Angel Wings Pinafore

My little Bennett Mae is due in July, so naturally I'm nesting.  Not so much in the cleaning my house like a madwoman kind of way (though it's highly needed) but more in the crafting until all hours of the night kind of way.  I wish I had more time to blog but there are SO many projects that I want to do that I don't even post about the majority them (obviously, since I so rarely post these days).  It may take only an hour to complete a project, but by the time you document with photos, edit your crappy photos (in my case) and blog and edit for spelling and grammar (occasionally) you've wasted TONS of valuable crafting time.

All the while, you should have been cleaning your messy house.  (Or is that just me?)

Messy house aside, I found a sweet pattern via Pinterest called the Angel Wings Pinafore.  I repinned it immediately.  And then I grabbed some yarn and about 2.5 hours later, I had a newborn-sized pinafore completed.

I used Martha Stewart Crafts Lion Brand Yarn Collection- specifically the Extra Soft Wool Blend in Buttermilk.  What a gorgeous name for the color I used--Buttermilk.  Oh Martha, you never cease to amaze me.  I love this particular yarn.  Another great option for this pinafore would be Lion Brand Cotton Ease.  I have become a Lion Brand devotee, can you tell?  Cotton Ease is a nice cotton to work with, washes up well, and it's affordable.  Win, win, win.  The Martha yarns are a bit more expensive than the other craft store yarns, but so far they've proven themselves to be worth the extra cost in my opinion.

I used pearly buttons for the back.  So precious, and a great adornment considering babies are often thrown over the shoulder--why shouldn't the back have beautiful details?

To add just a bit of color. I wove ribbon into the yoke and stitched it in on the back to keep it in place.  I think Martha Stewart would have liked my ribbon color choice--a calm celery green.

I bought leggings at Gap Kids before purchasing the coordinating ribbon.  Gap Kids really has great style and awesome colors.  I looked in a few cheaper places for newborn leggings and was pretty disappointed with the offerings (primarily hot pink and black)--but Gap had so many fantastic babyish colors that it was hard to decide.  One particular store tried their best to sell me on their infant "Jeggings" (jean-looking leggings, for those of you who don't know) and I don't think I held back my look of horror at the suggestion.  Let's just say this sweet little pinafore was not intended to be worn with Jeggings. 

Jeggings.  Ha.  What a funny word. 

Oh, and wish me luck.  I'm going to my first kitting class tonight.  My goal for the night is not necessarily to learn to knit, it's more along the lines of not poking anyone's eyes out with my knitting needles when I inevitably get frustrated and lose my temper.

Kids say (and do) the darndest things.

In two months, I'll be the mom of a three year old.  How did this happen?!

In three months, I'll be the mother of two girls.  Pretty sure I know how that happened.

Our almost three-year-old with her almost three-year-old mentality never ceases to entertain us.  Elliott incessantly talks about her upcoming birthday party and specifies what she wants as a part of her special day.  Things that have been mentioned more than once as "I want that for my birdday" (misspelling is intentional as this is how she pronounces "birthday") are as follows:

1. Green
2. Hippopotomus
3. The song "The Greatest Love of All" by the late and great Whitney Houston

Let the party planning begin, right?!  Dang, that was NOT what I had in mind.  (If you're interested in MY party planning ideas, you can check out the Elliott is turning three, Come and celebrate with tea Pinboard on Pinterest.)

Elliott is majorly into pop music these days--specifically Bruno Mars.  If you ask her who her favorite musician is, without hesitation she will state "Bruno Mars".  I may need to nip this pop obsession in the bud--I still haven't gotten over the shock of hearing her try to beatbox to Jesus Loves Me during a song service at church.  (We worship without instruments, so believe you me, beatboxing children stand out like a sore thumb.)

In other musical entertainment news, she was recently singing along to some of her favorite tunes in the car (specifically they were tracks from NBC's the Sing Off) and she made a high pitched squeal when going into falsetto... and promptly stopped singing to say "Sorry guys.  I didn't mean to make that noise".  We're still laughing at that one.

Elliott's love of music is matched only by her love of dance.  Unfortunately, she inherited my dancing ability--or lack thereof.  What we lack in skill we make up for with unabashed enthusiasm, funny faces, complete obliviousness to the fact that we look like robots on crack, and plenty of pelvic thrusting.   The world is not ready for our dance parties, so we keep 'em in the safety of our living room, which, as long as my husband is not around, is a judgement-free zone.

Moms of gals out there--when is an ideal time to get your daughter's ears pierced?  I hear it's during infancy, though it's not something I cared enough to do at the time.  However, my little gal has really taken a liking to earrings.  Elliott is constantly asking if she can wear this pair or that pair of my earrings, to which I simply reply "You don't have holes in your ears so you can't wear earrings yet".  I guess I hope that she thinks holes will magically appear in her ears one day when she's ready for earrings.  She has different ideas, naturally, as you can tell by a conversation we had yesterday.

Elliott: Mom, I want earrings too.
Me: But Elliott, you don't have holes in your ears yet.
Elliott: Maybe Santa will cut holes in my ears.  With scissors.

Sheesh.  Remind me to lock up all of my scissors.  While most moms are concerned about the rite-of-passage self haircuts that so many toddlers manage to achieve, I'm concerned about my child slashing holes into her earlobes with my rusty coupon-cutting scissors.

In short, I'm rather enjoying this stage in Elliott's life.  I can't say I've enjoyed every moment like so many Moms seem to do (or at least they pretend better than I do).  I still remember Elliott's infancy as a thankless and frustrating time--and don't even get me started on the sleeplessness. Those beautiful Hallmark images of motherhood and warm embraces while light seeps through gorgeous open windows are truly few and far between here in our home--but laughter?  That's daily stuff around here, and I'll take it, thank you.

Til next time,
Tristin

The Birth of a Granny Square Afghan

I finished a major project folks--you have no idea how huge that is for a distracted crafter like me!  The project only took a little over a year to finish. 

It's my very first granny square afghan!  This afghan is a true representation of what the granny square is meant to be--a scrap buster.  Not one skein of yarn (other than the binding color) was purchased with this project in mind.  It's made strictly from pieces of yarn left over from other various projects and some yarn that I inherited from others.

It all started like this...

Here are my stacks upon stacks of squares, millions of ends just waiting to be woven in.

Have I ever mentioned how much I HATE weaving ends in?  Well, I do.  Hate.  Ughh.  But one at a time, I got it done.

Here's some proof:

I edged all of the squares in a turquoise color (Pound of Love by Lion Brand--only $4.00 with an awesome coupon deal!).

It seems like it took forever. 

You know you're spending too much time crocheting when this is the only way your dog can get your attention...

I spent some time laying them out to evenly distribute the colors.

I used Attic 24's guide to joining granny squares...

It came together beautifully (keeping in mind that beauty is in the eye of the beholder).  I realize not everyone shares my love of granny squares, bold colors, and funkiness in general.  If you leave a comment telling me how ugly this is, I will delete it so please don't waste your time.  Granny love only, please.  I know there will be some haters.  Keep it to yourself and go and comment on something you do like.  Even if it's elsewhere.  This is how you should handle all of your blog comments. Thanks. (Whoa, someone just got a little soapboxy!  Yeah, you don't want to mess with me today. Or any day for that matter.)

And here she is, in all her crazy glory:

I'm in love!

Crocheted Mary Janes

These Mary Janes have been on my to-craft list since I received the patterns several months ago.

So when I found out I was having a gal, I got on it.  And then I got to thinking...

Umm, I practically NEVER put shoes on Elliott before she started walking.  Well, my sister-in-law bought some of the cutest shoes ever (mostly from Old Navy) and those made it onto the kid.  But for the most part, shoes were totally overrated for her skinny little tootsies, especially given the fact that she was born in the summer in Florida (just like baby # 2 will be).
 

So, I sent these to a friend who's having a baby girl in a few weeks. You know her as Jessica of Sew Homegrown. (Yes, Jessica, they were originally intended for my kiddo--I'm admitting it!)

I mean, why keep something I'm probably not going to put on my kid?  Maybe, just maybe, someone else will use them. Or not.  And that's obviously fine, too.

As for the pattern, it was extremely well-written and even included pictures to help explain things.  As tedious as these little buggers were to make, they were pretty simple because of the good instructions.  Will I be making more?  Sure!  The pattern came from Crochet Dreamz.  I won the pattern as part of the Maybe Matilda Crochet-Along a few short months ago.

I learned some lessons in blocking shaped crochet items with these Mary Janes.  Here are some good tips on "blocking"  if you're interested in making your crochet items just a bit more crisp and professional.  I used a crumpled plastic bag for shaping these teeny shoes.

Blocking turned out to make these go from looking very homemade to looking very crisp--like handmade stuff from an expensive kids boutique.  So, yeah, worth the little bit of extra effort.

-Tristin

Darn this Yarn! (A yarn organization idea)

I'm guessing I'm not the only one here with a serious yarn problem.  I mean serious.  I'm talking avalanches and un-natural disasters happening in my closet.  The closet that I share with my patient and extremely organized husband... (Poor guy.)

I thought baskets would be a good solution.  Yeah, right.

You know what has been working for me?  Shoe organizers. 

For about $7, you can pick up an over-the-door shoe organizer with pockets. Those pockets just happen to be the right size for...you've got it... YARN!

For convenient storage, just roll up the organizers and cinch them in your preferred manner.  I used an old belt.

It doesn't take up any more room than a basket would, but I have found this method to be much more forgiving and toddler-proof.  It's hard to unravel skein after skein of yarn when it's neatly tucked away.  If the bundle falls over, your yarn stays in place--unlike yarn in a pesky basket.

One organizational battle down... 23 million to go. 

P.S.  I think I may now have almost every color of Lion Brand Vanna's Choice.  It's totally my fave, if you haven't caught onto that yet.  You know what I am now loving, though?  The Lion Brand Martha Stewart collection.  Be still my heart!
P.P.S.  Gender reveal will be very soon.  Well, I'll just say it--it's a girl!

Some non-crafty thoughts

Okay, okay--so you may or may not have noticed that pathetically it has been two months since the last post (I know some of you have noticed and I may not have responded to your emails but I got 'em--I'm just a bad blogger!)--thought I'd catch you up on a few things going on 'round here if you're interested.  I'm too lazy at this moment to add photos, so if you're only here for my fantastic photography (you know that's a joke, right??) then you might need to go check out a non-lame blog.  If you're interested in hearing the craft-free thoughtsicles developing in my mindgrapes (sorry if you don't watch 30 Rock and you miss my Tracy Jordan references) then feel free to read on!

First of all, due to many requests, I have added the ability to "subscribe by email" and to subscribe via feed of your choice over on the right side of the page.  Check it out, all of you folks who are interested!

Just for fun...

Trends I am currently not understanding:

-Men wearing skinny jeans (they do look awful cute on my kid though)
-Red velvet cake--why so popular all of a sudden?
-Instagram -neat, I guess, but why the rage?
-E-Trade Commercials
-Politics.  'Nuff said.  I'll refrain from my soapbox.
-The Little Mermaid - She's 16 and after saving a prince from drowning, she's certain that she wants to be with him forever.  AND her dad makes it happen!  Umm, am I the only one who finds this to be CUH-razay thinking and even crazier parenting? Obviously I've been watching this with my kiddo...


Things I am currently loving:

-Vera Bradley
-This potato casserole (LOTS of good recipes on this blog)
-Picking out clothes for my kiddo
-Succulents
-A bracelet made just for me by my daughter.  Purple pipe cleaner, 5 beads--does it get better than that? 
-Hot wings
-My Neti Pot


In more recent news, I guess I should tell you that I am expecting kiddo # 2!  We're 19 weeks along and will find out the gender soon.  My husband is really wanting a boy as we have decided not to be outnumbered by our children and will stop with two bundles of joy.  Please send some nice "boy" energy our way...

Are you interested in knowing names?  Sure you are.  We have decided that if this baby is a boy he will be named Simon.  If it happens to be a girl, she'll be named Bennett.  Yep.  So, that, we have worked out.  If you live outside of a 50 mile radius of Melbourne, FL, then you're free to use those names if you like.  Within the radius?  Please, refrain.  (I obviously think I have chosen awesome trend-setting names and am now afraid that my daughter will be sitting next to another Bennett in her second grade class and will be forced to go by "Bennett W".  Perhaps I think too highly of my choices.)

The practical side of me would love to have another gal since we'd be 100% prepared (except for diapers and sanity) but the other part of me wants to give my husband a boy and have a new experience.  We shall see what God has in store for us! (I have a few baby boy nursery ideas--if you want to check 'em out, you can visit this Pin board).

What I am really thankful for is that we are sure that we're having just ONE baby, and not twins.  There was a twin scare for a few seconds--and it was just about more than I could handle.  Not that babies aren't great... well, let's face it, babies are kind of terrible until they're old enough to communicate their needs without screaming.  Or maybe that was just Elliott, I'm not sure.  Daang, she was (and is) a tough cookie!  Her pregnancy was a breeze, whereas this pregnancy has been... not a breeze.  

On a blogging note, I can't tell you just yet where I stand on the future of Two Girls Being Crafty.  You've probably noticed that Sharon is M.I.A. (just to clarify, this is not the M.I.A. who made a bad gesture at the SuperBowl). Sharon is happily enjoying Pharmacy school at the University of Florida's Orlando campus.  I miss her terribly--she's an awesome student and very dedicated (something I have never been) so our hanging out and crocheting until 3 in the morning while our husbands play video games (yes, this has happened before) is no longer something we get to do.  We actually got to hang out this weekend at a Bunco party and it was great fun.  So, if you think YOU miss her and her awesome crafty self, you can only imagine how I feel!

Part of me is ready to quit blogging because it's not as much fun without my blogmate Sharon.  The other part is ready to quit because it seems like there is nothing new to do.  Everything has been done and truthfully it's a lot of effort to write and photograph each blog post, and it's ever-so demotivating when I read the blogs of others who do things in a  bigger and better way than I do--I mean, why try, right?  Ahh, I sound like such a defeatist.  Nothing like the tenacious gal I once was.  Perhaps it's the parasite in my uterus talking...  The other part of me (how many parts are there?!) wants to continue on at my current pace, which I would define as "sloth-paced".  We'll see what happens, I suppose.  If I get twenty "you changed my life with your DIY Art for Non-Artists and freezer paper stenciling" emails following this post, then I may just need to keep things up.  Or maybe not.  Oprah had a 25-year run making a life-enriching show and she quit for other pursuits, so perhaps I'll stop the blog and start my own TV network.  We shall see.

My latest and greatest DIY project has been potty-training Elliott.  She's 2 and a half, and boy am I glad I waited to get through the tantrum phase before I started this phase.  I thought potty-training would be terrible (I was SO afraid) but it has been amazingly easy and intuitive for both of us. I actually found a few products to be extremely helpful, and I do plan on sharing some of that info soon because I think others in this stage may find it life-changing, too.  I am glad to report that potty-training has been far from painful.  My dog was WAY harder and it took him WAY longer.

Have you heard that No Doubt is releasing an album this year?  That's exciting news to me.

That's it for now.

-Tristin

Day 9: Bottle and Branch decor with Michael of Blue Velvet Chair

Hey pals!  Due to an email glitch, I have day 9 of the 12 days of Christmas series for you a few days out of order.  So, we have Michael from Blue Velvet Chair sharing a beautiful point of attraction with us--beautiful bottles and branches. 

Hello to everyone here at Two Girls Being Crafty. My name is Michael and I'm the host of Blue Velvet Chair, a blog dedicated to showcasing recycled and repurposed design, arts and crafts. I've looked forward to sharing a bit of holiday cheer with you since the day I 'got the call' to join this fabulous line-up of creatives for the 12 Days of Christmas.

When I'm decorating for the holidays I have two things in mind...how can I do it on the cheap and how can I reuse what I already have. Today I'd like to share my table 'centerpiece' that is a bit thrift, a bit recycle, and a bit creating something new.

Back in May, I picked up some antique turquoise bottles from the early 1900s during a thrift store run. They became the perfectly understated centerpiece for our Thanksgiving dinner with friends when I added some simple red-colored twigs that a neighbor had trimmed from their shrub. So now we have the thrift bit.

The recycle begins when I decide to use these same bottles and twigs for my Christmas table decor. But what could I do to add some holiday cheer?  Create a little something new to add to the bottles.

Now I'd like to share how to DIY your own little poinsettias to add 'instant holiday cheer' to something you already have that can be recycled as Christmas decor. I used an old roll of red velvet ribbon (this stuff seems to last forever!), some gold braided ribbon, and scissors. Simple.

Cut three strips from the red velvet ribbon. Mine were about 3.5 - 4 inches long (about 10 cm).

Cut the tips of the ribbon as shown below.

Here's where I wish I could show you via video (maybe I can make one quick and post later at Blue Velvet Chair). Press in the center of the ribbon with your thumb,while you use your pointer fingers to fold down the outside edges. I hope the photo below shows this well for you. So the center and the two outer edges are all folded downwards.

Because you want to put three of these together, you'll have to hold the first two between your thumb and pointer finger on one hand while you use the other hand just beside to create the next folds.

There. All three folded and held in a pinch. This process (folding the three pieces of ribbon) literally takes a total of 1 minute max.

Take a (pre) cut piece of the braided gold ribbon - or use whatever you have around - and tie around all three 'petals'.

It will look like this once you get it tied and knotted.

And now time to create the poinsettia! Simply take your pointer finger and push from the bottom near the knot in order to 'spread' each petal. This will create the roundness of the flower due to the stiffness of the red velvet ribbon.

Ta dah!  Your own little DIY poinsettia flower. I promise these little pops of holiday cheer can be added to almost anything and you'll get some fun results.

I just love the contrast of them against my old turquoise thrift bottles. This color combo works so well because they are contrasting colors on the color wheel.

Happy holiday cheer.

Happy happy.

Happy holidays to you all.

There you have it. Mere minutes to create your own little recycled-thrifted-creating something new holiday cheer.  My dream project is to create a big beautiful wreath full of these little beauties. My sister made one back in the 90s, and I've been wanting to create one ever since. 15 years should be enough time for the idea to simmer...don't you think?

If you'd like to see some more of my hybrid style holiday decor, you are welcome to visit Blue Velvet Chair. We'd love to see you there!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Michael