Guest Post | DIY Valentine's Garland

One of my very best friends has finally written a guest post for me! I have bugged her about this for months and she finally took a moment from her extremely busy life to put one together and it's wonderful! She is such a creative person and comes up with some really cute ideas. This post was originally supposed to be for Valentine's Day, but seeing as I have not been online hardly at all since having Little Man I missed the opportunity to schedule it before then. It was too cute to pass up though, so I'm sharing it with you now!

DIY Valentine's Garland

Hello everyone! I'm Kora from over at Eclectic Darling! Helen is one of my very best friends and I'm so thrilled to be able to do a guest post on her blog! Today, I'll be showing you how to do a super cute and easy Valentine's garland that is made with tassels and crochet hearts. This is my first ever DIY post so I'm excited to see how it turns out!

What you'll need:

-Yarn of choice (Pink or red work great with Valentine's Day.)

-Crochet hook

-Scissors

-Yarn needle

-Material (I used a floral I found around the house.)

-String (Or you can use the yarn. This is to tie the tassels with.)

-Ribbon or Lace of choice (I found my lace in a little container at Walmart for a buck!)

If you do not know how to make a crochet heart, no worries! I didn't either until I watched the youtube video below. I watched it a few times to make sure I had it right. Once you get it down, it is so very easy!

Simple right? I have been on a "heart making" kick since. I made an abundance of them, but for this project I only used 8 pink hearts. Once those are made, you can move on to the next step!

Cut the fabric into strips. Fold the strips in half to decide how long you want your tassel to be and cut them to that length. I used about 5 strips of the fabric per tassel but you can use however many you want depending on how full you want the finished product to be.

Tie the strips together in the middle with your string (or yarn) and fold in half. Then tie another piece of string around all the fabric an inch or so down from the top. Now that you've tied it all together you're ready to snip the fabric into smaller strips to create the fringe. Just cut them to whatever width you desire. It does not have to be perfect! That's the beauty of this project. Once all your tassels are done, you're ready to move on! I used 5 for this project.

Tie string through the middle of each heart so they look like ornaments. This will make putting them on the garland so much easier. Since that's done, you are ready to start assembling! Hurray! Thread your lace or ribbon through the yarn needle and start putting them on. I did a tassel first, then two hearts, and repeated till everything was on.

And now, your finished Valentine's garland!

Isn't it cute?! The great thing about this garland making thing is that you can do whatever pattern you want! You could do all hearts or even add little (non-dangerous) arrows. All the sticks outside were wet from snow so as soon as it dries, that is my next garland. I thought this project was so fun and can be used for other things than just Valentine's Day. In the house, at a wedding, a little girl's birthday party... the possibilities are endless! This one is going up in my room for year round. Hope you all enjoy this little DIY. I have certainly loved sharing it with you!

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Wednesday's Adorned From Above #84

Fall Bucket List | Crochet Purple Popcorn Scarf

This scarf is one I finished up last week one day while I was laying in bed. I found it almost finished in the bottom of my yarn box and was quite pleased it was so close to being finihsed! It is made of beautifully soft yarn which is a deep purple color. I am seriously in love with it and am so glad to have it finished!

For this scarf I did the basic chain stitch to get the row started and then I did double crochet with the popcorn stitch every two rows. I think it turned out very nice and would definitely use this 'pattern' (if you could call it that lol) again!!

I really couldn't say how long it took me to make this, but I'm sure you could whip one up in about three days if you worked on it consistently. I purchased the yarn from WalMart. I do believe it is the Simply Soft brand, but I don't have any of the papers that come around the yarn right now so that's just my best guess. That is a wonderful brand for making scarves or baby items!

When I had this scarf on without wrapping it around my neck it reached the waistband of my skirt on both sides of the scarf...so one roll of yarn went a really long way! I think I did 20 double crochet stitches so that would be 21 chain stitches to get you started. To make the popcorn stitch you would do 5 double crochet stitches into the same hole. Then take your needle out of the hoop from the last double crochet and put it back into the top part of the first double crochet in the same hole. Pull the hoop through that and then continue to double crochet until you come to the next place where a popcorn stitch is needed! It's a super easy scarf and I would definitely say one worth giving as a Christmas gift too!

Related Posts: My Fall Bucket List.

Black Friday Shopping?

So after my little rant post about being Anti-Black Friday you are probably surprised to see that I was out on Black Friday...well, I was out, but it was at 11:45 a.m. and I was with Autry who had a desperate need to cash his check...I'm not really sure why. Anyway, since we were already at WalMart and it wasn't crazy busy he asked if I minded if we looked around to see what the 'leftovers' were. I didn't mind so we looked around. There was actually quite a bit of interesting things, mostly stuff I'd never use in a million years, but still...stuff I would've thought to be gone by that time of day.

We were strolling along the back of the store and he stops all of a sudden and says, "go ahead and pick you some." I had no clue what he was talking about...until I saw a WHOLE BIN of huge rolls of yarn for only $4!!! Usually the 10 oz. rolls are about $6 and the 14 oz. rolls are $8 so this was a pretty good deal...especially considering that there was a huge amount of the green camo which is the color I've needed to finish up the blanket I've been working on since May.



The rolls on the left are 14 oz. the rolls on the right are 10 oz. The green camo and black yarn will be used on Autry's blanket, and the white yarn I'm not quite sure what I'm using it for yet, but knowing me I will come up with something!!

So, now you see that yes, I did end up shopping on Black Friday, but it was quite by mistake, and I did not have to fight anyone for anything or get up ridiculously early, or anything crazy like that. Now that is what I call a great deal!

Since we were out and about and I had a voucher from where I had to take a few things back to the thrift store a few weeks ago Autry & I also stopped at Goodwill. I made a few nice discoveries there as well...not on sale of course, but I figured I'd go ahead and share them instead of making you wait a few weeks:

Purple silk rose petals. $1.
Although my wedding colors are navy blue, my sister's wedding colors are deep purple...she probably won't be getting married for a while, but she was glad I found these. :)

Beautiful ribbon. $.050 cents.
Grandma Karon said that the cut outs in this ribbon are so you can thread a different color ribbon through it.

My favorite find from today: a handmade plate. It's really heavy and beautiful! $1.

On the back of the plate it says something-land mold "Sally, 1979."

Other than spending about an hour out of the house I spent the rest of the day enjoying leftover food from yesterday's feast and I edited more photos. Oh yes! I also helped do a few things over at Eclectic Darling! Quite the busy, but nice day today. :)

My Keepsake Box | Old Crafts

Yesterday and today I've spent most of my day going through all of my boxes of things for my future home...today I got to my keepsakes. I decided to take pictures so I could share the things on here, but then I decided to split the things up into several different posts since there was SO much in there lol. Right now I'm going to share with you some of the very first craft projects I ever made/did.

One of my very first attempts at crochet. I was probably 10.

I think I've come a very long way since I first took up this hobby. I couldn't even get this piece to stretch out enough so you could see the design that it's 'supposed' to have. I'm not sure why I keep it, but I do. Yesterday I shared the Warm Brown Double Crochet Rug which is one of my latest almost complete crochet projects. I absolutely adore crochet items and love yarn! It is always on my birthday and Christmas list each year! :)

My very first attempt at cross stitch. The blue dolphin was first and then the purple bear was after that. I'm not sure how old I was when I did these.

My aunt always told me that the back of a cross stitch should look as beautiful as the front...she said that for my first one(s) these really don't look very bad. Now they look almost perfect!

Here is another hobby which I still use. I actually have several pieces in the works for my future home...one of which you can see in this post which I wrote back in September: My September Goals. I have yet to finish the project which is in that post, but you can obviously tell I still love this hobby!

One of the first bag/purse(s) that I made.

An inside view. Sorry it's so white...I couldn't get the camera flash to do any better.

One of the very first bags or 'purses' I made. I used to love making these...and as you can tell I had no clue how to put the handles on properly...and I also didn't know anything about raw edges. But I still love this fabric combination! :)

This is either my first or second quilt. I can't remember for sure.

A very messy whip stitch job on the edging.
I used light pink yarn to tack the pieces together.

This was such a fun quilt to make! I really liked having each square with different patterns in them. I think I will have to take a few more photos so I can do a bit more of a detailed post later on! :) I really do love the colors though. It's a really small quilt. I didn't have a lot of the purple fabric so I just used what I had and stopped making squares when I ran out. I really enjoy making quilts and really wish they weren't so time consuming!!

My Home Decor | Warm Brown Double Crochet Circle Rug

Hopefully I'll be able to make this rug a bit bigger. This is how big it turned out with just 7oz. of yarn.
Measuring across the very center it is about 24 1/2 inches wide already! I can't wait to add the second round of yarn to it!!

Two days ago I dug a 7oz. roll of what I've considered to be 'ugly' yarn from my yarn box and started on rug making. This yarn has been in my collection for who knows how long and I've just not used it because I've always thought it was ugly and had no clue what to do with it...well, thanks to Pinterest, I had decided to make a few Crochet rugs for my future home...and out came the Warm Brown yarn (that's the name on the label by the way). I wasn't sure I'd like it until yesterday when the crochet was starting to look like a rug. Now I absolutely LOVE the colors and really hope that I can find another roll of this so I can make the rug just a bit bigger since it looks like a miniature rug next to my loveseat...which is where I plan to put it in my future home (yes I already have the loveseat too!).

Here is a closer view on the stitch work. Mostly double crochet except for the very center.

Being the only basic crochet stitch person that I am I just did a few chain stitches, connected the chain together to make a tiny hoop. Filled the hoop in by doing double crochet stitches until the hoop was completely full, then I expanded the ring and kept working my way up and out from there. I really couldn't tell you how exactly I made this. Only that it was a complete experiment and that I'm very impressed with myself that it turned out so well!

P.S. I've added the new topic MyHomeDecor so be sure to check that out!! I'll be going back through older posts and sticking that label on everything that applies so you can see it all in one place for once! :)

P.S.S. I will be starting a new Homemaking 101 series which will be starting either this Friday or the next...not quite sure yet! More details to come soon! This is where I'll be sharing tips and ideas I have for starting a home frugally and easily...and I'll also be sharing a lot of DIY's!!

Fall Scarf Project Attempt 1

If you have been following my blog for the last month you know about my Fall Bucket List for this year, if not you should check it out!! #5 on that list is to crochet a new scarf... I love to crochet! Last week I shared this post where I had started the scarf project. Well, I got the scarf 'done'....but it was too small...so I took it all out and now in the process of making the scarf all over again...same pattern and all, just not as wide.

Here is what it looked like once I got it finished a few days ago:



Yeah, not really long enough for me...



Here is a close up of the detail work. I did double crochet stitch and along both edges I skipped a stitch every other row in the third stitch...hopefully that makes sense to those of you who crochet. This was 40 double crochet stitches wide. Taking it out I am now doing this same pattern, only 20 stitches wide.

I have the scarf started for the second time. It's about half way finished! I do hope that this time I'll be able to wear it like it is!! I love the color and the texture! This yarn is so, so soft! :)

Fall Scarf Project Started!

Yesterday I was laying in bed next to my brother (we were both feeling bad, he had a fever) and we were about to watch a kid movie when I decided to go through my yarn box and find some yarn to start on my scarf project. Earlier this month I compiled a Fall Bucket List and #5 on that list is Crochet a new scarf! I have TONS of yarn so all I had to do was pick the color I wanted to use and get busy!

This is Carron Simply Soft in Grey Heather which I got at WalMart.

I've already got the scarf started. It's going to be a basic double crochet, with a skipped stitch every other row at the very end on each edge and then when I finish it I'll add fringe to the ends! Can't wait to get it done! I don't really have a lot of warm scarves. I have a lot of scarves, but they aren't going to be as warm as this one!!