Busy Relaxin

Hi all,

I figured it was about that time again to write a post! It's been about a week now and I want to stay current with you all. I was getting very focused and consumed with making my crochet jewelry and decided I needed to step back and control myself... Ha ha! I just don't want my mind to be ruled by it or making money, that is the last thing I want! Making crochet items for people to buy is about sharing my talent and love for the work, not making money off of it. Making the money is about supporting the passion, not profiting off of it.

Image by Oscar J. Baeza via Flickr

Summer Time

It's summer time everyone. The weather is gradually getting up to it's hottest, 110 degrees, but for now it has been in the 90s. I am so thankful for it too! The month of June is a busy one for my family. Let me tell you about it.

My birthday, Father's day and my wedding anniversary are all this month! I had a fantastic birthday. My husband put on a Settlers of Catan party for me with some of my closest friends and my parents came a few days earlier and spent time with us. My husband and I went out and tried aqua golf, my first time, and it was really fun!

Life Update End of Spring

Hi all,

It looks like Spring is near it's end. But for most, Spring does not really end until the end of June. Where I live, it's starting to get hot. I am thankful though, because the heat did not start in March. Almost every year, temperatures rise to 100 to 115 degrees 8 months out of the year. It's a dry heat. This year was very different!

A lot of people in our city have been praying for rain for about the past year. Our state was going through a severe drought and the lakes that I am near were practically drying up. Our major lake is actually a water source that is sent down to southern California. So, God's people got active and started praying eagerly for rain.

Easter Cardigan

Crocheting clothes for my toddler was a thought that had crossed my mind awhile ago, but I never could imagine myself doing it until... One week before Easter she needed a jacket to match her Easter dress! Not only had I decided to take on this project as a newbie but I was in charge of packing for a family of three for a trip to LA!! Call me crazy, because I believe I set my goals a little too high sometimes...

Swing Set Cardigan

Front

Materials Used:
Vanna's Choice: White (2 balls)

Time as beginner: 10 hours (7 hour car ride to LA helped!)

Link to free crochet pattern: Free Crochet Pattern 90439AD Swing Set Cardigan Lion Brand Yarn Company

The cardigan is created by piecing large crochet pieces from the pattern together with a blunt yarn needle along the seems. My suggestion for stitching these together is after you are done adding on all the pieces, turn the cardigan inside out. Then your seems will be on the inside and your work will appear seamless.

Life is Good Update

Hello all,

It has been some time since I posted something, so I decided I'll let you all know I am still alive and well! Life happens, a lot, so I have been too busy to post anything as of late!

What I Have Been Up To
I have been working on my very first crochet pattern.... Two baby elephants! I will definitely post pictures here when I am done and also will be selling the pattern on my Etsy store. I am really excited about it!

I have also been decorating the house a bit, hanging curtains, getting rid of old stuff, removing excess furniture. We are thinking about painting the walls a pretty sky blue! Our furniture is brown so it's really gonna 'pop' so to speak.

Kira is doing great. Walking around really good now. She has her own designated area in the living room that is gated off and child proofed. She is starting to climb as well. Oh boy!

I just finished a wonderful india ink painting. It's of a lion, representing The Lion of the tribe of Judah, with a crown on his head. A beautiful frame at the thrift store was highlighted to me and made for it! It was truly a rewarding moment to hang it at the end of our hallway. God is so incredible and extremely awesome. He is my life and he is absolutely worthy of my adoration.

Future Updates
I am still trying to cultivate some sort of schedule in our new home. Since my computer is now in our office instead of the living room, it's a little harder for me to bring myself in here so much when my daughter is playing in the living room (What can I say? It's a mom thing!). So I will do my very best to post at least once a week. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Thanks for reading!

A Life Update For You

Hello everyone!

It has been a very long time since I posted my last entry, sorry about that! We are finally moved into our new house.  A lot has happened since the day before Thanksgiving and I did not get my computer up and running until a few days ago.

We moved they day before Thanksgiving and on Thanksgiving day. That was a little crazy. We went out to eat with my parents and were absolutely starving. It's a good thing we went to a buffet.

There are still boxes to be unpacked and we have been at war with ants in our house. At first it was a bombardment, but we hired pest control about a week later of pulling our hair out... I don't know why we even waited a week! Now their numbers are more under control and my plants are not being colonized...

My daughter Kira turned one this month! My husband and I threw her a little family party and she got a cake of her own. She was so cute. I put a doll in the middle of the cake and she quickly pulled it out and stuck it in her mouth. I'll have to post pictures later.

Almost every week now we have had events to go to and lots of stuff to do. There have been two Christmas parties, gift shopping, friends from out of town coming over, getting a clothes dryer and Kira cutting open her lip after she fell and then a few days later coming down with her first flu, the stomach flu.

I spent all of yesterday holding my daughter as she whimpered and was vomiting on the both of us from her stomach flu. It was one of the most traumatic things I ever went through with my child. The entire morning I was giving her two teaspoons of water every 15 minutes, but what she needed was some electrolyte solution. Thank God my husband was able to leave work and come home for the rest of the day to help. He bought some of that electrolyte solution and the vomiting stopped by 3/4 of the time. We went to the doctors and she was seen. She was moderately dehydrated and almost admitted to the hospital, but luckily she was showing normal signs of crying and complaining so we went home. Every time I gave her the electrolyte solution she always wanted more and it was so heart wrenching. My husband and I continued this for the rest of the day and night every 10 minutes. It is amazing what you will do for your kids survival because you love them so much. This made me realize how much more God loves me too.

Today things are a lot more settled down. I've been praying for a season of an organized schedule and little to no chaos. I look forward to the day I can have time to myself for creativity, get chores done on a daily basis, take care of my daughter and husband in things that are necessary and workout on a regular basis. I have faith that days like that will be mine soon. In the meantime I am looking forward to it.

Thanks for reading today and keep well during the season!

Moving Packing Tips

I googled, 'packing to move' and found this website full of tips: http://www.moversdirectory.com/packing_tips.html. Here are a few tips I took for myself:

1. Pack one room at a time.
1. This makes it feel more realistic at getting it all done rather than viewing the whole house to be packed at once.
2. Plates should be packed vertically like in a dish drain with plenty of paper wrapeped around them.

After reading the first one I wish I would have done this in the first place. What definitely distracted me was the things that could not be packed yet, therefore I had to move on to the next room. Thus I am going try and stick with this for the rest of the week. I have the Kitchen and my baby's room left, along with the entertainment center things. My husband suggested packing them last... But perhaps if we packed them now we would get more done over the week ;)

Packing with Totoro!

Hello all,

We are so close to moving now! One more week and a half and we will be able to move into our new house. It is so exciting, but at the same time a little crazy. My husband has been finishing up side work he wants done before we move and I have been trying to watch our daughter and pack in the meantime. You could say my plate is full for sure. I have us almost halfway packed.

In my resting time I have been crocheting. I recently finished Kira's Totoro hat for the winter! It was a very rewarding moment when I gave it to her and she recognized who it was. I about melted with joy!

My next project is a Totoro toy. I am starting small and trying to develop a new technique for the head. I am trying to create a head with a jaw/nose that is not round but pushes out from it. So, it's taking a little longer to figure it out then normal.

In other news, my husband informed me that season two of The Seeker came out!!! Why did he inform me? So that I wouldn't watch it on Netflix without him, haha! We watched the first season together and loved it. My mom still mentions I should take the time to read the books because they are ever-more detailed, which I believe her but, like I said earlier my plate is somewhat full at the moment.

With that said I am going to have to keep this blog short. The stuff in our house is calling my name to be packed! Thank you for reading, have a wonderful day.

Crochet Progression Since August 2009!

Left: My first attempt at Amigurumi and Right: Most recent toy finished today!

I wanted to share with you all how far I have come along since I first started crocheting in August 2009! Above is a photo of my crochet project to the left and my most recently finished to the right.

The left is a bear from Ana Paula Rimoli's book Amigurumi World. It was the first time I ever tried crocheting and it took me five times before I got the bear head right. I had cheap yarn from the thrift-store and no idea what I was really doing. My daughter loved it none-the-less and I really surprised myself with it at the time.

On the right is my most recent made toy, a mouse I named Melody! The base pattern is out of Ana's book mentioned above as well, but I decided to forge a new path and give it my own flare. I love putting the blush on the toys now. If you would like to know how it's done please contact me, I'd love to let you know! I added lashes and whites to the eyes and crocheted the mouth. Right after I finished taking pictures of it, I went upstairs and put it in Kira's crib for her to find when she wakes up from her nap!

Thank you for reading my post and meeting Melody the mouse!

PS: Melody is the name of our neighbor. She is a very sweet lady. Her husband's name is Robert and I was thinking about making a boy mouse to go with this one. We'll see!

Introducing Myself

Hello everyone!

This is my very first post. I have no idea what I should write about because there is so much going on in my life right now. But I suppose I should introduce myself for starters... My name is Rachel and I like to be called Rae. I am twenty-five years old and I have been happily married for 2 years and have a 10 month old daughter named Kira. I have lived in Northern California for most of my life.

I have been a stay-at-home mom/wife for a year and a half now and recently found more free-time to explore creative hobbies. I have always loved working with my hands. A few months ago in August I decided to give making crochet Amigurumi a try. This required learning how to crochet and how to read patterns.

My husband bought a book by Ana Paula Rimoli, "Amigurumi World" and everything pretty much took off from there. After a few minutes on the phone with my mom, who also crochets, I got the 'gist' of the art and began practicing. Probably after five tries of crocheting an amigurumi head, I moved on and began creating the cute little toys in Ana's book.

Every chance I got from taking care of my family and home I was crocheting. It quickly became an escape and relaxation time. I would crochet while my daughter took her naps, while watching TV, at friends houses, you name it! Since then I have finished 11 projects. Some from Ana's books, some booties for Kira, a matching bracelet and ring, gifts for friends, a huge Manta Ray of my very own and I even took a hand at creating Ele from the kids show Pocoyo for Kira! Which leads me to say the original reason I took up amigurumi making was to make toys for friends and family and possibly sell them online as handmade items for others to enjoy.

So that pretty much sums up my introduction here. There will be more fun posts of course about my daughter and 'heavenly stuffed' life so to speak. Please feel free to contact me about anything. I'd love to hear from you!