Doll Daisy Blanket

A while ago I made a pretty pink daisy blanket for my sister using the pattern posted on tillietulip's blog. It was the perfect princess blanket that was totally her.
Pattern: Daisy Pattern 

She loves it so much that I decided to try making a doll blanket using the same pattern so she and her doll can have matching blankets.

The cool thing was I learned a new skill for tillie tulip's blog, it's called the join-as-you-go method. Instead of having to sew each square of a blanket together after crocheting them all I crochet all but the last row, in this case pink, of each square and then crochet them together. I love this idea and I feel like it saves the time to sew everything together.

Dogs!

After crocheting my little owls I searched the internet for other cute amigurumi patterns that I could create. I made a guinea pig and parakeet. But then I found a book that is totally me. Ami Ami Dogs is full of adorable little puppies to crochet. 

So I ordered the book and some craft eyes for my new creations. I also had to make a trip to the store to pick out the perfect puppy colors. Luckily I found a preview pattern from the book online so while I eagerly awaited my  new book I crocheted my first dog.

All it took was that one dog and I as hooked! It turned out so cute. Other than putting my back legs a little to far forward the dog turned out perfect for me. My book came and before long I had a posse of little crochet dogs! They took such a tiny hook that I had to get one with a grip so I wouldn't hurt my hand by crocheting to much.

Somebody turned out to be a little jelous of my creations. If I left them on the table Benson would take them. He even managed to grab them out of my backpack when I left the pouch they were in unzipped. So I decided to use and bigger pattern to make him a puppy of his own. 

So far I have made all but two of the dogs in the first book so now I have Ami Ami dogs 2 on hold from the library so I can make some more. I guess I'll never be to old for stuffed animals, especially stuffed puppies!

Little Owls

So, I recently learned of a simple pattern to make little owls. Usually I stay away from little crochet animals because they seem tedious and complicated, but these owls were very simple and fun to make. The body was created in one piece, making it a very manageable project, and then I sewed the eyes, nose and feet on. The eyes I just hot-glued on when I was all done. I didn't have the special colored eyes that were in the pattern, but my googly eyes work for me.

Here's the link to the pattern if anyone wants to try it: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/nesting-rainbow-owls.

When trying to get a nice shot of my first owl I realized I had a jealous puppy. Not only had I just spent all that time crocheting this little thing, now I was taking pictures of it instead of him. He tried and was very successful at getting into every shot. But don't worry, I paused in my creativity and gave him a photo-shoot as well.

Now, back to the owls.

Sewing a ring onto the top of these owl's head would turn them into a cute key-ring or addition to a bag or purse. Now I'll just have to find a place to keep my new friends!

Mini Puppy Blanket

I finished Benson's matching puppy blanket! I think it is adorable.

It's just the perfect size for my little baby. I did a simpler border on his since he is a boy and might not appreciate a fancy border. Everything is sewed down, though not all sides of the ears are sewed onto the squares, so he shouldn't be able to pull off parts of the face or the bones. I think it should hold up very well, but only time will tell.

He doesn't seem to know quite what to do with his new blanket, but I think he likes it. Now we can each sleep with a matching blanket and have a reminder of each other every night.

I hope it will bring him good, sweet dreams tonight!

Cow Hat

Coming up this Friday (July 11th) is Cow day at Chick-fil-a! When you come dressed as a cow you get a free sandwich. I love chick-fil-a and I love free food so I had to come up with how to dress as a cow. For me the most obvious option was a cow hat pattern I had seen on RepeatCrafterMe's blog.

I had made the cow hat earlier as a doll hat and loved it so I adjusted the pattern a bit to work as a big hat for me to wear. I love the finished product! I've made many animal hats, but I have to say this is one of my favorites. 

Right now I plan on wearing a white shirt and taping on black spots to finish the outfit. If I can find black shoes and gloves, they can be my hooves. And finally I thought about crocheting a tail, but decided to braid one as well.

So now I'm all ready. Now I just have to wait until Friday and then get dressed up and go to Chick-fil-a!

American Nails

I don't paint my nails all that often, mainly because I never know what colors to paint them. But I decided I would do something fun with them for the fourth of July so that I would have all the necessary colors even if they are missing in my outfit.

Originally I was going to paint them blue with white spots for the starts and have a red strip at the top, but I painted them all red without realizing it so I improvised. It turns out I love the finished product!

I started with painting my nails completely red. Once that dried I painted a square of blue in the upper left corner. Then while the blue was drying I used a thin brush to paint the white stripes on top of the red. And once the blue was dried I added white dots for starts on the blue. A while later to be sure everything was dried and would not smudge I covered the whole nail with a clear top coat to keep the nails safer.

Hopefully the nails will stay complete until Friday, but I just couldn't resist painting them when I had a chance. Nail art is so much more fun then simple colors.

A Bracelet with a Message

Telling someone the gospel can seem very intimidating and we often have no clue where to start or what to say. Yet there is a simple tool that is easy to make and provides an outline when sharing the gospel with someone else. It can often end up being a nice little thank you for listening that they can take home and remember what you told them.

This is a wordless bracelet.

Each of the colors on this bracelet relate to the gospel and can help you when explaining our greatest need and God's greatest gift.

Many places have tracts available that you can give the person as well so that they can remember what each color stands for if they wonder later. 

The colors are simple:

Yellow- Heaven

Black- Sin and the penalty of death

Red- Blood of Christ

White- Our cleansing

Green- Growing in Christ

These colors can guide your words into something like this: 

God lives in heaven, a wonderful place where the streets are paved in gold. Imagine your favorite place to be; heaven surpasses that by a long shot. But you have to be perfect to get into heaven. 

None of us are perfect we are black with sin. You can measure your life by the 10 commandments. We all have lied, stolen and put things above God. God knew it was impossible for  use to reach that standard, but he loved us. 

So he sent his only son who he loved to die on the cross, shedding his blood for our sin. 

Now if we repent of our own ways and believe in Him he will wash us as white as snow. 

When you truly realize how much he loves us you will desire to know him more and you will grown in him through reading the Bible and meeting with other believers.

Being able to ask a stranger if they would like a free bracelet is an easy way to begin a conversation. They can say no and you can move on, but who doesn't like free stuff. Most people love to take these and will allow you to explain the color's significance. These are especially effective when talking to children. They love the bracelet and even if the meaning doesn't register quite yet, that is one more seed planted in a young heart that may grow and bear fruit when the time is right.