Julie the jellyfish

  I recently bought this crochet book

from Joann's. I've been having a lot of fun with it, there's a ton of cute and easy patterns. I would like to make every animal, but since I couldn't pick which one to make first, I had Madelyn look through the book and pick whichever one she would like me to make. I ended up making her a narwhal, which created a discussion and learning opportunity (for her AND me) about what a narwhal is and that they are, in fact, a real animal, not just a pretend, made-up animal like I thought they were (yes, I admit it). When I was taking pictures today of recent projects I've made, I couldn't find the narwhal, he must be hiding somewhere in Madelyn's room, so I don't have a post for him yet. 

However, after making Ned the Narwhal (yes, I named them), I made him a friend.

Meet Julie.

She likes to lounge around while waiting for Ned to get done traversing the Arctic Ocean looking for food.

Don't let that cute grin fool you, her tentacles can pack a punch!

Once I find Ned I'll make a post for him, too.

Madelyn's birthday cupcakes

With Madelyn's birthday always landing right around Thanksgiving, I wanted to make her something "fall" or "Thanksgiving" themed. She's been obsessed with cupcakes, and since I just recently got this cupcake cookbook...

I promised her I would make her some cupcakes. I made two different recipes: the Golden Vanilla Cupcake with an addition of a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice, and the Gingerbread Cupcake. I topped them with Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting.They both turned out delicious, the Gingerbread one was amazing, definitely my favorite. 

After baking, cooling, and frosting, I wanted a cute way to decorate them. I searched Pinterest and finally found this tutorial for how to make little pumpkin pie cupcake toppers out of fondant. 

Success!!

I couldn't get over how cute they were!! My mom and I had fun making them while the girls napped, it was kind of like playing with playdough. I got the recipe for the fondant here, it was VERY MESSY to make, but turned out pretty good. I had to use lots of shortening to keep things unsticky and moist, but it worked better than the last time I used fondant making Madelyn's first birthday cake, which kind of turned into a cake wreck. 

Madelyn was pretty excited to see them after they were made and all the kids had fun eating them at her birthday party. She really liked her "pumpkin pie cupcakes" or "cupcake pumpkin pies." She couldn't decide which one they were :)

An afghan for our living room

Finally got around to making an afghan to go in our living room. This is actually the second full-sized afghan I've made. I made one for my sister but forgot to take a picture of it (but still need to). 

The pattern came out of the book (pictured below) that I got as a Christmas gift from my mom last year.

I made the pattern called "Light and Airy Afghan".

I really like how it turned out. It has lots of detail and matches with the red and orange colors of our living room. 

The edging on the afghan was really fun.

This turned out to be a pretty good-sized afghan, the finished size was 47" x 65". The perfect size to cuddle up on the couch with.

I'll end with a close-up of the stitches. It was a fun and easy project!

A new hat for Madelyn

Okay, it's been forever since I've updated this, but I guess that's just what happens when you have two kids. Audrey is now getting to the point where she's less needy (at least most of the time, except when she's screaming) but I now have a chance to start making things again. I've been crocheting again while the girls nap, and have been able to do a few other craft projects. It's so relaxing and rewarding to be able to spend some time on my favorite hobby again.

The weather has started to get cooler, and after going through Madelyn's hats, I realized she didn't really have any cute ones, just some that I had made on a Knifty Knitter that didn't fit very well, and some random ones she had been given as gifts. How could this be? So I got right to work making her one. I first made one according to the pattern on this Ravelry page, but alas, I crochet too tightly, and it was too small. I ended up giving it to a friend's little girl, although it looked SO CUTE on Audrey, but she instantly ripped it off-- no cute hats for Audrey this winter I guess. I tried a second time using a bigger needle and adding a few more stitches in the rounds to make it bigger. And it fit!! Yay!!

So, without further ado... here is the hat I made for her.

I got the flower pattern from here, it was pretty simple and fun to make.

I'm very happy with how it turned out, and also excited that she wears it. She likes to wear hats now, which just means I can have more fun making her ones to wear!!