A friend of mine taught me to crochet one day. It was a quick and easy lesson and I caught on right away. I went online and found NexStitch.com with fast loading videos and easy to follow along instructions. That fixed it for a couple of stitches that I just needed to see vs. being told about over the phone.

Then I bought The Happy Hooker. I LOVE that book! The first half is the basics - easy to read and understand instructions and also illustrations. The second half is full of patterns. Lots of cute funky ones like crocheted belts and skirts and completely cute ones like the pattern I used for a blanket Alice’s dolls ended up owning.

I’m bringing this up to remind myself! I promise I’m going to start the blanket I’ve been talking about this week, I am determined to do so because it takes time and I love the idea of doing an all handmade Christmas.

I got out my fleece for the tie blanket - I’ll have pictures on that tomorrow as I did get the fabric ready to go, which takes just a few minutes and then actually making the blanket doesn’t take very long either.

It is time to announce the winners! I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into since I asked you all to pick which of the three items you were most interested in - that meant I had to separate the comments into three categories. Whew, that took much longer then I thought.

And drum roll please - the winners are . . .

Stickers ~ Nature Mama from  Nature Notes From Above

Paper ~ Sarah and here is her myspace page

Accessories ~ Sarah from Sassy Frazz

(Nature Mama, is your name Sarah too? )

I’ve emailed and am just waiting to hear back and I will get the items out this week. The giveaway was too fun! I still have scrapbooking items left so I’ll probably be doing this again. I think that’s the only craft I haven’t been able to really get into, otherwise I stamp, make cards, sew, quilt, make jewelry, play with clay, and the list could go on and on.

Head on over to the winners pages and give them a shout out of congratulations!

I was reminded of the blankets that can fold into a pillow after reading this post at Mommies Magazine about stuffed animals that are the stuffed animal, a pillow and a blanket. That is too cool! But in keeping with my buying handmade this year, I went to etsy to search for the blanket/pillow combo. Alice and Jake both have blankets like it and they love them. Maybe I can get one for a nephew - having such a large family always leaves me wondering what to get them for Christmas!

Alice’s pattern is Finding Nemo and Jake’s is a football material. I still need ideas for one nephew that is six and another that is three. Maybe the blanket would work for the three year old because the one year old is getting a blanket I’m going to crochet. I have a lot of fleece material though and I bet I could make a quillow (what the combo is usually called). If you are interested in buying one, check out the listings on etsy.

My craft room is in a constant state of needing to be organized. I try to keep the like with the like - the sewing together and by the sewing machine, the bookcase shelves well kept, the kids craft items on the same shelf in the closet. But it is still a mess.

I will say this is the messiest room in my house. It seems to be the catch all room - see the stacks of books? That is from the bookcase in the loft. We cleaned it off so it would be easier to move when we painted…two weeks ago. The loft is put back together but the books haven’t been. It’s been easy to work around them, they’ve actually been restacked twice, but of course they should be back on the bookcase.

The dresser was meant to hold homeschool items but they were shifted to the bookcase in the craft room. I’m honestly not sure what is in there now. And the chair was my Grandpa’s years and years ago, the arm (we think) is at my brother’s or my Mom’s house - Mom said I should throw it away but I don’t want to. Of course it should be used if I’m not going to get rid of it!

Since getting the laptop, no one sits at the desk longer then to print something. We really want a wireless printer, that would eliminate the need to even sit at the desk. But it is a nice desk.

I want to have different sections in the room - a sewing section, homeschool section, etc. I’ve thought about taking the top of the desk off and using the desk as a cutting station or a work station, but haven’t done so. I definitely need to get organized as we may be moving in the next few months. I know it’s smart to start now rather then to rush at the end!

Today starts the 30 Day Organizational Challenge and I signed up for this room. Thirty days is plenty of time to put like with the like, find basket and bins if necessary, purge and get the room put together in a good way. I don’t mind if I end up getting done and moving a couple of months later, I can always use the same ideas later.

PS You entered the giveaway right? I’ll be drawing names the same time as the rest of the participants, which I think is Saturday.

Chele is getting ready to make a big move and she’s been having giveaways all month long to celebrate - today she asks what five things you could give up to simplify your life. One of my answers is my scrapbooking things!

A few years ago I attempted to try scrapbooking. I have no idea why I thought it would be fun - I’m the person who can’t cut a picture. I think they belong in a photo album…in order that they were shot. Yeah yeah laugh if you must, I’ve learned to. Since then I have managed to cut a picture here or there, but still haven’t been able to get into scrapbooking.

I’ve given away other items to a friend or two, but have never managed to get rid of it all. So I am passing a few things on to you as part of the Fall Bloggy Giveaway.

1. Stickers -

JoAnn Scrap Essentials, Typewriter Key Alphabet, 100 letters
Mambi Minis, Me & My Big Ideas, 3 sticker sheets, Easter theme
Creative Memories, Holiday Grandma’s Kitchen Stickers, 4 block sticker sheets
Creative Memories, Calendar Accent Stickers, 16 studio strips
Bo-Bunny Press ~ Sleepover, Girl Talk, Girlfriends, Girls, Friends

2. Paper -

Creative Memories, Coffeehouse Printed photo mounting paper, 6 colors, 12 sheets
Close To My Heart, Level One Scrapbooking kit, Between Friends (item 7022A)
Close To My Heart, Level One Scrapbooking kit, Fun-Tastic (item 7025A)

3. Accessories -

Stampin Up, Eyelets, Bold Brights 1 (Brilliant Blue, Glorious Green, Real Red, Yoyo Yellow)
JoAnn Scrap Essentials, Family, 60 quotes and sentiments on white vellum
Close To My Heart, Accent Beads (buttons), Buttons 4 Seasons (item 1790)
Close To My Heart, Craft Buttons, Buttons Winter (item 1789)

Rules & Such

I am not a consultant for CTMH or CM - the items might not be sold anymore so if you go to the website hoping to find a close up picture and one is not there, I am sorry.

There will be three drawings - one for each group of items. Comment and also say which group you want to be in on. You can be in on all three drawings if you wish, but you can only win one time.

Open to US and Canadian Residents

Everything is new and has just been stored (and then moved across the country once!) since I got it. The JoAnn Scrap Essentials in the Accessories has been opened but not used.

Any other questions feel free to ask in the comments!

There are days when my brain goes off on wild tangents. Today was one of those days.

I was listening to the latest Mom’s Money podcast, this week’s show is about teaching kids about money. This is a great topic for me because I want to start giving my kids an allowance and just don’t know how. I’ve mentioned they are price conscious and now seems to be a great time to start working with money.

While listening to Mom’s Money I decided my kids need piggy banks. I know I had seen one with multiple compartments for saving, spending, donation, etc., so off I went on a Google-quest to find said piggy bank. I tried Amazon - who had the one I wanted (the Money Savvy Piggy Bank) listed, but it isn’t available right now. Okay so tried and true Amazon failed me - but google won’t!

Back to searching.

I found the site that created the money savvy bank - and wow it is available in multiple colors! Alice immediately picked pink and Jake wanted green. I’m thinking this is a great idea but can I find it locally so I can save on shipping costs. Ahah, Toys R Us! But their phone number is busy no matter how many times I call them in five minutes. Since my brain is skipping from thread to thread, I quickly move on.

A quick glance around the bank creators site shows me a cow bank and a football bank - Jake sticks to wanting a green pig, Alice thought the cow was cute but she’s becoming attached to the color pink in general so there was no changing her mind.

Still thinking I want to save on shipping, I go back to Google - maybe there is a site that has it offering free shipping or low shipping. Darn Amazon anyway.

Then I stumble upon a post on the financial blog Get Rich Slowly about this exact piggy bank. Reading the post is merely verifying my want of the piggy banks and I’m ready to click back and buy the banks, sucking up the shipping charge (and the crazy fact that I would be spending a chunk of change to teach my kids to save money). Then I read the words

(Of course, the truly frugal can accomplish the same thing with four canning jars.)

His parentheses; and the link goes to a flickr picture of three canning jars with a child’s handwriting indicating saving, spending and donate. It took searching and bouncing from site to site and my finger on the buy now button before I thought *duh I have old Ball Mason jars* - I can just use a few of them! A little while later and we went from this

to this on the dresser.

Save, Spend, Donate.

I stayed with green paper for Jake and pink for Alice, used stamps from Stampin’ Up to decorate the punched out circle and look at that - a three component piggy bank system. It’s about time I use the jars for something, as they haven’t moved since I put them up on the shelves. Their allowances start next week.

How does your brain work when searching for something?

I am trying to make a conscious effort to buy (or make!) handmade gifts for the holidays. I suppose there goes the idea of buying my Mom new dishes - maybe she can be the exception! Then again I could always look for someone who makes dishes…

There is a huge craft fair in our area in November and the beginning of December where I bought a few gifts last year. The local grocery store had coupons for a dollar off the entrance fee and I grabbed up a couple of them already. The fair is in our local coliseum and it is covered from inch to inch in booths - can you imagine the crafty goodness? Some things people were even creating in their booths - I love watching the process. We didn’t get to walk around the entire area last year as it was too big and I had the kids with me.

Check out BuyHandmade.org and pledge to buy handmade this holiday season. I’m taking a second look at my gift list now. A few things I’ve already planned to make and it’s just a couple of my nephews I need to think about. I’m sure I can find something boys would like! Oh and when I found this site earlier this week they were at about 280 people pledging, as of this post they are just over 1400!