Free Stuff?

Oh, yeah...

I completely forgot that I am having a giveaway over on my facebook page!
It's an early giveaway, but I am hoping to drum up a little more traffic & business... As soon as we get to 50 facebook fans, every tag or share will get you one entry into a draw for a free custom crocheted hat or a t-shirt of your choice.

Head on over, "like" Crafty Concoction, and tag/share away!

Sharing some FO's

It's been a long while again... Moving really takes a toll on your time, eh? Well, that, and lack of internet at home for the first couple months...

I don't have a lot of time for explanation, but here are some FO's for you to love. Most of these are cel phone pictures, since we moved & I still haven't found my digicam...

Remember my batwing tuorial? http://craftyconcoction.blogspot.ca/2011/09/basic-childrens-bat-wing-tutorial.html

Well, we painted those wings, and I made a gargoyle costume for DS for halloween!

It was a huge success!! The belt & axe were purchased; the tail was made by me, detachable, the horns were made from air dry modeling clay (the really lightweight kids stuff) & the gray jumpsuit was made by using a shirt & pants of his to make a pattern, then stitched together. It has a couple buttons in the back.

A couch-arm organizer for my step-dad who lost both of his legs to diabetes & vascular disease. He is getting around in his wheelchair better now, but he was confined to a hospital bed in the living room for quite some time, and this made it much easier for him to keep his remote, the phone, a drink, his meds, etc close at hand. Both sides have two large pockets (big enough for magazines) and three smaller, elasticated pockets for phones, remotes, drinks, etc. It is backed in fleece, which creates a nice no-slip effect on my mom's couch fabric.

These shirts were made for a friend's daughters, who are 5 & 6. I have one that I made for the onesie swap, which Shaun now wears. The girls loved them, and refused to take them off for about 4 days, until their Mom said they had to take them off to wash them!

Hubby & I got a puppy, then another puppy about a month after. The first puppy is huge & fluffy, the second not so much. She was forever cold, so I used an old hoodie that I no longer wear & made her a sweater. Sadly, she was not a good fit for our family (she was biting DS & jumping) so a friend of ours is raising her in a child-free home, but she still has her sweater!

I have an adjustable dress form, whom I have named Dolly. I scored an awesome deal on her ($2 at a garage sale!) She is a little smaller than me maxed out (about 2" smaller in the waist, and we won't mention the bust difference) but I make do with a layer of padding and a bra. Well, a friend of mine is downsizing and getting ready to spend some time finding herself (maybe travelling?)

She was selling her dressform, which is the old cage style that is fully adjustable to ANY size!

I snapped that up! When I brought it home, I named her Jane, and then got DS to climb inside the cage, and made it to his size. Jane is usually to mid-hip on most women, but that was enough to make some legs...

Here she is as a creepy replica of my son with a foam head & some of his clothes:

Now Jane has a different outfit on - she is wearing DS's birthday suit for this weekend!

And last, but not least; DS turns 4 this weekend! He wanted a "Superhero" party, where all of his friends dress up as their favorit superheroes. For nearly 2 months he has requested to be Spiderman. Last Thursday I told him I didn't have time to make a Spiderman costume, and couldn't find one for sale anywhere. I asked him to wear his Spiderman jammies instead.

Well, he assured me that he never wanted to be Spiderman, and wanted to be Batman instead. Same dillema....

Until! I found a plastic batman mask for $5. I then re-used the jumper from his gargoyle costume that I made for halloween. I sewed & topstitched a quick belt out of an old t-shirt, and made a felt & jersey pin-on batman logo. A quick black jersey no-sew cape, and I have a cery happy little birthday boy! He was skeptical of everything I did, but loved the outcome of the old-school batman costume :)

Now, I have so much more to accomplish for his party this weekend, as I have tried to DIY a LOT of it. Plus, two swaps on the go over on Craftster, which I need to focus on. And studying for my MCQ in two weeks? Ugh!

All Quiet on the Western Front

Well, another Christmas has come...and gone.
For our family, Christmas is always insanity. Both my husband & I come from split families, so trying to ensure that we can spread our love to everyone, we end up over-booked & over-tired. we had 6 Christmas gatherings in 3 days, as well as one the week prior, and one the week after. This doesn't include our work Christmas gatherings.

To add to the mix, I was in a frenzy trying to complete all the orders I had for the holiday season. I managed, just. Between work, life & a 3-year old, well...you know...

AND, as a final topper, we are moving.
Yes, we have finally found a home for all of us. We are moving out of our tired, drab & oft-drafty little basement hole into a town house. Unfortunately, we are still renting, but at least we won't have to wonder if we will have hot water each day, or if there will be a flood in the middle of the night. No more light bulbs popping because there is water in the ceiling, no more crazy ripped & torn flooring to poke holes in our socks, and no more wearing winter coats inside!

I have had to stop taking orders, and tell a couple people that I simply do not have time to complete the projects they were hoping for, but this is really for the best.

Lastly, I took the money I received as gifts this Christmas and booked my MCQ, one of the two tests I have to complete to become a registered member of my chosen profession. I booked it for April, so I have time to move, get settled, and refresh on the two years of material that I seem to have forgotten since I left school.

There are LOTS of good things coming our way this year, I can just feel it!

Frustration

I don't think I'm meant to set up a shop here.

It has been nothing but issues.

I gave up on coding a separate page with HTML since my HTML is just too rusty to make sense of anything. I went into standard composition mode instead. I had everything written out, saved my draft & it disappeared.

I typed it up again, then went to set up a shopping cart on paypal. Every time I try to add a drop down menu to the button, I end up losing everything & having to start over.

Frustrated with paypal, I decided to try google checkout. Forget that, I can't even log in!

I came back here to just save the changes I had made, and when I published it, it disappeared again!

I think I will give up on my shop for a while, and maybe try again later.

Baby Santa Hats

I have made two of these for other people, so far.

They are super cute for baby's first Christmas ;)

Dinosaur Hat!

A couple years ago, I made DS a balaclava. It was red, and tied in the front, and had a mohawk, and was awesome. He loved it. So did lots of other people.

Anyways, I made the pattern available for free, but I'm really super glad that I wrote everything down, because it has come in handy again.

After two winters, and many washes, the mohawk portion of his old hat went from being a fluffy adorable mess to a matted nasty dead animal on top of his head. Not cool.

So, I decided to make him a new one!

I asked him which colours he wanted, as well as how he wanted it decorated. Not a mohawk this time, but a dinosaur.

I set to work with some blue yarn, and an idea. I worked the balaclava first, then crocheted 8 triangles & sewed them together, turned them inside out, stuffed them, and attached them along the top center. Two semi-domes, stuffed & attached, and lastly, two random trapezoid shapes attached for eyelids.

He loves it :)

Crescent Moon Shawl

As mentioned in the last post, I was part of the Givers & Needers swap on Craftster.

My other very generous giver also got a crocheted item - the Crescent Moon Shawl, which she had pinned on her pinterest.