Happy Halloween!

Here is a picture of the costumes that I made for me and Mike. I am the Greek goddess Artemis, and Mike is a Jedi Knight! I used McCall's pattern M3514 for mine, and Simplicity's pattern 5840 for his. My Granny and I worked on them for 6 hours straight to finish them the weekend before my birthday. Thanks Granny--I couldn't have done it without you!




Speaking of my birthday, here is a picture of the fabulous poached pear tarts that my brother-in-law made for me! He also made a large one, but I think these small ones are too cute.














Trick or Treat!!

Give and Take









Sometimes you are the giver and sometimes you are the receiver! Here is another baby hat (follow links to free pattern) that I made for our friends' baby Grant. His dad Craig is a baseball fanatic, so I thought he would appreciate this baseball motif.

We visited them in Pennsylvania the weekend before last during the peak time for fall foliage. It was absolutely gorgeous! I have some wonderful pictures to share, and I will try to post some this weekend.

Below is a picture of the beautiful coasters that my friend Christy sent me for my birthday. They are made out of an unfinished stone, and she handpainted them herself. Just in time too, because the cheap coasters I had from Wal-mart just weren't cutting it anymore. I love how the card she made me matches the coasters too! Thanks so much Christy!

















I will post some pictures of my Halloween costume tomorrow--stay tuned!

Green Scalloped Scarf

Here I am modeling my newest scarf. I used the pattern from Stitch'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker, by Debbie Stoller, and I used brushed baby alpaca yarn that I bought from the Shabby Sheep. I modified the pattern slightly, and took out one of the rows of double crochet in the middle. This made the scarf just a little bit skinnier.













Here is a close-up of the scallop detail:











I highly recommend this book, by the way. If someone only wanted to buy one crochet book, this is probably the one I would tell them to get. The first half of this book is a great how-to section with tons of pictures and diagrams on crochet techniques. Now, I generally think you need some in-person instruction to learn crochet, but you could almost learn how to with this book alone! And of course, there are some wonderful patterns. I think about 40 or so. I have also started making a clutch purse from this book--I just need to sew up the sides and put in the lining. Here is an example of what the clutch looks like. This is an adorable pink version from Craftlog.

Stitch Fashion Show and Guerilla Craft Bazaar!





Ooooh, I am so excited about this event! Stitch is on Saturday, November 11 from 5:00 pm to 2:00 am. It will be at the Austin Music Hall in Austin, TX. According to the website, there will be over 75 booths and over 20 independent designers in the fashion show. Here is a list of all of them! I am taking my friend Christina for her birthday, which is the week before. We will be taking a road trip down to Austin from Dallas, and staying the weekend with some friends. Make Dallas will be trekking down there too. Anyone else interested in coming? Andria? Jessica? Jennifer? Monica?

The tickets just went on sale today, and they are only $10!

Hope to see you there!

Trip to the Shabby Sheep

While visiting the Urban Bazaar a couple weekends ago, my mom, Aunt Debbie, and I decided to stop by the Shabby Sheep. This is a great yarn store in Uptown Dallas that also offers knitting classes and activities. Now the three of us are actually crocheters, but we can definitely appreciate yarn! Whenever I have some more time, I will take the beginner class at the Shabby Sheep and learn how to knit finally.



The Shabby Sheep has every kind of yarn you can think of: cashmere, wool, angora, alpaca, cotton, ribbon, chenille, blends--it's enough to hypnotize me for hours!! The shop also has lots of sample projects for you to see, including the pink scarf above. I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but those are tiny little pink beads. My mom in particular loved this scarf, and has commanded that I make her one. Okay, Mom, as soon as I make you the scotty dog.....I'll start on this scarf.














My favorite display item was this hedgehog! It has to be one of the cutest stuffed toys I've ever seen. The Shabby Sheep is going to have a class on how to make it, but in knitting!! Curses! This hedgehog will be my motivation to learn as soon as possible.

We also liked this pumpkin baby hat. Here is a free pattern for a crochet version from Bev's Country Cottage. Enjoy!







PS I will have pictures of me and Mike's Halloween costumes up soon!

Early Birthday Present!

Here is my early birthday present from Mike! I love this camera! It's very small, and will easily fit into my purse. Notice the large LCD screen on the back too. I haven't figured out all of the cool features yet, but it has special settings for taking pictures at night, for fireworks, for underwater, etc. It also makes movies, and you can hook it up to your TV to watch them.

Mike also got a 2 GB memory card to go with it, which will hold over 600 pictures. I took about 450 pictures on my trip to Hawaii, so it will be great for traveling. On that trip, we brought the laptop with us, and had to upload pictures each night. And I had to rotate between 3 different memory cards.


Since last Tuesday, I have already taken 107 pictures on it! Mike wanted to give it to me early so I could have it for my birthday party this Friday. Thanks baby!







Friday the 13th--Spooky!

Vintage Halloween













Craftzine's blog had a great link to a group on Flickr that is sharing vintage Halloween cards, images, and costumes. You can check it out here. This will get you in the mood for October and for Halloween of course! Here are a few of my favorite images. Enjoy!



Craftzine also had links to How to Make Your Own Bat Costume and How to Make Your Own Devil Horns in case you need some inspiration for your Halloween costume!