Pins and Needles No. 1

My First All By Myself Skirt

I've grown up with the idea of wanting to sew, and I have somewhat.  I even turned a too-short dress into a skirt a couple of years ago and wear it all the time.  But this is the first time I've done one all by myself.  I cut out the pattern, pinned the pattern to the fabric, cut out the fabric, (crocheted for a little while since my sister-in-law was using the machine for her impressive no-pattern maxi), then I got to work.  How does one learn best?  Doing it themselves!

Do you like my fabric?  It was on sale at Hancock!  That's where the pattern came from, too.

If it went worse, I'd say they just threw me to the wolves, but it wasn't so bad, and didn't take very long either!  The worst part was working with the elastic in the waistband, but that wasn't too incredibly awful.

I hemmed it maybe two or three inches, and in my final product, I have a visible double hem (that's what I'm calling it anyway, and the skirt is totally great!  Quick explanation: I hemmed it the forst inch and a half or so, then turned it up and hemmed it again, just like with any other skirt. However, the stitches seemed a little high for comfort, in my eyes anyway, so I added a second set of stitches down even closer to the bottom to help the hem lay even flatter. 

Do you like it?  I will not wear it with this shirt, of course (at least it is gray!) but there are lots of other things to wear it with! I'm not so into incredibly casual t-shirts with skirts like this. 

It's been a productive day off of work, I'd say.

Quick Cotton Scarf

So, the other day I was untangling some white yarn, and my mother-in-law mentioned that I crochet well enough now to not have to use the super saver all the time.  At Walmart they have the little Peaches & Cream balls of yarn (much less yarn, but under $2) that are made out of...COTTON!  They don't really like to try to come apart on you, and I find that super nice.  I picked up three balls before work, and after I finished Kate the Hippo, I got to looking for scarf patterns, since I wasn't liking where doing a simple V-stitch was headed with the multi-colored yarns that I got.  I found one called the Draft Dodger Scarf from Cobbler's Cabin, and got right to work.

I used one ball of the Peaches & Cream (give or take a few inches), so that's about 120 yards, and it measures about 36 inches long, and took less than 24 hours to stitch together.  It's super simple, single crochet, double crochet, single crochet, double crochet... and it looks really pretty!  Check out the detail!

I have some more cotton, so I wonder what I'll be up to next in my tiny corner of the universe...

Our Hippo Family

Meet Charlie and Kate  

These two were basically love at first sight, or love at first snack! Aren't they just so incredibly cute together?

I used the Hungry, Hungry Hippo pattern again from Bitter Sweet, this time using the color Turqua from Red Heart Super Saver yarn that I got way back at my hometown Walmart for Kate's body (finally finished of a skien that has been in three different projects!) She has the other set of blue eyes that came in the bag I used on her husband.  The Hot Red yarn color makes an appearance again (from the other hippo) in Kate's super cute and tiny bow.  I found the pattern for the super simple bow at Cut Out + Keep.  I didn't give her any nostrils, but she's so adorable without them!

The turquoise photographs a lot better than the red, it seems.

I've also basically finished a couple of adorable scarves (they do need some blocking and simple finishing touches though) and I've discovered cotton yarn!  Therefore, there is another scarf in progress.  I love crochet! It's so fun!

My First Crochet Toy

The Hippo

Good morning, rest of the universe.  Did you know I (somewhat) crochet?  I decided today that I would finish the hot red hippo that I've been working on. (My husband likes hippos).  It only took a few days to complete.  It's crazy, since everything seems to take me forever...of course, I was doing my stitches incorrectly up until a few days ago.  I found the pattern via. Pinterest here at Bitter Sweet.  It's called Hungry, Hungry, Hippo, and mine looks like it might be starving.  I should have stuffed him more.  Oh well!  I used Red Heart Super Saver yarn in the Hot Red shade that I found on sale at my local Hobby Lobby for $1.79.  He also has blue eyes that I snatched up at Hobby Lobby for $0.99 for two pairs!

With my camera, he looks so incredibly red! At least, if I did my stitches incorrectly or inside-out, it's hard to see.  I guess I can't complain.  I promise he's not quite this bright, however he is a very, very bright red. 

Being a crochet novice, I found a couple of awesome tutorials on Youtube to help me out a bit with fastening off and joining together the pieces.  The first was for fastening off, closing, and weaving ends of amigurumi toys by NattypatCrochet.  Then, I needed help joining the pieces together and found this video by June from planetjune. 

I am so excited to have finished my first crochet toy, and it was actually super easy!  I'm excited to move on to something else!

Isn't he adorable??

The Ever So Fabulous Root Beer Chicken

Life is fun as a newly wed... especially when living with the in-laws for a little bit.  But that's okay; each of my siblings did it, too.  What's really awesome is having the continuing opportunity to learn some wonderful homemaking skills...(I'd like to call them my "wifey" skills).

As for my "wifey" skills ideas, they probably mostly come from Pinterest, but that's normal, isn't it??

Cooking Experiment: The Chicken

Today (starting with yesterday) I did a little experiment with cooking.  I found a recipe on the fabulous wonderful Pinterest for Marinated Root Beer Grilled Chicken from the Six Sisters' Stuff.  So, I struck a deal with my mother-in-law, and we agreed that I could do my little experiment for dinner. We had actually planned it for a few days before, but we were supposed to get bad weather, which would have (literally) dampened the grill. Whaddya know! It missed us, and we didn't get to have our chicken.

Anyway, back to yesterday.  I went to get started on this wonderfully simple little recipe, and it turned out that we didn't even have any root beer!  That was nothing that a quick run to the gas station for a can can't fix.  Then, nobody could find the apple cider vinegar, so the men went to the grocery store on the hunt.  Of course, I found some in plain sight before they got home, and the marinate was thrown together and in the fridge by the time they returned.  (Meanwhile, I had my first canning lesson with my mother-in-law canning chicken from the local butcher with her beloved Viola [that's her pressure cooker]. Maybe I should name mine once I get to using it.  It's still sealed in the box).

So the chicken should marinate anywhere from three hours to overnight, and we were planning for the minimum time so we could indulge before I had to leave for work.  Then, I got called in early, so it got to hang out in the refrigerator over night until after church today.  Since I had less than two hours before heading to work again, I changed into my work clothes, covered my white shirt, and let my wonderful husband grill the chicken. (He's the best!)

This is the amazing result that we ended up with.  It might be a slight understatement to say that it was a huge hit!! I think even someone who isn't a root beer fan would like it.  (Maybe I should have moved the in-laws' sodas before taking the picture.  Oh well.  It was fabulous!  What else can I say?

I guess this cooking "wifey" skill doesn't have to be so scary after all.  One piece of advice I was given as for cooking was just choosing the simple things.  They taste the greatest.

So that's my adventure in My Tiny Corner of the Universe today.

Blessings

So yesterday toward the end of my shift, I was offered the opportunity to switch my shift time from 3 to 9 to 9 to 3, and I really love going to church and find it very important, so I politely declined the time change.  I believe I was extremely blessed for my decision. I had the opportunity to give the opening prayer, everything touched my Spirit (I shed many happy tears today) and I didn't really realize how wonderful it was today until I was at work thinking to myself about how the day had gone.  I ended up getting off of work early today, too, so I got to come home and spend time with my darling husband.

So basically, today has been a very wonderful day; very peaceful with delicious chicken!