March 2013 Mystery CAL

Mystery Crochet Along

Supplies:

WW Yarn, I used two colors of Vanna's Choice Solids but you could choose to use just one color if you want. Either way looks nice.

G hook (or appropriate size hook to get tight stitches with your yarn choice)

12mm safety eyes

Stitch Marker

Stuffing

Week 1:

Arms:(make 2 with main color)

Round 1: 6 sc in a Magic Ring (6)

Round 2: 2sc in each stitch around (12)

Round 3: 2sc, sc, sc repeat around (16)

Round 4-8: sc in each stitch around (16)

Round 9: sc2tog, sc in next 6 stitches, repeat (14)

Round 10-12: sc in each stitch around (14)

Round 13: sc2tog, sc in next 5 stitches, repeat (12)

Round 14-18: sc in each stitch around (12) FO after round 18

Legs: (make 2 with main color)

Round 1: 6 sc in a Magic Ring (6)

Round 2: 2sc in each stitch around (12)

Round 3: 2sc in each stitch around (24)

Round 4-8: sc in each stitch around (24)

Round 9: sc2tog, sc in next 4 stitches, repeat 4 times (20)

Round 10-12: sc in each stitch around (20)

Round 13: sc2tog, sc in next 3 stitches, repeat 4 times (16)

Round 14-17: sc in each stitch around (16)

Round 18: sc2tog, sc in next 2 stitches, repeat 4 times (12)

Round 19-23: sc in each stitch around (12) FO after round 23

When I was Young - My very first guest

Today I have my very first guest post to share with you all.  It is from my new friend Hannah over at Little Words & Little Pictures.  She also has a super cute Etsy shop called Whimsical Creations and you should all definitely head over and check out the goods!!  I asked for some guest posts about when people first started blogging.  This hopefully will be an ongoing series that I am titling "When I was Young".  Without further ado, here is Hannah........

I started writing an online journal when I was in my mid-teens. It was an outlet that I used to write through some hard years of my life. I was candid, open and vulnerable, and only a select group of people were allowed to read it. I wrote in these types of "private" online diaries for years, until I didn't feel like I needed them anymore.

Fast-forward a few years. I'm married, and I have a baby. I'm not as sad or confused as I was when I was a teenager, but I still love writing. I transition my private blog to a public blog, because my life is so much more shareable. I'm still using it to process life, though. I write in my blog as though I'm talking to a best friend who can empathize with everything I have to say. The only problem is, I'm not writing to a best friend. I'm writing to everyone and no one. Some people empathized, I'm sure. But then I write something that a person in my life finds hurtful. Then someone uses something I write against me. 

I feel hurt, and mortified. First of all, why would anyone want to attack me? I'm nice like a bunny rabbit.... 

I retreated. I gave up my public blog and returned to my privacy.

But I missed being able to share my life with people. So I went back and forth until I finally decided to have a public blog that steered clear of touchy topics. Then I had to deal with the aspect of putting myself out there and not getting the feedback I wanted from my readers. It felt like pulling my heart out of my chest, putting it in the middle of the street, and waiting to see if anyone would stop and notice. The whole experience was starting to feel too intense...

That's when I took a break. It's one of the best things I've done for myself as far as blogging goes. I was tired of second guessing myself, of wondering what in the world I was doing and why I was doing it. I stepped back from my blog and took a good hard look at the whole thing. Why was I blogging? What did I hope to gain from it? Was it worth the time investment? I read an e-book about blogging. I searched online for random articles about blogging. I read about how to improve my blog.

After I'd thought about it as much as I could, I came to a conclusion: I would continue. I wanted to write the story of my family, to remember the sweet and special moments of my children's lives. Life changes so quickly, I don't want to be at the end of mine and barely remember the look and feel of the different seasons. I write to remember. I write because that's what I am, a writer. If I'm not writing at my keyboard I'm writing in my head at night as I lay in bed trying to sleep. Whether I have a 100 or 1,000 readers, I want to create a space that I can be proud where I share the things I love. 

My blog may not be a best friend anymore, but it is an excellent way to connect with friends. I may not be able to tell my blog every single juicy secret I hold so closely (HA.), but now that I've found what my boundaries and goals are, I'm really enjoying myself a lot more! I feel like the keys to my blogging happiness have been: making friends, creating a space I can be proud of, writing what I know from my heart, and instead of copying everyone else's path to success, finding my own strengths and using them.

And there you have it. Thanks for reading! Stop by any time to say hello.

Thank you so much Hannah for sharing your heart with us!!  I have a really fun idea coming soon.  Just a little hint here will be prizes involved :)

Spring is in the air......

Okay, maybe not in the air but definitely in my mind.  Thee groundhog said we are going to have an early Spring and I am going with it!!  I'm getting so excited to get some new layers this year.  I have 2 very sweet hens left from the 5 we got 3 years ago and their egg production has long since faded.


I am actually hoping to get 25-30 laying hens this year and have LOTS AND LOTS of eggs to eat and share.  We are also looking into getting about 75 broilers and raising our own chicken for the year.  I know that will be more than enough to supply our chicken needs for the year.  I'm also looking into a couple new bread recipes, the one I make now is great for bread and butter but not so good for sandwiches so I'd like to find one that will slice well and be nice and soft crusted for sandwich purposes.  So I will be trying a new recipe this week to see how it comes out.  I will share my findings.  We have decided to go to a cash budget so I am trying to come up with ways to cut back on our grocery bill.  One is making my own bread but I have decided to get really brave this week and even try making my own yogurt.  Cottage cheese will be next on the list.  I can't wait to try and see what I can come up with!!

Trying to decide whether to get one breed of layers, more of the hybrids that we have now, Golden Comets, or a variety so I can have a rainbow flock.  

These are my two favorites, Silver Laced Wyandottes and Gold Laced Wyandottes.  I think they are just so pretty.

I'm really hoping to get some ordered in the next couple weeks so it's still cool when it's time to move them outside.  Better get building a new coop as well!!  

Chicken Noodle Soup and dreaming......

Random factoid: tonight we had semi homemade chicken noodle soup.  Boiled shredded chicken put into a soup mix called Chicken Noodle Knockout and it was delicious!!  Got the mix at WalMart, you should check it out :)

So one of my goals I have set for myself this year is to establish a more defined vision for my Etsy shop.  I need to make some decisions about what direction I want to go.  I love to crochet so many different things that I have had a problem with finding a real niche.  I'm deciding between hats/scarves/accessories, Amigurumi, or freeform art.  I love to create all 3 types of crochet but I really am feeling like to be successful I need to choose one thing and throw myself into with everything I have.

I love creating Amigurumi from scratch, no real pattern, just create as I go.  Sometimes I know what it's going to be ahead of time, sometimes it creates itself as I go.  This little cupcake I am making is going to have weighted feet and body and be in the colors of the bakery my sister just started working at.  They have a "classic" cupcake and that's what he is being modeled after.

Heading over to sort clothes for Open Arms, check out our facebook page.  I will have to do a whole post dedicated to telling you about that soon.   Until then..............

Always a new normal.....

Life has been a little crazy around here lately.  But that really has been the case for our entire marriage.  It feels like every time I start to figure things out and life starts to click and work and go smoothly a big giant bomb of CHAOS gets dropped on us and I have to figure out normal all over again.  I have decided that is just life.  I don't know if everybody's life is that way but mine is.  Always learning a new "normal".  I'm okay with that though, keeps me guessing and on my toes.  I've been working like a mad woman also to get a bunch of my crochet items done for a photo shoot I have planned for this weekend.  I think I'm even going to model it myself which is a big step for me, I much prefer to be the one BEHIND the camera rather than in front of it.  But it's either that or have my hubby modeling infinity scarves for me and he has already put his foot down about that :)  I can't imagine why......

I want to give a quick shout out to a great little handmade business called Hinckledoodle.  If you have never seen some of her things you really need to go check out her shop.  Jessica is an ARMY wife(thank you Hinck family!!)  and expecting her second baby who she just shared with us all is going to be a boy.  I'm so excited for her.  She is also a ton of fun to connect with on facebook and she always seems to have something new going on lately.  Like these adorable new owl magnets she has been busy creating.

Her Fubzee's are one of my favorites.

Meet a Merple

So cute bears and my all time favorites, the bunnies!!!

A multi-colored Yeti, so fun and funky!!
 

So go check in with Jessica on facebook and tell her that I sent you.  I know she will be glad to have you hang around and maybe you can even nab one of her "doodles" but if you see one you want be sure to grab it  as they sell FAST!!

Over the weekend I........

So I have been playing around with some design stuff lately.  I'll share a couple of what I've been doing.  I would love to learn how to use some of the high end design programs like Adobe Illustrator but have never taken the time to do it.  I love playing around with the available online editors and even did some advertising work for a friend when I was just out of high school just using what I could get my hands on and it turned out well.  

I love typography, and used to play with handwriting all different types of letters from a scrapbook lettering book I had gotten from he library doing friends names and pet names and sayings.  I also did calligraphy for quite a while while I was in junior high and high school.  There's just something about words.  How you can express in writing things that you can't say out loud.  Why is that?  Why is it easier to write our feelings then to say them?  Like by them coming from our hand rather than our mouth it makes them less exposed.  I don't know, maybe I'm just spouting gibberish now.

At church we are doing a 21 day fast and we were supposed to start yesterday but I have no idea what to fast.  I've been thinking and thinking and just can't come up with anything.  I started dieting eating healthier a little over a week ago so I've already cut out a lot of things that I would typically think of to fast, like chocolate or sweets.  Pastor Wayne suggested coffee but nobody wants me to fast coffee.  It would not be beneficial to my family.  They may not make it through the fast alive.  

I know that is the real point of a time of fasting and prayer.  To remove distractions from your life and really listen for God and focus on Him.  We have been spending a lot less time in front of the TV and trying to keep the house a little quieter and less chaotic in general.  I think that helps.  I do need to do better about a specific prayer time.  Speaking of which if you haven't checked out Amanda @A Royal Daughters Prayer Dare post you NEED to do that.  I am so excited to be a part of a group of women that are going to to purposefully working on a better prayer life for a WHOLE YEAR!!  How exciting and what a wonderful community.  I can't wait to get to know more of these women better.  Since I'm thinking about it I guess I'd better go spend some time in The Word.

Encouragement

I've been doing a lot of brainstorming lately.  Trying to figure out which way I'm supposed to be going with a lot of different things.  A lot of thoughts going through my head that I can't even really put into words yet.  I'm hoping the words will come when it's time to share them.  For now though......

......and a sneak peek at my new hat pattern, the Cheyanne Slouchy.