Edna Mae - What a Beautiful Lady - Remembering Grandma...

I'm currently unemployed, it's true. This isn't a pity party post though, no sir! :) ;) (also, why has blogger not enabled emoticons?! I NEED them to talk at you! O.O ;)). This is a short reflective post! One of the projects I have on my list for the not too distant future is to make two hats for my friends little girls (ages 2 months & 2 years old - joy! :D). The girls are adorable I assure you! :D In any case, the hat project had me perusing my crochet pinterest board (see it here - oh and follow too! ^-^) to show me all the goodies I've found on previous pinterest adventures! I worked my way to the bottom of the board and my eyes settled on a photo that made me slightly nostalgic... if you've been following my blog for a while you might remember it from this post.

I've been totally blessed by an outpouring of thoughtful people in my life who have passed on to me their yarn, their nicknacks, their stories of knitting/crochetting/tatting/crafting times gone by, their time and their patience. Namely I have to say my late Grandma Fagner was one of thee biggest gifters of her talents and time to me. She was involved in so many things throughout her lifetime and I realize she shared her passions as much as she could with me, my siblings, my cousins and so so many others. Here's a shot of my siblings, my mom and Grandma :) - this was the last time I saw her in person before she passed away. Isn't she adorable?!?!

Grandma lived an amazing life, she was 90 when she passed, though admittedly I thought she'd live to be 100 ;-), the lady had some spunk I'm telling you! After I was out of the Air Force I got to spend a lot of time with her, gardening, dancing & crafting. I am so fortunate to have had that time with her. I know she knew Jesus and that when the time comes I will see her again. Selfishly, of course I would rather have kept her here with us :). God's timing is perfect though and I trust that. Grandma looked beautiful and peaceful when I saw her for the last time at her funeral - the casket was perfect for her too! It had a lovely feminine touch with flowers and a beautiful light mauve color on the outside. The inside was a wonderful lavender and there was one embroidered flower. A lady til the end :). Grandma's are the best!

Over the years I've realized it was Grandma Fagner and my mothers love for peonies that encouraged my appreciation for this kind of flower... I was SO excited when I found out our last house grew them!! It's only fitting I share a photo of one of the blooms with you here ;)

And a few flowers I discovered existed in the past few years that I love too! :D

 Ranunculus'! 

Anemones!

Photo credit goes to Clarevision from their original post here.

"But Dawn, what is the point of your post?", you might be asking. 

Well, the point is, rather the points are: 

 - Hands down, my grandma was awesome. 

 - Thank the people that take the time to spend the time with you daily, you'll never regret it.

 - The flowers I like have everything to do with the beauty they are and that they remind me of my childhood.     Yes.

 - I have a lot of yarn I need to tend to and projects to make in between looking for jobs. ;) 

I hope this finds you doing well! now go do something the future you would thank you for! ;)

Gah! Where are those emoticons!!! XD

  *************

Study Blanket Update - 1 of Many

Hello friends! Sorry I've been *so* quiet lately! We decided after visiting Texas in February of this year, that we would set about making living there a reality. Fast forward to today and as God would have it... we are now living in the great state of Texas! :D. It's been a whirl wind I assure you! We had to line up at least one job to make the move happen, had to sell our house... and we had to literally move from Virginia to Texas. No small feat I assure you. While we are still in the process of settling in and making Texas our permanent stomping ground, I've been able to get back to some crafting.

I recently finished round three on 191 of 192 ( would you believe I lost one of the circles?! :s ) granny sunburst flowers! :D You might know this color scheme as the study blanket. While the study I was making this blanket for has since been repainted and sold with the house in VA, the vision for this richly colored autumnal throw blanket lives on! :D It does get chilly in Texas at times despite the heat you hear about :).

Here are the finished pieces as of today...

Storage is Important

Why for yarn of course! :) Of course ^-^

Okay and for clothes, and shoes and other clothing things :). 

Closet renovating is something else the family helped us with while they were out to VA this year!

The hallway closet, our bedroom closet and my sisters closet all got facelifts! ;) 

The original design of each closet was okay but I felt there was a lot of space not being used quite so efficiently. So with help from the parents, my sisters helping unload the closets and in some cases painting them (the hallway closet) we were able to get the closets tended to from start to finish in two days. Dad and I painted and prepped the boards/walls before and after the shelves went up. Initially we were looking at the wire closet aide's and in the end decided wood will last longer and look sharper (and cost half of what we'd have paid for the wire shelving). We got shelving that was 1 by 12 and then however long we had measured we'd need for each closet. Dad and I painted just the shelving white and left the rods natural wood as you'll see in the photos :).

* * * * * * * 

The hallway closet BEFORE:

...and...

AFTER:

We painted the inside of this closet  to match the rest of the hallway and large sitting room, making it the last area upstairs to be painted since we moved in. 

All other walls upstairs had been painted since we've moved in. :) 

The rod was placed higher than where the prior one was. 

My husband being 6' 4" and having long coats we made sure the closet would store our longest coats with ease :). Shelving was added on top of the rod brackets and around the left side of the closet. This created a nook for the folding chairs to rest on and some camping gear to be hid away yet still readily accessible. The bottom shelf allowed for more shoe storage *yes* which helped tidy the floor up a bit! I moved a shoe caddy from my closet to the hallway closet for storage of purses, hats and gloves. I also purchased a basket for other scarf storage you'll see in the far right photo.

* * * * * * * 

Here is our closet - I neglected to take an official "before" photo but if you can envision more clothes on the right side of the closet packed in tightly then you get the picture. If you can't picture it then imagine a closet where if you pull out a shirt, the hanger stays attached to the pole but is stuck outside the clothes because there's not enough room for it to swing back into the mix, think SARDINES... yeah. I don't miss that. ^-^ 

Spacing this closet was very important to me. I wanted my mister to be able to have his shirts hang and be high enough for him to see. A custom tailored closet for sure ;). Luckily the dimensions worked out quite nicely with both his tops and mine. The top shelf of the closet allows for the misters shoes or my shoes in a shoe box, his shoes also rest on the 2nd shelf along with a small basket that he call pull out to grab dress socks when needed. All the way to the right we left space to store long dresses and pants. We made a small change to how we store our jeans. Jeans, shorts, all pants :) are on hangers now. I had to brain storm about my shoe storage because once I hung up my clothing it hid the shoes! I found an under the bed shoe caddy that has done well so far. I love that I can see all my clothes now and its not such a fight to get an item out just to see it!

Dad did an awesome job making sure the rod brackets were flush with the wall in every closet where applicable. Prior to redoing our closet on either side I just hoped the clothes wouldn't push too far to the ends... or they'd fall off. So annoying. First world problems... I know ;) 

* * * * * * *

Here again I didn't get the official "before" picture so imagine again clothes on the right side 

why did we always clear that side out first?? Curious... ;)) 

with clothes on white hangers that fit the space on the first photo.

 My sisters closet was modelled after ours only in this case we brought the top rod and shelf down further so there was more than just a shoe boxes' worth of storage. 

* * * * * * 

Reorganizing the closets proved quite helpful in the yarn arena as well - the old shoe rack went into the white room/craft room and ow holds yarn in a way that you can shove skeins together (yes! :D) and still see the colors quite readily when you open the closet door. Granted this is *not* the only place I have yarn. 

But I wanted to show off this updated part! :D

Shoe rack used for yarn storage - for the win!

OH! Oh! Also - the mister got his long awaited garage closet area - an open closet? :) 

All the motorcycle gear came out of the hallway closet and found their rightful home here - yay! :D

Can I just say I love to organize? I thoroughly appreciate when everything has its own place. 

Though yes, I still have a few "junk" drawers :). 

Sunburst Flower Granny Square Swatch Test

Last night I stayed up way past my bed time just to get this baby worked up but I'd say it was worth it :). Though funny enough, I'm sure I had a hard time sleeping after working the square up because I was pretty excited about the outcome lol :) This design is called Sunburst Flower Granny Square by Kasa Amend. I found it on ravelry as I was browsing through all the granny square motifs they have :). I had gone back to my post about the study colors and while this granny square pattern wasn't either of the two I though I might use it was fairly similar to flowers in the snow... sunburst flower is a bit puffier but that's why I like it ;)

Wanted to share some pics and the links to the patterns for others before I got into laundry and more crocheting  ;) I hope you're having a great week! Best, Dawn

Study Blanket Color Idea...

By Study I mean the Study Room in our house - mkay? Not hey, I'm studying... I should grab this study designated blanket... that's just silly... or is it? I like to coordinate things... but lets not limit ourselves mkay? :)

Mkay I'm ready to get on with this post... just one more mkay after this though - mkay? :) K :) 

I am on my second cup of decaf just now... but it feels like I might have... (this is when I ran upstairs, checked the coffee bag and realized I made regular coffee...) ...have made regular... a really strong regular coffee... crap... how I will get to sleep tonight I'm not sure - meh. Here I thought I was super excited about the colors for this blanket... sigh.

Awe wells - so this past 3 day weekend for me :) I took on a room in our house that has been left destitute because we found out we had to fix our siding, our roof, our windows, etc. to stop the leak that was happening in the Study ceiling. We've had the house for a little over 3 years so I was really looking forward to digging in, super cleaning, painting and primping this room and make it part of my "nest"... my home if you will ;). What an undertaking though! :) I promise to share pictures with you of the progression once I have the Study reasonably decorated. It's a bit bare bones at the moment. 

Of the yarns my grandma gave me I have 4 hanks of the lovely earthy green and the thick brown in the middle I have 2 hanks. I might unravel the yarn as I go to give it a worsted weight instead the current chunkiness it has going on, this will make it go farther too for this project :)  

...and yes... you are welcome... the desk, and walls are a "sneak peek" of the study :) muha ;) 

I present from bottom to top Saffron by Lion Brand, Brown by LeeWards, Green by LeeWards and Coffee by Red Heart

I'm thinking of doing a granny square blanket unless I find another design I like better... at the moment I plan on using this ravelry pattern: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/free-smoothfoxs-tea-for-two though I think the square favors solid colors. Still debating :) Maybe this one... http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/flowers-in-the-snow ...still granny square but the color change is eye candy! :) We shall see.. I hope you like the colors! I'd be elated to clear up some of my yarn stash and put it to use... just have to decide and start now huh? lol ;)

I hope you're having a great week! I'll share what I can when I can! Thank you for reading! :D ♥ Dawn

Discontinued Yarn Bites...

What's the big idea? Or rather whose idea was it to discontinue the TLC Amore Red Heart yarn I ask you? WHO O.O I. Want. Names. True, its my fault assuming that a yarn that I use would neva eva eva go out of stock or style or what have you - but c'mon people... you do a an online search for a yarn, it shows up in a store ... I was robbed I tell ya! 3 Michael's, 2 JoAnne Fabric's and an AC Moore later I have options to use, but not thee yarn I need. Have I tried Ebay you might ask? Um, yes, yes I have. 1 skein for nearly $7.00 adding insult to injury that yes, yes this is a discontinued yarn... NOTED... albeit far too late to realize. :p

Gah! I lament no more! Here are the new options for the santa hat red... the middle yarn is the last bit of red the hat was made out of for comparison... care to weigh in on which you like better? The yarn on the far left or right?

My Yarn Cup Overflows!

Because of my dear parents! This is a bittersweet story though... my younger brother's friends dad (are you tracking so far? ;)) was put in the rest home a bit ago and I heard recently passed away... my younger brothers friends mom had passed away about a year ago as well and they had to clear out their belongings to sell the house. My parents being the generous helpers they are helped clear out the house. What they uncovered as they went through the garage was oodles upon oodles of cotton yarn.... colorful and soft! My parents had told me about their discovery over the phone and how if they didn't take the yarn it'd be taken to a burn pile. Knowing my affinity for crafting they figured why not send it to me? I was to excited to hear that I'd be getting not just a package in the mail (which is fun in itself) that it'd be a package of yarn!

About a week later I received the box, full of soft, colorful cottons :) Immediately I thought of the beautiful granny square afghans, wooleater blankets and potholders possibilities!

I knew it would still be a while though before I got started on anything that entailed using the cotton yarn, but I half wondered if I would have enough for a full blanket if I decided to go that route. I also was kind of surprised that that was all mom and dad sent because they said they found ALOT of yarn in that garage. Three days later I received 4 large boxes at about 29lbs each... FULL. OF. YARN.

Here is one of the boxes next to the other four showing you the height width and depth of the box and another illustration of the colors (the colors! the colors! :)) that this woman had had.

I can only imagine that the woman who had owned these cones of yarn could not sit in front of a tv or on a long drive without working on some crafty crochet/knit thing like myself. I hope that the items I make from this plethora of yarn brings joy to other people to honor this lady I never knew... and as I type this my right hand is in pain from all the daily typing at work and crocheting/knitting at home. But I pray for ibprofen strong enough and the smarts to know how to stretch my hands to keep them fit and nimble :).

Craft on my crafty friends! :) And thank you for reading! :)

Lovely blues...

A trip to the grocery store had me taking a detour to Michaels and JoAnn Fabrics tonight.

I have a custom order for The Scholars Collar Scarf and needed to grab more yarn.

I checked Michaels first for the sapphire blue I needed and no dice... I did however spot an amazing teal color that I had to make mine! As I looked at it the color seemed to dance in front of my eyes - its so vibrant!



My thinking is to make some heart bunting with this beautiful color like that of one I have in my shop.



With Real Teal in my hand I scanned the rows one last time at Michael's yarn selection for the blue I needed and saw there was a sale on Sugar n Cream cotton (oh yes! ;)) Of course I have an idea for this blue too! I want to knit up a beautiful open work soap sock...



Onto JoAnn Fabrics - we found our sapphire blue within a few seconds of reaching the yarn area and then I spotted a beautiful pink that I somehow managed to walk away from... I reasoned I have lots of yarn already (if its possible ;))

Here is the beautiful blue we'd been working our way to, discovering other wonderful hues along the way :)



oh ideas, ideas... so little time so many colors...

Little Girls Precious Granny Square Baby Blanket

About a year ago now, I was in Iowa visiting for Thanksgiving Holiday. My parents took me and my husband to a thrift store to find some knick knacks for the house and I remember at the time I was looking for a doily for the bedroom. The thrift store had their blankets and larger doilies hung up on hangers and as I went sifting through the rack I stumbled upon this thick soft rectangle blanket. I'm not sure if the creator had further provisions for this piece because it was too wide to be a scarf and not wide enough to be a lap blanket. But the yarn was beautiful and they were selling the item for a mere 50 cents! I realized that the amount of yarn in this item was at least 4 skeins and with the weight of this yarn we were looking at $5.00 per skein. So what would take $20.00 of yarn to make this unloved item was being sold for next to nothing! SOLD! My mom ended up shipping the half a blanket to me a bit ago since we had too much stuff to carry back with us for our flight as it was...once I unraveled the scarf/blanket/thingy and made my 4 balls of yarn, I knew I would make a baby blanket out of it due to the colors but not until my friend from Iowa told me she was expecting did I set to work! I have since purchased the white yarn and a few skeins and changed my mind about what colors I would put together with what.

I also did some hunting for options on how to connect granny squares and found this blog not only helpful but entertaining ;) I love the colors she uses in her creations! I ended up using the effect of "crochet as you go" to connect the squares and I'm pretty pleased with it ;)

Here is the first of two blankets I've created with the yarn from the thrift store.






I love how sweet it looks and I know my friends lil girl will make it all the more precious! :)

I'll share the other blanket once complete! :) I think it will be the boys version but still adorable as ever! :)

Thanks for reading!and yay for thrift stores! :)

Must...Break...The Silence!

As some of you might know (or none of you know) last year at the end of August I started a new job and away went the focus or desire to blog... it's just sucked a lot of my time and energy :s.

Since there are a lot of things regarding the house I want to catch you up on (and hope to in time) I have to share some other, nonhouse things along the way... I'm in blog recovery lol er, something like that O.o.

Alright - so on lunch break today I'm perusing the arts& crafts section of craigslist and find a listing for Magic Ring Pom-Pon. No, this is not a misspelling, maybe it's just the old school way of writing Pom-Pom. Kind of like how old worlde english favor & color were spelled with U's = colour, favour. You get the idea.

I got curious.. to google I go to find out what the heck you can make with a pom-pon magic ring. After all, the picture was also showing, aside from pom-pons, rugs of all things - I scratched my head.

After a few attempts via web and images I found a blog (yay!) and have to share the link with you to this witty, hilariously funny blogger. I have to figure out how to follow them yet since I can't simply click "follow" BUT - if you figure it out, lemme know! :D

Without further ado - visit this link for a craft laugh break. Oh so funny... Hahahaha - oh, oh and it's fittingly titled Pompon Therapy. Note the spelling ;)

***** HandmadeByMother *****
UPDATE: I figured out how to FOLLOW her blog! :) Squee!! :D