Haloween Crafts

by Kelly

Halloween is coming. Are you ready?

This little ghost is so cute you just want to eat him up. And that's okay, 'cos he's completely edible. Yes, even the googly eyes. Find out how on  Hungry Happenings.

Cross Stitch pattern from Krenik. Krenik is an awesome place to buy your crafty supplies or get inspiration from their free patterns section. 


And finally, Red Heart has a new way for you to decorate your pumpkins if carving them up is too messy or traditional for you. Simply crochet them a costume instead.

here at the Red Heart site.

Love that pirate pumpkin. Arrr.

Crochet Squares

by Kelly

Elephant

Pattern here from Dayna's Crochet.

Impossible Hexagon

Pattern here from All Free Crochet Patterns. Hmm...advanced. Well, that's out of my league.

Dolphin

Pattern here from All Crafts.

More Cross Stitch

by Kelly

More Cross Stitch show and tell.

Swan Card

Blurry Rose Bookmark

Crewel

Now that I've gotten the hang of things, I find cross stitch kits a little dull because there's not a lot of room for creativity. Embroidery and crewel work kits are still fun, because I can experiment with new stitches.

I just bought a Trish Barr Needlepainting kit that I am excited to try. Needlepainting is a whole new thing for me to learn. But first I have to finish my current knitting project. Meh.

Afghan for the Next New Baby

I make an afghan for each new baby in the family. It has become a tradition. I've tried to give them other presents but they want afghans. My nephew and his wife are expecting a baby in November and I just finished this afghan for them. It is made of many colors of granny squares and they are joined together with a looping technique. That leaves the back side nice and flat. I've made this before using a diagonal pattern. This time I just randomly attached the colors. I think it turned out well.

Charity Square Drive

I was looking around for a new baby blanket pattern to make for a friend of mine and I found this other blog. It's titled SmoothFox and she has a lot of different types of patterns out there. What I found most interesting is she hosts a competition on her blog for a charity drive. You turn in crocheted or knitted squares to a group called Online Angel's who put the squares together into blankets to give out to needy/sick families.

The interesting part is that it looks as though each square you put in gives you a chance to win a the grand prize of $100.00. You can compete as individuals or as a team. If you win and you happen to be part of a group then SmoothFox will post about your group....or possibly blog or shop. :)

Here's the link. What do you guys think about maybe entering?

Trees

by Kelly

Ah, autumn! Crisp apples, warm days and cool nights, and the smell of woodsmoke in the air. And sawdust. Did I mention sawdust?

Me plus tree. That's not the trunk.

Outside our front door

We've cut down three trees in the last two weeks. Donna and her husband cut down two, and we cut down one.

This little saga started with a neighbor informing me that our dead tree creaked so much during a recent storm that she was afraid it would fall on her dog. Now, I like dogs and all, but if I thought a tree was about to fall, I would be more concerned with property damage. Like houses, and cars, for example. I would think a dog would have the good sense to run out of the way.

Still, we decided to bite the bullet and pay to get the tree cut down. ($950, by the way, for those of you who have never been forced to have this done. And that was really a good price - we have paid more.) While we waited patiently for the tree guy to show up, feeling like the Sword of Damocles was hanging over our heads (or rather, our house),  Donna's tree, which was still green and leafy, fell down one morning while I was watching.

So began an orgy of tree felling.

One thing I have noticed, is that if you have something like this

in front of your house, people will beat a path to your door to ask if you're selling firewood. Even if they have to climb over tree trunks to get to your door.

Fruits of my Labor

I have been missing in action for quite a while now. But I have been quite busy. This is what I have been doing for about six weeks. I have made pickles, pasta sauce, salsa, pickled vegetables, giardiniera, green beans and zucchini bread. I still want to make apple butter and cinnamon apple jelly as soon as I get some apples.

Then I got busy and did some much needed housework around here.

That doesn't mean I have quit crocheting. Never! I just didn't spend as much time at it. I didn't quit reading, either. I know what my priorities are!