bald gene simmons cat toy

haha, so this happened. i set out to make a baby gift for an expecing girlfriend. i thought it would be cute to make her a gene simmons doll from KISS. i had a plan and started crocheting...and this is what happened, haha. it does not even look like i had in my brain. i cannot give this as a gift - way too embarrassing if the receiver has to struggle to figure out what it is. i originally planned to give him some black yarn hair as well, but i decided to not bother. since i wasn't going to gift this anymore, alex asked if she could have it. but then we discovered that the cat seemed to fancy bald gene simmons. so voila, now it's a cat toy :)

cat cave

i crocheted blizz (blizzard) a cat cave! i found a free pattern thru pinterest - i think it led me to ravelry, but not sure. i made the cave out of recycled t-shirt yarn that i bought on etsy - which is why it's every color you can imagine, but hey blizz doesn't care about that. i didn't weave in any of my loose ends either. i just made sure they were all on the inside and i tied a knot at the end of each strand; i figured blizz would enjoy playing with the strings and he does. he loved it so much he was trying to lay in it as i was actively crocheting it. after a few weeks of having it, he's hit or miss with it. he still uses it, but not all the time. and in the last picture you can see that lonnie is a little jealous that he doesn't have a giant dog cave to crawl into and sleep all day.

new nephew gift set #2

a couple weeks ago i showed you a very hungry caterpillar sleep sack and cap that i made for my new nephew: http://boogiebeans.blogspot.com/2015/01/new-nephew-gift-1-very-hungry.html and here's the set i gave when he was actually born. i hand lettering and screenprinted 3 onesies for him. we're in ohio hence the locally grown design: i think that's my favorite one. although i thought i was pretty funny making the "full of shits and giggles" - haha get it? babies are full of shits and giggles :) and then there's the "i wake up awesome" which is just fun (it could have printed better; the fine lines didn't work great, but i still like the design.) and i made him another crocheted cap - this one is sized for a one year old though so he can get to it when he's bigger. i thought it was a fun hat, but let me tell you before you venture into making one that those fringe are a pain in the ass. they aren't hard to do, but they took forfreakingever. i seriously almost gave up several times because i just did not enjoy making the mohawk part. but i did it, it's cute, and i added one of those awesome "this took forever" labels on the inside. i love those labels (got them on etsy) and i am going to be adding them to almost everything from now on :)

new nephew gift 1: the very hungry caterpillar

i just became an aunt again! and of course i made a few new baby gifts - i'll have more in future posts. the first gift i gave - i made it a christmas gift; prior to him being born - was a very hungry caterpillar hat with body sack (i don't really know what to call the sleeping bag blanket body part) along with the board book. i made it for a newborn size. as i was making it i kept thinking this sack thing looks so comfortable, could i make an adult size caterpillar sack, haha. it was easy to crochet and i think it turned out so cute. we shall see what the little one thinks of being put in this though :)

bear hoodie

this picture is way over-exposed, but i took it real quick with my phone and did an awful job of it. but the hoodie is super cute (and the kid :).) so i crocheted alex this hoodie cowl with ears. how great will this be during the extreme cold winter we're going to get again this year. i am planning on making one for myself as well, but in greys and without the ears (alex said it would be a little weird if mine had ears - basically she called me too old for ears, haha.) this hoodie would be the perfect pattern as well for an ewok costume - just make the hood part a burnt brown/orangish color with the ears brown - it'd be perfect. it's a little big on alex - i made her an adult size since she's always had a larger head than average - but there's still plenty of room now to add earmuffs or layer another hat when it gets really cold out. she wore it yesterday to school and i guess it was a big hit among all the adults :)

crocheted viking hats

i made more viking hats! woohoo. the first one i made was for a baby shower present: http://boogiebeans.blogspot.com/2012/03/baby-boy-shower-gifts-part-2.html people seemed to like the hat so much that i made more. the top one i made for my friend's birthday - he's a minnesota vikings fan. the colors i used came out a little more retro vikings - not the royal purple that they seem to be today, but i like it, and he seems too. he wore it around the building at work the day he got it - funny thing is, i don't think too many people found it unusual to wear a crocheted viking hat at work. then one of my other friends liked the hat so much and wanted me to make one for her nephew, so i made the brown and gold version for her - i think that's her nephew's school colors. and third, alex liked the hat so much she wanted one. and of course she wanted hers in green, since that is her favorite color. they are so cute, i might have to make myself a pink one :)

jessica's baby shower: the gifts

the first thing i made for jessica's baby girl is this amigurumi crocheted bear from a pattern on etsy by Ana Paula Rimoli. after i made this bear alex wanted one so bad that i made her one too (just a different color pair of undies). then i crafted 9 onesies for the baby in different sizes. in the first picture, i made the heart onesie with dip dyeing and a glue batiking technique (instead of wax you use blue gel elmers glue for your resist and then wash the glue out later) and then i stitched the hearts as the final step. the tie onesie is screenprinted and then i appliqued on the tie. the ice-cream cone is screenprinted. i tie dyed a couple of other onesies (one a spiral method and the other an accordian fold method) and i finished on the accordian folded tie dye with appliqueing on some fruit. the "ga ga", "new", "copyright 2010 /  made in america", and skully onesies are all screenprinted. i think they turned out pretty well and she will be a pretty stylish little baby.

kim's baby shower gifts

my friend kim is about to have her first baby in a month! we just had her baby shower for her at work last friday and all the gifts from me were home-made. she doesn't know if she's have a boy or a girl yet, so i tried to keep everything neutral. first, i screen printed her some onesies. i have a yudu (which is a screen printing tool that makes the photo-emulsion process a lot easier) and i love it. i was able to design all these on the computer and print them out in black on a transparency and then use my yudu to prepare the screen and print them onto the onesies. kim seemed to like them, i think the baby p and the copyright 2010 were possible favorites. and then i also crocheted the monkey for her using a pattern from "Amigurumi World: Seriously Cute Crochet" by Ana Paula Rimoli. Amigurumi is a super fun and easy form of crocheting and I just love Ana's patterns. i think the monkey went over well too.