Cute plant holder

We recently got back from a trip to Arizona to visit family before Christmas. As we were getting ready to leave my mother-in-law's house, she rushed out of the room saying, "Oh, I want to give you a plant!" My heart sunk. I have a history of murdering plants. However, when I walked into the kitchen and saw that it was one of those plants you put in water, not soil, I agreed to accept it.  I do okay with that sort of self-maintaining plant!

What I love about this particular plant that she gave me was what she had it in. Can you guess what it is?

 Really, it just looks like a rock, and I didn't think too much about it until she explained what it was.

Look closer.

It's a toothbrush holder!! Any style would do! There are so many cute novelty toothbrush holders out there, could you imagine the possibilities? I love this idea!! What do you think?

Bearded Beanies

When my sister sent me a link to a crocheted bearded beanie site asking me if I could make one for her, I didn't even have to open the link to know exactly what she was looking for. I have been seeing patterns for bearded beanies all over the place. I had thought they were sort of silly (which is, of course, the point), and knew my husband wouldn't wear one, so I hadn't put much thought into it. However, once I got started, my sister ordered several more, and I decided to make some as gifts, as well.

The beard is detachable and attaches to the inside with buttons.

My cousin was the first recipient of the bearded beanie, and he loved it! He actually worked with me on tweaking some aspects of the pattern. In this picture, the beard is just safety pinned into place.

Although it's a silly novelty item, my cousin was grateful to have this when he went out to shovel snow! Fun and useful, too!

Christmas Gift-A-Palooza!!

Before we went to Arizona to visit family for an early Christmas, I got the crazy idea to make everyone something for Christmas! You can only imagine how the yarn and paint flew around my house for the weeks leading up to the trip! I finally had a moment to share with you some of the items that I made!

I absolutely love love love this trivet I made for my aunt (who shares in my love of crochet).

I have actually made several of these but forgot to get pictures before presenting them. I wish I'd gotten a picture of the poinsettia inspired one I made for my mom. It was so beautiful.

 

After I finished this tote bag for my niece Brilee, I had to force myself to give it to her. It turned out so pretty that I wanted to make one for myself (like I need another bag!).

I absolutely love the giant mum on the front.

. Brilee's mom liked the bag so much she told me she wasn't going to let Brilee use it, she wanted to tuck it away and keep it nice. I begged her to let her use it, promising to make another next year!

My niece, Natalie, loved her bag, too. She informed me that purple is her favorite color (which I had discovered through not so sly investigation- I had asked her mom!)

6 year old Sarah isn't so much of a girly-girl, but she does love dinosaurs and pink and purple. When I found this pattern for a stuffed stegosaurus, I decided to play with the pattern and turn it into a purse.

I knew I wanted to make each of the girls a hat. Since two of them are sisters, I just decided to make matching ones for pictures and such. This pattern was so easy and fun, and the girls loved them!

I knew Sarah wouldn't be into the "frilly" hat, so I decided to make her a fun hat as well. She definitely preferred this one to the other:

For me, boys are a bit harder to craft for. However, Zach's mom had told me that he liked Transformers. This beanie didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, but he loved it and it fit him perfectly!

This next project was very close to my heart, I would love to make one for every woman I know. It was a fun and fairly easy project to make.... which is good since I need one for myself!

And last, but most certainly not least.... I saw on Wal-mart's site that you could personalize a bucket with snowman themed snowballs inside. At $20, I knew I could do it so much cheaper- and I think it came out even cuter!!!

I have to tell you, when my cousin's girls saw this, they went crazy. We had so much fun with this indoor snowball fight (presented with a box of hot cocoa and marshmallows for warming up afterwards), I hope to make one for my home, too!! Hey, there are two kids living here, after all. Old kids, but kids nonetheless!

If only Christmas wasn't just a week away.... so many projects, so little time!

Christmas Wreath with a Twist

I'm starting to feel like I've fallen off the face of the planet with blogging. It's not that I'm not crafting. In fact, I'm crafting SO much that I've been overwhelmed at posting it all.

Because of work, my husband and I made an early trip to see my family before Thanksgiving. I had been on the lookout for a project I could do with my sister while we were there, but she actually beat me to it. She showed up at my moms' house with this prize that she'd won at Bunco the night before:

It was so cute, we decided to make a few more of them for Christmas presents. I got so caught up with working on mine, that Tracy ended up doing nearly all of the work on these Christmas wreaths for my aunt and grandma.

 

Didn't they come out so pretty? I felt guilty that I didn't help her more with hers, especially since I didn't end up finishing mine that day anyway. It's not a difficult project, but because I'd chosen different styles of ornaments, I was struggling to decide how to put it together. My "wreath" actually sat in my basement for nearly 2 weeks before I finally finished it. It is nothing like the beautiful wreath's that Tracy created, but it came out kind of cute, anyway!

Really adds to that horrible brick wall in my kitchen!

Overall, this really is a fun and simple project!  There are so many different directions that you can take it, and you can really personalize it to your taste!

Snowbulbs

I am a saver. I can't help it. I look at things and see possibilities past the purpose they have already served. So, when a light bulb burned out in my bathroom several months ago, I couldn't quite bring myself to throw it away. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but I knew I would find something! Don't I always?

When I saw this tutorial , I knew I had found the perfect project for my bulbs (which multiplied fairly quickly!).

 Now, I will admit that I actually like Amanda's better. I love the plaid scarf that she used on hers. Way cute!! However, I really love love love how mine turned out as well!!

 This was such a fun and easy project, I will probably make more, even though I'll have to buy the bulbs! At 4 for  $1, what a cheap project! I like her penguin, too, so my little Snowbulbs may be getting some waddling buddies!

 Can't wait to get them on my tree!!!!

Our Halloween Creations

I don't know about you, but our Halloween was pretty quiet. Regardless of the fact that we'd heard that our neighborhood doesn't get many Trick-or-Treaters, we'd decided that this year we were definitely going to carve pumpkins. 

Technically, I don't feel I have the right to say I carved my pumpkin. I spent more time cleaning the guts out of my pumpkin than actually carving it. Really though, I couldn't see the point in telling the story of a pumpkin that spoke for itself.  

Quite a stark contrast between my pumpkin and my hubby's. Cute meets gruesome. If he'd had his way, Snoopy would've had a bite taken out of his head .... I'll leave the gory details at that.

 Since my pumpkin didn't take long, I decided to make some fun little additions for our display.

 Just wouldn't have been the same without them!

Hope your Halloween was creepy fun!

Falling Leaves

Remember these?

I still love my soda can butterflies! They make me smile every time I see them! Somehow, though, they just weren't quite fitting in with all of my pumpkins and scarecrows. I needed something a little more.... Fall.

 

 Aaaaahhh, that's better!

What's so great about these, I can leave them up clear through November, as well!! Multi-purpose!!