[Music Saves My Soul] Duffy - Mercy

It's the weekend! And it's my time to catch up on everything post-surgery. I have lots of special crafty projects that I need to get started (and going). I feel energized and am ready to get back to work :)

The weather is calling for snow and really cold temperatures, so I am working on my crochet project. As a teaser, here is a piece of what I am creating. Hopefully it will be done tomorrow.



Can you guess what it is? Leave your guesses in the comments field and I will pick a winner from the right guesses. Winner gets to pick a song for next week's Music Saves My Soul. In the meantime, here is a song for this weekend...



Off to finishing crocheting this little gift together...

Bring on the Yarn

I woke up this morning to go about my day. Everything was kind of normal until I was backing out of my carport. Just when I was swinging my car back into forward gear and was ready to head down my 200 ft driveway did I realize that I could not get out. It was covered with branches and cable, although it did not register at first what that mess was. My first thoughts went to Rip van Winkle and I feared I had slept through a growth spurt of my own trees. Who can blame a bleary-eyed, over-imaginative girl before her morning coffee run?

Evidently, the poor little tree branches were weighed down so much with ice that they started breaking off the trees. All is fine until those tree branches decide to crash down on cables. So I could not drive out at this point. I got out of the car and tried to assess the situation. To make matters more fun, it was raining big rain drops and my driveway was a melty but icy sheet of fun. Where are those ice skates when you need 'em?

In the meantime, a couple of cop cars pulled up and were looking at the cable situation, since I have a rather busy two-laned road in front of my house and the cable was precariously hanging into it. But cars whisked by in both direction without much concern. While all that was going on I decide that the cables hanging into my driveway were phone line and Comcast cables; so, off I went to start clearing my driveway one fallen tree branch at a time. Bear in mind, it is slippery, raining and some of those tree branches were heavy. If you are starting to see a comedy unfold in your imaginations, you're right ;)

Luckily the nice local law enforcement officer came over to help the damsel in distress and we cleared my driveway in no time. I should count my lucky stars or thank my guardian angel, because at one point I was tugging at one of those stubborn branches when another one came crashing down about one foot away from me. At that point, I declared myself wide awake.

Twenty-five minutes later, a soggy, frozen-to-the-bone, but relieved Ren-Yi made it into work. I even made it in time for the business call I was scheduled to be in.



All this ice and snow reminded me to post my current project. While I try to get my paper crafting supplies out and back into order, I am crocheting an afghan. Winter time is always the best, because all that cold makes plenty of incentive to get that afghan knocked out. It's nice to have all that warm, soft yarn be bundled over one's lap. Unfortunately I am only one of six strips in, but making steady progress.

That's all I have for now. I hope you had a less eventful day ;)

Todd, the Turtle

In my recent blog post when I came around to carding with felt, I alluded to having some (or many) crafting items that are still considered work in progress (or WIP). One such item, for which I have no excuse, was a little amigurumi turtle that I started in June 2009. Yea - I have many projects where I am ashamed to state out loud when I started something ;)

I was showing a friend how to crochet, which included learning how to read a pattern and following the instructions. He decided on an amigurumi pattern due to its bite-size nature (in comparison to a blanket which takes forever), 3-D aspect, and its complexity (which included learning how to sew parts together). So I crocheted one with him to show him how to get started. Half a turtle shell later, he went home and started on his crochet frenzy. I showed my friend in total one turtle shell, and one leg. So for the longest time, Todd, the non-existing turtle that I had already named, comprised of one shell, one leg, and a partially finished head! Kinda macabre...no?

So when Kathy gave us our October Challenge to try to finish THAT project, the guilt immediately wafted up from the box of unfinished crocheted items. Todd was whimpering from the bottom of the box. The most challenging part was finding the right pattern. Back then I didn't bother printing the pattern out, since I was going to finish it in two evenings. Or so was the plan.



In case you wanted to see the seams, here is Todd's underside:



One year, four months later, I finished three more legs, a tail, and prided myself in sticking the safety eyes together with the project - so I had them at hand. If I had misplaced then, I would have sewed him some cute button eyes on...



While I sewed on his last limb, it occurred to me that Todd didn't have a home. But then I remembered that one of my other dear friends has a mom that loves turtles of all kind. Big, small, breakable display only, huggable and squeezable stuffed animals - you name it. She has a collection. And since I had the pleasure of meeting her this summer, I am going to send Todd across the Big Pond to join the already established turtle home.

Now, Todd, be good and remember to say "Guten Tag, Ich heiße Todd und möchte gerne hier wohnen." (Hi, my name is Todd and I would like to live here.)

Crocheted Flowers

I used to think crocheting was for old ladies. My mom used to crochet these little lacey things to put under our lamps at home and I felt they were so "yesteryear"! Apparently no one ever told me you could crochet flowers!

After seeing them on various blogs, I finally buckled down and decided to learn how myself. A few unsuccessful attempts of watching various you tube videos and a crash session with Ren-Yi for a weekend, I made flowers! Aren't they so pretty!

(Disclaimer: The light pink and light blue ones on the right, aka the non-lopsided ones, are crocheted by Ren-Yi)

Next on the list, to have Ren-Yi teach me to make a butterfly! Or maybe I should outsource that one to the person with the id of flutterby.... ;-)

Halloween 2008

This year I carved a pumpkin instead of painting it. I chose a cat pattern using a kit:


With a candle inside:


Justin and I also decided to make our Halloween costumes. I was a leprechaun. I crocheted the wig to the hat and created a crocheted beard from the same orange yarn. The green t-shirt has a black felt belt sewed to it with a yellow felt buckle. You'll also see that my shoes have a yellow felt buckle. I had a tough time deciding on the green pants, but found the perfect green velveteen track suit. Lastly, to accessorize, I have a black pot of gold chocolate coins.




For Justin's costume we created a hippie look - bandana, homemade tie-dye t-shirt, and homemade hemp bracelet and necklace. Don't we look cool?