The Shtick I Do

When I first saw these awesome little hand sanitizer holders I went nuts. Of course I had to have one and it just happened to be close to Christmas so I ended up getting mine for free when I bought 'x' number of hand sanitizers. These things are really convenient; you don't have to dig around in your purse, the kids don't have to come home upset because their sanitizer burst open inside their backpack ruining the hand-print turkey they made you for Thanksgiving. I'm sorry, I digress. Let me get to the point which I've already said: convenience! We love that little noun! Well needless to say after much abuse my holder finally got so stretched and torn I had to toss it in the trash. Such is the case with a lot of    convenient things. So guess what? I decided to make my own. Sure there are others out there making and selling crochet hand sanitizer holders on eBay and Etsy , but they lacked something. All the ones I managed to find were just tube-sock like p...

That's the question posed to me by my 14 year old daughter the other day when she saw what I was working on. She automatically knew they were gifts . . . somehow . . . (-.-). "But Mom," she whined, "it's not even May yet!" "I know, but THIS year I'm going to be ready!" I replied.  Yea right. That's what I tell myself every year and inevitably I struggle the week before Christmas to get everyone's items completed. *sigh* Unlike a lot of bloggers and crafters on Facebook , I don't sell my items. I probably could, well, now that I think about it, I've sold ONE item . . . the raccoon . But it wasn't even really a "sell" because I was just reimbursed for materials. ANYway . . . back to my point. I crochet and craft because I enjoy it, it's relaxing and I can make some pretty cool and unique stuff! So when someone gets an item I've crocheted it's not for money, it's because when I'm making it,...

And yet again, I made something with one thing in mind but it turned out being used for something different! Another reason why I love crocheting. I was so excited for my sunglasses case. The length is correct, I fashioned a flap with a button hole, picked out a matching button, lined the inside with fabric (hand-sewing that part, mind you) and closed it all up with a slip stitch around the edges. It looks great! I even took extra time in choosing the #10 crochet thread over my usual choice of a 4-ply worsted weight yarn. Crochet thread isn't my usual choice. It's very small and likes to wind up on itself if you aren't careful. But you can really make some beautiful things with this stuff so I encourage you to at least try it. So . . . . . it did not turn out to be a sunglasses case . The sunglasses I have are a bit too large for the case. Oh, they fit inside it just fine but it's way too bulky to easily fit in my purse. I was sorely disappointed. Because ...

Alrighty. Here are 2 things I had been working on that are now COMPLETED! Yay! I always enjoy working on a project and most of the time I'm happy when it's finished. Other times I am ecstatic! lol This is the raccoon amigurumi I mentioned a few weeks back. I absolutely loved the way he turned out. And the lady I made him for was very happy as well. You can't really see his tail in this pic but I promise it's there and it's striped. I used a basic animal amigurumi pattern and adjusted the tail, ears and face until I was happy. The only thing I might have changed would be his eyes. Maybe they could have been bigger but everyone in my family said a raccoon should have beady eyes. ^_^ His snout turned out to be just a cone shape with a black tip. The little whiskers you see here are just some pieces of scrap yarn secured on the inside, pulled through to the outside and I used a blunt needle to pull the "ply" apart. Then I trimmed them down with a pa...