Smile 70/100 New Blanket

We found out a few weeks ago that one of our nieces is expecting her first child this fall. She and her husband are moving across the country later this summer for work so she came down to see family in the area before they get really swamped with all the preparation for the big move and the new addition to the family.

I started a new blanket just for her, but didn't have it done in time for her viist, so it will get mailed to her. This is a new pattern for me and I think it is going to come out pretty nice. We know they are having a girl so the colors will work out well.

I took this picture in our livingroom with my Fuji Finepix f50 with no flash but the macro enabled. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for color, light and then to add the fuzzy border.
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Another One I Made....Something Good

Smile 68/100 PhotoCards

I have been limited in my card creating since all of my supplies are not here. I have made up for this by creating cards on York from pictures I have taken.

The time has come again to order a new batch of cards from new pictures. I edited 6 images that I really liked and placed an order for them today. I usually get 12 of each so I have a nice variety of cards to send to friends and family. I try to make them so that I can send them for different occasions rather than being locked into only thank yous or birthdays.

I hope this new batch comes out as well as all the others have. I took this picture with the Snipping Tool on my laptop. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for color, light and to add the fuzzy border.
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Seven Years Ago on In My Words...Randomness

Smile 3/100 New Project

Having just finished a baby blanket for one of our nieces, I decided to start on this neck scarf for my grandma. She tried one on that belonged to one of my aunts a few weeks back and thought it was very cool. I had to look up the pattern online and figure out how I was going to make it.

Yesterday, I picked up the yarn for it and the buttons that will go on it to latch it after it is complete. I started working on it last night...I am hoping the one skein is going to be enough but if it needs two, I will pick up another soon. Purple is one of her favorite colors so I know she will love it once it is done. I am hoping that the yarn is soft enough and not irritating since having something right up against your neck can be itchy.

It is a thicker yarn so I had to move to a much bigger hook but other than getting used to that, it has moved pretty quickly. Being creative in whatever way I can, is always a benefit for me. It allows me to be a little less left-brained for a bit...LOL.

I took this picture with my Fuji Finepix f50 with no flash in our living room. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for color, light and added the fuzzy border.
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Last Year on In My Words...Making Progress

POTD Day 11 Something Good

This is the second baby blanket I am making this spring. This niece is due in late spring so I started her blanket after the one I made for my niece that is due in April. She is having a boy so this blanket has more blues than the other one did (which you can see progress shots of that one here and here).

I am using a granny square stitch but instead of doing squares, I am doing rows with it. I have been varying the width of the rows to keep it fun and non-symetrical. The navy blue is the "field" color so it is in between each color (and set at 3 rows) and it is also at the top and bottom and will be the color that I border the entire thing with.

I really love how this one is coming out...super fun (once you get past the first starting rows) and fast. I might be making one of the same stitch but different colors for my sister soon.

I took this picture in our living room with my Fuji Finepix f50 with the macro enabled but no flash. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for color, light and then added the fuzzy border.
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Nine Years Ago on In My Words...Sharp Items

POTD Day 16 Create

Two of our nieces are expecting this spring, one right after the other. One is having a girl and one is having a boy.

I decided as soon I heard they were expecting that I would be making a baby blanket for each of them. I started the one for the neice having a girl first, since she is due first.

I decided to do a granny square blanket because I haven't made her one like it before. I wanted to use bright colors, but also use black so that it would have an old fashioned feel to it.

My post from POTD Day 5 is just of the squares as I was lining them up to see how the pattern would work.

This picture is from while I was still working on it (I am done with it now), I had it mostly connected, but not bordered.I took it in our living room with the blanket on the floor with my Fuji Finepix f50 with no flash. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for light, color and added the fuzzy border.
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Last Year on In My Words...All Connected

POTD Day 5 Square

Two of our nieces are pregnant right now. One is due in late March and the other in late April. I am working on baby blankets for both of them.

These are the squares for the blanket I am making for the one that is due in March. The blanket I made for her first child was a different pattern, so I thought I would make her a granny square one this time. I wanted to do bright colors on a black field for two reasons. Bright colors and contrast are supposed to be good for baby brains, and then the black field is reminiscent of the old style granny square blankets you would see.

I tend to do solid colored squares because they are just faster and less complicated, although I have done a few blankets with variated yarn so the squares were multi-colored with no additional effort on my part...LOL.

When I have a multi-colored blanket, I like to stack the squares in order of the pattern so that when I start to connect them, I am able to keep track of the rows. At this point, I have 6 of the 8 rows connected (you can't see this in the pic because I hadn't started connecting them yet). Once I finish the 8 rows, I will start connecting the rows to each other and then finish off by bordering the whole thing.

I took this picture with my Fuji Finepix f50 in our dining room with no flash, but macro enabled. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for light, color and adding of the fuzzy border.
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Three Years Ago on In My Words...Finished The Blanket (this one was for another niece)

POTD Day 19 'Tis The Season To

create...usually I would be busy making cards for the coming year but since most of my card making stuff is not here, I make due with what I do have. This means making cards from my photos and making blankets, scarves and other items from yarn.

Two of my nieces are having babies in the spring, so while I was at Michael's the other day, I stocked up on yarn for both of their baby blankets. What was really cool was that they were having a great sale on my favorite yarn so that took about 1/3 of the price off the purchase.

I took this pic with my Fuji Finepix f50, no flash. I edited in GIMP 2.6 to auto correct for color and light and then added the fuzzy border.
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Two Years Ago on In My Words...Week 22 MCP Project 52

Final Product

Still had to weave in ends

Finished the blanket up last week and sent it in the mail to my niece this week. It came out better than expected and I am sure she is going to love it. I have a lot of yarn left over since I purchased yarn before I completely knew what I was going to do design-wise, so I am thinking I might make the extra yarn into squares and then just store them until a new projects rears its head.

I have started working on the stitching for my quilt from Japan again...would love to get the face of it done so that when the fabric for the rest of it gets here, I will be ready to go. I try to have a little creative something to do while watching TV or a movie. Makes me feel like I am being productive.

Don't know if I have another blanket in me right away but we'll see. I am sure I will see a pattern somewhere that I want to do and then creativity will take over. In the meantime, I have my photos and the Japanese quilt to work on, and of course my A+ certification I should be studying for...LOL
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Two Years Ago on In My Words...Finished The Blanket (this is a blanket I made for one of my other nieces)

All Connected

So this is the blanket all put together. I haven't bordered it yet so it isn't DONE done, but it is getting close. Right now, I don't have enough of the off-white to border it so I might try using the dark grey, which is the same color of squares that border the blanket so it might look pretty good.

I am really thrilled how it looks, and while it is really soft, it also has a nice weight to it. It is absolutely my favorite blanket creation so far...might make something like it for myself some day in the future...LOL.

I will mail it to my niece as soon as I am done with it. I asked her if she wanted me to hold on to it for her since it is probably already getting warm where she is, but she insists that she wants it as soon as possible and I am happy to oblige her. I hope she loves it.

It will be weird to be done with it and not have a large project like this to work on...it gives me something to multitask with, and I am sure I will have to find something new to work on. Things like this don't take away from the many, many other projects I am working on for the house so no guilt there.
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Four Years Ago on In My Words...Just Me?

Ordered New Photo Cards

I realized while writing up my Mother's Day and May birthday cards, that I was getting low on my photo cards I use. I create the images on my computer from photos I have taken and then I upload them to York Photo where I design the card and order them. I try to do a few cards from my macros and then a couple that are scenes. This batch is 3 flower macros and 2 texture macros that look pretty cool.

This is a way for me to be creative when most of my other card making tools are not here, and it is  less expensive way for me to send all the cards I like to send out. If you haven't looked at the price of American Greetings or Hallmark cards lately...it has really gone up.

Anyhow, I should be able to get these cards delivered in time to be ready for the Father's Day and June birthdays that are coming up!
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Three Years Ago on In My Words...Getting Creative

Finished Rows

Rows Connected

Progress is being made on my niece's blanket...all the rows have been connected and I can start in the second direction now. I love this connection method, is way less tedious and much faster that any that I used in the past when I have made granny square blankets.

I highly recommend this method...super easy, and fast once you get the gist of it. I am hoping to have enough of the off-white yard to do a border as well, but since I have lots of the dark grey, that might end up being the border instead, we'll have to see how it looks when I get the rest of it connected together.
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Six Years Ago on In My Words...Back In The Land Of The Living

Blanket Update

Pattern laid out on floor

I have been working on a blanket for one of my nieces. This is the biggest blanket I have made in a long time and I really want it to be something she will enjoy. As you can see from the linked post above, I figured out the colors and style of it pretty early on, but it took a while to figure out the pattern and ultimately how many squares I needed for it.

It is going to be 8 squares by 11 squares and quite soft. Today I finished the 88th square and decided to lay it all out on the floor according to the pattern I had picked to get an idea of the look of it. I spaced the squares out a bit because I am planning to connect the squares using the same white that 6 of the squares are made of so the light colored carpet was a good way for me to get a feel for the complete look.

First two squares connected

Once I got all the squares laid out, I was able to stack them according to their rows, so I can start connecting them together. I am using this method to connect them. It is the same method I used to connect the squares in the baby blanket I made 18 months ago for one of my other nieces. I liked how it came out even if it doesn't lay completely flat and the squares look a bit staggered. I like the feel of it (more like one complete piece) and it is definitely less stiff at the junctions. I am hoping to go around the entire outside with a row once it is done in the same white color to finish it off evenly. It should be beautiful when completed.

At this point, I have started the tedious task of connecting all the squares in a particular row together in the order for the pattern...two at a time. Once I am done with all 11 rows, then I will connect the rows together in the right order. Lastly, comes the finishing outside edge.
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Four Years Ago on In My Words...Trying New Things

Making Progress

I am working on a lap blanket for my niece who is currently deployed to Afghanistan. I decided to do a granny square version and I don't have the exact layout of the four colors yet but at least have decided on the colors.

I am working on them a skein at a time, so I have more of the charcoal done at this point. I have about 50 squares done total so far. I only picked up the red this week, but have managed to knock out a few squares of it already. I think I will only being doing a few of the off-white squares as an accent, because I want to use the off-white as the one to connect all the squares when I am done, and maybe as the border as well.

I hope it comes out nice. I picked a soft yarn that I just love! I want to connect the squares like I did in the post I have linked below. I think it makes for a more flexible and finished looking blanket.
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Eighteen Months Ago on In My Words...Finished The Blanket

New Cards

Just wanted to share my new photo cards I got in the mail...since I am not currently in a position to make my cards from scratch, these photo cards give me the option to be creative with my own images in a way that is functional as well.
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Five Years Ago on In My Words...Snowflakes

Finished The Blanket

I finished the blanket that I have been working on for my oldest niece and her newborn son. I wanted to do another granny square blanket but wanted it to be different from the one I made last year for my girlfriend. So I did a little bit of research and found a new way to connect the squares. I am not sure I like how it staggers the squares a little bit but I definitely like it better than having to "sew" all the squares together like I have in the past.

This new method is kind of like creating a seam that mimics the granny square style. It doesn't lay completely flat, or at least it doesn't for me. I am sure if I do it a few more times, I will figure out a way that works for me. But overall, I have to say I am thrilled with how it turned out and it is definitely the biggest baby blanket I have made yet. I have it all boxed up to be sent to my niece tomorrow.
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Six Years Ago on In My Words...Comfort In A Bowl

Creating

So besides the two photo projects I am trying to stay on top of, I have made a few crocheted items this year. Right now, I am working on a baby blanket for my oldest niece who is due to have her second child soon. I finally have the squares done but I still need to put it together and border it. This is a quick preview of it. I took this shot while I was still working on squares and trying to get an idea of how many I needed and how I might lay them out...

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Six Years Ago on In My Words...Yellow Seedless Watermelon

Picture Projects

I am supposed to be posting in two different picture projects, one is once a week and the other is once a month. I missed most of March for both of them due to having too many other things going on. I am trying to be better this month.

The weekly one has a deadline of midnight on Friday and I don't know why, but I keep forgetting until Sat morning (like today). All week, I have known the theme for the week and took lots of pics but just didn't get one edited and uploaded...grr.

This coming week's theme is furry friends...funny because I have been taking a lot of shots of Chase, and I have some geocaching plans this weekend so we'll see what I come up with there too.

The monthly project has a theme of inspiration so I will have to come up with something...but at least I will have some time on this one. I am doing a 5K next Saturday so perhaps that will "inspire" me to find something...

The whole idea of both of these projects was just to get me shooting again. I have been a bit down (understatement of the year) and not interested in much of anything and this is supposed to be motivating me to take pics and see beauty in things. And I am motivated, I take tons of pictures, just not always the right "theme".

Speaking of pictures, I just uploaded 4 of my favorites for the month to York so I could order cards. I am amazed at how much greeting cards at the store, cost these days (I usually make my own), but I don't have any of my card stuff here, so creating them and ordering them from York saves me some money and lets me be a bit creative. I ordered 4 sets, 1 set for bday cards and 1 set for Mother's Day cards...so some of you will get to see them sooner than others. The other two sets will just be for correspondence or perhaps Father's Day cards. It is saving me some bucks doing it this way and I am excited to see how they look in real life.

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Two Years Ago on In My Words...Card Making and Socializing

Gettting Creative

A few weeks back, I had volunteered to make invitations for an event. I unfortunately wasn't able to attend but I heard it was a great time and I got a lot of compliments on the invites. They really weren't that hard...most of it was stamping the bamboo and assembly...the template for the printing part was given to me by a friend and I only had to tweak it a bit to get it work with my stamp set.

Anyhow, I had said I would post a pic of the finished product and I never did get around to it...so here it is in all is glory...heehee!!

Note that I had to smudge out the personal contact info the host...the real deal didn't have the smudged section.

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Four Years Ago on In My Words...Happy Birthday Grandpa This is cool since we are four years later and he just celebrated another one!!!

Feeling Good

Sometimes, just the act of doing something for someone else can make you feel awesome....and for me, if that act also allows me to be creative as well, that is just an double bonus.

I couldn't post this earlier because I hadn't given it to the recipient until recently but now she has it and I can show everyone what the "secret project" was...I had a ton of fun making it, and get some to sign it secretly...especially knowing how much JMMD was going to love it!!

And she did!!

This is a little photo album that I purchased at the 100 yen store. It started out plain brown but I covered it in washi paper, and made the pages with the images, quotes and sayings on them with plenty of room for people to sign. The images are from JMMD's time here in Japan and hopefully shows her how much we all love her and how much of an impact her volunteerism and determination has accomplished.

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Five Years Ago on In My Words...Dishonest Practices

Ikebana Lesson #4-Variation #1- Upright

Okay, so now that I have the basic upright and slanting down, it is time to start moving into the variations.

Once again the measurments for this arrangement are the same as those for the basic upright, length of suiban plus depth of suiban times 2 is the Heaven. Earth is 2/3 of Heaven and Mankind is 1/2 of Heaven. Supplemental flowers are 1/2 of their respective main counterparts.

In this case, the kenzan (frog) is centered in the suiban (shallow container) regardless of season. The Heaven, Earth and Mankind Main are set up in a triangle in the kenzan with Mankind being centered in the kenzan and forward. The supplemental flowers are then triangulated inside the Main's triangle.

In this one, we used a reddish Enkianthus, and yellow Chrysanthemum. Both lasted forever and came out looking really cool.

Now for the angles...the Heaven is set at 20 degrees Left Shoulder Forward (LSF), the Earth is set at 45 degrees Right Shoulder Forward (RSF) and the Mankind is set at 60 degrees Center Forward (CF). The supplements are inside of those angles.

We were taught a few tricks of the trade during this class as well.

If you are going to be placing items that have too narrow of stems to really sit in the kenzan as they should, you can cut a 1 inch piece off the end of a mum stem and slide the narrow stemmed plant into it as an anchor.

The water will still get absorbed.

All flowers should face upright towards the sun when placed in the arrangement.

Woody stemmed plants can be cut at an angle but the fleshy stemmed plants should always be cut straight across the stem.

Tape can be used around bunches of stems or just around one to strengthen them up.

This was a big arrangement and took some finagling to get in the backseat of the car for the trip home.

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Two Years Ago on In My Words...Chatan Summer Carnival