Spring Knit Place Mats

I finally completed my first crafty goal for January - and I am less than impressed!  I found this project on the JoAnn Fabrics website and it looked so easy and cute.  Let me tell you ladies - it was not as easy as I thought!

I ripped out the stitches and started over four times.  Apparently I cannot concentrate very well on knitting while two little girls are running around, lol!  After dropping many stitches and losing my place in the pattern, I finally got the hang of it.

Time-wise this project took me approximately 8 hours.  I only worked on it at night after the girls were in bed, so it felt as though it took forever to finish it!  The yarn I selected seemed happy and springy, however once it was knitted into the place mat it just looks like a mess of color.  Next time I will likely choose a simple color combination, like the example on the Joann's website! 

Materials:
1 skein of Sugar & Cream yarn
Size 8 knitting needles

Directions:
Cast on 47 stitches. First row, knit one - then purl one, knit one until the end.  Continue knitting in pattern until piece measures 17".  Cast off in the pattern.

Happy Crafting!

January Weddings - A Fresh Beginning

I'm excited to start this new series, dedicated strictly to helping you plan the perfect wedding for the season!  Each month I will give some tips and suggestions one how to have the picture perfect flowers with just the right theme. When it comes to planning for the big day - I recommend selecting a theme and building from there.

In Roman mythology, January comes from Janus - the god of the doorway.  With this being the first month of the year, January is seen as the door to the year.  I see this month as being a start to fresh beginnings - which is a wonderful theme for January weddings! 


For most of us, January is an extremely cold and gray month.  Traditionally, winter weddings have been associated with red and white flowers; roses, calla lilies, orchids or ranoculous.  I think we are all still in the holiday spirit in January and automically want to decorate in deep red's and winter white's.  Let's start a new tradition!  Let's embrace the cold gray skies and have a fresh beginning with a winter fantasy wedding! Aside from the bitter cold temperatures, Mother Nature has created a breathtaking landscape during the winter months. 


What I am envisioning for a winter fantasy wedding is elegant gray and white, accented with pink and purple. The pink and purple represent my interpretation of the winter sky at sunset. I created a bouqet using white roses, pink hydrangea and small purple flowers.  When set against the perfect gray dress, this selection of flowers is also an excellent choice for your bridesmaids!  By embracing the season and utilizing non-traditional colors, you can create a one of a kind wedding fit for a princess!

January Crafting Goals

Happy New Year!


Well, it's that time of the year when most people make a New Year's resolution.  According to http://www.businessnewsdaily.com; by January 2013 88% of resolutions made for this year will have been broken.  That's way too many!!!   Instead of making a resolution for the entire year, I decided to make monthly goals and resolutions.  This seems like a more attainable method to be successful - for me anyways! 


For the month of January I created Household resolutions, Personal resolutions, Business resolutions and Crafting resolutions. I tend to put too much on my plate and get frustrated it I don't accomplish everything, so I started small for this month.


 

Business Goals * List 10 items on Etsy Shop Crafting Goals *Let Madailein paint canvas for bathroom *Make fabric covered bin from diaper box *Knit Spring place mats

I have been wanting to have Madailein paint a picture for the girls bathroom for over a year now! It's time to get it done. 
I came across the diaper box bin idea at www.positivelysplendid.com. What a fabulous way to reuse diaper boxes - and I sure do have a lot those! 

Photo from www.positivelysplendid.com

Aren't these awesome?!!  You would never know it was a diaper box!

The last craft I will be trying this month was found at www.joann.com.  They have many projects on their website for all types of skill levels.  The knitted place mats seem fairly simple!

Photo from www.joann.com

3 crafts - definitely doable!  Happy crafting everyone and enjoy your day!



Frugal Christmas Finds!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!  This year was just perfect with my two beautiful angels opening their gifts under the tree.  With two little ones, I made the conscience effort this year to have a modest and frugal Christmas.  In the years past, my husband and I went a tad overboard on the presents - which just overwhelms our 4 year old to tears.

My goal for this year was to have a nice Christmas for less and with less!

My adventure into having a frugal Christmas enabled me to get the following items for free:

 - Walgreens.com was offering a free 8*10 photo collage.  I had an extra frame in the basement and had my 4 year old decorate it for my parents

- $20.00 to Fanny May / Harry London chocolates.  The newspaper had a free $10.00 coupon, so I used mine and the coupon that came in my parent's newspaper.  I was able to get 4 boxes of chocolates, 2 chocolate suckers and 2 chocolate Santa's.

- $10.00 to JC Penney. Coupon came in the mail for $10.00 off your purchase of $10.00 or more!  I used this to get a holiday snowglobe priced at $9.99 before tax - free with coupon!

- $20.00 to www.personalcreations.com.  I received this gift card in the mail from the website as a thank you for an order I placed a few years ago; I believe they were trying to get more business for this holiday season.  I used the gift card to buy a personalized baby doll for our 1 year old.

- Speedway reward points.  Over the past year we have accumulated 47,000 points on our Speedway rewards card.  I used the reward points to get a $25.00 Speedway gas gift card, a $10.00 Speedway gas gift card and a $15.00 Itunes gift card!

Overall I was able to get about $100.00 worth of gifts for free!

I was very pleased with my first attempt at frugal gift shopping! This definitely motivated me to continue the frugal adventure into next year - all with the goal of being able to quit my full time job and stay home with my girls. We'll see where frugality takes me in 2012!