Crochet Colorful Streamer Beanie

I just wanted to share my recent beanie. I love this pattern. I used the youtube tutorial from the ever talented tjw1963. You can view the tutorial [HERE].


It was a really simple, very well taught tutorial and it made a wonderful hat. I actually added the white at the bottom instead of continuing with the color all the way down. I like the solid color with the color peaking out in the back. I used scraps of yarn that I had lying around, which was great to use up! All the yarn used is Red Heart Super Saver. This is an excellent pattern to use for all those scraps of yarn you may have lying around! 

The side view

The other side view

The back view

Thanks for taking a peek!! :)

Daily Junk: LEAST favorite song!

Thanks for taking a peak!

Happy Blogiversary to me!

Today my blog is officially 

4 years old! 

Wow, the time sure does fly!!! :) It doesn't seem like its been that long but if I sit and think about it, I can remember when I decided to create my blog. Man, A LOT sure has happened since that day 4 years ago :) Thank you to all of my wonderful followers to sticking with me for so long! At least I know I'm not just talking to myself (most of the time) lol!

~ Thanks again everyone!

My Top Tens

Current Fave TV Shows:

1. Grey's Anatomy
2. America's Got Talent
3. Operation Repo
4. Ghost Adventures
5. Teen Mom
6. Criminal Minds
7. King of Queens
8. Steve Wilkos Show
9. Pawn Stars
10. Melissa and Joey

Current Favorite Songs:

1. I Smile by Kirk Franklin
2. Nobody Knows by The Tony Rich Project
3. Realize by Colbie Caillat
4. Moving On by Rascal Flatts
5. Acoustic #3 by Goo Goo Dolls
6. What are Words by Chris Medina
7. You & Me by Dave Matthews Band
8. Permanent by David Cook
9. Hello World by Lady Antebellum
10. Crazy by Gnarls Barkley

Current Daily Must Haves:

1. A hug & kiss from my hubby followed by the words 'I Love You'
2. Pandora
3. a chat with my bestie: Ginger
4. Sweet Tea, Coke, or Dr. Pepper
5. facebook (of course)
6. crocheting
7. Cleanliness brought to you by a nice hot shower.
8. makeup & a hair brush lol
9. food of some sort
10. My journal

Current Words/Phrases I (over)USE:

1. I Know, Right?!
2. Seriously?
3. What the Hell?
4. Its too damn hot!
5. LOL
6. NIICE!
7. I cant wait!
8. I dont know what to do
9. LIKE
10. UGH!

Current Worries or Things on My Mind:

1. How to get the rent paid in an (un)timely manner/short notice because we have a landlord who is very insensitive & really hard to work with! And worrying if we are going to get evicted b/c she is so horrible!
2. Saving and getting packed for our move.
3. How to find homes for these animals.
4. Tim's, Uncle Dale's health... he's in the CCI because he had a massive heart attack and is on life support.
5. My besties Mom's health because she's in the hospital for testing do to circulation in her legs :(
6. Losing weight and getting healthy (a constant struggle)
7. If my hubby is having a decent first day back to work, and if his back is bothering him anymore.
8. How we are going to make it these next few weeks until Tim gets paid again (thanks to the dragon bitch)
9. How much I really hate it here and want to be near my family and friends again w/ a new fresh start.
10. How I need to be getting the motivation to get this dern custom order finished for a customer.

Current Chores / Tasks I Need to Get Done:

1. I need to start packing
2. I need to finish this order
3. I need to vacuum.
4. I need to journal.
5. I need to wash the dishes.
6. I need to finish reading '2nd Chance' by James Patterson
7. I need to take the dogs out before bed.
8. I need to finish the crochet afghan I've been working on forever
9. I need to get the yard mowed.
10. I need to give the dogs a bath.

Current Topics I'm Sick of Hearing about on News / Reading about Online:

1. Casey Anthony Trial/Verdict
2. Amy Winehouse
3. Recession
4. Weight Loss & how its so great to be thin!
5. Whether football will be around this season or not
6. This horrible heat wave/ summer we are in the middle of!
7. How terrible coal mining is and how its so destruction.
8. How broke we all are!
9. How the end is near... 2012 (tired of everyone's crazy predictions, only the Good Lord knows!)
10. The Norway Attacks

Daily Junk: Fav's A-Z

Today I pulled 'List your favorite things from A-Z' from my bag of journaling prompts and here is what I came up with...

This is the spread, the 1st page is just a card...

And this is showing my full list

Thanks for taking a peek!

Daily Junk (Journal) so far...

I created my junk journal/smash book from an ordinary composition notebook from walmart. I used tips and idea's from TangieBaxter (on Youtube) who did a few tutorials on this. :) I thought I would share how my journal is looking so far.

This is the front of my journal.

Just showing the thickness so far...

Just another view...

A close up of the charms on the band closure.

This is the inside cover, and first page.

Entries 2 and 3

Entries 4 & 5

Entry 6

Entry 7

Remember the nifty prompts I shared yesterday? Well I put them all down on paper today, folded them up all teeny tiny, and placed them in this ziplock baggy that is now attached to the inside back cover of my book.

Journaling prompts

I used a grommet in the ziploc baggy, and ball chain through one of the grommets already holding the elastic band closure in.

Then I added these keychains that I have had since high school. :)

And that pretty much does it for now. I actually did a page tonight HOWEVER I'm not happy with it, so I'm going to sleep on it and start again tomorrow to hopefully improve it :) Its really annoying me tonight! Like usual thanks for taking a peek :)

Journaling Prompts

I am really addicted to junk/art journaling or some may call them smash books.. What ever you call it. I'm officially hooked! LOL. So sometimes I really get into a rut on how to be creative with my journaling and I feel like I've ran out of things to write about... sort of a creators block/writers block. So I thought I would keep this running list of prompts here on my blog, and my friends (you guys) can help me add idea's to it, and I will add ideas when ever they come to me or I am inspired by someone else. I also got a great idea from bcdoula (on youtube) to write the prompts on paper and put them in a bowl or box and when I'm in a rut, just shake up the box and pull a few out! Excellent idea!!! She shared the art prompts below and I came up with a few more, plus a ton of journaling prompt idea's... sooo I think I'll put them all in a box or baggy and somehow attach it in my journal :) I'll share a vid with what I've done as soon as I have this accomplished heehee! I still need to make a vid of my journal so far... eesh. So behind! I hope this will be helpful to someone :) Feel free to share idea's you may have!

Art Prompts

• Use bubble wrap
• Use water color paints
• draw oil pastel lines and paint in between them with acrylics
• choose your paint with your eyes closed.
• paint with crumpled tissue paper
• Drag paint across the page w/ a credit card or cardboard, dry then sand
• apply tape randomly to the page
• Use stencils
• Use brayer with paint
• Put string or elastic bands on a brayer or toilet paper roll and paint
• Journal in a circle
• apply gesso and then remove some of the gesso
• random paint splatters
• Uuse dimensionals on page
• Apply charcoal
• Apply cardboard
• Collage letters
• Use any of your ephemera
• Use a mask
• Use rubberstamps
• Draw black wavy lines for journalling
• Use a pallet knife
• Scratch surface with stylus
• Dip end of toilet paper roll in paint and paint circles on the page
• Line Walk- Draw a line down the center of the paper and doodle, all lines and shapes must be connected. Then create images with paint out of your doodles..
• Use magazine images and alter them
• Paint the page in your favorite color(s) then list all the things you can think of that are that color(s)
• Use Crackle 
• emboss your page
• use metal
• use alcohol inks
• use an envelope

Journaling Prompts

• Things from or seen in your yard/neighborhood
• Things you currently are listening to , drinking, eating, wearing, feeling, weather, wanting, needing, thinking, enjoying
• Guilty pleasures
• Favorite candy
• Favorite song lyrics
• Put each day of the week on the page and write 'today I laughed at' for each day
• Write about a recent dream.
• What seemed unusual to you today?
• Write about memories of an old friend you lost touch with
• What actor/actress would you hire to play you in a movie and what would your theme song be? & why?
• What did you eat as a child that you will not eat now, or what do you eat now that you wouldn't as a child?
• Who is the one relative you miss the most?
• Talk about your first kiss
• Where would you travel if you could go anywhere?
• Write a letter to your younger self or to your future self.
• Would you be a different person today if your childhood was different? How would you be different and why?
• If you could change one thing about your spouse/lover what would it be?
• What was your first pet?
• List all of the cars you've owned.
• List all of the places you've worked.
• List all of the places you've lived.
• What did you want to be when you grew up?
• If you had to sacrifice one of your senses which would it be?
• Have you ever encountered a ghost?
• Where is the first place you went when you got your drivers license?
• Describe your favorite memory of an amusement park, or fair.
• Describe your favorite sound.
• What is your favorite memory of high school?
• What is your worst memory of high school?
• Talk about your graduation.
• Which friend has the greatest impact in your life and why?
• What is your favorite season?
• Tell a secret.
• Talk about something you struggle with.
• What would you do if you won the lottery?
• Whats the best and worst thing that happened to you this week?
• What is your favorite book at the moment, and what is it that you like about it most?
• List your favorite tv shows.
• What do you wish to accomplish by years end?
• List your fears
• What is your least favorite chore, and why?
• List your pet peeves
• Talk about your first job
• Have you ever swallowed anything strange?
• Least favorite foods
• Favorite odd foods
• Tell a joke
• List your favorite things w/ each letter of the alphabet
• List your celebrity guy and gal crushes
• Share a poem
• What bugs you?
• What is your favorite trait of yourself?
• Nobody knows that you...
• Do you have reoccuring dreams? What are they about?
• Where were you on 9/11? Where were you when you heard about Bin Laden?
• 10 foods you have never eaten but would like to try. 
• 10 foods that you would NEVER eat
• Write a letter to someone you need to forgive. 
• List your top favorite songs right now. 
• Share the lyrics to a current song that you can not stand. 
• Make a list of the 5 changes you think you have made in the last five years. 
• what things do you expect in a good friend
• What did you do BEFORE we had the internet?
• What superpower would you choose to have?
• A continuous bucket list
• 10 unforgettable moments in your life
• 10 things you really like about yourself
• what book are you reading right now? what is it about?
• List of most commonly used words
• Name 5 things in your refrigerator
• 5 adjectives to describe yourself
• List some of your favorite smells
• What monopoly figure do you use?
• words you hate, words you love
• celebrities you are sick of or dislike
• What do you like on your pizza?
• What do you love to buy, what do you hate to buy?
• Whats the worst thing you have ever done to your hair?
• Talk about an embarrassing moment. 
• What gives you the creeps?
• Can you play an instrument?
• What are your nicknames? (How did you get them, & from who?)
• List your bad habits...
• Talk about growing up with your siblings, share a favorite memory. 
• Tell about your favorite childhood christmas
• List your halloween costumes as a child, tell about them...
• Take the last line of your favorite poem, and make it the first line of your own poem. 
• List the names of 5-10 relatives/friends and write a small profile about each of them. 
• Mad Libs :) 
• Share a recipe & how it turned out when you made it :) 
• That was then, this is now (pics growing up, and pics now)

Its been a while since...

I actually posted an entry other than videos so I thought I would sit down a do so. I went a while there only doing crafts for swapping in groups that I belonged to and it got a wee bit overwhelming so I have decided to do a little less swapping and a little more crafting for fun (and for my shop that I have been neglecting like crazy!)

Today I created a group on yahoo for crafting called Creative-Crafts.


I want this group to be a nice chatty, successful group of crafty friends. I had a ning site that I was really excited about but its A LOT of work and cost money that at the moment I do not have. Sadly that site is closing.

We have also decided that by the end of September/beginning of October we are relocating back to my home town (Concord). I want to be closer to our family and friends. Country life is great, but there are a lot of negatives to living this far away from family and friends, as well as not being able to get out and do things, or even work. We live about 30 minutes from even a grocery store, and if you don't coal mine, well the job selection is slim to none (unless you want to travel at least an hour one way.) It will be good for us to be close to everyone, for us to be able to get out more, and especially for me to find a job. Its been 4 years since I actually worked somewhere outside of the home! Not cool.

Our cat Stormy had 3 adorable kittens a few days ago! I'm not sure their sex yet but they are healthy and Stormy is an excellent mother! I need to get some really good pictures to share :)

Tomorrow PeeWee and Zoey will be going to their new forever home! TOGETHER TOO! We are super excited about that because those two are really close, they've grown up together. I hate to see them go but I know they will be loved and thats all that matters to me!

I've been crocheting and working on my junk journal a lot lately. I've done a few entries but I want to finish up a couple of entries I have been working on before I take photos or make a vid about it. I'm really enjoying it though. I finished a crochet purse on Thursday that I still need to take photos of as well. I will be posting those soon too!

Other than that, not much has been going on. Its the same old stuff, just a different day! Oh and our garden is doing fantastic! I'll share some pictures of that in an upcoming post as well! I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer!

(ps saying a little prayer and sending big get well hugs to my bestie Ginger, she has bronchitis this week :( Feel better soon girlie!)

Visit with our nephew Michael

My first junk journal...