Owls on Parade!

Hi Everyone,

Well, just when I thought it was safe to put away the winter hats...winter shows its ugly face again! 32º on April 5, not unheard of in Minnesota but certainly not welcomed! And if anyone is wondering, we have a chance of snow/rain all weekend! Good thing I have lived here all my life and am a very hearty Minnesotan ;-)

Since it is going to be cold, I may as well show some of the hats that I have made that will most certainly be keeping the littlest of ears warm this weekend! And yes, they are all owls…hence the title of this post!

These are just some of the owl hats I have made recently. These were all made from Sarah's owl hat pattern over at Repeat Crafter Me. If you haven't noticed yet, I will let you know right now, I LOVE her patterns. I use them as she has written them and, a lot of the time, I will just use the main hat pattern and then come up with a way to make the hat my own (i.e. the Shabby-Chic girly hat I made). Animal hats for the little ones seem to be very popular right now and I cannot get enough of them either. I do not have any kids but I do have 5 nieces and a nephew and they all love these hats. (2 of my nieces live in sunny Florida so they do not get much use out of these but I already have some ideas in the works for when they come to frigid MN this December! Get ready girls…its going to be cold!)

Hopefully we can put the winter gear away soon but until that happens I have a great reason to keep on crocheting these cozy hats! Hope you all have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

I am linking up at these fun parties:

Hookin' On Hump Day

Simply Create

The Inspiration Gallery

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Spring Fever

Hi Everyone,

I have something special for everyone today because I have a severe case of spring fever! Lucky you huh?!

Here in MinneSNOWta, (yeah, we call it that…only when we are really sick of winter!) we have four seasons but old man winter is almost always the longest of them all; parts of our yard still have well over 12" of snow :(

It is very nice out today, probably close to 50º but with the snow melting it is pretty sloppy outside. This leaves me inside creating and you all getting a FREE April wallpaper for your viewing pleasure. I created this wallpaper in Adobe Photoshop. The gray background and butterfly graphic are from Persnickety Prints digital scrapbooking kit "Storyteller". They have great prices on photo printing and have many options to choose from…not to mention all of the freebies they offer. I designed the text and calendar elements using the Blanch font family and the font Simply Glamorous.

I am offering this wallpaper for free in 3 different sizes so you can pick the size that best fits your screen!

fyi…the wallpaper does not have my logo on it!

1024x768

1280x1024

1600x1200

click the size you would like to download and you will be redirected to download the file.

I really hope you all enjoy! Here's hoping the spring fever subsides soon…I can't wait to get outside! Thanks for stopping by!

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Shabby Chic Girly Hat

Hello Friends!

As promised I am here with a crochet project. I created this hat for an old classmate's daughter. Her little girl had a similar knit hat and she had outgrown it and liked it so much that she asked me to re-create the hat. I really love how the hat turned out...so much so that I am thinking of making an adult-size hat for myself ;-) I just love the extra long tassels and the pearl embellishments. Adding these little extras to a hat really make it stand out. 

The hat was made using the base hat pattern from Sarah's owl hat pattern over at Repeat Crafter Me. Her hat patterns always fit perfectly and if you know a little bit about crochet it is very easy to change them up and create a completely different hat! As you can see, this isn't an owl hat, I just used the base pattern to create the striped hat and then added the lovely flowers. I always had so much trouble getting my hats to fit correctly but by using her hat patterns as a base, they always fit the way they should…so a huge thanks to Sarah! You cannot go wrong with any of Sarah's patterns! Go check out her blog…she has tons of free patterns and they are very easy to follow!

The pattern for the flowers and leaf can be found here. The pattern is in UK crochet terms but includes the US equivalent terms. This is a great flower pattern and the color combo possibilities are endless…and just think of all the places you could attach these! 

Thanks to all the crocheters out there who provide these free patterns, I am forever grateful. I am still trying to figure out how to create my own crochet patterns and when I do, I plan to return the favor and provide some of them free for everyone else to enjoy!

So, enough with my ramblings…here is the adorable hat!

Materials Used:

•Vanna's Choice Baby Yarn in Sweet Pea (green)

•Vanna's Choice Baby Yarn in Little Boy Blue (medium blue)

•Red and Natural colored yarn are from my stash (can't remember what brand!)

•Small beads or pearls (for centers of flowers)

•Small amount of embroidery floss (for sewing beads on)

•Sewing needle (for sewing beads on)

•Yarn needle (for weaving in ends)

•Crochet hook size H-8 (5.0 mm)

I really hope you all enjoy this hat as much as I do! I am doing my first ever link-up with this post! So excited about that! See the link-up details below. Have a wonderful day! Spring is finally in the air here in MN!

I am Linking up at:

Hookin On Hump Day!
The Inspiration Gallery!
Simply Create!

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Happy Scrapper Re-Design

Hello Everyone!

Here tonight with a quick little post…

This weekend I had the opportunity to practice my web/blog design skills by re-designing my sister's blog. It is truly a learning experience every time I try to tackle web design and so rewarding when things actually work. Web design is something I really love to do but I still need A LOT more practice. The few skills I did learn in college are pretty rusty so I am basically teaching myself all over again! I am really happy with how Happy Scrapper turned out and I think that my sister is too! I designed most of the elements using digital scrapbooking kits from Shabby Princess and Persnickety Prints. Those cute little owls were an Etsy find from Graphic Market. Me and my sister were so excited to have found them because the colors had already matched the logo I had designed for her in Illustrator…we just needed the perfect little owl to go along with it and these fit the bill! Spend some time with the Happy Scrapper (my sister!) and check out all of her amazing, handmade cards and paper projects, A LOT of time goes into her creations! Don't forget to grab your Happy Scrapper button for your own blog while you are there! Here is a little sneak of her blog…

I will be back with some long overdue crochet posts this week! I have a whole stockpile of images of the hats I have been busy making! Stay tuned…there will be links to patterns for most of them! Until then, take care!

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Clean Office

Hello all,

Well I have been absent for quite some time and if you have read any of my previous posts you will notice that this time between posts has been a common occurrence and I am not proud of it. But I am here now and I guess that is what counts!

Well this time between posts has not been wasted. I have plenty of projects to blog about and share with you but first I must show you what has kept me out of my creative space for so long...the mess!

I can not believe that my craft room got to this point but after a full weekend of taking everything out, moving some stuff back in, and about 3-4 garbage bags later my space is looking much better. I still have some work to do but at least now I can stand to be in there. The before and after is pretty shocking! Take a look...

Before:

crafting desk...hard to get much done when it looks like this!

view when looking in...Yikes!

Computer desk...can't do much computing here!

nook in wall...and my terrible yarn storage.

And now the best part...the after pictures:

craft/computer table...much more functional

this is where the craft table was, now it is a storage and printing station. I am still working on making this look more attractive!

my favorite part of the whole room....my yarn storage area in that nook that was so messy in the before pictures! I can see all of the yarn I have now! All my craft, design, and crochet magazines made there home on the top of this shelf.

craft/computer desk. Now that I can see the table it will be much easier to get some stuff done! Still trying to figure out what kind of desk I want in here as this one is not the most functional but it will do for now!

I still have a lot of work and organizing to but at least now I can keep the door open on this room without being embarrassed! Hope you have enjoyed this long overdue post! Until next time...

Take care!

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