Pumpkin Hat

I know, I know, I'm a dork. I think we've already established that when I made this bunny hat when Madelyn was first born, or the turkey hat for Madelyn's first thanksgiving. Well, why not keep up the tradition of making crazy hats? That's what I say.

I found a really cute pumpkin hat pattern last fall at my local yarn shop, The Knitting Den. I knew I already had way too many projects going on (but what else is new??) so I bought it so I could make it for this fall. I decided to start it Wednesday and I finished it yesterday, so it only took 2 days! If I'd known that when I bought the pattern, she would have had one last year. I used some Vanna's Choice yarn, which is very out-of-the-ordinary for me. I usually like to use wool but the price couldn't be beat. Plus, it's a kid's hat that won't get worn that often, so Vanna's Choice it is.

Do you think she likes it?

Here is my ravelry link.

where has the time gone?

My little girl turned 1 last week. 1!! I can't believe it. She's growing so fast!

I had tons of project ideas for her party. One of them was to make a happy birthday banner. I used this tutorial as a guide. I changed the shape of the flags and didn't add extra embellishments to them. I thought the fabric I chose was busy enough. I used an Oh! Cherry! Oh! charm pack and layer cake. I love this fabric line so much that I bought some yardage to make Madelyn a dress (I still need to make it. Hmm.).

For her party, I also made layered jello and a watermelon bombe from justJENN. (I love her blog. You should check it out.) In all of my party-planning craziness, I forgot to take a picture of them. Our 50 guests loved them though, along with my strawberry cupcakes. All in all, it was a great party and I'm so happy to be a momma to this little girl. :o)

Watermelon Dress

So I had this great idea one night a little while ago while I was trying to go to sleep. I pictured this way-too-cute a-line dress that looked just like a slice of watermelon. I knew I had to make it. I was heading to visit a good friend of mine on the other side of the state and she also has a daughter who is just a few months younger than Madelyn AND she's a big crafter too, so I told her about my dress idea. She loved it! We decided to go to the mall and we went into a children's clothing store and then I saw it. The dress. MY dress. I was so bummed! But I knew I could make it for a lot less money than what they were charging. Plus, I'd be able to make it how I wanted. :o)

So, here's what I ended up with. I didn't use a pattern. Nope. This one is all from my noggin. It's fully lined and it snaps up the entire back.

At first, Madelyn didn't know what to think.

But then, she liked it! I had to fight to get it off of her! I'm so glad she likes it!

What? Organization? Me??

Yep. You read that correctly. I, Amy, have made something that is kinda sorta organizational. Whoa! That's totally not me! But I'm tired of stepping over Madelyn's toys in the living room so I thought it would be a good idea to make a fabric box with my leftover curtain fabric. I found this tutorial from all buttoned up, which is another really fun blog (seriously, how many fun blogs are out there?? I find tons each and every day! And I'm loving it!!). I had to change the dimensions A LOT to make it functional for a toy box, but otherwise I followed to directions pretty closely, which is another thing that's weird for me to do. :o) It was a fun project and I was able to complete it in 2 hours, or a whole naptime for Miss Madelyn.

She had fun helping Momma put her toys away. See? Ahhhh. My feet are happy! No more plastic-y landmines in the living room!

Madelyn's new best friend

I don't know why I haven't blogged lately. I guess I've been busy getting ready for Madelyn's birthday party. Eeeeeeeeeeeeek! She's going to be 1 in less than 3 weeks! Where has the time gone???

One of the many projects that I have been working on is Molly Monkey from one of my all-time favorite blogs, mmmcrafts. Larissa has soooooooooooooooo many cute ideas! If you haven't checked out her blog before, you really need to. Did you hear that? YOU REALLY NEED TO! Especially since she has most graciously offered the pattern for Molly for FREE!!!! The pattern is really well written and very easy to follow. I was hoping to give it to her as a birthday present, but since the pattern was so easy to do, I made it in under 2 days. And being as impatient as I am, I just had to give it to her early. She loves it! When she sees it, she starts kicking and clapping and laughing. It's too cute!


I haven't sewn the beret on yet, mainly because it covers up the little sprout of hair I added. When Madelyn plays with it, of course the first thing she does is take off the hat. Oh well. Molly is cute with or without the beret!

Happiness Is....

...buying beautiful yarn with your birthday money!

I turned 30 (eeeek!) on April 18. I have to say I was not really thrilled with the idea of turning 30. But it really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I think that the fact that my in-laws giving me birthday money helped out. :o) Usually I don't do anything special with it. I just put it in my wallet and end up spending it on groceries or whatever. But this year I decided to do something just for me, something I don't normally do. I decided to spend it on yarn and make a nice sweater for myself. I did a ton of research and decided to make the February Lady Sweater by Pamela Wynne. I am using dream in color classy yarn (which is bad news because now I have a FAVORITE brand of yarn...look out, wallet. You're gonna be gettin' a workout at the yarn store!) in the happy forest colorway...very pretty.

I ordered the yarn from my local yarn store, The Knitting Den. They told me that it usually takes a while to get yarn from dream in color because they hand-dye everything themselves. I was okay with that because, come on, I have tons of projects going on ALL THE TIME. After a few weeks I called to check on it. The lady said she had just talked to the dream in color lady and it was still going to be a few weeks. Two days later, the Knitting Den called and said my order was in!!! Woo hoo! Of course, I rushed right over and picked it up. I swatched and got gauge right away and then cast on. Here is my progress so far:

I have fallen in love with this pattern and yarn. It's such a cute sweater. If you haven't made it yet, you should. I'm just sayin'.

Felted Bag Swap

A while ago I joined in a felted bag swap on Ravelry. I had just figured out how to felt in my front loading washer and I became obsessed with felting. I thought this swap would be a ton of fun and it has! My partner had a list of felted bag patterns she liked and this was one of them. It is a really pretty bag, plus it's even a free pattern, which makes it even better. It knit up pretty quickly and I like how it turned out. Here's a picture of the finished bag:

I added a lining with a pocket since you can never have too many pockets! My partner really likes the bag. That makes me happy! :o) I'm still waiting to get the bag made for me. It should come within the next week or so. I'm so excited to see what it looks like, especially since I have no idea what pattern or yarn was used. Yay!