The Easter Bunny Came!

Here are some photos from my time in my home town with my family for Easter:

Hubby and I on Easter Sunday

My adorable parents 

Game time! (sister Rach grinning) 

I won this game! (I'm the yellow) 

My mom never fails to feed us way too much good food. 

Brothers: My hubby, and Rachel's hubby Nathan :)

Molly's first Easter

I think she likes her pretty Easter dress! 

so cute! 

alright, this is the the last one. At least of my family, I'll do another post for my crafting while I was there! I just had to show you how Molly crosses her ankles like a lady, cause it's so cute!

Hope you all had a very blessed Easter celebrating that our Lord is risen, risen indeed! And that through that truth we know that by grace, through faith, in Christ, we will be risen and know eternal life too!

Thank you Jesus! 

Eggs

I have the extreme good fortune of living relatively close to my family (my sister, her husband, and my parents all live about a 2 hour drive away). So, I get to visit them on holidays and make regular trips, and it isn't a huge expense or burden to travel! This means that for the entire week of Spring break, I'm going to be with my mom and dad and sister's family! I get to play with my niece and actually contribute to her first easter basket, which is so fun!

This inspired me to crochet up a few things for my family including these two easter egg shaped amigurumi:

the bunny is for my niece, Molly

 the egg is for my mom's dog.

I know...pathetic that I crocheted a toy for a dog, but if you knew this dog, you'd understand. Trust me. 

I've had a lot of fun whipping up these real short little projects, cause they're just so darn cute!! You get maximum effect with minimum effort and time :) gotta love that, right??

Update

I apologize for my absence. Quite honestly I have felt less than inspired to blog, and the circumstance of having no digital camera in the last two weeks has not helped. However, since my absence, I have gotten a decent amount of crocheting done on my granny squares, and have finished a doll for my niece. I have also purchased a new camera to document all the things that you have been missing out on!

It's a Nikon Coolpix L110, and so far I'm loving the quality and clarity of the images! See for yourself on some of my pics I've taken since getting it:

Amigurumi Friday! -features

My newest amigurumi, just finished yesterday was full of features and techniques I had yet to tackle. So today I would like to discuss how give our amigurumi features :)

Here she is! my lovely fuchsia lady bug.

Safety eyes with simple crocheted chains attached above the eyes in order to give her eyelids; yarn straight stitched for mouth; yarn knotted at both ends to secure antennae.

Embroidery thread straight stitched down the middle for wings; felt sown on with embroidery thread, and a simple chain-stitched heart- also with embroidery thread. (sewing done with tapestry needle instead of my usual plastic yarn needle)

Here is a clearer image of the chain stitched heart. I wanted her to look like she had a sweet tattoo :)

As you can see, I have incorporated a little embroidery, a little felt, some yarn, and also safety eyes. 

Throughout my process of learning and improving on my craft of making amigurumi, I have sought to make the features more interesting, more kid friendly, and more cute! The techniques of using embroidery floss, tapestry needles, safety eyes, and felt were all new to me this time around. Up until now I've only ever tried using yarn or simple sewing thread to embroider/stitch on facial features and other details. 

So now that I've tried all these techniques, what do I recommend? Anything and everything! It's all great. As long as you feel comfortable and happy using them!

A word on safety eyes:

Though they are pretty darn secure, safety eyes used in amigurumi can still pose a choking hazard to kids under the age of 3. 

If you would like to try them, check out your local craft store! I found mine next to the googly eyes :)

You can purchase them in different sizes. Mine are 9mm. 
They come with a front part (the black screw like thingy) that goes through your crocheted object from the front to the back, and a back (the circular, clear plastic thingy) that secures itself onto the post of the front part from the back of the crocheted object. It is important that if you want to use these that you plan ahead! You cannot attach safety eyes once the object is stuffed and closed up. You must do it before!

Well folks, before I leave you, I thought I'd look over some of the lovely faces I have made with these simple techniques throughout this blog:

Happy crocheting!

Help!

I'm stuck with no project to crochet! I have so many options, but nothing really stands out to me! I'd like to make a cute thing for baby- booties, amigurumi, sweater, cap...something that works up fast and turns out really cute.

I feel so lost for inspiration. Any ideas??

Babysitting Molly

Today I am babysitting my niece :)

What I did during the superbowl:

Yay Saints! (I just like it when the underdogs win!)

Introducing: Elephant

This is my latest crochet creation, and I just love him! He worked up super cute and super fast too!

(The trunk is made pliable by placing a pipe cleaner in the trunk. I chose not to stuff it, as well as the ears. )

Another excellent FREE pattern from Lion Brand found here. 



I just am having a difficult time trying to decide whether I should give him eyes. I kind of like him plain... do you agree? I'm contemplating using embroider floss and giving him eyes like this:

What do you think?

Sleepy Sheep

Free Pattern from Harugurumi Blog- Sleepy Sheep

Sleepy sheep will soon have a new sleepy sheep friend

Want to make your own? go to this site!

Molly is 6 months!

I cannot believe my niece is already 6 months old! And she's huge!

I made a pair of booties for her for Christmas, and they were too small, so I had to make a second pair. Now I just hope I can get them to her before those ones are too small too!

Teddy Bear

(I love his little bum!)

I usually am against purchasing patterns, simply because there are a plethora of amazing free patterns online. My thinking is, if I can get something just as good for free, why pay for it? The problem with my obsession for free patterns is that sometimes, there simply isn't a good enough free pattern online for the object you desire to create. This is the problem I ran into when trying to find a cute-enough teddy-bear pattern. I wanted it to actually somewhat resemble a teddy bear, and it seemed that although there were plenty free patterns out there, nothing looked right. That is until I came upon a pattern on about.com under their crochet section. Sandi Marshall has designed a teddy bear, and a good sized one too that is super cute, and I finally had myself a pattern worth making! (You can find the free pattern here)

My friend's baby Josiah just had his 1st birthday so he was the lucky recipient of this adorable bear! Now all I need are pictures of him playing with it!






This is some of the construction of the teddy bear. I used worsted weight yarn on all his features including his nose and eyes so he is completely baby-safe!