Cute Blog Templates

As blogging is pretty new to me...I love when I can find things such as templates or buttons or whatever I need to make my blog look new and fun. I found this festive July background (granted a little late...but still can be patriotic after the 4th!!) at LeeLouBlogs and from what I can see she has ones for each month. And not only does she have the adorable backgrounds but she has great directions for those of us who are challenged by such things :-)

Christmas In July

It is "Christmas In July" in my Etsy shop!
Free Shipping on all orders in July!

I made up some cute Owl Soaps to go in my "All Things Hogwarts" section of my shop.

I also finally finished up 2 swap packages...one for a stitch marker swap...and the other for my HP Crafters swap.  The packages have been sent and hopefully my swap partners will enjoy them.

Another HOT day!!!  Joy o joy!!  I guess this is when I start thinking....gee, winter wasn't so bad?!?!? 

This week I have been very productive!  On Monday I spent the entire day (pretty much) making soap....and more soap.  I made a big batch of Almond Joy...which smells so chocolate-y and yummy!

And then a big batch of Gardener's Soap and a smaller batch of just Vanilla...both came out great!

Then once I actually sat down in the evening I decided I had better get going on making my little Harry Potter items for a swap in the HP Crafters group over on Ravelry.  My partner listed Ravenclaw and Gryffindor as her favorite Hogwart's houses...so I decided to make up mini House Sweaters in Ravenclaw and Gryffindor house colors.

These 2 will go to my swap partner...

This one I decided to keep for myself cause I just thought they were so darn cute :-)

 

Summer is apparently here.....

Oh my!  I just made the mistake of going outside to mail some packages off...and as I was getting out of my car at the post office the radio announcer was saying that it was 104 degrees out!!  As if I didn't have a clue...since I wasn't able to actually touch my steering wheel because it was so hot....makes driving a little tricky....

The other day I spent making some earrings...which I actually really like.  For some reason I really like the 'cube' and 'square' beads....but these are in soft pastel colors and feel summery.

 And I made these fun stitch markers as well....and as I seem to have a Hogwarts addiction...these actually could be Hogwart-ish as well...I didn't really mean it but they do include the house colors :-)

And these are some 'scrubby soaps' I made yesterday.  One is a brown sugar scrub soap...and smells like brown sugar...YUMMY!  The other is a cornmeal scrub soap...which is scented with Lavender and Litsea Cubea...which is a great citrusy/lavender smell.  But as I was making them...I mixed the cornmeal in with hot soap to make that first 'scrubby' side...and "Oh Yumminess!!!"...it smelled just like cornbread :-)  Go figure?!  So I am kind of hoping that when I use it I might still get that cornbread smell too!

“This post is part of the I Made It Blog Party at Everything Etsy”

It is hot today!!!  I should never have looked at my weather widget to see how hot it is (90 F today!!)....cause now I feel even hotter!!

I have spent the day working on updating my etsy shop appearance.  I got this banner from Everything Etsy  They have some adorable banners and buttons...and they give some great instructions for personalizing them!  Always helpful!!!

And I just finished this for my swap partner on Ravelry

 

Ok...Things Have Got to Change

OK....Now that I remembered how to log in to my blog (always helpful...geez!!!!)  I will try yet again to  be better with posting.

Instead of trying to catch up on what has happened since I last posted....I will just start with today...and maybe at some point I will get caught up (no guarantees!)

This adorable looking cat...you may remember is the "Birthday Kitten" that I had mentioned way back....is now almost a year old (I think July/Aug she will be a year)...anyway...this adorable little monster is resting peacefully in my closet (don't ask, she likes it in there....she is a weirdo!) this morning after bouncing off the walls all freakin' night!!!!  Finally at 4 a.m. I gave up trying to sleep in my room and shut her in the room by herself and my dog and I went to sleep out in the living room!  Let's hope I get more sleep tonight....

Ok enough up the cute little fuzz ball...

This week I have spent lots of time making fun stitch markers to add to my etsy shop.

These ones are Hogwarts House colored ones:

And my favorite Hogwarts ones are....Dumbledore's Lemon Drops :-)

There are more....but will go slow....will post more later.....

Also I have been reading Bon Courage - Rediscovering the Art of Living in the Heart of France by Ken McAdams, who happens to be a member of my church, Stamford Church of Christ.  It has been a good read so far...it is kind of weird to read about someone that you know...it gives the book a whole new perspective.

WOW...last posted 2 months ago?!?!?!

Gee, I really stink at this blogging thing!!

I could blame it on being SOOO busy...course that might not be entirely true.  It is really just because I forget I have a blog :-)

I don't even remember what I have been doing....

Let's see....January started up a new 'term' of HPKCHC...so I have spent time knitting up some projects for that.  In January I actually made my first pair of mittens for Divination class.  The assignment was palm reading....and so we had to figure out what type of palm we had...fire palm, water palm etc....and then craft mittens, gloves, or handwarmers.

And then made my 2nd pair of mittens this month for my Potions class.  The assignment this month was to craft something using a technique that you’ve previously tried and hated, or something you hate the idea of, or using a fiber you despise, to get over your previous dislike for it. Or just to give you an excuse to detail all of the faults of that particular technique/fiber/pattern/etc.  And since I hate the color purple...my 2nd pair of mittens was in purple.

Some of my other projects I used for class assignments:

A baby sweater and a teddy bear for my friend Jen who had her 2nd son back in October.  The sweater was for January's D.A.D.A. (Defense Against the Dark Arts) class and the bear was for January Charms class.

This month I turned in a reversible doll for Charms class.  The assignment was to create an object that changes – examples an egg which turns into a hen/duck, a Cinderella doll whose skirts flip to change between kitchen and palace.

And so these are a Hogwart student in Hufflepuff yellow....and then in purple for House Unity.

  

I also have spent a lot of time working on my Muggle's Study O.W.L. for which I am attempting to make my first adult size sweater.  So far I have almost completed the back and front pieces.  O.W.L.s are projects that are more than a month long...so we have the entire term to finish it.  I hope I can finish this by the end of March.

And then there has been the Ravelrympics 2010...which coincides with the Olympic games.  This time we’re “gathering” in Vancouver, Canada during Feb 12-28, 2010.

Goal: 2 weeks of focused, intense personal & team challenges to tackle while watching the actual Olympics unfold before our eyes.

So even more knitting took place!!  These are some of my projects I submitted for Ravelrympics 2010.

A hat and scarf for Jamie. 

The hat was entered in the Hat Halfpipe event.
The scarf in the Scarf Super-G event.
 
 
 
 
 

 

This hat and Christmas stocking were WIPs (Works In Progress)....so they were both entered in the WIPs Dancing event.

And I was also able to enter my reversible doll in the Skelegurumi event...which was for toys and animuguri.  And the mittens in the Mitten Mogul event. 

So overall...a very productive month for knitting!!

Besides all the knitting....I have read some books...I have also gone to Wellington, FL with my friend Debbie's daughter, Isobel, so that she could do some horseshowing down in FL. 

Spencer, my birthday kitten, turned out to be a girl (didn't find that out until I made an appointment to get 'him' neutered...and 'he' didn't have the right equipment!  So Ms. Spencer was spayed in the beginning of February.  And she is finally venturing out from beneath the bed.  She is very playful (usually all night long!!!) and has even started jumping up on my bed and demanding that I pet her!  She is lucky she is cute!!

And just this weekend, I have decided I would like to try spinning...as in spinning wool into yarn...not spinning, as in something you do at the gym (crazy?!?!?).  So I have ordered my first drop spindle and some fiber and a couple of books....so hopefully next time I remember to blog....maybe I will have some pics of some handspun yarns...