Crochet Christmas Ornaments

 Crafting has always been a part of the Christmas season in our house. Ornaments and decorations are some of our favorite projects. Mandy and I are hosting ornament classes at our local knit shop this year. And I thought I would share the patterns with all of you.

The pattern for the lovely star above is HERE. 

 This granny square style tree is HERE.

 And this darling wreath is HERE. I love the construction, it is double layer.

 Another classic ornament based on a granny square. Pattern is HERE.

 This ornament is a classic around our house, one of the first projects I made. The pattern is HERE.

And one of my favorites! This super Simple Snowflake (HERE) is only two rows and can be whipped up in no time. 

Happy Crocheting!

Soft Hexie Ball

 When I saw this tutorial, I knew my nieces and nephew needed some! It was such a fun and easy project. I think the part that took the longest was choosing which cute fabrics to use!

 I love english paper piecing, so when I saw this tutorial from While She Naps I knew I had to give it a try! The ball goes together very nicely, I followed the directions pretty closely. The only thing I changed was instead of using a rattle, I just picked up giant jingle bells from the craft store. It gives it the cutest little jingle noise!

This first one was for my nephew and he loves it! I made sure to stuff it soft so there was enough give so he could grab it.

Can't wait to make more for my nieces!

Week 1: Reading Challenge

My book for the first week of the reading challenge is Her Mistletoe Protector by Laura Scott. Her books caught my eye as she mentions quite a few local cities and towns. When I checked her bio, sure enough, she is from a city in Wisconsin not to far away from where I live! So I am checking off the "A book that takes place in your hometown" category. (I know I am stretching it a little bit here, I didn't think I would be able to find anything besides a history for this one.)

"Pinned inside of her wrecked car, Rachel Simon is powerless to stop her son's abduction. Unless she can come up with one million dollars, Joey won't survive until Christmas. With her son's life hanging in the balance, Rachel turns to the one lawman who can help her. His own painful past still shadowing him, Detective Nick Butler is dertermined not to fail. Racing against a ticking clock, Nick will have to put all his investigative skills to the test if mother and son are to be reunited- and then perhaps he might have a chance at the redeeming power of love."

The Love Inspired line of books have been a favorite of ours for years. We can always count on a cozy read with the characters learning life lessons. I was a bit surprised how much of a page turner this one was. It certainly was fun reading about locations I knew!e

2015 Reading Challenge

Hello!  

We here at Perhaps I Should Have Been Supervised have been a bit slow at kicking off the new year.  But we have a super fun game to play over the coming months. 

In 2015 we are going to try to complete the PopSugar.com Reading Challenge 2015.  It consists of 49 categories to choose from.  Just read one book for each of the categories to complete the challenge. 

We will keep you updated as we work through the list!  

Just click the link below and print off a copy of the categorizes to get started.

PopSugar Reading Challenge 2015

Easy Co-worker Present Ideas

It is that time again Christmas present season.  It is always hard trying to figure out what to make or get for your co-workers to say hey I like working with you but not breaking the bank.  This year I made two different things for co-workers.  

The quick and easy gift was cute little pumpkin bread!  

I found these neat single use baking pans with a lid!  They were at my local Target for about $4.  (I am not affiliated with or being paid/given anything by the companies listed in this post.  I just am trying to make it easier for you to find the products I am talking about.  I like the items in this post and am passing it along to you.  All opinions in this article are my own.)  I just used one Pillsbury Pumpkin Quick Bread mix and it filled up all the pans.  

It was super quick and easy.  All I had to do was reduce the cooking time by a few minutes and Bam Christmas presents!

The next gift was a bit more involved still cheap because I had all the ingredients. However it was more time consuming as I made the cookies from scratch.  

I made these little boxes of cookies but this year I only iced the top ones and then added icing dipping cups!  This is the best idea I have had in awhile.  It cut down on the icing or decorating time and I could add more than one layer of cookies without them sticking together. 

One little thing I did was use my Mug Cookie Cutter from World Market.  Because I chilled the dough overnight they really seemed hold their shape while baking.  Definitely a cookie cutter to use again.

 

Christmas sign

Hello!  I wanted to share my first Christmas project of the season with you today. 

I have been looking at the projects on Pinterest and ran across a cute Christmas sign.  One of the things I love the most about Pinterest is it allows you to find things that are older and would otherwise be hidden. Check out the cute sign from The Winthrop Chronicles from 2012.

How to make a close enough copy!

(Side note: I picked up the majority of these items from Hobby Lobby.  I am in no way affiliated with any of the companies, brands or stores listed.  I just happen to shop there or like their products!)

First I gathered all my supplies:

Board -- foundation of sign

Christmas lights -- these are battery pack operated

Chip board word

Glitter -- extra fine

White acrylic paint

Mod Podge

Paint brush -- for paint and Mod Podge

Things I found out I needed

Double stick tape --  to attach word

Something to contain the glitter

Q-tips -- to paint the inside of the word

Paper plate -- to put paint on

Upholstery Nails -- To hook my lights on

First I painted my word white on the front and sides.  The back got a bit of paint but only when I was smoothing things down.

After the paint dried and my brush had been cleaned out and dried I applied Mod Podge to the top of the letter and poured glitter on it.  It worked wonderfully well.  I just lightly tapped it to knock off the excess but the majority of the glitter stuck!

Here is the finished word after it dried.

Then I realized I would need to attach everything to the board.  This is when I picked up some double stick removable poster tape and upholstery nails.  I decided to use the tape because I am hoping it will give me the option to change the word later to make it a year round sign.

I taped the word on cutting the tape to the right size to fit behind the letters without being seen.  The nails I just held up my lights to determine where they would go.  Then I nailed them in to hang the lights on and to wrap the cord around to hold the battery pack.  I ended up taping the battery pack to the board as well.

Here is the finished sign unlit.  I love the cute star lights!

Here is one where the lights are on.  The picture does not show how awesome it looks!  I only had my camera phone for pictures.

And here it is hanging in its new home in my crafting/studio space!

This was a super simple project that took about an hour to put together.  

What Christmas crafts are you working on?

Baby it's cold outside!

Winter has officially arrived in Texas!  This morning as I left for work it was 12 degrees out and felt like 1 degree.  Crazy!

On Saturday before the cold snap we started picking up the pecans in our yard.  It look like it will be a bumper crop this year.  Here is what we had gathered in about 20 minutes.

On Sunday we had snow and it was the perfect time to hunker down and read! I also started some Christmas projects that I will share as soon as I finish them.  Here are some pictures of the lovely dusting of snow!

We have had so much moisture this year that the rocks on my house have snow and moss on them!

Keep warm!