November Goals

Hey friends!

I know that we're already a couple days into the new month, but there has been a lot going on. I finally have time to share my monthly goals with you guys!

** Finish October Daily- I'm about halfway through. The month kind of flew by, so now I am just not getting caught up.

** Share a video for each week of the project

** Prepare for December Daily- use my own supplies as a kit

** Share a video of my completed December Plan book and how I use it for my December Daily project

** Read an entire book

** Pack my room for my upcoming move at the end of the month. Purge any unnecessary items that I won't need. Separate stuff into plane luggage, unaccompanied baggage, and household goods.

** Prepare car for transport- vacuum the inside, wash the outside. Need an oil change, air up a tire. Need to see if I can ship it with the crack in it or if I need to replace it first.

** Photograph Eilene's Hope Session

** Look for a place to live- For real.... I need a place to live. Haha. I will be staying with a friend for a little while, but I don't want to live off of her for a long time.

** Inventory crafts to sell- I need to make more money, so I figure I can sell some crafts to do this. I make TN inserts, photo sessions, hair bows, and crocheted little monsters.

** 30 Days of Thankful project- document something I'm thankful for every day for the month. Right now, it's written in the bottom of my monthly plan book, but once I get finished with my October Daily project, I will move on to the Thankful project.

** Scrap-journaling mini series or YT series- just an idea that I am toying with on sharing how I do my scrap journaling.

Do you guys have any goals for the month?

Blog or otherwise?

Let's share them, talk about them, so we can try to keep each other accountable!

"I Love" Sunday's v.17

Welcome friends and happy Sunday to you all!

How do you like my new graphic? I made it using PicMonkey because I wanted something for these posts like I have for 5 Fandom Friday's. I may make some for my other common recipes although I will try to make them prettier and more unique.

** Yesterday was Valentines Day and I got to spend it hanging out with Mo, which is my favorite place to be! We met some of our friends at our favorite Irish pub called The Auld Rogue for dinner since they happened to be in our area (our friends are from the same base that I am and they just happened to be in our neighborhood. It was nice). Mo also signed up for his second Whiskey tasting which will be next month. I go as his DD and I get food for 10 Euro.

** Got a new Wacom Intuos Creative Pen Tablet from the Apple store yesterday in the local German mall. I can't wait to use it to start creating some of my own PL cards for our albums and my snail mail friends! ALSO! The people there were super nice and super helpful. Sometimes Germans don't like American's because there are a lot of self-centered, arrogant American soldiers here and they think we're all the same when we're not... but these people were very professional and had no issue with the fact that Mo and I knew very little German. He bought a new Yetti microphone to hook up to his computer for music and for potentially creating a new podcast (my broadcasting boyfriend just doing what he loves). So we're pretty stoked with our purchases for the day!

** Mo and I set up our new bookshelf from Ikea in the office on Friday and covered it with our geeky things... which was the sole purpose behind the bookshelf in the first place! I love the fact that is a white bookshelf with the inside painted grey, it gives it a cool depth

Top shelf: my 75th edition Batman Collection box, which came with the Tumbler, The Bat, and the Bat-pod (which are sitting in front of it)

2nd Shelf: Foot Soldier Funko vinyl, Jack from Infinity, a soldier bear, Groot from Infinity, the mini Lego AT-AT, my Tardis Ornament, the mini Lego Snow Speeder, Stitch from Infinity, Captain America from Infinity, and Funko Captain America Bobble Head. In the back is a Tardis picture made from clock pieces that Mo got me for Valentines Day from the Stuttgart PX. The maker even signed it for us!

3rd Shelf: Comics, the Captain America Little Monster I made Mo, "The Third Bullet" by Stephen Hunter, and The Walking Dead Book 2 comic

Mo made the snow speeder and I made the AT-AT on Friday and we added them to the shelves. We have fun making these things together.

** Mo bought me some pretty flowers for V-Day at the PX. They are simple and lovely!

** It's nice that Mo and I finally have a 4 day weekend together to just chill out and relax! He's helping me study for my upcoming Soldier of the Month and Promotion Boards (1st one is this Wednesday) so I can hopefully pass them and finally make the rank of Sergeant. We've just been hanging out in the office and relaxing. It was a long and weird week for us both last week (I worked 3 different shifts) and I am glad that it is over.

.: Fav Links :.

+ All About Ami- I found this blog when I was in Afghanistan and spending all my free time crocheting. I am super stoked that I just found her again because she has TONS of free patterns on her blog for cute aim's!

+ Gold Embossed Mixed Tape Message Cards by I Spy DIY I want to make some of these as a late V-Day card to send to my snail mail friends

+ Essentials Every Blogger Should Have by Wonder Forest I always have a notebook near me for ideas for my blog. I also have a camera or my phone for picture taking

+ Don't Be Selfie-ish by RUKristin This is a really cool way to document a trip, especially if you take a lot of selfies with friends, your significant other, or yourself. I really want to try this

+ Batman Garland by Our Nerd Home As you all have probably figured out, I am obsessed with Batman and I want to make this garland to hang in the office around Mo's Captain America Shield that he bought for his Halloween costume

.: Little Loves :.

|| Batman | German Cola | Pink Sand scented wax from Yankee Candle | Samoas Girl Scout cookies | Natalie, our German friend from the Under Armor store | photography | the apartment | Funko Pop Vinyls ||

What are you loving from this past week?

Captain America Little Monster #1

Hello friends and Happy Monday!

I don't like Mondays usually, but I had the day off, so it wasn't bad. I hung out in my room, cleaned up a little, and just relaxed. It was nice.

My friend Mo is a big fan of the Avengers, so one of my other crochet goals is to make a set of Avengers Little Monsters. If you saw my Twitter, IG, or FB a while ago, you would have seen this picture.

Baby Hulk cosplaying as Captain America

The Hulk was the first part of my Avengers Little Monsters to be completed, and I immediately wanted to start on Captain America next. It's been quite a while since I made a Little Monster ((see Hope the Breast Cancer Monster here)) so thankfully Hulk was easy to make, even if he was a little smaller then I intended him to be ((hence why he is Baby Hulk)).

When planning out my Avengers Little Monsters, I knew that I would face some new challenges with the entire project. Hulk would be the easiest of the Avengers because he was simply green and purple! The hardest part was adding his hair! I think the only other one that will be easy will be Black Widow (other then her hour glass and hair).

Cap's base was already bigger then I intended, it was already much bigger then Hulk. The first thing I knew I would struggle with was the red and white across his torso. I had no idea how I was going to do those stripes! I then had a decision to make; either crochet it and attach it once complete as a separate piece, or do what I did and just crochet it around as I went. I think on my next one I will go with my first option and crochet it as a separate piece and then attach it. This part is very uneven and I am not quite happy with it. Then why am I sharing it? Cuz Mo said he likes it, I planned to make him one, so he will be given this one!

After that I was trying to decide how I would do the star on his chest. It was a toss up between using yarn, the thin thread that we used to use to make friendship bracelets when we were children, and finding some white felt and cutting that crap out and hot gluing it. After looking at Pinterest, I found a super easy star pattern and used that. I decided to make it out of yarn, since I thought that the thread might be too small.

After that it was pretty easy. I found an easy tutorial for switching colors that made a more seamless transition, which is what I wanted for his face when I did the eye holes in his mask. Luckily last weekend I found the perfect buttons at the craft store on base for this project, which was super easy to attach. The last thing I was struggling with was how I was going to make the A at the top of Cap's mask. Again, I resorted to Pinterest and saw a lot of people just sewed it on with thread, which is what I decided to do.

please excuse my yoo-hoo box, I was eating breakfast when finishing him.

So whatcha think? 

I learned some new lessons for my next Cap, which will be part of my Avengers Little Monsters, so I can't wait to make him hopefully the same size as Baby Hulk... or else I'll need a bigger Hulk! I can't wait to show you guys the completed set of Avengers Little Monsters to include Loki! I'll post them when I have a more complete set of them!

I also need to take better pictures of the rest of the Little Monsters... these pictures are kind of sad!

Hope The Breast Cancer Pillow Monster

Hello dear friends,

I hope this finds you well

It wasn't until my deployment in 2011 that I really started crocheting. I have been crafting since I was a child, crafting of all sorts, but crochet wasn't as important to me until 2011. 

It started with a woman reaching out to me through my first blog. She asked if I would help her make baby blankets for the NICU, for sick babies and for the families of the babies that didn't survive because it was sometimes all the parents had to bring home with them. It was heart breaking but Laura and I jumped on the chance to help.

Amidst working on the blankets I began looking into other crochet crafts that I could do to pass the time when I didn't have motivation to make a blanket. I found a pattern to make little pillow monsters out of crochet, so I started making them for various people and friends. They started with little pillow monsters and I eventually evolved into making bigger ones. 

Meet Hope

I found some yarn at my local craft store that was made for October's Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It alternated pink and white and was really soft (I need to find the name of it, I think I have more yarn in my storage unit). On the way home from my parents house back to Fort Bragg, my ex-fiance was driving and I needed something to do to tune him out (his driving made me incredibly nervous) so I started crocheting!

I added pink and white button eyes, a pink flower button, and a magenta thread mouth.

She is 5.5" wide and 7.5" tall. She fits in the palm of my hand.

I use her at craft fairs for an example of my Pillow Monsters

I've made several other pillow monsters for people throughout the last two years. I've made a rainbow one as a request. They are super quick to make (an hour at most with distractions) and they are made at no specific size... I just make them until they turn out right. I think I am going to be making them for the upcoming Relay for Life to sell!

I am working on a set of Avenger themed pillow monsters for my own amusement too! Any other suggestions?

Do you have a favorite crochet project, or a project you're really proud of?