a very bright project for Summer.  I'm hoping to be done with it this weekend and will share it during the week.  In the meantime, here is a teaser of one of the colorful, bright, summer squares:

A Wonderful Package

I received a great box of exciting crochet yumminess the other day.  I am part of a group on Ravelry called Afghan Swap 2012.  The idea (and it's a great one, in my opinion) is to get to really know one person through the year and share three swap packages with one another - the last containing, you guessed it, an afghan.  Well, I feel very lucky with the person I was paired up with and do believe we are becoming friends.  We both sent off our first packages last weekend and received them on Tuesday.  I'm happy to say that both were quite the success.

Here are some photos of my wonderful package:

In the box were: A beautiful purse for me, Hello Kitty purses for my daughters, five skeins of I Love This Yarn (which I'd never tried but now definitely do love) in shades of my favorite color green, 'Crovheted by' labels, yarn sleeves, a crochet hook with a bamboo handle (which is very comfortable to use), a book with different Granny square patterns, an adorable card and chocolate bars - yum.  I feel very fortunate and quite spoiled.  I've already said thank you to her but I'm going to say it once again - THANKS! 

A close up of the Hello Kitty bag (of which there were two).  My girls absolutely love them!

My beautiful purse - in shades of blue, also a favorite color.

Close up.  I think the pattern may be African flowers but I'm not positive.  I need to find out because I love them and want to give it a try.

The YARN! It's fabulous, really! I've already started making something out of the ombre one (which is called Summer -something, I can't find the label) and it is quite pretty.

Another close up!

Thank you, thank you! I feel so very blessed and yes, spoiled.

Nature's Art

Happy Easter

Inspiration

Tulips are  my most favorite flower.  They are so beautiful and come in a multitude of rich colors.  And while they appear fragile, they certainly are not.  I can remember late spring frost while I was in college in Boston and these flowers would stand up to practically anything Mother Nature threw at them.   These pictures weren't taken in Boston, though.  They were taken a few weeks ago in California.  I took so many pictures and had my daughters posing all over with the flowers.  Fortunately, they love tulips too and didn't mind mommy being a shutterbug with them and the gorgeous Tulips.

I am going to have to  make something in colors that mimic the gorgeous colors in this tulip garden.  These flowers and their colors are truly inspirational to me.

Tuesday's Tallies

One A Day is hosted by Carole atGingerbread Girl and on Ravelry. 


I didn't make much progress on my One a Day afghan this week.  All I did was complete the black row I had started and add two rows of the Autumn red.  Oh well, something is better than nothing, I suppose.  I intend to have more to show next week. I'm really excited about the completion of this blanket.  I put it on our bed this morning and I can actually imagine how it'll look now and I can't wait to have it done.  Here's a picture of what it looks like now:

Easter Baskets

The Easter baskets I made my daughters turned out so cute! I love them and more importantly, Miss O and Miss B love them! They had a trial run with the Girl Scouts Easter egg hunt today after school.  They are a tad floppy when in use and filled with the eggs.  I may need to add something to give the baskets a bit more support.  Floral wire maybe? Would you like to see the baskets?

An added bonus is that the girls can use the baskets after Easter for hair accessories or little toys.

Baskets

My daughters don't know this but I am in the process of making them some baskets.  I'm making each of them a new Easter basket.  Which, I must say are turning out quite adorably.  I can't wait to give them the new baskets.  I'll post pictures of the dual-colored baskets once they're complete.  I'm also trying out a large basket pattern idea for storage around our home.  Goodness knows we need it! My girls (or perhaps it's just me) need something new and better for storing their toys and dress up clothes and accessories.  I could use more craft storage, too.  Here is a basket in progress:

One A Day - Tuesday's Tallies

One A Day is hosted by Carole atGingerbread Girl and on Ravelry.


It's been a while since I've done a One A Day post.  In part that is because I believe I have crochet ADD.  I have been flitting from one project to another.  I keep getting ideas for new things and I just have to start them immediately.  While I love having the ideas and seeing all the colorful items - I haven't been completing anything.  This bums me out and I decided last night that I can't keep doing this so I pulled out the giant Granny square afghan I had started for mu husband and I.  This morning I took a couple of photos of it and I do quite like it.

These are the nine colors I'm using for the afghan and I'm about one third done with it.  I had wanted to have it done by the end of March but obviously that isn't going to happen now.  Hopefully, by doing one color per day, I'll have it done by mid April.  That would be fine with me.  It's fairly light weight so we could still use it for a while before it gets too hot.

A Happy Loopy St. Patrick's Day

I hope everyone is having a wonderful St. Patrick's Day.  It is rainy and appropriately green and beautiful here today.  In February, I made my husband a Rasta scarf for his birthday.  I had plenty of the awesome green yarn left and decided to make a swirly scarf for myself for today.  The color is more vivid than it is showing here and really, really pretty.

I had some of the yarn left over and saved it until I decided what could be made with it.  Well, yesterday I discovered the Loop stitch and tried it out last night after my girls went to bed.  This morning they had new green jewelry for celebrating our Irish heritage.

Miss O with her Loopy green necklace.

Miss B with her Loopy green bracelet.

I quite adore this stitch.  It's not for everything, of course; but is rather perfect when you want to add an element of fun.  Fortunately, my girls love their new jewelry.  It could have easily gone either way with my little fashionistas.

Wishing you and yours a very Happy Day!

Easter Crafting

I love Easter and Spring and every thing about this time of year! For some reason though, I feel like Easter has crept up on me this year.  I can't believe it's only twenty-five days away.  I decided I wanted to create some Spring/Easter items for my daughters and our home.  Quite conveniently, I then discovered that there is to be a Crafty Easter Linky Party at Crea in the City.  Naturally, I want to take part.  Feel free to visit her blog and sign up if this appeals to you, as well.

And now, here is my first attempt at a crocheted Easter egg.  Which, by the way, I found at Julie-k.

I have to say that I wasn't sure about the way this pretty blue egg looked.  Then, Miss O, my beautiful firstborn, asked, "Mommy, why are you making an Easter egg?"

I literally squealed at her question and she looked at me like I'd lost my mind just a bit.  When I explained that I was pleased she could tell it was actually an Easter egg she shrugged and just said, "Okay."

I will definitely be making more of these cute eggs.  I think what they need is more polyfill in order to appear more like an egg to my eyes.  In addition to the eggs, I am going to make Easter baskets for my girls and some pretty Spring time place mats for our kitchen table.  I really dislike our table so I'm hoping the vibrant mats will pretty the table up dramatically.  They will be something to include with the Pretty Crafty Home project, too.

A Rasta Scarf

One of the first things I made when I learned to crochet was a hat for my husband.  He was so nice and gracious about it but it looked like an exploding mushroom.  It really did not look right on him.  Around Christmas time - we were shopping (what a surprise, right?) and we found a Jamaican shop in the outdoor mall close to us.  Well, my husband loves Reggae music and all things Jamaican or Rasta.  There was a cool red, yellow and green Rasta-style scarf in the shop.  He said he'd love something like that and would actually wear it.  Well -- I immediately decided to make one for him for his birthday.

Here it is:

He loves it! And naturally, I love that he loves it! And even more so - I love him!