New To The Shop!

I'm introducing a new feature post that I hope to run every Friday showcasing the new items in the shop! I try to add 3-4 products every week or so, so I'm thinking it would be fun to just highlight the newbies every now and then!

I try to add new products to my Facebook page, as soon as I get them done, so if you are one of my faithful Facebook followers you get to preview these items first (YAY!!) If you're not a faithful follower but you wanna be since it's got AWESOME perks click here and their may just be a special discount code when you visit the store tab and become a fan!

No worries if you are already a follower, you can visit the store tab and get your discount code too! (let's hear another YAY!!!) Hurry though because this code will only be available for a limited time!!

Now-- on to what's new in the SHOP!
So???
What do you think?

We've got pettiskirts, tutus, floppy summer hats, headbands, two new newsboy versions, adorable new sandals, and a super cute owl purse...Oh MY!
(are you winded? I'm winded just thinking about it)

If you want a closer look at any of these little lovlies, please take a cyber stroll down to my shop at check them out!!

Oh and also I wold love to hear what item is your favorite, and what you might want to see more of?
(Pretty Pretty Please)

Have a fantastic weekend!!

Playing Hookie-Mary Jane Booties

My week has been crazy busy! I have no idea what I was thinking signing up 3 of the kids for soccer at the same time when I have a hubby who works nights and can't always be there to help me out!! (Crazy move on my part but I'm LOVING it!)

Luckily, I have some how managed to get in a little hookin' this week which has been much needed!!!!
This project came about in my efforts to diversify and expand the lines in the store. I decided to finally finish up this product that's been in my crochet basket for a while. I had yet to try any type of baby booties, it's been a project that has intimidated me for some time now...but no more I say...NO MORE!! I decided to give them a go, but opted to go for a different kind of bootie than the norm.
So I gathered up my supplies for this project...

An H hook, D hook, gray, light pink and rose yarn (a variety of brands), and I got to work...

and here's how they turned out...
These booties are more of a Mary Jane type of style. I think they turned out okay for my first go at them...thoughts??

Keep your eyes peeled for these darlings to make their appearance in the store...hopefully this weekend!

Playing Hookie-Friendship Bracelet Patterns

Here are the patterns for the two bracelets shown above. Add as many colors as you want, have fun with it and be as crazy or tame as your little crocheting/crafting hearts desire!!!

Cuff Bracelet:

Measure out how long a bracelet you need, and ch until you reach that length and add one.

Row 1. Sc in 2nd chain from hook and in each chain across, turn.

Row 2. Ch 1, sc across, turn.

Rep Row 2 two more times. At the end of last row, do not turn work. Fold bracelet ends
together, sl st in beg ch of last round to join.

Turn piece to sl st in remaining sts of ends to join entire bracelet. Fasten off, leaving a long tail for sewing.

Thread tail onto yarn needle and weave in ends.

Single Bracelet:

Measure wrist for length, chain to that length. Sl st in first chain to form a ring. Fasten off and weave in ends.

And there you have it...easy enough right??

They are fairly easy patterns to follow, but I'm new to writing patterns, and I don't always know how much you guys know, so please comment or email me if you have any questions!

Click here for the name beaded friendship tutorial

Spring Break Fun-Friendship Bracelets

Here's our Friendship Bracelets!!! But back to those in a moment, first...

I'm kind of finding it hard to talk about spring break and Easter when we are in the midst of a snow storm-yep you sure did read that one right, I said SNOWSTORM!

Ahhhh...good old Utah...you never know how late into the year it will snow. It actually snowed the day that we brought my oldest home from the Hospital...he was born in June.

Not to mention that I seem to have picked up a cold...not fun.

(I liked the Springiness of this box of Kleenex...made me smile)

Despite these hurdles, I am resolved that almost nothing will derail my BIG plans and I'm managing to forge ahead with most of my Spring Break goals! (go me!)

Wednesday I did manage to start that new project, and man is it giving me trouble! If I can figure it out though it will be well worth it! I've got my fingers crossed that I can get my head clear enough to tackle this bad boy! I can't reveal what it is (mostly in case I fail...) but I will say it's a hookie project. I did manage to finish up a few other projects however and I'll reveal those in post to come in a little bit.

Thursday a little postponed, but the kids and I did tackle a fun craft project, that I'll share in a bit, I worked on that big project of mine until my medicine head almost exploded... I finally had to just give up and sleep.

Today has been mostly dedicated to family day (hubby's day off), and thinking of Easter craft plans for tomorrow, and mostly working on the living room organization (update to come in a bit).

Thursday, I drug myself off the couch long enough to have some crafty fun with my little monkeys! I decided even if it wasn't Spring outside, I wanted to do a Springy/Summer craft project. I thought of warm sunny days, thought of outside fun, all of which some how in my twisted mind came back around to Friendship Bracelets! Of course! Such an obvious choice!

So here are my little monkeys hovering around the counter, we gathered up all the necessary friendship bracelet making supplies; yarn, string, scissors, needle, beads, a crochet hook (2.25), and happy smiling faces, and got to work.

I decided to do a name bracelet and then a few yarn bracelets. We started out with the name bracelets. I had on hand a package of letter beads from the craft store,
I had them each go through and pick out the letters to spell out their names, and a few heart beads.

I decided that since I'm not really into tying and untying these bracelets on three little arms over and over, that I'd construct them to be kid friendly and easily fastened and removed. To do this I fastened a pony bead to one end and left a loop on the opposite end to fit snugly over the pony bead.

Here's the process:
First, measure the wrist you'll be working with, just so you know how long you need the finished product to be. For my little ones (5,4,and 3) the magic number was 5 inches.
After which you'll want to cut a piece of string, I used crochet thread (#3 in black) for this project. You don't want to cut it too short or it will be too hard to work with. To make it easier for myself I cut it at 18 inches. Now you get out your trusty (2.25) crochet hook, pull up a loop on your string, leave the loop, but pull out your hook,
grab a pony bead, thread it over your loop like so...
Now insert your hook back into the loop between the loop and the pony bead, and continue on to make a chain.

Now this part is really up to you, you'll want to adjust the chain longer or shorter depending on the length on the name you are spelling and how many beads you are using and how long a bracelet you need. For this example, C.A.R.S.O.N and a heart bead, and a 5 in bracelet I chained 5.
After you get your chain where you want it, end the chain like you normally would, but don't cut the string. Switch gears for a second and change your crochet hook for a sewing needle. Thread your hook and this is how you'll string your beads onto the bracelet.
Next you want to pick back up your crochet hook and repeat the process, pull up a loop as close to the beads as possible, and again you'll chain 5 (or the same number you did at the beginning)

When you get to the end and you go to finish it off, you'll want to create a loop and tie off rather than knotting your end.
Keep the loop big enough to fit over the pony bead but small enough to fit on snug so that your bracelet doesn't come unfastened on its own. Make sure your knot holding your loop is tight (square knot works great) and cut the tail as close to the knot as you can
and...
TA DAA!!
and here is a picture of the yarn bracelets we did.
I had them each pick out two colors that they wanted to use (otherwise it'd have been a 20 color creation I'm sure) They are more toward the traditional friendship bracelet, but with a little twist. I would have opted for using crochet thread for these as well and they'd have more of a finished, daintier bracelet but I didn't have any "cool" colors on hand I was told, so we went with yarn, of which I had any color their little hearts desired (of course). They turned out okay, I did two different versions (patterns available here), but I'm still thinking that I'll redo them in crochet thread one of these days.

Here's one last picture of our Friendship Bracelet Creating Fun!

Have a blast creating some of your very own, and feel free to send me pictures of your finished bracelets, I'd love to see them!!

Happy Crafting!

Two-fer Tuesday: Two Favorite Things

It's Two-fer Tuesday! Actually on a Tuesday!!

Do you hear the angels singing?? I do have to figure out how this feed works from feedburner though because unless you happen to visit the blog today, I know it wont send out until tomorrow...lame. If anyone knows the specifics on that, please do share!

So for today's Two-fer I thought it would be fun to share two of my FAVORITE things!!! YAY! Unlike Oprah's favorite things however, I will not be giving them to the audience...sad...but know that I would if I could!! I am thinking that a giveaway sounds fun though, so be on the lookout for that!!!

My two favorite things for today, I realized as I was preparing for this post happen to be crochet related...crochet...me...weird huh? One is a buy and one is DIY, and I'm a poet and didn't even know it (WOW, that was lame, even for me). But here they are:

FAVORITE THING #1:

In case the picture wasn't totally self explaining, this is a crochet hook holder/carrying case!

I was buying hooks one happy day at good ole Walmart, and stumbled upon this beauty! It was so very needed, and a giant step up from the Ziplock bag that I had been previously using as my hook holder. It was fairly cheap, I believe $8 (it's been a while), it's made by my favorite brand of hooks (Boyle) and best of all it's PINK! Love it! I love that it holds; all my hooks, my scissors, tape measure, a pen, a pad of post it notes, my stitch/row markers, (last two are not shown in the picture...they were currently in use), and that it conveniently zips up so that I don't lose all of those loose items!!

I crochet a lot on the go, in the car at dance, and soccer practice, while we go on long drives (I'm not the one driving don't worry), and I take all my goodies when we travel, so the fact that it zips up and is so convenient to throw in my crochet basket and go is awesome to me!!

Seriously if you are a hookin gal like myself you've got to get one of these! It will change your life! Maybe not change, but it will make your life that much more awesome!

FAVORITE THING #2:

This one might need a little explanation. So my hubby is very super supportive of all my crafty endeavors, when we first got married I would crochet while he played X-box, or watched TV, we'd sit together on the couch and I would throw him my skein of yarn for him to pull as I crocheted along my merry little way...It was a thing of Beauty!! The teamwork was amazing!

Fast forward almost 9 years, and for Valentine's Day (which is not a big holiday in these parts...per my choice but another story for another day) this was one of the gifts I got.

If you can't tell by the picture, the hubster put his mighty carpentry skills to good use to in fact replace himself in my crochet creating process. Yep that's right folks, this baby pulls my yarn as I crochet!!

I can only deduce from this wonderful gift that somewhere in those 9 years, when the crocheting "hobby" didn't die, but in fact grew...the hubster got tired of pulling my yarn...LUCKILY for him I LOVE this gift! It's been fantastic! The reality is that I do a lot of my crocheting when the hubby isn't around and since I couldn't get the kids to stay and pull my yarn for me for more than 5 seconds this gift has been great!

GONE are the days of punishing my kids by making them sit and pull my yarn (yea that happened), GONE are the days of throwing my yarn across the room to unravel it, and GONE are the days of pulling my own yarn like a sucker!

So basically it has a dowel on the end, I get my yarn, separate the middle to create an opening, stick the yarn on the dowel and TA DA! As I crochet, the yarn just unravels as I go...and I'm one happily, lazy gal!

The only issue I have is that it's not pretty enough for me...I guess the hubs didn't get the PINK memo, but it's nothing I can't handle...and BAM! I just threw down a challenge to myself to tackle that bad boy and bring it up to par! Any ideas on what I should do? Bling? Yarn? Paint? Hmmmm...the possibilities....

So there you have it folks, two of my FAVORITE things!

I hope you all had a fantastic Tuesday!

Playing Hookie-Girly Flapper Cloche

New Girly Flapper Cloche!
Thoughts?

So I'm playing a little hookie this weekend, trying to make something new for a change. It seems like the last few weeks I've had orders to fill, which I LOVE, (don't get me wrong and keep them coming!!!), but it sure is nice to get out my hooks and create something new! It really is like therapy for me! I am always a happier gal when I can pull out my yarn and my hooks and hook up something pretty!

This morning, I decided that I wanted to make something a little different than the normal hats I have in the shop. I also decided that I wanted to use some of this Caron Simply Soft Plum yarn that I love but have yet to use (courtesy of Walmart). It has such a rich, deep color that I decided to pair it with a lighter more subtle yarn and opted for this Cream Tweed. I busted out my F and H hooks and got to hookin'.

Here's what I started with...

A few hours, an impromptu photo shoot, and a little editing later, here's my newest little lovely...

What do you think?
(Seriously, I'd love to hear your comments)!

I know that I'm not supposed to play favorites, but I gotta say this little cutie is at the top of my list! I'm digging the vintage flapper vibe, and loving the flirty, playfulness of the over-sized brim! The colors ended up working great together (thank goodness), and I threw in a little extra bling, to the center of the flower because what girl couldn't use some extra BLING?

Be on the lookout for this little beauty in the shop very soon!

Have a great weekend, check back often, and as always..Happy Hooking!

Playing Hookie- Dancer Bag

This is a LONG over due post, but yea it's totally been one of those kind of weeks, SIGH...I've been meaning to post this since last Tuesday when I finally finished it, but the days got away from me in all the mommy craziness.

So today's Hookie project that I'm featuring goes along with last weeks dancer theme. Do you remember the leg warmers that I made up for my daughter? Okay, so I took Bean to dance two weeks ago and decided that I was tired of lugging all of dance shoes to dance class in a sad little grocery sack, not to mention that all the other adorable little dancers in her class were sporting the cutest dancer bags. (Who knew dancers had so much gear?) I stayed with the dancing theme on this one and decided that I would naturally make Bean a dancer bag in my favorite of favorite mediums...crochet! I searched through my library of patterns and sure enough I found a cute drawstring backpack pattern, with a fun design, and gathered my supplies and got to work.

So here were my supplies:

A skein of Hot Pink, White and Black Sugar' n Cream cotton yarn and a G hook, oh and some matching ribbon.

So, this project was a little more intensive a project, not hard, but just more time consuming. With the constant interruptions and working on it whenever I could find a minute, I got it done I'd say over the span of 3 days. By the next dance class, Bean had her super cute dance bag to show off...

The perfect size to hold all her dancing gear!

Love the ribbon straps!

And here's a picture of both crochet dance projects making their first dance class appearance...so cute I could almost cry she looks like a real little dancer.

So this week later, I'll show you some new Hookie projects that I'm working on! Super cute! Stay tuned and happy Hooking!

Playing Hookie-Dancer Leg Warmers

It has been such a busy week, more than once this week I've thought about starting a new crochet project, but haven't been able do it. Monday all I wanted to do was crochet...it's been a while since I've been able to crochet something new and I'm definitely feeling the itch, but I couldn't get it to happen. Wednesday it hit me and I FINALLY got my inspiration for my new project. I dropped my daughter off at dance and me and the kids hit Hobby Lobby to stock up on supplies. I remembered that on our last visit to the craft store my daughter pointed out a fun new yarn and asked me to make her something fun with it, so naturally I picked it up and a few other fun items.

So what happened that kept me from crocheting on Wednesday? Well, as usual I got lost checking everything out and thinking of new fun things to create; I looked at my watch, realized I was late to pick up my daughter from dance, paid, rushed to the dance studio, (where I got the stink eye from the dance instructor for being 20, yes 20 minutes late), rushed to the car to find a text from my husband wanting to come home on his dinner break from work at 5, (an hour earlier than we normally have dinner , and in an hour from this point), rushed home, threw dinner together just as he walked in the door, fed the babies, washed the babies, did homework with the babies, jammies, brushed teeth, bed time stories, prayer and the whole bed time routine...by 9 when my Hubby finally came home from work...and relieved me from baby Gules who refused to sleep, I crashed early.

Thursday went about the same...don't get me wrong, I LOVE being a Mommy and Wife and most of what goes into that, it's just nice to get a little "Creative Time" in every now and then. It most definitely is a major stress reliever for me!

I was bound and determined that Friday was my day! I neglected all of my chores for the day, let the kids have a movie day and started Hookin!

So here were my supplies for today's Creative Adventure:

Yarn and an H and I hook!

The yarn is a super soft acrylic yarn that is part of the Red Heart Shimmer collection. If you look real close you can see that the yarn is spun with hot pink tinsel so it literally has a shimmer to it, Fun huh?? So with all my supplies ready to go and my daughter's new found love of dance (she just started her very 1st dance class...So adorable) as my inspiration I got to it.

About an hour and a half later, this is where my Creative Adventure took me...

To a true dancer staple...

A Pair of Super Fun ballet Leg Warmers! I'm hoping to get a picture of her at her next dance class, showing off her new shimmery leg warmers, and I still have one idea in mind to hopefully Play Hookie with tomorrow, (fingers crossed), which is also inspired by DANCE...but you'll have to check back to see that one!

All in all I am one happy girl to finally be able to Play a little Hookie and let my creative juices flow!