Easter Candy Bar Wrapper

We had a wonderful time in Las Vegas.  We spent 5 days there.  We visited Hoover Dam, Excalibur, an arcade, Build-A-Bear, the World Finals Monster Truck competition, my cousin and her family, Church, the LDS temple and a yummy sushi place. It was great.  My favorite part was visiting with my cousin.  She and I have always been close, and eventhough we haven't seen each other for a couple of years due to distance, it felt like it had been yesterday since our last visit.

When we got home, we were welcomed by my sister and kids.  That was fun, too.  The kids loved playing with their cousins.  I am so grateful the weather was nice so they could play outside A LOT!  8 kids who are running on excitement can be exhausting!! My sister and I managed to try to be a little crafty.  At the grocery store, we found a cart full of the BIG candy bars for $.59 ea.  Score!  We loaded up on them.  The picture above is what I ended up doing with the 12 I got.  As I was addressing each tag, I realized I needed one more.  Oh well.

This morning I am relaxing now that my vacation(s) are over.  I am feeling the old adage- I need a vacation from my vacation.  The positive part, though, is that I am feeling better than I have.  3 1/2 weeks of bed is not fun.

Happy Easter!

Stash Buster #12 Gel Ice Pack Pillow

I am so excited about this one for lots of reasons! First, it is very practical and needed at the current time in my life; second, I love the way it turned out; and third, I used a new stitch which is really fun.
So, what am I so excited about? Gel Ice Pack Pillow.  I have been layering washcloths and ice packs on my face for a couple of weeks now. During one of my moments of frustration I thought, "I should make something that would keep these layers together."  Some of the best inventions are created out of necessity!

 

 

I even remembered to post a picture of the yarns I used from my stash.  As you can see, most of my yarns are not in beautiful balls.  Once upon a time.  I don't even remember when that part of my life went out the door!

I wanted to share an up close photo of the sedge stitch I used.  It is one I will definitely work with again.  To create this stitch you need any set of 3 stitches + 1.  For the chain base, add 2.  Turn.  Skip 2 ch, HDC & DC in next stitch; *skip 2 ch, SC, HDC & DC in next st, repeat from * until end.  In last stitch, SC only.
Consecutive rows: Turn, CH 1 (counts as SC), HDC & DC in same st, skip 2 st and repeat from *. That's it!  It has a nice subtle texture and pretty pattern.

To top this off, I made homemade gel packs.  Oh! No! I forgot to take a photo of one.  However, here is the recipe.

HOMEMADE GEL PACKS

1/2 C rubbing alcohol
1 C  water
Blue food coloring
ZipLoc sandwich bag
Food Saver bag and sealer, opt.

Fill sandwich bag with ingredients.  Seal. Place in freezer overnight.  How simple is that?  They work great!

Stashbusters #9-#11 Amigurami

Hello! As I am looking at my pictures, I realized I haven't glued the eyes onto my turtle, and I don't have an individual photo of my knitted bunny (lol)! Oh.  I also forgot to take photos of the yarns I used from my stash.  Oops! I created the snail with the intention of using her for "My Phonics" preschool mat curriculum I am working on, but alas she is TOO big.  She is about 7 inches long.  For my educational purposes, this won't do.  From my little princess' perspective, that is just fine.  I will have to make a mini snail. The turtle with the missing eyes (lol) is for my oldest son.  He really wanted a cute puppy, but after my ugly cheetah I made for my second son, I lost the excitement to make a puppy.  I might have to practice some more, but amigurami is not my favorite.  The knitted rabbit is my second attempt at knitting.  I found a really good tutorial at http://josoandsew.wordpress.com/tutorials/knitted-bunnies/.  I made mine 15 stitches larger than she did.  I think I will make one a little smaller than hers.  It is very cute and a very good beginner project. Yea!

Stash Buster #8 Tropical Flower Headband

OK, so it is really UNUSUAL for me to post more than once a day! As you may have noticed, I haven't been consistent with posting on a regular basis for a while. I don't have that much free time with homeschooling, cooking, cleaning, creating, etc., but I have been under the weather and so I have had a little more time lately. As I was browsing on Pinterest earlier this morning, I ran across a really pretty crochet flower and thought, "That would be perfect for the headband I want to make." Unfortunately, it did not have a corresponding pattern. I printed the picture and picked it apart and thought, "I can do that!" Of course, I had to get to work while the puzzle pieces were in my mind!

The result? My tropical flower headband!!  I love it.  I am uploading the pattern, which I typed up today, too, onto my website.  The link is on the right column.  I am just tickled with the way it turned out.  If you like it, let me know!

Happy hooking!

Stash Buster #7 Beaded Watch

Hello! Hello! I bought a watch face at Michaels on clearance a year ago with the intention of making myself a watch. Well, it took me almost a year to get around to it! I am quite pleased with the results. I used a HDC Multiple Cluster stitch. It gives the fabric a nice texture. To work a HDC Multiple Cluster stitch, you need a any stitch count of 2 stitches + 1. So, you could have 8+1=9 or 20+1=21. For the base chain, you need to add 1 more. At the beginning of the row, chain 2 (counts as 1HDC), *1 MC (multiple cluster) by YO, insert hook into same stitch, YO, draw loop through, YO, draw through 2 loops, skip 1 st, [YO, insert hook into next stitch, YO, draw loop through] 2x in same st (6 loops on hook), YO, draw through all loops on hook. Wah! Lah! Repeat from * across row. You should finish an MC in last stitch. HDC into same place and turn. Begin again. Have fun. Hope you enjoy!

Stash Buster #6 Crochet Book Tote

I am so excited to share this. I have been working on it for 2 weeks now. I finally finished it last night. This is my new scripture tote. I got the inspiration from Laura at http://tillietulip.blogspot.com/. I just love her daisy granny. She has a free tutorial on her blog. I put a fabric lining on the inside. It has 2 pockets, one on each end. One of them is divided into smaller pockets for pens, etc. After I finished the handle, I decided I wanted to embellish it with a matching daisy. I had to modify it, however, because I didn't want it to be a granny square. So..... DAISY EMBELLISHMENT PATTERN 1) I began with a magic circle and did 11 sc into the center. SL into top of first one. 2) With pink color, I SL into any space, *then chain 4, 2 TC (treble) in same space, chain 4, and SL into same space. 3) SL into next space and repeat from *. To finish off SL into base of first petal. Fasten off. Weave in ends. Really easy! I added a corkscrew instead of leaves. Using brown yarn, chain 32. Turn. HDC in 3rd chain, 2 HDC in each of remaining chains. Fasten off. Weave in ends. I ended up using more yarn colors than I had originally posted. Here is what is left of the colors I ended up using. Thanks for stopping!

ABC Lotto & Number Wheel Games

Wow! I can't believe it is already Thursday. It has been such a busy week. We have finished learning the alphabet in preschool, and I wanted a fun way to review the letters and sounds with my little princess. Thus, ABC Lotto was invented. This is not a new concept, but I had a different spin on the activity. I laminated my boards- each card is different. I purposely made one with the letters in alphabetical order. I gave each player a handful of chocolate chips. Of course, they got to put 2 chocolate chips on the freebie stars. From my board (alphabetical order), I called out, "What letter makes the .... sound." When they found it on their board, they put a chocolate chip on it. Because the boards are not organized in the typical Bingo manner, when a player got 4 in a row vertically, he/she could eat 3 chocolate chips from his/her pile. This also helped review one-to-one counting of 3 and 4. I randomly picked a letter from my board and marked it off with a dry erase marker. After the game was over, I simply sprayed each board with my homemade disinfectant spray and wiped with a paper towel. Good as new! Ready for the next game. You can download this game on my website. The link is on my sidebar. Hope you enjoy. Oh! I made one in alphabetical order so that I could use it as mentioned above, but also so we can review the letters in order. To do so, just use the one board, point to any letter and say, "What comes after the letter ....?" or "What comes before the letter ...?" You could also have each child find the letters in his/her name and place markers (chocolate chips or ?) on those squares. The second game I created this week is the Number Wheel. Once again, this is not a new concept; however, my little one can count one-to-one up to 10 and I wanted to challenge her a little more. So, my number wheel goes up to 16. I will be gluing my circles onto clothes pins. Why? Because I like to kill more than one bird with each stone. The clothes pins not only are the means to match the numeral with the amount of dots, but will also build finger dexterity and coordination. Opening and closing the pins strengthens little muscles that are just developing. You can also download this game from my website. I will post my finished game here(when I get the clothes pins glued on). Until then, here is the photo of the wheel and some of the circles. Happy learning! -Dari OK. Here is the finished photo. Hope you enjoy! My little princess sure has.

Life's little Satisfactions!

OK, so hopefully you are not as bad as I am! I hate cleaning the fridge. It is one of those chores that I despise. Maybe if I did it as often as I should, it wouldn't be so bad. The last time I scrubbed out the fridge was Thanksgiving! I decided to swallow my pride and take a before and after picture. As I was cleaning, I was creating my post in my mind. I was going to take a picture afterwards of a sparkling clean EMPTY fridge and say, "Unfortunately, I have to put the food back in." The funny thing is that after I got done cleaning, I forgot that little detail! It wasn't until I got all the food back in that I realized I hadn't taken a picture of my clean fridge. LOL!! So, here is the picture of my clean organized fridge. After I scrubbed it out, I sprayed it down with my homemade disinfectant spray and quickly wiped it with a paper towel. I love my spray. Here's my recipe: HOMEMADE DISINFECTANT SPRAY 2 C. distilled water 1/2 C. distilled vinegar 10-15 drops essential oils (I like 5 drops peppermint, 5 drops lavender, and 5 drops lemongrass). This changes. Sometimes I will put tea tree oil, rosemary and geranium. Or, lemon and peppermint or..... Place water in spray bottle. Add vinegar. Then add oils. Put lid on bottle and rub bottle back and forth in hands to evenly mix up oils. Essential oils are antibacterial, antiviral and antiseptic. Amazing resources from nature!! I'm addicted. Hopefully, this will motivate me to not procrastinate so long.