Category: Christmas

What could be nicer than a gift made with love? A soft, warm, crocheted gift made with love!

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Quilted Hearts

I am sure that you remember these from my sewing binge last week.

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Here is the midpoint.

2014-06-04 15.39.04Here they are in all the beauty. These turned out so well that I can almost forget all the zip bag failures!

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I spent a whole day piecing these together. Then the better part of a morning stuffing and hand sewing the opening closed. They are cute and lovely. They will also be available in the www.ChocolateDogStudio.etsy.com shop on Friday at 6 pm. There are all sorts of lovely colors in each one and they are stripey and fun. I am working hard on the fun part of the shop! When they are gone they are gone as I used bits and pieces I had been collecting for awhile. Each one is unique. These could easily have fit in with the use my stash challenge!

see you later,

Karen

 

 

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Cottage Charm

Here are some little cottages that I made several years ago. These are just for fun as I have so much to do today. These cottages are hand sized Christmas ornaments. I haven’t put the hanging ribbon on them yet. There are some things that I would change but overall I like them. I would call these prototypes.IMG_0126-002 IMG_0127-002 IMG_0128-002

I am thinking about adding some like them to the shop, but I’m not sure. What do you think?

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

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100 items in 100 days: #30 – 35

We decorated the inside of these clear glass Christmas ornaments by adding crayon shavings and then melting them with a hair dryer. They were fun to make and now the box of six ornaments is gone out of my stash! We added them to the jar of sticks and hearts.

So this is # 30!

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I crocheted these stars and snowflakes out of up cycled navy cotton yarn. I love the stars in the navy and they just need the hanging loops made. These would be #31-33. I would sell these in a set.IMG_1550

Then I tried these red and white stars. The red and white ragg cotton yarn is thicker than baker’s twine and I am not as pleased with these. This would be # 34 IMG_1551

These are made out the soft cotton yarn left overs that I use to edge the receiving blankets. It is soft and the colors are beautiful! This is #35IMG_1552The stars are out of baby blue wool yarn and the snowflakes out of crochet cotton. I love these together but I made a ton of the snowflakes as they were so easy. I easily have 20-30 of the snowflakes. These are # 36 and 37.

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

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100 items in 100 days: # 23 – 29

Yesterday was productive. I finished up quite a few Use Your Stash projects and thought about others.

Here are the ones that I completed along with the back story.

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When I was a young teenager, my Mom made these stars for our Christmas tree.  Parts of the stars were made from scraps of clothing she made for me. I have always wanted to make some for our tree but lacked the skills to get the points to turn out nice in the center.

Finally, I have made them and I do like them. I made five of them and will probably make more in different colors.

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So, there are my Christmas stars ornaments. I made five out of scraps in my scrap bin. They count in my 100 items in 100 days and make up numbers 23 – 28! Yay!

I also finished a cute crochet pin cushion and I will post a photo later. Here is the photo of it in process.

IMG_1508Which makes number 29!

Woohoo! Only  79  or correctly 71 more items left, today is not a good math day!

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

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Today: Feb. 3, 2014

Today has certainly been very odd. Hubs was home for part of the day and then left for work halfway through the day. So it has felt off balance all day. We were out of bread, so lunch was a rather yummy potato soup made from hash browns, left over ham bone broth, ham pieces and home made biscuits.

Anyway all of this to say that I got a huge long three hour nap in the middle of the day. I got my next crochet blanket figured out down to the number of squares per color! We now have homemade bread and I have no idea what we are eating for dinner! Woohoo, it seems I am on a roll! Well, not really, but the blanket though is a beauty and seems to just roll of the crochet hooks. The colors are incredible. I am not going to give any sneak peaks this time until it is finished all 248 little 4″ squares! I think it would give it all away.

I have been working on a new pattern for fingerless gloves and after three pairs I am about ready to kick that into production. The pattern is simple and there is no sewing involved.

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It is a version somewhere between the red ones above and the grey ones below!

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So that is what I have been working on. OH, the sewing machine part came in and I have been working away on #10 The quilt. I hope to be finished with it soon as well. I feel a bit like Einstein to be able to diagnose and order the correct part for my machine!

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

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#1 out of 100 projects from my Supply Stash!

Here is my first project for the 100 things from my stash challenge.

Honestly, I had started this before I started the challenge and I have been working on it off and on for several days. Here  are some photos of the beginning of the project. I was inspired by different photos on Pinterest and blogs that I read. I try to decorate a little for each of the different holidays but I was wanting something new.

This vase with flowers and sticks is from http://mijnindiansummer.blogspot.nl/2013/02/vintage-altijd-bloeiende-bloemen.html.

Michaels version of sticks in a jar.  http://www.pinterest.com/pin/364158319839146292/

So I started with the sticks in a jar.

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Ok, a little reality here. The sticks are from  my yard. The curly ones are honeysuckle vines that came down in the storm. The jar is an old spaghetti sauce jar that someone felt we needed to keep. The plaster of paris holding the sticks upright in the jar is leftover from some school or scout project. The crochet is made up from the tiny balls of yarn and some granny square extras left over from a blanket. I painted the sticks in about ten minute sessions over a couple of days. So, it wasn’t a big time waster.

 

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The felt hearts I had made up about six years ago to put in a bowl on the same table. They simply looked awful and I put them in a zipper bag and forgot about them. Originally they were simply one color of felt on the front and looked blah. Quite frankly, the felt was collected over the years. Some of the felt, I used in grade school. My Mom gave it back to me when the girls were in scouts.

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I pulled out my embroidery floss and felt bits. I  used the floss bits that I were too short to keep. No, really I had a bunch of bits and pieces of floss that were already separated and cut from the skein.

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I used my infinite supply of buttons too small to use on anything on the front and sometimes the back to add a bit of interest and sparkle. It has turned out better than I expected.

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Here it is finished and ready for Valentine’s Day!

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Talk to you later,

Karen

 

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Way back when…

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I made these both in the 70s when I was a girl.Just a glimpse into the past. The granny square blanket I made for my Mom and the stripe I made for my Dad for Christmas. The stripe was my first original pattern and I did pretty good for a young teenager. I am trying to come up with some new patterns for the shop this week and it is a struggle.

Talk to you later,

Karen

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Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!

It has been a  Merry Christmas at our house! I hope it has been so at yours as well. I always have mixed feelings about the Holidays. It is a time when I remember my Dad and now my Mother in Law. So, it is hard as I grieve but it is also a great time for family, fun and a chance to build new memories. We have been fortunate this year to have some time together with much of our immediate family.

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These are our outside lights that were covered in the ice from the storm. The ice is almost gone by now as it was warm yesterday but they were so pretty covered in ice that I had to include this photo. We have neighborhood  free range Guinea hens that come by the house  nearly every day. They tend to get on the front porch and I have been wanting to take some close up photos of them but this is the best I have done so far. They can get loud and we have watched the flock grow from four to about 20 or more.

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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all,

Karen

 

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Things to do with kids: Build a city!

Kids often need toy extenders as I call them. Things that extend their play in an imaginative way, props would be another word for it. There are a wide variety of ways that you can make a city for your kids.

1. Use cardboard

http://keriene.wordpress.com/category/homemade-toys/page/2/

As my kids are now all in high school or graduated. I am showing you Emelia’s beautiful cardboard city. There are more photos on her blog. http://keriene.wordpress.com/category/homemade-toys/page/2/

2. Wood houses. I really like these as you can write on them with chalk. I think these would make excellent Christmas gifts.

http://mommo-design.blogspot.it/2013/03/diy-for-kids.html?m=1

3. I love these little felt houses by Sarah Nichols.

http://www.sarah-nicol.com/shop.html

The kids and I usually made our toy extenders out of cardboard covered with paper that they cut out and glued on. It took more time that way and they were practicing their fine motor skills. We would use the houses until they looked like trash and then recycle or put them in the trash. What things do you make to help your children’s imagination to grow?

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

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Christmas GIfts #2 Toys

I love giving and receiving homemade Christmas gifts. It just seems to add a little more heart to the season. It also means that I don’t have to spend time driving around trying to find the perfect gift.

Here are some wonderful handmade toys!

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/newborn-guinea-pig

https://www.etsy.com/listing/167137792/crochet-pattern-bowling-crochet-toy

https://www.etsy.com/listing/100400839/crochet-toy-pattern-ice-cream-amigurumi

https://www.etsy.com/listing/128879584/amigurumi-pattern-for-crochet-toy-of

These are so cute that no words are needed!

I hope that it inspires you to create something wonderful for the children in your life!

Karen