Latest WIPs and FOs OR Creating with Deals and Stash

Since I'm behind on posting, I'm behind on showing you what I've been up to with my Create 52 challenge.  So, here are some photos of some things I've been working on over the past few weeks...

I love thrift shopping and found a little package of tiny, unused bottles with cork lids and loops to hang them.  I think the cost was twenty five cents for both of them.  I recently filled one with lavender buds and made a necklace out of it.  I thought it would be fun to fill the other one with teenie, tiny sea shells.  I went through a jar of shells I have and found just enough tiny ones that were small enough to fit.  I crocheted a triple cord to hang it by and I have a beachy necklace.  :-)

I also like going to rummage sales and found this huge table cloth for a couple dollars.  It's in perfect condition and I thought it would be fun to crochet a fancy edge on it.  That's when I realized how HUGE it really is.  It took quite a while to stitch around it!  I made it around twice with crochet thread I had in my stash.  I had to buy a new ball of thread to keep going to make the fancy edge I had in mind.  Even though the new ball seemed to match when I bought it, the colors were really different when I started crocheting.  The new red really didn't go with the fabric at all.  It was a cooler, more blue red.  So, I ripped out the start of that third row and decided that this was enough trim.  It did fancy it up a bit.

You may already know how much I'm in love with cotton yarn and that I have a weakness for Sugar N Cream.  Especially when it goes on sale!  I've had some ideas in mind for the ever growing stash of colors I have but when it went on sale a few weeks ago I just had to buy a few more colors and get started on one of my ideas.  I'm making a bunch of the "African Flower" motifs to sew into something.  I figure I'll keep making them until I'm tired of them.  I'll make a blanket if I end up making a lot.  If I get tired quickly of making them, I'll use them to make a bag.  There are so many great ideas on line for this versatile little motif.  It's fun playing with all these colors!

I often long to knit or crochet just for the sheer pleasure of it.  It gets frustrating when I want to stitch but just can't find a pattern I love.  I end up spending a lot of time pattern searching.  I thought I'd found one last weekend and got started.  It was SO nice to just work on a simple pattern of double crochets.  It was like meditation and was SO relaxing.  Ahhhh!

However, I soon realized that I wasn't going to be very happy with the result as it was so bulky that the shawl I was making wouldn't hang nicely.  So, I ripped it out!  After searching for so long for a pattern to use this leftover yarn in my stash (another yarn I've fallen in love with and it comes in SO many pretty color combos!), I decided to just make up something...a scarf.  So far, I think it's working up nicely.  And, I still have something relaxing to work on in between other projects that take more concentration and brain power.

I usually have several projects going on at the same time.  That way I can switch to something different if I need a break, want to work on something easier, or feel like tackling something more challenging.  Since I went through that finishing frenzy a few months ago and finished up so many projects, it's seemed a little weird to not have several projects to go to.  So, why not start another new one?!  I've been wanting to try to move beyond shawls, scarves, cowls, hats, and other simple stuff and learn to make garments.  I finally decided on a top pattern last week and got started using some stash yarn.  It's a bit challenging because the yokes require some lace knitting....something I'm a bit challenged at.  But, I'm figuring it out.  Yay!  I hope this project works out because I have several things in my wardrobe that would work great with this orange top.

This post seems to have developed a theme of budget shopping and de-stashing!  Here's another project that started with a deal.  Over the weekend I found a skirt at a thrift shop for just $2.  It was a gathered, mid shin length, size 18 skirt.  With a little cutting, stitching, and use of parts from a pattern I recently bought, I transformed it into a knee length (just below) wrap skirt.  I like the colors and pattern of the fabric and thought it would look so much cuter this way.  I think I'm happy with it.

I have so many things I want to create!  If only I had more time and I could finish them more quickly to move onto the next!  But, these projects and my small accomplishments are fun!

What have you been working on lately?

Create 52 Challenge

I've challenged myself to creating a minimum of 52 things this year...one for each week of the year.  The creations can be crafty, yarny, cooking, etc.  Within that goal, I'm trying to push myself outside of my normal box and try new things.  That can include new techniques, making things I've never made before or making them differently, new recipes, etc.  I had originally thought I'd use Pinterest as my inspiration but I've found inspiration in so many other places too.

Here's what I've created so far...

I fell in love with Caron Cakes yarn and just had to give it a try.  I just couldn't resist these colors and that I wouldn't have loose ends to tuck in at each color change.

The new thing I tried with this shawl project was knitting a triangle from end to end.  The pattern was on the label of the yarn.  I used two balls of this yarn and size eight needles.  It was a lot of fun to knit up.  I found myself knitting pretty fast on it as I would always want to knit to the next color.

I knitted up a pair of boot cuffs.  The new-to-me on this project was that I'd never made boot cuffs and I'd never worn them.  I thought they were pretty cute, could keep me warm, and was something I could make with some leftover yarn I'd acquired from a knit friend.  They knitted up quickly and were fun to make but I wasn't thrilled with how they felt or looked when I tried them on.  I ended up turning the photo black and white in an attempt to like the photo.  I may give them to my daughter.  I think she might enjoy them more than I will.

I've been noticing crocheted jewelry online for a while and finally gave it a try.  I tried making earrings.  It took a few attempts and was surprisingly not as easy to crochet onto the wire as I thought it would be.

I made myself a "pussy hat".  I didn't march in any of the protests as I was sick that weekend.  But, I felt strongly about a lot that was going on.  And, I just love these hats.  It was a fun project to make and to wear.  I found a pattern on Ravelry that was knitted in the round.  I love this color!  And, the hat is really comfy.  It's fun to wear little ears too.  Makes for funny shadows too.  lol

I crocheted a wavey scarf with some yarn I had leftover from my Taos vest.  The pattern is Nanci's Waves Scarf from Ravelry.  I liked how a few people had crocheted the pattern lengthwise I and decided to do that too.  The wave technique was new to me and fun to make.

I crocheted some fun tassels for the ends with little circles.

I made a Pussy Hat for my daughter.  She didn't want it in pink.  So, I knitted it in gray.  I embellished it with a little pink heart.  I've been wanting to embellish some of my projects.  This is a tiny start.  I did it with some pink yarn and duplicate stitch.

I'd knitted up a few gnomes last year and I guess they must have been fun because I just had to make another one.  lol  This time, I made it as a leprechaun.  I bought him a little hat, gave him a shorter beard, a little belt with a felt buckle, knitted stripes for socks, and used the same color for his hands instead of another color for gloves.  And, it was done before Saint Patrick's Day!

I made up a bunch of wool felted balls a few years ago and had been meaning to decorate some and use them for drier balls.  I finally got around to making one.  It's a simple design on natural, multi-color wool.

I got a little fancier with the next one.  I decided to make a desert scene on it.  I started out by making one scene on one side but decided to go all the way around.  It was fun needle felting little cactus.

My daughter was home for spring break and we all found ourselves enjoying an entire day outside on the back patio to enjoy the incredible weather we had that day.  While I was out there, I decided to harvest some lavender from my yard and make a lavender wand.

When my daughter went back to college, I went with her and spent a week there.  There's a great little thrift shop in town that I always go to when I'm visiting.  This time, one of the things I found was a package of tiny glass jars with cork lids.  When I got home, I added lavender to one of them and put it on a chain.  It's cute and I can take a whiff of that lovely scent anytime I want.  It's like aroma therapy on the go!

That's 11 projects and I should be up to number 13.  So, I'm a bit behind on my challenge.  However, I have several projects in the works.  I should be able to catch up with no problem.  I'll try to post the new projects as I finish them up.

You can also follow me on Instagram.  I post on that a lot more often.  You can find me there as acorntooak

Mountain Get-Away and New Treasures

I can't believe summer is over!  It flew by SO fast!  It seems like just a few weeks ago that we were planning our big road trip...and, then, it was over.  Then, we were looking forward to the many weeks left and now my daughter is back in college.  Whew!  It was an incredible summer and I guess that's why it seems to have gone by so fast.  Great times are usually like that.

Those great times made it harder for my daughter and I when she moved back for college.  We both shed some tears and felt down for a few days.  But, moving ahead means moving on to more opportunities for great times and making more wonderful memories.

Our summer was so busy that we hadn't even made it up the mountain to one of our favorite places, Idyllwild.  We found some time a couple of weeks ago and headed up late on a Friday afternoon.  It was a bit cooler up there and that was really nice.  We got some iced drinks and wandered around a few shops.  Unfortunately, even though it was a Friday, shops closed early and there weren't very many people up there.  So, we didn't get to do much shopping or see much.  But, it was soon time for dinner and we decided to try a place we'd heard about for years but never gone to, Cafe Aroma.  

When we arrived, we were told that all of the outside seating was reserved until later that evening.  They were going to seat us inside and I asked if we could have a table as close to the door as possible so we could hear the live music.  She thought for a moment and the next thing we knew, she was seating us at a table outside.  I think she called it their "banquet table".  It was larger than all the rest and had seating for six.  My husband and daughter and I were thrilled.  It was close to the stage and was one of the best tables to see the musician.  I'm not sure why it's called "cafe" because it turns out to be a pretty high end restaurant.  Although, it does have a casual atmosphere and most of the tables are outside.  That was wonderful on that beautiful night to dine outside.

It was the last full weekend that our daughter would be home before moving back for college.  It was a perfect reason to splurge.  And...we did!  We ordered a delicious bottle of wine and toasted to a great school year.

Our food was so good that I forgot to take pictures!  We all had pasta dishes.  They offer gluten free pasta!  How cool is that?!  And, it's really good gluten free pasta.  My daughter's dinner was smothered in a delicious, creamy, tomato sauce and it had chicken, sausage, prosciutto and shallots.  Hubby had pasta with shrimp and jalapeno cream sauce...yum!  Mine had portabello mushrooms, white wine and garlic.  The music started shortly after we got there.  See how close we were and how nice it was to sit outside.....

Since we were already spending so much and wanted to make it a great evening, we decided to go for dessert.  There were lots of yummy choices.  Here's something I posted on Instagram later that night...

But, we decided to share the flourless chocolate cake (gluten free).

It was very rich and delicious!

I noticed that they had blankets hanging around on hooks for guests to use when it got chilly.

What a great idea!  I even saw a someone take advantage of one.

Our waitress had a ring on that was so cool that I had to ask her about it.  She told me she'd gotten it at a shop in town and that it was going out of business.  Well, that meant I needed to get up there quick before they were all gone!  So, we went back up that weekend.

As we headed up, I realized that I hadn't even thought about how much it might cost.  But, I really liked it and it was worth checking.  I was figuring it would be around $10-$15.  It turned out to be $4.99 but everything in the store was 50% off because they're going out of business.  So, it cost a whole $2.50!  What a deal!  I love my new ring!  It's a shell that's been cut and polished on the top and a hole was drilled through the side to slide it on.  Such a unique idea!  I love it!  Hubby kept laughing at me because I was so thrilled with my new ring that I kept holding it up and looking at it.

Since everything was 50% off, I had to look around!  I ended up buying a second ring.  It's Labradorite.  The color is interesting...it goes from blue to bluish green to gray and sometimes shimmers a bit like opal.  I love the leaves on it and it fits perfectly.  I've been looking for more rings for a long time.  It was fun to finally find some that I like and that they were so cheap.

My daughter found a cute ring that has three colors of Topaz on it.  And, she got a really cute beaded bracelet with a southwest/Native American design on it.  Fun!

It was a beautiful day up there!  Here's a shot looking up the main street of town.  That's Lily Rock or Tahquitz Rock in the center.  The peak above it and to the right is Tahquitz Peak that we've hiked to a few times.  I never get tired of these views!  In fact, we have a peek-a-boo view of Lily Rock from our loft window at home, many miles away.  Pretty cool!

We stayed for lunch and this cute, carved bear was standing near our table.  

 Such a fun weekend and a perfect way to cap off our summer!

I've got tons to do....back to work!

Gifts of Love

My husband and I celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary recently.

When he came home from work that evening, he brought me a sweet card

and this huge Christmas Cactus.  He thought I'd love the pink blossoms.

I'm not a huge fan of succulent plants or Christmas Cactus but this one is quite pretty.

It has SO many blooms and keeps sprouting more buds every day.

We went out to Yard House for dinner that night and had a wonderful time!

What I didn't know was that he'd ordered something for me that hadn't arrived in time.

When he ordered it, he didn't realize it would be made for his order and would take a while.  I was surprised last weekend when I picked up the mail and there was an envelope from "Home Baby Crafts".  It's a name I recognized because I found them on Facebook a while ago when a friend "liked" them.  I fell in love with the beautiful handmade jewelry.  I recently gave a link to hubby as an idea for Christmas.  That's the one he ordered.  Isn't it beautiful?  The little green stones are Peridot.

It came with a matching chain.

I can't believe I have one of my very own.  I've been looking at these for a while now.

I love it!  And, I love how it supports an individual artist.  :-)

Here's a LINK to her Facebook page.  I noticed that she's closed for orders until after Christmas.

She only took orders for what she knew she could complete in time.  But, take a look at some of her other creations.  They're wonderful!  I love the ones with moons behind the trees.

Knitted Necklace

I was inspired earlier this year by some I-cord scarves on display at a yarn shop.  I found some beautiful brown, cotton yarn at the same shop and immediately had an idea for knitted jewelry.

My idea had a western look with brown I-cord, silver beads, turquouise beads and red coral beads.

I searched for months to find silver beads with holes large enough for one strand of the yarn so I could knit them into the necklace.  I had no luck.  I gave up for a bit and started looking again about a week ago.  I found some with holes even bigger than that.  They fit over the entire I-cord!

Once I had the I-cords made and started to put it all together, the turquoise and coral

didn't look right.  So, I decided to make it with just the I-cords and silver beads.

I think it turned out pretty nice.  I'm excited to wear it.

I found these little silver cones to cover the ends.  It works nice to conceal the not-so-pretty

bind-off I-cords and give it a polished look.  The design on them looks a little like knit stitches.

I used jump rings and a simple lobster clasp on the back to open and close it.

Here's the yarn I used, Rowan Cotton Glace...

I have some more ideas swimming around in my head to try

to incorporate the turquoise and coral beads.  And, to use some silver beads

I found with even larger holes.  I can't wait to see how they turn out.

Tiny Nest

My excitement over the rose rings I made last week inspired a new idea. A ring with a tiny nest and teeny, tiny eggs.

So cute and so small...


I needle felted the nest and leaves.


The nest is made with a natural brown wool that has a few shades of brown and some white fibers. It gives it a more natural, nest-like look.


I tried to give the leaves some extra shaping and dimension so they wouldn't look flat.


The tiny eggs were made with polymer clay. They were really tricky to bake because of their tiny size. The first set burned and turned brown almost instantly. On the second try, I had to play around with oven settings and turning the oven off soon after I put them in and then just let them sit in the heat. I had to do that a couple of times to get them to harden but not burn. I love how they turned out. The blue is perfect and I like the subtle marbling.


I attached it all to a ring blank for a cute and whimsical accessory.

I love birds and nests but there's something about teeny, tiny things that make them extra cute.

Rose Pins

Last week, on Valentine's Day, I made some sweet rose rings and posted them on my blog. Benita, of the blog, "Basically Benita", commented that she liked the red one and that it would be cute as a brooch. I thought that sounded like a great idea! I also thought it would be fun to make one and send it to her. She seems like such a sweet person and I appreciate all of her visits to my blog and the comments she leaves.

I bought a package of pins and got started on trying to recreate the red rose in a bigger size that would work with the pin and look good on a blouse or lapel. It was a wonderful exercise in creativity and problem solving because the way I made the small one didn't look right in a larger size. Hmmmm? I tried some different things and ended up with this one. It's ruffly and cute but doesn't look anything like the ring or much like a rose. This one is about three inches wide, including the leaves.


I kept working on the idea and came up with this one. It's much more similar to the ring. I'm not sure if it looks more like a rose or a Camellia. But, it is pretty. It's about two and 3/4 inches wide, including the leaves. I hope you like it, Benita!


I needed to cover the bottom where all the petals are attached. So, I cut a piece of green felt with little points coming up the sides to resemble the sepal(?) part of a rose. I think it worked pretty well.


I had so much fun making the rings last week and Benita's comment inspired me to spend some more time being creative with felt. Thanks, Benita!

Sweet Roses

I love roses! Pink ones, red ones, yellow ones, orange ones....any color...they're all beautiful! I liked a silver rose ring that I recently saw too. But, being the frugal person I am, I didn't buy it. It inspired me though. I imagined a rose ring that I could make. And, I could do it with materials I already had!

I described it to my daughter and it inspired her. She got up this morning and made a flower ring with felt fabric and blogged it HERE before she went to class. It's so cute! I love the glitzy button detail in the center! She matched it to her outfit and wore it. It looked great on her!

Later today, I went to the studio and created the rose ring I had imagined. I think it turned out pretty much like I had envisioned. I created it with some coral wool and a felting needle. I love the soft look of it. So pretty and sweet.




I attached it to a ring blank...


And, I wore it out when I ran errands today. It's a perfect accessory for Valentine's Day!


It was so much fun to make my wool rose ring and I was so inspired by my daughter's felt flower ring that I just couldn't stop at one! I made another rose ring with felt...


I love the deep red color!




My daughter tried a couple of the rings on one hand and we could imagine a whole hand full of flower rings...one on each finger...like a little bouquet! I probably wouldn't wear so many at once...but what a cute idea! These cute little things could be addicting!