Sick kid

The Youngest has been sick for about two weeks now.  I  thought it was just a normal preschool cold, but it started getting worse.  There's no way I'm walking all over Disney with a sick kid.  Talk about a downer.

So we went to the doctor today.  We spent 30 minutes in the waiting room, 10 minutes waiting for the doc to come into the little room where the left us, all for a 2 minute prognosis.  Know what they said?  "Yep, he's sick.  Here's some antibiotics."  That was it.  Way to get technical there, doc!

Thanks Mr. Hair Dresser

I've been totally traumatized today.  I went to the hair dresser today to get a trim.  The operative word here folks is TRIM.    Not cut, TRIM.    Well.  Guess what happened?

When you tell a hair professional that you want a chin length angled bob, aren't you supposed to get that?  Where, for the most part, your hair is supposed to be more than three inches long?

So I went in expecting this:

And got this:

Except, it's shorter.  Not happy folks, not happy.  I'm about to go on a trip to Orlando and I'm feeling way insecure about my hair now.  Thanks hair dresser.

Why do hair people do this?  You tell them one thing and they decide to do something else.  I would pay extreme money for a good hair dresser that listens.

Amateur Photography and Lace Scarves

Last night The Eldest was working on a photography lesson for Cub Scouts.  Not to be outdone, The Youngest had to take some pics too.  This is what happens when a four year old takes a photo:

Of Himself

And of a cat:

 

But wait!  I bet you missed the cool part of the cat photo.  Let's zoom in a little closer (I didn't say clearer, I said closer):

Did ya catch it that time?  He caught the cat in mid-yawn.   Cool.   That cat's got a really big mouth.  I guess it goes well with the rest of him too, all 16 pounds of him!

******

I finally finished my Queen Anne's Lace Scarf!  I did it in two sessions.  Unfortunately, I put it down for about two weeks in between sessions.  But it's finally done:

Here's a closeup:

This is destined to become a gift in the future for my Sister In Law.  The greens will look fabulous next to her red hair.

Toggle Clasp Bracelet

Remember me saying that my Great Aunt was a waste not want not kinda person?  Well, I guess the nut didn't fall far from the tree.  That's what I get for growing up around people who grew up during the depression huh?  It wasn't my Great Aunt that I grew up around, I never knew her well.  I'm throwing the blame at my Grandparents.

For a while I had been making my stitch markers using the round piece of a toggle clasp.  Which meant that the bars from the clasps were just sitting there, staring at me.  I couldn't bear to throw them away, knowing that sooner or later I would find a use for them, and I did.

Check out this bracelet:

 

And here it is laid out:

 

 

Isn't that fun?  I call it the Toggle On Bracelet.  

It's up in my shop now, but it's super easy to make.   I took a 7 inch piece of chain, grabbed some jump rings and just started attaching the toggles all around the chain.  Then added the lobster claw clasp pieces to both ends of the chain.  Very simple.

You should hear the pretty jingle it makes!  When I came up with the idea, I didn't think I would like it.  I made it anyway and I'm so glad I did.  It's actually kind of neat and would look really cool with a black turtleneck sweater.

Toggle On Dude!

Crochet Nostalgia

Have you heard the phrase "It's in her genes"?    Or is it the phrase "Nothing comes between me and my  genes but my crafting"?  In this case, maybe both would be appropriate.

I come from a line of crafters:

My mother sews, crochets, paints, draws, designs jewelry, etc.     Every formal gown that I ever wore to proms and college dances were handmade by her.   She's an amazingly talented woman.  The one thing I didn't inherit from her are my artistic skills.  I can't draw or paint worth a flip.

My grandmother sewed and made jewelry.  She was also a very crafty woman.  Feisty too.  The only person that I've ever known to tell a pastor to kiss her a**.   You should have seen my eyes bug out of my head at that one!

Here's the one that I specifically want to tell you about today though.

My great aunt.  Tatter, quilter and crocheter extraordinaire.  I never saw the lady without a needle of some sort in her hands.  There's no telling how many miles of afghans that she made.  Somewhere in my attic is a couch back cover that she crocheted of granny squares.  It's a particularly amusing piece.  The colors are brown, green and yellow.  Except for about two inches that are in your face RED where she ran out of the proper color yarn.  This woman was from the "waste not want not" generation.   She saved every scrap and used them whenever the opportunity arose.

One project that she got absolutely right though, was her crocheted teacups.

Look how dainty these are:

 

Aren't they lovely?

They live on a book shelf in my bedroom now.  They sit on the lowest shelf so that The Youngest can have tea parties with them.  Wouldn't she be tickled to know that her Great nephew was playing with them now?

Let's hope that all us crafters leave such a legacy behind.

Cats and Freshwater Pearls

Pay no attention to the cat behind the light box!

 

I had a helper whilst taking pics of some of the pieces that I've been working on over the past couple of days.  

Here's one of the things she helped me with:

 

Freshwater Pearls in every muted color of the rainbow with silver accents.

I'm not completely happy with this piece. I need to go back and alter it just a little.  There's too much string and not enough beads on one of the strands and it's bugging the heck out of me.  Maybe if I hadn't had a cat in the middle of things that wouldn't have happened.  I'd like to think so anyway.  :)

Make a little Money with your Blog

I had a friend ask me not to long ago if you can make money by blogging.  His son, a recent high school grad, had heard you could do this and get wealthy doing it.  Well, yes and no.  I don't have a high readership on my blog, so I don't make loads of money.  But with my BlogHer ads, I do have a little money trickling in.  If you have a higher amount of readers coming to your blog, then perhaps this is the way to go.  You can click on the above link for more info.  Remember, more readers = more people who see the ads = more income for you.  How do you get the higher readership?  Write more articles that actually go to your target audience.  Mine target audience is mainly knitters/crafters/diy-ers.  Most of whom are struggling in this economy and looking for more ways to add some dollars to their wallets.  Thus, this article, although not crafty, is still targeting the audience.  I hope.  :)

Another way to go would be with Amazon associates.  I haven't done this much in the past and that's just plain not smart of me.   It's a win/win for everyone.  I direct you to something you will buy and I basically get a referral fee for it.  You, in turn, do this on your blog and we all continue winning and making a little pocket change.  For instance, here's a book that I got this weekend: "Fitted Knits: 25 Projects for the Fashionable Knitter" by Stephanie Japel.  Love this book by the way, planning on making several of these sweaters.  See?  Amazon link to my associates account.  Now if I can just learn to do this quickly I'll be set.  Again, it won't bring in loads of cash, but any is better than none, right?

Want a little more money from your blog?  Add a SwagBucks link.  What's SwagBucks?  It's a search and win site.  You use their search engine for your searching and you can earn enough swagbucks to redeem them for awesome prizes.  For instance, I earned $15 dollars in January in Amazon e-cards, which are stackable.  Meaning that you can use multiple cards for a single purchase.  Another bonus, the amazon e-cards don't expire.  You just put them in your account and use them when you want to.  My kid wants a Wii, so I'll be saving up for one of those.  Oh, and that $15 was without any referrals earning me the Swagbucks.  Get a referral or two and your earning of Swagbucks goes up exponentially.  The best thing about Swagbucks?  It's the only legitimate site that I've found that basically gives away free money.  Cool huh?

1.  So can you earn some money while blogging?  Yes.
2.  Will it pay all your bills and buy you that Mega Mansion you've been wanting?  Um, no.

3.  Should  I build a blog just for making money that has no content whatsoever besides links and adds that will make me money?  Please, please, just don't do this.  Make sure your blog has real content.  Your readers will thank you also.

The Business Side of Things

The past week I've been spending tons of time working on my jewelry business instead of playing with my sticks and string.  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to play with jewelry either.

I've been trying to get a lot more serious about photographing all the items, alter them and get them entered into Etsy.  I mean, if it's not up there for someone to buy, it won't get sold will it?  Money is still very, very tight here in my household and it's stupid not to be getting everything up and out there for the public to purchase.

I never realized how much time went into the back end of things though.  Yes, it's fun to make jewelry and it's quick, instant gratification.  What's not fun is the time the rest of it takes.  Photography is so important when selling products online.  Since the customer can't touch the item they're looking at purchasing, they need to see tons of pics.  Etsy has five slots for photos of the items to go in and I intend to use all of them.  So I've been taking like 20 shots of each item, moving them over to my Flickr account, altering the exposure, color and sharpness.  Then I have to narrow it back down to five again.  Folks, that is incredibly time consuming!  Written that way, of course, it doesn't really sound that way at all, but it is.   I'm trying my best not to get lazy.  I need to have someone standing behind me with a whip.

Here's an example of how I'm using the Flickr/Picnic account to adjust my pics.   I took about 114 photos one day and got only a handful that I could ultimately use.  But look at the before and after difference on one of the pairs of earrings that I've got up for sale:

Before:

After:

See the difference it's made?  Well worth the time, I'd say.

Another issue is that my Mom and I have joined up together in this business (which means way more inventory to photograph).  My store front name will be changing soon and I'm going to have to create a new banner/logo for it.  I don't have a clue what we'll go with yet and my brain hurts just thinking about it.  We're also going to start doing some craft shows together starting in the spring and we've lots to do for that as well.

One good note that happened this week with the new jewelry business is that we've found a temporary supplier of beads that is incredible.  I'm so excited about the prices we've managed to get from this source, but it will only last until the inventory dries up.  Even so, paying this much less for the product means so much more profit, if the stuff sells.

I've also been working on the marketing side of things as well.  I totally suck at this, but I'm working on it.  :)

So, that's what I've been doing.  Spending way too much time in front of my computer screen instead of clicking away with the knitting needles.  I'm hoping to get some free time this weekend though, my fingers are starting to get itchy for the wool!

Potted Kitty

I'm afraid my green thumb doesn't extend to kitty gardening. Are they annuals? Perennials? If they re-seed themselves, will I have a porch full of kittens? How much sunlight do they need?  Do they need to be moved indoors at the first freeze?  Are they herbs, weeds or wildflowers?

Pinewood Derby Skateboard Car Followup

Well, the 2010 Pinewood Derby is finally over.  The car did not do as well as the Eldest would have wished on the track (his father set the wheels wrong and they scraped the center of the track), but everyone thought the Skateboard Car was really cool.  That's good enough for his creative department (me) to be happy!

I wanted to show you guys the finished product:

Specs:

- Painted Hemi Orange
- All artwork was body tattoos!  Had to be very careful placing these on the board.  They wanted to slide all over the place.
- Coated the car in resin to get a high shine.

Queen Anne's Lace Crochet Project

I started a new project the other night, but it wasn't knitting, it was crochet.  Ya'll, it's been so long since I've done crochet that I had to look up some of the stitches to make sure I was doing them right!  I've been crocheting off and on since I was eight and my Mom semi-patiently tried to teach me, but it never sticks with me.  Over the years I've either forgotten how to hold the yarn or how to do certain stitches.  I don't know why I can't keep it all in one tidy little place in my brain so that I can reference it as needed. 

It didn't take long to look things up (I love the internetz) to remind my poor brain what it needed to tell my fingers and I was off and running.  I'm working on the Queen Anne's Lace Scarf from here.  If you follow the link, he's taken off the pics, scroll down to get to the free pattern. 

I'm using some of my homespun yarn that has a huge range of greens and black in it.  It's lovely, but it's not photographing well.  For some reason, variegated yarns never do photograph well for me.  I got two shots that I liked:

Here's the first:

And here's the second:

This is a really quick pattern.  I finished half of the scarf in one day.  I'll go until I run out of yarn.  There's approximately 222 yards in this skein.  It should end up just the right size.  Hopefully it will look better once it's blocked.   This is probably going to be put away as a gift to my Sister In Law for next year.  She looks stunning in any form of green (she's a redhead.)

A Pirate Birthday Party

Ever wondered how to have a successful Pirate Birthday Party for a pre-schooler?   I think I might have just figured it out this weekend.  The party was a super hit with the little guys and some of their older siblings.

When all the little pirates arrived they were told that they weren't really pirates yet, they just thought they were.  They were told that they would have to earn the right to be called a Pirate.  They thought this was really funny and couldn't wait to do it.

First task:  Every pirate must have a pirate chest.  I mean, you can't be a pirate without one can you?  I found some little wood chests for the kids to paint with tempera paints and covered the table with aluminum foil to protect it.

Second Task:  By finishing the chests, the Pirates earned the right to decorate their own pirate hat.  I made the hats out of black foam sheets (12 x 18) and had the kids decorate them.

Here's how I made the hats:

1.  Take one (12 x 18) sheet:

2.  Cut the sheet in two lengthwise:

3.  Stack both sheets, one on top of the other.  Then, trace the outline of a pirate captain hat and cut it out.  Don't get rid of your scraps though!  I'll show you why in a second.

4.  Staple the hat together as shown.  This hat fit every one of the kids and did not need adjusting. 

 

5.  Decorate!  I just this set of foam stickers that I found on clearance at Hobby Lobby, but you could have pirate stickers or stamp them with paint.

6.  What to do with the scraps?  Make shark fins!

I made a small cut at the bottom and then folded the flaps as shown.  Tape the flaps to the floor and you've got an ocean full of sharks!

Third Task:   The pirates earned their eyepatches and earrings by learning the Pirate jargon.  I googled "how to talk like a pirate" and came up with a fun list.

Fourth Task:  They earned their loot and telescopes by playing games.  I googled a couple of games and this is what I used:  (these are not my games and I don't take credit for them, but they were lots of fun)

First game:  This is to teach the new pirates how to avoid being detected by the enemy:  Throw a balloon in the air.  While it's still in the air they have to laugh like pirates by saying "Yo-Ho-Ho!"  When it lands on the ground they have to be silent.  If not, they had to  Walk the Plank!  Guess who was one of the first ones to walk the plank?

Notice the sharks on the floor?

Second Game: The kids were given orders to follow like this:

If I said:   Port!   They all had to run to the left side of the room.

If I said:  Starboard!  They had to run to the right side of the room.

If I said:  Captains Coming!  They had to stand at attention and salute.

If I said:  Climb the rigging!  They pretended to be climbing a rope.

If I said:  Mess Deck!  They sat down with legs crossed.

If I said:  Submarine!  Everyone had to lay down on the floor and pretend to be a sub.

This one was so much fun!  I don't have pics for you of this one, there was too much movement and they all came out blurry.

The kids were now officially pirates and got to have the cake:

I'm pretty proud of how my cake turned out!  I used a Wilton's pan that I got from Hobby Lobby.  One day I might even take a class or two on how to decorate cakes.  Just imagine how dangerous I'd be then.  Ace of Cakes, here I come!

Here's a better pic of it:

We even had a chest for the forks:

Of course, no Pirate party would be complete without Pirate Swords.  I set out a bucket of swords on the hearth.  These were a huge hit and the adults had to all duck quickly before they were skewered:

The Youngest was incredibly pleased with his party and the kids all had a blast with the games and crafts.  Everyone took home lost of pirate loot and the Youngest went to bed with a huge smile on his face!

Random Stuff

Just a couple of quick and varied things to talk about today:

1.  Stitches South 2010:   Any of you guys planning on going this year?  Want to meet up? 
Early bird sign up for classes ends Feb. 1st and a couple are already filled up, especially those that Lily Chen is teaching.  I signed up for one class, Basic Pattern Drafting with Melissa Leapman.  This is the first class that I have ever signed up for at Stitches South and it looks like fun. 

2.  I earned my first two $5 gift cards to Amazon over on Swagbucks just by doing searches on their search engine!  Free money, Woohoo!   If anyone is interested in trying it, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the button there.  It really is addictive fun.

3.  The Youngest's official birthday party is tomorrow afternoon and I'm already exhausted from cleaning the house.  I baked the cake at 7:00am this morning and I've got the frosting all colored and  in the fridge firming up.  I've been back and forth to school, to the library and to the grocery store today.   After we finally get the kids in bed I get to vacuum, sweep and mop floors then get started decorating the cake.  The Eldest is ticked off with me because I made him help out by cleaning the bathrooms and picking up the toy room.  He'll get over it.   It could be worse, he could have the rest of the To-Do list to deal with like I do.   :)

Have a Great Weekend!

My GrandMa Says...

I think my favorite ages of children are the years 3, 4 and 5.  They are loose cannons at this age and you never know what they'll say or do.  It's fun to watch them process information and come up with answers.  Unfortunately, before they can process the information, they have to as "Why?" over one hundred times a minute.  The Youngest has reached the "Why?" stage and it's driving me nuts.   Of course my standard reply to this, like most Moms reply, is with "because I said so."  He then looks up at me and says "How?"  At that point I usually grit my teeth and walk away before I commit violence.

He's also started quoting his GrandMa.  Except, most of these supposed quotes, never came out of her mouth!  Let me give you a couple of examples:

1.  Lately, if I raise my voice in anger, he'll look right at me and say, "My GrandMa says to Relax."
2.  If I tell him that he can't have something, like bubble gum he'll say, "My GrandMa says I can have bubble gum."

Evidently, the only conclusion is that GrandMa is the fount of all wisdom.

Today I mentioned that we might go to McDonald's.  Wanna know what unpredictable thing he said then?

"Then," he said very dramatically, "maybe McDonald's will turn into a Magic Vampire House!"  See?  Unpredictable with a capital U.

***********************

I've put up a few new items (stitch markers and jewelry)  in the Etsy store and you can see a few of them if you scroll down and look on the right side of your screen.

I need more knitting time!

Have you ever noticed that there's just not enough knitting time?  I found a slew of patterns that I want to make asap and there's no way I can get to them quick enough.

Check these out:

Flower Sweater - Ravelry link; Japanese link   I love this one and the color too.
Flamingo - Ravelry download  This will be one of the ones that I make first.
Sleeveless Vest - Ravelry link; Japanese link   This would be perfect for summer.
Frill Pullover - Ravelry link; Japanese link  So delicate looking.
Rainy Nora Gaughan - Ravelry link   Very funky
Verbena Knitting - I found so many that I went ahead and subscribed to the magazine.  Just check out Rapunzel for an example: Ravelry link

I can't remember when I've seen so many patterns that I want to knit show up at once. 

Need.  More.  Knitting.  Time.  !!!

Unraveling Thrift Store Sweaters

I took a trip to the Goodwill today and came away with a few prizes.  I ended up with three huge men's sweaters to use for recycled yarn.    The colors were fabulous too: green, red and a dark charcoal.  This is how far I have gotten in unraveling the first sleeve of the green sweater:

It looks to me, without officially testing the gauge that it's somewhere between sock and sport weight. 

If you are interested in learning how to do this on your own, here is an excellent tutorial on the whole "unraveling a sweater process".  It is definitely a bit tricky to figure out, but after a while, you'll find your sweaters growing smaller and smaller and ...

Pinewood Derby

It's Pinewood Derby season again and I've been noticing a lot more people are searching for ideas.  Last year, my son chose to do a Harry Potter pinewood derby car.  It was a huge hit with all the  adults.  Most of the kids preferred something a little "flashier". 

It's funny how competitive the dads get with the derby.  My husband is a classic example.  He wants to win the fastest car award.  Forget the kid, He wants it.  He sits down every year and tests the axles to make sure that they are straight, even and balanced.  Then he works on the wheels.  They must be slick and smooth as a whistle so they glide faster than everyone else's wheels.  He nabbed some mega wattage sand paper and got to work.  We're talking 3000 grit here that can only purchased commercially.

Me, I tend to look at the creative side of this, of course.  I also want the kid doing as much as possible.  I think he should go for the coolest car every year, regardless of how quick it might be. 

The Eldest decided this year to do a very different entry indeed.  He wanted a skateboard.  Very cool. 

The guys got the form done and the creative department took over.  I had the Eldest spray paint the deck  (look Mom, skateboarding terminology!) with a bright orange paint (Hemi orange.)  He did a good job with it too.

We knew we wanted skulls on it.  I mean, have you ever seen a skateboard that didn't have at least one?  I wasn't going to be able to draw one.  Drawing is not one of my skill sets.  So, I went shopping for skulls. 

All the official pinewood derby sections of the craft stores were searched.  Nothing.  So, I started looking outside of the box.  Know what I found that was the right subject and scale?  Tattoos.  I love looking at things outside the box, don't you?   How many people would look at tattoos and say, "Hey, that would be perfect for a Pinewood Derby Car!:"  Not many I think.

Here's what we have come up with so far:

We're not done yet.  I'm going to mix up some resin and pour over it so that the designs really pop out.  I'm turning into a resin junky.    I'm going to let The Eldest do the resin pouring as well.  He is so excited about this project.  Once it's set, we'll have to drill out the hole again for the wheels to go in.  I'll have pics of the finished project sometime next week.

Photography problems

Today was exceedingly frustrating.  I've made some more jewelry that I'm planning on putting in my etsy shop.  It's not up there yet, so don't all go rushing at once to look at it.  :P

The frustration comes with the photography.  I have my lightbox, my camera, numerous work lights all set up, but my pics are turning out crappy.  I can't figure out what my problem is.  I took 114 pics today and not one of them, even with the help of photoshop, can be used.  I think I need a jewelry photography class.

This one turned out okay though:

This is one miserable porch kitty.  Can't ya tell?

Proof That It's Cold

I'm freezing.  It's been freaking cold here, especially for us here in Georgia.  I don't like cold.  I'm standing by my statement that I'm allergic to the cold weather. I can't feel my fingers, toes, nose or behind.  I want heat.  I want my summer back.  This is why I never go on vacation to cold climates.  My sister in law goes snow skiing and calls it fun.  Phooey.  I'll go snow skiing when and if it's of absolute necessity and I can survive no other way.

Wanna know who else has been cold?

I set a blanket on the floor beside a space heater for our 17.5 year old dog.  She was so pitiful and I wanted to baby her.  Look at the crowd that showed up:

This is absolutely amazing.  Let me tell you why:

Yellow cat -doesn't like the other three animals

Brown cat -doesn't like the other three animals

Black dog - doesn't like the cats, barely tolerates little brown dog

Brown dog - Loves everybody but is at the bottom of the totem pole

And lastly:  that blanket was only 2 foot x 3 foot in size.

How about a close up of the part of the picture that had our jaws gaping wide:

If you only knew how many fights I've had to break up over the years with these two.  They hate each other.  They've even divided the house up into territories in order to avoid each other and woe be the one who crosses into the wrong territory!

Truly, hell hath frozen over!

French Press Slippers and One Pink Sock

I've got some actual knitting for you today!  That hasn't been happening much lately has it?

I jumped on the bandwagon and made some French Press Slippers for my mom:

Didn't they turn out cute?  This is the slipper pattern that I've been looking for.  They're perfect.  By the way, if you do the math, this woman has made a mint by selling this pattern.  It didn't hurt her either to have the Yarn Harlot mention her on her blog.  Just think, so far, there have been approx. 1796 people that have made this pattern.  Now at $7.00 a pop, that's just a staggering amount of money, and there are 3,662 people who are queuing up to make it!  

Will someone please kick my brain in gear so that I can come up with a brilliant pattern to sell for this kind of money?  Please?

Over the holidays my Dad requested another pair of wool socks.  When I gave him the last pair, he put them away for the longest time, afraid to use them.  This is a normal pattern for him by the way.  My mom bought him a pair of sandals and it took him two years before he wore them.  But now he's seen the light and wants another pair. 

I haven't been into making socks lately.  They take so blooming long and I never see real progress fast enough to make me happy.  So, I thought, worsted socks?  He'd like a pair for hunting, I know.  Then I decided to try out a tube sock.  Hey, no heel to turn, right?  Not that I hate doing short rows, I'm just feeling lazy.

So I did a test run on some spiral tube socks, for me to wear.  I'm tired of cold feet.  Here's what's happening so far:

1.   I have one sock finished:

 

2.  I don't like how the ribbing at the top goes on for four inches before the pattern starts spiraling.  If I make it again, I will only do maybe two inches and then start the spirals.

3.  I hate the toe.  These are top down socks and I now remember why I hate those.  I need to find a better way to end the sock by the time I get down to the second toe.

4.  It bunches up a little around the ankles.  Not bad enough to keep me from ever making these again though.

5.  On a good note, they are super warm and I like the color.  It also only took three days to make one sock and that was done in tiny spurts over the three days.

 

6.  My other foot would like me to hurry and finish up the second sock, it's freezing.

So, I will keep looking for a sock pattern that I like for my Dad that is still in worsted weight yarn.  Shouldn't be too hard.