Month: November 2014

Our Yummy You! sale is still going on! 20% off our entire shop with code BLACKFRIDAY until Monday at midnight!

I don’t blog nearly enough about all the cool crocheting happening out in the world, but I had to show you these amazing puppets that someone sent me on Facebook along with a wonderful note. Emily is an art teacher and drama director at the Heritage School District in Homer / Broadlands IL. Her drama club performed Little Shop of Horrors last weekend (and I’m so sorry I didn’t get this blog post up before then!). When she first decided to take on this project, the only thing that went through her brain was EVERYTHING MUST BE CROCHETED! So, all summer she crocheted and completed two of the puppets. The final puppet had to big enough for the actors to go through and get eaten! Not only did they crochet the plant puppets, but also vines, mini plant puppets for each actor, flowers for the flower shop and hundreds of leaves! Here is the big one! It is 5.5 feet tall! Feed me, Seymour! I’m just so impressed at all the work that went into these pieces, and I’m bummed I don’t live close enough to have seen them in action! Maybe if we are lucky, the Heritage Drama Club will make more crochet magic in the future! Thanks, Emily, for sharing your photos with me and for being an inspiration!

I polled you guys on Facebook to see what kind of Thanksgiving-themed crochet tutorial you’d like to see, and I got a lot of votes for a turkey drumstick as well as some form of pumpkin pie. The turkey drumstick would be easy, as the pattern already exists and I wouldn’t have to write anything, but hey, I like a fun(ny) new project and thought maybe you would, too! I decided to turn this little pumpkin pie brooch (or hair clip, for the adventurous) into a hiding place for some sheets of tissue, and the tissue also doubles as the whipped cream dollop for the pie! You know, this will come in super handy at your holiday feast, if someone randomly drops some stuffing on the floor, or if someone has some gravy on their face. YOU COULD BE THE THANKSGIVING HERO. YOU’RE WELCOME. (Pattern also includes the option of stuffing the brooch with Polyfill and not having any tissue come out of it…) There’s also a video tutorial on YouTube for ya.

I’m excited to bring you another KawaiiBox giveaway! KawaiiBox is the cutest monthly subscription box, filled with 10-12 hand-picked items from Japan and Korea for $18.90/month. Use the Rafflecopter widget below for a chance to win next month’s KawaiiBox! Let’s check out what’s in November’s!

I have a new free crochet pattern today for this Gingerbread Christmas Stocking over at Skip To My Lou for their huge Bake Craft Sew & Crochet Along! Don’t forget that Skip To My Lou is also running a giveaway for a $300 gift certificate at Michaels! I also plan to post a video tutorial for this in 2 weeks, so stay tuned!

Don’t forget that I have a free pattern for a Turkey Tissue Box cozy with cute lil veggies and a lettuce dish cloth! I’ll be filming a tutorial for the drumstick and posting it this week! Also for those of us less inclined to crochet any turkey-related accessories, we have our Turkey Hat available for sale over at Yummy You!

Today I’m over at Skip to My Lou as part of the Bake Craft Sew & Crochet Along. I am sharing a wonderful crochet pattern perfect for holiday gift giving. In fact, you won’t want to miss all the handmade gift ideas! I have joined over 100 bloggers to share some amazing homemade gift ideas……..AND I get to be part of an amazing giveaway too. Keep reading… You can enter to win a $300 Michaels gift card. Yes, you can buy yarn until your heart is content! Follow along with us and you can enter to win each day!   Just wait for the rafflecopter to load and get ready …… a Rafflecopter giveaway

Yesterday, I got a fun little surprise in the mail: HAPPY MAIL! It’s the new monthly stationery club from my fave gals Elsie & Emma from A Beautiful Mess (they also recently launched a new shop filled with tons of crafting supplies plus their new craft line, bee tee dubs!). You can tell that I’m kind of really into their mailer! Let’s check out what’s inside! I already started getting the happy feels upon opening my hand-written card! When I was little, I tried to get Manda to be my pen pal, but she never mailed me anything! Granted, she did GIVE me some letters when I saw her, BUT STILL. Anyway, I admit, that I am really bad at the lost art of letter-writing and card-sending. My friend Cuppy is like The Queen of Card-Sending, and I think it’s really lovely, and I wish I had my ish together enough to send some random mail-love to my favorite people. For $15/month, you get a$50 retail value of fun and colorful cards, tags, stickers, labels, notepads, and even a print! The gals put together a little video to show you everything you get. As a person who does not collect cards or stationery or very much paper goods, I’m kind of excited to have this little collection to play with! It’s giving me a push to send someone a surprise. Who would you send a fun card to?  

I drink tea all day long. My favorite non-caffeinated version is Almond Coconut Macaron Rooibos Tea from the Republic of Tea, and I probably average 3 bags a day. For a sweeter and more caffeinated kick, I’m all about PG Tips and French vanilla creamer. This all means that I use coasters A LOT. We have had a lot of cute coaster sets, but the ones we’ve had lately are either plastic or laminated or cork, and sometimes they stick to the bottom of my cups and then come clattering off at some annoying point in time. I then started hunting for felt coasters. I know I KNOW. I could just crochet myself some coasters, but sometimes I just feel like shopping and supporting other handmade artists, too! That’s how I found Dandyrions and her adorable bear coasters. They come on all colors, and some have accessories, like eyeglasses, or, a fish in the mouth. I can’t wait for my set to come in and cuddle all my tea mugs! Here are some other coasters that I liked as well on Etsy. I very nearly bought this set of bally coasters before finding the bears. These are by NomiMakes. I also liked the colors and funky shapes of these guys from BeansAndThreads. And finally, you can’t go wrong with some crocheted coasters in this house. These cheery fruits are from Portuli. OOOOOH I just thought of a cute pattern for coasters involving sparkle yarn…. stay tuned!

The ladies at Skip To My Lou have put together a ginormous Holiday Bake Craft Sew Crochet Along for the month of November (so there are already a ton of projects up on their blog!). They asked if I would guest-post a little later in the month, so stay tuned for a holiday-themed crochet pattern from yours truly! In the meantime, check out all the other recipes and projects from a ton of other creatives! (p.s. If you have requests for a simple tree ornament, let me know! I have an idea of what I will guest-post, but I’m still open to meeting any of your wishes!)

Hi! It’s the 15th of the month, so it’s time to launch a new blog sponsor giveaway! Thanks so much to my generous sponsors for offering us these wonderful goodies! We have eleven awesome prizes for November, and I will be drawing THREE winners. The FIRST winner can choose his/her favorite 5 prizes. The SECOND winner can choose his/her favorite 3 prizes. And the THIRD winner will win the remaining 3 prizes.

A few weekends ago, my buddy Candace and I went to Hello Kitty Con 2014 in L.A.! This was the first ever Hello Kitty Con and also the first time ever Candace and I traveled together! She keeps weird hours, likes to knit until 6 am, and has a suitcase full of snacks. Um, PERFECT TRAVEL COMPANION FOR ME. I arrived at the hotel first, took some video for Instagram, and then instructed Candace to not look on Insta, because I wanted her to be surprised when she walked in. We stayed at the LINE Hotel in Korea Town, which was the official hotel for the con. We kinda hemmed and hawed about staying there and actually had a  cheaper, back-up reservation somewhere else, but we decided to GO FOR IT. (Photos are mostly mine, with some of Candace’s thrown in, and others noted when borrowed from someone else!)

Sorry for the total radio-silence here! As you know, I was prepping for Renegade, and then my brain melted for the past two days. I think I’m back, though!!! 🙂 Stay tuned for an Etsy shop update with my craft-show leftovers, more video tutorials, our November giveaway, and finally  my closet-cleanout with yarn and other craft bits!!!! If there are particular holiday-themed patterns/tutorials you’d like to see, just holler! I was thinking: turkey drumstick plush, the Christmas Pickle, and maybe a gingerbread-house tissue cozy!

Soooo how about that time change!? I forgot how dark it gets now and all the photos I took today were super blurry. OOPS. I finally got this amazing tee from fASHLINdotcom on Etsy. It’s been in my Etsy faves for a while, and I finally went for it. I messaged Ashlin about sizing and found out she is also a really cool chick! Score! In case you were curious about sizing, I’m wearing a large (almost thought I had to get an XL cuz sometimes the cute tees for the girls are tiny!). I usually buy larges in juniors or American Apparel because I don’t like my armpits to feel squished, but I actually could have probably gotten this tee in a medium. Better slightly too big than slightly too small, that’s my (not very clever or interesting) motto!

We’re back from Hello Kitty Con, and I will blog about that as soon as my buddy gives me all her photos (oh! I have them now, but I need to sort through!), but I wanted all you guys in the Bay Area to remember to come visit my booth at Renegade Craft Fair this weekend!! It’s at Fort Mason on Saturday and Sunday, 11am – 6pm. I’m at booth #147 right next to my trusty booth-neighbor Quiet Tiger in #148.  I’ll have tons of stuff to get you ready for the holidays! See you there! Click to enlarge.