A Baby Crocodile

My kids' room has been home to a lot of things. We've had a beta fish, tadpoles, frogs, a snake, and of course the many messes. It is now home to a baby crocodile. He's 6 1/2 inches long.

A year ago I made some no-slip-clips for my daughter and had a few of the clips left over. I rediscovered them last week and they were just begging to be made into something. I put one inside the crocodile's mouth. So this little guy has a pretty good grip when he bites.

My son is thrilled with him and has been clipping him all over the house.

A Halloween Treat!

A long time ago I signed up for the Bright Ideas e-newsletter. The last one had a recipe for Mummies made from pretzels and chocolate. I have a weakness for chocolate and love the sweet/salty mix. I was able to convince my cute husband that this would be a great addition to our pumpkin carving party. He has a weakness for chocolate too.

Because I have small children, it's easiest to spread out the process. So Sunday I did the pretzel dipping, while Hubby tried to keep the kids away (a near impossible task). I used an improvised double boiler instead of microwaving like the directions said. I'm also substituting chocolate chips for the Dove bars. I used the entire bag of chocolate chips plus the remnants of a previous bag. It ended up making more than the recipe says.

Here they are about halfway through the process.

I didn't have vanilla frosting so I used the cream cheese frosting that I had on hand. When I make sugar cookies I double the batch of both cookie dough and frosting. Then I divide it up and freeze it. It makes the process a little easier for subsequent cookie making fun. So I happened to have my ziplock of frosting ready. Just snip the corner and squirt!

This is about half of what we made.

They were a big hit. My son told me they were scary. He was talking about the good, fun kind of scary (not the Haunted House kind of scary -long story). My daughter enjoyed hers as well, starting with the frosting. She was a chocolaty mess when she finished.

To keep us from eating all of them, we took a few plates to our neighbors. Share the sugar highs! I think these will be a yearly tradition. They were a lot of fun to make and taste great!

Something for me!

I currently only have one crochet project underway. It's the Ballet Sweater from Crochet Me. It's been an adventure. The pattern is well written, but you have to pay attention to what row or repetition that you're on. That's not a big deal though and the diagrams help as well. The hard part for me is that I'm not using the yarn called for in the pattern. I'm using size 3 crochet thread which has altered the guage. I had to frog (undo) a few rows and start over after the medium was starting to look huge. The problem then is that once you adjust one peice of a clothing pattern, you have to do it to all the other peices. So far it looks like all my adjustments are coming together. I have the back and one front panel done. More updates later...

Halloween Costumes

Not only did I finish the 1 1/2 costumes on time, I was able to throw together a last minute costume for me as well. It's been years since I dressed up, and I realized that I was going to be the only one not in costume. So while my daughter was napping I crocheted little ears and a tail and I went as a lab rat. I got the lab coat from my dad a couple years ago (My dad is an immunologist and does skin cancer research on mice.)

The Phantom cape turned out really good, but not because of my sewing skills. The fabric was perfect for a cape. It was lightweight and flowy (not a real word, but you get the idea). I finished it while Hubby was at work so I tried it on myself. Capes are fun to walk around in with the cape billowing out behind you. I can see the appeal.

So here we are: Phantom of the Opera in the back, Batman, a lab rat, and our Butterfly Princess who refused to wear her wings. Taking pictures with kids is an adventure. What did we do before digital cameras?

My First Non-Crochet Related Post

Until now I have only blogged on crochet. Brace yourselves! This post is not about crocheting -no hooks or yarn involved. But it is craft related still. There may be more non-crochet posts coming up. I'm taking a little break from crocheting. Maybe it's time to catch up on scrapbooking.

Halloween is coming and I somehow volunteered to make 1 1/2 costumes. I'm pretty sure I did it willingly. In case you're wondering, the 1/2 a costume is a cape for my husband. Almost every year (since high school) he dresses up as Phantom of the Opera. This year he decided it was time for a new cape. I haven't told him that I'm going to charge him for it. I'm going to make him sing Music of the Night for me. He has a great voice and I love hearing him sing. My sewing talent in exchange for his signing talent. Sounds fair to me. I have to get started on it tonight since he needs it for Saturday and I still have to finish the other costume.


The other costume is for my 20 month old daughter. She's going to be a butterfly princess. Her room is decorated in butterflies and she was dubbed Princess Poopy Pants as a baby. So butterfly princess seemed perfect for her. I love when kids are too young to choose their own costumes. Buying a Batman costume from WalMart (for my 4 year old) wasn't nearly as fun.

We lucked out that nearly everything we needed for both costumes were on sale at JoAnns the day we went. The only snag we hit was that the pattern I wanted was only available for sizes 6-8. I need a size 2 or smaller. So then I had this brilliant idea to make it fit a 4 year old and a 2 year old. Sometimes brilliant ideas don't seem so brilliant when you start working on them.


I made the bodice more of an overlay that requires a shirt underneath and then it laces up with ribbon. It's a little obnoxious to get on and off, but it fits both kids. Yes, I made my poor son model it for me. I bribed him with candy to wear it while I hemmed the 4 year old length. Right now it's ready to go for a 4 year old, but I need to make a temporary 2 year old hem. I plan on taking the second hem out after Halloween and saving it for a dress up box when she's a little older. There's also a slip underneath that will make a great tutu for a ballerina dress up or future costume.


Here's what I have so far. It's a cute picture (even though she was sick when I took the picture), but it doesn't show a lot of the dress. There's gold ribbon around the sleeves and along the front.

Holiday Friends Pattern Available!

The patterns are finished for my Holiday Friends! The pattern is available at Em's Emporium!

Eternity Squared Afghan

Sometimes you see a pattern that you just can't resist. The Eternity Squared (8-inch square) Pattern was one of those for me. Mostly because my husband and I thought it was perfect for his mom. Even the name of the square reminded me of her. So we made it for her for Christmas. Yes, WE made it. My cute husband actually learned enough for me to walk him through a few stitches so that it could be from both of us. Then he saw how fast I crocheted and accused me of showing off.

Since we're cheap (I'm not ashamed to admit it) and my mother-in-law is coming to visit, we're giving it to her this week! That way we can see the look on her face and we save on postage (yarn is heavy). Plus we're pretty excited that it's done.

A Flower Sweater

I had some Caron Bliss left over from a previous project and had no idea what to do with it. I finally decided that it would make a wonderfully soft sweater. I had to buy a few more skeins to finish it, so I didn't save money by making it myself. It's so soft and snugly that no one is complaining about the cost.

It's my first sweater and I didn't have a pattern. The front and back are made using Krystal's Daisy Square. I made it up as I went on the sleeves and then added a sc border in pink or mango on the sleeves, neckline, and bottom edge. It's big on her right now, but she'll grow into it eventually.

Holiday Friends

I do realize that Christmas is still more than 2 months away, but I wanted to finish these so I could get to my various other projects.

The Hliday Friends crochet pattern will include the instructions for all four -the reindeer, Santa, the snowman, and elf. It will be for sale in Em's Emporium in about a week (my testers are trying out the pattern right now).

The poor reindeer almost didn't get ears. I wondered why it looked like something was missing on him. He looks much better now that he has ears.

You can't see it in the picture, but Santa has thumbs sticking out on his mittens. It looks really cute. Maybe I should take a better picture. I'm going to put candy in his bag. When it gets closer to Christmas and I can actually put him out where people will see him.

I love this little guy. He actually has 3 different hats because I couldn't decide what style he should have. I think this hat is my favorite though.

And lastly, here's the elf. He almost had a beard, but it made him look like Hagrid from Harry Potter. The elf has thumbs just like Santa.

The Bureau of Resurrection

My dad recently finished his book The Bureau of Resurrection and it is now for sale! He has also decided to offer a little alien with each purchase. Here's the little crocheted alien that you'll get when you buy the book. He is my own pattern and measures about 2 1/2 inches tall.

Here's a summary of the book and more information on how to get the alien.