Book release

Do you remember when I wrote about helping edit a book my friend was writing? Well, he is finished and the book is finally released!!! Yay!! So exciting!
Right now it's only available as an e-book, you can find it here on Amazon. It's supposed to come out in hard copy form sometime in early 2015.
I am so excited for his accomplishment and am very happy I could be a help during the editing process.
I can't wait for book two in the series! :)

Pretty Kitty

Little Sister's birthday is fast approaching. I made this little kitty for a gift for her. 

The front is crocheted tightly with super fine yarn and a tiny hook. It was not easy on the hands! The pattern calls for making two and sewing them together, but after making the front I was not eager to repeat it. So instead I traced out the shape on some felt, cut it out and sewed the felt on for the back of the kitty.

I really enjoy the mixed material. It gives it a nice appearance and interesting texture.

I hope she likes it!

Nothing new.

I know it's been a long time since I've posted on here, but I haven't had anything worth while to write about. That, and I've been a little too busy to write.

I've got a few WIP's (work in progress) in crochet land. Been slowly picking up Christmas gifts for the people on our list. We celebrated Big Sister's third birthday not too long ago and are getting ready to celebrate Little Sister's first! Soon after that will be Christmas and then New Years already!

This past weekend everything we own seems to have stopped working or broke! ("Everything" is a bit of an exaggeration, but it sure feels that way.) Why do these things seem to always occur at the same time and not spread out throughout the year?!   ;)

I hope you are all safe and warm! This cold weather has me wanting to put off all my errands that involve leaving the house! Have a great week everyone!

Minion Hat

I have been busy this week with crochet orders. Three of them being minion hats.

There are a bunch of different patterns available on the Internet for minion hats but I decided to go with the one from  Repeat Crafter Me.

I have had positive experiences with her patterns in the past so figured it was a trusted source.

These are adult sized hats, which the instructions do include, but I found the hat to fit a bit small so I did add an extra increasing row. You may want to keep this in consideration if you are planning to try this pattern out. The directions are clear and easy to understand and best of all, it's a free pattern!

Halloween is just around the corner. Big sister is going to be a lady bug and little sister will be a lion. I hope you all have a safe and fun Halloween!

Rake Necklace Holder

The wonderful world of Pinterest sparked my desire to make a necklace holder out of a rake. So, one weekend while I was visiting at the farm, I took a stroll through the old garden shed, and found a beat up rake that just happened to be missing it's handle. And when I say "took a stroll" I really just mean I walked up to the shed and it was the first thing I saw sitting on the bench right beside the door. It must have been just as eager to become my next project as I was!

So I brought it home and scrubbed it clean. There were some areas where the old paint was chipping off, so I used some sandpaper just to smooth out those spots. This rake must have earned its keep because it is bent and warped. I hammered some of the spokes to make it a bit flatter but I don't mind the used look so went ahead and painted it. 

 I wrapped twine around the handle to polish off the look and so I could make a way to hang it up.

Here it is hung on the wall with my necklaces on it.

If you wanted to make one of these but don't like the bent look of an old used rake, you could always buy a new one and dismantle it. But this one was free, so I'm embracing the bends!

:)

Louis Style French Chair Make Over

I'm done the chair! There were a couple minor hiccups but it's completed. I'm a perfectionist, and the little mistakes I do see drive me nuts, but, it's my first one, it was a learning experience, and now I know what I can do differently if I come across another one.

So without further ado...

First off, I removed all the old fabric and trim and old staples.

I did a rough sand job with 180 grit sand paper.

I decided to do a dry painting technique to give the wood an aged look. (3 coats of this.) 

Once it was completely dry I went over some spots with 320 grit sandpaper to create some worn areas.

I used the old fabric to trace out my new material to fit the cushions, giving myself some extra room to pull the fabric while I stapled it to the chair. Once it was stapled in place, I trimmed the extra material off.

Next I used a stitch ripper to undo the old trim.

I kept the cord to make new double piping to trim the chair. I looked for instructions online to get a general idea of how to sew double piping. I found a tutorial explaining to sew the fabric around the first cord then folding the fabric around the second cord and sewing down the length again. I did this for the first few pieces of my double piping, but didn't like how my stitches weren't over lapping perfectly.

See? I'm a beginner sewer, so I'm sure someone with more experience would do a better job, but I decided to change my technique for the rest of the double piping.

I folded the fabric over the first cord, then layed the second cord over top of the fabric overhang, and wrapped the other side of the fabric over top of the second cord. I pinned it in place, then sewed down the length of the double piping only once, sewing both layers at one time. 

Here's a picture to show what I'm describing.

This left me with one clean stitch line.

Much better!

To finish off the chair, I used a hot glue gun to attach the double piping to cover all the staples.

And voila!

Finished!

Too bad it's the end of garage sale season. It will probably be awhile before I come across another one of these chairs.  I will have to keep my eye open for similar projects. Maybe an ottoman or something similar!

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

New adventures!

Hey friends! Want to see a sneak peek at my current project??

I'm so excited about this one!

I found this beauty at a thrift store! For $40! I had been dreaming about coming across a chair like this in hopes to make over into something fun and colorful and awesome! 

I've had it for about a month and have finally started working on it. Stay tuned for the end result!