I accidentally made the fuchsia and lavender one twice. Grrrrrr…..
Babette Squares as of Feb 1
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Babette Afghan
Here is the yarn that I gave selected for my Babette crocheted afghan. They are nothing like the originals and not even the same number of them.
I wanted to make sure that following the pattern wouldn’t make me end up with too much of any one color, I used conditional formatting in excel to visually represent the colors using the layout plots from the pattern as my basis. It is also helpful because I don’t have to look up the key every time. If anyone is interested in learning to do this, I can do a tutorial. You could use this technique with really any crochet, knit or quilt pattern.
Here is my first square. It isn't perfect, but 5 squares later I have worked out most of the kinks.
Chalking Quinn’s Hair
We saw hair chalking at Pinterest and knew Quinn would love it. There are some videos at YouTube that were pretty helpful. Also, this tutorial at (wait for it) Seventeen Magazine. Basically you are going to buy some cheap art chalks (less that 10 bucks at Jo-Ann’s), wet the hair you want to color and rub the chalk on. It’s a little messy, so rubber gloves and a towel around the neck are a good idea. Well, the gloves should go on your hands, not around your neck, but you probably knew that.
Here is what she looked like with her hair wet.
I took the top layer of Quinn’s hair and pulled it up on top of her hair. This made the color sort of peek-a-boo. These pictures are a little out of order, but see: Hair down on the left and up on the right.
Once I was done coloring, I combed and then flat ironed it. It was supposed to “set” it, but I’m not sure that it did. It did make it lay nicely. When I brushed it, a cloud of chalk flew out. I didn’t see this in any of the tutorials that I read elsewhere, but this inspired me to spray aerosol hairspray over the chalked hair to set it. I sprayed the hair and then brushed while it was drying so that the individual strands were shellacked. The chalk cloud stopped immediately and I think the color will stay in for at least tomorrow, but probably until we wash it.
Here are all the colors with the hair still pulled up. Green, black (her personal favorite because it is “like Snow White,” pink/red and then a tiny smidge of the purple.
Final Results!
EDIT – Not to be out-done, here is Jude with some blue to match his eyes.
Crocheted Sperm
I wanted to make this because I thought it might be a good gift for someone’s fertility altar someday. It was super easy. Probably the toughest part was the hand-crampiness caused by the tail only being 6 stitches around. Here is the pattern that I used. It is free. I opted not to do the face.
If you are a ravelry person, you can find it here to add it to your queue. I am hopemcg there, if you want to add me.
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Help your kids learn to save – for free!
I had read the book The First National Bank of Dad: A Foolproof Method for Teaching Your Kids the Value of Money
I had thought about giving Quinn an allowance and then I saw a daily deal, I think from Jasmere and decided to try it. The company is called Three Jars, because your child can (virtually) put their allowance into a Save jar (with interest that you set up), a Spend jar (pocket money) and a Share jar (to go to charity). You can customize everything – dollars in (all virtual, you don’t actually give money to the website), interest earned, ratios in each jar, etc. I can’t remember what I paid, but it was half off of their regular price. Until March of 2011, you can get an account free for life!! Even if your kid is 6 months old, sign up now!
I did a little reading and took the suggestion to make Quinn’s allowance be half of her age. She is 5, so $2.50. I explained the 3 jars to her and gave her the $2.50 in the form of 10 quarters. I showed her what I thought she might like to have her ratio be by giving her three stacks of quarters. I believe I weighted it pretty heavily on the spending money because it was only $2.50 and I didn’t think it was really enough to stash too much away. I then let her fiddle with the piles until she liked it better. She divided her piles out like: Save $1.25 (50%), Spend $0.75 (30.%), Share $0.50 (20%).
Honestly, she doesn’t spend much money. She really isn’t one of those kids who begs for toys or candy (not much, anyway). If she really wants something and it isn’t something that I or Megan are willing to buy for her, we will say that she can spend her money on it if she wants to. She’ll ask if she has enough – because she really has no sense of money yet. We’ll say yes and that we can take it out of her threejars account when we get home.
I really like this product and the fact that it is now free is amazing. There are a lot of features that we will begin using once Quinn is a little older, such as jobs to earn extra money. Seriously, sign up now while it is free.
Nerdy Crochet Joke
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Homemade Monsters
A year or so ago, I made this monster doll / stuffed animal from felt and embroidery floss. It was very easy to do. I just looked at her original picture and selected my colors. Any embroidery was added before I put the back on so that I didn’t have to worry about not going through both layers. I elected not to stuff the arms and legs and have sort of regretted it ever since.
The scan of the original was enhanced so that you could see the colors better.
Quinn just made this picture and I think it is great. I was considering making another felt creature or maybe trying to crochet it. It doesn’t have any arms or legs, so I’m not sure how much she would actually play with it. Any ideas?
Caillou Gifts
I decided to peek at Etsy and see what handmade Caillou items people have made. Jude is currently obsessed with Caillou. I’m not a fan, but jr baldy is growing on me.
I’ll put this one in first, because it is my favorite by about a million miles. Wait, kilometers, Caillou is Canadian. This is a knit Rosie doll. The woman who created her did a wonderful job capturing the facial expression. She is $35 and is made by caveil. She also makes a Caillou, but it was the Rosie that made me go, “Awwwwwww.”
If you are looking for items to throw a Caillou-themed birthday party. You are SET. There are items you can order (you can even custom-wrap each of your water bottles in a water-resistant water wrap in case you are embarrassed of the brand or something…). I suppose if you are one of those theme people, then this might be just the thing you want.
There are matching patterns you can print for invitations, photo frames, cupcake toppers, banners and lots of other things. I find the color choices of some of them peculiar. The Caillou characters are all about primary colors and monochromaticness. This is really cute, but not what I was expecting. Those patterns sorta dazzle the eyes, don’t they?
Another genre is the Caillou hairbow. Most are the standard bow that you would expect – a big pile of ribbons with a Caillou character in the middle. These, on the other hand, are ingenious. She has actually taken bitsy pieces of grosgrain ribbon and glued them into the shape of Rosie and Caillou. I mean, a kid of mine would ruin them in 4 seconds, but they are fascinating to look at. Maybe your kids aren’t as destructive as mine? They are available for $9 from the HeadsOrTailsBoutique.
Two more: An applique pattern for a sewing machine that I will never be rich enough to own. It’s $3.99 and comes in 2 (remarkably similar) sizes.
I wonder what our family would do if we ordered this for Jude for his 3rd birthday. You know he would love it. EVERYBODY loves fluffy tutus. Now that I know how easy those are to make, I don’t think I could spend money on one, but maybe you are looking to do a little shopping instead of crafting? VanyKids makes it and it is $36.
Gifts for the Goonies lover
Etsy provides a never-ending supply of awesome Goonies-related items. Here are just a few of them. Full confession time: 1) The truffle shuffle makes me sad, 2) Sloth is meh and 3) “Goonies never say die” is cute, but I give bonus points for more obscure quotes.
Want to make the gift yourself? How about this cross-stitch pattern of the Goonies crew? It is $7 and made by weelittlestitches. I love the symmetry of the characters. Despite being so tiny, you can really tell who is who.
Raise your hand if you don’t like duct tape wallets. Really? You are 
lying. Duct tape wallets are awesome. This one features sillouettes of the characters and has 6 credit card slots. It is also $7 and is made by lunasuniquegifts.
If you love me, you will buy me this next one. Nine itsy bitsy prints of the goodies and the baddies from the Goonies. What could be better than a 2″ tall Fratelli? These are $12 and created by TimmyK.
I’ve had my eye on this one for a while now. It is an 8×10 print of the boys when they first find the map. I’m not sure that Mikey is exactly perfect, but I love the colors. Mouth and Chunk are really good. This print is $15 and was created by mirandadressler.
Ok, I will limit myself to just one more. How about some jewelry? This pendant is a quarter with the words “This is my wish” hand stamped into it. You know, from the wishing well scene? The only downside, as I see it is that the coin is from 1987 and the movie was made in 1985. I imagine most people wouldn’t even question it, but I just thought I’d mention that I noticed it. Otherwise? LOVE it. This pendant is $10 and made by SpiffingJewelry.
