Tuesday Reviews-Day: Crochet Animal Rugs

Tuesday Revews-Day

This is a sponsored post. I was provided a copy of the book for purpose of review. All opinions are my own and any mistakes are mine, too. Amazon affiliate links may be included.

I first learned to crochet when I was 7 or 8 years old while visiting family on the holidays. But all my grandmother taught me were granny squares. It wasn’t until I taught myself to knit almost 20 years later that crochet patterns started making sense.

Lately I’ve been splitting my time between knit and crochet projects, so when I was offered a copy of Crochet Animal Rugs  by Ira Rott for review, I was very interested. Even more so when I saw there was a monkey set included in the patterns!

I had so much fun working on the monkey rug and companion pillow. They kept my hands busy during Hurricane Michael and the three day power outage afterwards as well as while watching over Todd after his gall bladder removal the following week (October was a busy month for us). And thanks to the yarn-bombing project a couple years back I had almost all of the materials I needed to complete both the rug and the pillow in my craft stash (I didn’t have the right size hook, so I ordered a set that had L, M, and N hooks).

The patterns in the book are clearly written, well-illustrated, and quite fun, to boot! Because the rugs use three strands of yarn at a time, the individual pieces work up pretty quickly, so they definitely give you that instant gratification feeling that I love about crochet in general.

The pillow pattern only uses one strand of yarn and, yes, the base shape is slightly tedious to construct, but even that’s not so bad. I’m the girl who detests garter stitch in knitting because it’s so incredibly boring, so 25 rounds of single crochet isn’t going to get rave reviews from me, but the end result is worth it. I love the ruffle on the monkey pillow and the big and small bows were so fun and quick to crochet that I may need to make some to wear!

Of course, if the rugs and pillows (each animal set also comes with a third project–toy bags, security blankets, a stool cover, and a placemat, for example) are adorable in their normal scale, how much cuter would they be miniaturized?!

That would be very, in case there was any doubt! For the mini version of the panda rug, I used a single strand of lace-weight and sock yarns and 1/2.75mm steel hook. For the pillow I dropped down to crochet thread (No. 10) and a size 7/1.65mm steel hook. This scaled the finished projects down to roughly 1:3 scale, making it perfectly proportioned to 18″ dolls.

Not that this stops my 12″ dolls from enjoying the rug and pillow. The rug just takes up more floor space and the pillow becomes a big cushion–I don’t hear her complaining!

Working through these patterns I picked up some new skills (like popcorn stitch and crab stitch) as well as discovered useful gems in the form of the bows and even the star element from the panda–I can just see those stars worked up in metallic thread as ornaments (or even thin-gauge metal itself).

Sure, the projects in this book are intended for the joy of kids, but I’m a big kid at heart and I look forward to finding just the right spot for the monkey rug and pillow in my own home. I’ll also be set for any upcoming baby showers on the horizon!

Imagine That: Rinea Foil Cornucopia

In The Studio

Imagine teamed up with Rinea foil this month and I’m so glad they did. I’d heard of the lovely double-sided foiled papers but hadn’t had the chance to work with them, yet.

Since the foils are so pretty on both the front and the back, I wanted to do something that showed off that feature. What better than a 3-D bit of paper sculpture that also happens to work as a place card holder?

Above is a cleaner look at the pattern I drew out for the cornucopia. Each row is 1/2″ tall and the spine is 1/2″ wide. On the main piece, the spine is the part you cut up to, plus a separate spine for what will ultimately become the bottom of the cornucopia. After the first four rows, the spine and the “arms” (ribs?) shift over by 1/8″ each row to create a little bit of a curve or angle without having to crush or crunch the paper into shape.

Even though the process somewhat resembles trying to dress an octopus in a onesie at first, I promise these do come together quickly! And once you add a simple stamped and lettered place card inside, your table decorations are taken care of in no time.

Make sure to check out the Imagine blog for the video that goes with this project to see just how simple these cute cornucopia can be!

Hang out the Red, White, and Sparkly

In The Studio

Jokes about appliance holidays aside, today is Veterans Day–the day we are not-so-gently nudged to remember that freedom is not free and that we owe an immeasurable debt of gratitude to our military members, past and present, for their service to our country.

Thank you.

Over on the Helmar blog, today, I have my crafty send-up to patriotism in the form of my Starred and Spangled Banner:

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Head over to the Helmar Design Team blog and see how I made it (and how you can easily make one, too). For those of you who have the day off (I do not), enjoy the midweek break.

Not So Spooky Bathroom Mini-Makeover

Just for Fun

There’s one more room we decorated for Halloween that I haven’t shown you, yet!

If you watched my Boots, Boots, Boots Shopping Haul video, you saw the cute Halloween bathroom textiles I ordered from Kohl’s.

With such a small space to work with, adding decorations didn’t sound like a great idea. Instead, I replaced the items that would otherwise be there with seasonally appropriate awesomeness.

Yes, the shower curtain really does glow in the dark!

Slipping on a new shower curtain might be a tiny bit tedious, but I think it’s worth it to liven up the space a bit. And can I just give some kudos to my new DSLR that allowed me to actually get a picture of the glow in the dark shower curtain details?!

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That cute little spider soap dispenser sits so prettily on our narrow sink ledge and also glows in the dark. Unfortunately it’s slightly more pretty than functional–more soap comes out of the neck of the bottle than the dispenser tip! Next year it’ll probably be relegated to a pretty shelf decoration (unless I figure out a way to fix the seal on the cap!).

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As much as I’m not a fan of spiders in real life, they seem to be a natural fit for Halloween–same with the bats. We already had the bat hand towels from a previous year (and some are carrying little spiders through the air), but I think they go pretty well with the new curtain and mats.

This was such a simple way to dress up a small room for the holiday, I’m tempted to keep doing it. I’m not sure there’s a lot of call for Thanksgiving shower curtains, but I’m sure I can find some for Christmas!

Have you ever (or would you ever) swapped the everyday bathroom bits for seasonal ones?

Extreme Halloween Makeover: Hallway Edition

Everyday Adventures

This post is part of any ongoing promotion with Oriental Trading Company. All photos, projects, and opinions are my own.

There are folks out there who turn their home, garages, or yards into haunted houses. Or who sync up running lights to music and put on a real show for the neighborhood (something Todd totally wants to do for Christmas, one day, by the way). This year, I think we’ve stumbled into that territory.

Aside from the outside decor, which anyone passing by can see, the entry way of the home is probably the place you get the most bang for your decorating buck. Trick-or-treaters see it, anyone else who comes to your door sees it, and it’s the first thing guests see when they enter your home for a visit or party. If you have a foyer, vestibule, or entry hall, it’s probably not a massive space, so it’s easier to do some high-impact decorating in this space.

Greetings of the season for sure!

Greetings of the season for sure!

That’s not a scene-setter, folks, that’s a mural I painted onto our entryway wall over the last few weeks.

A few weeks ago I was somewhat bored and restless, and sometimes that translates to a cleaning spree. There was a piece of torn wallpaper in our entryway so I decided I was just going to removed the lifted, damaged bit, just so it wasn’t hanging around being obvious, and we could go back to ignoring the 20+ year old wallpaper that we will eventually be replacing. To my surprise, though, the entire sheet came up with just a little tug.

And a little later I ended up with an expanse of white wall up the first half of our staircase.

Oops?

The white wall irritated me–it was so plain! It highlighted that we haven’t hung things on the wall. It mocked me.

So I gave it a temporary makeover for the holidays!

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A better view of our mural

While there are some more details I want to add (blades of grass, more detailing on the tree), I’m happy with where it is for now and can move onto decorating the rest of our entryway in our customary fashion.

The first focus is the staircase–I cannot tell you how much I love having a banister to decorate for the holidays! I have fond memories of my grandmother’s house at Christmas with stockings for the extended family lining the banister and it’s always been the epitome of holidays to me. Porch railings just aren’t the same, I’ve learned over the years!

A festooned banister makes my heart happy!

A festooned banister makes my heart happy!

Long-time readers might recognize the candy corn garland from several years (and 2 houses) ago as well as last year’s hand-stamped skull ribbon tucked in along with the tatty creepy cloth and black drapey fabric. The paper mache pumpkin is from Marshalls (several years back) and sits in the hollow created by a missing spindle.

Chandeliers need spooking too!

Chandeliers need spooking too!

More of the creepy cloth drapes the arms of our entryway light fixture. The flame-shaped bulbs and drippy-looking candle cover sleeves (the official name, apparently, for the plastic tubes that slip over the lamp bits) work especially well for Halloween, I think!

Of course, also on our stairs are two of our Oriental Trading Company scores.

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You can also see some of the rough nature of the mural painting–I tried not to get too precious with it, knowing that it’s temporary.

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The little rat silhouettes with their red crystal eyes work just perfectly on the stair treads and along the mural. I used about half the package here, so I have the other half to sprinkle elsewhere in the house, and the double-sided foam adhesive that came with them is super sticky (unlike a major lifestyle brand’s raven silhouettes I purchased several years ago that would never stick with the provided foam dots) and I have every confidence that they won’t scurry off elsewhere before the party in a few weeks.

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The glow-in-the-dark footstep clings were a little more of a challenge, but I figured it out. It could be (most likely is) the worn finish of our stair treads (all the wood flooring in the house needs to be refinished some day), but they weren’t automatically receptive to the clings. BUT! Knowing the trick about wetting suction cups to get them to adhere, I decided to swipe the step with a damp paper towel and that totally did the trick. We’ll see if I have to redo any of the spots, but so far, so good. And I kept them to the railing-side of the steps just in case any came loose–I didn’t want to create a hazard on our already treacherous staircase (it has a history… but that’s a story for another post!).

Of course, you want to know if they really glow, right?

Something phosphorescent this way creeps!

Something phosphorescent this way creeps!

They do! Granted, because we’d just set them out they hadn’t gathered enough light to glow very brightly, so to one you see here that’s really standing out is because Todd shined his flashlight on it for a few moments to “charge” the footprint. Pretty cool, right?

Across from the staircase (and between the doorways to the living and my office) we have our console table with our little Halloween village set-up and the motion-activated ghoul mirror.

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We’ve amassed quite a bit of the creepy cloth of various hues and use it liberally! It’s so inexpensive and can be used for a lot of things, but I will warn you–the darker versions tend not to be color-fast. My fingertips are usually grey by the time I finish messing with it, so be careful what it’s brushing up against.

jvanderbeek_halloween_2015_decorations-0287Our village is made up of a couple of tin houses (candles will flicker inside them for the party) and an animated Lemax pieces that features a costume contest in progress. Then smaller figures–a mix of craft store and dollar store finds–fill up the rest of the space.

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We still need to set up the photo-booth backdrop in the back corner of the entry (a post for next week), but these two areas in our entry hall pretty much set the stage for when guests come by.