Blogger love...

I have to say that I am so excited to have received some blogger love this morning.  I recently joined an awesome blog called A Law Student's Journey.  I think of her blog a lot like mine...a mix of life craziness, crafting, cooking and interests all smooshed into one fabulous blog.

I was very excited to see that she was having a "Linky Party", where folks post their info about their blog on her form and then receive a couple blogs to check out and give feedback on, as well as get some great feedback!

I was a recipient of awesome feedback today...and something both people mentioned was there was no way to easily follow my blog.  Well....ta da!!  I have added this feature to the sidebar.  I am a bit concerned to display it as of now, as there are few followers...but hoping that that changes soon. :)

Thanks to the awesome, anonymous folks that gave me awesome feedback (more changes to come) and a HUGE thanks to A Law Student's Journey.  

Ash

PS - If you hurry, you might be able to join in the action.  

Things to fill my 3 day weekend

I am excited, as I was just reminded by our CFO that Monday is a holiday!! So...this made me think about all the things I'd like to accomplish this 3-day-weekend...

Here are several things I think I might try:

Need to do some baking...maybe try these yummy sounding Nutella and Sea Salt Stuffed Sugar Cookies at Cooking Canuk.

Some sewing....Maybe this wonderful dress I found at Needles, Thread and Love?

Fun repurposing/upcycling....like finding some cool, old furniture to make one of these wall mounted cabinets  I found at Plow and Hearth or...

Maybe one of these awesome globes from Blue Velvet Chair's blog (which ties into my new biz...I am getting close to rolling it out...really!)

Which reminds me of something else I need to work on this weekend...my biz! But more on that very soon.

Happy weekend!

Ash

2012 Manifesto

Recently I came across this post at Creative Clever of a manifesto for her new year, and decided this was definitely for me.  I had to create one of my own. 

First...here is Creative Clever's manifesto....

And here is mine (I made a smaller version)....

Hope your new year is everything you want it to be, and you find a lot of fun stuff to inspire you as this did me!

Ash

Now that the holidays are over...here is what I made!

Well...due to potentially spoiling gifts, I decided not to post any of the things that I made for the holidays on the blog.  So now I can share with you all the fun stuff that I made!  Ok...well...not all, as I forgot to take pics of all the things.  But here are the ones that I remembered!

First, and one of my favs...I made my man and his best friend/cousin matching beard hats!  I got the pattern here at I'm Topsy Turvy.  A big thanks to Topsy for sharing this awesome pattern (and so I didn't have to figure it our myself!)

Don't they look awesome!  They are possibly the manliest men on the planet. :)

Next, I have to say that I had way too much fun with these pillows and they will soon become a staple in my near future biz. 

Now you can feel more secure with a gun under your pillow at all times....hehe

Don't we all need a pineapple pillow?

Man...I was just cranking out the fun/funny gifts this year...this is the last one I will share, but it might be one of the best!!

For the animal-friendly person/bad hunter in your life....

So cute and no animals were harmed to make him! hehe

Hope you had a wonderful holidays season and got to try out some fun crafting!  Hmm....now to decide what to make now that the holidays are over...

Ash

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  Can you believe it?  It is 2012.  I have big plans for this year.

But more on that soon.  But I will tell you that one of my many goals this year is to do more blogging. :)

We had a wonderful holiday season!  I just had to share a few photos of our holiday travels.  I made tons of gifts for family and friends, many of which I forgot to take photos of, but in a near future post I will share some of the fun things I made.

First...the trip to and around Klamath...

Upper left and lower right - Hwy 97 hills between Klamath Falls and Chiloquin, lower left - Klamath Lake, upper right - roadside snow, center - sunset in Klamath.

 Next was the trip to the ranch in central CA where we stayed for 2 very nice, 70degree days (but too short).....

Upper right and center left, rolling hills at the ranch, lower left, Mt. Shasta, lower right, night view of drive through Vacaville, center bottom, Lake Shastina, upper center and left, view of the ranch.

 And on that ranch they had a....

We rode horses, petted the goats, fed Gloria, the pig, played with the ranch kitties and doggies, talked to the young bulls, and watched a filly sniff the kitty...too fun!

Then we had to return to our life back in Eugene.  Nice to be home, but my, does time fly when you are having fun!

Happy New Year! 

Ash

Yarncrafting like crazy!

Oh man...I am definitely feeling the holiday crunch now.  I have been making stuff left and right, and I love it, but I am still quite nervous  about getting everything done.  But this is the norm...I never finish everything right on time, and luckily, I see folks at different times throughout the holidays which helps.

The other thing that is hard is not getting to share so many of the fun things I am making, as I might give away to family and friends their gifts by posting it here.  But...I can share these little baby socks I knitted up for my niece.  I doubt she'll be checking here (you know...since she is not even 1yr old yet...but kids are getting computer skills younger and younger....lol.)

They are so cute!  I wish everyone was tiny...would make my life yarncrafting much, much faster.

Ash

PS - How does anyone get anything done when there are so many wonderful patterns on Ravelry?  I absolutely love all the inspiration, but now I have too many ideas....hmm... (If you are on Ravelry, say hi to me!)

Handmade Felt Advent Calendar Semi-tutorial

Every year I go off about advent calendars.  I always want to make something, and eventually end up buying a crappy one with the not-very-good chocolates in it.  But this year, I created both an advent calendar and a way to display the cards we get. 

I call this a semi-tutorial because I feel like it's pretty simple in the end.   And I am not always the most precise person.  But I took lots o' pics to share!

First, I cut out a big piece of felt.

I made it big enough to hold 25 pockets and wrap around a dowel to hang it.

Then, I decided on a color scheme.  I wanted to do purples and blues so I cut out a bunch of little pockets of different shapes and sizes.

Then I found some ribbons, ric-rack, cutouts, bows and vintage buttons for decoration.

At the bottom there, you can sort of see a ribbon with ribbons streaming from it.  I wanted a way to display the cards I get.  So I strung ribbons from the bottom so I could hang my cards from it.

Then it was time for some decorative stitching around the pockets, the cutouts and add the numbers.

I switched up the stitching on each of the pockets and added the buttons.  In order to make things go a bit quicker, I did the stitching and then I hot glued on the pockets.

Then I added some lettering at the top.  

Finally, this is what it came out like....

You can see the are little candies sticking out of the pockets.  (And you can see that it was actually quite nice today outside.)

It was a lot of fun to make, and did not take too super long.  I can see getting even more creative with the colors, embroidery and cutouts.  

Happy crafting!

Ash