Puppy Love

Left to Right: Garbonzo, Shemp & Betsy

My cousin is a wonderful mom.  She raised these three beautiful dogs from pups.  Unfortunately, her beloved "Bonzo" passed away last year.  This year, she found out she is going to be a mom again.  Her first human baby is due to arrive at the beginning of winter.  I figured it might be a bit of an adjustment for Shemp and Besty, so I came up with a crafty solution to help the little guy or gal (that's right, they want to be surprised...don't you just hate that?) fit in with the rest of the pack.

 

The Perfect Hat for a New Pup

 

Sure, there are plenty of puppy hat patterns already available online, but I wanted to make mine special.  While this isn't specifically modeled after any of the three dogs, I chose a yarn color that most closely matched Garbonzo's beautiful fur.  I also wanted it to have eyes like Betsy and a big black nose to match Shemp.  I added the furry ears for fun!  I love how it came out...especially the detail in the eyes.  I used embroidery thread instead of yarn because it's hard to make anything but big, clusmy circles on such a small hat.  I think it really captured the beautiful shape and, what I always refer to as, her natural eyeliner.

 



My First Pattern

 

It was so easy to make and so cute, I decided to take the project a step further.  Here's my first attempt at a public pattern.  I hope you like it!

 



Perfect Puppy Hat Pattern by Ash 'N' Crafts

Crafts, Interrupted

Have you ever been really excited about a new project?  I’m talking really, really excited…so excited that you gathered up about two dozen old t-shirts, whipped out the scissors and went to work creating a mountain of fabric scraps.



Okay, it looked more mountainous before I folded all the scraps.


How will you reuse all of this fun fabric?  There are plenty of awesome ideas online.  You decide to start with pillow cases, because who doesn’t need extra pillow cases?  You carefully arrange the designs and start sewing.  You make exactly one half of one pillow case before it’s time for a weekend getaway with your girlfriends.

You tell yourself you’ll jump right back in when you return, but then it’s your birthday week and you’re busy celebrating with friends and family and eating cake…lots of cake!  Did I mention you get this awesome craft desk as a present?  You can’t wait to set it up.

Before you can tap back into your creative juices, you’re off again.  This time it’s a family vacation for almost a week.  You can’t very well pack a sewing machine, but you’ve gotten a few requests for crochet products and it’s the perfect time to make that puppy hat for your cousin’s baby.  It seems like a good idea, but you soon realize you’d prefer to use the furry yarn you left at home.  Might as well just relax and soak up the sun.

I may not have accomplished much with my crochet, but I did learn to paddle board!




Just a few of the pages I've finished so far.

You return home refreshed and ready to get crafting.  But when you think about the awesome few weeks you’ve  had – two vacations, a concert and lots of cake – you decide now is the time for scrapping.  So you load all your photos onto the computer and send them off to the printer.  You’re really excited to put all these memories down on paper.  Besides how long could it take to scrapbook a few (hundred) photos?

So many crafts, so little time

I’m guessing that by now you know I’m not really talking about “you.”  It’s been almost a month since my last post and this is the reason why.  I’ve started three new projects and finished none.  My creativity is seriously out of control and my crafts are suffering.  So maybe this isn’t your story, but you’ve probably dealt with a similar crafter’s conflict.  Sometimes life just gets in the way.  But I'm promising myself now that I'll tackle each one as I find time...I wouldn't want any of these awesome projects to end up in the bin!

Not Your Average Pot Holder



Every newlywed needs pot holders...why not make them special?

Not a lot to say about my latest craft, just thought I'd share a picture of the personalized wedding gift I made for my brother and sister-in-law.  The rest of my present was kitchen-themed and I wanted to make them something small to tie it together.  I originally thought of crocheting "Mr. & Mrs." coffee cup cozies, because they're both addicted to coffee.  I knew they'd like the idea but the reality didn't seem practical.  Most people either use a mug at home or get a cardboard cozy when they buy coffee on-the-go.

I love the Ravelry pattern search, because I sometimes have no idea what I want to make and the patterns help me out.  I came across this pot holder pattern from Lion Brand and designed the letters in Excel.  The entire project only took about 6 hours over two days and Krista & Drew loved them.  What do you think?

Setting Up Shop

Check out my Etsy shop

I finally did it! Sure, it took the whole damn day, but my Etsy shop is officially open for business. It's weird, because I've never actually shopped on Etsy, so I still have a lot to learn about how it works.

Profile Problems

I have to say, it was unusually hard to set up my shop. For instance, I had to add a picture and write a bio for my profile. Then there was another section where I had to add a picture and write a bio as a "shop owner." Do I really need two pictures and two bios for one profile? Then I had to write the story of my shop. The story of my shop?!? It's been open for like 10 minutes. Then it asked me to add pictures of other projects I've made. I've never dealt with such a troublesome uploading system. In fact I'm fairly certain, that something on the website was coded to figure out exactly what part of the picture I wanted to show and then it pushed it out of frame. I swear I tried to crop and repost my pictures about 4 times. Despite the mental exhaustion of this process, am I thrilled to start selling my crafts. Let me know what you think of my products.

Art of the Mind (not the hand)

My head pictured the next Mona Lisa; my hand did this.

I've always had a great appreciation for art, but I found out early on, it wasn't an area where I excelled.  No matter how hard I tried, my paper mache fish had one fin too small (that was before Nemo made it cool) and my cross-hatching looked like a pile of hay instead of the roof of a train.  For years I continued to suffer in silence.  I knew I had great ideas, but something always went wrong in the execution.

The Diagnosis

It wasn't until high school that I discovered my affliction had a name.  I had stayed late one day with a friend - both of us putting in extra hours on our latest works of art.  When I showed her my design and explained what I'd been going for, she told me it was a classic case of "Art of the Mind." And I wasn't alone - she had the same exact problem!  Now before any of you hypochondriacs head over to Web MD, let me clarify, this is not a condition recognized by modern medicine.  Sure, we made up the name, but it's still a very real problem. 

Don't Give Up, Get Crafty

Around this same time, I fell in love with scrapbooking.  I could take perfect pictures, add glitter glue, cut up some construction paper and arrange a page however I wanted.  Finally, a cure for my overflowing creativity!  But I didn't stop there.  Scrapbooking is kind of like a gateway craft.  You can get away with random household scraps for a page or two, but soon you'll want stickers and fancy scissors and special background papers.  My frequent trips to Michael's only piqued my curiosity.  I soon explored the yarn section and begged my mom - a bit of a crafter in her day - to teach me how to crochet.  Let's just say, there was a learning curve.

Tight Fit:  The first sock I ever crocheted.



I put my hook down for a couple of years, unsure if this was the right craft for me.  Luckily, I picked it back up towards the end of college and I've come a long way.

 Check out some of my crochet creations on Flickr

My nephew is my favorite new model.

My newest goal is to sell my crafts.  After all, one can only have so many scarves and hats.  I've gotten a lot of interest in the animal hats, but I think I'm going to start with spring scarves and see where it goes from there.  I plan to create an Etsy shop and post about my current projects.  I'm always open to suggestions and feedback, so please let me know what you think.