Mini Crochet Flower Tutorial

 Well, happy Friday everyone- and happy last day of September!  It doesn't really feel like fall to me until October is here.

So, I promised a crochet flower tutorial and here it is! This one is really simple.  It only requires two basic crochet skills:  chain stitch and slip stitch.  Not too complicated.

And for those of you who have trouble reading those tricky crochet patterns ( it's almost like learning another language),  I'm presenting it step by step without abbreviations, but with tons of pictures! 

Materials:
Any type of yarn of your choosing
Any size crochet hook ( just depends on how big you want your flower to be)

Pattern:

Step 1: Make a loop and chain 5.

Step 2:  Slip stitch into the beginning loop to make a ring.

Step 3:  Chain 5, slip stitch into the ring.

Step 4:  Repeat step 3, 5 times making 6 petals

 Step 5:  Fasten off and weave in ends.

That's it!  You are done!  Let me know if you try it out.  This is the first pattern I've ever come up with entirely on my own, so I'd love to know how it works out for all you crocheters out there.

Watercolor Butterfly

 Yes, I again have more watercolors to show.  I promise I'm not staying up all night watercoloring- I made the two below months ago.  

I made my favorite one, the butterfly, just the other day and I like it!  I like it enough to list for sale in my Etsy Shop, can't say the same for these other two.  They were experiments that didn't turn out quite right.

Check out my butterfly at this link :   http://www.etsy.com/listing/82616908/original-watercolor-butterfly-yellow

More Watercolors

This is something I painted last week while my son was away.  It was a lonely week without him, but I was able to get the rest I needed.... and a little painting time too :)

This is now up for sale in my Etsy shop!  Hopefully I will have some more takers... I've sold only two small paintings so far.  But then, I've only been open for a few months.  If any of you have any tips on selling art on Etsy, I'd be glad for some advice!

Decorating Thrift Store Style

Thrift stores are cool places.  They can be a little scary and a little messy, but if you take some time, visiting these places can be worth it.  Granted, lots of the stuff in them needs to in the garbage, but there are some treasures hidden around the store.  

 

I have ups and downs with thrift stores.  On some visits I find absolutely nothing worth looking at.  On those occasions I have left, vowing never to visit another thrift store again, but.... I always go back anyway.  Other times I discover tons of great decorations for the house and I get so excited! It feels great to find cool stuff for super cheap, right?!

Here are some of my good finds in the past year:

 Vintage looking vase

Picture frames:  most of the frames on my walls come from thrift stores.  Most just need a little spray paint and they look brand new!

Small bird sculpture-  I got this for 50 cents!

and... Halloween decorations!

It's Raining Flowers!

I'm up to my ears in flowers..... crochet flowers!

This time I'm using my flowers to pretty-up some cardigans.  I couldn't decide which flowers to put on which sweaters, so, with the help of some pins, I did a little experimenting.

Here are a few of my options:

If you want to try your hand at making some of these yourself,  you can use some patterns I used from Little Birdie Secrets.  I also did a little experimenting and came up with a few patterns of my own.

Stay tuned for tutorials and patterns of my own!

roosters-roosters- roosters

A while ago a friend suggested that I try painting roosters or chickens.  I gave it a try, but really, it was harder than I thought.  I have the process down for painting flowers, but roosters are a whole other story.

So, here are a few of my experiments with roosters.   I can't say that I particularly love any of these, but would love your input.  Which one do you like the best?

Welcome to paradise

 Well, I'm done with my back surgery and resting at home. Don't get me wrong, that is not the paradise I'm talking about- that part will come later- hehe!   The surgery went well and I'm healing just fine.  I have a lot of extra time on my hands since my little boy is in AZ visiting his grandparents while I rest and heal.

I definitely need the rest, but man, it can get really boring just laying around all day.   Good thing I feel well enough to get on the computer once in a while!  I have some blogging to catch up on :)

 So, the picture below is what I mean about paradise, also known as Red Butte Gardens here in Utah.  I visited it last week (before my surgery) with my fam and seriously, this picture looks like heaven to me!  Not all of the gardens look this heavenly, but really, this place is amazing.

My handsome husband and son at the gardens-  I miss my little boy like crazy!

This is probably the coolest public water fountain I have ever seen!

The children's garden must have had some kind of art education week- check out the paint palette...

and the paintbrush!

If I was still teaching art, I would have taken my class here for sure! There was even a poster out about my favorite artist- love this!

Toddler Chairs Make-Over and ........ I'm having surgery

 So, about a year ago ( has it been that long already?- geez!)  I set out to decorate the unfinished table and chairs we bought at Ikea for my son.  I finished the table right away, but the chairs... well let's just say I was lacking motivation.  So now, tada! I got down to it and finished the chairs- finally!

They didn't take nearly as much work as the table either.  I just used some of the elements from the table on the the chairs.  I could have done this a looooooong time ago.  I'm so glad that we now have a matching set.

Well, guys....just want to let you know I may not be posting as much for the next month or so.  I'm going in for some back surgery in two days- yikes! I really have no idea how I will feel after or how long it will take me to recover.   This has been a long time coming and I'm happy to see if this will finally be the thing that will relieve my pain.  So, wish me luck! 

A view of their world

This is a scene from Laguna Beach, CA- one of my most favorite places in the world-ya! I have been dying to paint something from the pictures I took there last July.   So I busted out my oil paints- it has been almost a year since I've used them- yikes.

The people in Laguna beach are unbelievably rich, or unbelievably in debt- who knows?  In any case, I'm glad I got to walk through their world one after noon and enjoy the beauty.  My husband and I often wonder who these people are that live on the California coast. How is it that there are so many people out there that can seemingly afford that lifestyle?  What do they do for a living?

Well, we know that we will never have that lifestyle and anyway, we don't want to.  We are content to just visit once in a while.  I think we appreciate the beauty there more that way.