It's a Floral Frenzy

Yeah!

Everyone has received the flowers and the xtra goodies I sent out for the floral frenzy on crochetville. So here's my unveiling of what I sent out. I have received one of my packages of flowers and plan on sharing a picture of them soon. I loved them they are so petite. I'm look forward to getting the other flowers so I can get inspired on what to make with them. I got some xtra fun goodies too but I won't tell as to not to spoil the surprise for others.

Some of the flowers are my own design and I will be sharing the patterns here soon. I used a variety of yarns: plymouth encore, red heart super saver, homespun, moda dea, & bernat.






I took this picture before I sent out the flowers but then took one of the flowers out and added another flower that I did NOT take a picture of. The flower I added was a daisy/sunflower like flower for a swap member who wanted retro looking flowers.



About the xtras I included in in the packages:

A lavender sachet that could put in a project bag to have your current project smelling good or in a dresser drawer. I crocheted the small flower on the sachet then sewed it on very carefully then added the dried lavender and stitched it closed.

I have included a few photos of flowers from my garden when I lived in Washington State. I included a picture of a sunflower because I'm back living in Kansas, the Sunflowers State. The sunflower picture was a volunteer sunflower that grew in the rock bed path of my garden in Washington.

A flower fairy - Flower fairies like to play with little kids who don't put things into their mouths or in and around houseplants. My kids and I like to make them. We got the inspiration for them from a Curiosity flower fairy kit. I found some online directions here. I might do some how to directions on this blog someday soon too.

Lemon Balm seed heads - Although they don't have much of a flower, they do have a lovely scent. I just wanted to send everyone a little something that grew in my garden last year. The bags the flowers are in are left over from sachet bags I made for Christmas gifts a few years ago and I like to keep them around to send out for suprise gifts so they were perfect for this swap.

Flowers! Flowers Everywhere!

Well there are lots of flowers in my house, crocheted flowers that is. I joined the flower frenzy swap on Corchetville then I went looking around for patterns to follow. I was never able to follow the pattern because I kept seeing the possibilites and made them my own. I also looked at granny square motifs because so many of them have a flower like center.

I want to encourage you to make your own flower designs. All you really do is start with a ring of single crochet anwhere from about 12 or more single crochets then make chain loops 6-10 or more chains long. In the chain loops do combinations of sc, hdc, dc, and tr to make a petal. I like adding a picot to the tip of each petal. Have lots of different kinds of yarns on hand to make the flowers interesting and add some texture. I used the following yarns in my flowers: Plymouth Encore, Caron Simply Soft, and a few different fancy yarns by Moda Dea and Bernat which added some pizaz to the flowers.

Because I do have a secret desire to be a star many of my design came out looking like stars which I call Star Flowers. You can get my free flower patterns here.

It's Spring!

More amigurumi! I love spring and flowers. I have been making lots of flowers for a flower swap on Crochetville and was inspired with making flowers and the amigurumi I've been doing. I plan on adding the pattern for these little flower dolls here soon and some of the flower designs I made for the flower swap.

Get the flower doll pattern here

Neopet Amigurumi

Neopet Amigurumi
Originally uploaded by sammimag.

Here's my first try at making something from scratch. I found this Neopet toy lying around yesterday and decided to make something inspired by it.

It turned out much smaller than I intended. So when I make it again, I will make the head much bigger and the body slightly bigger. I will likely use a lighter color felt for the belly.

Bunnies

I keep making amigurumi. I can't seem to stop myself. I think these bunnies are the cutest things. I need to get more yarn so I have a greater color selection. I have lots of ideas of things to make.

Creativity

Creativity, I value it almost above other things. It tickles me the creativity and the imagination my children have, even when it pushes some of my boundaries.
















Yesterday, my son made this gun. I especially like it because he made something out of what could be trash. It pushes my boundaries because it's a gun. If you look around my flickr photos you will find cool pics of his lego creations he wouldn't let me blog about.
















Jade puts interesting things together for her dolls just by wrapping fabric around them for clothing. If she wants pillow or toy for her doll she hunts down the fabric in the house and finds a needle and thread and just makes it!

Here's a pillow she made for one of her dolls. I'm using to show off some amigurumi crochet I've been doing.














She made this little elfin doll for a craft at homeschool group.

I have had to get past my desire for things to look beautiful or more polished to see value in my children's creativity. The things they make are not always works of art but it's still so cool.
















Here's a picture that doesn't really capture what the kids were doing. They "dressed up" the playmobil then brought them into the kitchen for a toy buffet. They wanted some kind of tickets for the buffet and asked their dad to write up 10 or so "Toy Buffet" tickets.

A few more critters

Meet Rasta the Happy Critter, he likes to listen to music and relax. He's a happy guy and his favorite thing to do is laugh.


You have already met Lila. I finished her friend Corbin Jr. yesterday his body, arms and legs a bit bigger than Lila's. My kids just love them. Corbin Jr was all wrapped up in a homemade sleeping bag last night on the night stand next to my son.

I'm a bit disappointed that I'm still getting holes where you can see the stuffy :( What's the trick to avoid that. I especially get a holey look when decreasing. I did find that if I don't decrease in the same place every time it's not as noticeable but I can still see it.