Oh Nuts

At the end of January I picked up a skein of Red Heart Green Tones yarn and decided to use it for a project that I will be starting. The yarn color and something that my mom said inspired me to make shamrocks for the current knitting project that I am working on. So off course I started looking around on Pinterest for an easy pattern for knitting shamrocks and the pattern that I am using can be found on the site Studio Knit . Since St. Patrick's day is just under a month away you can knit or crochet up a couple shamrocks to add to your outfit or to carry around so that you have some green and don't get pinched. Even though I don't crochet there are patterns for shamrocks as well. The yarn that I used to make the shamrocks is the yarn that I dyed back in August. Here is a picture of the shamrocks that I have made. picture by me I don't know what brand of yarn I used for this because I got it for free and it didn't have the label with it. When I made it I us...

Just recently on Pinterest I had started saving pictures of different colored yarn to my main knitting board. Instead of letting the yarn pictures get lost in that board I created a separate board for me to pin them too. Because I had started pinning a lot of pictures of yarn, I started getting suggested pins that were related to dying yarn with kool-aid and food coloring. Of course I had to start saving all of the yarn dying pins as well as putting them in their own board. After looking through the different ways to dye yarn I picked one way that I liked and decided to give it a try. It also helped that I already had a couple skeins of white yarn (The instructions can be found here ). Because it is boring and not a whole lot is going on, I skipped taking pictures of the yarn soaking in the water/vinegar. I didn't bother taking pictures when the yarn was in the microwave either, because you can't really see anything. Since I hardly ever use green yarn for anything, I decided...

A couple weeks ago I decided to create a board on Pinterest that was specifically for photography challenges. Since I enjoy doing photography challenges every now and then, I figured it was time to start a board for collecting different kids of photography challenges. So far I have at least one photography challenge for each month, some months have multiple challenges. I also have multiple photography challenges that are for 31 days, or 30 days. There might be a few that are just 20 day challenges. I also saved a couple photography challenges that are for 20 weeks, as well as a few that are for 52 weeks. Out of the many photography challenges that I have saved, I picked out four different challenges that I thought were interesting and that I wanted to try. One of the photography challenges that I saved and printed out is called "City Photography Challenge." While you could do the challenges anywhere and at any time, I feel like this challenges would work better in a la...

Since you are probably wondering why I have become "obsessed" with knitting baby blankets I will try to explain. taken by me. As you all know I finished knitting this blanket  several weeks ago. Shortly after I had finished making the blanket, and had given it to the recipient, I heard that the wife of a coworker is expecting. So it was suggested that I make a baby blanket for them. This time I am using a baby blanket pattern that I had found and saved on Pinterest. Since I don't know the gender of the recipient for this blanket, I chose a pretty yellow yarn to make the blanket with. Even though the pattern suggests that you use circular needles to make the blanket with, I decided to make the blanket using straight needles instead. While circular needles make it easier to hold all 135 stitches on it, I can't stand using circular needles. Before I started knitting the blanket, it was suggested that I add a light purple yarn to it as well. While I like the ide...

You have six boards on Pinterest that are related to writing. The names of the six boards that I have are: Tips and Tricks, Inspiration, Prompts, WriterProblems, Grammar and Fonts, and Worksheets.   Tips and Tricks.  This board is full of links to different articles/blog posts that people have written on how to create characters, what to do and what not to do with writing a story, and similar topics. I created this board first so that I had some place to stash all of the writing related pins that I found on pinterest. Inspiration.  This board I created so that it would be easier to find all of the pictures that I had saved to use as inspiration when I am writing. Prompts.  Like with the 'Inspiration' board, I had created this one for all of the writing prompts that I came across. WriterProblems.  This is a fun board because quite a few of the pins that I save are quite true with how I deal with my writing. An example of this is: "It always sounds better...

Here is the story behind the pillows that I was making, that I said I would tell here. Middle Picture: the original idea. Right and Left Pictures: The pillow cases It all started back in January when I decided to knit a blanket for one of my cousin's who had just gotten engaged. After looking for the right yarn and Michael's, and Wal-Mart, I found fluffy white and black yarn at Hobby Lobby that I decided to use. Once I got several balls of yarn I started working on the blanket. The first blanket pattern I used wasn't turning out like the picture that came with the pattern, I think that was because I wasn't reading the pattern correctly. So I decided to ditch that pattern and start over with a different pattern. After five tries and a lot of tears, hand cramping, and frustration, there wasn't really any tears I just thought it sounded good, I gave up on trying to make anything with the yarn. It was a pain in the neck to use and by the fifth try it wasn...

As I'm sure everyone knows by now, I have been working on knitting a pillowcase and that I got the idea for it off of Pinterest. Well I have finished kitting the case and sewn it together already. If you want to get technical about it I actually crocheted the sides together. I did that because in the pattern that I followed it said that crocheting the edges together gives it a cleaner look than sewing it together. So I figured that I would give it a try since I had taught my self how to crochet several months ago. While the edges might not have turned out to be the straightest I still think that crocheting the sides together was a lot better than sewing them. So now that I am finished knitting and sewing it together I just need the pillow that will be going inside. Now that I am done crocheting the pillowcase I could just go back to working on a blanket that I started knitting two years ago and never finished, but I decided to start working on another pillowcase. This o...

When we hear the word joy we immediately think of something that made us very excited and happy. Or you could have thought of the little blue haired character from Pixar's "Inside Out." But what one thing that you might not think of when you hear the word joy is an acronym. Now after reading that last sentence you are probably wondering how there is an acronym in a three letter word. Well many years ago I saw the acronym written on a post it note and hung up in a bathroom and it has been something that has stuck with me since then. And the acronym for joy is: J esus, O thers, Y ourself...and it is something that we should try to follow out. While I might not be doing a good job of it, I have tried to follow it every day. Whether its, in the morning, afternoon, or evening, or even if you do it through out the day, we need to take some time out of our busy schedules each day for Jesus. While it might be hard at first and take time, just trying to take time out of...

Last week during one of my many Pinterest scroll and pinning sprees I found a delicious sounding recipe for Cinnamon Oatmeal Muffins. So I printed out the recipe and thought that I wouldn't be able to make them last week. But I ended up having Thursday off of work unexpectedly so I decided to make the muffins. Cinnamon Oatmeal Muffins Recipe: 1 egg (room temperature) 1 tbsp. coconut oil (melted) 1 cup milk (I used almond) ½ cup honey 1 cup flour* 1 cup rolled oats ½ tsp salt ½ tbsp. baking powder 2 tsps. cinnamon Recipe Directions:  Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl add egg, honey, and melted oil. Stir until the ingredients are combined and slowly stir in milk. Add the oats to the mixture and let it rest for 1-2 minutes. Mix the dry ingredients in a small bowl and add to the mixture. Mix until dry ingredients are blended in well. Place cupcake liners in a muffin tin and add 1-2 heaping tablespoons of batter to each liner. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or unt...

A while ago I decided to ditch the black and white blanket that I had been working on since January, because I was so fed up with trying to use it. So now I am working on yet another knitting project. This time it is a pillow case for a throw pillow. As usual, like, most of my ideas lately, I got the idea off of Pinterest. The website that I got the idea from is The Decorated Cookie , where the owner did a post back at the end of January this year with a bunch of different knitting projects and links to the original posts for those. The last one in the list was for knit pillows . After looking at the link and seeing that it was really easy to make I decided to give making a pillow case for a throw pillow. Using two skeins of yarn that I had already purchased for other previous projects I started making a pillow. I haven't bought the pillow that goes inside of the case yet, but I will probably get it soon. When I first started knitting this project the weather was still on ...

On Pinterest one of my many boards is a board full of pictures to use as writing inspiration and since I couldn't think of anything else to write I decided to share some of the pictures from my board.

--1-- Even though this week, with the exception of Monday, has been in the 50's and 40's I don't really care because it means that warmer weather is still on it's way and will hopefully be here sometime soon. On Monday it is supposed to be in the upper 40's and snowing. I don't want the snow right now, especially when it is officially spring. But that is one way to start of spring break I guess. --2-- I saw this on Pinterest the other day and thought that it was a really cute idea!!! Especially if you don't know what to give someone for a present. Graduation present I made my best friend... Wooden letter (purchased from Hobby Lobby) covered in wallet pictures.. Modge-Podge wooden letter then cover with pictures, lastly Modge-Podge over pictures with paint  brush..no   sponge :) Write on back as you would a card to utilize space and make it more special! --3-- Another Pinterest find that I found the other day was a link to a blog ...

As usual I was scrolling through Pinterest when I saw something that caught my eye. What caught my eye was a pattern for a Doctor Who scarf!!!!!! Of course as soon as I saw it I knew that I wanted to try and make it. Though I decided that I would at least attempt to finish two of my three current knitting projects first before I went and did this.

Even though Christmas is almost here I thought that it would be fun to share some Christmas themed craft ideas that I have found on Pinterest. One craft idea that I found was making star ornaments out of old sweaters and thought that it was a cute idea. Unfortunately there wasn't a pattern for this anywhere that I could find Another homemade Christmas ornament idea that I found was making handprint snowmen, which can be found here .  This adorable Frozen ornament, that I found on an Etsy shop , is a cute idea.  These Mason Jar Lid Snowmen ornaments look adorable and easy to make.

--- 1 --- What life is like after finishing the newest episodes of Doctor Who and Sherlock and waiting for more.  --- 2 --- Even thought the March for Life was this past Wednesday over the weekend (of the 18th and 19th) thousands of people joined in the Marches that were held in in  Wyoming, Syracuse, Cincinnati, Maine, Vermont, Ft. Wayne, Green Bay, Iowa, Chicago, El Paso, Dallas, Birmingham, Delaware, and Paris. Though I wasn't able to go to the March for Life in my state this past weekend I heard that I lot of people went to it. I also heard that there was 40,000 people who Marched for Life in Paris, France, which is amazing! --- 3 --- --- 4 --- Last week the basketball team that TJ is on won their first game, which was exciting!! the final score was 30-18. I would post a picture but I didn't bring my camera with and I don't know if my dear mother has done anything with the ones that she took at the game. --- 5 --- Though there wasn't in...

Unfortunately I have never listened/watched any interviews with past and present Doctor Who folk so I can't say that I have a favorite one. This is the only day during the Doctor Who challenge where I haven't had something that was a favorite or a least favorite. My apologies about that. Though if you are interested in doing the same Doctor Who challenge that I am doing you can find it here: I found it on pinterest in case anyone was wondering

Several weeks ago I found this idea on Pinterest for making candles . All you need to make the candle, besides the obvious wick and holder, is white or off-white wax and crayons. While I was making five to give as gifts I took a couple pictures. Supplies: Pre-shredded white or off-white wax (it works better than shredding up a candle) Wicks Clear empty votive candle holders Crayons Popsicle sticks Dixie cups A microwave An old towel an Exacto knife To start out you have to take the wrappers off of the crayons and you can use an exacto knife to make it easier. After that you put some wax in dixie cup and melt it in the microwave so that you can make sure the bottom of the wick is secure in the candle holder. While that is hardening break up the crayon that you want on the bottom of the candle and melt it with a small handful of wax. Once it is melted use a popsicle stick to stir it together. You may need a little more wax to it. When I was making them I found t...

On the 14th we celebrated my grandma's birthday and for dessert Amanda made a recipe that I had found a while ago on Pinterest. It is Chocolate Lasagna and it is delicious. I had first found the recipe when I was looking for dessert recipes to make for the monthly make a dessert for our grandparents, though my mom said no to it for that I pinned it for a rainy day. Though it wasn't a rainy day when we had it. Here is the recipe! The recipe is originally from here . Prep:  20mn Total:  1hr 20mn Cook:  N/A INGREDIENTS 1 package regular Oreo cookies (Not Double Stuff) – about 36 cookies 6 Tablespoon butter, melted 1- 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened 1/4 cup granulated sugar 2 Tablespoons cold milk 1- 12 ounce tub Cool Whip, divided 2 – 3.9 ounce packages Chocolate Instant Pudding. 3 1/4 cups cold milk 1 and 1/2 cups mini chocolate chips DIRECTIONS Begin by crushing 36 Oreo cookies. I used my food processor for this, but you could also place t...