Posted on by

Stars into Ornaments

I finally sat down yesterday to sew the stars to their backing fabric. They look pretty good. There are lots of thread ends to clip and then I needed to clip the inner corners and points on each star.

2014-05-09 10.07.12

Some Christmas ornament stars in traditional Christmas colors of red and green.2014-05-09 10.06.06

 

Also some lovely non-traditional Dr Who Tardis Christmas ornament stars. Each star has a mother of pearl button in the center. I have about ten more but they are needing the handwork and I am rushed right now.  These will be listed in the ChocolateDogStudio.esty.com shop soon!

We are in the midst of taking a break on cleaning for graduation and Mother’s Day. Why is it that Mother’s day takes so much work from Mothers to make it happen! ;0) We will have several lovely days of family!

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

 

 

 

Posted on by

Scraps into Diamonds

If you follow me on facebook or instagram. You have been seeing these photos.

2014-05-06 09.24.42

I spent a day combing through my scraps and cutting out diamond shapes.

2014-05-06 11.17.59

It was an easy thing to do and still feel like I was accomplishing something. I cut out tons and then I put them together to get these neat little stars.

2014-05-08 07.19.53

 

I’m so proud of the points matching in these two stars. I think I have finally figured it out.

2014-05-08 07.20.01

See  the perfect points in the middle! Can you guess what I am making in the studio these days? I have some others finished and waiting on some photos but it is too dark today. We are finally getting some rain so I am not complaining. I hope that it cuts down on the wildfires that we have had. There have been some huge wildfires in Oklahoma and many people have lost everything. So, our area has been under a red flag, which means no fire pits, no cook outs, no burning of any kind.

If you want to follow me on instagram (I am new there) you can find me with this user name: Chocodogstudio

You can also follow me on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/Chocolatedogstudio

There is too much to do today. We are in the midst of printing out 300 graduation programs and are running low on toner. One of the nice things about having your child in public or private school as there are details that you really do not have to deal with, like printing graduation programs!

I will talk to you later!

Karen

Posted on by

Flannel bibs and blankets!

Here are a few more gift ideas for baby showers!

Aren’t they fun bib and  blanket sets! You can see them at www.chocolatesbabyshop.etsy.com I am listing the blankets this week so keep dropping in to the shop!

The weather here has been great and the family has been helping me get our flower beds back into order. The yard has been sadly neglected for the past several years. Over the past couple of weekends the front flower bed has gone from this2014-04-15 11.22.46After they pulled all of the grass and raked it all out. You can see the rose bush, 2 crepe myrtles and then the sage that my daughter planted. There were no other plants in this flower bed at all. We stuck some iris bulbs and then also hope to grow some Russian sage near the corner. The Russian sage seems to survive very well in our very hot weather that we have. The bees love it. So I think it will be great to transplant some of the Russian sage we have growing in the front raised bed to this flower bed. It seems very hardy for our gardening abilities and neglect.

Then they added some dirt.2014-05-03 12.49.12Last they added the mulch and it looks so much better than it did. Now to take this beautiful work on around the corner of the house.2014-05-04 08.28.22

Here is the soon to be High School graduate on his way to the Senior recognition day at our church. He chose to wear the jacket and tie.  You can see how much better the flower bed looks. I hope to have a better photo soon. I have also been working on some new crochet things for the chocolatedogstudio shop. Here is a sneak peak at one of them.

2014-04-28 13.20.21

talk to you later,

Karen

 

Posted on by

New and Old Together

I have long wanted to add cute little hats to my crochet baby blankets. These baby afghans are just calling out for some cute newborn hats. I recently opened the baby shop. While I was getting it online and started, I had a couple of days where having baby hats was a great idea. I just ran with it. Here they are, the blankets and the hats on the same page.

They are beautiful and I will be adding more crochet baby hats with matching baby afghans as I get the time. You can find these in my shop at www.chocolatesbabyshop.etsy.com. I am off to get some things completed for graduation.

Talk to you later,

Karen

Posted on by

Natural light vs Indoor light

I try really hard to take most of my photos with natural light. I wait for a bright day and take the photos with the sun shining. Here is a really good photo illustration why I do this.

This is the same blanket one photo taken in indoor lighting and the second photo taken in natural light.

2014-04-27 13.34.02 2014-04-27 16.11.05

There is a huge difference. Sometimes you can successfully edit photos and get a more natural appearance. I am truthfully not that good with photo editing software. I use Picasa, an old program that was free. It is pretty easy for me to use.  These photos are cropped but not color edited in any way.

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

Posted on by

Monday April 28, 2014

I had an overwhelming feeling this past weekend that I needed to buy more yarn. I have, after all, crocheted a huge amount of items. I haven’t really ordered any yarn since January when I started the 100 items in 100 days challenge. I did buy two destash orders from friends on Etsy last month but that doesn’t really count!  Here is the yarn I bought from my friend Rose who knits wonderful blankets, scarves, and shawls. 2014-04-16 12.51.32

I am combining it with the rest of the wool yarn that I had leftover and it is in the process of being turned into a wonderful one of a kind art blanket. It is full of lovely texture and Autumn colors, but it is wool and it is HOT to sit under right now. Here is the undoctored photo of my foot in the boot. This is the other reason it is hot. This boot is heavy and like wearing an insulated blanket.

2014-04-16 12.45.28

I don’t know about you but sitting around is exceedingly boring. I have run through many Netflix marathons in the afternoons and evenings. This is also the reason I have completed so many different baby items. So, I was thinking that I needed to buy more yarn and decided that I would first see what I have on hand.

2014-04-27 15.02.35

Lovely blues, greens, white, red and navy

2014-04-27 15.02.48

A nice assortment of colors from pink to bright orange back to purples, and grey.2014-04-27 15.02.53

Another tub full of neutral yarns. So, I am not ordering any yarn. I have ENOUGH yarn to keep me busy for a little while! These are all full skeins, we aren’t going to look at all the partial sets of yarn.

Actually, I did buy yarn but it isn’t for me. I am having it shipped to my cousin in Keller, Texas because she sitting a lot right now as well.

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

Posted on by

Flower Blanket

This is a sweet little baby blanket set. The flowers are crocheted as the blanket and the hat are crocheted together.

2014-04-22 18.04.172014-04-23 10.55.43 2014-04-23 10.55.50  Only one side has the lovely white flowers with the yellow centers.

 

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

Posted on by

Springtime!

Life seems a huge blur right now as we finish up the school work. I am spending great huge amounts of time with my right foot up on a chair, foot stool, or couch. I seem to have torn some tendons or something along that line.  It is a huge frustration to me. I seem to make plans only to have them changed mid-stream.

I recently opened the new shop ChocolatesBabyShop which is keeping me busy crocheting. I love crocheting little baby hats as they are just so cute and it is fun to think of the sweet little babies that will get to wear them.

2014-04-019

 

We seem to be sitting on the the thresh hold of so many  different experiences in the next two – three weeks. Our oldest daughter comes home from college. Our youngest son gets ready to graduate. Then we spend the summer preparing them both for the journey back to college and we will be left with one little bird still in the nest.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/101448416/she-sat-on-a-creative-nest-8-x-8-small

This is a wonderful time and I am so looking forward to all of the exciting changes that are happening. I will continue to rest my foot and hope to see you soon!

What is happening at your house this spring?

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

Posted on by

Chocolate’s Baby Shop

Introducing Chocolate’s Baby shop! You can find it here: www.chocolatesbabyshop.etsy.com I started it to put all the baby items in since I had so many. Now I am adding these super cute baby hats and blankets to the shop in the week ahead.

2014-04-18 11.45.30 2014-04-18 11.50.39

 

I also have some cute baby bibs and will be adding some taggies and possibly some baby shoes as well.

Talk to you later,

Karen

Posted on by

Monday’s News

It appears that my plans can change in 5 minutes or the length of time it takes the Dr. to say you may have torn your tendon. So, I am no longer looking forward to sewing for the comic con as I was thinking of doing. I can always do the comic con later. The good news is that I will get a lot of time sitting with my foot up which is always good for the crocheted items in the shop! I have been working on some little things but I will surprise you with them next week.

2014-04-15 11.22.16

My family cleaned the flower beds out for me this past week. They worked hard as the beds had been neglected over the past year.

2014-04-15 11.22.46

Here you can see the rose bush and the sage that grow by the front door. We need to put some weed blocker down and then cover it in mulch in an effort to cut down on the grass growing back. I had a lovely package yesterday that was exciting and cheerful at the same time. I received these beautiful yarns in the mail from my friend Rose. Rose does lots of fancy knitting and these are (probably) a small part of her destash. They are all shades of brown and orange and I can hardly wait to get started on them. I have some ideas and they are percolating while I work on some other little things.

2014-04-16 12.51.32Talk to you later,

Karen