The art of productive procrastination

So the good news is, I've gotten my knitting/crocheting ambition back.  YAY!

The bad news is I have barely any time to indulge.

I crocheted some super cute coasters for my mom for Mother's Day.  I do have photos, but haven't gotten around to uploading them yet.

I started the seed for the new round of "Traveling Scarf Group" I joined.  My theme is "anything bright and cheerful, sparkles encouraged, and absolutely no pastels" - it's so obnoxious.  I finished my portion last night, so I'll be taking some photos later.

I received the angel scarf from my last Traveling Scarf Group.  One of the ladies lost another ladies' scarf in her house - no comment - so we decided to start another one for her.  It's really cute and I want to take  a photo of that when I'm done, as well.  Which reminds me - I need to ask if she wants me to bind it off for her or let her do the honors!  I'm the last one to have it before it finally gets home... a year later...

Classes are starting to take their toll on me.  This week, I have an assignment that includes answering a ton of questions, plus an exam (pretty much a paper) for my other class.  And I need to get moving on the final projects so I'm not scrambling at the end.  On top of my full-time job, trying to help some friends with their work, starting yard work around the house (still haven't gotten there because we're barely around on weekends), and planning a 30th birthday party for Hubby that's gotten nowhere.

Needless to say, I'm going out of my mind.  I feel like I have 10 people each asking for 15% of my time - there's already no time left on my schedule, so when am I supposed to get time to enjoy myself?  And I'm not feeling productive at all because I have to keep going from project to project to meet deadlines and keep everything moving forward.  I barely see Hubby anymore because I come home from work, set up shop on the couch, and read for class until my eyes bleed.

So knitting, crocheting, and The Other Boleyn Girl on audiobook from Audible has been keeping me somewhat sane when I need a break.  And my family is coming this weekend to install our new washing machine that won't turn my clothes black!  I believe some breakfast at IHOP will be involved, as well.  So things aren't that bad.  Just stressful.  And I miss spending time with my husband and friends without feeling like there are 15million other things I need to be doing.

Sigh.  Okay, personal venting over :)  Photos soon!

Knit Easter Eggs make for great party favors!

I hope all of you had wonderful Easter weekends and are able to enjoy some time off today.  I know I took a personal day to catch up on life after a weekend of traveling and holiday prep. I've been cheating and checking my work email every now and then, plus I've done some homework and plan on some bonding time with laundry later on.  What a relaxing day :P

Of course, it's not a holiday without getting crafty!  Although I did buy an egg-dying kit (a glitter one, at that), I decided to do something a bit different with my eggs this year.  Here are some photos:










The pattern is from Little Cotton Rabbits (Ravelry link) and I chose to mattress-stitch the egg around some of those plastic eggs you can buy pretty much everywhere this time of year.  I filled the baskets with some craft shred purchased at Target (couldn't find Easter grass anywhere!) and the baskets were from Christmas Tree Shops.

I didn't have the patience to make any patterns - actually, I just really hate intarsia, haha - so I used self-striping sock yarn in the Spring-y-est colors I could find!  I made the tags using a punch I purchased last week at ACMoore and some leftover scrapbook paper, then tied the tags to the eggs with some pretty Spring ribbon that can be undone and used to turn the eggs into ornaments.  I think they turned out really well.  I was happy with the result :)

Now I need some inspiration to start another project or finish up several others.  Guess we'll see where the wind takes me!

Button Bracelets!

Well well well!  Thanks to all of you who have beared with me during my impromptu blog hiatus.

After my last entry, I caught a deadly cold.  I'm still coughing three weeks later.  It's been really fun!  I've also started back at my classes.  This session, I'm reading about 120 pages per week (which isn't awful - just time-consuming) on top of the writing.  Pretty much, I'm going insane.  Work has also been nuts, but I'll spare you those personal details :)

I'm just now starting to get back into knitting and crocheting.  I admittedly went through a slump for a couple weeks and have barely touched my stash.  But with Easter coming up, I've been working on a few goodies that I'll get into once they're done.

I've also kept up with learning some new crafts.  My latest project was making button bracelets:







Look at the colors!

I went to Michaels over the weekend and bought all my supplies.  These little doo-dads are incredibly inexpensive.  My only mistake was thinking I had purchased clear elastic cord, when that was not the case.  They're not stretchy at all, and I kind of have to fight with them if I want to put them on, but I think they're incredibly adorable.  I found the tutorial on YouTube - what isn't on YouTube these days?

I'm also excited because I used a 50%-off coupon at ACMoore over the weekend to purchase a scapbooking punch that makes little tags in three sizes.  I'm so excited to start using it so I can make fun tags for gifts and my etsy shop.

Oh, and I spent most of my Sunday knitting and watching awful Lifetime movies.  It was a great day!  Did anyone catch William & Kate last night?  I have to admit that I'm a wee bit obsessed with the upcoming royal wedding.  I may or may not have taken a vacation day to stay home and watch it next Friday :P

Before I forget - I posted a poll on my Facebook page about what you'd like to see more of on my blog.  This way, when I hit a project slump, I can still pull some articles from the deep recesses of my brain :)  Let me know if there's something specific you'd like me to write about and I'll see what I can do to help!

Weekend Project - Making Paper Beads

For those of you who aren't aware, March is National Craft Month!  Now that the month is almost over, I figured it was high time I got to celebrating :)  I honestly have not had much time since February to craft much, and I've lost a lot of inspiration.

In my crafty YouTube watching, though, I came across a couple videos that got me interested in some new crafts!  One of my goals for National Craft Month was to try something "new" that wasn't knitting or crocheting.  I've done a lot of crafts in my life and enjoyed most of them - cross-stitching, latch hook rug making, etc.  But these videos I watched brought back some crafty times of my youth that I'm more than happy to revisit.

One channel I started watching consisted of friendship bracelet tutorials.  I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with them, but I had a 50% Off coupon to ACMoore and decided to buy a huge pack of friendship bracelet thread and a cardboard loom.  Considering I wound up only paying $6.50, I think I win.  Now if only I can remember where to start...

I also started to get back into paper bead making.  I used to love making paper beads when I was younger, and I even had a little wheel that helped me make them (and it made things so much easier).  Unfortunately, even if I did ever find that wheel, it was made for kids so the bead's hole was way too big.

So instead I bought some picks from ACMoore's garden section, came home, and used some old 8.5x11" scrapbook paper to make my first paper beads in years!  Here's a picture of some purple ones:



After gluing the last flap down, I used clear $1 nail polish I had sitting around.  I just started investing in real nail polish, so I didn't feel bad scarificing some of my $1 variety :P

I've also started making some beads from striped paper, and the way the colors are coming out when I wrap them looks like Easter eggs - 'tis the season!  I'm interested in seeing what some of these beads will look like on my crochet necklaces.  Once I'm better at making them, of course.

And don't forget what else is great about March - the Morning Call's Best of Blogs contest!  Head on over to the site to vote for my blog if you enjoy reading.  I'll be forever grateful.  I hope your week is off to a good start!

Work in Progress: Crocodile Stitch Scarf

Happy Friday, everyone!  Are you as pumped for the weekend as I am?  I can almost guarantee that you're not, haha.  What a crazy week.  I feel like Hubby has been on the verge of committing me all week because I've been coming home from work a) stressed out and b) playing my new iPhone app "Tiny Wings" for about two hours every night.  I may be obsessed.

So I just wanted to share this amazing new crochet stitch I've been learning.  It's called the "Crocodile Stitch" and it basically looks like scales.  I've been practicing by making a scarf and was able to snap this photo right after I'd started.  Last week, I doubled the size of this and it looks great:




I learned by watching a combination of YouTube videos and a written version.  What I've done follows none of these to a T, haha.  It's much harder to learn than I expect it to be.  But now that I've caught on, I think it's super easy, not to mention fun and quick!

I got the yarn on sale at Mary Maxim.  It's one of their own yarns, but I forget the name offhand.  I'll post an update with the details once I'm done - I just wanted to share how fun this stitch was!  And it seems to be making its rounds in the crocheting social media circle, so of course I jumped on the bandwagon :)

Before I leave you all for two days of fun, please vote for me as the best "art" blog in the Lehigh Valley!  Participants can vote once per day until voting ends, so if you've already voted for me, you can keep doing so for the rest of the month :D  Thanks for your help, and have a great weekend!!!!