Hackers, Yarn Tangles and Old Eyes...

Hi all -Hey just a quick apology.  Apparently my long neglected little blog got hacked and so there was a bogus post up which also showed up on facebook.  I think all is well now, but am hoping that didn't cause anyone a problem!

And... as long as I am throwing up a post, here is pic of one of my latest projects.  Just finished up this shawl last week.  Believe it or not, it is actually for me! My BFF pointed out I seem to rarely make stuff for myself and you know what?  I realize she is right!  So, that made this extra fun!  I even splurged and bought the "nice" yarn for this one which was a silk and merino wool blend.  Very cool and feels great.  Although... if I plan to do too much of that in the future well then monogirl needs to get herself a yarn ball winder because for whatever reason, the nice stuff comes in hanks, not skeins, and a hank needs to be wound into a ball before you can use it.  This is not a quick easy process.... just ask my husband cause he was the designated yarn ball winder and knot untangler and even though he is quiet talented at both.... a yarn ball winder would make both of our lives easier I am thinking.  I have this one on my Christmas list.   Of course then one also needs a yarn swift... like this...and OK that is getting kinda pricey.  Of course now I am thinking the husband probably wishes I would not get those things which would probably lead to not buying the expensive yarns.... I could see his thinking on that. ha!

Anyway, this was an easy pattern and made a beautiful shawl.  I got both the yarn, and the free pattern from Expression Fiber Arts.  She has nice stuff.  The free pattern is here if you are interested.

I also finished up a blanket project the week prior for a gift.  Loving the blanket and its hard to give away cause I'd be happy to cuddle up in it, but a picture will have to wait until said gift is with said recipient.

After 2 big projects that took some time and effort monogirl's head needed a break and so for a quick easy project she is now doing a little cross stitch Christmas ornament.  Of course these days my 50 year old eyes need a little assistance apparently so I broke out my new lighted magnifier thingy... I saw this on one of the crochet boards and FB and figured it would help when stitching dark yarns (cause it is impossible to see the stitches!).  Who knew it would be necessary for multiple projects, cause I do not remember needing these tools when I last stitched... like um years ago.  Of course it's not a boost to Monogirl's ego that the ornament kit appears to be for children... and says complete in 30 minutes and Monogirl is on her 3rd evening to work on it.... Maybe it's because I need an even better lighted magnifying thingy like this one.... Since I like the wear around your neck version, this would be even better by Monogirl's chair right?

Well I am off for today.  Again - sorry for the bogus post but glad it gave us a reason to visit again!
Blessings!

Mr Unicorn & Miss Elsa

 
Yes... day two of the great crochet pattern post.  Are ya ready? I have to make this a quick one so lets get to it.

Here you have a Miss Elsa hat.  Elsa.... is that right?  I am totally not a "Frozen" expert but I am thinking she was the one with the braid.  ha!  I spotted this pattern on pinterest and fell in love with the cute braid and snowflake.... AND I just happened to have all the materials on hand so I was thinking this would make a great hat for the Handmade 4Him shoe box project.  I'm right right?  Of course.  Was there any doubt?  You can find the pattern here.  I made the 3-6 years size.  The hat was pretty simple.  Snowflake a little more detailed.  Braid was just attaching and braiding.

And here we have Mr. Unicorn.  I keep thinking it should be Miss Unicorn cause of the pink and rainbows... but can only seem to think of him as Mr Unicorn.. so we shall go with it.  Mr. Unicorn seems to be one my most popular projects lately.  A friend from church found this pattern and asked if I'd make it for her daughter's 3rd birthday this month.  How could I refuse a cute unicorn for a cute little girl?  Kylie found the pattern, it's a free pattern here.  The body, arms, legs, horn were all easy enough.  Doing the mane was a bit tedious and work intensive.  I had never made curly q's before so I had to experiment with a few different hooks and number of stitches to get them to curl as tightly as needed.  Sewing .... not my best thing.  So sewing the body together gives me a bit of stress because you want him to sit and look right.  It came out well though and I am hoping the birthday girl will be happy with him.  Pattern is also available on Ravelry here.  Here are a few more pics too!

And that is all we have time for today!  Hope you have a great weekend!  Happy Crocheting.... cause like really... what else is there to do right?

Make Mine Crochet

Hi there!  This year and OK.. I guess last year too I have really gotten back into crocheting.  When we lived in Illinois I used to crochet all the time.  When we moved to Indiana back in 2001 I got into scrapbooking and it was allll consuming and I have the room in my house to prove it.  Ha!  I kind of forget about my crocheting.  How does that happen?  I mean I learned when I was a little girl.  My Mom took a class to learn to crochet and I seem to have come out of the womb wanting to learn and do any craft I see someone else doing!  I'm all oooooo what is that? Can I play too?  Which is why the room I mentioned has supplies for scrapbooking, crocheting, knitting, embroidery, cross stitch, painting, drawing, Bible journaling... You get the idea right?  Well lately as I mentioned yes... Crocheting it is.  And reading.  Always reading too.  Pretty much always am in the middle of one book or another and always have it with me.... Mostly.  Currently reading The Scrapbooking Mystery series  and I have 13 books from the library sitting next to me just waiting their turn.  Currently I am on book 2!

Anyway back to crocheting.... I've been sharing my projects on Facebook and a few of my friends have asked to share the pics with their friends so I told them I'd get them posted on my blog so the friends of friends would have access to them.  So the pic above is my latest completed project and my first attempt at the "graphgan" technique.  Graphgan is done using the corner to corner stitch (which I love) and then following a graph and using yarn bobbins to create the image in your crocheting.  There is not a specific pattern for this pillow.  I just found the IU symbol thru Google and then used Sttich Fiddle to put it into a graph.  Graphgans are NOT easy.  I had 5-6 bobbins going at a time and if you aren't careful flipping your work you get tangles... If you aren't careful following the graph you get the scramble image that makes no sense... And yes I almost gave up twice! Ha. There are graphgan tutorials here.  You can also Google graphgan or check Pinterest and you will find tons of resources.  There is a tutorial here on how to do the corner to corner stitch.  I love this stitch.  Your project starts with a single square rather than a beginning base chain and then grows square by square diagonally.

I made this pillow as an end of year gift for my Kids Hope friend.  She is in 4th grade and says she loves IU and wants to go to college there.  She saw a Unicorn I made and asked if I knew how to crochet IU and this is what I came up with.  She loved it and said she was taking it to college with her.  Too cute!

This project was a hat for my project at our church called Handmade 4Him which is a year long promotion to make handmade items to include when we pack our Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes in November.  I used a variegated yarn from Hobby Lobby in their "I Love This Yarn" brand....and I do love that yarn.  It's awesome!  The pattern was linked to me on Facebook when my Niece saw it and hoped I'd make her a hat... Which I of course did.  The pattern can be found here. It's a quick and easy project.  You'll like it.  

So there are two.... I have lots more to share but blogger is giving me stress at the moment... And no one needs that.  I will be back later with more!  Leave a comment if you have questions and I will try to answer next time.  

Blessings!  

P S. A lot of the patterns I've used are from Pinterest. Feel free to follow my knit and crochet board here:  http://pin.it/Mt8BCVD

Sunday School Lessons & Pink Stuff

So it's been a year or two.... Or five.... At least, since Monogirl was last on a bike. But it's was a gorgeous day and the pink bicycle was just screaming to go for a spin.   I might have bought this bike like um at least a year ago (cause look how cute it is!!!) ..... And today was the first time I tried.....and succeeded to ride it!  Yes.... Success at riding the pink bicycle...And you knew who the pink one belonged to right?   I mean cause um really is it hard to figure out?  I didn't think so.  

Yes.  I rode it... But I didn't say I rode it well.  I was getting the hint that perhaps I was a wee bit wobbly when my husband decided it was best to follow along behind me.... Not BESIDE me.  I also discovered that it felt a bit like I was an adult person riding a little person's bike because the seat was too low.  Who knew this was possible for 5'2" Monogirl?  Shocker.  

The last time I remember riding a bike... Or trying to ride a bike.... I got my OLD red Schwin out of the garage.  I got on it.  I fell over.  I cried on my husband's shoulder.  I put the bike away.... Because that is what grown ups do.  

Since we live in the midst of lots of hills we didn't bike far and getting back up the huge, steep hill before arriving at Monogirl's house is no small feat.  We might have stopped to rest once... Or twice.  Now here comes one of those moments where God decides hey... Remember that lesson you heard in Church and in Sunday School this morning?  Cause God is smart like that and he likes to have those two lessons match up.  Anyway... He says remember that lesson?  Well here comes a chance to live it out.  Enjoy.  See cause on one of those rests on our way up the hill a pick up truck with a man and his 9 dogs in it felt it necessary to say something ANNOYING as he drove by all because he had to wait maybe an extra minute to go around us..... You know.. The pedestrians with the bikes who had the right of way...We let him go on by but in that moment I was tired, a little nauseous, hot... And I just wanted to get home.  See in Sunday School this morning we heard about putting on our Armor and living a righteous life and choosing to put on our armor and God's truth and choosing to walk in it... AND that Satan loves those vulnerable moments when we are tired... And hot... And annoyed and want to rant and rave and say mean things back.... He likes those moments to see how I'm going to choose to walk hoping he can get me to respond his way and not God's.  So what did Monogirl do?  Well she might have spent the walk home alternating between the temptation to get angry and say mean things about mean guy..... And then praying God Bless the mean guy.... While she tried to get her Armor on a little tighter and remember that truth she is supposed to be walking in.  The result? Well she settled on God bless mean guy... Help mean guy with whatever it is that makes him be mean... And left it there. Good choice right, because that means she was able to sit and relax on her porch in the beautiful weather and not not waste that time stewing about unkind words.  

Picked up this handy dandy little keyboard for my iPad off of Amazon around Easter time.  Very cool and makes it oh so much easier to blog or work being able to type on an actual keyboard.  I love the touchscreen and it works great and is fine for web browsing, texting, quick emails.... But if I have much to type Monogirl definitely prefers a good ol' keyboard.  Plus look at the cool place I am blogging from today!  Back porch!  Mawaw's glider.  Right where Mamaw used to sit.  Perfection!  

Hope you had beautiful weather and enjoyed your weekend too!  Blessings! 

Handmade 4 Him

OK...Yes I am thinking about dipping my toe back into the blogging world so thought I'd share this article I just wrote for our church Newsletter.  This is for our Handmade 4 Him project which encourages people to craft handmade items to be placed in to the Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes we will be packing this November.  This is my first project for the boxes for this year.  So anyway... here is the article (below) and hope to be back posting more soon!  

Article:
Ok… so this month I decided to try sewing this cute little teddy bear from a sock.  See I had this pair of navy socks, well they used to be a pair until I accidentally bleached one of them, which turned it brown, causing me to spend the next several months wondering what happened to the other brown sock and the other navy sock…sometimes I’m slow like that.  Ha!  The thing is I am NOT a seamstress.  If you want something crocheted, scrapbooked, drawn, colored, cooked, sung or read..… well then I’m your girl.  Sewing?  Not so much.  When all the other girls were taking Home Ec. In High School and Jr. High I was taking Art and Band.  Shocking right? 

I saw these pictorial instructions on Pinterest and I figured ok… that looks simple enough and so clever, how hard could it be?  Well… fast forward to bear making day when I had to repeatedly sew the top seam in the head because I kept finding gaps.  Or how I gave him a deformed ear… or the one arm that is longer than the other… or there is the fact that he kind of looks like a cat…. So yes it was more of a challenge than I thought. 

Guess what though? Perhaps like the Velveteen Rabbit a little person somewhere across the world will be thrilled to see this little guy in their box.  Maybe he will get carried around by his leg until his seams are ratty and all his fur is loved off.  Maybe it will be a reminder that Jesus loves them and that we love them too.  Maybe it will make them feel special.  I hope so, because although my efforts weren’t perfect, he was made with love and that is the important part. 

So what are you crafting for the shoe boxes?  If you’d like to make more of these sock bears instructions are in the pictures to the left or on the web site here: http://www.mangoandpassionfruit.com/2012/07/test.html 

Blessings—Deanna

Thankful to Be Back Thursday

OK so this feels like my first day blogging like EVER.  It's not though... honest.  Used to do this all the time, several days a week even.... then sometime earlier this year.... the desire to blog just disappeared.  Who knew it could do that?  Show of hands?  Um no me neither.  Neither?  Either?  Whatever.  Yes, Monogirl still has Monobrain hard at work as you can see.

So what is on my mind this first day back?  This little guy.  Tanner.  He is about to be 14 years old on Nov. 1st and here at our house we are dealing with elderly dog issues.  Suddenly there have been accidents in the house.  He has never been like that since being house broken . Now he isn't making it thru the workday, and now even thru the night.  He is also having trouble hearing sometimes (we think) and if he's been sleeping for awhile it takes him a long time to stand up and get the joints moving.  Vet also told us he now has a heart murmur also due to age.  My heart is feeling kind of heavy and discouraged today because I feel like we are heading down a dead end road here... and I don't like what is at the end.  We have a call in to the vet to see if he has any help for the incontinence issues.  Is it possible something else is wrong?  It would be great if its fixable.  Otherwise I sense a decision coming that Darrel and I do not want to make.  Praying God will just take care of things when its time.

So what else is new?  Um Bible Journaling!  I might have mentioned that earlier in the year cause I've been toying with the idea for awhile but now?  So loving Bible Journaling.  My BFF Lisa and I went to an Illustrated Faith workshop in September and it was awesome.  Totally lit my fire to want to study my Bible more and meditate and create cool colorful notes and illustrations based on that reading.  I mean reading... note taking.... cool art supplies.... what's not to love?!!

At the workshop one of the other ladies had this fabric made into a Bible cover.  LOVE. Shortly thereafter I headed on over to Etsy to see if I could find a cover of my own.  First I found this one and fell in love with all the pinkness.  I ordered it immediately.  Well immediately after I measured to make sure it would fit.  Are we remembering that measuring is not Monogirl's best thing?  Well proof of that would be when the Bible came I soon discovered that a 7-3/4" cover would not fit an 8" Bible..... Why did Monogirl think it would?  Probably cause she tends to measure and say OK... close enough... and then just gets lucky if it fits.  Well after this debacle Monogirl and the husband decided that Monogirl is no longer allowed to measure anything and the husband is now officially in charge of all needed measuring.  It's totally his thing.  I've been known to call him Mr. T-square... Well I decided it couldn't hurt to ask if the shop owner would possibly be willing to exchange my cover.  I fessed up that the problem was TOTALLY my fault and that if she'd rather not, I understood, no hard feelings.  Well guess what she did?  She totally let me exchange, and since there was no more of the banner fabric she sent me links to Hobby Lobby and Joann's and let me custom pick out my fabric!!  How fun!!  And they totally had the King of Kings fabric! LOVE.  So I picked that, and mentioned my um.... LOVE for pink stuff and she outdid herself with pink lining, and pink ribbon markers and then I also ordered a matching pencil bag cause who could resist right?  Melinda the shop owner was awesome, and so wonderful to work with.  Please go check out her stuff.  She will fix you up!

Here is a peek at my first few journaling entries:

The last image is the pages I did at the IF workshop.  If you get a chance to attend a workshop... GO! Shanna Noel was the leader and she gave us her wonderful testimony, we listened to a 15 min. sermon, and then we went to town on our pages with notes and illustrations from that sermon and the scriptures in Colossians.  I have two more entries penciled in and waiting for some color and lots more notes from the last few weeks of sermons and devotionals.

The journaling has even spilled over into my job!  Our pastor just started a sermon series about the Beatitudes.  He asked the staff at staff meeting if anyone had any "catchy" title ideas. I didn't have too many thoughts at first, but after I got back to my office and read the Beatitudes and read some of the commentaries and looked it up in the Life Application Study Bible notes.... well then the brainstorming started.  Google is also a great help in brainstorming.  I had several pages of notes and title ideas and other thoughts.... then I had the urge to go home and draw it up.... Well when I mentioned that to the Pastor when I was telling him my title ideas he said I should draw it up.  Scary!! But fun.  So I drew it up, and then I re-created it on the computer, and Viola!  Sermon series graphic and then I turned that into sermon series powerpoint templates.  FUN.... I really liked it and it totally felt like one of those things where you are going um I could totally do this.... all the lights and switches and gears were going! ha.

So yes I am being brave and showing you my graphic.... and here is the original drawing...

Very fun and now I am helping with some ideas and creative stuff for another sermon coming up in November.

And so now I am thinking that is a pretty good start to my returning to the blogging world.... Why don't we close with a short... maybe... thankful list.

Feeling thankful today for....

• Tanner... 
• getting to use my creative abilities more! 
• Bible journaling.  LOVE 
• the very kind lady at the BlackKitty OrangeCat Etsy shop
• beautiful fall colors and weather 
• art supplies 
• that my husband was protected this morning when a tire went out on his car 
• warm soft covers to cuddle under in the cooler fall temps 
• getting to wedding dress shop with a dear friend 
• reading!  I am behind on my challenge (4 books...) but I am on it! 
• dinner already cooking in the crock pot 
• my ugg slippers 
• Miss Sophie and Miss Tris 
• honeycrisp apples!  A new found favorite.  Where have I been?  
• being married.  I am so in love with my dear husband. 
• having a good amount of Christmas shopping done already
• crocheting for the Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes 
• date night tomorrow!  yay! 

Hope to check in with you again soon ..... you know sometime before 6 mos has passed.... ha.
Blessings!

Ten On Tuesday..... The Bunny Report Edition

1) The bunny has been here.  As in Easter... not Energizer....although I could probably really use a visit from him too plus he's pink so that totally works.  Apparently I was a good girl because the husband bunny brought me some wonderful Fannie May goodies like a FUDGE egg and Mint Meltaways, and remember the cutest bunny ever, the bashful beige bunny?  Well he has a pink friend who now lives with me.  Very smart husband... um bunny. 

2) And just so you don't worry that the husband was neglected.... he was gifted with Fannie May chocolate bunnies, and peanut butter, pixie, and Trinidad eggs.  He was well cared for.  As always.

3) And here you have proof that our sweet little great nephew Elliot was happy to receive the "small bashful beige bunny" as his new friend.  I mean how cute is he holding him? 

4) We had a very nice Resurrection Sunday!  We didn't make sunrise service, but had a wonderful very full church service that included some wonderful music, duets, and an awesome drama at the end.  We then had a relaxing dinner at Springmill Lodge and got to have some family time for the rest of the day.  Beautiful weather too.  Springmill Park was lovely.  Made me think a big Easter cookout would have been pretty great too! ha.  Do people do cookouts for Easter? 

5) OK so after all of our binge watching of the Walking Dead, and then catching up just in time for the season finale... we may now be having withdrawal.  Do we really have to wait till like um October?  Cause perhaps we should have rationed seasons 1-5 a bit to avoid the lull.... I did hear there is a companion series coming for the summer?  Hopefully that will be a good thing. 

6) The replacement bike fork arrived today!  This should mean that my bike will look like a bike soon, a very pretty pink bike.... and not just a pile of parts in the dinning room. 

7) Been doing lots of googling and pinterest browsing about Bible Journaling, Watercolors, and Art Journaling.  The browsing lead me to this blog yesterday and I am in LOVE with her artwork!  She does amazing lettering and I love her art too!  She is also a stamp carver!!  A girl after my own heart.  I think I pinned half her blog yesterday and I totally know what I want to carve for my first stamp too after seeing one of hers!  She has some classes linked which I plan to check out and she has stamp designs with Technique Tuesday!  I think I want to be like her when I grow up....

8)Worked on my planner some on Saturday while my husband was working on running TV and DVD wires in the walls to hide them from hanging down behind the TV.  Did a little watercolor painting of a tulip and my Resurrection Sunday banner and added lots of fun and pretty washi tapes!  Are washi tapes not like the coolest thing? 

9) Have you watched Amy Tangerine's latest Design on Time video?  Check it out here!  She makes me want to use all my stamps and paints and sewing the minute I get done watching one of her videos.  She has a way of showing how fun and simple it can be when we don't stress about perfection and just have FUN... what a concept for Monogirl.

10) Date night was great this week!  We had carryout pizza and pasta from town....not to be confused with the big city.  We watched Amazing Race both old and new.  We watched a movie called Interstellar.  Which was good... until it wasn't.  ha!  It reminded me of how I felt about The Abyss.  Remember that one? Good story, action, very interesting, until the way they pull it all togehter turns out to be this giant alien thing lifting them all up out of the water.  Really?  Interstellar's whole 4th/5th dimension thing felt a lot like that. Overall a good story though I guess.  Plus didn't I mention it was date night and we exchanged Easter gifts then, and no bad moods, movies, or attitudes are allowed on date night. It's sacred.  But you knew that right? 

And to close.... two more very cute pictures of our new little nephew.  Is he not the cutest? 

Awwwwww... I mean how do you not love the bow tie?  Blessings!