Pinned again

Storage and display are two things that I both like, and at times am annoyed that I don't have enough of either!  I'm constantly organizing and reorganizing as I go to find the best way to keep my materials, see my materials, and use my materials.  If money were no object I would have a bigger house that had a room dedicated to my sewing... heck, I would have a whole wing of a house dedicated to all my crafting loves... but money is an object, of which we rarely have a ton of extra laying around.

Until money magically starts fallin from the sky right into my pocket, my sewing/crafting is in our master suite.  After much discussion and measuring, and thinking and rethinking, really the best (and only) option was one wall in our room.  Well, part of a wall, our dogs and their beds ended up with about a third of the wall...

Anyway, one of my pin boards is craft room inspiration, and I regularly find neat and new ways to keep things... but with life so busy lately I really haven't been able to implement anything until today!  I needed to run to the craft store for something, and I have a 20% off my entire purchase coupon... so I went browsing to see if I could find those cool curtain hangers... the loops with the little clips!  SCORE!  They are perfect for hanging fabrics from!  Right now I have the fabrics I've been using for the earbud pouches hanging.  It makes it so easy to grab, cut and then rehang!

Pinderific

Yeah, I'm just making up new words that start with Pin... that's how I do's it :-).

This week I managed a few different pins.  Yeah, go ME!  Actually I'm sort of surprised I did because my brain was pretty hyper focused on Thanksgiving and the fact that this was the first time I was hosting, the first time we've ever cooked a turkey, and the all other manner of Thanksgiving day preparation!

Anyhoooooo, the pins that I worked this week were:


An earbud case:

It is loosely based on this pattern!

Then there are the hats! I'm in love with making hats. They are simple, and quick!

And last, but not least a food item. I made bacon wrapped green beans for Thanksgiving.  They were super easy to make, and my crowd loved them!  I highly recommend them!

Week of Nov. 14th - Pins

I was super busy with homeschooling and co-op with the kids that blogging about the pins was WAY down on my list of tasks to actually get accomplished... but working on a pin or two was at the top :-).

So last week I did a food pin: Applesauce Pork Loin

It came out so tender, so tasty, and was oh so easy to make!  I served it with mashed potatoes, which was a nice compliment to the apple flavor.  As per my usual take on things (actually hubby thought of it first), the next time I make this, instead of applesauce make an apple compote.  It will just a different dimension to this already great recipe!

My second pin I used was for crocheting hats.  Do the Math!

I have found a great love for whipping out crochet hats.  I like playing around with stitches and patterns, but with that comes a whole lot of guess work as to how many rows, and stitches for each sizing group.  Thankfully, after a few times of pulling out the entire hat in frustration, I clicked on this pin and have since written it out and it sits on my craft table at a handy reach!  A new must have for me!!!

Just keep pinnin'

I am fulfilling my Pin It - Make It weekly challenge... I'm just not getting the camera + blog about it portion together.  This is the current set of hats/beanies I've made in the last few days.  Each one is from a different pattern I've found thru Pinterest.  I'm trying as many as I get my hooks into to find ones that work the best for me... easy to fit to the heads I'm trying to accommodate... and which works best for alternation (maybe that is what I just have named this blog... something about alteration ;-)

Anywhooooooo, what you are seeing from left to right: a sweet little doll hat, a cute striped hat for an adorable nephew I had the pleasure of seeing over the weekend, and the lovely bright green and the bright green is for my youngest son.  The multi-colored circle is the eye-ball that will go on the front, for a super cute monster hat!  He's very excited.  Now I just need to come up with fun ideas for the other two sons!

Rose revisited

As I mentioned in my previous post about the rose that I worked on, I wasn't totally sold on how it came out. I pulled it out several time, restarting it, adjusting it... finally I pulled it out and used a smaller hook (H, the smallest I could use with this yarn).  The results really weren't all that different with the over-all size in my opinion, but the stitches seamed tighter (and in my mind a little neater).  I took a few shots so you can see what it looks like before it is coiled up and then after it is coiled.

When all was said and done, you can (sort of) see from the ruler that the diameter is around 6 inches... it is LARGE.  Now, this is about twice the size from the original tute I was working from.  Going back and looking at her finished project she really has a very tight coil, and I was able to get approximately to her size by wrapping it tightly... but the more I looked at it the more I preferred it to be an open flower.  So I cut it from the ball and shored it up.  I think, after a few weeks of working with it and looking at it, that I'm pleased with it and will let it be.  I have a few ideas of what to do with it, but that will take some time and possibly a run to the local craft store... for now I will just set it on my shelf and enjoy it as a finished product!

Pin the tale on the croc!

The Crocodile Stitch! Okay, I'm not saying I have it perfect yet... but hey, I just started it yesterday... and I'm starting to get the hang of it!

Now, after checking out this tute, I quickly realized that I didn't really GET the written pattern.  With hook and yarn in hand, I watched the YouTube videos she posted and all became much more clear!

Once I get finished with further along I will post another pic.

Week of Oct 10th - Pinned it

So last week I didn't post, but I did complete a pinned project.  It was a tutorial on a crochet rose found here:


Rose Tutorial with Wreath

Now, I would show a picture of my own work, but the fact is I'm not real pleased with it.  I made it once, and completely took it apart and started over again because I think I did it wrong.  After completing it a second time (does that count for this week's pin?) I'm still not satisfied with it.  So, that being said... go to her blog, and try it yourself and let me know if it worked for you!

Pin of the week

Well, I haven't decided if this will count.  First off, I can't find the pin. I was going to pin it, but the page refreshed and I couldn't find it at all... trust me I spent far too much time looking to find it again.  So that's the first reason I'm not sure if I'm going to let it count, the second would be it was a cleaning thing and not really a making thing... which I think is what I had in mind when I took on the challenge...

Anyway, so if it does count, here's what it was:

Drain cleaning...

Pour baking soda down the naughty drain... wait 5 minutes
Pour boiling water down drain... wait 10 minutes
Pour 1 cup of bleach down drain!

Drain will be free of the nasty black gunk you can see just under the rim, and the smell will also be GONE!  I really needed to do this for the boys bathroom, and it worked wonders for their sink!  So there you go, and easy drain cleaner with supers that we moms usually always have on hand!