Bright Floppies

   I love how these pictures turned out. I spent some time trying to get the all white background going on, but the room was dark and my spot light is broken. This is the best I could do for now. I'm still working on my photography skills.

   Three brightly colored floppy sun hats for the summer.

I just added these for sale in my online store: PerfectMix Creations

Fishing with the boys

  I took a break from crafting and crocheting this past weekend. We went to visit my parents. Normally I would bring a bag with my current project or something small that I can work on while I'm there or on the way. It's about a three hour drive. This time I didn't bring anything.

  On Monday, my husband found a place to go fishing and relax in nature, so I went with him and our two youngest. I played photographer while they tried to fish. This was their first time fishing. They had fun. They liked playing with the worms and just holding the fishing poles. My three year old actually caught a fish on his hook, but he threw the pole down because he said someone kept pulling him! It was hilarious.

Embedded Pattern

  I got a comment with a request to have a printable form of my Floppy Sun Hat pattern so that all the comments won't waste so much paper. I wasn't sure how to incorporate a pdf file on blogger, but with the help of Google, I figured it out. I went to scribd.com. I was a little surprised that they already had my information and that I had followers already. Apparently, they are linked to my Facebook account. I uploaded my file to the site and then got a code that I can input as html to embed the file into blogger. You should now be able to print the pdf below. You may have to click the link to read it on Scribd then download it from there. Hey, I'm still learning this stuff.

Thanks for the challenge Patsy, and I can't wait to see your creations!


Floppy

Show -n- Tell

  This is Christa's Floppy Sun Hat. She used sport weight yarn and followed the pattern as written. She says it will fit a 3 to 7 year old. A few of you asked how to tweak the pattern to make a smaller hat. I had suggested a smaller hook, or to start with fewer puff stitches in the first round. I didn't think of using a lighter weight yarn. Brilliant! Thank you for the picture, Christa! Your little girl looks adorable!


Christa's Floppy

   I love seeing finished products from my patterns. If you want to be featured on my blog with your finished items, just shoot me an email. If you don't want to be featured but still want to send me pics, that's great too! Just let me know in the email if you want me to post your pics or not.

daperfectmix@gmail.com

Butterfly Lace

  As you can see, I'm still testing out some lace patterns. This one was a little intimidating at first, but once I got the hang of it, it was a breeze. The stitches were actually very similar to the pine cone doily. The shell stitches had slight differences, for example, the butterfly pattern used dc and the pine cone pattern used tr. The free crochet pattern can be found here.

  By the way, my husband picked up this crochet thread on sale at Walmart. I'm not sure how much he paid, but he got about 5 of them. It is Red Heart Fashion Crochet Thread. The color is Scarlet, and I used a 2.25mm size hook.

Show -n- Tell

  Here is Hnin's picture of the Floppy Sun Hat that she made. This is her very first crocheted hat, and I'm so happy that she chose my pattern. She did a great job! The pastel colors remind me of coloring Easter eggs. Thanks for the pic, Hnin!


Hnin's Floppy


  I love seeing finished products from my patterns. If you want to be featured on my blog with your finished items, just shoot me an email. If you don't want to be featured but still want to send me pics, that's great too! Just let me know in the email if you want me to post your pics or not.

daperfectmix@gmail.com



Crochet Lace

  I've been looking for some crochet lace patterns lately. I want to make one of those shirts that has the lace in the back, but I didn't want to just buy a lace fabric. I want to crochet it myself. I found this pattern on Ravelry. It is for a triangle shawl, but I adjusted the pattern so I would only get four "pine cones" in a diamond shape. I'm thinking a lacy butterfly applique would work too. I'll keep you posted on the shirt as I get to it.

My First Slippers

   I found another free crochet pattern to try thanks to Ravelry.com. This one is a pair of Mary Jane style slippers by Andrea Plotts. I have never made socks or slippers before. I think they came out pretty cute and it was an easy pattern to follow. I had to make a few adjustments for my small feet. They are a little loose, but not too bad. Crocheting some socks are on my list of things to do, so now I think I'm a step closer at least. I made one with the strap and one without. I haven't added a button yet. I still have to decide which one i like better and then make them match each other.

Loom Knitting

image from http://www.provocraft.com/

   Has anyone tried knitting with a loom? Is it considered cheating? Well, if it is I guess I'm guilty. I borrowed my mom's Knifty Knitter looms a long time ago. I didn't make much. It seemed to take forever to make something! I borrowed them to see if I'd like them enough to buy my own, but I think by borrowing them I didn't feel motivated enough to really work with them. So, then I bought my own. (I make sense in my own world, really.)

   Walmart didn't have the round looms, like my mom's so I just bought the kit with different lengths of the rectangular ones like this:


image from http://www.provocraft.com/

    I tested them out and made a matching hat and scarf. I had this yarn that was difficult to crochet with because of it's fuzziness. I couldn't see my stitches so I gave up on crocheting with it at the time. It's perfect for loom knitting though. I think I finally have a way to make use of my boucle yarns as well. I still have tons more to learn about the different stitches and ways to cast on and off. I just kind of winged it with this set so it shouldn't be surprising that the hat probably won't fit anyone over the age of 3! Whoops. I guess I used the wrong size. Oh well, some baby will have a snuggly warm head.

Show -n- Tell

  Here is another floppy made from my pattern. Here is a link for the pattern: Floppy Sun Hat. This one is made by Kathie and she used Hobby Lobby's "I Love This Cotton!"  I really like the different shades of blue in there. Thanks for sending me the pic, Kathie, it looks great!



Kathie's Floppy

   I love seeing finished products from my patterns. If you want to be featured on my blog with your finished items, just shoot me an email. If you don't want to be featured but still want to send me pics, that's great too! Just let me know in the email if you want me to post your pics or not.

daperfectmix@gmail.com

Handmade Mother's Day Cards

  What mother doesn't like a handmade card? I know I love them. I found this cute spinning greeting card craft on Martha Stewart's website, and had my children make some for Grandma. I made Zeke's since he's dangerous with scissors. He will cut anything in sight. I made his card a little different than what the instructions said. I used two different papers instead of folding one in thirds. His picture was bigger than the other two, so I had to compensate. I think it's the hair. He drew a picture on the inside, but he was rushing because he didn't want to miss whatever was on TV at the time. They will be in the mail tomorrow. So, they might be late but it's the thought that counts, right?

Learning to Sew



image from www.clker.com


   I've been trying to work on my sewing skills. Right now they are practically non-existent. I did mend some things that are now in better shape than they were. Isabel's gym bag was ripped, so that is now as good as new (in a thrift store kind of way). Isaiah's bookbag's bottom was shredded to bits. No wonder he kept losing his pencils, they kept falling out of the holes! I sewed in a vinyl insert so he won't lose anything else. I should have taken some before and after pics. I'll remember to do that next time. I'm currently working on re-fashioning my husband's unwanted dress shirts. I'll do another post on that once I finish, and possibly a tutorial, if I can manage to do it again.

Jute Projects

  I made my trip to Hobby Lobby and bought some more jute to finish my hanging planters. I bought the same kind, but it was a little thinner than the one I had. It still worked out fine. Now I have to make a trip to the nursery. Someone suggested some succulent plants, so I will be looking for some that my non-green thumb can handle.

 

  Here's what I did with some of the leftover jute.  This was an easy project. I just used an old glass vase, and hot glued the jute around and around. I kept seeing it in different places so I decided to try it myself. 

  I made a simple doily for my poinsettia to sit on. Those are salt and pepper shakers inside the vases. We had them on small plates before because they leave a mess underneath them. I like them better like this.  I still have some jute left. Maybe I'll come up with some other project to make with it. 

Hooked Hoop Finished

  Here is how I completed my hooked hoop. When I finally finished crocheting, (it took forever) I pulled the crochet tube onto the hoop. To close the hoop I used a 3/4th inch insert coupling, which can be found in your local hardware store, and looks like this:

    You want to use the coupling size according to the size tubing you have. My tubing is 3/4 inch round. To insert the coupling, you have to warm the ends of your hoop. Some people use a hair dryer, some use boiling water, I use fire. Be careful not to burn/melt your hoop or yourself! When the hoop is warmed it makes it more pliable. You can then easily insert the coupling halfway into one side of your hoop. Then warm the other end and insert the other half into that side and close up the hoop like so:

  I left a long tail on the end of my crochet work so I can use that to sew it up. I just used a whip stitch to sew the ends together.

  Now I have a new colorful hoop! I need to practice my moves.. 

Hanging Plant Holder

  I had this stand for hanging plants for a while. I didn't like the look of the plastic hangers and hooks, plus they break easily. I found a pattern on Ravelry.com and adjusted it for what I was working with. Click for the free pattern.

  I used this Natural Jute from Hobby Lobby and a size N crochet hook. I only had one skein so I was only able to complete one and some of another one. I need to make two more to fill my stand. Sounds like a trip to Hobby Lobby is in my near future. 

Now what kind of plants should i put in them?

Hooked Hoop

  Sometimes I get bored and try to learn other crafts, or maybe it's that I get excited about some new craft then I get bored of it. Well, either way, at one point I was making hula hoops. They were cool, but I think I was the only one who thought so. I still like them, and it's actually a really good, low impact workout for your core.

  This is a hoop that I made for one of my best friends, a while back. I personalized it with her name, hand cut with an exacto knife from duck tape. That took some patience, but I really like how it turned out!

  If you'd like to make your own hoop, there is a great tutorial here. I've tried different combinations for taping and decorating the hoops, but one thing I've been meaning to try is to crochet a cover for the hoop instead of decorating with tape.

  So this is what I'm doing.. In order to do this I had to leave the hoop open so the crochet can slip over the hoop. This is my polyethylene tubing. It's 3/4" in diameter and 100 psi. It can be found in your local hardware store, Lowe's or Home Depot.

  Using a size F hook, I made a ring that will fit around the hoop. It came out to a chain of 15 then I joined. I didn't want it too tight to where I would have trouble slipping it on, and I didn't want to so loose that it would  move around while hooping. So it's just right.

  Then I single crocheted around in a spiral, changing colors about every inch, so I wouldn't get bored to death.  Here's what I have so far.

 Click HERE for the final hooked hoop, and how to finish off!
 

Bonus!

  It was this video from Hoopnotica that got me sprung on hooping:

Pink Floppy

I just wanted to share the final image of the floppy sun hat that I made while making the video for the pattern. I used ribbon to adorn it, just weaved through the last row of the main part and tied it with a simple knot. I really like the contrast of the colors.

More Beanies

I found another great beanie pattern. It's called Reversible Strands for Men by Nancy Smith. It's a free download on Ravelry. I really like how this looks and it is very warm and cozy. You can wear it with the ridge side out or the smooth side out. I like the ridge side. I made the green one with Red Heart Super Saver acrylic yarn and the blue and gray one is made with Caron's Simply Soft. I'm going to make another beanie with black and gold for my husband, a huge New Orleans Saints fan.

Lovely Yarn

I found this multicolored yarn at Big Lots this weekend! They were $1 a piece. I love the colors. What should I make with it?

Tag, I'm IT!

Ashlee from the blog of ashLeenikoL has tagged me in this challenge.

So it goes like this...

Rules:

• You must post the rules
• Answer the 11 questions that the tagger posted for you
• Create 11 questions to ask the people you will tag
• Tag 11 people and link them in your post
• Let them know you have tagged them (i'm bad at that part)

Ashlee's Questions:

1. Have you ever been to Kentucky? Yes! I was stationed at Ft Campbell which is on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee.
2. Are you chasing your dreams? I guess not. I wanted to be a singer when I was a kid.
3. What is your most hated chore? Hmm.. It's between washing dishes and folding clothes.
4. What's your favorite song? I can't choose just one, but if I had to it would be Whitney's classic "The Greatest Love of All".
5. If you could learn to do anything, what would it be? That's a tough one. I would like to learn how to surf.
6. Do you get mistaken for a celebrity? If so, who? Ha, once I was visiting my cousin in FL and we were at the mall, these girls thought I was Alicia Keys, so my cousin walks by me and says (loud enough) "C'mon Alicia!" (my hair was done in cornrows.)
7. Do you visit PerezHilton.com? I can say I've never been on that site.
8. What was the last book you read? The last one was called "Songs of Deliverance" by Marilynn Griffith it's the sequel to "Rhythms of Grace." Now I'm reading "Hunger Games"!
9. Were you named after anyone? I don't think so.
10. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? It depends on what shoes I'm wearing.
11. Where's Waldo? He is probably lost in a book somewhere.

Here are my Questions:

1. Where was the best vacation you've ever had?
2. What was the last movie you saw in a movie theater?
3. Have you ever been to DC?
4. What is your favorite ice cream?
5. Would you rather shop online or in a store?
6. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you like to go?
7. Are you a dog person or a cat person?
8. Chocolate or vanilla?
9. How often do you blog?
10. Do you have an online store?
11. Would you rather sweep or vacuum?

Here's who I'm Tagging:

• Beautiful Dee's
• Jocelin Gets Creative
• Dingus Designs
• things
• Warm 'n Fuzzies
• new day, new ideas
• therestofmylife
• Five in Training For HIM
• A Lil This, A Lil That
• 2B
• It's A Handmade World

Thanks, Ashlee, great questions! I hope my taggees will play along as well.