Crochet Me Crazy

Puppies are 5 weeks old!



I had been making earwarmers and sewing flowers on. Then I got this idea that I should make the flowers interchangeable! I love this idea! I found a flower pattern with a hole in the middle and then sew the button onto the headband. The flowers button on and you can have endless color combinations! I've made flowers in every color of I LOVE THIS YARN brand yarn that I have. I've got 12 colors of earwarmers made so far.

I have a habit of making chicken noodle soup when we need something quick. I've been making up my recipe and have been perfecting it as I go along. I added to it today and came up with this and thought it was pretty good!



1/2 stick of butter in saucepan. You can add a little bit of onion here or not.

Add 1 tsp of Basil
Add 1 tsp of Salt
Add 1 tsp of Rosemary

Put in 4 cups of water.

Add 2 chicken bullion cubes
Add 1/4 tsp of Poultry Seasoning

Bring to a boil.

Add egg noodles -- I don't measure these.
Add cooked chicken breasts (I always have cooked, shredded chicken in my freezer. I guess if you don't, this dinner wouldn't be as quick and easy)
Add 1/2 cup of sliced green onions.

Cook noodles until they are done. I cook my noodles 8 minutes.

Your are done with your super quick dinner! If it's too salty for you...cut back on the salt and poultry seasoning. I don't have to add salt to this when I'm eating it and I usually add salt to my food. I'm eating a bowl right now and it really hits the spot on a cold day like today!

I buy chicken breasts with the bone-in (because it's cheaper and has a lot of meat on them) on a regular basis. I put them in the crock pot and cook them. Then, I take the chicken off the bone and put portions of it in freezer bags and freeze them. I use this for everything from casseroles to soups. Makes my life a lot easier!

Here is a picture of one the gifts my daughter got for me for Christmas. It's a collector's series called Painted Ponies.

We made these little ornaments out of cupcake wrappers yesterday! They turned out so cute!





Here is Alison's gingerbread house!



Santa Alison bought her brother a blender for Christmas -- yes, he wanted a blender! What other guy would be so excited to get a blender?!!?



Alison was dubbed the name Santa Claus this Christmas because she bought everyone such great presents. And she had more presents for Brennan than anyone!

Happy birthday to my amazing, beautiful, smart, kind, loving, capable and responsible daughter! She turns 17 today! I thank God every day for her and my heart is filled with gratitude to God for letting me be her mother. If God would have given me a check list to check off of what I would want my daughter to be like, I would have checked off exactly who the person Alison is.

We had a little get-together last night to celebrate and let her open her presents.





Today, we are taking Alison and some of her friends to Holiday in the Park in San Antonio. We woke up to rain this morning! Hopefully it will slack off and not ruin our outing.

I am so tired....I had such a hard time opening my eyes this morning. I'm getting more and more tired as the week goes on. Alison's Youth christmas party was last night and we got home late and I didn't end up getting to bed until midnight. I just want to sit in this chair, drink my coffee, and not move for a couple of hours!

Still trying to decide what food to have on Christmas Day. This is all going way too fast! Alison's birthday is this weekend too!

My husband totally out-did me last night. I bought Alison this box of Cordial Blueberries last night as a surprise.



Then he walks in from work last night with this! LOL!



It was a Christmas present from his work. Well, I'm not a big chocolate eater but I have to admit, the one I had last night was really good!

Well, I guess I better get my rump up out of this chair and get ready for work.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Here's the pattern I used for this hat -- Striped Hipster Slouchy Beanie | AllFreeCrochet.com



Sigh...It's seems like I'm running around constantly! I took my son to the eye doctor yesterday to get him new glasses. He lost his glasses several months ago and I worry about him driving around without his glasses. He's been wearing bifocals since he was about 9 years old and has very poor vision. Well, that really set me back! His lenses are soooo expensive! He better not lose these! I think he's really glad that he's going to get to see again.

This afternoon Alison has an orthodontist appointment and then tonight is Alison's church youth Christmas party. So I make the 40 mile trek again and I will have a long time to kill in town while she's at the party tonight.

Jeff never stops working...even when he's not supposed to be working, he's working. He will be home Christmas Day but he'll still be working.

Alison and I did a trial run on the sugar cookies today! Ha!Ha! Good thing we did because some of them were a total FAIL!! We learned that some of our icing was too runny. And I used a sugar cookie mix just because I had it. I'll be making my own next time. I don't usually use a mix and the cookies were distorted way too much when baking.



The puppies were 4 weeks old on Tuesday. They are so cute! Mama is pretty much weaned them and they are eating puppy food.

The show went really well and Alison danced beautifully. I went sick to my stomach when my camera battery started flashing that it was going dead so I didn't really get any good pictures. I had Jeff take some after the show with his phone. I'm just praying he got some good pictures. Just waiting for him to email them to me.

Sewed the button on my coffee mug cozy and made the other towel topper...



Here's the pattern I've been using as a guideline for my coffee cozies: Cup Cozy Tutorial

Then, I decided instead of making another mug cozy and towel topper for a gift, I changed it to fingerless gloves instead. I made two pair.



I sewed the buttons on the Mickey Mouse hat so this one is ready to wrap up...


1 hat - have to finish by Christmas

1 button neck cowl - finish before Christmas

I feel a lot better now that got that out of the way. Now all I have left to do is a buttoned neck cowl and the red/white hat. Then next week, we'll get on with the Christmas fun! We're going to decorate cookies and make Gingerbread houses!

2 more coffee mug cozies - one is made but I have to sew button on tonight

2 more crochet towel toppers - one I have to finish by Saturday. Better start working on that tonight! I hate sewing into towels!

1 hat - have to finish by Christmas

1 button neck cowl - finish before Christmas

1 set of fingerless gloves - try to finish before Christmas

Sew buttons on Mickey mouse hat

Can I do it? I should be able to. I will have a lot more time next week once the ballet show is over.

Wow -- what a day today was. It's time for me to get to bed but I need to sit for minute and unwind so I'll take the time to post the pictures I finally took today. Sometimes wrangling my daughter for modeling is not as easy as it use to be.

After got home from work today, I baked some cookies for my daughter's dance class. They are having extra long rehearsal classes this week and it's a long time to go without food while expending so much energy.





So anyway....on to the CROCHET!

First up is this scarf. This one is a Christmas gift! The yarn is super soft. I needed a quick pattern since I'm short on time and I also didn't have a whole lot of this particular yarn so I needed a pattern that doesn't use much. Well, this one fit the bill and I love how it turned out!



Here is where you can find this super easy pattern:
Jenn's Quick & Easy Open Weave Scarf

I added more stiched to my starting chain and made mine wider.

I loved it so much that I used the same pattern to make this scarf, which is also a Christmas gift...



This the cowl I made to fill an order:



Last but not least, here is an earwarmer.

Yesterday, was a busy day. I cooked chicken and dumplings and we decorated the christmas tree and wrapped presents. I woke up feeling a little icky so I was having a hard time. We had a big mess all over the house and we had to get it all cleaned up.

Alison is so sweet. How many 16 year olds do you know that buy Christmas presents for all of her family and friends with their own money! And she buys good presents too! She was wrapping her presents. She's always so thoughtful.



She saw this Mickey Mouse hat for her "new" nephew and wanted him to have it early so he got to open it yesterday. He LOVES Mickey Mouse!



It was so fun and easy to shop for Brennan this Christmas! I think Alison ended up buying him 4 presents and I bought him 4 things and I crocheted him a Mickey Mouse Ears hat...speaking of which, I need to take a picture of that! It's fun having little ones around for Christmas! Mine are not so little anymore!

Today I got a big order from a friend for Christmas presents. Mostly of stuff I had already crocheted but I had to make another Cluster Stitch Cowl (just like the brown one I already posted). I'm also busy trying to get stuff made for Christmas presents.

I've got a scarf for my son's wife and the cowl I made today to get pictures of but I did get this Christmas gifts finished tonight and managed to get a picture before I head to bed. I'm going to try to get another one of these sets made this week for Alison's dance teacher. And I also have to get another scarf finished by Friday that is a Christmas gift.



I will put something in the mug...either some coffee or I'm thinking of making these Cream Cheese Mints...I vaguely remember having something like this as a kid and thinking they were wonderful. Anyway, worth a try since it can't get much easier!



Cream Cheese Mints

4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
exactly 1/2 teaspoon peppermint or spearmint extract
3 cups powdered sugar

Beat the cream cheese with a mixer until smooth,
add the extract and some of the powdered sugar and
mix until combined well. Then add the remaining sugar
and mix until well combined.

Shape into 1/2" balls and place them on a parchment
lined cookie sheet. Press flat with a fork and then
chill until ready to serve. Store in the refrigerator
in an airtight container for up to two weeks or
freeze for up to two months.

Recently, in November, a photographer friend of mine generously took our pictures. She took some amazing photos for us. I love this picture of Alison with her horse she posted for us today....depicts Alison and her horses bond beautifully.

These work up really quick. I had an order for a girly looking hat for a 2 1/2 year old so I made three for her to choose from! Maybe I can sell the others. That's the last of the orders I had to do. I need some more orders! I guess I'll start working on Christmas gifts and scarves for Alison in the meantime.

I'm enjoying my little job but I'm dreading having to get out of the house today. A cold front came in and it's bitterly cold out there to me! Freezing weather. I'm going to have to go start my car and thaw it out before I leave. Hope there's no ice on the roads.

I'm making scarves to sell but Alison is taking first choice on them. She almost took this set but she is wanting infinity style scarves so I'm going to make her a brown infinity scarf instead. She wore the scarf to youth last night and got compliments. This is a really soft, fuzzy yarn. I used the last I had of this yarn so I won't be making another one of these. I realize I definately am probably not charging enough for my stuff because we went shopping yesterday afternoon a little bit. The infinity scarves in Bealle's were $36! Cheaper versions are still running $20 which is what I've been charging and mine are handmade. I was selling this whole set for $30!



This one is the last set I had to complete for a special order.



Alison is keeping this scarf. Super simple to make. I made my beginning chain long enough to wrap and then HDC in the back loops back and forth using a Super Big P Hook. Then joined it together. The yarn is a bulky Bernat Frenzy. Love this yarn!



Last but not least...another pineapple infinity scarf...