New Crochet addiction!

It's true, I'm definitely hooked on this addiction! I love it... my fingers? Not so much! But they'll get used to it! Learning to Crochet? That was fairly simple. It took me about 5 hours to have it down, and I decided I wanted to jump all the way in and do a more complex creation than your standard scarf like most newbies do ;)

So I did a quick search and found the most perfect thing! Remember how I said I wanted to get into baby and newborn photography? Well, I decided I could make a little beanie to use as  a prop! And I'm pretty big into owls, so I found this adorable little pattern at RAKJ Patterns:

**THIS IMAGE IS COPYRIGHTED TO RAKJ PATTERNS**

ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE BEYOND BELIEF? Um.. yeah! I have already made plans to do my first child's nursery in Owls (boy or girl.. owls are pretty gender neutral!) and when I saw this, my heart kind of melted since we will be trying fairly soon for a baby! *ahem* anyway, I knew I HAD to make this, so I ran to Hobby Lobby and gathered my supplies. 2 days and 439432947324 stitches later:

Okay, mine's totally not AS good as theirs, but I like that it looks kind of wonky ;) I cried after I was done though. No, not tears of joy, not really tears of happiness either.. more like tears at the thought of how adorable my baby boy will look in this! I love it so much, I want it to be the first thing he wears after he squeezes his little cheeks out! 

So, what's next on my agenda? LEARNING TO KNIT! And possibly  DEFINITELY more Crocheting! Think this looks hard? This was my first time lifting a crochet needle. You can do it! RUN OVER TO HER ETSY STORE NOW! and get the pattern! :-)

It's beginning to look a lot like burlap

So, I wasn't getting excited about Christmas. In fact, I was SO unexcited about Christmas, that I didn't even want to put up a tree. Fortunately, I am out of that. (see what I mean about blogging? It always helps to vent). Why the sudden change? Well, I was staring at my blog and I decided I'm in love with the burlap background. So in love with BURLAP that I decided to decorate my entire christmas decor in burlap. I'm going to make every bit of it. I better get started NOW but, I think I can do it. Here's a quick checklist:

• Burlap Wreath for front door
• Burlap Wreath for front window (indoor)
• Burlap Christmas trees for my two end tables
• Burlap inspired Garland
• Burlap ribbon for my tree
• Burla tree skirt
• Burlap runner for my table
• Random burlap inspired ornaments
• Burlap, Burlap, and more Burlap

See, I'm tired of traditional reds and greens and golds. I want a neutral themed Christmas. If I have to make every decoration in this house, I will make it happen.

I also am thinking about inviting the in-laws for Christmas. I want to have MY family at MY house eating MY food this year. Is that too much to ask?

Side note, I'm not putting up my inspiration photos because I don't want any of my friends to steal my idea (although I'm SURE most of them have already decorated.) So, pics of MY house to come soon... stand by!

What started off as a bad day...

...Quickly turned into a GREAT day! I got a spiffy little email from Best Buy saying that my lens was in... 11 DAYS EARLY!! I couldn't be more excited. I love this little nifty fifty. It's a prime lens, so that  means I will be walking close/farther away if I want to "zoom". But I'm very much OK with it, because this thing takes some purty pictures :-)

So, I lower the saturation tinsy bit, but the clarity and the bokeh? Straight from the lens. I'm VERY impressed with it. Now, I just need some better subject matter. What do you think?

*
Speaking of opinions, I was able to play around with Adobe Lightroom a little bit. It always thought most photographers used Adobe Photoshop.. but now I think I *could* have been wrong. Just look at this difference! I swear, even a little bit of Light Room and Photo Shop can make a good picture look GREAT!

*
So, now on to the most exciting part of my day! I have had the best idea ever (though not entirely original) to make everyone a homemade Christmas ornament as my gift this year. I simply cannot afford a gift for everyone, and I really want to get EVERYONE something.. So this was the only solution. I'm not going to give anything away, but I will say this. I can only thank PINTEREST for the wonderful inspiration to make these. I wanted something fun and original to me, but I found so many wonderful ideas! So I combined my favorite things and came up with a totally original idea :-) I will post a complete tutorial WITH PICS.. but I want my friends to receive them first... Don't want to spoil it! I'll end this post with some teaser pictures. ENJOY! :-)

*

Pin It