Mermaid and Lightsaber Ice Pop Holders

Ah… Summer. A time of sunshine, swimming, relaxation, and vacation. It was my absolute favorite time as a kid and as I watch my kids grow I can see it’s a time that they look forward to each year as well. One thing that always stands out about summer are those extra hot days. The 90+ degree days. The eternal heatwave stretch of summer. I’ve found that the best solution for those days is the classic ice pop. Not just any popsicle, but the ice pop aka freeze pop aka otter pop style. I can still recall those moments of coming into the house after a long day of running and playing in my grandpa’s backyard feeling as though I’d never cool down. Not even the coldest a/c could put a dent in summertime overheating! But always my grandpa would find the solution with that glorious ice pop and within seconds I’d feel better than ever. There’s just something about overly sugary flavored ice. It just hits the spot (especially the red and green ones, my favorite!).

As I mentioned in the previous posts, I’ve recently gone through a move. Currently I’m setting up my office and trying to get my work space in order and throughout all of my organizing I’ve come across many old photos and patterns. I happened upon a couple of ice pop holder patterns from when my kids were a lot smaller and it just warmed my heart looking back at the photos. Back in the days when their little hands became too cold holding their ice pops. They loved them so much, but it always sent such a chill to their tiny little bodies! I knew then I needed to come up with a solution for them to have a better, more comfortable grip of the popsicles because I wanted them to be able to enjoy them as much as I did when I was little! My solution was a popsicle holder. Of course, my girls being entirely opposite of one another, I had to make them in a way to appeal to each child. My oldest was huge into Star Wars at the time so I treated her to a lightsaber holder style. My youngest was into everything princess and mermaids so we settled on a mermaid fin style. It was great fun coming up with the designs and they were well loved that whole entire summer! So loved, in fact, that I ended up selling more of them at my local farmers market for all the other kids in town to enjoy as well. They were a hit!

And so, let me share with you, my two ice pop holder patterns.

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Dish Scrubbie Set # 3

Hello again to all my readers! I hope that during these crazy times you are staying happy and healthy and that with all the extra time at home due to the COVID outbreak you are able to find some extra time to enjoy crafting and crochet. Since the beginning of March I’ve been keeping busy with my own yarn stash and I’m happy to report that a handful of patterns did develop in my mind! I will be sharing all of them in this blog soon I hope. I do apologize for the lack of updates and patterns. I always say I’m going to focus on sharing them more, but unfortunately life things do happen. In this case, my family and I have been insanely busy selling our house! We’ve found what we hope to be our forever home in a town we’ve longed to live in for years. We are very excited to start this new chapter in our lives and I hope with it comes new ideas and inspiration to share with you here! The house has what I find to be the perfect craft room/office, and I absolutely cannot wait to get back to work once it’s set up! I will be sure to share more patterns after that occurs, so be on the look out!

For now though, I’d like to share one last pattern before moving and unpacking chaos takes over my life. Another dish scrubbie pattern! Okay, I know… I have two others on this blog too, but hear me out! Everyone has their own preferences for dish scrubbies! It’s all about the texture. Some like a spongier feel, others like the rougher, more abrasive scrubbies. With all the different types of scrubbie yarns out there nowadays, how can you resist trying them out and seeing what works best? Or… Maybe I’m just obsessed. I do like clean dishes!

Anyway, I have been seeing the Red Heart Sparkle yarn line on the shelves and couldn’t resist. It’s a lot thinner of a yarn than the tulle and Hobby Lobby Scrubology yarn line that I’ve used in the past, so be sure to keep that in mind. These do still work up quite quickly though! In total it took me about 20-30 minutes to complete each scrubbie. So without further ado…
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Velvet Hair Scrunchies

Can anyone feel that? It’s the 90s and they’re back full speed in the fashion world. Seriously!!! I’m seeing remnants of my childhood all over the place. Movie reboots, Planter’s cheese balls, choker necklaces, mom jeans, denim everything… And then there are scrunchies. I never thought I’d see the day and there’s a part of me screaming in glee over this. I LOVED scrunchies! They were so comfortable to wear and I couldn’t get enough of all of the styles. I’ll never forget the day one of the girls in my class told me that “scrunchies are out” and the dismay I felt. But here we are and they’ve come back in full swing, and what better way to celebrate this moment than to share a pattern?

Velvet hair scrunchies are especially popular right now and with all of the velvet-textured yarns out there, I couldn’t resist trying my hand at it! This pattern is so quick to work up and will make a great gift for any other scrunchie enthusiast in your life. Seriously guys, this is a 20 minute at most project! You could make a set of these in an hour if you wanted to. So what are you waiting for? Keep the 90s alive with this velvet scrunchie pattern!
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Breakfast Play Set

If there’s one thing being a mom of nearly 10 years has taught me it’s that kids LOVE play food. The amount of play food we’ve gone through over the years is countless! My kids had a great play kitchen equip with pots and pans for cooking their beloved play meals where countless hours were spent pretending to be masterful chefs. Now that they’re older, the kitchen is gone as are most of their plastic play foods, but one thing that’s always remained are the crocheted fruits and vegetables I made for them many years ago. My youngest cherishes them the most, and while she may be becoming a bigger kid these days, I can still peek into her bedroom at any given time and find her hard at play with those well worn play foods.

And that is exactly what inspired me to create a crocheted breakfast play set! My daughter absolutely loves breakfast. One day she approached me and being the keeper of the BEST ideas ever, she threw this one my way. “Mom, why not make a crocheted breakfast set?” Naturally, it had to be done! And so we brainstormed together our favorite breakfast foods and what truly would complete this fantastic set and here it is for me to share with you. I hope you and the littlest people in your lives enjoy it as much as we have!

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Mini Velvet Pumpkins

August is the month that stands between summer and fall, my absolute favorite season. With the kids back in school (seriously, already!?) and the stores filling the aisles with fall and Halloween decorations, I can’t help but have it on my mind earlier and earlier each passing year. Did I also mention anywhere on this blog about my obsession with velvet yarn? Seriously, I can’t stop buying it! It’s so soft and luxurious! I decided to do something more with it than just hoard it though, and since fall was on my mind I couldn’t help but think that a velvet crocheted pumpkin would be the perfect pattern to create and take my mind off of this hot *not fall* weather and replace it with reminders that fall is on its way. Sooooooon.

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Velvet Rabbit

It’s been awhile since I posted and I do apologize! Since the beginning of the year my house has been in a constant state of chaos in preparation for moving. This includes all sorts of fun home repair projects, packing up house, realtor visits, the works! I was also presented with an amazing opportunity that I’ll expand upon next post with a specifically inspired project! So stay tuned… Still though, with Easter around the corner, I did find time to make up this adorable velvet rabbit pattern and I wanted to share it with all of you!

I had in the past made up a bunny pattern from the thicker blanket yarn, but since seeing velvet yarns all around craft stores, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to make up a new pattern featuring this perfect yarn. Thoughts of the old childhood story Velveteen Rabbit came to mind while making her up and of course I just had to share it!

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Rudy Reindeer

It’s Christmastime and I’m absolutely feeling the holiday upon us this year! Maybe it’s from the baked cookie scent in my house or the presents already wrapped under my tree… Or the fact that I just got done creating and sending out over 200 crocheted holiday orders from my Etsy . The holiday craft fairs, the holiday train rides, Christmas stockings, Christmas music… It’s all in the season and each year I fall in love with the holiday all over again.

Speaking of holiday craft fairs, I participated in a great big one in town a couple weeks ago and displayed quite a few of my finished products including this sweet little Rudy Reindeer, which was quite the hit! He ended up going home with a happy mom and child receiving hugs the entire time they walked around the fair. It definitely warmed my heart! And as I always say, the blanket yarn is always the best for hugging, as it makes each toy so soft and squishy! Since it’s Christmastime, enjoy making your own Rudy Reindeer with this totally free pattern!  Continue reading Rudy Reindeer

The Jon Hat

Recently my husband started a new job in the city. Being in Chicago and right off the lake, I knew that he’d be needing something extra warm this fall and winter for the daily walking he does downtown. With this came the creation of the Jon Hat.  Continue reading The Jon Hat

Skelly Beanie

I am loving this fall weather! It’s the perfect time to crochet and with Halloween being around the corner, my absolute favorite time to create patterns! I love everything spooky and each year I try to come up with some new fun designs. This year my kids requested new Halloween hats. In my previous post I talked about my youngest daughter’s Frankenstein Hat. This time it was my oldest daughter’s turn to pick a hat and she chose a skeleton beanie! I thought long and hard about a way to design one wanting to skip the traditional Jack Skellington style and maybe take on a more comical variety of skeleton. And here’s what I came up with!

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Frankenstein Season!

Now that fall weather is FINALLY upon us, I couldn’t resist the urge to dive into more spooky creations! Each and every year, the cooler months begin my busy season for Etsy orders and craft fairs. I find myself with very little time to sit down and design patterns, which is shame because Halloween-Christmas are also the times I feel most inspired to design things! I promised myself that each and every year I’d at least make time to design one fun Halloween toy and I’ve been true to that promise for the past three years now! My first year was Peter Pumpkinhead inspired by my oldest daughter’s love of pumpkins. Last year was Witchy the Witch created entirely off of a description my youngest daughter gave to me of her favorite imaginary friend, a little magical, friendly witch. And this year? Meet Frankie Frankenstein!

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