The lion is finished!!!

The crocheted lion is finished!!! Woo-whoo! I finished him tonight and then we visited our new friend Cash (who is 5 days old today) and gave the lion to him! The lion is bigger than Cash is right now!

Yarn and buttons

Well, I'm trying to catch up on all of my projects! I bought more yarn to continue working on the mauvey wrap.

I've been keeping this project in this cute bag that my mother-in-law made for me!


I received an excellent package in the mail this week from Dava for the Shim and Sons Vintage Button Swap.
Look at all of these gorgeous buttons. Fabulous presentation too! This box has been sitting on my dining room table this week and friends who stop by have inspected each button like it is a little piece of art.

Dava is so sweet - in addition to the buttons, she sent "How to Crochet" ribbon!


No pictures, but the lion is coming along. The furry yellow/orange/brown yarn is working for the mane. I just need to make two feet, assemble and stuff. That's all! haha!

In addition to crocheting and swapping and my everyday life, I've finally gotten around to trying out my new oil paints and I plan to teach myself to screenprint this week!

Projects from the weekend

On Saturday, I received my second bunch of buttons from the swap-bot swap I participated in.



Ove the weekend, I continued working on the cranberry colored wrap that I've been crocheting for weeks and weeks (I guess that's what happens when you are in the midst of several projects!).



I also started to wind the cotton yarn that I bought from an Etsy seller. I'm having a lot of problems with tangling - especially since it is such a fine yarn.




I've hit a roadblock with the lion I've been trying to crochet. I've just been making him up as I go. I've finished his face, sweater, pants, and two paws. I haven't been able to find a good solution for his mane. But, this weekend as I walked up to AC Moore, they had a bin of clearance yarn on the sidewalk and I found some crazy furry yarn that just may work!

Hooked up

My honey hooked me up! Check out my new Costa Rican crochet hook! Dave won it for me on eBay. It was made by Arts In Crafts and came in a nice wood box with a bonus wooden ring that has a tag that says "Thank you". After waiting several weeks (it was mailed on March 1st and arrived today - I guess the Costa Rican postal service is pretty laid back), I'm pretty psyched and will have to see what I can try it out on tonight! ;o)

Coffee cozy from the Crochet Dude

I tried out a free pattern from the Crochet Dude for a coffee cozy with a flap that protects from splashes (because no matter how small the drink opening is, I always manage to splash. Here is the first one I made using his directions. It's a little frilly and the green frilly part at the top makes me think of lettuce!




Here is the second one I made, altering the directions to work with the yarn in my stash.

Weave-it loom

A while back my grandmother gave me a small loom that belonged to her mother.


Recently I saw an article on looms like this on the Craftzine blog. So this weekend I decided to try out the loom. Here's a picture of my first woven square made on the loom:


It's kind of fun! Actually I got a little carried away with weaving and crocheting this weekend! Here's a picture of some things that were started as of Friday:



I didn't work on the lion (the yellow animal face) this weekend, but I did work on those squares:


Today's a snow day for me... who knows what else I might finish by the end of the day!