Love It!

Yesterday, this little goodie arrived in the mail. It's a present from my dear friend Nicole.


Inside that adorable packaging, was this adorable necklace. Love it!
It came from this shop on etsy. I LOVE etsy! Thanks, Nicole!

In Danger, Need Help

I first discovered Rebecca Danger and her adorable knit patterns at Easter when I knit her first free pattern, The Bunny Nugget. Ever since I have been contemplating buying one of her adorable knit softie patterns, but had managed to resist. Until now. Rebecca's newest pattern is this adorable mommy and baby monster pair. All photos property of Rebecca Danger. Used with her permission.

I just can't resist Daphne and Delilah. Don't you just love the pocket! Both of them are so adorable! So I went to Rebecca's etsy shop all set to buy Daphne and Delilah when I noticed Rebecca's 5 Pattern Deal. Well, there were so many adorable patterns that I decided I really should go for the deal. She also has a 6 Monster Deal and an All 12 Patterns Deal, but I'm going to try to limit myself to 5. Try being the key word. The problem is...I can't decide which patterns to buy.

I think I've decided on 4 of the 5:
Daphne and Delilah:

Penelope the Empathetic Monster:

Frances the Charismatic Monster:

Robbie the Radiant Robot:

I can't decide on the 5th one. I like the inherent flexibility in color choices for the monsters. Really, you can use any yarn in your stash and they will look cute. But I also like the idea of getting a larger variety by choosing a non-monster. Here are some of my current front runners for my 5th pattern:

Albert the Absent-Minded Monster:

Maddox the Mischievous Monster:

Wasabi the Gregarious Pug:


Then there are also these little cuties:
Tofu the Gentle Dachshund:

Olivia the Audacious Monster:



Chester the Bashful Bunny:

Herman the Enigmatic Bear:

Beatrice and Bernard the Inseparable Bunny and Bear:I know the choices are overwhelming. I just can't decide. I need your help! Please, knitters and non-knitters, can you please leave a comment and let me know which pattern(s) are your favorites. I want to buy them as soon as possible because they are SO adorable and they must be knit soon. And make sure you check out Rebecca's blog and etsy shop.

Happy Monday, everyone! Thanks for your help.

All photos property of Rebecca Danger. Used with her permission.

Bootie-licious

Please excuse the cheesy title. I just couldn't resist!

I finished Norm's Moc-a-Socs and I love them. Although the pattern is simple (yet very clever), these booties take a while to knit since they are done on size 2 needles and sport and fingering weight yarn. These are the 6-12 month size and they are a little big on Norm, but the 0-6 month size booties were just a tiny bit too small.

Pattern: Moc-a-Soc (baby) by Bekah Knits
Needles: Size 2 (round or straight and double point)
Yarn: Blue--Bernat Softee Baby (sport weight); White: Patons Baby Beehive (fingering weight)

















Sorry for any blurry photos--Norm's very active these days and I don't have a flash on my camera. Make sure you check out Norm's wonderfully delicious chunky thighs--don't you just want to squeeze them?

Etsy and Crafty Love

While on my forced blog break due to my dead computer, I kept busy doing knitting and other crafts and shopping for gifts on etsy. So to catch up on all this crafty and etsy fun are some photos:Bookmarks with vintage typewriter keys from Lizzy Bleu (etsy) for my two wonderful realtors: Kate Myers in Cleveland and Pat Orwig (patsyorwig@sbcglobal.net) in Dallas.

A little something extra Lizzie Bleu included in my package for me.

This is a lovely print I bought for Norm's room.
I wanted something that had both blue and red in it to help the red loveseat look more like it belongs in the room. I fell in love with this whimsical print "Quite a Catch" by Gumball Grenade.

This is the print I got for John's room. It's called "photo opp. 4" and is by Creative Thursday. She has tons of adorable animal prints. I loved them all, but chose this one because of John's love of polar bears.


These are my first pair of Moc-a-Socs--a pattern I bought on etsy from Bekah Knits. I love this pattern! Very easy to use, but clever in its design. Unfortunately, the smallest size was just a tiny bit too small for Norm. I decided to mail these to a friend who just had her first baby, a boy, and am making Norm the next size up. On Ravelry here. (Size 2 needles, Bernat Softee Baby in blue, Baby Beehive in white.)

Some ghosts I knitted as favors for John's preschool class using this lovely free pattern by Jean Greenhowe. Very easy pattern. (Size 6 needles, garter stitch, very little yarn, I used Bernat Softee Baby). I changed the procedure for the arms slightly to streamline the process. See Ravelry or leave a comment if you want more details. On Ravelry here.

This is a pillow I made for the loveseat in Norm's room--another attempt to pull together the baby blue nursery and the red loveseat.

These are the five "loveys" I made for friends' new babies. They were fun to make and my cutting and sewing skills improved dramatically by number five. I cheated on the names. I found fonts I liked and printed the names onto paper. Then I pinned the paper on the lovey and did backstitching through the paper. Once I was done, I just ripped the paper off and "ta da" the names were there and looking much better than if I had freehanded them.

So that's all the love for now. Hope you enjoy some of your own crafty or etsy love soon.

My newest addictions

All my bloggers are on Etsy (sing to the tune of All My Exes Live in Texas)--and I'm addicted to both. Well, so they're not ALL on Etsy...but it seems like more and more of the fun people whose blogs I love are also selling beautiful things on etsy. Ashley at Dogged is selling her lovely wristlets and bags. Cheryl from yarnbee is selling yummy soaps, bath salts and cards. Maritza from Soto Softies is selling her adorably unique little softies. Megan from Knitting Philistine is selling her delicious soaps. And Nicki doesn't have a blog, but I know her from Flickr and she sells gorgeous yarn on Etsy. There are so many wonderful finds on Etsy. I LOVE it.

Etsy could so be an addiction for me that I have to limit how much I look on it. The more I look, the more beautiful things I find. For now I simply mark things as Favorites, but now that I'm working again maybe I'll treat myself to a few things. Hmmm...

I've been good so far. I've only bought from Etsy three times. And I LOVE everything I've gotten. I bought some great softie patterns from fuzzymitten. I haven't tried them all (I bought two and got one free), but this is the first softie I made. Isn't it adorable? The pattern was really well written and came very quickly in convenient pdf form. Love it!

My next purchase was the adorable wristlet from Ashley at Dogged. I love it! The finishing touches really make it even more perfect. Look at that great red lining and sweet tag.

My final purchase (for now) are these two adorable prints from The Black Apple. I just love them. Nikki had gotten "The Little Knitter" and I decided I had to have it. Then I saw the "A Good Egg is Hard to Find" print and just couldn't resist. One of my grandmother's favorite phrases was "You're a good egg." As I've come to expect from Etsy, the prints came with several adorable little extras including a great postcard and a business card.

The business card told me that Emily of The Black Apple also has a blog...but I'm resisting so far.