Snowman hand print ornament

This post is very late, but I just gave the last of the ornaments as gifts a couple days ago, so now I can finally post pictures of them, since they're not a surprise anymore. 

I originally got this idea from pinterest or a friend, I can't remember which, but they really turned out great.

I purchased a bunch of clear ornament balls, and some paint sharpies from the craft store. I painted Madelyn's hand white, then had her carefully grab the ornament from the bottom, making sure all her fingers were evenly pressed around the ball. Once the white paint dried, I had fun painting features on the "snowmen".

I found this little rhyme to put in with the ornaments here.

I made one for a few different family members, and saved one for us to put on our tree.

They turned out super cute. Each snowman was a little different, depending on which finger it was made from, and each ornament was a little different depending on the amount of paint on her hand, or how she grabbed it initially. 

I wrote her name and the year on the bottom, then tied red ribbon to the top so it could be hung on the tree. 

Puppy dog hat

I'm pretty proud of this hat. I used the same basic pattern I've used before for the body of the hat (as in this hat and this hat), but made up the rest of it. A good friend of mine just had a little boy, so I wanted to make her a puppy dog hat. I looked online at a bunch of patterns for dog hats, but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for, so I just decided to make something up as I went along, and it turned out great!!

For the ears I basically just crocheted an ear shape by increasing and decreasing stitches, until I got the shape I wanted. Thankfully I wrote it down as I went along so I could duplicate it for the other side. Once I got the shape I wanted, I single crocheted all around the edges, then attached them to the top.

I only attached the ears to the hat at the very top so they would be able to be nice and floppy.

So cute! I haven't got to see it in person yet, we've all been sick and haven't been able to meet the newest addition yet, but my friend texted me a picture of her little boy wearing it, so it must have fit :)

Flower newborn hat

I hosted a joint baby shower for a friend, who is having a little girl after having 2 boys, so I wanted to make her something very girly for her new little girl :)

I used the same basic hat pattern as I used for this hat, but used a colorful striped yarn for the main body, and added a flower and trim using a matching yarn.

So cute. Baby hats are so fun to make, they're super cute and quick to finish, can easily get one done during nap time.

Fedora-style hat

My grandma has been undergoing chemo treatments, so I made her a hat to wear to keep her head warm during the cold, winter months. 

I made this pattern before for my mother-in-law here, and decided to use it for my grandma's hat.

I changed it up a little bit this time, adding a rolled rose instead of the bow, and making the band in the same color as the rose. I found the rose pattern here.

I used Madelyn for my hat model this time, although she was somewhat reluctant.

There, that's a better smile!!

My grandma was very happy with it and excited to receive it in the mail. I love making people happy with crochet hats :)

Hat with a brim

This hat pattern is my favorite and I would say "signature" pattern. I've made five of them now, and will probably end up making more. The original pattern was found here. I have since altered and perfected it, changing things like the hook size used, the number of rows, the front embellishment, and the brim. It's such an easy pattern, but looks very professional once completed. 

The first one I made was for me. I always end up working out the kinks on a pattern on my own version, while the subsequent ones get better and better. Mine always ends up being the practice one :( After taking these pictures I went back and took out a couple rounds to make it fit a little better.

After texting a picture of my hat to my sister-in-law, she requested one, so I made her one in pink. 

We had a white elephant gift exchange with some of our friends, so I made a purple version for my contribution gift. I don't know what happened to the picture of that hat, but it was pretty in a dark purple with black buttons.

My friend Marella, who I was kind of intending the hat for with the gift exchange, didn't end up with the hat, so I made her one in black for her baby shower gift.

I also have one made in blue for another friend, but I haven't gotten to the craft store yet to purchase buttons to finish it off.

After showing my husband different etsy sites and him seeing how they are selling their hats for around $30, my husband is excited for me to maybe create a store and start selling hats. This hat pattern would definitely be one of the ones I would make, takes only about $5 in materials, and around 2-3 hours of time, easily done during nap time. We'll see, to be continued I guess...

Grandma necklaces

For Christmas gifts for my mom and mother-in-law this year, I decided to take the "easy" route and make something that relates to my kids. Once you have kids, it's easy to create gifts involving/relating to them, and people appreciate them and enjoy them more, I think, than just buying them something generic, like a shirt. 

For my mom, I ordered a locket online through Etsy. I wasn't really thrilled with how it turned out when I got it, however. 

I ordered this locket in silver, with a request for the girls' birthstone colors for the flowers--amber and amethyst. 

The locket turned out pretty good, but I wasn't really happy with the flower beads, so I ended up switching them out for some other beads I went and bought from Joann's. 

The pictures that were on our Christmas cards ended up being the perfect size for inside the locket. I traced out the shape, cut them out, and decoupaged them inside the locket. 

Such cute little munchkins!! 

My mother-in-law had mentioned some time back that she always wanted a necklace with her kids' birthstones on it, but since her kids were born in July and May, the colors were red and green. What an odd, random combination. 

I'm pretty proud of how this necklace came out, I designed it myself :) I call it the family tree necklace. I searched all over for the big heart pendant. After a few stressful trips to craft stores with two kids getting into everything, I finally found one that worked at Craft Warehouse. I attached my husband's birthstone (the red) and my sister-in-law's birthstone (the green) to the big heart, then hung smaller hearts off of those stones to signify offspring (i.e. Madelyn and Audrey).

After giving it to my mother-in-law, she started to give my sister-in-law a hard time about the empty heart. If that's what it takes for me to get nieces and nephews... so be it :)