Love Bug

I've always had this really bad habit of not starting on holiday crafting until far too close to that specific holiday to realistically finishing every anything in time.  Somewhere around March or April 2014, I realized I should already be working on Summer crafting so that in the summer I would be working on Halloween crafting etc.  I always see fabric and crafting supplies at JoAnns many seasons out, and I know exactly why, I've just never been good at implementing this into my every day crafting.

I'm trying to be better this year, and in realizing that it's just a little over a month until Valentine's Day, and the fact that I got out my Valentine's Day decorations last weekend means I've got the BUG to start some new Valentine's stuff!

I was super duper excited when I got these finished last year, and loved them as much as I remember as soon as I got them out this year.  Here is their new location for 2015 - between the 2 windows in our current "living room"

don't mind our only-primed walls and lack of framing around the windows - this room will one day be a child's bedroom, and isn't close to being finished.  For now we are just loving it as our own space outside of our bedroom for watching TV, lounging and crocheting!

I tried to be all artist in the photos I took this morning.  Then I got to work and looked at them more closely.  Good grief, between the icky morning light, grainy cell phone photo and seeing how curled all my hearts are I'm definitely disappointed in this quick attempt at taking good photos on my way out the door! LOL

I saw the pattern to make these ADORABLE stuffed Hershey Kisses last year, printed out the pattern, bought some white ribbon when I couldn't find my stash, and, in true form, never even started one! This year, I'm gonna make these happen.

Sarah, over at Repeat Crafter Me is one of my top 5 favorite pattern designers/crochets/bloggers out there!  I use and reuse her patterns all the time, and always get excited when she posts a new pattern.  When she posted this key chain on Wednesday, talking about a crochet version coming the following day, I couldn't wait to see it.  Trust me, it did NOT disappoint.  How cute is THIS!  Can't stand it cute if you ask me!  Now I personally could never put this on my actual key chain and run the rick of ruining him, but I have loads of ideas for other places he could live.

High school musical rehearsals are in full gear around here, and I've been asked to choreograph the shows at two different schools this year.  While it's an honor to be asked, I've definitely got a full plate with coming up with the choreography and then I spend most of my week nights at each of the schools teaching the kids.  This means I have zero "free" time to crochet right now so it may be a bit before I have much finished to share (or even give a sneak peak)!  Hopefully within a week or so I'll have more of the choreography set so that I can spend either my lunch hour or a bit of time after work crocheting again vs. choreographing :-)

I leave you today with this really cute article.  It was a sponsored post on the Facebook page, and it made me smile.  Clearly all of this transfers over to crocheting pretty well!

Moody Monday - week 7

Gah – the last week really slipped away from me!  Sorry to have disappeared a bit….I had been doing so well the first few weeks of 2014.  Between getting over being sick, catching up from being sick, and transitioning into a new role at work; I can’t seem to recall any free time had to blog, or crochet!

2/10: PRODUCTIVE – as I mentioned last Monday, I was a little ahead of schedule in my posting.  I spent Monday recovering from the last of the flu, but this was the perfect opportunity for some seriously hexagon crocheting in between naps, allowing me to catch up on all my days to date in 2014, picking a joining method, and I mapped out the size of my blanket (how many hexs in each row by how many rows to make sure the size come Dec 31^st will be proportionate with the correct number of finished hexagons for the year!)

2/11: HAPPY/PRODUCTIVE – Tuesday was my last day in my old position.  I had a busy day of wrapping up what I’d been working on, and leaving notes for the woman coming back into the roll.  I also got all of the final details on my new role, which was exciting and made me happy to start anew on Wednesday morning!

2/12: FREEZING – holy moly was it coooooooooooold on Wednesday morning!!!!  I was driving to work and started hearing this creaking and bending noise on the top of my Jeep.  I couldn’t figure out what was going on, but looked up at my temperature gauge and saw THIS!:

If you were wondering, this is 10 degrees colder than it was here during the first Polar Vortex back in January.  The creaking and [almost] snapping of plastic sounds reminding me of the movie “The Day After Tomorrow” when everything turns to ice.  I think it goes without saying that I had a hard time warming up most of the day.

2/13: SAD/FRUSTRATED – day 2 in my new position proved to be a challenging one.  I don’t like to be idle at work, and I had a day of forgetting that it takes time to get adjusted into something new, especially when it’s a newly created position with no previous job description and duties to follow!  I spent most of Thursday having a pity party for myself in this respect.  Completely illogical, but who said there’s logic behind our feelings??

2/14: VALENTINE’S DAY – we had a bit of a low key Valentine’s Day.  We’ve never gone crazy with this holiday, just small gifts and a nice evening together, which is a-okay with me.  I came home to red roses and a heart shaped gluten-free brownie.  There was wine, a lovely dinner, and an evening in front of the fire watching the Olympics.

Friday was also the day we celebrated Copper’s 1^st Birthday!  Since he was a rescue, who was found in a field, we’ll never know his exact birthday.  When he came to live with us this summer, they told us that his birthday was February 13^th.  The more I thought about it, I decided this situation had some wiggle room, and I made his birthday Valentine’s Day – cause he’s definitely my little LOVE BUG!  

This picture was taken yesterday evening; clearly his birthday weekend was exhausting business!

2/15: DREAMING OF DISNEY/THINKING OF GRANNIE – Jamestown High School’s music department left Friday afternoon for Walt Disney World.  Since then my Facebook feed has exploded with status updates and pictures from within the Resorts.  There’s student’s family members, and the fact that my in-laws are also currently in Walt Disney World, on a totally unrelated trip (my Valentine’s Day present will even be coming home with them this spring as it was purchased at the Polynesian resort!).  All these images of people that I know at the Happiest Place on Earth just makes me want to put on a Disney t-shirt, flip through photos from our previous trips, and listen to this (or watch these….)

or THIS!

Over the past day or two, my mind keeps wandering to my Grannie.  Just little things like something happens that I want to share with her, and I think to tell her on my way home from work….then I remember that I can’t.

2/16: LOVED – Last night we were sitting watching the Olympics while I crocheted up my hexagons for this week, and I said to Jonathan: “I don’t know what mood I’m feeling today!!  What is my mood??”  I spent the day out shopping/running errands, having a phone date with my best friend, finishing up laundry, playing with the puppies and crocheting.  Being productive and/or crafty was not really sticking out as my mood for the day, and I don’t have a color for ‘shopping fun’, ‘snuggling puppies’, ‘best friends’ or ‘excitement for pizza for dinner’ (yes, I have a color for excited, but it seems a little ridiculous to use this for the day just over the evening dinner selection…..)  Jon’s response was: “don’t you feel loved today?”, and I said: “I always feel loved”. 

Everything else with my blanket is still piles of hexagons that need the ends woven in on and to be crocheted together….as always, there are never enough hours in the day/week

I planned to start crocheting things together this evening, at least week 7's work....but in a brief moment of exhaustion; this happened:

Of course, the one that weighs around 70 pounds thinks she's a lap dog...

Showcase Sunday

No "sneak peak" to show this weekend, cause I'm too excited to show off of my 2 new ETSY postings:

Are these hats not the cutest?  I'm just in LOVE with both of them!!  I wish I'd made the pink one in my size...or that I had a little girl to put them on :-)

They are between 18" and 19" in circumference - perfect for ages 1-3 (though measuring the recipient's head is the best way to ensure an accurate fit)

Both can be found at www.etsy.com/shop/craftyhollylouise - check them out today!!

Warm Your Space Wednesday - Valentine's Edition

I did it!  

I actually completed a planned project for Warm Your Space Wednesday and am ready to write about it on Wednesday.

If only I had gotten better pictures this weekend... Thank goodness for photo editing online... (there's always room for growth before next week, right?)

Isn't this so cute!!!  I just love it every time I walk through the kitchen!

I found THIS pattern just as it was posted last month.  I honestly can't even remember what I was doing/looking for when I came across it, but I immediately fell in love with it and new it would be a great way to warm my space this Valentine's season (yes, I do believe a season is in order for all things hearts, pink, love, and roses)  Everything was crocheted in Red Heart with Love in Candy Pink and an I-hook.

 

This shade is just perfect for Valentine's Day!  Over-the-top sickeningly sweet, perfect shade of pink!

As previously posted, it took me a few weeks to really get started on this project, but once I got focused and really started working on these they went so fast!  Sarah's pattern is super easy to read and I quickly had it memorized and cranked out the 13 necessary within two nights of crocheting.  I'd say that they could have been done in one if I didn't eat dinner and those puppies weren't so darn distracting, but neither of those is ever likely to occur in our house!

I'm not sure there is much more that I can say about these except that they just make me smile! 

*side note - totally loving on all the snow stuck to the trees in these pictures.  While I'm a little over the excessive cold, and am really sick of my sweater collection each day as I'm getting dressed for work, I just LOVE the snow!  Even when the slower driving extends my commute, I can't help but smile at the beautiful white flakes coming down and the winter-scape out my windows

**side note #2 - those spring like flowers were a lovely surprise from Jonathan last week while everything that was going on last week really had me down.  There are also flowers from my mother-in-law that are just out of the sight line of this picture.  As I mentioned on Monday, my family has been amazingly supportive and really know how to make a girl feel extra loved!

For any of you non-crocheters out there reading this, who would love Heart Garland for your home for Valentine's Day [2015], send me a message at craftyhollylouise[@]gmail.com  I sadly don't anticipate having enough time to make and ship these for your family's enjoyment this year (unless you're looking to use these year round / for an Anniversary / Birthday!  Then I'd be more than happy to work with you on timing!)  As always, color options are endless.

 

P.S.  Be sure to check out the adorable ideas Taurie has been cranking out for Valentine's Day, including Valentine's inspiration and this week's Warm Your Space Wednesday, found here.  And I sooooooooooo wanna make THESE!!!!

Make-up

No, this isn't actually about buying, applying or wearing make-up....I still feel badly about missing my first Warm Your Space Wednesday post. 

I also still don't have anything made for my "space" to share with you...

But I do want to share this with you as I plan to warm some space with it very very soon!

Last Friday, Rachel over at MaybeMatilda hosted a give-away from Ritzy Reba; who just happens to be her sister, and she's selling super pretty and fun art prints on ETSY!  Of course, in my ever busy, easily distracted life, I totally missed the give-away fun, but clicked through to Rebekah's ETSY page over my lunch and totally fell in love with her prints!!!  I definitely already have two in my shopping cart:

I think this would look super pretty in our new Master bedroom - the colors look to match our designs perfectly.  We've agreed to not hang ANYTHING on our walls though until we're 110% sure of what we want to do (other than the TV mount that went up 2 weeks ago)  Doesn't mean I can't download this now and get it all designed so Jonathan can't bare to say no, right?

By now, I would imagine that you all know that I started drooling over the Disney prints of Princess gowns!! And you know I have to have this Cinderella one!!!  I'm already envisioning where I could hang it in my craft room: next to our proposal pictures in front of Cinderella's castle and the shadow box with my wedding veil Mickey ears and a picture from our Honeymoon in WDW (still need to ask my dad to make me this.....gonna wait and let him get my craft room built first! LOL)

I hope you are inspired by Ritzy Reba's prints this weekend - whether to warm your space or to give as a gift for Valentine's Day, Anniversary or Birthday, I think there's something for almost everyone!!