365 « GOODKNITS // a knitting & crochet blog

2 gifts added, 2 completed

By Lisa Gutierrez on 12/10/2009

I added two gifts to my list and completed them! They’re for my son’s teachers. Neckwarmer, crocheted from chunky yarn. They were super easy.

You can find the quick pattern by clicking [[HERE]].

More shaped bokeh & a kid craft

By Lisa Gutierrez on 12/09/2009

[in black & white]

He’s playing with the straw from my Dunkin’ Donuts iced coffee Jason brought me, this morning. It’s the only way I could get him to sit still. That and obnoxiously singing the ABC’s and Row, Row, Row Your Boat. They came out alright, but I still need practice with this. I used the cookie press discs to take them. I am thinking I should lock it between my lens and UV filter, so that it won’t move when I move. The photos are slightly blurred. Or maybe my manual focusing really sucks that much. I’ll practice with Nathan, later!

Speaking of my eldest, when he spent the weekend at Grandma Linda’s (after Thanksgiving), he came home with a lovely pine cone covered in silver glitter ready to hang on our tree. He also had two “naked” pine cones for us to cover ourselves. It’s been nearly two weeks and we’re just getting around to it. We chose purple glitter! One of our ornaments broke, so I super glued the top of it to the pine cone for it to hang. It’s so pretty! Thanks, Grandma Linda!

a tale of shaped bokeh

By Lisa Gutierrez on 12/09/2009

I bought a vintage cookie press from a thirft store some time last year. I thought it was cool, but I never used it and forgot about it completely until I saw THIS when browsing shaped bokeh photos. I immediately tried thinking of where I put the box that housed MY cookie press. In the closet? In a box with my craft stuff? Surely not in my itty bitty kitchen? I put the baby to bed* and then went downstairs, found a flashlight, and looked under the TV stand. There it was, right where I hid it from a just-crawling-baby-who-wants-everything!

Initially, I tried shaped bokeh with some black cardstock. I wanted the lights on my Christmas tree to be hearts in a photo of my kids (collective “Awwwwwwww!”). My Xacto knife was M.I.A. so I used a box cutter and ended up with a pretty crappy heart, but it still worked, as you can see! It got me super pumped and I had dreams of painstakingly cutting out tiny shapes onto cardstock for various filters. Fast forward to the evening when I see someone used their cookie press discs as shaped-bokeh filters and I go on my little hunt.

results:

the little dome has a tiny star shaped tip:

*This is some feat! The past few nights, he has been fighting bedtime with insane sobbing and thrashing for about 4-5 minutes before completely conking out.

Peek at Gift #9

By Lisa Gutierrez on 12/08/2009

My needles are currently bare. I received a request for a baby blanket (I would be paid) and have yet to decide to do it or not! It’s needed by the 23rd and would take me 3-5 days to complete. I’m leaning toward YES because I could use some extra cash and…well, I’m kinda tired of making hats already.

By the way, the pattern I used for this hat is ‘Windschief’ by Stephen West. Check it out [[here on Ravelry]].

Sleepyheads are monsters in disguise

By Lisa Gutierrez on 12/06/2009

It has been really tough to get Andrew down for a nap, lately. I suspect he’s entering that age where kids decide naps are totally uncool. It’s just too bad they’re pretty much NECESSARY for an 18-month old to be happy. Some days, he goes down after nursing and will sleep for a solid hour or two. Others, he fights it. Like today. I ran away from the situation after attempting to nurse him to sleep no less than THREE separate times. He would look like he’s falling asleep then WHAMBAM he wanted down. Wash, rinse, repeat, and so I just left. He was crying for a bit, but then…there was silence. I uploaded some photos from our Saturday trip to the park, then received an email from Jason that simply said, “come down.” So, I went downstairs and this was the scene: