I’ve done just a couple crochet projects the last few months. The yard has been keeping me pretty busy. I made myself a blanket, something I rarely do. I wanted to learn how to do a chevron design.
Chevron blanket
I love using Daisy Farm Crafts patterns because they always include a video on the intricate stiches or patterns. I use it every night on the couch, watching TV and crocheting my next project. Another one of their patterns I loved was this cactus blanket.
Cactus blanket
My in-laws, that we bought our house from, moved to Arizona. So I made this blanket for them as a house warming gift, they loved it. It was a more complicated pattern but once you get it down it’s pretty easy. Keeping the lines from tangeling is the hardest part. I sell the chevron and cactus blankets on my Etsy shop. Last Christmas my sister made me a Seahawks hat and I’ve wanted to learn how she made it.
Making eyes
Seahawks hat
On my last visit to see her I had her teach me how she made it. I made a pattern from her dictation and made the hat. I will add this hat to Etsy soon. It turned out just like the original.
I decorated our house pretty quickly after moving in. But the last thing to do was put up pictures. Two large walls in our living room stayed blank until just about a month ago.
Gallery wall
The first wall I wanted to add some family pictures to. I decided to do a gallery wall. I bought the frames on Amazon and ordered 8×8 pictures from Walgreens. I liked how this turned out and love looking at the pictures as I walk by. For the largest wall I wanted something that would try to fill up the space above the couch. Trying to save some money and also be a little creative I decided to make the art myself. I got some inspiration on Pinterest of what style I wanted. I bought some canvases on sale at Michaels, some paint, and painters tape. First I spray painted the canvases with gold paint and let that dry. Then I put the tape on the canvases in a design. I used blue paint as my base, added white to some and added black to the rest. I then painted over the tape in an ombre effect. I let that dry overnight and peeled off the tape to get the final look. I love how these turned out ❤️
Since we have been stuck at home this spring I have done a few projects around the yard to keep busy. Once my seeds were starts I planted them and got busy with the rest of the yard.
Potato, corn, brussels sprouts in May
Tomato plants in May
Garlic, onion, and lettuce in May
After building the garden beds I thought a bed for flowers would compliment the garden well. My in-laws left a huge pile of stones from a flower garden they used to have. I have been trying to think of a use for them and now I had one. I layered them two stones high and against the fence behind the garden beds. I put plastic against the fence to block the moisture. I had some trellises that I bought years ago and now I finally have a use for them. I planted clematis, sunflowers, marigolds, dahlias, and a few others.
Flower garden ready to plant
Flower bed blooming
First sunflower
Flower from the garden
Marigolds
Edible flower
The next bed I made was for herbs. Same style as the flower bed in a different part of the yard. I planted rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano, parsley, cilantro, and basil. The herbs are growing like crazy.
Herb garden planted
Herb garden growing well
I still had some stones leftover so I thought I would build up a bed to go around my blueberries. There was one established bush, and I had brought three others in pots from our last house. So I built the bed and planted the blueberry bushes, they are thriving now that they have been planted.
Before
Blueberry bushes planted
First harvest
Another project in the backyard was planting some new grass. Back in 2016 I had helped my in-laws by digging up a flower bed they no longer wanted. I think they were going to extend the patio. When we bought the house we thought to do the same thing. But we decided to just extend the grass, a cheaper and faster result. It has filled in nicely.
Before, 2016
My supervisor
Ready to add dirt and seed
Dirt and seed down
Grass all filled in
My favorite project was one my husband did. He put in a drip irrigation system for all my beds. Oh it is so nice to just turn on the water and they get fed in just the right spot!
Trench for the irrigation
My sweet hubby
Drip line in place
Drip line feeding my babies
For the front yard just some fresh bark and a few ground cover plants is all it needed. Our yard has never looked so good.
2020 has been a crazy year so far. As of writing this post we have been home “quarantined” for 5 months. That means a lot of time on my hands to crochet and do crafts, as well as tend to the garden. Our yard has never looked so good! So as with any pandemic, you need masks. So I crocheted some. I used some leftover quilt fabric to sew on the backside for a filter.
My mask
Mask for my dad
My son’s mask
Mask filters sewn on
I also learned how to make headbands, pretty easy and quick. Another fun project was making a granny square purse. I lined it with fabric so things won’t fall through the holes.
Fun colored headband
Red, white, and blue headband
Every day headband
Ready to make it into a purse
Purse lining
My purse model
Granny square purse
Side #2
My son and I did a little sidewalk chalk art, that was fun. I made a yarn stick, not sure what you call it. It’s easy though, just wrap yarn around a tree limb and stick it in the garden for some fun yard art.
My artist
Our masterpiece
Our chalk art
Yarn stick in place
One project that was really fun was painting rocks. I set out to just paint strawberries so I could put them next to my strawberry plants as decoy for birds. They turned out so good, that I kept going. Painted a bunch of rocks for around the yard. I see what all the hype is about, it’s so fun and creative.
My painted rocks
Garden markers
Frog rock
Decoy strawberry rocks
Decoys in place
I found a little stool for $2 at the Goodwill, bought some new fabric and a cushion and made the cutest little foot rest. My last project was an easy one. You know those paper chains that you make in kindergarten? I crocheted one for my mantle. Just a little pop of color that was needed. I’m sure there will be many more quarantine crafts coming, but hopefully this pandemic comes to an end soon and we can get back to normal life.
Spring is finally almost here, that means it time to build some garden beds! I have been waiting a year since we moved in to build these. First I had to take out the old beds and do a little weeding. My son “helped” me with that. Then my favorite part, using the saw and cutting my lumber. I use cedar boards from Sound Cedar. They will last a really long time. I fill the beds with tree logs and limbs, the method I have had much success with, hugelkultur.
Beds before
My helper
First bed made
Hugelkultur in place
Dirt and ollas in place
Finally some 3 in 1 dirt and then add in my ollas and they are ready to go. The whole process took about a week. During the same week of building the beds I started my seeds indoors.
Starting seeds
90% of the veggies I grow come from seed, but sometimes I can’t resist a beautiful start from Joe’s Gardens.
This year I also made some garden markers. I bought these metal stakes at a flee market a while ago and just thought they were so cool and unique. I’m not sure what they are supposed to be used for but I thought garden markers. Last thing I had to do to get the garden prepped was take out an awesome bay tree. It’s the biggest one I’ve ever seen, but it just cast too much shadow on the beds. But we did unearth a firepit so that was cool.
In March we traveled to Yuma Arizona to visit my grandparents. They are snow birds and this was our first trip to see their new house and check out Yuma.
At Lute’s Casino
The weather was great, mid seventies is perfect for me. We went to the old prison and checked out restaurants and the farmers market in the old downtown.
Lute’s Casino is really a restaurant and there is something new to see every time you go. We went a couple times.
My co-pilot
Newest inmate
Outside Lute’s Casino
Inmates number 1&2
The coolest bar in town was called Red’s Bird Cage. It is underground, small, quiet, and dark. Perfect place to escape the sun and go have a cold drink.
Best bar in town
At Red’s Bird Cage
Aaaaargh
We also went to Z Fun Factory so my son could play some games. It was a little too hot for putt putt but it looked like a great course, maybe next time. A few trips to the casino and some good ol’ relaxing with the guitar at my grandparents and it made for a great trip.
After the holidays were done I was still working on crafts, just waiting until the weather warmed up so I could build my new garden beds.
I have had this large slab of wood for a few years, not sure what to do with it. For Christmas I made it say Noel, for Valentine’s Love, and for the rest of the year it says Home. I just bought the letters and spray painted them. Easy peasy!
Supplies for Noel sign
Noel sign
Noel sign in place
Love sign
Home sign
For Valentine’s I also made a heart ❤️ garland for the mantle. Made one for my mama too.
Heart garland
Heart garland at my mom’s house
For my son I made him a Batman blanket. It was really easy, just make a thousand little squares (felt like it) then sew them together in the pattern.
Made hundreds of these squares
I am Batman
Batman blanket
Bought these cute tags on Etsy
I tried a new type of crochet pattern for a baby blanket for some friends. Their nursery theme was mountains. It was actually easy to do once I got it down. I also made one for our trailer, I made it into a wall hanging.
We moved into a new house last year. It was a “new” house for us but it has belonged to my in-laws for 24 years. When I met my husband he was still living with them in this house. So it has always been like a second home to me. When we found out that my in-laws were going to move and sell the house, we decided we wanted to keep it in the family and jumped at the chance to buy it. The holidays were the first ones in the new house and it was so much fun to decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I made a bunch of crafts to help decorate for Christmas. The first one I did was make a JOY sign. I saw it on Pinterest and thought I could do that, so I have it a whirl. And it turned out just like I imagined it would. A little spray paint, embroidery hoops, hot glue, and fabric is all the supplies needed.
Everything has been spray painted gold
Supplies to make the joy sign
Joy sign
Joy sign in place
Since I had leftover gold spray paint I painted our pumpkins for my Thanksgiving table centerpieces. Love the way the gold pumpkins turned out.
Gold pumpkins for the centerpiece
Thanksgiving table
Back to Christmas..I always have extra yarn in the house. I wanted to make some yarn trees to put on the mantle. I bought some styrofoam cones and used hot glue to wrap them in yarn, added a spray painted gold star on top. I love how simple this craft was.
Supplies for yarn trees
Yarn trees
Yarn trees in place on the mantle
I made a huge star garland for the windows in my dining room. I love how it turned out but that one was time consuming. After making all the stars I used modge podge to make the stars stiff, which worked great but you had to pin each star point. I love how it turned out so I made some smaller garlands for a few family members for Christmas presents.
Making stars
Stars being modge podged
Blue and silver star garland in place
Red, white, and blue star garland
Dark green, blue, grey star garland
Seahawks star garland
One craft that I did I absolutely love ❤️ I made some granny square throw pillows. They were so simple and so striking. I sell them in my Etsy shop. I have sold quite a few of these.
Christmas granny square pillows
Granny square pillows in place
The last Christmas craft I did wasn’t necessarily a craft. My aunt commissioned me to make a bunch of hats for her kids and grandkids. It had been a few years since I made a hat so I had to learn it all over. But it was fun. I made my son a purple hat and he sleeps in it every night. It is so streched out now but he still wears it.
My son loves chocolate. He wants it every day. So naturally for his birthday he wants chocolate cake. I’ve made this chocolate cake recipe for his last two birthdays. It is the best cake I’ve ever made. It’s three layers with a chocolate buttercream icing. I found the recipe on Pinterest, here is the recipe. This year he has really been into Legos. So a Lego cake it was. It was really easy to decorate, I just used his little Lego pieces and Lego characters stuck into the icing. Viola!
I have wanted a granny square blanket since I was a kid. I used to watch the show Rosanne and they had one on the back of their couch and I just loved it. Since making 44 blankets for Christmas, I had a bunch of leftover yarn ? Perfect for making a granny square blanket. It took about a month of making squares and then sewing them into rows, then sewing the rows together to make a blanket. It turned out so well, I even had my first order for one once I showed it off on Facebook to friends and family, so that was cool. One of my favorite works I’ve done so far. Now it sits on the back of my couch ?
