Such A Wonderful Week!

This week has been such a blast! I've been crocheting up a storm working on Judah's ripple blanket & making granny squares for the Blogger Blanket Project! I FINALLY found my favorite crochet hook! It's a blue H hook with a bamboo handle! It's been missing for quite some time! When I took the couch cushions off to wash them, the hook was tucked away in the couch!

My doctors appointment was cancelled Tuesday, as the OB had to go in to deliver a baby! Not a problem, but it was kinda annoying that we had to drive an hour & 30 minutes to get to his office. We were about 3 miles away from his office when we got the call. We took advantage of the day and went to Old Navy for some maternity blue jeans & then we headed to Lenox Mall for some shopping! We went in LUSH, the apple store & Anthro. It was Robin's first time ever going in Anthropologie and he was actually in love! I have to admit, my hubby has good taste! He loved the natural wood & stone floor and a lot of the home decorations! He even pointed out a few bedspreads that he liked.. I might just have to make a wish list for Christmas or something! I was so surprised he loved it.. It made me love him a wee bit more on top of the muchness that I love him. It was like a cherry on top of whipped cream ;) Two things that really caught my eye were these::::


Um, I DIE!!! A crochet bird house?!?! Have mercy! I don't know if I would put it outside, but it would be such a cute place for a little feathery family to brood! AND that blanket. OH.. my eyes and heart just swell looking at it! I can hardly stand it!



I also had my baby shower this weekend too! Which means my BFF Natalie was down for the weekend! We stayed up till 3:30am Friday night! We made cake pops & chocolate covered marshmellow & oreos for the shower! She decorated it in a "Rain Shower" theme! Everything was so cute & light blue! It was so beautiful! My friend Jessica said everything looked like a Pinterest board! We made blue punch & had cups with paper umbrellas & straws! The cake pops were almost a disaster but after putting them in the freezer & swapping candy melts for Almond bark made everything work out perfectly! We got a little stressed out Friday night and decided to forget all the baby shower hoopla & get in the hot tub! We laughed so much and so hard! It was like we were teenagers again.. minus the weird hair and obvious lack of fashion sense. Needless to say, it was a blast! Saturday loads of my family & friends came over and showered me with love & gifts! Such WONDERful gifts! Some of which I will cherish for a lifetime!! Tons of stuff to get us started with out little man! I still can't get over how SOON he will be here... 5 more weeks.

Hopefully this week we can get around to moving our rooms around to make room for little Judah & give me an area to "nest" and decorate!

What did you ladies/gents do this weekend?!

  

Baby Blanket Progress

If you follow me on instagram or flickr, these pictures aren't new to you! This past week I set asdie my granny squares to work on Judah's Ripple Blanket. The clock is ticking & he'll be here REALLY soon.. like within the next MONTH! Crazy. So I've been working on this every spare moment I get and I don't get those alot. I really need to put in some serious hours on this to get it finished! I've got about 6 more weeks until my due date ;) Hopefully I can get it finished before then!(And YES, we finally decided on a baby name: Judah River :D  I'm sure I'm going to call him River & his daddy will call him Judah. :P)

Do you see that belly?! Lol. (Mini update from my post a few days ago about Judah being breech, he's head down now :) which makes my heart skippy and my eyes tear up a bit. This whole Vbac thing is really going to happen! I feel so happy & blessed!)

I took this picture the day I started the blanket. A ripple blanket works up so quickly! And doing just two rows of colors each, you're constantly changing out yarn! Which, to me, breaks it up and it's easy to finish two rows in one sitting ;)
I'm using Attic24's pattern from memory :). It's seriously the easiest thing to remember once you get your "foundation" chain & first row finished. Lucy does a fantastic job of making things really easy to understand too! You might remember this blanket that I made for my nephew:

I used that same pattern for it! It's awesome cause you can make it as big or as small as you want it, just by the number of chains you make in the beginning!

Here are some other really awesome ideas:

Source: iheartrunwithscissors.com via heather on Pinterest

You could channel the Missoni Line at Target with Vickie Howell's newest pattern! She has a new yarn out with Caron too called Sheepish! I looks lovely! She refers to it as a Chevron Pattern, which is pretty much the same thing as a ripple blanket from what I can tell! But you can purchase these EXACT colors and follow her pattern for an identical blanket! Um, can we say CROCHET ALONG? We should all do it! What do you think?! I would LOVE to have a little project to work on with everyone! Not to mention, I want this blanket REALLY bad! I just looks so beautiful & colorful!

Source: lionbrand.com via heather on Pinterest

You could make a sweet ripple cowl!!! This one looks so soft & yummy!

Source: thelazyhobbyhopper.blogspot.com via heather on Pinterest

OR a granny ripple! How pretty is this? It would be interesting to de-stash with this pattern. I just imagine the mix-matchy-ness of a hundred differnt colors would look neat!

There are so many project I want to be working on right now and it's getting that time of year to snuggle up with a little hooky business & a cup of hot tea and just swing outside or let the cool breeze in through the windows. *sigh* Did I ever mention that I love fall? ;)

My Week!

 This week has been pretty fun & interesting! I FINALLY got an iPhone. I'm sure you all remember the posts where I post a hundred pictures of cute iphones.. my digital wish list! Well, my dreams came true and I'm so stinking happy about it! I'm really surprised by how much I love having a smartphone! I ADORE Instagram & I'm sure everyone following me will get tired of my many, many updates! Does the "new" ever wear off?! lol!

I'm trying to get caught up on some crochet projects! I've been making granny squares & I have two sets ready for the Blogger Blanket project! I gotta get busy and get all these made up, so when the baby gets here I won't get behind! I've only got FIVE weeks until I'm "full term"!! It's craziness! So, I gotta get SUPER busy on Judah's ripple blanket too! It shouldn't take me too long if I can just FOCUS!

What projects are you trying to keep up with & how excited are you for OCTOBER!? I can't wait!!
(Do you guys see that eyeball wreath!! i love it! it was in Country Living Magazine, along with some AWESOME decopouged pumpkins)

How Do You Crochet?

I guess being a hands/eyes on learner I like to learn from other people's ideas too. Crocheting is something that I've completely learned by myself. There was no dialogue about the process or someone showing me what was their prefered method or how they liked to crochet.

I am totally a lazy bum, a procrastionater, a do it when you feel like it type person. Not all the time, but 85% of the time. ;) So, I rarely set a time aside for crocheting. I'll take a project along in the car, if I feel like it. I'll work on it while I'm sitting around watching t.v. and playing with Autumn, if I feel like it. But I don't have a "schedule". I'm wondering if that's the reason I've never finished a blanket. Or finished anything other than small projects like hats, scarves, baby blankets, toys, accessories. Things that can be finished in a few hours or a couple of days.

So, how do you crochet?
Do you plan it out or do you simply just crochet when the mood hits? Do you crochet on the couch/in the car/ on the bus/ train? Do you crochet in a certain chair with a certain hook? What do you use as inspiration?

I'm so curious and I hope all you awesome crochet people out there will answer!  And hopefully I can learn something from your routine!

Blogger Blanket Project

After successfully procrastinating crocheting granny squares last night, I woke up this morning with great purpose. I ate breakfast and afterwards got busy! I put on a movie for Autumn & I got comfy in the living room with Burlesque (which was pretty good.) and went to work! So far I've made 2 grannies. 6 rounds takes awhile! Not to mention I have to take breaks to help Autumn use the potty, get juice, check on her because she's gotten really quiet. That sort of thing. I've been neglecting to take pictures of the previous squares, so here are my two so far! :)

 

I'm down to my last little bit of that Olive green yarn. It's a discontinued color from Hobby Lobby's  I Love This Yarn. It was my favorite color & you can't find it any more. I've been to countless hobby lobby's looking for it. It makes me sad! So, I've just been using it up as the first round in all my squares cause it uses the least amount of yarn! Hobby Lobby should really re-think making this yarn again. There are some HIDEOUS colors they have that never sell at hobby lobby & they should bring this yarn back!! Please?! lol. I'll be buying it all the time! Anyhoot....

Luckily, my swap partners have taken pictures of the squares I've sent them! YAY! So here they are! I hope you guys don't mind me sharing the pictures!!

I did some stash busting on Jamie's squares, and I feel like they are so hodge podge and mismatched! She loved them, but I still feel like I should have made a more uniformed look now! The botton left square is my FAVORITE! I think breaking the colors up with the cream rows really does something special to the look of it! Jamie I'm so glad you snapped this shot!

These are the squares I made for Becky! I love the way these colors turned out together! I wish I had a whole blanket of them, but let's just be honest, when it comes to big crochet projects I sadly don't have the motivation/determination to finish them! Doesn't instagram make everything look so much cuter! Thanks Becky for tweeting about them!!

Here are the squares I've received already! Every time I check the mailbox I am crossing my fingers for a package from my swap partner!!

 

Squares from Courtney @you will. won't you?, our swap host! They make me think of St. Patrick's Day and four leaf clovers! :) 

 

Squares from Christine @ckscribbles She wrote me a cute little note and explained her "color story!" So, cute! She was inspired by the multi-colored yarn & based all her color choices off it! I've never thought of crocheting from a color story! Such a clever idea!

 

I just had to single this square out! I LOVE IT! I'm a sucker for gradient.. I can't help it. Not to mention that the blues are PERFECT! This square makes me so happy!

Well I'm going to go crochet some more while Autumn takes her nap!
I hope you all are having a wonderful day!

Summer Projects {Pic Heavy}

 

Hey Pals! There are so many cool things that I've found this summer, thanks to Pinterest, and I just want to share some of the really cool projects I'm working on! Janel from Run With Scissors did a post just like this yesterday and I loved it so much! It's so cool too see what people are working on and what they want to get accomplished soon! So, have a browse & enjoy!!! :D

1. Friendship Bracelets!!! They are so elementary, but I love them! Especially adding washers, nut bolts or rhinestones to them for a modern touch!

Source: the-budgetista.com via heather on Pinterest

Source: urbansocialite.com via heather on Pinterest

2.This necklace! It falls under the same category as friendship bracelets, but oh well. I HAVE to make this for myself and everyone else I know! lol!! I just love it!

 

Source: honestlywtf.com via heather on Pinterest

3. This bracelet! (Are you guys sensing a theme here?! lol! I think wearing handmade jewelery is the coolest! Think of all the possibilities with dying the rope?!

Source: dismountcreative.com via heather on Pinterest

4. Homemade Laundry Soap! I've been looking at lots of different recipes and I'm planning on making this one this week wish some Castle lavender bar soap! :)

Source: homemade.tipjunkie.com via heather on Pinterest

5. A quilted key chain wristlet!

Source: u-createcrafts.com via heather on Pinterest

6. God's Eye. I've been wanting to make these for a long time now! I think they would be cool hanging over the baby's bed!

Source: poppytalk.blogspot.com via heather on Pinterest

There are so many other projects that I"m actively working on too! Like the Blogger Blanket project! I'm ahead of schedule, which makes me super happy! I've got to get to work on more granny squares so I stay ahead of schedule! And I'm also working on a ripple baby blanket for our little boy!

 

This isn't the most recent picture, so it's come a long way! I'll update soon on it! 

We also FINALLY decided on a name! I tried REALLY HARD to convince Robin for us to name the baby River Evan and he never agreed. :( But we did agree on Judah Owen. Owens was my moms maiden name & I think it's so cool that we are going to pass that along to him! What do ya'll think?!

AND what projects are you working on?! Summer has been so much fun & since I have to keep cooped up inside to stay cool crafts have been keeping me very busy! :)

Flickr Faves

these crochet jars are the prettiest thing in the world!!

It seems like all I have time for is inspirational posts lately! I'm getting busy with Autumn, who will be TWO in two month. Oh lord.. where does the time go? Needless to say, she doesn't nap a lot anymore so my time is occupied with her. But I still have something up my sleeve centered around my last cotton candy post! I'll share super soon! If any of you come across the PERFECT mint green color yarn, let me know! I'm on the look out for certain colors of yarn that I can't seem to find. Like the Mint and I'm looking for a soft lavender... not quite lavender... Okay I can't put to words that one, but soft sweet pastels are what I'm looking for.;)

What is going on with everyone else? What are you working on lately?

I really feel like I need a "project" to be working on.. I'm working on small stuff, but I really need to get back to something a little bit.. bigger.. I still need to finish my granny square blanket. How do all of you finish making so many squares? I get so bored!!

Flower Bomb Hat

I've been working simultainously on SEVERAL projects lately. Along with playing a lot of Call of Duty tehe.
But my most recent project is a new Flower Bomb Hat!

I used a pattern I found on Ravelry, it was a free PDF download! If you are a crochet person, this pattern was so easy and I can see a couple of uses for the beginning flower part! I just love the way it looks and the way it feels! It's like not wearing a hat at all, PERFECT for spring!

If you're on ravelry  you can get all the cool knitty gritty details on my project page!

So, what has everyone else been up to?

 It feels like I've gotten out of the habit of posting regularly again. It seems I'm busy doing lots of other things around the house. Yesterday we spent all day outside with Autumn and tons of people who just showed up. (It happens alot at this house!) Last night we grilled steaks and had baked potatoes and salads. Oh, man. It was so good. Then afterwards we all just sat around and talked. I've really missed those types of nights. I am loving the weather right now too! There are daffodils popping up around our pecan tree! They are so pretty!

What newness are you noticing in your neighborhoods?