A Huge Collection of My Crafts Through the Years (Part 1)

When I was looking for some photos on my computer, I came across a folder of a bunch of crafts that I've made through the years. It was fun looking through them!

I have definitely gotten better at things as I've practiced more, and my style has changed quite a bit. I don't own most of the things I've made anymore, probably because I realized it was hideous! Hahaha. It makes me wonder if someday, I'll look back and cringe at the things I make now. (Like my enormous chalkboard clock!)

Anyways, I thought it'd be fun to post pictures of my crafts through the years. I went through phases of knitting, crocheting, sewing, and more recently, home renovation projects. (In this post, I have mostly crochet and knitting photos).

As I got the photos ready for this post, I realized I have way more than I thought! So, I'm going to post this in 2-3 posts. I'll post the second part tomorrow. (Sorry if this is totally boring. But it's more exciting than my groundhog days lately!)

By the way, the patterns for most of these can be found on Ravelry. It would take a very long time to link to each individual one. So, you can find my project page here, which links to the patterns I used.)

This is a sweater beer cozy that I made for Jerry. He LOVED it and still has it. I think I made it in 2007-ish:

This is an apple cozy (to keep the apple from bruising in a lunch box, etc. Clearly, my gauge was off! Or, I just buy small apples. It was way too big:

This is an aviator hat that I made when Becky was pregnant with Luke. She wanted a photo prop for him (and with Brian being a pilot, the aviator theme was perfect). She showed me a photo, and I ended up making this:

This was also for Luke. I made this for Becky's shower, in the colors of Luke's nursery:

These are clearly some baby booties that I made, but I have no idea who I made them for!

A friend asked me to make a baby hat as a photo prop, so this is what I came up with. I wrote out the pattern, which you can find here.

This is another baby hat pattern that I wrote myself. Why were all of my friends having babies and I don't remember who I gave these things to?! (Here is the pattern)

This I actually made about a year ago--it's ugly, but it's not meant to be pretty. I just got sick of having the kids' baseball bats lying around the floor of the garage, so I grabbed a scrap board, drilled some large holes in it, and viola! Baseball bat holder.

Eli was super into Batman when he was little, so I knitted this Batman hat for him:

This is a coffee cup cozy that actually reads "be safe". I am embarrassed to admit that it was a line from the Twilight books that Edward said to Bella. I was really into Twilight back then! (You'll see I have a few more Twilight-related things)

Speaking of Twilight, these are the mittens that Bella wore (I think it was in the first movie). Someone replicated them and posted the pattern on Ravelry. I just had to make them! 

I happen to love this beret that I no longer have. It was my first time doing cables and twisted stitches in the round, and I really enjoyed making it. I like patterns that I have to really pay attention to!

These are called "Pocketbook Slippers" because they fold up to be small enough to slip into your pocketbook. This pattern is one of the first things I ever knitted.

This was an attempt at socks. I just didn't have the patience to finish the first one, let alone start the second one. The only fun part of socks is turning the heel!

A knitted dish cloth. Why I chose brown, I have no idea!

Ugh, this hat! For a while, I was into making hats with a bill on the front. I used that plastic mesh that is meant for crafts like--well, I don't know what--and I was determined to make the perfect hat. But I just never got it right. 

A friend showed me a picture in a magazine of a hat she wanted, including a ribbon butterfly, so I copied it the best I could. I have to admit, it looked nearly identical to the magazine photo!

I made a coffee mug cozy (my own design) to fit a standard mug. I really liked how it turned out, so I published the pattern on Ravelry. You can find the pattern here. 

This is a double-knit (reversible) case for my camera. This was before I had a smart phone. I had a small camera, and I used this cozy to slip my camera into in order to carry it around without it getting ruined. I used this for several years, actually! I had just made a double-knit pot holder--posted somewhere below--and I thought the double knitting thing was cool, so it was a fun project for me.

Another hat with a bill. This one with cables...

This is the same hat in green... and Noah modeling it :)

I made several lip balm holders. I could crochet these in less than an hour from start to finish, and since I'm obsessed with lip balm (Burt's Bee's Original is my favorite), it was perfect. I just wish I hadn't loved the variegated yarn...

I made this one with a thin crochet thread, and it worked out much better:

I knitted a large rectangle with cables, and I had no idea what to do with it. I ended up folding it in half and turning it into a bag: 

Ugh! This hat. It was too short to fold, but too long NOT to fold. So it was pretty much useless.

This hat was on a TV show (I can't remember which show) and someone posted the pattern on Ravelry. I loved the pattern (again with the bill on the front) so of course I had to make it. I never wore it, though--I thought the bill was too long.

I clearly loved making coffee cozies.  These are fun to make because they don't take a long time, they're very useful, and you can make them in several different patterns. My favorite was the honeycomb pattern (the ones on the right):

I think this pot holder was my very first double-knit project. Double-knitting is where the back side is basically a mirror image of the front, and the colors are the exact opposite. It's time consuming, but I always like to try new techniques, so the double knitting sounded interesting to me:

This is one of the very first things that I crocheted. I made it out of kitchen cotton, and it was heavy! It wasn't very practical, so I didn't end up using it. I'm not sure what I ended up doing with it!

This was the first afghan I ever crocheted. I don't normally have the patience to crochet or knit a whole afghan, but since this one was called something like "Five Hour Afghan" it caught my eye. I actually really liked this one!

This is a baby blanket that I crocheted for a couple of friends of mine who were adopting a baby girl kind of suddenly. I didn't have much time to make something, so I chose this pattern which was apparently a quick-crochet:

I have no idea what these baby hats were for. I don't remember giving them to anyone!

I saw this hat on a movie, and I wanted to replicate it. This is attempt one and attempt two. Attempt two turned out better, but I never did get it right!

I made this as soon as I really started getting into crocheting. I needed something to hold crochet hooks, so I made this. I sewed fabric into the underside of it. I loved it at the time!

These were just some random squares that I'd crocheted. I think I had just taught myself to crochet, so I was trying out different patterns. 

No idea why I did this, but I used crochet thread to make a wrist band:

I made this for "a friend's" baby boy (again, I don't know who--my notes just say "a friend"). I can't think of who it would be! But I love how the blanket turned out:

I made this hat for my dad--it's two layers thick, so it was super warm. He'd been wearing an ugly camoflauge hat I made him YEARS prior (when I was in high school, I think) and he swore it was the warmest hat he'd ever worn. I knew he was just saying that to make me feel good, so I made him this one that should have been twice as warm. I should have made the ribbed edging a few inches longer, though, because it was kind of small. Again, too short to really cuff, but too long NOT to cuff.

This one is kind of hard to see, but I was trying out a new knitting technique called entrelac. It was fun to knit! I made another one later where you can see the pattern better, because I used variegated yarn.

And there you have it... I think this is about 40 of 120-ish photos I have of projects I've made! I'll share some more in another post.

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Holy Bruise!

I came across this meme today, and it made me laugh:

I still feel like 2020 is so surreal. It's crazy how uncertain the future is--even just a month from now.

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Well, I mailed out 50 more face masks today! It seems like almost everyone from the first batch I made has been getting theirs over the past couple of days, so I thought it was safe to send the next batch. I can't believe it took so long for the mail to get to its destination! When I went to the post office today, the postal worker told me that mail has been taking much longer than normal to arrive.

When I woke up today, I was debating on what I wanted to do--go work in the garage on the drywall or get the masks prepped to mail. I knew I needed to get the masks in the mail, so I worked on that. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but it takes a long time...

I printed out a list of people who had filled out the request form, and then I asked Eli to list off random numbers in order to select people to send them to. Then I addressed each envelope by hand, stuffed it with a note and the mask, added my return address label, and taped the envelope shut on the back. Once I had them all ready, I went to the post office to buy a roll of stamps and then put two stamps on each envelope before finally giving them to the post office employee. 

It took me all morning and part of the afternoon to get it all done! (I'm not complaining--just saying)

I didn't end up working in the garage today. I'm sore from my fall from the ladder yesterday. Look at this bruise:

That's on my lower left side, right below my left ribs. It actually looks worse than it feels, though. (And yes, those are abdominal stretch marks. My skin removal surgery couldn't get rid of them--but they used to go up all the way to where the top of my bruise is!)

When I fell off the ladder, the first part of my body to feel the impact was that spot at my ribs--it hit a little ledge of concrete right below the drywall I'd hung. I don't even know how it happened. I just remember falling.

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A couple of weeks ago, Jerry found a cat tree that someone was throwing away, and it appeared in perfect condition, so he picked it up and brought it home. I was really surprised at how nice it was! These cat trees are expensive.

I thought there had to be something wrong with it--likely that it would smell like cat pee. But I cleaned it really well in the garage, and I didn't smell any cat pee, so I brought it in the house today for the kitties (I thought maybe it would help Estelle and Phoebe get along with Chick and Duck. A lot of times, all the cats need is something in common to "bond" over in order to get along.)

Side note: I can't even tell you the number of times I've said "Dick and Chuck" instead of "Chick and Duck"--hahaha!

Well, the cat tree worked! For Estelle, at least. Estelle let me put her on the top, so she could be the "queen of the castle" while the kittens played around on the lower levels. Phoebe watched from a distance and pouted--growling and hissing when I got near her (she's NEVER been like this before!). 

In the photo, Estelle is on top, Chick is just underneath her (ready to attack her tail) and Duck is under Chick (clearly wondering what he's up to). I put some catnip on all the levels, and the cats went crazy for it. 

It's hilarious to me that the kittens aren't scared of Estelle or Phoebe. They're just very curious of them. When they see Estelle or Phoebe walk by, they'll run after them and get as close as they can without getting swatted.

Estelle is starting to come around as far as being civil to the kittens. She lets them come fairly close before she starts hissing (which is much better than when we first brought them home). I'd bet that within a month, she'll be totally cool with them.

And then there is poor Joey. He wants to play with the kittens SO BADLY, but they don't want anything to do with him! When Luke (my nephew) was born, we taught Joey the meaning of the word "gentle", and he does great with it--when it comes to the kittens, he just barely gets his nose as close as he can to them to sniff them out without alarming them. 

I'm so relieved that the transition of bringing kittens into the house has been so easy, really. I thought the kittens would be terrified, but they are the bold ones. It's the other pets who are apprehensive.

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As far as my weight... ugh, I need a three day goal again. I haven't been keeping up with it, and I really liked how I felt the first time I did it. I'm not going to state the goals tonight, because I want to give it some thought, but I will tomorrow. 

I hate that I'm constantly complaining about my weight, but I am not doing anything about it (long term, anyways). I can't believe how hard it is to get back into the habits I had for such a long time, while I lost the weight and even while I maintained (most) of my weight loss. 

I'm going to give it some thought and then make some goals tomorrow. Just three-day goals, because that seemed to work well! I felt really good after completing those three days.

Anyway, it's just another quarantine day... ;)  (Sing to the tune of "Just another Manic Monday...")

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Just Another Quarantine Post (A Daily Routine)

I realize that most people who read my blog probably have no idea what Euchre is (it's a midwest card game), so you won't understand this meme... but I loved it so much that I just had to post it!

I really feel so boring right now! Every day feels like Groundhog Day, so I don't really have anything new to write about. 

I've been trying to get on a good sleeping routine, but it's just impossible for me. I simply cannot fathom going to bed so early (at 9:00 or so with Jerry)! So lately, I've been trying to go to bed by 12:00.

At 4:30, Jerry wakes up--which also make the kittens wake up and think that it's time to get up for the day. Jerry gives them a can of wet food, which seems to hold them over and they come back to bed with me. 

However, Chick likes to sleep ON MY HEAD and it drives me crazy. He also likes to try to bite my earrings; he even pulled my nose piercing right out of my nose! I panicked, thinking he may have swallowed it, but thankfully I found it on the bed.

From 4:30-6:30 or so, I spend the morning trying to fall asleep while the kittens (just Chick, actually) climbs on my head and tries to get a comfortable position to lie down and purr as loudly as a jet engine in my ear. 

I can't even be annoyed, because they are just so darn cute!

I finally get out of bed at around 6:30, and then do my morning routine--which totally involves all of our pets (including the squirrels). Today, for example, I decided to make some sourdough toast for breakfast. While it was toasting, "Fluffy" the squirrel came up to the back door (she can see me in the kitchen from there, so I would feel bad ignoring her). 

(We call her Fluffy because she is the fattest squirrel that we feed--and you know who Gabriel Iglesias is? That's where we got the name. She's not fat, she's fluffy!)

She usually waits on the porch near the door, waiting for one of us (ahem, ME) to get up and feed her a walnut. (We have a "squirrel lunchbox" on the deck, which we always keep peanuts in, but some of the squirrels are so spoiled that they wait for us to give them walnuts. I only give them a walnut if they take it from our hands--walnuts are expensive!)

I've noticed a few new guys coming around, and they are skittish about coming up close to us until they see the others do it. They are new--and very skinny! It'll be interesting to see if they warm up to us.

Anyway, I get up and feed Joey, let him out to go to the bathroom, then give Estelle a couple of treats (she meows until she gets some--so spoiled), and then I give the squirrels their walnuts as they come to the door. Meanwhile, I am making my toast and tea or (decaf) coffee. And then this past week, I have to try to keep an eye on the kittens while I do all this.

This morning, it literally took me 35 minutes from the time I put my bread in the toaster oven until I got to sit down and really eat my breakfast! 

While I eat my toast, I usually play the stupid Best Fiends game on my phone. And then I go out to the garage to work on that for several hours!

Today, I had to continue filling in all the holes from the screws with drywall compound and add a base layer of compound to the seams. It's not really boring, because I listen to podcasts, but it feels like it takes forever because I have to keep going up and down the ladder to move it. I also have to move things out of the way to make room for my ladder.

There was one spot (about 35 inches wide) that brother, Brian, told me to hold off on placing the drywall. He wanted to run some electrical stuff there--for a heater--before I screwed in the drywall. He came by yesterday and did what he needed to do, so today, I had to replace the insulation and and then hang drywall there.

The drywall wasn't fitting in very well in the top left corner, so I grabbed my drywall knife to cut a little off of it. As I was cutting, I don't even remember how it happened, but the ladder came out from under me and I was falling (crashing) down to the ground. I hit my ribs on a lip of concrete before landing on my elbow on the concrete floor of the garage with the ladder on top of me. (Thankfully, the drywall sheet didn't fall on me as well!)

How I came out alive, and with no broken bones, is beyond me. That's the second time I fell off a ladder in a few months, and it's pretty scary! The fall at Nathan's was worse--I am still feeling the effects on my ankle and knee--but today I got some serious bruises. 

I've only gotten 3/4 of the garage done (with the FIRST coat of mud--I haven't even applied the tape yet!) so I'll be working on it for at least a week. Lowe's called today and said that the insulation I ordered (for the attic space above the garage ceiling) wasn't in stock, so they canceled my order. I had been expecting it to be delivered tomorrow! So, now I will have time to finish mudding the walls, but I'm bummed that I can't start drywalling the ceiling. 

I still haven't started a sewing project. I think I'm just putting too much thought into it! I need to just pick something small and make it. I'm really excited to use the new-to-me fabric. 

I haven't been doing good with my weight loss goals at ALL. I'm sure it's because my routine has been all screwed up from this Covid stuff. I really need to write out a schedule to stick to. Having bipolar, there is pretty much nothing more important than having a schedule/routine!

And speaking of which, my psychiatrist appointment was scheduled for today. He isn't seeing patients in the office, but rather by phone (optionally). I really don't think I need a change of meds, so I'm just going to stick with what I'm taking now.

Tomorrow is Wednesday, which has always been my weigh in day and "start of the week" day. It's like the typical person's "Monday". I really REALLY need to work on my diet--I've been all over the place as far as what I eat, when I eat, how much I eat. 

I want to develop habits! I used to eat the same things for breakfast and lunch (and my bedtime snack) and it was so helpful. Right now, I don't even feel like I know what foods I enjoy anymore.

Today, I was really craving roasted cauliflower, and I noticed we had broccoli in the fridge, too. So, I tossed them with some olive oil and parmesan cheese, and roasted them at 450 F for about 20 minutes. It was delicious! I literally ate half of the batch, which means half a head of cauliflower and a whole crown of broccoli. I wonder how bloated I'll feel tonight. Hahaha, I'm sure Jerry will be glad to go to work in the morning ;) 

Anyways, I really need to figure out a plan and stick with it for long enough to see results. My go-to is counting calories, and I know it will work. I just need to find the discipline within myself to stick to it long enough to form a "streak". Once I have a streak going, I am much more likely to stick to something!

(Oh! I'm working on the annual "Summer Run/Walk Challenge" (here is the one from 2018), so I'll get that posted soon--even if it seems early, summer is coming up fast!)

I got emails from several people saying that their masks have finally arrived... so if you are still waiting, it'll be there soon (I hope)! I'm going to draw names tomorrow for this second batch so that I can get them mailed out on Thursday. 

(By the way, here is tutorial for the masks I made, in case you want to give them a try on a sewing machine!)

I hope everyone is staying safe and sane during this Groundhog Day that is Covid quarantine ;)

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Feeling Like a Kid on Christmas Morning

After I got done sewing the first batch of face masks to give away, I had so many people interested in them that I made a second batch--my mom had given me some fabric. (I still have this batch--I don't want to mail them until I find out if the others have gotten theirs. The postal service is SUPER slow right now from what I was told when I called the post office to ask. I've only heard from one person who received hers, and she also lives in Michigan.

I'm going to do a random drawing for the rest of the masks--you can enter at the bottom of this post. Rather than "first come, first serve" I'll just do a random drawing to make it a little more fair. 

Anyway, that second batch wiped me out as far as fabric goes. Also, I decided that I was REALLY tired of making masks. I actually made about 125 of them in total!

However, I got a very sweet email from a reader named Sarah. She said that she and her mom like to quilt and she had a ton of extra quilting fabric that she'd like to send me. I told her that I was grateful for the offer, but that I really wasn't planning to make more masks. She knows how much I love crafting, and she insisted that I should use the fabric on anything that I wanted--she completely understood that I was tired of making masks.

I felt a little guilty accepting it, because I honestly don't know if I'll make more masks. However, I loved the idea of sewing new things! 

I was SO EXCITED when FedEx dropped off two boxes of fabric on Saturday. I had no idea she was going to send so much and such a big variety! I began to lay it all out on my bed as I sorted through it, eagerly looking at each piece and mentally going through ideas of what I could make. Way ahead of myself, haha!

Even overlapping the folded pieces of fabric, I could just barely fit it all on my bed to take a photo. I wasn't even able to fit it all in one photo! 

The fabric was really cute, too!

Anyway, I love the patterns on the fabric, and it almost made me want to make some masks yesterday. Instead, I browsed Pinterest for small sewing projects and pinned about a million ideas. I could have started making something yesterday, but I was too busy pinning ideas!

Maybe I will actually start something tomorrow. I really do need to work on the garage some more, though. The drywall for the ceiling is going to be delivered on Wednesday, so I'd like to finish the first coat of mud on the walls tomorrow. I just wish I could have a totally empty garage to work in! All of our stuff is everywhere--so it's hard to maneuver around to mud the walls. I have to spend an hour just moving things away from each individual wall as I work on it.

But already, I am loving how it looks. It's so much brighter in there and it actually feels warmer already. We had a couple of colder days over the weekend and it was warmer in the garage than outside (usually there is no difference). 

Anyways, I'm going to open up a giveaway for my remaining masks. This time, it'll be a grab bag--I'm going to put the masks in the envelopes and have them all ready to label after I draw names. So, you'll have no idea what color mask it'll be--hopefully you like it! ;)  Again, totally limited fabric... the ones below are the colors I have.

Again, there is no need to pay me--I'm happy to give them away to those that need them--but if you want to give me a few bucks as a donation, I won't say no ;)  I'll include a note about it in the envelope. Like I said, the mail service is ridiculously slow, so it'll likely take a couple of weeks to arrive. I can get them mailed by Thursday this week.

To enter for the giveaway, just fill out this Google form. (Nobody will see the info except for me). I'll give it 24 hours before I close the giveaway entries and do a random drawing. (And I'm so sorry, but I cannot do international shipping on these--you likely wouldn't even get them until next year anyway! ha)

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Things My Mom Has Taught Me

(That's a photo from 2009, when I did the 500 Festival half-marathon. I walked it with my mom and my friend Mandie. The pictures from that race became my official "before" photos. I was shocked when I saw them and I started losing the weight a few month's later.)

I actually wrote this as a Facebook post, but I thought it appropriate to share here, too. Considering today is Mother's Day, I thought I'd share a post about my own mom. She's a huge part of my life--she lives less than a mile from my house and I talk to or see her several times a week (lately, with the social distancing, it's been different of course!).

We don't have much in common (then again, I don't have much in common with ANYONE in my family) but I've learned quite a few life lessons from her over time. This is meant to be slightly tongue-in-cheek--there are a couple of "inside jokes", so it makes more sense if you know my mom! But here goes... 

Advice my mom has given me over the years that I still use today:

1) Garage sales are the greatest! But to get the good stuff, you have to get there an hour earlier than listed in the newspaper. I have gotten the most amazing deals at garage sales! Love them. 

2) When faced with a difficult decision, always pray and listen to your gut feeling, which will feel like a sense of peace way deep down. (This is probably the most important item on the list. I truly listen to my gut feeling when I am trying to make a difficult decision; and it rarely fails me). 

3) When the kids are little and they make a mess (example: when my kids emptied an entire bottle of baby powder all over my living room while I was in the shower) make sure to take pictures of it. Don't get mad; you'll laugh at those photos some day. When I came out of the bathroom, the kids told me they were "cleaning it up" with the towels, hahaha. By the way, Eli was ALWAYS naked. It's hard to post pictures of him from age 1-3, because he hated wearing clothes! 

4) If you see a large, ugly plastic Santa on the roof at Christmastime, it's not our house. Just drive on by. (This is one of the "inside jokes" I was talking about. We had this horrid plastic Santa that my dad would put on the roof every year--but we had no other outdoor Christmas decor, so it looked totally out of place. My mom hated it and begged him to get rid of it every year. Eventually, it was "lost" in our move when I was in tenth grade. Hmmm...)

5) Invest in good kitchen knives. If you buy good ones and take care of them, they'll last as long as you do.

6) Spending quality time with people is ALWAYS worth more than spending money. (She's a fantastic grandma to my kids--she loves to spend quality time with them.)

7) Buy good quality paint when painting walls. It may not seem like it'll make a difference, but it'll last so much longer and look nicer. (I learned this lesson the hard way, several times over. She was definitely correct! I spent a small fortune on paint from Sherwin Williams over the last couple of years (literally about $2,000!) but it has made a huge difference already.)

8) Buying birthday cards (or Mother's Day cards!) is a waste of $5--save it for the gift or give a "Gobby card" instead. Which is why I'm posting this on Facebook instead of in a Hallmark card! ;)  (Gobby was my grandma--my mom's mom. When she gave a card it was basically just folded up money with a note card attached, which she just slipped into your hand instead of making a big show of it.) It's known in my family now as a "Gobby card". 

And here are a few photos of my mom and me...

My mom is fantastic! Ask anyone that knows her, and they will tell you that she is one of the kindest, most caring, and most generous people they know. I'm so glad I learned what I have from her.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there (including pet moms!). Hope you had a great day!

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