How I begun to learn to Crochet

A little while ago I decided I wanted to learn how to crochet.  My mom knew how, so I figured that was a good starting point.  Mom had already tried to teach me to knit back in the day, but I had no patience for it.  I thought that now I am a bit older, maybe I could try crocheting and stick with it.

We started out the lesson by learning how to cast on and make a single chain.  The yarn we were using wasn't ideal, but it was good for practising.  After a couple of attempts and a bit of swearing, I had gotten my chain done.  Hooray!  Then my mom dropped a bombshell.  Now I had to learn how to single crochet!  "What do you mean", I thought, "this chain wasn't it?  I hadn't even started?"  Impatience started to set in, but my determination won out.  I would learn. 

Mom showed me how and then how to turn my work and make a row.  Then she handed the reigns to me.  I struggled at first.  It didn't help that my nails were way too long and didn't give me the tension that I needed.  But I persevered and managed a crude couple of rows.  I was then sent on my way home to practice.

And practice I did.  I had two little balls of yarn and I crocheted until they were both gone.  Then I would take them all out and start again.

After I was feeling comfortable with the single crochet, I decided it was time I try to make something.  I had a ball of yarn from my wreath project and figured I may as well use it for this.  I settled on a simple dish rag.  Something that I can use and that won't make me tear out my hair in frustration.  I started off and worked away.  It was at this point that I realized why it is important to keep track of your rows.  I really had no idea how many I had done, and after all the issues I had trying to figure out how to count stitches, rows weren't any easier for me.

I looked at it and decided I had done enough...maybe.  I finished off the row and checked out what I had done.  For a first attempt I thought it wasn't too shabby.  Sure it wasn't exactly square and the rows were a bit wonky from different tensions, but I think I had the basic principles down.  Plus now I was able to look at it as a whole.  Learning a stitch is fine, but why the stitch is the way it is, and why it goes where it goes is way more important to me.  I need to wrap my head around it and look at the big picture, it is how I learn.  I had figured it out now and it made sense!

It was time for something else.  I decided this time on a pot holder.  Now I know it is basically a dishrag with a loop, but I wanted something that I could perfect my skills on and this was it.  I started out strong and kept my tension this time.  I also started counting rows!  I couldn't keep it all in my head as I was watching Top Gear (or my British granny time as I like to call it) while I was crocheting, so I ended up with the piece of paper and pen method.  Hey, it worked!

I came away with a perfect square!  Woot!  I am so proud of it!  Now all I need is a yarn needle so I can get rid of those icky tails.

All in all I am pretty happy with my progress.  I sat back and thought about it and realized that up until a couple of years ago, if I hadn't gotten it right away I would have given up.  I wouldn't have bothered with all the practicing.  Things usually come pretty easy to me, and in the past if they didn't I wouldn't even bother with them.  Why waste my time?  I didn't get crochet right away, but I am glad I have persevered.  I am enjoying it immensely and I can't wait to move on.  I feel that I have grown as a person in my patience and determination to see things through.  I like that!

Everything that involves cream cheese is good!

I had seen this recipe on Pinterest and I couldn't resist.  Those that know me know that I have a weakness for anything with cookie dough in it!  So when I found a Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip recipe I knew I had to try it!  Plus it involved cream cheese, so it was a win-win. 

I didn't put in as much icing sugar as it called for since I didn't want it to be too sweet (see my cupcake post regarding the frosting) and I also used dark chocolate semi sweet chips.  Be sure to whip the sugar in very thoroughly; you don't want sugar crystals in your dip!  I may want to increase the brown sugar a bit next time, just to give it more of a cookie taste. 

It turned out fantastic!  I was so happy with the results and my hubby was too.  It tasted almost exactly like cookie dough!  I served it with Honey Teddy Grahams.  I also have a recipe for a Brownie Batter Dip that I may want to try....

It's nerd craft time!

Over the past couple of weeks I have been making 8 bit video game coasters for my Brother in Law's birthday present.  They consist of Perler beads, cork backing and a lot of patience.  The first one took me two hours, but I have gotten that down to about 45 minutes to an hour now.  It all depends on how complicated the pattern is.

What I started out with was a pattern I made in Excel.  I decided I wanted my coasters to be 20 beads by 20 beads.  This creates about an average sized coaster and consists of a total of 400 beads.  I then looked through google images for what I wanted to recreate.  Once I had the image I would count how many lines I would need vertically and horizontally so that it would fit in my 20X20 square.  Then came the counting.  I would count where each "pixel" should be on my pattern and place it there with the correct colour.  I would work with vertical lines, so it was interesting to see the image slowly coming together.  After the main image was done I added the background.

Once I had my pattern I would set about following it to create the coasters.  I would use a toothpick to scoop up the correct amount of beads and used it to place them on the layout.  This was very effective and I was happy I didn't have to shell out the cash for Perler's own grabbing tools.  After all the beads were placed, I then followed the directions to fuse the beads.  Now, I like the look of the un-fused beads, so I decided that I would only fuse the back and leave the front.  This is contrary to the instructions, but I figured with the added cork support, they shouldn't break apart.

I was unsure at first how I was going to put the cork backing onto the coasters, but I had inadvertently bought a roll that was self adhesive, so that problem fixed itself.  If I hadn't bought the self adhesive kind, I was probably going to try either Mod Podge or Hot glue.  You don't have to put the cork on the back, but since the beads have holes in them it would make them kind of useless as coasters.

I used the coasters themselves to mark out where I needed to cut the cork and I used an exacto knife to do the actual cutting.  The cork was quite thin and it worked out perfectly.

All in all I am pretty happy with the outcome and I know my Brother in Law is going to love them.  They actually turned out so well, (and I also have about 27 other patterns) that I am going to do a set for my Brother for his birthday as well!

Homemade Body Scrub

While I was waiting for my cupcakes to bake, I decided I had the time to whip up a vanilla brown sugar body scrub.  I had planned on making these gifts to some of my in-laws, so why not now!

I found a recipe that sounded simple enough.  All I needed was brown sugar, granulated sugar, sunflower oil and vanilla.  I again had most of this on hand and only needed to buy the sunflower oil and mason jars that I was going to use to store it in.

I ended up making two batches of this as I needed to fill three mason jars, and one batch seemed to only make enough for one and a half.  It smells wonderful and when I tried a bit of it, it seemed to make my skin feel just as smooth and soft as the store bought scrubs.  It was definitely less expensive too!

I plan on presenting the gifts with a ribbon from my wreath project and some Apothecary labels I found online.  I am still not sure what I am going to do with them, but I will post about it when I do!

Guinness + Chocolate + Bailey's = Happy

Saturday was a crafty and foodie day for me.  Since it was St. Patrick's Day, I decided that I was going to try out a new recipe for Guinness Chocolate cupcakes with Bailey's cream cheese icing.  I have also seen these nicknamed after the drink the "Irish Car bomb", and for those of you who don't know what that is; it is a shot of Bailey's dropped into a Guinness.

I found the recipe to be easy to follow and I had most of the ingredients on hand.  I pretty much just had to buy the Guinness and the cream cheese.  I also substituted regular cocoa powder for the dutch process and I still came away with a lovely cake. 

The cake it made was very moist and rich.  You could hardly tell that there was beer in it as it complimented the chocolate so well.  I recommend that you turn the pans half way through cooking, but be very gentle.  Since this makes such a moist cake the centers are very fragile and the batter will escape out onto the tray if you aren't careful.

I made the icing pretty boozy as I used the full 6 tablespoons that the recipe called for.  You can scale this to how much or how little you want.  This is really the only part of the recipe that retains the alcohol as the Guinness's will be baked out.  So if you want to eliminate any alcohol, just skip the Bailey's.  I also found the icing to be a touch on the sweet side.  I think if I were to make this recipe again, I would cut back a little bit on the icing sugar.

To serve them, I piped the icing onto the cooled cupcakes using the tried and true Ziploc bag method.  Everyone seemed happy with them and I have lots of leftovers.  So this recipe was a win-win!  I could see this recipe also making a really nice cake, so I will keep that in mind when my hubby's birthday comes around.

My Thursday night....

Since I am on this crafty kick, I decided I may as well start making gifts for birthdays etc.  It would save me money and I would fulfill my crafting urges.  While cruising around Pinterest, I saw a bunch of yarn wrapped wreaths.  They looked simple enough and around my level, so I kept it in mind.  While discussing all the birthday gifts we needed with my hubby, we came to his Mom, whose birthday was at the beginning of March.  I remembered that she always has a wreath on her door whenever we visit.  I proposed this idea to Mike and he agreed it would be a great gift.  So it was decided.

I headed out to Michaels and bought everything I needed.  This included a 14" green Styrofoam wreath, multicoloured yarn, ribbon and a single silk flower bunch.  The most expensive part was the flowers, but since I am still not willing to try making my own, I went with the store bought variety.  In total for everything it came to just around 20.00 dollars.

I started out by making a knot at the end of the yarn and pinning it to the wreath on the side that I wanted to be the back.  I actually didn't have any pins, but I found that a very small nail will do the trick as well.  Then I started wrapping the wreath with the yarn.  I made sure to keep the strands very tight together and occasionally had to push them with my nails just to make sure there were no gaps.  A few gaps did happen, but since I went with a green Styrofoam wreath instead of a white and a greenish yarn, you can't really tell.  This was the relatively simple part, but very time consuming.  Make sure you have a movie or some good TV in the background.  For me to cover the 14" wreath, it took 2 hours.  Once the wreath was completely wrapped I cut the yarn off and used my glue gun to seal the end.  Don't worry about the glue glob as you can cover it up.

Next came the embellishments.  I clipped the two stems of flowers off the bunch I had bought and positioned them the way I liked on the wreath.  I then took the hot glue gun and added a dollop of glue on the base of the stems and roughly around the middle and pressed them onto the wreath.  The glue gun was very stringy, but I found if I wiped it right next to where I was gluing (so that it would be concealed) it eliminated that problem.  I then took some of the leaves from the stem and arranged them to cover up where I had the two flowers meeting.  Once again I hot glue gunned all this together.  Once it was all done, I realized it was missing something on the leaves.  it just looked naked.  So I took some of the ribbon I would be using for the hanger and created a bow and hot glue gunned that to where I wanted.  It came out looking great!

After all this was done, it was time for the ribbon hanger.  This was actually the toughest part of the project and I still think it hangs a little wonky, but after looking at some online I saw that some of those hanged wonky too.  So I didn't feel too bad about it!  I took a long piece of the ribbon and placed it where I wanted on the wreath over the glue spot from the yarn.  I glued the back of it to the wreath and left the front open.  Once it dried it was obvious that wasn't going to work.  So I ended up gluing the ribbon all the way around the wreath.  It seems like it will stay, but as I said, it is a bit off center so may hang a little off as well.

All in all I am really happy with the results.  I loved the yarn I chose since the colours changed with no effort from me!

Something a bit more...

For my next project I chose something a bit more ambitious.  It was something I had never tried before, but  feeling bolstered by my first success I was eager to try something more challenging.  I wanted to create art out of our wedding song lyrics.  This seemed perfect since our 8th anniversary was coming up and I wanted to give my hubby something we both could enjoy.

So armed with the knowledge from This Humble Home, I set about making this new project a reality.  First of all I decided since I was going to do this as a gift for my hubby, I was going to splurge for the canvas.  It is a bit more pricey, but I found a good deal at Michaels for a four pack of 6X6 stretched canvases.  I got 3 packs, which leaves me three left over for future use.  I already have them ear marked, so it was a good investment.  Since I just started crafting I also grabbed a bottle of Gloss Mod Podge, Mod Podge Acrylic Sealer and a package of 65 Lbs Card Stock.  For everything I bought at Michaels, it cost around 80.00 dollars and then I picked up Black Acrylic paint and sponge brushes at the dollar store for around 2.00 bucks.

 I started off by taking my nine canvases and painting the sides black.  I did this the night before I started the project since I wanted them to dry really well before doing anything fancy.  I ended up using two coats of paint per canvas, since after the first coat dried, it was a little streaky.  I should mention that I should have also painted a black border on top of the canvases as well at this point.  I didn't and ended up doing it the next day and waiting for the two coats on that to dry as well.  Not fun watching paint dry when you are chomping at the bit to start the next step!

The next thing I had to do was create the written lyrics.  As per the instructions on the blog I needed Adobe Illustrator.  Since I didn't have this program and I didn't want to shell out any more cash, I downloaded the free 30 day trial version.  As long as I completed the project within the 30 days, I would be fine.  I created nine 6X6 art boards in a row and created a large text window over the boards.  I then cut and pasted the lyrics of our wedding song onto the art boards using 3 different fonts to separate each line of the song.  I had to use the whole song plus a few lines over again, but the effect looked great and once they are up you won't be able to tell.  When all was said and done I had created 5 lines of lyrics per art board.  With Illustrator when you print the art boards and it will separate them automatically.

The blog suggested using 110 Lbs card stock, but I found the 65 Lbs ones worked fine.  I printed them off and used a scrap booking paper trimmer to cut them to shape.  This I had bought a long time ago when I thought scrap booking may be my thing...it wasn't and this had been collecting dust ever since.  I was glad to have it for this project though!  I shudder when I think of cutting all nine boards out by hand!  The first attempt at cutting failed, as I cut the lyrics out to be perfect 6X6.  Each canvas was slightly different in their measurements and weren't very accurate.  So after the first failing, I decided to mark the card stock using the actual canvases and used that to cut out the lyrics.  This worked out very well and I only had to reprint that first art board!  I also numbered the back of each lyric page and canvas while I was cutting.  Since each one was unique, if anything got moved around I would know which page went with which canvas.

Now came the tricky bit.  This was the part I had never done before.  I cracked open the jar of Mod Podge and went to work with a sponge brush.  I painted a thin coating of the Mod Podge on the canvas and carefully matched up the lyric sheet.  I then pressed down and tried to get as many air bubbles as possible.  As per the blog I was following, Mod Podge does get tacky very quickly and you have to work quickly as well.  I found this to be accurate, and I also found that air bubbles do happen no matter what, but mine appear to have vanished as everything set. 

I let the Mod Podge dry for about 15 minutes and then I went about sealing the sheets.  The instructions I was following never used a sealer, but some people who had tried this project mentioned smudging occurring with the printed sheets.  Since I wasn't sure what would happen on mine, I figured I would play it safe and use the sealer.  I sprayed each sheet (now on the canvas) with the Mod Podge Acrylic sealer and let them dry for 15 minutes as per the packaging.  Be forewarned, this stuff smells!  Make sure you are outside, or in a well ventilated garage.  I wouldn't want to do this in my house, but if you open all the windows it should be fine.

The next step was the most time consuming.  A lot of waiting, but if you have stuff to do around the house this is a good time to get at it!  I proceeded to coat the sheets with 3 thin layers of Mod Podge

I did make a bit of a mistake, but it actually turned into something nice!  While using the Mod Podge, I wasn't exactly neat and a bit of it got onto the sides of the canvas.  This left little spots of gloss on an otherwise matte finish.  So when I was applying the last coat of Mod Podge to the sheets, I coated the sides as well!  It gave the sides and nice glossy sheen to them and made everything look a bit more uniform.  Bonus was it also covered up my mistake!  Win-Win!

I was really happy with how this project turned out, and my hubby was thrilled with his gift.  I finished it off with some picture hangers I got at the dollar store, so now all that is left to do is hang them!  And I know just where too....

Into the Breach

For my first project I decided to do something simple.  Something that I could complete with relative ease and something not too time consuming.  This way if it failed miserably, I could say I tried and not feel bad about spending tons of money or my life on it.  Chock it up to experience and move on.

So while on Pinterest, I spied lots of vases with silk flowers in them as centerpieces.  Now, normally I don't go for things like that, but something about a simple square glass vase spoke to me.  I then had an idea. My bridal bouquet has been hanging around, doing nothing but collecting dust for quite some time now.  It has moved with us from home to home and never really had a spot.  In our last place it was hanging in the closet and in our new home it had found a space on the top of a bookcase.  It was too big to really be displayed anywhere, but I wasn't going to throw it away.  I got the flowers in silk so that I could have them forever.  So, I decided then to deconstruct my bouquet and repurpose it into a centerpiece.

A trip to Michaels and 20.00 dollars later for a square vase and I was ready to begin.  I removed all the flowers from my bouquet along with the blue ribbon as well.  I left the ivy on the holder to take off as I needed.  There was a lot of it and I didn't end up using every bit.  I then proceeded to position the flowers in the vase, making sure that it looked the way I wanted from every angle.  I added the ivy and ribbon around the main orchids and roses. I did have to reposition a couple of items once everything was in the vase, but some deft maneuvers with chopsticks made short work of those minor issues.  I also made sure to keep all the flowers inside the vase.  My cats are curious and I didn't want to come home to all my work being destroyed.

All in all I was very happy with the results.  I had some extra flowers left over, so I grabbed a small vase from the dollar store and arranged the remaining ones in it.  I really like the height difference between the two vases and I think they work really well together as a set.

In total I only spent about 21.00 dollars.  But more importantly, I survived my first taste of crafting and I survived it with success.  This has given me the confidence to move onto complicated projects.  I have been bitten by the crafting bug!

How this all began...

This whole kick started with an innocent post by my cousin on Facebook.  She posted a neat idea for organization from a website called Pinterest.  After a couple of days, I decided that I wanted to see what this website was all about.  So I looked it up online and found a Internet based pin board for ideas and interests.  I figured that this may be something that I could use for making my life a bit more organized.  So I emailed for an invitation and when it came I signed right up! 

At first I basically was searching the boards all over the place.  Never really staying on one for too long.  Then I hit the DIY & Crafts board.  Well I was hooked.  All the little things that I wanted to buy for around the house could be made!  And all the tutorials made it look like I could do it...and easily!  Now, usually my crafts never turn out the way I want.  This is due largely to lack of patience on my side.  Not waiting for things to dry fully, or not reading directions are a couple of examples.  So I had pretty much given up on the idea of being crafty.  But, since those days I had changed, largely due to Warhammer 40K.  I had started painting the tiny models and due to my OCD I needed them to be prefect.  This usually led to me spending on average 3 hours per model.  If that doesn't teach you patience I don't know what will!  I then decided to choose a simple project to test the waters.  I will discuss that in my next post.

I do have another blog I share with my hubby, but since it is mostly nerd based, I figured I would start another blog separately from ours to show my domestic side.  This doesn't mean I won't link to that one when my crafts take a nerdy turn!