Whitniffic Whatnots

I can't believe how fast fall flew by... it seems like I just barely hung up my fall decor, and now it's time to switch to Christmas! My fall dining room leaf garland turned out really cute. I gathered a bunch of maple and oak leaves at the dog park one weekend, and then I pressed them for a week or so. I decided to cover them with glitter... which was really fun! I found a great glitter sample pack in fall colors at JoAnn's, and there was just enough in each little pouch for two or three leaves. I absolutely love the bright reds! I hung some of the festive garland under our buffet window, a couple little strands from the pretty wood columns (these were anchored with rocks I grabbed from the back yard :)), and also from the chandelier. The ones hanging from the light didn't quite look right with one side the natural dry, crunchy brown of dead leaves, so I sprayed them with a hammered finish copper spray paint. Such an interesting texture! To make the garland,

Here is the chart I worked off of for the football blanket... it is sized for a baby afghan, about 36 by 48 inches, but the chart can be easily modified to make it bigger. I worked the entire blanket in double crochet, and the white laces in the center were made with the tapestry stitch, in which the color not being used is carried across the top of the work and the stitches are made over it, concealing the color. Here's a pretty good tutorial for the tapestry stitch, although as I stated earlier, I did all double crochet for this project, but the concept is the same. For this particular blanket, I used five balls of Bernat Waverly yarn in brown, and almost a whole skein of Red Heart Super Saver in white for the lines and laces. I believe I used a size J hook, which made the project go nice and quick. Adjust the size of yarn and hook to fit your needs- everyone crochets differently! Happy crocheting! :) Update: if you love this football blanket, check out my football

Ever get on a plane and just sit there, bored out of your mind, too uncomfortable to sleep, and screaming children make it impossible anyways...? That's pretty much my morning today! Fortunately, I brought along a few skeins of yarn and a crochet hook... Sanity savers in this situation! On my way down to Dallas for work yesterday morning, I whipped up a couple coffee mug cozies and a Yarnation practically before we even took off! I'm thinking the yarn is coming out again soon... I tried getting some sleep on my first flight since I had to get up at 3 this morning- but no dice. Fortunately, today's travel has just one very short layover and a quick jump home from Chicago. My bed is calling me! 

I stumbled across some really cheap home dec fabric samples as I wandered my local JoAnn's store last weekend... 50 cents a piece! The samples were perfect 17" squares- just the right size for some throw pillows! I had been wanting to do a bit of fall decorating in my living room, and what better way than to add some pops of red, orange and brown? I picked out 6 fabric samples (for a whopping $3!), picked up some pillow forms and zippers, and headed home to whip up some festive pillows to go with my bargain-bin, last-year's-style decorative pumpkins! Fastest project ever. Done in record time! Each pillow took about 3 minutes to sew, including putting in the zipper. I like to sew the zipper to the pieces before sewing around the edges... it seems a lot easier to me than adding it in after the front and back pieces are already together. Of course, the zipper isn't really necessary. I just like having it there in case I want to change up my pillows for the

I finally got some free time to work on the honeycomb quilt I started in March! And once I got some momentum going, the piecing was done in no time! I love how the colors turned out together. I was a little worried at first because some of them seemed so similar- I actually mixed a couple up a few times and had to rip out the seams and re-do them. I just can't decide which I like better, the front or the back! And I just love it against my lime green studio walls! :) Well... they look a bit yellow in these pictures. I wish everything in life could be lime green... Now I've got to find the time and energy to sandwich and quilt this puppy... Maybe I should look into renting time on the long arm machines at the tech school or something. That sure would make it easier!

Hubby and I helped my mom move into her new place last night. It's a small, one-bedroom house, but she's well on her way to a fresh start! It was definitely a long day for us... work at 6:30 am and move stuff until midnight! I slept really well last night. I finally got around to giving my mom her mother's day gift- the quilted table runner/ wall hanging in shades of peach and black and grey. I guess it was more of a housewarming gift... but she loves it! It looks lovely on her new-used dining room table from Craigslist (score!). Please forgive the photo redundancies here... I've really got to figure out some more creative places to take pictures of my stuff! :)

I found this cute owl hat pattern on Pinterest... and of course I had to try one! I followed the 3-6 month old pattern, and it only took me an hour or so to do. I still struggle with sizing despite making a gauge swatch- it's pretty tiny, but it will fit little nephew for a little while at least! If he out grows it, I'll just make another one... Which I just did! I think the little noggin outgrew the yellow owl hat in the first five minutes he wore it. Here's the 6 to 12 month version, in a pretty turquoise. I'll post a better picture later! I do like the cat eye brown buttons I chose for the eyes better than the plain black ones on the original post, but that's just a matter of opinion.

Holy cow... where did summer go?!?! I can't believe the first official football game is only a week away, and Labor Day is next week too! Gotta love long weekends... Here's a fun little project I did in anticipation for family football gatherings. A crocheted football blanket! I finished it up surprisingly quick- I think I worked on it at night after work for about two weeks. If you want my pattern chart and some basic instructions to make one, click here ! My dog Howie loves being in pictures for some reason.  And he really likes rolling around on blankets. Wearing a jersey... not so much.  How cool is this helmet?!?! Bart Starr, Brett Favre, AND Aaron Rodgers! My grandpa is good friends with the owner of Stadium View Bar & Grill , so he was able to borrow this beauty for me for a few days. Aside from crocheting random stuff and setting up goofy photo shoots of said stuff, I've been so incredibly busy the last couple months!

Wow, it sure has been a while since I've posted anything on here. I've been super busy! Work is nuts, we've been trying to clean and organize the house, I've taken up running (slowly, and short distances) and my mom has decided to move home from New Mexico, so I've been planning my trip down to help. Needless to say, I've been doing everything but blogging! My little nephew came into the world right before Memorial Day weekend. He was a few weeks early, so naturally, I had to work extra hard to get at least one of his quilts done! I love how the jungle chevron quilt turned out... the quilting really makes it!  Of course, I couldn't just give him a quilt... it needed to be presented in a personalized bag! I whipped the bag up out of scraps, and I just love it! The elephant fabric on the back was so perfect... now I have to figure out what else I can make with it. The bag just needed one final touch... his name! My husband's mom

I have project ADD. I can't work on something for more than a week or two without switching to something else... which results in a lot of UFOs (unfinished objects). Currently, my list consists of about seven quilts and countless knit and crochet projects... and probably a whole bunch of stuff I've forgotten about. This weekend I think I took two steps forward and one step back with my pile of UFOs. I finally finished quilting the giraffe quilt! The walking foot for my sewing machine had broken a few weeks ago, and I finally got around to getting a new one. I woke up early on Saturday and plowed through the vertical top stitching, then stitched around the giraffe with a zig zag. I also added leaves to the top of the quilt, but my sewing machine had had enough by that point and was acting up, so I had to stop before I could get them appliqued down. I wish I would have thought about sewing the stuff on before I sandwiched the quilt together... it's such a pain to try to s

So after all this hullabaloo about the baby shower, it finally happened! It turned out great and I was so excited by everyone's participation in my little part... the advice cards! I had seen some cards on Pinterest that had a list of "baby wishes", but they were kind of boring. I decided to turn them into onesies so they could be hung on a clothesline (and look super cute). A few of the "wishes" include: I hope you love _______ , I hope you respect ________, I hope you're not afraid to __________, I hope you grow to be _________, and so on. I added three little buttons near the bottom of the onesies for a bit of detail and more cuteness. I also cut out little diapers for Mommy & Daddy advice. I glued little plastic safety pins to them near where they would go on a real diaper. Each place setting got one of each advice card (and custom M&M's with pictures on them!), and guests were asked to fill them out and hang them on the clothesli