Alien Friends

Ethan was playing with ET and the Twi'lek and said they were friends, I thought that was hilarious so I memorialized them in a collage.

 

I hopefully will have a new pattern up by tomorrow! We are leaving for Disneyland on Tuesday and will be coming back on Saturday. My Etsy shop will be in vacation mode then, but patterns will still be available (with instant download!) on Ravelry and Craftsy. 

My husband is not able to go to Disneyland with us because of work :( so we're going with my parents and my aunt and family. I'm so excited to take the boys! They've been once before in 2011 but Zach was just a baby and I'm not sure if Ethan actually remembers it, or he just remembers from all the times we've watched the videos and looked at the pictures. I'm leaving Craig with like 4 (small) loafs of homemade french bread, some slow cooked pulled pork, and some soup......he'll be set lol. 

I also put up the pattern for the zebra lovey the other day, I forgot to create a post for it! A friend of ours just had their 3rd baby girl so I thought it would be cute :)

 

Baby Chevron Blanket

A friend of mine is due with her first baby, a girl named Bella in early March.....so of course it's another excuse to crochet a tiny cute baby blanket! :)

I used this pattern that I found through Ravelry. It was such an easy pattern, I loved it. I just used some stash yarn of mine....3 different pinks, white, gray, purple, aqua and a seafoamish/light aqua color.

Free Pattern Amigurumi Rum Bottle

This was the first pattern I ever created, it was a 21st birthday gift for my cousin. I used to sell it but it's been free on Ravelry for awhile, but I thought I'd post it here too!

Amigurumi Rum Bottle crochet pattern:
 
Abbreviations:
ch = chain
Sc = single crochet
St = stitch
Dec = decrease
Supplies:
- F Hook
- Any color yarn. You can really be creative on this part, use brown for gold rum, gray
for silver rum, white for coconut rum, yellow for mango rum etc.
- Stuffing
- Safety eyes. Or you can use felt/embroidery.
- Felt for the tag, the bottle cap, and the cheeks.
- Embroidery thread to embroider "Rum" on the tag, for the bow, and the mouth.
- A stitch marker, I use a safety pin and it works perfect.
This pattern is written in the round, with no joining, and working from bottom to top

The body:
-round 1: ch 2, 6 sc in 2nd ch from hook (6)
-round 2: 2 sc in each sc around (12)
-round 3: *sc 1, 2 sc* in each st around (18)
-round 4: *sc 2, 2 sc* in each st around (24)
-round 5: *sc 3, 2 sc* in each st around (30)
-round 6-14 : *sc 30* around (30)
-round 15: *sc 3, dec 1* (24)
-round 16: *sc 2, dec 1* (18)
- You might want to insert the safety eyes and embroider the mouth here, also start to
stuff. You can add weights at the bottom either with pellets, pennies, anything really.
-round 17: *sc 1, dec 1* (12)
-round 18-23 : *sc 12* around (12)
- Finish stuffing.
-row 24: dec all the way around, FO. Dont worry about it looking perfect here, the black
cap will cover it.

Place your black felt piece on top of the bottle neck (where the cap would go) and trace the circle size with a pen/pencil or just cut it out. Then cut out a strip that is long enough to wrap around the top. Glue your circle to the top, then glue your strip all the way around.

Cheeks:
Cut out 2 circles with the pink felt and glue on the cheeks.

Tag:
Take your pink felt and write the word “Rum” on it with a pen. You can write in cursive, block lettering, regular, whatever is easiest for you. Then cut out a rectangle around the lettering to be the front of your tag, then cut another piece the same size for the back. Embroider over your letting using your favorite stitch, I used the back stitch. You don’t have to embroider it if you don’t want to, you could also:

-Spell out rum in glue, then glitter the lettering.
-Paint.
-Glue the lettering on with yarn.
-Buy those foam letter cut-outs and just glue those on.

For the bow: Tie a bow using embroidery thread, leaving 2 long tails that will be glued in between the 2 peices of felt on the tag. Then take your other piece of pink felt, (make sure to glue the ends of the bow in the middle of the 2 pieces of felt!) and just whipstitch it to the first. You can put a few drops of glue to hold them together, it just makes it a little easier.

You're done!

WIP Crochet Afghan (scrapghan)

I've got a huge tub of yarn, with LOTS of grays, blues and some sprinkling of pinks and purples. So far I've got...4 rows? So it will only take me 5 years to finish!

I'm using this ripple afghan pattern. It's super easy, which is what I was going for. I wanted something simple (besides just straight rows) that I could do while getting interrupted every 2 minutes :)

I've also discovered a charity called "Mother Bear Project". The Mother Bear Project is dedicated to providing comfort and hope to children affected by HIV/AIDS in emerging nations, by giving them a gift of love in the form of a hand-knit or crocheted bear.

I'm awaiting my pattern, I think that's a great idea they have.

Ethan is at preschool right now, and Zach is napping....so I'm all by myself! :D I'm going to attempt to get the Christmas stuff out of storage, but they are heaving boxes, and I keep imagining a spider falling on me as I'm pulling the box down. Ahhhhhh!

We don't really have the money to buy gifts this year (except for the kids) so we are just making a bunch of cookies and letting the boys make ornaments for everyone. I've got a bunch of different ones we're going to try to make....and I'd love to try my hand at salt dough ornaments. I need to find out what type of sealant I need for them though.....and we don't have any paint. I'll be going to Walmart next week anyway for some Christmas shopping.

Oh I was so excited, at Dollar Tree they had licensed wrapping paper! I got Toy Story and Cars, but they also had Spongebob, Dora and I think Tinkerbell. I prefer just regular Christmas pictures on my paper, but I know the boys will love the cartoons. 

Ok I think I'm going to attempt to get the decorations down now. Wish me luck. 

*sprinkles self with spider repelling glitter magic*

Twi'lek Star Wars Amigurumi Crochet Pattern

Yay I FINALLY finished the pattern! I will update more about it later:

You can find it at:

Etsy
Ravelry
Craftsy

Angry Birds Blue Bird Pattern

New pattern available, Angry Birds Blue Bird crochet beanie! I also am selling the completed hat for $22. My 3 year old had been wanting an Angry Birds hat for awhile so when I finally was able to start it, I realized I had NO red yarn! ....weird, right? I showed him the website and luckily he liked the blue bird even better...so that worked out. Although last time we went to Walmart he had me by red yarn, so I think he still wants a red one lol.

I'm hoping to make Zach a Thomas one starting today :D

You can get the pattern from my Etsy shop.

or if you want to be able to instantly download I have it for sale on my Ravelry.
Or click below and it will take you to Craftsy:

Source: Angry Birds Blue Bird crochet pattern via SeastarStitches on Craftsy

Back to Fitness

  My "baby" turns  2 in November, only 3 months away! So why do I still have the baby weight? Could it be my horrible eating habits, or lack of exercise? I used to have willpower, before I had kids. I went almost 2 years without any soda, and about a year staying under 40 carbs a day....I didin't really think of it, I just did it. Now I have ZERO willpower, I'm just to tired and I have two little guys who depend on me 24/7 so I've just not even cared about myself at all. Earlier this year I got more focused on getting healthy and in a little over a month I only dropped about 5lbs, but I lost almost 18 inches allover, and I got a lot stronger. Working out also healed my pelvis problems, I never felt like I recovered right after having Zach....it was agony to move certain directions or go from laying down to standing up. BUT I haven't had that pain since about April.

  Then around the end of May I got very sick, then the boys got sick, then naps started dropping off, Zach went from less of a baby to a crazy toddler....and it's now the middle of September and I've only worked out a handful of times since then. But I'm sick of wearing the same 5 articles of clothing because I refuse to buy clothes at this size, and sick of feeling so unhealthy. I'm 28 but I feel so...blah. I even have high blood pressure now....that's not ok.

  So I'm putting on my big girl panties and summoning that willpower back, I HAVE to. I'm not going to do super crazy intense workouts like I did earlier this year, I'm going to take it a little easier on myself so I'm not stressing about it. Starting tomorrow (yeah I know how that sounds, but I need to go grocery shopping today) I'll be doing the 3 day Shakeology cleanse which is basically 3 shakes a day with fruit for snacks and a salad with chicken for dinner. I already have no problem with that since Shakeology tastes amazing, and it's actually filling, no Slim Fast crap. I drink it for breakfast daily and I'm fine until lunch, although sometimes I do grab a banana or a cheese stick for a snack if I need to.

  You're not supposed to workout during those 3 days since your energy will probably be lower, so on Tuesday I'll start my workouts. Earlier this year when I lost all those inches I did Brazil Butt Lift, but this time I'm going to start out doing Yoga Booty Ballet 3 times a week, Turbo Fire twice a week and 1 day of High & Tight from Brazil Butt Lift. I think that will work out best because Yoga Booty Ballet is more of a beginners workout, even though I do work up a sweat. It's also FUN. It's the most fun I've ever had working out. I'm adding in Turbo Fire twice a week because it's waaay intense, I can barely make it through the 45 minute starter workout! But I've seen amazing results on other people, and it burns mega calories. Lastly, I just like the Brazil Butt Lift workouts, and I could use help in the "bum bum" area for sure :) Eventually I plan on following the workout calenders that came with Brazil Butt Lift and Turbo Fire, but I want to start off a little slower this time so I can build stamina.

  I went with Beach Body programs because they are fun and they really do work, just look on Youtube and type the name of the program you are interested in, there is nothing more motivating! The website is free, you can sign up here, their message boards are full of people who really do just want to help. You can also track your workouts and every time you do you are entered to win $500, it's pretty sweet. 

  My goal is to be down 20lbs by Zach's 2nd birthday on November 25th, which gives me plenty of time. If I actually follow the workouts and clean up my eating I should be down more then that....but 20lbs is a good first goal.

  Now for eating, I've always done better on a lower carb eating plan, my body just likes that. So I'll be doing South Beach Diet since it's not "really" low carb, but it's low glycemic and I feel like that is what my body needs. But I still will be drinking Shakeology, I had never felt better as I did when I was working out and drinking Shakeology. It's expensive, but as long as I can sell 3 beanies a month it would be fine. We'll see :)

  And so this post is not just all fitness talk, last night the boys and I made pumpkins! It was fun, we made Halloween cookies.....well we did the "break and bake" type, I was not in the mood to do a bunch of dishes lol. Ethan ended up burning his arm on the oven though, poor guy. While we were making the pumpkins we listed to the Halloween music from Super Simple Songs, Ethan was dancing and singing along. Zach really wasn't into it, he was playing with toys.