Thinking about crafty things...

1. I want to make fingerless gloves out of felted wool sweaters for me and Ross.
2. I want to make a big soft knitted blanket with BIG needles!
3. I want to finish the crocheted fingerless gloves I started for my daughter.
4. I want to make a shawl or wrap for myself for those COLD summer church meetings with the AC on full blast.
5. I want to draw inspirational drawings for my new book I thought of...
6. I would like to make a 1920's hat that will go with my new short haircut.
7. I want to finish the baby blanket I started a month or two ago and make it into a big blanket for use in the livingroom when it's cool in the mornings.
8. Ugly dolls still haven't been worked on... maybe during the spring break?

I could probably think of more to do, but, isn't that enough?

trip to Portland, crochet revelation

We went on a trip to Portland to celebrate Ross' grandmother's 90th birthday.
Read all about it on my main blog. http://roster007.livejournal.com/

Now for the crafty crochet revelation.

Every time we travel to Portland, I end up buying the kids a stuffed animal.
This time it was beavers from Multnomah Falls.
THEN everytime I buy them stuffed animals on this trip to Portland, the kids ask me to Crochet something for their stuffed animals.
Last trip it was tiny crocheted backpacks.
This trip it was log shaped bags for their beavers to live in.
I'll have to take a pic some time. (don't have time right now to mess with it.)

Ross' mom noticed this time that every time I come to her house in Portland I am crocheting something for the kid's stuffed animals.
That was a revelation to me. Duh. Duh! Oh yeah, I DO do that, don't I.

But, I do love making tiny items for small stuffed animals. It's a fun design challenge for me.
And it's something to do with my hands while Ross and his parents talk about Boron, CA (where they used to live) and all the people they used to know (in great detail) and about all the places and people that I REALLY don't know.
Crochet. It's something to do.

Aborted Project.

For the Relief Society Birthday Dinner in March, we are going in with the 1st ward. THEY like to do things fancy and go all the way! They don't seem to believe in potlucks, they assigned a salad recipe to be made by sisters.
Our Enrichment person suggested beautiful lavender thread crocheted bookmarks to offer as gifts.
It was a really lovely idea, but, when we figured out that it took ME making 3 bookmarks before they stopped curling, and then only my 7th bookmark looked the best. Plus, they took about 1 1/2 hours to make each and we need ONE HUNDRED of them???
We decided that it wasn't worth 150 man hours of work in only 3 weeks to make bookmarks to give out. So, now we are going to just make nice paper bookmarks with a quote from Emma Smith on them and a ribbon at the top. Way less work. whew. We are too busy as a people to devote 150 hours to something that people might think is cute but, might not use.
Right? Good for us for coming to our senses!
Maybe I can make some for Christmas as Stocking Stuffers?

Read my real blog at

http://roster007.livejournal.com/

(sorry if the address in the last entry doesn't work.)

Whew! Christmas is over...on to different projects!

My son goes to a class at school for smarty pants kids ELP (Extended Learning Program).
This year they are studying Astrobiology! They have a project to pick one of 5 moons and a planet where life would be plausible (Mars, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Titan, Enceladus) and then make up creatures that would live on it. It's really awesome and I've repeatedly told his teacher how jealous I am that HE gets to go to her class and I don't!
Well, I decided that I would just have to make my own project while helping LightningBoy with his. She thought it was an awesome idea.

Right now I have material and ideas on how to actually make stuffed animal models of LightningBoy and my Aliens. (and ArtGrrl is making some too)

Now I just need to figure out how to sew a dome shape! Perhaps I could look it up on the internet how to do that?

Plus, my creature looks like an eyeless Manatee with a human nose. I have to try to sew that too!

Also, I want to make an earflap hat for ArtGrrl (but she thinks the one at the store would be better. argh)
AND fingerless gloves for me and Ross so we can play World of Warcraft during the winter time with warm hands. Hands can get cold while typety typing!

Pictures will come... but until then make sure to read my "REAL" blog at
www.roster007.livejournal.com

wish me luck!

The Craftiness of December

Well, I got the hangers done for my mother-in-law in time to ship them.

They are nice BUT kind of boring and annoying to make. And the next time I have to make some, I'm using some NON fuzzy yarn. (although I suspect fuzzy yarn hides a multitude of mistakes. :) Two hangers of each color of blue that I found, because I can't remember the exact color of blue my in-laws bedroom is... it has been since 2005 or 6 that we went there last.

I like how they turned out though. not bad. Second time I made hangers. check.

We were going to make home-made Christmas Cards too... but, Christmas snuck up on us so fast, and we were sooo busy and sooo tired.... we never got around to it.

So, because Ross doesn't worry about these things, it will be up to me to make up for it.

I will be writing an e-mail and adding a couple of pics to a Christmas letter.

Of course, 2008 was not such a great year. The only trip we went on was a Ward Campout and a baby blessing in Idaho. We didn't go swimming at all. We didn't visit St. George and see my parents new kitties at all. We didn't even go to the end of the Salt Lake Valley for my Mother's Day meal because of gas prices. (who knew they would get even worse after that?!)

I hope I can come up with a positive letter to send family members.

Also, I have had such good intentions and good thoughts of gifts and generosities for others, but no imagination or brain power or energy to support them. Sorry everyone.

Merry Christmas anyway...

Crafty Christmas

Well, my mother-in-law wants me to make her crochet covered hangers. (I just figured out it was a real request, not a joke, on Thanksgiving!) So, I have one half made and can't wait to see how it turns out.
How many crocheted hangers make a set anyway?

The funny thing is that when Ross was on the phone with his mom, She said something about wanting something knitted for her... Ross said, "That's okay, we don't knit." HA HA HA!!!!
Thanks for standing up for proper yarn craft vocabulary! And me.
That woman just doesn't seem to want to know or remember things about me.
Also, she told Ross the details of want she wanted... he remembers, something with color?
So, I'm in the dark but pressing on anyway... I hope she likes whatever I make.
Without talking to ME personally about it, she is not going to get exactly what she wants. is she.

I promised kids and promised kids that we were making Ugli dolls out of fleece together for the fun of it. So far, two patterns have been figured out, cut out and fleece cut out... now the sewing. I'm not really a sew-er... so I just have to find a good day and get going on it. We were going to make some ugli dolls for my nieces too... more sewing... :(

I DESPERATELY want to make a new star for the top of our Christmas tree. I made the last one when I was a newlywed and a newbie cross stitcher. I want to make a big crocheted Star of David for the top of my tree. My 4th great grandfather was Jewish and I want to honor that heritage.
So, I'm looking up a pattern for a triangle granny square that I can make two of and assemble together as a Star of David. After all the above though, I don't know if I'm going to get it done in time! (I mean, I want to play World of Warcraft too!)

Only 24 days left till Christmas and we STILL need to make Christmas Cards for people! Yeah, MAKE CHRISTMAS CARDS. Thank you Ross' side of the family. I know that while our kids are young we can get away with potato stamp Christmas cards, but, as they get older... well... let's just say that Ross' mom and sister go ALL out on their cards and they look like they made them AT the Stationery/Scrapbooking store!

My mom waited until LAST WEEK! to tell me that she wants a family pic of us.... an 8x10 even!
Why didn't she mention that in October or beginning of November ... you know, BEFORE the big get family pictures taken for the holidays RUSH?
I'm still trying to figure out how to do this. Maybe we could pay our neighbor and friend? He's a photographer/videographer...? hmmm...

I was going to make bags for my kid's Bakugan. (they are plastic marble-like toys with a magnet in them, when you throw them down onto their metal card they pop open in different ways and look like animals or creatures. Too popular this year.)
BUT, I think they are going to have too many for my bag making tastes. So, plan B, find a really good container that can hold them all. Some sort of shoe box, maybe decorated, will do.

Really, I've been shopping for Christmas all year long... there were some things in the closet I didn't even remember buying! I laid it all out on the bed last night to see how it looks... LightningBoy is getting a few big things and ArtGrrl is getting a lot of little things. I think we can make that work...? Every year I feel like I do Christmas mostly on my own. I'm the only one who worries about it and does something about it. And last night I had to get all the stuff out of the closet by myself because Ross hurt his back protecting me from my own daughter. argh.
whatever.

All that's left is: A gift certificate for Ross' dad. A book for LightningBoy. (he wants a white blood cell and/or an official Ugly doll IceBat too!) Some sort of book for my brother. A baby toy or book for his second daughter.
And a gift for Ross' brother and his wife who we haven't talked to for a year or two? Who are rich? Who don't really need anything? Who last year got us a coupon book? (after we vowed to not go out so much anymore. lol!) Oh well. I was thinking about getting a basket of foods from around the world for them. We have so many foreign food stores around Salt Lake, it would be so easy to do. Actually when I thought about it, I could get all sorts of foreign foods right from my own Smiths down the street! We have food stores with foods from: Asia, Africa, Mediterranian, Australian/South Pacific, German, Italian, and Of course, from Mexico and South America! and these are only the stores that I actually know about myself. .. there's probably WAY more.

I like the idea. Now I just have to remember who I gave it to this year and give it to someone else next year. Muwa ha ha ha ha!

Wish me luck! Gotta get going!