Crochet Jewelry Making

I took a little hiatus recently to work on a few new types of crochet.  I tend to get bored when I work on the same projects all the time so it felt about time to work on something completely new.  I read a bunch of other crochet blogs and searched Pinterest.  I had come across crochet jewelry and crochet thread, so i tried my hand.

I have started off with the basics using just a simple chain and lobster clips. You will also need pliers like these to open links on the chains. Finally you will need crochet thread in size 3.
So what can you do with these supplies?

Here is a Crochet Thread Necklace I attempted. 

These need plenty of work but I am actually really enjoying the results and the variety of things I will be able to make.  It is a bit of new territory so I am an amateur at best right now.  I will keep posting my progress. I have lots of other ideas that will involve some other jewelry making skills so I am off to learn some new pieces!  

This is what you do when you have no more orders!

I run a crochet business.  That means I make money when I have crochet orders.  But what happens during slow seasons when I have no orders?

Creations!!  That's what happens.  Let's face it.  I am only one person and I can't crochet 24 hours a day.  When I have a lot of orders coming in, I can't create or try new things.  Call me the random crocheter, but I crochet whatever people ask me for.  If I'm busy with orders, I don't get a chance to try new things.  There is a sort of relief when there is a little lull in orders.  Don't get me wrong!  I want and LOVE orders.  I will work my butt off to seek them out.  But the lull...it's like dawn on the farm.  All is quiet and my brain is firing all it's happy synapses!

What do I do with all the time?  I spend a lot of time looking through patterns which I save for this lull that happens once in a while and I finally get the chance to try all the stuff  that I, at one time many moons ago, thought would be amazing!  How could I tell until I tried it?

I know it sounds counter-productive, but really, I enjoy the chance to test.  Some day I might even try my hand at writing up one of the patterns I try to create.  There are so many ways to crochet and so many concepts to try that I have new ideas flowing though my head all the time!

If I had all day, every day, to just work on crochet...well...

It's a process!

Fundraising Event - We need your help!

I love using my business to help other people.  This time, it is to help someone very near to my heart.

I am the youngest sibling of four and the only girl. I grew up always looking up to my brothers who took care of me and watched out for me. Always. Little did I know, one day, I would be standing in their shoes, only I would be desperately trying to help save their life.


My second oldest brother is a professional musician. He has a master's degree in music and has toured the country opening for acts such as Billy Joel. He is also a high school band director who has spent an immeasurable amount of hours devoting his life to his students.
Tom has always been a person who dove head-first into his work and whatever he put his mind to, he accomplished. He has found himself in a difficult place in life as he has finally realized he is an alcoholic. That brings us to now. 
 
He tried a few years ago to go to rehab on his own but was only able to afford a five day program. A 30-day inpatient facility is so far beyond his means and state facilities were too difficult to get into. The short-term facility only worked to detox him and not to retrain him to live with alcoholism. He had a severe neck injury and could not seem to bring himself to get treatment due to his high level of anxiety. The only way he could bring himself any relief was to drink the pain away. This escalated over these few years as did his pain. The last two months almost cost my brother his life. He drank himself into oblivion and found himself in the hospital begging them to Baker Act him. Due to the fact that he was not suicidal, they would not complete the Baker Act despite him begging them to. Fortunately, he had low sodium and they were able to keep him a few days which gave us the chance to find a short term detox facility to take him with insurance. He was able to fully utilize them since he had already detoxed by that point, but he was desperate to go to long-term care for true rehabilitation. 
 
The research that was put into finding a place that could take him and his insurance was immense. But we found a place. It was on day 11 that we learned his insurance would no longer be covering him because he was not found to be suicidal. Now we were left with the decision to have him released to an outpatient care on only 3 hours a day and Alcoholics Anonymous, or find a way to keep him in on self-pay. 
 
I presented every option to him so he had the option to choose and I assured him I would get the funds if he wanted to stay. He immediately chose the option to stay. He said he knew his best chance for success was to complete his program. I got to see him last weekend and I could not believe the transformation he had made in the time he had been there. I have scraped through every option I have including my other brother and I taking it from our own pockets.


This man is desperate to get healthy and recover. He has begged for help. I cannot let him fail. If it means I pay for it, then I will somehow find a way. But I am seeking help for finances any way I can. 
Please consider his story. Consider his life and his desire to get healthy. Please consider that this is a man I look up to and admire and even more so because he was able to admit he needed help.

The EVENT has all the information so please click going to be sure to get all the updates.  I will be posting videos and tutorials and pictures!  Consider joining me to help my brother's road to recovery!

1,000 Likes Giveaway

I cannot believe I have almost 1,000 fans!!!

I have been working at this business for almost 3 years now and it has been amazing to meet all kinds of customers from all over the place.  I am so thankful to my followers and I want to do something special.  Are you a loyal fan?  Stop by and enter my Rafflecopter giveaway.  

There are choices when it comes to yarn?

Yes!!  There are so many choices in yarn.  In fact, the yarn can make all the difference in the finished product.  Watch and learn!

Here are some Messy Bun Hat  pictures using these different yarns.  See if you can tell the difference.

Don't know how to put on a messy bun hat?

I watched this messy bun hate craze unravel before my eyes!  Haven't seen a messy bun?

I had not gotten on the bandwagon yet, until one morning I woke up and there it was.  The tag on FaceBook asking if I could make one!  Little did I know, two months later, i would still be making them!  The first time I put one on my head, however, I learned there was more to making this hat than just the pattern.  I had issues putting it over my bun.  My bun turned into a crazy mess.  Once I figured it out, I decided to make this...

I love these hats and have had so much fun making them!  Let me know what YOU think!  

Day5 : When you Have a Historian as Your Tour Guide!

I was never a lover a history in school.  Just ask my high school American History teacher Mr. Newman!  Poor guy! But as as homeschooler, it became not only a necessity to convince my kids to love it, but to fall in love with it myself!

We began research on my husband's family about 5 years ago.  On and off we researched and really got lost in it.  It was amazing the things we discovered, but in case history isn't your thing, I will save you the details.  The problem was, the information available was sparse at best.  We had a lot of holes.

We did learn that his family was the original settlers of Lancaster, MA in the early 1600's.  My husband is a diligent man,  He researches and reads and researches some more. He decided once he had no more information available, he would call the town.  He got in touch with the president of the historical society and set up a day to meet with him on our trip.  Hence, day 5.

We were able to visit the grave sites of his family members that settle there and would never have found them if we didn't have help.  We found some amazing stories that surrounded them at the the time and the people that we met that day were so willing to help connect the missing pieces of our story.  

One such story was Thomas Sawyer.  His father was also Thomas Sawyer and was an original settler.  Thomas II was kidnapped by the Indians since this was at the time of the French and Indian War.  He was brought to Canada and was going to be killed.  He was rescued by a local missionary and in trade for his life, he had to build them a saw mill and get it up and functioning.  While he was there, he fell in love with an Indian maid.  When he was being released from capture, she gave him a plate.  He had promised to come back and marry her.  But his family convinced him to stay. He eventually married and had a family. But when he was dying, he made his children promise to keep the plate safe.  It was eventually turned over to the historical society fully intact.  We saw the plate!  They were so happy to show us since it was a direct descendant.  We felt like royalty because they were so excited for us to see everything.

As we left the cemetery that day, it was a little emotional for all of us.  We could finally lay to rest people in his family that were previously unknown.  In all these years, no one had known they were buried there,  This part of all the research had come to a close.

Needless to say, the trip was overwhelmingly historical.  It was also stock full of emotions.  It was really more than we could have envisioned when we began and just the tip of the iceberg.