Apology

Dear Blog-land, this attack hit much harder and was more difficult to recover from this time around. There has been absolutely no progress made on any crochet or craft projects at all.  I will try to pick up where I left off and find my routine again.  I miss this.

EW

Taming Embroidery Thread

Wild Embroidery Thread

Do you use embroidery thread in your crafting? I do, and I inherited a bunch of embroidery thread from several places... And it is a mess! I have 2 boxes like this left to "tame" and thought I would share with you what I am doing.

First I need to explain that I go as cheaply as possible in organizing my (our) craft supplies. But I still want a pretty, organized, inspirational, craft room. I had looked at the stores and online to see what I could do and there were all kinds of nifty things out there, that I could not afford. So I turned to my trusty 3"x5" index cards. I am a firm believer in index cards, I have panic attacks if I am out!

3"x5" index card

I folded it in half, short end to short end.

I cut on the indicated lines.

Then folded the flaps inwards. I didn't cut them off as I felt it gave it more stability.

Wrap your embroidery thread around the center. I also added the color information and brand, etc.

I included any washing instructions on the "back" and cut a small slit at the top to secure the end.






And WOOT! I have beautifully tamed embroidery thread that I can easily see. Once all of it is finished I will organize it by color.

I will tell you about my containers in the next post!


Love to all,
EW

Week 6 of The 52 Week Crochet Challenge

Red Berry's 52 Week Crochet Challenge has been so much fun! It is not just crocheting something, it is challenging you on so many levels. Some of the challenges have been "Start a crochet notebook, journal, scrapbook, or blog."; "Who taught you to crochet?"; "Celebrate Spring by crocheting a flower, or make a project that has a flower motif or theme".

I look forward to each weeks' challenge and it keeps me focused at a time that my brain feels like I need duct tape to keep everything in! Lol.

This week's Challenge is Spring Cleaning! Normally I avoid anything that utilizes the word "cleaning", but the challenge is a little more detailed... "Spring Cleaning. This week it is time to organize your yarn. How do you do it? By color, type, weight?"

I am OCD - I sort it by all those examples!

My daughter-in-law and I are in the middle of moving into our craft room, so at this moment all the yarn is on cheap plastic shelves with boxes. And that works just fine for now until we work in there for a while and figure out what our "style" of working together is.



The yarn is sorted first by type/weight (in our case mostly Red Heart 4 ply worsted), then by colour.

Kristy likes to use what I call "the fun yarn". (the bulky yarns on the left)

           And I macrame, so that is on the same shelves too, in smaller boxes.






WIP's and frogging projects are on the bottom shelf. 


Here are some of my WIP's, in baggies, boxes, baskets, or clear plastic bags.

Yo-yo's to use up the smaller pieces of yarn.

"Scrap" granny squares

Crocheted towel toppers. This is in a basket so I can just grab and go.

I used to store my yarns in socks, it made them easier to take places and kept dust, hair, etc off them. It also took care of the "tail" for me - I would just tuck it into the fold. I need more socks though.








What about you? How do you store your yarn?

EW

Craft Room Update

Some progress has been made on the craft room. Of course things are subject to change. I think we have rearranged the room  and changed the furniture at least twice!

View from sliding glass doors.

View from sliding glass doors towards the kitchen.

From the sitting room/kitchen area. Can see the sliding glass doors on left. This is Kristy's "work station".

From sitting area looking towards the fireplace. My desk with my sewing machine.

My yarn stash (and wheelchair) - I had to have a pic of my - oops OUR yarn ;)

And this is why Kristy needs her own area to work...

Sorting through my craft stuff is VERY distracting! I have to keep myself on task, but am not doing very well - hehe. So much fun. And I haven't gotten to the boxes in the garage yet!

What have you all been up to this weekend? I love hearing from you :)

EW

My Peanut

This is my grand-daughter, her favorite show is Scooby-Doo.

Efelants & Woozles

"Oh NO! Scooby tripped into our trap!"

She is such a character and so much fun to watch!

EW

BAMCAL CAL Progress

Here is another Frostbloom Block by Shan Sevcik I finally finished. It was not difficult at all - it was me trying to find motivation to get anything done! Like I said - life hit hard. But am getting back on track :)

It is in my grand-daughter's chosen colours

A side view to show how dimensional it is - FUN!

Now on to the next block :) and a few other projects that are always in the works!

I am tickled pink when you leave a comment and I try very hard reciprocate! I truly appreciate the time you take to view and comment on my blog. Love to all

EW

Week 4 of the 52 Week Crochet Challenge

Week 4's Challenge is "How did you learn to crochet or who taught you?"

I learned to crochet from my great grandmother.

She taught me all kinds of things, but when I sit down and crochet I always remember her and have to smile. The first stitch she taught me was the chain stitch when I was 4. and I learned that quick! I had a chain stitch going from one end of the house to the other!

Once I showed her how well I knew how to do it (I am sure it was more along the lines of once she was tired of constantly tripping over the chain.) She showed me how to make a granny square, which to this day is my favorite motif.

From that point on I was always crocheting something!

How did you learn to crochet? Do you have any fond memories of learning a craft? crochet, knitting, sewing, music, cooking?

EW

Week 3 of the 52 Week Crochet Challenge

Life hit hard these past couple of weeks, so I am behind on my challenge, crocheting, craft room, everything!

Week 3 was Celebrate Spring by making a project that has a flower motif or theme. 

I did look at my Pinterest Crochet Boards, and decided that I had  been wanting to make this little bird house with the hanging flowers. I like houses, birdhouses, birds, butterflies, flowers and dangly things. And if it's sparkly - all the better!

This is my inspiration:

TeenyWeenyDesigns

TeenyWeenyDesigns Etsy Listing

You can see more of what I chose for inspiration on this Board. Once my project is done I WILL post a picture or two!

And thank you all for the lovely comments on my new craft room, it is a work in progress and changes daily.

New Craft Room

We are finally able to get our craft room together!

This will be my third craft room, and with each move I lose some of my craft supplies (DS calls it garbage), but I did not lose as much this move as I did the last! It is going to take some time but I am excited :) This time my Dear DIL and Grand-Daughter will be crafting with me - it is so fun to have a co-conspirator ;)

It is a large room, wonderful space and lighting! The challenges are several because of hardly any wall space, a fireplace, and odd angles. But all that means is a chance to get crafty for our craft room...

This is from the sliding glass doors as you walk into the house: you can see the fireplace on the left and then the hallway going to the back of the house and a small corner of the breakfast bar that leads to the kitchen.

This is to the left of the doors, you can kinda see a sliver of them on the left , but see the big window in the middle, and then the fireplace to the right. This is the largest wall space we have to work with.

a better view of the fireplace (it is caddy-corner)

Here is to the right of the sliding glass doors... as you can see leads to another room (which is our sitting room) and the breakfast bar... which also sits caddy-corner. (and my embarrassing messy kitchen)

Here is the sliding glass doors on the right and the "Cat Area" on the left. If you look at the picture above you can see how the wall does not go all the way to the ceiling and a "bridge" across the gap to the other room. We call this the "catwalk" and our cats LOVE it. So in the effort of not having cats on our kitchen counters trying to get up on it, we made them a play corner that gets them up there... and down :)

All the junk you see lying around is somehow related to crafting (except for the motorcycle helmets! - wait.... hmmmm!) 

Plus what I have in my room and the garage! Haha, the garage:

Such a lovely space, and I can't wait to get it together enough to really start CRAFTING again and not have to put it up out of the way to go to bed! WOOT!

Anyway, between that and watching my granddaughter, I have been so busy that I have not been able to crochet! The kids got done at work early and came home, so I thought I would take the opportunity to update you on what's what here; now off to crochet!  :D

EW

I absolutely LOVE comments, and appreciate you taking the time to let me know what you think!

Scared of Art Journal's?

Remember this week's Challenge is to make a Crochet Journal. Which I have started, but there are many kinds of Journals.

Recipe Journals (I touched on in this post)
Craft Journals (like my Crochet Journal)
Art Journals
Daily Journals
Bible Journals
Garden Journals
Nature Journals
Bird Journals
Health Journals
Science Journals (Leonardo Da Vinci)

Do you get the idea? I know I will probably hear about this; but, to me, Scrapbooks, Journals, Smash Books, etc are all Journals of some sort :)

Well, Art Journals SCARE me. I love them, but was always saying "no, I can't draw a straight line" Stick figures aren't exactly considered "art"! And then I came across this free e-course

Kristal Norton

I am only half way through the course and I am enjoying it immensely! Each lesson is short and to the point and doesn't take more than 10 minutes to read or watch.  And the e-course is FREE!

Check it out and give it a shot! Especially if you are wanting to make a Journal but feel you don't have the time or talent to make one!

If you take the e-course please let me know what you think too! I have placed the Badge to the right in my blog or click the image above for the information and sign-up page.

EW


P.S. I am not receiving any kind of compensation for this post, these are my opinions only and want to share what I find and enjoy.

Just Because

Just because it was inspirational to me...

unDeniably Domestic

Recipe Journals

What got me interested in making my journals interesting and fun (which I kept putting off till the Challenge kick started me) was from when I made recipe binders for my children once they hit about 14ish. I took note of what dinners they liked and wrote down the recipe for them and family recipes/traditions and any story that went with them. I kept adding to the binder throughout the years till they moved out. But no pics whatsoever.

They loved the recipe binders that I gave them when they moved out on their own, but when I got hold of my daughters binder a couple of months ago (because she asked if I could redo it as it had been damaged in "storage" mentioned here) I realized it was BORING. I go through my cookbooks and look at the pictures for inspiration. They could not do this with what I gave them AND I would get phone calls on techniques:

"Mom what do you mean "fold"?"
"Are biscuits supposed to be so runny?"
"What is 'Cream shortening, sugar and egg?'"

So I got the idea of taking pictures of some of the meals and processes to help them.

Kind of like this:

Stamp4Joy/

I like the idea of "Digital Scrapbooking" as it isn't bulky and can put each page into a plastic sleeve and they can still add to their book as they find recipes on their own.

So I have been taking pictures as I cook (which unfortunately is NOT often - DIL is a wonderful cook!)
and finding free interesting digital pictures.

From Scrapbookscrapbook.com

They have a BUNCH more on this site!

What other kind of journal can you think of?
EW

52 Week Challenge Update Crochet Journal

The other day I showed you my very plain Crochet Journal (here).

I have made some progress with it, though am still figuring out the cover :)

First, here are some of the supplies I have to work with. I am a hoarder and throw nothing away so this is just a pic of what I have been able to find to use... things are still packed from the move!

Left to Right - Regular Coloured Pencils, Drafting Compass, Pastels, Drafting Markers in 4 Colours, Water Colors in .4 oz tubes, asst paint brushes, Water Colour Pencils, Fat Markers, School Glue and Stick Glue, and Boo one of my cats :)

This is the "Cover Page" for the afghan I am making for my grand-daughter. I had to remind myself that it was o.k. if my painting looked like a child did it - what mattered was who I was thinking about and how it made me feel.

This was painted with water-colour pencils using my fingers and paintbrush, and the fat markers and black drafting marker

And here is the Information Page which has the yarn am using, the name of the blocks crocheted (or to BE crocheted so far) and which CAL those blocks belong to.

I am proud of my start and had a lot of fun with painting the picture :)  Let me know how you make your craft journal fun!

Have a great day!

EW

52 Week Crochet Challenge Week 2

Hey Blogland, do you remember how I said I had joined the 52 Week Crochet Challenge? It is the start of a new week!

This weeks' challenge is to start a Crochet Notebook, Journal, Scrapbook or Blog. As I already have a blog, and with funds being so tight, I thought I would concentrate on my Crochet Journal.

I had started one a while back where I put my designs and ideas in, but only went to it periodically. Plus it is BORING, I know I should not compare my journal to others, however there comes a time when you have to say "Ugh, I can do better".

See not even a Title!

So this is what I will be working with. I wonder what I am going to do! I can't seem to make up my mind :) I will post pictures as I make progress!

If you have time, leave me a comment - I love comments :)

EW

Moogly CAL

YEAH! My DS and DIL finally found a job! They have been out of work since October. So we are all excited! WOOT! And I get to watch my granddaughter who is so much fun and such a personality!

What is also great about this job is that both are working at the same place and the boss is family oriented - so if for any reason there are issues at home (I am sick) the boss is very understanding and one or the other can miss work without getting into trouble!

It is also Spring Break here and my daughter popped in for a day after going to the coast and then will be back to College Station to see about a job too!

I have been busy, busy, busy! Because not only am I thoroughly loving time spent with family; I am involved in the 52 Week Crochet Challenge: the 2014 BAMCAL: and also joined Tamara Kelly in her Moogly Afghan Crochet-A-Long on her blog: Moogly

The Crochet-A-Long (CAL) started in January that I was late joining (February - but it is never too late! You can still join!) and am enjoying every minute of it too. Tamara shares a free pattern every other Thursday from a variety of designers to be crocheted. In total it will be 24 squares which is enough to make a 4'x6' afghan.

You can get all the information on Tamara's blog here.

Kicking Off The 2014 Moogly Afghan Crochet-A-Long

For this CAL I am making an afghan for my granddaughter in pink, purple, gray, black and white. Here is my progress so far!

One block I did two of (bottom row first and second pic) because I wasn't sure if I liked the colour arrangement. I didn't frog it because I will decide to use it or not once I see all the blocks together. The last block (solid pink) is from the 2014 BAMCAL. As you can see I am a little behind by 2 blocks.

There is also an UNOFFICIAL Ravelry group for the CAL called MOOGLY CAL 2014 which is run by her fans (but Tamara is also a member) and it has been lovely to see all the wonderful talented crocheters out there - new to the craft and experts.

Moogly CAL 2014 at Ravelry 

You really need to check out Tamara's blog. It is FULL of fun things, for instance today she has gathered free crochet patterns from around the net!

Celebrate the Luck of the Irish
Read More here!

Hope you enjoyed this post! I love getting comments and any feedback you can give me is so appreciated! EW