Heartbeat

How appropriate? Here on Valentine's Day I'm posting about my brand new Heart Rate Monitor. Awwww. Actually I didn't even think about it at first, but it was a nice coincidence.
Isn't it pretty? I'm very excited about it. I just got it yesterday, so I haven't had a chance to really play around with it too much yet. Of course I put it on to see if/how it works. So far I'm pretty impressed with it. I'm planning to workout tonight after my shift, so I'll put it to a real test then. Is it sad how excited I am about this? I've wanted one for a while, so I splurged with my tax return.

I hope everyone is having a good Valentine's Day/Singles Awareness Day/Tuesday. Mr. Wonderful and I don't have any plans for tonight. I have to work til 9pm, and he has a Valentine's show with his comedy group. But we have plan for Thursday. That wonderful man of mine bought us tickets to go see Shrek, The Musical. I'm so excited! Yes, even more than I am about my HRM. Actually, I guess we'll be celebrating all week because he also brought me an orchid on Sunday since we won't be together tonight. He's such a sweetie. I really am a lucky girl. :-)

Nothing much else going on. I'm thinking about experimenting with a basket weave crochet pattern, but I haven't had much time to sit down with it. I'm hoping to work on that this weekend maybe. I'm also not really sure what I would do with it when finished, but since when does that matter? Anyway, I hope you have a great day!

-J

Today...

... is what you would call a crappy day. I had to be in court all morning to hear the ruling about the guy that broke into my house last spring. He didn't even get heard this morning, but luckily the DA came and told us that the had signed the papers agreeing that he owed us x-amount in restitution for stolen property. At least I didn't have to sit there all afternoon, too.

Right before we went into the courthouse, I realized I left my phone at home. That was fine because you're not allowed to take them in the courthouse anyway, but I just knew that I would have a lot of missed messages when I got home. And I did. Including one from the school where I substituted on Thursday and Friday. Apparently the teacher I was subbing for had some issues with things that happened in her absence. Basically the kids misled me I guess and she wasn't happy about it. I can understand, but doesn't make me happy.

Between that, not sleeping well last night, and not being able to breathe properly for the 3 days, I'm feeling a little sensitive. And I still have to go to my other job this afternoon. Hopefully it will be a good day. I am working out front which generally makes the time go by a little faster. And I'm working with some girls that generally make me laugh. So I'm keeping my hopes up that I will have a good evening.

Ok, I know this was totally not craft oriented at all, but I just wanted to vent a little bit. Thanks for listening.

Crochet Hobo Bag

This is my first attempt at posting a tutorial... bear with me, please.

A few weeks ago I was browsing on Pinterest and I saw a really cute crocheted bag. I looked for a pattern, but I could not find one. I couldn't even find where to purchase said bag. So, after staring at the picture for a while, I decided I could just figure it out. So I did.

First, I made a Granny Rectangle. If you've ever made a granny square, it's the same method after you form the base rectangle. I chose to make my rectangle with a few different colors, but you can do whatever you want. I used an I-hook (which, btw, is the hardest to find hook in the universe if you happen to misplace yours mid-project) and did 15 rows, then finished with a single crochet all the way around. I didn't take any real measurments, but I think it ended up being 18" by 22".

Then, I (by I, I mean my mother. I'm not awesome at actual sewing.) made a liner for the purse. This one was made by sewing two fat quarters together and triming it down to size. Really, it doesn't matter how you get there, just as long as it is roughtly the same size and shape. The little white strings you see in the picture are tied to the center of the rectangle so I know where to position the liner.

 Next, I pinned the lining to the rectangle. This was lots of fun since my needles were huge, my rectangle was stretchy, and my liner was not. Really, it only took me two tries to get it how I wanted it.

Then, I just sewed it on. This sewing was actually me. I handsewed it with a blue thread that matched everything else. I briefly thought about using the machine, but given the texture and what a pain it was to pin, it was a brief thought indeed. I used the natural line left by my crocheting as a guide. It went pretty quickly.

After I had it completely sewn on, I single crocheted around one more time. This gave me more room to work with for the next phase of the project. As you may notice, I cut my yarn after I did the last round. I'm not really sure why I did that. I don't recommend it for you. It just meant that I had to join back with the color I was just using. More ends to weave. Don't. Do. It.

Next came the decreasing to make it curl in. I did two rounds of  single-crocheting 2 stitches together. In the corners, I did a ch2. There are probably easier ways I chould have done it, but this worked out pretty well. When I came to a corner that didn't allow me to decrease, I just single crocheted. That's what happens when you make your base to "look right" instead of counting your stitches. :-D

Hmm, with all the pictures I took, for some reason I did not take a picture of the edging. On each of the longer sides of the rectangle I did four rows of single crochet.

Along the shorter sides I did 10 rows of single crochet for the handle flap. As you can see, I also left a long tail for sewing it closed. My "tail" was about 5 times as long as the edge to make sure I had enough yarn. On the other side I just didn't cut it and crocheted from the skein. Both methods worked with the same effort. I only cut it off because I didn't have my handles with me and I wanted to keep working. :-)

Now the fun part... stitching the handles on. This was probably the most difficult part for me. I'll be honest, I had never sewn handles before, so that probably didn't help. Anyway, for this part I folded the flap over the handle and slip stitched all the way across. To make sure I stayed even, I lined up the first and last rows of the flap.

Tada! Then I was done!

 Overall, it was a fairly simple project. I would probably rank it as advanced because of the changes in stitching. And you could probably do it without the liner, but your stuff may fall out. After writing this, I am now thinking of making an actual pattern with "normal" crochet directions. Anyway, I hope you like it. Let me know if you have any questions!

Happy Monday!

Good Monday afternoon. It's been a pretty okay one here, considering I only have to work one of my 3 jobs today. It almost feels like a day off!

Ok, so I fervently refuse to decorate my house for Christmas before Thanksgiving. I'm not a big Black Friday shopper, so I usually have a cup of coffee and start putting up my decorations that day. That being said, I will work on Christmas decorations and craft presents right now. I'm currently working on several projects. Some of them are still in the planning stages, and others almost completed. I'm making a purse that I should have pictures of soon. I'm almost done, but I pretty much only work on it in waiting rooms right now. Needless to day, I get a lot of questions about it. I have two more times I'll be in a waiting room this week, so hopefully I'll be done by this weekend.

My boyfriend made the mistake of telling me he was thinking about decorating his house for Christmas this year. His house is awesome to decorate. He didn't do it last year because he had just moved in 2 weeks before Christmas and was more concerned with unpacking. Now I have visions of garland and Christmas lights flashing in my head. He's already given me that "you're about to go craft crazy, aren't you?" look about 3 times since he told me. Well... that just makes this a learning experience for him as well!

Ok, I'm off to design and then get ready for work. I hope everyone has a good Monday!

I promise, I'm not the horrible slacker that I seem to be. Actually, I've just been so busy with the crocheting, I haven't had time for the typing. I recently made a nurse and a Weeping Angel. If you've ever watched Doctor Who, you'll be pleased to know that the Weeping Angel turned out absolutely awesome. The lady I gave it to was extremely pleased. And I have to say that the instructions were some of the easiest I've read in a long time.

I'm a fairly adept crocheter, but I swear some directions make no sense. Case in point, that nurse pattern. There she is sitting on my friend's desk. (Yes, my friend is a nurse. How did you know?) It turned out really cute, but it honestly took me 3 tries to figure out what they were trying to get me to do. I finally figured it out, but I'm really tempted to re-write the pattern to make more sense. We'll see. Someone my friend works with wants me to make her one. I may work on the pattern then.

Alright, I need to get my stuff ready to go to work. Later!

Presently

Ok, so this isn't a great photo, but it's the best I could do with the camera in my phone in a horribly lit room. I figured I had better step up to the plate about showing you my creations. What better way to start than with a crafted ninja? I made this for my friend's daughter's birthday. I decided I wanted to make a girlie ninja, mostly because I had pink yarn and I was bored. I started with this pattern and made a few slight changes (mostly just shortened the arms... and I didn't stuff it). Then I decided she needed a bow, but I couldn't find a bow I liked, so I made up a flower. I love crafting when I can change directions mid-stream. :-D

I also made this adorable little soon-to-be 2-year-old a backpack. She makes a lot of road trips to see her grandparents (and occasionally her favorite Aunt Jen-Jen), so I figured she could use a road trip bag with things to entertain her on the 6 hour trip. For this one, I used a Bizzy Crochet pattern and made a few slight changes (you'll notice I do that a lot). Really, I just made the straps slightly shorter. One, it's for a toddler with smaller arms, and two, I just felt like being done. Anyway, I'm actually kind of impressed with how it turned out. I used the Red Heart Sunshine Print variegated yarn and it turned out really pretty. Then I used
Shocking Pink and Bright Yellow to accent.

I'm not sure if y'all noticed, but the bag and Ms. Ninja match. Partly because they are going to the same girl and partly because it was what I had in my bag. I tend to get impatient when I have a WONDERFUL CRAFT IDEA and I don't have the right stuff with me rightthatverysecond. The day I made that bag I had originally intended to make a princess doll, but I didn't have room in my bag for all the materials I'd need. Plans change. Go with the flow.

Alright well I think that enough for now. I'll be back with more crafty goodness later.

Hello, there!

Hi all! (or... just me, at the moment)

I'll be perfectly honest, I started this blog for 2 reasons.
#1 - To keep track of all of my crafty awesomness.
#2 - I'm bored.

I'm not sure what I will end up putting in here. Pictures of projects for sure. Maybe turorials and patterns if I can. Quite possibly a few personal raves/rants (I put the raves first since I'm trying to hae happy thoughts :-D). Anyway, I hope you enjoy what you find here. More soon(er or later).

- Jen