Black Widow iPhone/iPod Cozy, another chrisandyaya creation

Arachnophobia or arachnephobia (from the Greek: ἀράχνη, aráchnē, "spider" and φόβος, phóbos, "fear") is a specific phobia, the fear of spiders and other arachnids.  

The best way to cure this phobia is to become comfortable with being around spiders.  In order to help you with this... 

Meet Kat the Black Widow Spider iphone cozy. She is deadly but only if you marry her.  She is Alexandra's new addition to her iPhone/iPod  cozy collection and its just in time for Halloween.  

Go on over to ChrisandYaya and get yourself this new creation for your iphone.

 

Candy corn goodie bag and booties... it must be fall

Candy corn is my all time favorite candy well besides the really bad for you circus peanuts.  When I was little my mom would tell us to throw away any unwrapped candy from my trick or treat bag.  I would secretly eat all the unwrapped candy corns and then spend the night thinking that any minute now I was going to die. I still eat my candy corns one color at a time.

If you love it as much as I do then you may like my latest projects.  I put aside my pile of finished but not yet tested crochet patterns as well as my guilt, to work on these in time for fall.

These booties are so comfy that Olivia did not take them off for pretty much the entire day.  She did forget about them while I was washing them but once she saw them it candy corn shoe love all over again.

It is hard to tell from the pictures but I designed these booties to be shaped just like the real thing.  These are worked from Lily cotton yarn and with one ball of each color you could easily make about 4 pairs or a pair of booties and this candy corn goodie bag which I first made for my Livie and then decided to make the pattern to offer in m Etsy store along with the pattern for the booties.

This goodie bag is super easy to work up and it can fit quite a bit of loot.  The handles are soft enough for your little one to carry on their own (until you become the designated candy holder). 

Here is a picture of it laying flat and a special offer only for my blog readers... Buy one pattern and receive the other for $1.  Shhh its our secret but you must remember to mention my blog in the checkout and I will refund the difference through paypal right away.

And after a few days of being her favorite shoes they are looking a teeny bit fuzzy but still good.

What's your favorite fall candy?

Happy Fall everyone

A Shark IPhone cozy and a proud mother moment

I have never met a craft I didn't like. Coming from a home where I was not taught to be creative, I definitely wanted my children to be creative in any way they showed interest in.  So far most of my children are involved in some sort of craft.


Today my oldest daughter handed this super cute knitted Iphone cozy, even though its not crocheted!  I have already told her that I want one, hopefully she will make me one.

If you would like one, you can get it at her store here at chrisandyaya on Etsy.

Toadstool hats, mushroom pendants and toadstool slippers...cute!

These crochet projects came from Olivia's first birthday party.  I wanted to do a Waldorf, woodland fairy party theme and so I spent a few weeks writing and re-writing crochet patterns to fit.  I love it when I can think of something and create the pattern without too many headaches.  These patterns came really easy although some of them are being tweaked as we speak.

I saw a toadstool hat in the winter edition of Living Crafts magazine (my favorite magazine right now) sewn from wool felt and I thought I could come up with a crochet version.  The pattern is being tested at the moment and then will be available at my Etsy store, crunchycrochet.


This tiny mushroom pendant works up really fast and makes a really cute party gift.  I am probably going to offer this one as a gift with any crochet pattern purchase.

And last but not least, some toadstool shoesies to go with the toadstool hat.  I am still working on this pattern to make it perfect so hopefully it won't be too long until it is ready for Etsy also.  I had to take these slippers apart because I forgot to stuff the shroom and it went flat as you can see.

I have so many projects I have done in the past months and just have not had time to post but I promise to update more regularly.

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

I just thought I would come out of my dungeon to blog a little (sorry, I have been locked away making dozens of Christmas presents for our 8 children and loads of friends and family, I promise to get back to posting my projects soon).


I know this girl from my wool soakers group and and love her idea of recycling wool sweaters so I thought I would share about her blog here.  She post really cool ideas for using up those recycled wool sweaters.


She has occasional, really cool give aways so go check her out.

Handmade Christmas 2009 Challenge

Starting this Saturday, November 14th, I will be starting a 30 day Christmas Challenge.  For all the details head on over to Crunchy Catholic Momma.  Crochet related ideas will be posted here but for all the other great ideas you will have to go crunchy catholic momma.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, to take the pledge to have a handmade Christmas this year by giving those on our Christmas list a handmade gift.  

Here are the rules:  

1. Gifts must be handmade by you, or,

2. Purchased from someone else who handmade it, check out Etsy or Artfire, go to a craft fair, or, 

3. Upcycled items such as thrift store, antique store or garage sale treasures.  If this one is alarming to you maybe you should think about what it really costs to make something new, the energy to make it, ship it, house it and how buying something pre-loved is using a resource which has already made its impact.  My brother asked me if buying someone a, basket counts, I said yes but buy a pre-owned basket, really could you really tell if you received a new basket or not and if it was new would that make it a better basket?  Think green. 

The point is to use your imagination  instead of buying all the mass produced stuff at the mall which every store is going to convince us we need and will make our Christmas this year perfect.  Shop at home first.  If you are a crafter, you have a stash.  Most of us crafters don't even know all the stuff that is in our stash so instead of heading over to the craft store, shop from your stash first.

If you have a blog and you leave me a comment with a link to a gift idea or better yet a tutorial on how to make the gift, I will post a link to your blog at crunchy catholic momma.  Please post your ideas or what you will be giving to your loved ones. 

If your idea, tutorial or pattern is about crochet it will be posted here as well as at crunchy catholic momma.

 I will be having a giveaway for this one (a really cute Christmas softie, or perhaps a Swiffer replacement duster and sweeper set from my etsy store) so please send in your ideas and I will have my 3 year old pick a winner from a hat. (Don't worry he is only a cheater if it benefits him)

I will of course be posting some of my ideas and projects to inspire all of you too. (hey most of my viewers are probably on my list so gotta keep it hush hush) 

Here is the pledge:

I, state your name, pledge to: 

To take a political stance against mass consumerism of Christmas


To give gifts that are unique, meaningful and full of love


To promote, encourage and celebrate hand-made  You may not have the time to make all your gifts but I know you will be out purchasing them.  Why not purchase a handmade gift from someone instead of somewhere.

Wooly Buns Diaper Soaker Pattern

Here is my newest baby.  This baby has been in the works for longer than my real baby and it has finally come to life.  The pattern is done and redone,  the pictures are taken, the Pdf has been created.  All I need now is a tester before it can be posted for sale.

This pattern has a nice drawstring, adjustable waist band with the cutest flower pulls, a crotch insert to stretch with baby and accomodate thicker prefolds or inserts for nighttime use, a very special insert in the back bottom portion to really fit babies bottom well and a cute delicate scallop edge.  This pattern comes with the directions for the oriental poppies design as well as direction to make them look more simple for a baby boy.

There is also a pattern for a flower I came up with which I call a bell flower (you can see it on the natural colored diaper baby Olivia is wearing in the previous post).

I would love to hear your comments on my project, good or bad (don't worry... I can take it)