First Giveaway! Felted Easter Bunny Kit.

OK- so tomorrow officially starts Giveaway Week for my 1 year blogiversary. But, I thought I'd begin a little early and start the Sunday giveaway today! Everyday the 17th-23rd I'm going to be doing a giveaway that have something to do with my first year of blogging or are favorite materials I craft with on a regular basis.

I have to say I'm a little afraid about not getting any entries... my husband thinks I'm crazy for saying that... but it's true.

Last Easter I made these Felted Easter Bunnies (you can check out the post here if you're curious). I'll be making more bunnies this year too.

They were so much fun and are pretty easy to knit. If you are a fairly new knitter you can soooo do this- but even if you're an expert knitter they're still fun to make.

Want to make your own? I'm giving away the pattern, knitting needles, yarn (I picked a color I thought would be good for both boys and girls- a nice bright blue), yarn needles, and a pom-pom maker. Everything you need to make one rabbit- except for the eyes.

I didn't include eyes because I think the type you choose totally determines the character of the rabbit and I wanted the lucky winner to pick those on their own. The eyes can be anything from plastic

to buttons, embroidery or even needle felted!

There are three ways to enter:

1. Leave a comment telling me why you want to make one of these bunnies or who'd you make it for and you'll get one entry to win.

2. If you leave a comment and are already a follower or become a follower you'll get an additional entry (two entries total)

3. If you link to this post you'll also get an additional entry- please leave the link to your post in your comment so I can verify it.

That means if you leave a comment, are or become a follower and link to this post you have up to three chances to win!!!

This giveaway ends Sunday January 17th at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time and is open to international entries. I'll choose a winner with a random number generator.

Check back Monday for my next giveaway (hint: It's going to be something no crafter can do without) and to see if you've won the felted rabbit kit!

Good Luck and Thanks for entering!

Knitting by the wayside

I started this scarf a while back, with the intention of wearing it in February. It's a really pretty pink and a hopelessly soft cashmere.

I decided to use a slip garter stitch pattern, which is simple to do, it's just been frustrating with this yarn. When I made my first mistake and tried to reverse what I'd done I found that the process of knitting was actually felting this yarn a little bit- it was totally stuck to the stitches around it!

I started going extra slow to not make any mistakes and looking for blocks of time where I could concentrate on only the knitting. I had a business trip to NY and the train ride was perfect- it was then that I realized (in my black suit ready for a business meeting) that this yarn also shed excessively. Bright pink fluffy shedding.

Then I made a mistake and didn't realize it for 4 rows. It's been almost impossible to get the yarn back out so I've left it and haven't touched it for a while.

Now that it's getting close to Valentines Day I'm thinking of starting to knit on it again but...

I am nowhere near being done because I had to knit so slow and it's going to be a pain the get this mistake fixed. And it sheds- a lot. But it was an expensive yarn, and it's still impossibly soft and lovely.

I just don't know if it's worth finishing! Any thoughts?

And don't forget- Sunday starts my Blogiversary week of giveaways!!!!

Martha Glitter Project: Decorated Dog Collar

Yes, I am one of those people who puts things on my dog like holiday specific collars.

Halloween is my favorite holiday (check out my other blog for proof of that) so Lucy's got a Halloween collar. Then my mother bought her a Christmas one last year. It's something she got at a craft fair and has all sorts of cute Christmas things painted around it.

Since I saw that I've thought about trying to paint a few for Lucy myself. So this year I think she's is going to celebrate Valentines Day and St. Patrick's Day with some crafty collars.

For my first attempt- Valentines Day- I had pink, red, and white glittery hearts in mind- perfect project to try out the new glitter!

Lucy was also kind enough to model.

Still Cleaning.

OK so I know this might not be the most interesting post but the craft studio clean-up continues and I have to say this sight makes me giddy.

My amazing husband brought these drawers home and rescued an otherwise hopeless storage situation. By moving all my paper out from under the cabinets I have gained tons of new storage space. He also modified the drawers- they should have plastic tabs that keep them from sliding all the way out. By clipping those tabs off I can now grab a drawer and rummage through it for the paper I want at the counter. (He knows me so well.)

Now I have all my full sheets of paper separated by color, type of pattern (floral or geometric) and holiday/seasonal or metallic. I also have all my scrap paper separated and organized the same way.

Seriously I think I dreamt about these drawers last night. It had something to do with me, a paper store, all the paper organized by shades of color in these shelves, and a rolling library latter because they were stacked as high as you could see. (No I'm not a paper addict- I prefer the term aficionado).

I also cleaned under the dreaded island counter. Much neater now.

You'll notice I haven't posted a picture of the entire studio yet. That's because seriously, even after all this cleaning the rest of the place is still a total disaster. My husband says I've done the "hard 80%" and although it still looks messy what's left is the easy stuff... but I'm not sure he's taken a good look in every corner.

In between all this cleaning I did manage to play with a little glitter this weekend.

I'll have a glitter project to post later this week.