Fairy House For a Friend

I have the most amazing woman as one of my best friends.  I have no idea how I would have survived this past year without her.  She and her husband have become an important part of our family.  This past mothers day I wanted to do something special for her because she has helped me to become a better mother.  A while back she had tagged me on Facebook with a link to another page with the most darling fairy teapot that had been crochet.  ( what is the past tense for crochet?  anyone know?)  Here is the link:  adorable crochet fairy teapot.

I decided to make one for her.  The only problem was that the website was completely in Russian.  Now, while I do know a few Russian words, none of them helped me with this pattern.  Google translate was no help either.  So I decided to wing it.

I learned a lot about what to do and what not to do for next time.  And there will be a next time since my daughter really wants one now.  My favorite part was making the teeny tiny flowers.  They are no bigger than a dime!

Aren't they adorable!!

Unfortunately I was in a time crunch and didn't take the time to write down what I was doing.  This week I am going to take a bit of time and make a few more and write down the pattern so I can share it here.  I'm trying to think up another use for them besides decorating teapots. But,  the good news is that I was able to deliver the gift to my friend in time for Mother's Day, and she loved it!

Sometimes the best part of crafting is the giving of it to others,  Have you gifted any special projects recently?

You can follow me on Bloglovin' and I am linking up with Crafting On at Frontier Dreams and Yarning Along at Little Room of Rachel.

On The Craft Table - January 16th

I had an amazing Christmas break filled with all sorts of creativity and inspiration.  Its amazing how creative I felt while we were away.  It was also wonderful to have unbroken hours to just craft at my leisure.  This post is about my creations that sprouted from over my Christmas break.  It took me a while to write this only because I was trying to get the right pictures, but alas, I couldn't get the pictures right, so I decided to write this post anyway.

First is my winter wreath.  I have been following the blog of Attic24 for over a year now and I am in LOVE with all of Lucy's creations and her creativity.  She made these beautiful wreaths for summer, spring and fall and I knew I wanted to make one.  ( She just posted about this very thing the day after I finished my wreath, check it out here) I put it off for almost a year, but no longer.  I really dislike having to take down Christmas decorations and how bare the house looks afterwards so I decided to make some winter decorations, including a wreath.

I decided to wrap the wreath with yarn instead of crocheting a cover.  It took surprisingly more patience and time than I thought.  I will try the crochet way next time.  My daughter also liked the idea of only partially covering the wreath, although my son just doesn't get it. "It doesn't go all the way around mommy!)  Here it is a little closer.  I love the colors!

I also made a banner to go with it.  I have a bank of four windows in the living room.  I don't have curtains on them but them seemed a little bare so I thought this might help.  Unfortunately the light from the windows made it hard to take pictures.  But you get the idea.

It says Let It Snow all in crochet handwork..  It needs a little work.  I want to spread the words out a bit more, and my daughter insists it needs an exclamation point. Hoping next week to fix that. Do you like my son's window penguins? It almost looks like they are going for a stroll on my back deck!

I have refined my pattern for making headbands and ear warmers.  Been needing these babies here lately.  It hasn't been above 10 degrees for a while.  I have given several of these away already and I know there are some happy ears out there.

 My mother also got me hooked on arm knitting.  I had heard about it but hadn't tried it.  I love it for making these scarfs.  Its so fast and easy and has a great effect.

Its funny but I hadn't noticed until I had all the pictures together that I seem to be in a blue and grey faze.  Must just be the winter.  Stay warm everyone!

Russian Spring Bonnet Take Two....

Having been asked by a friend to make a certain hat, I have been catapulted down quite an exciting path.  Since my first attempt at making the hat didn't go quite as I wanted (you can see that post here), I went for a second attempt at the hat.  And...here it is....

I am quite happy with this version.  It came out much closer to what I was wanting.  I adjusted my pattern a bit and used a lighter weight yarn.  I definitely helps the spiral pattern to stand out more.  I am happy and so is my friend.  The best part though...

The decorations are changeable!  This was my friends great idea and I put it into action.  The bottom one is holly for Christmas. I will have to get a picture with her adorable daughter wearing it.

The new path I was talking about is actually and old one that I had stepped off a bit ago.  I have always wanted to turn my craft from just a hobby to a business.  Its been a  dream for a few years.  Not a full time business mind you, but a little on the side.  I was in the process of doing this, then some bumps in life happened and I had to sideline it.  But now I have my inspiration back again.  I'm blogging again, my crafting feels more inspired and I am finding tons of joy from it. So, we'll see where this path takes me.  

For right now though this path takes me over to Frontier Dreams where I finally get to participate in Keep Calm Craft On which I have been  watching for quite a while now.  I get so much inspiration from everyone who links up and I am proud that I can join the group.

On The Craft Table....

I have hats!  First of all I love to craft.  Currently my craft habit revolves around crochet, knitting, spinning, felting and quilting.  At this moment I am "hooked" on crochet.  A great friend found a hat she liked and asked if I could make one for her.  The hat was beautiful and you can find the original here at liveinternet.  I said of course I could make that hat.  It didn't look that difficult, until I read the directions, or should I say tried to read the directions. The original directions are in Russian and though I do speak a bit, my vocabulary does not include crochet terms.  There is a "translation" which is supposed to be in English, but its not any English I understand.

So, whats a girl to do...

Make it up as I go, I guess.  So I present my first attempt at what I think I will call the Russian Spring Bonnet.

Not to bad if I say so myself, which I do.  I enjoyed this challenge and I learned a lot from it.  In fact my second, more refined hat is in progress right now.  This lovely hat though is bound for international travel as I have decided to give it to a good missionary friend.  All this spring flowery crafting has certainly helped brighten the gloomy days we've been having.

Since I have decided to set aside a bit of time everyday to craft, I have found myself calmer and more able to tackle the day.  I definitely have a need for artistic expression, which must have come from my mother, an artist. (thanks mom!) I have struggled in the past as seeing my crafting as something relegated only to the weekend or when everything is done in the house.  But now I recognize the role it plays in me just being me and how necessary it is for me to feel in balance.  So for now, I will continue on happily creating.