Thursday, September 30, 2010

For My Little Packrat

My daughter is obsessed with finding bags, purses, backpacks, SOCKS, anything to put her tiny animals (mostly little pet shops) in and carry around with her. I had started making this little bag as new cup bag for her for school. But I soon realized the handbook said it had to be sewn and a certain size, well I had already started this one. So it became her new animal/rock carrying bag. I am in love with the pom poms. I have only made a few recently, but I think I need to add them to everything now! ;)


I didn't use a pattern, I just kind of made it up as I went along. :)

Monday, September 27, 2010

Photos from the Weekend


She was watching the fishermen.

Chucks on the beach.


Daddy long legs and Baby short legs. :)


Smile :)


Hubby's shadow.



Checking out the tide pools.


Low tide.


This was so cool to walk on and see all of the sea life.


More tide pools.


Safe from the sun.


Shisa on a bridge.


Shisa on the other side of the bridge.


Shisa up close.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

More Exploring Okinawa

In case anyone is interested, I posted more photos from our family exploration of Okinawa this weekend. We drove out to Hamahiga Island.
It was beautiful. 



The rest of the photos can be seen here.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Not AGAIN!!!!



Yep she did it again.
The boys never brought me bugs, in fact they don't even want to touch these.
But my sweet little girl just grabs them up like nobody's business!
Unsure if the bug is a beetle.
But she did tell me that she "Squished it REAL GOOD!".
And this time I got a dead bug AND a snail shell!
Score!

Saturday, September 18, 2010

New Photos of Okinawa

New photos from a day out in Okinawa are posted on my photography blog, check em out!

Women's Winter Hat

Title is kinda boring and I was unsure of how this hat would look when I started it.  I made this for a friend who is also moving somewhere cold after living here in Oki for 3 years.  I love it so much I think this may be the hat I make for myself for our move!
Onto the photos. :)

Free pattern available at http://www.caron.com/
it is called Tri-Color Cloche but as you can see I only used 2 colors.




Tuesday, September 14, 2010

While I Appreciate the Recognition....

I love that people read my blog. I mean, after all that is WHY I blog, to share my stories, triumphs and photos. If you like my blogs and the things I make please feel free to share a link to my blog. Is not okay however to post MY photos on your blog.  Please do not take my photos and post them anywhere or use them for anything. I just saw my photos posted on someone's blog and while there was a link back to my blog, it is not okay to repost my photos. Please be respectful of my blog and all my hardwork. 
Thanks!
Nikki

Monday, September 13, 2010

With Sprinkles & a Cherry on Top

Continuing with the theme of making things to keep the family warm when we move from this tropical island in December, here is my daughter's winter hat.  I used this pattern as the basis for the hat.  That pattern is for a small doll hat, but I enlarged it to fit a 4 year old.  Also I had to make up my own scalloped edge for the middle of the cupcake.  I tied small knots in different colors of yarn and tied them on to make the sprinkles. I also made the cherry from homespun yarn.  My daughter was unimpressed with the hat until I added the sprinkles and cherry then she was thrilled! :)





Not sure what is going on here with the evil look and crazy karate hands! lol

Sunday, September 12, 2010

New Tshirt & Hoodies...It's About Time!!

I had purchased some plain tshirts and hoodies LAST year to paint for my boys.
Umm, yeah about that. 
The shirts now are only big enough to fit 1 child, the older one has grown so much that he is now taller than me!
Yikes.
Well, better late than never, plus the younger son is more likely to wear fun stuff made by mom than the teenager! ;)

So here are the shirts.


Star Wars? or Topher Wars....



Mario hoodie



Goomba hoodie

Thanks for looking!
BTW all of these were done with freezer paper stencils cut by hand.

Friday, September 10, 2010

More Goodies from a Preschooler's Pocket

Some of you may remember a while back when I blogged about my daughter bringing me home "gifts" from the playground at school.
Today I received another present from my daughter's pocket. 
Once again, as soon as she got in the car after school she dug around in her pocket for my gift.
Last time, if you recall, I was presented with a beetle in approximately 4 pieces, because he fell apart in her pocket. 
Today the gift stayed in one piece, much to her delight.

Here is today's present.



Thanks B! I love it!

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Free Crochet Pattern Super Mario & Luigi Scarf


I told my kids I was making them scarves since we are moving in December to a cold place and we have been on a tropical island for 5 years.

We've become pretty acclimated to Okinawa and I have a feeling we are going to freeze our butts off. :)

So I asked the boys which Super Mario characters they wanted on their scarves. T chose Mario & Luigi. So here they are. I think it turned out pretty well.

The color changes are a PAIN, but well worth it when you see the end result. I don't like to carry the extra colors along because I don't like when you can see them through the top color, so at each color change I cut and tied it off.

This left MANY MANY ends to weave in and was probably the most time consuming part of this project. But if you are up to the challenge, here is my attempt at a pattern. You should know how to do color changes and hdcs in order to complete this scarf. It can be kind of confusing following the chart when you turn and are coming back across the character as you will go left to right and then right to left to make the character. I don't know how to explain that part any better, but once you start working on it, you should see what I am talking about.

Materials

worsted weight yarns

Size H crochet hook (hook size will determine size of scarf)

Chart of characters

patience :)


With main scarf color chain 23

Row 1 Hdc in 2nd chain from hook. Hdc all the way across, then ch1 and turn.

Row 2 Hdc in all across, ch1 and turn.

You should have 22 stitches across. The character at it's largest is 16 stitches, so start with 3 hdcs in the main color then start the chart.

After the character is finished do as many rows of the main color in hdcs as you want until you get your desired length, then start Luigi chart.

After Luigi is finished add 2 rows of main color hdcs and finish off.


The blue around the charted characters indicates where you would do the main color of the scarf. Your scarf will not look exactly like my scarf does in the middle. I improvised with an hdc, ch1 skip 1 stitch, but I was unsure of exactly what I did, so I just suggest in the pattern to hdc across, but if you are more advanced you can change that part of the pattern to suit your needs.  

I hope this is clear to anyone trying to make this scarf.

This would not be a good pattern for a beginner with all of the color changes and chart usage.
Any questions or comments welcomed.
Enjoy!!

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Monster Cupcakes


We just used what we had on hand to make these little guys!
I cut strawberry shaped gummy snacks in half for the horns! :)