It's done! - Crochet edition

 Many of my readers will remember me mentioning a crochet tunic top that I've been working on.  I finally finished the top; however, because I'm very short it fits more like a regular tunic than a top.  I do really like the fit.  The colors are not what I normally wear as I usually go for darker colors.  I actually bought this yarn to push me out of my "color comfort zone" so I'm still planning to wear it once the weather cools a bit.  

 I started using this free pattern but found that it wasn't working up well for me.  It seemed that there were some instructions missing so I sat down and rewrote it a bit.  Some things, as far as the edging and connecting the squares, I just made up as I went.  The keyhole neck was a last minute decision as the front was a bit lower that I wanted. 

In my last post I mentioned that this week is Vacation Bible School at our church; as I end I thought I'd share another praise/prayer from the teacher devotionals.  

King of glory, Divine Majesty,

every perfection adorns thy nature and sustains thy throne;

The heavens and earth are thine,

The world is thine and its fullness,

Thy power created the universe from nothing;

Thy wisdom has managed all its multiple concerns,

presiding over nations, families, individuals.

Thy goodness is boundless; 

all creatures wait on thee,

are satisfied in thee.

How precious are the thoughts of thy mercy and grace!

How excellent thy lovingkindness that draws men to thee!

We are weary, give us rest,

knowing that thou hast said,

'I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.'

Blessed be thy name!

-(Excerpt from "Fourth Day Evening: God All-Sufficient" from The Valley of Vision)

New Year - 4 New things

As we begin a new year often we reflect on the past year and look forward to what this new year will bring.  As I've mentioned in the past; I'm not really one for resolutions but I do have a couple goals for this year and have already done a couple new things.  So here are the 4 new things I have for you today:

1) New (to me) Recipe - For those that like to just get right to baking;  the new recipe I'm sharing today is for these Vegan Pumpkin Muffins.  With prices of pretty much everything on the rise, I've been looking for ways to once again cut costs yet still provide yummy, nutritious meals and snacks for our family.  Eggs are outrageously expensive right now; in our area an 18 pack that was $2.99 a year ago was $8.19 last week.  The reason for this extreme spike in cost is due to a major bird flu that necessitated millions of chickens being culled.  Added to this is the fact that chickens just don't lay as many eggs in the winter due to decreased daylight and temperatures.  So, this had me on the hunt for an eggless muffin recipe.  I had a lot of pumpkin puree in the freezer and liked that this recipe uses regular pantry items.  I doubled the recipe for our family.  We all really liked these.  They came out fluffy and had good flavor.  The only thing I would change is that I would reduce the chocolate chips next time. I used about 3/4 bag of mini-chocolate chips which, even with doubling the batch seemed like too many. 

2) A New Crochet Project - As many of you know, I love a good excuse to crochet things...especially baby things.  These smaller projects work up quickly and are great gifts.  One of the ladies in the neighborhood had a new baby girl just before Christmas.  I had been waiting to find out if the baby was a girl or boy before deciding what to make.  I found this adorable pattern for a Bobble Ripple Baby Blanket and knew it was the perfect project.  I already had several partial skeins of 100% cotton yarn in lovely colors that would work well.  I love how this blanket came out.  I did not double up the strands as my yarn was a worsted weight already.  The only other change I made was that I did two rows of single crochet as the border.  

3) New Books to Read - A couple of these books I've already begun but look forward to finishing them in the new year.  I set a goal last year of reading 15 books I ended up reading 20 books.  I set the same goal of 15 books for this year.  We'll see how I do.  Here are the 4 non-fiction books that I'm planning to work through for the beginning of this year.  I'll be reading fiction books also; right now I'm reading the 2nd in a fantasy series through the Kindle Unlimited app. 

The picture is a bit hard to read so here are the books listed (along with the Goodreads links with more information):

- To Rescue The Republic: Ulysses S. Grant, The Fragile Union and the Crisis of 1876 

- When Faith is Forbidden: 40 Days on the Frontlines with Persecuted Christians

- Raising Worry-Free Girls

- Jude: Contending for the Faith in Today's Culture

4) A New (2022) Song: Gratitude, a great song to start the new year.  Gratitude for all God has done and all He will do this year.

 

A bit of crafting

 I have a few more verse mapping posts to go and am hoping to get those posted soon.  In the meantime, I thought I would share a couple recent crafting projects.

This first project is a request from our oldest girl.  She needed a bag to carry notebooks, sketchpads, etc and loves mushrooms. The plan is to eventually line it with fabric so she can also carry writing and drawing tools without them falling out. 

The second project was a request from a friend whose niece is expecting.  They are planning a Winnie the Pooh theme. I used a basic bear lovey pattern; however, I adjusted the muzzle placement, altered the mouth and nose a bit and used Winnie the Pooh colors. 

Now I get to plan out my next project.  I have so many ideas pinned to choose from!

Unexpected Uses

 Today I want to share with you three "mini-blessings".  I love to find good deals at second hand stores or to find new ways to use objects rather than just having them go to waste.  I am not a hoarder and don't like clutter so I'm sure others have way more that they are reusing but these are a couple ideas that I found so I thought I'd share.  I encourage you to think outside the box and see if you can find ways to use objects in unexpected ways; are there ones that you would like to share?

This first picture is something I've shared a bit about before.  I found the book at a second-hand book store years ago and it has become a tradition to read it every year.  Each day Benjamin Bear opens a door on his advent calendar and then his mom tells him about little bear's journey to Bethlehem.  I looked online and one site mentioned that there was originally an advent calendar that came with the book but I haven't been able to find one; or even what it looked like.  Last year, before Christmas, I made it my mission to figure out how to make an advent calendar to go with this book.  Some of the things listed are different (a robber, a pear tree, a giant) and since I had bought this cute advent calendar for a good price, whatever I used needed to fit in the drawers.  I looked at a few different options and eventually settled on jewelry charms I found on etsy that would work.  Not every charm is exactly matching; for instance for a giant we have a larger viking head charm, but they are close enough.  The charms are small enough that I can even fit a lindt truffle in each drawer.  

This next picture is something that "randomly" came to mind today.  Tomorrow night our mom's group at church is having our annual Christmas party and this year we are doing an ornament swap.  I found an adorable ornament at a local second-hand store (that is actually owned by some friends of ours).  It's delicate and so I wanted to figure out a way to protect it.  I was planning to go to the dollar store to see if I could find a box that would work.  Today Amy made some tea and finished the bag from this Teavana container.  I decided to see if the ornament would fit; and it does, perfectly! I'll wrap it up in a nice bag but now I don't have to worry about it getting crushed.  I also saved the other Teavana container that was emptied today and will keep it through the Christmas holiday in case I find something else that needs packaging.

This last picture is a loaf of oatmeal bread.  The other day I made oatmeal (regular old fashioned); several of the kids decided they wanted oatmeal and I hadn't really made enough.  Last night I decided to make a large batch of steel cut oats in the slow cooker; well of course, only a couple of the kids wanted oatmeal today so we were left with quite a bit of leftover cooked oats.  I remembered seeing recipes that use leftover oatmeal and a quick Google search turned up this recipe. Since I had so much leftover oatmeal I quadrupled the recipe.  My oatmeal must have been much wetter because it took a lot more flour than the recipe indicated.  I ended up with six loaves of this bread; some of the kids have tried it and said it's very good.

I'm always so thankful to find frugal, fun and unexpected ways to use things.  I don't believe things are random and thank God for bringing these things to mind.  
  

Blankets, blankets, everywhere.

 Well...maybe not everywhere.  One of the kids requested a blanket because they didn't have a "mom-made" blanket.  After making that one a few of the other kids put in requests for blankets.  So far, I've made 4 blankets.  The first one I made I used the C2C (corner to corner) method and while I love the look there were so many sections of different colors and ends to weave in.  The next two I used the single crochet mosaic (or grid) method.  This method made for a tighter texture but I like the cleaner look since there aren't as many holes.  I recently found a tip for making a C2C blanket with smaller holes so I may try that at some point.  The last blanket was made using a simple pattern of alternating single and double crochets; we've dubbed it the "Nemo" blanket since it is reminiscent of a clown fish.  I'd love to hear about the craft projects you're working on this year!

A bit of crafting in 2021

 I thought I'd share the projects I've finished so far this year.  

This Bible cover was my first project this year.  The edges of my Bible are getting

a bit worn so I thought I'd try a cover.  I like how it came out and 

the color blends nicely with my Bible.

 

This blanket was requested by my 2nd daughter who loves all things to

do with foxes.  I had never done a fully single crochet blanket and I'm happy

with the detail.

This little rocket was a bit of a joke.  My husband asked me to make it 

based on something happening on a website he reads.  I ended up

having someone request to buy it so it worked out well. 

This hat was supposed to be for me.  I checked my gauge and went up a hook 

size to meet the gauge but it still ended up being too small.  She loves it so it 

has now become her's. 

What projects have you started?  Completed?  Or are hoping to work on this year?

Crafting again

I recently found the subreddit on reddit.com com for crochet.  Looking through the projects and posts I was inspired to start crocheting again.  These are my two most recent projects.  The first is an elephant lovey that I made as a baby gift.  The second is what I'm calling my "awesomely ugly stashbuster blanket". It's lap blanket size. I used up a lot of scraps of yarn and used this project to practice a corner to corner crochet pattern; I had made a C2C (corner to corner) blanket for Amy when she was born but haven't done one since.  I have a planned gift project that also is worked C2C so I wanted to practice.  It's not the prettiest blanket but definitely more useful than the yarn sitting in a tote; and it kind of makes me smile because it's just so crazy with the colors.  The edges are also a bit wonky because some of the yarns were different weights.  I may add a border at some point to hide this a bit, but for now it'll stay wonky. 

Projects, projects...

Once again my blog has been neglected.  Life is good but very busy right now as we wind down from the summer (hoping to get a post up about our summer) and gear up for the new school year which begins next week. 

One of my goals for this fall is to get our home organized.  Our house was built in 1923 and while I absolutely love the character of older homes some things are just lacking...namely storage.  We are fortunate to have a walk up attic and a full basement but there is very little storage space in the actual living area.  I have started to plan, measure and make a shopping list for this task.  In the mean time I decided to tackle some smaller places first.

In the dining room we have a built in hutch (which again, I love!)  I use one drawer as an "art drawer" for the kids.  It provides easy access to crayons, playdoh, etc.  The other day I opened the drawer to see this:

Oh my!  Things were everywhere and what you can't see in this picture is all of the bits of dried playdoh, crayons, paper, etc at the bottom of the drawer.  Thankfully we have a dollar store just around the corner so off we went.  One quick trip and an hour or so later and now the drawer looks like this:

Much better!  Yes, it's a small space but it felt good to accomplish.  The kids had a great time today using the items now that they can get to them.  The bins seemed to work really well for them only taking one thing out at a time.   The bins are divided by activity: paints in the red basket, playdoh toys in one bin, pencils (regular & colored) scissors, glue sticks and hole punch in another bin and crayons in their own container.  The pink bag at the back contains small note pads and stickers, underneath the pink bag are their coloring books and construction paper.

Another fun project that I accomplished was a sewing project with my girls.  The other day Hailey asked if they could have some paper to make purses.  I suggested we use fabric and sew them new bags since they would last longer.  I let both Hailey & Keira go thru my fabric stash and design their own purse.  They helped some with cutting and pinning and then I sewed them up on my machine.  It felt good to use my sewing machine since I haven't had a chance to use it in several months.  I'm certainly not an accomplished seamstress but these were fun, easy projects and the girls love them.

Keira with her new "Peter Rabbit" themed bag:

Hailey with her fleece bag:

A bit of craftiness

I wanted to share some of the crafts I have made recently. I was waiting a bit to share since two of these were birthday gifts. :)

Crocheted gift bag that I filled with these salted brownies
for a Valentine's Day exchange.

A scarf for my niece

Monkey for my nephew

Elephant that I crocheted for a Valentine's Day exchange

Yoda that I made for Ethan

These were fun projects to make. The animals were made using the amigurumi technique. All of these patterns can be found for free on Crochet Pattern Central

Some craftiness and a few links.

I've had a few blog posts in my head but honestly have just been lazy about sitting down and writing them out. Thanks to a bit of accountability from a friend I'm finally taking the time to get these done.

First I wanted to share a craft project I've been working on. To be honest I'm not thrilled with how it's coming out but since it's not a gift (it's for our new baby on the way) I decided to just finish it. The project is a round ripple baby afghan. As you can see in the picture below the middle has "bubbled" a bit. I'm thinking this is because the white yarn is a bit heavier than the varigated. The other thing I'm not happy with is the amount of "curling" on the ripples. The pattern says to alternate between increasing two rows and then doing two rows of not increasing. I found this was causing a lot more curling so I have just started increasing every row and it seems to be working much better. I have about 5 more rounds to go plus one row of edging. Like I said, if this was a gift I would be more picky but it's for our baby and since it will mostly be wrapped around him or tucked around him in the car seat I'm not going to bother pulling it all out.
The second thing I wanted to share were some links to some websites that I really like. I first discovered The Pioneer Woman a couple of years ago. It's a fun blog to follow plus she has sections for cooking, home and garden, photography and even homeschooling, for those that homeschool. An offshoot of the same website is called Tasty Kitchen and is a recipe site where all recipes are user submitted. I love the variety of recipes and also the reviews. Lastly, another cooking site/blog that I've found and really enjoy is FatFree Vegan don't be put off by the vegan part. There are some great recipes on this site. I tend to avoid having a lot of extra soy in our diet so I don't make the recipes calling for tofu and if the recipe calls for soymilk I substitute almond milk (you could also use regular milk but I have to avoid dairy). Just a note: this site is currently under some construction but they do give the link to the old site with all of the recipes.

I hope to have some time later today to do this weeks "The Power of a Woman's Words" post and also share a bit about what's going on in general here at our house.

End of January/Beginning of February craftiness.

Well, as far as Christmas gifts go I haven't even started on those. However, I did make two more birthday gifts.

My niece turned 8 so I wanted to do something
different and fun for her. I decided to make a little cape.
It hits just above the elbow and has a hood.
I used some fleece that I had and was pleased with how it came out.

For my nephew I made a color matching game. I crocheted two of each
color fish and personalized a canvas bag to hold them. The original
pattern said to add eyes to the fish; while this would be cute
I didn't want to risk the choking hazard so I left them off.

Casserole Cozy: My experiment :)

Several months ago I began looking for a casserole cozy crochet pattern. I really wanted something that would fit my 9X13 pans to make it easier to transport them to church dinners and other potlucks. I found nothing. I did find several sewn cozies but I really wanted a crocheted one for two reasons: 1) I'm much more comfortable with my crocheting than with my sewing and 2) I have several random skeins of yarn that I am trying to find smaller projects to use them up.

When I didn't find a pattern I decided to try my hand at making up my own pattern. This pattern should work up fairly quickly but because it was trial and error it took me a few weeks (and a few sanity breaks) to finish.

I'll post the instructions but please understand: 1) This is my first time attempting to do a crochet pattern 2) I haven't tested this pattern. I did double check all the stitch counts but I can't guarantee that I didn't make a few mistakes. If you use this and find any mistakes please let me know. Enjoy :)

Crocheted Casserole Cozy
(fits 9X13 pan)

Materials needed:
Size F hook (3.75mm)
8oz medium worsted weight yarn
2 18 inch zippers
1/8 yd of duck cloth
Sewing machine and pins

Stitches & abbreviations:
CH - chain
SC - single crochet
SL ST - slip stitch
DECSC - decrease single crochet
INCSC - increase single crochet

Chain 41
Row 1: SC in second chain from hook. SC in each stitch across (40 SC)
Row 2: CH 1 turn SC in each stitch across (40 SC)
Row 3-27: Repeat row 2
Begin working in the round. CH 1 (this counts as 1st SC) SC down side of 27 rows just completed place 3 SC in corner and work around the rest of the piece placing 3 SC in each corner. SL ST to first SC, do not turn!
CH 1, 1 SC in each stitch around for 4 rounds.
In fifth round you will again increase. CH 1 SC in each stitch placing 3 SC in each corner stitch. SL ST to first SC.
CH 1, 1 SC in each stitch around until you reach the top of your dish (for me this a total of 15 rounds from start of rounds to top of dish)
Beginning of cover:
CH 1, turn. SC across 45 stitches.
(CH 1 turn. INCSC in first SC, SC in each stitch across INCSC in last stitch.)
Continue ( ) for 6 more rows (59 stitches in last increase row)
(CH 1 turn, SC across each stitch (59 stitches))
Continue ( )until a total of 22 rows has been completed (this row count includes your starting and increasing rows)
(CH 1 turn, DECSC in first stitch. SC in each stitch across DECSC over last stitch)
Continue ( ) for 6 more rows (45 stitches in last decrease row)
Fasten off and weave in ends.
Turn cozy inside-out. Attach zippers with pins, making sure they meet up in the front center. Sew to cover and body.
To make the handles I used a 2 1/4 inch by 33 inch strip of duck cloth for each handle. I simply folded the edges into the center (along the long edge) and stitched each side down. I then pinned them to the bottom (over lapping until I had the right amount of handle on top) of the cozy and stitched thru all layers of cloth and yarn.
* I placed each handle 8 stitches in from the side edge of my SC rows on bottom. I also stitched them in a rectangle across the width of the duck cloth handle and down about 6 inches when I attached the handles so they would be well attached and sturdy.
** One thing I made sure of when placing the handles is that I had enough handle to fold over the edge and out of the way when I unzipped the cozy.

You could always skip the zippers and just make a button loop when you did your last DECSC row and attach a button to the front of the cozy body. And of course you can use whatever method you like for making handles..this is just what I came up with.

A very crafty week

Most weeks will not be this "crafty" but this was a bit of a different week. Tomorrow is a joint birthday party for one of our nieces and nephews. After just going thru all the Christmas shopping (and making a goal to make more gifts) I decided to make the birthday gifts. All of the patterns for these projects can be found at this site

Purse for my niece (the flower is from another project so it is not the one
in the pattern)

Crocheted cars (this was my first attempt at toys and while they came
out "okay" I can definitely see much room for improvement)

I also finished this sweater for our new little guy on the way and sewed the fleece hooded scarf for Hailey (although I forgot to take a picture)

A Homemade Life

Today I thought I would share a few things that I've done over the past two weeks. Something that has recently come to my attention is that it is extremely difficult to find casual dresses for little girls that are modest enough (i.e. well below the knee). My 4 year old loves to wear dresses but I have a hard time finding ones that are appropriate for running around outside yet long enough so she is still modest in them. I have done some sewing but definitely am not an accomplished seamstress. I decided to try my hand at making a dress for her, without a pattern, out of some fabric I had on hand. I did some research online and got a few tips from some friends who have done sewing without using a pattern. The dress came out okay. The material is not something I would normally use for a dress but it is what I had on hand and I didn't want to spend money for new material when it very well could have ended up a total disaster. Here is the final result. She loves it and now has one more "everyday" dress:


This next item was actually a joke between my younger brother and I. He loves coffee...correct that..he is a coffee addict. While looking thru some crochet patterns one night I came across the pattern for a toilet paper cover shaped like a mug of coffee. I joked to my husband that I should make one for my brother. The next day I happened to talk to my brother and told him about the TP cover. He thought it was great and asked me to please make him one and send it to him. I shouldn't have been surprised that he wanted one :-D

I have also done the usual bread baking and I also made some homemade granola this week. One last thing I wanted to share is a new blog I found called Little House in the Suburbs. She has so many ideas for homemade products that I wanted to pass the information along. Also be sure to check out all the other homemade ideas over at Life on a Back Road.

Everything Crochet/ A Homemade life

I've been crocheting quite a bit lately and thought I would share some of the things I've completed. I found all of the patterns on this website. It is my favorite place to find free patterns.

This is the sweater I made for Hailey. I used the same pattern as I used for Ethan's sweater and it fits her perfectly.
(Ethan's hood is stretched out because he hangs it up by the hood and has had his sweater for about a year now)


This is a hat that my niece requested. It was a fun and quick project:


This is a pumpkin keychain that I made for a group of moms that I talk with, we all had babies in October, hence, the pumpkin theme: (I added the small tag with a note for when I mailed them)
So that is a bit of what I've been busy with; I'm looking for a new project to start now. Any ideas for me?

You can check out many other homemade ideas over at Life on a back road