Oh Nuts

Whenever possible I try to include a knit item in with the Christmas present that I give to the sibling that I have for that year. Two years ago I made a scarf for my sister to take with her to school, and last year I gave my other sister a pair of hand warmers that I made. This year my sister's friend T from school joined us for Christmas and was included in the sibling secret Santa and I picked her name. Since T is still in college I wanted to make sure that the presents that I gave her were light and easily transportable. So I decided to make her a hat using pretty yarn that I had found on sale at Jo-ann Fabrics earlier in the year. After finishing the hat, and including a pom-pom on top since my mom and sisters said it finished off the hat, I used the rest of the yarn to make a coordinating ear-warmer/headband. The pattern that I used for the hat is called "Horizontal Rib Hat" and I found it in a knitting book called 'Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders.' For the ...

I honestly don't remember exactly when I came up with the idea for this project, but once it showed up it didn't want to leave. Part of how this project came to me is that I had purchased the wood at Michael's for something else that ended up not working with the piece. Since I had already removed the packaging I couldn't return it so I had to think of something else to use it for. The picture I took and used. Again I don't remember how I exactly thought of this but I went with it anyhow. But since we have multiple stencils with the alphabet in different fonts on them I grabbed them out of the draw that they are stored in and then picked the one that I liked the best. After I traced the words onto the wood I plugged in the wood burner that we have and went to work burning the letters. With the wood burner it didn't take that long to do the letters and I like the way that they turned out. Before I actually did the letters I used a heart stencil on the ba...

I know that we are just leaving the Christmas season and that you may be wondering why I am talking about themed gifts. Especially since this seems like a topic that would be helpful before Christmas day. The reason why I am posting this now is that because themed gifts work for birthdays as well as graduations, going away parties, etc. painted and photographed by me For a number of years now, instead of getting a present for every single sibling, as well as the parents, because it gets rather expensive, my family has started doing this thing where my mom puts all of the siblings names on pieces of paper and then puts it into a bowl. We are then supposed to pick a name out of the bowl and that is the sibling that we buy a present, or two, for that Christmas. And this year, once I had the name of the sibling that I was buying for, I slowly started coming up with ideas as to what to buy for my "person" as we have started calling them. My "person" this year fo...

While the picture really doesn't have anything to do with the semester ending next week I liked it and wanted to use a picture in this post. In case I haven't mentioned this before, a large majority of the photos that I include in my posts are from the website Unsplash . Since it is the end of the semester and finals are happening for a lot of people, mine are next week, I was going to write a post about it being the end of the semester. But I am not entirely sure if I would be able to do that without boring people to death with it. So I am not going to do that. Instead I am going to just write about a bunch of random topics like I usually end up doing when I don't have anything specific in mind that I want to write about. Of course the end of the school semester also means Christmas is almost here. And that means that I have to start getting Christmas presents. The parental figures are easy to get presents for since my siblings and I always get them something togethe...

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...

Over the weekend I had decided to paint an old stationary box that I had found in one of the drawers on my desk. Unfortunately by the time I thought to take pictures of the process I had already painted the box, so I don't have pictures of what it used to look like. Since the box is going to be used for something I am please with the way that it turned out. Rosebud had always been the crafty one in the family. On Thursday the theater class that she is in, is having their Christmas party and she made a Nativity scene for the White Elephant that they are doing and it is adorable. Though you can't see him very well baby Jesus is in the manger.