Elvis is back!

It took long enough but I finally finished the Elvis monkey! Isn't he adorable? It took a lot of tweaking to figure out how to get the flared pants and sleeves just right as well as the collar and hair but I'm pleased as freaking punch with the end result.

Since the toy wasn't intended for a child I went a little bead crazy and sparkled up his bell bottoms and belt. I also used this awesome metallic embroidery thread on his arms. I changed the ears up from the ones I normally do and I'm so digging the new ears. They're just so dorky cute. It's killing me. The pompadour took some trial and error. A few years back I made a tiny Snooki doll and her poof was my inspiration for the pompadour and I think it worked out well. 

When I initially decided to make an Elvis monkey back in June I had thought it would be something I'd whip up quick and maybe even sell but since it took me a whopping six months to  finish him he didn't make it to the etsy site and I ended up using him as a Christmas present to make up for how woefully behind I was on the Christmas crafting. I took a few notes and a lot of pictures so I hope that I can replicate the guy. I also hope that I can do it in less than six months. Maybe if I can fuss out a proper pattern I'll post it up on here. I hope you like him. I think he's pretty damn sweet.

2011 Handmade gifts completed

As I wrote before, I didn't get around to making all of the Christmas gifts I had intended to.  However, I was able to make a few along with an ornament or two just in time to exchange gifts on the 25th.  

The very first gift I made was for Silvia.  I have mentioned her before.  She is my quilting sensai and my JoAnn's shopping buddy!  She likes to crochet as well so I decided to make her a Crochet Hook Roll.  I used my all time favorite fabric which was purchased at JoAnns.  Unfortunately, the name and make of the fabric is unknown since I suck at keeping notes on that stuff.  I promise to make an effort to keep track of those details for you from here on out.  Since she is my quilting mentor, I quilted the outside of the roll.

Isn't the bird and flowers fabric beautiful?  It makes me so happy every time I look at it.  The first time I used this fabric was in the quilt my friend and I made for our sons 2nd grade teacher.  Here is a pic of the quilt.

Imagine how happy I was to see that she has it hung in her classroom this year.  It truly is my favorite quilt to date.

Okay, so back to handmade Christmas gifts.  The next gifts I made were for 3 of my really close friends.  Each of them have certain phrases that they say all the time.  I don't think I have pictures of all 3 but here is a pic of the last one I did.

I know...kind of a weird phrase to have framed huh?  This is something my friend Elly says all the time but she is not the originator of the phrase.  The creator is actually my son.  When he was going through one of his horrible phases, he would get upset with me and say the strangest things like "you hate me - you want me dead".  It was tough to hear him say such a thing to me but when I shared it with Elly, she got such a kick out of it that now we all use the phrase when we are not getting the attention we expect from each other.  Oh and thankfully, my cookie did not make a habit of using the phrase!  :)  

Okay, so back to the gift.  I hand embroidered the saying onto a pretty blue fabric, using my fave fabric for the border.  I wish I had pictures of the other two.  I think they came out better.  I'm not sure exactly why, but I think it has something to do with the frame I used.  They were 5 x 7's instead of an 8 x 10 and I did more hand stitching on those so they weren't so simple.  The phrases used were 1) "It's not safe" and 2)"That's what I said".  I'm happy to report they were huge hits with the girls.  It was so much fun to see their reactions when they opened their presents.  :)  I'll upload pics if I can get them to take one or two for me.

Another gift I made was a stepping stone with mosaics for my father's garden.  Since it was my first mosaic project, my friend/mosaic teacher Wendy suggested keeping the design simple.  Even though I was thinking of putting a bicycle on the stone, who am I to question my teacher?  So I quickly changed the design to simple heart on the top left side of the stone and "DAD" on the lower, center part of the stone.  Boy am I glad that I listened to Wendy and kept the design simple because simple took 4 hours to do!  and that was with Wendy's help.  It probably would have taken twice as long without her.  In the end, it came out beautiful and my Daddy loved it!  Too bad, I didn't take pictures of this handmade gift either or you could have seen for yourself how cute it came out.  I SUCK - so sorry!  Next time I'm at my parents house for a visit, I'll snap a pic for proof that I did it.  :)  I was very proud of myself and really want to do another one.  Maybe even one a little more challenging.  If I don't procrastinate, and give myself plenty of time, I can totally do something really spectacular for my mom.  I'm totally not even close to as good as Wendy is at this (she made the coolest owl ever for her momma) but some things never change and your parents loving handmade gifts from their children is one of them.  My mom will appreciate the effort and the character in its flaws so who better to try a challenging project on?

Man, I can't believe I don't have many pictures to share with you.  

Okay, what else did I make?  Oh I made ornaments using antique spools of thread Wendy's mother gave me.  They came out cute for my first try.  I got the idea from the internet.  Again, I suck at details so I don't have the link handy, but will get it for  you as soon as I can.  

I apologize for the really bad photos.  Something else I plan to work on improving this new year.  The list is growing f.a.s.t!

The last gifts I completed were crocheted hats; two for my nephews and one for Wendy's son.  The ones for my nephews are Jack Skellington skull caps.  Also another present that was a big hit.  The boys unwrapped their hats and did not take them off the entire time they opened up their other gifts.  I was very, very happy especially since these were my very first crocheted hats!

Without ear flaps for my 6 year old nephew

With ear flaps for my 15 year old nephew

Wendy's teenage son is really into owls right now so I volunteered to make him one.  Again, another first timer but I didn't make her any promises that it would actually look like an owl.  :)

Okay, please ignore the pics of me modeling the hats.  I don't have a little mannequin head to display the hats on.  Believe me, as soon as I figure out a way to show them off without wearing them myself, I will do so.  :)  I'm a bit camera shy.  

The last gift didn't get finished sadly.  It's not even half way done yet.  It's for Jeanne and the one I wanted to finish the most.  Unfortunately, it was the project that required the most creativity and effort so it kept getting put aside.  Jeanne, I promise to finish it soon!  I won't let it be like your birthday present that is still in my car waiting to be delivered to the post office.  :(

So there is my run down of handmade Christmas gifts 2011.  My goal this year is to make 1 handmade gift for everyone on my list.  Its a big list so I need to start NOW but I'll put it aside for tomorrow since it is way past my bedtime.  :)

Night.

Maddy =)

Happy Thanksgiving!

How was your holiday? Did you go full turkey or settle for something less insane? Luckily, since Chris' family celebrated Thanksgiving this past weekend I had like half of the dinner already done and in the fridge. I spent the most money I've ever spent in my life on cheese to make a super fancy Martha Stewart Mac & Cheese that was delicious and made an absolute ton of food. I had also made some quick green beans and an apple pie so today I just had to throw together a pecan pie, mashed potatoes, a Stouffers breaded chicken breast and some biscuits. It took about an hour and a half so that wasn't so bad.


I was sort of on a baking streak today. This morning I whipped up some banana nut muffins since I had a few bananas turning a horrible shade of black on the kitchen counter anyway. I also made cornbread muffins from scratch for the first time and I actually really liked them. I've always used the mixes before and they come out so disgustingly dry. This time they were light and fluffy and pretty damn tasty if I may say so.


I've also been doing some crafting and some Christmas planning. I've got my list together and the time line is possible but really tight. The list is only five items so that's already a massive improvement over previous years when I tried making 50 Christmas ornaments to go into all of our Christmas cards or had a list of 25 gifts to knit that included friends I hadn't seen in years and kids of friends and friends of friends. So this year we have:


1. Scarf for my sister

2. Matching gloves to go with scarf for my sister (if anything needs to be cut it will be this)

3. Surprise gift for Maddy (it's kind of ambitious so there's a chance you'll get it sometime in January)

4. Hobbes for Chris

5. Knit Elephant for Chris' niece

See, how reasonable does that list look? Super reasonable! The wildcard is that I didn't want to use the Lion Brand yarn that I can get cheap and already have a lot of and the local yarn shop barely carries any lower priced yarn. They're more high end so I ordered the yarn online from Knit Picks. Their yarn is affordable, machine washable and, in reviews, is supposed to be super soft. I placed the order yesterday but I just have to cross my fingers that they'll get it out on Monday and I'll, hopefully, get it in around the end of next week so that I can jump into the work. On an unexpected high note though I've already finished the scarf! It's a very simple crochet scarf that I saw on Ravelry. I started it last night and finished a few hours ago. Here's a terrible photo from my phone. I'll have to take a better one tomorrow.




Well, it's wicked late and I have to be at work at 8:30am so it's definitely time for bed. I've got my fingers crossed that it'll be totally dead tomorrow and I can zone out all day. I was told that it was dead last year and everyone watched a movie on someones computer. Although I am notorious for falling asleep during movies and I don't really want to inflict my snoring and drooling on my co-workers.

One thing that I'm so thankful for is your friendship. Happy Thanksgiving!

Still in progress

Just sitting here working on this scarf while waiting for my son to get out of class. I should have been done a long time ago but I kind of stopped counting (shhhh...don't tell anyone) and had to take a bunch of rows out and start over. I'm hoping to finish it before 2012. Sheesh!

Here is a pic.

Monkeys for a Good Cause!

I'm shocked that I was able to whip out a pirate monkey and a superhero monkey in just about a week! A co-worker let me know last week that she was pulling together an auction and dinner to raise money for her father's medical bills. She mentioned that she and her husband were planning to walk around the local shops and see if they could get some donations to auction off. 

I volunteered my limited crafting skills since I knew I couldn't afford to donate money and I went with my tried and true monkeys. They're a guaranteed crowd pleaser and I figured that they would appeal to people looking for cute Christmas gifts. This was the first time that I used the safety eyes that I got at Mary Jo's.  I've always used buttons before since they were the only thing I could find in New York. I was a little thrown with having to put the eyes on before I sewed the head to the body since the safety eyes have backing pieces that go on the inside. I'm so used to those details being the very last bit which allowed me to fuss and fidget with them more.

Sorry for the terrible camera phone photos but I snapped them quickly before running into work. 

Coming Soon: the Elvis monkey that I've been working on for about six months. I'm only a leg and a pompadour away from finishing him up.

ouchie!

Like I mentioned the other day, I've started on handmade Christmas gift #2 - a crochet scarf.  I've been working on it during breaks from work, in the carpool line at Cookie's school and while I wait for my Cook to finish with his tutoring session.  While that may sound like it's in my hands pretty much at all times, I still wonder if my fingers should be hurting as much as they do.  I mean if this was the case for everyone, would there be as many crocheters or knitters out there working their magic? My fingers really do hurt so I'm guessing not.  Then what is the reason for my pain?  Old age?  Could be, but I'd like to think...NO.  Arthritis?  Man, I hope not.  Sprained finger?  I'd probably be having trouble typing up this post if that is what it is right?  Plus, what are the odds that I've sprained ALL 10 fingers???  :)  I'm thinking it's my form or technique.  Fortunately, unlike the other reasons mentioned, this I can resolve through learning to crochet properly.  Not to offend youtube and all its know how (it's my go to for everything!), but I may need to resort to taking an actual class where I am in the same room as the teacher.  

Hey, wait!  Jeanne, what if we skype?  Do you think you could tell if the way I'm holding the yarn, the hook or my glass of wine is the problem?    See, its times like these that I wish you were my roomie again.  Miss you girl!

If I can figure out how to make a video of myself painfully at work, I will post it.  That way any of you in blogland can give me your two cents too.  No promises though.  I'm still very new to all of this.

Maddy =)

More Introductions

Hi, I'm Maddy, the sister-n-law. =) I'm so happy that Jeanne started this blog. Until now, we had only talked about it. Thanks Jeanne for getting us going.

Okay, so I guess I should tell you a little bit about myself. Not an easy task apparently. Who knew that my stage fright would transfer over into blog world. Well it appears that it has, but I’m going to work through it and hopefully along with accomplishing some projects, keeping in touch with the SIL and making some friends, I will get better at public speaking/blogging. Besides having stage and blog fright, I’m also a rambler and procrastinator. All these qualities just add to my bubbly personality don’t you think? Well maybe not. It probably depends on whom you ask.

Lets see. What else? I have an 8 year old son (usually referred to as My Cookie, Boogs, Boogie Woogie, Boo – nicknames are endless so try to keep up) who is the apple of my eye. When I’m not working, I’m involved in my cookie’s extremely active cub scout pack, training to do my first 5k, hanging out with my friends and thinking about more projects that I want to do and usually don’t get around to. I’m a procrastinator, remember?

My dear friends, Silvia and Sally, taught me how to quilt and my other dear friend, youtube, taught me how to crochet. I have yet to crochet anything more than a few scarves but I’m optimistic that I will eventually figure out how to do this baby sweater that I’m currently working on. Not only do I want to be a better quilter and crocheter, there are so many more things that I want to learn how to do. What is the very next thing on my list to learn? Mosaic stepping stones!!! Wendy, one of my bestest friends, has promised to teach me. She has even added mosaics to the walls inside her house! I just love her work and can’t wait to learn. I also love home remodeling shows/blogs and I love to watch cooking shows. If only I loved to cook, too, because i definitely love to eat.

Well I guess I should probably stop there for now. I mean why would I tell you what a Twilight Series and Vampire Diaries fan I am on my first post EVER? That is definitely 2^nd post material.

Maddy =)

Unfinished Objects

Well, now that I've introduced myself I figure I should pull out some of the stuff that I've been working on.  I've been caught up these past few months with a new home, a new job and all in a new state so my works in progress have been stuck in progress longer than I'm proud of.  I love making toys so first up is my little Elvis monkey.  I've really enjoyed adapting this monkey pattern from Ana Paola Rimoli's Seriously Cute Crochet into a Pirate and a Superhero and now Elvis.  I'm not sure why these things all seem cuter as monkeys but they totally do.

www.flickr.com

My second unfinished object is this cute pair of socks.  It's only my third pair ever and my first that's not just a plain vanilla sock.  The pattern is Kai Mei from Cookie A's fantastic Sock Innovation.  I've only got the toe left on the first sock but I know that there's a mythical second sock hump that's hard to get past.  Hopefully, I'll finish these soon since it's getting chilly and a nice pair of socks would be useful right about now.

Lastly, I've got some fabric that I just purchased from Mary Jo's in Charlotte.  Coming from Brooklyn where space is a premium and the craft/fabric shops are the size of a studio apartment this place was insane.  It's the size of a warehouse with just fabric.  There was an overwhelming amount of options especially for someone like me with no clue what to look for.  I will say though that they had the best selection of toy eyes I've ever seen.  I think I bought one of everything in every color and size.  I've been reading Casey's Elegant Musings and she started a sew along recently for a circle skirt.  It seems like a good, simple project to cut my teeth on so the red fabric is intended for that.  I would like for the paisley fabric to become an A-line skirt.  I love the soft creams and oranges in it and it was the first fabric to catch my eye in Mary Jo's.  The orange fabric is a wool blend and I have no idea what to do with it.  I was thinking it might work for another skirt but I really don't know.   I bought two yards and it's about 60" wide so any ideas?