So much cheaper than paint

Before I was married, before baby A came along, I used to paint for hours on end! It wasn't out of the ordinary for me to go to work and then come home and spend 4-5 hours (at least!) in front of my easel. And on days off? I would paint anywhere from 10-15 hours!!! And now? I've not picked up a paintbrush in at least two years and my easel is folded up and has been in storage for at least that long if not longer. Thank God I've discovered crocheting!


Here are my two latest creations. Both were made without patterns.




You can see more detailed pictures of the work overall at my new blog called Stuff She Makes. I'll try and keep posting some pictures of my crocheting adventures here but I'm going to put most of my more detailed stuff over at my new craft blog for the sake of organization and to not bore you poor folks that only want to see pictures/videos of Baby A.

Getting around and telling it like it is

Baby A hit her 10 month milestone just this past week. These videos are a few days old and she's now to the point where she's pretty much crawling. Before we all know it she'll be chasing the dog around and trying to climb on top of him and ride him around the apartment like a mini pony!!!

I accidentally erased on of the videos of her talking by her own volition but here's a great one of her talking with D.

She also shakes her head "no" at you and will say Mama when she is fussing at me and really REALLY wants me to pay attention to her.

Pure hilarity

Living in our house anymore is almost like living in a sitcom. Seriously.

Whether it's the dog wearing our socks and... is that... PACKING tape???







Or Baby A trying to escape from her mid-day nap by foiling herself and falling asleep mid-escape...





Editor's note: No dogs OR babies were harmed in the taking of these pictures.

(Backstory about the dog - he had a weird scrape on the soft padding of his feet from playing soccer with D. The only way that we could ensure that he wouldn't rip off the bandaging and lick the triple antibiotic off was to put socks on him over top of the bandage. Isn't D a total MacGyver??? He's amazing!!!

Tiny teeny turtle

Just finished him!!! He's headed to the church fundraising auction block along with the penguin with the red scarf and the pear. Even though my goal was five little animals, I can't bring myself to part with the pink elephant and I've spent so much time on Baby A's Viking hat that I ran out of time and couldn't make anymore!!!

My kind of Easter bonnet

I belong to this website called Ravelry that's basically like social networking for people who are into knitting, crocheting, and the like. Sounds kind of dorky but it's actually pretty cool because it provides a forum to share finished work, get free patterns or sell them for profit, and find help if you're in the midst of a project hat just won't work out.

Anyway, last week I happened upon a project idea of making a baby hat but not really just any baby hat because it's one that had horns and braids attached to it - it was a VIKING helmet for a BABY!!! *swoooooon!* I became completely obsessed with it and became bound and determined to make one for Baby A. Unfortunately, the pattern for the one that everyone has made is a knit pattern and I don't/can't knit. So, I figured that since I was able to make that Thomas train recently without a pattern, why not just swing one for a viking hat too? It's not so hard, right?

WRONG.

Here was my first attempt:

I don't even know why I'm sharing this as it's completely terrible and humilitating. Does it look like a viking helmet? Ummm... not really. But it sure does look like a Hershey's kiss, doesn't it? So weird! And how did I manage to make it instead of what I was aiming for??? I have no idea.

Just the same, I'm not one to give up without a fight. And I'm proud to say that I DID IT!!!! I totally was able to figure it out and make it happen AND be really happy with the final product! It's exactly how I envisioned it if not better.


And, of course, Baby A was more than happy (NOT!) to oblige me and model it.

Do blondes have more fun? Baby A sure seems to think so!

She's finally at the age (10 months) where she really won't tolerate stuff that she just plain doesn't like and hats sometimes fall in that category. She was okay with wearing it but when the braids started to distract her, she just automatically grabbed for the hat and pulled it right off of her head. I wish I would have discovered this sooner! Maybe then we could have gotten some more wear out of it!

In any case, I'm very pleased with how this worked out. I mean, it took a lot (and I mean A LOT!) of trial and error but I really feel like I persevered and it was definitely worth it. And now that I know I can make hats, I'm all excited about other ideas for baby hats that I have come across!!!