Saturday, March 31, 2012

Lumpy Bunnies

Last year I made bunnies out of clothes pins. This year, I painted up some rocks to make a rabbit family!

Baby Bunny has a pacifier made from a button and some felt. Mama's got a rose. I was going to make glasses out of wire for Papa, but couldn't figure out how to 'hook' them around his ears. But hey, with all the carrots he eats, he's probably got 20/20 vision anyway!

Monday, March 26, 2012

Buying Fabric, etc.

I want to make some Egg-shaped potholders for Easter, and I'm out of Insulbrite. (In case you don't know, that's a batting that is insulated and resists heat. Great for oven mitts and potholders!) I can't find it around here so I ordered it on line. But I did it in a way that saves me money. If you haven't signed up for eBates, you should. It's free, trustworthy (I've been using it for years) and it's a way to get money for buying things you'd buy anyway.

You go to the site and do a search. They do have Joanne Fabrics, and I use that a lot. (Especially with 40% off coupons!) But today I also wanted to use my Paypal account instead of my bank account to pay. So far as I've seen, Joanne's doesn't take Paypal.

I used Fabric.com, another reliable source. If you spent $35, you got free shipping. I need some bulk yarn for the fall quilt I'm making and some spring-y fabric for a new blouse. I made it to $36. I will get 4% back on that, which will go into my Paypal account. (I think the money goes in quarterly, although I'm not sure about that.)

So, things I need, free shipping and money back. And no driving an hour to a fabric/yarn store! Yeah, works for me.

https://www.fabric.com/Index.aspx

Cut-out eggs, which obviously need ironing.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Squirrel Nutkin

This squirrel was acting kind of silly, doing back flips and hanging upside down from a low branch. She's one of my friendly 'outdoor babies' and let me take her picture. She might be thinking: "why did you interrupt my Happy Springtime Dance?"!


 Over on my other blog, "My Family News" I have been trying to do the 365 (this year, 366) picture thing. As in, you take and post a picture every day. I've managed to keep up with it, so far, but it's hard. Nobody's life is that exciting and I don't have any little kids who will pose for me. Most of my shots are of nature around  my house! But I've gotten this far, into nearly the end of March, so I think I can swing the rest of the year.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Flower Pillow

I've been working on a new pillow for my couch. The pillow itself is just a simple crocheted square. The flowers come from various patterns that I've made here and there. I might add a few more small ones or some leaves, but I'm not sure. It's about 12" x 12" and it was a lot of fun to make!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

A Little Bit Faster Now

It's easier for me to do Front Post than Back Post crochets, mostly because the BPs aren't facing me. So I decided to use some stitch markers where each group of BPTCs begin, and I found it made the row a lot faster. As in, I was taking about 18 minutes to do one of these rows and cut it back to about 11 minutes!

I think I have about 2 more rows out of this particular ball of yarn. I need to get to Michael's or Joanne's for my next color, since I only ordered 2 balls of this orange! It's a bad habit of mine, but a necessary one that I never buy or order all the yarn I need. I just couldn't afford it. For a project like this, where I'll be changing colors, dye lots don't really matter, anyway.

Monday, March 12, 2012

48 Hour Afghan Begins

I had bought a booklet called "48-Hour Afghans" a while back. I finally got around to picking up some 'bulky' yarn to start it. This will be in various shades of orange, red and yellow. I'm aiming for the fall. 48 hours doesn't mean I plan to work on it continuously. I bore too easily and have too many other things I want to work on. But I am keeping 'time' on this. I write down the times I start and stop. So far, it's taken me about an hour and a half to do 4 inches. A lot of that includes 'learning' time, but I've got the swing of it so I think it will speed up. I find the hardest part is the 'Back Post Triple Crochets,' because you have to sort of 'feel' behind the work to find the posts. Front Posts are much, much easier.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Sleepy Bunny Face

I embroidered the bunny's face today. As you can see, it is a very simple design!

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Bunny to Be

Here are the components of a little amigurimi bunny I'm making. He will be laying down with a 'sleepy face' embroidered on him. I'll use a pompom for his cotton tail.

Ami is pretty easy, I think. You make a ball for a head and an egg for a body, then some simple tubes for legs. The ears I sort of fudged, but they do work. Little Bunbun will be finished by Easter time and will join all my other bunnies.
BTW, he's pretty small, maybe four or five inches from nose to tail.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Cheap Planter

Here is a planter idea you can make. Kids can decorate them, too! (Sorry, my 'planter' isn't decorated. I found this idea someplace but never thought to make it fancy. The idea to decorate it came out of the blue, but I haven't gotten to that yet.)

Anyhoo, you cut a 2-liter  bottle in half. Turn the top half upside down into the bottom half and fill with soil. Then, add seeds. (Some of the soil falls into the bottom, but don't worry about that.) The neck of the bottle becomes a drainage hole.

I've planted basil, from seeds my kids gave me for my birthday. I hope they grow, since I'm not much of a gardener!

I'm linking ot "Frugal Friday" over at "Life As  Mom." Check out the other awesome ideas over there!