Little Easter Peep Crochet Pattern

On the plane home yesterday, I had a little blue yarn left over from a baby blanket I am working on and my brand new Susan Bates plastic hooks, so I decided to try out this cute little pattern I found in my blogging forays at Hanni Craft. She called it a little Easter Peep, and it was such a little cutie I just couldn’t help myself. The pattern was quite easy, and it worked up quite fast.

Since I was on a plane I didn’t have any cotton batting at hand to stuff my two little Peeps with. So I took some plastic and napkins from a pack of plastic silverware I had in my bag and stuffed them with that! A little unconventional, and my little Peep better not take any swims anytime soon, but it seemed to work fine and give it a nice shape. Unfortunatelu, Hanni did not provide the pattern for the little birdie beak. So I improvised on that a bit and added it to the pattern below. I used an H hook with some baby sport yarn. Here is my little birdie in the Easter tableau I made for our dining room table:

I’ll definitely be sending one of these to my Mom as well (sorry for the spoiler!) as this seems like a peepalicious way to wish someone a Happy Easter!

Abbreviations

ch = chain
sc = single crochet stitch
st = stitch
sc"tog = single crochet stitch two stitches together (decreasing)
* repeat *

Peep's pattern

Make a magic ring.

1. row: 6 sc

2. row: 2 sc into each st (total: 12 st)

3. row: * 1 sc, 2 sc * (total: 18 st)

4-7. row: 1 sc into each st

8. row: sc, sc2tog in each 5th st (total: 15 st)

9-12. row: 1 sc into each st

13. row: sc, sc2tog in each 4th st (total: 10 st)

14. row: sc2tog in each (5 st)

Bind off.

For Beak:

Leave a long tail for fastening the beak to the head. Ch 4, sc in 2 chain and though end of row. 3 sc.

Sc3tog to make the pointy end of the beak. Fasten off, and weave end into the beak. Use a tapestry needle to sew the beak to the head.

Blick Art Materials in Portland!

Just returned from my work trip to Portland today. Whoever said it was rainy in that part of the country wasn’t lying- it rained almost the entire time I was there! Ate dinner in the Pearl District at a place called Andina. The food was Peruvian, and it was simply amazing. I totally recommend it if you ever end up in the area! I attempted to window shop after dinner, but at only 7, most of the shops that weren’t bars were closed. There was one place that was open, called Blick Art Materials on Glisan St. The place was seriously crafting nirvana! I had to restrain myself from scooping up everything and taking it home with me. 

Matryoshka & Disco Ball Earbuds!

Mirrored birds. Totally basing a craft project off this one.

After wandering for about half an hour, I managed to hone my choices down to a few perfect things that would fit in my suitcase without any zipper explosions. They had Shrinky Dink plastic in several different colors, so I bought some in purple. Keep a look out for some cool jewelry coming up. I also found a pack of Susan Bates plastic crochet hooks. These are my favorite hooks ever, but I can’t find them in Texas and the ones in the sizes I use a lot had all broken since I use them so much. So major score there. And then there was the handmade paper.

The whole back wall of the store was racks and racks of beautiful handmade paper. They had some really big pieces that I wanted but didn’t think I could get home without damaging in my suitcase. But they had a small multi-pack of gorgeous paper for 99 cents (no idea what I’ll use it for, just couldn’t help myself), and a kit that only cost $6 to create three handmade Japanese style books. A little nervous about this last one, as the directions look very detailed. But I hope they turn out OK, seems like it would be a lovely handmade gift for someone special.

I am so excited to have acquired all this crafting inspiration. Now I just have to find the time to get it all done!

"Fast Food" at Home: Speedy Cassoulet

I have had the worst travel schedule for work lately. Three weeks in a row I have been gone. Not exactly conducive to crafting, cooking, or writing for that matter. I have been actively working on a baby blanket on the plane, and some other small projects, but just haven't had time to get them together for a post!

Sometimes you just need to get dinner on the table fast. Thanks to my pal Betty (you know how much I love her, like in this post, and this one!) and a few cans from your pantry, now you can! The recipe tells you to do this on the stove, but I did mine in the crock pot because I had some sausage in the freezer that I didn't feel like de-frosting. Tossed them in about an hour before dinner, and sliced them up after they had been sitting awhile on high. Then I topped each bowl with some homemade bread crumbs. The recipe says you can have this done in 15 minutes, which really is some FAST food! =)

Wine Cork Tray

I've seen a lot of cute decorations out there that are embellished with wine corks. I started collecting all the corks from the wine we drink three or so years ago and displaying them in this big hurricane jar. When I saw a cute tray at Hobby Lobby for eight bucks, I decided this was the perfect time to use up some of my corks! Although visitors might have thought I just drink too much wine (three years is a long time, people!) they totally came in handy for this project.

Haha, so true

I don't have a before picture, but the tray was just plain on the bottom. I lined up the different corks in seven rows and matched them up so they slotted in nicely. Then I proceeded to hot glue, and hot glue, and hot glue....Several burned fingers later, here is what I ended up with:

I put glue on the bottom and the side of each cork so that they would all stick together pretty seamlessly. Turned out pretty cute, although I have not used it yet except in the display of china and such above our kitchen cabinets. Here is a side view:

Have you tried this out yet? I have seen some cute projects for coasters and cork boards that look adorable!

Lace Earrings!

I've mentioned this before, but I love thrift shopping at the Goodwill Outlet in CA. A few weeks ago I found this cute t-shirt with floaty sleeves, a keyhole back, and some cute lace at the bottom:

The only problem was the lace was just SO tight. The rest of the shirt fit great, so after I read this post about lace earrings, I thought, this lace could be going better places than making me uncomfortable! Carefully snip, snipped around the bottom, and then I had a t-shirt that fit great. I didn't bother sewing it because the shirt is made of a jersey type fabric, and the sides were serged. I don't have an after picture because I was so excited the shirt fit that I put it on right away, and now it's in the laundry. Oops.

After my lace had been rescued, I looked over the part that was all white, and found some flowers that matched and carefully cut them out. Then I took some of my fabric stiffener and used a paint brush to carefully spread it on my flowers and let it dry on our grease screen (It's non-toxic, I promise!).

I picked up some earring posts and backs from Hobby Lobby today ($1.50, 50% off!) and hot glued each flower to one of the posts. I haven't glued the big flowers yet; I am still deciding if they would be too huge for my ears. A pin maybe? Here is the finished product, one on each ear:

I think I like the left one better, the shape is just super cute. This took about 15 minutes altogether, and I am totally loving it. Can't wait to wear one of these to work tomorrow!

Ugly Frame = New "Antique" Mirror with Krylon Looking Glass Mirror Spray Paint

When I got married a few years ago, we got lots of lovely gifts. Like our stand mixer. And Fiesta ware. And a cordless drill. And then there are those things you just don't like, and with no gift receipt, alas, you are stuck with it! This large frame was one of them:

It is something like 11x17, and for a while I thought about putting a wedding picture in there. But then I thought such a huge picture of us would be weird. And then it sat behind our couch and got sort of dinged up. And I never really like how gold it was. 

I have noticed lately that these ornate black scrolly frames seem very popular in stores, and figured if I spray painted it black it would look more modern. I also wanted to experiment with Krylon Looking Glass Mirror Spray Paint, which I have seen a number of people use in projects on their respective blogs. With my 40% off coupon, it was only $8. 

To start, I spray painted the frame. I used some black paint that was supposed to be rust proof for cars. Not so worried about the rusting of my wooden frame, but it was what we had and didn't seem worth buying something new. Took a number of coats (about 4) and a touch-up spray the next day, but went pretty well. Then I laid out my glass and sprayed the back five times like the can said, waiting for it to dry in between sprays. I also did a second touch up spray the next day. I am feeling a bit iffy about how it turned out- a little blurry, with some weird spots. And definitely not equal to the quality of a real mirror. Not sure if I just sprayed unevenly or what. In any case, I have decided to call this look "antique." 

I am however pretty happy with the frame. It is much better looking now without all that ugly gold! It's now on my dresser with my jewelry box. Maybe if I get tired of this as a mirror, I'll just use the empty frame by itself as a decoration. Has anyone else tried this Krylon paint with somewhat better luck?

Granola Bar Cookie Recipe

One of my pet peeves is throwing away food. I hate, hate, hate it. I mean, we go grocery shopping, buy all this nice fresh food, and to throw it away seems sad. So sometimes I come up with some inventive combinations to use that list bit of whatever, which I obviously do not post here for your consumption. In this case, the item that I wanted to use up was some sweetened carob chips. I do not know what a carob is made of, and I have never eaten one before. All I know is that it is a chocolate IMPOSTER. I had originally bought these little chips from the bulk section thinking they were real semi-sweet chips. Because that particular batch of cookies was a gift, I didn't use them that day.

And then they sat in my pantry for six months, as these things do. Finally I Googled and Pinterest'd (is that a word?) some ideas, and was presented mostly with dog treat ideas. Mmm, just what I want to put in my desert! Finally on flax.com- yes, flax has its' own website- I found a recipe for some cookies that looked vaguely palatable. Mixed those babies up, threw in a 1/4 cup of peanut butter to spice things up, and hoped for the best. I was too lazy to make real cookies, so I threw the mix in my handy dandy non-stick pan.

Before shot

I let them cool for a bit, and although the flax blended in just fine, it didn't really taste like a cookie. It did taste something like a granola bar, so that is what I am calling these. I ate a nice sized piece for breakfast, and it kept me full all morning! Hubby was not the huge-est fan, "Too much fiber." But that is also probably the reason that it kept me going all morning. And I could sort of pretend I was eating cookies for breakfast! So, not super sold on the whole carob thing, but they totally grew on me as I munched on them during the week. Check out the recipe here. Not bothering to re-post since all I changed was making them into a bar and adding that creamy peanut butter!

After...it looks like a cookie. But it's not.

P.S. Link Party-ing this one!