Enchanted Forest Ornamets Completed!

YEAY! I've completed my first swap! Valerie of YarniGras and YarniGras Swapper Spot hosted an Enchanted Forest Ornament Swap that I participated in. Below is the pic of everything I'll be sending off tomorrow. One adorable little hedgehog, two sweet little owlets in their holiday colored nests, lots and LOTS of little chocolates, some friendship tea and a pine scented candle for all the critters to feel at home in the forest when it's lit.

I've bundled them all among a red garland (instead of packing peanuts or bubble wrap) inside the tin with the enchanting tree on the lid. :)

These two little owlets were so fun to make! I think I'm going to make more for Christmas gifts this year. My favorite part of this whole swap was that I got to buy more yarn!! FIVE NEW SKEINS!!! The brown is a super soft alpaca/acrylic blend by Bernat (it's so soft and they had great neutral colors to choose from), I lost the label to the white one but I think it's a Lion's Brand, the orange is Lion Wool (which I'm so excited to possibly use the rest for a hat, I just love the shade of orange it is!) and the red and green are Vanna's Choice. All are nice and lovely yarns to work with.

I originally posted about all of them here which has the links to the oscillating owlets and hedgehog knitting patterns, you know, just in case you'd like to knit them up as well. I'll be mailing all these guys off tomorrow to my secret top secret swap partner. I hope she enjoys them all!

Enchanted Forest Ornament Swap Update

One of the blogs I frequent for inspiration, Little Cotton Rabbits, designed this cute little guy...You can purchase his pdf pattern here.

I've been eyeballing him since she designed him, now I finally had an excuse to purchase his pattern. YEAY!! This little guy will be made up with a Christmas ribbon as well as these little guys...

They were designed by Mochimochi Land and they're another pattern I've been eyeballing since she put them up for sale here. This ornament swap has given me yet another excuse to purchase cute and adorable patterns. I'll be making up the owls in the same brown yarn as the hedgehog yet their nest will be Christmas green with Christmas red ropes to hang on the tree with. Hopefully I can get pics up soon of my WIP!!

Crafty Update

I have finally overcome my laziness of getting on the "slow" computer and downloading all my pictures from the past several months. I just dread getting on this computer because our new laptop is on and going in a snap! This first pic is a crocheted baby blanket that I made a friend who had her baby in July. I finished it the day she was born and delivered it the following day. I'm not that experienced, but I wonder if blocking it would have helped out the waves that occurred as it got larger? Not sure. I made up the pattern, it's a basic granny square with about six rows of double crochet in between the center and the outer edge. I used Lions Brand Homespun in their Tudor colorway. It took two full skeins and turned out SO SOFT!These Gabu's are all saying farewell to the pretty gray Gabu. She was made and sent as a PIF. The other four Gabu's were all made for office coworkers over the past year. There's my first Gabu, the Red Receptionist, Black Velvet Gabu with sparkly eyes, Camo Gabu with a line of black to look like his unibrow, then the green Gabu with a tuft of brown hair and a smile (he was for my son). Gabu was designed by Roxycraft and you can get the free pattern here. They are quick and easy to make, my son loves his!These owls were so fun to make! My sister-in-law came to visit and we decided to each make one, me, her and my toddler. Then I thought we could glue them to a cut branch from the backyard to cluster them all together. It turned out so cute!! We then sent them home with my mother-in-law. I got this idea from BabyCenter in an email they had sent me. You can get your instructions to make them here. It's a great craft to do with little ones since you first have to collect half the pieces. I used the hot glue gun instead of regular glue so that they would stay together faster.These were two of three Gnome Babies that I knitted to donate to our churches craft bazaar. They were another free pattern from a blog I found. You can check the pattern out here. The larger one sold and the other two were still there yesterday when we went to church. They are sitting on the four baby blankets that I sewed last week. I had the sewing machine out all week to get those baby blankets done for the church and my sons dragon costume completed.

This last picture is one I took for fun. I spilled a drop of milk on the counter when I was making my morning coffee. This is how it landed then splatted. I was so amazed I had to take a picture. You can see my feet on the floor wearing pink Smartwools, THE BEST sock your foot can ever wear. We used to get them at REI when my husband worked there, now we only get them for Christmas from family (they are not cheap!).

Well, that's what I've been up to in the crafty department for the past several months....well, really the past week mostly. The rest of it was before baby #2 was born. Enjoy!