Holiday drinkage

What's your favorite holiday drink??? I have too many to count, although mulled wine if realllly up there. I mean. It's wine. Y'all know me (Oh, yea, I say "y'all" nonstop now. I effing LOVE Texas!). 

But last year, after becoming really close to one of my best friends Amanda, I made up my own drink! This woman can make a MEAN white russian with just the right amounts of milk, vodka, and Kahlua to warm the belly and leave me begging for more! A friend had given me some random liquors, including a peppermint mocha Kahlua. Um. Yum, first off. But it was the beginning of the holiday season, and I wanted to do something with it! Welp, turns out we had some marshmallow vodka. And the result? What I like to call a White Ded Moroz!

Which sounds like it's made for Halloween. But Ded Moroz is actually the Russian Santa! So this holiday treat is PERFECTLY named, I think :) Anyway, it's easy to make. I do equal parts peppermint mocha Kahlua, marshmallow vodka, and then milk until it tastes perfect, basically. Here is my concoction, the latter picture all prettied up with the window view which would have been better if you could read the Kahlua bottle. Sad face. 

Enjoy :)

And yes, I am definitely drinking it right now!

Crocheted Creations - Turkey Placemats

GOBBLE GOBBLE!

Yes, I realize now that I should have written this one BEFORE the Christmas stockings post. 

Alas, truthfully, I made the stockings first, so we'll say that's why :)

Since I made the freaking awesome Fourth of July place mats, I now want a holiday themed setting for every holiday!!! I think I'll make Christmas ones for next year (I'm sick of red yarn at the moment and I want to do cute Santa's belly/belt ones. How cute would those be????) Anywhoooooooo....

I, once again, went onto Ravelry! There I found these adorable turkey placemats. (PS you might need an account to see the pattern. It's free, and I haven't gotten a single spammy email since signing up!!)

They were super easy and quick to make! At least the bodies were... 

The beaks were pretty quick, but oh em gee, those legs....

I also just realized the only picture I took (they're already up on a shalf packed away) was this one on Instagram. So enjoy the one simple picture I have of a cutey patootey turkey. :)

GOBBLE!

Crocheted Creation - Christmas Stockings

It's that time of year again!!!! Since hubby and I will be moving basically right after Christmas... 

and we have no idea where our lives will take us, so saving is better right now... 

and if the movers can only come before Christmas, than the tree will have to be down early...

 I decided, at the very least, that we would hang stockings!

But wait.

He has his goofy Corps Cadets ones.

I finally got mine from childhood... covered in Mickey Mouses....

And the real reason? They don't match! I like things matching and looking purty! 

So I decided to take things into my own hands (and hook!) and find a pattern :)

 Since we're saving, I also DEFINITELY needed a free pattern. 

I took my tookus over to ravelry and searched!

  These are the ones that were simple, and just perfect! 

By the way, this is the first time I've ever made stockings. They caused a bit of anxiety in the midst of making them, as I had NO idea if I was correctly following the pattern! I got worried and sent my friend this picture to show how it just kind of looked like yarn vomit to start...

And when my friend started making them, I sent her these AWESOME diagrams to try and explain how to do the hell and then to foot. The only thing I didn't like about the pattern was the fact that there was a "right" side and a "wrong" side. Really, Red Heart?? I have enough trouble trying to tell my rights and LEFTS apart!

Explaining how to go from the heel to the foot. You know. In case you need help as well!

See? Yea it doesn't make much sense...

Honestly, you should have seen the instructions for how to make the toe.

 Lots of boob words thrown around!

Anywho, after making most of it, I of course realized I made too many rows of green 

(the first stocking at least) and redid almost all of the crocheting after the heel.

Once it was finished though, I LOVED it! 

Super fun sewing it together and seeing it really FULLY take shape. 

And after making the first one, it was much easier to make another (and then two for my bestie and her hubs)

Here are the finished results! I hope you enjoy! And if you choose to make these, feel free to ask questions :)

Pretty!

AWESOME stocking hanger from http://www.markandkassie.com/ :)
Miss you guys! Wish we could do another ugly sweater minute to win it party!!
(that's right, we won that gorgeous baseball-playing Santa!)

Crocheted Creation - Diaper Bag

Unfortunately, this will be lacking in some pictures. Like I think I only have one "in between" except for the final eff up. Anywaaaaay, my good friend Mandy is pregnant (due date in four weeks, eeeeee!) and back when I learned of her knocked-up status, I told her I wanted to get her a diaper bag. Super nice friend, right? Yea, I'm a super AWESOME friend, but not one with HUNDREDS of dollars to spend on a dang bag! And those were on sale.... Soooo then I almost made her a star blanket . Like to the point that we picked out super cute colors and everything!

But why do that? Why make something she KNOWS I'm making for baby Emeline? So I decided to surprise her. And of course waited until the last minute. And little did I know this project would take a REALLY good amount of time. But dang it, I promised her a diaper bag, and I was going to deliver! So out of, I think, the THREE patterns on ravelry that were for crochet, had a picture, and were free, there was thank God ONE that didn't look like yarn took a giant poo. And it was this one: http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/HookedBags.html#materialsMenu

And here is the picture I had to go off of, so you can giggle at some of the mistakes that I made along the way... like the first one being gauge. I was CLOSE to the gauge they wanted. But had to make my own measurements for half of the things after I got the first sides done to make everything work. Oops? Ah well.

SUPER cute right? So in love ♥

So yes. Awesome. I really had no idea how LONG it would take to make two big sides, two pockets for those, a long gusset (and yes, this is the pattern where I learned just what a gusset was. Who knew?!), pockets for the sides, and handles, all doing single crochet, double crochet, single crochet, double crochet..... But it was worth it! Seeing everything start to come together was so great! 

Soon, I was done the sides, pockets, and gusset. Time to start on the handles!!!

We all saw from the pattern picture that the handles are different colors, right?... Yea.... I guess I was a little purple hungry (that was the main color (MC) for this project. The contrast color (CC) was green. So yaaaay I'm DONE the major crocheting! I made the handles! And then I swore. A lot. I mean lots of profanity. Then I learned a fun pinterest tip of using a clothes pin for spare yarn, so I took apart and used on to roll up the rest of the purple yarn from the handles! And I began it in green! Yes, no other way to screw up! I make it, put it all together, and I'm grinning because I'm so happy I made it! It felt weird to hold it the way the handles were, but no biggy, I'm sure it was meant to be that way........

Effffffffffffff

Ok one, ignore the fact that it doesn't have a button yet. That was the last thing I needed! Then I FINALLY realized that I had done the handles wrong. While they were SUPPOSED to just be one length curved up and then back down on the same side, I made one handle go one side straight back to the other. I was MAD. Either way, thank God it was easy to actually unsew it and redo it! An hour or so later, and thankfully with a cute green button, the final project emerged! She liked it, and I hope she realizes that she can throw it in the washer and dryer and it'll come out just as awesome (or it should. I really shouldn't jinx myself on this.)

And that's that :) As much as it takes forever to make, I'm so excited with the simplicity of the pattern and how well it turned out! I can't wait to make another for the next close friend whose eggo gets preggo. :)

Crocheted Creation - Star Blanket

So, a couple years ago, I found the cutest star blanket pattern ever! I loved it! And then I made it. And either the pattern never told me to decrease even time you're in the middle or something, but it was a messed up dead starfish creation. I had my cats sleep on it. And was very ashamed.

But alas, one must move on and try to improve! So I found a non-granny-square-like version of it, called "Beth's Little Star Afghan". A little harder to start off, but my GOODNESS did I like the results! But the cats already had their shameful dead sea star, so I made this one for a friend back up in DC who has what one might called, oh, an OBSESSION for objects with five points.

Tada! (please don't mind the fact that the points are cut off. Turns out I was wobbly standing on another part of the couch. Whoops? Alas, it still makes me smile so shush)

Yay! A star shape! A pretty star shape that I wish gave magical powers like in Mario and came with reallllly fast music when you touched/magically absorbed it into your skin! Alas, just a regular star shaped blanket. I'm pretty sure SHE used this as a blanket for her kitties too! (loves stars and cats, she's pretty awesome).

So even, after washing the shameful blanket enough, I REALLY needed to make a new one. I had used different scrap yarn, so the orange got realllly poofy, the blue looked withered... it was just bad. So I decided it was time to make the kittehs a special, actually from the heart and not from shame star blanket. And how I LOVE it! Even though it doesn't match the decor in the living room at all (eventually I'll make it ALL work), I love love LOVE the colors I chose. I wash it with the lights every week to keep it clean for kittehs, and they love to sleep on it! So alas, a kitteh and blanket montage for your entertainment...

The finished project! Yay!

Peaches kept bugging me to finish it already!

Gizmo's favorite spot to look cute while she's plotting evil schemes with her mustache.

Cuteness, right? 

Next up: well for the star, one to match the decor or one for a baby shower or something. Besides that, I'm working on Christmas Stockings right now! So I'll post about the diaper bag awesomeness for a great friend I already miss dearly, then eventually the hilariousness that will be stockings when I've never made them before and half the pattern has me going, "Ahhh, what? Isn't this supposed to be on the easy scale?!"

-Em-

Crocheted Creation - 4th of July Placemats

Pinterest  basically rocks my world. Just browsing, I happened upon a picture of amazing place settings! So iIfollowed the link to the FREE pattern here, ran out to Michael's and got the yarn! First off, you DEFINITELY need about twice as much blue yarn as red and white. Just an FYI. Also, the pattern is for two settings. I wanted four, so I had to double everything! The stars were tricky to understand the pattern at first, but then I made tons and would LOVE to use just the star pattern to make a mobile or something when I have a babers. Or maybe a cool abstract art thing on a canvas with blowdried crayons????? Ahhh, the ideas!  Anywho, here are some pictures! 

The first set of two I made!

An artsy close up :)

Oh falling stars, how I love you!

For the actual 4th of July, I ended up gettinng white napkins and a white tablecloth (harder than I thought to find for my small dinging room table) and put two settings on the table and two on our bar counter in the kitchen. They were a success! Woot!

DIY Creation 2 - Entertainment Center

A friend of mine posted a picture on Facebook of an old dresser she and her husband transformed into an extertainment center. So clearly I wanted to try! We needed something bigger for our TV anyway, so it was worth the shot! Here's the original dresser:

We took out the top drawers (that look like two drawers, but it's really one!) to start. Bought primer, paint, paint brushes, rollers, tarps, all that good redecorating stuff! We also had to buy a piece of plywood to put on the top of the middle drawers. After a couple coats of primer, paint, and painfully waiting almost a week to make sure it's REALLY dry, it was almost ready! Just one more step... drawer liners! With a little wrapping paper and TONS of Modge Podge, I had beautifully lined drawers! Slightly crooked since everything was too big and some were tilted, but hey, they're closed most of the time. :-p Here is the finished project, followed by what it looks like in action!

Open...

Closed...

In action! We LOVE it!