So one of my “crafty goals” this year was to learn how to knit hats. {maybe socks….but first I have to get good at hats.} I have always been a crochet kind of girl. See here, here, here, here and here.  But a few years ago I got this crazy idea that I wanted to learn how to knit and I have totally fallen in love with it. If you are a crocheter and you have never given knitting a try I suggest that you do!!! All you have to do is get over your fear of trying something new, watch a few youtube videos and get going! {You can check out some of my very first knitting projects here, here, here, and here.}

Anyhow…here are a few pictures of my first attempt at knitting a hat. I started off using 16″ Circular Knitting Needles and then switched over to these lovely 8″ Double Point Knitting Needles. I promise it is not as intimidating as it looks. Though I am definitely still trying to get the hang of it! :)

YOU CAN FIND THE FREE PATTERN FOR THIS HAT HERE!!!

Didn’t it turn out cute!?!

Ok. Cute as it was, it wasn’t perfect. I did struggle with what they call color jog and I also struggled with pulling my first stitches in each round tight enough…hence the holes. But hey, for my first hat…could I really expect perfection??? nope. :)

Anyhow, after I finished this hat for my daughter I caught my son rummaging in my yarn stash. He got a big armful of “boy” colors and then came and told me he wanted one too. So, I’ve actually already started on my knitted hat attempt #2. Which hopefully I will finish soon! Until then HAPPY KNITTING!

Oh dear. dear. dear. My blogging has been a bit lacking as of late. Has it really been over a month since my last post? sheesh. :) Oh well huh. I’m hoping I will get more blogging done this year…I even made it one of my new years goals. I wish I was all gung ho and could promise a post a week…but well…I thought I would set my goal realistically and try to post every other week. “Try” being the key word… he he. I can only do so much you know. :)

Anyhow, a few months ago my neighbor sent me the link to make this adorable newborn owl hat. Isn’t it cute!!!

She wanted me to actually try to make it in a larger size, so I made one in the newborn size first to see how hard the pattern was and luckily it was EASY, and crocheted up really fast! (Gotta like that.) I still haven’t tried to make it larger…life got busy, and then the holidays, and I haven’t been feeling very well lately so…well…there you have it. Maybe I’ll get around to it soon :) I hope.

You can find the FREE PATTERN to make this adorable newborn hat HERE. (Just click on the link in her post to download the pdf version of  her pattern).

Last year for Thanksgiving when my family got together for our annual humungous dinner, we also made a few of these fun turkeys. I’m sure you’ve seen them around the web…I’m not really sure where the “original idea” came from. Maybe it was here, or here, or here…who knows. But they are cute aren’t they, and whoever it was that first came up with the idea…genius!!!

All you need is:

• 2 Oreo Cookies
• 1 Whopper
• 8 Candy Corn
• 1 Miniature Reeses Peanut Butter Cup
• Frosting
• Black gel frosting for the eyes

or so:

or so:

or so:

either way…they all taste delicious!

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! And Happy Turkey eating. yum. yum.

Aren’t these miniature candy corn cookies cute! and uh…they were yummy too!

You can find a link to the recipe HERE.

And uh, don’t be like me…and think you are smarter than the recipe. These cookies really are made by only using a level teaspoon of batter. I know it will seem like nothing, and you’ll think “surely this can’t be right.” But it is. If you do more…they will turn out huge and they are definitely not as cute. just sayin’.

I hope you are all having a nice October!

:) YUM (:

I am doing a terrible job lately posting. JUST TERRIBLE! My last post was over a month ago. A MONTH AGO! I should be fired. FIRED I SAY! Good thing, I guess, that this is not a job :-) Anyhow, I am going to be quick…or I have a feeling this post will just sit in my draft box and never get posted. So here goes. The quick version of a post that could have taken an hour to write but I am going to give myself 5 minutes.

Here is the milk jug skeleton I made:

My babysitter growing up used to make one of these every year…and I guess I was feeling some childhood nostalgia or something…so I found a pattern, saved all my milk cartons and voila.

He really makes me smile. {smile.}

THE END.

A few months ago my daughter and I were mindlessly watching a few shows on some random cooking channel {yeah, it was one of those days} when they started baking up these yummy looking brownie pops. mmm. It really surprised me how in to the show my little 4 year old got, she kept saying “mom let’s make those….let’s make that….mom, those look so good…mom we should have that for dinner!” {yup, she’s my kind of girl}. Anyhow, she really wanted to make the yummy brownie pops, and so I thought for her 5th birthday party would would give them a try.

don’t they look divine??? yum.

Just a few baking tips:

1. Gluten Free Brownie mixes don’t work in this pan. Yup, that was a mess. sad. oh well.

2. Make your brownies following the “cake like” instructions, not the “fudge like” instructions. That was another mess too.

3. Remember to spray the pan for EVERY BATCH of brownies that you make. ugh, it was just not my day.

4. Make sure you give yourself lots of time to make them, especially if you are going to make as many mistakes as me :-)  Because FYI: The brownies cook for about 35 minutes and then have to cool completely before you remove them from the Brownie Pop Mold. That can take a long long time…

But oh, I’d say they were worth all the effort, yummy:

:-)

Here it is…the very last wedding flower post…well not the very last one EVER, but the last one for now. This Bouquet is the one I made for my sister-in-law’s wedding, which just happened to be the day after my sister’s wedding…it was a busy couple of days, but I am so happy for both of them! :-)

Amanda’s Bridal Bouquet {White Asiatic Lilies, Blue Hydrangeas & Creme de la Creme (pale yellow) Roses}:

I’m really starting to love Bouquet Gems…so pretty!

Woops. I was supposed to post this yesterday, but I didn’t {c`est la vie}.

These are actually the wedding flowers I did for my sister’s wedding just a few weeks ago. I truly think this is my favorite bouquet EVER! Why didn’t my wedding look like this?!? ;-)

Erin’s Bouquet {Stephanotis, White Mini Callas, Purple Hydrangea, Purple Lisianthus, Moonvista & Moonlight Carnations, Vendella Roses, Blue Curiosa Roses and Glass Flower Gems – Wrapped in Green Ribbon}:

A close up. Sigh. I love these flowers…

Boutonnieres {White Mini Calla – Stems wrapped in green ribbon with a pearl pin}:

Pin-on Corsages {White Mini Calla, Stephanotis, Blue Curiosa Rose Petal Curls, Seeded Eucalyptus and a Glass Flower Gem}:

Wrist Corsages {White Mini Calla, Vendella and Blue Curiosa Rose Petal Curls, Purple Hysrangea, Seeded Eucalyptus and a Glass Flower Gem}:

Bridesmaid’s Bouquets {Vendella & Blue Curiosa Roses}:

Flower Girl Bouquets {Moonvista & Moonlite Carnations with Glass Floral Gems}:

Hopefully I will also be able to post a few of her bridal pictures…since I did the flowers for that also but didn’t have time to shoot any photos of just the flowers. Plus, get excited because there is only one more wedding to go until I’ll  be back to blogging about crafts instead of just posting pictures of my wedding flowers. { hip hip hooray…not that I haven’t enjoyed myself :-) }

So, just like I promised, here are a few pictures of the wedding flowers I did for my friend Jon and his cute new wife, Molly. This would be the 3rd wedding, out of 5, that I have done flowers for over the past 2 months. You can find pictures from the first two weddings here and here. And you can “enthusiastically anticipate” pictures from the 4th one tomorrow, and the 5th one the day after that ;-) phew…and then I will be done posting pictures of flowers…for now {bwah ha ha}.

Molly’s Bouquet {Peonies, Dahlias, Hydrangea and Freesia; wrapped in coral ribbon}:

Corsages {3 White Freesia & Seeded Eucalyptus}:

Boutonnieres {1 White Freesia with 2 open blooms & Seeded Eucalyptus}:

I also made a few bridesmaid bouquets but I didn’t have time to take any pictures. sad day. oh well. :-)