Vocabulary

Lydia:  "I'm an artocologist."

Me:  "What's an artocologist?"

Lydia:  "Someone who loooves art."

:)

I'm Hooked!

Been having a ball with crochet!  Here are a few more projects completed.

Found a pattern for a cute little heart, here.  Made 16 red and 16 white...

then strung them on some fishing line...

and draped on the mantle.

Then, I made 4 bookmarks for my little bookworm as stocking stuffers--sssshhhh!  don't tell her!

Did the first round of this heart pattern, made this flower, but modified a bit since my yarn was much bigger, made this birdie, and this butterfly--size tiny.  I glued each item to a 12" ribbon and then glued a piece of felt as a backing.  I used fabric glue.

Last night I whipped up these slippers.  I used this pattern, but had to just wing it because her pattern was for size 5 (I'm size 8) and my yarn was bigger and I didn't do the strap and so wanted them to cover a bit more of my foot.

Crafting

I am trying to fit in some time for crafting this holiday season.  I decided to try my hand at crocheting.  I learned the basic stitch when I was 10, but only made a pot holder and perhaps a doll blanket.  There is so much available online to learn how to crochet, refresh your memory, or find some great patterns.  After practicing a couple types of stitches yesterday, I turned out these two coin purses today.  It was a lot of fun!

Oops, forgot to put a link to the pattern.  Here it is.

No-Sew Patchwork Fleece Quilt

Lydia enjoying her new fleece blanket I made.

This is a no-sew (which is good for me) patchwork fleece quilt.  It was supposed to be bigger, but it turned out to be about 3 foot by 3 foot.  Good size for a doll.  Or baby, but we don't have any of those in this house.

This pic shows the underside, the one without fringe.  Lydia likes that side better.  I like both.

I'm posting this because I searched all over and could not find instructions for a blanket like this, only a kit to buy.  Here is the video for the kit - (Oh, sorry, I realized my column width is not big enough.  I suggest you watch on YouTube.)

Source: youtube.com via Elizabeth on Pinterest

You can buy the kit here.  But I figured I could do it myself in the colors Lydia wanted, for less.  :)

All of the instructions I found online were for a 2-ply fleece blanket that was only fringed on the edges, but I like the patchwork look.  Now, I learned a bit by doing it myself.  I cut 8-inch squares, but by the time I knotted the fringe together, my squares ended up only being about 4 inches.  Thus the small baby doll size blanket.  Oh well.  Next time I do it, I will cut large squares, maybe 12 inches, or even 18 inches, so that after knotting they will still be decent size.  If you would like to try this and need more instructions than the above video provides, I found this yesterday - JoAnn Project.  If that link doesn't work, try this - JoAnn Project.


I measured my squares to cut them into the 8-inch size, but after that I just eyeballed them.  I cut little squares out of each corner (maybe 1 1/2 by 1 1/2 or even 2 by 2 inches), then I had what looked like the Red Cross symbol.  Then cut finger size fringe on all four sides.

Christmas Train

Enjoying the traditional Sonic meal before Train.

A little Air Hockey.

A fun puppet show.

Love the fire pits.

The train.

Waiting for Funnel Cake.

Fun on the Carousel.

Keeping warm.

Horse-drawn wagon ride through a trail, hearing Clement's Night Before Christmas.

Finally, sitting on the train, getting ready to pull out of the station.

More Redecorating

We painted our room last week.  Here are two before shots, and then three after.

A New Look

Lydia has lived with plain white painted walls for her 5 years of life.  Plus her room still had remnants of what it was before she was born--storing DVD shelves, and a huge picture of the Beatles hanging on the wall.  We finally had the chance to turn it into a girly room, all her own.  Here are some pictures of a semi-completed project.  Next week I will paint her doors, a bookshelf, and some art to hang on her wall.

Close-up of border -

Full wall -

With flash.  It makes the colors seem unrealistically bright, but it shows the color wash better.