Size/Scale. Week 1

This week's theme being size and scale you'd think I would have plenty of objects and little subjects to photograph. However when you hand a huge restaurant sized spoon to a toddler they run off to bang the front door. Go figure. Back to the drawing board and inanimate objects.

Et voila! My crochet hooks. Love the colors, love the gaudy sheen and most of all they take direction well.

A little bit more excess.

Because it wouldn't be me to reign in and do reasonable. More hearts, left pile the ends still to be woven in, right pile all done. In the pile will be a one-of-a-kind quilted fabric heart too. Fiddly but fun.




For a person who loves to wear red and brighter pinks on her body, I sure do keep a lot of blue and green fabric/yarn.




A new obsession. I saw these cute little letters on Creative Jewish Mom and decided to give them a try. One thing kept bugging me. I didn't want to have to give every bean a clear coat to protect the sharpie from rubbing off. Then I remembered a wood burning tool I saw at the store for next to nothing and thought it might work on a dry bean. Well lookie here, it worked just fine. I still need to practice my line formation with the woodburning tool and next time I'll nestle the beans in some playdough so my fingers and nails don't come precariously close to the 950 degree metal tip. Ouch.

Flyaway hearts.

Not for Valentine's Day but for a well needed embrace.

Fans, Family and Fourth

So what happens when your mom visits and you are both notorious for being talkers? The talk so loud your husband thinks it's the fighting voice but it's not and involves lots of hand gestures? Ummm, yeah super late night talks and morning lack of sleep hangovers. Sorry for the late post but I've been thoroughly enjoying Mr. Maricucu having some time off, my mom being here and the summer weather.

Today we'll be grilling a few burgers, making sure the dogs don't go nuts with the fireworks around us and probably introduce my mom to Mr. Maricucu's and my guilty pleasure - Bridezillas. I know, you're so shocked.

So what about the fans? I love sharing this blog with my friends near and far. You all indulge me in commenting on my ramblings, endless pictures of my kids and the garden. My family also reads this blog which for me serves as a tool to keep them updated on the kids. A couple of weeks ago my sister told me that I have a new fan I haven't even met. Meet my brother in law's grandparents. Everyone wave to abuelito and abuelita from Chicago!

It seems my sister told abuelita about my blog and showed it to her on her last visit. Much to my glee she loves Maricucu. I'm just tickled that she thinks me spewing my brains out and posting pictures of my silly little undertakings is fun for her. And guess what? Abuelita is a crafter too! Check out this little purse she knit and then embellished with crochet. See why she likes the blog? I love how crafting bridges generations.

But above all, abuelito and abuelita are loving great grandparents to my three nephews which is what earns them a place of honor in my mind. Here are the little guys and it seems I'm not the only mom with photo-allergic kids.

Hope you spend the Fourth of July relishing in the freedom to enjoy your home, your family and whatever the pursuit of happiness may look like in your neck of the woods.

Bump in the road

The good news is I had cleaned out my sewing room and was ramping up making things again. I even started the baby's bobble dress from the purlbee pattern. Here is the result of two days at my leisure.



The not so good news is I'm now sick with a cold so I had to set it aside. When you can't even think straight to single crochet - that's a problem. Ironic that the middle child went into the ER to be checked out after a head injury and blessedly was fine. One popsicle, two stickers and a lost night of sleep later he happily skips into the house with a newly acquired runny nose from the waiting room. Yay.

Not. I just can't wait to see how much the hospital will charge for said popsicle, stickers and 5 hour wait.

Crocheted Shower Puff

This was pretty fun to make. I saw the pattern on One Pretty Thing's Daily DIY and had to pick up the hook. It's a pretty meditative pattern which is a great excuse to finally crochet a hyperbolic plane.

I did have misgivings, since it's made of cotton yarn and very dense I was afraid it would not dry well between uses. I'm not big on mold or mildew but figured crocheting it was fun, so I'd finish. I finally gave it a try this morning and the verdict is? It's a really neat item but not scrubby enough for me in the shower. Plus it did get soggy and heavy. I have another one in the process using a #10 crochet thread on the same K hook and we'll see if that better simulates the traditional mesh bath pouf. The baby was so in love with the puff that I'm considering making one for her to just gum. Why? Because we have teeth!



Okay enough with the baby swooning. I started off in the orange yarn, then the baby tangled the remains of the ball when I walked away. I started in the yellow/white ombre and ran out of yarn. Figuring I only needed a bit more I started on the remnants of the rainbow yarn. The rainbow finished while I was crocheting with babe asleep on my lap so I grabbed the tangled orange and spent way too much time untangling it just to have something to do with my hands (it's a sickness, I know). Ran out of that too and finally pulled out a whole ball of the white. So when you read the pattern and she says you need 4oz of yarn, believe her. Mine is definitely festive and a good way to use scraps.

The pattern is simple, just a small circle and then you increase tremendously each stitch to make a super ruffled circle that just curls almost onto itself. This is what the first row looks like (crocheting 6 dc into that one chain). The orange version I ripped out.



The third and final row is what transforms it into a pouf. Here's an inside shot.



I've mentioned before that although I am a perfectionist, type A, OCD, crafter I still do it for the process. Making something with my hands is alternately an outlet and an exercise in focus.


I'm sure I'm not the only one.

The ripple is done.

I'm not in love with it. The first time I saw the ripples across the blogosphere I wasn't impressed. I set the idea aside as a no go and moved on. Then I saw Alicia's ripple and felt a twinge. Still, I couldn't quite come up with a color scheme that didn't scream 70s or feel so random it didn't match. Having lived with 3 beige super shedding dogs for almost 9 years your color scheme naturally gravitates to beige and tan. Well, that is unless you want to vacuum twice a day. I rejected the ripple yet again.

Then I saw Lucy's ripple. More than a twinge, I immediately thought - I need THAT. Since there's no way I'd be able to pry that luscious blanket from her hands I would have to make my own. I figured I could recreate the feel of her color scheme (muted cool colors with a few punches of bright) but in a more affordable option like Caron Simply Soft. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about the natural fibers for my knitting, sewing and crocheting when it's reasonable. A 13 skein blanket? Not so reasonable (read Lucy's breakdown of her cashmerino blanket). However, the problem wasn't in the brand of yarn I used - the caron worked up wonderfully and I'll continue using it for other projects. My misstep was in adding just "one more color" over and over. I pretty much covered the whole rainbow and still felt the need for the "punches of color" with the orange, green and raspberry colors. I think it's just a bit too much.

It may just take some getting used to. Aside from the color though the blanket is huge. Large enough to cover Mr. Maricucu's 6'4" frame while he sleeps on the couch or for me to snuggle with both boys and the babe. It's super soft, squishy and apparently I'm the only having issues with the color scheme. Before I'd had a chance to weave in the ends, both boys grabbed it for a test run.



Since they'd already snuggled under it plenty of times while I crocheted it during the day, obviously the next thing to do would be build a fort. So after the obligatory pose-for-momma shot they went to town.


After the test run I wove in the ends, figured it might look better with a dark blue border so I added about 4 rows of SC in the dark blue. It's a bit improved. If anything it's kind of like an old pair of shoes that feel much better than they look. Mr. Maricucu humors me and tells me it looks lovely. Since everything looks better with a baby another hasty shot with the little one. This was after she found out how much the pay is around these parts.

I'm pretty lucky

I love my sister in law and she loves me. No really, I'm not kidding. Don't tell anyone but I'm pretty sure she loves me more than her brother (sorry Mr. Maricucu!). All kidding aside she's a great woman, has raised an amazing teenage girl (and that's a feat in itself, I bow to you A!), loves my kids, and just spoils us to death in her presence and from afar. Between her and my mom I have no need to celebrate my birthday. So, A's birthday was last fall and I was soooooo late. I promise that I won't ever bring it up again but I was due with my daughter right around that time and had pretty much given up on going anywhere or doing anything. Oh sure, I started her present I just hadn't gotten around to mailing it ohhhhh, for another five months.

Shush!

Anyway, A moved into a pretty amazing house a few years ago and when I last visited she had the most beautiful red chenille couch mixed in with some swanky craftstman decor that I knew would go well with this American Primer coaster set. The coasters were dead easy, follow the Martha Stewart tute right here just don't go all Martha on the turning part. Sew the two fabric squares and the batting inside out, leave an inch or two for turning, turn and THEN sew the opening shut. Much better than trying to wiggle in a piece of batting after sewing. Remember class, done is better than perfect.

I used part of the American Primer charm pack from moda and in a move filled with self sacrifice used some of the most gorgeous red and blue patterns. Then I thought I'd whip up a crocheted box in cotton worsted yarn. Famous last words. The box took longer than the whole set of coasters because of my knitpicking perfectionism. Finally sewed it up, added a lining and sent it off to her. Good thing too or the boys were going to wrestle me for the set to use as firefighter coasters (around here it's all firefighter, all the time).


Here are the various fabrics (ignore the hideous amounts of dust on my sewing table). I just love those large floral prints at each end. I might have to get my hands on some yardage of those:

All tied up and ready to go. Why yes, of course I must put my name on everything I make like some temperamental fashion designer. And no, I don't even sell for a living :