Pumpkin Carving

Chase carved his pumpkin for the first time this year! He loved it but was grossed out by the pumpkin guts.

Puppy Love

See the tiny little white pillow Jaxx is resting his head on? That is MY pillow but apparently when I am not home and when Jaxx isn't waiting by the door for me or crying for me to come home he likes to snuggle my pillow...

I love my dogs but man are they needy sometimes. He looks so sad doesn't he?

(Photo courtesy of B)

Halloween Sneak Peek

We went to a Halloween party tonight - it was fun to see everyone in costumes! The photo quality isn't great but you know how low light and phone cameras are.

Coffee with Capricious

Capricious and I went out for our weekly "Kate Date" last night (although lately weekly has been a challenge). We had coffee at Starbucks and about an hour or so into the night I was telling a story about how I told Chase that Christmas was Jesus's birthday and how he was shocked by this new discovery. The guy next to us started chuckling and was like "I swear I wasn't listening in but you should put that on Facebook." He then proceeded to tell us how men and women have VERY different conversations with eachother and how he can tell we are very good friends.

It did make me wonder a little...I am very close with a few of my dearest girlfriends and I definitely can't imagine a set of guys having the types of conversations we have (there are literally no secrets between me and my bffs). Then I got to wondering if it is more that guys wouldn't have those types of connections or if it is really that most people in general don't have those types if connections with other people...

All I know is that am truly blessed to have besties that I can be myself around and say anything that pops to mind. We have seen eachother's best and worst and hopefully it will be like that forever!

Sending all my love to you gals today!

Crocheted Cowl

Capricious found this fun yarn with tiny sequins in it. The cowl sparkles in the right light. So fun for Christmas / Valentine's Day.

More San Diego Photos

Here are a few animal pics from the trip (we went to the Birch Aquarium).

San Diego Beach

Chase sure did love the beach! He couldn't get enough shell collecting and he loved walking on the beach and playing in the surf. We even got an adorable mini kite for him to fly in the ocean breeze.

Gypsy Sling Bag

I recently finished my gyspy sling bag. I am very happy with the final product. The straps were crazy long so I did shorten those and I made a larger inside pocket but otherwise I stuck to the pattern. I used fusible fleece instead of two layers of interfacing on one side and that worked well.

Quick easy pattern for a nice extra large bag - perfect for travel and the beach.

PS. Can you believe that is Walmart fabric?!

Bearded Beanies

I am in love with the Bearded Beanie Pattern.  It crochets up really fast and they are adorable!

Crocheted Zipper Pouch Pattern

So I made a trial zipper pouch (but I can't stand unlined things so I put a cloth lining inside which wasn't in the original pattern).

If you want to make your own here is the pattern that I used.  Sadly it is in French but the pattern is simple enough that you can figure it out from the numbers and the pictures.

If you aren't up for the brain damage of figuring out the pattern basically it is an upside down hat with a zipper in the opening so I am pretty sure any newborn hat pattern would work.

Or here is my best attempt to explain the pattern in English.

R1 - R15 (use bottom color)

R1 - ch2, 6sc in 2nd chain from the hook, place marker

R2 - 2sc in each sc around (12sc), place marker

R3 - *2sc in 1st sc, 1sc in next sc repeat from * (18sc), place marker

R4 - *2sc in 1st sc, 1sc in next 2 sc repeat from * (24sc), place marker

R5 - *2sc in 1st sc, 1sc in next 3 sc repeat from * (30sc), place marker

R6 - *2sc in 1st sc, 1sc in next 4 sc repeat from * (36sc), place marker

R7 - *2sc in 1st sc, 1sc in next 5 sc repeat from * (42sc), place marker

R8 - *2sc in 1st sc, 1sc in next 6 sc repeat from * (48sc), place marker

R9 - *2sc in 1st sc, 1sc in next 7 sc repeat from * (54sc), place marker

R10 - R15 - 1sc in every sc (54sc), place marker

R16 & R17 (use stripe color) - 1sc in every sc (54sc), place marker

R18 - R28 (use top color) - 1sc in every sc (54sc), place marker

Sew in zipper by hand (and lining if you want - I covered the ends of the zipper with fabric too for a nicer look).

Tada!

Things I would do differently next time:

- Make my zipper a little smaller so the mouth of the pouch isn't as stretched

- Make my lining slightly shorter so that there isn't so much fabric inside

Here is another one that I crocheted - it still needs a zipper and lining - in the first one I made a mistake in the pattern and the bottom wasn't as flat as I would have liked but I did this one correctly (as typed above) and it looks great.

Crocheted Pouches

Now that the summer is coming to an end all I can think about is crafting!

I want to make these adorable pouches!

 

Spooky Fun

Hello October!  We have our decorations up and are ready for some fall fun!