Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Airy turquoise mohair crocheted scarf


If you're looking for a lightweight scarf/wrap you can use during summer but also useful in winter wrapped around your neck a couple of times this very airy beautiful blue/turquoise scarf is what you need. I have another one in my Etsy shop which is the same pattern except I used a ticker mohair yarn in a darker color go and have a peek.

Two peas in a pod!



So my kid wanted to get her hair cut today. It got cut and she likes it so we had to take some pictures of course. Here she is with her new do ... she wanted to have some pictures taken with the dog and voila ... the one on the back steps is just precious ... two peas in a pod for sure. When Wade looked at it he just cracked up and so did she ... this is what she said ... Oh my God ... I look just like my dog!!!! I couldn't resist sharing this with everybody, I crack up every time I look at it ... The dog really looks likes he's being choked, just the look in his eyes are cheer terror, maybe he's just not happy with Sofie's hair cut ... "she's really starting to look more and more like me!" (that's the dog thinking!)

Monday, March 22, 2010

Meet "Ducky"



So here he is ... all fixed up and ready to find himself a home! I had fun making this little guy. Wasn't too sure how he was going to turn out when I decided to needle felt real feathers on him. At first I thought he was going to have a "bad hair day" but then I decided he actually looked like he's still growing into his coat so I left him that way. Now his little bottom turned out too cute I think, he looks handsome from the front AND the back! hehe Anyway, I ended up having to put wooden skewers into his legs up through his chest to make him stand and not flop over so next time I will be using a wire frame instead. Now lets hope he finds himself a nice new home.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Hatching Ducky and Being Featured on The Indie Tot


All kinds of excitement today ... I'm just about finished with needle felting a little duck called "Ducky". I'm waiting for the paint to dry on the wooden plaque I'm going to put him on. I'll post a picture of him without the plaque at this moment. I tried something new ... I mixed real feathers in with the fleece to see how it would felt and I'm pretty happy with the result. Ducky might look like he's having a bad hair day but I think it just add to his character, he really looks like he's just gotten out of the egg! Now I have to keep an eye on Ducky since our dog, River spotted him today and got all excited about a duck being in the house. See, he's a bird hunting dog and even though he hasn't gotten trained to do so this dog is in love with anything that looks, sounds and feels (anything soft in his mouth) like a bird. Now our cat also took an interest in Ducky and tried removing Ducky's feathers so I had to remove her from my studio to keep the little guy safe!

Then I got an e-mail telling me I got featured on The Indie Tot so I'm all excited about that news. So check it out for yourself by clicking on The Indie Tot button on this page and it should take you to it.

That's about all the news I have to share with you today. Thanks for stopping by.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Fireman rescues Oscar the Fish!

For real ... this is a true story. When we lived in Marshall, Virginia about 7 yrs ago we had a big fantail goldfish called Oscar. He was a silly fish, he used to swim backwards and do flips under and over the bridge we had in our tank. Our tank was located in the dining room so one evening while eating dinner we watched Oscar doing his silly tricks over and under and backwards and there he goes again and again and again. Then he did his usual routine ... sucking the algae off the rocks laying on the bottom of the tank, he liked having a clean house that fish. I wasn't paying attention to Oscar, neither was Sofie or Wade but he certainly was making an awful lot of waves in the tank, more then usual. Sofie, who had a full view of the tank from her seat all of a sudden yelled out, oh no something is wrong with Oscar he's having problems breathing!!! Huh? Breathing??? Wade and I both looked at each other lifting our eyebrows, then looked over at the tank ... so there is Oscar doing all kinds of very strange flips and splashing more then usual. At first we thought he was just craving attention until we noticed his mouth was wide open and I mean WIDE open and it looked all black inside!??? huh???? what on earth is going on with Oscar???? When I looked again I noticed the black thing was actually a rock from the bottom of the tank that looked like it was actually stuck in his mouth!!!! Oh noooooo, what to do what to do???? Wade's firefighter's instinct jumped into action and he calmly got up while I frantically tried to get a hold of Oscar and walked out the room? What the heck???? Waaaaaaaaaaade, I need your help right now ... I didn't want Oscar to die in my hand, well in the net I was holding him in. So, he came back with a set of very long skinny tweezers, the real medical type. He instructed me to grab a hold of Oscar so he could get the dam. rock out of his face!!! Ok Mister Fireman ... it's not that easy trying to hold a 5 inch slippery goldfish still UNDER water to perform surgery. But, I managed to do so with a washcloth and voila ... Wade was able to grab the black rock with the tweezers and it popped out of Oscars mouth who was stressing big time by now! Oh boy, was he one happy fish when that rock came out. Needless to say so where we. Sofie had been watching us giving us instructions (typically her) on how to handle the situation and that's when we figured she'd become a vet some day. She's actually looking to talk to an Equestrian vet in the area to get more information, she figured it will be a lot easier trying to hold still an animal that weighs about 1000 lbs compared to one slippery Fan Tail Goldfish called Oscar!

Friday, March 12, 2010

Swamp Poodle loooooooves the rain ...


and the mud and everything else that comes along with lots and lots of rain. It's been so nice having the clean white snow in the back yard and it not melting in a hurry was wonderful ... all I could think about was having to spend lots of time wiping River's (that's our dog) feet every time he would go outside and wanting to come back in. Anyway, all the nice white snow is now gone ... bummer ... and instead we have lots of puddles and what looks like the beginning of a river going through our back yard! I must say he's picked up very quickly on the fact he has to park himself on the big old towel I have laying by the back door when I let him in. He's actually started to lift up his feet for me to wipe, good dog he is. Now if I could only get him to actually wipe his own feet my life would get so much easier!!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Do you ever wonder what goes on in your pet's mind?


I certainly do it allllll the time. I end up talking to them and when they look at me I feel like they understand every word I've said. Has that ever happened to you? Anyway, I've decided to share some of these talks with you in between listing all my arts and crafts. See, our dog River has been trying to figure out what on earth the pecking order is here in this house he came to live in. At first he thought, hmmmm I'm the most important one of them all, I'm a dog and I just ought to be, right!? Wrong little puppy dog, that's what Azzie (our Australian cat) tried to get through his little brain. I must say she's gotten pretty good at it, it's only taken her a year (wait a minute, in her mind that's a long time ... 7 cat yrs I guess!) to get the dog to finally not run her over every darn time she gets up to get from point A to point B. Mum (that's me) has been trying to teach him NOT to do such a thing but he still does. Although lately she's figured out that just hissing, puffing herself up to the size of a watermelon and acting like a wild thing just doesn't do anything, contrary he thinks it's play time. She's finally settled for just one mean kind of short snarl, hiss, weird kind of noise I must say to get him to back off. I'm trying to figure out what that actually means in animal world but I haven't figured it out. I've seen her getting big and fluffy hissing and talking back to him but he just ignored it compared to just this one funny sounding noise she makes gets his attention. See, he wants to protect Mum from that mean big cat that just follows her around like ... a dog (wait a minute, nope I'm the dog following her like a dog so not sure why the cat tries to act like a dog!?) so he lays right smack in the door way when Azzie wants to come and visit me trying to get past him. Well she makes her entrance by giving him a really mean staredown and just that one funny sounding noise and I'll be darn ... she's got his full attention, he will slowly rise to a sit and tries to really win the stare down contest but .... nope Azzie wins!!!! He then slowly moves out of her way and lets the queen go by! She then hurries into the room jumps onto the table to greet me sitting by the computer typing this blog entrance. She purrrrrrrrrrrres and tells me all about how she got the dog well trained ... My good Ozzie Azzie ...

Nuno Felt Silk Scarf


I finally finished the crocheted flowers for this scarf. All sewed onto the scarf now and ready to head out the door. It's listed in my Etsy shop. It's a very lightweight scarf so perfect for spring and cooler summer eves but warm enough if you wrap it around your neck a couple of times for colder days. Have a look in my Etsy shop if you want more info or convo me with questions.
Thanks for looking.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

A Flirty Blue Scarf


I wasn't too sure how this was going to turn out when I started knitting this scarf. The yarn is from Italy, 50% merino and 50% acrylic but has a unique texture and instead of being twisted it looks like a crocheted chain. I used very chunky needles to knit it and wasn't happy with the way it looked when I was done with it until I realized when I hung it over the mannequin it curled up on it's own so I had one of those ahhhaaaaaa moments ... I folded it in half and crocheted along the entire length turning it into a long tube scarf. For both ends I just doubled my stitches to get a gathering effect which turned out pretty cute I think. I put the bows through a row of eyelets and it can be easily removed and replaced by a different type ribbon or just left out since it will still keep it's ruffled look on the ends because that's the way I knitted it. Looks very cute and feminine. It's in my Etsy shop so go and have a peek if you want to see more pictures.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

More felting ...


A customer of mine has asked to make some jewelry baggies so off I went making some. Here are 3 of them. Depending on which one she will pick I will be putting the other ones in my Etsy shop so be on the look out if you like these.