New Layouts

I've done days 1-3 for Journal Your Christmas so far

Procrastination

These are the Christmas cards I haven't mailed.

I'm sure most of you are thinking "So what? It's the 3rd of December, just go to the post office tomorrow & it'll be fine" Those of you who know me in real life might be wondering about the fact that it is only December 3rd and I yet I have cards in envelopes..... you are probably thinking to yourselves "Wait a minute! I'll bet those are LAST YEAR's cards that you never got in the mail!"

Well, you would be wrong.

They are cards from 2005.

Yes, that is right. I am now entering my 4th year of card mailing procrastination.

These are the cards I bought in 2006 but never got around to putting in envelopes.

These are the cards I bought in 2007 but never even opened the box.

This year I'm not even going to bother buying the cards in the first place.

The problem is one of stamps.

I never have any, or if I do they are 4 cents less than current stamps, so I'd have to put a bunch of 1 cent stamps on the envelopes because I am not about to waste $5 worth of stamps just because they are underfunded.  But given that I never got the stamps on the envelopes when I only had one stamp at time to deal with, the odds of my getting 5 stamps on an envelope are quite low indeed.

Then there is the problem of getting them in the mail. Because remembering to put them in my mailbox is asking way too much of me.

I'm rather surprised I don't have stamped, yet still unmailed cards lying around from 2004. But I think I did manage to get those sent out in early January 2005.

More pages for the calendar

I finished the calendar today, uploaded it and ordered it from Cafe Press. I like their design better.

It's day 2 of Journal Your Christmas. It was a weather related prompt so I was out bright & early taking photos of the frost. I also spend about an hour taking pictures of the ornaments that don't fit on our tree, the paper, boxes and bags I use to wrap gifts and a stack of the gifts that I wrapped today. I guessing they will be a topic down the road & I will be out of town for 10 days at the end of the month so I'm taking tons of photos of things now in anticipation. If there is not wrapping related prompt I'll just add an additional page.

Now that I have started the project again this year I can see where I may end up with a few extra pages because of including the travel, the Solstice and photos I have taken of things that didn't end up as a prompt.

Here are the last calendar pages

I made these pages with Kim Hill's Storyboard set and her Companion Phrases sets, both available at Scrapbook-Elements. I also used a few kits by Eve Kipler, Zoe Pearn, Melissa Bennett & Kristin Cronin Barrow at Sweet Shoppe Designs

Pages for my mom's calendar

I've been busy getting this calendar together. I'm getting it professionally printed this year at Artscow, rather than do it myself, so I must be on the ball about this.

I made these pages with Kim Hill's Storyboard set and her Companion Phrases sets, both available at Scrapbook-Elements.  Some of the pages also use kits by Lauren Grier, Misty Cato & Eve Kipler at Sweet Shoppe Designs

Dodecahedron

This is my amigurumi dodecahedron. 

I adapted the pattern from Berroco, found here, to make it amigurumi.  I ended up with 2 different patterns, one makes the points more rounded & the other more pointy. I used the more pointy version I used a ball of some worsted weight cotton that I have had for years and a 3.50 sized hook. My dodecahedron ended up about 7 inches in height and width.

Rounded point pattern

Ch 3, 4 sc in 2nd chain

Row 1 - 2 sc in each sc around - 8 sc

Row 2 - sc, (2sc in each sc around) 7 times - 15 sc

Row 3 - sc around - 15 sc

Row 4 - (sc, 2sc, sc) 5 times around - 20 sc

Row 5 - sc around - 20 sc

Row 6 - (sc, sc, 2sc, sc) 5 times around - 25 sc

Row 7 - sc around - 25 sc

Row 8 - (sc, sc, 2sc, sc, sc) 5 times around - 30 sc

Row 9 - sc around - 30 sc

Row 10 - (sc, sc, 2sc, sc, sc, sc) 5 times around - 35 sc

Row 11 & 12 - sc around - 35 sc

Leave long tail for stitching - 4"-6"

 

Pointy point pattern

Ch 3, 4 sc in 2nd chain

Row 1 - 2 sc in each sc around - 8 sc

Row 2 - sc, (2sc in each sc around) 7 times - 15 sc

Rows 3 to 5-  sc around - 15 sc each

Row 6 - (sc, 2sc, 2sc) 5 times - 25 sc

Row 7 to 9 - sc around - 25 sc each

Row 10 - (2sc, sc, sc, 2sc, sc) 5 times - 35 sc

Row 11 & 12 - sc around - 35 sc each

Leave long tail for stitching - 4"-6"

 

Now for assembly,which I find challenging to explain,even though it is really simple once you see the pattern, so I have photos to help

Crochet 12 points, using whichever method pattern you prefer

Mark one as point one. Stitch another point to it, joining 7 scs together, using one of the point's long tail.

Take a 3rd point and attach it, using it's tail to 1 and 2, with 7 scs on each point, for a total of 14scs joined

Attach 4th point to points 1 and 3 as before.

Attach 5th point to points 1 and 4 as before.

Attach 6th point to points 1, 2, and 5, for a total of 21 scs joined, completing the bottom circle.

At this point you can probably see how the rest of it will be assembled.  Take point 7 and attach it to points 2 and 3 (or any 2 points really), for a total of 14 scs joined. Attach point 8 to points 7, 3, and 4 for a total of 21 scs joined.

Continue attaching points 9, 10, and 11 this way (11 being attached on 4 sides for 28 scs)

Stuff the dodecahedron as firmly or as loosely as you prefer. Leave all the loose ends of tails inside. If you used the more pointy shaped version of the points, be sure to get the tips of the points well & firmly stuffed or they will squish flat quickly. Once you have it stuffed, attach 28 scs of the 12th point, stuff the 12th point and stitch the final 7scs closed.  Weave in the end of this tail.

Scrapbook Saturday

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Home again

Had a blast at Great Wolf Lodge for the most part. Mayhem had some seriously whiny & sulky moments that were a bit much. He didn't want to do anything, go anywhere, just sit in the room. Then he'd ask how long we were staying & pitch a fit that we were leaving the next day because he wanted to stay longer. Sorry, kid but you can sulk around a bedroom at home for free. Other than those moments though, we had a lot of fun. I have 208 photos taken at a good distance, with low lighting, to prove it! Havoc completed 3 MagiQuest adventures and went several times on the boggie board. Mayhem collected the final runes he needed to start doing MagiQuest adventures and spent a lot of time running around the tree fort. I went up a great many stairs, a great many times, lugging a single or double innertube each time. My friend Mel and I were on an exercise mission - THIGHS OF STEEL! DH did a lot of boogie boarding and chasing Mayhem around the treehouse

So now I am home, with 3 loads of laundry to do and a kitchen that is mysteriously full of crumbs when it had been wiped down & swept before we left. Despite bringing my computer with me and logging on Sunday night & yesterday afternoon, I have about 200 emails, I am behind about 150 Entrecard drops, need to read about 1000 posts in the SkinnyJeans forum, about 75 threads on SSDs forum, a huge number on Raverly, god only knows how many posts in my blog reader and I haven't even looked at the mom blog boards I visit. I'm seriously considering marking everything read and starting clean. Maybe reading stuff from today and marking the rest read.... I'll probably end up skimming everything... I did read my Twitter DMs, responses and about 40 of the most recent Tweets, so do I feel I am caught up somewhere at least.

Weekly Winners will contain many heavily altered photos of Great Wolf Lodge and *gasp* probably no dinosaurs. They did not come with us.

hhmmmm...

I think I know where the crumbs in the kitchen may have come from.

Scrapbook Saturday

 

This is my dad when he was about 6-8 months old.  Today is his 70th birthday.

Bragging on my fab crochet creativity

That'd be sarcasm, BTW

I finished the amigurumi octopus for Havoc. He chose the rainbow colored yard for it

I've been experimenting with how to create different shape effects with amigurumi and I created a bunch of mushrooms while doing it.

Then I decided to focus on making something for a friend to keep the bad energy away and I made this traffic cone

  

Then I got my hands on some googly eyes and the mushrooms gained some personality.

The traffic cone became an angry traffic cone

I think he is just the cutest thing ever.

The traffic cone came about as a result of 2 things. First I was going to make a witches hat for a little crochet person I had made recently (There is no photo of said person because it seems to have vanished & I am pretty annoyed about that because I never wrote the pattern down & now have to start over) The problem is I really didn't want to do all those close stitches in black (3sc in a circle, then 4sc, then 5 sc, etc - pain in the butt in black yarn & I am over black yarn from the penguin). The other thing was a friend of mine was joking that she calls traffic cones buried safety witches. (witchy humor). Last night those 2 thoughts met in my mind and decided to make a traffic cone & try & square off the rounded hat brim corners. Then I glued on the googly eyes. Cute but it needed something. This traffic cone is a gift for a friend who is dealing with some negative stuff in her life & I figured what better to keep unwanted things away than an angry traffic cone.  So I was sitting here thinking I was pretty clever typing this up when it occurred to me I had seen crochet traffic cones before. I googled it and sure enough -  Alicia did it first. Hers don't appear to be angry & have different eyes, but it is the same idea.  Hers are stuffed & mine isn't but I think the next one I make will use her idea of sewing it to a crocheted square. I wish I had remembered this before I started experimenting with creating a cone on my own. Would have saved me a bunch of time. But I was googling crochet witches hat and not traffic cone.

I'm thinking of selling the mushrooms & the traffic cones on Etsy, along with the little bags that I make.

I'm saving up to buy a D40 camera & every little bit helps, plus I have a huge stock of yarn already so the set up costs were covered long ago.  I just need a name. I like The Magical Mushroom or something to that effect but I haven't had time to go out & see what is already & use. Any suggestions would be appreciated

Caught Unprepared

Mayhem comes home with a package from school. In it is a blank construction paper banner and some instructions. How cute! Preschool homework! The note says "Your child should draw or cut from magazines pictures of their favorite things. Please let them use the scissors themselves." "This should be a lot of fun" I say to Mayhem and set about finding scissors and glue. Then I look around and I realize something - there is nothing for Mayhem to cut out. We get 2 magazines in our house. The first is Cook's Illustrated, which is illustrated only with black & white photos of food and cooking implements. Mayhem is the anti-foodie, so CI won't work. The other is NRA Magazine. 

Yeah.

I look around hoping to find an old issue of Real Simple or Rachel Ray Magazine. I pick them up randomly at the store. But no, apparently I have been decluttering effectively lately. The only thing I find is a year old copy of a sci fi mag with Dr Who on the cover and the kid's not getting near that with his scissors.

We had a few days for this project so I looked around the magazine section when I went to the store the next day. Vogue. Mademoiselle, other magazines with articles about how to improve your sex life & look better in bed. Not really appropriate. Guns & Ammo. Hunting & Fishing. Got that covered already, thanks. 28 magazines aimed at teen girls, all featuring the Jonas Brothers on the cover. Also not really appropriate. 9 different football magazines. Not really useful as Mayhem doesn't care about sports yet. Numerous quilting, crocheting, knitting and scrapbooking magazines. Well, they interest *me* but I'm not seeing anything that would interest Mayhem. Racing magazines! Car magazines! Monster truck magazines! Hey, these might work! Oh...wait...there is a scantily clad woman draped over every single vehicle in every one of these magazines. Maybe when he is 14.

Where are the toy catalogs when you need them?!?! It's September. Shouldn't I be receiving Christmas toy catalogs by now?!?!  Oh wait, maybe I have and tossed them in the trash. Damn me and my decluttering anyway.

I ended up showing him the photos I have taken so far for my 365 Project,, letting him choose what he wants, printing them out in small size and letting him cut them out.

I'm not much into these sorts of crafts. I'm not that sort of craft person and I really suck with scissors. 

Seriously, I can't cut a straight line. Even a short one.

I haven't let Mayhem touch scissors since the curtain incident 8 months ago, except PlayDoh ones, so he really has no clue how to use them. He was two handed snipping at the paper, creating lots of fringe but not cutting out any thing. It was driving me nuts to see this. But the teacher stressed letting them do all of it and just guiding them, so I sat on my hands and watched. I eventually justified taking the scissors off of him and repositioning them in his hand. This helped him cut better, but of course he's cutting at weird angles, chopping of photo parts and getting upset about it. I'm upset about it too.  I wanted to shout STOP GOOFING OFF AND PAY ATTENTION!!! But I had to stifle that and tell him it was ok, it was a collage & he'd be gluing lots of things on top of others and then sit back and watch him DO IT AGAIN!

When it came time to color it I gave him crayons because I knew my nerves weren't up to seeing him MIX THE PAINT COLORS together.

I basically spend the entire time sitting there watching him thinking

MUST. NOT. INTERVENE

I have no idea where this impulse comes from. I am not an interventionist parent in any other realm, but paint & scissors bring it out intently & it's always been a struggle for me to sit back and let them make all the paint brown.

This was Mayhem's first school project.He glued pictures on top of the coloring he did, "So they are a surprise."

Could you be a vampire?

You Could Be a Vampire... If You Had To

Like most people, the thought of being a vampire has crossed your mind. But you're not sure if you'd do it, even if you could. Living forever doesn't sound half bad, if you could live forever with the people you love the most. But do vampires even love? And would the vampire version of you even be you? It's all too much to contemplate. Luckily, the chances of you ever becoming a vampire are astronomically low. What you would like best about being a vampire: Living forever What you would like least about being a vampire: Blood stained teeth

Could You Be a Vampire?

Scrapbook Saturday

My layouts this week

 

created with Tell Me a Story by Traci Reed & Heather Roselli at Sweet Shoppe Designs

one of my Learn Something New layouts, created with Scary Moon Cat by Lauren Grier at SSD

another Learn Something New layout,created with Winter Chic by Shabby Princess at ShabbyPrincess.com

Scrapbook Saturday

Some layouts I did this week

This was done with Heart of Fall by Traci Reed & Kay Miller at Sweet Shoppe Designs

This was made with Mischief & Mayhem by Heather Roselli, also at SSD. This was for the Learn Something New class I am taking

This was done with Bestest of Friends- Boys by Eva Kipler at SSD