As winter dies down, I had been looking for other new things to crochet. The other day, I was scrolling through my Pinterest feed and came across a Very Hungry Caterpillar hat and cocoon set. I thought it was so cute! I'm done having babies, but one of my co-workers is expecting a baby this June. I thought it would be the perfect gift! So, I pinned several different patterns and set out to the craft store to find some yarn.

Ideally, I wanted a yarn that had a lot of different colors. As you can see on the book cover above, the caterpillar's body has varying shades of blue and green. I had one yarn in mind that I had worked with before. My one son had gifted me two skeins of Loops & Threads Facets yarn in Capri Blue. It had shades of blue and green and yellow. But, sadly, it's only seasonal and wasn't available.

Though, when I went out to buy yarn, I wasn't even thinking that it wouldn't be available at Michael's. I just knew Michael's wasn't having a sale that week and A.C. Moore was. So, that's where I went. I probably spent 15 minutes in the yarn section, looking for a yarn that would have the same colors. After almost giving up, I spotted a skein of Premier Yarns Puzzle in Cryptic. It's a self-striping yarn with blues and greens. Plus, it's a bulky weight yarn, so I thought it would work up quickly.

This week is Dr. Seuss week at my son's elementary school. Each day this week they're supposed to do something related to Dr. Seuss. Yesterday was silly sock day to celebrate "Fox In Socks." Today was Cat In The Hat day. They were told to wear cat hats if they had any.

I thought it would be cool to crochet a Cat In The Hat top hat for my son to wear to school. I did a search on Pinterest and Ravelry. I didn't really want to pay for a pattern and didn't really have time to try and make my own pattern since I started making the hats yesterday afternoon.

I found the "A Cat In My Hat" pattern by Snappy Tots on Ravelry and went with that. I opted not to include the ears and braids.

I started with the Child/Teen/Adult pattern since my son is 6, but it ended up being too big for him. So, I gave that first hat to my husband. He's going to be reading to my preschooler's class this week and I thought it would be cool if he wore it for that. Then, I made the Toddler size hat and that fit my son better.



His teachers liked the hat and my son loved wearing it to school.

Cat In The Hat Crochet Hat

Supplies:

• I/9 (5.0 mm) crochet hook
• Worsted weight yarn in red and white
• Yarn needle

Pattern:
     "A Cat In My Hat" by Snappy Tots

 Affiliate links:

DISCLOSURE: As a member of the Chick-Fil-A Moms Panel, I was provided coupons for free soup to facilitate this post. 

My family loves Chick-Fil-A. We eat it at least once a week. Last night, we had the chance to try the Chicken Tortilla Soup from Chick-Fil-A. I normally don't get the soup, but as a member of the Chick-Fil-A Moms, I was given a coupon to try it for free.


The soup was pretty good. It was a little thicker than what I was expecting, but still tasty.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I wanted to do a quick post about the Valentines Box my kindergartener and I made the other day. This was the first time a teacher asked us to make a box to hold the Valentines the kids would be receiving in class. Usually, my kids either decorated a paper bag or a little box at school.

I went on Pinterest and did a search on Valentine Boxes and when my 6-year-old saw a Minions one, he got excited and immediately said that was what he wanted!  It didn't look too hard and we had most of what we needed already at home.


First, we needed a shoe box. Luckily, we found one in my older daughter's closet that was a good size. I covered the box and its top in yellow cardstock. This part probably took the longest, since I had the cut all the pieces out and glue them onto the box.

Next, I cut out some blue cardstock for the Minion's overalls. I tried to cut somewhat identical pieces for the front and the back of the box. I also cut straps for the sides of the box.


After that, I cut out some white foam circles for his eyes. I used a plastic ring from a Tying Knots game. I traced the inside of the ring on the white foam paper and I used a glittery silver piece of foam for the goggles. I made the iris and pupil with brown and black cardstock. I made the goggle straps with a piece of black foam paper.

The boxes had to have the child's name on the front, so I used some foam letter stickers that I had to put his name on the overalls. I sketched out a mouth for the Valentines to go in and my husband cut it out with an Exacto knife.

I think it came out super cute! I can't wait to see how well it held up in class!

It's hard to believe that there's less than two weeks until Christmas! Even though, Christmas is almost here, I had to put up a quick post about this Santa Countdown Pillow that I made. It's my first time crocheting something so elaborate. I've done hats and scarves and even some amigurumi dolls, but nothing like this.

I saw the pattern back in September when I was scrolling through my Facebook feed. It was newly released and on sale, so I bought it. It's designed by JoAnn Grimes Thompson of GrammyJo Lids. I saved it to my Ravelry and started right away.

Last month, I started crocheting a rabbit. I wanted to make it for Easter. But, I ran out of yarn and didn't get a chance to buy more until after Easter. So, I decided to turn him into the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland! I figured it would be fitting since this year is the 150th anniversary of the original publication of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

I searched Pinterest and Ravelry for free patterns on how to make a White Rabbit outfit, but I couldn't find any. At first, I was going to make a red sweater and a white vest with a heart on it. But, that was too complicated. So, I ended up using a pattern for a heart applique and then making my own pattern for the ruffled collar and the pocket watch.

After all the crocheting and knitting I did this past winter, I had a lot of partial skeins left over. I wanted to make something to use up all the little bits of yarn. I found this great free pattern for Spin Balls on Ravelry. The pattern was really easy and you can use any weight yarn with its appropriate size crochet hook.


I made mine in two colors, but you could use even more. You can even make some of the stripes wide and some narrow. I'm hoping to crochet a few more to fill up this basket to place on our new coffee table!

I used worsted weight yarn and an H hook, though I probably should have used a G hook. Some of my balls had some of the stuffing showing through. A smaller hook would have given me tighter stitches.


Overall, though, I think they came out really cute!

As I've said in a previous post, I just started crocheting about a month and a half ago. I had been wanting to make a cowl for my two-year-old. She sees me and her older siblings putting on scarves and she wanted to wear a scarf, too. But, I didn't have anything sized for her.

I found this pattern for a Chunky Double Crochet Cowl from All About Ami. She uses a Super Bulky (Yarn Weight 6) yarn, but I didn't have any in the house. So, I used a Bulky (Yarn Weight 5) yarn, but still used the Size P (10 mm) crochet hook.


I used less than a skein of Lion Brand Wool Ease Chunky in Tinsel White. I love the little strands of tinsel in it! It just reminds me of winter and Christmas and snow.


Child's Double Crochet Cowl

Materials

• Lion Brand Yarn Wool-Ease Chunky Yarn or any chunky yarn
• Crochet Hook, Size P-15, 10mm  

Find the pattern here at All About Ami's site!

A few years ago, I had broken my ankle and needed something to do while I was stuck on the couch. So, I tried knitting. I picked up some books and watched a few YouTube tutorials. But, I never really got good at it. I made a few scarves and washcloths. I also attempted a baby blanket when I was pregnant with my fourth child, but I never got around to finishing it. It's still on the needles!

About a month and a half ago, I decided I'd try to crochet. I wanted to make hats and I wasn't ready to try knitting in the round and using double-pointed needles and it looked like it would be easier to crochet a hat. So, I searched YouTube for videos on the basic stitches and for step-by-step tutorials so I could make a hat.

I chose one tutorial that didn't look to be too hard. I was amazed at how quickly the hat worked up. And even though I somehow lost some stitches along the way and the hat meant for a child only fit my toddler, I was hooked! I set out to make more hats! By the time Christmas rolled around, I was able to make a couple hats and a few scarves for people.

I'm going to be highlighting some of the favorite crochet projects that I've done so far and include links to where I found the pattern. No plans on selling anything yet, but eventually, I would love to set up a shop on Etsy!

Do you crochet or knit? I'd love to see some of your projects!

DISCLOSURE: I received free samples of Airheads candy from Smiley360 to facilitate this post. All opinions are my own.

As hard as it is to believe, Christmas Eve is only ten days away! I've been sick the past week and a half, so I am way behind on everything! I've barely started my Christmas shopping and haven't even thought about my Christmas baking!

Today, I thought I'd do something simple. I've had this huge bag of S'mores sized marshmallows just sitting in my pantry. We had made little treat bags for Cub Scouts this past summer when my husband's pack was recruiting and we had bought too many marshmallows. I thought it would be good to have some homemade Rice Krispy Treats. I haven't made any in awhile.

DISCLOSURE: I received free samples of Airheads candy from Smiley360 to facilitate this post. All opinions are my own.

I love the look of decorated sugar cookies, but I don't have the patience to make them. It takes a lot of time and effort to make the cookie dough, cut out the shapes, bake them, cool the cookies, make the royal icing, tint the icing to the desired colors and decorate the cookies. I usually only do that at Christmas time because of how laborious it is.

Airheads Candy recently sent me some of their candy to make an edible craft. I thought it would be cute to use the Airheads like fondant and decorate a sugar cookie! I've never worked with Airheads before and thought it would be a fun way to make decorated cookies.

DISCLOSURE: I received free products from Disney Parks and MomSelect to host a Disney Side @Home Celebration Party. All opinions are my own.


Earlier this month, we hosted a Disney Side @Home Celebration party. It was a fun way to share our love for all things Disney with our friends and family. One activity that we did during our party was to have a photo booth where guests could use props and take pictures of themselves.

Originally, I had planned on just ordering a set of props from Etsy and calling it a day. But, I really didn't want to spend the money and figured I could make my own for less money. I did a search on Google, but didn't really see many sites that had templates that I could use. I don't have a color printer, so I was looking for sites with printable templates that I could trace on to cardstock and foam.

It's a little more than a week before Halloween but I'm just getting started decorating.  I've had a Mickey wreath hanging on our front door ever since we threw a #DisneySide @Home Celebration party this past winter.


I thought it was time for a change, so I decided to turn it into a Halloween wreath.  It already had the black tulle.  I figured I could take the red tulle off and replace it with orange tulle and maybe add some spiders on it.

DISCLOSURE:  I received a free box of Kleenex Brand Tissues from Crowdtap to facilitate this post.  My opinions are my own.

Kleenex Brand Tissues are one of my favorite brands of tissues to use.  They're soft, but strong.  I keep a box in almost every room of the house.  You never know when you'll need one.  They can be used for so many things, from cleaning a runny nose to cleaning up a spill to acting as a backup if you run out of toilet paper!  You can even make it into a makeshift band-aid with some duct tape (another versatile tool)!

Something I haven't tried, though, is to craft with Kleenex tissues.  I like crafting, but usually use paper.  I did a quick Pinterest search for some craft ideas, but didn't see that many.  Most had to do with crafting with an empty tissue box -- which I didn't have.  One idea that I saw over and over was to make flowers with Kleenex tissue.  This sounded like it would be fun and easy to do.