friendship bracelets

This is what my wrist currently looks like.

One of my most favorite summer past times is making friendship bracelets. I can remember making very simple bracelets at summer camp when I was like 8 years old. I have really sharpened my skills and now make some pretty intricate designs. its so fun! everytime i start a new bracelet it makes me feel like i'm 10 again at summer camp.

I keep all of my strings super organized and neatly wrapped in my string box. I have had this box of string for more than 10 years!

check out this awesome friendship bracelet website for the coolest designs. ive already bought about 10 of them to try and make!

happy wednesday friends!

christmas socks

I do realize it's the first day of July and almost 100 degrees outside and who is thinking of wool socks, but I just can't help sharing (what I believe to be) one of my best ideas yet!

For Christmas this past year I decided to knit socks for the ladies in Evan's family. I've knit plenty of socks for gifts before this but I wanted these to be extra special. One night I was laying in bed thinking of all the things I still had left to do for Christmas gifts and an idea hit me - why don't I make labels for my socks like real socks come. Duh. Why had I never thought of this before?!

So I got right on indesign and came up with this clever little idea. Of course I printed them on brown paper bag paper and then wrapped them in small sock boxes.

I was quite pleased with myself after making these. I think it just made them look so nice and obviously hand made but it added a nice professional touch. Now I use this label for all the socks I give! The label also includes the care instructions for them...sometimes I'm so smart! :-)

mother's day monster

I really have the best mom that a girl could ask for! She's taught me so much and given me even more. She is also the one responsible for my blue eyes, my soft skin and my hard work ethic. AND she taught me how to sew. I can remember being a little girl making clay beads and friendship bracelets and every christmas she helped me make a holiday ornament for my family members. My mom has always encouraged me to be crafty and to try new things and to do what made me happy, no matter what others thought. Soooo - when mother's day comes around each year I feel the need to do something extra special for such a wonderful mother!

Something you should know about my mom is that she is really just a big kid at heart. She has countless craft books that are full of little stuffed animals and little things I call useless, but that she loves! She also has a book (one of her favorites) called Knitted Monsters. Even though she doesn't know how to knit, she still has this book. So I went to that and knitted up a monster just for her!

His name is Hugo..

My little helper! Sleeping right on my project, as usual!

I really enjoyed making Hugo for my mom. I knew she'd love him the minute she saw him. It was a super easy pattern and the construction was fairly simple. I made some small changes to the pattern but made him work just the same.

come on - how cute is that belly button?!

Instant best friends!

I love you Momma!!

edward photo of the day

edward helping me with the laundry. and by helping me with laundry i mean laying on all the piles of clean clothes i just recently folded. but come on - look at that face, who's going to make him move?

not me - that's for sure :-)

what i've been working on...

oh hi there! wow I know it's been FOORR-EV-ERR (you know the voice from the sandlot?) since I've been on my blog. i've been so busy that I lost track of it.. BUT I am determined to get back on track and update more often again. I have so many exciting projects and things to show you!!

so I always have like 8 projects on my knitting needles and it's no different right now, but I am currently teaching a class so i've been really focused on one project instead of 5 at a time.

Tinder, a beautiful sweater pattern by my favorite, Brooklyn Tweed, is what i'm working on now.

here is my back piece, finished! I always like to start with the biggest piece so now it's done and I just have all the smaller pieces to finish.

it has a nice 4 1/2 inches of ribbing before starting the pattern.

the main stitch for the sweater is a waffle stitch...pretty isn't it?!

and here is my first sleeve!

So you can see I have a lot left to go but it's knitting up really quickly and it's actually pretty fun. changing the stitch so often keeps me interested. also because I'm teaching this class, that's keeping me going so I can stay with what I want my students to have done.

I'll update again soon when it gets closer to being finished!

Hope you had a nice monday!

tiny stocking garland

Everyone knows that I love a tiny version of something… So, it shouldn’t be a shock to know that I fell in love with this tiny stocking garland project the minute I saw it on Martha’s website. I love to browse her website any chance I can and I came across this project with instructions and a template!

I made mine slightly different, she has you sew around and then trim the outside seams but I just made mine by putting right sides together, sewing around the edge and turning them right side out. I hung them on a chunky piece of yarn I had and used tiny clothes pins to hang them.

(please excuse the mess that's on our shelves!)

So cute right?! And really easy. I just used a bunch of my green, red and white scraps.

Check out the whole thing at martha’s website here. Happy decorating!

our first tree!

The weekend is here! And Evan has agreed to go cut down our very first Christmas tree together this Sunday. I can hardly contain my excitement. I am looking forward to starting traditions with us and I hope this will become one! We are going to put up some christmas lights on the house also and I am going to make up a few big bows to hang in the windows. It's going to be a fun-filled Christmas weekend and I can't wait! What are your plans?! Do you already have your tree up for the holidays?

Funny story for you... I was home for Thanksgiving at my Dad's house and I walked into our front room and their tree was up and looking beautiful! I was quite impressed with them until I looked at my Dad who was laughing out loud... Apparently, they had never taken their tree down from last year! Oh my.. ha ha

I hope we'll find a bigger tree than Charlie's...but how cute is it? :-) Happy Weekend!!