Crochet Sunglasses Case

I'm one of those people that need new sunglasses pretty much every year.  They inevitably get scratched or smashed somehow.  I never bothered to buy or make a case for them till now.....

I scoured the web for a good crochet sunglasses case pattern and I found a winner HERE at Dly's Hooks and Yarns.  Check it out!

I had to do a little adjusting from her pattern.  My first try was way too big so I adjusted the pattern to only chaining 8 at the beginning instead of 12.  This made it smaller and  really quick to make, but the stitches are still too loose for my liking.  In the future I plan to use a smaller hook to make a tighter weave to protect my glasses even better.

I also switched up the colors to make it more fun and added one of my mini-crochet flowers to the front.

Colorful crochet things just make me smile :)

Photo of the Week

Another bird photo........ taken at the Hogle Zoo with my son last week on free zoo day!  It was a good day because honestly, I haven't felt well enough to go out and do something like that in a while.  It's amazing how much the small things mean to me now.   I plan on taking advantage of all the free days at parks, zoos, and museums I can this year.  I have a feeling once I finally get all the way off my meds and the withdrawals subside, the migraines will be better.. at least that is my hope :)

p.s. Happy March! Spring is on it's way. I couldn't be happier about that :)

Animal Silhouette Paintings

Ever since we checked out Have you ever seen a Smack of Jellyfish from the library, I've been wanting to paint more animal silhouettes.  That book is full of beautiful animal silhouette illustrations.  awesome!

I didn't have any stencils for these like with my other Stenciled Watercolor Projects, but I found a way to make it work.  I used the same pencil transfer technique that I used in my Watercolor Portraits to trace the outlines of the elephants and bird.  Then I just painted in the lines.  It worked quite well!

I'll have to do more of these.  The Mom and Baby elephant painting sold within a few days of listing it in my Etsy Shop!  It now has a happy home in Virginia.

A Few Fun Cards

Here are some cards I've made over the last few months.....

I don't think I'll ever get tired of butterflies or flowers or stamping with watercolors! 

This one was an experiment with colored pencils.  It's different from what I normally go for, but I like it :)

Photo of the Week

This might seem like a totally random photo to you, but I took it purely because I like the colors.

 I was eating this lovely pink grapefruit on my green plate while wearing a jade colored shirt (and matching nail polish I might add) and for some reason I looked down and thought "those colors look awesome together!"

Call me crazy, but I notice and think about colors A LOT... like which shades look good together and which ones have a nice contrast next to each other.  Jade is one of my favorite colors right now :)

Sea Penny Bracelet Tutorial

Oh yes.... I've made something else with my little crochet sea pennies... dainty bracelets!

After trying to crochet them together in some manner and utterly failing, I settled on hot gluing them to some felt.  Ha! So simple! I wish I would have thought of that first!  I'll save you the pain...just follow my little tutorial here:

Materials:
crochet sea pennies- make enough to cover all around your wrist.  (I made mine out of a fine shiny yarn, so they look more delicate.)You can find my tutorial for them here.
felt
sew on snaps
hot glue gun

Step 1:  Measure the circumference of your wrist.  Add 1/2 to 3/4 inches to that length, depending on how tight you want your bracelet to be.  Cut a piece of felt in these dimensions:  1/2 wide x Length your wrist circumference + 1/2 to 3/4 inch.  My wrist is about 6 inches around so I cut my felt 1/2 inch wide and 6 3/4 inch long.  The width can vary here depending on how thick you want your bracelet to be and how large your crochet sea pennies are.


Step 2:  Hot glue or sew snaps onto each end, making sure to get them on the right sides so they will close nicely around your wrist.

Step 3:  Arrange the sea pennies in desired order/pattern and hot glue them to the felt strip.  Make sure to overlap the sea pennies a bit, unless you want gaps showing between them while wearing the bracelet.

Strap your bracelet on and wear it proudly cuz, hey, it's not every day you wear crochet bracelet!

For the love of birds

After my last bird post,  I decided to go for it and try painting more.  I stocked up on bird books from the library and practiced a few.

Most of them turned out well (at least I think so)! It was fun too!  I had lots of time over the weekend to paint.  So here ya go all you bird lovers out there!

Just click on the links above the photos to see these in my Etsy Shop.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/124100202/blue-bird-tree-swallow-original

https://www.etsy.com/listing/124099896/eastern-blue-bird-on-a-branch-original

https://www.etsy.com/listing/124100500/red-bird-vermillion-flycatcher-original

This yellow one is my favorite.  It's a happy bird :)
https://www.etsy.com/listing/124099538/yellow-bird-wood-warbler-original