Touch Phone Cozy

   I had previously made a cell phone case, but being that my phone has a touch screen meant that I hardly ever used it, because I would be constantly pulling it out of the case. So I decided to try to make something that would still give my phone some kind of protection, but keep the screen accessible. I ran with the idea and this is what I came up with.



Back view




Front view

   I used "I Love this Yarn" by Hobby Lobby, sport weight. I don't really have a pattern, but I can give you an idea of what I did. Using a size G hook, I chained about 20 then worked back up the chain with hdc stitches. I worked in the round, using the back loops, and increasing only on the ends to keep an oval shape. Then when it was a little bigger than the phone, I weaved in some round cord elastic into the last round. Then it fit on the phone like a short sock. If I make another one, I would cover the elastic better, and maybe make it a little smaller. This is just the prototype. I also want to add a pocket to the back and some kind of handle that won't make the phone fall out.

  The only con that I've found with this cozy so far, is that it just covers the sensor at the top, left corner. It senses when you have your ear to the phone which makes the screen go black so you're not pressing any buttons on the touch screen with your cheek. So when I'm done with a call, I have to uncover the sensor so my screen comes back. I can deal with that.

Lizzy's Blanket Update

Before I start this post, I would like to thank the requester for this challenging project. I definitely learned a lot along the way. I'd also like to  apologize for taking forever! This is my first huge project so hopefully I will be faster in my new experiences with future projects.

Someone had asked me to make a 5 by 7 feet blanket for her daughter a while back. She's probably wondering about it. I didn't think it would take this long and it's way more difficult than I thought it would be. She wanted a lacy flower pattern lined with fleece. I started with this flower.

I thought I could make a bunch of flowers and put them together somehow. That didn't work out so well. They didn't seem to fit right any way I tried to put them together, so I had to start over. (Gotta figure out what to do with all those flowers later.)

  I searched for a pattern that I could follow so I didn't have to think so much. I finally found one online and got to work. I made a bunch of panels over a couple months. When I was ready to put it all together, somehow the panels were all different sizes! It was very frustrating. Apparently, I used different hooks which caused them to be different lengths. So, I had to start over again. This time (learning from my mistakes) I was sure to document what I did so that I could pick up where I left off with the right hook and implement whatever changes I made to the pattern. I also put the panels together as they were completed instead of waiting until I had them all finished.

I've been so preoccupied with this blanket project. Every time I think I'm close to being finished, I get excited then I find something else wrong.  This is the blanket on a queen size bed. I measured the blanket and it looks like I need one more panel. Ugh.. Well, at least I don't have to start all over again. I'm so close! One more panel and then the lining...  Oh, the satisfaction of finishing will be sweet. 

Work or Crochet

  Sometimes I wish I could quit my job and just stay at home all day and crochet. Ok, maybe I wish that more than sometimes. Unfortunately, if that were to happen I wouldn't have any money to support my habit. (We're still talking crochet here.) So I have to squeeze in crochet time whenever I can in between my full time job and my other full time job of being mom. (Too bad I can't get money for that one.)

  Here is another floppy sun hat I made with cotton yarn. I like it much better with the cotton. I bought 2 skeins of Sugar and Cream Yarn from Walmart. One wasn't enough, but I didn't use all of the second one.

Flower Pattern from 150 Knit & Crochet Motifs

East Coast Earthquake

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

 

     I have lived on the east coast in the US for most of my life and have never felt an earthquake. We had a small one a couple years back in Maryland. I was on the road, on my way to work, and didn't feel a thing. This one that hit us yesterday was pretty huge as it was felt from Georgia up to New England! The epicenter was in central Virginia and it was a 5.8 magnitude quake.

     I still have never felt an earthquake, not that I'm complaining! I was driving on the road again on my way home from work this time. The quake hit around 1:50pm EST. I left work around 1:40pm. I didn't even know we were having an earthquake until I heard it on the radio! When I got to the baby sitter's house to pick up my kids they were all shook up. Literally! When we got home, I assessed the damage. The only noticeable things were two broken picture frames that had fallen to the floor, drawers that were shaken open, and a bottle of conditioner that had fallen in my shower.

     As for damage in other places, some buildings were hit pretty hard. I'm sure there was more significant damage at the epicenter in Mineral, VA. In DC, specifically the National Cathedral had damage, and they found a crack near the top of the Washington Monument. Power was lost in some places and traffic was a hot mess after all that. 

     Did you feel it?

image from http://www.virtueonline.org/



image from http://www.kjct8.com/



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

Sunshine Award!

   I received the Sunshine Award from Lovestitch from Stitch of Love!  She is such a beautiful person. Always so sweet, kind, and leaves positive, motivating comments on my blog. Thank you so much! For this award I must tell some things about myself and pass it along to 10 other awesome bloggers.

   Hmm... Lets see what don't you know about me? Well, you already know that I'm an addicted to crochet. Maybe you don't know....

• I love peanut butter! (Especiallly Hershey's Reese's. I used to work in Chocolate World in Hershey, PA)
• Music is a necessity in my life. (I love singing and played several instruments in high school)
• I have fired a semi-automatic weapon.. and liked it! (I was in the Army for 8 years)
• I like going swimming, but I'm not a good swimmer. (I almost drowned as a child which caused my mom to get me swimming lessons. I love the beach but, I'm a little scared of the ocean... is that weird?)
• I am shy and very quiet in person (unless I've known you for a while or I've been drinking. I'd rather email than talk. I've gotten better and not as shy as I used to be. I actually looked up the term for fear of people and it's Anthropophobia... I know, useless knowledge..)

   I will be passing the Sunshine Award to the lovely bloggers below. Be sure to check out their blogs and don't forget to stop by Stitch of Love too! 

1. In the Loop
2. Seven Alive
3. Me Like Stuff
4. CraftFro
5. CreativeMe
6. Fabulously Flawed Crochet Creations
7. Handmade by Lilacanglia
8. Just Be
9. My Life...Crocheting & All
10. Double Equis

I Won a Book!

  Can you believe it? Crochet and Other Stuff had a giveaway on her blog and I actually won! It's a great book and has a lot of good info in it. So far I've only skimmed through it and tried a couple new stitches that I haven't seen before. I plan to sit down with it more this week.

Giveaway Alert!

   Do you have any photos you'd like to see blown up on canvas? Lamb at LambAround.blogspot.com is having a giveaway on her blog for a 16"x20" rolled photo canvas from Uprinting.com! Join in the giveaway and while you're there check out the rest of her blog!

Hooked

  What is it about crochet that's got us so hooked? Maybe it's the satisfaction of transforming a single strand of yarn into something beautiful, wearable, or useful. When I first learned how to crochet as a child from my mother, I couldn't see the potential that the yarn had. I thought my only option was to turn it into a boring doily. I didn't want to put in all that work for an unappreciated doily to be thrown to the side somewhere. If I only knew what I had given up so long ago, I could be an amazing crocheter with decades of practice under my belt. Well, you can't dwell on the "what ifs" because it will only drive you crazy, right?

   Even though I don't have years and years of experience I think I'm doing well in my crochetability. (I think I just made up a word, it has a nice ring to it.) I didn't get hooked when I first learned, but boy am I hooked now! I started when my youngest was born. I had to stay home with him for a while. I saw some videos on youtube and said hey, I can do that! So I did. I researched the internet and found craft blogs. I thought, I can do that too! And I did. I kept doing it and here I am. I even have a few patterns of my own. I hope to get better, design some more and get better at this blogging thing too.

   When did you get hooked?

image from http://www.crochetspot.com

Laila's Gift Update

Laila's Gift

  My husband's family is visiting this week and his niece's birthday is today! Happy Birthday Laila! My sister-in-law showed me a small notebook where Laila had drawn out some design sketches for clothes. They are pretty fabulous for a 7 year old! I decided to get her a real sketch book for more of her fashion designs. I found a basic sketch book at Michael's and planned to make it more girly and unique to match the birthday girl herself. I forgot to take a before picture, but it was just a basic plain black book. I got some pretty scrapbook paper and cut some fancy vinyl letters with my Cricut. I think fabric would've been better for the background, but this came out great too. The paper has great texture and is very colorful. I used ModPodge to glue it to the book. So here's what I came up with.

Front Cover

Back Cover

 

Inside cover

  

Another Show and Tell

I love when I get emails from people who've made beautiful things from my patterns! It makes me feel like my work is not in vain. Thanks so much! Here is another floppy sun hat made by Drea. She used 2 strands of Vanna's Glamour yarn. Doesn't she look fabulous? I love the way this yarn looks. Thanks for the pic Drea!

Camera Update

A couple posts ago I mentioned that I was getting myself a new camera. Well, I ended up getting the Sony A390 Digital SLR Camera from Amazon.

   I still have much to learn in my photography skills, so a review from me would not be much help to someone who knows what they're doing. I will say that I'm liking it so far. The only downside is that I want to get a new lens so I can zoom in from a farther distance. The camera came with a 18-55mm lens which is not much of a zoom. Lenses for these type of cameras are expensive! I think it will be worth it, once I can afford it..

   Here are a few pics from our 4th of July celebration in our neighborhood. Some of them came out blurry because I was either moving too much or I couldn't get the settings right for the night pictures.

Good action shot!

It's hard to get a good pic of five kids at once!

Giveaway Winner!

It's that time to announce the winner of my birthday giveaway! It's too bad I can't give everyone a prize. To choose the winner, I went to www.random.org. I input the number of comments, and the generator picked number 5. So the prize goes to Kadie! Congratulations!!  This is only my first giveaway, so you will have other chances to win something here on my blog. As always, thanks for visiting and come back soon!

New Camera

I decided to get myself a little something for my 32nd birthday. Wow, 32... Let's not dwell on that. Anyway, I want to order a new digital SLR camera!  I'm trying to look for a good buy, but I'm not too keen on all the tech specs. If anyone has any input about a really good model, please enlighten me. I was looking at the Canon Rebel XS, but someone said that it's an overpriced camera that's not any better than the one I have. Currently I have a 6 year old Panasonic Lumix. Not sure on the model (too lazy to look). I get these errors sometimes when I turn it on. It says to turn it back off and on again which almost never works so I get mad at it and hit it and that works. The abuse must stop. What about this one? It's a Sony Alpha A230Y. It looks like it could do some cool things and capture my crochet stitches in all it's beauty. Help...

image from amazon.com

Birthday Giveaway!

Today is officially the first day of summer!! Yay! Not only is it the first day of summer, but it is also my birthday! It falls right on the border of Gemini and Cancer, but I would say I'm more of a Gemini.

(Image from bombybo.com)

 For my birthday, I would love to have you celebrate with me, so I am having a giveaway for my followers. I will be giving away these lovely earrings and a matching cute crochet headband both handmade by yours truly!

All you have to do is be a follower of my blog and tell me what YOUR sign is in a comment below. Too easy! Be sure to leave an email address so I can contact you. The giveaway will end next Tuesday on the 28th of June. I will announce the winner on Wednesday the 29th! Open to all who follow my blog, international included. Feel free to blog about my giveaway too!

Hand Painted Jeans

I have a pair of jeans that fit well, but I haven't worn them in a while because of a small stain. So I decided to give them new life and a makeover. I did a google search to get ideas on painting jeans. I found pretty cool designs and some videos with good tips on the subject. Unfortunately I didn't take a before pic or a during pic. Oops. But I do have a pic of the final outcome. Well, sorta final.

After I wash the jeans the black outline will be washed away. I used some images that I found online and traced them onto some tracing paper with a charcoal pencil. Then I rubbed the image onto the jeans and filled it in with gold acrylic paint. I used a medium that makes any acrylic paint into fabric paint. I turned the jeans inside out and heat set the paint with an iron. The videos with the tips can be found here.

Order Up

I've been working on an order for a customer and it's finally ready to be shipped out. She ordered a JamRock Rasta Hat and these three other hats. Thanks, K for your support! Hats and other accessories can be ordered in my online store, PerfectMix Creations.

Green Newsboy

All White Button Adorned

Yellow Soldier Cap

Show and Tell

Here are a few more pictures from people who have used my free patterns. My floppy sun hat seems to be the most popular. I love how you can take someone's pattern and make it in your own style. I think that's why I like crochet so much, it's so versatile.

Here is Heather's Floppy sun hat. It came out great!

And here is Elizabeth's Floppy sun hat. Elizabeth used a J hook, and a G hook for the brim. She used two strands, one size 10 thread and the other size 3 thread.

Beautiful job ladies! Thank you very much for the pictures!

An update

I've been neglecting my blog. Sometimes life gets in the way. So I just wanted to let you know that I will be back to my old self soon enough. I plan to get some more free patterns on here and some more show and tell of what people have made with my patterns. A big thank you to those who have been following my blog. You are a great motivator.

 

~Michelle

Wings for my Sackboy

  A friend of mine requested a purple Sackboy with wings. I tried to freestyle and make my own wings but I didn't like how they turned out. So I searched online to see if I could find a pattern to work off of. I found this dragon pattern. The dragon looks really cool, but for now I just made the wings. The free pattern can be found here. I also made a little halo that I forgot to take a picture of. It looked cute.