Friday, December 29, 2017

Free Friday: Winter Coaster

Happy Friday, everyone!  And happy almost New Year too!  I hope you all had wonderful holidays this year.  I had a very busy and chaotic, but wonderful Christmas with my family, but boy, let me tell you, I'm glad the madness is over.  Christmas is good, but it's nice when I can get back to my normal life.

And normal is what I'm trying to achieve with today's free pattern!  I got a mess of free patterns all made up the week before Christmas, because I was too distracted to work on anything big but I also didn't want to sit around twiddling my thumbs for a whole week.  Today's pattern is one of my favorites that I made!  I just love snowflakes and wintry blues, and even though Christmas is over, winter has just begun! 

Winter Coaster


Skill Level:
Beginner

Size:
3 ¾ x 3 ¾ inches

Materials:
  • 7-count plastic canvas
  • Red Heart yarn in colors listed in key
  • Craft felt
  • Hot glue
  • #16 plastic canvas needle

Instructions:
  1. Cut and stitch plastic canvas according to graphs.
  2. Overcast outside edges with Light Periwinkle.
  3. Using coaster as a template, cut out squares of felt for backing. Trim 1/8 of an inch off around all sides. Use hot glue to attach to back of coaster.

Click the image above to see it larger.  You may share this pattern however you please as long as you don't alter it or claim it as your own.  Please link back if you share this pattern.  You may sell items made from this pattern.  However, you may not sell this pattern.

Happy New Year, everyone!  I hope 2018 brings you all happiness and love and amazing new adventures!

Friday, December 15, 2017

Free Friday: Christmas Present Coaster

Happy Friday, everyone!  Yay, I got a free pattern made for you all!  And it's a really cute Christmas pattern, too!  I'm so proud of myself :)  The cool thing about this pattern is that you can make it with any colors you want to match your Christmas decor, or even make them birthday present coasters!

Christmas Present Coasters



Skill Level:

Beginner

Size:

4 ½ x 4 ¾ inches

Materials:

  • 7-count plastic canvas
  • Yarn in colors listed in key
  • White craft felt
  • Glue
  • #16 plastic canvas needle

Instructions:

  1. Cut and stitch plastic canvas according to graph.
  2. Overcast edges in colors that match nearby stitches.
  3. Cut a 4 ¼ x 3 ¼ rectangle of craft felt for each coaster, and use glue to attach to the back of coasters.

Click the image above to see it larger.  You may share this pattern however you please as long as you don't alter it or claim it as your own.  Please link back if you share this pattern.  You may sell items made from this pattern.  However, you may not sell this pattern.

Ok guys, I have a lot to do today, so I'm going to head off to get some work done.  Have yourself an amazing weekend and hopefully I'll see you next week!

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

What's Up Wednesday

Good Wednesday afternoon, everyone!  It's a cold and wintry day here in western New York.  We've been just getting hammered by the snow!  We probably got 6 since yesterday.  That's a decent amount for December. I'm going to make a big pot of soup for dinner, because what's better on a snowy day than hot soup?

I know I promised to post a free pattern last Friday, but some events came about that made it so I didn't have time to do that.  They're really good events though!  I had sent off my Lovely Lavender Set to Annie's so they could sell it on their website, and shortly after I got an email from the lady I work with that said she wanted to make it a printed pattern and put it in their spring catalog!!!  I was so excited that I forgot how to reply to her, and then sent a nonsensical email because I pushed send too soon, lol.  She needed me to make a holder for the mug rugs though, so that's what I was working on Friday afternoon, yay!  And I got it all done and sent off to her on Monday.


I don't know when their spring catalog comes out, but I'll be sure to let you know when I know!

As soon as I finished sending that off, I pretty much immediately started knitting a hat because I can't sit still for five minutes, honestly.  It's like I can't just chill out, I have to be making something all the time.  It's coming along nicely and I bet I can have it done by tomorrow!


I spent a little time today getting my Christmas cards made out.  I used to send out a lot of them, but lately I've been trying to cut back on stuff like that, so this year I only sent out about 10 cards to the people I really care about. 


Oh, I got some news about my ring!  They finished working on it and it's amazing!  The jeweler is a two hour drive from our house though, so we have to wait until Saturday to go get it.  OH it's so hard to wait!




 And here's a nice shot of the snow in my back yard :)



Well, I guess that's all for this week!  I hope you're all having a wonderful week, and as long as nothing else comes up, I should be able to get a free pattern posted this Friday!  See you then!

Friday, December 8, 2017

Lovely Lavender Set

Happy Friday, everyone!  I just wanted to let you know I just added a new pattern to my Etsy shop!

Lovely Lavender Set, plastic canvas pattern, $7 on Etsy

Phew!  I worked really hard on this one this week, and I'm glad it's done! 

I realize it's Friday, but I don't yet have a pattern made for Free Friday.  I plan on trying to get one done though!  At least I have an idea, so now I just need to get stitching!  If I don't post again today, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

What's Up Wednesday

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  Boy, have I had a busy couple of weeks!  I'm so sorry I haven't said anything lately.  I guess I just got so into everything going on around me that I forgot to sit down and work on my blog.  Have you guys ever had that happen to you?  It's kind of frustrating to be so busy that you don't have time for what is really important to you, which for me is my designs and my blog.  Thankfully, things are starting to calm down for a little while so I thought I'd update all of you on what I've been doing!

Our Thanksgiving was very good.  We do dinner at my mom's house on Thanksgiving day, with my mom and dad, sister and her son, my oldest niece and her two boys and her boyfriend.  It was crazy and chaotic, with noisy kids and loud laughter and people everywhere!  But it was also so nice to see everyone.  I made the turkey this year for my mom's house, and it turned out just perfect!  I brined it the day before which made it juicy and so flavorful.


The next day, we went over to my hubby's parents' house for lasagna.  It was a nice change of pace, both with the food and the company.  Nice and quite!  I guess the truth is that I prefer a quite evening in with grownups! 

The weekend after Thanksgiving, my hubs and I started putting up our Christmas decorations.  We got the tree down on Friday and set it up right away because it's just so cheery.  No decorations or anything,  just the lights.


We had some traditional Scandinavian glogg while we were at it!  Sooo good!

Then it took me about a week to get the whole downstairs decorated.  It seems to get a little harder every year.  This year was especially hard because I'm trying to do my pattern designing at the same time.  You know, sometimes I really miss being a full time housewife; it may have been boring at times, but at least I always had time to work on things like the decorations.


I lived with the downstairs looking like this for a few days, which just about drove me crazy *neat freak*






Best present under the tree :)



Here's our tree unlit (also with a boy behind it)...


And here it is all lit up!  I'll be sure to get some more pictures of the decor for next week.

Another thing keeping me busy the last week or two has been a very special Christmas present.  My hubby and I celebrated our 10th anniversary in September.  When we got engaged, we were both really young.  I was 20 and he was 23!  At the time, I was living at home with my mom, and he was living at his home with his parents and working at a gas station.  Needless to say, we were both pretty poor.  So when he proposed, he had a small budget and couldn't get me an amazing ring.  I loved it though because it was special.  It was a simple, small sapphire with two side diamonds. 

Then, when we got married, I had a gold band made to fit next to the engagement ring, and a couple years later, I had a second band made for the other side. 



To celebrate our 10th anniversary, we decided to get the center sapphire replaced with something a little nicer.  We managed to find an amazing metalsmith jeweler two hours away, and after visiting them twice, they managed to find the perfect sapphire for me!


That's an emerald cut tanzanite on the left that they used as a comparison to get the perfect color, and that's my oval sapphire on the right!  They're going to start setting it soon and I should be able to go get it next week!  I'm soooo excited.  I'm going to wrap it up really pretty and nice, and open it on Christmas :)  I know that seems silly, but it's such a special gift I thought it deserved to be wrapped.  up.

Hubs and I went for a lovely hike this past weekend, too, since it was so nice out. 


And finally, another reason why I've been so quiet lately is because I've been super busy stitching up some new patterns for my shop!


I definitely will have the lavender set up in my shop by the end of the week, and I'll get the snowflake tbc up next week probably. 

So now we're all caught up!  I hope you've all been having a wonderful December so far, full of happiness and joy and good cheer!