Child's Retro Purse

This is another purse that I made. I think it has a very retro feel about it. I used a free pattern I found on the internet and then made a few changes to it...like the fringe. I have found that the adults in the household love this purse where the younger family members think it's weird. LOL My daughter (aged 12) said that if I add beads to the fringe, maybe it will look better. What do you think? It's a gift for one of my nieces.

Child's Purse or Clutter Bag

This is a purse or clutter bag that I made from a free pattern off the internet. It uses an empty, clean, whipped topping tub as the base or bottom of the bag to make it more sturdy. I have made this for my 4 year old niece as I think she'll be able to put her crayons and things like that in it and not have them fall through. The top part of it will collapse down but I put it up for the photo. It was pretty quick and easy to make. The hardest part was punching the holes around the top edge of the container with a hole punch. I'm not as strong as I used to be. LOL

The Ugly Duckling Blanket

This is the Ugly Duckling Blanket I made and posted about earlier in my blog.

It was a basic pattern that I altered by doing stripes instead of making it a solid color. I also added a bit more of the border. And I made it longer than the original pattern called for. I held two different colors of yarn together for each stripe as I was crocheting. I think this has a very homespun look about it and I actually like it when I didn't think that I would.

Once again, a big thanks to the lady that told me about the Ugly Duckling Blanket and gave me the inspiration to do one of my own.....Elizabeth.

My house is full of ...

sick people! UGH! This has been going on for a couple of weeks now and it seems like it's never going to end. It started out with allergies and has gone on to bigger and badder things lately. I just finished a round of medication treating me for pneumonia and the day after I took my last pill, I started feeling even worse and came down with more symptoms. *sigh* I'm feeling worse again today after a couple of days of feeling a bit better. But, until today, only a few people at a time were sick in my household....now they are ALL sick. I should buy stock in the cough drop, tissue, and allergy medicine companies as I would be making some big bucks right now. I hope everyone else is managing to stay well during this allergy time of year.

I'm so excited!!!

I'm going to my first scrapbooking class tomorrow and I signed my daughter and sister up to go as well. I can't wait to learn new techniques and see all the great ideas. I am not a scrapbooker per se, but a person that does altered books. I have started one scrapbook and that was my oldest son's senior year scrapbook last year. I haven't finished it up yet but I've made pretty good headway on it. I will let everyone know how the class goes and what types of new things I learned to do. I can't wait! I'm so excited! LOL

Crochet Corner

Let's see....I've been doing some crocheting whenever I can find a bit of time to think and relax. I've made several cute little purses for my niece Cleo as Christmas gifts (she's 4 and really into carrying a purse). The most unusual one I made started out as a pattern for something else and I ended up altering it a bit and adding fringe and it turned out fabulous. The base pattern I used for it can be found on the Lion Brand website http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/81043AD.html . I also made one that uses an empty whipped topping container as the base for the purse to make it sturdier. It turned out pretty well. Here's the link for the pattern http://www.jpfun.com/patterns/free/bags/f125004_amandasclutterbag.shtml . I made a few changes in it to suit my needs but otherwise I followed the pattern exactly.

My current crochet project is called an "ugly duckling blanket". I cannot take the credit for it as an aquaintance is the one that shared the idea for this. It uses a basic pattern found here http://www.craftbits.com/project/charity-pattern-4-1-2-hour-crochet-afghan . At the other lady's suggestion, the blanket is made using scrap yarn which turns it into an "ugly duckling blanket". What I did differently is that I held two different colors of yarn together when crocheting and I switched off the colors every 6 rows to make it a striped blanket. I have a lot of yarn for which I have either one skein or less per color. So this is really using the yarn up and it's turning out quite interesting. I am also making the blanket longer by using more than the 57 rows that it calls for. I will also add more of a border to the blanket than what the pattern calls for. I started this blanket last night while I was talking to my sister Marie and within a couple of hours, I had it over half done. This will be another Christmas gift and I'm seriously considering making another one as well. Now, these are not big blankets, but small ones...suitable for a young child to use as a cover up while watching TV or something like that.

I have one more project in the works right now. It is for a crayon purse. The pattern came off the internet and I'm sure you could type in the words free crayon purse pattern on google or another search engine like that and find lots of patterns to choose from. This pattern uses very little yarn, so it's another way for me to use up all those odds and ends of yarn that are just lying around looking at me.

I'll let you know when I get these finished and if I can get some pictures loaded on here, I'll post them as well.

The Book Nook

I have finished reading the rest of the books that have been published in the series "The Ranger Apprentice". That means I have read books 2, 3, 4 and 5. I had thought that book 5 was the end of the series but I was wrong. With the way it ends, there is most definitely another book in the making. These books are definitely worth the read for anyone interested in rangers, fighters, wizards, and so on. They are a young adult series that I bought hoping to interest my sons in a bit of reading and I have enjoyed them immensely. This is my second time reading the series and I hope that others will enjoy these books as much as we have. They are a worthwhile addition to my library here at home.