Sunday, March 28, 2010

Giveaway coming soon...

I've decided that I want to have a special giveaway for my 60th fan on my facebook fan page =) As of right now The Longest Yarn has 49 fans.... as soon as it hits 60 fan's, I'll assign each fan a number and then randomly choose 1 name from a hat... that person will receive a special item that I will be making for the giveaway. I havent exactly decided what the item will be just yet, but as soon as I do I will post another blog announcing it. ;) I'm really excited!!! My blogoversary will be coming up soon too so that will be another giveaway too! To become a fan of The Longest Yarn on facebook, CLICK HERE!

Stay tuned for more info & psst pass it along! ;)

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Puppy Update

The puppies can see now :) They are 2 weeks and 2 days old now. They are playing a little and moving around more but havent gotten too active just yet. They are doing great. Such chunkies! LOL. I'm getting really attached to the little girl, and Tim and I are really considering keeping her. The two little guys will be up for adoption once they are old enough, at least thats the plan. I always get so attached to animals, especially puppies and kittens. I'm pretty protective of them as well so I am going to be pretty choosy when finding their new homes when the time comes. I'm just happy that they are all happy and healthy and that Honey is happy and healthy as well. She will be headed to the vet as soon as the pups are weaned to get spade. We should have done it a long time ago (especially since she is 6 years old) but we've had some tough times financially in the past, and its always hard with Tim's work schedule. Things are better though, and since Tim has his own vehicle for work, I can take her to the vet myself. So thats the plan as well. She's getting too old to have puppies, and I think 2 liters are enough.

I keep forgetting to mention the breed of the puppies, everyone keeps asking lol. Honey is a Shuh Tzu/Jack Russell Mix, and the father to these puppies name is Charlie, and he is a Jack Russell and Chihuahua mix.

Here's a picture of Honey =)





PSP Cozy

My hubby suggested that I make a cozy/sleeve for his PSP to protect it and so yesterday I put this one together. Its in Camo Redheart yarn, and I didnt use a pattern or anything. Its sort of just something I put together. He loves it though and says its perfect to keep it protected since they dont come with any kind of protective sleeve when you buy them. Sooo I am actually putting up this cozy/sleeve for sale on my shop. I can make them in any color choice! Its going to be fun making these, they crochet up quickly and are really cool/cute! Would love to hear your thoughts! Im super happy with my pics too! YAY! More to come...

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

More NEW crochet kitchen accessories

Tonight I added more items to the shop. I created this super thick potholder using SugarnCream 100% cotton yarn. I love the colors together! It feels very springy.. kinda of like pansies, dont you think? My bestie Ginger says it makes her think of royalty because of the yellows and purples. What do you think for the colors? I have to say I love making these because I love crocheting Tunisian style =) It was the first time I ever used the SugarnCream yarn. I liked it. The only thing that annoys me (and its not just with this specific yarn, but with others as well) is that the yarn stranges seperate easily and sometimes makes it hard to crochet because you miss some of the strands and have to stop and go back. Ah well, I'll live lol. its not that bad. =)



I also crocheted these super soft and absorbant dishcloths using the same brand yarn. I thought using matching solid colors would be neat for a set. I enjoy the ribbed style of them. They are pretty simple to crochet up actually, but well worth it.



The final item I added tonight was this cool plarn dish scrubbie. Plarn is short for Plastic Yarn. Its basically where you take plastic grocery bags, and cut them up and tie them togther. Then you just knit or crochet like you would with actual yarn. This is my own personal pattern actually. I just sort of sat down and created it. The inside of the pad is stuffed with plastic bags as well to make it thick like a sponge. The cool thing about these scrubbies is that it wont mildew and collect gross bacteria like a typical kitchen sponge! You can add a little bleach and toss this bad boy in the washer as many times as you need too. You dont have to worry about it falling apart or stinking! The plarn makes it sturdy, and gritty enough to remove even the toughest of food from your dishes, and is still safe enough to use on your teflon, stainless steel and even glassware! I really enjoyed making this and plan to make tons more! If interested in any of the items above, visit http://longestyarn.etsy.com/ for purchasing information. The Dish Scrubbies are on sale! $2 for 1 or 2 for $3!

Tomorrow I plan on working on a laptop cozy, and for my husband a PSP/Ipod Cozy. So stay tuned for that! I found out today that my brother, and sister-in-law are bringing my nephew/godson Adam up for my birthday which is also Easter weekend! I'm really excited too! I miss Adam like crazy every day and living this far away is hard when it comes to him! I cant wait to see them all again! It will be their very 1st visit to WV too! I'm sure they'll love it (at least I hope so!) For now though, I think I'm headed to bed, these late nights are killing me. I wish I could get my sleep schedule corrected. bleh!


Monday, March 22, 2010

48 hour crochet-a-thon

This past weekend CreateCrochet had a 48 hour crochet-a-thon! I would have loved to participate but was out of town visiting family for the weekend, so I missed it! =( Maybe next time though! There are some AWESOME items that were made however and I had to share, if you go to CreateCrochet's Blog You can view all of the items featured and even vote on your favorites in 4 categories... The categories are Spring/Easter, Bright/Bold, Whimsical, and Floral. I already voted, and anyone can vote in the polls. Voting last until Sunday, March 21st at 2 pm. Comment here and let me know what your favs are, I would love to hear!


Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Happy St. Patricks Day

Just wishing everyone a happy St. Patricks Day and share this beautiful music by Celtic Woman. I love this song & I think they perform it beautifully.

YouTube wouldn't let me embed the video but you can view it by clicking here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsCp5LG_zNE

May God give you...
For every storm, a rainbow,
For every tear, a smile,
For every care, a promise,
And a blessing in each trial.
For every problem life sends,
A faithful friend to share,
For every sigh, a sweet song,
And an answer for each prayer.




God bless!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Jazzy Stripes Potholder & Dishcloths

Remember that nifty yarn I blogged about earlier this week? Well I finally completed the potholder and the dishcloth set I was working on with the yarn! Isn't that yarn just awesome?! I love the stripes and the color combo's! The Potholder was the most fun to make, because the dishcloths are just more tedious, with having to make sure they are all the same size and everything. I really think that this set would be great for a younger adult, maybe a college student moving away from home or something. =) I listed both the potholder and the dishcloth set on etsy today. You can view these at http://longestyarn.etsy.com/ I hope to make some more color sets and such soon, but I think I'm going to take a break from them and focus on something new & different. I have an awesome pattern for a City brim hat that I want to try out... that maybe a project for this weekend since we are supposed to get rain. I did work on the photo's of my items a little. I still need to retake pictures of other items already listed but for these new listings I tried to be more creative and used a white backdrop so the colors and the items pop more. I swear it takes more time to update everything, take photos and list the items online than it does to actually make the items, sometimes its frustrating... and having dial up really doesnt help in matters.

I changed the layout of this blog because it was too heavy w/ graphics and hard to load. Maybe not for those with high speed but for me it was difficult and not everyone has high speed so I needed to dial it down. I like the background now, its simple but its me. Sunflowers have a special place in my heart.

On a personal note, I am going through some drama with the 'crazies' of my family. Its no mystery that me & my siblings had a tough childhood, and my mother kicked my father out b/c of his abuse when I was 12. He was terrible to us kids and my mom and it really hurt all of us. I havent heard from the man until a few weeks ago when he wanted me to add him to my facebook & myspace accounts. I, of course, declined him. I want no contact with him, period. All of my siblings feel exactly the same as well. I told him how I felt, I'm not really the type of person to hold back my feelings, at least not anymore. He didnt like what I had to say and said some mean things back to me, and I eventually ended up blocking him. Well his sister has decided to side with him and turn on me, she removed me from the social networks and emailed me a mean message. I responded back telling her how I felt about the entire situation and instead of her responding, or even ignoring me and moving on, she passed on the emails to her daughter, my cousin and she had to email me too! Well she basically threatened me, and that doesnt go over well with me... she lives across the country, am I supposed to be scared or something?! Whats the point of wasting that time & energy on emailing me something stupid like that! Well I finally just blocked them as well and I'm done with it. I dont need or want the drama, or anyone telling me to put that man in my life after 14 years and all the terrible things he did to us...... anyway, I had to vent a little there, ha!

Well hopefully I will have more to add later this weekend, btw the puppies and Honey are doing great. They are little pudgy adorable fluff balls :)
Have a great weekend all, if its raining, stay dry!



Tuesday, March 9, 2010

The puppies are here! =)



I woke up to a really neat surprise this morning! Honey had her puppies. She had 3, 1 girl and 2 boys. The first picture is of the little girl and the other 2 are the boys. I love their little pink noses and feet! They are too cute! We were surprised that she only had 3 because she had 5 in her last liter and she looked larger this time so we were expecting more. In a way I'm happy that she only had 3 because now I can spoil them and find really good homes for them. We are also considering keeping the little girl. This is Honey's last liter because she's 6 years old and I think 2 liter's are enough. After she's weened the pups we will be getting her spade. I'd really like to keep the girl, I've had boys and I dont think I can handle that again. In my experience male pups are super stubborn and tough to potty train. I just had to share pics of them, they are just too cute! <3


I love this yarn!

I thought I would take a quick second to post about this yarn that I absolutely LOVE. I went on a mini shopping spree this past weekend to hobby lobby and found some wonderful deals! I bought this particular yarn because it was super soft and I loved the color pattern!! The brand is I love this yarn and I think its sold only at Hobby Lobby, but I'm not 100% sure! The color is Jazz stripes. Its really cool, and I'm currently about 50% completed with a pot holder kitchen set that I'm crocheting with this yarn! Its really is super soft especially to be 100% acrylic. And the color pattern makes stripes when I crochet it which I love! I cant wait to finish the set so I can share how it looks! I think this brand is my new favorite brand for now!!

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Crochet Potholders, photo issues, & sun! =)

This week I added a few new items to the shop. =) I really enjoy crocheting more than I do knitting I think. I especially my new tunisian hooks, and the tunisian stitch that I learned! I made 2 different potholders and plan to make several more for the shop. My intention is to have a wide range of colors and styles to choose from. I'm also working on matching dishclothes as well! The first potholder I made is an average sized 8.5 inch square in a mossy green color. I really enjoyed working with the cotton yarn as well! Its one of the first items I've made using that type of yarn. I added a hanging loop w/ a decorative white button. =)



The second potholder that I made is alot larger. Its 10.5 inches square! Its huge! But sometimes (at least in my cooking experience) larger potholders are better, especially if you are baking a casserole in a large dish and need something to sit the dish on to protect your table or countertops. My husband actually found this patriotic yarn and liked it (ha!) so he purchased it and brought it home to surprise me. Its funny that he is actually bringing me yarn as a little surprise, instead of flowers, or candy... how bizarre am I hahahaha! So I made this potholder in the patriotic colored yarn he purchased me :) I am personally not a fan of the color combo but thats not to say Im not patriotic. lol. Maybe I should hush on that lol. I also added a hanging loop w/ a white decorative button.




I went on a mini shopping spree to hobby lobby this weekend, and found lots of great deals and yarn that I can not wait to start working with... hopefully I will have more to share later.

I think I need a better way of taking photo's of my items... I dont think the pics give the items justice and I dont know what I can do to change that. Its a little frustrating because in person the colors and style etc look so much better. If anyone has any suggestions for taking photos of these and other items, PLEASE share! LOL. Thanks in advance!




This weekend was the first warm and sunny weekend we have had since November! YES I SAID NOVEMBER! I was looooving it too! Tim and I barely stayed home all weekend because we wanted to soak up the sun and enjoy it as much as we could. We actually drove 2 hours to the nearest hobby lobby just to be outside haha. It was nice though! I really hope this is a sign that spring is coming and soon. This winter was pretty cold, White, and bizarre!



More to come, hope everyone is well! =)