Monday, December 26, 2011

Crocheted Christmas Gifts

Since it's after Christmas, I think it's safe to assume that my friends opened their gifts already and there isn't a risk of spoiling the surprise anymore. Here are some of the handmade gifts I prepared this year.

Giraffe Beanie
This hat would have otherwise been too hot for the Philippines, but I made it for my 5-year old godson who lives in Baguio City. Baguio City a city in the mountains up north and the only place in the Philippines with colder weather. I'm hoping he will send me a photo of him wearing it.


My favorite project so far... because it turned out so cute! 


I made these crocheted baby booties that look like Converse shoes for my office mate who is expecting a baby boy. I also made a matching white bear hat (no photo, sorry) to go along with these booties.

Those are it actually. If I had more time, I would have made more. I downloaded several free patterns for baby booties which I would love to try. I'm currently on vacation and working on another crochet project. A bigger project this time. I hope I get to show it to you guys soon!

Friday, December 23, 2011

Sharing my 'Home for the Holidays'

Just wanted to let you know that I'm guest posting over at Amy's blog, One Artsy Mama, today for her Our Home for the Holidays series. I will be sharing about our family's tradition for Christmas eve.

So head on over there if you want to know how we celebrate Christmas eve here in the Philippines


Wishing Christ's blessing for all of you this Christmas. Merry Christmas!

Monday, December 19, 2011

First attempt at a Diaper Cake

We organized a surprise baby shower for one of my friends (who was my maid of honor at my wedding) last Sunday. I volunteered to make the diaper cake because I have always wanted to try making one after I saw one for the first time at my sister's baby shower. 

I looked for inspiration online and it looked simple enough... but I had no idea rolling each and every diaper is so boring tedious!


We didn't have a party theme but we know she's having a boy so our main motiff was light blue. I used light blue and white ribbon to secure each tier. Then I printed baby animals on white card stock, cut each of them out, and glued them to the ribbon around the cake. I didn't have a cake topper so I printed a card that says "See you soon, TJ!" and stuck it on top of the cake. 

Quick.

Simple.

Not bad!

I also took care of the souvenirs.


I buy my baby wipes in bulk so I still had a lot at home. I printed smaller cards like the one I used to top the cake, taped it to the pack, and tied the entire package with a light blue satin ribbon.

Quick.

Simple.

I wish I had more time to DIY the decor but one of my friends was kind enough to take care of that.

Hope you all had a great weekend! It's 1 more week before Christmas! Are you excited? :)

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Bonnie's 'Hair' Bonnet

I am FINISHED!
  • 7 crocheted hats (including the ones for the dolls)
  • 1 pair of crocheted booties
It might not look like much but those projects took me quite a while to finish. I can't wait to share pictures of some of the stuff I made for gifts but I don't want the recipients to accidentally stumble onto my blog entry and ruin the surprise so I will be sharing them after Christmas.  They are already posted on my Ravelry account though. So if you are on Ravelry, please visit me!

Here's one of the projects that I can share though.


I made a hat for Bonnie, my daughter's other doll that burps when you tap her back, and says "Mama!" and "Dada!" when you press her hands. And the dress? It's the same one I made for Lizzie, it just gets passed around for both dolls since it fits them both. I really need to make more clothes for her dolls.

What's so special about this hat is that it comes with 'hair'... because you see, Bonnie is a baby doll that came to us wearing pajamas and a bonnet and without any hair.

Hello there!
But since she's all grown up now (according to Andrea), she needs to have more hair (according to Andrea too... she's 2 years old, where does she get these ideas???). I initially wanted to make her another bear hat, because that has braids... but I have already made several other bear hats since the time I posted about it to give away as gifts in a span of a few days and to be honest, I wanted to try something new.

Without a design in mind, I set about making the hat. I didn't use a pattern for this. I just kept fitting it on Bonnie's head until I was happy with the width and length of the hat. I wanted to make it 'girly' so I added scalloped edges. To make the scalloped edges, change your hook to one size smaller than the one you used for your hat and:

Row n+1 (where n is the last row on your hat): YO (if you are using different color yarn, if not, and still using the same yarn,  skip to Chain 1), Chain 1, *SC and HDC on one stitch, HDC and SC on next stitch*, scallop made. Repeat * until you have covered the edge of the hat in scallops.


 I also added a flower using this pattern on Ravelry (I think you have to be logged in to view the pattern). Then comes the fun part, adding the hair! My method was a little rudimentary: 

STEP 1: I  held a piece of yarn at the back of Bonnie's head where the hat meets the nape;
STEP 2: Stretched the yarn to the length I want Bonnie's hair to be and then doubled that length and cut the yarn. 
STEP 3: I then cut more pieces of yarn of the same length as that first piece. The number of pieces you need will depend on how think you want the hair to be. 
STEP 4: Then I attached it to the hat from the side, to the back, to other side, like this:


I bunched my yarn pieces in groups of 3... then using a large crochet hook, I  inserted one end from the inside of the hat through one of the stitches at the bottom.. and then inserted the end again on the next stitch. 

STEP 5: Repeat until all your yarn pieces are hanging from the hat. 
STEP 6: Then part 'hair' in the middle, and secure with pony tails. Yep, the only thing securing the hair to the hat is the pony tail holder. 

I used non-slip pony tail holders for Bonnie's Hat to make sure Andrea does not accidentally undo the pony tail and pull out all of Bonnie's 'hair'. I was so excited about this after I finished because I couldn't wait to make more 'hair' hats for Bonnie! I'm already working out several ideas in my head.

Linking up to the following parties:
Made by You Monday at Skip to My Lou | Handmade Tuesdays at Ladybug Blessings | Making Mondays Marvelous at C.R.A.F.T. |

Greenmeadows Christmas Bazaar!!

There are several things I love about the Christmas season, one of which is BAZAAR SEASON!!!

Bazaars... my joy and my curse. I always promise myself I will only go there to see what's new but I always manage to go home with an empty wallet. I'm a mall rat so I'm usually only exposed to what the malls have to offer. Going to bazaars opens my eyes to other great stuff being marketed out there and I love them for bringing them within my reach.

Anyway, there is going to be a bazaar at Greenmeadows this weekend and they seem to have a lot of great stuff!

LAST MINUTE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING??? SHOPPING + SPECIAL TREATS AT THE GREENMEADOWS BAZAAR!


MILK TEA LOVERS who will RSVP via email before December 17 will get a free drink of your choice with sinkers, from the Cha Dao Tea Place Booth at the bazaar. To RSVP, send you Full Name and Mobile number to claudbaron@yahoo.com.


MAKE UP JUNKIES, BARE MINERALS GIVEAWAY!
Bare Minerals is giving away mineral make up gift packs to you and 3 of your friends, worth P2000 each! Just RSVP via email before Dec. 17 by sending your full name and mobile number to claudbaron@yahoo.com. First 50 to RSVP may claim a gift pack at the Organizers booth on December 18-19.


The Greenmeadows Xmas Rush Bazaar is the perfect place! No traffic, no crowded malls, no long lines... Just you and 120 handpicked vendors. You will surely find the perfect gift!


GREENMEADOWS XMAS RUSH BAZAAR
DECEMBER 17 - 18 (10AM-7PM)
GREENMEADOWS CLUBHOUSE
***INSIDE GREENMEADOWS, NOT AT CHURCH PARKING LOT***


Free entrance!!!
Free gift wrapping!!!
Hourly raffles!!!
And for the grand raffle, spa treatments and major kitchen appliances are up for grabs!!!


See you this weekend!!!

-oo0oo-

Did you see that? Free giftwrapping! That would have saved me a lot of time. And Greenmeadows is not so far from my house. Me going! If you're in Manila, you might want to check this out too. See you there! :)

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Decorative Thumbtack Christmas Ball

Finally! A craft project (albeit a very simple one).

So while I was stuck at home suffering from food poisoning yesterday (sigh... long story), I managed to finish my gold Christmas ball.


Here it is, sitting on top of the vase I "borrowed" indefinitely from my grandmother. I used EXACTLY 600 thumbtacks for this project. I know because, each box contains 100 tacks and I used 6 boxes.So the finished ball is a little heavy.

I used to see this project a lot around blog land a few months ago. There is a tutorial for this over at Landee See, Landee Do. I have to admire those who did more than one... this takes patience! Imagine carefully tacking each thumbtack 600 times! Though I guess others used smaller styrofoam balls.

Here's a photo of the ball while it was still in progress.
After I finished... er... I actually didn't know what to do with it. I initially wanted to stick a fabric poinsettia flower on top of the ball but it wasn't looking quite right (and it messes with the balance of the ball) so I scrapped the idea and covered the entire styrofoam ball with thumb tacks.

For now, I added it to my little ensemble on top of the shoe cabinet on our entryway.


I have some more Christmas DIY items on my list and maybe I'll find another place for it soon (sometime before Christmas, I hope).

Next on my list: WREATH! Stay tuned!

Friday, December 2, 2011

Crochet Project: More bear hats!

I posted the one I made from Andrea before but I didn't get nice pictures. I have made 2 more since then, using the same pattern from Maybe Matilda: One for my niece (she asked for a white one), and another one for Andrea's doll, Lizzie (yes, we already named her, finally!). They like to match you know.


I had to distract them by handing them stuff to hold to get them to stay still for the photo. Lizzie's hat was made from left over crochet thread after I made Andrea's.

She realized I was taking pictures and decided to hide behind balls of yarn :-/
Andrea and her doll, Lizzie (which she calls Baby Lizzie) with matching hats.
And finally... I was able to catch that elusive smile on camera again!

Errr... she was laughing because... um... you see, these photos were taken at my sister's bed room. And my sister was knitting while we were taking pictures. And Andrea thought it was ok to play her "Pulling Game" with Aunt Irene. The "Pulling Game" goes like this: Andrea sees yarn... Andrea grabs yarn... Andrea pulls yarn with all her might while chanting "Pull! Pull! Pull!". I don't know where she got this from, but she does this when I'm crocheting ALL the time! I've gotten used to it but my sister was caught by surprise and screamed. Andrea laughed. I grabbed her and ran out the door to avoid my sister's wrath. You can imagine what happened with the knitting.

Linking up to the following parties:
Made by You Monday at Skip to My Lou | Handmade Tuesdays at Ladybug Blessings | Making Mondays Marvelous at C.R.A.F.T. |