New Patterns, A Contest, Personal News & More!

WOW it has been a busy six weeks for me!  'm-I bad, I need to get busy blogging! Well, here I finally am with a little update on everything. I guess I'll focus on the things that have been keeping me crazy busy!

I recently found myself in a toy aisle looking at a Barbie doll and couldn't resist picking her up! She made me think of wonderful memories of my little girl and how she loved all her Barbie collection so. 

Then I remembered when I was a little girl, (When Barbie was young!) my mom would buy incredibly intricate hand crocheted or knitted Barbie outfits from an older neighbor lady down the street. I can still recall how thrilled I was when a new outfit would arrive!

I couldn't resist dressing up the Barbie! So I just published a new free pattern, it's an ensemble for Barbie! It includes a cutout neckline dress, a tote bag and a striped mobius scarf. If you know a little girl who loves Barbie, why not crochet this up for her for Christmas or a special birthday! Or... just because!

                                                    

My beloved son John's wedding was on October 12! Most of our relatives and close friends live a couple of hours away in Kansas City, but just about every single one made the trip here for the festivities! I have gained an amazing daughter, Janette, and I know these two will be about the happiest couple ever! They've been together for two years and you can never wipe the smile off my son's face. He is just that happy! Here are the bride and groom.

Here's the happy couple, Janette and John

Me with our daugher Carianne and husband Ron
 getting ready to leave for the wedding!


This was our first dress-up picture in too many years! So much fun!

Now, back to crochet news... 

I'm working on a new potholder design that will be published next week. It's called the "Perky Penguin Potholder." Keep watching for it here. 

Ladybug rocking her Pretti-Pants!

Be sure and check out my newest for-sale crochet pattern here! My "PrettiPants" doggie outfit is designed with instructions to make it custom fit your pooch exactly! It's extremely comfortable for the dog to wear, and also discourages accidents in the house! It makes a great lightweight outfit for a cool Fall day, too. Ladybug looks so happy wearing her Pretti-Pants!

BIG NEWS - FALL CONTEST!!

The winner will receive their choice of color of a set of three of my Angel Wing Scrubbies, along with their choice of a for-sale pattern from my Craftsy store!  All you need do to enter is leave a comment below!

IT'S ALL FOR SHEILA'S SCHNAUZIES! 

As you may know, all sales of my patterns and for-sale objects directly benefit the vet fund of Sheila's Schnauzies Miniature Schnauzer Rescue, a nonprofit organization in Omaha, Nebraska. 

We have worked two major dog rescues in the last few weeks. The first was Cocoa Bear, a 14 week old puppy dying with Parvovirus and abandoned. We took him in, put him in the hospital, got him well, and found him a lovely forever home in Kansas City. You can check out Cocoa's hospital fundraiser here. I'd appreciate it if you could share that link with your dog-loving friends! 

Our second rescue was Izzy, a Cairn Terrier/Schnauzer mix, who was scheduled for the "needle" in one hour at a kill shelter in eastern Iowa when we found out about her. Thanks to a lot of effort by volunteers, we got Izzy pulled out of the kill shelter and transported back here to Omaha. SO happy to say she was adopted yesterday by a fantastic dog lady whom I've known for years. She is thrilled to have Izzy as part of her fur-family! Congratulations, Izzy. You deserve it, girl. 

Well, off to crochet... happy Autumn to everyone!

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Dog Days of Summer... And Crochet To Suit!!

In the words of Robin Williams in "Good Morning Vietnam..." "It's hot... How hot? Da*n Hot!!" As it's going to be another few days of high 90's here in Omaha, I couldn't agree more! We've had it pretty easy this summer, so I guess I shouldn't complain... I'm just tired of watering almost an acre of flower gardens every day! Waahhhh!

To cope and protect myself from the scorching heat, I have lots of hats to wear. My favorite is the custom fit sun hat I designed awhile back, but my husband gave me his new lightweight cotton floppy hat and I adore it! Only problem is, it's got two big golf logos on it! I refuse to rock the golf thing so crochet to the rescue!

In all the years I've been crocheting and designing, I've accumulated a lot of little thread flower motifs. I've saved every false start, leaf, flower motif, starts of doilies unfinished, you name it. 

I love my new flowery hat now! 

So my recent project was to arrange all these crocheted flowers on my hat, tack them on with invisible thread and make a whole new creation! I hope my free tutorial will give you all some fun ideas!! If you don't have any thread objects around, I have lots of free patterns for them. 

In other news, just completed our latest dog rescue of a tiny 8 lb Miniature Schnauzer i named Shyla. Happy to announce she's now in an amazing forever home and has a new name, Jozie. 

Click Here To Arrange Your DogVacay!

I just signed up as a doggie care provider with DogVacay.com! I'll be watching my first clients this weekend! What a great way to earn a few bucks to support our rescue's $135/month doggie HMO bill at Banfield!! If you're near Omaha and need a great place to board your dog, search for Sheila Schnauzies at DogVacay.com!

Summertime Blues... There IS A Cure!

It's called crochet! Do you get a bit bummed when you think of that half finished afghan you started back in January? For some people, including me,  the thought of working with yarn in the hottest part of summer is just... Yicky!

One thing I love to do in summer is crochet small items with cotton yarn, like my recent hand towel pattern. Why not knock a bunch of those Christmas gift list items out now! Come December you'll be glad you did!

Another thing I like to do in summer is thread crochet projects. Have you ever tried working in thread? If you haven't, check out my tutorial on learning to adjust from yarn to thread here. 

If you're already a "Threadie," you might enjoy making my brand new "Barbie Rocks!" outfit with coordinating belt, tote bag, hat and poncho! You can get that free pattern here next week! 

Next on my hook will be a potholder design for September's exchange. Honestly at this point I have no clue what it will be! 

Well, I'm off to go out early and water my starving gardens! Another week of mid-90's ahead. THAT is what gives me the summertime blues!

Why The Chicken Potholder Isn't Crossing The Road...

I'm not sure why. Not that it's going to be that tough of a design project. There's going to be a rooster and an egg but that's as far as I've gotten.  Spending the weekend with my sister, who collects chicken objects, I have rooster inspiration all around me and I've taken pics of them all.  Now if I could only get an IDEA!! Worse yet. This potholder is owed to an exchange partner and its now officially late! This puppy had better hatch soon or a certain lady will be mad as a wet hen!! And now we''re gonna cross the road... Here's my best inspiration so far...I

   

I've been designing a lot of jewelry lately. Here are a couple of my latest pieces....

This freeform wire crystal and gemstone bracelet is for sale just ask!

Perhaps a crocheted earring and pendant? Check it out at www.squidoo.com/crochetjewelry

Here's my little girl Ladybug enjoying vacay at auntie's house... Me too!

July's Giveaway Winner! New August Giveaway! And Uh-Oh... She's Mixing Media Again!

Ha ha... not that much of a mix really, just jewelry & crochet! I had a lot of fun designing the new pattern for my Flower Sparkle Earrings & Pendant Set this past week. You can get that free pattern here. The earrings have only two rounds! You can make them up in about an hour or less and be ready with earrings for your new outfit (or an oldie but goodie!)

Flower Sparkle Earrings & Pendant Set

Taking my crochet on the road this week, planning a trip to KC to visit my BFF and my sister. Taking Ladybug with us, the other two furkids get to stay with my dog trainer friend for a little "staycation." They will hate it, but I can't take all three with us where we're going.

I have a new pattern in mind to design while I'm on the road. As with a lot of my crocheting, it's intended to solve a problem. I have added a few dresses to my wardrobe this summer and while I adore them, some of them have what I call an "overshare neckline!" What to do... anytime you try to pin something shut it always shows. So I'm designing a solution that will work with all the dresses.

Also have a fun design on my hook now, it's a new potholder and I'll keep it a surprise until I get it finished.

We finally received some much needed rain last night. All this watering I've been having to do has been taking up all my free time!

Very pleased to announce that July's Giveaway winner is CrochetMa!!

August's Giveaway winner will receive their choice of any two patterns from my for-sale pattern site at Craftsy.com! Good luck - all you have to do to enter is leave a comment below!

Happy crocheting, everybody.

It's July Already! Have You Started Working On Christmas Yet?

An interesting thought occurred to me this week as I was completing the design for my new X-Stitch Headband. (You can get the pattern here). It would make such a perfect little tuck-in Christmas gift for all my girlfriends, sister, daughter, and so forth. The whole thing took me under an hour to pop out, and of course a little headband is a perfect take-along project when you're going to be sitting outside enjoying a summer concert in the park, or just waiting in the doctor's office as I so often do! 

This is crocheted in two rows of X-stitch double crochet with a single crochet contrast border all around. I added a little crocheted pin for extra dazzle:) You can find the pattern for that on my Squidoo pattern index. 

Next week I will be featuring a pattern for a "Faux Knit" Purse. Patterns don't get much easier, and it's a lot of fun playing with colors! It features my "prong stitch single crochet." When worked in the round, Prong Stitch looks remarkably like knitting! Anyway I got a kick out of it, hopefully you all will too. Here's a sneak preview... 

Don't forget to comment below to be entered to win this month's blog giveaway! This month's prize will be one of my for-sale patterns at Craftsy.com along with a set of crocheted finished objects from me! 

Happy crocheting, everyone! 

June Winner Announced! July Giveaway Starts Now!

Congratulations to Karen A., who is the winner of my June blog giveaway! Karen has won her choice of TWO of my for-sale patterns from Craftsy.com.

For July, the winner will receive the free pattern of their choice AND a set of 3 of my Angel Wing Scrubbies in their choice of colors! For a chance to win, just leave a comment here!

Check out my new free Angel Wing Sunglass Case pattern and have a place to stash those shades.

Angel Wing Sunglass Case

 Or make the new Columbine Potholder, my newest free pattern published last week.

Columbine Potholder