FINALLY. It's SCARF season!

I can't help but love a fabulous scarf. Fall is my favorite season just because it means I can wear scarves...well and pumpkin everything, but that's a story for another day. It's finally cooling down here in Idaho. We have a week or two of fall and then the endless winter that always gets me slightly grumpy. I have more scarves than I have shoes. The beginning of the season meant I had a reason to take a break from Ponyville and make myself a new addition to my collection.

I found this gorgeous yarn awhile back and fell in love with it. I'm not going to lie, half of the love comes from the name of the colorway: Parrot! There is absolutely no way to accurately photograph the colors of this yarn. It's stunning. Pinks and reds and blues and greens that fade flawlessly. It's roving yarn too, which I love. So cuddly soft. I wanted something different than what I've done in the past. Don't get me wrong, I love a good infinity scarf or a traditional scarf, but it was time for something new. Something with fringe.

I found what I was looking for after surfing Ravelry for a bit longer than I care to admit. That place can be worse than pinterest for me. I'm not even kidding a little bit. Hours can be wasted surfing patterns. Yarn holds a special place in my heart, but all the lovely patterns people create leave me deliriously happy. I'll never get around to writing any original patterns because I always get sidetracked. This pattern from Cortney Young is called the Easy Triangle Fringe Scarf and Shawl.

 

Easy was exactly right. I needed a break from ponies where I didn't have to count stitch after stitch. Just mindless relaxing with hook and yarn. The scarf itself took less time than adding all the fringe. Of course, the fringe is what makes it so fun! This really is more of a shawl than a scarf, but the yarn is light enough it can be worn lots of ways. I feel like I have a warm and comfy blanket on when I wear it. I really can not express how much I love this thing.

I'm all snug and wrapped up as I write this and my motivation is back to finish the ponies that are going to be the highlight of my daughter's birthday in (gah!) 8 days. I am in a perfect autumn mood now. Bring on the pumpkin lattes and pumpkin bread and everything else pumpkin that I can get my hands on. Happy Fall!

Also, I've finally gotten around to actually setting up an account on Ravelry. If you'd like to see what projects I'm working on (because there is always more than one) come find me!

I've linked this post to: Link Party Palooza Hooking on Hump Day Crafting Along Craftionary Show Off Friday Obsessive and Creative Show and Tell Saturday
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Owls and rainbow bags...

I finished two great projects this week. I'm pretty proud of them.

 The bag is another one from Lucy at Attic 24. I think I've mentioned in the past how much I love her crochet patterns.

 The owl hat has the distinction of being the first crochet item I've ever sold. That's big for me because I've been pretty seriously thinking about selling my crochet through etsy or some such way. Having someone buy and appreciate what you've made is so extremely satisfying.

 
 I love the bright happy colors of the bag. I love that there was no rhyme or reason to the color stripes. I love that I can take it to the Saturday market and fill it up with the treasures I find there.

 This bag is BIG. In fact, big is not a big enough word for this bag. Gigantic. That would be a good word. It's really TOO big to use as a daily purse... but I have been anyways because it's so awesomely colored. Sage fits in this purse. With a teddy bear or two for company. (Hey, she crawled into it, I didn't put her there.)

You can read about Lucy's bag and find the tutorial here or here. I have yet to put on the flowers because I got too distracted by wearing the bag to the market.

 The owl hat was super fun too. I'm totally in love with owls. And since I can sneeze and probably hit something owl related every time I go into a store now, I know I'm not the only one. These hats are all over etsy and pinterest. Isn't it cute?

 
 It's part of a much more owlish Halloween costume that my dear friend is making for her adorable daughter. She still had to wear it at the park this morning, even though it was sweating, holy moly hot outside.

 
I didn't follow one single pattern, but I did use a few for inspiration. You can find them here and here.

For you yarn lovin' folks, I used Lily Sugar and Cream cotton yarn for the bag. I wanted it washable. My life is full of adventures, I need easy. I used plain Jain acrylic yarn for the hat. Wouldn't it be fun do do in some chunky, delicious yarn?

Summer's going by too fast. I don't have near enough time to crochet all the things I have saved up to do!! I wonder if there is a bachelor's degree in crochet that I could switch to for the fall? Would that fix the problem?

I linked this post to Hooking on Hump Day  Craft-O-Maniac Monday  Making the World Cuter Mondays  The Weekly Creative Link Party

Random Roundup: what I've been up to.

Those of you bloggers out there who do this regularly in the summer have my deepest respect! It's tough to fit in. I have five million things to blog about, but no time. So, I'm doing a roundup of things I have been wanting to blog about.

#1: My dreadlocks are now 4 years old! Happy dreadiversary!



I'm kind of to the point where I want to cut them. I have to do so in 6 months anyway, and I'm really loving on short hairstyles right now. Dreads are hot, yo. I'm waffling. I would keep them forever if I knew I could, but teaching with dreadlocks in my area is probably as possible as Lily eating broccoli. So now that I know I have to cut them, I want to cut them when I want to, not when I have to. And yes, I'm listening to how much sense I'm not making. I think it's time to break out some funky dye and do something wild. When in doubt, add a rainbow. That's my motto.

#2: Colored. Ice cubes.



I randomly saw this on pinterest and can't remember who had the original idea to credit. I threw some neon food dye in a batch of star shaped ice cubes and let the kids play with them in the pool. They were so entertained I was able to read a whole chapter in my book. That's rare during the monsters being awake portion of the day. You should probably put kiddos in older swimsuits in case of staining.

#3: The coolest mushroom in existence.



It's called a lionhead mushroom. It's furry. And delicious with a bunch of other mushrooms in mushroom risotto.

#4: ANT INFESTATION.



I feel like a mass murderer lately. They just won't. stop. coming. out. of my front porch. Normally I'm a let live type, but it's gross and Sage sits there and tries to eat them. Ugg. I have kids and dogs and can't use chemicals.  Tried a gazillion non-chemical remedies. Verdict? Soapy dishwater and cornmeal. Worked amazingly. My walkway is covered with the little ant bodies. (Note to self: spray off the walkway.)

#5: Lily left us last week. So Sage decided to practice for when she gets her Hogwarts letter.



She crawled into one of Dad's shirts and grabbed my wand off the bookshelf. Much hilarity ensued.

#6: Sage also had her first painting session! She painted almost as much as she ate the paint.



I simply put food dye into corn syrup. Once her masterpiece dried, I sprayed it with some top coat and I'm going to frame it for our wall. Clean up was not easy, but the rainbow colored water did look pretty.

#7: I made another baby shower gift. This time it was an owl lovey. Turned out super cute. It even rattled! Working on writing the pattern for it, possibly to share later.



#8: I wore makeup. Haha. I nearly made it to 60 days makeup free! Oh well. It was date night and the Hubster got all fancy, so I did too. I forgot how much fun makeup is when it's not a daily chore!!



So there you go. What we've been up to lately, if you leave out about half the stuff we're doing. Hehe. Who agrees with me that there needs to be at least two more hours added to the day?

Anyone?

Anyone?

Hooked on Granny.

After my month of a million scarves, you'd think I'd be sick of crochet. NOPE.

I am hopelessly addicted to yarn.

I have always wanted one of those hideously ugly and yet awesome afghans that I now know are called granny squares. I love the random rainbows of color.

I've started my very first granny blanket and I'm pretty proud of myself. I'm also tickled at the sheer amount of yarn I've collected for this project.

23 different colors of yarn in blues, purples, greens, blacks, greys, and white. I have sparkly, I have ugly, I have hand-me-down yarn. This baby is going to be sweet.

I have a LOT of work left to do. It's going to take me about a million years to finish sewing in ends that I didn't sew in as I went a long. Shame. Shame. Shame. If only school didn't start in two days, I bet I could have in done in a week or two. With homework already pouring in (grumble, grumble), I bet it gets done about the time summer hits. 

I really love the mish mash of colors, don't you? It's so ugly, it's gone right past ugly into beautiful.

Yay GRANNY!!!!

I'm Blue (da ba dee)

While little Miss Sage was sleeping away the afternoon....

Lily and I had a bit of one on one time. Nic and I have instilled a new policy at the house. We each make sure to spend at least 10 minutes of time one on one with Lily a day. Usually, it ends up being more time, but we start with the ten. We take her to the grocery store because she is an excellent list-checker-offer.You will never lose your list when Lily's in charge of it. Or we go outside and play on the tire swing. Nic and her like to race, him on his skateboard, her on her bike. Just a few minutes each day independently with Mom and Dad to make sure that she is not feeling like she's missing out now that there's a very demanding baby in the house. It's working like a charm.

Today we colored and made cupcakes. Blue was the theme as we were coloring a card and making cupcakes for Lily's biological father's birthday. She knows it's his favorite color (his walls are that color in his house, his christmas tree is all blue, his car is blue...) so it was blue everything. 

She drew him a blue cake with blue candles. I didn't realize that when she asked me how old he was, she was using the information to add the exact number of candles on the cake in her drawing. She was very proud that she was able to fit all of them on there. We talked about how there is even a little bit of blue in fire (for the candles) and what her favorite shade of blue is (sky blue).

Next came the cupcakes. In Lily's world, cupcakes are a mean business. The colors have to be just right. She can hardly contain her joy while waiting for them to cool enough to frost. Frosting is never enough decoration. I have 8 different kinds of edible sprinkles in my cupboards just for cupcakes.


Since these were boy cupcakes, I brought out a secret stash of candy to use as decoration this time.

At first I was worried that she was going to balk at the idea of using bugs and mushrooms because of their lack of sprinkliness, but she surprised me and picked out her favorite bugs and mushrooms to grace the cupcakes.I tried to argue for white cupcakes with blue frosting, but got shot down. So, we have bright blue cupcakes with white frosting and super fun bug/mushroom toppers. Since I was on a countdown with Sage's nap, these were just box mix and easy cream cheese frosting. Honestly though, the cake mix cupcakes are always my favorite. Call me weird, but I make cupcakes with Funfetti mix more than I make mix from scratch because it always tastes better to me. Overall, I think the cuppycakes turned out cute.

To finish off the blue theme we decided a bit of the Smurf movie was in order. All in all, it was a fabulous afternoon and she was so very proud to give her gifts. I'm trying to turn her over to the handmade-gifts-are-better darkside. Hee.

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