Found it!

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a photo of a doily centerpiece I was trying to find the pattern for.

Well, thanks to Rebecca at Crochetville, I now have the pattern. Rebecca recognized the centerpiece as "Wings" from a 1983 copy of Magic Crocet magazine.

I was able to find a copy at ebay and received it today. Yeah!

I'm still not sure if I can do this, but at least I have the pattern to try to give it a go!

Daring Danica

This is a halter I made over the weekend for my friend, Danica. It's the
"Brave New Bra Top" by Margaret Hubert from the Interweave Knits 2004 Crochet edition.

I used 3 balls of Lily's Sugar'n Cream in cornflower blue. As you can see, 2 of the three balls were a different lot. I HATE that! Luckily, it doesn't show up as much in natural light (see below).

I've never used the Sugar'n Cream before. I think sometimes I'm a little yarn snobby. I really liked it, though. Snob no more! The buttons cost more than the yarn! LOL.

I think if I starched it Danica could be Wonder Woman!

Why yes, I DO live in paradise!

No crocheting today! In fact, not much working, either! I got to play hooky and go to the beach with Sophie's kindergarten class (and two others).

It's a beautiful day here in Seattle. 84 (gasp) degrees. So of course we're all dying and worried about heatstroke (I'm not kidding!). We Seattleites are HUGE weather weenies!

Anyway, had a blast at the beach. Today was an ultra-low tide day, which is why the beach was our destination. (Of course, low tide was at 1:30 and we went at 10:30 but let's not sweat the details!) The kids were content just to play in the sand and get really dirty.

As we were playing on the beach we saw two figures emerge from the water. Monsters? Orcas? Nope - MARINE BIOLOGISTS! They we alarmed at being swarmed by 65 kindergartners (!) but took it in stride. In fact, they invited us to look at the creatures they had collected in a kiddie pool on the beach.

The children were thrilled to meet sea cucumbers, anenomes, seastars, gunnels, and lots and lots of barncle-encrusted beer bottles (are they indigenous?).

Our naturalist (never leave home without one) quickly hopped into the biologist's pool and proceeded to show the kids all the fun creatures and quirky facts. For example, did you know that sea cucumbers' defense mechanism is to eject all of their insides out an orifice onto attackers? I sure didn't but it was really gross to witness (apparently the sea cuke considered little Emily an "attacker" - take that, Emily!).

It was very hard to go back to work - and, quite honestly a little stinky. Whew! Those shoes!

I'm so bad! Ok, before I end this let me share this. As I'm reviewing my post-field trip photos look what I came across. Is this person seriously unaware that their ass is hanging out? Who doesn't realize this? When I was in school we got seriously teased if even the slightest bit of underwear showed over our waistbands. Now it's crack o' plenty everywhere I look!

Ok. I'm done! :)

'Cause really - plain tape measures are soooo boring!

Pinky tape
Originally uploaded by csabers.

This is a sheep. It's pink. It's also a tape measure.

Sometimes one just needs to whip up a little project to feel like SOMETHING has been accomplished!

Thanks, Cheryl, for sharing your pattern!

Stuff Pouch for Mom

Stuff Pouch for Mom
Originally uploaded by csabers.

My mother's birthday is Wednesday and I made her this stuff pouch to coordinate with the rest of the gift I made her. I love this ribbon!

Since I didn't have the "right" button I decided to make one. I just took a small plasic ring and sc around until it was covered and then fastened off.

Isn't it lovely?

Maryanne forwarded me this photo of her mother's lovely pineapple centerpiece doily. It's got some slight damage and she's hoping to have it repaired and/or a copy made. I've asked the villagers at Crochetville if they've ever seen something like this and no one has. Several of us are intrigued and I think we may just create our own pattern! I've never made a doily before...

Secrets Revealed!

I've been playing with bookmarks in anticipation of Crochetville's bookmark swap. I thought that this was a "secret pal" sort of thing so I've purposely not been posting these little guys. Now that the rules have been posted, I realize that there is no need for secrecy.

So, here's what I've been working on. The tulip is my own design, the rest are from patterns:

Yummy yarn, boring color

yummy yarn, boring color
Originally uploaded by csabers.

Ok, so the testing's secret, but I guess the yarn doesn't have to be! This is the yarn I've purchased for the project I'm testing - it's absolutely fabulous!

There are two skeins of Knit One Crochet Too's 2nd Time Cotton in Irish linen. The yarn is 8-ply and, as the name implies, made from recycled fibers orignating from the textile industry.

The ribbon yarn is Cascade Yarns Prisma, which is 72% Tactel and 28% nylon.

The neutral colors are per request of my dear mother, who will get the end result as a birthday present.

Where have I been?

I can't believe it's been so long since my last post! I guess I don't call this "My Happy Vida Loca" for naught!

Well, it really has been crazy for me in all areas of my life this past week. It's a busy time for me at work, I am doing some important (at least to me!) testing that I'm trying to find the "right" yarn for, my PC at home isn't working and I haven't had time to fix it, and...oh yeah! Sophie turned 6!

So, since the testing is secret, work is boring , and I'll fix my PC, let's talk about Sophie. Yesterday was her 6th birthday. I made cupcake school of fish for her to take to school. Can you guess which one is Sophie's? If you said the shimmery one with the pink crown you are correct! :)

In the evening we had a party in the park with big brother Adler and 11 of her closest friends and ate pizza, watched a magic show and ate cake. Of course there were presents, too! Click on any of the photos to see a larger size. I have oodles and oodles more if you'd like to see.

My favorite photo from the party is the one below. No, really, I'm not a sadist, it's just that the photo really captures everything that's happening at that moment. Here we see Eric and others who have just blown out the candles on Soph's cake - without her getting to blow one! Don't cry too hard for Sophie. This was a VERY brief moment in time and she was quickly able to blow out a couple of relit candles!

Happy Mother's Day!

Now that Mother's day is over I can blog this...I made this teeny, tiny columbine bookmark for my mother for Mother's Day. Despite it's small size, or more accurately because of its small size, this bookmark took a really long time to do!

It's made using size 80 crochet/tatting cotton, which is about the consistency of sewing thread. I used a size 12 (1.0 mm) needle. The flower was stiffened with 1/2 glue, 1/2 water solution. The tassle was put on at the end.

I think it's really pretty but I'm not sure I'd do another one! :)

I made buttons!

My blog is now two weeks old. In that time I have been an HTML freak, learned the word "avatar" and how to make them, added buttons, links and images and basically spent my all of my free time (like I've got copius amounts!) playing on the PC. Well, it was getting dusty from lack of use anyway!

The one thing I haven't quite managed yet is making my own buttons. I have PhotoShop and Illustrator but no clue how to use them. Well, I managed to eek out a couple of buttons for our Crochet Me Pike Place Market Bag Crochet-Along, which is basically just a group of us working on the same bag. Here are my buttons - feel free to grab one and join us:

Quick - appreciate, appreciate!

I got a call last night (Wednesday) at 9:00 p.m. to inform me that it is Teacher Appreciation Week and since I'm room parent for two classes, I needed to bring in a latte or some such for the teachers on Thursday morning, as well as come up with other little treats.

Yikes!! Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all about appreciating the teachers, but a little heads up, people!? AND, to make matters worse, I was already staying up late trying to get my Mother's Day project finished. What's a girl to do?

Java Jackets
Originally uploaded by csabers.

Well, I woke up early this morning and made these Java Jackets to go with their coffee drinks. Since today is Cinco de Mayo I got them Mexican mochas, which have cinnamon and cayenne in them (really yummy!) I had the kids write cute little notes and I tucked them in between the jackets and the cup so they'll see them when they take them off.

I'm eagerly awaiting Celeste appreciation day!

Made for You by Me!

I now have my very own sew-in labels! I ordered them a few weeks ago, received them, and then lost them. Now I've found them! Kind of boring - I'll have to try and find some more exciting ones online - these are straight from 1954(44?) by the looks of them.

So, if you are in possession of something I've made and would like a label sewn in I'm happy to give you one. You can also bring (or send) the item to me and I'll sew it in for you, but if you've read this blog at all you know to do that at your own risk (I don't sew!)!

I am a Hippy Sheep!

Who knew?

Which flock do you follow?
Peace dude, flower power, ban the bomb... more grass please.

Poll: Which is a better me?

The following are some avatars (representations of me online) that I've made. Which do you like better? Let me know and I'll change by the end of the week!

Coco the kindergarten bear

The trifecta for Coco
Originally uploaded by csabers.

So my FO quotient (that's finished objects for you non-crocheters out there) is a little low of late due to the fact I just haven't been crocheting very much. Therefore, I think I'll post some older projects that I haven't talked about before or put in my online photo album.

This is Coco the bear. Coco is the mascot of Sophie's kindergarten class. Every weekend someone gets to take Coco home and write about it in the "Coco journal." Sophie's weekend with Coco was in January. She asked if I could make Coco a poncho and it just kind of escalated from there.

This set was made with Lion Brand Homespun in Williamsburg. The poncho is just the standard two rectangle kind with a tie to close (Coco has a HUGE head!). As you can see, the hat has holes for Coco's ears. What you can't see is that the slippers are Mary Janes complete with strap.

Makes me want to get a dog!

Soph & Molly
Originally uploaded by csabers99.

Forgive this non-crochet post:

Last Saturday Carmen watched Adler & Sophie while Kathy and I went to dinner for my birthday.

I took this photo when we came back from dinner - so cute!

I'm afraid playing with OPD (other people's dogs) will have to do for now - like I need ANOTHER thing to take care of!

Adam's black, albeit glittery, heart

Adam's black heart.jpg
Originally uploaded by csabers.

I whipped up this heart bookmark for Adam's birthday as a companion to his Cuisinart stick blender.

I bought this thread to go into a pillow I plan on making. Despite the metallic qualities it is still soft. It was also easy to work with it.

I wonder what it would look like make into a bear? Hmmm....