basket weave?

So I recently finished a scarf that i started a while ago..shocker...but anywho, i wanted something a little different but not hard so i made up a pattern that i think looks like a basket weave? maybe.  

Here it is: 

Cast on 24 stitches
Knit row 1 
Knit 4 purl 4, repeat until the end of the row for five rows
Knit 2 purl 2 for five rows
Purl 4 knit 4 for five rows
Purl 2 knit 2 for five rows
Repeat the sequence until you have your desired length, and then knit the last row before casting off. 

In progress: 

and complete, ta-da!

stay warm during this arctic vortex!

xoxo

crafty cocktails?

Ashley and I assumed that when we moved in together we would have crafternoon after crafternoon. Sadly, the first few months have been a busy time with lots of travel for the both of us, so we have been under our craft quota. But we were able to have a few, including an afternoon making earrings, and drinking a few cocktails too.

We started with Bloody Mary's made with Tabasco mix plus original tabasco, tabasco spicy worcestershire sauce, and celery. Delicious.

Then we started crafting, making some earrings. 

You just need some clay, craft paint, super glue, and earrings from the jewelry making section of the store plus the odds and ends of a knife and paint brushes 

It's pretty straightforward actually.  Just take some clay and shape it into your desired shape, then bake following the package directions 

 Then painted them as you like; we used craft acrylic paint and gold leaf.  

And we moved on to cocktail #2: Summertime? Madness

 After the paint dried, we used super glue to attach the earring backs.  We also tried a hot glue gun and liquid cement, but good old fashioned super glue worked the best

 Ta-Da! 

(plus a bead for a necklace on the right)

 I also put some gold leaf on one of the pumpkins because, why not??

The earrings are a great afternoon project - straightforward with lots of down time.  Ashley and I often make the mistake of taking on more than we can accomplish in an afternoon.  We are just too darn excited to craft when we finally get to! 

On a side note, we also recently had a sewing adventure night where we tackled a lot of odds and ends.  Though I don't have any pictures from the night, we made/repaired/redid 2 pillows, 2 skirts, 2 pairs of jeans, and 2 dog travel beds. amazing!

xoxo

random monday

what's that? 

i know, you are missing some spoon action after last week's awesome props from the fluffpo.

never fear, here is a picture of him being such a little spoon:

or are you disappointed by sunday's game results?  

either way, a couple more random goodies to brighten your monday, or mine at least:

i was gifted this adorable tote bag that basically explains my essence, courtesy of marissa and casi!

and the bulletin board in our office, updated decorations courtesy of evan johnson. ridiculous

hope your monday isn't too blue!

xoxo

bowtastic, in progress

Ashbash and I are quite behind on our crafting, to no one's surprise I'm sure. But we made some progress last week after classes finished. We started on some of the long list of bows we want to craft by addressing some simple hair pins and lapel pins.

They are simple enough to make: take a strip of fabric and loop it around to form closed sides, bring the end of the strip back to the middle, and then take the tail and wrap it around the middle and tie it through itself.  We slide the pins in between the back flap.  You can basically make these by tying a bow any way you like, we made a few types but these big ones were our favorites: 

 

   Alex                                                            Ashley

xoxo

bow ties for all

It started as a semi-joke.  

Jonathan asked for a bow tie with his face on it. To teach in of course. Yeah. 

So when I told him I was seriously making him a bow tie, he changed his tune and requested a plaid.

He picked a nice blue-green fabric but it just so happened I had some left over denim from our jort making experience, so I decided to take on two bow ties. hmm...

I used the pattern from lovely Martha. 

I printed and cut out the pattern. (Pretty simple so far)

And then applied some interfacing to the plaid fabric. 

Cut out the pattern from the fabric.

I don't have a mini rotary cutter so I did the curves with scissors. 

 

Looking good so far, right?

Repeat with plaid.

 

Then the sewing started. I deviated from the instructions, because I wasn't quite sure how they expected me to pull the whole bow tie through a little slit.  

So I sewed the two sides together before joining the two ends. This worked fine. 

 

Flipped inside out:

And then poorly stitched the ends together. It looks a little funky but hey, it works.

Turns out, I'm awesome at tying a bow tie,

on myself. 

xoxo

scarf season, sort of.

Well, winter was certainly a bust this year, at least in North Carolina. But I think we all know I'm quite okay with this.  

It does however mean that I have not been wearing scarves as frequently, which is a shame. 

But that hasn't stopped me from making more for future use...

I decided on an infinity scarf, because, well, I'm partial to them.  I had some nice soft brown and picked up a chunky cream-colored yarn to go along, they both were sized for my US 10.5 needles. 

It's very simple, just a good ol' basic stitch through the whole brown yarn and then I added in the cream (which was a smaller roll). I cast off the end and then sewed the ends together, by hand. 

Before I did though, I twisted one end so I would actually have a mobius scarf as Casey thought this would be awesome (and it is).

The final product ready for one loop or two:

 

Now, I just need some weather worth wearing it in.

xoxo

rant/rave: bunny hop

Christine has an iphone. 

Christine has an iphone cover.

Christine's cover has bunny ears:

Seriously, how cute is this?

xoxo

bead party

Well before break, Ashbash and I crafted, duh.  

Ashley had seen these necklaces in an anthro ad that were basically painted wooden beads on string and she said, "hey, we can make that." So we did.

We stopped into Michaels to pick up the supplies, we ended up on the floor comparing paint colors. We had high hopes for the neon strawberry, but it didn't turn out too well - we couldn't get an even color on the beads, but we dealt with it. 

1. So basically - pick up some wooden beads, and some craft paint:

2. Paint some wooden beads:

3. Let those puppies dry and then string them on some ribbon. 

Ta-da!

So easy and fabulous.

xoxo

lions oh my!

On a recent trip to vegas we of course had to stop and see the MGM Lions. Because I love them, obvi.

aren't they so cute?

And then we got to see the trainers get in there and play with them. I died a little.

They were so playful yet mesmerizing. 

Now after a sold lion watching experience we stopped in the store to look at all the silly products and found the best of all lion themed merchandise: 

A child's stuffed animal lion that goes in a fuzzy backpack that can also be rolled. 

Seriously??

Unfortunately it was a little too small for me...

xoxo

preppy hipster

As mentioned previously, this semester of grad school has warranted the purchase of readers.

My mom got me this adorable pair for my birthday:

Yes, they are super hipster. 

But yes, they are Kate Spade, who I adore, obvi.

They are just generally lovely.

xoxo

Rant/Rave: Fall Fashion

A couple of weeks ago, it was a wonderfully crisp fall day. Ashbash and I walked into the office to notice we were matching from the waist down. 

Though the lighting is off her tights were a dark grey. I was rocking brown tights with grey leg warmers. Yup, of the knitted variety. And of course, we were both wearing awesome brown boots.

Love the fall. 

xoxo