Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Not Having a Good Time

My sweetie is sick. Very Sick. We just found out last week, and it's thrown us for a huge loop. It's kinda taken the shine off things for a while. It takes the joy out of things like blogging, pinning, crafting, planning for the holidays, shopping, reading, cooking, anything but holding him and kissing him. Just thinking about how sick he is is like a kick to the stomach every time. I'm having serious thoughts about closing down the blog, but will leave it hanging for a little while longer. If I actually have the mental and emotional strength to do anything in the way of Crafty Genius, I'll post, but if not, then the postings may be few and far between for a while.

Pray for us.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Bright & Cheerful

I received these potholders

a couple of years ago for Christmas from a really nice person who has never seen the inside of my kitchen. I've used them every day since she gave them to me, but I've never liked them. It was sweet of her to think of me, but I decided that I needed a change. I bought a skein of this yarn

by Red Heart, in the Bikini colorway, which matches my kitchen decor pretty closely. I spend a couple of evenings in front of the TV (watching Criminal Minds), crocheting these.

I don't care if I'm only using them to pull hot dishes out of the microwave, I like them so much better. My eyes gave a huge sigh of relief, even they are screaming bright.

Here is the autumn wreath I mentioned in yesterday's post, all finished.



I wrapped the yarn around the foam tube while I watched Criminal Minds, then cut the yarn flowers during the rest of Criminal Minds and CSI. I hot-glued the flowers together this morning and then assembled the wreath. Probably 2-3 hours, total, most of it in front of the TV. Thank goodness for Criminal Minds, or I might not get as much crafting done. :)

PS-The flower centers are colored brads hot-glued into the flowers. Buttons were, for the most part, too large for the flowers.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Disclaimer

It's not my fault.

I haven't blogged much lately, and it's not my fault. Blame it on my sister. Yeah, that's it. My sister. The one who sent me this facebook post, "Annette, get on Pinterest. Lou and I are very curious to see what you would pin". Well, I did get on Pinterest. I haven't done anything else, since. No dishes, very little cooking, no cleaning. I'm weak. I have no self-control. I've known that about myself for a long time. That's why I have so many collections. I see something (or things) that I want, I have to have them. I can't stop until I do. It's the same with pin boards. I have several. I want to keep adding to them, so I scour the internet and Pinterest boards, finding things that I want to make. (In self defense, I have actually made some of the things I've seen on pin boards.) Today's project posting is a pin project that I found last week. Here's the link to the tutorial. http://violetpaperwings.blogspot.com/2010/10/halloween-yarn-wreath.html

I've seen these felt flowers on lots of internet projects, but this is the best tutorial I've found on how to actually make them.

I made this wreath using plumbing foam from Home Depot ($.97 for a 6' length), which I cut in half. One half of the length makes a 12"-ish wreath. I hot glued the ends together, holding them until the glue cooled COMPLETELY. You can't even see the join, once the glue has cooled.



I wrapped the wreath form with this yarn: "Hometown USA" by Lion Brand Yarns. I tried regular yarn, but it wasn't chunky enough for my taste. I wanted chunky yarn, so it would fill in faster, and give a little more bulk to the wreath itself.

Then I cut various sized felt circles from red and cranberry colored felt squares. Probably 3", 4" and 5 or 6" circles. I cut a spiral in each felt circle, then wrapped the spiral, starting on the outer edge. Really, it's best to follow the tutorial in the link above.

When I finished wrapping felt flowers, I cut some leaves from sage felt, hot-glued them on the wreath form, hot-glued the flowers over the leaves, and then hot glued bead picks into the flower centers.

I think the wreath needs a big red bow, but I don't have the correct ribbon in my stash, so I'll get either a ribbon or a bow and then tie it onto the wreath.

The whole wreath cost less than $5.00, and I have plans to make one using autumn colored felt squares with buttons for the flower centers.