Of baby hats and wedding anniversaries

It has officially been far too long since I've typed up an entry in here.  Three weeks, maybe?  Yuck!  I am not happy with that.  School, work, and pretty much everything else going on has cluttered up my life to the point any free time is severely lacking.



However, that doesn't mean I haven't been working on projects!  The projects I'll be talking about today were made for one of my fellow Shutterfly Gurus, Lisa.  Lisa lives down in good old Texas, that I actually got to visit recently for a work conference.  I didn't get to meet up with Lisa due to the hectic schedule, but it was nice to get out of PA for a couple days and eat some Tex Mex.



Lisa is celebrating the birth of a second granddaughter, so she asked me to make some baby hats after seeing some photos on my person Shutterfly Share site.  Of course, I was more than happy to oblige!



Here first request were two adorable munchin hats.  One in red and white, and one pink:







You can grab the quick and fun pattern here.



Her second request was a purple berry hat that was really easy to whip up one afternoon, and I think it came out better than cute:







You can get the pattern for this little cutie here.



And last but not least, she asked for a pink hat especially for her older granddaughter.  One with a huge flower on the side.  We all know how I love to accessorize my items with flowers, so this was a great time for me.  I even added a pink button to the flower for extra fun.







I don't have a pattern for that one since I kind of just made it as I went, but I'm thinking about writing one up for everyone :)



Lisa just received the hats earlier this week and loves them - thankfully!  She will doing a whole photoshoot this weekend, and I can't wait to see the results.  She's a great photographer and I always love browsing through her Shutterfly galleries.



And on that note, I can't tell you how thrilled I am that this weekend is finally here.  It's been quite a long week trying to catch up on everything I missed at the conference in Dallas last week, and I've just been crazy exhausted.  But it's totally worth it.  I've also joined a fun little community called Etsypreneur, and so far I've been having lots of fun over there in the forums.  If you sell on etsy, definitely check it out and friend me.  AND I'm excited to say that I received my first international order a few nights ago, so I'm looking forward to making that headband and mailing it out.



If that wasn't exciting enough, it's Hubby's and my first wedding anniversary on Sunday.  We're treating ourselves to a break by visiting my parents' lake house this weekend and exploring all the little shops and fun events the place has to offer.  We're also taking our homework because what's a vacation without having hours of homework? :)  Oh, well.  But anyway:

It really doesn't seem like a year already, but I guess that's a good thing.  We're looking forward to celebrating with champagne and year-old cake on the 10th, haha.  Hopefully it's lasted!  I'm pretty sure my mom wrapped it like a nuclear device, so we're probably good to go.  Have a great weekend, everyone!

30% Off Knit Kits and What Are Your Weekend Plans?

Hey, everyone!  Heres a little Friday entry to let you know that because Open Sky is super generous, you can now get 30% off a Knit Kit when you order through my shop!

 Just click here to order and enter code THIRTYJENN at checkout. 

But hurry, because it's only good for the first five customers who use it before September 30th!

Have a great weekend, and I hope you all have some wonderful crafty plans in place for your weekends :)  Hubby and I will be visiting Dorney Park with our friends, so I'm prepping myself to ride me some rollercoasters!  I'll also be attending my third yoga class.  How are you planning to relax?

Prepare for Ultimate Flower Swap Picspam!

As promised, here are the beautiful flowers I received in the swap I participated in at the end of August/beginning of September.  Here they all are:



I know, they're incredibly awesome :D  Had I known one of our goals was to package them up super cute, I totally would have gone all out.  But now that I know I can use my feeble scrapbooking skills, I can make mine look so much nicer for the upcoming Christmas flower swap.  I learn from my mistakes!  But without further ado...

I'll start with Sonya (YT link), our wonderful swap host(ess)!  These are the super pretty flowers she made:





I especially love the carnation.  She's been featuring carnations in her YouTube videos lately, but they don't do them justice.  I'm always amazed at how she enjoys working with crochet thread because it does nothing but give me trouble.  Many kudos to her for enduring the pain!

Next up, we have Regan's flowers (blog link, YT link).  I love the pink one (I'm sure you're all surprised!) because of the smaller flower in the center.  I think that just makes it cuter :)  And I love the bright red of her second flower, too.  These definitely need to go on something.  Maybe a fun bag I make?  Or even as cute hair accessories.





Last, but certainly not least, we have Debbi's SUPER FANTASTICAL ROSES.  Aren't these great?  And they're pink :D  I just love how she made the center of the bigger, light pink flower.  It's such a fun and creative idea that I'll need to start incorporating into my own flowers.





So there you have it.  Not only have I killed Flickr's bandwidth with all these photos, but I'm sure you're flower'd out by now ;)  I love swaps!

FO: The Ever Elusive Hurricane Hat I Made 4 Months Ago

Hurrican Hat, originally uploaded by jennlikesyarn.

I wasn't going to blog about such a tiny accomplishment, but I'm so frustrated at things right now that if I don't concentrate on something else, I'm going to hurl, lol. So let's tackle this moment of anger together and talk about knitting. Ooo saaaaahhhhh... oooooo sahhhh.

I finished this marvelous Hurricane Hat [rav link] on the last day of Memorial Day Weekend. This is where you ask me if I've confused Memorial Day with Labor Day. Nope, I'm not confused - just incredibly behind on blogging! Yes indeed, I finished this hat at the end of May and it got gobbled up by my craft room until this past weekend (when I found it stashed away at the bottom of a box).

It's a pity that I lose such pretty things because I really was in love with this hat and am so happy to have it back!

I made it out of some Noro Kureyon [rav link] that I'd received in a long-ago swap. It had been on my wish list for quite some time, but I could never justify spending the money on such a small skein of yarn. Imagine my surprise when I opened my swap package to find this inside! And with all my favorite colors!

I absolutely love the subtle color changes and its overall texture. It is a bit scratchy for me, but beauty is suffering, haha. So no doubt I will be sporting my new hat all winter long.

Perhaps the biggest issue was finding a hat pattern that required such little yarn. Indeed, skeins of Noro do not include plentiful amounts, but that was okay! I found this super quick and easy knitting pattern after doing some searching and started right away. I thought the spiral pattern would look great with the color changes, and I was right.

And now, back to fighting frustration. Do you ever feel like everything is against you sometimes? I think I just need to go home and roll around in yarn for awhile.

Oh, and coming soon: the results of my Flower Swap! I took pictures of the wonderful crocheted flowers I received over the weekend and just need to edit them when I have a free moment in 12 years past never :)

Crochet Wire Necklace with Purple Beading

So after the overload of posts a couple weeks back, I apparently decided I needed a break :)  I haven't stopped crafting, but life has gotten crazy again with the start of my Fall classes and trying to wrap my brain around managerial finance and advanced accounting.  I won't bore you with those details!

Two weekends ago, I visited ACMoore's jewelry section for the first time.  I have never been to a craft store and gotten so confused; I was beyond out of my element.  I've never made jewelry, nor have I ever cared to.  But after finding this tutorial on Ravelry, I knew I had to try!

I wound up leaving with a bunch of wire I wasn't sure was right and some findings that I didn't think would work.  I made the mistake of thinking my tacky glue would work just as well as jewelry glue, and I had no idea if the beeds I'd spent 30 minutes looking at would work well together.  On top of that, there will people milling all around me the entire time who knew what they were doing, so I felt like such a craft dunce.

When all was said and done, however, the results were great:



I really couldn't be happier with it.  Well, okay, I could.  For one thing, crocheting with wire is probably the most horrible thing I've ever done.  I tried to buy the highest gauge possible, but it still wouldn't cooperate, and I think I have a permanent dent in my finger from pressing so hard.  The clam shell doohickerys aren't attached the best way, but I think I'll do better in future necklaces now that I have experience.  Also, the spring in my cheap wire cutters keeps falling out, which posed a whole bunch of problems.

That's not going to stop me, though.  I bought more beads this weekend and plan to make a few more necklaces.  I think they look so chic and unique!  I made one for my mom, plus I wear mine all the time, and we've both received compliments on them.  Hopefully I can perfect them enough to start selling them soon.



Next on my list - finishing up four baby hat commissions for a wee one due in October.  These hats are super cute, and I'm almost done with the first one.  I can't wait to see what they look like :D