Pumpkin

Last year I really wanted to crochet myself some little pumpkins and other Halloween decorations but never did. Well last night I finally finished this little pumpkin!
He's so cute, fits in the palm of my hand! It only took a couple hours to make him. I started Friday night and got about 1/4 of the way done and finished it up last night. I want to make another one with little brown curly stems too.
I got the pattern here on Ravelry for free. Very easy!





I have a pattern for a gourd that I am going to try to start tonight!

i heart fall Recipe Book

This is such an awesome part of the i heart fall group that I am in.
We are all creating Recipe Books and then this week each prompt will be a different type of recipe and we can print each others and have a great big recipe book full of everyone's!!
I am so so excited about this!
I only started cooking about a year ago when Jeremy moved inwith me and I'm really starting to enjoy it.
Here is my cover. I wanted it to be different but still similar to the actual journal.



And here are the pages on the inside before adding any recipes.



I can't wait to fill it up!!

Liz's Birthday Present's

So I had been working on these for a couple weeks now but I couldn't post anything because Liz is a total stalker and would definitely read about it before I gave these to her!!

I made her this lovely little cross stitch sentiment. I know for myself that when people can't pronounce words correctly it drives me up a wall!!



And I crocheted her Master Fece.
The Urban Dictionary defines a Masterfece as a particulary large and shapely piece of poop. "Did you see what I dropped off earlier today? Man, I tell you what, it was a masterfece"
Most people probably find this ridiculous but Liz and I discuss our bowels often. It's hilarious. So I saw a pattern for this guy on Ravelry and HAD to make him for her. However, I didn't have the right kind of yarn so he turned out about twice as big!! Here he is in his home away from home =D



Then, I decided that he needed a name tag.





Probably the most ridiculous birthday present I could ever make for someone but thank God Liz gets my sense of humor!!

Happy Birthday Liz, you are the greatest best friend in the whole world and I love you to pieces!!

i heart fall Prompt 8

Journal Prompt: The lovely smells of fall! What are some smells that trigger memories of fall for you??

This one looks all 70's to me...I think it's the brown and orange =)

i heart fall Prompt 7

Journal Prompt: The sounds of fall! When you think of fall, what are some sounds that you think of?

Pretty straight forward list.
I would like to clarify "screams"...a big part of my Fall Activities involves Haunted Houses. I scream bloody murder whenever I get scared so...it's a major sound of my Fall.
Oh and the "thanks" is during Thanksgiving, duh!

Happy Autumn!

Happy first day of Autumn!! Let the Fall Activities begin!!

"Delicious Autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive Autumns." - George Elliot
(thanks Aunt Stephanie for this quote)

i heart fall Prompt 6

Journal Prompt: The tastes of fall. What tastes do you think of when you dream about the upcoming season? Are their certain things that you wait all year for? I know I do!!

Of course after making this list I though of a bunch more things I should have added.
-Apple Streusel
-Stuffed Peppers
-And I wish I had elaborated more on Thanksgiving Dinner.

Thanksgiving is a pretty important holiday with my Dad. My step mom, Lonnie had a lung transplant 8 years ago this Thanksgiving. It was only a few months after I had moved in with them and it was a really scary, amazing time.
The holiday now REALLY makes us all appreciate the things we have. And even though Lonnie had such a serious surgery, she still makes the most delicious Thanksgiving Dinner!! Lots of turkey but I don't really eat too much. There's mountains of mashed potatoes, green beans with almonds, turnips, cranberry sauce (yum!), broccoli with cheese, corn, salad, almost always burnt rolls and the one thing Jessie and I brought to our new family when my Dad and Lonnie first got married is Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallows melted on top. Lonnie had never heard of this but she has always made it for us and it is definitely my favorite!! And of course there's always pumpkin pie, applie pie and other assorted desserts.
Ever since Lonnie's transplant we also started a new tradition of going around the table and everyone saying what they're thankful for. There's always tears and big smiles and it honestly does remind all of us to be thankful for what we have and that we are all part of such a loving family. I love holidays at my Dad's house, it's always mayhem because there's so many of us (Soon to be one more!! My step sister Karyn is having a little girl!!) to begin with and we always have the boyfriends/girlfriends/family friends, etc. The house is so full of noise and love though, I'm getting all choked up thinking about it now.

Here's my page. I kind of don't like it at all...it looked way better in my head.
Meh.

i heart fall Prompt 5

Journal Prompt: The colors of Fall. What do they look like where you are from? Which colors stick out, which colors amaze you? Document it :)

I'm pretty lucky where I live, we have all the seasons and Fall is absolutely beatutiful. Jeremy's family lives farther west into PA and it really is the country. It's breathtaking driving out to visit them, there is sooo much land and rolling hills everywhere. In the autumn the trees are my absolute favorite part, reds, oranges, gold...it's beautiful!
The leaves have just started changing around here even though it's been pretty warm!

I just used markers, scrap book paper, ribbon and rick-rack for this page.

i heart fall Prompt 4

Journal Prompt: Why I heart fall? What are the reasons behind your love for this season? Why is fall so amazing to you??

This was easy, I just made a list of all the things I love about Fall. Afterward I thought of about a million more things.
Apple Cider
When it's cool out and you get in your car and it's nice and warm
Pumpkin Roll
Corn Mazes
Jeez...the list just goes on and on!

i heart fall Prompt 3

Journal Prompt: Today I would like you to create a page dedicated to all of your ideas for autumn decor.

I used markers and some yarn as an accent for this page.



* I've wanted to crochet little pumpkins and gourds for a while, I really wanted to last year but I never did it.
* I have a big blank wall in my living/bedroom and I see these cute banners that Janel and some other girls make. I think a fall themed one would be lovely up there!
* I showed the primitive raven pattern a few weeks ago in a Wanna Make Wednesday post, I still reeeally want to make him!
And last but not least
* I want to carve pumpkins. My sister and I have been carving pumpkins together since we were kids. There were only a few years in there when we lived states apart from each other that we didnt.
Two years ago we even taught 3 of our friends (Jeremy included) how to carve pumpkins because they never had! I had an ex boyfriend who never carved a pumpkin either, it blew my mind! I knew it'd be trouble when he just jammed the knife in to carve out an eye without even gutting the thing first, LMAO!!
My sister and I have also decided that when we have kids, we will all carve pumpkins together. We have a serious love for Autumn and Halloween and it's just something that we've always done, sort of a tradition that we want to carry on.

i heart fall Prompt 2

Journal Prompt: Today I want you to come up with 3-5 simple, accomplishable goals for your journal. These goals are a great way to keep you motivated throughout this little adventure.

This was pretty simple. I already knew what my goals were going to be. I used some fabric that I've had forever and love but haven't done anything with. And some buttons from my huge button stash!
I want this journal to be more creative than the last one I did
I pretty much only focus on my birthday and Halloween when it comes to Fall, I want to remember that there is alot more awesomeness to Fall!
On that note, there are more Fall decorations possible than just Halloween ones!
And I just want to enjoy Autumn as much as possible!

i heart fall Prompt 1

Day One Journal Prompt: Today I want you to create a Welcome page for your journal. Welcoming the new season, welcoming your readers, welcoming the idea of journaling :)



This is mostly markers and the green leaves are cut out of fabric. I don't know the last time I used markers but it was fantastic! I felt like a little kid again in Arts & Crafts camp. I am definitely going to be using them a ton in this journal!

i heart fall

So I started a wonderful online class given by the lovely Janel from RunsWithScissors
She is the one who organized the 30 Day Challenge that I was doing last month. This time the whole class is centered around Fall and it's 13 weeks!! There won't just be journal prompts but also crafty projects, recipes, decor ideas, etc.
I was really on the fence about doing the class because unlike the 30 Day Challenge this class cost money. Only $25 but for a broke bastard like me, $25 could mean gas for the week or not!
Janel and her husband Adam are in the process of adopting a baby so all the proceeds go toward all the crazy fees they need. I've been following Janels blog for a little while now and she is an absolutely wonderful person, so full of love and happiness that I know any child would be blessed to have her as a mom. So I decided, $25 ain't nothin and it's going to a fabulous cause so I signed up!!

Last night I made my Journal (yes made) I didn't have any spare cash to buy a journal so I went to the dollar store, bought a pad of drawing paper, cut it in half and tied a cover of cardboard to it. I actually really like it better than any journal I could have bought, mostly because the edges are a little rough and uneven from cutting the paper by hand. I also had to hole punch all the pages and oooweee did my hand hurt after that!
I had so much fun digging through all my stash of craft supplies looking for things to decorate the cover and also for the rest of the journal prompts. The last journal I only drew, wrote, and sketched. This time I want to try my hand at a bit of an "Art Journal" with some extra touches other than pen, we'll see!

So my cover is felt that I glued to the cardboard, little felt leaf buttons I sewed on, I embroidered the 2010 in the top corner and I glued the little metal letters. I really love how it turned out!!

More Tomato Updates!!

I may be a complete nerd but every day I get home, I put my purse down, take off my shoes and go open the curtain on my fire escape to check my topsy turvy. My last update said that I had 11 more tomatoes growing...
WELL...I counted again and there are 27!!!! I missed a whole slew of them hidden on the bottom by all the big leaves. I also got a second red one off the vine and hopefully when I get home today the orangey one on there will be nice and ripe!!

Here are some pictures of the second ripe tomato I got AND of all the little babies hiding all over the place. The leaves are so big and fluffy, you gotta move them out of the way to see them all!

Here's a few glamour shots of tomato #2!





Look at all these babies!!



I made stuffed peppers last night and added the two tomatoes. You couldn't taste them in all the meat, peppers and canned tomatoes BUT we took little bites before I added them in the pan and Jeremy and I both agreed that they have a ton more flavor than the tomatoes from the store =D

Jess' Birthday Present

One of my good freinds Jess just celebrated her 27th Birthday yesterday. I wanted to make her something and I decided on something either cross stitched or embroidered. She just graduated with a Bio Chem degree (or some such sciency stuff) I looked around for some good quotes and most of them were really long and just lame. Jess is also a big hippie so when I found this quote I knew it was perfect!!

"Nature composes some of her loveliest poems for the microscope"
The end of the quote also says "and telescope", I didn't like that so I just omitted it.
The quote is by Theodore Roszak, Where the Wasteland Ends, 1972

Here it is all finished but not in the frame, I was getting a wicked glare!



She had some people over on Saturday so I gave it to her then, everyone thought the quote was very appropriate, woot!!

Tomatoes Update

So just over a month ago I posted about my Topsy Turvy and how excited I was to have tomatoes finally growing.
Well a couple weeks afterward there was a huge incident!!
I think I've said it before, I live on the 3rd floor of a row home and do not have a real deck. I have a fire escape off the back of the house, I have the topsy turvy's hanging there. WELL...being on the 3rd floor in the middle of a block of row homes, it can get VERY windy back there. The wind just whips straight across all the roofs and my poor topsy turvy is just hanging there in the middle of it!! Apparently I didn't have them hanging up well enough because one day I got home from work and they had fell down!!
I lost 6 tomatoes that day, I almost cried.
Jeremy helped me hang them back up but I was so upset, I almost gave up. It took a little while for anymore tomatoes to grow again but I counted last night and I have 11 on there!!
I was complaining this past weekend that all the big ones were just staying green and then I noticed one was getting a bit orangish!!
So Wednesday was another insanely windy day. All day at work I was thinking about my poor tomatoes up there blowing away, I got home and sure enough the damn things had fell down again!!! I only lost one tomato that day so it was ok.
Last night I took my first bright red tomato off the vine! I'm so excited to eat it!!

These pictures were all taken within seconds of each other, it's so weird how the flash made it look like it was freaking midnight outside!! I kinda like how the second one is all blurry. Reminds me of my sisters old camera. It was a little crappy and at parties you could tell how far into the night pictures were being taken, it was like the camera got drunk along with us because pictures would get blurrier and blurrier.

Wanna Make Wednesday

Well I have a few things on my plate to make at the moment. Mostly birthday gifts and a few WIPs.
A list of things I want to make after all those are done wouldn't hurt though =P

There are a few things I want to make some special people as big Thank Yous for all they do for me!
First is for my Mom, I already have the yarn. Now I just have to wait to get paid next week to buy this pattern.



from Lucy Ravenscar

I want to make these fishing lures for Jeremy. I am thinking all Pabst caps or maybe some Sam Adams ones (those are his two favorite beers).



made by Alexus1325

I saw this pattern and thought it was so funny! I'm not going to make it for my Dad because A. What would he do with it? and B. The dog would probably eat it but...its still cute!



from SkyMagenta

I don't have kids but holy crap as soon as I do, I am making one of these!!



from InnerHooker

OMG and as soon as Jessie has a kid, I'm making it this Racoon Hat!!



also from InnerHooker

I might have to learn to knit just so I could make myself this spider hat!! It's shown on a kid but it says it's all sizes!



from TotToppers

These crochet gourds are freaking adorable!!



from Eternal Sunshine

I LOVE this!! I'm very sad it's sold though =(



from Arte Sanity

That's all for this week!

New Car!!

This post has nothing to do with crafts, it just has to do with the most amazing day of my life.
Sunday was book club, as is the first Sunday of every month. Nothing unusual about that.
I got to Liz's about 12:30 and Shannon was already there. Katie was making a guest appearance (she moved to Rochester so is no longer able to make it to book club) and Kristin had to work so she wouldn't be there til about 2:30. Jess went camping with her boyfriend and some other friends up in Lake George. I thought it was just going to be another regular book club...little did I know!
Mrs. Hoens (Liz's mom) had made us a TON of food. Which wasn't totally weird because she loves any reason to have a party and since book club happened to fall on Labor Day, she went all out! Burgers, dogs, potato salad as far as the eye could see, cookies, drinks, etc. Normally we just have breakfast food and mimosas that we all supply ourselves.
We were all hanging out chatting away like we normally do about nothing in particular, just catching up.
I didn't notice Liz got up but then I heard her by the front door say "OMG come look, my neighbor got a new puppy!" I of course jumped up from the table and ran to the door! I love puppies!!
As soon as I got to the door I was completely confused. The first person I saw was my friend Bryan who I haven't seen in almost a month. Then I saw Jeremy and my mother and my sister and Bryan's girlfriend Taylor. I just stood staring at them completely confused.
Someone said "so there's not a puppy..." and I asked what the hell they were all doing there. That's when my mom said that Jeremy worked with my Dad and got me a car!!!!!!
I was pretty much shell shocked and just stood in the Hoens' front yard staring at this car that was allegedly mine. Eventually I said I didn't understand what was going on. Jeremy explained that he wanted to get me a car, he called my Dad who helped him find it. Jeremy asked that instead of anyone getting my presents for my birthday, they just give him the money to go toward the car.
I honestly do not have the right words to explain the emotions that were running through me. I did start balling my eyes out and just stuffed myself in Jeremy's arms and didn't want to let go. Eventually he told me I should go thank everyone else so I gave everyone hugs and cried all over them. Apparently this has been in the works since August and the plan was to give me the car at a party Shannon is hosting at her house on the 25th. Since my car totally crapped out a few weeks ago the plan was moved up!
To stand there and look at all these people who care about me and love me so much to do this for me was so overwhelming. I couldn't stop crying, it still really hasn't sunk in that I have a car. And a really nice car!! It's a 2003 Toyota Carolla and it has an automatic starter!!!
Everyone hung out for a while at Liz's and ate all this food that Mrs. Hoens had made. That night Kristin and I went to see Stone Temple Pilots at PNC Bank Arts Center and on the drive there I called my Dad to thank him (he works 3rd shift so he doesn't get up til 4:30) and I started crying all over again.
The concert was freaking amazing!! I love Scott Weiland, he's so skinny and lanky and wiggles all over the stage. They sounded really great and Kristin and I had really awesome seats!! They played every song I wanted them to and my favorite was one of the encores "Dead & Bloated". They were such an awesome band too, the bass player took someones camera out of the audience and took a picture of them, I thought that was freaking awesome! They threw out tons of guitar pics and drum heads and even shook a whole bunch of people's hands in the crowd. I love to see a band who appreciates their fans!!
On the drive home I kept thinking about all these people in my life who care about me and helped get me this car. So I cried almost the whole way home. Alot of stuff has been stressing me out lately and everything has been working out so well I literally have nothing to stress over anymore. It's an amazing feeling and it's all thanks to all the amazing people in my life.
I have no idea how I could ever repay or thank Jeremy enough for all that he does for me but I plan on spending the rest of my life trying to!!
Whew I'm getting all weepy again!

Shirts!

My friend Kristin's sister Erin is the Maid of Honor in a wedding next month. She asked if I would make shirts for the Bachelorette Pary. Of course I said yes when she told me I would be paid!!
They will be going to a Phillies game Sept 18 and everyone going has a shirt, 10 if them, whew! Erin bought all the supplies and had the ideas. She came over one night and we finalized the details so I could get to work. She wanted the fronts of all the shirts to say "Final Swing Before the Ring" with a baseball. She wasn't sure of the font so I suggested a font that looks like the Phillies' logo. She liked this idea so I had to find this font!! Turns out the MLB does not pulish the fonts it's teams use...wack! So I just had to look at their jersey's and wing it! As I was looking around for the font, I realized that whenever possible the Phillies will change an "F" in the beginning of a word to "Ph". I asked Erin if she'd rather the shirts say "Phinal Swing Before the Ring" and she liked that idea too!
On the back of the shirts Erin requested a cursive font with 6 shirts saying "Katherine's Bachlorette Party" and the others said "Bride to Be", "Maid of Honor", Sister of the Bride" and "Future Sister in Law" respectively.
I was excited to make these shirts because I've never done anything in such a large quanity or that I would paid for!
Of course the week after Erin brought this idea to me, we were offered overtime at work. We aren't offered OT very often so when we are, I like to take as much advantage of this as possible! So for a few weeks I was working 12 hours a day (except weekends of course) so I didn't have a lot of time to work on the shirts. I tried to get as much done on the weekends as I could.
I gave Erin 6 of the shirts yesterday and I finished the other 4 last night and they are waiting in my car to be mailed after work today.
I've done other image reproduction things on shirts before but never anything like this. I always just used freezer paper to make stencils but since you can only use freezer paper once, I had to find something better! I used those plastic sheets that you put report pages in during high school LOL
They worked really well, I just cut the stencils out with an exacto knife, used a spray adhesive to stick them onto the shirts and then painted away. I did have to be careful pulling the stencils off so that the plastic didn't tear but it was WAY better than cutting out 20 stencils!!
I had quite a production line going in my apartment with one area for stenciling the backs, one for drying, one for stenciling the fronts, one for touching up the fronts and one for adding on the baseball and the final drying. It looked like a tshirt graveyard in there LOL
Jeremy came over yesterday and as soon as he got to the top of the stairs he said "they look like Phillies shirts". That made me SOO happy because that is exactly what I was going for!
They are going to the game next Saturday and I am hoping that 10 girls in matching shirts get on tv!!
I don't have pictures of all the shirts, just the last 4.









I don't want to see my exacto knife for at least a month after this project!!
Thank you Erin for thinking of me to do this for you and I sure hope everyone loves them!!

Fill in the Blank Friday

I started following another blog that does this cute little Fill in the Blank Friday thing. It kind of reminds me of those Myspace surveys, remember those? Ugh! I probably won't do them all, just the ones I like.
This one is travel themed and traveling i LOVE so here we go...


1. If I didn't have to work anymore I would...stay home and craft my ass off and try my hand at selling some of those crafts. Also, I'd cook and bake alot more.


2. My favorite thing about a vacation is...seeing new places, meeting new people and realizing that there is so much more to this world than I ever remember when wrapped up in my own life at home!


3. When packing for a trip I...take pretty much my entire bathroom minus the toilet, sink and shower. I also make a massive list so I don't forget anything!


4. If I could go on a road trip with anyone (dead OR alive) I would choose...well I've been on two with my BFF Liz and one with Jeremy so another one I would love to go on with my Aunt Stephanie. She lives in Denver (very far from me) and whenever I talk to her, I realize how much we are alike and I feel I have alot I could learn from her. Plus we'd have a freaking blast together!!


5. My top 3 absolute travel essentials are...music, my camera and tissues. I never know when my allergies may attack me and I need to be prepared!! Snot really can ruin a good time!

6. Vacations are...essential to life and I feel sorry for people who don't go on them.


7. On vacation you must always...eat at little ma & pa places, never eat at chain restaurants, buy lots of souveniors and take more pictures than necessary.


Man I'm in need of a Vacay now!!

Wishlist Wednesday

Yesterday I was looking around for fabric for an apron my sister has requested as her Christmas Present. I found so many amazing Halloween fabrics that I wish I could have...although I have no idea what I would do with most of them!

Ooo purple spiderwebs...



Love these eyes!



Creepy crawly spiders!!



Bat Attack!



All kinds of Halloween Goodness!



Spiraly Spiderwebs!



Hearses...need I say more?!



Owls!



Lovely Haunted Mansion!



Spooky Woods!



These can all be found on either Fabric.com or BugFabric.com

Happy September Everybody!!

My Plugs Arrived!!

Yay!!
Yesterday morning on my way out the door to work there was my package with my new earrings that I won in The Dainty Squids Giveaway!!
I tried to get pictures of them but the glare was ridiculous or they were too washed out to see the music notes so this picture is from Ark's Endeavors etsy shop.
The backs are red so it's like I got two for one, woot!!



They are so lovely and I'm so happy with them!!
Thank you Dainty Squid and Ark's Endeavors!!

Domestic Kitties

I found these embroidery patterns at Joanns soooo long ago and I bought them with the idea of making a few of them for Jessie. She loves cute animals and she loves cats even more so...it only made sense! I started these cats freaking months ago, at least over 6 months ago because we were still living together!
She randomly would ask about them and jokingly ask how they're coming along since she could see all the other projects I was starting and finishing.
I'm giving her 3 of them to hang in her kitchen, I finished two of them last night finally!!
The actual cats have been embroidered for a while now, I just really wanted to add borders because they were too plain looking but never got around to it.

Kittie Cooking! I really love the border I did on this one, I just repeated the design of the little flowers on the apron.





Kittie Sweeping! This border I got the idea for from the detail on the broom. This was also the first time I did french knots, they aren't perfect but I like them just the same.




I know the pictures are kind of dark but I took them at 11:00 last night and the flash was washing them out too much. These at least show the true colors but I am going to try and take pictures of my projects during the day from now on, sunlight makes everything look better!
There's one more kittie to finish, he's about 75% done...let's see how long it takes to get him finished =P