GTA Christmas Donations November 2011

I don’t crochet as fast as many people, especially with the carpal tunnel and a pinched ulna nerve, but I do what I can as I truly enjoy making items for the babies.

 

 

 

 

Here are the little Christmas hats I made. I tried something different for the pompoms on top. I am TERRIBLE at making yarn pompoms. So......remember when I was making Peyton’s Elmo hat? I had a light bulb moment when I was making the eyes and nose for it. I decided to use the pattern from those to make stuffed pompoms for the baby hats! For me, making them that way took a lot less time and I wasted a whole lot less yarn. When ever I try to make them where you wrap yarn around cardboard and trim it up.....I kept trimming and trimming and never was satisfied. By the time I would get them done, they were pretty stinking puny. So, I tried the stuffed eyeballs route this time and I think they turned out pretty good. At least I am satisfied with how they look.

  Here’s my first little blanket. I got this really pretty yarn at Goodwill! The red and green are made by Caron and they are called Victorian Christmas Gold. I suppose the gold is because of the metallic thread in it. The green is called balsam. Not sure about the red because it didn’t have a label. I’m not sure if they make either one of these anymore.

 

My picture didn’t turn out very good, but this diaper shirt is made from the green that I used on the blanket above.

 

 

 

This blanket is just a rectangular granny square.

 

 

 

This is just half red and half white. I made the border using a strand of each color. Just pretty basic but kinda cute.

 

 

My cat picture this time for this post is Rocky again. He just seems to like getting his picture taken more so than Baby. He was sprawled out on the love seat, getting his afternoon nap in. He was out, big time. He didn’t even flinch when the flash went off.

Sure looking pretty chunky in this picture. I obviously don’t feed him, ha ha.

That’s it for this time. Take care all.

Halloween

Just a quick post about Halloween (I know, it was almost a week ago). Story of my life, a day late and a dollar short :)

Here's a picture of Peyton wearing her Elmo hat I made her while going trick or treating. For just turning two, she got the trick or treating thing down pretty good. She figured out real fast that you say "trick or treat" when someone answered the door, and "thank you" after she got her candy.
Her mom and dad, and Grandpa and I took her out in our neighborhood, and of course Grandma puffed up like the proud grandma I am every time someone oohed and awed about how cute she looked.
I see now that I should have done the face a bit different on the hat. If I ever make another one, I will move all of the face pieces farther down on the hat, and put the eyes closer together. It didn't turn out bad though for the first time ever making something like this and winging it on the face.
Just had to share the picture of the little sweetheart.

Peyton’s Second Birthday

Now that the birthday party is over I can post pictures!

Peyton is very into Elmo right now, so for her second birthday I crocheted her an Elmo doll. I got the pattern here at The Craft Frog: Elmo Pattern . I changed the mouth just a bit from her pattern but otherwise did everything else the same. This picture is of him outside and the second one is in the house which is actually more the color he is.

Then, using the eyes and nose from the same pattern, I made an ear flap Elmo hat for her and a matching scarf.

The rest of the pictures are from her birthday party today.

A good friend of the family works as a pastry chef and cake decorator. She made this awesome Elmo cake for Peyton. Great job Lacey!

Checking out her cake.

  

 

 

 

 

Getting ready to blow out the candles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blowing out the candles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

See my cake? :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cake pops aren’t bad either!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t know where they got it, but they even had an Elmo piñata.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peyton had fun smacking Elmo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She was even laughing at him after smacking him :)

He was made pretty tough and it finally took some of the adults to pull him apart before the kids could gather up the candy.

Here are pictures of her opening up the box with Elmo and her hat.

I took some other pics at the party too, but these are the ones that are important to me.

GTA Donations September 2011

Here are the items I sent to God’s Tiny Angels this month.

  This is what I call my “fan” quilt. This was originally one of my UFO’s. I started out a long time ago making long strips of the pieces you see around the edges, with the intentions of making a queen sized quilt. Yup, that never happened.

I ended up salvaging that work by cutting the long strip down into smaller strips so I could use it for edging around the center “fan” piece.

  Here is a close up of the fan piece in the center. By the time I salvaged my UFO, I ended up with a pretty little preemie size quilt.

 

 

 

  The colors on this preemie quilt didn’t photograph well, but it’s actually more of a light lavender, darker lavender, and purple little flowers with white squares for fillers.

 

 

  My third blanket is a crocheted rectangular granny square. I would say it’s probably big enough for a smaller newborn.

 

 

 

Just a cute little dress with a ruffled bottom and a matching hat.

 

 

 

 

 

A little diaper shirt made from multi colored brighter pastel yarn.

 

 

 

 

 

A newborn sweater and hat made from lavender “I Love This Yarn”.

 

 

 

 

  I had just enough of the lavender yarn to make a newborn hat. One of our hospitals was asking for purple hats for the babies to wear for awareness of shaken baby syndrome.

 

 

 

 

During one of my frequent jaunts to Goodwill, I found this pretty little magenta colored hoodie in a size 0-3 months. Doesn’t look like it was ever worn. Really hard to get a good picture of it.

 

 

 

  Another crocheted newborn sweater made of multi colored yarn in purples, blues and greens.

 

 

 

  This newborn sweater has a cute bottom ruffle and ties instead of buttoning. I’m pretty sure it was made out of Red Heart Super saver yarn because it seems to be heavier and a bit scratchy. Not sure I would use this yarn again.

 

 

  I didn’t have enough of the darker pink for all of this newborn sweater so I finished up by making the sleeves a lighter pink.

 

 

    

Last but not least are 3 little burial outfits for the littlest of our angels. The need is great for these outfits unfortunately. I am not very fast at crocheting blankets so I usually just make the dresses and hats or bonnets with the hope that the parents can find a nice blanket to go with them.

I’m sorry I didn’t post what yarn I used on most of these items. There are a number of reasons for that. Usually by the time I make my blog post for my donations, I frequently forget which yarn I used. Also, I buy a lot of my yarn from Goodwill or some of the local thrift stores, and some of them don’t have a label on them, so I have NO idea what brand, etc. it is. Same thing with yarn I buy at yard sales or have given to me. Can’t be choosey when it’s free or cheap you know :)

That’s it for this time. I keep plugging along, as long as the carpal tunnel doesn’t flare up :)

Our Tailless Squirrel and Other Stuff

This is our little tailless squirrel that lives in our neighborhood.  I’ve seen him around for at least the last couple of years, maybe longer but didn’t realize it. I don’t know if he lost his tail in some kind of accident or if he was born that way.

He is eating under the bird feeder here.

 

He seems to have adapted really well for not having a tail.

 

 

 

 

 

He bellies right up to eat bird feed or cracked corn I put out for the squirrels. He holds his own against all the other squirrels and gets his fair share.

 

 

 

 

  This is a better picture showing his no tail physic.

 

 

 

 

Here he is having lunch with one of his tailed buddies.

 

 

 

His buddy heading up the maple tree after lunch, probably for a nap :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Our resident chipmunk, or ground squirrel, as some people call them. He likes to hang out in the flower beds and under our back door stoop. I know for sure that he has been around here for at least 3-4 years.

 

 

 

  Last but not least is our indoor resident male cat Rocky, guarding my sewing machine for me while he naps. He will sleep ANYWHERE, and in any position.

 

 

 

That’s it for tonight, hope you enjoyed my “critters” post.