Free Inspiration On A Cloudy Day

During a little break, I was browsing through Pinterest and came across a pin with free patterns from Amy Butler design! Don't let the eye-catching quilt below upset you if you are not a quilter, there's more than just quilts!



(click picture for link)



Once I have some "free-time," (if that's even safe to say anymore), I am digging in to my pile of scraps and attempting to create a couple of the patterns .....with my own little twist, of course. Seriously, look through the site and be inspired!

Learning Embroidery

The past few days around here have been snowy and cold, so I decided to mess around with something new, embroidery! Inspiration to learn the technique came from a piece of fabric that I picked out for a present that my friend, Liz requested. She adores my scrap fabric embroidery rings on my wall :)

I started by searching for tutorials on basic stitches and found an excellent one that I was able to print out here from DMC. Now, the nice thing that I learned from my venture in to the embroidery world, is that you can stitch free-hand, and since I like to doodle, this kind of got me a little pumped. However, there are patterns out there in case "doodling" isn't your thing. I found a bunch that I am excited to try from Andrea Zuill of 'Badbird's'. Below is one of her designs that I used to practice a few different stitches.

Since I was in the learning process, I just used scrap fabric and leftover burlap from the wedding that I had on hand. Although, I noticed that the majority of people use a muslin canvas for their work and the large gaps in the burlap make it a little tricky to work with. I think it turned out pretty neat though!



Special Olympics 2012

As you recall, in my 'Getting Involved!!' post, I started working on scarves for the Washington State Special Olympics 2012 program. Well, with the holidays and our wedding out of the way, I have FINALLY finished both scarves and am ready to share them with you!

I took the opportunity to try new patterns and enjoyed making both of them! The yarn I used for both was the required Red Heart Super Saver Soft Navy & Cherry Red. For the scarf below, I chose the 'Brilliant Ripple Scarf' pattern from Lion Brand. However, as usual, I changed the pattern, I used a single strand and NOT double to create the 'tweed' effect as the pattern states.

The husband likes the ripples...........



For the second scarf, I chose the 'Be Proud Scarf' pattern from Red Heart. It was one of the four provided options for this year. However, I ended up having to shorten the amount of rows in the pattern due to my width getting close to the 6" max limit. 

 I like this one :)

I am sure these two happy scarves are going to find their way to an even happier home! While doing this project, I was inspired to keep the contributions/donations going and participate with as many organizations as I can. I am also creating a goal of doing at least double the amount of scarves for NEXT years Special Olympics!

New Year = New Resolutions

Considering that I have not been the faithful blogger lately, I should fire myself. Unfortunately, one of my resolutions for this new year is to be a consistent blogger. But, let's not get ahead of ourselves.....

Since my last post, MANY things have happened. Some are super exciting and some... not so much. As you know, I was planning my wedding. Well, a couple of weeks before the big day, my sweet little kitty (the one in the picture to the left), had to be put to sleep. Her old age finally got to her and it was her time. I will miss her very much.

On the brighter side of life, we are officially married!! The whole day was an amazing experience and went by SO fast! None of it could have been possible without all the friends and family involved. I do have to say, that is A LOT of work for the shortest day in your entire life...... completely worth it though!



Smile! We're married!


Next, came Christmas!! I seriously attempted to make as many gifts as I could and can't wait for this year to try all the projects that I just didn't have time for. I failed at taking pictures of most of the gifts (bad me!), but here are a couple that I DID take.



My first attempt at a marble style ornament!



My White Elephant gift!



 Surprisingly, to me anyways, is that my crocheted blanket was a big hit at the family white elephant gift exchange. The pattern is 'Wavy Stripes Beach Blanket' from 'crochet today!' July/August 2011 issue. If you are familiar with the issue/pattern, I obviously changed the colors and instead of using the suggested yarn, I used Caron Simply Soft.

Finally, we are at the New Year and with every new year comes new resolutions! So, here they are:

1. Organize the ENTIRE house - this is ambitious, but I would LOVE to know where everything is! 2 years in to our new house and I feel like we are still moving in....
2. Keep up with blog - see, I can't "fire" myself!
3. Create an Etsy account - another ambitious item on my list! I've been intimidated to create one (still am), but you will never know unless you try, right?

Let's not forget, with the new year came a new......... PUPPY!!!

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, a great start to the New Year. Here's to 2012 and whatever it has to offer us!