Magazine Storage Boxes (and bookends) :)

I have been trying to organize my craft room all summer long. I found this great project on Craftster, and I used it as a guide. Here is the link: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=177297.0 Here is my version. The first two pictures are of the storage box for my knitting and crochet magazines. It is painted and has a decoupaged picture on each side; one for crochet and one for knitting. Here is the crochet side:
Here is the knit side:
I also made a storage box for my beading magazines. For this one, I tore out pages from my favorite bead catalog, Fire Mountain Gems, and decoupaged them on the box. Voila....
I really like how they turned out. My craft room should be organized by the end of summer :)

Beaded Flower

I made a beaded flower!! I tried to make one of these a long, long time ago and only managed to get halfway through one petal before completely giving up. Well, now, years later, I sat down with the intention of finishing a complete beaded flower.....and voila, here it is, beaded in my sister's wedding colors. The center of the flower has three of the yellow-green pearls used in the bridesmaid's jewelry and the silver seed beads are also from that jewelry.
Here is a side view with the wires ends still exposed. I will attach the flower to a pin back and use it as part of a final wedding day gift for my sister. I'll post pics as I progress with the flower and gift.
I am just so excited with how well it worked out. And you'll never believe it, but when I went to JoAnn's to buy some pin backs, all jewelry making supplies were 50% off. I was able to contain myself and only buy what I needed (the pin backs), although it was tempting.

I-Pod Sleeves

So, I was looking through some old photos on the computer, and I found these. Thought I would share them.

I knit these I-Pod covers around Christmas 2007. The pink one is a pig (believe it or not :) ). I knit it with pink acrylic yarn as part of my sister's Christmas gift. She collects pig-related things, and I love to find the strangest pig-related gifts I can. For her last birthday, I knit her a pig washcloth, and a few years ago I found a candy dish of a pig with wings. Anyway, the I-Pod cover I knit in the round and added the features later. It even has a little curly tail on the back. Too cute, I know :)

The orange I-Pod cover I knit just for fun from some leftover yarn. Its a thick and thin wool in orange and purple. I really like it. I also knit a felted purse with this yarn.....I'll post it sometime soon. The I-Pod cover was an experiment to see if I could create openings for the screen and the controls. It worked out pretty well. I do wish the openings were a little bigger, but the funny thing is.....my fiance started using it on his I-Pod, and he loves it. He loves how the wool is so thick it actually offers some protection if the I-Pod is dropped. Its like a padded case. It has not left his I-Pod since I knit it :)

Green Baby Blanket

So, I've been working on this baby blanket since the beginning of summer. I have two pregnant cousins and a pregnant co-worker, so I thought it was time to start knitting baby things.

I have to admit, I almost gave up on this blanket. Some of the stitch transitions are looking a little looser that I would like, but I had already gone so far that I did not want to give up.

Then I spent two nights watching horror movies. This is one of my favorite times to knit as it helps me to not pick at my nails and bite my nails during those tense moments in the movie, so I did a lot of knitting and made a lot of progress. Now, I am on my third ball of Bernat Cottontots yarn and I am happy with my blanket.

One of the movies I saw was "The Ruins." Whether or not you have seen this movie, I must recommend the book first. I read the book before seeing the movie, and it is so much better. In the movie, they switched all the characters around. I can't figure out why, unless the movie makers were sexist and prejudiced......it made me a little crazy. You should really read the book. Great book.

Anyway, this is a close-up of the blanket. I am using knit, purl and seed stitch. The blanket is reversible and is knit in Sweet Green. For some reason, it photographed as a different color in these two pics. The first is a more accurate representation of the color. Hope you like it :)

I <3 Craigslist!

So, my fiance is a little obsessed with Craigslist. Since he knows how much I love to knit and bead and stuff, he always keeps his eyes open for good crafty deals. Recently, he found me this amazing deal.

A bunch of free knitting needles of varying sizes (and some wooden crochet needles, not pictured)....

And a whole box of free needlecraft books and magazines from the 50s through the 90s (2 pictured below).
I am just a little excited about my new stash :) And its even better because my honey found it all for me and encouraged me to get it. If that is not love, I don't know what is.

And the earrings.

Here is a pic of the earrings to match the bridesmaid bracelets. I used the same yellow-green freshwater pearls and the silver seed beads, but I also added these cool, sparkly discoball beads (they don't photograph well apparently). I used silver plated findings. I think they are really fun!

Bridesmaid Jewelry

My sister is getting married this August, and she asked me to make some jewelry for the bridesmaids. She chose beautiful green bridesmaid dresses, and we were lucky enough to find these awesome yellow green freshwater pearls at Fire Mountain Gems. They match the dresses perfectly :). She wanted bracelets and earrings. Here is the first bracelet. It is a simple stringing of the greeen pearls separated by some silver seed beads. We chose silver seed beads because the bridemaids will be wearing silver shoes. I am really happy with the first bracelet. I have also finished all of the earrings, but do not have a picture yet. I will post it as soon as I have a pic. I found some cool silver disco ball beads in my stash that I used with the pearls in the earrings. They look great ;)






The second picture shows the bracelet without the model.